The Harvest Season podcast

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เนื้อหาจัดทำโดย Al McKinlay เนื้อหาพอดแคสต์ทั้งหมด รวมถึงตอน กราฟิก และคำอธิบายพอดแคสต์ได้รับการอัปโหลดและจัดหาให้โดยตรงจาก Al McKinlay หรือพันธมิตรแพลตฟอร์มพอดแคสต์ของพวกเขา หากคุณเชื่อว่ามีบุคคลอื่นใช้งานที่มีลิขสิทธิ์ของคุณโดยไม่ได้รับอนุญาต คุณสามารถปฏิบัติตามขั้นตอนที่แสดงไว้ที่นี่ https://th.player.fm/legal

<div class="span index">1</div> <span><a class="" data-remote="true" data-type="html" href="/series/the-vanished">The Vanished</a></span>

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The Vanished

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Join us on a journey into the perplexing world of disappearances, where individuals vanish without a trace, leaving behind a void filled with questions and speculation.

The Harvest Season

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A podcast about farming simulators

218 ตอน

#Video Games #Lifestyle #Al McKinlay and Raschelle Dellaney #Al McKinlay #Raschelle Dellaney

The Harvest Season

updated 6 วันที่แล้ว

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หน้าโฮมของซีรีส์•Feed

A podcast about farming simulators

218 ตอน

#Video Games #Lifestyle #Al McKinlay and Raschelle Dellaney #Al McKinlay #Raschelle Dellaney

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The Harvest Season

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Climb to the Highest Point 1:44:24

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Al and Micah talk about Natsu-Mon 20th Century Summer Kid Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:30: What Have We Been Up To 00:12:54: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home 00:29:22: Game News 00:54:46: Natsu Mon 01:41:16: Outro Links Tales of the Shire Delay Fantasy Life i on Steam The Garden Path “Co-op” Update Spirittea “Phantom Friends” Update Sugardew Island Patch Paleo Pines Roadmap Echoes of the Plum Grove Roadmap Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Micah: My name is Micah. (0:00:37) Al: and we are here today to talk about cartridge core games. (0:00:41) Micah: Yippee. (0:00:45) Al: Welcome back, Micah. It’s actually not been that long. It’s only been about two months. (0:00:47) Micah: Thanks. No, it really hasn’t. (0:00:50) Micah: Yeah, which is wild because it feels like it’s been. (0:00:54) Micah: A lot like the last two months has felt like an entire year, so. (0:00:58) Al: Yeah, the last month specifically. (0:01:00) Al: Uh, but we don’t need to talk about that. (0:01:02) Micah: Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, yeah, of course. (0:01:06) Micah: I it’s funny because I was like, why has it felt so in that moment just now? (0:01:10) Micah: I was like, why does it feel like it’s been so long? (0:01:12) Micah: And then it clicked. So yeah, we don’t need to discuss. (0:01:14) Al: Mm, I wonder, uh, sometimes, uh, yes. (0:01:21) Al: Uh, and we still, we still don’t have any news on the story of seasons for this year, (0:01:27) Al: which I’m still expecting something. (0:01:30) Al: It’s been a very long time, but, uh, who knows. (0:01:30) Micah: Yeah. I’m too, I hear you. I’m expecting to. Yep, it’s bound to happen. It’s only a matter of time. (0:01:35) Al: I’m just waiting for that announcement and then we’ll be like, right. (0:01:37) Al: This is when we’re scheduling it in. (0:01:42) Al: Well, yeah, we have Micah here this episode because we are (0:01:46) Al: finally going to talk about Natsumon 20th century summer kid. (0:01:50) Micah: - Yay. (0:01:50) Al: We have pride a few times to actually record, uh, and things keep changing, (0:01:53) Micah: We did. (0:01:55) Al: but we finally got there. (0:01:56) Al: They didn’t shadow drop a story of seasons and we have to (0:01:59) Al: record about that instead. (0:02:00) Al: I’ve only had one case where I’ve noticed some news drop while I’ve been recording, (0:02:01) Micah: Could you imagine that it was, (0:02:04) Micah: now was when we got the story of season news? (0:02:15) Al: mainly because I’m not tend to be looking at the places where news comes in to see these things, (0:02:20) Micah: - Sure. (0:02:21) Al: but yeah, it’s never know one of these days. So we’re going to talk about that. We’ve obviously (0:02:28) Al: got the regular news. (0:02:31) Al: But first of all, maker, what have you been up to? (0:02:34) Micah: Oh, just busy. (0:02:37) Micah: Just got a lot going on. (0:02:39) Micah: I have been as far as games, though, I’ve been playing some (0:02:45) Micah: monster hunter wilds beta in preparation for that (0:02:50) Micah: at the point that we’re recording. (0:02:50) Al: and still not out yet. (0:02:52) Micah: It is going to be out next week. It’s about a week. (0:02:57) Micah: So I’m excited for that. (0:03:00) Micah: I’m also, you know, at that point in my life (0:03:04) Micah: a little bit anxious about a release for a game that I’m very excited about, (0:03:08) Micah: because then that means that I have to figure out time to play it (0:03:15) Micah: and also worry about how hyper fixated I’m going to become with it (0:03:20) Micah: and what that’s going to do to all of the other responsibilities in my life. (0:03:24) Micah: But I’m very excited for it. (0:03:28) Micah: I’ve also been playing Pokemon, I’ve been doing more shiny hunting. (0:03:32) Al: Are you still on your gen? Is it gen 2s? That’s what you were doing, I think, last time. (0:03:34) Micah: I was doing I was doing Gen three last time I was talking about it. Yeah. (0:03:40) Micah: I am doing that. (0:03:42) Micah: So I have some friends in a community that do like full odds shiny hunting, (0:03:48) Micah: which. Which adds an extra level of challenge. (0:03:54) Micah: And I almost kind of find it like a little bit more relaxing (0:03:56) Al: Sadness. (0:04:00) Micah: relaxing because it’s like it’s it you (0:04:01) Al: Interesting. (0:04:04) Micah: you settle in for it you know like it’s something that you’re doing while (0:04:08) Micah: you’re doing other stuff or while you’re like talking to people or while you’re (0:04:10) Micah: watching something because you know that it’s gonna take a long time so it’s just (0:04:14) Micah: like you kind of settle in and do your do your encounters do your resets do (0:04:19) Micah: whatever it is and don’t don’t really think about it until you know three (0:04:25) Micah: months later when you finally get the shine (0:04:26) Al: I just find that I get bored when I do it. I tried Shaiman in BDSP and I did… I can’t (0:04:32) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:04:34) Micah: Yeah, yeah Yeah, that tends to be what happens and that’s a very normal and I respect you for that (0:04:35) Al: even remember what I got to like 2000 or something. I just got bored of doing it every day and so I (0:04:41) Al: just stopped. (0:04:49) Al: I don’t think anybody has ever called me normal, but thank you. (0:04:55) Micah: But I have a I have some friends that do they they do these you know challenges throughout the year (0:05:01) Micah: They’ll have like a like this last week was (0:05:04) Micah: Shiny alpha week and it was everybody hunts in for alpha Pokemon and legends Arceus or (0:05:13) Micah: February was unknown challenge month. So (0:05:17) Micah: It was you know (0:05:19) Micah: You shiny hunt for an unknown and then whatever letter unknown you get then you have to shiny hunt something that starts with that letter (0:05:26) Micah: So like if I get it an unknown M then I can go hunt like Magnemite or something, you know (0:05:32) Micah: So yeah, there’s just (0:05:34) Micah: like fun little challenges and things to do when I’ve got, you know, if I’m like rendering (0:05:40) Micah: something or I’m watching something or in a meeting and kind of listening, but also just like (0:05:48) Micah: need something, you know, it’s just a little background thing I can do every once in a while. (0:05:54) Al: Fair enough. (0:05:55) Micah: I have downloaded a Rude factory pixel cross and I have not played it yet. So I mean, it just came (0:06:00) Al: Nice. (0:06:02) Al: Well, I mean, it only came out yesterday, so that’s fair. (0:06:04) Micah: out. Yeah. But I got to download it and I’m ready to try it. I’m excited about the potential new, (0:06:12) Micah: you know, like the positive changes to it from the story of seasons version. (0:06:20) Al: Yeah, I’m very intrigued. I’ve done a little bit of it. This is one of the games that I’ve (0:06:25) Al: played today, maybe like half an hour or so. So I’ve got a few, you know, the standard (0:06:32) Al: tutorial puzzles and a few of the ones that actually make you think. And so I’ve not (0:06:37) Al: got to any of the extra stuff like the customisation that’s in this one. But I did read on Fogu (0:06:45) Al: on there, posted about it, and it looks like it is just kind of. (0:06:50) Al: background customisation. It doesn’t seem to actually affect anything, which is what (0:06:54) Al: I expected, but a little bit more detailed and interesting than the story of Seasons (0:06:55) Micah: Yeah, yeah. (0:07:01) Al: 1. And I’m intrigued and excited to try one of the boss levels that they have. Have you (0:07:06) Micah: Oh yeah, I’m interested in that. No, I haven’t. I haven’t seen anything about it. I actually didn’t know that there were any improvements to the story of season model of it until you had mentioned it when we were talking about it on the game of the year episode. (0:07:08) Al: not seen the boss level stuff? (0:07:16) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:07:24) Micah: So I’m excited to try any of it because I haven’t seen any of it yet. (0:07:28) Al: Yeah, so I guess the big things for you would be there’s colour puzzles and the boss ones (0:07:35) Al: are timed and if you do something wrong, which, come on, who does something wrong? You’re (0:07:44) Al: just doing it too fast. It takes time off, the timer. So the timed, they have to do it (0:07:45) Micah: Okay, gotcha. (0:07:52) Al: within a certain amount of time, because obviously, technically, they’re all timed, right? You (0:07:55) Al: can see how long it is. And it’s always fun in the first few ones. (0:07:56) Micah: Right. Yep. (0:07:58) Al: to see like, Oh, can I get this one done in 10 seconds? Or can I (0:08:03) Al: get this one done in five seconds? I think I have one in (0:08:05) Al: eight or something like that. That’s the fastest one I have (0:08:08) Al: this game. But yeah, making you do it within a certain amount of (0:08:13) Al: time is an interesting different way of doing it. They do have (0:08:16) Al: two play styles. So you can skip that part of it if you want to. (0:08:21) Al: But yeah, it’s interesting. The boss stuff. Yeah. (0:08:22) Micah: Skip the the oh the bus skip the boss stuff I see okay. Yeah, I really liked them (0:08:32) Micah: Shoot I can’t remember the name of it. It was (0:08:36) Micah: Picto quest that’s what it was (0:08:39) Micah: and that was the (0:08:41) Micah: Nonogram game on the switch that and probably on PC. I don’t know but I played it on the switch and it was (0:08:47) Micah: very light RPG style of nonogram (0:08:52) Micah: like it had a little bit, you know, it was just like (0:08:54) Micah: You’re going across a map and then you challenge a goblin or whatever and then it’s just like a 10 by 10 puzzle or something (0:09:02) Micah: And then you would get upgrades if you did certain things. So they had like some there were a couple that were like, oh, it’s a boss (0:09:08) Micah: Thing, you know like a boss puzzle and I really loved that idea. It just was so (0:09:15) Micah: Bare-bones, I think such a like early idea, you know, like fresh and early idea that (0:09:22) Micah: There wasn’t a whole lot to it. So, um, I I kind of hope that there are maybe more (0:09:30) Micah: Like use cases of that like that kind of, you know adding quests and stuff to it because that adds an extra level of (0:09:38) Micah: Interest that I would I would really enjoy (0:09:41) Al: Yeah, yeah, I’m not far enough into to see whether that is there or not. One thing I (0:09:45) Al: did find interesting is that the puzzles are laid out like a map. So it’s not, it’s not (0:09:50) Al: just like you play this one, then you play the next one. It’s like, these are the ones (0:09:53) Al: you can do. And to unlock others, you have to to beat ones in specific positions, which (0:09:58) Micah: Oh, interesting. (0:09:59) Al: I thought was an interesting way of doing it. So it’s not the I think as you go further (0:10:04) Al: out, the difficulty does increase, but it’s not just like, constant, I think I saw some (0:10:08) Al: that were further away from the middle that were not hard. (0:10:12) Al: They were slightly easier, that sort of thing. (0:10:15) Al: So, yeah, interesting. See how that continues. (0:10:15) Micah: sure. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I’m excited to try it. I’ve also been playing a Hello Kitty Island (0:10:24) Micah: adventure. Of course. Yes. Yeah. I played some on the mobile. I played some on Apple (0:10:26) Al: - Good, good, good. (0:10:26) Al: Are you on the switch for you? (0:10:30) Al: You twice, what are your thoughts? (0:10:33) Al: All right, yeah. (0:10:33) Micah: Arcade when it came out. Yeah. And yes. One hundred percent. And I’m glad that I waited (0:10:35) Al: You did the same thing as me. (0:10:36) Al: You went, “This is a fun game. (0:10:38) Al: I want a controller.” (0:10:45) Micah: much better experience on the switch, like with a controller. Becky has been absolutely (0:10:52) Micah: enamored with it. It’s her primary game that she plays now. And we did some of the multiplayer (0:11:00) Micah: together. So that was an interesting experience. It was fun just like, you know, wandering (0:11:07) Micah: around together and like doing things. There wasn’t a whole. There’s not like a whole lot (0:11:10) Micah: you can do multiplayer wise, but yeah, it’s it’s it’s great. (0:11:15) Micah: It’s such a good. I don’t know. I really I really like it. I’ve been enjoying it. And then I played (0:11:21) Micah: a little bit of vowed, but I have played a lot yet. I don’t know if you have touched it. (0:11:26) Al: I’m aware of it because I listen to a lot of different gaming podcasts and videos and (0:11:33) Al: stuff like that. (0:11:34) Al: So I’m aware of it. (0:11:35) Micah: Yeah. I like Obsidian, who’s the developer. They did Fallout New Vegas and they’ve done a lot of like (0:11:35) Al: I don’t think it’s my thing, but I can see why people like it and it sounds interesting. (0:11:47) Micah: older RPGs and stuff like that. I’m a big Elder Scrolls fan, so there’s some level of like (0:11:56) Micah: hoping that it is in some way close to Elder Scrolls, given that it’s, you know, (0:12:02) Micah: a team that has experience with Bethesda. (0:12:05) Micah: And it’s fantasy and, you know, first person and all that. (0:12:09) Micah: I really like it so far, but it’s it’s not open world. (0:12:12) Micah: It’s very, you know, like it’s it’s sectioned off, (0:12:16) Micah: which I think makes sense for the game. (0:12:18) Micah: But it’s, you know, it’s on Game Pass. (0:12:21) Micah: So you can’t really can’t really complain, you know, (0:12:27) Micah: they’re paying for. (0:12:27) Al: I mean, when is when has that ever stopped gamers before? (0:12:30) Micah: Oh, 100 percent. (0:12:34) Micah: But yeah, it’s. (0:12:35) Micah: I can’t I can’t really see myself having like bought it if it wasn’t available on game pass when it when it launched, you know, so yeah, what about you other than pixel crust? (0:12:42) Al: Yeah, that is fair. (0:12:48) Al: Yeah, well, not a huge amount this this week. I think the big thing, though, which obviously I need to talk about to you, Micah, is Harvest Moon Homes, Sweet Home. I have hit credits in Harvest Moon Homes, Sweet Home. (0:12:56) Micah: Oh, that’s big. (0:13:03) Al: Yeah, it’s the (0:13:04) Micah: Are you ready to do that all over again when it comes down on the switch or whatever? (0:13:08) Al: I will not. (0:13:12) Al: Let’s not even try and pretend that, unless there’s some way to transfer my save over, (0:13:16) Micah: Oh, that’s big. (0:13:18) Al: I’m not doing the early game again. I had a couple of thoughts that I thought might be (0:13:23) Al: quite interesting. I presume you didn’t continue playing it after our episode. No. (0:13:26) Micah: I have not played really much of anything from it. (0:13:29) Al: So I think the things, a few things I found interesting having now completed the game, (0:13:35) Al: although I’m in that annoying bit where I’m like, do I finish all these achievements or not? Because (0:13:40) Al: I have all bar. (0:13:42) Al: Let’s just let me just I’ve got it up here. (0:13:44) Al: Let me just double check achievements. (0:13:46) Micah: Now are these like in-game achievements or is it like Apple arcade achievements or whatever? (0:13:51) Al: It’s it’s it’s it’s Apple Game Center. (0:13:54) Micah: Yeah, oh yeah, sorry game center, yeah (0:13:54) Al: It’s not arcade because it’s made for, but yeah, it’s game center. (0:13:58) Al: So I have 48 of 68 achievements. (0:14:03) Micah: Holy smokes (0:14:04) Al: And I think about 10 of those ones I don’t have are just like shipping 50 of (0:14:12) Al: one specific crop. (0:14:14) Al: So I’m at the point where I’m like, I’ve basically got 10 left to do. (0:14:19) Al: But they’re things like (0:14:22) Al: completing the crops encyclopedia, completing the fish encyclopedia. (0:14:26) Al: I have not once fished in this game. (0:14:30) Al: So I’m like, I don’t know if I want to do those, but it feels like I’m so close. (0:14:34) Al: But it also no. (0:14:37) Al: So, yeah, let’s see. (0:14:40) Al: That is my, here’s my, I was in. (0:14:42) Al: Interesting thing. So I finished chapter 10. That is the final chapter and only 2% (0:14:48) Al: of players have earned this achievement, according to Apple, 2% have completed. (0:14:52) Micah: That’s incredible, you know, there’s something really interesting about this to me that (0:14:59) Micah: What was the game before home sweet home? Was it one world? (0:15:02) Al: No, one world was before that, the one before that, it was winds of anthos. (0:15:03) Micah: No one world was the one before that. Oh (0:15:09) Micah: Wins of Anthos, that’s right. And you know, it’s funny because I very distinctly remember you saying I am (0:15:17) Micah: Returning this or trading it in or whatever, you know, like as soon as I get the opportunity to (0:15:20) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (0:15:22) Micah: And here we are you have hit credits on home sweet home, which is (0:15:27) Al: Well, can I just point out, I think both of us hit credits in one world. (0:15:31) Micah: Yes, we did, yeah (0:15:32) Al: And because, I think, mainly because we were fascinated as to where it was going to end up, (0:15:38) Al: I will say that’s not why I finished this game. It’s not because I was like, “Oh, (0:15:42) Al: I really need to know what happens with this story.” The story is basically non-existent, (0:15:46) Al: right? Like it’s basically just you’re, you’re, you’re making this. (0:15:50) Al: This town more, more, that’s it. Like you’re, you’re making people happy and you’re, you’re (0:15:54) Micah: More and more (0:15:58) Al: doing things and that’s it. Um, what I found really interesting that, you know, the area (0:16:03) Al: that was like left of your farm that looked like it was a gated off area that you could (0:16:07) Al: access later on in the game. You never unlock that. That’s not, that’s not a thing. Is that (0:16:09) Micah: Oh, yeah. (0:16:15) Al: meant to come in an update or something? It’s even called, it called Alba Park. (0:16:20) Micah: - You know, I don’t know. (0:16:20) Al: And, and there’s a gate there. Why can I not go that way? I’ve completed. (0:16:27) Micah: It’s gotta, it has to be, right? (0:16:29) Micah: Well, let me ask you this. (0:16:31) Micah: Have they updated it at all since? (0:16:34) Al: Just the just the one update that came out like what a week after we recorded our last episode, which added the controller support and the well ads cloud save but the cloud says broken still. (0:16:40) Micah: Okay, that was the only one. (0:16:47) Micah: Okay, great. (0:16:48) Al: That’s the only update that I’m aware of happening. (0:16:51) Micah: ‘Cause I distinctly remember, too, that there was, (0:16:58) Micah: it looked like there were going to be spaces (0:17:01) Micah: or like placeholders for other languages, for text. (0:17:05) Al: Oh, yeah (0:17:07) Micah: And I remember thinking, oh, this is probably gonna come (0:17:10) Micah: in an update, but if they never added that either, (0:17:14) Micah: there must be a bunch of things that were just like, (0:17:17) Micah: We’ll add this in an update at a later date. (0:17:21) Micah: And maybe now it’s either they just are no longer touching it or (0:17:27) Micah: it is uh they’re just saving all those updates for the console release maybe? (0:17:32) Al: So this is where I break your brain yet again, Micah, and tell you that it has only been six (0:17:37) Al: months since this game I came out. It was August. (0:17:38) Micah: What oh (0:17:42) Micah: Yeah, that’s right (0:17:43) Micah: I remember this you did this to me on the game of the year episode two and I like (0:17:48) Micah: That blows my mind that that it’s only been that long. It feels like this game was two years ago (0:17:54) Al: So I don’t know, yeah, it doesn’t feel weird for there to be like, if we got an update (0:17:57) Micah: And that’s not just because of the last month isn’t it (0:18:08) Al: in a month, I wouldn’t be surprised that would be like, roughly about the time from the release (0:18:12) Al: to the last update. I don’t know. I don’t know if I actually believe this is coming (0:18:16) Al: to console. I feel like we would have heard something by now, right? (0:18:17) Micah: Yeah (0:18:22) Micah: Yeah, I think so too I I think I think if (0:18:26) Micah: They announce a new (0:18:29) Micah: Heart of harvest moon game that is not this I think it’s officially dead at that point, right? (0:18:35) Al: Mm hmm. No, no. (0:18:35) Micah: Like there’s no way that they’re going back to it. They are putting all of their resources into whatever (0:18:42) Micah: The new thing is if that’s the case. So either we’re (0:18:47) Micah: we’ll get something from them sometime soon, but it will either be this coming to consoles or (0:18:55) Micah: Something new and then it’s just confirmation at that point that this is completely dead in the water (0:19:01) Al: Yeah, I just I’m fascinated by this area that that doesn’t exist like I was fully expecting to unlock it at some point and it and it hasn’t. (0:19:07) Micah: This is extremely interesting (0:19:11) Al: The other couple of things I find interesting so you do so we’d complained about how it felt like you should be able to, you know, set a bunch of actions and get them to like water these 10 plants in a row. (0:19:23) Al: It feels like that’s what the interface was built for, but that didn’t seem to be an example of that. You do unlock that later on, but you have to like progress this. (0:19:31) Al: But the disadvantage of that over your standard up upgrading your watering can and now you can do like 20 at once instead you have to like individually press on all 20 and then it doesn’t manually the disadvantage of that is it still takes the same amount of time in game to water even when you have the highest level watering. (0:19:32) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:19:56) Micah: - Oh. (0:19:57) Al: So, because it’s just doing them all individually. (0:19:59) Micah: Oh. (laughs) (0:20:01) Al: Right? You don’t have to manually let go that one and now that one, you can like swipe (0:20:05) Al: over them and go like, want you to do all these or in the case of the controller, you (0:20:09) Al: can just press and drag, but it takes so long. Whereas in other farming games, you upgrade (0:20:15) Al: the watering can and you hold it down and then you’ve watered it all immediately rather (0:20:19) Al: than having to wait for your character to like go and individually water all of these (0:20:23) Al: 20 things. Such a weird decision. (0:20:28) Al: The other one is the, I unlocked sprinklers. (0:20:31) Al: And boy are the sprinklers weird in this game. (0:20:35) Al: First of all, you only unlock the top level of sprinkler after you’ve finished the game, (0:20:41) Al: which is the only one worth doing. (0:20:43) Al: Because your first level of sprinkler is just your four spots, top, bottom, left, right. (0:20:49) Micah: Yeah. (0:20:49) Al: Never do them. They are never worth it. (0:20:52) Micah: Oh. (0:20:52) Al: And your second level of sprinkler is three by three, so you get eight spaces. (0:20:59) Al: Okay, but you’ll do (0:21:01) Al: not unlock that until I think it’s chapter 7 of 10. And by that point, you probably don’t need it. (0:21:07) Al: Like, you’ve probably got most of what you need. And then at the end of the game, (0:21:08) Micah: - You just passed the point of, yeah. (0:21:12) Al: you finally unlock the one that’s five by five. But the problem is, it doesn’t fit in the plots (0:21:18) Al: properly. So the bottom plot is six by five. So you put it in there, and you’ve got one line of (0:21:24) Al: five that doesn’t get watered by it. And you can’t and you can’t put the sprinklers outside of it. (0:21:31) Al: You either have 24 fed by one sprinkler and then five manual, or 24 by one sprinkler and (0:21:39) Al: four by another sprinkler. It’s like, I’m not going to do a whole other because those are expensive. (0:21:45) Al: You have like, I think it’s 12 different gems, including diamonds, which you can only get in (0:21:49) Al: the bottom level of mine. I’m not going to waste all of those gems for four watered spaces. (0:21:56) Micah: Well, yeah (0:21:57) Al: And then you’ve got the other ones are… I know. (0:21:58) Micah: What a weird oversight (0:22:01) Al: The other plots that you unlock are something by four, not by five. (0:22:10) Al: So you’re just you’re wasting time. So I have one, which is eight by five. (0:22:14) Al: And I’ve got two watering cans on that. Sorry, two sprinklers on that. (0:22:19) Al: So they’re using up two spaces, which by the way, feels a lot more of space in this game (0:22:23) Al: than it does in any other farming game, because you’ve got such restricted space to use. (0:22:29) Al: I’m like, if it was late. (0:22:31) Al: out differently, it would almost all be covered by one sprinkler. (0:22:36) Al: It’s just such a weird decision. I don’t understand why they’ve made these decisions. (0:22:37) Micah: Hey, yeah, that’s really strange (0:22:41) Micah: And it it makes me wonder if it was like, I don’t know (0:22:45) Micah: I can’t even really think of a scenario for why that would be the kid like maybe they (0:22:50) Micah: Just missed it or like they thought that maybe it was like automated (0:22:55) Micah: You know (0:22:57) Micah: Calculations or something and it was just wrong for that. I don’t know (0:23:01) Micah: It’s it just feels like it would be something that someone would catch and be like, oh (0:23:05) Micah: We either have to like (0:23:07) Micah: Change the size of this plot a little bit or change the, you know, the ratio of spaces that this sprinkler covers, I don’t know, it’s odd. (0:23:17) Al: I think it would have been better to be like a sprinkler covers a row and then when you unlock (0:23:27) Al: the higher ones they cover more rows. So it would mean that you could have like one that would cover (0:23:33) Al: four rows and that would mean you could have one sprinkler for a section and you put it at the side (0:23:38) Al: so it doesn’t use up a crop space because crop spaces are so limited here and it would feel just (0:23:43) Al: much less frustrating in terms of the numbers. They’ve just taken (0:23:47) Al: a sprinkler in a normal farming game and put it into this game that is not done in (0:23:52) Al: a normal way because they’ve thought about it completely differently. (0:23:54) Micah: - Yeah, that’s very odd. (0:23:57) Al: The final thing I have to say is that I don’t know what we did we talk about the soil health (0:24:03) Al: in our episode. I can’t remember if we did. I don’t think we did because I don’t think (0:24:05) Micah: Hmm, I don’t remember I don’t think we did (0:24:09) Al: I don’t think we’d either of us had come across that. So soil health degrades in the get in this (0:24:15) Al: this game, which is (0:24:16) Micah: Okay. I don’t know that I even witnessed that on my, in my own. (0:24:17) Al: very much like a realism wins over fun part of this game. (0:24:24) Al: Yeah, so it does happen. (0:24:26) Al: You just probably aren’t noticing it because you don’t get told about it until (0:24:30) Al: you unlock a better fertilizer maker later on. (0:24:30) Micah: Oh, okay. (0:24:34) Al: And then they’re like, oh, your soil health. (0:24:37) Al: If you click on this fertilizer maker, you can see your soil health. (0:24:40) Al: You’re like, oh, everything is sad. (0:24:44) Al: And so you basically have to, after a– (0:24:47) Al: after a harvest of things, you have to let it sit for a bunch of days. (0:24:51) Al: And when I say a bunch of days, I mean, it feels like it’s like half a month. (0:24:54) Al: You have to let it sit for to go back to its full soil health. (0:24:58) Al: Or you can use some compost to speed it up, (0:25:01) Al: but the compost is like really awkward to craft or cost 2,500 per compost. (0:25:08) Al: It is so expensive. (0:25:10) Al: And so you spend the time rotating which plots you’re actually using for crops (0:25:16) Al: and not actually (0:25:18) Al: do anything about it, and it’s not actually doing what you want to do, and this is very much like, I understand you’re going for realism here, because that is what happens in real life, you have to rotate your crops, you have to rotate your soil, blah blah blah blah blah, but I’m not doing this for realism, right, like, it makes… (0:25:32) Micah: Yeah, if there’s I mean, I respect to the to some degree, (0:25:41) Micah: the the idea of making the the mechanics feel like they work (0:25:48) Micah: realistically the way that it would in the real world. But (0:25:50) Micah: like, if nothing else in the game really feels like it is (0:25:54) Micah: adhering very strictly to realism, then you know, I don’t (0:25:59) Micah: know that that’s really, I’m not really. (0:26:03) Micah: For realistic mechanics and I’m playing a harvest moon or like a story of seasons game, you know, like I don’t know. (0:26:10) Al: It’s always a balance for these things, where that very much is on the “no, I don’t want this” part of (0:26:12) Micah: Right. (0:26:17) Al: the thing. Oh, there’s one thing I just remembered. Horses, right? Neither of us have gotten far enough (0:26:23) Al: to buy a horse in the last episode. You can buy horses, you cannot ride the horses around the town. (0:26:24) Micah: Oh. Okay. What is the point? What do you do with them? Okay. Okay. All right. Again, maybe (0:26:34) Al: You can ride it around the paddock, but that’s it. Why would you do that? For fun, that’s it. (0:26:40) Al: That’s literally the only purpose. Why would you bother doing that? I have no idea. No idea. (0:26:46) Micah: something that was intended to be added and the future of it. Just never. (0:26:50) Al: But why can you… I don’t understand how you can ride it in one area and not in another area. (0:26:56) Al: It just has a wall, and you can’t go through it. Why? (0:27:02) Micah: It’s fascinating. I I don’t know him. Maybe there’s just some like maybe they couldn’t (0:27:10) Micah: get the pathing right or something and they just were like I will fix this later. I don’t know. (0:27:15) Micah: There’s there’s a lot in that game that feels to me like we’ll fix it later. (0:27:18) Al: Oh, that’s it, actually. So you know the press on the map and it will automatically go there. (0:27:25) Micah: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So that’s either okay. (0:27:26) Al: I bet that doesn’t work with horses. That’ll be why you can’t do it. (0:27:33) Micah: We’ll fix it later or we can’t figure it. We can’t figure it out. So we’re just (0:27:38) Micah: not going to include it at all. One of the two. (0:27:39) Al: Yeah. Bizarre. Bizarre decision. But there we are. It was good enough for me to finish apparently. (0:27:50) Al: And I guess tune in next time to see whether I will continue trying to finish the achievements. (0:27:57) Micah: I wish you the best of luck, Godspeed. (0:28:02) Al: I’m definitely going to do the 50 of each crop one because that I’m nearly done with that. (0:28:07) Al: I literally have everything growing for that. Like in a week in game, that woman will be done. (0:28:14) Micah: Yeah. Well, I wish you the best of luck. (0:28:16) Al: But I don’t. (0:28:20) Micah: It currently I just was out of curiosity. (0:28:22) Micah: I wanted to see on the Google Play Store. (0:28:24) Micah: It currently has a three point two out of five, which is. (0:28:27) Al: that feels fair yeah I would say that feels fair (0:28:28) Micah: A thousand reviews. (0:28:31) Micah: Yeah, I kind of feel like maybe that is accurate. (0:28:35) Micah: Oh, it says it was updated on December 10th. (0:28:38) Al: yeah that was that update it dropped like two days after we recorded that was the one with the (0:28:40) Micah: Oh, was it? (0:28:43) Micah: - Oh. (0:28:44) Micah: - Got it, got it, got it. Okay. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah, interesting. I guess we’ll see what happens. (0:28:45) Al: cloud save and the controller support which is the only reason i’m playing the game because of (0:28:51) Al: controller support I couldn’t keep playing it on the touch screen but the controller support is (0:28:55) Al: It’s actually pretty good. (0:28:57) Al: Well, there we go. (0:29:01) Al: I rushed this week to make sure I’d finished so I could talk to you about it, because I (0:29:05) Al: was like, I’m so close, I must finish before I talk to Micah. (0:29:09) Al: So there we go. (0:29:10) Micah: I’m impressed that you completed it and I’m proud of you and (0:29:10) Al: Hit credits in that game. (0:29:14) Al: Well, yeah, it’s better than, it’s better than Sugardew Valley, Sugardew Island, sorry. (0:29:15) Micah: I hope that it was worth it. (0:29:19) Micah: It wasn’t intended to sound as meat as it did. (0:29:27) Al: Well, the problem is, it’s like five bits into the game news. (0:29:28) Micah: Is that a, is that a segue? Is that a, (0:29:31) Micah: I can’t tell if that was an intentional segue or not. (0:29:37) Al: So let’s just go through the, let’s talk about some news. (0:29:39) Micah: Okay. All right. (0:29:42) Al: Tales of the Shire has been delayed again. (0:29:45) Micah: Yeah. (0:29:46) Al: Can I just say, please stop putting a date on your game, right? (0:29:49) Micah: Yeah. At this point, at this point, just like wait until you are close enough (0:29:49) Al: Just stop it. (0:29:54) Micah: that you can say, Hey, it’s coming in a couple of weeks, you know? (0:29:59) Micah: Cause that’s always like a kind of a fun surprise too. (0:30:02) Micah: When something has a sudden release date like that, uh, I, yeah. (0:30:08) Al: Yes, it is murder for organizing a podcast about games but yes, I will agree I can see why people would find that fun. Yeah. (0:30:13) Micah: - True, yeah. (0:30:16) Al: It’s now coming out on the 29th of July. So, well, maybe we’ll see. That’s what they’re currently saying, but we’re on our third release date so far so let’s see what happens. (0:30:26) Micah: Yeah, I was looking at some of the, you know, against my better judgment, some of the discourse (0:30:35) Micah: under this post, just to see what, how people felt about it. Because my initial reaction whenever (0:30:40) Micah: there’s a delay like this is, okay, that’s, you know, if you need more time, take the time, (0:30:46) Micah: work on it, perfect it, whatever. And that was, I feel like maybe a good 40 to 50% of the sentiment (0:30:55) Micah: and the other. (0:30:56) Micah: 50 to 60% was in the kind of camp of worry that because this is the second time that they’ve delayed it that if things maybe are not going great development wise but I feel like. (0:31:11) Al: Yeah, I never understand that because it’s like, no, people are just being overly optimistic about (0:31:17) Al: these things. As someone who works in, not in game development, but in software development, (0:31:18) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:31:21) Micah: Yeah, oh, yeah (0:31:21) Al: that happens all the time, right? People will be like, oh, this is when it needs to happen. (0:31:26) Al: And then other people will be like, it’s not going to happen by then, but it gets set as the date (0:31:31) Al: anyway. And then the day comes around and it hasn’t happened. And it’s like, you can’t make (0:31:35) Al: it happen, right? Like, there’s only a certain amount you can actually do. And adding more people (0:31:40) Al: belong does not actually improve. (0:31:41) Al: And sometimes it just takes more time. (0:31:44) Al: Like I could, I find this, you know, with, with, with Pokemon every time, right? (0:31:49) Al: Where people are like, Oh, they just need to add more people. (0:31:52) Al: Adding more people does not speed up development times. (0:31:54) Micah: - Mm-hmm. (0:31:55) Al: Adding more people quite often slows things down. (0:31:58) Al: It’s not worth it. (0:31:59) Al: Right. (0:32:00) Al: And sometimes you just need the time. (0:32:02) Al: I just, you can clearly see this as a fight between marketing and development. (0:32:07) Al: Um, I don’t think, I don’t think it’s a sign of like serious (0:32:08) Micah: 100%. I don’t think so either. I think people’s gut reaction is to look at, you know, other games (0:32:18) Micah: that have gone into development hell and have never made them their way out. And that’s the (0:32:24) Micah: concern. And I, you know, I, it seemed, especially for the people that were kind of that had this (0:32:31) Micah: sentiment or it’s coming from a place of like concern because they’re excited for the game, (0:32:36) Micah: You know I’m like (0:32:39) Micah: concern because they want it to be really good which is like better than you know just saying like well I don’t you know this game’s doomed or whatever you know I’m just like not really just being a doomer about it just to be a doomer but I do think from my personal experiences with stuff like this too I do think that if they were looking at something that does (0:33:08) Micah: close to like a development hell they would probably not put a second release date on it it probably would be something along the lines of we need a little bit more time to work on it and we’ll update you in the future and then at that point we probably would hear maybe a couple things and then nothing ever again but because they are putting a release date on it it makes me think that you know maybe there’s if it hits a if we get another delay after this then yeah I think it’s time to be a little bit (0:33:38) Micah: concerned about it you know it I think because they have a release date that if they missed a second release date or a third release date now if they miss it then there’s gonna be you know it’s there’s a lot more stake in that which like you know kind of contradicts what we’re saying about like just don’t put a release date on it but (0:34:00) Al: I guess the problem is those are two different things. We’re talking about just in general, (0:34:04) Al: don’t give a release date unless you actually know when it’s coming out. I guess it’s difficult (0:34:10) Al: when you’ve given a release date and now you’re like, oh, we don’t know now that I get worries (0:34:16) Al: people. And so I get why they kind of have to do that now because otherwise people are going to (0:34:20) Al: start, as you say, assuming the worst. But I’ve said it so many times, I do not think people (0:34:30) Al: put a release date on it until you are at most a month away. Give us a year, sure, (0:34:37) Al: because when people go, oh, we need some more time, it’s going to be next year. People are (0:34:41) Al: generally fine with that, especially if you’re near the end of the year, they expect that that’s (0:34:44) Al: going to happen. And then when you’re like, oh, I’m pretty confident, then you can say, oh, (0:34:50) Al: it will happen in the second half or the quarter three or whatever. But don’t give us a date until (0:34:54) Micah: Yeah, yep, definitely. (0:34:56) Al: you know it’s if you wouldn’t release it today don’t get (0:35:00) Al: as a date because it’s not gonna happen and like there are so few companies that do that (0:35:00) Micah: Right. (0:35:06) Al: they give you a date and it comes out on that date and you know one of the big ones is pokemon (0:35:12) Al: and it doesn’t always work out well for them right they give you a date six months out and (0:35:14) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think Nintendo stuff in (0:35:17) Al: they release on that date and then it’s not a great game i’m so excited to see what happens (0:35:21) Micah: Yeah, yep (0:35:23) Micah: Gosh (0:35:25) Micah: You know Pokemon days next week. So I guess we’ll see what happens with (0:35:31) Micah: with (0:35:32) Micah: You know it when they’ve got a little bit more time to cook it. We’ll see what happens (0:35:36) Al: Well, there’s a big assumption there that they actually have taken more time, (0:35:40) Al: because we don’t actually know when the when development started on this game. (0:35:40) Micah: Yeah, that’s true. You’re right. (0:35:44) Micah: You know, and this, this applies to Tales of the Shire too, I think, but, but also for Pokemon. (0:35:49) Micah: We’re also, something to take into account is that we’re in the midst of the, of a, um, generation (0:35:58) Micah: jump where like, you know, maybe that’s not necessarily the case as much for Tales of the (0:36:03) Micah: Shire, but I could see it being a possibility where they know that a large user base for cozy (0:36:11) Micah: games like this is on the switch. (0:36:14) Micah: Or on handheld, maybe like the Steam Deck or something like that. (0:36:20) Micah: And if they’re taking time because they know a little bit more about like maybe, I don’t (0:36:28) Micah: know, a release window for Switch 2 or they’re trying to, you know, co-develop a Switch and (0:36:31) Al: Well, that’s an interesting point. (0:36:37) Micah: Switch 2 version so that they can release it on both, you know, some of that stuff tends (0:36:42) Micah: to throw a wrench in the (0:36:44) Micah: things that is kind of like not expected. (0:36:48) Al: For most games, I would say there’s no way that that is part of this delay, but I feel like (0:36:57) Al: I could see them have it like I could see that if they are I could see they could already have (0:37:02) Al: a switch to dev kit because we know that some developers do that has been leaked. There are (0:37:04) Micah: - Mm-hmm, yep. (0:37:06) Al: developers that have it. Indies almost certainly won’t have it like there might be maybe some a (0:37:12) Al: couple of big indies like maybe silk song for example is maybe that team cherry that’s what (0:37:18) Al: isn’t it maybe they have one I could maybe see for example concerned ape having one (0:37:26) Al: I could see these developers having one and so maybe that’s part of it that is a big possibility (0:37:34) Al: I would say for most people it wouldn’t be the case but I could I could see Nintendo (0:37:38) Micah: Oh, yeah, 100 percent. (0:37:39) Al: I could see Nintendo going yeah no the the people that are developing a cozy game (0:37:44) Al: about Lord of the Rings, yeah, let’s make sure that they are ready for this. (0:37:46) Micah: Yeah, it’s the token property and it’s the what a workshop like that’s there’s a lot this. (0:37:48) Al: Yeah. (0:37:56) Micah: They’re not, you know, small money. So, but, you know, and if it is that they’re taking time to, to be able to have that ready for in the event of, you know, switch to or whatever they’re working on that. (0:38:12) Micah: get and that gives them the opportunity to make sure that it’s (0:38:16) Micah: a steam deck verified and stuff like that, that really (0:38:20) Micah: improves that experience for their core audience, I think. I (0:38:25) Micah: mean, they, you know, there’s always going to be people who (0:38:27) Micah: are playing on PC or PS5 or Xbox or whatever, but cozy games, I (0:38:34) Micah: think it’s pretty safe to say the, the, you know, the core of (0:38:40) Micah: the audience is, is playing either on the switch or handled (0:38:44) Micah: to some degree so. (0:38:46) Micah: Um, I could see that being a, again, we won’t know until it’s, till we see something (0:38:55) Micah: come of it. (0:38:56) Micah: Maybe there’s, uh, you know, things coincide, like we can kind of piece together, but yeah, (0:39:03) Micah: I guess we’ll see. (0:39:04) Micah: We’ll see what happens when July 29th rolls around. (0:39:08) Al: Yeah, I mean you never know we might I would say we don’t necessarily have to wait till then because if it is our switch to thing (0:39:08) Micah: I’m very excited for it though. (0:39:15) Al: There will 100% be some games announced in April (0:39:18) Micah: Oh, sure, yeah. (0:39:20) Al: They’ll be like, you know (0:39:22) Al: Stardew Valley is going to be a switch to version that does this or whatever and maybe this will be one of them (0:39:29) Al: Who knows? I’m not saying this will definitely happen. You’ve not heard it here first. We’re not saying (0:39:35) Al: The Tales of the Shire is going to be switched to… (0:39:38) Al: but I could see it happening and I’m excited for A-1. (0:39:44) Micah: - Yeah, me too. (0:39:45) Micah: I’m also excited just for this game in general. (0:39:47) Micah: I’m very excited for this game. (0:39:50) Al: Next we have, okay, I think it’s just meant to be fantasy. (0:39:55) Al: Is it Fantasy Life I? (0:39:56) Al: Is that how you’re meant to say these games? (0:39:58) Al: Because I know this is a series of games, (0:40:00) Al: but I don’t know if it’s just Fantasy Life I. (0:40:02) Micah: This is the first one that has I in the title. So I yeah, this is this is a new experience (0:40:06) Al: Oh, is it really? (0:40:08) Al: Amazing. (0:40:09) Al: Okay, perfect. (0:40:11) Al: No notes. (0:40:12) Al: Fantasy Life I, the girl who steals time, (0:40:15) Al: we have a release date for this. (0:40:18) Al: So it’s coming on the 21st of. (0:40:20) Al: May and also it’s now coming to Steam and PlayStation and Xbox. (0:40:26) Al: So it was previously meant to just be on Switch and I believe it was a 3DS game. (0:40:32) Al: The previous one. (0:40:33) Micah: it was they also had a mobile game that did not do too great um you know they did the the uh (0:40:36) Al: Oh, surprise, surprise. (0:40:42) Micah: classic level five maneuver of just kind of abandoning it once it you know didn’t really (0:40:49) Micah: take off the way they’d hoped it did so uh it is no longer functional as a as a mobile game so uh (0:40:54) Al: Well, this is only this, if you ignore the mobile game, this is only the second game (0:41:01) Micah: Yes. Yeah. There was a. (0:41:04) Micah: Like a the way that it released in Japan was it was fantasy life and they did fantasy life link which added extra stuff to it. So it was like, you know, a definitive version of it and then we got the West got the like full release of it. (0:41:20) Micah: So there’s some like kind of weird stuff with it, you know, but yeah, this is ultimately just the second one. (0:41:28) Micah: One of the best games on the 3DS in my opinion. (0:41:33) Micah: It’s a fantastic game. (0:41:34) Al: And this, I did not realize that this was the Yokai and Professor Leighton people. (0:41:40) Micah: It is. (0:41:41) Al: So there you go. (0:41:42) Micah: Yep. Level five big fan level five. (0:41:42) Al: Now we know. (0:41:44) Micah: I’m a little bit apprehensive about anything that they’re doing from this point on because they have been very deep in the generative A.I. (0:41:55) Al: Ow. (0:41:57) Micah: You know, they did like a they recently showed off their. (0:42:03) Micah: I guess spiritual successor to Yokai Watch, which is something hotel. I can’t remember some haunted hotel property and pretty much the entire trailer was like generative A.I. (0:42:14) Al: Is that holy hardware man? (0:42:15) Micah: So I am. Yes, that’s it. That is it. (0:42:19) Micah: So I’m hoping that because this was prior to their big like this game existed prior to their big like push into generative A.I. that like hopefully it doesn’t, you know. (0:42:33) Micah: I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see. I have a very strong love hate relationship with level five at this point. (0:42:38) Micah: So I’m very excited and also nervous about this because I love fantasy life. (0:42:47) Micah: It’s such a good game on the 3DS, but hopefully it’s good. (0:42:51) Al: Yeah, it looks interesting. I like the graphics and everything, (0:42:57) Al: and I’m excited to try it out when it releases in May. (0:43:00) Micah: It’s got cross play - which is (0:43:03) Al: Yes, across everything. Multiplayer across play. Very cool. (0:43:04) Micah: Always excited for cross play (0:43:08) Micah: Monster hunter is doing that. I’m very hopeful that this is the future of (0:43:15) Micah: Multiplayer in general that everybody’s gonna be doing cross play (0:43:18) Al: Yes, I can understand when you’ve got a competitive game, you don’t want keyboard and mouse players (0:43:26) Al: playing with controller players, but the problem with that argument is always, well, you can (0:43:32) Al: be a controller player on a PC. (0:43:36) Al: And so you can’t restrict that. (0:43:39) Al: So why restrict the other things? (0:43:41) Al: I do think if they do something like that, I like when they do options. (0:43:46) Al: You can either be just with people on… (0:43:48) Al: your system, or you can be with anyone. (0:43:51) Al: And in this case, it doesn’t really matter because it’s just co-op, right? (0:43:54) Al: It does not a competitive, you know, every millisecond counts type of game anyway. (0:44:00) Micah: Yeah jock i’m actually shy about that I guess because it’s not a like normal thing these days (0:44:01) Al: It also has two-player local co-op. (0:44:11) Al: No, it’s cool. (0:44:12) Micah: so that’s pretty neat (0:44:14) Al: And next we have the garden path have released their co-op update. (0:44:20) Al: So you can probably guess what that brings to the game. (0:44:24) Micah: Would you say that it’s co-op? (0:44:26) Al: Yes. (0:44:29) Al: Interestingly, so if you actually look in the patch notes, (0:44:32) Al: the first update is players can now hold hands in multiplayer (0:44:36) Al: by selecting the emote in the emote selector. (0:44:38) Al: like her. I love how they’ve put in the effort to allow you to hold (0:44:41) Al: hands. There you go. I haven’t played this game. That’s all (0:44:42) Micah: I love that. (0:44:50) Micah: - Yeah, I haven’t either, so it looks interesting. (0:44:56) Micah: I mean, I really like the art style and stuff. (0:44:59) Micah: I just, yeah, it hasn’t been on my radar enough. (0:45:02) Al: Well, a game that has been on our radar, but probably not as much as we originally thought it might, is Spirit Tea. (0:45:10) Al: They have released their Phantom Friends update, which brings you can now have Spirits as Pets, which is a fun little addition. (0:45:19) Al: I think if you’re enjoying that game, this will be a nice little addition to that. (0:45:24) Micah: It looks very cute (0:45:25) Al: Also, as always with the Spirit Tea update, there’s new Spirits and Quests as well. (0:45:26) Micah: It’s a cat spirit (0:45:31) Al: Bye. (0:45:32) Al: Oh yes, Sugardew Island. (0:45:35) Al: So I would. (0:45:36) Micah: - We made it. (0:45:37) Micah: - We got, we got there. (0:45:39) Al: Goodness me, I wouldn’t normally bring up an update this small for a game, (0:45:45) Al: especially a game like Sugardew Island, which I don’t think should exist. (0:45:49) Al: But they have updated a few things that I complained about in my last episode (0:45:55) Al: when I reviewed it, so I felt like I should bring those up because if those (0:46:00) Al: specific things and not (0:46:02) Al: everything else that I said about the game with the reasons that you’re not playing it, (0:46:05) Al: then maybe you will now. So selling items in the shop no longer requires energy. Hurray. Fantastic. (0:46:13) Al: Just what we want. And you can now craft energy bars so you don’t have to go and just buy them. (0:46:19) Al: You can craft them, which is good because that was a weird decision not to allow you to eat (0:46:24) Al: anything you grow. But as I say in my show notes here, it is still not. (0:46:32) Al: A good game. So there we go. (0:46:35) Micah: I- I’m so curious, I’m just so cu- oh there’s a demo so I guess I don’t need to be that curious. (0:46:43) Al: Yes, the demo is out now. If you want to try it, feel free. (0:46:43) Micah: I can just try it. (0:46:47) Micah: I- I feel like I have to, it’s just so fascinating to me and how like anti-SugarDew Island you are makes me want to try it. (0:46:56) Al: This is the thing, I don’t like being negative about games. (0:47:02) Al: And I was talking in the Slack to some of the patrons and I was like, I don’t think (0:47:06) Al: I’ve ever been this negative about the game that I’ve covered on the podcast. (0:47:11) Al: And it’s like, every example that people brought up about a game I was negative about, it was, (0:47:15) Al: I don’t like this, but it’s not for me. (0:47:19) Al: Other people will. (0:47:20) Al: I understand it. (0:47:21) Al: It’s like, I did not like my time at Porsche, but that was because I really didn’t like (0:47:24) Al: how the crafting worked. (0:47:26) Al: If we’re ignoring all of the Switch issues with that game. (0:47:30) Al: You know, and all the, like, the Harvest Moon’s… (0:47:33) Al: Maybe the closest thing we can get to other things that I’ve said are bad, but like… (0:47:38) Al: We’ve talked about them before, they’re getting better and it feels like they’re actually trying there. (0:47:44) Al: Yeah, almost everything that I’ve been negative about, it’s been… (0:47:47) Al: I don’t like this, but I can understand why other people would. (0:47:50) Al: And this game is, I don’t like this, and I don’t think you should play this game. (0:47:50) Micah: - Yeah. (0:47:55) Al: I think that this game. (0:47:56) Al: Exists purely to try and cash in on an existing popular genre, and I do not understand how (0:48:06) Al: this game ended up in the way that it did. (0:48:08) Micah: hmm it’s (0:48:09) Al: And it’s still not technically out yet, so there’s no reviews on Steam, but that’ll be (0:48:14) Al: fun to watch when it does. (0:48:17) Al: That’ll be so funny. (0:48:17) Micah: watch you’re in the distinct minority for people who (0:48:24) Al: I mean, I’m, I’m fascinated because there are people who say (0:48:26) Al: that they’re excited about this game. And there are curators (0:48:29) Al: who’ve reviewed it and said that it was good. But I feel like (0:48:32) Al: they’re just saying that but everything (0:48:34) Micah: Yeah, all I’ve heard about the game, I’ve heard from you, so I guess let that say what (0:48:43) Micah: it says about it. (0:48:46) Micah: Yeah, I’m curious, I’m gonna download that demo though, and then the next time that we (0:48:53) Micah: talk on an episode, I’ll save all my thoughts for it. (0:48:55) Al: I mean, feel free to send me a message and I can get some feedback in the episode next week. (0:49:04) Al: So we have two games that have released Roadmaps, the first of which is Paleo Pines. (0:49:09) Al: They appear to be bringing a new Kickstarter out this year, but they haven’t said what it is other (0:49:17) Al: than it. I think they’re saying that it’s more content for Paleo Pines rather than a new game. (0:49:23) Micah: Oh, okay. That was going to be my question. Is it paleopines related or hmm. (0:49:25) Al: It’s a DLC Kickstarter, maybe? It’s hard to know exactly, but based on what they’re saying, (0:49:32) Al: I’m pretty sure they’re saying it’s more Paleo Pines because they’re talking about (0:49:36) Al: the Paleo Pines Roadmap. What else did they say? Yes, we’ve been open about the challenges we’ve (0:49:43) Al: faced as a studio and we’re thrilled about the possibility of reuniting some of the original team (0:49:47) Al: to bring more content to Paleo Pines. We want to be totally transparent with everyone in late (0:49:53) Al: 2024 when things were particularly (0:49:55) Al: bleak, we really considered shuttering the project altogether. The financial and emotional (0:49:59) Al: strain was significant. However, after careful consideration, we realized that stopping wouldn’t (0:50:03) Al: be fair to our dedicated team or our supportive community. (0:50:07) Al: So much passion has been poured to this project, and your support through Plushie & Merck says (0:50:10) Al: has been instrumental in keeping us going. We’re still here and we’re completely rejuvenated (0:50:15) Al: to make things happen this year. Our vibe for 2025 is all about collaborating with our (0:50:20) Al: players more closely than ever before through our kickstarter, our research project. (0:50:25) Al: Thank you and more. Thank you so much for still being here and we hope to do you proud (0:50:28) Al: this year. And then they have a PDF linked with the roadmap that says that their kickstarter (0:50:30) Micah: - Okay. (0:50:34) Al: is going to launch in April. (0:50:36) Micah: Yeah, so that, I mean, that does sound (0:50:38) Micah: like it’s very specifically paleopiance. (0:50:42) Al: Yeah, which I mean, some everyone I know that’s played it has loved it. (0:50:43) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know what the research project is. (0:50:47) Micah: Yeah, it’s really cute. (0:50:49) Micah: It’s a lot of fun. (0:50:50) Micah: I guess I’m kind of shocked. (0:50:53) Micah: I didn’t realize that they were having, (0:50:55) Micah: that they were struggling as much as they were, (0:50:59) Micah: because I thought that it was pretty well received. (0:51:00) Micah: I think that anybody that I’ve talked to that’s played it has really enjoyed it. (0:51:04) Micah: But yeah, I’m excited to see more from it. (0:51:08) Micah: I’m happy that they’re not, you know, I’m always happy to hear that (0:51:11) Micah: a developer is not, you know, having to to shutter anything. (0:51:17) Micah: But I just for paleopines and specific, (0:51:21) Micah: I’m excited to see more content for it because it’s very cute. (0:51:24) Al: Yeah. (0:51:25) Micah: They did a great job with it. (0:51:26) Al: Because of the plum group. (0:51:26) Micah: That’s a pretty good. (0:51:28) Micah: I was just gonna say it’s a pretty good road map though. (0:51:30) Micah: It’s very detailed so… (0:51:31) Al: It’s very, it’s very detailed, which means that it will definitely not be 100 percent, right? (0:51:35) Micah: Yep, yep, it’s too specific, yeah. (0:51:39) Al: Too detailed, too specific. (0:51:41) Al: Yeah. (0:51:43) Al: I can see the Kickstarter going in April, as they say, but everything else, I think, opened and pitched a little bit. (0:51:50) Micah: Okay, so this says the survey stage of our power of peaceful play research that so that’s (0:51:59) Micah: their research project that they’re referring (0:52:00) Al: Yeah. Yeah, so I didn’t cover this on the podcast, but in fact, well, because this is (0:52:06) Al: the first episode since they announced it, apparently. But yeah, there’s another thing (0:52:09) Al: on Steam, which is the power of peaceful play, a research project. We want to share something (0:52:14) Al: exciting with you all. We’ve received a small amount of funding to undertake a research project (0:52:17) Al: into the power of wholesome gaming and paleopines in particular on emotional and mental health (0:52:23) Al: with a focus on neurodiverist/divergent players. This research will be done through online surveys (0:52:28) Al: both quantitative and qualitative. (0:52:30) Al: We want to find out what parts of wholesome, (0:52:32) Al: cosy, peaceful gaming really promote what parts of wholesome, cosy, peaceful gaming (0:52:39) Al: really promote relaxation, focus and other positive emotions. (0:52:42) Al: And this research will help us identify which game design elements may contribute (0:52:46) Al: to this positive impact to inform future game development, (0:52:49) Al: both for Paleopines and the wider gaming industry. (0:52:52) Al: And their first survey is linked in steam. (0:52:55) Al: If you want to go and do it, that will be open until the 4th of March, (0:52:58) Al: which will be nearly (0:53:00) Al: a week after this episode comes out, and they say the research is independently funded (0:53:02) Micah: Okay, that’s very cool (0:53:05) Al: separate from game and merchandise development, so it’s not like propping up their game development. (0:53:10) Micah: Sure, yeah, that’s very cool. I like that good on them (0:53:11) Al: Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what the outcome is of that, but if you want to partake (0:53:18) Al: in their research, the Google form is linked on their Steam page, and I will probably link (0:53:25) Al: it in our show notes if I remember. We shall see. (0:53:30) Micah: That’s a crucial step (0:53:30) Al: We also have a roadmap for Echoes of the Plum Grove who just released their Switch version (0:53:43) Al: like last week, I think. So they have detailed three updates coming, one in March, one in April, (0:53:50) Al: and one in May. I don’t believe that. We’ll see. That’s very fast to get three updates out. (0:53:56) Micah: That is quick. (0:53:59) Al: the old. (0:54:01) Al: It’s mostly content, but what I will say I’m finding interesting is the April update, (0:54:07) Al: which adds custom controls, and like some other control related things, (0:54:13) Al: and also better modding support, which is always good. (0:54:15) Micah: Hmm and pinning. I don’t really know what that. Oh, maybe like wish listing sort of like (0:54:22) Al: Yeah, I don’t know what that means. (0:54:24) Micah: Hmm. Yeah, I have no idea (0:54:26) Al: I don’t think I played the game enough to know what that would mean. (0:54:30) Al: So I’m sure we’ll get more information on it when the actual update comes out. (0:54:34) Micah: Sure. I haven’t played the game at all, so you would know better than I was. (0:54:40) Al: Yeah, so there we go. That is another roadmap. We love a good roadmap. (0:54:47) Al: All right, I think that’s all the news. So it’s now time to talk about one of Micah’s Fiverr Games. (0:54:52) Al: Fiverr Games, Natsumon 20th Century Summer Kid. Before we get into it, I will say, I’m so sorry, (0:55:00) Al: Micah, I have tried so many times to play this game and I just can’t. I do need to talk to you (0:55:06) Al: about the ghost girl though, that is one thing I will need to discuss. But (0:55:10) Micah: I’m excited to hear why, so I think it’s a good, okay. (0:55:18) Al: Okay. I mean, shall I talk about that first then? Let’s talk about that first and then (0:55:22) Al: you can get into talking about the actual game. I think this is 100% a me problem. This (0:55:29) Al: is absolutely not a problem with the game. Like I said before, most of the games I’ve (0:55:35) Al: not been a fan of is it is not a problem with the game. It is a problem with me. I just (0:55:42) Al: can’t get… This is going to sound so silly for a podcast on Cottagecore Games. (0:55:48) Al: It is too relaxed for me. It is too slow. It is too unfocused. (0:55:58) Micah: So I would be intrigued to see if I if I took you and I plopped you in the middle of the game (0:56:06) Al: That is very possible that I would feel differently because there are some games like it’s not (0:56:06) Micah: What your what your feeling would be at that point? (0:56:14) Al: rare for me to take like a week to get my first two hours in a game and then I’ll get (0:56:19) Al: another hundred hours in the next two weeks. (0:56:23) Al: But I almost always do manage to push through and I’m so like it just it almost puts me (0:56:31) Al: to sleep with how slow it is and how unfocused because the game again the game (0:56:36) Al: starts off right let’s let me this feels like a good place to start right so we’ve got you are (0:56:40) Micah: Set the stage. (0:56:42) Al: a kid who’s gone to this town for your summer holidays and you’re you’re showing around the (0:56:49) Al: house and you’re showing you’re like you’ve got your bag and you empty out into your desk and (0:56:54) Al: you’ve got your your different things including your journal which by the way the saving in the (0:56:58) Al: in the journal in this very cute I love that that’s that is really good this is a really nice thing (0:57:03) Al: is that like after you do an activity and you’ve (0:57:06) Al: saved, it like populates the journal with what you did. Really love that. It is so nice. (0:57:10) Micah: Mm hmm. Not just populates it with what you did, but it’s it’s in the it’s a sketchbook. (0:57:17) Micah: Right. So it’s like in the style of your character who is this kid is drawing pictures, (0:57:24) Micah: like colored pencil pictures of all of the things that he did that day. Right. (0:57:28) Al: Yeah, it’s adorable. I love it. It’s so good. Especially as one of my one of my kids loves (0:57:29) Micah: So it’s very charming. Yeah. (0:57:35) Al: to draw and he will draw everything it like it really, you know, feels real to me, right? Like (0:57:40) Micah: - Mm-hmm. (0:57:40) Al: that is like I wasn’t really a drawing kit. That’s not my thing. But I have now experienced that with (0:57:47) Al: having a kid who does draw. And it just yeah, it just feels like a kid would do that sort of thing. (0:57:52) Al: I did this, I did that and little really bad drawings, but it’s cute. (0:57:58) Al: And then it kind of goes, okay, go talk to people. And you’re like, what? (0:58:04) Micah: So. Just to rewind a little bit, the the core of it, you’re right, (0:58:05) Al: What do you what do you what do you mean? Talk to people. (0:58:13) Micah: is it’s this kid who is kind of plopped in the small town for his his summer, (0:58:20) Micah: which is essentially just a month. (0:58:22) Micah: It’s a it’s a the game takes place over 31 days. (0:58:28) Micah: And you are your family is part of us in this one. (0:58:34) Micah: In specific, your family is part of a circus. (0:58:37) Micah: Your dad and your mom run a circus, a traveling circus. (0:58:42) Micah: And this town is where they are setting up for their next circus gig. (0:58:48) Micah: So they have things that they need to take care of. (0:58:52) Micah: So you are plopped in this small town with. (0:58:57) Micah: Initially, some of your circus friends and family, I guess you would say, (0:59:02) Micah: You know, they’re just, they. (0:59:04) Micah: The, the, the people who work in the circle, you know, the acts and the circus and stuff like that. (0:59:09) Micah: Uh, and so you’re all staying in this house together, um, with the, the woman who’s hosting you. (0:59:18) Micah: And it is a very small rural Japanese town. (0:59:23) Micah: Um, and it takes place, uh, you know, at the, the turn of the century, which is 20th century kid, you know, that’s the whole. (0:59:34) Micah: That’s the name of it. (0:59:35) Micah: Uh, so there’s not a lot going on, right? (0:59:39) Micah: Like there’s not a lot of like, there’s no video games. (0:59:42) Micah: There’s no cell phones. (0:59:44) Micah: There’s no, it’s, it’s very much just like you are, you got to go outside, you got to play, you got to, you know, maybe catch some bugs, maybe go fishing. (0:59:55) Micah: Uh, but as the game develops over time, there’s all of these things that you have to do. (1:00:01) Micah: and it becomes much more of a. (1:00:04) Micah: Time management and resource meant like you know sort of resource management more in the sense of the the time management aspect of it and you are starting to. (1:00:18) Micah: kind of manage all of these these other things that are happening, so when you get to the the 15th today I guess this is you know maybe spoilers but like not really spoilers I don’t know. (1:00:30) Al: let’s just let’s yeah like let let’s just let’s just go for it if you really care if anything (1:00:31) Micah: it’s going to be hard to like talk about this without. (1:00:36) Al: of you’ve heard about this game is interesting and you don’t want to be spoiled go play the game (1:00:41) Al: then uh but yeah we’re I don’t think we’re gonna hold against that stuff so yeah let’s go for it (1:00:42) Micah: Yeah. Yeah. So for, for the first portion of the game, it’s, it’s the first 15 days. (1:00:55) Micah: It’s kind of this lead up to, uh, you know, more people, because when you first get there, (1:01:02) Micah: it’s just you and a few people from the circus. It’s not everybody. Uh, so, you know, cause (1:01:08) Micah: They’ve all got their like own things going on. (1:01:10) Micah: So then they, they are like, Oh, well. (1:01:12) Micah: So eventually they do come to the town and, uh, you know, you add these characters into (1:01:18) Micah: the story. (1:01:19) Micah: Um, and it really becomes a lot about the people in the town, what they’re doing, uh, (1:01:28) Micah: what their lives are like and how you can help them or affect their lives. (1:01:35) Micah: Uh, you know, like, there’s a reporter who is trying to get. (1:01:42) Micah: His paper, you know, the, the small town paper, uh, some stories so that there’s some excitement (1:01:50) Micah: and stuff. (1:01:51) Micah: So, uh, you know, when you talk to him, he asks you about what’s been going on and what (1:01:55) Micah: you’ve been doing and you fill him in, uh, and over time, then his paper starts to do (1:02:01) Micah: well. (1:02:02) Micah: If you are, you know, focusing on that or, um, and there are things that are missable. (1:02:07) Micah: It’s not like it’s, you know, all of this stuff just plays out super linear. (1:02:11) Micah: You can focus on– (1:02:12) Micah: –whatever you want to focus on– (1:02:14) Micah: –and that’s kind of the– (1:02:16) Micah: –you know, the main engine of the game is that– (1:02:20) Micah: –you are living out your summer month– (1:02:23) Micah: –this summer month however you want. (1:02:25) Micah: You can spend the entire 31 days just fishing– (1:02:29) Micah: –and doing nothing else, ignoring everybody in the town– (1:02:32) Micah: –not doing any of the story stuff– (1:02:36) Micah: –and the game will progress all the way to that 31– (1:02:40) Micah: 31, the 31st day. (1:02:42) Micah: 31st day and then if the game will end, you’ll get an ending and then that’s it, you know, you can you clear it you can go back and do a new game plus and play it a different way. (1:02:54) Micah: Or you can min max and do absolutely everything that you can possibly do every day throughout the the entire month. (1:03:05) Micah: And that involves all kinds of things like making all of the connections that you can make with all of the characters learning all that you can. (1:03:13) Micah: And that’s it really is about the the unique characters and towns people and the people in the circus that you’re a part that you’re part of and it’s learning about them learning their secrets and they’re the stuff that they have going on in their lives, you know, some of it gets really deep. (1:03:32) Micah: Some of it gets really emotional. (1:03:42) Micah: Some of it is just kind of goofy, you know, like there’s there’s a very suspicious guy because part of the premise for this too is that your your family’s circus was unable to pay their they were doing so poorly that they were unable to pay their previous venue and they’re (1:04:03) Micah: Indebted to that venue and not really like on the run, but, you know, like they they just they owe money. (1:04:12) Micah: So there is this suspicious guy that is kind of like eavesdropping on you and your your circus mates and you get the idea that maybe he’s like a debt collector or something, you know, or like maybe he’s trying to and it turns out that he’s kind of just a goofy detective (1:04:33) Micah: that is just eavesdrops on everybody in the town and he doesn’t really know what to do because he has no direction for himself. (1:04:42) Micah: He wants to have a like big break for something and he doesn’t really can’t really figure it out. So there’s all these like really interesting little quirks to all these characters that you learn as you progress through the 31 days and how you how you play out that time and who you interact with and what you focus on. (1:05:03) Micah: You know, there’s all kinds of other stuff, too, like there’s a museum and there’s fossils and you can add fish and, you know, much in the way that like Animal Crossing. (1:05:12) Micah: Is where you add the fossils and the fish and the bugs and stuff and fill out the museum that way. There’s. (1:05:20) Al: I think as you’ve been talking, I think I’ve figured out my issue with the game. (1:05:28) Al: Because I do think that if I were to get into the game, I would probably enjoy it. (1:05:33) Al: However, if we compare this to say Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley, those games also have like the (1:05:43) Al: stories and the people and the stuff that you’re there to learn. And I loved that in Stardew Valley, (1:05:51) Al: I think I didn’t get started in Stardew Valley because of that. I got started with farming and (1:05:58) Al: you start by farming and it’s like this is what you do. You go out every day and you plant your (1:06:02) Al: crops and then you water them and then you harvest them. And that was like the core part of that game (1:06:06) Al: was doing that. And everything else was kind of background to start with. And the problem I think (1:06:14) Al: here is there is not that that core loop doesn’t exist. The core loop in the (1:06:20) Al: game is you go out and you talk to people and you try and figure things out. And I think that’s (1:06:29) Al: my problem. That’s a hard thing for me to grasp onto without something else there to start me off, (1:06:36) Al: to then get me interested in other things. (1:06:38) Micah: So they do kind of try to try to put you in the sleep right where like when you first start the game when you first get there, they they say, you know, go do this or go do that. (1:06:50) Micah: And that’s where you start to learn about like, you know, the fishing and the bug catching and stuff and really the first day, the majority of what you could do is get acquainted with the people in the town, sort of some of them are busy some of them, you know, (1:07:06) Micah: But the majority of what you’re doing is just like. (1:07:09) Micah: I’m going to catch some fish and I’m going to catch some bugs. (1:07:11) Micah: And maybe the the woman who’s hosting our group, (1:07:17) Micah: you know, she’s she’s cooking meals and she’s cooking dinner and stuff like that. (1:07:22) Micah: And she wants some fish. (1:07:24) Micah: And maybe I bring some fish and she cooks it and stuff like that. (1:07:27) Micah: It’s just like little quests, little fetch quest stuff. (1:07:32) Micah: And then over time, what the what what happens (1:07:37) Micah: is use your (1:07:38) Micah: your over the next couple days your own loop starts to form where they have every morning they (1:07:46) Micah: have daily radio calisthenics where you and a bunch of people in the town go to the local shrine (1:07:54) Micah: and you do the radio calisthenics together and then after that you know there’s somebody who wants (1:08:01) Micah: you to light all of the the lanterns on a path and he wants you to do that every day or not you know (1:08:06) Micah: that he says do it so many. (1:08:09) Micah: I don’t know how many times in a row, or like so many times and then report back to me and ultimately what that turns into is like you’re doing it every day, right, like, so then you figure out why, because those lanterns are right by the shrine, then after I do the calisthenics, then I’m going to light all the lanterns, and then, you know, there’s this thing that I can do. (1:08:30) Micah: The loop starts to form over time, and the way that it’s, it’s set up is each day is progresses from morning. (1:08:38) Micah: You are forced back to the house for dinner, they come and find you wherever you are and they say it’s dinnertime, so you go back, you eat dinner with your group, your little family, and then you have the evening to go out and do whatever you want until they tell you that it’s, it’s time to go to bed. (1:09:04) Micah: So you have two chunks of the day (1:09:07) Micah: and it becomes kind of figure. (1:09:09) Micah: These are the things that I can do during the daytime (1:09:12) Micah: because these people are at these locations. (1:09:15) Micah: And if I’m gonna be bringing these bugs to the museum (1:09:20) Micah: I have to do it during the daytime. (1:09:22) Micah: And then there’s a band that plays that (1:09:28) Micah: one of the missions is to hear them play (1:09:31) Micah: a certain amount of songs (1:09:32) Micah: and they’ll be at nighttime or whatever. (1:09:34) Micah: So I have to do that. (1:09:36) Micah: So you kind of, as you learn about (1:09:39) Micah: the way that the town functions, who’s doing what at each time, and what your (1:09:44) Micah: quests entail, your your gameplay loop starts to form for yourself. Again, you (1:09:50) Micah: can choose to not do any of this, but that’s where, you know, like if you (1:09:52) Al: Yeah, well, I think this is the problem. You’ve only reinforced my theory about why this is, (1:09:55) Micah: are trying to complete the quest, then that’s where that starts to come into (1:09:58) Micah: play. (1:10:04) Al: because when I was like, oh, there’s no like core, this is the gameplay loop and everything else is (1:10:11) Al: like other things that you can do. You mentioned about four things that would have been that (1:10:18) Al: example. And I think that’s the problem is there isn’t one thing that goes like this is (1:10:23) Al: the game. And there’s so many other things you can do. And you can learn them as you go, (1:10:29) Al: et cetera, et cetera. But like, when you’re, if you take stardew as the example, you start the (1:10:34) Al: game and it’s like, here are turnips seeds, grow these turnips seeds. You’re like, okay, cool, (1:10:38) Al: I’ll do that. And like, and then it goes, oh, and also you should say hello to everybody in the town. (1:10:42) Al: But you start out by doing that very core. This is the point of this game is farming. And yeah, (1:10:50) Al: Yeah, you don’t technically need to do that, (1:10:54) Al: but it’s very in your face of like, this is the thing to start off with. (1:10:58) Al: If you don’t know what anything else to do, do this. (1:11:00) Al: Whereas I think this game does. (1:11:02) Al: If you don’t know anything else to do, here are five options and you’re like, (1:11:06) Al: I don’t want five options. (1:11:08) Al: I don’t know which one I want to do. (1:11:10) Al: Give me one thing to do. (1:11:12) Al: And I think that’s the problem. (1:11:14) Micah: Yeah, and I think the core like so like there there is a there’s a couple things that are like core. I would I would label as like core mechanics. (1:11:24) Micah: One of them being upgrading your stamina. So you have these stickers that show up on the bottom of the screen that are like basically your stamina bar. (1:11:36) Micah: And by doing certain things or completing certain tasks, you’re collecting these stickers that will build up your stamina over time. (1:11:44) Micah: And those are it’s kind of a dual purpose. Like it’s your stamina bar. And also it’s the like signifier of your progress. You know, like you’ve got all of these stickers. So it’s, you know, this is how much stuff you’ve done and whatever. (1:12:00) Micah: And that’s introduced really early. That’s like one of the first things that they introduce and that, you know, when you do quests, then you get those stickers. (1:12:10) Micah: And so there are, you know, I think also in addition to that, a lot (1:12:14) Micah: of what they show you early on, like, yes, the one of the primary, (1:12:19) Micah: one of the like primary quests that they first introduce is go speak to everybody. (1:12:24) Micah: But you can really like do that over the course of three days. (1:12:27) Micah: You know, it’s not something that has to be done immediately. (1:12:30) Al: I don’t think you probably could do it in one day. (1:12:30) Micah: But then there’s a lot of yeah, but then there’s a lot of like, you know, (1:12:36) Micah: like I said, catch a fish because she wants to cook the fish (1:12:39) Micah: for dinner or something, introduces the fishing mechanic. (1:12:42) Micah: And then it kind of shows you like, Hey, I can just. (1:12:45) Micah: For the rest of the night, I can go fishing or I can catch bugs. (1:12:49) Micah: Um, and you get that, like positive feedback of every time you catch a new (1:12:56) Micah: bug, every time you catch a new fish, every time you, uh, do something new, (1:13:02) Micah: you get that sketch in the sketchbook. (1:13:04) Micah: And that’s also kind of like a, um, like a progress indicator, but also like (1:13:12) Micah: I said, that positive feedback. (1:13:13) Micah: And that’s something for me. (1:13:14) Micah: Especially like that’s almost the completionist point for me is like, I want to fill up that sketch, but I want to get those sketches because I want to feel like I’m seeing as much as I can throughout my playthrough of the game, you know. (1:13:30) Micah: So, it introduces that but the I think the like the one of the main mechanics is introduced at the halfway point. So, you know, like I said, there’s something that happens. (1:13:44) Micah: That happens at the 15 day mark, where, as you’re going through the that that first 15 days you’re, you know, getting associated with every you’re getting acquainted with everyone you’re getting associated with the town. (1:13:58) Micah: They talk about, you know, they used to have this, this summer festival and they don’t anymore because there’s no attendance for it people don’t stop caring. (1:14:10) Micah: and they want to do it again. (1:14:11) Micah: So, you know, you offer up this idea that, well, (1:14:14) Micah: we can pair it with a circus show. (1:14:17) Micah: And so that, you know, maybe that’ll entice people to come to the festival too. (1:14:23) Micah: So the first day that that actually happens is the 15th. (1:14:27) Micah: And from the 15th on, now you have the ability to, every night, you can run a circus show. (1:14:35) Micah: And because the circus manager hasn’t made it to the town, (1:14:43) Micah: you are essentially (1:14:45) Micah: planning out, these are the things that are going to be in the show. (1:14:48) Micah: This is the first act. (1:14:49) Micah: This is the second act. (1:14:50) Micah: This is the third act. (1:14:51) Micah: And this is like the final act. (1:14:52) Micah: This is the music that’s going to play through it. (1:14:55) Micah: And you have to plan this circus show before the circus show happens at night. (1:15:00) Micah: There’s also a fireworks show that you can have (1:15:04) Micah: that is paired with the festival. (1:15:06) Micah: And you work with the pyrotechnic guy (1:15:11) Micah: who runs the fireworks to pick out. (1:15:14) Micah: What fireworks are going to go to like make sure that it’s a good show. (1:15:17) Micah: So it becomes this, you know, this, this kind of like management game where (1:15:22) Micah: you’re managing the circus, you’re managing the fireworks show. (1:15:25) Micah: There’s things that like upgrades to the circus that you can get like better (1:15:29) Micah: equipment, better outfits for the, the, (1:15:33) Micah: the people who are in the circus to improve the rating that you get. (1:15:38) Micah: Cause then there’s this, this, this bar of, you know, (1:15:41) Micah: the amount of profit and success that you’re getting from the circus and whether (1:15:44) Micah: it’s actually, you know, you’re doing well and all of those upgrades and stuff (1:15:49) Micah: affect that so that hopefully you can make enough money to be able to pay for (1:15:55) Micah: the venue instead of, you know, (1:15:58) Micah: not being able to pay for them for the venue like you did with the previous town (1:16:02) Micah: that you, that your circus troop was in. (1:16:05) Micah: And so that really becomes from day 15 on that becomes a big part of the, (1:16:11) Micah: You know, the, the, the loop is that the, the majority of the. (1:16:14) Micah: is doing all this other stuff, like, you know, doing the interaction things that you do with (1:16:20) Micah: the townspeople to develop their stories. And then at night, it’s planning out the festivities (1:16:29) Micah: for the summer festivities for the evening. And that becomes a big part of it. Granted, (1:16:35) Micah: it takes to day 15 to get there, but, you know, once you get there, then the game really changes (1:16:43) Micah: quite a bit and as you go through (1:16:45) Micah: the game to different parts of the (1:16:46) Micah: map open up so that there are new (1:16:48) Micah: things that get added, like the (1:16:49) Micah: museum gets added at one point. (1:16:53) Micah: You know, there’s a (1:16:56) Micah: another big like (1:16:59) Micah: like cave area that gets added. (1:17:01) Micah: There’s, you know, (1:17:04) Micah: as part of the DLC, there’s like a (1:17:05) Micah: separate island that you can go (1:17:08) Micah: to at one point that you can spend (1:17:09) Micah: your day doing stuff on the island. (1:17:11) Micah: And there’s a whole like mystery (1:17:13) Micah: kind of like detect. (1:17:14) Micah: The story like kid detective story that plays out on an island. (1:17:18) Micah: So, um, there’s tons of stuff to do. (1:17:22) Micah: It just, you know, it, it is very gradual in like introducing it all to you. (1:17:30) Micah: And I think part of that is because millennium kitchen, the developer for (1:17:34) Micah: this, the, these, their, you know, primary game is this franchise, which is (1:17:41) Micah: the Boku no Natsu Yasumi franchise, which just means (1:17:44) Micah: my summer vacation that translates to my summer vacation. And there have been multiple of these (1:17:51) Micah: games. This is what the Shin Chan games were and all that. And those all were much more relaxed (1:17:57) Micah: than this one is, where it was very much just, there was, you know, stuff that was going on. (1:18:02) Micah: It’s like, Oh, you have to do this. And there’s like a mystery here and there or whatever. But (1:18:07) Micah: like, there’s so much to do in this one, by the time you get to, you know, the first. (1:18:15) Micah: Five days, then 10 days, then 15 days on. That it’s a pretty drastic change from what they (1:18:26) Micah: have historically done for the summer vacation games. It’s also the first time that they’ve done (1:18:34) Micah: kind of like this open world ish, like third person 3D, the majority of the time. (1:18:44) Micah: It’s been, you know, pre-rendered backgrounds and, you know, fixed camera angles and stuff like that, (1:18:53) Micah: which really is, you know, has had a very wonderful and beautiful like art style to it. It’s really (1:19:01) Micah: been a part of the charm, but this is a new, you know, they’re trying to feels like very much like (1:19:06) Micah: they’re trying to modernize it. And so, you know, there’s a lot that’s changed from the previous (1:19:13) Micah: ones and I think this is kind of like (1:19:14) Micah: they start early you know early on in the game it’s it’s a kind of more gradual than it is like (1:19:22) Micah: just very abrupt like here’s a ton of stuff to do right away you know um so I think in the context (1:19:30) Micah: of of what they’re they’re used to doing or what there’s the series is it’s uh it makes a little (1:19:37) Micah: bit more sense of why it’s you know not like immediately you know day one is you’re doing (1:19:43) Micah: doing circus stuff. (1:19:44) Micah: And why it like kind of leads into that. (1:19:44) Al: Yeah I guess I’m not trying to say that it should have everything all at the (1:19:51) Al: start I think that would actually make it worse like I don’t think the gradual (1:19:54) Al: aspect is the problem I think it’s the the lack of a single clear if you don’t (1:20:00) Al: know what to do do this is I think the thing that’s missing because I think (1:20:07) Al: that everything that it has in the game is is lovely and I think that I actually (1:20:11) Al: really enjoyed like the (1:20:15) Al: like travel in the game, stuff like that. But I just, I was just kind of moving around (1:20:23) Al: the world existing and not really knowing what it was I wanted to do. I think that’s the only (1:20:26) Micah: Mm-hmm (1:20:29) Al: thing that I’m trying to say here. And I don’t think this is a like massive downer on the game (1:20:33) Al: because there are probably lots of people who that’s not a problem, right? And they will (1:20:38) Al: figure out what they want to do. And I think, you know, that is literally only something I think (1:20:45) Al: for new people, right? Because if I go into Stardew now, I know exactly what I’m going to do, (1:20:48) Al: right? Like, I don’t need to be told to farm. But that first time that I played, I think I did, (1:20:50) Micah: Yeah, yeah, and I think that, you know, there’s some other things that are unique to this (1:21:02) Micah: or that to this, this franchise and this series of games is that, you know, just for a little (1:21:10) Micah: bit of like, background on it to the whole idea of this is, and this may just be where (1:21:17) Micah: It’s, you know, just not for you necessarily. (1:21:22) Micah: That the concept of the game and the reason that they they created these games to begin with was they wanted to it was, you know, these game developers that became salary men in Japan and, you know, they’re working constantly and they they’ve lost their childhood. (1:21:46) Micah: And this is suppose these games are supposed to be this. (1:21:50) Micah: This is your childhood again, you’re reliving your childhood, you know, you’re reliving a, the summer months in your childhood where you don’t have to do anything you, you have no direction, you, you relax, you have no responsibilities, and that’s where the premise comes from. (1:22:01) Al: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, you’re totally right. And I guess maybe that’s a point, like maybe (1:22:14) Al: it would feel weird if it did have that, because that’s the entire point of the game. But I guess (1:22:20) Al: that’s, I mean, we’re in real time, me figuring out why I didn’t like the game, right? (1:22:24) Micah: Yeah, yeah, 100%. And it’s totally valid, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s just (1:22:27) Al: And the thing is that it feels a little bit like… (1:22:31) Al: I feel like one of those people going, “Oh, Dark Souls should have an easy mode.” (1:22:37) Al: I’m not saying they should necessarily change the game. (1:22:40) Al: I’m just saying this is the reason, I guess, why I didn’t get into it despite everything. (1:22:42) Micah: Mm-hmm, right (1:22:46) Al: Let’s talk about some other stuff. (1:22:48) Micah: Sure (1:22:49) Al: One thing I really liked was the travel. (1:22:51) Al: I loved trying to climb up the buildings, which is just so silly. (1:22:54) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah (1:22:56) Al: They didn’t need to do that. (1:22:57) Al: This game could have worked entirely if you were at ground level or going up steps. (1:23:01) Al: But they allowed you to claim buildings. (1:23:04) Micah: - Yeah, which becomes a pretty big part of it too. (1:23:06) Micah: Like there’s whole milestones in the game (1:23:08) Micah: for climbing all of the like highest points (1:23:14) Micah: of certain to like the highest building (1:23:16) Micah: and the highest mountain top and so on and so forth. (1:23:18) Micah: ‘Cause they make this reference early on (1:23:21) Micah: and the first day when you get there (1:23:23) Micah: that like your character likes to climb stuff (1:23:26) Micah: and gets in trouble for it sometimes. (1:23:29) Micah: And then, you know, you’re upgrading your stamina (1:23:34) Micah: and you get more stuff higher, you know, (1:23:36) Micah: and that becomes part of the game. (1:23:41) Micah: But that wasn’t part of it prior to this game. (1:23:44) Micah: You know, you were pretty much just at ground level (1:23:46) Micah: all the time. (1:23:47) Micah: It was just like, you know, (1:23:49) Micah: wandering around towns and stuff. (1:23:50) Micah: So that is something for this series and this franchise (1:23:53) Micah: like is a completely new aspect to it. (1:23:56) Micah: So I really did also like the, I like the movement. (1:24:01) Micah: I’m assuming that you didn’t get to it (1:24:04) Micah: some other things too like there’s basically like a glider. (1:24:09) Micah: You know, it’s called a Tengu Cape, (1:24:10) Micah: which is, you know, like a Japanese mythological, (1:24:17) Micah: you know, character is a Tengu. (1:24:20) Micah: And there’s this whole story about like Natsuman (1:24:23) Micah: and the Tengu and so on that takes place in the game. (1:24:27) Micah: That’s part of like the lore, (1:24:28) Micah: but the Tengu Cape is basically like (1:24:31) Micah: the Breath of the Wild glider, right? (1:24:34) Micah: Jump off of, you can climb all the way up to the highest (1:24:36) Micah: point and then jump off and glide endlessly (1:24:39) Micah: wherever you want to go. (1:24:41) Micah: But it’s a very missable item. (1:24:44) Micah: It’s like something that is, you know, (1:24:47) Micah: it’s like a bonus reward for seeking out (1:24:51) Micah: the kind of like hidden lore of the game (1:24:55) Micah: of the town and stuff. (1:24:56) Micah: So I do feel a little bit weird about like that being (1:25:01) Micah: something that’s so (1:25:04) Micah: hidden because it’s such a big benefit for the traversal in the game, but even even without that, I think just the running and the hopping and climbing stuff functions so well that it’s, you know, it’s just an extra benefit to have the gliding. (1:25:24) Al: I do like as well how like although with the stamina it’s not just like a hard (1:25:31) Al: you can’t claim higher than this point there’s lots of things that you can like stop on and (1:25:36) Micah: » Mm-hmm. Yeah. (1:25:36) Al: continue claiming after you’ve regained stamina because like I got up some pretty tall buildings (1:25:42) Al: when I shouldn’t have had the stamina for that because there’s like air conditioning units and (1:25:50) Al: Windows sales that you can stop on and continue and it’s difficult. (1:25:54) Al: Cause you might trip and fall and that’s it if you overextend yourself, (1:25:56) Micah: - Mm-hmm, right. (1:25:58) Al: but like it allows you that flexibility, which I thought was pretty fun. (1:26:02) Micah: Yeah, yeah, it’s really good. (1:26:04) Micah: There’s only a few things that are like really gated, (1:26:08) Micah: you know, for like one of them being the lighthouse, (1:26:11) Micah: like it’s very clear that they want you (1:26:14) Micah: to really have maxed it, you know, (1:26:17) Micah: close to maxed stamina at least to be able to climb (1:26:20) Micah: all the way to the top of the lighthouse (1:26:22) Micah: because they don’t put any of those stops. (1:26:25) Micah: There’s, you know, it’s. (1:26:26) Micah: Very perfectly, it feels very perfectly, uh, very perfectly tall (1:26:35) Micah: for exactly how much stamina is like, you know, you need to get there. (1:26:40) Micah: Like it’s very specific. (1:26:42) Micah: It feels like and deliberate. (1:26:44) Micah: Um, but other than that, yeah, there’s the majority of things (1:26:48) Micah: are, are pretty accessible. (1:26:51) Micah: Um. (1:26:52) Al: I have a question. So, I encountered a ghost girl. Yes. I found her on a random rooftop (1:26:54) Micah: - Mm-hmm. (1:26:56) Micah: - Okay, yeah, you brought up the ghost girl (1:26:58) Micah: and I was wondering. (1:27:01) Al: on my first day. I feel like that’s quite early to experience a ghost girl. But my question (1:27:08) Al: is, are there many kind of mystical elements like that? Or is that like kind of an odd (1:27:16) Micah: So there’s some, that is definitely an odd one out. There’s some kind of like, you know, (1:27:27) Micah: I guess, you know, you have things like you, you can come across fossils and like, you know, (1:27:35) Micah: basically rebuild an entire mammoth, you know, for skeleton, like, stuff that like, (1:27:42) Micah: Probably that like, you know, a kid’s not actually doing it’s just (1:27:46) Micah: like, you know, there’s some level of imagination to it. Right? As far as actual mystical stuff goes, (1:27:48) Al: Yes, of course, yeah. (1:27:55) Micah: though, that’s pretty much the only thing. There’s some, you know, there’s this, like I said, (1:28:01) Micah: there’s this like, deeper level lore about Natsuman and the island and one of the specific (1:28:10) Micah: characters on the island that you kind of learn about and that has, you know, (1:28:16) Micah: the Tengu and these, this like Japanese mythology. And that is an element, but it’s not really ever (1:28:25) Micah: very visual to you. It’s more just like talked about, you know. So definitely the ghost girl (1:28:32) Micah: is like a standout in that regard, but she’s very present throughout the game. You know, she’s, (1:28:39) Micah: she is, I feel like literally everywhere. So the mechanic for the ghost girl. (1:28:46) Micah: Is that she’s got these games that you play. It’s basically the ghost of a little girl who (1:28:52) Micah: just wants to play games with somebody and you are seemingly the only person who can see her. (1:28:58) Micah: So you are the only person that can play games with her. And she does things like we play tag (1:29:03) Micah: and you just chase her through, you know, chase, quote unquote, you’re just going to like checkpoints (1:29:10) Micah: where she’s standing and then she disappears and then reappears at the next checkpoint, you know, (1:29:14) Micah: Very simple. (1:29:16) Micah: And that’s like playing tag or there’s a playing targets where she she spawns balloons and you have to shoot them with your acorn gun or one of them is like there’s a single rain boot like a red rain boot on on this porch or something and then you have to go find this this the other red rain boot and bring it back and place it next to it. (1:29:46) Micah: Like that. (1:29:48) Micah: But there’s a ton of those throughout the game. (1:29:50) Micah: I feel like I I felt like I was always encountering I would always because she kind of calls out to you when you’re close so that you know that there’s there’s a mini game nearby. (1:30:00) Al: Right, yeah, yeah, so what you’re saying is it wasn’t actually that rare for me to find her on the first day then (1:30:02) Micah: And I feel like I was constantly hearing the. (1:30:06) Micah: No no and they introduce it early on too because they introduced that you know I mentioned the lighting the lanterns on that path up to the shrine that’s a really early. (1:30:16) Micah: And that’s the kind of mechanic that they introduce and she’s kind of part of that she’s she’s she’s part of the like you know that’s how they introduce her is you know I I took all the like I’d knock the light lights off of the lanterns or whatever so that you know you’d have to reset them back up or whatever. (1:30:36) Micah: And that’s when you meet her and it that that kind of triggers the whole thing. (1:30:40) Micah: There is also a castle on the island and there’s some stuff in the castle that feels a little bit (1:30:46) Micah: Magical I guess but it also is (1:30:50) Micah: You know (1:30:51) Micah: There’s there’s no like creatures in it or anything or like, you know other ghosts or anything like that (1:30:57) Micah: You know, it’s just like puzzles that you have to do inside the castle (1:31:01) Micah: So yeah, that’s that’s pretty much it for (1:31:02) Al: Fair enough. (1:31:03) Al: Is there anything else you want to talk about this game, because I feel like the problem (1:31:07) Al: is normally what we do with these games is we cover like, here are the core mechanics, (1:31:12) Al: and like, here’s what about farming and here’s about fit. (1:31:14) Al: It doesn’t really feel like this game fits that narrative, and it’s more just like the (1:31:18) Micah: it is 100% a like, it’s a slice of life game. That’s the whole, you know, the vibe of it. (1:31:18) Al: game and how it makes you feel, right? (1:31:31) Micah: It is a very relaxing game. It has some of those, you know, kind of farming game element (1:31:39) Micah: or like cottage core game elements of fishing and bug catching and, you know, little like (1:31:48) Micah: management things. And it has a lot of those elements, but they’re in the context of it’s (1:31:55) Micah: a very relaxing setting. And it does pick up, like I said, halfway through where you’re (1:32:03) Micah: doing a lot more and you are, you know, buying equipment and new clothes for your circus (1:32:10) Micah: troupe and stuff like that. But it’s, it’s very much intended to feel like (1:32:18) Micah: you are living a relaxing life that you would not probably not be able to normally live, (1:32:26) Micah: especially as a, you know, a carefree kid on summer vacation. I mean, that’s a big part (1:32:32) Al: That’s why you like this game, isn’t it? You want to have no responsibility. (1:32:38) Micah: of why they, they make it, you know, so it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s definitely an experience that (1:32:45) Micah: is unique. (1:32:49) Micah: I think that it’s a very unique game, and I think it deserves more attention than it gets, because it’s such a charming game, and the characters are so well developed, they’re so well written, there’s such good stories to them, and there’s so much charm in this small town in general. (1:33:18) Micah: The sound design and everything is beautiful, everything sounds like summer, it’s cicadas, it’s birds chirping, it’s the sounds of the wind, it’s the sounds of the ocean, rustling of leaves and trees and stuff like that. (1:33:36) Micah: Really well done, and there’s not much music to be had throughout the game, because it’s just the sounds of summer, and then at night, you know, it’s crickets and… (1:33:49) Micah: You know, as you walk through the town, there’s a little bar that all of the adults in the town go and drink at this bar outside, you know, and they’re all chatting, and the way that that sound design is done is just very much you get the feeling of being on the street with these adults talking, and you know, it’s just such a unique experience that is very much a feel-good experience that you don’t get with a lot of games. (1:34:19) Micah: The art style is really great, it’s, you know, a very nice game to look at. Everything has this kind of like textured brush to it, so it feels like at any point you could take a still of the game, and it would look like it’s an illustration, you know. (1:34:39) Micah: Which is something that Millennium Kitchen has always been very good at in all of the Nasi Yasumi games, it’s… (1:34:48) Micah: Especially with their pre-rendered backgrounds and stuff like that, it’s very beautiful art. The Shin-chan games too, just beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, beautiful landscapes and, you know, stills of the town that you’re in there, and this is just that, but in a 3D setting. (1:35:08) Micah: And I think it has such a, there’s such a perfect, you know, it’s unique enough, but there’s still so many. (1:35:18) Micah: There’s so much to it that intersects with what we enjoy about, you know, cottagecore games or cozy games or whatever you want to call them, that if you enjoy those games, I feel like you owe it to yourself to at least try and see if it’s something for you. (1:35:41) Micah: This is the most modernized take on it so far. The Shin-chan games… (1:35:48) Micah: Obviously very good. Those are the first ones that have been, you know, like localized and translated and everything. None of the other Nasi Yasumi games made it stateside, so… (1:36:03) Micah: Or to the west, so there was no translation. There are fan translations for them, but these are really the first official ones that we’ve gotten. So I think they’re all good starting points, but this is such a modern experience that I think… (1:36:18) Micah: It’s the best the best introduction to it for people who might be new to it. (1:36:23) Micah: Yeah, I just really love it and I wish more people would play it. (1:36:29) Micah: Who knows if we’re going to get anything again from them. (1:36:34) Micah: I don’t know what the reception was for Natsuman as far as like sales figures go. (1:36:40) Micah: I don’t think we ever got any of that information. (1:36:45) Al: Yeah, it’s hard. I tend to look at the review numbers to get a vague idea, but yeah, other (1:36:52) Al: than that, it doesn’t give you any real clue. It’s in very positive reviews, but it’s only (1:37:00) Al: a hundred of them. So it’s not, you know, super loads of them. (1:37:02) Micah: Right. It’s also to I feel like this is an important thing to to mention because. (1:37:15) Micah: It’s it’s a pretty significant aspect of the game is that they’re short games. (1:37:22) Micah: So the the the idea is that you want to have subsequent playthroughs of the game (1:37:28) Micah: because you’re not going to be able to do everything in one run or like, you know, (1:37:32) Micah: most of the time, if you’re playing this for the first time, (1:37:34) Micah: you’re not really looking out for certain things and you’ll miss a bunch of stuff. (1:37:38) Micah: But by the end of it, you’re like, oh, I wish I would have done this (1:37:41) Micah: or wish I would have done that. (1:37:42) Micah: And then if you decide to play through it again, then you can go and do those things. (1:37:48) Micah: And it’s short enough that it gives you the opportunity to do those. (1:37:51) Micah: I think it’s somewhere in the ballpark of like now short (1:37:55) Micah: in comparison to most games, I’ll say it’s somewhere in the ballpark (1:37:59) Micah: of like 15 to 20 hours, and it really depends to… (1:38:02) Micah: on how you set the time of day, because you can set the time of day in the game. (1:38:08) Micah: And this is new to this too. They haven’t done this before. You can set it for the time of day (1:38:14) Micah: to go very slowly so that you can do as much as you want. Or you can set it for the time to progress (1:38:21) Micah: really fast throughout the day, to shorten the actual gameplay time. So you can crank (1:38:30) Micah: through the game pretty quickly. (1:38:32) Micah: If you’re just setting the time progression as fast as possible and just doing the essentials (1:38:42) Micah: throughout the day and barreling towards that final day of summer. (1:38:50) Al: Cool. All right. I mean, yeah, I wish I can imagine if it’s only if it’s if it’s time (1:38:54) Micah: Lots of different endings too, you know. So that’s part of it. Mm-hmm, yeah. (1:38:59) Al: limited and there’s lots to do. How many times you played through it? (1:39:02) Micah: Once and like complete one time and there is, I’ve started a second playthrough that I haven’t (1:39:14) Micah: finished but the kind of the neat thing again this is sort of spoilers but not really, I mean it is. (1:39:21) Micah: The way that the game ends without giving specifics because there are so many different (1:39:27) Micah: endings to it is because it’s kind of narrated throughout. (1:39:33) Micah: This kid as a grown-up reminiscing, you know. So the end of the game essentially is (1:39:41) Micah: depending on what you did throughout the summer, it’s what that resulted in you as an adult doing (1:39:50) Micah: with your life. So like maybe what your career path was or what you succeeded in or something (1:39:56) Micah: like that and there’s kind of like a little recap about that. And that’s kind of classic (1:40:02) Micah: for these games. They’ve always kind of done that where it’s like you know you as an adult what you (1:40:07) Micah: did and how it how it affected your life. So yeah pretty neat and unique. I suggest people (1:40:13) Micah: play it but you know it’s definitely not going to be for everybody like it is not for you, you know. (1:40:17) Al: Yeah, clearly. But this, I mean, I want to make it clear again, as I do every time, (1:40:25) Al: this is not me saying the game is bad, this is me saying it’s not for me, right? (1:40:27) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, totally. (1:40:29) Al: It’s not Sugardew Island. All right, well, (1:40:35) Micah: Yeah, if you’re looking for structure, it definitely not, (1:40:38) Al: look, everybody’s different with these things. (1:40:41) Micah: you know, for you, but maybe it is, you know, it gets there, (1:40:45) Micah: eventually. But yeah, it’s very good. (1:40:48) Al: It eventually has some structure. Not the selling point. You’d make it out to be. (1:40:51) Micah: Yes. (1:40:56) Al: All right. Well, thank you for joining me to finally talk about this game. Six months (1:40:57) Micah: Okay. Yeah, of course. (1:41:04) Al: later and I still still didn’t play very much of it. But I tried. I promise I tried. I tried (1:41:08) Micah: I appreciate you trying. (1:41:12) Al: so much. Where can people find you on the internet? (1:41:20) Micah: You can find me, (1:41:22) Micah: I’m going to say specifically at this point on Blue Sky. (1:41:27) Micah: You can find me if you just search bike of the brave. (1:41:31) Micah: It’s I’m on there. (1:41:33) Micah: You’ll find me. (1:41:34) Micah: I’m also on Twitch. (1:41:36) Micah: It very rarely do I (1:41:39) Micah: You know do some of my shiny hunting live, but sometimes it’s just (1:41:45) Micah: Mike of the brave there as well. I pretty much anywhere you look (1:41:49) Micah: You it pretty much anywhere that you can go and type Mike of the brave. It’s probably me (1:41:54) Al: You can find me at thescotbot on mastodon.scot and bluesky. You can find the podcasts at THSPod on (1:42:02) Al: tumblr and on bluesky. You can however send us feedback also on our website harvestseason.club (1:42:10) Al: where you can also find links to everything to do with the podcast including our patreon.com/thspod (1:42:16) Al: where you can get access to our slack and chat about things. There’s been lots of fun conversation (1:42:22) Al: this week about (1:42:25) Al: Suguju Island. (1:42:29) Al: And also get access to our bonus podcasts, where we just put one out of me and Kevin predicting (1:42:37) Al: what will happen in Pokemon Day. The Pokemon Day presents. So come and listen to that before, (1:42:42) Al: either come and listen to it before to see what we think, or come and listen to it afterwards (1:42:46) Al: to see how wrong we were. And then hopefully, hopefully, next time. (1:42:55) Al: We will be releasing reactions to that. I say hopefully because Pokemon Day is on the Thursday, (1:43:00) Al: so that will be quite tight. But hopefully, we’ll manage to do that. I don’t often promise things. (1:43:06) Al: I’m not promising, but I’m saying that I’m hoping this will happen. So we’ll see. (1:43:13) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything. Thank you, Micah, again for joining me. (1:43:16) Micah: Thanks for having me (1:43:18) Al: Thank you, listeners, for listening. And until next time, have a good harvest. (1:43:21) Micah: Have a good harvest. Hey, we were pretty good that time we got there yay (1:43:22) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:43:34) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:43:38) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:43:42) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:43:48) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:43:52) Theme Tune: you (1:44:00) Micah: I’m gonna do that again so that it sounds, (1:44:03) Micah: I guess a little bit better than. (1:44:10) Al: the highest quality possible so it can go into these you know people’s five quid headphones (1:44:11) Micah: It’s trying. (1:44:20) Al: or teni teni phone speakers…

The Harvest Season

1
Carrot Thrice 1:14:31

13 วันที่แล้ว1:14:31

1:14:31

Al and Codey talk about Sugardew Island Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:53: What Have We Been Up To 00:08:25: Game News 00:13:01: New Games 00:22:02: Sugardew Island 01:09:09: Outro Links Song of the Prairie “1.2” Update Fields of Mistria “2nd Major” Update Outbound Roadmap Elusive People Bug & Seek Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:35) Al: My name is Al and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:36) Codey: - And my name is Cody. (0:00:42) Codey: Oh woo. (0:00:46) Codey: Oh yeah. (0:00:47) Codey: Ow, ow, ow. (0:00:48) Al: All right, this episode, we are going to talk about Sugardew Island because as mentioned (0:00:49) Codey: Gotta do it the right way. (0:00:56) Al: in the last episode, it is not out except if you’re a Kickstarter backer, in which case (0:01:02) Al: it is kind of out. So I was a Kickstarter backer for some reason, so I got my code and (0:01:02) Codey: Mm-hmm, okay (0:01:08) Al: I have been playing it for the past week. So we’re going to talk about that. I’ve got (0:01:13) Al: some thoughts and I’m sure Cody will have some questions. (0:01:18) Codey: Probs. (0:01:19) Al: And then we can never mention the game again. Sound good? (0:01:21) Codey: Wow. (0:01:22) Codey: Yep. (0:01:23) Codey: Sounds good to me. (0:01:24) Codey: I’m sure we’ll have to mention like updates and stuff for news purposes, but (0:01:24) Al: All right. (0:01:26) Al: No. No. No, I don’t think… I mean, we’ll get patches with bug fixes, but it’s not good. (0:01:29) Codey: nah, okay, cool. (0:01:36) Codey: and we’re never not even gonna mention it though. (0:01:37) Al: They’re not going to add in. Well, we don’t tend to mention updates unless they actually (0:01:42) Al: include new stuff. There’s going to be no update including new stuff, let’s be honest. (0:01:46) Codey: OK. (0:01:48) Codey: Sounds good. (0:01:49) Al: We’ll see. We also have a bunch of news to talk about, but first of all, Cody, (0:01:55) Al: what have you been up to? (0:01:56) Codey: I realized the other day that I, this, this is the year that everything has flipped on (0:02:06) Codey: its head because all of the other years, every time I looked at a mobile game for this podcast, (0:02:11) Al: Yeah, I was going to say, Cody, this is a list of four mobile games in your world we’ve (0:02:12) Codey: I was like, I can’t wait to get rid of this game. (0:02:15) Codey: And I now have four different mobile games. (0:02:21) Codey: All of which, all of which I can blame on this podcast. (0:02:21) Al: been up to. (0:02:26) Codey: Even though we didn’t cover Pokemon Pocket, y’all talking about it is why I ended up getting (0:02:34) Codey: it. (0:02:35) Codey: So been playing that every day, got to play at least, you know, like twice a day to get (0:02:38) Codey: my, my stuff. (0:02:41) Codey: Johnny convinced me to play pocket camp. (0:02:43) Codey: So I’m doing that. (0:02:44) Codey: I am now, I think level like 63, I think initially when I talked to him about it, it was 41. (0:02:51) Codey: So you don’t necessarily level up that easy. (0:02:54) Codey: So that’s a yikes for me. (0:02:57) Codey: I would say if people are interested, the like used to be pay paid currency, you get (0:03:03) Codey: it really easily. (0:03:04) Al: Hm. Nice. (0:03:05) Codey: So I currently have like 854 of them and you can use like five of them to like skip things. (0:03:14) Codey: So it’s, it’s easy, like it’s, it’s, it’s good. (0:03:20) Codey: And I opened that and that was a mistake. (0:03:22) Codey: And then honeygrove, I’m still playing that. (0:03:26) Codey: Half of my map unlocks and I’m just kind of still doing the daily quests. (0:03:31) Codey: And then in mini mini farm, I am in the third, the third area now in the third area is like (0:03:33) Al: Minimini. (0:03:37) Al: Oh, nice. (0:03:38) Codey: a desert. (0:03:39) Codey: And then there’s an underground part of the desert where there’s like mushrooms. (0:03:42) Al: Have you got any answers yet? (0:03:46) Codey: So not really, there’s still a lot of like questions about where did the people go? (0:03:51) Codey: And there’s like these weird alien looking machines everywhere. (0:03:55) Codey: kind of like more and more. (0:03:56) Codey: The more you go through the game. (0:03:59) Codey: And in this last one, there is a cactus who that’s moving. (0:04:04) Codey: And as you like, you kind of follow the cactus and then walk into it. (0:04:10) Codey: And it it’s, it’s a person that has been turned into a cactus and they (0:04:13) Al: Oh, oh. (0:04:15) Codey: keep forgetting the conversation. (0:04:17) Codey: And so the conversation has a loop, like where they’re halfway through. (0:04:22) Codey: They’re like, wait, who are you? (0:04:24) Codey: Wait, what’s going on? (0:04:25) Codey: And then it starts back over. (0:04:27) Codey: But yeah, I’m so I’m still very intrigued and I still am playing (0:04:33) Codey: it every day, um, and I have no complaints there. (0:04:37) Codey: So I, and I’ve been wanting to play another game that I will, that (0:04:42) Codey: we will talk about later. (0:04:43) Codey: I just have to, I say, I have to convince myself to buy it. (0:04:47) Codey: It’s more that I have to move the money that I need for it into, (0:04:51) Codey: out of my savings account because I want, I know I want it. (0:04:53) Al: fair enough uh yeah i’ve been buying pocket as well uh just kind of chugging along open (0:04:56) Codey: Yeah. (0:04:57) Codey: What about you? (0:04:58) Codey: Well, what about you? (0:05:05) Al: impacts planes and battles um I have also been continuing to play harvest me home sweet home (0:05:10) Al: I am very close to finishing the story in that game um i’m in chat no i’ve just been playing a (0:05:13) Codey: Oh wow, okay. Is it because the story is small? (0:05:17) Codey: Okay. (0:05:19) Al: a lot. So I’m in chapter nine of 10. (0:05:20) Codey: Good. (0:05:23) Al: So yeah, we’ll see how that goes. I think I’ve got one thing. I’m about to get married (0:05:30) Al: and I think that finishes chapter nine. And so I’ll see how I’ll see what chapter 10 is. (0:05:32) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:05:35) Codey: Very nice probably like babies I would have (0:05:36) Al: So I don’t think this game has babies. We’ll see. (0:05:48) Al: and also, obviously, Shuguju Island. (0:05:51) Al: » Yeah. (0:05:54) Al: Which I’ll talk about more later and I’m currently debating whether to play to go do my home decks for sword and shield, which is the one that I’ve not finished yet because they just released. (0:06:06) Al: The completion reward for that one, but I’m still debating like do I want to do that just now because I do want the shiny keldio and I’d like to get it quickly. (0:06:12) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Then it sounds like it’s a yes. (0:06:18) Al: But, but, but am I going to burn myself out on Pokemon? (0:06:23) Al: What’s the problem? (0:06:23) Codey: Mm. Have you ever burned yourself out on Pokemon? Oh, wow. Well, then, yeah, there you go. Maybe, (0:06:27) Al: Yes, regularly. (0:06:31) Codey: uh, I mean, I think is it like something that’s only available for a short amount of time? (0:06:36) Al: No. (0:06:36) Codey: No, then just don’t worry about it. (0:06:38) Al: Well, yeah, but what if? (0:06:39) Codey: what if what what if the what if (0:06:42) Codey: uh my country declares war on everyone and nuclear strikes everyone tomorrow like (0:06:48) Al: Well, yeah, but there’s nothing I can do about that, though, is there? (0:06:50) Al: But there is something I can do about this, which is do it. (0:06:53) Codey: okay I was gonna just make a comment of you never know what’s gonna happen so (0:06:58) Al: No, you don’t exactly. (0:06:59) Al: So you have to. (0:07:00) Al: But it’s about balancing which things you can do, (0:07:02) Al: something about it, which things you can’t. (0:07:03) Al: I can’t do anything about nuclear war. (0:07:04) Codey: Yeah, you, you, uh, have you heard the hostile government takeover song? (0:07:06) Al: Other than what I’ve already done, I can do something about this. (0:07:11) Al: Yes. (0:07:12) Codey: I love that song. (0:07:13) Codey: It’s now on Spotify. (0:07:14) Codey: If you, uh, if people want, it’s such a good song. (0:07:19) Codey: Uh, that’s fair. (0:07:21) Codey: I was trying to be devil’s advocate, but no, you’ve convinced me. (0:07:24) Codey: Yeah. (0:07:24) Codey: Why don’t you play it? (0:07:26) Al: Anyway, my point is, I need to do something because I’m not going to continue playing (0:07:26) Codey: Get your fill your home decks. (0:07:32) Al: Suga Jai Island after today. And well, maybe we’ll see. And I think I’m about to finish (0:07:38) Al: Harvest Moon Sweet Home. So I’ll need something else to play. And there’s lots of things to (0:07:45) Al: play. But you know, I do like to fall back into the same things I have played. And I (0:07:54) Codey: big mood as is tradition (0:07:54) Al: need to procrastinate from playing the next. (0:07:56) Al: game for the podcast I’m going to be playing as well. (0:07:58) Al: well. Yeah, this is true. (0:08:05) Codey: except for the like very rare once a year ones that we’ve been waiting for forever that (0:08:10) Al: Yeah, yeah. I definitely managed to do enough Sugardew Island, I didn’t (0:08:12) Codey: we play immediately so (0:08:16) Al: procrastinate with that too much, I managed to get what I needed done in the (0:08:19) Al: last week, so. Well, nor should you. So let’s talk about the news then. Up first (0:08:20) Codey: which is good because I did not play it. (0:08:23) Codey: So, uh, (0:08:29) Al: we have Song of the Prairie, they have released their 1.2 update which (0:08:35) Al: Which includes the story for year 3 in the game. (0:08:40) Al: A praying festival. (0:08:42) Codey: yeah which they said is like you send lanterns up into the sky (0:08:47) Codey: um to pray for people or love or something I don’t know it’s a thing people do but it (0:08:53) Codey: sounds like it’s gonna it looks really pretty because it’s just like a bunch of lanterns (0:08:58) Al: They’ve also added Oakcroft as their new crop, and they have announced that they (0:09:06) Al: are releasing a bottom-of-the-screen version of their game, Rusties-like, if (0:09:12) Al: you will, called Song of the Prairie Wonderland. Is it (0:09:13) Codey: a rusty like yup oh gosh that would who knows but because does it say on (0:09:20) Al: Song of the Prairie Wonderland on desktop? (0:09:29) Codey: desktop in capitals in this though they’re they’re English is definitely (0:09:30) Al: in this, it’s in the, yeah. (0:09:36) Codey: not their first language in the in the that show note not show notes why do I (0:09:43) Codey: go with what this is called release okay interesting that is a choice (0:09:44) Al: Oh, yeah, no, it’s yeah, it’s called Wonderland on Desktop. (0:09:49) Al: I just noticed they have a Steam page up for it. (0:09:53) Al: Interestingly, it doesn’t have Song of the Prairie in the name on Steam. (0:09:56) Codey: not not a not on laptop just desktop it’s probably on it (0:09:57) Al: It’s just called Wonderland on Desktop. (0:10:02) Al: I think it’s like your virtual desktop. (0:10:06) Al: Like the back, like that’s like the home screen. (0:10:10) Codey: Oh, okay, my brain is potato today I apologize that makes I mean (0:10:11) Al: It’s called the desktop, right? (0:10:15) Al: It says no missions, no target, no other requirements, (0:10:18) Al: just all kinds of crops, as it says, corpse. (0:10:22) Al: But I’m pretty sure that’s meant to be crops, (0:10:25) Al: because that’s a very different game, an undeveloped land. (0:10:26) Codey: all kinds of courses. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. I’m here for it, man. I am so excited that (0:10:31) Al: Hmm, interesting. (0:10:33) Al: Continuing that genre. (0:10:40) Codey: to continue the bottom of the screen. I’m not going to get this, but I love to see it. (0:10:44) Al: Yeah, very. Next, we have Fields of Mistria have announced that their second major update, (0:10:53) Al: which we talked about in a previous episode, is coming on the 10th of March. (0:10:58) Codey: Al, are you ready for that sweet, sweet automation? (0:11:01) Al: Always. This comes out three days after Sugardew Island, so you need to decide, are you playing (0:11:02) Codey: That sweet, sweet sprinkler and the auto-petter? (0:11:06) Codey: Heavy. (0:11:09) Al: Sugardew Island or the Fields of Mistria update? (0:11:12) Codey: That is a difficult decision. (0:11:15) Al: There is a correct answer here. (0:11:15) Codey: Sarcasm. (0:11:19) Codey: Yeah. (0:11:20) Codey: And just a reminder, this update includes so many different (0:11:23) Codey: things, including a new festival, new quests, monsters, (0:11:26) Codey: Pets. (0:11:28) Codey: Uh, that sprinkler that I mentioned, different cosmetic options for you and (0:11:31) Codey: your pets, um, lots of different things coming out. (0:11:33) Codey: And again, this is a game that people really love. (0:11:35) Codey: So, uh, if you have been loving it, uh, keep loving it with more things. (0:11:42) Al: And Outbound have released their roadmap for the game, so this is the Campervan game. They (0:11:54) Al: have said that they’re planning for their release in the first half of 2026, their alpha (0:12:01) Al: coming in April this year, and the beta coming in the second half of this year. That is their (0:12:06) Codey: Yeah, and they’re still aiming to have multiplayer out in the alpha, so that would be in mark h1 wait April in April (0:12:06) Al: current roadmap. (0:12:18) Codey: so that people can play test that but they really just are needing a lot of play testers and (0:12:25) Codey: They have they show a couple things they’ve been developing (0:12:29) Codey: That look kind of cool, but so if you’re interested in that check the show now (0:12:36) Al: Yeah, it’s good. They had originally said the alpha would come out in the first half of the (0:12:41) Al: year and so coming out in April is encouraging based on that, right? They’re not just sneaking (0:12:45) Codey: It’s also, it’s accurate too. (0:12:47) Al: in at the end of the first half. (0:12:50) Codey: Yeah, that is part of the first half of the year. (0:12:52) Codey: We love accuracy. (0:12:53) Codey: We stand accuracy here, (0:12:55) Codey: specifically scientific accuracy. (0:12:58) Codey: We believe in science. (0:13:00) Codey: I just hate my government so much. (0:13:03) Codey: We have a couple of new games. (0:13:04) Al: don’t we all. Yes, so the first one is technically not a new game but I’m going to treat it like (0:13:11) Al: a new game because when they first announced it they announced basically nothing about it. (0:13:16) Al: So this is what was announced three years ago. It’s a new, the upcoming Chibig game. (0:13:22) Al: It was announced in the Chibig Direct three years ago as Illusive People. It’s now just (0:13:27) Al: called Illusive and they’ve actually given us some information about it other than just, (0:13:34) Al: all we knew was like oh you’re tiny. That was it. That’s all they had. So they’ve got (0:13:39) Al: the Kickstarter coming soon and they’ve got a bunch of information on the Kickstarter. (0:13:44) Al: It is, they are describing it as an adventure and exploration game with Metroidvania elements. (0:13:55) Al: Which I mean just a quick thought about that. I’m a bit confused as to how you can have (0:14:01) Al: metroidvania elements because it is my own (0:14:04) Al: understanding that the point of a metroidvania is to have a large sprawling map which requires (0:14:09) Al: upgrades and backtracking to finish. And I’m not sure how you kind of have that like you either (0:14:13) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah, I think it’s probably just a semantics thing because I agree like, (0:14:17) Al: are that or not. (0:14:23) Codey: like my brain thinking when you say Metroidvania antics, I think platforming and I think like (0:14:29) Codey: you’re saying like, there’s things that are locked at first, and then you have to go back once you (0:14:33) Codey: acquire a certain thing. And then once you have, I mean, I don’t see how a game could have that (0:14:38) Codey: type of mechanic and not have it be like a major part of the genre. (0:14:43) Codey: Or like the defining genre of the game and therefore just be called a Metroidvania. (0:14:49) Codey: But who knows? Maybe they’ll make it happen. Maybe we’ll be shocked. But yeah. (0:14:50) Al: the illusives are tiny creatures that live in our homes hiding from us and borrowing whatever (0:14:59) Al: they need. Is this the Borrowers? Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how much of that actually (0:15:03) Codey: It’s the borrowers people. (0:15:04) Codey: I am shocked that this hasn’t been a game yet, honestly. (0:15:07) Codey: Like. (0:15:12) Al: affects anything. I mean it clearly is like you are in a house rather than like a cave system, (0:15:16) Al: So I guess that is the bit that makes it. (0:15:20) Al: Just a tiny person, rather than you’re just a person. (0:15:24) Codey: My brain thought I’m trying to think of like ways that the house could be locked to you and I just imagined like, because they mentioned there’s a cat. (0:15:34) Codey: I just imagined that like there’s a cat and that part way through the game you learn how to like make the cat like you. So then you can get past the cat. I think that’d be really cute. (0:15:44) Codey: But who knows. I mean, we’re gonna play it. It’s a chibi game. Come on. (0:15:48) Al: Yeah, for sure. I’ve bookmarked the Kickstarter like I’m backing at day one. Let’s not pretend (0:15:56) Al: anything here. They’ll presumably have some information about it when they launch the (0:15:56) Codey: Yeah. No, no news on when that’s launching, but it’s just launching soon. Um, do we. (0:16:04) Al: Kickstarter because they have to give an estimated date. If I had to predict, I would say next year. (0:16:08) Codey: Well, yeah. I mean the, the Kickstarter though, (0:16:12) Codey: like we don’t know when that is launching. It just says soon to you. (0:16:13) Al: Oh, right. Okay. Okay. The Kickstarter. Yeah. Yeah. It’ll probably be in the next month or so. (0:16:19) Codey: I’m going to say that it will be fully backed within nine hours. (0:16:27) Codey: Like between eight to nine hours. That’s my guess. Three hours. Wow. You’re going for it. (0:16:28) Al: Yeah. Three errors. (0:16:35) Codey: You’re going to personally back it so that it gets done in three hours. (0:16:38) Al: Yeah, I’m gonna bankroll it. Imagine if I had that. Imagine having that kind of money, (0:16:42) Codey: I need, I need to. Right. (0:16:44) Al: that’d be amazing. Just go, “Yes, make your game.” (0:16:48) Al: » [LAUGH] (0:16:49) Codey: Uh, the other notable thing was on the, like, they have a picture of physical editions already. (0:16:57) Codey: Um, and they below that they have switch one and two steam PlayStation five and Xbox series X. (0:17:02) Al: Yeah, so yeah, so there’s two, obviously there’s the Nintendo Switch 2 thing, right? (0:17:13) Al: Fine, a little bit presumptuous, but I’m sure whatever, like if they release a Nintendo Switch (0:17:18) Al: version and it’s backwards compatible on the two, then technically they can say they’ve (0:17:21) Al: released on Switch 2. Fine, whatever, it doesn’t really matter. It’s interesting they don’t mention (0:17:27) Al: Xbox Series S, because it is my understanding that you’re not allowed to release a game just (0:17:32) Al: on the X. It has to release on the S as well, because that has been like a sticking point for (0:17:35) Codey: » Yeah, I don’t know. (0:17:39) Al: a few people I’m releasing on Xbox. They’re like, oh, it’s a bit underpowered. I can’t quite get my (0:17:43) Al: game to work on it. And they’re like, we’ll talk. (0:17:46) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know ‘cause they don’t, (0:17:48) Codey: they specifically leave it out. (0:17:51) Codey: So I don’t know if they struck a deal (0:17:53) Codey: or if they just, it was an oopsie daisy (0:17:56) Codey: and it will come out on that, but we’ll keep that updated. (0:17:59) Al: “Can I be a little bit pedantic and say it doesn’t say Nintendo Switch 1 and 2. It says Nintendo Switch 1-2.” (0:18:04) Al: » Thank you. (0:18:04) Codey: Oh my gosh, there’s an intermediate switch switch switch one version to switch 1.2. I don’t know. (0:18:15) Codey: Yep, you’re right. (0:18:18) Al: Anyway, yep, looking forward to that, we will keep you updated. (0:18:21) Codey: Oh, but yeah, but not a woo because there’s one more game. So this is a game that I don’t even I think it was just like on Instagram. Instagram knows my algorithm really well. (0:18:22) Al: And there’s another game that Cody found. (0:18:34) Codey: And it was like, you should play this game. And it’s called bug and seek. And so this is a game that’s already out. I just we just hadn’t talked about it. At least I didn’t find it in anything it’s 1499 on steam and it can be Mac or PC and on switch and the blurb is blurb catch 200 plus real life bugs in this chill eight bit cozy creature collector. (0:18:58) Codey: You’ve bought the local bug zoo abandoned after a mysterious robbery catch bugs. (0:19:04) Codey: So this is a game that I’m probably immediately after this going to go move money into my out of my savings account into my regular accounts like buy it because I need to play this game. (0:19:21) Al: - What? (0:19:21) Codey: It just looks really cute. Like you’re going around catching bugs the bug like pages look really cute because it has like the scientists. (0:19:34) Codey: It has a specific name and the common name and it’s got like a lot of really cool facts and the idea of having a bug zoo. I mean we have an insect zoo for the entomology department here at my university and I’m the person who takes care of the critters. (0:19:49) Codey: The idea of just like moving into a town and becoming the muse, the bug zoo person is just chef’s kiss like I love that idea and you get to like build it up however you want so you get to like buy a terrarium (0:20:04) Codey: and then put that wherever you want in the in the space and kind of make it your own instead of just filling an already curated museum. (0:20:14) Codey: So I think it’s super cute and on Steam it’s part of a bundle called the creature. Oh my gosh. I need to double check this because I had it up and then I got rid of it but it was like the creature or something. (0:20:31) Codey: Create celebrate bugs bundle. (0:20:35) Codey: The celebrate bugs bundle. (0:20:40) Codey: Yeah. Oh, and they have an isopods DLC and a weevils DLC. And yeah, what more could you need, but it’s in that bundle and that bundle includes bug and seek a pico and webbed, which is a super cute game where you’re a jumper jumping spider. (0:20:59) Codey: One of the peacock jumpers, I think, or maybe you run into a peacock jumper, but you basically swing (0:21:04) Codey: Spider-Man style throughout the world and just adventure. (0:21:08) Codey: And I remember seeing this up this game and freaking out. (0:21:11) Codey: It is regrettably not available on Mac. (0:21:15) Codey: And I already have Apeco, but if you do not have any of these games and you’ve been wanting any (0:21:19) Codey: of them, why not get all of them for $38 and 22 cents and save 15%. (0:21:26) Codey: Are you going to play bug and seek? (0:21:28) Al: probably not. But I’m excited. I’m excited for you. Apparently this came out in 2013. (0:21:29) Codey: Okay. Well, listeners tell us who should. (0:21:35) Codey: Be on the podcast episode with me about bug and seek. (0:21:40) Codey: What’s I have released it 2023. (0:21:41) Al: That’s what I said. Did I? I meant to say 2023. (0:21:45) Codey: You said 2013. (0:21:49) Codey: Yeah, 2023 wild. (0:21:51) Codey: I don’t know how this has not been on my radar until now. (0:21:55) Codey: No idea, but I’m excited. (0:21:57) Al: Well, now you know. (0:22:00) Al: All right, that is the news. (0:22:03) Al: So we are now going to talk about the game of the moment. (0:22:07) Al: Game of the Year, lol. (0:22:10) Codey: No, redacted. (0:22:11) Al: Sugardew Island, I’m sure it will be mentioned in the Game (0:22:16) Al: of the Year episode. (0:22:20) Al: Because I list all the games that come out in the air. (0:22:22) Al: And yeah. (0:22:24) Codey: Mm-hmm. You played it. I didn’t. (0:22:24) Al: So. Oh, boy, did I. (0:22:27) Al: Play this game. Right. (0:22:28) Al: So where do I start with this? (0:22:33) Al: Oh, OK. (0:22:34) Al: Cody’s just posted the blog post of the blurb. (0:22:37) Al: So apparently that’s where I’m starting in this code in this cozy farming game. (0:22:38) Codey: you don’t have to if you don’t. (0:22:41) Al: You have to run your own farm shop, take care of your animals and your farm. (0:22:45) Al: So your goods to the cute forest folk upgrade the island and fulfill small (0:22:50) Al: orders from the Harmony Tree to fill the island with life again. (0:22:54) Al: And let me tell you, that is all technically (0:22:57) Al: true. (0:22:58) Codey: Wow okay. Not the… there are no lies but not maybe the main part of the game. (0:23:00) Al: There are no lies there. (0:23:06) Al: No, no, no, it’s it’s this. (0:23:07) Codey: Okay. (0:23:09) Al: OK, right. Well, it’s I think it’s hard for me to give a good (0:23:10) Codey: Let’s dive into it. (0:23:14) Al: overview without just kind of going into the details. (0:23:16) Codey: Okay. (0:23:18) Al: But essentially, yeah, you have this island (0:23:21) Al: which it calls five, no, six different islands, but it’s not because they’re all (0:23:27) Al: island. They’re connected by land. (0:23:30) Al: There is there’s no bridges between them. (0:23:32) Al: There’s no water between. (0:23:33) Al: This is one island, right? (0:23:34) Al: I don’t know why it calls it multiple islands. (0:23:36) Al: Whatever doesn’t matter. (0:23:38) Al: You have Farm Island. (0:23:40) Al: I think that’s what they call the main one. (0:23:42) Al: And then you have let me get the exact (0:23:44) Al: names of these different islands for you because you need to hear them. (0:23:49) Al: We have so. (0:23:51) Al: Yeah, Farm Island. (0:23:53) Al: So technically this Seven Islands, because it’s Farm Island, (0:23:57) Al: forest island, bunny island, piggy island, deer island, ferret island and owl island. (0:24:04) Al: And it’s kind of shaped like an animal’s paw. (0:24:08) Codey: Oh, okay. (0:24:09) Al: On the map with like Farm Island at the bottom, that is, can you guess what’s there? (0:24:13) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:24:14) Codey: A farm. (0:24:15) Al: That’s your farm. (0:24:17) Al: And then in the middle is forest island. (0:24:19) Al: Can you guess what’s there? (0:24:19) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:24:21) Codey: Um, the desert, the forest. (0:24:24) Al: No. (0:24:25) Al: There’s actually not many trees there. (0:24:27) Al: But one big tree. (0:24:28) Codey: Oh, so it’s a, it’s a. (0:24:30) Al: There are more trees on my farm than there are in the forest. (0:24:33) Al: And then spreading out like the toes of the paw or the bunny island, (0:24:38) Al: piggy island, deer island, ferret island and owl island. (0:24:42) Al: And those all have animals on them. (0:24:45) Codey: Yeah. (0:24:48) Al: So you start off with, I think, one island having one animal on it. (0:24:53) Al: I think you have one bunny unlocked to start with. (0:24:55) Al: and then as you progress through the game. (0:24:57) Al: You unlock more animals on the islands up to, I think five on each. (0:25:02) Al: And these animals give you seeds that you can use to farm free seeds. (0:25:07) Al: You go up to one and it will go like, Oh, here, here you go. (0:25:09) Al: Here’s some carrot seeds, um, stuff like that. (0:25:14) Al: And, uh, when you unlock one of the animals, you also get like an upgrade to something. (0:25:20) Al: So, uh, examples of the upgrades would be you can now get pumpkin seeds or you can now (0:25:27) Al: upgrade your, your tools. (0:25:29) Al: You can now upgrade your shop stuff like that. (0:25:32) Al: So there’s, it’s a, it’s the pro that’s the kind of main progress through the game. (0:25:38) Al: And how do you unlock these things? (0:25:40) Al: You ask, well, you get a currency called Harmony. (0:25:44) Al: There’s only one way to get this currency and that is by selling things at the shop. (0:25:48) Al: So you cannot, you can get the other currency, which is called sugar dew, (0:25:53) Al: which is like the actual currency that you use to buy things. (0:25:56) Al: things. (0:25:57) Al: You can get that two other ways, you can sell to, like there’s one guy who sells you seeds, (0:26:02) Al: you can sell him stuff, but you don’t get the harmony that way. Or you can do, as it mentioned (0:26:07) Al: in the blurb, these small orders from the harmony tree. Those are the harvest sprites will ask for (0:26:18) Al: certain things and you can give them certain things and that will get you sugared you as well. Those (0:26:22) Al: tend to be like higher value things, so what would normally sell for? (0:26:25) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:26:27) Al: We’ll get to the shop later, because I have a lot to talk about about that, but let’s (0:26:44) Codey: Okay, I was gonna ask about this okay, okay (0:26:48) Al: get through this. (0:26:49) Al: So that’s the Island Unlocking, the main point of it is to get the unlocks so you can do (0:26:56) Al: other things. (0:26:57) Al: your tools and get different kinds of seeds and stuff like that. But it also unlocks more of these (0:27:02) Al: animals that you can go in and get seeds. And you seem to be able to get them basically infinitely. (0:27:07) Al: Right? Like if you walk between two islands, they’ll almost always have a seed for you. So you can (0:27:13) Al: like just constantly be getting free seeds, which I think is actually, yeah, which I think is really (0:27:13) Codey: Okay. Just go back and forth. (0:27:17) Al: good early on. It allows you to get a lot more seeds than you would otherwise be able to get. (0:27:24) Al: But I’ve hit the point where I’m like, this is just so much effort, I’m just. (0:27:27) Al: going to buy seeds, right? Because I’m now, you know, doing like 45 seeds a day. I’m not walking (0:27:33) Al: around the islands and interacting with the animals 45 times every single day, you know. (0:27:36) Codey: - Yeah. (0:27:40) Codey: Yeah. (0:27:41) Al: So there’s that. Farming wise, it’s pretty standard. But everything, it almost feels like (0:27:50) Al: it’s missed the last like 10 years of quality of life improvements in farming games. (0:27:56) Al: But it’s fine. (0:27:58) Al: What I will say is that your bag has two different buckets. (0:28:03) Al: I like having the tools in a different bucket because it doesn’t take up (0:28:06) Al: space to other things with it. (0:28:08) Al: So I will say that’s a good thing. (0:28:09) Al: I like that. (0:28:11) Al: That’s a thing. (0:28:14) Al: I don’t know what to say about the farming because it’s literally you (0:28:17) Al: till the land, you plant the seed, you water, it grows, you harvest it, right? (0:28:23) Al: It’s like standard farming. (0:28:24) Codey: That’s, that’s so innovative. (0:28:27) Codey: Uh, like how many types of seeds are there? (0:28:28) Al: So I have encountered maybe like 12. There’s a decent selection. It’s not humongous, but it’s a decent. I will say there don’t seem to be any seasons. (0:28:40) Al: So I’m on day 46 and I have not noticed any changes. It does have weather. I’ve noticed like three different weathers. So there’s rain, there’s sun, and then there’s wind. (0:28:54) Al: I don’t think wind does anything, it’s not like the storms and star- (0:28:57) Al: where sometimes you can’t go out the house, or it does something else, it’s just you see some wind. (0:29:02) Al: So I’m not really sure what that does, but yeah, the rain is good, it waters your plants standard. (0:29:10) Codey: love that. How is the, like, are the crops, like, well, not displayed, but like the visuals (0:29:19) Codey: of it really decent or are they pretty basic? (0:29:22) Al: I think if you like how the game looks you’ll like that. It is very much a choice how it (0:29:31) Al: looks. I’m not a huge fan, but yeah it’s not like you just see the crop up here on the (0:29:37) Al: ground or anything. They do have growth and they slowly grow and then you’ve got it on (0:29:42) Al: its plant and then you see the corn come off the plant, that sort of stuff. Interestingly (0:29:49) Al: I will say lots of the seeds look exactly (0:29:52) Al: the same. I’ve seen maybe three different kinds of seeds, so that can be a little bit (0:29:54) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:29:56) Al: weird. But the actual plants, they’re all unique and look so that’s fine, I guess. (0:30:00) Codey: Okay. (0:30:04) Codey: I suppose. (0:30:08) Al: Well, let me put it this way. Nothing excites me in this game. (0:30:13) Al: What else about the farming? You seem, I think, you upgrade like being able to (0:30:20) Al: So the seeds. (0:30:22) Al: So I’ve upgraded to the second watering can, which gives me a three by one instead of a one by one. (0:30:28) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (0:30:30) Al: And I can now sow seeds three by one as well. (0:30:34) Al: So I like that because some farming games forget that that that sewing seeds takes a long time. (0:30:34) Codey: Okay. (0:30:38) Al: And please give me an upgrade for that as well. (0:30:39) Codey: Yeah. (0:30:40) Al: So so that’s that’s good. (0:30:42) Al: I don’t think there’s anything really much to say about the farming. (0:30:46) Al: You get. Oh, yes, here’s one. You get three crops for every seed you plant. (0:30:50) Al: So if you plan, if you plant 10. (0:30:50) Codey: The benefit of the crops, is it just for selling or in your shop? (0:30:52) Al: And as far as I can see, you can only get it by buying it from the seed man. (0:31:00) Codey: Is there any cooking at all? (0:31:19) Al: I have not figured out a way to be able to. (0:31:22) Al: And I’ve not seen anything in the list of upgrades that would imply that you can unlock that later, which, if you can, feels weird that you can’t do it. (0:31:30) Al: Because I feel like I am maybe like halfway through the game, right? (0:31:34) Al: Like I’ve unlocked each of the islands to at least level three, and I’ve done two of them, one of them to level four, and I’m working on another one to level four, right? (0:31:43) Al: And that’s out of five. (0:31:44) Al: So I feel like I’m like I don’t think I could play this for another 10 hours and not have the. (0:31:52) Al: I’m all unlocked, so it would be weird if there was cooking and I just hadn’t unlocked it. (0:31:59) Codey: That is a choice, because I feel like people that farm are the ones that usually cook as well. (0:32:09) Codey: They’re more prone to cooking their own meals with their own food, but… (0:32:14) Codey: Mhmm. (0:32:14) Al: Well, and cooking is sometimes the only thing that gets you through the early stages of (0:32:18) Al: these farming games, right? (0:32:19) Al: Because you’re like, “I can’t do everything I want to do.” (0:32:20) Codey: Mhmm. (0:32:22) Al: And so you use some of your crops for energy instead. (0:32:24) Codey: Mhmm. (0:32:27) Al: Like that’s a pretty standard thing, and it does feel like a weird, especially with something (0:32:32) Al: at the shop, which I’ll get to in a minute. (0:32:34) Al: Let’s quickly talk about the animals. (0:32:34) Codey: Mhmm. Okay. Okay. Are these the animals on the islands or like farm animals on your (0:32:37) Al: The animals are fine. (0:32:40) Al: You buy an animal, you give it some food, it gives you some crops. (0:32:44) Al: Not crops, some produce. (0:32:48) Al: No, so these are farm animals, farm animals. (0:32:50) Codey: farm? Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. (0:32:52) Al: So I’ve got cows and chickens so far, and I believe you can get goats and ducks at least (0:32:57) Al: as well. (0:32:58) Al: I’ve seen them on the upgrade tree. (0:33:01) Al: I don’t know if there’s anything else. (0:33:04) Al: But yeah, they’re fine. (0:33:06) Al: One thing that is nice that some farming games do and some don’t is that as you upgrade the (0:33:11) Al: friendship to give you multiple produce in one day. (0:33:13) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:33:15) Al: So, and the produce is worth more than most of the crops, so you can invest a lot of money into (0:33:23) Al: the animals and get a lot of money that way, I think. Wheat, just wheat, which you can farm (0:33:28) Codey: What do the animals eat? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Is there quality to their products or is it just amount? (0:33:32) Al: yourself, so there is that. All right. No, no, it’s just, it’s just crops. (0:33:44) Al: There are two kinds of fertilizer. There is wet fertilizer and dry fertilizer. (0:33:49) Al: Yep, I don’t know why they chose the word wet. I do not enjoy that. (0:33:55) Al: Dry fertilizer speeds up the growing. Wet fertilizer keeps it watered. (0:34:00) Codey: That’s the choice. Are these things that you get from the animals? (0:34:04) Al: No, so you craft them from weeds. Oh yeah, let’s talk about, let’s talk about, so around your farm, (0:34:11) Al: obviously you have weeds and stones and trees and these things come back. (0:34:14) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:34:14) Al: They come back super quickly, like, oh, my word, rocks, rocks, I got rid of all the rocks from one, like, what is that like a 15 by 10 section I got rid of all the rocks from there, and then the next day I have nine rocks, nine rocks spawning in this small section in a day, it is so hard. (0:34:19) Codey: Hey, that’s that’s realistic, I mean maybe not like the rocks no (0:34:42) Codey: Nature is healing. (0:34:44) Al: To get rid of all this stuff and it’s like you have to like basically concrete over your farm if you don’t want these things to spawn. There’s so many of them. (0:34:52) Codey: I mean, it’s the rocks are plentiful in this spit a land, you know, they just love each other and (0:34:59) Codey: they’re making their rock babies. Yeah. What are you using like the rocks and the all that for? (0:35:02) Al: It’s just it’s not I feel like you could half it and it would still feel like a lot (0:35:11) Al: Very little there’s like some crafting things, but it’s like path like I’m I’m using the stone to create path (0:35:19) Al: to stop stone spawning (0:35:22) Al: In my in my crafting thing I can see like I can use the stone for some path (0:35:27) Al: I can use the WID for some path. I can use the WID… (0:35:32) Al: …for fences and that’s it. You do use the stone in the WID for house upgrades, but I do not care about it. Why would I care about house upgrades? (0:35:38) Codey: Mm hmm. Because you want a bigger house. (0:35:44) Al: Why? It doesn’t do anything. I never spend any time in my house. You can’t put anything there. (0:35:48) Codey: Doesn’t matter. When after a good hard day’s work, you want to come home to things. (0:35:56) Codey: Merica. Yeah, I don’t know. It sounds like this game is like half-baked. Okay. Okay. (0:35:59) Al: Yeah, so it’s bizarre. Oh, for sure, for sure. Speaking of half-baked, let’s talk about the shop. (0:36:07) Al: Oh, this is the worst part of the game. I just noticed I did the groan and I typed, (0:36:16) Al: that was apparently my top bullet point on this list. That was accidental. (0:36:18) Codey: What is the, how do you say that, the way that you typed it, ugh, okay. (0:36:26) Al: So, first of all, you have to… (0:36:29) Al: Use up stamina to sell things in the shop, which, considering you cannot replenish your (0:36:36) Al: stamina with your crops, you have to buy energy things. That is such a weird choice, especially (0:36:42) Al: as you don’t use up stamina to do anything to do with your animals. To milk your cows, (0:36:46) Codey: I will say my animals give me life every day, so that coming out net pause net. (0:36:48) Al: pet your cows, feed your cows, no stamina loss. Sewing seeds does not have stamina. (0:36:58) Codey: Okay, that’s a lie. (0:36:59) Al: But selling at the shop does? (0:37:00) Codey: Maybe, maybe they’re introverted. (0:37:04) Codey: Social interaction is hard. (0:37:07) Al: It’s not fun. Let me put it that way, right? (0:37:10) Codey: Social interaction is hard. (0:37:15) Al: I’m at the point in my farm where I have so many crops that I can only ever go to my shop (0:37:20) Al: on a rainy day. Because I run out of stamina by the end of my farming. (0:37:26) Codey: - Yeah, is there, wait, my brain is potato. (0:37:29) Codey: Can you upgrade your stamina? (0:37:30) Codey: Like increase your, the amount of? (0:37:31) Al: I don’t know, because there’s no number on it, there’s just a bar. And it does say that I’m (0:37:38) Al: upgrading my level, but I don’t know if that upgrades my stamina or not. Hard to know, (0:37:44) Al: because there’s no transparency there. Okay, so you go in and you say you have like four counters, (0:37:55) Al: you can put one stack of items on each counter. And then you go, right, I’m opening the shop now, (0:38:00) Al: You can do it once per day. (0:38:01) Al: You can spend as much time as you want doing things and then you go to your shop and you open the shop and when your shop closes, it’s night time. (0:38:16) Al: That is how this works, which I think is an interesting way of doing things. (0:38:20) Al: It has not been implemented particularly well here. It’s not particularly interesting in this game, but it is an interesting idea. (0:38:27) Al: That is what I will say. (0:38:28) Codey: OK, props for the idea, not for the execution. (0:38:29) Al: Sorry. (0:38:32) Al: Yes, so you open your shop and then these random village creatures who you never see at any other point in the game. (0:38:41) Codey: Yeah, I was gonna that was my next question. (0:38:42) Al: They come in. Where do they come from? I don’t know. Doesn’t matter. Don’t question it. (0:38:49) Al: So they pop into the shop and you can have like an infinite line of these creatures coming in as long as you still have stamina and you still have items on the counter. (0:39:01) Al: And they will go, they’ll wander around and they’ll pick something up, some number of one of your items and they will take it to you and they will either be like, “I want to buy this.” (0:39:10) Al: Or they’ll be like, “I maybe want to buy this.” If they want to buy it, you click the button, you sell it. Great. (0:39:17) Al: If they’re not sure, you get to convince them. And what you can do is you can either say, like, you can choose one of three things. You can either do like the middle one. (0:39:27) Al: one, and if it’s more likely. (0:39:31) Al: Or is the normal likelihood of them selling, and you get the normal amount of money? (0:39:36) Al: If you choose the higher one, there is less likelihood of them buying, (0:39:40) Al: but you get more money, and if you choose the lower one, you get less money, (0:39:44) Al: and there’s a higher chance of them getting it. (0:39:46) Codey: Does it sound like that’s how it works? (0:39:47) Al: Sounds like an interesting idea, right? (0:39:50) Al: Except… (0:39:53) Al: Just sell it the next day. (0:39:55) Al: Why would I ever choose anything other than the top one? (0:39:59) Al: Because I have a chance of getting more money. (0:40:01) Al: And if I don’t sell it, I will sell it the next day. (0:40:02) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:06) Al: There is no reason whatsoever to ever choose the lower one. (0:40:08) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:11) Al: I can just sell it the next day. (0:40:12) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:14) Al: This is not a problem. (0:40:16) Al: I don’t understand. (0:40:17) Al: This is the most half-baked idea for a shop I have ever, ever seen. (0:40:22) Al: I don’t, I don’t understand it. (0:40:22) Codey: Also, just imagining, just imagining like being in a shop (0:40:27) Codey: in the real and having someone look at the price tag and they (0:40:30) Codey: come up and they’re like, I don’t know. I don’t know if I (0:40:31) Al: So, well, the lower behind it is they say, “Oh, you’re right, here’s a tip.” (0:40:34) Codey: want this. How in the hell are you convincing them to spend (0:40:37) Codey: more money on it in the end? (0:40:45) Codey: Oh, (0:40:47) Al: That is the lower behind this. (0:40:48) Codey: Okay. Okay, and then. (0:40:50) Al: But also like all of the dialogue options are bad, right? (0:40:53) Al: Because what they’ll do is they’ll say like, “Oh, I have, I kid you not, this is the exact (0:40:57) Al: wording.” (0:40:58) Al: They’ll come up and they’ll say, “I thought I wanted…” (0:41:01) Al: It’s such, it’s just like, and I know that it’s probably just like, oh, they’re not native English speakers, but it’s just like, just remove the three times, right? (0:41:05) Codey: Well, yeah, the three times carrot at a home is like awful. (0:41:29) Al: and it would sound so much less bad. (0:41:31) Codey: Yeah (0:41:31) Al: It’s like, “Oh, you can never have too many carrots.” (0:41:33) Al: Rather than, “Oh, you can never have too many three-times-carrot.” (0:41:34) Codey: Yeah (0:41:37) Codey: I mean, but yeah that I mean even that like you can never have too many carrots like at a certain point (0:41:43) Al: I mean, it’s not true, but you know that there will be people saying that, right? (0:41:44) Codey: That’s you can (0:41:49) Al: Like, you can absolutely believe someone’s saying that in a shop. (0:41:52) Al: You can never have too many carrots. (0:41:52) Codey: I, I, I’m going to start saying that just to spite you. Okay, sausage. (0:41:54) Al: Nobody’s saying, “You can never have too many three-times-carrot.” (0:42:03) Al: Sausage roll thrice. (0:42:08) Codey: I want a quartet of sausage, please. (0:42:09) Al: Carrot thrice, please. (0:42:13) Codey: Thrice. Okay, the we’re gonna dial it back a little bit because a village creatures. (0:42:21) Al: I don’t know who they are! They’re humanoid, but like, short. They’re almost… (0:42:22) Codey: Are they’re human? (0:42:29) Codey: Okay, but short people are people too, Elle. (0:42:34) Al: I didn’t call them creatures, the game did. (0:42:36) Codey: Okay, okay, wait, what, what, what? (0:42:40) Al: I don’t know. It’s weird. Possibly, possibly. I think they’re meant to be like Harvest Sprites, (0:42:43) Codey: Is that maybe just a translation issue? (0:42:48) Al: Because, ironically, the game can… (0:42:51) Al: Characters in the game that are actually harvest sprites are like your size. (0:42:56) Al: And the characters that aren’t harvest sprites are harvest sprites size. (0:43:02) Codey: This is upside down world, opposite land. (0:43:05) Al: On so many levels, um, yeah. (0:43:08) Codey: Okay. (0:43:09) Codey: And are these the like, (0:43:12) Codey: okay, but you said you never see them elsewhere. (0:43:14) Codey: Like you don’t, there’s no village (0:43:16) Al: No (0:43:17) Codey: or they’re never wandering around Ferret Island. (0:43:19) Al: No, no, I have never seen them and I’ve played I’ve at least ten errors in it (0:43:26) Codey: Is the game, is there a mystery (0:43:29) Codey: as to why you don’t know where they are? (0:43:32) Al: It does not frame it like that, no. (0:43:33) Codey: Okay. (0:43:35) Codey: That was a choice. (0:43:37) Al: I don’t know where they’re coming from, nobody ever (0:43:39) Al: questions where they’re coming from, they just are. And there’s (0:43:43) Al: so many of them and you never see a single one until the minute (0:43:46) Al: you open the shop and there’s like a stream of them coming (0:43:49) Al: until you run out of stamina or items. (0:43:52) Codey: Mm-hmm. That does, that mechanic reminds me of garden paws because you did have a (0:43:58) Codey: shop in garden paws. There was no like haggling or whatever, but, um, in garden (0:44:04) Codey: paws, like it was just a line of thi-, of people that come until your shop closes. (0:44:08) Al: Yeah. It just keeps convincing me that I don’t think there is a good way to make a shop game. (0:44:15) Al: I just don’t think it’s possible. (0:44:17) Codey: That’s fair. (0:44:18) Codey: Oh, they also… (0:44:18) Al: Mineko got the closest and it only works because it’s like once a week and it’s super short and (0:44:23) Al: super quick. I don’t remember there being a shop where you’re selling stuff in that. (0:44:25) Codey: They also did spells and secrets (0:44:31) Codey: No, no, no, I’m just saying there I was looking to see what other games they’ve done and that is on their list (0:44:35) Al: Oh, okay. Yeah, so Roca play their their (0:44:38) Al: publisher. (0:44:39) Codey: Yeah, oh well why does (0:44:40) Al: They’re not developer. (0:44:40) Al: Oh, well, I think they have been a developer, but not for most games that you they’re linked (0:44:45) Al: to. (0:44:46) Codey: Okay (0:44:47) Al: They’re mostly a publisher. (0:44:48) Codey: They are the developer of this game though (0:44:49) Al: Oh, they are, are they? (0:44:52) Codey: Of this one specifically (0:44:53) Al: Okay. (0:44:54) Al: Right. (0:44:55) Al: So they are. (0:44:56) Codey: Okay (0:44:58) Al: They were there. (0:44:59) Al: They’re the second listed developer for spells and secrets. (0:45:02) Al: So probably not really. (0:45:04) Codey: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:45:06) Al: They also published the new game. (0:45:08) Al: It’s called A Game About Digging A Hole, which seems to be getting a lot of traction, (0:45:12) Al: but they didn’t develop that either. (0:45:14) Codey: The game about digging a hole. (0:45:14) Al: It’s all over the internet just now. (0:45:20) Al: It’s just interesting how hit and miss they seem to be. (0:45:23) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:45:24) Al: They’re publishing Solarpunk as well, which looks really good. (0:45:27) Codey: The game about digging a hole. (0:45:28) Al: Have you not seen this yet? (0:45:30) Codey: Oh, it’s literally called a game about digging a hole. (0:45:33) Al: It’s called A Game About Digging A Hole. (0:45:34) Codey: Oh, okay, keep going. (0:45:36) Al: It’s got very positive reviews on Steam. (0:45:39) Al: Six days ago, and it has nearly 4,000 reviews on Steam. (0:45:43) Al: It’s like blowing up. (0:45:43) Codey: Oh my god, I see it. This is… I would do that. I want to play this. (0:45:50) Al: It looks really good and people seem to really like it. They don’t seem to have a bar quality (0:45:53) Codey: Yeah. They’re just the publisher though. (0:45:58) Al: for their publishing, like some of them are great and some of them are SugarGee Island. (0:46:04) Codey: Specifically. (0:46:05) Al: Sorry, this is sounding really harsh. It’s fine. It’s not a terrible game, but I do not know why (0:46:09) Codey: They’re not batting a thousand. (0:46:13) Al: I would play this ahead of any farming game ever. That’s the thing. Why would I play this instead of (0:46:19) Al: of stargy. (0:46:20) Al: I would not play this instead of Coral Island. (0:46:23) Al: Why would I play this instead of Fields of Mistria? (0:46:26) Al: I wouldn’t. (0:46:26) Codey: - Mm-hmm, that’s fair. (0:46:29) Al: When I backed this on Kickstarter, I literally backed it saying, “I guess I’m going to cover (0:46:33) Al: this on the podcast,” like I’m not hating my time playing it, but I’m not like I must (0:46:38) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I was really. I was really shocked that you’re still playing that when (0:46:39) Al: be playing it, which weirdly I am doing with Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home. (0:46:45) Al: That’s what territory we’re in. (0:46:46) Al: I want to play Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home. (0:46:48) Al: I don’t want to play Shuku-jiu Island! (0:46:50) Al: I can’t stop, Cody! (0:46:55) Codey: I saw it on your thing. Well, you’re almost done. It’s okay. Okay, so these harvest sprites. (0:47:04) Codey: Never see them except for when they’re buying from you. (0:47:06) Al: No, so that’s the the harvest sprites are different. (0:47:10) Al: So these are the what do they call them? (0:47:12) Al: Forest folk are the ones that buy from your shop. (0:47:16) Al: The harvest sprites are the ones that you sell stuff to with the like random requests. (0:47:22) Codey: Okay. (0:47:23) Al: They’ll be like, oh, I want these things and you can sell it and get more money for (0:47:26) Al: them, but no harmony. (0:47:27) Codey: Okay. (0:47:28) Codey: When you get money, what do you use it on? (0:47:33) Al: buying more crops to get more money. (0:47:36) Al: No. So some of the crafting recipes require money. (0:47:37) Codey: Okay. (0:47:40) Al: I’m not sure why, but like, well, this is the thing about. (0:47:47) Al: Some crafting recipes are just items, some are like items and money, (0:47:51) Al: and they’re weirdly scaled. (0:47:53) Al: So the first upgrade to the watering can (0:47:53) Codey: Mm hmm. (0:47:55) Al: that makes it go from one by one to three by one, that costs you just two thousand (0:47:58) Codey: Mm hmm. (0:48:01) Al: five hundred sugar dew. (0:48:02) Codey: Okay. (0:48:03) Al: The next upgrade, so it was $2,500, $2,500. (0:48:06) Al: The next upgrade, $25,000, that is a massive, massive increase for the next one. (0:48:07) Codey: Mm hmm. (0:48:10) Codey: Seems legit. (0:48:15) Al: And that’s all it is. There’s no items, no nothing. Just 25,000 sugar juice, which I (0:48:22) Al: currently, I’m 10 hours in the game and I have 10,000 sugar juice. And I’m finding it really hard (0:48:28) Al: to go above 10,000 because you then like sell a bunch of stuff and then you have to buy a bunch (0:48:32) Al: more or you have to go around the animals for 10 hours. (0:48:33) Codey: Yeah, yeah. (0:48:36) Al: To get the free seeds it feels like there’s a hump at 10,000 and the second upgrade would (0:48:43) Al: actually massively help you because it would speed you up doing things and you can do other (0:48:46) Al: things as well as just watering. I don’t know it just it feels weirdly scaled. It’s not a massive (0:48:52) Al: issue right because if you’re enjoying the game you’re just going to continue doing what you’re (0:48:56) Al: enjoying in the game and you’ll get to that number and that’ll be fine. So any other questions about (0:49:01) Codey: okay uh can you decorate it (0:49:02) Al: by the shop. I have (0:49:06) Al: not seen anything about decorating it though. Not as far from what you can upgrade it, (0:49:08) Codey: so you can’t like change anything in the shop (0:49:13) Al: but that just gives you more counter spaces. And the upgrade is like 200,000 for the first (0:49:15) Codey: okay (0:49:22) Codey: as is tradition okay so take care of your animals and your farm sell your goods to the forest folk (0:49:28) Codey: upgrade your island, fulfill small orders, is that all this game (0:49:31) Codey: has? What? (0:49:32) Al: Well there’s also romance, I hesitate even mentioning this right, I’ve, so my last bullet (0:49:42) Al: point in this, what do they want from this stupid feature, it’s worse than fae farms. (0:49:47) Codey: That’s a bar. (0:49:49) Al: There are four characters that you can romance, they are all the harvest sprites, which first (0:49:54) Al: of all, that’s weird. (0:49:56) Al: Why would you romance the harvest sprites? (0:49:58) Al: I know you can do that in like some harvest moon games, but it’s like a side thing, it’s (0:50:03) Al: you can go and romance the harvest goddess because some of you are weird freaks, right? (0:50:08) Codey: Yep. (0:50:08) Al: Like I get that, that’s fine. (0:50:11) Codey: Yep. (0:50:11) Al: Have I been tempted to do that in a harvest moon game before? (0:50:13) Al: Yes, yes I have. (0:50:14) Al: These ones look like children, right? (0:50:18) Al: This is the first point, why are the only four characters in the game that you can romance (0:50:22) Al: weird children looking harvest sprites, really weird and creepy? (0:50:25) Codey: Yeah, you also look like a child. (0:50:29) Al: You do a bit, I get that. (0:50:31) Al: it all wiver. (0:50:32) Al: Secondly, the interactions are so wooden. Let me give you an example. I’m currently (0:50:38) Codey: Okay (0:50:38) Al: playing the game. I’m walking up to one of the harvest sprites who I don’t even know (0:50:41) Codey: Okay (0:50:41) Al: the name of because it doesn’t matter. Oh, they’re not there. Let me go find a different (0:50:45) Al: one. I don’t know why. They’re not in the place they always are. They are always in (0:50:46) Codey: And are they where (0:50:49) Codey: Where are (0:50:50) Al: this exact same place and now they’re not for some reason. Yes. Let me go find a different one. (0:50:52) Codey: Same place on the islands or okay. Oh, so there’s like one per island or whatever (0:50:59) Al: No, it’s not. There’s one that stands next to your shop. There’s one that stands next (0:51:02) Al: to something else. Why have they all disappeared? Oh, here’s one. Right. So this one is called (0:51:06) Al: Silvana. I talk to them and they say, “Hello, am I in your way?” And your option to respond (0:51:15) Al: is OK. You click OK. Interaction is finished. That’s it. I try again and they say, “Hello, (0:51:20) Codey: And love, how much, look at the love, let it, let it flow out. (0:51:28) Al: Am I in your way and you say, OK, wait, let me. (0:51:32) Al: Go find a different harvest and see if there’s something more interesting with that one. (0:51:37) Codey: Okay. How, how are you, how do you increase your reputation with them or whatever? (0:51:43) Al: you sell them stuff at the like they have the requests so that increases the friendship and (0:51:49) Al: bearing in mind I currently have them all at like two out of five this is two out of five flowers (0:51:53) Codey: Okay. Okay. (0:51:57) Al: um let me find another one aha this is zephyril I interact with them (0:52:05) Al: it goes into this they also do this weird thing where it goes into what (0:52:08) Al: what is finding like a (0:52:10) Al: Uh, like, uh, it, it. (0:52:13) Al: Turns into what feels like a cut scene and they say one thing. (0:52:16) Al: You say, okay. (0:52:17) Al: And then it goes out the cut scene. (0:52:18) Al: It’s really weird. (0:52:21) Al: Very romantic. (0:52:22) Al: Uh, so they said the Island really draws you in, which by the way, was the only (0:52:26) Al: thing this person has ever said to me. (0:52:28) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:52:29) Al: And I said, okay. (0:52:31) Al: All right. (0:52:32) Al: Here’s Ignis. (0:52:33) Al: Let’s talk to Ignis. (0:52:34) Al: Ignis says, ah, my hair, don’t worry. (0:52:37) Al: It always burns like this. (0:52:40) Al: They have fire hair. (0:52:40) Codey: That makes sense. Yeah, Ignis sounds like a fire. Yeah. (0:52:44) Al: And I say, okay. And then, okay, right, you go and do some of the requests for them, (0:52:50) Al: you give them stuff and they go and they say, thank you. And you say, okay. (0:52:54) Codey: Are you are you I mean that that’s probably why there’s so much you take so much stamina to sell stuff (0:53:00) Codey: You’ve got social anxiety. Maybe you don’t know the language (0:53:03) Al: Okay, none of this, none of these people are interesting, you never say anything to them. (0:53:03) Codey: You know (0:53:07) Codey: Like that (0:53:12) Al: Maybe if I get up high enough, something else will happen. (0:53:16) Al: I don’t know. (0:53:18) Al: Why should I care? (0:53:19) Al: They’re also all the same model, just with a different color, and one of them has fire (0:53:24) Al: on their hair for some reason. (0:53:26) Al: There’s nothing else. (0:53:27) Al: They don’t, they’re just there. (0:53:31) Al: I don’t understand this. (0:53:33) Al: If they add this feature in, it doesn’t make any sense. (0:53:37) Al: If they had just removed the romance aspect of it, and they existed, and you did stuff (0:53:41) Al: to them, and they were just mystical harvest sprites that are around the island, which (0:53:46) Al: by the way, they never walk around, they just stand in one place, I feel like that would (0:53:50) Al: have been better. (0:53:51) Al: Why did they feel the need to add romance in? (0:53:52) Al: I do not understand this obsession. (0:53:54) Al: When they announced it, they were like, “Oh, this is great, we’re adding in romance, which (0:53:57) Al: everybody wants.” (0:53:58) Al: And I’m like, “No, nobody wanted this. (0:54:01) Al: He wanted this. (0:54:03) Al: This is bad. (0:54:05) Al: I think the rest of the game is like, you can take it or leave it. (0:54:08) Al: You might enjoy it. (0:54:10) Al: It actually is fine. (0:54:12) Al: You might have fun in this game. (0:54:15) Al: The romance is just like actively bad from start to finish and I do not understand why (0:54:20) Al: you would ever want to do it. (0:54:22) Al: The requests are fine because it’s like, oh, you get specific things and you get more money (0:54:26) Al: than you would in the shop. (0:54:27) Al: I like that. (0:54:28) Al: That’s good. (0:54:29) Al: That’s giving you a different way of selling things. (0:54:30) Al: it gives you it forces you to maybe look at different crops. (0:54:34) Al: Why? Why romance? It’s a bad romance feature. (0:54:40) Codey: capitalism. I don’t know it I was trying to look through because because the (0:54:48) Codey: game’s not out yet there are no Steam reviews so I was trying to look through (0:54:53) Codey: the community hub to see if there’s any comments on anything they did have an (0:54:57) Codey: update recently on February 7th but the update literally just was bug fixes so (0:55:02) Codey: there’s no improvements to like any of what you’re talking about because I mean (0:55:06) Codey: we could always give them the benefit of the doubt of the fact that this is not (0:55:10) Al: Yeah, there are some bugs that I’ve not mentioned, because I know that they’re going to be fixed. (0:55:14) Al: There are bugs that I have encountered that are already fixed, right? Those are not issues, (0:55:18) Al: right? There are things that they’ve shown that they can do that, (0:55:21) Al: but it’s just the actual, like, underlying thing of the game is not fun. (0:55:24) Codey: Mm-hmm the game (0:55:26) Codey: Yeah (0:55:28) Codey: Well, and that’s I’m not seeing anything about them like having fixed any of that. So I (0:55:34) Codey: Tried to give you guys the benefit of the doubt (0:55:37) Al: I don’t get this. I can see there’s some curators that have reviewed the game, and one of them (0:55:46) Al: just says, “Super recommended.” And I’m like, “Well, I’m going to ignore you then. You all (0:55:51) Al: clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.” And one of them says, “Not my cuppa.” And I’m like, (0:55:56) Al: “Okay, I trust you.” Not to say that nobody would enjoy this thing, I do think that some people (0:56:05) Al: we’d enjoy this. Right. (0:56:07) Al: I legitimately do I suspect it’s not people listening to this podcast probably because (0:56:13) Al: you’re probably listening to a podcast about farming games because you like, you know, (0:56:18) Al: the interesting parts of farming games and not just the aspect of farming, right? Like (0:56:23) Al: that is not, let’s be honest, that is not a thing that can do a create a full size game (0:56:30) Al: that people actually enjoy to play, right? Like if Stardew Valley is not popular (0:56:37) Al: because it’s a farming game. It is not popular because it has romance. It is popular because (0:56:42) Al: it is a game that was lovingly created by somebody with a vision. And every aspect of (0:56:48) Al: it is good. This is a game that jumps on a bandwagon and every aspect of it is meh, except (0:56:56) Al: the romance, which is actively bad. Why does the character creator have four hair colors? (0:56:58) Codey: Yeah, so because there are four hair colors in the world, there’s only four hair colors out. (0:57:07) Al: It’s such a silly thing to point out. I know, it doesn’t matter, but four hair colors? (0:57:15) Codey: Yeah, the other thing that I just noticed in a thing, and I this is I really want to get your (0:57:21) Codey: opinion on this. They say that this is the coziest farming game ever. Your thoughts? (0:57:26) Al: I don’t know what you expect me to see to this, Cody. (0:57:30) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know. I just saw that on on a (0:57:32) Al: What does that even mean? (0:57:35) Codey: it’s gosh, it was on one of the things in the let me find it man. (0:57:45) Codey: I was just scrolling through all of their stuff on steam trying to find anything. Excuse me. (0:57:53) Codey: It is on CozyQuest announcement. It’s November 14th, 2024. It’s YouTube video working on the (0:58:04) Codey: coziest farm shop game ever. And the uh… (0:58:10) Al: Well there you go, farm, shop. You could make that argument if you want because there aren’t many else. (0:58:16) Codey: I mean, I think that garden paws did a better job than what you just described. (0:58:22) Al: I haven’t played Garden Pause, but I would probably rather play it than this. (0:58:27) Codey: Yeah. Yup. (0:58:30) Al: I’m not even going to talk about the graphics, because I think graphics is hugely subjective. (0:58:35) Al: I’m not a huge fan of it personally, but I don’t think I should knock it down for that. (0:58:40) Al: Different people like different things. You’re going to look at it and decide whether you like (0:58:44) Al: or not based on the first screen. (0:58:48) Codey: I guess like is does it seem polished and finished or does it seem (0:58:54) Al: I mean, I’ve encountered quite a few bugs, some of them have been fixed. (0:58:59) Al: I lost a chicken once, I went and bought two chickens and then it had a list of my chickens (0:59:05) Al: and I had two chickens, but there was no second chicken. (0:59:08) Al: I only had one chicken. (0:59:11) Al: And it looked like I basically had like, both the chickens somehow had the same name, despite (0:59:16) Al: the fact that I’d given them second names. (0:59:17) Al: So it was like it duplicated my first chicken, except that it didn’t, it just duplicated (0:59:21) Al: it in the list. (0:59:22) Al: And then one day, I had the (0:59:24) Al: second chicken. It was there and it existed as a separate chicken. (0:59:26) Codey: but… he was… he was on a vacation. (0:59:31) Al: I don’t know why, but they both have the same name still. (0:59:35) Al: And when I clicked feed all, right, because you go into, like, you click on a menu (0:59:39) Al: and you click feed all and it feeds all of your animals. (0:59:41) Al: You don’t actually have to manually feed them. (0:59:43) Al: You don’t get to manually feed them either. (0:59:45) Al: Instead of four being removed because I had two chickens and two cows, only three (0:59:49) Al: wheat were removed from my… So it wasn’t getting fed, (0:59:52) Al: even though it was on the list. (0:59:54) Al: So the chicken legitimately didn’t exist, and then it did. (0:59:59) Codey: - Mm-hmm, bonus chicken. (1:00:00) Al: Surprised chicken. (1:00:03) Al: Well, no, because I paid for it. (1:00:05) Codey: You’re right. (1:00:06) Al: No bonus chicken. (1:00:08) Al: Just missing chicken. (1:00:08) Codey: It’s mystery chicken, chicken of mystery. (1:00:12) Al: The chicken of my skin. (1:00:17) Codey: Chicken of mystery. (1:00:20) Codey: Well, shall that be the end of the ranting of this game? (1:00:24) Al: Yeah, if you got any more questions, good. (1:00:27) Codey: No, but I did as I’ve been. (1:00:29) Codey: Crawling through steam, uh, trying to figure out if there’s any more (1:00:34) Codey: information on steam, there’s not, uh, there are a few sales going on as part (1:00:40) Codey: of the couch co-op fest, um, and over cooked to, which I know is not a cottage (1:00:47) Codey: core game, but I feel like people would really like it is 75% off is only $6. (1:00:55) Codey: and the game that people like this will like. (1:00:59) Codey: Where is it? Cult of the Lamb is half off. (1:01:02) Codey: Uh, but that ends on February 17th. (1:01:04) Codey: So if you’re listening to this, I’m sorry, but I do want to buy Cult of the Lamb so bad. (1:01:06) Al: play, play any of those games instead of this one. (1:01:14) Codey: The one who waits. (1:01:15) Codey: Oh, there’s a huge bundle that you can get. (1:01:17) Codey: That’s 38% off right now. (1:01:18) Al: Cult of the Lamb is a good game. Go play that. (1:01:21) Codey: I just have money issues. (1:01:24) Al: Okay, well not you. I’m just talking in general. Do not buy this game. Do not play. (1:01:28) Al: Well, I mean, okay, I’m not going to say don’t buy this game. (1:01:32) Codey: I mean, I’m not going to. (1:01:33) Al: If this game sounds interesting to you, despite everything I’ve said, then go buy it. If not, (1:01:34) Codey: I’m going to go play Bug at Seek. (1:01:40) Codey: I will say, if it sounds interesting to you (1:01:43) Codey: from my scrolling on Steam, they will (1:01:45) Codey: have a demo available on February 24 on Steam. (1:01:51) Codey: It’s Windows only. (1:01:52) Codey: So if you’re interested but you’re not 100% sure (1:01:55) Codey: and this podcast has clearly and obviously shown you (1:01:59) Codey: that this is not maybe worth your time (1:02:02) Codey: but maybe it is, I feel like if people listen to this (1:02:02) Al: Look, if you want to play this game after what I’ve said, go ahead, please do. I would (1:02:06) Al: love to hear your thoughts. If you actually like this game, please tell me. I would love (1:02:10) Al: to hear people who play this game. (1:02:14) Codey: and they put this recommendation in their hand (1:02:19) Codey: and then they carry it up to the shopkeeper (1:02:22) Codey: and they say, I need more convincing, (1:02:27) Codey: The demo will be available on Steam on February 24th. (1:02:32) Codey: And then the game comes out. (1:02:32) Al: need more convincing, you definitely don’t want to play the game. Like, if you still (1:02:36) Al: aren’t sure, after everything. (1:02:36) Codey: But that’s the thing. (1:02:39) Codey: You can convince them, and then they’ll give them extra money. (1:02:44) Codey: We’ve learned that. (1:02:46) Codey: We learned that today. (1:02:48) Codey: I’m also– my partner is visiting me this weekend, (1:02:51) Codey: and every time he says anything to me, (1:02:53) Codey: I’m just going to reply with, OK. (1:02:56) Codey: Because that apparently also works. (1:02:56) Al: OK. I just clicked on one of them, and apparently I can now ask them to go on a date, so that’s (1:02:58) Codey: Yeah. (1:03:02) Codey: » [SOUND] Okay, do you, okay, okay, I believe in you. (1:03:03) Al: apparently never thing I can do. (1:03:06) Al: Cody, I’m not going to do it. I’ve closed the game. And I’m updating. (1:03:16) Codey: There you have it, guys, it’s Sugardew Island. (1:03:20) Al: All right, I don’t enjoy not liking games and I don’t enjoy talking about them on the podcast when (1:03:24) Al: I don’t like this, but I can’t pretend that I like this game and I can’t pretend that it did (1:03:30) Al: anything other than frustrate me. (1:03:32) Codey: Okay, wait here. Here we go a way to be positive. What are three things that the developers could do to turn your opinion on this game? (1:03:40) Al: Remove romance. Don’t make it better. Just remove it. You don’t want romance in this game. (1:03:42) Codey: Okay, well, I also feel like (1:03:45) Al: You clearly don’t want to implement romance, so don’t do it. Just remove it. Delete it. (1:03:48) Codey: Yeah, okay, no romance done next (1:03:53) Al: Add characters into the game. There are only two characters that have any intrigue to me (1:03:59) Al: whatsoever. The dude who sells you seeds. Where does he come from? Why is he there? (1:04:04) Al: I need to know his story. I can’t even remember his name. (1:04:06) Codey: Back story of seed dude, next. (1:04:10) Al: And there’s an animal that is in the middle tree in Forest Island. There’s like an amalgamation (1:04:21) Al: of all the other animals. And they’re vaguely interesting. And if I were to continue playing (1:04:25) Al: it, which I’m not, it would be to find out the story behind that. But I suspect it’s (1:04:29) Al: not particularly interesting because when you start up, they don’t trust humans. And (1:04:35) Al: you’re like, “Oh, but I’m just here to help.” And then after a while they go, “Oh, maybe (1:04:38) Al: you’re here to help. (1:04:40) Al: And so I suspect that’s the whole story, right? (1:04:42) Al: It’s like, humans are bad. (1:04:44) Al: You don’t trust humans. (1:04:45) Al: Oh, not all humans. (1:04:48) Codey: #NotAllHuman (1:04:49) Al: I think that’s the whole story. (1:04:50) Al: But maybe give more interesting stuff there. (1:04:55) Al: And I don’t know, it’s hard to– because I feel like the thing that would make it more (1:05:02) Al: fun to play would be something else, like something in the game, some features in the (1:05:08) Al: game. (1:05:10) Al: I don’t think you can make the shop fun, right? (1:05:13) Al: Like, I just fundamentally don’t think that’s possible. (1:05:16) Al: So I don’t think I would do anything there. (1:05:18) Codey: Yeah! (1:05:18) Al: But I feel like there needs to be something to do. (1:05:22) Codey: What about like a minigame? (1:05:24) Al: I don’t think that would make it good. (1:05:26) Al: Like, my point is, like, I get up, I water my crops, I sell in the shop. (1:05:32) Al: And they want me to go romance a harvest sprite. (1:05:35) Al: Like, what else do they want me to do? (1:05:38) Al: Like the point in Stardew is like (1:05:40) Al: building relationships with the villagers, you’re trying to make the village better. (1:05:44) Al: Like yet they say like upgrade the island, but all you’re doing to upgrade is like (1:05:50) Al: is you’re doing the things and then you get there are animals on the island. (1:05:52) Codey: what about if each island has the different animals right and you go up to them and they’re (1:05:54) Al: Right? Like you’re not really getting any advantage from that. (1:06:04) Codey: like man I want more flowers and so you plant more flowers on that island or something like that (1:06:09) Al: Sure, there are no flowers in the game, but yeah. (1:06:11) Codey: but something like that like something where they’re like I want to like this space isn’t good (1:06:15) Codey: enough for me I want it to be improved and then as it’s improved maybe either they give you more (1:06:22) Codey: or maybe the animals are willing to like sell seeds to you for way cheaper than the other guy (1:06:28) Codey: so that maybe the money part gets fixed maybe just the money part actually because if upgrading your (1:06:36) Codey: shop takes 200k (1:06:38) Al: I think, I think this is the thing, right? Like this is the problem is that I feel like this game (1:06:43) Al: was made so that they made a farming game, right? But I would argue you should be making a farming (1:06:49) Al: game because you want to make a, like you want, you have an idea for what would make a good farming (1:06:55) Al: game. And I’m not sure what that idea here was, right? Like concerned ape went, I want a good (1:07:01) Al: farming game. He didn’t say I want to make a farming game. He said, I want a good farming game (1:07:05) Al: to play. Here are the ideas that I have. (1:07:06) Codey: Mm-hmm. (1:07:08) Al: And he went and did it. And every other good farming game that there’s been has gone, (1:07:12) Al: “These are things that I want to do. This is what I want to do in a farming game.” (1:07:16) Al: Whereas I honestly think that Roca Play went, “I want to release a farming game because people (1:07:22) Al: like farming games.” And they didn’t have an idea for what that would actually mean (1:07:24) Codey: Yeah (1:07:27) Al: and what would make theirs fun. (1:07:29) Codey: It does it I mean even the I mean we’ve memed on this game (1:07:34) Codey: ever since we talked about it because of the name like (1:07:38) Codey: s blank due Valley or like Island or whatever like just gives (1:07:45) Codey: It’s just like you’re trying to jump in on the thing and then people might be like, oh, let’s try this one (1:07:51) Codey: because it’s different than all the other ones I’ve tried and maybe this one. (1:07:54) Codey: This will be the right one and by that point, like maybe they can’t get their money back or whatever, you know, like, so I’m not sure. (1:08:03) Codey: Hopefully they will be taking feedback into account and increasing the quality of the game because that is a shame. (1:08:11) Al: Have you considered making a better game? (1:08:19) Al: It is a shame, because I don’t like knocking down indies, and I’m sorry, I hope you don’t (1:08:25) Al: listen to this because you’ll be really sad about what I’ve said, but maybe if you don’t (1:08:29) Al: want me to say bad things about your game, don’t make a bad game. (1:08:32) Codey: Yeah. I mean, when you make a thing and release it into the world, you are welcoming feedback. (1:08:40) Al: Yeah. (1:08:44) Al: Look, I think there’s something interesting in the “there is no time” and “time only (1:08:48) Al: progresses when you do a specific thing”. (1:08:52) Al: I think there’s something interesting there. (1:08:54) Al: Maybe do something with that. (1:08:55) Al: That is how I will finish on a positive note. (1:08:58) Al: I think that’s an interesting idea. (1:09:00) Codey: There you go (1:09:01) Al: Now make a good game with that concept. (1:09:03) Codey: You ruined it (1:09:05) Al: I think that’s a fun, interesting idea. (1:09:09) Al: - Bill Stop. - Cody. (1:09:11) Al: Thank you for joining me. Where can people find you on the internet? (1:09:11) Codey: Yeah. Of course, of course, I am on Instagram @hikingbeagle, B E E goal. That is where I talk (1:09:21) Codey: about my dogs and my ADHD. And you’ll always find me yap and about bugs. And then on blue sky, (1:09:30) Codey: which is just my name Cody Mathis. And that’s where I am still advocating for my neurodiversity, (1:09:38) Codey: but also government stuff and (1:09:41) Codey: more more science stuff for sure (1:09:46) Codey: About you where can people (1:09:47) Al: find me on this podcast. I don’t care. Go follow me on social media if you want. The links are (1:09:51) Al: out there. You can follow the podcast on Tumblr @thspod and also on Blue Sky. (1:09:54) Codey: Oop, I gotta post a photo to the Slack (1:09:58) Al: Oh. Yeah, this is the longest one since you started doing that. (1:09:58) Codey: and say you can’t watch this for a week. (1:10:05) Codey: And if you don’t know what we’re talking about, listeners, (1:10:07) Codey: you should go on the Slack. (1:10:11) Al: You can find us at our website, howeverseason.club, where you can send us feedback. (1:10:16) Al: Tell us why you want to play Sugar Jew Island and why you think it’s a good game, why you disagree with me. (1:10:23) Al: Please. I want somebody to tell me. Someone. Anyone. Anywhere. (1:10:27) Al: You can also find links to everything to do with the podcast, including our Patreon, patreon.com/dhspod. (1:10:33) Al: Go to our Patreon. Support the Patreon. Give me money. (1:10:37) Al: in exchange of giving me money, I will give you a slack. (1:10:41) Al: to see Cody’s pictures of things. (1:10:44) Codey: and this week I am going…I’m gonna post pictures of all of the different…how should I do bugs or (1:10:54) Codey: bugs or uh cute fuzzy things. Okay I’m gonna post a picture of all the fuzzy things that (1:11:00) Codey: I have been watching this week which is five. I’ve been watching much this week. (1:11:06) Al: If you enter the Slack, you can also talk to Cody about Downton Abbey. (1:11:10) Codey: Oh, yep, correct. I am super excited. (1:11:16) Al: And you also get access to our Boris podcast episodes. (1:11:21) Al: When is this episode releasing? (1:11:23) Al: This is releasing just before, just before, all of a sudden it was a Wednesday. (1:11:25) Codey: Wednesday, the 19th, the 19th. (1:11:30) Al: This is in a few days, we will be releasing our Pokemon Day predictions, which me and (1:11:37) Al: so come listen to us and tell us how wrong we are, because we’ll probably be very wrong. (1:11:43) Codey: Oh, interesting (1:11:44) Al: Well, you know, we’re always wrong. (1:11:47) Codey: Yeah, but it’s always fun to see how wrong you (1:11:50) Al: And we’re starting to think of the other bonus episodes for the year. (1:11:52) Al: I’m sure we’ll be having some Eurovision ones. (1:11:55) Al: I’ve been paying attention to what’s coming, what songs are released. (1:11:57) Codey: What else people wanted? (1:12:00) Codey: What did people want? (1:12:01) Codey: Oh, Bluey. (1:12:03) Al: Oh, yeah, we need to do the blue one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:12:05) Codey: People want a Bluey episode. (1:12:06) Al: I’ve got three episodes left to watch, and then I’ve watched. (1:12:09) Codey: Okay, cool. (1:12:10) Codey: And then we can talk about the currently, (1:12:13) Codey: what’s already been released, (1:12:15) Codey: but also what we would love to see in the new season. (1:12:19) Al: the film. Did you not know? 2027. Bluey film. I know. It really is. Yeah, um, those are coming (1:12:21) Codey: What? (1:12:23) Codey: No? (1:12:27) Codey: So far from now. (1:12:32) Codey: I’m Graham. (1:12:35) Al: up. That’s it. Thank you for listening. Thank you for joining me, Cody. I didn’t say Kevin. (1:12:40) Codey: I’m not Kevin. (1:12:42) Al: I said, “Cah-o-dee.” (1:12:45) Codey: It’s always, I always have a blast on this, (1:12:48) Codey: chatting with you. (1:12:49) Codey: It’s always fun, for sure. (1:12:50) Al: Until next time, have a good harvest. (1:12:52) Codey: Have a good harvest. (1:12:54) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinley, with support from our patrons, including our (1:13:04) Theme Tune: pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:13:07) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:13:12) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:13:18) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:13:28) Al: They’re very fuzzy. How are there so many dogs and cats? (1:13:30) Codey: uh except for the doberman he’s not that fuzzy (1:13:35) Codey: these so the cat is my is ann’s cat uh the bunny yeah um but I also watched (1:13:39) Al: Is that the person who’s over just now? (1:13:43) Codey: that cat her name is the cat’s name is rocky (1:13:45) Codey: um we rescued her on she was in the middle of a road (1:13:50) Codey: a busy four lane road and we drove by and I was like what is that (1:13:56) Codey: in the road and it was a freaking kitten like a he was she was like four weeks (1:14:00) Codey: younger and so now she’s probably like eight (1:14:06) Codey: months old she’s just a goober she’s a big old fluffy goober (1:14:09) Codey: um and then my dogs are clearly the ones that are mine (1:14:12) Codey: the doberman’s my tattoo artist’s dog and then the tongue out yorkie (1:14:16) Codey: is a dog that I just sit um I had her for (1:14:20) Codey: like five days and then I had her yesterday and then i’m gonna have her (1:14:22) Codey: tomorrow and then the bunny is i’ve been going and (1:14:26) Codey: and checking on him twice a day, and he is very cute.…

The Harvest Season

1
Good-Etama 1:19:33

20 วันที่แล้ว1:19:33

1:19:33

Al and Kev talk about Hello Kitty Island Adventure Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:30: What Have We Been Up To 00:22:51: Game News 00:36:43: Hello Kitty Island Adventure 01:16:05: Outro Links Ratopia 1.0 Grimoire Groves Release Sugardew Island Release The Ranchers Police District My Time at Sandrock Chibi Figurines Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:35) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:37) Kev: My name is Kevin, here with the vengeance. (0:00:40) Al: You sounded a little bit unsure about your name there. (0:00:42) Al: And we’re here today to talk about Cosco Games. (0:00:46) Kev: Woo! (0:00:48) Kev: I can’t get the wolf pack thing out of my head now. (0:00:51) Kev: They’re listening to last two weeks. (0:00:56) Al: This episode, we are going to talk about Hello Kitty Island. (0:01:00) Al: Adventure. Oh, but you’ve already talked about that. I hear you say, “Well, (0:01:05) Al: we’re going for the second harvest of it, because it has finally come out on Steam and Switch.” (0:01:08) Kev: Second Harvest. (0:01:14) Kev: Switch and other things, yes. (0:01:17) Al: You can tell what Kevin cares about. So, we’re going to talk about that. (0:01:19) Kev: Yeah, haha, yeah. (0:01:24) Kev: I don’t have a Steam Deck, so, well. (0:01:26) Al: Fair. Before that, we have some news. (0:01:31) Al: But first of all, Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:01:33) Kev: Oh, hello everyone. I have been up to work. I barely have, it’s been a lot done working. (0:01:42) Kev: I’m in one of those periods where I’m doing a lot of daily sort of stuff, comfort games. (0:01:51) Kev: And then the Zone Zero continues to be good. Marvel Snap, I’m playing Marvel Snap right now. (0:01:56) Kev: I know you’re not, I like to follow the channel, I know you’re not. That’s fine. (0:01:58) Al: I am not. No, no. I took a break from it because it was basically consuming me. (0:02:03) Kev: It’s consumed me. But I think it’s in a decent place, so I’m okay being consumed by Marvel Snap. (0:02:12) Kev: We got the new season based stuff, the Brave New World, the Red Hulk, and the new Captain America, all that good stuff. (0:02:21) Kev: Um… I… (0:02:22) Al: I have been occasionally looking at the, um, the new cards and stuff like that, but I haven’t (0:02:30) Al: looked at the new, the new season stuff. Is there anything that excites you? (0:02:34) Kev: Yeah, they’re interesting. Funnily enough, the one that excites me most is not related to the (0:02:44) Kev: movie. It’s a character called Diamondback. Diamondback is a type of rattlesnake, if you’re (0:02:50) Kev: not familiar. She’s part of a group called the Serpent Society. I can’t remember exactly what, (0:02:56) Kev: but she’s got one of those effects that lowers everyone else’s power on your head. (0:03:04) Kev: I think it doubles the amount lowered or something like that, so I’m excited by that. (0:03:10) Kev: Otherwise, the other stuff’s fine. None of it’s crazy game breaking. I’m more excited by (0:03:15) Al: Oh, is next month is it Daredevil stuff? No. Okay. (0:03:16) Kev: some stuff in the data points for next month, but yeah, the season’s okay. Next month is going to (0:03:24) Kev: be, oh, that’d be a good one, but no. They’re going to get the name of it. Basically, like ancient (0:03:34) Kev: like BC or whatever, Avengers BC, something like that. I don’t remember. Yeah, they have (0:03:40) Kev: some interesting effects. Otherwise, Marvel Snap is good. I can see my visual customizations and (0:03:53) Kev: stuff all during the whole match, not at just the beginning. (0:03:53) Al: All right, all right, all right, calm down, calm down. You just want to mock the Pokemon (0:04:04) Kev: That’s it. (0:04:04) Al: fans again. (0:04:06) Kev: Look, I had no problem with Pocket. (0:04:09) Kev: They’re the ones who are kind of shooting themselves (0:04:13) Kev: in the foot here. (0:04:14) Al: Oh, yeah, we don’t need to we talked about that so many times. I don’t think we need to talk about it again. (0:04:20) Kev: Yeah, I know. (0:04:21) Kev: I just– I feel bad for you guys, honestly. (0:04:25) Kev: But yeah, Marvel snaps. (0:04:26) Al: I mean, I don’t feel bad for me. I don’t particularly care because I’m just collecting, right? Yeah, I do some battles, but my main point is collecting, and that is what I’m doing, whereas with Marvel Snap, it’s much more a battle-focused game because there are fewer cards. (0:04:27) Kev: Good stuff. (0:04:40) Kev: Yeah, yeah, you know what, you’re right. If you’re just collecting pocket is still probably all right. Well, I’d say that but the trading I guess is cool as collecting related so (0:04:46) Al: It’s great. (0:04:52) Al: Look, it’s less bad than it was, but it’s still bad. (0:04:59) Kev: Oh, I get you I (0:05:02) Al: I like I will say I like how it’s actually implemented. (0:05:05) Al: The currencies are stupid. (0:05:06) Al: The restrictions are stupid, but I like the feature. (0:05:08) Kev: Yeah (0:05:08) Al: How is actually implemented? (0:05:10) Kev: Okay, well, there you go. I’m trying to clear that bar (0:05:17) Kev: But yeah, let’s see other than that (0:05:20) Kev: obviously (0:05:21) Kev: Super Mario Odyssey we were playing over that at triple-r. So I’ve been playing some of that too. That’s good stuff (0:05:29) Kev: What do I have to say? It’s super hard to see it’s a good game (0:05:34) Kev: And (0:05:35) Kev: Honestly this week it’s it’s largely been Hello Kitty because I’ve been trying to climb that in cuz (0:05:41) Kev: We did not have a lot of time (0:05:42) Kev: It was like what a week before recording roughly a little more than a week when it came out (0:05:46) Kev: So I got it and I’m rushing to get it to get through it (0:05:52) Kev: But yeah, and so you’ll hear my thoughts later. What about you? Well, what’s going on over there? (0:05:57) Al: I have, I mean, I wasn’t planning on talking about it, but yeah, I’ve been playing pocket (0:06:02) Al: as usual, got the new set, got most of the new set. So I’m continuing for another few (0:06:07) Al: weeks of getting no cards most days. (0:06:10) Kev: I will say I will say the Cynthia accessories packs that came out were (0:06:17) Kev: pretty good that was good stuff in fact it’s why don’t they make that real like (0:06:18) Al: - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:06:25) Al: I will only buy the stuff that is bundled with gold. (0:06:30) Al: I’m not gonna spend gold on those things (0:06:32) Al: because the problem there is like, (0:06:34) Al: I could use those gold cards (0:06:36) Al: rather than the accessories, right? (0:06:38) Kev: Mmm, that’s an excellent. (0:06:38) Al: That’s the problem. (0:06:39) Al: Whereas I bought both of the ones, (0:06:41) Al: so there was one with the first set (0:06:44) Al: and there’s one with the second set, (0:06:45) Al: which is like you buy it, and you get gold and cosmes. (0:06:49) Al: It’s like I will do that, because then I’m getting the gold as well. (0:06:52) Al: But yeah, I am definitely my fault (0:06:57) Al: and my problem that I’m getting the set so quickly, (0:07:02) Al: because what I’m doing, obviously, is I’m saving up my glasses (0:07:06) Al: and I’m spending some gold and I’m opening like 50 packs in the first couple of days. (0:07:11) Al: So obviously, I’m going to get most of the set when I do that. (0:07:14) Al: But it makes for a fun couple of days, at least. (0:07:19) Al: What else am I doing? (0:07:20) Al: I am continuing to play Harvest Moon Home, Sweet Home. (0:07:23) Al: So that is a thing that I’m still continuing. (0:07:26) Kev: Okay, okay. (0:07:28) Al: I might have more to say about that in a future episode, we’ll see. (0:07:32) Kev: I’m so, you know, I’m impressed you’re still playing I will say that that alone is a testament to the quality of the game (0:07:40) Kev: well relative to other (0:07:42) Kev: Natsume titles. (0:07:42) Al: Yeah, yeah. It’s yeah, okay, I’m not gonna say anything about it just now, but yeah, I’m I feel like I’m at I am actively enjoying myself. I think that’s as far as I’ll go at this point. I don’t think so. I think it’s just that the game gets better as you play it more, right? Because you unlock better tools and stuff and that makes some of the annoyances become less annoying, you know. (0:07:55) Kev: Is it Stockholm Syndrome? (0:08:10) Kev: Okay, that’s that is interesting (0:08:13) Al: » The other thing I’m playing just now is Sugardew Island because we’ll talk about that in the news. (0:08:18) Kev: Ah (0:08:19) Kev: You’re going for it. Oh, you need to what you need to get re-legend on there go for the hat trick (0:08:24) Al: But let’s talk about that in the news, but yeah, that is another thing I’ve been playing (0:08:28) Al: this week. (0:08:30) Al: And not a game, but Kevin, I have watched The Gifted. (0:08:34) Al: Have you ever seen The Gifted? (0:08:35) Kev: they gifted on no what is (0:08:37) Al: So this was one of the like 2017, 2018, 2019 X-Men series. (0:08:46) Kev: oh man oh this is one of those weird ones that okay does it do they even oh it has an x over the (0:08:54) Kev: I okay so they are using the x but oh this isn’t the new mutants this is okay okay (0:08:59) Al: No, no, no. So they had Legion and they had the Gifted. They were both around the same (0:09:06) Al: sort of time and Legion was obviously about Legion. And so that was very weird because, (0:09:12) Al: well, his powers are weird and his not powers are also weird. So that was definitely a weird (0:09:20) Al: show to watch, but I really liked that. The Gifted is much more kind of standard, I guess. (0:09:30) Al: The Arrowverse sort of stuff, but obviously Marvel, X-Men. And it’s much more like a group (0:09:33) Kev: Okay, ah, okay (0:09:38) Al: of mutants. It’s a group of mutants fighting against humans who are trying to kill them (0:09:45) Al: and the government is trying to kill them and blah, blah, blah, blah. And the funny (0:09:52) Al: thing about it is, it is probably the thing I’ve seen that has the most references to (0:09:57) Al: the X-Men without having a single X-Men. (0:09:59) Al: It feels like every episode they mention the X-Men. (0:10:05) Al: The starting point behind the series is the X-Men disappeared a few years ago. (0:10:11) Al: And then there was a horrible disaster in DC, (0:10:16) Al: where some unidentified mutant has some unidentified accident (0:10:22) Al: that means there’s basically a massive explosion and it kills a bunch of people. (0:10:26) Al: and so since then they set up this new (0:10:29) Al: government task force called Sentinel Services, of course, they have to use the name Sentinel. (0:10:34) Kev: Of course (0:10:36) Al: And Trask is mentioned, you know, the usual blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. (0:10:37) Kev: Do you get it do you get it out? (0:10:43) Al: And they’re set up to like, they start off by being like, oh, we are containing criminal (0:10:51) Al: mutants. But of course, it never stops at that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know (0:10:52) Kev: uh-huh (0:10:55) Kev: what (0:10:57) Al: exactly where that loops, right? (0:10:59) Al: So which by the by the way, it feels very painful watching this in 2025, just going (0:10:59) Kev: what (0:11:00) Kev: oh boy do I I (0:11:03) Kev: I see that (0:11:04) Kev: for IRL (0:11:10) Al: to just going to put that out there, you know, with the talk of like, you know, camps to (0:11:11) Kev: Ugh. (0:11:13) Kev: Ugh. (0:11:15) Kev: Ugh. (0:11:17) Kev: Ugh. (0:11:18) Al: put them in and, you know, let’s say, I kind of wish I’d watched it last year rather than (0:11:19) Kev: Aww, sick. (0:11:24) Al: this year, but… (0:11:25) Kev: This sounds like a fun segment. (0:11:28) Kev: I will describe the thing. (0:11:29) Al: So, the kind of main characters are, I don’t know if you’ve, oh, who are they called? (0:11:30) Kev: Is this a scene from “The Gifted”? (0:11:32) Kev: Or Trump’s first two weeks in office? (0:11:35) Kev: It would be both! (0:11:48) Al: Because I had not heard of them before, the Strucker Twins, that’s what it is. Do you know (0:11:53) Al: the Strucker Twins? (0:11:54) Kev: Okay, so I pulled up the wiki cuz I’m curious (0:11:57) Kev: This no, and I’m curious because is that any relation to Baron Von Strucker from Hydra? (0:11:59) Al: So, yes, kind of. So, what I’ll say is, in the comics, yes, but in the show, not really. (0:12:12) Kev: Okay, sure, okay (0:12:14) Al: So as far as I can see, in the comics, there are the Strucker Twins who are children of (0:12:24) Kev: - Yeah, I know the stroke of trains, twins. (0:12:24) Al: - Baron struck her. (0:12:25) Kev: I love Wanda and Pietro. (0:12:29) Al: - Yeah, well, yeah, there is a lot of similarities (0:12:32) Al: between these things. (0:12:33) Al: They are never mentioned, (0:12:36) Al: like Baron struck her is never mentioned in the series. (0:12:41) Al: So they could still be, (0:12:42) Kev: That’s good stuff (0:12:42) Al: so it’s not focusing on the two twins (0:12:46) Al: that are in the comics. (0:12:47) Al: It’s like they are great grandchildren (0:12:48) Kev: Yeah (0:12:52) Al: who are not twins either. (0:12:54) Al: They’re just brother and sister a few years apart, (0:12:56) Al: but they have the same powers (0:12:58) Al: as. (0:13:00) Al: The struggle twins did and there’s a whole thing around like their father was working for Sentinel Services and (0:13:10) Al: but it turns out he was actually secretly a mutant. He just didn’t know it because his father had cured the X gene in him blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like lots of complicated things around that. (0:13:23) Al: It was fine. I enjoyed it. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. (0:13:29) Al: But it wasn’t like I think Legion was a very good show and this was a fine show. It was fine. I enjoyed it. I’m glad I watched it. I’m a little bit annoyed because they cancelled it after season two but season two ended on a cliffhanger. (0:13:34) Kev: Okay, ah. (0:13:43) Kev: Oh, sick! That’s the best! (0:13:46) Al: And they did have a lot of different mutants with a lot of different powers, some of which you would recognize like they had Polaris who’s probably like the I guess the most well known one they had in the series. (0:13:56) Al: and they never mention my… (0:13:56) Kev: how crazy (0:13:59) Al: But. So they it’s very clear that they’re talking about him, but they never use his name, right? (0:14:00) Kev: I was about to say how crazy I imagine they didn’t and how crazy it is that we (0:14:04) Kev: got polaris but not (0:14:12) Al: So she constantly talks about her birth father and they talk about how, oh, she is the like, you know, (0:14:13) Kev: Right, right? (0:14:18) Al: she’s mutant royalty and all these things. (0:14:21) Al: Like, it’s so clear. (0:14:22) Al: It’s just like, did you not have the rights to the name? (0:14:26) Al: Like, that’s basically what it feels like, right? (0:14:27) Kev: Ohh, that’s great! I love that. (0:14:29) Al: Just say the name. Oh, my word. (0:14:31) Al: Everybody knows who you’re talking about. (0:14:36) Kev: Ohh, that’s so good. (0:14:39) Al: So, yeah, it’s I enjoyed it. (0:14:41) Al: It was fun. (0:14:43) Al: Yeah, I’ve kind of now I’ve not gone back to like the kind of like 90s and previous Marvel live action shows, but like everything post millennium. (0:14:56) Al: I’ve I’ve now watched all of them. (0:14:56) Kev: why not oh oh oh I thought you’re your 10 on it oh sure (0:14:59) Al: I’ve just not got there yet. (0:15:00) Al: Like, I’m obviously going to watch, you know, I’m obviously going. (0:15:04) Al: No, I just like you can’t watch everything all at the same time, right? (0:15:07) Al: You just have to get things slowly. (0:15:09) Al: So, like, obviously, I’m going to watch, you know, the Incredible Hulk. (0:15:12) Al: Lou Ferrigno’s Incredible Hulk. (0:15:14) Al: And I’ll see what I’ll think if there’s any others I want to watch. (0:15:17) Al: But like I’ve watched all the big live action Marvel ones, except for that Hulk show, I think. (0:15:26) Kev: Did you watch all of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.? (0:15:30) Al: Who knows if I’ll end up watching the like was it the 90s? (0:15:33) Al: There was a 90s Captain America, I think, and stuff like that. (0:15:36) Al: Who knows if I’ll get to watch them or not. (0:15:37) Kev: - Yeah. (0:15:39) Al: But yeah, that’s fun. (0:15:41) Al: I might go. (0:15:42) Al: I’ll probably watch a bunch of animated stuff first. (0:15:48) Kev: Yeah, you’re probably better off and watch that Iron Man with the mullet (0:15:48) Al: But I think I might go into. (0:15:53) Al: Well, I probably will end up going with some DC stuff first, right? (0:15:59) Al: 90s animated Batman and stuff like that. (0:16:02) Kev: wait have you never seen or wow yeah yeah of course right like i (0:16:03) Al: I haven’t. (0:16:05) Al: I mean, I’ve seen clips here and there, but I’ve not seen full episodes. (0:16:09) Al: Yeah. (0:16:09) Kev: assume you’ve seen but wow oh man you’re in a tree forget all (0:16:14) Kev: everything else like you’ve ever listed wow (0:16:16) Al: So I’ve got that to watch. (0:16:17) Kev: batman (0:16:18) Al: And I think there’s one really good Justice League one, (0:16:21) Al: I think, isn’t there, that people always talk about. (0:16:23) Kev: yes so yeah so that’s the dcau the dc animated universe that started off with (0:16:26) Al: Yeah. (0:16:28) Kev: the 90s batman and they just kind of went off there (0:16:30) Al: Yeah. (0:16:32) Kev: because it’s all in the same cannon (0:16:32) Al: Yeah, I’ve got a list from our mutual friend, Alex. (0:16:38) Al: He sent me a spreadsheet with basically all of the stuff (0:16:42) Al: that he cares about, and like a column that says, (0:16:45) Al: whether this is a must watch. (0:16:47) Al: Should watch or you can skip it sort of thing. (0:16:50) Al: So I will probably start watching those. (0:16:53) Kev: Oh, man, I’m excited for you. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts. (0:16:56) Al: Well, I was surprised with how few episodes there are (0:17:00) Al: in the original Batman, the animated series from the 90s. (0:17:03) Al: Like there aren’t actually that many. (0:17:03) Kev: Yeah, it’s well, are you counting? (0:17:05) Al: 85 episodes. (0:17:06) Al: It’s four seasons. (0:17:09) Al: Well, okay. (0:17:10) Al: Oh, yes, I remember this one. (0:17:11) Al: This was weird because it’s like listed in my app, my TV tracking app. (0:17:15) Al: season one has six (0:17:16) Al: like 60 episodes. Two and three have 10 each and then four has five. So it looks (0:17:22) Al: like they got really confused as to what seasons were. (0:17:26) Kev: That’s, that is very odd. (0:17:29) Al: It’s one of those ones that’s going to be super fun to try and watch everything because (0:17:33) Al: they’re in weird orders and they can’t decide what like there’ll be three specific episodes (0:17:39) Al: that are only on one random service. It’s like I’ve been trying to watch for a couple (0:17:44) Al: For years now, I’ve been trying to finish watching. (0:17:46) Al: So I’ve done all of seasons one to five, except three specific episodes from season (0:17:48) Kev: Ha ha ha, good luck with that! (0:17:57) Al: five. No, they’re not the last three episodes. They’re episodes 51 and 52 of 54. And I’ve (0:18:06) Al: also watched episode 14 of season six. Why? Who knows? (0:18:14) Al: So Netflix had seasoned. (0:18:16) Al: It’s like there are some episodes of each of those seasons on some services but like (0:18:30) Kev: Uh, probably I don’t know that thing’s eternal. It is wild to think. (0:18:40) Al: five episodes of season six or on one random service and then there’s like two episodes (0:18:45) Al: of Season 8, and then (0:18:47) Al: like 20 episodes of Season 7, and I know it doesn’t matter, I don’t need to watch this show in order, because this is the least, the show where like continuity matters the least, right? Because everything, it’s like the Simpsons, right? There’s very few things that actually change, right? So it doesn’t matter. But some small things matter, right? Like there was an arc of like five episodes where they had a new character. And if you randomly watched the third episode of that, you’d be like, who is this? (0:18:58) Kev: Oh, yeah. (0:19:16) Al: Random character, why are they here? But it doesn’t happen very often. And so it’s hard to predict. That’s the problem. (0:19:18) Kev: that is true (0:19:20) Kev: yeah (0:19:22) Kev: yeah you’re right (0:19:24) Kev: oh that’s, that’s incredible (0:19:24) Al: I’m (0:19:26) Kev: good times, good times (0:19:28) Kev: um (0:19:30) Kev: oh man, I’m, I’m (0:19:32) Kev: like, I think I’m honestly way (0:19:34) Kev: more excited for uh (0:19:36) Kev: uh you to go through the DC stuff (0:19:38) Kev: stuff cause the plot is so (0:19:40) Kev: higher in general, um on the small (0:19:40) Al: Yeah, I think I’ve watched all of the actually good Marvel animated stuff. (0:19:42) Kev: screen (0:19:46) Kev: Wait, did you watch our spider? (0:19:46) Al: I’ve watched… I have not, no. Is that one I need to watch? (0:19:48) Kev: Do you watch these terrors? (0:19:52) Kev: You didn’t watch? Oh my goodness! (0:19:54) Kev: Yes! (0:19:54) Al: Calm down. It’s so easy not to watch things. So which was this one? (0:19:58) Al: So Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, you say it’s called. Is that all it’s called? (0:20:00) Kev: this was yeah yeah avengers or smite’s heroes yes it was a um yes um it’s late (0:20:04) Al: Oh, it’s got Avengers in the name, right? Okay. (0:20:08) Al: the avenger’s earth’s mightiest heroes this is from (0:20:10) Al: 2010 yeah two seasons 26 episodes each 2010 to 2012 (0:20:12) Kev: yeah let’s say late 22,000 early 2010s yeah um that okay so that is probably the best (0:20:22) Kev: animated marvel project no that well okay no hold on let me uh (0:20:25) Al: oh really better than X-Men and Spider-man (0:20:29) Kev: Better than– you know what? (0:20:31) Kev: I’ll say– that might be– that’s tough to say. (0:20:35) Al: I’m going to need to post in Slack, haven’t I, and say, what are the must-watch Marvel (0:20:41) Al: animated ones, and make sure that I’ve watched all of them. (0:20:41) Kev: OK, well, I will say Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (0:20:46) Kev: is a must-watch. (0:20:48) Kev: At the very least, it is probably (0:20:50) Kev: one of the definitive pieces of Avengers– (0:20:53) Kev: no, not the– it is the definitive piece (0:20:55) Kev: of Avengers media, because it came out (0:20:56) Al: Okay, fair enough. (0:21:01) Kev: to the MCU film Avengers. (0:21:04) Al: Yeah, just in the run-up to it basically. (0:21:05) Kev: So it– yes. (0:21:09) Kev: And so it got to cover everything before, (0:21:13) Kev: like all the classic Avengers stories, (0:21:15) Kev: more or less, and the characterizations. (0:21:16) Al: It’s not it’s not in the same continuity, right? It’s not. (0:21:19) Kev: It is not, no. (0:21:21) Kev: So it is excellent, excellent, excellent. (0:21:24) Kev: And sadly, the MCU actually killed it. (0:21:27) Kev: First off, they delayed the second season by a year or two. (0:21:30) Kev: It would coincide with the release of the MCU Avengers film, more or less, and then after that, they cancelled the series to start a new series that was more MCU related or closer to that. (0:21:46) Kev: And it’s trying to shame. (0:21:48) Al: These things are so much easier to keep track of than to catch up on, right? (0:21:55) Al: People always talk, oh, there’s so much Marvel stuff now. (0:21:58) Al: But I feel like you just weren’t paying attention if you didn’t think there was (0:22:02) Al: a lot of Marvel stuff before, right? Like, there’s so many things. (0:22:03) Kev: Oh yeah, no, there’s always there’s so much Marvel stuff (0:22:08) Kev: much spectacular spider-man (0:22:10) Al: I know, but it’s on my list. (0:22:12) Kev: Okay, good cuz yeah, okay like I’d put Avengers like right up there a spectacular aired around the same time, too (0:22:21) Kev: like they’re just the definitive things for their respective series more or less like as much as I love 90s spider-man cuz it’s so (0:22:28) Kev: campy and ridiculous and ingrained into my (0:22:31) Kev: » The Spectacular Spider-Man. (0:22:33) Kev: Is the actual one you should watch because that’s the good one and actually does everything correctly. (0:22:38) Al: Okay, fair enough. (0:22:38) Kev: Yeah, but yeah, I can’t. Oh, man, you still got a lot of good stuff ahead. I’m very excited for you. (0:22:46) Al: There’s always more stuff to watch. (0:22:47) Kev: All right. (0:22:48) Al: I think that’s me. (0:22:51) Al: All right, let’s talk about some news. (0:22:53) Al: First up, we have RATOPIA, which is like a town builder. (0:23:01) Al: Farming survival game, however you want to describe it. (0:23:02) Kev: the rat topia builder, the rat village builder. (0:23:07) Al: It is going to hit 1.0 on the first of May. (0:23:11) Al: A-woo! (0:23:12) Kev: I’d I’m real for that. I’m gonna play that because I like 1.0s and this is a cool (0:23:18) Kev: I’ve always thought this is a cool one cuz it’s I mean one it’s it’s kind of that (0:23:23) Kev: side 2d (0:23:25) Kev: araria-esque (0:23:27) Kev: Gameplay, but it’s rats. So that’s that’s way more fun (0:23:30) Al: It is rats, you’re correct. Yeah, I have a feeling I’m going to play this one, but I (0:23:40) Al: don’t know how I’m going to feel about it, but I’m intrigued by it. Because you’re playing (0:23:45) Al: a specific character in this one, aren’t you? It’s not management style, which is what I (0:23:48) Kev: You it looks like it you’re playing (0:23:52) Kev: Yeah (0:23:52) Al: I really don’t like about time builders. So we’ll see. (0:23:54) Kev: Yeah (0:23:57) Kev: Yeah, yeah we will see I’m excited (0:24:01) Kev: Yeah, I like I like rodents and rodent (0:24:06) Al: Next we have Grimoire Groves, they’ve announced that they’re releasing on the 4th of March. (0:24:11) Al: I think they had a new trailer as well. (0:24:12) Kev: okay now hold on my same I’m ready to open I have to double-check I have a lot (0:24:18) Kev: of links open I forget which ones it’s (0:24:20) Al: This is a witch-based one, you know, it’s a roguelike dungeon crawler. (0:24:25) Kev: all networks you got us (0:24:29) Al: Sorry, cozy roguelike dungeon crawler with witches. (0:24:32) Kev: there we go that’s what we need (0:24:34) Al: Join the… (0:24:36) Al: I’ve been watching this one for ages. I don’t think I realized it was Roguelike. (0:24:40) Kev: I didn’t either, um, it’s, it’s, okay, look, I’m looking, are we rewatching the trailer? (0:24:49) Kev: This, yeah, okay, yeah, this is, this is a very much more cozy, pretty, cold blue lamb. (0:24:56) Kev: That’s what it really looks like. (0:24:58) Kev: Um, yeah, yeah, the art style is very fun. (0:24:58) Al: I like how the game looks, like graphics-wise, really nice. (0:25:03) Kev: It’s very colorful, psychedelic, look like it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s out there. (0:25:11) Kev: Um, I, some of the gameplay stuff looks interesting. (0:25:16) Kev: You’re casting a lot of, it’s not like, uh, of the lamb was, you know, sword, weapon, (0:25:21) Kev: game play or whatever, you’re casting a lot of stuff here. (0:25:24) Kev: Um, wow. (0:25:25) Kev: Even some of those icons for speaking, um, I’m, I’m, my interest has been piqued. (0:25:32) Al: Well that’s a good point. Is it, is it, is it roguelite like Cult of the Lamb is roguelite, (0:25:37) Al: where you have your like area that you build up and you go out on runs to get stuff? That’s (0:25:41) Kev: It sure looks like it because the farming you’re growing plants that’s advertised clearly in the trailer (0:25:43) Al: a good point. Yeah. Oh no. Is this actually going to be the second roguelite I actually like? (0:25:53) Al: Because it does the thing that I like. (0:25:54) Kev: Maybe it looks like it has a lot going for it. I’ll say that (0:25:58) Al: It doesn’t make it clear in the description exactly what the rules are. (0:26:02) Al: I’m going to have to buy this game now I’m an eye. Boo! (0:26:04) Kev: yeah (0:26:06) Kev: um (0:26:07) Kev: but hey (0:26:12) Kev: all gosh yes (0:26:14) Al: And then people can mock me for buying another rogue light. (0:26:16) Kev: there will be a demo updated demo on february seventeenth (0:26:20) Kev: if you want to try it out before you buy (0:26:22) Al: Maybe, maybe. That is what I probably should do. That is not what I tend to do. (0:26:28) Kev: It’s a good idea. (0:26:29) Kev: I’m not gonna do it. (0:26:32) Al: Uh speaking of games that I buy for some reason uh Sugajou Island have announced that they’re (0:26:40) Al: releasing on the 7th of March uh but the game is out now already for Kickstarter backers so if you (0:26:46) Al: backed it like me uh you have you should have your key by now um also the physical version is coming (0:26:54) Kev: I’ve got to say, I am impressed that a game has made it this far just by flying too close to the sun and coughing Stardew with changing the name up a little. (0:27:02) Al: I just, I hate myself every time I see the name. (0:27:07) Kev: Like, I’ll be like, I’m not even going to judge the gameplay because I’m not even, I haven’t looked at it closely enough, but this thing is going by its name alone like 90%. Let’s, let’s be quite honest. (0:27:21) Kev: Um… (0:27:22) Al: Yeah, I’m obviously going to talk about the game more in the future, not in this episode. (0:27:29) Al: It’s not top tier farming game, let’s put it that way. (0:27:32) Kev: I mean, it’s sure sure (0:27:35) Al: It’s not the absolute worst farming game I’ve played, though. (0:27:39) Kev: Sure, you know what you’re right the bar is high or very low depending on the direction (0:27:41) Al: Yeah, it has gone straight through the middle of that as meh. (0:27:50) Kev: Okay, you know is is that better or worse for it, I don’t know but (0:27:56) Al: Yeah, I’m gonna have a lot to say in the next episode probably (0:28:03) Al: But yeah, that’s that’s my initial thought is it is okay (0:28:10) Kev: there you go put that on the box (0:28:13) Al: They have already to be fair to them they have already fixed multiple thing multiple issues I had with the game (0:28:20) Al: So that is something (0:28:22) Kev: all right well you know that is uh that is like good just across the board when a developer (0:28:29) Kev: cares about uh their you know supporting and whatnot so I will say that good on them for that bit (0:28:38) Al: OK, so next we have this is interesting. (0:28:42) Al: Did you look at these links before the podcast? (0:28:44) Al: Just before we talk about this? (0:28:46) Al: OK, so just for the listeners, I’m going to try and explain what we’re looking at (0:28:51) Al: here. This is so that the game is the ranchers. (0:28:56) Al: We’ve talked about it before. (0:28:57) Al: It’s a farming game. (0:28:59) Al: It’s an open world farming game. (0:29:02) Al: What’s interesting is they’ve introduced police. (0:29:08) Al: And. (0:29:09) Kev: Aww, sick. (0:29:11) Al: I think I can describe this as they’re it basically seems like they’re turning (0:29:16) Al: this game into grand theft farm. (0:29:19) Kev: Yep, I was about to say, like, the game is called The Ranchers, but nothing on the Steam page is a ranch. (0:29:27) Al: There’s cows. What are you talking about? (0:29:34) Kev: Wait did I miss them? Oh, yeah on the cover. I see you’re right. There’s the image (0:29:34) Al: So, this is, yeah. So, they’re calling this the Ranchers Police District Update. Now don’t (0:29:45) Al: be confused. This is not like a game update. This is just like an information update. They’re (0:29:51) Al: describing this feature that’s going to be in the game, because this game isn’t out yet. (0:29:55) Al: not in Ali access. And I. (0:29:57) Al: They say I’m excited to introduce our newest feature, (0:30:01) Al: the ranchers police district, which by the way, just as a, (0:30:04) Al: just as a startup, this is what we all want is more police. (0:30:10) Al: Secondly, they say from the start, (0:30:13) Al: the ranchers has given you tons of freedom to play the game your way. (0:30:16) Al: You can stick to the rules and enjoy a calm, relaxed experience, (0:30:18) Al: or you can mix things up, maybe even try something a little daring, (0:30:22) Al: like swiping NPCs, crops, cars, cows, or chickens, (0:30:26) Al: vandalizing public. (0:30:27) Al: property or even shaking up national security for a little bit of mischief. Ultimately, (0:30:32) Al: it’s your call and you probably have your own reasons for how you play. Before, if you (0:30:37) Al: got caught, the game would hit you with a fine to teach you a lesson. Harsh and not (0:30:40) Al: very fun, especially in open world farming sim where freedom is key. Now, things feel (0:30:45) Al: a bit more like real life. Your actions have consequences. Each misdeed you commit will (0:30:50) Al: trigger a reaction from the rancher’s beliefs, giving you the freedom to deal with it your (0:30:55) Al: You can pay up, surrender, or even poo- (0:30:57) Al: things further at your own risk and potential reward. (0:31:02) Kev: Aww. (0:31:03) Al: So you can get arrested in this game, basically. (0:31:06) Kev: Yeah. (0:31:08) Kev: Yeah. (0:31:11) Al: Part of me is like, I hate it. (0:31:14) Kev: Yeah. (0:31:16) Al: And part of me is like, I actually kind of like it, (0:31:19) Al: because this is trying to do something different with farming games, (0:31:22) Al: which is such a rare thing nowadays, right? (0:31:24) Al: - Okay. (0:31:24) Kev: If that is true (0:31:25) Al: Thank you. (0:31:28) Al: What I also find really interesting is the comments on the Kickstarter. (0:31:32) Al: Can you see the Kickstarter? (0:31:33) Al: I don’t know if that’s backers only. (0:31:35) Al: Oh no, I’m not a backer. (0:31:36) Kev: let’s see here (0:31:36) Al: I’m not a backer, am I? (0:31:38) Al: Oh no, I did back it. (0:31:40) Kev: you back this all sick (0:31:42) Al: I don’t even remember backing this game. (0:31:46) Al: Oh man, I am not to be trusted with Kickstarter. (0:31:51) Al: I don’t think this is a backers only update. (0:31:54) Al: But anyway, the comments are… (0:31:57) Al: really not positive from this. One is like, “Are you sure you aren’t just trolling everyone (0:32:04) Al: with this? April 1st is quite some time away. I definitely did not want GTA.” (0:32:07) Kev: Aww yeah! (0:32:11) Al: “I was all for this game until this update. If I wanted police in the game I’m playing, (0:32:14) Al: I wouldn’t play a cosy farming sim.” Yeah, I agree, but also I don’t agree. I’m not (0:32:23) Al: Really sure. On Steam, there are 26 comments, but there’s a hundred. (0:32:27) Al: And 26 thumbs up. So I don’t think it’s clear cut. (0:32:34) Al: People hate this. I think it’s like there’s a lot of thoughts on this. (0:32:40) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I’m sure, I’m sure. (0:32:43) Al: You’re sure what? (0:32:44) Kev: Yeah, I’m sure there’s a lot of comments. (0:32:46) Kev: Like, it’s so crazy. (0:32:48) Kev: Like, something we didn’t even mention (0:32:52) Kev: is like, on the Steam page, the image next to the title. (0:32:56) Kev: Like, it’s, suppose we’re talking cozy or whatever, (0:32:59) Kev: but like, that looks like an 80s action here, (0:33:01) Kev: a movie poster guy. (0:33:02) Al: Yeah, it really does. (0:33:07) Kev: It’s wild. (0:33:08) Al: It doesn’t look like, it definitely doesn’t look like a rancher, that’s for sure. (0:33:10) Kev: Yeah, yeah, man, this is incredible, because like you said, (0:33:17) Kev: it’s grand theft farming, it really looks like that. (0:33:23) Kev: Cuz it’s nothing here looks like your typical cozy stuff. (0:33:31) Kev: And it’s new ideas, stuff that we don’t see normally and so on and so forth or (0:33:37) Kev: whatever, but it’s it’s just (0:33:40) Kev: I guess it’s just the context like this isn’t what you’d expect. (0:33:44) Kev: Um… (0:33:46) Al: This is the thing, it’s a balance, right? (0:33:47) Al: You will either love this because it’s doing something different or you’ll (0:33:51) Al: hate it because it’s not a cosy feature. (0:33:56) Al: But I kind of love that you can like just steal crops from the other townspeople. (0:34:02) Al: Like that, I kind of like that. (0:34:04) Al: Like I wouldn’t want, I don’t think I’d want that in Stardew. (0:34:06) Al: But like, how many times have you gone, you’d seen someone with crops outside (0:34:11) Al: their house and gone, “Oh, I wish I could just get them.” (0:34:14) Kev: Yeah, that is kind of fun. You’re right. You’re right. I like this concept, too (0:34:19) Al: I don’t know whether this will make it a fun game or not, but I am all in on seeing. (0:34:21) Kev: Um (0:34:23) Kev: I don’t either (0:34:27) Al: Let’s see, why not? (0:34:28) Kev: They’ve they’ve caught our attention they’ve caught our attention i’ll see i’ll say that. Um (0:34:29) Al: What’s the worst that happens? (0:34:31) Al: Yeah, for sure. (0:34:37) Kev: it’s it’s (0:34:39) Kev: Uh, yeah, um, I don’t know i’m excited to see more of this (0:34:41) Al: we will keep an eye on it and uh oh I mean I feel like i’ll definitely (0:34:50) Kev: Oh, oh, I’m I (0:34:55) Al: All right, and our final piece of news, our final piece of news is, my time at Sandrock (0:34:56) Kev: Feel like we have hops and robs (0:35:04) Al: have released a set of chibi figurines. (0:35:10) Kev: Yeah, they’re fine. (0:35:12) Kev: The figures are cute. (0:35:13) Kev: I’ll say that. (0:35:14) Kev: I’ll give them that. (0:35:14) Al: I don’t care about the characters, so it’s not like I’m going to buy them, but yeah. (0:35:18) Kev: Oh yeah, I don’t either. (0:35:20) Kev: Just say they’re cute quality. (0:35:21) Al: Yeah. (0:35:21) Kev: I don’t know what these people are or anything. (0:35:24) Al: Yeah, I would buy these if these were stardew characters. (0:35:24) Kev: I have no investment. (0:35:28) Kev: Oh, you know, I’m shocked that (0:35:31) Kev: Concerned Dave has never done that. (0:35:32) Kev: Like I feel there’s a gold mine to be made. (0:35:35) Al: like it’s a lot of effort to put into these things right and he made enough money with the game that (0:35:42) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I guess I guess that’s it. I guess that’s it, but you know (0:35:42) Al: he doesn’t need to whereas with like the the concert I feel like is something that he really (0:35:52) Al: wanted to do he made a joke in (0:35:53) Kev: Oh, yeah, clearly yeah, that is one thing concerned a but everything he does he does it cuz he cares (0:36:00) Al: in the the pamphlet for I can’t remember what it’s called like the leaflet thing that you get at (0:36:05) Al: the concert it says um the program yeah he made a joke in it that he used to be uh I can’t remember (0:36:14) Al: the exact wording but basically he used to be a musician that was his thing um but he couldn’t (0:36:19) Al: get anyone to buy his music and all he needed to do was make a very successful game for people to (0:36:23) Al: like his music that was it (0:36:25) Kev: That’s what it was all about, that was the long con, I love that, what a giga-chat move. (0:36:31) Kev: I’m going to make a successful video game, like genre-defining game, just so people can (0:36:35) Al: there you go all right that’s the news we are now gonna go into our second harvest of (0:36:39) Kev: buy my music. (0:36:47) Al: helikity island adventure so just for context I played this for a couple weeks when it first (0:36:54) Al: came out on ios and ipad os apple arcade that’s where it was it came out in apple arcade um (0:37:02) Al: play that on my iPad because I don’t have an iPhone. (0:37:06) Al: And I thought it was a really fun game, but I really hated using the touchscreen controls for it. (0:37:13) Al: So I was really excited to play it, not on a touchscreen. You obviously did not play it (0:37:19) Al: when it came out in Apple Arcade, but you were excited to play it. (0:37:22) Kev: I’ve never owned an Apple device in my life. (0:37:25) Kev: Very much so, because it looks wild, and guess what it is wild? (0:37:30) Al: I bought it on Steam, been playing on my Steam Deck, you bought it on Switch, (0:37:34) Al: and you’ve been playing on your switch. (0:37:35) Al: I guess, do we even need to do a quick intro to this game? (0:37:36) Kev: Yep, that’s correct. (0:37:40) Al: I feel like we don’t, because I feel like people know what this game is, (0:37:43) Al: because it’s been so in the news everywhere, right? (0:37:44) Kev: well you’re right it’s okay so well first of all it’s been a minute since (0:37:49) Al: How would you describe it then after having played it a little? (0:37:52) Kev: yeah I i will because I think it has been in the news but it’s also been a (0:37:55) Kev: minute since you know uh the the original episode of (0:37:59) Kev: maddie um so i’ll i’ll look (0:38:00) Al: you know the number of people that i’ve seen who make it who clearly don’t know that this was (0:38:04) Al: released before they’re like oh there’s a new game and it’s like well it’s just right go for (0:38:06) Kev: yeah yeah how about that yeah (0:38:11) Al: it then describe describe it because obviously I was on the previous episode you were not uh so tell (0:38:15) Kev: right (0:38:16) Al: me how you would describe this game having now played it for a bit (0:38:19) Kev: okay so like I think the biggest or easiest comparison point is animal (0:38:26) Kev: crossing new horizons because joker shocker I know (0:38:27) Al: - What? (laughs) (0:38:33) Kev: guess what you’ve got crafting you’ve got a house with furniture you’ve got (0:38:36) Kev: clothing you’ve got friend and neighbors and (0:38:39) Kev: villagers that you can gift things to shockers (0:38:42) Kev: But, it’s all San Río. (0:38:44) Kev: So, you got Hello Kitty and all the characters and whatnot, right? (0:38:49) Kev: Now, with that said, it is a bit more dynamic than Animal Crossing because you are climbing mountains, you’re diving into the ocean, (0:39:01) Kev: you’re, uh, there’s little mini-games and ruins to explore. (0:39:08) Kev: So, you’ve got this open-world island to explore while collecting stuff and– (0:39:14) Kev: catching critters and all this stuff. (0:39:16) Kev: Um, so yeah, so take one part Animal Crossing, one part San Río, and one part, maybe Breath of the Wild ‘cause they understand when we all start. (0:39:25) Al: So this is the thing, I jokingly said Breath of the Wild to people on Slack, but the more (0:39:31) Al: I think about it, the more I actually don’t think that’s a joke. It’s obviously not as (0:39:37) Al: big and as expansive and whatever, but the exploring feels so good. And let me tell you, (0:39:39) Kev: right (0:39:41) Kev: There’s no combat (0:39:48) Al: it feels so much better being able to play with a controller than using the touchscreen, (0:39:52) Al: But, like, that has not changed. (0:39:55) Al: It’s not changed since the first time I’ve done it, just the idea of being able to go like, “Oh, there’s a hill, there’s a volcano there, let me climb that volcano,” and you can just figure out how to do it, even though you know you’re not really meant to be going there yet, right? (0:40:09) Kev: Yeah (0:40:09) Al: Like, you’ve not progressed the story to that point, but you can just make it work. (0:40:11) Kev: What I wanted to Ritsuko was up there, I really wanted to clivet volcano (0:40:17) Al: And you can, and this is the thing, it’s designed in such a way that, like, you have a stamina bar, and, like, you can’t just climb straight up forever. (0:40:25) Al: There’s little ledges, and there’s, like, other things you can climb up on, and you can rest, and you can get anywhere you want to if you really want to. (0:40:26) Kev: Yeah, but if you look yep (0:40:33) Kev: Yup pretty much right like sometimes it’s real hard like sometimes it’s challenging (0:40:39) Kev: But if you try you get you really scrape and look for you can find a way (0:40:46) Al: You know the meme, this is why I don’t do X anymore, there’s too many sweats. (0:40:46) Kev: Yeah (0:40:50) Al: I feel like that, but with this, right? (0:40:50) Kev: Yeah (0:40:52) Al: This is why I don’t play Hello Kitty anymore, there are too many sweats. (0:40:59) Kev: Okay, so um and okay, and so of course the game like it begins with as (0:41:06) Kev: So you’ve lauded so many times Alan rightfully, so it begins with jumping out of a plane (0:41:13) Al: And a snake, a snake’s on a plane reference. (0:41:15) Kev: Everyone’s a (0:41:17) Kev: Snakes on a plane reference (0:41:20) Kev: there (0:41:21) Kev: Okay, so we you know remember you describing that you’ve told me that before and (0:41:26) Kev: You know I thought that was wild but then I when I played it the the crazy part to me is there was no (0:41:32) Kev: actual reason to jump from (0:41:35) Kev: there was I’ve been shooting out a lot of cake and I (0:41:40) Kev: Don’t know well inconvenient. I don’t think (0:41:40) Al: just gets fed up and says ‘I’m fed up of these cakes on this plane’ and then just jumps out the plane. (0:41:46) Kev: And everyone’s like all right, we’re going let’s do it. We’re falling (0:41:48) Al: Yeah, yeah. That’s the weirdest bit. Is it like, ‘Okay, fine. I bet. Let’s do this.’ (0:41:55) Kev: uh oh my gosh oh so yeah that that’s our premise um I i like that little intro (0:42:02) Al: I just thought you go up, you go up to, you go up to Hello Kitty and she’s like, “Oh, (0:42:08) Al: here are some balloons. (0:42:09) Al: Trust me.” (0:42:10) Al: And you’re like, “Do I, do I trust you with balloons?” (0:42:14) Al: Well, yeah, no. (0:42:16) Kev: well it worked also you get a diving like air skydiving minigame which go (0:42:22) Kev: through the rings I don’t even know if they get you anything but or if you ever (0:42:24) Al: I don’t know, I don’t think, I don’t know if you do ever do that again, obviously you (0:42:26) Kev: do that again (0:42:29) Al: use the balloons again, right, like you can jump off things and use the balloons, but (0:42:33) Al: I don’t think that minigame type thing is ever in the game again, I don’t know, I mean (0:42:39) Al: I’ve not finished it, so maybe there is a time, but yeah, it’s really weird. (0:42:44) Kev: And you go through rings, but I don’t remember getting anything for going through there (0:42:50) Al: to get satisfaction of having gone through the rings. (0:42:53) Kev: Yeah, yeah, that’s pretty much and then you know, that’s fine (0:42:57) Kev: Okay, so (0:43:00) Kev: First okay one of the actually before you jump off the plane you design your character (0:43:05) Kev: And I love the freedom in that because you can be because we’re talking Sanrio, right? (0:43:11) Kev: So we’ve got all the different critters and animals and you can (0:43:14) Kev: be pretty much anyone you want. I think the options for customizing is pretty fun. What (0:43:21) Kev: was your little avatar? A dog? Yeah. Styles, breeds or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, like you can (0:43:23) Al: Yeah I’m a dog but yeah I like it they’ve got like I think it’s like eight different animals and then within the animals they’ve got different face shapes and they’re like dramatically different styles of them and then yeah you can like change your bunch of other stuff. (0:43:42) Kev: be a bird, and in the birds, you can be a bird. (0:43:44) Kev: I’m a penguin, or like a falcon, or blue jay, or whatever. (0:43:47) Kev: Mine looks like a blue jay, basically. (0:43:49) Kev: I got a little pen that looks like a blue jay in the shape of that. (0:43:52) Al: I chose the fattest dog that existed in the list, I couldn’t really describe what type (0:43:59) Al: of dog it looked like, but yeah, it was just the chubbiest, comfiest looking dog. (0:44:02) Kev: Yeah, yeah, the wall like a brick house (0:44:08) Kev: Yeah, like that’s a good one (0:44:11) Kev: So, um, you know, I think I should (0:44:16) Kev: Before continuing I should declare I don’t know Sanrio very well to be quite Frank (0:44:21) Kev: I know Hello Kitty because one of the most iconic (0:44:22) Al: Me neither. (0:44:26) Kev: Characters ever created right dominates Japan (0:44:30) Kev: But I don’t know the (0:44:32) Kev: rest of the cast that well. So this is my first venture into the Senri universe. (0:44:36) Kev: I knew Agritsuko because her anime was pretty popular. I didn’t watch it, but I (0:44:41) Kev: knew the character. And I love how she’s treated as the the kind of the outsider. (0:44:48) Kev: Everyone else is friends, but she doesn’t know anyone. That was kind of cute. But (0:44:53) Kev: yeah, it’s been fun to meet all these characters. Bompurin is the best. I’m a (0:45:02) Kev: Bompurin. Yeah, the carapace is pretty cute. He’s pretty fun. (0:45:07) Kev: But it’s Meru. He’s the one who was tired of the cakes and jumped off the (0:45:12) Kev: plane. So you know, there you go. I think that sums him. Oh yeah, yeah, he’s a big (0:45:12) Al: Yeah. And a big comic guy. A big comic guy as well. (0:45:21) Kev: comic guy. Both like he likes jokes and the actual comics. So yeah, so he got all (0:45:29) Kev: that, um, so I played (0:45:32) Kev: the game for about a week, not even a full week. (0:45:34) Kev: I got it on Monday, I think it was, um, yeah. (0:45:38) Al: something like that. Yeah. Yeah. I think Monday, yeah. (0:45:40) Kev: Uh, so it, uh, like, I mean, I really enjoyed the game because, but also I feel (0:45:48) Kev: like there’s still so much for me to do, um, because the game is quest driven, right? (0:45:55) Kev: Like you’re, you’re, you’re going around your, you have to complete quests for (0:45:58) Kev: people, gathering things, crafting things, so on and so finding things. (0:46:02) Kev: Um, and that’s kind of what progresses. (0:46:05) Kev: Not just the quote unquote story, but all the features, right? (0:46:08) Kev: Like it’s not like animal crossing where you just wait for the shovel to show up (0:46:12) Kev: in Tom look store to buy it. (0:46:14) Kev: You have to complete a quest to unlock a fishing rod, the net, whatever. (0:46:18) Al: Oh, and quests is the game, like this, if you don’t like quests, if you don’t like (0:46:19) Kev: » Yeah. (0:46:23) Al: fetch quests, this is not the game for you, like everything is a quest. (0:46:26) Kev: - Yeah, yup. (0:46:27) Kev: Yup. (0:46:27) Al: But that means that I remember, I’m sure I talked about this last time, but I need to (0:46:31) Al: bring it up again. (0:46:32) Al: The quest system in this is so good. (0:46:35) Al: Like as someone who loves quests and loves lists of quests, it’s absolutely good. (0:46:40) Al: Not only does it show you every quest that you’ve ever done, and every quest that you (0:46:44) Al: currently have that you can do. (0:46:46) Al: It also shows you future quests and what you need (0:46:48) Al: to do to get them. It’s great, because everything is based on friendship levels and gifting (0:46:50) Kev: Yep, that is pretty solid. (0:46:55) Al: things to the other villagers, blah, blah, blah. And so it’s like, oh, to get this quest, (0:47:00) Al: you need to talk to this person, or you need to get this person to friendship level four. (0:47:05) Al: And it’s just like, it’s so good. And it can be a little bit overwhelming, especially at (0:47:08) Al: the beginning, when you go from one or two things to do, to suddenly you have a list (0:47:12) Al: of 10 things, but you can pick and choose and you don’t need to go quickly. (0:47:14) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I I think it’s almost a double-edged sword a little bit because like you say can (0:47:25) Kev: get a little overwhelming or it can feel a little a little aimless at times right like (0:47:31) Kev: so it just just today this morning of the day of recording I unlocked the snorkel finally (0:47:37) Kev: which unlocked a lot of stuff for me and but to get to the snorkel I think (0:47:44) Kev: get the raise your friendship with Romi a certain amount of time and I’m trying to do (0:47:49) Kev: that but it’s kind of limiting because you can only do three gifts a day and I can’t (0:47:54) Kev: make gifts that you really likes right now I give her like basic stuff and so on and (0:47:58) Kev: so forth so you know I was kind of meandering the last day or two because I was trying to (0:48:04) Kev: get that snorkel because I knew there’s a lot to unlock with that and there’s still (0:48:08) Kev: some stuff like there’s these big rocks I need to learn how to break I don’t 100% know (0:48:12) Kev: how to do it. (0:48:14) Kev: Um, but, uh, but, so, you know, it is kind of, uh, it can be a little just not even really frustrating. (0:48:23) Kev: I mean, just, just a little, it feels a little, I get a little frustrated. (0:48:26) Kev: I’ll say that, right? (0:48:27) Kev: Like I feel a little frustrated when I am not a hundred percent sure where to go. (0:48:32) Kev: Like you said, the, the, the price system is good. (0:48:34) Kev: Like it lists everything. (0:48:37) Kev: But like I said, I like I met Ritsuko, but I don’t a hundred percent have the clear. (0:48:44) Kev: So I, and granted the game doesn’t completely be high and dry because at the end of the day, if you keep raising friendship with everyone, you will get somewhere eventually like that’s a, that’s a big part of the game. (0:48:56) Kev: Right. (0:48:56) Kev: Um, but, uh, so I’m, I’m not, you know, I don’t have, it’s not like I don’t have things to do that. (0:49:01) Kev: In fact, there’s a lot of things to do, um, but, uh, a little, and this might just be a personal preference, like I, I, a little more direction would have been nice. (0:49:11) Kev: more direction would have been nice. (0:49:14) Kev: maybe that’s just because i’m so used to animal crossing like I know the the tropes (0:49:18) Kev: it’s established so well in the system so well like it’s not even I do without even thinking now (0:49:24) Kev: that something new and different like this um just just takes a little more effort um but um (0:49:31) Kev: but again those complaints really are minor i’m still enjoying the game overall the the (0:49:37) Kev: presentation is strong the the visuals are fine um there I know there was a lot of uh (0:49:44) Kev: Discussion on the frame rate especially on the switch cuz it’s on the switch. (0:49:48) Al: Yeah. So tell me about that. Because obviously I’m on the Steam Deck and it runs fine. I’ve (0:49:52) Al: not noticed any issues on the Steam Deck. And when I was running it on, when I was running (0:49:54) Kev: Yeah. (0:49:56) Al: on my iPad, it was like a, it’s an iPad pro, right? So it’s not, it’s not going to have (0:50:00) Al: any issues running with frame rate. So yeah. How is that on the switch? (0:50:02) Kev: Yeah. (0:50:04) Kev: OK, so I’ve played primarily portable, not dock. (0:50:12) Kev: I’ve played dock the handful of times. (0:50:16) Kev: I think it runs fine, let’s say that. (0:50:20) Kev: It’s on par for a Switch game, right? (0:50:23) Kev: If I looked at the Steam version or the Apple version (0:50:25) Kev: or whatever, I’m sure those would look better. (0:50:29) Kev: but just looking at the switch. (0:50:32) Kev: I think I saw it stutter like once, maybe twice, and just for a split second. (0:50:36) Al: So it’s not like Scarlett and Violet. (0:50:45) Kev: It might not be the highest end. (0:50:46) Kev: I don’t know what FPS I’m looking at here. (0:50:50) Kev: It’s not 60 FPS or whatever, but it’s fine. (0:50:55) Kev: We all know that when you play a switch handheld, the performance takes even more of a hit. (0:51:02) Kev: And again, I think that’s why I’m going to cross the board for the switch. (0:51:08) Kev: But it’s so it doesn’t bother me, but I’m sure the other versions are prettier. (0:51:13) Kev: Like, I don’t want to say that. (0:51:15) Kev: But I’ll say it’s what I expect. (0:51:18) Kev: Let me say that, right? (0:51:19) Kev: If you know what the switch game looks like or plays like, I think that’s what you can expect. (0:51:26) Kev: But the controls are good. (0:51:30) Kev: I don’t know how I know if you guys played this. (0:51:32) Kev: touchscreen only, but I can’t, and rightfully so, because there’s a lot, right? (0:51:34) Al: That was my main, that was my main complaint when I was talking. (0:51:42) Kev: You have tools and a tool wheel. (0:51:45) Kev: You have the actual running around. (0:51:47) Kev: You have climbing. (0:51:48) Kev: You have loading with balloons, diving. (0:51:50) Kev: There’s a lot of controls you can do in this game. (0:51:54) Al: Yeah, I will say it works reasonably well. They had like on-screen buttons for everything you needed to do. (0:51:54) Kev: - Um. (0:51:58) Al: I just much prefer it with a controller. It’s not like I couldn’t do anything. It all worked. It just felt… (0:52:06) Al: I think the main problem was I was playing on an iPad, right? So I wasn’t like holding it in my hand. (0:52:10) Al: It would probably have been better had I been playing on an iPhone. (0:52:12) Kev: Yeah (0:52:15) Kev: Mmm, maybe I could see that you know what there is that is one complaint (0:52:20) Kev: I have about the game like I can tell it was a mobile (0:52:24) Kev: iPad game or whatever cuz the UI was not particularly cleaned up for the (0:52:30) Kev: You still have (0:52:32) Kev: Old icons showing like, you know press X to give them a gift or a to talk to them or whatever (0:52:38) Kev: We’re very clearly meant to be like on a touchscreen (0:52:42) Kev: that’s where you’d tap to do the thing. (0:52:44) Kev: It would have been nice if they’d clean that up (0:52:46) Kev: and get a little more screen space back. (0:52:50) Al: I wonder if that’s a switch issue because I hadn’t noticed any kind of things that felt out of place. (0:52:50) Kev: But I guess what I’m… (0:52:56) Al: It all felt pretty good from my point of view but that might be a switch versus steam thing. (0:53:02) Kev: And I have to go back and check, like I wonder if it’s better if it’s docked because obviously you have, you know, the, the, the right the screen ratio is a little different to their right. (0:53:14) Kev: But on the small portable, the handheld, the original, I’m playing an original switch not even done. (0:53:20) Kev: Right, like it feels like some of those pumps are taking up a lot of the screen space. (0:53:26) Kev: Not like it doesn’t hamper the game, but like, I think they could have put a little more. (0:53:32) Kev: But yeah, I want to spend more time because I feel like I’m still scratching the surface. (0:53:44) Kev: Like I’m, there’s still all the Animal Crossing-esque house and clothing stuff. (0:53:52) Kev: Like I’ve barely scratched that stuff. (0:53:54) Kev: I’ve been so focused on quests and missions and trying to unlock my tools. (0:53:58) Kev: Like I think I put like a chair in my house and that’s it. (0:53:58) Al: Yeah. I mean, the game, I mean, the game has been out for like, you know, a week and a half, (0:54:07) Al: right? Like, I think it’s fair to be like, there’s more to investigate on this game, (0:54:12) Al: you know, it’d be like, it’d be like a week and a half after Stardew trying to talk about that, (0:54:13) Kev: you know I think there could be more things for me to do in this game (0:54:18) Al: or, you know, and it’s even, it’s even, it’s even worse. Well, that’s the thing. And it’s even worse (0:54:23) Al: when it’s a game like this like or like Animal Crossing because (0:54:28) Al: like you just there’s infinite amount of stuff to do and so focused because it’s real time based (0:54:38) Al: there’s so little you can do in a day that it’s one of these games where it’s designed to be (0:54:44) Al: played over months a little bit a day and you can’t get everything you want to do in a couple (0:54:53) Al: of weeks, right? That’s just not possible. (0:54:55) Kev: Yeah, you know, you’re right. And I think like, I’m feeling that more because it’s there’s still a lot of progression. Focus on it, right? Like, I think much more so than Animal Crossing, right? When you play New Horizons, like, was it first week or two? Like, that’s, it’s, it clearly lays out, like, it, it puts you on rails on how much you can accomplish per day and whatnot, and so forth. (0:55:23) Kev: But here like I’m seeing my (0:55:25) Kev: Quest list (0:55:26) Al: Hey, you hit, you hit, you hit credits in Animal Crossing in a week, you know, (0:55:30) Kev: Yeah, yeah exactly but (0:55:32) Al: but that’s more down to being a weird, weird point where they have the credits. (0:55:35) Kev: Yeah (0:55:37) Kev: Yeah (0:55:39) Kev: But here like I see my quest list I see there’s things I can do in the future (0:55:44) Kev: I I wanted whom but I can’t my friendship with (0:55:48) Al: That’s fair, that’s a fair point because I put that as a positive but I can see how (0:55:53) Al: you might put that as a negative if that’s something that frustrates you being able to (0:55:57) Al: see something that you physically can’t do because you can’t get to friendship level four yet. (0:56:03) Kev: Yeah, right and like some and so some of them show you like okay (0:56:03) Al: Yeah that’s fair. (0:56:09) Kev: You need to also to unlock this question. I don’t even have that question. I don’t see (0:56:16) Kev: Right or like there’s like I said Ritsuko, I’m gravitating. She’s one of my favorites. She’s in the few characters are really new (0:56:23) Kev: I have to do her quest when I create friendship level seven. That’s the first one I can do with her (0:56:29) Kev: That’s kind of a lot especially at the beginning when I don’t have (0:56:33) Kev: Biff’s that really give her that much stuff or your friendship level or whatever right knows I’m working on it (0:56:39) Kev: And maybe there’s other ways I can find stuff because like there’s clearly (0:56:44) Kev: There’s different crafting stations and cooking stations on the island. So maybe I’ll find something but (0:56:49) Kev: Getting to level Sun’s gonna take a few days to get there (0:56:52) Al: Yeah. Here’s a question for you specifically. You were not a huge fan with how villagers (0:56:58) Al: were in Animal Crossing. They felt much more hollow to you. Is that fair description of that? (0:57:03) Kev: Right. Yeah, yeah. (0:57:07) Al: How do you feel the villagers in this compare? Because they are, to me, they feel very different. (0:57:14) Kev: right so okay so actually this is one thing I want to talk about because uh there’s this whole (0:57:20) Kev: I barely touched it there’s this whole villager system and so you have the main (0:57:26) Kev: test what I would call the main test right you have the people on the plane those are your primary (0:57:31) Kev: characters who will be running shops and have significant roles and you’re talking them (0:57:37) Kev: frequently on the island right but you know a day or two in or whatever you unlock the ability to (0:57:44) Kev: have other characters uh visit right like the first one is dear daniel uh hello kitty’s boyfriend (0:57:50) Kev: he can show up once you set up the the cabin in a certain way you have to put a couple pieces of (0:57:55) Kev: furniture and then the pie in there or something like that right um and so um I did that quest (0:58:03) Kev: and I have dear daniel but I have not interacted with him that much um and it’s not anything (0:58:08) Kev: against dear daniel or the system it’s just i’ve been so occupied with the other stuff (0:58:14) Kev: you can set up more cabins right um so obviously the main cast has a lot of personality right (0:58:19) Kev: um uh the the shopkeepers and the main characters that you’re speaking to um i’m enjoying spending (0:58:25) Kev: my time with all of them they all have very distinct personalities and I enjoy giving them gifts and so (0:58:31) Kev: on doing things running around with them if you raise up friendship high enough you can have them (0:58:36) Kev: join you and follow you around and stuff um overall i’m liking it so far then rio has a lot of (0:58:42) Al: That’s a good point. (0:58:44) Al: Is that something we’ve not really talked about as well, (0:58:44) Kev: players (0:58:46) Al: the joint quests, right? (0:58:48) Al: So you can have someone, you can either, (0:58:50) Al: I think you can do it just like with anything, (0:58:52) Al: be like, “Oh, hey, come with me and do this thing.” (0:58:54) Al: You can just spend time with them. (0:58:56) Al: I think there are some quests as well (0:58:58) Al: where they’re like, they will say, (0:59:00) Al: “Oh, we need to go do this thing, let’s do it together.” (0:59:02) Kev: Oh, actually no, I did do one. I was thinking I went through the haunted house (0:59:04) Al: Well, you have, yeah, you have experienced that. (0:59:09) Al: There is, there’s also, there’s one quite early on (0:59:12) Kev: The Cogs (0:59:12) Al: to get to the, you know, you go from the… (0:59:15) Kev: Oh, yes, the crystal yeah, yeah the little crystal stone things. Yeah, yeah, I remember that now. Yeah. Yeah (0:59:18) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:59:20) Al: So I think that’s the first one you do. (0:59:22) Al: And then there’s more later on. (0:59:23) Al: But yeah, so those are quite fun as well, I guess, (0:59:26) Al: because it’s like you’re doing something together (0:59:29) Kev: Yes, yeah, yeah, right exactly. Yes. Um, yeah, that’s a very good point. Um, then that does help a lot, right? Um, I’m so like, obviously, like, overall, the villagers that I have been interacting with. It is a much more satisfying experience than, say, New Horizons. (0:59:30) Al: rather than just existing in the same world. (0:59:49) Kev: Um, I don’t know about the other ones, like, Dear Daniel, because I haven’t spent enough time on that. Um, I will say it is kind, it is a clever. (0:59:59) Kev: And fun idea that you have to set up the cabins just to invite people in certain ways. Um, you know, kind of like Happy Home Designer-esque thing, which I think is a fun idea. Um, it does. Yep. (1:00:10) Al: It does tend to be quite simplistic, though. It’s like, oh, I want three pieces of furniture is the first one, and you’re like, okay, okay, right. Wow. Calm down. I’ll give you three pieces of furniture. (1:00:21) Kev: Yeah. Okay, I didn’t know if that was. (1:00:24) Al: They don’t tend to be very complicated ones, but I mean, maybe that’s deliberate. (1:00:29) Kev: I don’t, I didn’t know if that was just ‘cause Dear Daniel’s the first one or if all the other ones are gonna be like that. I, I. (1:00:35) Al: They’re slightly more complicated, but they’re not like, it’s like maybe they need to fit a theme, (1:00:40) Al: or maybe it’s like specific pieces of furniture, but they’re never like really complicated ones. (1:00:41) Kev: Hmm. Okay. (1:00:47) Kev: Okay. (1:00:47) Al: They were like, “I want three pink pieces of furniture,” or “I want a table and a bed and (1:00:51) Kev: Sure. (1:00:54) Al: a desk,” right? Like those might be the most complicated to get, in my experience. (1:00:59) Kev: Okay. And I, I can understand that kind of because I don’t think you want to get too complicated because you’re trying to, you know, fill up your island. Um, and all, but also I think it’s part of the nature because the offerings of the furniture and clothing are kind of simple in this game from what I’ve seen so far. (1:01:20) Kev: Um, because in, in Animal Crossing, you get some pretty exotic or out there themes of furniture and stuff. (1:01:29) Kev: Like that, right? Like I have not seen a rock chip, let’s just say, right? I have not seen a rock chip that I can find and put one in, in my house in, in Hello Kitty Island Adventure. (1:01:41) Kev: Um, so I, there’s not as much room to play probably. I think that’s going to be a big part of it, but, um, but again, I’m, I’m speaking. I’m saying all this just one weekend. I could be dead wrong. There could be way down a lot more stuff or something. (1:01:57) Kev: But, uh… (1:02:00) Kev: But, at the end of the day, even if it is kind of simplistic, this is just one aspect of the game, right? (1:02:05) Kev: Like, there’s… I’m still enjoying running around and finding things and doing these quests and whatnot. (1:02:12) Kev: Um, yeah. So, we’ll see. (1:02:16) Kev: Um, as I play… ‘Cause I intend to play further because I want… I’m furious alone, curiosity alone, about how these… (1:02:23) Kev: All the systems work ‘cause I don’t think I fully understand them yet. (1:02:27) Kev: Um, I’m, I (1:02:29) Kev: I’m will see how my opinions play out but I mean overall like the one week impression is pretty strong (1:02:38) Kev: It’s it’s got a lot of personality the the mechanics are pretty solid overall like I’m struggling to think (1:02:47) Al: I think – oh, I love it. (1:02:47) Kev: You even have the the the map jump point system little mailboxes. That’s kind of nice (1:02:53) Kev: I guess I think you could yeah, if you could craft anywhere, that would be nice (1:02:59) Kev: um (1:03:00) Al: - Yes, that’s probably one of the bigger limitations (1:03:02) Al: as you’ve just got, is it just the one crafting table (1:03:02) Kev: Yeah (1:03:04) Al: or can you, do you unlock anymore? (1:03:07) Kev: I I think I unlocked other recipes for other crafting tables, but I don’t see how to build them (1:03:16) Al: I don’t know. (1:03:16) Kev: question mark so I don’t I (1:03:19) Kev: Don’t know and also I’m going I’m I I’m shaming myself here. I’m opening up myself to fire (1:03:29) Kev: I didn’t see the mailbox near the crafting table until today or yesterday (1:03:34) Kev: So it was a huge pain for me because I had to walk from like the second closest mailbox (1:03:42) Kev: But oh my gosh (1:03:44) Kev: Doing it over and over it was it was getting to me. It was I had to look it up (1:03:47) Kev: I was like is there a mailbox closer to this table and there’s like oh two steps to the right (1:03:50) Al: And you’re like, yeah, there’s literally one across the path from it. (1:03:54) Kev: Yeah, I didn’t look across the path there. Oh if I looked on the other side of there (1:03:59) Al: I think part of the problem is you get quite far into the game before you actually unlock (1:04:00) Kev: Hmm (1:04:04) Al: the mailboxes because you have to explore all of the main plaza and then you unlock the gate using (1:04:13) Al: the cogs to get to the haunted area. And you get in there and you spend a little bit of time in (1:04:18) Al: in there. And then, then you (1:04:21) Al: So there’s already like five mailboxes you’ve gone past by that point. And you have to remember (1:04:28) Al: to go back to them. That’s the problem. Whereas if you, you probably would have noticed it the (1:04:32) Al: first time you walked past it, because it was right there next to the gate. But you (1:04:34) Kev: Yeah (1:04:37) Kev: Yeah (1:04:38) Al: hadn’t unlocked them by that point. So you were ignoring them. (1:04:40) Kev: You know what that’s an excellent, but that is probably exactly what happened because if you approach them (1:04:46) Kev: You’re like, oh what I wonder what this mailbox does somebody knows how to use it (1:04:50) Kev: I’m sure something like that. So you’re right. Like I tend to just ignore them at the beginning (1:04:56) Kev: So I probably literally did that (1:04:58) Al: Whereas I obviously knew where they were because I played the game before and I was like, oh, (1:05:02) Al: I can’t remember when these unlock. There’s another one. Let me try it. Oh yeah, no, (1:05:06) Al: they’re not unlocked yet. So like I was going back to them as soon as I unlocked to get them (1:05:11) Al: all because I knew going in what they were going to be. Whereas if you’ve not experienced that, (1:05:18) Al: you don’t know what they’re for, you’re not going to be like, okay, I need to remember (1:05:22) Al: because I want to know where these things are. Right? Because you wouldn’t assume that mailbox (1:05:26) Al: Fox’s fast travels. (1:05:28) Al: Would you? (1:05:28) Kev: Yeah, no, I would assume it was for mailing things which, you know, you’re doing it. (1:05:30) Al: Exactly. (1:05:32) Al: Exactly. (1:05:34) Al: Well, it is for mailing things. (1:05:34) Al: It’s for mailing yourself. (1:05:36) Kev: Yep, yeah, well, you know, that’s the little twist I didn’t expect. (1:05:43) Al: So yeah, I think it’s I think it’s totally fair (1:05:48) Kev: Um, but yeah, well, you know what, one other thing and it’s like, (1:05:53) Kev: I don’t know if there was any way to really fix this, but one thing, um, (1:05:59) Kev: they just don’t do holidays. (1:06:01) Kev: Like they do one day on holidays, like they do an animal crossing. (1:06:03) Kev: They do full on events, like a couple of days of lunar new year. (1:06:07) Kev: And right now the Valentine’s day event was starting or whatever. (1:06:10) Kev: Right. (1:06:10) Kev: And so starting the game, like right in the mid lunar new year celebration, (1:06:16) Kev: but a little awkward missing some of that. (1:06:18) Al: Yeah. (1:06:18) Al: It also is suddenly like, here’s a whole bunch of stuff for you. (1:06:19) Kev: Like, cause I don’t, I don’t know if you could, yep, yep. (1:06:24) Al: The other thing on that note, what I found really funny was the first time you open the (1:06:29) Al: game, it’s like, do not time travel like in other games. (1:06:32) Kev: I love that. (1:06:34) Kev: Yeah. (1:06:36) Al: And it’s like, I don’t know what other games you’re talking about. (1:06:41) Al: People playing on the Switch. (1:06:45) Al: It was so like in your face, like. (1:06:48) Al: “Do not do this.” (1:06:49) Al: And you’re like, “Whoa, okay, calm down.” (1:06:52) Kev: And it’s in a very (1:06:54) Kev: sassy time. (1:06:55) Kev: Like we know some other games might let you time travel. (1:06:56) Al: Yeah. (1:07:01) Kev: But if you hear that here, (1:07:03) Kev: bang you for life from multiplayer. (1:07:06) Al: Yeah, it is quite a little bit over the top, but fair enough, I understand why they would (1:07:13) Al: want to nip that in the bottom. (1:07:17) Kev: Good stuff. (1:07:19) Kev: Yeah, that was pretty funny. (1:07:21) Kev: I haven’t tried the multiplayer at all. (1:07:23) Kev: I wonder like curious King in there. (1:07:25) Kev: Are there games or something you can do that together? (1:07:27) Kev: I don’t I don’t know. (1:07:28) Al: I don’t know, I do know that you go to the other person’s island, I’m pretty sure like in Animal (1:07:35) Al: Crossing, and you can do a bunch of stuff. There are a few things they’ve had to limit that you (1:07:41) Al: can do, because otherwise you can like get access to things that you shouldn’t be able to based on (1:07:48) Al: your quests yet. So there’s a few things you’re not allowed to do based on that. But yeah, it’s (1:07:56) Al: It’s kind of similar to– (1:07:58) Kev: Yeah, sure and that’s fair show off your little town and your house and all that stuff (1:08:03) Kev: I’m looking forward to getting (1:08:06) Kev: You know to really to be able to decorate my house a little more (1:08:11) Kev: Cuz I’ve been distracted by the quest but also like I haven’t seen (1:08:15) Kev: That much stuff that you know, like oh, I got to put that in my house (1:08:20) Kev: But but we’ll see (1:08:22) Al: Alright, any other thoughts before we wrap this up? (1:08:24) Kev: Um, oh (1:08:26) Kev: Oh, you know what? Yes, there is one thing. (1:08:28) Kev: So, part of the quest is that you can also activate a little “Vide Light Orb” thing that tells you, “Okay, follow me and I’ll take you where to go for the next part of your quest,” right? (1:08:40) Kev: Some quests don’t have that, where you have to basically find something or whatever. (1:08:48) Kev: And I can get that, but sometimes, like, I don’t know what Top Hat Gudetama is. I have to find him somewhere. (1:08:58) Kev: And, you know, I’d like to find him. It’s also funny that Gudetama is just hanging out all over the island. Just take your pictures with Gudetama. (1:09:04) Al: I love the Gudetama. The Gudetama, it was the perfect way to do him in the game, right? Because (1:09:10) Al: you can’t not have Gudetama, but also you can’t really have him as a character that you interact (1:09:12) Kev: Yeah (1:09:14) Al: with. And I just love the fact that he’s just lounging around in different poses, (1:09:15) Kev: Yep (1:09:19) Kev: Yep (1:09:20) Al: wearing different clothes. It’s such a perfect way of doing Gudetama. (1:09:21) Kev: It’s good (1:09:24) Kev: It is so good that’s good stuff (1:09:27) Al: It’s so good, Gudetama. Oh, dear. Episode title. (1:09:34) Al: I need to check that I haven’t made that joke already for the last (1:09:34) Kev: Yeah, there you go, but (1:09:38) Al: I made that joke already, for the luck. (1:09:42) Kev: You probably talked about how you jump off the plane (1:09:46) Al: I don’t know. I make a lot of the same jokes. The number of times I make a joke and Renan was like, (1:09:54) Kev: Ah, um, but yeah, um, that’s the only other thing I have to say. (1:10:00) Kev: I, uh, you know, my, my update later on and when I play more and come back on and (1:10:06) Kev: maybe I can have some more thoughts, but overall, like it’s a good thumbs up for me. (1:10:11) Kev: Oh, you know what? (1:10:12) Kev: There is one other thing, an important thing I think we have to discuss and that (1:10:15) Kev: is the price, um, so apple arcade is a subscription, correct? (1:10:18) Al: Yep. (1:10:20) Al: Correct. (1:10:21) Kev: and you just get games with it, which means– (1:10:25) Kev: OK, and so you would get Hello Kitty Island Adventure (1:10:28) Kev: for the $10 a month. (1:10:29) Kev: Is that correct? (1:10:30) Al: for as long as you are subscribing. (1:10:32) Kev: Right, OK. (1:10:34) Kev: So theoretically, you could just play it for $10 a month, right? (1:10:38) Kev: And so now it is out– (1:10:39) Kev: it is a $40 game, if I recall correctly, USD? (1:10:43) Al: Yeah, it was it was £35, so yeah, that’s. (1:10:46) Kev: Yeah. (1:10:47) Kev: Yeah, not full price, but the cheapest. (1:10:50) Kev: And so the question– (1:10:52) Kev: a lot of people seem to have some issue with (1:10:54) Kev: that because it was somewhat relatively cheaper before. (1:10:59) Kev: I mean, it wasn’t $10 just for Hello Kitty, right? (1:11:02) Kev: You were also getting a whole bunch of other things. (1:11:02) Al: Yeah, but it’s $10 a month, right? Because the way this game is meant to be played is (1:11:07) Kev: Yeah, that is true. (1:11:10) Al: slowly over the course of months. So you only have to play it for four months and then suddenly you (1:11:15) Al: are paying more than you would pay for the game normally. I think it’s totally fine. I wasn’t (1:11:16) Kev: Yeah. (1:11:20) Kev: Yeah. (1:11:21) Al: expecting any cheaper than this. It’s not like we’re talking a random indie game that can sell (1:11:26) Kev: Yeah, yeah, that’s about to say like I saw some discourse before I got the game (1:11:33) Kev: And so I was curious because you know (1:11:34) Kev: I was wondering but there’s gonna feel like a very mobile game for lack of a better way of putting it, right? (1:11:39) Kev: It does not it feels like a full (1:11:41) Kev: outright, you know (1:11:43) Kev: console sized game (1:11:45) Kev: So that you know, I don’t think the price is an issue (1:11:48) Kev: I just want to point that out there because like I said, I saw some people discussing that (1:11:53) Kev: But I think it’s absolutely worth the price (1:11:57) Kev: With it. I’ve I’ve already spent a full week on it, you know, which is what like eight dollars a day (1:12:02) Kev: Again, see if you want to break it down like that (1:12:05) Kev: But I’m I can feel I’m gonna get my money’s worth absolutely from this game (1:12:10) Al: Yeah. I was, I definitely felt, I’m sure I said this in the last episode that I was 100% expecting it to come to at least switch. Like it felt like it, it felt like it was well designed for mobile interface, but it didn’t feel like it was a mobile game. It felt like it was a game with a nice mobile interface that they could easily change to be controllable. (1:12:31) Kev: yeah yeah I can see that um yeah I am yeah clearly yeah I i can see that clearly um (1:12:40) Kev: okay but yeah that’s good stuff all right but you know what this is how we’re gonna end this al (1:12:46) Kev: uh because like I mentioned uh I um (1:12:50) Al: I’m always worried when you have plans. (1:12:54) Kev: this is my first real foray into the senrio verse right so I got to judge and assess these characters (1:13:01) Kev: though but one question I had burning question I had was um how well did the yugio senrio (1:13:10) Kev: crossovers work i’m sending you the image right now so let me judge so we got hello kitty as the (1:13:17) Al: Oh, yeah. Okay. Yep, yep, yep. (1:13:22) Kev: dark magician which makes sense because they’re the the the the cover the poster children for (1:13:27) Kev: for their franchises, right? (1:13:29) Kev: We’ve got… (1:13:31) Kev: Okay, we’ve got my melody as Dark Magician girl. (1:13:35) Kev: My melody is a very cutesy pink girl, so that makes a lot of sense. (1:13:40) Kev: Okay, Cinema Roll across Blue-Eyes White Dragon. (1:13:43) Kev: That one’s incredible. That’s hilarious because the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is this big scary monster, (1:13:49) Kev: and then you have Cinema Roll who’s just the sweetest little post-person thing ever. (1:13:54) Kev: Um, Karate as Karible. That works because he’s a cute little guy. He’s chill. Karible. (1:14:01) Kev: This is just a little dude. (1:14:03) Kev: Um, uh, let’s see. Pochaco as a Time Wizard. (1:14:08) Kev: Okay, I don’t know if just Pochaco is a… He’s a jock, right? (1:14:12) Kev: He’s all about jogging all over the island. He likes his tofu. (1:14:15) Kev: And now he’s a Time Wizard. (1:14:17) Kev: Pompurn as Exodia the Forbidden One. (1:14:20) Kev: That one’s incredible because Pompurn’s the chillest dude ever, (1:14:24) Kev: and Exodia’s, you know, well, that’s Exodia. You win the game, so. (1:14:28) Kev: That’s just hilarious because they’re so far apart. (1:14:31) Kev: Um, uh, Batsmaru as Redeye’s Black Dragon, he’s, I can see that work. (1:14:37) Kev: He’s, he’s kind of, you know, he, he likes his comics, right? (1:14:41) Kev: So I can see them dressing up like a big, scary dragon. (1:14:45) Kev: Tuxedo Sam as Obelisk the Tormentor. (1:14:48) Kev: That one’s ridiculous because Tuxedo Sam, he’s so, he’s so polite and he just, you (1:14:54) Kev: know, he just wants to make his little bow ties, but he became Obelisk the (1:14:57) Kev: torments are one of the egyptian gods of destruction or (1:15:02) Kev: choco cat is the wing dragon of raw similarly that one’s crazy cuz choco cat’s just a little bookworm nerdy guy (1:15:08) Kev: And then you got a big scary dragon (1:15:11) Kev: Karomi a slifer the sky dragon not spooky enough, but it works (1:15:16) Kev: But there you go folks in case you were wondering my now that I can properly judge them (1:15:22) Kev: the the Yu-Gi-Oh cross and Rio McDonald’s (1:15:26) Kev: collaboration I (1:15:28) Kev: I still really want Pumper and Exodia. (1:15:32) Al: I’m pretty sure I have a couple of these somewhere in the house, but. (1:15:32) Kev: All right, Al. (1:15:35) Kev: Oh man, I got to pick up some of these. I really want Pumper and Exodia. (1:15:38) Al: It was such a bizarre, bizarre idea in the first place. (1:15:39) Kev: It’s so bizzare. It’s so bizzare. (1:15:43) Kev: And okay, look, I know I said Hello Kitty and Dark Magician. It had to be, but we we had (1:15:52) Kev: Because Kitty’s name is Kitty White, isn’t it? We could have had (1:15:56) Kev: Hello Kitty White dragon. It was right there, but anyways, anyways. (1:16:02) Kev: All right, Al. I’m done. You’re free. I’m freeing you from my nonsense. (1:16:04) Al: All right. Thank you, Kevin, for joining us, Where Can People Find You, on the internet. (1:16:10) Kev: Find me over at Rainbow Road Radio. Done with our Meet Your Friend Alex podcast about all things Mario. (1:16:17) Kev: We’re playing Odyssey here and there joining. Okay, one thing I just got to say. I sang the whole dang song. (1:16:24) Kev: I sang “Jump Up Superstar” the whole thing! (1:16:27) Al: You did. (1:16:29) Kev: And I… (1:16:30) Al: It was something. (1:16:32) Kev: It’s something go go go check that out. If you want to hear me sing. I’m not a singer (1:16:37) Kev: I do not pretend to be a singer, but I’m and the best part is (1:16:39) Al: Rainbow Road Radio never ceases to surprise me. (1:16:44) Kev: Look we got a singer. We got Alex writing lyrics now. We’re onto something. Oh (1:16:50) Kev: I did that Alex even knowing that was just a bit like something else like okay here (1:16:55) Kev: I got three traits takes he’s the best one (1:17:00) Kev: So yeah rainbow (1:17:02) Kev: There we do nonsense, um, find me a coupe prez on (1:17:08) Kev: sources, whatever (1:17:09) Kev: at the (1:17:11) Kev: test squared on blue sky is my new art account. I made it (1:17:17) Kev: I haven’t posted as much because I’ve got any jobs (1:17:19) Kev: I’ve been busy but I will be posting both my pixel art random non pixel art (1:17:24) Kev: Which I am I’ve been doing a bit more of lately. So go check that out. What about you our people find? (1:17:30) Al: Ah, you can find me on various social medias as this.bot. You can find the podcast on Tumblr (1:17:38) Al: @thspod and Blue Sky. I think we’re on Blue Sky. You can find links to everything to do with the (1:17:45) Al: podcast on our website harvestseason.club where you can also send us feedback and get a link to (1:17:51) Al: our Patreon, patreon.com/thspod where you can get access to our bonus podcast episodes where me and (1:18:00) Al: we’ll be having one predicting the Pokémon presents on Pokémon Day. So that will be coming (1:18:09) Al: out in just over a week after this episode comes out. So come and listen to how wrong we are about (1:18:16) Al: everything. We don’t know yet. More wrong than normal. Probably, probably. You can also get (1:18:25) Al: access to our Slack where we talk about all things farming games and you can get some (1:18:30) Al: sneak peek at my thoughts on Sugardew Island. I nearly called this Sugardew Valley. It’s (1:18:40) Al: so hard to say the name because it’s so similar to so many games. Thank you again, Kevin, (1:18:44) Al: for joining me. Thank you listeners for listening and until next time, have a good harvest. (1:18:45) Kev: Thank you all for having me on (1:18:51) Kev: The good heart (1:18:54) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:19:06) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:19:10) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:19:14) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:19:20) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:19:29) Kev: All right, no other songs or anything saved you all…

The Harvest Season

1
You Say Azure, I Say Azure 1:38:31

27 วันที่แล้ว1:38:31

1:38:31

Al and Codey talk about Mini Mini Farm Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:33: What Have We Been Up To 00:11:26: I Know What You Released Last Month 00:13:57: Game News 00:28:37: New Games 00:41:43: Other News 00:56:24: Mini Mini Farm 01:33:42: Outro Links Piczel Cross: Rune Factory Release Date Space Sprouts Release Date Luma Island: Pirates Ranch of Rivershine “1.7” Update Horticular: Frozen Frontier Melobot: A Last Song OST Sky Harvest Pheonix Labs Layoffs ConcernedApe NPR Interview Reuters Cozy Gaming Interactive Article Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Codey: And my name is Cody! (0:00:37) Al: and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:42) Codey: Oh woo! (0:00:44) Al: It’s like a pack of wolves. (0:00:50) Codey: I’m never gonna un-hear that now. (0:00:51) Al: We this episode, we are going to talk about many, many farm because apparently we’re doing two (0:00:59) Al: mobile games in a row because you did Animal Crossing last week. And then we’re doing many, (0:01:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:05) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:06) Al: many farm this week. And yeah, I just realized that today. I was like, Oh, yeah, (0:01:08) Codey: Yes, I forgot about that. (0:01:13) Al: two in a row. Interesting. Oh, well, we’re making Cody work for their title of (0:01:19) Al: mobile correspondent. (0:01:20) Codey: Yep, I’m here for it. For sure. And I am still actively playing mobile games. (0:01:21) Al: Before that, well, yes, so before that we have news, I’m going to overview the (0:01:31) Al: January releases because it’s now February. But first of all, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:01:36) Codey: Um, so, uh, definitely been playing many, many farm. Um, because of the last episode. (0:01:42) Al: Oh yeah, that’s what MMF stands for. (0:01:44) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:44) Al: I was like, what’s MMF? (0:01:45) Al: Many, many fun, of course. (0:01:46) Codey: And many, many farm. (0:01:48) Codey: Um, because of Johnny, I am now cursed to be playing Animal Crossing pocket camp. (0:01:54) Al: A game which you hadn’t played for the podcast, you know, playing (0:01:59) Al: because of the podcast. (0:02:00) Codey: Correct. (0:02:01) Al: Oops. (0:02:02) Codey: Um, I had played it when it was like not the complete. (0:02:06) Codey: Like paid version. (0:02:06) Codey: Um, but because we were talking about it and I saw that it was like cheap and then it was possibly going to become less cheap. (0:02:14) Codey: And I’ve been doing really well with budgeting lately. (0:02:16) Codey: I was like, you know what? (0:02:18) Codey: I can, I can afford 10 bucks. (0:02:18) Codey: So, and I don’t, I don’t know. (0:02:20) Al: Yes. Do we have the actual date? I know that it’s very soon, or it’s, like, just in the (0:02:26) Al: past, but it wasn’t when the podcast episode came out. (0:02:30) Codey: And unfortunately I have now bought it. (0:02:32) Codey: So I have no way of checking because I’m pretty sure. (0:02:35) Al: Ah, it was the 31st of January. So, if you bought it when the last episode came out, (0:02:36) Codey: Okay. (0:02:38) Codey: So now it is what? (0:02:38) Codey: 20 bucks. (0:02:42) Al: or the two days after that, you were good. Otherwise, sorry, too late. And now it’s, yeah, $20. (0:02:48) Codey: So, I’ve been playing that. I’ve also been playing, still been playing Honeygrove, still (0:02:58) Codey: really sucked into Honeygrove. And I, you know, it’s so funny because we, whenever we would (0:03:01) Al: You’re just playing all the mobile games. (0:03:06) Codey: cover them before, it’s like, yay, I can uninstall it now. And the last couple ones, I’ve been (0:03:12) Codey: like, oh, no, I want to keep playing this. So, yeah, I do. (0:03:14) Al: Mm-hmm, oops. (0:03:19) Codey: But it’s nice because I’m, you know, nearing the end, the other thing, quote unquote, I’ve been (0:03:24) Codey: doing is is a PhD. And it is crunch time for sure now. So I pretty much like, I’m doing a lot of (0:03:34) Codey: stuff all the time. If I’m not doing specimens, I’m writing if I’m not doing that, either of those (0:03:40) Codey: two things I’m like, I’m always doing something. So this, this gives me a nice little like, okay, (0:03:46) Codey: I’m gonna sit down for like a half an hour and just like (0:03:48) Al: Mm, are you rotating through them or? (0:03:48) Codey: brain off play these silly little games. Yeah, so every (0:03:56) Codey: well, I guess I’m also playing too many games. I’m also playing (0:04:02) Codey: Pokemon TCG pocket and the new thing just released. And so I (0:04:08) Codey: always check that first. Let me look at my guess. I always (0:04:11) Codey: check that first. And then I do honeygrove because I can like (0:04:14) Codey: send everything off, like my little bees off on their (0:04:17) Codey: or expeditions. (0:04:18) Codey: And then I do pocket camp and then I do mini, mini farm for a little bit. (0:04:23) Codey: And then if for whatever reason, I am bored after that, um, or not (0:04:28) Codey: sucked into mini, mini farm, uh, I have my cross-stitch coloring out. (0:04:30) Al: Hmm (0:04:33) Codey: But yeah, that’s, that’s my, my, my brain off time now. (0:04:33) Al: Fair enough (0:04:40) Codey: Was it? (0:04:40) Al: Nice, I have been playing a lot of Pokemon. (0:04:45) Al: So I think last time we talked, Cody, (0:04:47) Al: I was just nearly finished, (0:04:47) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:04:50) Al: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. (0:04:51) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:04:53) Al: I have now finished that, thank goodness. (0:04:54) Codey: Okay. (0:04:55) Codey: Yeah, you’re free. (0:04:57) Al: So that one’s done. (0:04:59) Al: And I was going to kind of maybe stop there, (0:05:02) Al: but then I was like, no, I need to do Let’s Go as well. (0:05:05) Al: So I did the Let’s Go Pokedex, (0:05:08) Al: and I rushed through. (0:05:10) Al: Uh, another save because I hadn’t recreated my Pokemon. (0:05:15) Al: Let’s go Pikachu save. (0:05:18) Al: So I did that. (0:05:18) Al: So that now is done. (0:05:19) Al: So all of my home DEXs are done except sword and shield. (0:05:25) Al: So I’ve got the let’s go one. (0:05:27) Al: I’ve got brilliant diamond, shining pearl. (0:05:29) Al: I’ve got let’s go. (0:05:30) Al: Arceus and I’ve got all this scarlet and violet ones. (0:05:32) Al: They’re all done. (0:05:33) Al: I haven’t done the sword and shield ones. (0:05:35) Al: Um, and I now have a post game. (0:05:40) Al: Save of every Pokemon Switch game, except shield. (0:05:45) Al: So I’ve recreated all my saves, except that. (0:05:46) Codey: Okay. Wow. (0:05:49) Al: And I have done a professor Oak challenge now of every pair of games, except can you (0:05:55) Al: guess? (0:05:56) Al: No, no, there’s certain shield. (0:05:56) Codey: Brilliant. I’m in shining girl. Oh, I don’t know. Okay. Okay. (0:06:03) Al: So, so at some point, I would like to do a professor Oak challenge in shield. (0:06:10) Al: Uh, and that does all three of those things. (0:06:12) Al: It does a professor Oak challenge in, in that series of games. (0:06:16) Al: It basically completes my home pocket X, right? (0:06:19) Al: Cause you’re catching everything anyway. (0:06:22) Al: Um, and it, it then me, it will mean I have a shield save in post game as well. (0:06:27) Al: But I don’t think I’m going to do that now because I’m worried I might burn out on Pokemon. (0:06:31) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:06:35) Al: And we don’t know yet when the new games coming out. (0:06:38) Al: I don’t expect it to come out until- (0:06:40) Al: november but we don’t know for certain and I don’t want them to be like come out and like me (0:06:46) Al: spend the next month doing this and then they come out and then I burn out and I’m like okay (0:06:50) Al: I’m done with pokemon for like six months and then they come out and say oh legends za is actually (0:06:57) Al: coming out in April and I’m like oh no that is really soon so uh but I’m also worried that they (0:07:05) Al: might do the release of pokemon for the home decks very soon and yeah sure I don’t- (0:07:10) Al: need to do it as soon as it’s done of course I don’t need to but I will feel the drive to (0:07:15) Al: do it at that point so I’m like do I actually just do the home decks just now and then leave (0:07:21) Al: the professor oak challenge for another time but then why why not just do the professor oak challenge (0:07:28) Al: but then I’m also the reason I was playing those games in January was because there weren’t any (0:07:32) Al: games coming out that I was planning on playing for the podcast and now we have a billion of them (0:07:35) Codey: Yeah, but it would be really inefficient to not just do it, do them together. (0:07:38) Al: them coming out in February and March. (0:07:40) Al: I’m probably going to just wait and do it all at the same time, probably next January. (0:07:54) Codey: yep. yep. (0:07:57) Al: Because January does tend to be quite a quiet period, but I guess that depends on when ZA (0:08:04) Al: comes out. (0:08:05) Al: Because if ZA comes out in November, I’m probably not going to want to do a Professor Oak challenge (0:08:08) Al: of SHIELD. (0:08:10) Al: In January, so maybe, maybe I’ll just wait till Pokemon Day and they’ll all they will almost definitely tell us the release date then right like there’s no way they’re not going to do that. (0:08:22) Al: That reminds me, we want to do Pokemon Day predictions. (0:08:26) Codey: Oh, okay, okay. (0:08:28) Al: And Pokemon Day reactions greenhouse episode that gets us to this month. (0:08:29) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:08:33) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:08:39) Al: so (0:08:40) Al: all that to say I have played a lot of pokemon in the last month and a half a lot a lot a lot (0:08:48) Al: of pokemon and I think like maybe like 120 hours over the last month and a half we’ve just pokemon (0:08:56) Codey: Mm hmm. I’m shocked. (0:08:58) Al: still not found a brilliant diamond shining pearl (0:09:02) Al: still a big big fan of let’s go great games love them second best pokemon game (0:09:11) Codey: Yeah, I really have been wanting to go back and replay. I have Eevee, but I also have (0:09:17) Al: Mm-hmm. Yes, fair, fair, fair. So yeah, I’m probably Pokémon’d out for now, but we’ll see. (0:09:21) Codey: else going on. So, yep. (0:09:30) Al: I’ve also been keeping up with Harvestmen, Home Sweet Home. Look at me actually playing a farming (0:09:36) Al: game a little bit a day. What a crazy idea. I know. So I’m now in chapter five, enjoying that. (0:09:37) Codey: Wow not guzzling (0:09:40) Codey: - I’m done. (0:09:44) Al: I don’t know. (0:09:45) Al: I don’t know what to do with that. (0:09:47) Al: Yeah, actually, yeah, no, I will. (0:09:49) Al: I’m enjoying it. (0:09:51) Al: I’m enjoying playing this game. (0:09:52) Al: This is a fun game. (0:09:53) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:09:54) Al: It still has issues. (0:09:56) Al: Absolutely. (0:09:58) Al: The Cloud Save still not working for me two months later. (0:10:02) Codey: I’m shocked. (0:10:04) Al: But controller support has made it playable. (0:10:07) Al: And it’s actually fun. (0:10:10) Al: It’s no Stardew Valley. (0:10:11) Al: I don’t care about the characters as much. (0:10:14) Al: But there’s a lot to like about it. (0:10:16) Al: and I’m hopeful for… (0:10:17) Al: and I have also started playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure, which I did play when it came to Apple Arcade, so I played it for about a month and enjoyed it. (0:10:33) Al: But then I was like, I am so fed up with playing on the touchscreen and let me tell you, playing with the controller infinitely better. So good! (0:10:37) Codey: Yeah. Okay. (0:10:41) Al: So I’ve been playing on my Steam Deck, I know that I know some people who are playing on… (0:10:47) Al: which may or may not come up in a future episode, but yeah, no, it’s a good game. It is way better than it had any right to be. (0:10:50) Codey: - Ooh. (0:11:02) Al: I completely forgot until I started the game how the game starts and I’m like, I just love… it’s so ridiculous that it basically starts with a plane crash. (0:11:11) Al: Because who would expect that in a Hello Kitty game? Alright, I think that’s everything. That’s what we’ve been… (0:11:17) Al: We are going to continue the new segment, the month’s releases and the previous month’s releases. We’re going to talk about last month’s releases. (0:11:18) Codey: Oh, woo. Oww, ow, ow, ow. (0:11:31) Codey: Last month’s what what was released last month? I got you (0:11:36) Al: Listeners, write in and tell us what this segment should be called, this monthly segment. What released last month? (0:11:44) Al: January 2025 edition. Or should it be fae- (0:11:47) Al: Maybe the 2025 edition, because last month would be January, but it’s like what would (0:11:51) Al: have- what released last month? (0:11:53) Codey: What are you what do you call it so like in? (0:11:57) Codey: Start in stardivale correlate whatever when you go to sleep, and there’s like that recap screen (0:12:02) Al: This summary… (0:12:03) Codey: That’s all you call it. That’s all it’s called (0:12:07) Al: He gla-la… (0:12:07) Codey: Like the daily summary listeners. Let us know (0:12:10) Al: I don’t know… (0:12:11) Codey: What do you call that screen like when it tells you what you did for the day how much all your stuff sold? (0:12:16) Codey: I think that whatever that is called is what this segment should be called because it’s like we just fell asleep on January (0:12:23) Codey: And we’re waking up and it’s February, but let’s like think about the things that occurred last last month (0:12:30) Al: I’m really struggling to Google this. (0:12:31) Codey: Don’t work yeah, don’t worry about looking it up. They got a listeners have to tell us (0:12:35) Al: Okay, so January, what released in January? (0:12:41) Al: We have four releases in January 2025. (0:12:44) Al: We got Harvest Hills, releasing mid-January the 15th. (0:12:48) Al: We got Into the Emberlands, Not Wonderful, released on the 20th of January when we had (0:12:54) Al: Hello Kitty Island Adventure on Steam and Switch that released on the 30th of January. (0:12:58) Al: my little life which is our first (0:13:01) Al: game of Rusty’s Like or as a developer of Rusty’s retirement is calling them bottom of the screen game (0:13:06) Codey: boss game which he he like talked it up on the um on blue sky he like was like y’all (0:13:06) Al: and that released on the 31st of January. So a kind of (0:13:17) Codey: should get this game and now i’m looking at it oh it’s only five dollars and 39 cents (0:13:24) Al: Yeah, it is dangerous. (0:13:25) Codey: oh no it’s only it’s only windows oh I almost clicked it y’all I almost we good okay i’m (0:13:34) Codey: I wish. (0:13:36) Codey: Let it be not just Windows, my little life developer. (0:13:39) Codey: I want to play this game. (0:13:40) Codey: Thank you. (0:13:42) Al: Yeah, so that’s the January releases, wild that I’m about to say this, but that’s a (0:13:47) Al: quiet month. Four games is a quiet month, apparently. (0:13:51) Codey: Yeah, not a lot going on. (0:13:57) Al: Okay, so we’ve now got a bunch of news. We’re going to start with the gaming news. So first (0:14:04) Al: up we have Pixel Cross Renfractory, they have announced a release date for this. So this is (0:14:09) Al: like the pixel cross Stodio seasons. (0:14:12) Al: It’s a Picross type game, but not Picross because Nintendo on the trademark to that kind of. (0:14:21) Al: Yeah, you do your nonograms. I think that’s what the generic term people have been using, (0:14:27) Al: nonograms. You do your nonograms and in the story seasons one, it like built up a farm (0:14:34) Al: in the background as you do it. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if they’ve shown (0:14:36) Codey: is that is that what it is because it also says customize like in this trailer they say customize (0:14:40) Al: and I’ll see you next time. (0:14:42) Al: Yeah. (0:14:43) Codey: your farm and I don’t and it like looks like you choose what like where things are placed and so (0:14:50) Codey: that was one that was my only question was like I mean it’s coming some when it comes out folks (0:14:55) Codey: can tell me unless people have been playing I don’t know if there’s a dummy (0:14:57) Al: I don’t, I, yeah, oh, interesting. (0:15:01) Al: So it does look like you can change things in this one. (0:15:03) Al: So I’m pretty sure on the story of seasons one, (0:15:06) Al: you just saw the farm build up and things grow (0:15:09) Al: and you didn’t have any control over how it looked, (0:15:12) Al: but you’re right, it does. (0:15:13) Al: So it says customize your farm (0:15:14) Al: and it shows different animals or monsters. (0:15:17) Al: And then it shows you actually selecting (0:15:19) Al: what weapon you want your character to have, (0:15:21) Al: including a massive lollipop as an option. (0:15:25) Al: So yeah, it looks like it’s more in depth. (0:15:28) Codey: Well, I’m wondering if it’s just like you can control what it looks like in the background (0:15:34) Codey: while you are, yeah. (0:15:34) Al: I think that, yeah, I think that’s all it is. (0:15:36) Al: I don’t think you’re actually doing any farming (0:15:39) Al: or any battling, that just happens in the background (0:15:41) Al: as you’re doing it, but in the story seasons one, (0:15:44) Al: I’m pretty sure you couldn’t change how it looked. (0:15:46) Codey: is it like learn how to do a carrot by doing a carrot learn how to plant (0:15:52) Codey: carrots I like okay (0:15:52) Al: It wasn’t even that much in the study seasons when it was literally, you do stuff and things grow in the background you weren’t really. (0:16:00) Al: Yeah, there was nothing else. (0:16:02) Codey: Sounds good. Some people are probably jumping for joy that (0:16:06) Codey: there’s a new across game coming out. New an Autogram coming (0:16:10) Al: nonagram yeah yes yeah anyway space sprouts have announced that they’re (0:16:13) Codey: it’s like Kleenex. It’s like people say get a Kleenex but (0:16:17) Codey: that’s a brand. (0:16:21) Al: releasing on the 31st of March (0:16:24) Codey: Mm-hmm. They’re also participating in Steam’s next fest, so… (0:16:28) Al: Cody who isn’t (0:16:30) Codey: Oh, okay, fine. They’re also moving on to the next part. Uh, I guess the only thing… (0:16:33) Al: I mean I’d like I just I find the steam next fest stuff so funny because it’s (0:16:40) Al: it doesn’t really mean anything it’s like it’s it’s like it’s like being part of (0:16:45) Al: a sale right you can still do a sale whenever you want you can put your price (0:16:48) Al: down whatever but it’s like if you do it at a specific time you might get on a (0:16:50) Codey: Right. But that’s the thing, like there’s a specific list that they’ll get clicked on. (0:16:52) Al: list (0:16:55) Al: but the list is too long (0:16:58) Codey: Okay, but like not every it is still selective, right? Like not hashtag not everyone gets on the (0:17:02) Al: no I don’t I don’t think so I think anyone even get in the list (0:17:03) Codey: list. Well, anyways, that’s from February 27 to March 3. But they are also looking for playtesters. (0:17:12) Codey: So if you go to the show notes, go to the Steam page, etc, etc, you can figure out how to become (0:17:18) Codey: on my playtester for space sprout. (0:17:20) Al: Whoo! Yeah, what was this game again? I can’t… Oh yeah, it was like the 2D space. It was like, (0:17:28) Al: yeah, I’m not describing that very well. But yeah, it was a 2D world where you’re floating around, (0:17:30) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:17:33) Codey: 2D floating in space. Yeah (0:17:36) Al: yeah. Yeah, I’m very interested in this one. I wonder how it’s going to feel playing (0:17:42) Al: farming in 0G. Although it does look like some of it has gravity, and some of it has gravity, (0:17:44) Codey: Mm-hmm. I mean it’s interesting. (0:17:50) Codey: Well, if I learned anything from the Martian, farming in 0G contains the recycling of human waste. (0:17:58) Codey: So, very excited for that. (0:18:00) Al: for sure next we have a free update coming to luma island and this is called pirates (0:18:12) Codey: With an excolate your boy, pirates! (0:18:15) Al: just pirates um it’s literally called luma island pirates what uh although I don’t think (0:18:22) Al: the exclamation mark is actually part of the title because later down they say what’s coming (0:18:26) Al: in Luma Island Pirates without the exclamation mark. (0:18:29) Codey: Uh, I choose to believe, yes. (0:18:30) Al: Don’t you always? (0:18:32) Al: So this brings a pirate themed zone with new minigames, a new temple, traps and enemies, a new profession. (0:18:44) Al: Johnny and Dallin I think, they both play it. They’ll be excited about a new profession. (0:18:51) Al: A full screen map, that’s definitely something it needed. I was annoyed about not having the full screen map. (0:18:56) Al: three new game modes, (0:18:58) Al: including (0:19:00) Al: hero mode and cozy mode. (0:19:02) Al: I wonder what the third mode is. (0:19:04) Al: I love how they’d say three modes (0:19:04) Codey: I’m curious what the new profession is. (0:19:06) Al: and they mentioned two of them. (0:19:10) Codey: Is it piracy? (0:19:12) Al: Oh, interesting. Yeah, that’s a good point. (0:19:14) Al: It could be. (0:19:14) Codey: Like goats? (0:19:16) Al: Even if not actually, (0:19:18) Al: piracy definitely could be related to that. (0:19:20) Codey: Or like treasure hunting? (0:19:20) Al: Yeah, that is a good point. (0:19:22) Al: Yeah, well they do have a treasure hunter one already, I’m pretty sure. (0:19:26) Codey: Okay, so it is piracy. (0:19:28) Codey: Destroy this city and loot the people. (0:19:30) Al: Maybe. You never know. You never know. Also, new outfits, quests, NPCs, Lumas, powers, (0:19:34) Codey: Mutiny, mutiny your own. (0:19:38) Codey: I’m very curious. (0:19:44) Al: bonuses, and achievements. Yes, yeah, that is a free update. That is not a DLC. That (0:19:46) Codey: Ooh, that’s a lot of content in a free update. (0:19:52) Codey: Yeah. (0:19:53) Al: is a free update. Coming soon. No date yet. Coming soon. (0:19:58) Al: Speaking of updates. (0:20:00) Al: RiverShine have announced their 1.7 update. (0:20:05) Al: This is called Azure Coast Trail. (0:20:08) Codey: what? No, say it, say it how you say it again. Oh, that’s so cool. We just say Azure. I like (0:20:08) Al: Azure. (0:20:09) Al: Azure. (0:20:10) Al: How would you say it? (0:20:13) Al: Azure. (0:20:14) Al: Oh, no, Azure. (0:20:18) Codey: your way of saying it. Continue. (0:20:20) Codey: you. (0:20:21) Codey: You’re welcome. (0:20:21) Codey: You’re welcome. (0:20:21) Al: Thank you. (0:20:25) Al: This brings new competitions, horses, music, accessories, and loading screens. (0:20:30) Codey: Oh, whoo, the loading screens look really good, like the the art. (0:20:35) Codey: I mean, I’m betting that they have like a ton of humans that love this game (0:20:39) Codey: and just are like, take here, take my art. (0:20:41) Codey: The loading screens look really cool. (0:20:43) Codey: And the new horse is like a cool new wild horse species. (0:20:48) Codey: I almost look I. (0:20:48) Al: Rabi Rabbi Kano, Rabbi Rabbi Rabbi Kano, I think Rabbi Kano. (0:20:55) Codey: Let me it’s probably something like Robicano or Robic Robicano or something. (0:21:00) Codey: Um, yeah, I didn’t look up to see if those are actually like a thing. (0:21:06) Codey: I almost did and then I didn’t. (0:21:07) Codey: Oh, yep. (0:21:08) Codey: They’re a type of Arabian horse. (0:21:10) Al: rare horse coat color pattern that features white. (0:21:15) Codey: Oh, so it’s just a whatever. (0:21:17) Codey: It’s they’re really cute. (0:21:21) Codey: Yeah, and they also announced that the next update is going to introduce (0:21:27) Codey: a new character and that is the veterinarian. (0:21:30) Codey: Also introduce, you know, care for your horse. (0:21:34) Codey: So different, you know, that care like they might maybe they get sick. (0:21:39) Codey: Maybe they have certain nutritional needs and you didn’t need to make sure (0:21:43) Codey: you meet them. (0:21:44) Codey: I’m not entirely this is all just me. (0:21:46) Codey: Just I don’t know. (0:21:47) Codey: Just like trying to like think of what it could be, but that’s cool. (0:21:52) Codey: I’m all for it. (0:21:53) Codey: Can I be the veterinarian? (0:21:58) Codey: Aww. (0:22:01) Codey: We need a game where you’re like the veterinarian. (0:22:03) Codey: We don’t have that. (0:22:04) Al: Go make it. (0:22:05) Codey: No, I’m good. (0:22:06) Codey: Someone should make it though. (0:22:08) Codey: Or like a wildlife biologist. (0:22:08) Al: Let us know. (0:22:11) Codey: I don’t know. (0:22:12) Al: Is that not just research story? (0:22:14) Codey: Go play research. (0:22:16) Al: I mean, tell me if I’m wrong, you’re the one that’s played it. (0:22:17) Codey: No, I’m trying to. (0:22:18) Codey: Yeah, no, I’m trying to think of like, no, (0:22:20) Codey: like a game where you’re a rehabber. (0:22:22) Codey: Where you rehabilitate wild animals that people bring to you. (0:22:25) Codey: I think the only issue with that is that it’s sad because they die. (0:22:28) Codey: die, but hey. (0:22:30) Codey: There was a Bluey episode about a bird dying, so it’s okay these days. (0:22:36) Al: Blue can do anything. (0:22:38) Codey: Bluey did it. That means it’s child approved. (0:22:42) Al: Let me tell you, right, me and Craig watch Blue together, (0:22:46) Al: and he’ll be sitting and laughing at the jokes and watching it and stuff, (0:22:48) Al: and then I’ll just be sitting behind him, just sobbing. (0:22:50) Codey: stopping. Yeah. Yeah, I just just finished it. And it I am (0:22:52) Al: Like, “Oh, no, what is happening? What’s the doing to me?” (0:23:00) Codey: upset. And I need more. I watched all of it. Thanks. I’ve, (0:23:04) Al: Nice. Well done. (0:23:07) Codey: I just I crave distraction in the background while I run (0:23:11) Codey: meaningless analysis. They’re not meaningless analysis. They’re (0:23:14) Codey: just tedious analysis correction. But yeah, cool that (0:23:21) Codey: give me a game mode where I can play as the veterinarian and I (0:23:24) Codey: will play this game. Developers if you’re like, man, what do (0:23:26) Al: I mean, I feel like that’s just a whole different game, not just a different game mode, but… (0:23:31) Codey: people want these days? I bet a vet mode like a vet game would (0:23:37) Codey: crush. Yep. And I would pay probably $30 for it. So if it (0:23:39) Al: There’s at least one person who would buy it, that’s for sure. (0:23:45) Codey: takes more than $30 to make. I’m out. (0:23:48) Al: I’m not even promising there’d be two people because I’m not sure who the second person (0:23:50) Codey: Listeners. Let me know. Can you contribute $30 we can offer $60 (0:23:53) Al: would do it for the podcast. (0:23:57) Al: I’m sure there are I mean, look, if you could make a game for $60 you’d be rolling in it. (0:24:02) Codey: to developers. There’d be a lot of really bad games. Yeah. (0:24:14) Al: For sure for you. (0:24:15) Al: Well, yeah, you probably can make a game for $60. (0:24:18) Al: Absolutely dreadful. (0:24:21) Al: Just a Skinner box. (0:24:22) Al: All right. (0:24:24) Al: Next we have Particular have announced a free update and a paid DLC. (0:24:33) Al: They’re both releasing on the same day, 28th of February, and the paid DLC Frozen Frontier (0:24:39) Al: has a new story, world quests, new items and creatures. (0:24:45) Al: written snowshoe hair. Is that a creature? (0:24:47) Codey: Yeah, yeah, they specifically say snowshoe hair well, that is just one that they blurbed (0:24:48) Al: Is that a creature that’s there? Just one creature. (0:24:55) Al: blurb. No, I know what you mean. That’s a great example of verification. (0:24:55) Codey: It could be (0:24:59) Codey: Where did that word come from it is keep going I’m gonna look up what that where that came from (0:25:05) Codey: - Um. (0:25:07) Al: And the free update includes new creatures, some temp mechanics. What do you mean by that? (0:25:14) Codey: - Temperature, sorry. (0:25:15) Al: Oh, temperature was like temporary mechanics. Yes, temporary temperature mechanics, snow, (0:25:16) Codey: Now, (0:25:22) Al: And then obviously, quality of life improvements. (0:25:26) Codey: Yeah, so they both yeah, they both kind of include like, adding snow as a as a thing that you can see in the game. But one just adds like a whole new world. Also, I wanted to note that they say on in the beginning of this show notes, whatever, what is this called, like a, thank you. (0:25:48) Al: release notes or well it’s not really release notes because it’s not released (0:25:51) Codey: It’s a (0:25:51) Al: teaser (0:25:54) Codey: Teaser, they say… (0:25:56) Codey: “As spring arrives in the northern hemisphere, we’re not quite done with the cold weather. We got you southern hemisphere folks.” (0:26:02) Codey: Correction. We are also not ready for spring. (0:26:08) Codey: The United States weather predicting rodent has proclaimed that there are six more weeks of winter. (0:26:16) Codey: So, yeah, we’re not ready. (0:26:18) Al: Do I need to tap the sign? Seasons aren’t universal, Cody. (0:26:20) Codey: What’s the sign? (0:26:26) Codey: They specifically say “As spring arrives in the northern hemisphere.” (0:26:28) Al: Seasons aren’t universal in the northern hemisphere, Cody. (0:26:32) Codey: There’s six more weeks of winter. I don’t know what to tell you. (0:26:35) Al: Look, okay, so not every country has the same definitions of seasons. Not every country even (0:26:41) Al: has four seasons, and certainly not every country is going to listen to America when they say that (0:26:46) Al: that a rodent has decided it’s- (0:26:49) Codey: Okay, there’s like certain things that they should listen to us on and the majority of (0:26:54) Codey: things that other countries should just ignore Americans on, especially these days. (0:27:00) Codey: But one thing y’all should really listen to is our, our groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, (0:27:07) Codey: who is an immortal groundhog that has bespake unto the cultists or whomstever and told them (0:27:18) Codey: in Groundhog E’s! (0:27:20) Codey: There will be six more weeks of winter and a bunch of people just went. (0:27:22) Al: Yeah, I have watched Groundhog Day. I do know the idea behind it. (0:27:27) Al: Finally, in the game news in bit, we have MeloBot, a last song, have released their (0:27:34) Al: original soundtrack on Steam. It is $12.99 on its own, or it’s also included in the Deluxe (0:27:42) Al: Edition for which is more expensive. It’s actually a really good deal if you get the (0:27:46) Codey: Oh, whoo. Yeah. (0:27:49) Al: deluxe edition, though, right? Because it’s like… (0:27:52) Al: 20 quid for the game. I’m back into pounds here because you confused me with your whole (0:27:57) Al: dollars. 20 quid for the game or is it 25 quid for the 25 dollars for the game? (0:27:58) Codey: - Yeah, sorry, I put dollars, I put US dollars. (0:28:00) Codey: $13. (0:28:04) Codey: $25 for the deluxe edition and then $13 if, (0:28:08) Codey: for just the soundtrack. (0:28:10) Al: Yeah. Well, how much is the base game is that is that $20 then? (0:28:13) Codey: - Man, I didn’t look at that. (0:28:14) Codey: Let me look. (0:28:16) Al: See, it is 20 quid or 10 and 10 quid for 20 or 27 quid. (0:28:22) Codey: Oh I had it wrong! The game is 25. The bundle that includes the digital deluxe upgrade is 35. (0:28:22) Al: Ah. (0:28:32) Al: OK, so it’s still a good deal, but it’s not as good a deal. (0:28:35) Codey: You save 8%. (0:28:37) Al: All righty, so that is the game news. (0:28:41) Al: We also have two new games announced. (0:28:43) Al: Well, kind of. (0:28:44) Al: One of them is a new game. (0:28:44) Codey: - In quotes. (0:28:46) Al: One of them is actually two that are not– (0:28:50) Al: should we talk about the one that’s actually new first? (0:28:52) Al: So that is Sky Harvest. (0:28:52) Codey: - Yes. (0:28:57) Al: The blurb for this one is, “Armed with hand-me-down tools (0:29:01) Al: and some cash. (0:29:03) Al: You begin your new life as the chief farmer, a position your (0:29:07) Al: grandfather once excelled in. Can you honor his legacy and (0:29:10) Al: transform the overgrown, untamed and desolate floating island (0:29:14) Al: into a flourishing farm abundant with produce? (0:29:19) Codey: produce is weird in that trailer was was grandfather sleeping (0:29:26) Al: I didn’t actually watch the trailer give me two seconds. No, he did (0:29:33) Al: Again, yeah, no he did (0:29:36) Codey: so as a child you come upon your grand your beloved grandfather deceased at the (0:29:44) Al: Dead, at the kitchen table, reading his hopes and dreams. (0:29:47) Codey: kitchen table with (0:29:49) Codey: a book in front of him. (0:29:53) Codey: The book says, if I wish I could have gone back one last time and it’s got like a ticket and then it shows you taking that ticket and going and honoring his legacy. (0:30:04) Al: This is how this is how I know that he’s dead because if he’s not dead that is horrific. You’ve just stolen his ticket (0:30:05) Codey: But like, (0:30:12) Al: The one thing he wanted to do you’ve stolen his ticket and gone without him (0:30:16) Al: Let waited a while because you’ve grown a beard now. You’re an adult now (0:30:16) Codey: also, (0:30:20) Codey: Yeah, there’s a whole beard, a mustache, wild. (0:30:21) Al: Goodness me. That’s dreadful (0:30:23) Al: You (0:30:24) Codey: But like, if I came upon my grandmother deceased, (0:30:29) Codey: I say this because my grandfather is already deceased. (0:30:34) Codey: If I came upon my grandmother deceased, and (0:30:37) Codey: I don’t care what’s in front of her, I’m not looking at that. (0:30:42) Al: Yeah, he just like rests his head on his grandfather’s dead arm and sheds one singular tear before stealing his ticket, his boat ticket. (0:30:45) Codey: And then… (laughs) (0:30:50) Codey: I don’t know how beloved that grandfather was, if that’s your reaction, my guy. (0:30:55) Codey: Anyway, this is me just… (laughs) (0:30:56) Al: One, he’s one tear’s worth a little bit. (0:31:00) Codey: Alright, this looks cool though. So you’re on floating islands, you’re flying around with a jetpack, you can manage a restaurant. (0:31:07) Codey: It just says manage a restaurant, but it just shows you telling the person what the one meal that you guys are making in the day is. (0:31:20) Codey: Not what restaurants do. (0:31:23) Codey: And it’s a really bad restaurant. (0:31:24) Al: It’s what really bad restaurants. (0:31:28) Codey: And then it also says make friends, and then there’s a dog with a scroll in its mouth, so I’m guessing you befriend a dog. (0:31:36) Codey: And unfortunately that wasn’t in the trailer, it was in this thing. (0:31:40) Al: I mean the trailer didn’t show you much, lesbian. (0:31:43) Codey: Right, the trailer was very teaser-y, but underneath that, on the post, they have… (0:31:50) Codey: I watched that video where there’s a dog 10 times to see… I wanted to see more of the dog. (0:31:59) Codey: What kind of dog is it? All that. (0:32:03) Codey: It’s definitely a tricolor something, but other than that, no. (0:32:08) Al: So I will say I’m not particularly enamored by the graphics in this game. (0:32:17) Al: Not that it looks bad, it’s very definitely trying to look how it looks, I think. (0:32:23) Al: What I find a bit weird is the graphics of the game and the graphics of the heads-up display, (0:32:30) Al: like the menus and stuff, they feel like they’re from different games. (0:32:31) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah, like they had two different people designing those, (0:32:38) Codey: and one understood the assignment and one didn’t. (0:32:38) Al: Yeah. Yeah, so it’s a little bit weird. Very, very. I do like the flying. The flying looks fun. (0:32:45) Codey: The character also looks lanky. This is a tall character. (0:32:53) Codey: Yeah. Mm hmm. Cosine. I don’t. (0:32:57) Al: Yeah, I don’t know what else to say. That looks interesting. I love how it calls it sky farming (0:33:01) Codey: It’s farming, but in the sky. Or are we? Are you farming the sky? (0:33:04) Al: when it’s just farming. (0:33:08) Al: In the sky? Okay. No, no, no, no, it’s just you’re on a sky island. Which I feel like this whole (0:33:12) Codey: Like is there part you’re like collecting the sky? (0:33:16) Codey: You don’t know that. What if they what if you collect the sky? (0:33:21) Al: let’s this game has sky islands was a fun idea five years ago and now half the games are doing (0:33:26) Al: it. Which is I guess the problem with game development, right? It was even before that (0:33:30) Codey: It’s the tears of the kingdom like. (0:33:35) Al: people were doing it. They didn’t. (0:33:38) Al: No, I know. Yeah, yeah. No, I get it. I feel like this could be possibly interesting. (0:33:46) Al: I’m not really sure what it’s… The flying is the thing that is most interesting to me, (0:33:51) Al: but other than that, I’m not really sure what it is that they’re doing that’s unique, (0:33:54) Al: which is always the problem with cottagecore games is why should I play you over Stardew? (0:34:01) Codey: I think that’s correct. I think like that’s the thing about this is it’s just to get your (0:34:06) Codey: attention and we will continue. It’s not like I saw this and I’m like, yep, not going to play (0:34:11) Codey: that because there’s not a lot here. I want to, I want to see more. They’re going to probably (0:34:15) Codey: release more. And so far they just say Q2 2025 in the trailer. (0:34:16) Al: Yep. Yeah, where did you see Q2? I just see 2025. Oh, in the trailer, okay. Because on (0:34:28) Al: Steam just says 2025. Okay, I will update my list then. I didn’t pay attention to the (0:34:31) Codey: Yeah, he didn’t watch the trailer. (0:34:38) Al: trailer, there’s a difference there. All right, we also have the brand new and exciting (0:34:39) Codey: Oh, my bad. I get that though. (0:34:47) Al: Harvest Moon, Skytree Village, and The Lost Valley are for some reason coming to Switch. (0:34:55) Al: The good thing about this is it is a bundle, so it’s like you’re not buying the game separately, (0:35:00) Al: which is good, because my word that would be not worth any sort of money. I’m not sure who (0:35:06) Al: wants these games. It’s like they went, “Oh, when we did…” Because they worked with… (0:35:09) Codey: Yeah, so you– (0:35:16) Al: Because the rights are complicated to the old Harvest Moon games, right? So they’ve done some, (0:35:22) Al: they released the original Harvest Moon on, what’s it called, Nintendo Switch Online, (0:35:31) Al: and they had to do that in collaboration with Marvelous, because Marvelous owned the game, (0:35:36) Al: but they owned the name, and so they had to both agree to that. Anyway, whatever, it doesn’t matter. (0:35:41) Al: And I feel like that combined with Marvelous redoing a wonderful… (0:35:46) Al: life has made them go, “Oh, people like when we remake Harvest Moon games and knock on which ones (0:35:55) Al: is it that people actually want to play, because I guarantee you it’s not Skytree Village in The (0:35:59) Al: Lost Valley.” (0:36:00) Codey: - Yeah, I will say, okay, so two things. (0:36:04) Codey: First of all, I looked, so one social media user, (0:36:08) Codey: to your question of who’s asking for this, (0:36:10) Codey: one social media user named Chrissy said, (0:36:13) Codey: “Cozy gamers have really been winning lately.” (0:36:16) Al: I wonder whether that person has ever actually played either of these. (0:36:16) Codey: To which another, (0:36:23) Codey: to which another user said, (0:36:25) Codey: “These games are more like a loss.” (0:36:28) Al: The funny thing is they did the whole, “Oh, we’re going to announce an announcement.” (0:36:34) Al: And they were like, “Oh, we’ve got an exciting announcement coming for you.” (0:36:34) Codey: Yeah (0:36:37) Al: And you’re like, “Okay, fine.” (0:36:40) Al: And then they did this and people were like, “Really? (0:36:43) Al: That was your… (0:36:44) Al: Please tell me this wasn’t everything.” (0:36:46) Al: Because it’s just, they’re like, I am not the sort of person who just hates on Harvest (0:36:50) Al: Moon, you know, Natsume, Harvest Moon games for the sake of it. (0:36:54) Al: You know, I am literally playing Harvestman, Home Sweet Home, as we’re recording. (0:36:58) Al: The podcast, right? And I’ve talked about how I like that. I’ve talked about how I like the ideas (0:37:02) Al: in One World and Winds of Anthos. I think they’re very interesting and I think that they’re very (0:37:07) Al: close to legitimately having a good game. These games are not that. These games are just bad. (0:37:10) Codey: Mm hmm. This ain’t it chief. Yeah, I will say so. I was listening to another podcast (0:37:22) Codey: about metal music lately and they were talking about I had there’s a point fault. Stay with (0:37:27) Al: I look forward to it. (0:37:28) Codey: me. They were talking about how this one band re like, is republishing like re thank you (0:37:37) Al: - Remastered. (0:37:38) Codey: remastering. (0:37:40) Codey: I think they’re actually just straight up rerecording an (0:37:42) Codey: entire album and like reproducing it. (0:37:42) Al: - Oh, okay. (0:37:44) Al: They’re Taylor-swifting it. (0:37:45) Codey: Basically, they are that’s the they literally made a joke about (0:37:49) Codey: that and they had the same question like what who’s asking (0:37:53) Codey: for this and a bunch of people on social media were like, (0:37:56) Codey: ah, this is thanks, but I’d rather have no music, etc, etc. (0:38:00) Codey: But they actually said they made a really good point, which (0:38:02) Codey: is if there are people who have not played these games or (0:38:07) Codey: listen to this music or whatever. (0:38:10) Codey: Kind of an introduction to that to that content for them (0:38:13) Codey: because there might be people who have heard of this Harvest (0:38:17) Codey: Moon thing, but they haven’t really played it yet or whatever (0:38:22) Codey: and then maybe they see this bundle and they’re like, oh (0:38:24) Codey: wow, there’s two of them in here. (0:38:26) Al: They’re first and last Harvest Moon games (0:38:27) Codey: And so it’s not. (0:38:30) Codey: Well, yeah, so that’s the thing. (0:38:31) Codey: So I mean that they were talking about an actually good album (0:38:35) Codey: versus– (0:38:35) Al: Yes, I think that’s that is the key difference here Cody (0:38:39) Al: I think like I am NOT against remakes. I think remakes can be really good (0:38:40) Codey: - Yeah. (0:38:43) Al: I think I’m doing a wonderful life last year was good because that is a very beloved game (0:38:43) Codey: Yeah. (0:38:47) Al: That is a lot of people’s first farming game (0:38:51) Al: And you just have to listen to Kevin for five minutes to know how much some people were waiting for that (0:38:55) Al: Nobody has that about (0:38:56) Codey: Oh, yeah. That’s fair. (0:38:56) Al: these games. (0:38:59) Codey: Yeah, I I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but, uh, yeah, (0:39:04) Codey: I think that the thing is that it’s not just if they’re not being remade (0:39:08) Codey: or or bundled in for the switch for the fans. (0:39:14) Al: No. This is the problem is there aren’t games that Natsume can nostalgia grab on. (0:39:15) Codey: It’s to try and get new people into the into the fandom. (0:39:26) Al: Because they’re all owned by Marvelous. They only own the name. And Marvelous aren’t going to do (0:39:33) Al: anything about it. I think it was very different when they did the original on Nintendo Switch (0:39:38) Al: Online because that is the actual original game. They’re just porting. (0:39:44) Al: It’s not even porting. It’s literally just an emulator. They’re just literally allowing (0:39:51) Al: the game to run on it. And that’s very different to remaking games. And there’s no way Marvelous (0:40:00) Al: have remade multiple. They remade Friends of Mineral Town, which was a fun one to do. They (0:40:05) Al: remade A Wonderful Life. I can’t remember if they’ve done any other remakes recently. (0:40:10) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know, because I’m not ever going to touch it, so. (0:40:14) Al: They want to jump on the bandwagon. They have to just release bad games again. (0:40:20) Al: This is the thing. So many people have this be in their bonnet about Natsume and they’re like, (0:40:25) Al: oh, they’re just jumping on the name and using it to sell bad games. And yeah, that’s kind of true. (0:40:31) Al: Or at least it was kind of true. I do think now they’re actually getting better and they’re (0:40:36) Al: actually trying to make good games. They’re getting there. But the problem is that releasing (0:40:42) Al: they’re bad games again. (0:40:44) Al: They’re not going to convince anybody that they’re doing anything other than money-grabbing. (0:40:44) Codey: Yeah, it’s like there’s someone at the company that remembers when all these games first (0:40:55) Codey: came out and like the hype the hype of it and they’re trying to like regain that the (0:41:01) Codey: glory days and the it’s sometimes you just got to let things go and like when Bluey and (0:41:08) Codey: Bingo had to get rid of a bunch of their stuffies. Yeah. (0:41:10) Al: Oh, we watched that the other day. That was a good episode. (0:41:17) Al: Yeah, it’s painful to watch what they’re doing, because it’s like one step forward, 73 steps (0:41:24) Al: back. Like, I just… Why do this? And I… Oh, goodness. Yes, right. (0:41:24) Codey: like the American government. So we have some other people one year forward 73 years backwards. (0:41:40) Al: So… Yeah, a section we don’t often have, because normally it’s just game updates and (0:41:41) Codey: We have some other news. Uh-huh. Oh. (0:41:47) Al: occasionally new games, we do have the other news section. So we have three pieces of other (0:41:53) Al: news to talk about. The first one is super… Let’s start off with the negative one, shall we? (0:41:54) Codey: You got to be more specific. Oh, oh, you’re right. You’re right. You’re right. I needed. (0:42:01) Al: There’s only one negative one. Okay. (0:42:04) Codey: I had to look through it again. Yeah. (0:42:10) Al: So Phoenix Labs, the developers of Fae Farm and Dauntless, and were creating other games (0:42:15) Al: until last year when they laid off almost everybody who was working on any game other (0:42:20) Al: than Fae Farm and Dauntless have now laid off almost everybody else. Huzzah! (0:42:26) Codey: - Yay. (0:42:27) Al: They’re like, “What’s the point in a game studio that makes games? (0:42:30) Al: We don’t want to make games. We don’t even want to continue making our existing games.” (0:42:34) Codey: Yeah, you don’t have yeah, but you know, they really said, the developer said, quote, It’s unfortunate, but necessary. (0:42:44) Codey: Yeah, so I did do a dive into this, more than just like, just the top of the of the article or whatever I start, I really got into reading this article and like kind of looking at some stuff because I was just like, what is going on here? (0:42:45) Al: Yeah, I guess the games aren’t failing then. (0:43:00) Al: - Were you rage reading? (0:43:02) Al: Were you rage reading? (0:43:04) Codey: I was so after basically, the developer, the Phoenix lab, whom’s ever the whole the whole Phoenix lab people. Correct. Thank you. You’re so good with the words today. So they, they were, they were acquired by a blockchain company called forte labs. (0:43:14) Al: the company. What can I say? I’m on a roll. Words is my whole thing. (0:43:30) Codey: And when they were acquired, they then laid off (0:43:34) Codey: as you already mentioned 160 people and quote the new owner (0:43:39) Codey: reportedly pressed developers to draft methods for integrating (0:43:44) Codey: blockchain technology in its games for the purpose of buying (0:43:49) Codey: and selling and trading in game goods, according to former (0:43:52) Codey: employees. So the crypto market has has joined games y’all. (0:43:58) Codey: Uh. (0:43:58) Al: are we back on NFTs? I thought we killed NFTs like four years ago, what are you doing? (0:43:59) Codey: Yeah. (0:44:04) Codey: NFTs and crypto, man, they’re here to stay, I guess. (0:44:08) Al: Well no, crypto isn’t dead, but come on, when was the last time you heard about NFTs? (0:44:14) Al: Especially in games, they’re so 2022. (0:44:18) Codey: I believe Ascentient Cheeto recently gave more NFTs. (0:44:24) Codey: Continuing on, apparently after releasing Dauntless, (0:44:28) Codey: they were “criticized by players for its new in-app monetization design,” (0:44:32) Codey: which was probably the blockchain, (0:44:34) Codey: but erasing previous progression with the new Awakening update. (0:44:38) Codey: So they had an update and it released, it erased all the previous progression. (0:44:38) Al: Oh no! No! What?! (0:44:42) Codey: The game still has an overwhelmingly negative number of reviews on Steam. (0:44:49) Al: I miss that happening. I wasn’t really aware of this very much. I was aware of it when (0:44:50) Codey: And the… (0:44:54) Al: it initially released because it was like, “Oh, it’s gonna kill Monster Hunter.” And (0:44:56) Codey: Yeah. (0:45:00) Codey: It did not. (0:45:02) Codey: It really had it was nowhere new (0:45:04) Codey: because when it first launched, there were probably about 3200 concurrent players like people playing at the same time online. (0:45:12) Codey: Nowadays, it’s only ever around about 150 people. (0:45:18) Codey: So yeah, not sure what they’re doing. (0:45:22) Codey: I would suggest well, I guess I would I would say that I would suggest them to back off the blockchain, but they are literally owned and acquired by a blockchain company. (0:45:32) Codey: So I don’t think that’s going to happen. (0:45:36) Codey: So I’m not not really sure what this means for Fae Farm. (0:45:41) Al: What I find really funny is like, so I think crypto is most often a scam. (0:45:48) Al: I do think there are some interesting applications for blockchain as a concept. (0:45:56) Al: NFTs is not it. (0:46:01) Al: It has never been it, even on their own. (0:46:04) Al: And then when people started putting them into games, I was like, I don’t even know why. (0:46:10) Codey: I mean, I feel like it’s to try and like have an introduction. (0:46:11) Al: Like, what is happening, and why would you do this? (0:46:18) Codey: It’s like when they put smoking in movies so that they would get more smokers, right? (0:46:23) Codey: It’s like a, it’s a, it’s a possible way to normalize something. (0:46:26) Al: It’s like the Transformers series for selling more Transformers. (0:46:29) Codey: Yeah. (0:46:31) Codey: Uh, which it’ll probably have a small, well, it would have a small bump if it wasn’t for (0:46:38) Codey: uh, cozy gamers. (0:46:40) Codey: Cause I don’t think cozy gamers are the people or, or monster hunters style players. (0:46:46) Codey: I, you really gotta go for like the call of duty people. (0:46:48) Codey: I feel like they, they would do NFTs because they basically, that’s basically all they (0:46:53) Codey: do with their, uh, skins and stuff on all the, all the guns and whatever. (0:47:00) Codey: So like, it’s not monster hunter people, uh, with dauntless and then cozy games with fave (0:47:08) Codey: farm. (0:47:10) Codey: It’s just not the right crowd. (0:47:12) Al: Yeah. Yeah, well, that’s the thing. I mean, it’s not officially, (0:47:13) Codey: And unfortunately, some of these games are suffering for it. (0:47:22) Al: these games are now dead, but I mean, pretty much these games are now dead, right? (0:47:25) Codey: Yeah we don’t know. Yeah we don’t know. I don’t I don’t know what the what’s (0:47:31) Codey: what’s going forward but we’ll keep we’ll keep on it. (0:47:36) Al: We will. We will. All right. No. Undead. Undead game. It’s the game that never dies. (0:47:38) Codey: Let’s talk about another dead game. Stardew Valley. (0:47:43) Codey: Oh it’s a zombie game. It will not die. (0:47:49) Al: It’s RG Valley. Concern Date. He’s off. Eric Barone, he’s off, you know, interviewing again, (0:48:00) Al: saying the things and admitting to people that he will never stop working on this. He’s (0:48:06) Al: until he’s 90, in the words of Deadpool. Well, yes, but also it was in Deadpool Wolverine. (0:48:07) Codey: Can’t stop won’t stop. Yep. Is that the words of Deadpool? I thought he said that (0:48:16) Codey: Yeah (0:48:17) Al: He said that Wolverine was going to do it till he’s 90. (0:48:19) Codey: Okay, well Eric also said the same thing (0:48:25) Codey: Yeah, some so there was this interview with NPR you can either read it or it’s just like a five-minute little listen (0:48:33) Codey: on the website and we got that link in the show notes. (0:48:38) Codey: There’s some really fun quotes in here. So I loved the Eric (0:48:41) Codey: said, some people have called Stardew Valley chores the game. (0:48:45) Al: It’s not wrong. (0:48:48) Codey: I had never heard that. But I can’t like, not wrong. That was (0:48:55) Codey: funny. And yeah, he said, you know, maybe even 50 years from (0:48:59) Codey: now, I might add something. (0:49:01) Al: I think it would be funny to release an update when I’m like 90 years old if I live that long, let’s hope. (0:49:07) Codey: We’re hoping for it, man. (0:49:08) Al: Yeah, there was a couple other things I found interesting. (0:49:10) Al: He specifically pointed out, another thing is I do want to make more than one game in my life. (0:49:16) Codey: But then probably not past haunted chocolatier because he just said more than one game. (0:49:17) Al: So there’s still hope for “Hunted Chocolatier”. (0:49:24) Al: More than one game. (0:49:26) Al: I mean, honestly, right? (0:49:27) Al: Like, if he makes “Stardew Valley” and he makes another game that actually does well, (0:49:31) Al: that’s probably better than most game developers. (0:49:34) Codey: I mean, let’s also be honest, he could probably like quit today and never work again, and he’s fine. (0:49:39) Al: Oh, for sure. (0:49:40) Al: Oh, for sure. (0:49:41) Al: Absolutely. (0:49:41) Codey: He’s fine. (0:49:45) Al: And he also said, “If I feel like it’s starting to become kind of overwhelmed with content (0:49:54) Al: to the point where it’s detrimental to the game’s entertainment factor, I would stop (0:49:58) Al: at that point.” (0:50:02) Al: So yeah, lots coming to “Stardew Valley” probably. (0:50:07) Al: Like this just sounds like he’s buttering us up to have another update in like a year (0:50:10) Codey: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm just shadow dropped. Yeah (0:50:12) Al: or two. (0:50:14) Al: Well, I don’t think he can possibly shadow drop anything, like he just, he likes talking (0:50:22) Codey: Yeah. Uh, I was curious, so I Googled it. (0:50:26) Codey: And as, uh, according to dot eSports, uh, as of March 20th, 2024, (0:50:31) Codey: Eric Barone, AKA concerned apes net worth. (0:50:35) Codey: Do you want to take a guess? (0:50:36) Al: Oh, five million. (0:50:40) Codey: 45 million. (0:50:41) Al: Oh, my word, that’s wild. (0:50:45) Codey: So yeah, he’s, he’s set. (0:50:45) Al: That is wild. Yeah. (0:50:46) Codey: He is set. (0:50:48) Codey: You did good. (0:50:49) Codey: You’re winning son. (0:50:52) Codey: So, but no, no, keep going. (0:50:54) Al: And our final piece of news is not really a piece of news. (0:50:57) Al: It’s just an article that writers did, which I thought was very interesting. (0:51:03) Al: And it’s not normal kind of like writers is known for like their (0:51:06) Al: investigative journalism there like overseas stuff in particular, but for some reason (0:51:12) Al: they did an interactive cozy games article. (0:51:17) Codey: I need more of these. (0:51:19) Al: This is amazing. (0:51:20) Al: I really love this. (0:51:21) Al: Do you want to tell them what it is? (0:51:21) Codey: Yeah. (0:51:23) Codey: Yeah, I mean, you basically– and I blurbed a lot of this, (0:51:26) Codey: but let me know if you want me to not– (0:51:27) Codey: I mean, whatever. (0:51:28) Codey: OK, continue. (0:51:30) Codey: They basically explain– so imagine (0:51:32) Codey: like you’re reading an article and you’re scrolling down, (0:51:34) Codey: right, to like go through the article and read it. (0:51:37) Codey: In this interactive graphic display, (0:51:42) Codey: as you scroll down, your character (0:51:44) Codey: is like moving and doing things on the screen. (0:51:47) Codey: It’s explaining how a cozy game works. (0:51:55) Codey: I loved it. (0:51:55) Codey: I want to do it again, honestly, because you basically (0:51:58) Codey: play a little game within the article. (0:52:00) Codey: It’s wild. (0:52:01) Codey: Some standout things. (0:52:04) Codey: Quote, “There’s no hard definition for a cozy game. (0:52:08) Codey: If the game gives the player a cozy, warm feeling, (0:52:11) Codey: then it fits.” (0:52:13) Codey: So that’s Ruder’s definition, y’all. (0:52:17) Codey: I don’t know how you say this. (0:52:18) Al: I say writers ‘cause that’s how I’ve heard it. (0:52:19) Codey: Art? (0:52:21) Codey: Cool, R-E-U-T-E-R, those peoples. (0:52:26) Codey: Cozy, warm feeling. (0:52:29) Codey: That’s very subjective. (0:52:30) Al: I feel like we need to introduce them to some other games. (0:52:31) Codey: “In cozy games, it’s virtually impossible to lose. (0:52:34) Codey: Fights are easy to win if there are fights at all.” (0:52:41) Al: They think that all of the fights are easy. (0:52:44) Codey: - Yeah, not true, not true. (0:52:47) Codey: Not necessarily true, especially if you’re fighting (0:52:50) Codey: trying to win the arcade games (0:52:52) Codey: in Stardew Valley’s tavern. (0:52:54) Al: Oh, don’t even. Literally the only thing I’ve not done for the Steam achievements. (0:52:55) Codey: That is, fighting for your life. (0:53:01) Codey: That’s ‘cause it’s hard. (0:53:04) Codey: I really, so some other things that this article talks about (0:53:06) Codey: ‘cause it’s really talking about mental health (0:53:08) Codey: and how cozy games can help with mental health. (0:53:12) Codey: So quote, Suzanne Roman who describes herself (0:53:15) Codey: as an autistic advocate said (0:53:17) Codey: including her own autistic daughter who celebrated her 18th birthday during lockdown. (0:53:26) Codey: Also, quote according to research from 2022 by Aaron Suhar, that’s I’m sorry if I butchered your (0:53:33) Codey: name, an assistant professor at Ray Juan Carlos University, video games are being investigated (0:53:39) Codey: as an innovative method to manage ADHD. I am curious how they’re going to do that and if they need (0:53:47) Codey: testers. I I don’t know. I mean, honestly, I’m starting to like realize that if you get our like (0:53:48) Al: Where do we find some ADHD people? (0:53:57) Codey: people of our generation around our age in a room and you throw a stone, you’re going to hit someone (0:54:03) Codey: that probably has ADHD because we. Okay. Okay. (0:54:04) Al: No, Cody, so this is a common misconception. It’s just that we like spending time with (0:54:13) Al: other people who have ADHD, and so we’re constantly surrounded by them. There’s still (0:54:18) Codey: Okay. Oh, wow. Okay. I yeah, I just I really I get the I mean, this is probably also because of (0:54:19) Al: a very small proportion of the population. And yeah. (0:54:29) Codey: algorithms and stuff. But like, I just feel and like talking to people from like my high school (0:54:34) Codey: and stuff. It just seems like we all have there was a struggle. It’s not vaccines, y’all. It’s (0:54:40) Codey: it’s like, I think it comes from growing up when there weren’t things like video game. Well, there (0:54:47) Codey: are basic video games, but not in the way that there are now. There weren’t phones that could grab (0:54:52) Codey: your attention. And so when we were developing our when our brains were developing is when all of (0:54:59) Codey: this stuff came out. And suddenly, we had so many poles on our attention. And it made us our brains (0:55:09) Codey: develop in a way where we are, it is difficult for attention to keep to hold attention and hold focus. (0:55:16) Codey: This is just completely a- (0:55:17) Codey: hypothesis that I have this is not fact but I just I wonder if that’s why (0:55:23) Codey: there’s so much of like our cohort in my opinion in my experience that have (0:55:29) Codey: this and or seem to at least but yeah I don’t know it is crazy for sure (0:55:38) Codey: still Aaron Suhar in Ray Juan Carlos University if you need playtesters let me (0:55:45) Codey: know. I would love to hear from you. (0:55:47) Codey: to join. Also, if you are not my final comment about this, if you have not become invested in (0:55:55) Codey: reading reading slash playing this article by now, cat cactus. That’s all I’m gonna leave you with cat (0:56:02) Codey: cactus. Yeah, I really don’t know. I also I also don’t know why you’re listening to this podcast if (0:56:02) Al: And if that’s not intriguing, enough to make you play it, I don’t know what will be. (0:56:08) Al: It’s a great article, I love it. (0:56:13) Codey: you’re not intrigued by cat cactus. Who are you? (0:56:16) Al: Fair. (0:56:17) Codey: Oh. (0:56:18) Codey: Well, we could do a mini, mini review for a mini, mini game. (0:56:18) Al: All right, that is the news. (0:56:22) Al: Whew, that was quite a lot of news. (0:56:26) Codey: Oh, okay. (0:56:28) Al: We are going to talk about many, many farm for as long as we need to talk about it. (0:56:28) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:56:30) Codey: Okay. (0:56:32) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:56:32) Al: So, I’m going to try, I’m going to do my usual thing where I try and summarize the game. (0:56:38) Al: And you can tell me how wrong you think I am. (0:56:42) Al: So, it is a farming game where you are, it doesn’t, so interestingly, it doesn’t work like how most mobile farming games work, right? (0:56:54) Al: So, most mobile farming games we have talked about are like basically Farmville, but different. (0:57:02) Al: This is very much not that. (0:57:04) Al: So, in those ones, you always have like the, you have the time gates, but you can always speed up the time gates. (0:57:10) Al: And you have like your plots that you have to tap on, and like it’s all very like the same way of playing. (0:57:18) Al: The way this game works is you are dragging on the screen to move your character. (0:57:24) Al: And when your character comes across something that they can interact with, it happens automatically. (0:57:28) Al: If you, I mean, if you, if it needs to be multiple entry. (0:57:32) Al: But you don’t have, you’re not creating farm plots, and you’re not like buying things to place places there are a fixed number and placement of items, such as your farming plots and mining nodes and animals, and you have to purchase them. (0:58:00) Al: But you can see them all in the overworld. (0:58:04) Al: This isn’t really so much a summary as I’m just describing the game now. (0:58:08) Al: It’s really hard to summarize this game. (0:58:08) Codey: Yeah, there’s not really like, the game is really, I mean, it’s very simple. So a basic (0:58:16) Codey: summary quote unquote of the game is also just the game. Because it doesn’t, (0:58:20) Al: - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. (0:58:22) Codey: it’s not too complicated. So you’re doing great. Keep going. (0:58:29) Al: You’re cycling through things, right? (0:58:30) Al: You farm, you gather some items, you sell the items, (0:58:34) Al: and then you use the money to buy other things (0:58:38) Al: and unlock other areas, eventually buying a house, (0:58:42) Al: which allows you to then unlock a whole other area, (0:58:45) Al: which you’re then slowly progressing towards (0:58:48) Al: buying a house in that area, et cetera, et cetera. (0:58:51) Al: I have not bought the house, but I have got to the point (0:58:52) Codey: How far did you get? (0:58:56) Al: where I’m allowed to buy the house, but I haven’t managed to (0:58:58) Al: gather all of the materials and money to be able to buy the (0:59:01) Al: house because the house is very expensive. What about you? (0:59:05) Al: expensive. What about you? (0:59:07) Codey: Yeah, so my I’m in the second area my one (0:59:14) Codey: Addendum to your beautiful summary is that you don’t sell the things there are (0:59:21) Codey: Requests like people are requesting. Okay, but like it comes up. It’s it’s part of the lore (0:59:22) Al: it’s still selling. It’s still selling. Come on. (0:59:29) Codey: Where you’re coming upon these areas. You’re not finding people (0:59:33) Codey: It’s like a deserted you’re going through like a deserted landscape and. (0:59:37) Codey: And kind of revitalizing these areas by buying everything and you keep getting these requests but you only ever see like two people. (0:59:47) Codey: And your character eventually is like where where are all of these requests coming from like why what is going on here. (0:59:56) Codey: And I that question which once you unlock the first house is the game like kind of asks it I was like. (1:00:07) Codey: You know what that’s a great question where are other people like these are clearly like lived in places like there’s houses that are kind of run down or you got to build them up or whatever but like they’re the infrastructure was there like what happened so I am I’m in. (1:00:23) Codey: I am I’m actually currently playing right now because of course I am but. (1:00:26) Al: Shocking, you wouldn’t find me playing a game while podcasting. (1:00:30) Codey: No of course not also not talking slack but yeah. (1:00:37) Al: Okay, let’s let’s. Yeah, so let’s talk about the individual mechanics. (1:00:37) Codey: I think that’s pretty much the summary yeah. (1:00:43) Al: So I guess there’s probably not much more to say about controlling your character, right, (1:00:47) Al: you swipe to move your character, if they hit if they encounter something, if you. So is it okay, (1:00:55) Al: There is more to say, apparently. (1:00:56) Al: So when you encounter something that can be interacted with, assuming that you have (1:01:05) Al: let go of the screen, so you’ve stopped moving your character, they will then interact with (1:01:10) Al: that item once. (1:01:12) Al: And if it needs to happen multiple times, you can either move away and come back or (1:01:16) Al: you can tap multiple times to finish it off. (1:01:19) Al: So say you’re, you can, did you not know you could just tap, oh, Cody, Cody, Cody, Cody. (1:01:19) Codey: How do you just tap? (1:01:22) Codey: Oh, you can just tap. (1:01:25) Codey: I mean, that’s fine. (1:01:25) Al: So yeah, you’re, you’re running around. (1:01:26) Al: And you see a rock and you want to hit it. (1:01:28) Al: So you run up to it and you let go and it hits the rock and then you can either run (1:01:32) Al: away again and come back to it and it’ll hit it again, or you can just tap and it’ll hit it again. (1:01:36) Codey: I love the fact that you can just tap. (1:01:39) Al: So do I. (1:01:39) Codey: I’ve just been doing like tiny drags. (1:01:42) Codey: Like just gonna like drag it like a little bit to the right to hit this. (1:01:45) Al: I will, I will do that. (1:01:46) Al: I will do that for farming because I find it much more consistent around which plots will (1:01:52) Al: happen and getting things done the right way. (1:01:54) Codey: Yeah, I mean, but there’s but there’s no wrong way. It just (1:01:55) Al: but for a rock. (1:01:56) Al: or a tree I will just I’ll just tap. (1:02:01) Al: No, I’m not saying there is just that is how I will I personally do it. (1:02:01) Codey: does it. Yeah. Yeah. (1:02:08) Al: And that’s that’s basically all of your interaction is you drag to move and you do a thing when (1:02:14) Al: you stop moving, and then you can tap to do the thing again. (1:02:18) Al: And everything works that way, basically. (1:02:22) Al: So farming, you’ve got your standard crop farming. (1:02:26) Al: And there are certain farming areas. I don’t know what you would call them. Fields, yeah, okay, fields. (1:02:34) Codey: I would call them fields, like there’s a, there’ll be like a, a two by three field, (1:02:39) Codey: a two by two field that I think it’s the turnip field is like three by three. (1:02:44) Codey: It’s pretty insane. (1:02:45) Al: And so you have to hold the field, tell the field, that’s what the word isn’t it? Tell (1:02:46) Codey: Don’t need that many turnips. (1:02:54) Al: the field. Oh, in Scotland, you can quite often say “ho” to mean “excuse me, sir.” You (1:02:55) Codey: Oh, that filled out. (1:03:06) Al: go “ho, you”. No, it doesn’t mean that. It’s just to get somebody’s attention. That’s all (1:03:06) Codey: What you just calling people hoes (1:03:14) Codey: Calling people hoes can’t believe you (1:03:16) Al: » Yes, you tell the field and then you plant your seeds and then you water it. (1:03:17) Codey: You just calling people hoes can’t believe you (1:03:19) Codey: Mm-hmm. (1:03:26) Al: And then after some time, it’s ready and you harvest it. (1:03:30) Al: I have not figured out when you have to water because sometimes when you harvest, (1:03:30) Codey: It’s not it’s not a lot of time either. It’s pretty fast. (1:03:39) Al: it will already be watered and then you can just sow seeds again and that’s fine. (1:03:45) Al: And sometimes it won’t be watered anymore. (1:03:48) Al: And if you’re very fast, you can sow seeds before it becomes untilled. (1:03:54) Al: But sometimes you’ll have to till it again if you’re not fast and then you have to water again. (1:03:54) Codey: Mm hmm. I believe it’s just like every in the real life day. It’s like once once a real life day, (1:04:10) Codey: you have to water it. Yeah, because like, that’s, that’s how I’ve assumed because like, I’m like, (1:04:12) Al: That, yeah, okay, that would make sense based on how I’ve experienced it. Yeah, that one. (1:04:20) Codey: oh, they’re not watered again. And then it’s like the next day when I’m playing again, I’m like, (1:04:23) Codey: Oh, they’re back to… (1:04:24) Codey: being not watered um but yeah so it’s not like you have to do that very often so then (1:04:30) Codey: after you’ve done that like once in the day you just run up to the thing harvest (1:04:37) Codey: and plant more seeds and then you can run away and go to something else (1:04:41) Al: Yep. Then we’ve got trees. Some trees produce fruit, which you can get. You can cut those (1:04:51) Al: trees down again, but I think it means that the fruit takes longer to come back because (1:04:56) Al: the tree has to regrow first. Other trees do not do fruit. They’re just for getting wood. (1:05:02) Al: You cut them down. You have to cut the stump, I think it said, for it to regrow, if I remember (1:05:07) Codey: Oh, that’s interesting. I mean, but also you get more stuff from the stone. (1:05:08) Al: correctly? Well, yes. (1:05:11) Al: You would. Naturally, you would cut the stump away. I just thought it was interesting (1:05:16) Al: when I was doing that. I’m pretty sure it told me you have to cut the stump away, otherwise (1:05:20) Al: the tree doesn’t regrow. And yeah, it regrows after some time. There’s also these money (1:05:26) Codey: Yeah, I’m not sure what the timeline is on that. (1:05:29) Al: bushes? You seem to cut bushes down and they give you money? (1:05:33) Codey: Oh, yes, sorry, I was thinking it was a tree. Yeah, they’re like little shrubs, little round shrubs and they (1:05:39) Al: I’m not sure why these are spewing out money when you cut them down, but I’m not going to complain. (1:05:47) Codey: Yeah, and they usually grow either in twos or fours and they grow back pretty fast too, so (1:05:53) Al: Yeah, and then you have the animals, so you can unlock a ranch, and you get a cow and (1:06:03) Al: sheep, and then there’s like other animals that you can get at different points. There’s (1:06:07) Al: like a kind of an island in the first area where you can go and get some more cows and (1:06:10) Al: more sheep. They will provide wool and milk, as you would probably expect for sheep and (1:06:17) Al: cows. And they work the exact same way. After a while, there’ll be a little exclamation (1:06:23) Al: of them, and you know you can go get it. It’s just like all the other things. (1:06:24) Codey: Yep, the second area gives you a chicken, and that’s all I know so far because I am (1:06:26) Al: Nice. (1:06:32) Codey: just in the second area. (1:06:35) Codey: I think there’s five areas. (1:06:36) Al: Right, OK. And then there is, I’m calling it mining, but you’re not in a mine, it’s (1:06:43) Al: just there’s rocks and ore lying around the place and you go and hit them and you get (1:06:49) Al: either stone or is it copper and silver? I think that’s what they are. (1:06:54) Codey: Yeah, and then the second area has gold, so yeah, you get these like ore, ore out of it. (1:07:01) Al: Yeah, so they’re all pretty self-explanatory. (1:07:04) Al: They’re just kind of all very similar. (1:07:06) Al: You then have fishing, which is you could you could do one. (1:07:11) Al: You can fish up one fish per area, per time period. (1:07:16) Al: It’s like five minutes, maybe not even five minutes, like two minutes or something (1:07:18) Codey: I don’t think it’s fine. I think it’s probably like a minute. Yeah, a minute or two. It’s (1:07:20) Al: like that. (1:07:23) Al: You go to it and then you you’ve got it’s got like a spinning. (1:07:26) Al: it’s probably the least interesting and simplest fish. (1:07:31) Al: It shows you three shadows of fish and they rotate and you basically press it button when the one that you want is there and then it’s basically animal crossing fishing. (1:07:47) Al: At some point there’s an exclamation mark and you press the button and you catch. (1:07:50) Al: Interestingly, fish, unlike all the other things, your fish automatically just get sold and you just get the money for it. (1:07:56) Codey: Yeah, they don’t go into an inventory. (1:07:57) Al: They are not part of the same requests that everything else has been. (1:08:01) Al: They are not part of. (1:08:04) Al: Took me ages to realize this because I was just tapping and missing the fact that it told you this as soon as you caught the fish. (1:08:10) Al: It popped up and said, “You sold the fish for 200.” I would be tapping far too fast. (1:08:14) Codey: Well, so that’s actually one of the reasons I kind of like the spinning, how it shows (1:08:24) Codey: you three shadows, then you can pick what shadow you want. (1:08:27) Codey: Because if you, each area, each little fishing spot, there’s two in the first area, I haven’t (1:08:33) Codey: gotten to any in the next area, has a certain set of fish that you can get. (1:08:39) Codey: So the first fishing hole has nine, for example. (1:08:44) Codey: Once you’ve collected everything in that area, you get like 500 coins. (1:08:50) Codey: Yeah, you do get a bonus for collecting everything. (1:08:52) Al: I’m like one fish away from the first one being finished, so I haven’t experienced that yet. (1:08:55) Codey: Yeah, so there is a bonus for doing that and like trying to make sure that, because for (1:09:02) Codey: example on the second area, I’m trying to get one of the medium mishfishes. (1:09:09) Codey: And so, you know, if I go up and try and… (1:09:14) Codey: If I can fish, I can skip, like I can just wait until the fish that’s in front of the hook is a larger one if there’s like two small ones. (1:09:21) Codey: So I do like the little rotating things, then it’s you’re not just fishing and getting a small one, fishing and getting a small one, fishing and getting a really, really, really big one, like there’s like an element of choice. (1:09:33) Codey: Maybe it’s fake, maybe it’s not really choice, but it makes me feel good. (1:09:36) Al: I’m pretty sure it’s a choice because they are different sizes and the different sizes (1:09:41) Codey: Yeah. (1:09:42) Al: do seem to give me the same types of fish regularly. I think it’s only like maybe two (1:09:44) Codey: » Yes. (1:09:46) Codey: » God. (1:09:49) Al: of them are the big one and most of them are the medium one I think so it’s not a huge (1:09:53) Codey: yeah. Yeah, I just finished the second wood and I got 700 coins and some fishing experience. (1:09:54) Al: amount of… it’s not like every single silhouette is exactly the fish you expect it to be. (1:10:02) Al: Whoo! (1:10:04) Al: Whoo! (1:10:06) Al: I think… yeah, no, I don’t know, actually. I don’t think. (1:10:07) Codey: No idea what the fishing experience does. (1:10:13) Codey: Yeah, they didn’t really, they don’t really explain that. There’s also like no menu. (1:10:14) Al: Yes, yes, yes. So this was a weird thing because it took me ages to figure out how to actually see my inventory. (1:10:24) Al: And I realized that when we get to the dungeon, which we’re going to talk about… (1:10:28) Al: Should we talk about that now, then? We’ll do the unlocking afterwards. (1:10:34) Al: So there’s a dungeon in the game where you go down (1:10:36) Al: to it, and it’s kind of like the mines in Stardew Valley, but it’s 10 levels. (1:10:47) Al: I think it’s programmatically generated. (1:10:52) Al: It is a very simple dungeon. (1:10:58) Al: You have health and you have stamina when you go into the dungeon. (1:11:01) Al: You don’t have stamina anywhere else in the game. (1:11:03) Al: Only in the dungeon. (1:11:04) Al: As soon as you’re in the dungeon, for some reason you have– (1:11:06) Al: stamina. You have to– the aim is to get down to level 10. If you don’t get down to (1:11:14) Al: level 10 because you run out of stamina or health, you do get– you get to keep the stuff (1:11:20) Al: that you found on the way. So there’s like, you know, rocks and ores and some– for some (1:11:26) Codey: Some plants, yeah. (1:11:27) Al: reason plants growing under there. It’s not like cave plants, it’s like just the normal (1:11:33) Al: plants that you would farm above ground which seems a bit weird but… (1:11:36) Al: hey there we are and there are also enemies there which I don’t know about (1:11:44) Al: you Cody I didn’t I haven’t once got hit by any of the enemies there is not (1:11:50) Codey: It’s not challenging. Did you finish the dungeon? (1:11:50) Al: particularly challenging (1:11:53) Al: oh yeah multiple times (1:11:56) Codey: Okay. Yeah, I did get hit in the last one, because in the last room there’s like five enemies that are coming at you, so I did get hit one of those times. (1:12:05) Al: But they warn you when they’re about to hit you. That’s the thing. There’s this red line (1:12:06) Codey: But if they, but there’s like, 3 of them and if you’re, if you’re in the middle of hitting 1 of them, that’s like a, it like has a, a second. (1:12:10) Al: that goes out for them for like three seconds before they hit you. (1:12:20) Codey: Or something like visual. Don’t shame me for being hit. I don’t, I don’t have to describe myself. I don’t have to explain myself. I know. (1:12:25) Al: No shame. (1:12:30) Al: I’m not shaming you. (1:12:34) Al: Yeah, it’s not particularly difficult, you know, even though you got hit, (1:12:39) Al: you didn’t die, presumably, the health is not hard. (1:12:40) Codey: Correct, yeah. (1:12:43) Al: What I will say is hard is the stamina, (1:12:45) Al: because everything you do in there is stamina. (1:12:48) Al: If it’s picking crops up, if it’s hitting a rock, (1:12:53) Al: it’s attacking all of those. (1:12:55) Al: use stamina, and it’s very little stamina. There’s not a lot of stamina at all. So if (1:13:01) Al: you basically have to decide, am I gathering things or am I trying to get to the bottom (1:13:05) Al: of the dungeon and finish it? Because you can’t do both, basically. Unless when you (1:13:13) Al: run out of stamina, you can either watch an ad to get more stamina, or there’s like an (1:13:20) Al: item you can use to get more stamina as well. So if you don’t do that… (1:13:24) Codey: You can, you can also like, either through the plan through playing in the dungeon, you might get a stamina potion that drops, or through you can like buy them if you give them a certain amount of crops that are like a really good quality or something you can buy the potions. (1:13:25) Al: You can’t do everything in the dungeon. (1:13:46) Codey: And that is a permanent increase to your stamina. (1:13:49) Al: Oh, I did not know that. Okay. Cool. (1:13:50) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah. And then you can also permit. (1:13:54) Codey: You can also permanently increase your sword, which I’m assuming just makes it do more damage. (1:14:01) Codey: And in the dungeon, there’s also the option to like with this one book to increase the. (1:14:14) Al: The soil efficiency, is that the one you’re talking about? (1:14:14) Codey: Well, so there’s the soil improvement while you’re going through the dungeon as you defeat enemies, you get these little green. (1:14:24) Codey: Things that like you accumulate kind of like gold and those improve improve your soil efficiency, soil quality, whatever. (1:14:33) Codey: But there’s also a book to the left of the dungeon entrance. (1:14:38) Codey: And in that book, it increases your like if you’re going to your tomato farm, for example, and you are the plot that you have and you’re only intending to get one tomato. (1:14:51) Codey: It’ll like increase the chance that you do more than one. (1:14:54) Codey: Thing at a time. (1:14:55) Codey: So there have been times where I go to like a two by two field and it just does all four things for me, like all it does all four seeds at the same time. (1:15:02) Al: Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah (1:15:04) Codey: So you can improve that kind of stuff to to like save time. (1:15:10) Al: Not that it saves much time. (1:15:11) Codey: It doesn’t and it’s really incremental. (1:15:13) Codey: Like it. (1:15:14) Codey: It’s it’s like, you know, here’s a 1% increase. (1:15:17) Codey: Another 1% increase. (1:15:18) Codey: It’s it’s really our. (1:15:21) Al: This thing that takes half a second to do, sometimes you don’t need to do it. (1:15:21) Codey: our… (1:15:25) Codey: 1% of the time it takes a quarter of a second to do… yeah, so it’s… yeah. (1:15:28) Al: Yeah, yes, yeah, that’s the thing. (1:15:32) Al: I’m not complaining, right? Like, it’s not like it’s a bad thing, but yeah, it does feel like it’s (1:15:37) Al: Okay, technically, it’s an improvement. (1:15:40) Al: I guess. (1:15:43) Codey: Yeah, so it’s I mean, I don’t know if there’s I’m assuming that there’s going to be other dungeons (1:15:48) Codey: in different areas. I have not. The first area or the second area, I’ve only unlocked like the (1:15:50) Al: That’s a good point. Yeah, I’m not that would be that would make sense. (1:15:55) Codey: first part of the second area, because next to your house, it always says like how what percent (1:16:01) Codey: you’ve unlocked of an area. And you have to unlock a certain percentage to even be able to buy the (1:16:07) Codey: house. And I’ve only done 30% of the second area. So, and I’ve unlocked everything that (1:16:13) Codey: I’m capable of unlocking. So I’m assuming that there’s like another I have to once you buy the (1:16:17) Codey: house, you unlock a second, like part of the second area or something. It’s unlockception. (1:16:21) Al: There is lots of unlocking because you’ve got the first area which has a bunch of locked (1:16:29) Al: areas within it which you have to pay to unlock and then once you’ve unlocked 80% of that, (1:16:39) Al: although I’m still confused as to what the 20% is that I haven’t done because I’m pretty (1:16:42) Al: sure I cannot see a single thing that I’ve not unlocked in the first area. (1:16:46) Codey: Interesting. Do you, let me make sure it’s the right one. Go correct. Do you know what (1:16:51) Al: Because there’s multiple secret areas but I think I’ve found every secret area (1:16:59) Al: in the first section. Yeah, I do. I found that one that told you. (1:17:00) Codey: signifies a secret area? Okay. Okay. There are more secret areas then. Yeah. I have 100% (1:17:09) Al: Really? I looked, I couldn’t see any of them. (1:17:14) Codey: Look for the things that signify. (1:17:16) Codey: The secret areas. (1:17:16) Al: I did look for them. I couldn’t see any anywhere. Oh, maybe I’m… (1:17:19) Codey: Okay, okay. (1:17:22) Al: maybe they’re on the islands. Oh, like here. Here’s one on an island. Oh, no. What? A hidden shawl? (1:17:24) Codey: Oh, maybe. (1:17:25) Codey: Yeah. (1:17:27) Codey: Oh, okay. (1:17:28) Codey: Yeah. (1:17:29) Codey: Um, you’re welcome. (1:17:33) Codey: Um, I mean, but it’s fun because it makes you like explore, (1:17:39) Codey: like really explore the area, kind of test all of the different like, (1:17:44) Codey: Is that really a tree? (1:17:46) Codey: I don’t know. It’s just it’s it’s fun, but it does take a hop in it the one thing so you haven’t unlocked the house yet once you unlock the house you then have to unlock some of the furniture in the house which is not very some of the unlocking like it grows in price exponentially it just seems like it gets like more and more expensive the house interior stuff is not that expensive I don’t know I don’t know it’s just it’s it’s fun but it does take a hop in it the one thing so you haven’t unlocked the house yet once you unlock the house you then have to unlock some of the furniture in the house which is not very some of the unlocking like it grows in price exponentially it just seems like it gets like more and more expensive the house interior stuff is not that expensive (1:18:16) Codey: it’s like 200 gold here 100 gold there and once you unlock all the stuff you get an NPC that will automatically collect things for you yeah they do it (1:18:26) Al: Yes, I saw that on a thing about that. So that is cool. And presumably they do things (1:18:34) Al: like slower than you would presumably. (1:18:36) Codey: yes they basically collect it’s it’s kind of a random amount of resources and (1:18:46) Codey: it’s also a very small amount of resources you can use money to upgrade them (1:18:55) Codey: so this guy for example his lover love helper level is four so that’s the level (1:19:02) Codey: let me look at the question mark so I don’t get this wrong um when a resident’s helper level (1:19:07) Codey: increases they can help more times and deposit items in the storage more quickly storage box (1:19:12) Codey: level increases the amount of items. (1:19:16) Codey: So you get more things. (1:19:18) Codey: Oh, that’s what I need to do. (1:19:20) Codey: He probably fills the storage box and then he’s like I can’t do anything more, so I need to really improve the storage box so that he can just slam a bunch of stuff in there. (1:19:33) Codey: That’s how they get you, but it’s fine because it’s just a fun little run around. (1:19:40) Codey: You find yourself, like I don’t know if you find yourself in like cycles, like I’ll go… (1:19:46) Codey: Sometimes I go left or right, like clockwise, sometimes I go counterclockwise, and usually by the time you do like one circuit, everything’s ready again for the most part. (1:19:56) Al: Yeah, I found some things that are a little bit slower, like the fishing is much slower, (1:20:01) Al: and the bushes are super, super quick, but everything else is slightly slower than that. (1:20:06) Codey: Yeah. (1:20:10) Codey: Do you know how you can make things faster? (1:20:13) Codey: - Here. (1:20:13) Al: In the dungeon! (1:20:16) Codey: » And by spending money, so I mean, it’s very modest. (1:20:22) Codey: Like when you first play the game, there’s these banners on your screen. (1:20:26) Codey: So it’s like ad banners. (1:20:28) Codey: So there’s, I got an ad for like Pokemon Go and I was like, why are they still advertising? (1:20:35) Codey: Like if people haven’t heard of Pokemon Go by now, what are they doing? (1:20:40) Codey: Yeah, so it’s just like always at the bottom of your screen. (1:20:42) Codey: there’s always some form of add. (1:20:46) Codey: You can pay $2.99 to remove that. (1:20:49) Codey: And then you can pay $5.99 to remove the watch and (1:20:55) Codey: add to make this go faster like for some of the things. (1:20:59) Codey: So for example, you’ll come up on treasure chests that just have a bunch of stuff in (1:21:03) Codey: them and you can pay, once you pay the $5.99, (1:21:08) Codey: you no longer have to watch a video to open that chest, you can just open it. (1:21:13) Al: So, I have one question about this. Does it remove the video for fishing? So, can you (1:21:16) Codey: Yeah, yeah, and so because of that, because of the phishing, (1:21:20) Al: just infinitely fish now? Ooh, see that? That’s interesting. (1:21:28) Codey: you can also infinitely refresh the villager requests. (1:21:37) Al: Ooh, yes. (1:21:38) Codey: So some of the villager requests are on a special or something and (1:21:43) Codey: they give you double money. (1:21:46) Codey: few of them. So if you have done all the villager requests that you are interested in and you’re (1:21:50) Codey: waiting for more to refresh, you can literally just refresh as much as you want. It does (1:21:56) Codey: not change the amount of time that things regrow. Also the portals, there’s like a portalling (1:22:00) Al: No, yes, that’s that’s the one I don’t I never use them because it basically defeats the purpose having an advert for them, because it’s like the whole point of those is to move fast and now I have to watch an advert for it. (1:22:03) Codey: system by using wells. (1:22:10) Codey: Yeah, yeah, and now so you I don’t have to anymore it I will say it is a little instead of (1:22:16) Al: » Yeah. (1:22:23) Codey: Like making it so I spent the money and now I just never get asked about (1:22:30) Codey: Watching a video. It still is says do you want to watch a video? (1:22:33) Codey: But it the you just hit the yes, and it just doesn’t watch the video (1:22:38) Codey: Yeah, instead of like coding an entirely new (1:22:40) Codey: like part time of the gate or removing the ad requests. (1:22:46) Codey: I’m not entirely sure how it would be coded, (1:22:48) Codey: but it’s still there. (1:22:50) Codey: It’s just that it’s green and you can just keep going. (1:22:55) Codey: So at first after I did it, I was like, (1:22:56) Codey: do I have to refresh my game? (1:22:58) Codey: Like why is it still asking me if I want to watch an ad? (1:23:00) Codey: But I personally, I think it’s worth it. (1:23:06) Al: Yeah, so let’s talk about that. So it is, I think, very cheap. That is five quid for (1:23:21) Al: Basically removing every ad from the game except in the. (1:23:24) Codey: Yeah. Which that’s just when you die, basically. So like, whenever you die, it’s like, do you want, (1:23:31) Codey: and maybe for the chests in the dungeon, maybe I’ll run around in the dungeon and see if, (1:23:35) Codey: what all it does. But like, when you die in the dungeon, it offers for you to either use an (1:23:42) Codey: amulet or watch a video. So that if you don’t want to lose your progress or whatever, then you won’t. (1:23:51) Codey: But, yeah, I’m not, I don’t. (1:23:54) Codey: I don’t go to the dungeon a ton, so it’s not a big deal. (1:23:56) Al: Yeah, and I think I’m fine with that one still existing, right? Because the whole point is the dungeon is meant to be a challenge, right? (1:23:57) Codey: But there are also gold chests. (1:24:01) Codey: Correct. (1:24:04) Al: Like, so the ad isn’t there. I mean, obviously, it’s nice for them, it makes the money, whatever, but it’s not to try and convince you to pay in the game. (1:24:14) Al: It’s to make the dungeon somewhat of a challenge. (1:24:18) Codey: Yes. Yeah, I’m just going through the dungeon looking for a golden chest now to see if you have to. (1:24:24) Al: Oh yeah, I had one more thing that I love about this game. So something that really (1:24:24) Codey: Mm-hmm. (1:24:28) Al: annoys me about farming games, that most games, almost every single game has this, is there’s (1:24:34) Al: a certain radius around yourself that items will be added to your inventory. And if they’re (1:24:38) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (1:24:42) Al: not close enough to you, then you have to go closer to it to get it if you run away (1:24:47) Al: tough. This game has basically an infinite radius that you’ll get items for. (1:24:54) Al: There’s a smaller radius and then there’s everything else. The smaller radius is things (1:24:58) Codey: Mm-hmm (1:24:59) Al: that will get picked up immediately. If things don’t get picked up immediately, they will (1:25:01) Codey: Mm-hmm (1:25:03) Al: chase you around the map until they get to you. I wasn’t trying to, I just wanted to (1:25:05) Codey: Have you have you tried to escape your items like I have (1:25:12) Al: see how it worked and yeah, they’re faster than you. Just very slightly faster than you, (1:25:17) Al: so they will eventually catch up to you. It’s very funny like running around and having (1:25:19) Codey: Yeah (1:25:21) Al: orange is following you. (1:25:23) Codey: I agree (1:25:25) Al: But I love that, because it means you don’t have to go like, (1:25:29) Al: oh, I’m going to make sure that I get all these things. (1:25:31) Al: No, no, no, no. (1:25:32) Al: Just do what you need to do and run away. (1:25:34) Al: Keep doing what you’re doing. (1:25:35) Al: Because that is the whole point of this game, (1:25:38) Al: is it’s fast, immediate, we’re doing things, (1:25:41) Al: and then we’re done. (1:25:43) Al: It’s not like I’m trying to do everything possible (1:25:46) Al: and be the most efficient I can be. (1:25:48) Al: It’s just like, let me just run around and do things. (1:25:50) Codey: Yeah, and I think once you pay that small fee, (1:25:55) Codey: you can game guzzle this game. (1:25:57) Codey: It removes a lot of the time waiting. (1:25:58) Al: Yeah. You can just keep fishing if there’s nothing else to do. (1:26:04) Codey: Yep, you just keep fishing. (1:26:06) Codey: You just review, renew villager requests. (1:26:11) Codey: If you have 100 milk and no villager requests (1:26:15) Codey: are asking for milk, you just renew that, (1:26:17) Codey: refresh that baby over and over and over again. (1:26:21) Codey: Yeah, I do. (1:26:23) Codey: I really like this game. (1:26:25) Codey: The last thing that I noticed that we haven’t really talked (1:26:28) Codey: about is the key making. (1:26:30) Codey: Have you done this yet? (1:26:30) Al: Yes, yeah, so I initially didn’t do the key making because I was like, yeah, I’ll just (1:26:35) Al: watch an ad and I didn’t have copper at that point. And then, yeah, I saw that, oh, I can (1:26:39) Al: make a key. Not sure why it costs money to make a key as well, but OK, we can we can (1:26:45) Al: ignore that. So, yeah, there’s artifacts that you can get, which you get them just by doing (1:26:53) Al: things. You come across chests and the chests have artifacts in them and you need to unlock (1:26:58) Al: the chests and this is where you can do (1:27:01) Al: the key making it’s a fun little minigame (1:27:04) Codey: It really is! (1:27:06) Al: you basically you have the key shape and there’s like a number is like eight six or eight different (1:27:12) Al: possible shapes each part of the key can have and you have different drill bits basically so you (1:27:18) Al: have like you get an outline of what the key should look like and you get a key that isn’t (1:27:25) Al: drilled and then you have to use the right drill bits and use them on the right bits of the key (1:27:31) Al: to go the right distance as well to make the key it’s not particularly difficult but it’s fun (1:27:35) Codey: Yeah, I mean, but it’s fun to try and get 100% like because if I have done 100 once and it is I am chasing that high for the rest of my life. (1:27:41) Al: I haven’t managed 100% yet I have managed 99% but I’ve not managed 100 oh nice (1:27:51) Codey: I mean, because if you go over the the key, like if if you don’t shave enough off of the time, or if you go a little too much. (1:28:05) Codey: You’re not going to get 100 like you’ll probably get like 98 99 whatever. (1:28:07) Al: Yeah. Do you know how much you need to get to open the chest because I’ve never failed it yet? (1:28:09) Codey: But. (1:28:14) Codey: Oh, I’ve never failed either. So I don’t know. (1:28:16) Al: I think I’ve always been above 90%. (1:28:19) Codey: Here let me. (1:28:21) Codey: I’m gonna I’m gonna do it. (1:28:22) Al: You’re gonna do a really bad one. (1:28:23) Codey: Do a bad one where I’m just gonna do like the basic here we go basic drill bit. (1:28:31) Codey: Boop, boop, boop, boop, all done. (1:28:35) Codey: 54% still let me open the small chest. (1:28:38) Al: I wonder if the higher your percentage the more likely you are to get raider things possibly (1:28:46) Codey: that was a very bottom like the place if the placement on the list of possible (1:28:54) Codey: things that you could have gotten goes from like common to rare common being (1:29:00) Codey: top left and rare being the bottom right that was very top versus I normally get (1:29:05) Codey: bigger higher ones and they’re lower but I mean and it’s random and you can get (1:29:10) Al: Who knows? (1:29:12) Codey: repeats so it’s it’s I don’t know but it tickles (1:29:16) Codey: the the key making process itself tickles my brain in a great way there’s (1:29:21) Codey: also a bit of a time I don’t know if you have this turned on or what you’re (1:29:24) Codey: playing this on but on my phone it’s like a tactile thing whenever you’re (1:29:29) Codey: shaving off the part with the drill bit my phone like vibrates a little bit (1:29:34) Al: possibly I’m not doing it right now so I’m not sure I can’t remember whether it does that or not. (1:29:40) Codey: I love it. (1:29:41) Al: Fair enough. (1:29:41) Codey: It’s like telling me like, yeah, you are shaving stuff off (1:29:45) Al: You’re actively drilling drilling. (1:29:45) Codey: right now. (1:29:47) Codey: You are actively removing content (1:29:49) Codey: from this key at this moment. (1:29:51) Codey: I’m going to do it again. (1:29:52) Codey: I’m going to see if I get 100. (1:29:54) Codey: Yeah, I think this game is super cute. (1:29:59) Codey: I see how it could be a completely fully formed game (1:30:02) Codey: as it is, but I do also see how they could implement more stuff. (1:30:07) Codey: I’m also really, I want the, I want to know what happened. (1:30:10) Codey: Where is everybody? (1:30:12) Al: need to let us know when you get there because I don’t think I’ll get there. It’s fun, but I can’t (1:30:19) Al: really see myself continuing to do this over any other random thing I do on my phone. It’s fine, (1:30:26) Codey: Mm-hmm. That’s fair. (1:30:27) Al: and I think it is a good game, and I have enjoyed what I’ve been doing, but I feel like the amount (1:30:35) Al: to unlock the house feels so high that I have to put so much effort into it that I don’t. (1:30:38) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah. (1:30:42) Al: I don’t really feel like I want to. Everything else is like, “Oh, I need 500 to do this. Okay, (1:30:50) Al: done. It’ll take me five minutes at most to do that.” Or this thing that I’m currently working (1:30:57) Al: on, I need a whole 1200 to get to. That might take me 10 minutes, not particularly difficult, (1:31:03) Al: whereas I need 18,000 and 220 stone, 80 sheep’s will, and that’s fine. (1:31:12) Al: 30 copper. It just feels like that’s going to take weeks to do. (1:31:15) Codey: Mm-hmm. It’s very fair. Um, yeah, let me look at what the second house, it increases as, as is tradition, um, and I’m currently trying to save up for the second house, but I also keep, uh, 27,000 is what it is, 27,250 wood, 170 stone, 90 shoe pool, 60 copper, 30 silver. (1:31:36) Al: See, that just feels like an increase on the previous one, like a kind of standard increase. (1:31:43) Al: It doesn’t feel like an exponential increase like the first one did. You know? (1:31:46) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah, I that that 18,000 really hits you. (1:31:52) Codey: But you know what in this economy, that’s how much cost houses cost. (1:31:56) Codey: I get it. I get it. (1:31:58) Al: Yeah, yeah. Maybe you’ll find out as you get through the story. (1:31:59) Codey: So I’m not entirely sure why the housing market is that high (1:32:02) Codey: when there’s no humans around. (1:32:05) Codey: I better if I do all I’m going to (1:32:10) Codey: if I spent $8 on this game. (1:32:13) Codey: No, I’ve definitely already got my money’s worth. (1:32:15) Codey: So. (1:32:19) Al: All right, so outro to the game. (1:32:23) Al: If you’ve been looking for a farming game on your phone, (1:32:26) Al: and you’re fed up of all the ones that are basically just– (1:32:29) Al: it’s Farmville, but with a different skin. (1:32:31) Al: Sometimes not even with a different skin, (1:32:33) Al: just a different name. (1:32:34) Codey: Mm-hmm. (1:32:36) Al: You want something a bit different. (1:32:38) Al: Try this. (1:32:39) Al: I think it’s really fun. (1:32:40) Al: And the free version, you could continue playing forever (1:32:44) Al: if you wanted, but also (1:32:46) Al: the game is complete free, and the paying just gets rid of the ads, and if you’re enjoying it, it is pretty cheap to get rid of those ads, and I think it is the least money-grabby of any mobile farming game that we’ve played, full stop. (1:33:04) Codey: Yeah, I agree. (1:33:07) Codey: I think that, except for maybe Honey Grove, (1:33:10) Codey: but I think that I can see why they have ads, (1:33:17) Codey: and it’s not in your face, like in an annoying way, (1:33:20) Codey: it’s just they made this game, they spent time on it, (1:33:23) Codey: they would like to get some return on it. (1:33:25) Al: They would like compensated for their labor. (1:33:29) Codey: How dare, and so that totally makes sense. (1:33:34) Codey: It’s well worth giving a little bit more. (1:33:38) Al: Yeah, for sure. (1:33:42) Al: All right, I think we’re done then. (1:33:44) Codey: Yep (1:33:45) Al: Thank you, Cody, for joining me. (1:33:47) Al: Where can people find you on the internet? (1:33:49) Codey: I am still on Instagram at hiking beagle be eagle where I (1:33:55) Codey: Talk about most mostly like mental health and my dogs (1:34:00) Codey: and other funny ha ha’s also music and then I am also on blue sky where I talk more about science and (1:34:11) Codey: creating a union for my university and rail against the government. (1:34:14) Codey: So, and that’s just my name, Cody Mathis. (1:34:18) Al: You can find me on mastone.scot at thescotbot. You can find the podcast on tumblr at thspod (1:34:18) Codey: Yeah, what about you? (1:34:28) Al: and some other places but just go to our website harvestseason.club where you can find links (1:34:34) Al: to everything and a feedback form to send us feedback and yeah give us some feedback tell (1:34:38) Codey: Sure haven’t gotten feedback in a while. (1:34:41) Al: us what do they want to tell us this this episode. (1:34:45) Codey: They want to tell us what to call the January like monthly release thing. (1:34:48) Al: Yes the what the what released last month segment. (1:34:53) Codey: And if you personally believe in the prognostication of weather by a rodent in Pennsylvania. (1:35:00) Al: No. One of the links you can find on our website is to our Patreon, patreon.com/thspod, (1:35:02) Codey: Let people enjoy things. (1:35:12) Al: where you can support the podcast if you so wish. In exchange for financially supporting (1:35:18) Al: the podcast, you will get access to our Slack, where we talk about all sorts of things and (1:35:24) Al: Cody posts while we’re recording for some reason. (1:35:26) Codey: I did. I sure did. And it’s worth it. Listeners, if you’ve seen the post and you’re like, (1:35:33) Codey: my goodness, what did she post? Now is where you can go and view the post now. (1:35:40) Codey: It’s becoming a recurring thing. I like it where I say something on the podcast, I post a photo, (1:35:45) Codey: and it’s like, don’t look at this thread until you’ve listened to the episode and then people (1:35:49) Codey: have to go back and see it. And sometimes it’s cute. And sometimes it’s… (1:35:53) Al: I can’t even remember what this picture was in relation to. (1:35:56) Al: What were you saying at the time? (1:35:57) Codey: Oh, I literally said nothing. It was just cute. I just posted it. Yep. (1:35:59) Al: You just posted it. (1:36:00) Al: I see the show notes. (1:36:01) Al: The show notes are in the picture and my face. (1:36:04) Codey: Yep. I was just recording and I was just… Should I blur out your face? (1:36:09) Al: No, it’s fine. (1:36:10) Codey: Okay. Yeah, I was just recording and it was real cute. And so yeah, I was like, (1:36:12) Al: It’s on the Slack. (1:36:17) Codey: I’m going to take this. It’s my happy place, y’all, right there. (1:36:22) Al: You also get access to our bonus podcast episodes. We will have a few upcoming (1:36:28) Al: Pokemon days coming soon, so we’ll probably do some predictions for that, (1:36:30) Codey: Mmhmm. (1:36:32) Al: and then we’ll do some reactions to that. And then some other things, (1:36:35) Codey: Yep, probably. (1:36:37) Al: Eurovision season starting, so we need to plan the Eurovision ones. (1:36:41) Codey: I really enjoy Electric Callboy’s new song, (1:36:44) Codey: Elevator Operator, it’s real good. (1:36:46) Al: Not Eurovision, but yes, I agree, it’s a fun song. (1:36:47) Codey: They should be, they should have been on Eurovision (1:36:51) Codey: like eight times by now. (1:36:53) Codey: Maybe they’ll do it with Elevator Operator. (1:36:55) Codey: I mean, maybe they’ll win. (1:36:56) Al: Did they not did they not explicitly say they didn’t want to represent their country? (1:37:00) Codey: Oh, that, good for them. (1:37:04) Codey: Yeah, they got other stuff going on. (1:37:08) Al: Uh, uh, also Caria released a new song as well, which is fun. (1:37:13) Al: It’s a San Francisco boy. (1:37:15) Al: It’s called, it’s all about partying. (1:37:18) Codey: What uh who did oh the guy that um yeah okay cool I will have to listen to that too he’s a good egg (1:37:20) Al: Caria, cha, cha, cha. (1:37:24) Al: I enjoyed it. (1:37:27) Al: Uh, this has turned into a Eurovision episode. (1:37:30) Al: Uh, that’s everything. (1:37:33) Al: Thank you, Cody, for joining me. (1:37:35) Codey: Thank you for having me. (1:37:37) Al: Thank you listeners for listening. (1:37:38) Al: And until next time, have a good harvest. (1:37:40) Codey: Have a good harvest. (1:37:41) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:37:43) Al: A-woo! (1:37:43) Codey: Ow, ow, ow! (1:37:44) Codey: - Ooh. (1:37:52) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:37:56) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:38:01) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:38:07) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:38:16) Al: All right, we’re going to clap in three, two, one clap. (1:38:18) Codey: Oh, God. The way I dropped my mango so fast. (1:38:25) Al: What kind of mango? Wait, you said mango, not melon. (1:38:28) Al: Nevermind. What kind of mango? Mango mango.…

The Harvest Season

1
A Complete Game 1:04:11

5 weeksที่แล้ว1:04:11

1:04:11

Codey and Jonnie talk about Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:06: What Have We Been Up To 00:09:11: Game News 00:31:34: Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete 00:58:36: Outro Links Into the Emberlands Release Tiny Garden Release Echoes of the Plum Grove Switch Release Amber Isle Switch Release Ova Magica “0.8” Update Overthrown “Livestock” Update Grandpa’s Farm TTRPG Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Codey: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Cody (0:00:36) Jonnie: And my name is Johnny. (0:00:38) Codey: And we are here to talk about cottagecore games (0:00:45) Codey: Today’s topic is the animal crossing pocket camp complete which johnny has played and I have not (0:00:55) Codey: But I did play the first pocket camp so we will get to talk about all that (0:01:00) Codey: Before that we have some small about small amount of news. We’ll probably still figure out how to make it last an hour though (0:01:07) Codey: But before that, what have you been up to johnny? (0:01:10) Jonnie: Not too much. I’m just keeping the pocket theme rolling with Pokemon Pocket TCG. (0:01:16) Codey: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:01:16) Jonnie: And, like, it’s real good. (0:01:21) Jonnie: Opening a couple packs every day is fun. (0:01:26) Jonnie: Like, collecting cards is fun. (0:01:28) Jonnie: Playing the actual battles is more fun than I was expecting. (0:01:33) Jonnie: It’s real good. (0:01:34) Jonnie: And we’ve now entered, like, the phase of the life cycle of the game. (0:01:40) Jonnie: Where everyone has turned into whiny little complaint bots that are just, like, (0:01:47) Jonnie: “Shut up and stop talking,” is kind of my opinion on, like… (0:01:50) Jonnie: Like, I’ve heard people complaining about, like, (0:01:52) Jonnie: “Oh, I haven’t opened a new card in, like, four weeks.” (0:01:56) Jonnie: And it’s, like, “Well, yeah, because you opened a hundred packs when the set came out, (0:02:01) Jonnie: and now you’ve got all of the cards, there’s literally no new cards to open, (0:02:03) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:02:05) Jonnie: except the super rare things.” (0:02:07) Jonnie: which, if you got one of those every day, wouldn’t be super rare. (0:02:10) Jonnie: like logic, not that hard. (0:02:10) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:02:12) Jonnie: Second thing that people- (0:02:13) Codey: It’s ‘cause they’re game guzzlers. (0:02:16) Jonnie: Yeah, they are game guzzlers, and it’s like, if you’re a game guzzler, that’s fine. (0:02:20) Jonnie: Shut up, stop complaining. It’s very annoying. (0:02:22) Jonnie: And then you’ve got the people who complain about the events. (0:02:26) Jonnie: Like, we’ve got the five-win streak event going on at the moment, (0:02:30) Codey: - Okay. (0:02:30) Jonnie: and people complain about that. (0:02:32) Jonnie: And I’m like, if you complain about that event, you are bad at the game. (0:02:36) Jonnie: Like, people complain because they say that this game is too luck-based. (0:02:38) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:02:40) Jonnie: I mean, is there luck in this game? Yes. (0:02:42) Jonnie: Is there more luck in this game than a lot of other phone-based TCGs? (0:02:48) Jonnie: Not really. It’s pretty much the same. (0:02:50) Jonnie: Like, there is a high skill ceiling on this game, (0:02:52) Jonnie: but yeah, people would rather just lose and complain about luck. (0:02:56) Jonnie: And, like, what’s the reward for getting the five battles? (0:02:58) Jonnie: It’s an emblem. That does literally nothing. (0:03:01) Jonnie: The only things more useless in the game are, like, the backgrounds and the, like, (0:03:06) Jonnie: whatever the other stupid cosmetics are, and those things that nobody ever looks at. (0:03:10) Jonnie: It does not matter. So stop complaining, because for some of us, it’s a very fun event. (0:03:15) Jonnie: Trying to get to five wins in a row is an actual challenge, and some of us like that. (0:03:19) Jonnie: So if you are complaining about pocket camp, the problem is you, not the app, shut up, (0:03:25) Jonnie: stop complaining. There, I’ve had my rant. I’ve felt like I’ve been holding this in all week, (0:03:30) Jonnie: and I knew that I was going to get something on. I just need to get that out. I know I feel better, (0:03:36) Jonnie: because I’ve told people that need to shut up to shut up. (0:03:37) Codey: Yay, I’m so happy for you. (0:03:43) Codey: I also still play that. (0:03:44) Codey: I guess I didn’t put that on my list, but I do still play that every day. (0:03:50) Codey: I just do the daily like basic stuff, but so like get the, open the two packs, get a, (0:03:56) Codey: do a wonder thingy, all that to get my daily stuff. (0:04:04) Codey: And I haven’t been doing the… (0:04:07) Codey: The battles as much, but I did when I was doing the battles, I agree like they were actually challenging and… (0:04:16) Codey: I mean they have as much luck as regular TCG games do, so… (0:04:22) Codey: Such is life. (0:04:23) Jonnie: And I think you hit on my favorite thing about Pokemon Pocket, which is you can play… (0:04:31) Jonnie: It’s a fun game that you can play every day and complete the dailies in literally two minutes. (0:04:32) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:04:37) Jonnie: Like, you do not have to do a battle. (0:04:40) Jonnie: The way the whole thing is designed is one of the least predatory forms of the sort of game development that I’ve seen, right? (0:04:49) Jonnie: It is not buying for your time, you know. (0:04:53) Jonnie: I used to play Marvel Snap and the big reason that I fell off is it just felt like to get all of the stuff. (0:05:00) Jonnie: You kind of had to be doing half an hour worth of battles a day as a minimum and it was just it was fighting for time. (0:05:09) Jonnie: Pocket is not. It’s like we’re here for two minutes, open us, open a pack, get a little dopamine here and then close us. (0:05:17) Jonnie: Or not. We don’t really mind if you want to play us. Play us. If you don’t want to play us, don’t. (0:05:23) Jonnie: And like I find myself there are days where it’s like, yeah, I want to jump in and do some battles and I’ll spend half an hour playing some battles. (0:05:30) Jonnie: And then there are other days I’m like, I’m not really like it’s it’s I’m just too busy and like I don’t have that. (0:05:36) Jonnie: That it’s in my brain that says, but you got to do the dailies because I already did the dailies because they were super fast. (0:05:42) Jonnie: So I’m a big fan of like the underlying design of of Pokemon. (0:05:47) Codey: I definitely agree. I think that I really appreciate when games don’t punish you for (0:05:53) Codey: having like a life happen where you’re just not able to play as much as even you might (0:06:01) Codey: like. But you just have to dial it back a little bit and that’s okay. Yeah, so that’s, (0:06:11) Codey: - I agree. (0:06:13) Codey: What else have you been playing, or is that it? (0:06:15) Jonnie: Yeah, I’ve kind of been in a weird, like weird it’s not the wrong word, it’s summer, (0:06:20) Jonnie: I just haven’t been playing games, I’ve been outside. (0:06:22) Codey: That’s fair. Man, I cannot relate. It is not somewhere. I’ve been getting into a really (0:06:27) Jonnie: Yeah, because it’s not summer, so what have you been playing? (0:06:34) Codey: good groove of doing my specimens because that deadline of having to graduate by October sure (0:06:45) Codey: is looming. But I’ve been playing all day. (0:06:52) Codey: Also, Pokemon TCG. Still playing Honey Grove, which is a really fun game that we’ve talked (0:06:59) Codey: about on the podcast before. It is the only farming game that I’ve ever played for the (0:07:04) Codey: podcast that I continue to play. And then I have a cross-stitch game on my phone that (0:07:11) Codey: I just call my coloring game because you’re basically just coloring. And I do that with (0:07:16) Codey: my grandma and I really enjoy it. And so that takes some of my brain power when I (0:07:22) Codey: need to shut my brain off from science. And then the last one is a secret thing that might (0:07:32) Codey: come up in a future episode. So listeners, continue to listen so that you can know what (0:07:39) Codey: the secret game is. (0:07:44) Jonnie: We made it five minutes into the episode before Cody promised something in the future, and (0:07:50) Jonnie: Al’s not here today, so we’re going to get a lot of promises today. (0:07:50) Codey: Yup. Yeah. 100%. I feel really confident about this promise though. So far. Yes. I have been (0:07:53) Jonnie: So look forward to that, listeners. (0:07:58) Jonnie: Great. (0:07:59) Jonnie: Are you having fun with the secret thread? (0:08:08) Codey: tempted to possibly invest money into the secret thing. There are ways to do so and it’s not (0:08:17) Codey: expensive. Um, and so (0:08:20) Codey: we will see if, uh, if I’m still playing it consistently, um, when next you hear me (0:08:28) Codey: speak of it, then perhaps I will invest money. Uh, stay tuned for that, I guess. Um, yeah. (0:08:40) Codey: So that is what we have been up to. Wow. Look at that. We’re only over like 10 minutes. (0:08:48) Jonnie: Look it might be a shorter episode today. It’s January, you know (0:08:51) Codey: » No, you said it, you said it, it’s not gonna be short now. (0:08:57) Jonnie: There’s not much news (0:09:01) Jonnie: Ah. (0:09:02) Codey: I’m sure, I want more rants. (0:09:04) Codey: You ranted a little bit in the beginning and I want more of that. (0:09:07) Codey: Okay, so the next thing that we’re gonna talk about is all of our news. (0:09:13) Codey: The first bit of news is Into the Emberlands has their 1.0 out now. (0:09:21) Codey: This is the game that used to be called Wonderful. (0:09:25) Codey: I have no memory of this game, but okay. (0:09:29) Codey: And there is now a new village level and a new biome. (0:09:34) Codey: There’s a golden skin for your character if you beat the game and get credits. (0:09:39) Codey: And they say that there are three, quote unquote, epic end game items. (0:09:45) Codey: They don’t really have photos of them or anything. (0:09:47) Codey: so I cannot confirm the epic level. (0:09:50) Codey: I think we’re at the end of this video so let me know what you think in the comments if you want to see more of these items but it’s intriguing. (0:09:57) Codey: yeah it’s a fairly inexpensive game it’s like under seven dollars USD and it is 25% off on steam until February 3rd so you got a little bit of time if this is a game that you were interested in and waiting for 1.0 now is your chance to get it also a little cheaper. (0:10:16) Jonnie: Yeah, and it looks, uh, no, but that’s I think partly because it’s sort of like, so, in case (0:10:16) Codey: on your list at all? (0:10:24) Jonnie: people don’t remember, this is the game where you’re going out and exploring something called (0:10:28) Jonnie: the miasma to find like your people who have been lost and bringing back to a village that (0:10:35) Jonnie: you are building up. And so the vibe is maybe a little bit more survival game slash RTS, and (0:10:46) Jonnie: sort of like the way you build up a village. Like it’s that more sort of not quite top down style, (0:10:53) Jonnie: you know, building connecting roads and quite a large village rather than something (0:10:57) Jonnie: small and more intimate and based on your character. But it’s got a very cute art style, (0:11:04) Jonnie: like it looks like a fun game. If what I said sounds like, you know, the sorts of things that (0:11:11) Jonnie: that tickle your brain. I think this looks like a very fun thing. I might (0:11:16) Jonnie: get the price. It seems like a little bit of a no brainer to try out. (0:11:16) Codey: Yeah (0:11:19) Codey: Yeah (0:11:21) Codey: Cool the next one. I know you were excited about Johnny is (0:11:26) Codey: tiny garden (0:11:28) Codey: So this is what I’ve just been calling the Polly Pocket game (0:11:34) Jonnie: Because it is the polyfucker K. (0:11:35) Codey: And if you don’t if you don’t know what a Polly Pocket is I (0:11:35) Jonnie: Yep, that’s that’s what we’ve all been calling. (0:11:40) Codey: Will I refuse to explain it to you? (0:11:43) Codey: I’m not that old (0:11:46) Codey: You know what a Polly Pocket is (0:11:48) Codey: Um (0:11:50) Jonnie: I mean I don’t think that’s accurate but just in case anyone doesn’t know, in this game you’re (0:11:56) Jonnie: building a farm inside a kind of like a locket right so it opens up and there is on the vertical (0:12:03) Jonnie: part there is your house and on the horizontal part that’s where you can sort of build your farm. (0:12:10) Jonnie: One of the features I guess is that there’s a crank that you turn which looks like I’m assuming (0:12:17) Jonnie: turning the crank signifies (0:12:20) Jonnie: the passing of time and that’s what causes crops to grow and those sorts of things and (0:12:27) Jonnie: based on what they’re showing my assumption is the gameplay loop as you grow crops down the bottom (0:12:32) Jonnie: to earn currency to then decorate up the top and one of the things that I like about this idea (0:12:38) Jonnie: one is like a fun idea for a way to sort of constrain the space that you are building in (0:12:44) Jonnie: but also the idea of like decorating your sort of vertical space in that sort of place. (0:12:50) Jonnie: It’s like quite a cool and different way to decorate because you’re not decorating this much of a (0:12:55) Jonnie: 3D house style space so it’s just a little bit of a different lens on that which looks cool and cute. (0:13:00) Codey: Yeah, I agree, um, nope, yeah (0:13:05) Jonnie: All right do we actually say the news? The news is that they’ve got a release date. (0:13:10) Jonnie: It is coming to Steam on April 8th which is relatively soon so that is very exciting. (0:13:18) Codey: Yeah. And they don’t have a price listed on Steam yet. But they do have a Discord. So if you’re (0:13:31) Codey: interested, and you want to be like, kind of in the know of this kind of stuff, you can join their (0:13:37) Codey: Discord and find and kind of have that information. How do you feel? Do you feel like you could, (0:13:42) Jonnie: Brody, are we gonna promise an episode on tiny garden? (0:13:47) Jonnie: Absolutely. I feel like I could promise that. (0:13:48) Codey: promise that? Okay, Johnny will promise. Not all promises go, but they have to be vetted by me. All (0:14:02) Codey: promises have to be vetted by me. So yes, I will let you promise to do an episode on this. Yeah. (0:14:10) Codey: 100%. Yeah, it’s really cute. Next is Echoes of the Plum Grove. (0:14:19) Codey: So this game is already out in a lot of versions, but the Switch version is now (0:14:26) Codey: announced to be releasing on the 13th of February. And it will be 10% off until the 22nd of February. (0:14:35) Codey: So I believe it’s a $20 game. And so you’ll be able to save a little bit of money if you order it (0:14:42) Codey: ahead of time. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. (0:14:46) Jonnie: Nice. And because of the Plumb Grove is I don’t think we’ve covered it on the show, but I’m pretty sure Kat in the Slack was playing it and they were having a very good time with it so it’s one that sort of like bumped up on my list and I feel like it will be a good candidate for Switch because it’s got that. (0:14:48) Codey: Not yet, Anna. (0:15:06) Jonnie: The art style is very reminiscent of like a Paper Mario. (0:15:12) Jonnie: And so I think that that like, I think the art style will work, the gameplay looks free. (0:15:16) Jonnie: Relatively simple, I think it will be a really good candidate for like, playing on your Switch in handheld mode, in particular, so I think this is a good move. (0:15:28) Jonnie: And let’s just hope that the game can actually run on the Switch, because I feel like that is now a concern for every Switch game that’s coming out in 2025. (0:15:32) Codey: Yeah, so there is that. Next is Amber Isle. So this is actually pretty much the exact same news (0:15:38) Jonnie: Not because of the developers to be clear, but because of where the Switch is at from a performance perspective. (0:15:59) Codey: that they have a Switch version coming. (0:16:02) Codey: Coming out on 13th of February, however, they also have a pre-order up until the release (0:16:10) Codey: of 20% off, which is super interesting and cool. (0:16:15) Codey: Again, this is another one that I didn’t remember, so just reminding folks, this is a dino-centric (0:16:24) Codey: shop management sim, so everyone is like a dinosaur. (0:16:30) Codey: so you can befriend up to 48. (0:16:32) Codey: You create what they call paleo folk, and you decorate and rebuild the island. (0:16:39) Codey: So looks like dinosaurs might be this year’s hot thing or this time period’s hot thing (0:16:47) Codey: because we’re getting a lot of dino games. (0:16:50) Jonnie: I feel like we are, but I don’t feel like dinosaurs are that popular right now. (0:16:56) Codey: I mean, they, the demand must be there. It, it must. (0:16:59) Jonnie: Mustard. (0:17:01) Jonnie: I feel like indie video games are much more based around what the creator wanted to make and then what the market is demanding. (0:17:07) Codey: That’s, that’s still a form of demand. It’s just a different form of demand. (0:17:14) Jonnie: Demand of one. (0:17:15) Codey: Yeah, a single, single demand. Um, I mean, that’s a pretty good strategy though, (0:17:21) Codey: because most people, if at least one person wants it, they’re going to be more people (0:17:26) Codey: than you. (0:17:26) Jonnie: No, that is not it. That is, in fact, not a good strategy. (0:17:29) Jonnie: And you have just hit on, like, what I do for a day job. (0:17:31) Jonnie: And this is the problem that most people make. (0:17:33) Jonnie: They’re like, I’m going to build the thing that I want. (0:17:34) Jonnie: And then they are shocked that nobody else wants that thing. (0:17:36) Codey: Oh no. Oh no. That’s so unfortunate. (0:17:40) Codey: Um, well I’m sure that some of our hosts are super excited about this because they love dinosaurs, so. (0:17:50) Codey: Big shout out. (0:17:54) Codey: Um, next is OVA Magica. So I want to note here that Al said that the .8 update was out now, but it is actually the .805. (0:18:06) Codey: So there’s, it’s different. So they say that if you’re update your game, make sure that it’s version 0.805. (0:18:14) Codey: So, um, this version adds a couple of different things. One of them is the blob temple, which is a new world in which there will be some new blobs like the tiger blob, red panda blob, peacock, the panda, that kind of stuff. (0:18:32) Codey: kind of stuff. It’s a really pretty area. (0:18:36) Codey: Um, looked really beautiful. They also add the greenhouse, um, where you can grow things (0:18:42) Codey: across, all across the year. There’s the cave behind the waterfall and I, there’s like a (0:18:48) Codey: boss blob in here that looks kind of horrifying. Did you see it, Johnny? So it looks like it has, (0:18:56) Codey: it’s like a scorpion’s tail, but it has ram’s horns. It just looks like a, like I was like, (0:19:02) Codey: Like it’s a double blob basically, but then the more you look at it (0:19:06) Codey: the more like as scary as a a blob could be as a little– he is angy, you are right. (0:19:11) Jonnie: He just looks a little angry. (0:19:18) Codey: I guess I’m just like thinking about how it would move and that’s where some of my horror comes from. (0:19:25) Codey: But I’m sure it’s probably adorable in actual movement. There is also the blob paradise which (0:19:32) Codey: which is basically just an agility course and I am here for it. (0:19:36) Codey: I want to see kind of like Westminster version, like blob championships where your blobs run the agility courses as fast as they can and may the fastest blob win. (0:19:51) Codey: I cannot wait to. I’m sure that my dog’s ideal idea of parenthesis and agility course when I was doing training with Stella. (0:19:52) Jonnie: Is your idea of paradise an agility course? (0:20:06) Codey: She had they had an agility course like at the place and she they only had some of the some of the some of the stuff set up though, but she loved it. (0:20:16) Codey: Like the second that she knows that she’s supposed to be like working for something, she is just so engaged and she has so much fun and so I could just see her having the best of times and anything that makes my dog happy makes me happy. (0:20:33) Codey: So yeah, it probably could be considered. (0:20:36) Codey: My paradise they have other small improvements and bug fixes in the point (0:20:44) Codey: eight zero five update and they say that the point nine update will have more (0:20:51) Codey: heart events and another world that is currently redacted in the show note in (0:20:56) Codey: their not show notes but in their roadmap. So have you played this yet? (0:21:04) Jonnie: No, and I don’t think I will (0:21:06) Codey: Okay I every time I see it I’m like oh yeah this game I want to play it and (0:21:06) Jonnie: Isn’t. (0:21:10) Codey: then the world turns and time moves on but because it looks really (0:21:18) Jonnie: Yeah, to me this game sort of like sits in the realm where it kind of feels like it’s, you know, like it’s a bit Pokemon, it’s a bit Stardew Valley, but I’m not sure what it is, you know, because it’s like, yeah, it’s like, I just, to me this game lacks the thing that makes like the thing that gets me excited is when I look at a game and I’m like, (0:21:30) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:21:40) Jonnie: Oh, like I can see what you’re going for here like I can see what is different and like I think the next game that we’ll talk about is (0:21:48) Jonnie: a really good example of of one of those. And this one is kind of just like, I like Pokemon and I like Stardew and his game that’s Pokemon Stardew, which is like, sure, fine, but I can play Pokemon and I can play Stardew. Why do I want to play this? And I’m not sure why I want to play this. (0:22:04) Codey: But it’s poke but it’s Pokemon and Stardew as blobs as little little guys (0:22:10) Jonnie: Yeah, like, I don’t know, cute stuff is like Daimedos in these days. (0:22:15) Codey: I (0:22:17) Codey: There is no end to the amount of dopamine that I need and serotonin that I need in this world right now (0:22:25) Codey: You don’t live in the political climate that I live I (0:22:30) Codey: crave a grave distraction (0:22:32) Codey: Um… (0:22:35) Codey: Yeah, so you said you’re you really interested in this next game (0:22:40) Jonnie: And like actually I’m not, so Alan and I, the next game is Overthrowing, and Alan and (0:22:45) Jonnie: I covered it on the demo episode where Alan played Overthrowing, and I played Luma Island. (0:22:56) Jonnie: And so Overthrowing is the sort of, I call it Minecraft adjacent game where you are basically (0:23:04) Jonnie: throwing stuff. (0:23:05) Jonnie: So you can go and cut down trees, or you can just throw the sawmill at the trees, and that (0:23:10) Jonnie: you can cut down the trees, which is a fun concept. (0:23:13) Jonnie: I think the game looks like it’s like a fun concept, but they kind of ran out of ideas (0:23:18) Jonnie: after that. (0:23:19) Jonnie: But at least they’re very clear about what they are, right? (0:23:21) Jonnie: They are trying to be silly and fun and have weird interactions and all of those sorts (0:23:26) Jonnie: of things. (0:23:27) Jonnie: And to that, they have a relatively big update that is coming on the 30th of January, which (0:23:34) Jonnie: is the livestock update. (0:23:37) Jonnie: introduces a farmable creature. (0:23:40) Jonnie: It’s the Woolly, which I guess is a sheep, it introduces fire and mortars, so it just (0:23:50) Jonnie: gives you fire bombs, and it says they can be used against structures, so I guess it’s (0:23:57) Jonnie: the chaos thing where you can just fire bomb your own buildings. Yes, you can. (0:24:02) Codey: Well, I think it’s up to six. (0:24:05) Codey: You can have up to six people on a server, I think is what it’s going for. (0:24:10) Codey: So you’d firebomb your friends’ buildings. (0:24:10) Jonnie: That makes way more sense. (0:24:17) Codey: That’s part of the fun, in Minecraft also, is watching your friend build this awesome (0:24:22) Codey: thing and then accidentally having a creeper blow it up. (0:24:26) Jonnie: And then there’s some new buildings as well, and most of the new buildings just sound like they’re there to support the fire bombs in the Woolies. (0:24:37) Codey: Yeah. Um, I love that with the Woolies, it says that they have a barn quote for when they are not (0:24:46) Codey: in their gigantic evil mutated forms, cause causing devastating damage to everyone around. (0:24:54) Codey: I just, I love the, the way that the developers talk in this, um, like release or news, um, (0:25:03) Codey: like steam update because it just there they have (0:25:07) Codey: fun with the game and I can tell. Yeah. (0:25:09) Jonnie: Yeah, and like they’ve got such a clear vision for this game like it really comes through even in the communications right and like for me that was the difference between something like overthrow on and. (0:25:20) Codey: Yeah, when I think that like, I loved when I was watching the it just looks ridiculous like when I was watching the thing and I was like they literally just threw a sawmill at the tree. Like, I want to use this sawmill or I want to like have you can either throw the tree at the sawmill or throw the sawmill at the tree and I’m like, what just throw the whole building at it. (0:25:42) Jonnie: Yep. It’s… yeah. (0:25:44) Codey: It’s goofy, but awesome. (0:25:50) Codey: The other, they have some other small things in this update, but they say that the next update in quote unquote spring 2025 we’ll see. It’s called the parks update, and it will add some new plants and new decorations, as well as the mechanism of pollution. (0:26:08) Codey: So excited to out pollute my friends in a video game, not in real life. (0:26:14) Codey: Make sure to recycle kids. And then the last thing that (0:26:20) Codey: we have here is a game called grandpa’s farm. So this is a little different than normal. It’s not a video game. It’s a tabletop role playing game. It’s only $7 USD, which is pretty awesome. (0:26:36) Codey: And I just have some blurbs I was trying to figure out how to summarize it and I was like they just say it on their words on their on their page anyway so I’m just going to read this quote grandpa’s farm is a letter writing role playing game inspired by slow life video games like harvest moon Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. (0:26:50) Codey: In grandpa’s farm you’ve inherited a long neglected farmstead and are about to spend the next four years of your life getting it up and running again. Each turn, you’ll draw from a deck of playing cards and interpret card values to determine the progress made on your farm over the course of a single season. (0:27:06) Codey: With that progress in mind you’ll then chronicle your revitalization efforts by writing a letter to a loved one. (0:27:12) Codey: Optional mechanics are also included that allow you to alter your deck by trading or competing at festivals. Removing cars will make certain kinds of progress. (0:27:20) Codey: It’s more likely and festivals can be role played either alone or with fellow players. (0:27:26) Codey: I think this is a really cool concept. (0:27:30) Codey: I’m also big on games that you can play alone. (0:27:34) Codey: One of the games that I got when I went to Pax Unplugged was a game called Dog Park, where you literally just take dogs to a dog park. (0:27:42) Codey: And one of the reasons I like it so much is because you can play a single player version. It just kind of adds to random NPC characters. (0:27:50) Codey: I like the concept of writing a letter. I think there’s a lot of new stuff happening in this. (0:28:00) Jonnie: Me too. Yeah, I’m a big fan of tabletop games, like particularly like the sort of game which is, (0:28:09) Jonnie: you know, pen and paper based, it’s like very accessible. And like you, I think games that (0:28:17) Jonnie: have a one player mode are really good, particularly in this day and age, where like, (0:28:24) Jonnie: you know, sometimes it’s just hard for calendars to line up and to see people and to have something (0:28:30) Jonnie: to do is great. And I think like you, the idea of writing a letter as sort of the point of the game (0:28:39) Jonnie: is a really cool idea. It’s a really great way to sort of tell the story of what’s happened, (0:28:46) Jonnie: you know, because a lot of these sort of tabletop RPG games, like that’s what you’re doing is (0:28:50) Jonnie: telling a story. And it’s very on theme for, you know, Stardew-like inspired games. (0:29:00) Jonnie: To, you know, kind of capture that story in something like litter. (0:29:05) Codey: Yeah, um, I mean, I’m definitely intrigued and I might get it since it’s so inexpensive. (0:29:12) Codey: Um, I don’t know how we would have podcast upset about it, but I guess I could, like, if we have an (0:29:19) Codey: episode where we just kind of cover a smattering of things, I could mention it in that episode. (0:29:23) Codey: But, um, I am interested, especially it’s only $7. (0:29:29) Codey: They basically just, the $7 gives you access to the PDF, um, of the game. (0:29:35) Codey: Like how to play the game and stuff. (0:29:37) Codey: Um, but that’s just really accessible and I appreciate, um, access to their creativity. (0:29:46) Codey: So pretty cool. (0:29:48) Jonnie: Very cool (0:29:48) Codey: Have you ever played any, do you play TTRPGs much? (0:29:51) Jonnie: I used to I haven’t played so much like the last few years, but yeah, I used I used to play them quite (0:29:55) Codey: Okay. (0:29:58) Codey: Okay. (0:29:59) Codey: I’m getting more into that kind of stuff. (0:30:02) Codey: Um, and Jeff is actually from. (0:30:05) Codey: When we went to packs, he saw this like table, um, like a coffee table (0:30:12) Codey: and a card table, like thing. (0:30:15) Codey: And now he really wants to get one where it’s, it looks like a normal (0:30:19) Codey: like coffee table, for example, but then you can take off like the top level (0:30:23) Codey: of it and there’s a felt table under that for like puzzles or games or something. (0:30:28) Codey: These tables are like two grand, but he’s like, it’ll be worth it. (0:30:31) Codey: Like, okay, whatever. (0:30:32) Jonnie: It will 100% be worth it. Let’s take (0:30:35) Codey: And I think it’s just like, it inspires more of that type of gameplay and stuff. (0:30:41) Codey: And I mean, we want to get more into it. (0:30:43) Codey: It’s just really fun to do together. (0:30:45) Codey: So, uh, yeah, maybe when I, when we get into that, uh, this, this game (0:30:51) Codey: will make its debut in my home. (0:30:55) Codey: So cool. (0:30:56) Codey: Well, that is the news we really did. (0:30:59) Codey: We are, we really are flying through things. (0:31:05) Codey: - We could go slower. (0:31:08) Jonnie: Look, let’s not, you know, berate our listeners by talking about things that we have nothing to say, and just, you know… (0:31:15) Codey: It’s true. (0:31:17) Jonnie: I know we could do that, but let’s not do that to them. (0:31:22) Codey: I’m just in like shocks. (0:31:24) Codey: ‘Cause normally we’re like, (0:31:25) Codey: oh, this will be a fast episode. (0:31:26) Codey: And then we’re like, it’s 1 a.m. (0:31:29) Codey: It’s an over-exaggeration, (0:31:30) Codey: but that’s how it feels sometimes. (0:31:33) Codey: Yeah, so that’s all the news. (0:31:36) Codey: So we’ve come to our main topic, (0:31:38) Codey: which is Animal Crossing Pocket Camp complete. (0:31:40) Codey: So again, just a reminder, (0:31:42) Codey: this is something I have not played, (0:31:44) Codey: but Johnny has been playing. (0:31:46) Jonnie: But you have played, because you’ve played Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. (0:31:50) Codey: I’ve played the, yeah, that version. (0:31:53) Codey: I guess that was one of my questions. (0:31:54) Jonnie: It’s the same game. (0:31:55) Codey: Okay, that was one of my questions for you, (0:31:58) Codey: is what’s the difference? (0:32:00) Codey: Like why, if you’ve played the first one, (0:32:04) Codey: Like the, not the. (0:32:05) Codey: The first one, but if you’ve played the non-complete version, what is there in this that could bring you back or like that’s novel? (0:32:15) Jonnie: Ernie, have you not been listening to the news (0:32:17) Jonnie: on our own show? (0:32:18) Codey: I have, but other people might not have listened to every episode. (0:32:24) Jonnie: Good save, good save. (0:32:27) Codey: We need to, uh, yeah. For people who might not have been listening, cough, cough, totally not me. (0:32:35) Codey: What’s different about this and is it worth it if you’ve played the other but didn’t, haven’t played this? (0:32:41) Jonnie: So they shut down the Animal Crossing pocket camp in December, or maybe it was the end of November last year. (0:32:53) Jonnie: Basically to remove the online functionality, and they have released Pocket Camp Complete as a one-time purchase. (0:33:04) Jonnie: It has all of the stuff in it from the mobile game, so it’s basically just the original version. (0:33:11) Jonnie: The original version, with all of the stuff in offline mode, that’s what the game is. (0:33:19) Jonnie: The answer to the question of “Is it worth it?” First of all, you can transfer your save. (0:33:25) Codey: Okay. That was another question. (0:33:27) Jonnie: You can bring over your old save. Whether or not it’s worth it is “Why did you stop playing? Did you stop playing?” (0:33:33) Jonnie: Because you’ve got sick of the way microtransaction-based games work. In which case, yeah, this is a really good way to come back. (0:33:41) Jonnie: Because there’s no microtransactions. If you stopped playing it because you were bored of the game, then probably not, because it’s just the same game. (0:33:52) Codey: okay is it um is it only on the phones okay um yeah I just wasn’t sure if they’ve like added (0:33:58) Jonnie: I assume so. (0:34:06) Codey: um other ways to play or not (0:34:10) Jonnie: I don’t believe so. And so maybe a good place to start is to talk about what I think and I haven’t I hadn’t played pocket camp in like, many years I played it the year it came out and had not played it since. So some of this might be slightly wrong. (0:34:28) Jonnie: But as I said, there’s only really two main differences in this version to the to the original and the first is in (0:34:40) Jonnie: there’s the the query. And usually to access the query, you had to have friends, and you would talk to those friends and they would help you out at the query and it was very driven by online communication. (0:34:54) Jonnie: The difference now is that you can still have friends, but you have to exchange (0:35:00) Jonnie: QR codes in order to get them in. And once they’re in, they’re in for forever, which is quite nice. And if you (0:35:10) Jonnie: have any other people that are playing the game, the really nice thing is on the website for the game, they have a bunch of QR codes that you can just load in and get plenty of friends that way. (0:35:22) Jonnie: So there is no need to know anyone else that is playing the game. You can literally just get all of the get all of the stuff from Nintendo. But that’s just removing kind of the main online feature from the game. (0:35:37) Jonnie: The second is in sort of like the events. (0:35:40) Jonnie: And I think what they’ve done in Pocket Camp, which makes a ton of sense, is the events are just way easier because they’re not trying to, you know, encourage you to, you know, to spend money on microtransactions to complete stuff. (0:35:57) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:35:59) Jonnie: I find you here, like, for most of the events, you get way too many of the resource like that you need. (0:36:07) Jonnie: So at the moment there’s an event going on where you have to like pick. (0:36:10) Jonnie: They pick up snow globes and they are just a currency for crafting certain furniture items. (0:36:16) Jonnie: And I think like within two days I had enough to craft everything in the event once for like a week. (0:36:22) Jonnie: So I could craft lots of the stuff if I wanted to, which is really nice. (0:36:28) Jonnie: So the events I think are a lot easier than they were in the original game. (0:36:34) Codey: Well that’s also nice that they give you like enough time to be able to get things done because (0:36:41) Codey: kind of going back to our earlier conversation like if you are only able to like check in for (0:36:48) Codey: a day or two of the week because your week is really busy or you have a life or it’s summer, (0:36:59) Codey: being able to just kind of play at a minimal level but still (0:37:03) Codey: not feel like you’re missing any. (0:37:04) Codey: Anything is really beneficial. (0:37:06) Codey: Oh, okay. (0:37:06) Jonnie: Yeah, I don’t know. This game is that good in that regard because the core gameplay loop is still the same (0:37:14) Jonnie: And maybe we should just cover that very briefly because people may have forgotten (0:37:19) Jonnie: But but essentially the game works on what I would say a three-hour timer where every three hours (0:37:25) Jonnie: New villages show up at the various regions around the game. There are four regions (0:37:32) Jonnie: and an Animal Crossing style. Each of the retunes has a different resource. There’s one that (0:37:36) Jonnie: has fruit, one that has river fish, one that has ocean fish, and one that has bugs. Those (0:37:42) Jonnie: villagers ask for some combination of those things in order to fulfill requests, and it makes them (0:37:49) Jonnie: like you more. And then liking you more gives you crafting materials for furniture. It also enables (0:37:58) Jonnie: you to invite them to your campsite, which is a fifth location where you can kind of design and (0:38:03) Jonnie: place your furniture. (0:38:06) Jonnie: And there are special missions like each villager has its own unique piece of furniture and if you get the friendship level high enough, they’ll teach you to make it and then ask you to craft one for them. (0:38:21) Jonnie: And so there’s a lot of stuff in this game that is driven by timers and so it does have more of a (0:38:30) Jonnie: “Oh I need to check in because I don’t want to miss out on that” where I want to get the literature level up. (0:38:37) Jonnie: Or my furniture has finished crafting because that’s also on timers or there’s there’s daily missions. (0:38:44) Jonnie: So there is a lot more stuff to do on this game on a regular cadence and I still find it a little bit to play. (0:38:54) Codey: Okay, womp womp, I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt. (0:38:58) Jonnie: No, I mean it’s like at its core it’s still the same mobile game that it was and it was very (0:39:04) Jonnie: clearly a bit of behaviour that I’m trying to drive and it’s still very much there. It’s just (0:39:10) Jonnie: for things that I think were more microtransaction heavy. They are now, they’ve just made those (0:39:17) Jonnie: things more generous I guess, which makes sense because you can’t buy your way out of that anymore (0:39:22) Codey: Yeah, well, but that’s also nice that because I feel like, especially if you do have that, (0:39:35) Codey: if they still have that like FOMO, like you got to get things, make sure you don’t miss (0:39:40) Codey: a certain thing or whatever, like that is gonna make people want to just spend money. (0:39:47) Codey: And that’s not, I mean, it’s a great business strategy, but it doesn’t. (0:39:52) Codey: make a good game, like it makes it, you can make it really stressful to play a game. (0:39:57) Codey: So in my opinion. (0:40:01) Codey: Um, okay. (0:40:03) Codey: So the questions that I had, uh, how is it different? (0:40:07) Codey: Answered. (0:40:08) Codey: Can you bring over your old safe answered? (0:40:10) Codey: Um, do you have to pay? (0:40:12) Codey: You said, yes. (0:40:13) Codey: What is it? (0:40:14) Codey: How much does it cost? (0:40:15) Jonnie: So I know it was first coming out, and I can’t remember when it ends, but it was (0:40:22) Jonnie: $10 when it initially came out, and then if you waited too long it was $20. And I can’t remember (0:40:29) Jonnie: if it changed to $20 at the start of 2025, or if you had until the end of January. It was one of (0:40:36) Jonnie: those two, but now I cannot have to try and look that up and find out. Yeah. (0:40:42) Codey: So it’s on the phone, right? (0:40:45) Codey: Let me look it up. (0:40:46) Codey: And if it is still money, or I guess it’ll tell me how much money it is. (0:40:52) Codey: Animal Crossing. (0:40:54) Codey: It is $9.99 still. (0:40:56) Jonnie: I feel like that runs out. Oh, when does this episode come out? If you’re listening to this (0:41:02) Jonnie: episode, when it comes out and you are interested in playing Animal Crossing Boca Camp, like, (0:41:08) Jonnie: go and buy it immediately, otherwise you will have to pay the idiot tax of an additional $10 (0:41:15) Codey: literally just going to do it now, even if I don’t necessarily want to play right now. (0:41:21) Codey: I feel like I’m going to want to play eventually, so purchased. (0:41:24) Jonnie: And that’s exactly the like if you think that this is a thing that you will play at some point like by it now (0:41:31) Codey: Yeah (0:41:33) Codey: done (0:41:35) Codey: So we must friend each other so that we can can you give stuff to people other people or is it just a solo game now (0:41:41) Jonnie: It’s just a solo game, but we can still exchange the Friend QR code, (0:41:46) Jonnie: so you can see me at Windy Pass and ask if I want to help you in the query. (0:41:51) Jonnie: But there is no online communication aspect to this game anymore. (0:41:56) Codey: » Okay. Cool. (0:42:00) Jonnie: So now that the game’s out, the main thing to do, I guess, (0:42:04) Jonnie: is to try and collect everything, right? (0:42:07) Jonnie: You kind of get a sense for how much stuff is. (0:42:11) Jonnie: This is in this game, because it was out for a very long time. (0:42:16) Jonnie: And sorry, I’ve got it open. I’m just trying to navigate to the right screen. (0:42:19) Jonnie: There’s like a screen where you’ve got all of the, they call it the complete item catalog. (0:42:24) Jonnie: So one of the new currencies they added was a complete ticket. (0:42:27) Jonnie: And you can just exchange that one of those tickets for a piece of like sort of specialty furniture. (0:42:37) Jonnie: And there is a long list of all of the different categories. (0:42:41) Jonnie: And there’s one that I was looking for because the whole time I’ve been talking, I’ve been scrolling down this list of stuff. (0:42:50) Codey: Oh, no. (0:42:51) Jonnie: And when I say scrolling down the list, this is not the list of furniture. (0:42:56) Jonnie: This is the list of categories of furniture to go into. (0:42:58) Codey: Oh my gosh! (0:43:01) Jonnie: So I don’t know exactly how many items of furniture there are. (0:43:06) Jonnie: like most of these things that I’m scrolling past have probably about 10, like… (0:43:11) Jonnie: There was one that was 620 items. There was one that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen somewhere. (0:43:23) Jonnie: It’s over a thousand. So there is a lot of furniture too. Oh yeah, there’s the (0:43:28) Jonnie: preview and collection which is almost 2,000 items of furniture. Now you can acquire most of this (0:43:36) Jonnie: through other methods. So a lot of it’s timed. (0:43:41) Jonnie: A lot of it’s the event furniture, right? So you will get it as you sort of do events and progress (0:43:50) Jonnie: through the game. But just as sort of an idea of how much there is to collect, (0:43:57) Jonnie: that’s from the seasonal events. And then you’ve got fortune cookies, which is (0:44:02) Jonnie: an entirely separate set of huge amounts of furniture to collect. So it’s just a huge, (0:44:09) Jonnie: Huge, huge, huge, huge. (0:44:11) Jonnie: Huge, huge collectathon. That’s what this game is. (0:44:13) Codey: Uh, I mean, are they going to be adding new stuff to it or is it like, this is it now? (0:44:18) Jonnie: No, no, no, no, no. This is the we’re done with the game. We’re shutting down the servers. (0:44:20) Codey: Okay. (0:44:24) Jonnie: Here’s the full game. Play it, don’t play it, whatever. Like, for me, this is like, I think (0:44:29) Jonnie: Alan, I talked about this before, but this is a really good way to wrap up a mobile game, right? (0:44:34) Jonnie: Where it’s like, if you still love this game, here is the way, here is a nice way to access all of (0:44:39) Jonnie: the content when I’m… (0:44:41) Jonnie: adding anything more. It’s super clear. This is the game. It is what it is. Go for it. (0:44:45) Codey: Yeah, I like that actually, and it can just kind of join all the other Animal Crossing (0:44:53) Codey: games in the bin, not the bin, but in the recesses of some storage somewhere for me, (0:45:00) Codey: but we’ll see if I play it. (0:45:00) Jonnie: I believe they said when they brought this out that the game is on a four-year cycle. (0:45:08) Jonnie: If you start playing this game and you want to try and get everything, I imagine you would (0:45:18) Jonnie: be able to get everything before four years because of the way the currencies are designed. (0:45:24) Jonnie: But if you were going to get everything, let’s say naturally, through playing the events (0:45:27) Codey: Yeah, well worth 10 bucks. (0:45:29) Jonnie: and doing everything like that I believe (0:45:30) Jonnie: it would take you four years (0:45:34) Jonnie: yes um maybe I’ll just talk a little bit about sort of the (0:45:38) Jonnie: events because like so so we talked about the core gameplay loop which is (0:45:42) Jonnie: about giving (0:45:45) Jonnie: fulfilling villager requests um so I’ve played for two months now and it seems (0:45:49) Jonnie: like the events follow the same cycle month to month which I (0:45:54) Jonnie: will admit is a bit disappointing and I’ll get the (0:45:57) Jonnie: order slightly wrong but but for all the speaking there is a (0:46:01) Jonnie: flower growing event where you grow flowers the flowers attract a (0:46:04) Jonnie: specialty bug you catch the bugs and you get rewards for (0:46:08) Jonnie: catching the bugs um so that was about flower growing (0:46:12) Jonnie: there is an event that’s about uh fishing in the sea (0:46:16) Jonnie: so uh special fish show up in the sea they sparkle they refresh every three (0:46:22) Jonnie: hours you catch them um and then you give them (0:46:25) Jonnie: to uh chip is that is that what that guy’s (0:46:29) Jonnie: names. Anyway. (0:46:30) Jonnie: You give it to the beaver that likes fish. And you get rewards for doing that. There (0:46:36) Jonnie: is a bug event where a special bug shows up on the bug island, you catch them. And again, (0:46:43) Jonnie: you get rewards for that. There’s like some sort of, you know, an item is dropping on (0:46:49) Jonnie: the ground where you run around and pick them up. And you can use those to craft a piece (0:46:56) Jonnie: of furniture and I feel like there was a fourth event - oh! (0:47:00) Jonnie: But the last event is there’s the, so one of the spaces is like a home designer (0:47:07) Jonnie: minigame where you, you know, someone will have a partially completed room and you have to finish (0:47:13) Jonnie: the room so each month there will be a certain number of specialty rooms that you can do and (0:47:20) Jonnie: I think that rewards you mostly with, you know, some of the rare crafting resources that you need (0:47:24) Jonnie: for something else and I kind of wish there was more variation to the events because like… (0:47:31) Jonnie: doing it month one I was like oh these are cool like these were you know interesting events you (0:47:34) Jonnie: know mixed up the the core gameplay enough and then once I worked out that month two was basically (0:47:39) Jonnie: the same events on the same loop I was like oh like this is this is this is all of a sudden become (0:47:44) Jonnie: a lot less interesting and I feel like I’m probably going to bounce off this pretty (0:47:45) Codey: Yeah (0:47:49) Codey: Yeah (0:47:51) Codey: But is it’s compelling enough to try and stick it out at least to (0:47:56) Codey: begin the process of (0:47:58) Codey: like (0:48:00) Codey: Completing your your desk your decks not decks, but I guess it is your decks your your furniture decks or whatever like (0:48:07) Jonnie: Yeah, like, I don’t think so. And I think the reason for that is there’s too much, (0:48:08) Codey: Are you gonna keep playing it still? Oh (0:48:10) Codey: Oh. (0:48:16) Jonnie: right? Like, it’s so much to complete that completing it actually does not feel like (0:48:23) Jonnie: something that I want to do. It’s like, and they’re very generous with the currencies (0:48:24) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:48:29) Jonnie: in this game. Like, I feel like completing it would be possible. It just takes a lot of time (0:48:38) Jonnie: and I don’t know that I really want to spend that much time playing this game. I feel like it might (0:48:44) Jonnie: be the sort of thing where like, I’ll get a bitch every couple of months and maybe jump in and play (0:48:48) Jonnie: for a month and sort of complete what there is that month. And so maybe over the course of 20 (0:48:53) Jonnie: years, I will finish this game. But do I want to have it as something that I play daily? I honestly (0:49:00) Jonnie: do not think that I do. Like, it was really fun for the first month. And I think in particular, (0:49:06) Jonnie: the first month. It’s fun. (0:49:07) Jonnie: because you’re meeting tons of new villages, you’re leveling up really quickly. You’re just (0:49:14) Jonnie: kind of unlocking tons of stuff and that feels really good. And then once you kind of come out (0:49:21) Jonnie: of that and into, okay, this is what the loop is going to be for the next year or so, I think (0:49:27) Jonnie: that’s when I’ve sort of bounced off. So when you start up, Isabel has sort of like a series of (0:49:33) Jonnie: missions to kind of guide you on the sort of things you should be doing. I think they’ve really (0:49:37) Jonnie: well-structured as an onboarding mechanic because it forces you to interact with all of (0:49:42) Jonnie: the different bits and like at the start when you’re sort of learning stuff and quite overwhelmed, (0:49:48) Jonnie: you know, like there were certain things that I didn’t really focus on and it’s because like (0:49:52) Jonnie: actually you don’t need to focus on them until a little bit later. And now that I’ve seen all (0:49:58) Jonnie: of that stuff and I’ve completed all of her missions, I’m just like I think I now that I (0:50:04) Jonnie: understand what this game is and how it works and there are (0:50:08) Jonnie: I’m not sure that I want to put in the time. The one thing I (0:50:15) Jonnie: will say is, I feel like decorating your camp is way (0:50:22) Jonnie: cooler than I expected it to be. So, you know, you decorate your (0:50:27) Jonnie: camp and put down items, but a lot of the items because like, (0:50:31) Jonnie: I find that like, what I’ve done is like, you know, last month (0:50:34) Jonnie: was a lot of Christmasy items, so I’ll put down those items. (0:50:37) Jonnie: This month is very focused on the Lunar New Year. So a lot of (0:50:41) Jonnie: items that are reflective of that. And when you put down a (0:50:45) Jonnie: lot of like the cool big items, the villagers that are visiting (0:50:48) Jonnie: your camp like can interact with them. So one of the things (0:50:52) Jonnie: that I have in my camp at the moment is a dragon, kind of like (0:50:58) Jonnie: the traditional Chinese dragon costume, like sort of style that (0:51:02) Jonnie: you would see, and the villagers will sit on it. Is that culturally (0:51:02) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:51:04) Codey: Thank you. (0:51:07) Jonnie: I don’t know, but they’re at least interacting with the (0:51:09) Jonnie: furniture that that you’re putting down, not just sort of (0:51:12) Jonnie: awkwardly standing next to it, which is a really, really cool (0:51:17) Jonnie: thing to see and it makes it more fun to sort of visit the (0:51:19) Jonnie: camp and see who’s visiting. (0:51:20) Codey: Yeah. I agree. Like interaction is important with like different pieces of the landscape (0:51:28) Codey: that you put down and stuff. I think that was one of the, my favorite things of the initial ones (0:51:35) Codey: was having people come over to your house and then see them like sit in chairs and stuff. (0:51:42) Codey: I remember like trying to lure Blue Bear to a chair because I just want, I thought she’d be (0:51:48) Codey: That would be so cute, sitting in this one chair. (0:51:51) Codey: I wanted to see it, and she just kept looking at me like, (0:51:55) Codey: can you leave me alone, please? (0:51:57) Codey: Please just sit in the chair. (0:52:01) Codey: Are all of the villagers from all of the games in this game? (0:52:04) Jonnie: I’m going to say there are so many villages in this game, it’s crazy. (0:52:11) Jonnie: I think there’s 360 different villages. (0:52:18) Jonnie: Even collecting all of them is an ordeal. (0:52:24) Jonnie: To get all the furniture, you need to first of all get all the villages and then you need (0:52:27) Jonnie: to get them all to whatever level they need to be at in order to share with you their (0:52:35) Jonnie: secret bit of furniture. (0:52:38) Jonnie: There is a lot to unlock, you’ll never be wanting for stuff to do in this game. (0:52:46) Codey: Good worth the money then even if even if you’re not gonna even if you might fall off (0:52:46) Jonnie: There is so much. (0:52:54) Codey: every now and then like it’s and I feel like that’s how Animal Crossing is like to me it’s (0:52:59) Codey: a spring game I always played it in the spring it was just always something that springtime (0:53:06) Codey: would come and I’d be like it’s Animal Crossing season baby. (0:53:10) Jonnie: Yeah. Yeah, and I think this is in a very similar vibe where it’s like the sort of thing that you could just come back to and make some progress towards, you know, what you what whatever your next goal is, and, you know, feel satisfied with that. (0:53:28) Jonnie: You know, it’s, I will say the one difference like if you haven’t played it, and you like animal crossing experience. The one thing I feel like it doesn’t really replicate particularly well is the collecting of fish and fish. (0:53:40) Jonnie: And bugs, you know, where you’re like, Oh, I really want to go and hunt for this one because I’m missing it. You kind of just end up with all of them. There’s no there’s no museum. (0:53:52) Jonnie: You know, because it’s a mobile game like there’s not different locations or and I’m not even entirely sure if fish are tied to a certain time of the certain time of the day, but that experience isn’t really replicated in a meaningful way in this game. (0:54:10) Jonnie: And I think like because so one of the things I was thinking about in preparation for this episode is like so so who is this for like who would I recommend to this game to. (0:54:19) Jonnie: And I think if you are out there and you’re looking for a mobile game that you kind of just want to get sucked into, you know, you’ve got to commute to and from work every single day and you’re on a bus or on a train or something like that. (0:54:37) Jonnie: You just want something to, you know, kill a bit of time. (0:54:40) Jonnie: Animal Crossing pocket camp would be very high on the list of things that I would recommend. (0:54:45) Jonnie: And the biggest reason for that is it is a complete game. (0:54:49) Jonnie: The $10 that you would pay now gives you the full experience. (0:54:54) Jonnie: There’s never going to be a microtransaction. (0:54:57) Jonnie: There’s never going to be an ask for anything more. (0:55:02) Jonnie: It is all there. (0:55:04) Jonnie: There is so much to do. (0:55:06) Jonnie: do. This is a very healthy way of having (0:55:10) Jonnie: one of these very unhastily designed games be a part of your life. My number one recommendation (0:55:20) Jonnie: would be Pokemon Pocket TCG, but number two, if you want something slightly more to do, (0:55:26) Jonnie: would be Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. I think it’s a very good game. I’m just at a point where I (0:55:31) Jonnie: don’t necessarily want a mobile game taking up a ton of time because I just don’t have a lot of (0:55:38) Jonnie: downtime at the moment. (0:55:40) Jonnie: That’s a me thing, right? Not any real indictment on this game because this game is upfront about (0:55:52) Codey: - Yeah, oh no. (0:56:02) Jonnie: what it is and you very quickly– it’s very quickly apparent that it’s on this three-hour (0:56:07) Jonnie: time cycle and so you will feel that each every couple of hours. (0:56:10) Jonnie: It’s not really hiding from that and just the fact that there will not be microtransactions makes this a great way to have that sort of mobile experience. (0:56:24) Codey: Yeah, I think that’s honestly like a really good (0:56:29) Codey: Like ad for this game is just no microtransactions (0:56:34) Codey: Because there’s just they’re they’re everywhere in games these days. You can’t really it’s really hard to get away from them and (0:56:42) Codey: Or just ads as well like having because there’s no ads in this game - correct. Yeah, I (0:56:51) Codey: I think, like, that’s another thing I really love about Honey Grove. (0:56:54) Codey: It doesn’t have any ads, but then I downloaded the secret third game or whatever that I’m (0:56:59) Codey: playing that will be, I’m promising will be in a future episode. (0:57:04) Codey: And the first thing is that there was a banner that has ads in it and I was like, I forgot (0:57:10) Codey: about this. (0:57:14) Codey: So I mean, right there, like having something that you can play on your phone that doesn’t (0:57:19) Codey: have those things and is a reasonable price. (0:57:25) Codey: I think it’s worth it. (0:57:27) Codey: So I have, I have re-downloaded it. (0:57:34) Jonnie: Maybe listen and see what we’ll hear in a few trips so if Cody thinks I got anything long in my coverage of Pocketcam. (0:57:40) Codey: uh yeah we’ll see oh does it it doesn’t remember me wait does it continue I don’t know we’ll see (0:57:49) Codey: oh it wants me to go to indi I don’t know my oh it’s right there i’m like it’s like what’s your (0:57:56) Codey: nintendo account and I was like oh man I don’t know and then it was like are you cody i’m like oh (0:58:01) Codey: hello yes it is me wait for it i’m almost there oh it wants me to download a bunch of stuff (0:58:09) Codey: Okay, I don’t know if I’m… (0:58:10) Codey: going to have the answer to this quickly, I thought it would be faster than this, but (0:58:12) Jonnie: Okay, I feel like this is a, tune in next time listeners to see if Cody successfully (0:58:19) Jonnie: got into her pocket camp account. (0:58:22) Codey: now it’s downloading. (0:58:23) Codey: It’s only at 4%. (0:58:24) Codey: So yeah, tune in next time. (0:58:27) Codey: Maybe this game will have taken over my life, but yeah, you will have to listen to next (0:58:34) Codey: episode for that. (0:58:37) Codey: So that was our episode and you have successfully (0:58:40) Codey: converted at least one person to playing this game. (0:58:44) Codey: So it’s a successful episode. (0:58:46) Jonnie: I wonder what my commission is on that. (0:58:48) Codey: Oh, that’s a great question. (0:58:49) Codey: Uh, I don’t know what the current rate is. (0:58:54) Codey: No, this is one of those like, wait, you’re getting paid. (0:58:56) Jonnie: Yeah (0:59:00) Codey: Um, Johnny, where can people find you on the internet? (0:59:03) Jonnie: Um as always like we just love to chat from the slack about the you know (0:59:08) Jonnie: sorts of (0:59:09) Jonnie: Games that we’re playing and and because I’m not playing a ton of games at the moment (0:59:13) Jonnie: I like to hear about like what games people are enjoying. So if you can support the show (0:59:18) Jonnie: Go to patreon.com/ghspod support the show get access to the slack all the good stuff (0:59:24) Codey: Yeah, I was a pseudo-scorpion. And it was funny because I put a thread of it (0:59:25) Jonnie: See the photos of (0:59:26) Jonnie: the, was it a pseudo scorpion? Thank you, post it. (0:59:36) Codey: before we released the episode last time, and Kevin was like, “What is this?” And I was like, (0:59:41) Codey: “Kevin, it specifically said don’t look at this thread until you’ve listened to the episode.” (0:59:48) Jonnie: Look if anyone was gonna break it like it makes sense for it to begin. I don’t think he has the willpower to not look (0:59:52) Codey: That’s true. Let me see, I definitely have… (0:59:54) Codey: new photos of bugs on my phone. (0:59:57) Jonnie: And what else we talked about oh, that’s right we were talking about gay butterflies in the slack (1:00:00) Codey: Ugh, I was very happy about gay butterflies. (1:00:04) Codey: We are here for gay butterflies. (1:00:07) Jonnie: We are. So if that sounds, you know, exciting to you, then… (1:00:14) Codey: I’m also about to upload a photo of a lace bug. (1:00:19) Jonnie: Amazing. So yeah, so join the Slack. Another thing I’m just going to shout out very quickly (1:00:25) Jonnie: is last week’s episode, like, just in case anyone missed it, but Cody and Al interviewed (1:00:31) Jonnie: the creator of Rusty’s retirement and that was a really fun interview. So definitely. (1:00:37) Jonnie: Go back and give that a listen. And I’m just going to submit, like, my… (1:00:42) Jonnie: We were discussing what we thought the acronym… Oh, maybe on the show you guys were discussing (1:00:46) Jonnie: what should, like, the name be for Rusty’s retirement likes. And I’m submitting boss games (1:00:50) Codey: - Yeah. (1:00:54) Jonnie: as in bottom-up screen. So yeah, that’s why I’m going to start calling these. (1:01:01) Codey: like that (1:01:03) Jonnie: Where can people find you, Cody? (1:01:05) Codey: I am also on the slack. I am also on blue sky (1:01:14) Codey: It’s just my name Cody Mathis (1:01:16) Codey: That’s mostly for bug content and possibly political content (1:01:21) Codey: And dei stuff which I will continue to say even if my government believes it is not a thing (1:01:27) Codey: and (1:01:29) Codey: on Instagram (1:01:31) Codey: @hikingbeagle where I post more of like neurodivergence stuff and just (1:01:42) Codey: other things that make me laugh. You can find Al at the Scottbot on (1:01:48) Codey: mastodon.scot and other platforms. You can find the podcast on Tumblr and other (1:01:54) Codey: platforms at THSPod. You can go to our website for the show notes. (1:02:01) Codey: Transcripts feed and give us feedbacks and links so that website is (1:02:05) Codey: harvestseason.club there you’ll also get a link to the patreon that Johnny has (1:02:11) Codey: already mentioned and that’s pretty much it for this episode. Thank you Johnny (1:02:17) Codey: for I guess I am thankful that I got to join you actually this is not my episode (1:02:26) Codey: I just, I was on call. (1:02:31) Jonnie: No, it was a lot of fun and I’m pleased that you were going to be trying again. I like to hear (1:02:37) Jonnie: I’d love to hear about your experience with it and we kept it short. I didn’t jinx it (1:02:42) Codey: And we what? (1:02:43) Jonnie: We kept it short (1:02:44) Codey: We did! (1:02:46) Codey: We did. (1:02:47) Codey: Look at us. (1:02:48) Codey: Who would have thought? (1:02:49) Codey: Not me. (1:02:50) Jonnie: Yeah, definitely not you. I’m actually surprised. (1:02:51) Codey: No. (1:02:52) Codey: I, yeah. (1:02:54) Codey: It’s ready for me to play pocket camp, (1:02:56) Codey: but I’m not gonna tell people (1:02:59) Codey: you have to listen to the next episode. (1:03:03) Codey: But I will tell you, Johnny, after we’re done recording. (1:03:06) Jonnie: Amazing. (1:03:06) Codey: So yeah, thanks for listening, y’all. (1:03:09) Codey: And until next time, (1:03:11) Codey: Have a good. (1:03:11) Jonnie: Have a good heart. (1:03:12) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:03:23) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:03:27) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:03:31) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:03:37) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:03:46) Jonnie: Have a good harvest, good. (1:03:51) Jonnie: Let’s just see how many different speeds we can say that, (1:03:54) Jonnie: and maybe try the hour slightly mad, (1:03:56) Codey: Good. (1:03:58) Jonnie: trying to find two that match up. (1:04:00) Jonnie: Have a good– (1:04:07) Codey: Have an all right harvest.…

The Harvest Season

1
Rustorio 1:32:28

6 weeksที่แล้ว1:32:28

1:32:28

Al and Codey interview Jordan, the developer of Rusty's Retirement Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:43: What Have We Been Up To 00:17:26: Game News 00:40:24: Rusty’s Retirement Interview 01:22:47: Outro Links Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Trailer Harvest Hills Release Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Exiting EA Galactic Getaway EA Release Usagi Shima “Chinese New Year” Update Chill Town Roadmap Fields of Mistria Roadmap Webfishing Cat Plush Animal Crossing Aquarium UK Tour Rusty’s Retirement on Steam Rusty’s Retirement Links Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. (0:00:36) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:38) Codey: and I am Cody. (0:00:40) Al: And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. (0:00:44) Codey: Woo. (0:00:45) Codey: Whoooo! (0:00:46) Al: This episode, we have a very exciting thing. (0:00:49) Al: It’s not often we get an interview, but the first interview of the year this year (0:00:53) Al: is with the developer of 2024’s The Harvest Season game of the year. (0:01:01) Al: Rusty Retirement, Jordan, the developer of Rusty Retirement, (0:01:05) Al: will be joining us later in the episode to talk about the game and many other things. (0:01:12) Codey: Yeah, we talk, we kind of talk about a couple things. (0:01:12) Al: So we talk about stuff, it is, it is mentioned, and some super exciting secret stuff. (0:01:16) Codey: The game is mentioned though. (0:01:18) Codey: Yeah, it is talked about, which will be revealed in this episode. (0:01:27) Al: Yeah. (0:01:31) Al: So if you’re here just to listen to that, you can see the time in the show notes, (0:01:35) Al: or you can click on the chapter in your podcast episode. (0:01:38) Al: But please do stay around as we talk about the news for this week. (0:01:43) Al: And also, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:01:46) Codey: I have been playing Slay the Spire. (0:01:52) Codey: I haven’t been playing it nearly as much, (0:01:54) Codey: but I did finally beat all of the characters (0:02:00) Codey: and beat like the end game once you– (0:02:04) Codey: and like got credits. (0:02:06) Codey: But it doesn’t really ever end, really. (0:02:08) Codey: You just keep playing. (0:02:10) Codey: But it’s fun. (0:02:12) Codey: doing that, doing more PhD studies. (0:02:16) Codey: It’s like starting to hit me now that like, cause I was talking to my advisor (0:02:20) Codey: and he was like, yeah, so if you’re going to defend in or graduate in December, (0:02:24) Codey: you have to defend in October, which means you should have your data done by (0:02:28) Codey: July. And like, I was just like, Oh, oh gosh, it’s all coming up so fast. (0:02:35) Codey: So yeah, it’s starting to hit. (0:02:38) Codey: Um, and also clearly Rusty’s retirement played a hot minute of that by you. (0:02:38) Al: Fair enough, obviously. (0:02:44) Al: Nice. I think last episode I talked about playing Legends Arceus for the second time, (0:02:51) Al: gone through and caught most of the Pokémon, I was nearly done. I have now finished that, (0:02:56) Al: so that’s that’s done. I’ve got my full Pokémon home decks, got the crown on Pokémon home for (0:03:03) Al: for that. And then I decided to do go from (0:03:08) Al: the best Pokemon game to the worst Pokemon game. And I am now playing Brilliant Diamond (0:03:13) Al: and Shining Pearl again. So it hasn’t, I already, I had a save. I had done a Professor Oak challenge. (0:03:24) Al: So I still had that. However, I didn’t finish, I didn’t keep everything. So there was a bunch (0:03:30) Al: of Pokemon I need to catch and breed and stuff, but it wasn’t too hard, except I am now, I (0:03:36) Al: I now need– (0:03:38) Al: Well, two Pokémon lines, one of which is just a version exclusive, (0:03:44) Al: so I’ve been playing through the other game, Pearl, to get that one. (0:03:47) Al: And I’ve almost got it. I’m almost there. (0:03:49) Al: The other one I need is Palkia, so I do need to finish Pearl till the end. (0:03:54) Al: So I do need to play through that game all the way to the end (0:03:58) Al: and get Palkia and be finished with that. (0:04:00) Codey: I’m sorry. That sounds awful (0:04:03) Al: I do– I feel like I don’t know. (0:04:05) Al: I didn’t, I don’t feel like I hate. (0:04:08) Al: the games when I was playing them, but maybe that rose tinted glasses. (0:04:11) Al: Maybe I did when I was playing it, but they are not great. (0:04:13) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:04:19) Al: I do not miss random encounters in the grass. (0:04:23) Al: I mean, that in and of itself, like I don’t, I don’t want that to ever come back. (0:04:28) Al: I know some people like it. (0:04:29) Al: Whatever. (0:04:29) Al: I don’t, please don’t, please don’t bring it back, please. (0:04:35) Al: and obviously just the thing that annoys me. (0:04:38) Al: most about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is the stickiness. Like if you walk next to a wall (0:04:48) Al: you slow down. I just hate that so much because it’s like especially if you’re going through a (0:04:53) Al: cave and it’s like you happen to brush against a rock and suddenly you’re going at snail space. (0:04:59) Al: It’s just I really hate it. I do hate it so much and I feel like those games could have been a lot (0:05:05) Al: a lot better if there’s just been like a few decisions made. (0:05:08) Al: I could have dealt with the fact that it was random encounters in the grass right, (0:05:12) Al: like I would have preferred if they’d done something like Let’s Go right like I think (0:05:12) Codey: Yeah. (0:05:16) Al: Let’s Go is one of my favorite games. So if they’d done something like that I would have (0:05:21) Al: been much preferred it but I can understand why they would want to do like let’s keep let’s bring (0:05:26) Al: back the random encounters because that’s what these games were fine but it’s just all the other (0:05:32) Al: decisions that were made. Yeah, not fun. So (0:05:34) Codey: Yeah, I think that was like why I didn’t get them because if I wanted to play Diamond or Pearl, I would play it first like they didn’t change enough to me to make it worth it. (0:05:46) Al: Yeah, are we past the point now where you can just remake a game? Like, red and blue, (0:06:00) Al: when they were remade into Fire Red and Leaf Cream, I think that needed to happen, right? (0:06:05) Al: To make those games fun. Because those games were so, like, they were obviously really (0:06:10) Al: complicated and difficult for what they were at the time, and they were running on like (0:06:14) Al: of shoes. (0:06:16) Al: The company nearly folded multiple times before they got those games out. (0:06:20) Al: And so I think it makes absolute sense to redo those. (0:06:23) Al: I think HeartGold and SoulSilver, whether you like those games or not, I think did a (0:06:28) Al: lot to those games and made them better in a lot of ways. (0:06:33) Al: I personally really like what they did with Oras. (0:06:36) Al: I liked how they did that in the 3D style. (0:06:43) Al: And then let’s score, I think is. (0:06:46) Al: One of their best, I think it’s their best remake full stop. (0:06:48) Al: I think it’s amazing what they did with it. (0:06:50) Al: They took what was the original games and made it different. (0:06:54) Al: I really like that. (0:06:57) Al: And even if they’d done Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as Platinum, (0:07:01) Al: I still feel like people would have been like, “But why?” (0:07:04) Al: Right? Because you can use it. (0:07:05) Al: Like a DS is not, DS games don’t feel old, like Game Boy games feel old. (0:07:12) Al: And yeah, some people would prefer to play a Game Boy game (0:07:16) Al: and remake of a Game Boy game. (0:07:17) Al: But a lot of people wouldn’t. (0:07:18) Al: A lot of people would prefer to play a newer game. (0:07:20) Al: But I feel like if you’re looking for a 2D Pokémon game, (0:07:24) Al: go play a 2D Pokémon game. (0:07:26) Al: I don’t think just remaking them as what they are makes sense anymore. (0:07:30) Codey: Yeah, I agree. I don’t think that that’s exciting enough to merit people dropping down another $60 or $50 or however much these games cost nowadays. (0:07:44) Al: or 120, if you buy them both, which obviously I would never do. You’d never find me doing that. (0:07:46) Codey: Yeah. No, of course not. No. Yeah, so I don’t… I think that it does a disservice to them to… (0:08:00) Codey: Not try and improve the games with the quality of life features that the fandom clearly needs or at the minimum, like have them be like a setting you can toggle or something. (0:08:14) Codey: So if people want to play the game on hard mode, they can. (0:08:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:08:18) Al: Let’s not get into the debate of hard mode. (0:08:22) Al: Yeah, I think, yeah, I just, it’s not even like Brilliant Diamond and Chime Pearl brought (0:08:30) Al: it up to the best or the most modern 2D games, right? (0:08:34) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:08:34) Al: Like the graphics were better, right? (0:08:37) Al: In my opinion, I know a lot of people didn’t like how it looked, but that’s fine. (0:08:40) Al: If you don’t like how it looked, that’s fine, but it is like more modern looking. (0:08:44) Al: It’s cleaner graphics, et cetera, et cetera, right? (0:08:48) Al: No, it’s not, it didn’t have as many quality of life improvements as even Gen 5 did, one (0:08:54) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:08:55) Al: generation later, right? (0:08:58) Al: And so what are you doing if you’re not even going to improve it in that way, right? (0:09:04) Al: And that’s ignoring the stuff that they ignored that they had improved in Platinum. (0:09:09) Al: A Gen 4 game that came out two years later, right? (0:09:14) Al: Like if you’re going to ignore all of those improvements that you have made over the years (0:09:19) Al: don’t bother, but anyway, so yeah, I think I enjoyed the Professor Oak challenge because (0:09:20) Codey: Yeah (0:09:23) Codey: Hard agree (0:09:27) Al: it was very different compared to other ones, like having the grand underground, I think, (0:09:33) Al: was made that more interesting, but anyway, most people don’t care about that sort of (0:09:40) Al: stuff. (0:09:41) Al: So yeah, I’ve been playing through that and I’ll get there eventually. (0:09:44) Al: I’ve taken a break today to do some shiny hunting in Scarlet and Violet. (0:09:48) Al: But once I’ve done this, once I’ve caught Palkia, (0:09:52) Al: the only ones I’ll have left to do are, I don’t have a, (0:09:57) Al: because I’ve been for listeners who are, for new listeners or people who aren’t aware, (0:10:01) Al: I lost almost all of my Pokemon saves two years ago on my Switch. (0:10:05) Al: And I’ve recreated most of them now. (0:10:07) Al: So I have the only one, the only one I say I didn’t lose was my sword, (0:10:14) Al: Pokemon sword, because that was on a different Switch. (0:10:16) Al: because I was running two games at the same time. (0:10:18) Al: And I didn’t really like having to close a game and reopen it. (0:10:22) Al: So I just had two switches running the two games. (0:10:25) Al: So because of that, I managed to keep my sword. (0:10:29) Al: But other than that, I lost everything else. (0:10:31) Al: So all I’ve got left I don’t have is Let’s Go Pikachu and Shield. (0:10:39) Al: I think I have everything else because I’ve got Scarlet and Violet. (0:10:41) Al: I’ve got Legends Arceus. (0:10:44) Al: I’ve got Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl now. (0:10:47) Al: and I’ve got Let’s Go Eevee. (0:10:48) Al: And I’ve obviously got my original sword. (0:10:50) Al: So I think I’ve just got Let’s Go Pikachu to do and sword. (0:10:55) Al: And I will probably, I think I’ll probably do with Let’s Go Pikachu (0:10:58) Al: like I’m doing with Palkia and I’ll just kind of like rush through it (0:11:01) Al: and get it finished and then do the last couple of Pokémon (0:11:03) Al: that I need for the crown on Pokémon Home for those games. (0:11:06) Al: And then I think I will probably at some point, (0:11:11) Al: certainly not before the next Pokémon games that comes out, (0:11:14) Al: maybe at the end of the year or something, (0:11:17) Al: I will probably (0:11:18) Al: do a Professor Oak Challenge in Shield and get that done that way and finish up that (0:11:24) Al: dicks like that. Because that’s the only set of games on the Switch that I haven’t done (0:11:33) Al: a Professor Oak Challenge in because I started it for brilliant time in Shining Pearl. What a game (0:11:40) Al: to start that on. And then I went back and did Let’s Go Pikachu, but I didn’t go back and do (0:11:49) Al: Shield. No, I didn’t go back and do Pikachu because I already had a Pikachu save, (0:11:54) Al: but then I’d lost it, so I did Eevee. Anyway, doesn’t matter. Point is, I suspect by the middle (0:12:03) Al: of February, I will only have one Pokémon game not finished and that’ll be Shield and (0:12:12) Al: that’ll be the only Pokédex I don’t have finished on home as well. But I’ll get to that eventually. (0:12:16) Al: There’s no rush. (0:12:17) Codey: So, so I have a question. (0:12:19) Al: Yes, go for it. Yes, my secret is I don’t work. (0:12:20) Codey: Do you sleep? (0:12:23) Codey: I don’t believe you. (0:12:27) Codey: Oh, that worked. (0:12:28) Codey: That’s, that’s fair. (0:12:30) Al: Or if you are my employer, please don’t listen to this. The secret is that obviously the ADHD (0:12:35) Codey: Yeah. (0:12:38) Al: allows me to do like a week’s worth in like a day. And then I spend the rest of the time feeling (0:12:41) Codey: Yep. (0:12:43) Al: guilty that I’m not doing anything because my brain can’t, but it then distracts me. (0:12:45) Codey: Yep. (0:12:47) Codey: Yep, that’s where I am, too. (0:12:52) Codey: But that is part of working with neurodivergence. (0:12:59) Codey: So yeah, that’s actually, I’m doing a conference in November, and (0:12:59) Al: Yeah, weeeeeeee. (0:13:04) Codey: I’m going to try and have a symposium in that conference for, (0:13:08) Codey: it’s an entomology conference. (0:13:10) Codey: I want a symposium specifically on neurodivergence and why, and (0:13:14) Codey: and how to accommodate for… (0:13:17) Codey: people that work in your in your area or group or whatever university (0:13:22) Codey: accommodate for students and faculty that have neurodivergences versus like (0:13:27) Codey: just trying to make them conform because that is very left hand of left hand right (0:13:35) Codey: hand of people so that’s what we’ve been up to oh my gosh he doesn’t sleep you (0:13:38) Al: Oh, oh, wait, no, I’m not finished yet. (0:13:43) Al: I’ve been playing Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home. (0:13:45) Codey: guys I don’t believe it (0:13:47) Al: I’ve not been doing this very much, (0:13:49) Al: because I’ve just been doing like a day or two every day, (0:13:54) Al: which only takes like five or 10 minutes. (0:13:56) Al: But I’m trying to play these games like some people play (0:13:58) Al: them and just playing a little bit every day. (0:14:00) Al: And it’s been so much better with the controller support. (0:14:02) Al: I can actually play it now. (0:14:04) Codey: But can you save it the right way? (0:14:06) Codey: Bye. (0:14:08) Al: It doesn’t seem to work properly in so much as it saves fine, (0:14:12) Al: and it seems to be saving fine. (0:14:14) Al: And it seems like it loads when I go on. (0:14:16) Al: So I’m using it on my iPad, and I play it on my iPad, (0:14:19) Al: and it all seems to work. (0:14:20) Al: And I close the app, and I open up, and it all works fine. (0:14:22) Al: And then I go on to my Mac, and I open it up, and it says, (0:14:25) Al: oh, you’ve got new data. (0:14:26) Al: Do you want to download this? (0:14:27) Al: You go, yes, I’ll take the new data. (0:14:29) Al: And it shows the right thing on there. (0:14:31) Al: It says I’m at spring 23, year one, (0:14:34) Al: and I’ve got this much money, blah, blah, blah. (0:14:36) Al: And then you click on it, and then you actually (0:14:38) Al: get the game, and you’re back on spring one, (0:14:41) Al: and you have nothing. (0:14:42) Al: And the best thing about it is the save (0:14:44) Al: is completely mucked up in so much as there are no people. (0:14:46) Codey: Mm hmm. That sounds lovely, actually. (0:14:48) Al: People don’t exist in the game. (0:14:50) Al: There are no NPCs, and there’s nothing you can do. (0:14:53) Al: You just walk around and do nothing. (0:14:56) Al: It’s– it’s an autistic paradise. (0:15:02) Codey: That’s my kind of farming. (0:15:05) Al: Um. (0:15:06) Codey: Just give me give me all the tasks to do without the social interaction. (0:15:14) Al: So yeah, I can still only play on my iPad, (0:15:17) Al: which I do want the cloud save, (0:15:19) Al: and that would probably, (0:15:20) Al: I’d probably play it more if I had the cloud save, (0:15:22) Al: but the controller support means (0:15:24) Al: that I’m actually playing it. (0:15:26) Al: So, yeah. (0:15:29) Al: So that’s why I’ve been up to, (0:15:30) Al: I’ve also been thinking about the Switch 2. (0:15:32) Al: I don’t know if you’ve been thinking (0:15:33) Al: about the Switch 2 at all. (0:15:34) Codey: Nope. I don’t play my Switch that often, like at all. I know that I am going to play it. (0:15:35) Al: No, that’s fine. (0:15:37) Al: I’m excited for the Switch too. (0:15:38) Al: Hmm. (0:15:44) Codey: I’m going to play the Zelda games eventually, right? And then I enjoy having it for if I (0:15:50) Codey: want to play anything, but Xbox Game Pass has all I really need right now. And no, no, (0:15:57) Al: did you get did you get us a steam decadent Oh sad come on Jeff by the (0:16:03) Codey: I did not. (0:16:04) Codey: I am unloved no we yeah he was like still deciding if he wanted to do it or not he (0:16:13) Codey: actually did just get a raise so yeah maybe I’ll like walk by his phone and do that whole (0:16:16) Al: There you go. Perfect. (0:16:22) Codey: like steam deck like whisper into his phone so that his algorithm will start picking up (0:16:27) Codey: like ads first yeah. (0:16:28) Al: or we can get your is is it your neighbor Micah is it Micah can go in when Jeff moves (0:16:34) Al: in and get Micah to go and talk to him hint are you listening Micah you can we can we (0:16:35) Codey: Uh-huh does Micah have one I can’t remember I don’t know but yeah no my neighbor I’m wondering (0:16:46) Al: confusing Micah’s again I have no idea I don’t think that’s relevant to whether or not he (0:16:50) Codey: if he has a steam deck yeah oh true true true true yeah Micah when we have like a Jeff moved (0:16:55) Al: can convince Jeff to buy U.S.D. (0:17:03) Codey: and party. (0:17:04) Al: Yeah. Yeah, I heard it. I heard it on the podcast. (0:17:04) Codey: Um, you should be like, man, Cody really like was excited about (0:17:08) Codey: possibly because Jeff doesn’t, because Jeff does not listen to this. (0:17:15) Al: I guessed, I guessed. (0:17:18) Codey: Yeah, for sure. (0:17:19) Al: All right. Well, I’m excited about the switch too. And I’m sure we’ll have lots to talk about it in (0:17:23) Al: the future, even though they’ve not really said anything yet. But all right, should we talk about (0:17:28) Al: the news? First up, we have Rune Factory Guardian. (0:17:29) Codey: Sure. (0:17:34) Al: So, first of all, they’ve announced that it’s coming out on the 30th of May. (0:17:39) Codey: Woo. (0:17:40) Codey: Something. (0:17:44) Al: So, there we go. That’s the thing. They’ve given a bunch of information on the new features. (0:17:52) Al: So, it has a village building thing, which is, I think, quite cool. In the trailer, (0:17:58) Al: you see them placing buildings and stuff and that. (0:18:04) Al: That’s cool. I quite like that idea because I get all the previous Rune Factory games have been like, (0:18:09) Al: “Here is an existing village. Go and interact with it.” Whereas this seems to be like you’re (0:18:14) Al: building up a village from small as you do the rest of things as well, which is a fun addition. (0:18:20) Codey: Yeah, I got the vibe that you’re like going through an area that has been like devastated and you’re helping to like rebuild (0:18:28) Al: Yeah, but that’s cool. Because if the whole point of Rune Factory is, it’s what if farming (0:18:38) Al: game plus adventure, I feel like adding in Village Building to that is a good logical (0:18:45) Al: continuation of that. (0:18:46) Codey: Yeah, going elsewhere, spreading your farming knowledge to the masses. (0:18:52) Al: The rest of it seems pretty similar to previous Rune Factory games, your combat and stuff (0:18:59) Al: like that. (0:19:00) Al: There maybe seem to be a bit more in terms of what’s the word I’m looking for, the movement. (0:19:06) Al: You seem to be able to glide on wind and stuff like that that I haven’t experienced in the (0:19:12) Al: previous games, which is a fun addition, making it more Breath of the Wildy, I guess. (0:19:19) Al: And there’s also 16 romanceables in this game. (0:19:22) Al: Get your waifu or husbandu. (0:19:25) Codey: Has a bundle I think it’s Joe (0:19:31) Codey: Yeah, never played a room factory game so I don’t have much (0:19:34) Al: Probably never going to. (0:19:37) Codey: Probs not (0:19:40) Codey: But I mean it looks the village building aspect I really do like like the idea of (0:19:47) Codey: going through an area and like helping to rebuild and restore peace and (0:19:52) Codey: maybe like you can set up farms and then you (0:19:55) Codey: find someone who can farm it and then you (0:19:57) Codey: move on. So it’s like you are creating the (0:19:59) Codey: farms and that kind of stuff and creating the (0:20:03) Codey: little societies. But then you get to disappear (0:20:06) Codey: into the ether. (0:20:07) Al: Is this going to be a, this is going to be the third run factor in a row where I go, (0:20:10) Al: “Ooh, I could, I could, maybe I’ll like this.” (0:20:13) Al: And then I play it and go, “Eh, it’s not really for me.” (0:20:16) Codey: Okay, maybe maybe the village maybe the village thing will be not will will make it change, (0:20:16) Al: Isn’t it? (0:20:17) Al: It’s going to, it’s going to happen again, isn’t it? (0:20:20) Al: Cause I’m getting that feeling. (0:20:27) Codey: maybe you will enjoy. We’re going to be optimistic here, because you’re going to have to play it. So (0:20:28) Al: Yeah, no one’s making me. (0:20:38) Codey: I am promising at this because I make the promises in this hostel. (0:20:46) Codey: Yeah, if you you can only marry. Yeah. (0:20:48) Al: What I didn’t notice is there didn’t seem to be anything about whether the romanceables (0:20:56) Al: are segregated. Oh dear. You know what I mean? Whether you can romance anyone or not. It (0:21:06) Al: does look like… I’m not seeing anything… I can’t remember five, but before five it (0:21:09) Codey: What has it been in all the previous games? (0:21:15) Al: It was definitely only… (0:21:18) Al: opposite gender. But I can’t remember what five did. However, obviously, that was also an issue (0:21:24) Al: for Story of Seasons and is no longer an issue for Story of Seasons and it’s the same company. (0:21:29) Al: So I would hope that now it will allow you to romance any character, but who knows? We’ll see. (0:21:39) Codey: We live in a society. (0:21:41) Codey: Thank you. (0:21:45) Al: It is $60. (0:21:48) Al: euros or 42 pounds. (0:21:50) Al: That is pretty cheap here. (0:21:52) Codey: What why why did you guys like pay a premium to like your government paid a (0:21:53) Al: I don’t know why it’s cheaper here than not though, I don’t know. (0:22:02) Codey: premium so they could get it for cheaper. (0:22:05) Al: The limited edition is $100 or 66 pounds and 66 pence. (0:22:10) Al: What a weird… (0:22:11) Codey: What the heck? (0:22:11) Al: Why is this such a weird number? (0:22:15) Al: it’s interesting. So the standard way. (0:22:18) Al: One. So this is for switch physical is (0:22:18) Codey: Uh huh. (0:22:21) Al: fifty nine ninety nine dollars forty one sixty six pounds or forty nine ninety nine euros. (0:22:27) Al: Right. So I would think maybe it was just (0:22:29) Al: auto-converted if it weren’t for the fact that the euros was a sensible one as well. (0:22:33) Al: So that’s weird. (0:22:34) Al: But then you go on to the limited edition one, which is nine ninety nine ninety nine (0:22:40) Al: dollars sixty six sixty six pounds or eighty three thirty two euros. (0:22:43) Codey: I mean, is it, do you guys have like a tax or something like a tariff on them that that (0:22:48) Al: What is with these numbers? (0:22:51) Al: So confused. (0:22:56) Al: Yeah, but. (0:22:58) Codey: would counteract? (0:23:00) Al: I mean, not if if so, it would be the case on every game, right? (0:23:06) Codey: Well, but maybe they’re like doing you a solid, like this company is like, we know, we know that (0:23:09) Al: Well, not rounding up. (0:23:11) Codey: you have to pay out your nose for shipping. So we’re just going to make the cost cheaper. (0:23:20) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know. I’m just trying to grasp the straws because that’s a little bizarre. (0:23:20) Al: if amazon has the the limited edition for 80 and the standard for 45 which I think was (0:23:24) Codey: Seems like a typo. (0:23:35) Al: the limited edition was more expensive yeah that was like 20 quid more for the limited edition (0:23:35) Codey: the euro prices. (0:23:41) Al: and three pounds more for the oh it’s very confusing what is happening here (0:23:46) Codey: There’s no logic in this place. (0:23:49) Al: I think these must. (0:23:50) Al: be auto translated like auto thing made because I can’t even find I can’t even find (0:23:59) Al: that number anywhere on any shop so I’m just going to ignore it I’m in all right anyway (0:24:03) Codey: Are they trying to say that this is the devil’s game? (0:24:11) Al: there’s that you can go pre-order it now if you want to go go go buy the game if you want (0:24:15) Al: it or if you’re me um next we have harvest hills uh have announced (0:24:15) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:24:20) Al: they’re out now uh I don’t think we got previous notice of this coming out on this date because (0:24:26) Al: I didn’t have it down as that so they’ve just it’s out shadow drop they go (0:24:30) Codey: Yep, that’s the way to do it (0:24:33) Al: um trying to decide if I wanted to play this game or not uh it looks nice it’s nice graphics (0:24:41) Al: but oh no they did announce their release date I just missed it they released it on Christmas eve (0:24:47) Al: I don’t think this had an early access, so this is just… (0:24:52) Codey: Yeah, no, this one was one that I was interested in because of the beehives looking actually like beehives. (0:24:58) Al: Oh yes, oh yes. Oh, it’s cheap. Five quid, that’s wild. Okay, okay. (0:25:00) Codey: And I’m really, yeah, it’s only like $5. (0:25:07) Codey: Okay, the final the final question, can it be played on Mac? Nope. Sorry, y’all. (0:25:12) Al: Oh, but it can on Steam Deck. I’d say it’s unknown compatibility on Steam Deck, but (0:25:17) Codey: Well, I (0:25:20) Al: I suspect it’ll be fine on Steam Deck, because it has controller support. (0:25:22) Codey: It does look really cute, cool. (0:25:24) Al: Interesting. Okay. Yeah. So if you want that game, go play it. Mika. (0:25:28) Al: Which is mountain have announced that their non early access release is coming on the 22nd (0:25:35) Al: of January. What I’m a little bit confused by is that they’ve said that the third update is coming (0:25:44) Al: in the coming weeks. So this seems to be leaving early access without an update. (0:25:50) Al: Like they’re just going, Oh, it’s not early access anymore. But this is this is they’ve been weird (0:25:56) Al: about this since the beginning, right? Because I… (0:25:58) Al: Still don’t understand why they ever put this out in Early Access, (0:26:01) Al: because it wasn’t Early Access. They just added extra content after the fact. (0:26:04) Al: And now they’re releasing their non-Early Access version before the final update. (0:26:10) Codey: I mean, that seems pretty par for the course, given that Coral Island did a lot of the same stuff. (0:26:11) Al: Weird. Weird. What are they doing over there? (0:26:19) Al: - Well, yeah, I mean, I feel like “Mika and the Witch’s Mountain” was more complete on (0:26:23) Codey: Yeah. (0:26:23) Al: its early access release than “Coral Island” was on its 1.0 release. I don’t know, weird, (0:26:28) Codey: Yeah, that’s fair. (0:26:33) Al: confused, whatever. Why they didn’t go, “Oh, this is now out of early access” with their (0:26:38) Al: second content update, because the third content update is extra stuff that they’d want to (0:26:44) Al: add but wasn’t originally promised and so why they didn’t go or the second up (0:26:49) Al: it is the non-early access release okay great fine done but they didn’t do that they’ve gone (0:26:55) Al: no this random date a few weeks before the final update that doesn’t have an actual update (0:27:02) Al: that is the non-early access version (0:27:04) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don’t know is this this is the one where they’re gonna do they’re gonna add dungeons, right? (0:27:11) Al: yes correct (0:27:11) Codey: Yeah, cuz it says into the mount gone (0:27:14) Codey: uh (0:27:15) Al: Yeah, this is the time if you played the game before and you haven’t played. (0:27:19) Al: either of the content updates this will be the time to play it because I believe this is the (0:27:23) Al: final update and yeah it has a lot of extra content whereas the previous ones they were fun (0:27:30) Al: they do look fun but they were kind of small things it was like here’s a minigame here’s (0:27:35) Al: an extra collectible whereas this is yeah here are dungeons that you can go into much bigger. (0:27:40) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, cool (0:27:42) Al: Galactic getaway they have announced that their early access comes out in March (0:27:48) Codey: Sorry, I just reread my comment and didn’t even realize it was a pun. (0:27:53) Al: Yeah (0:27:55) Al: You (0:27:57) Codey: So I wrote, how are they getting away with this? (0:28:01) Codey: And it’s galactic getaway. (0:28:04) Codey: So what I was referring to, I almost typed it out, but I wanted it to be like a secret. (0:28:09) Codey: When I look at this like Kickstarter picture that they have, the little robot is clearly (0:28:18) Codey: WALL-E with like a headset on and the dog looks kind of like Doug from up. (0:28:18) Al: Okay, bye. (0:28:27) Codey: And then the spaceship in the back left looks like Stitch’s spaceship from Leelo and Stitch. (0:28:34) Codey: So they’re just, the getaway part of this is that they’re getting away with not being (0:28:38) Codey: sued by Disney, I think. (0:28:38) Al: Right. Okay. So a couple of things. One, I don’t get the spaceship one. It doesn’t look (0:28:41) Codey: Okay. (0:28:44) Al: in it. Oh, no, I see. I know. I see. You mean that one. And I feel like I can see what you’re (0:28:51) Al: getting, what you’re coming, where you’re coming from, but they’re all pretty generic anyway, (0:28:56) Al: right? Like Eve is a pretty like generic looking robot. Doug is a dog, right? Like there’s only (0:29:01) Codey: Yeah, this is the we have Eve at home. (0:29:04) Codey: Uh-huh. (0:29:07) Al: so many dogs that the. (0:29:09) Al: And the spaceship is a red spaceship it it doesn’t even. (0:29:14) Codey: And the watering can has a star on it, like in, uh, I look at, I’m, the more I look someone (0:29:15) Al: Like it doesn’t even have the exact same design. (0:29:19) Al: Oh, come on. (0:29:22) Al: Come on. (0:29:28) Codey: in the background has buns like in, uh, Star Wars. No, I just, that like the, the picture. (0:29:34) Al: The robot is your biggest argument, I see why you’re saying that and I understand what you’re coming from, however, it’s a pretty generic looking robot shape, I think, personally. (0:29:51) Codey: But no, I, I just, I noticed that and I was like, Oh wow. (0:29:55) Codey: But yeah, I don’t know. (0:29:57) Codey: I’d like to see, uh, more stuff about this game. (0:30:00) Codey: I mean, they’ve, they’re going to add, they’re fixing the creatures, the (0:30:04) Codey: farming, the crafting, the mini games, um, and early access in March, 2025. (0:30:11) Codey: So, oh, woo. (0:30:15) Al: Usagi Shima have announced that they have a Chinese New Year update out now with one (0:30:21) Al: very important thing. Would you like to mention it? Yeah, you can give a costume to your bun (0:30:22) Codey: Uh, lion… lion dancing. (0:30:29) Al: to make it look like a… See, I thought these were dragons. I know it says lion, but I feel (0:30:33) Codey: No, they’re quick. Yeah. Have you ever seen lion dancing? Have you ever seen lion dancing? (0:30:35) Al: like it’s the Chinese New Year dragon, isn’t it? No, from a traditional saying. (0:30:43) Codey: I had um, I had a woman. Yeah, no, they’re lions. Um, there were a couple people in my high school (0:30:45) Al: Those are really, those are meant to be lions. I thought they were dragons. They don’t look (0:30:53) Al: anything like lions. (0:30:56) Codey: that uh were lion dancers and so they would do um in all the (0:31:03) Codey: like assemblies. They’d have a lion dancing part to the assembly. It was really cool. (0:31:10) Codey: Oh, that’s that was a big jump that I had to make. So you said this is a costume? (0:31:16) Al: So there’s a costume and there’s a minigame. You maybe have to do the minigame to get the costume, (0:31:21) Al: I’m not sure. Yeah, you jump over buns, some of which are in the costume. (0:31:22) Codey: Is the minigame the jumping? (0:31:29) Codey: Well, I just jumped over a plant and then lost to a mushroom, so. (0:31:33) Al: Oh, OK, so it’s more than buns that you jump over. Fair enough. (0:31:36) Codey: But that’s exciting. (0:31:39) Al: Yeah, if you love this game, it’s another update and with stuff for you to do. (0:31:40) Codey: I haven’t played this game in a while. (0:31:45) Codey: And it’s still cute. (0:31:47) Al: Yes, if you liked the game before, you’ll probably like this update. Let’s be honest. (0:31:50) Codey: you will continue the (0:31:52) Codey: liking shall continue. (0:31:54) Al: Yeah, for sure. (0:31:56) Al: Chill Town have announced their upcoming updates, 0.9 and 1.0. They’ve given some details on them. (0:32:04) Al: It’s mostly 0.9, like right at the end of the post to go, (0:32:10) Al: “Oh, and by the way, there will be festivals. That’s coming in 1.0.” (0:32:15) Codey: Yep, they talk about how they have sprinting, which I thought folks might like given that, (0:32:16) Al: But the rest of it seems to be 0.9. (0:32:28) Codey: you know, the issue was that you had to run across the map, right? That was something (0:32:32) Codey: folks were complaining about when they played it. So maybe being able to run faster will (0:32:37) Codey: alleviate some of that. But the more important thing is that they lied to me in that steam (0:32:45) Codey: that says that there’s a nature exhibit with it that you can fill with insects. But I saw no insects. (0:32:50) Codey: So that’s all they haven’t. But like, you can’t mention that without showing an insect or two, (0:32:51) Al: Maybe they’ve just not put any in yet (0:32:59) Codey: as like an example. They don’t, they, they literally just, they just walk through it’s as (0:33:02) Al: Don’t think they show anything in that they just it’s like completely empty (0:33:08) Codey: if an animal crossing or coral island or whatever, like you just walk through the part of the museum (0:33:13) Codey: in which the insects are supposed to be. (0:33:15) Codey: I was like waiting, I’m like, is there going to be like a butterfly that lies out? (0:33:16) Al: Yeah, very weird. (0:33:27) Codey: Um, yeah, I was, I was really excited to see insects and then there weren’t any, but that’s (0:33:33) Codey: okay. (0:33:34) Codey: Something to look forward to. (0:33:34) Al: Wooo! (0:33:37) Al: Fields of Mystery app have announced their next update, the second major update coming in March. (0:33:46) Al: It adds a new villager, some additional dialogue and schedules for the NPCs. (0:33:54) Al: More unlocks in the mines, which is important. I need to get further down those mines, (0:34:01) Codey: Yep. Yep. (0:34:01) Al: Although I need to I need to not play this (0:34:05) Al: yet. I need to not go into the cut zone. I think I need to wait for more updates, (0:34:10) Al: otherwise I’ll just end up burning out before the end of it. New areas in the town, additional (0:34:17) Al: requests, more museum stuff, new festival, just yeah. Oh the farmland expansion is added. Oh yes. (0:34:27) Al: Gotta get a bigger farm. Do I need a bigger farm? No I do not. Sprinklers! Yes! Finally! Adding (0:34:30) Codey: But you can. (0:34:34) Al: sprinklers and an auto petter. This is getting good. This game’s getting good. It was already (0:34:43) Al: good. It’s getting even better. They’ve also listed a bunch of stuff that’s coming in future (0:34:48) Al: updates but they just they say in no particular order. Just like here are things that we’re (0:34:50) Codey: But, but the automation is the most important. (0:34:53) Al: thinking about. Oh yes. Gotta love it. Also in-game time adjustment options, which is something that (0:35:03) Al: that always sounds like a good idea. (0:35:07) Codey: I mean people probably use it because they want to like skip forward to something or (0:35:12) Codey: other or skip back possibly if they missed a festival or something. (0:35:16) Al: Yeah. All right. And finally, finally, second, finally, next, next we have (0:35:24) Codey: But penultimate final. (0:35:30) Al: just an ultimate. You don’t need to add on the final one to the end. (0:35:35) Al: Next, we have webfishing have released a plush of their main character, the cat, (0:35:43) Al: on Makeship. So if you want that, and it’s funded, it’s out. (0:35:47) Codey: Uh-huh (0:35:47) Al: Definitely happening. So if you want it, go get it. (0:35:51) Codey: Yep, it is $29.99 and most importantly that Al did not mention is that it is holding a salmon (0:36:00) Al: for sure it’s very cute I don’t need (0:36:01) Codey: That’s the most important part (0:36:05) Codey: No, but wait, do you what if you don’t get it and then you want it later? (0:36:10) Al: So Craig, my youngest, is really into Astrobok recently, right? (0:36:12) Codey: Uh-huh (0:36:14) Codey: Okay (0:36:15) Al: Like obsessed with it. (0:36:17) Al: He’s been playing it a couple of hours most days of the week. (0:36:17) Codey: You (0:36:20) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:36:21) Al: He is, and he’s getting really good at it, right? (0:36:22) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:36:23) Al: This is his first proper game that he’s played. (0:36:26) Al: Like he’s done a couple of bits here and there, (0:36:28) Al: but he’s not really like been playing them properly. (0:36:31) Al: But this is, he’s like doing most of it. (0:36:33) Al: There’s a few times where he’s like, can you help me with this? (0:36:35) Al: Because it’s too difficult, but he’s getting really good at it. (0:36:38) Al: like from it’s been like three weeks. (0:36:40) Al: or something and from the start till now he’s improved so much but he’s absolutely obsessed (0:36:46) Al: with it so much that we we just ordered the astrobot plush and that should be arriving (0:36:49) Codey: Oh. (0:36:51) Al: the day this episode comes out so he is very excited about that. (0:36:54) Codey: So if I hear a squeal from around the world of excitement. (0:36:59) Codey: Cool. (0:36:59) Al: Yeah finally we have information on a new Animal Crossing aquarium tour this time in the UK. We’ll (0:37:07) Al: We’ll come back to that word in a minute. (0:37:10) Al: I believe they did this in Japan and a few other places. (0:37:14) Al: I feel like I said about it in Canada and America, maybe as well. (0:37:18) Al: There’s a few. (0:37:19) Al: Anyway, it’s coming to the UK as well in collaboration with Sea Life UK. (0:37:23) Al: Now, I say UK because it is very much a tiny, tiny portion of one part of the UK. (0:37:32) Al: It’s like four different cities that are like half an hour to travel between each other. (0:37:40) Al: It is like a pathetically small amount, and you might go, “Oh, well, it’s because it’s (0:37:45) Al: Sea Life. (0:37:46) Al: It’s a specific company, and they don’t have any other place. (0:37:49) Al: They do. (0:37:50) Al: They have one in Scotland, and they didn’t do it there. (0:37:52) Codey: Well, yeah, they don’t want to do that, right? (0:37:53) Al: Thank you very much.” (0:37:53) Al: Don’t call it a UK tour if it’s just England. (0:37:57) Al: It’s an England tour, but like saying a US tour, and it’s just New York. (0:38:02) Codey: Yeah, just New York and Los Angeles. (0:38:02) Al: Go away. (0:38:05) Al: It’s a Europe tour, European tour. (0:38:10) Al: I’m annoyed. (0:38:10) Codey: Yeah, I guess I don’t really understand like what this is, (0:38:14) Al: Yeah, I think so, yeah, I believe so. (0:38:15) Codey: like, will there just be characters around? (0:38:20) Codey: Around. (0:38:24) Al: There’s activities as well. (0:38:25) Al: I think they have the stamp thing that they do in the game, so it says, “Visitors will (0:38:31) Al: be able to collect character stamps, discover many interesting facts about the inhabitants (0:38:35) Al: of Sea Life, and meet with Tom Nook and Isabel. (0:38:38) Al: at the end of the visit fans will be able to purchase. (0:38:40) Al: Animal Crossing New Horizons merchandise, of course they will, at the Aquarium store. (0:38:44) Codey: What villager would have to be included in either the merchandise or the stamp thing for you to go? (0:38:54) Al: or for me to travel all the way down to, I think Manchester is the closest one, (0:38:59) Al: which would be a, I think it’s a five hour drive for me, which is not insignificant. (0:39:08) Al: I know it means nothing to Americans who will drive five hours for dinner. (0:39:16) Al: I don’t think there is someone, I don’t really think so, like, (0:39:19) Codey: I would think, so if this was in New York or DC, which are like a three to five hour drive from (0:39:24) Codey: where I am, if Blue Bear was in there, Blue Bear is my favorite. (0:39:30) Al: Yeah, I just don’t think… I think it would be… I would drive two hours to go to this, (0:39:37) Al: I think. That’s how far I would drive to get to this. Coincidentally, about the time it (0:39:41) Al: takes to leave Scotland. I would drive two hours to this. I don’t think there’s anything (0:39:49) Al: realistically that would make me drive five hours. I don’t think I could do that. That’s (0:39:56) Al: too far. Especially considering we have an (0:40:00) Al: aquarium five minutes from us that we have a season pass to. So I would be paying to travel (0:40:08) Al: five hours to then pay to get into an aquarium when I have a season pass to an aquarium next to (0:40:14) Al: me. That doesn’t feel the most sensible situation, right? Oh, we do. All right, that is the news. (0:40:18) Codey: We have an aquarium at home. (0:40:25) Al: So next we will be going into our interview with Jordan, the developer of (0:40:30) Al: overseas retirement. We recorded that at a different time. So if it sounds different, (0:40:36) Al: that’s why. I hope you enjoy the interview. (0:40:38) Al: Weeee! (0:40:39) Al: Woo! (0:40:39) Al: Woo! (0:40:48) Al: Okay, we are now back with the developer of Rusty’s retirement, which just to remind listeners (0:40:56) Al: was the winner of the Harvest Seasons Game of the Year last year. (0:41:01) Al: Hello, welcome to the podcast, what is your name and what are your pronouns? (0:41:06) Jordan: Hiya. My name is Jordan, he/him. Yeah, I’m the developer of Rusty’s retirement, and also a smaller, lesser-known metroidvania called Hyekuda Robot, which is in the same universe as Rusty, actually, if you didn’t know that. A little bit of lore for you. (0:41:24) Al: I did not know that and I do like metroidvanias, maybe I’ll look at that at some point. (0:41:30) Codey: wait it’s a metroid haiku as in haiku the helper of russey (0:41:35) Jordan: Yep (0:41:37) Codey: he metroid what okay continue I have questions (0:41:41) Al: Well, good thing that you have questions because this is an interview, so I guess we’ll start (0:41:48) Al: off with a couple of easy questions. What is your history with games, just in general? (0:41:54) Al: What did you play when you were young? How did you get to where you are with games? (0:41:59) Jordan: Yeah, so I think my sort of gaming journey, let’s say, started when I was little, (0:42:08) Jordan: and I can’t remember the age exactly, but it was when Game Boy Color came out, (0:42:13) Jordan: because that was my first console that I ever got. And I just have super fond memories of playing (0:42:21) Jordan: Pokemon Gold on the Game Boy Color. So yeah, after that, and it was just like all the game. (0:42:29) Jordan: Boy stuff, Game Boy SP, Game Boy SP Advance, all of those ones. Nintendo DS when it came out, (0:42:39) Jordan: you know, all that sort of stuff. And then eventually I got like a PlayStation, I think. (0:42:44) Jordan: So I played like typical PlayStation games like GTA and stuff when I was definitely not age (0:42:51) Jordan: appropriate to play GTA, but still pretty fun times. So yeah, just sort of a mix, but it definitely (0:42:59) Jordan: with Game Boy and Game Boy Color. (0:43:01) Al: Yeah, fair enough. What was your starter in in Pokemon gold? (0:43:04) Jordan: Oh, I think it was the crocodile looking guy. Yes, that’s the one. (0:43:09) Al: Totodile. Yeah, good one. Good one. You’re in good company because we are both also Pokemon fans. (0:43:16) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:43:16) Al: I’ve been doing a lot of Pokemon recently. (0:43:20) Jordan: Yeah, I even I even actually bought because they did this remaster edition of like heart (0:43:25) Jordan: gold or something for like at the time I didn’t have a DS, I think it broke or I was only using (0:43:33) Jordan: my cousins or something like that. So I literally went out and bought a DS just so I could buy (0:43:39) Jordan: Pokemon Heart Gold. And that was like the only game I had for it. That was it. (0:43:44) Al: Yeah, I was actually the same because I dropped out of Pokémon after Gen 2 and came back (0:43:50) Al: for HeartGold SoulSilver. And I didn’t have a DS either, but my mum had a DS for brain (0:43:55) Al: training games. And so I was like, “Can I use your DS, please?” I used her DS and played (0:44:02) Al: HeartGold SoulSilver. I then got my own DSi for when the black and white came out. It (0:44:08) Al: a good time to jump back in, I think. (0:44:10) Codey: I think everyone had that like break period where they like played and then they stopped (0:44:15) Codey: playing and then they jumped back in, or at least I had that, yeah, yeah. (0:44:18) Jordan: - Yeah, I did as well. (0:44:20) Jordan: After HeartGold, I think I went and played all the DS, (0:44:24) Jordan: Pokemon games that released, (0:44:25) Jordan: like Diamond, Pearl, Sapphire, Ruby, all of those ones. (0:44:30) Al: Fair enough. Rusty’s retirement is obviously a farming game. What is your history with farming (0:44:36) Al: games? When did you because obviously there’s got to be a point where you’re like I’m making (0:44:40) Al: a farming game. So how did you get to that point in enjoying farming games or you know (0:44:46) Al: cottagecore games in general? Wow, okay interesting. (0:44:48) Jordan: I’ve never played a farming game, still to this day, other than Rusty’s retirement. (0:44:58) Codey: - Wild. (0:45:00) Jordan: So I know they exist, I know how they work, and obviously when I landed on Rusty’s retirement, (0:45:09) Jordan: well first of all, let me go back a little bit more. So after my first game, which was (0:45:14) Jordan: haikura robot, the same haikura that appears in Russia’s retirement. (0:45:19) Jordan: I was kind of stuck with what to do because making a Metroidvania was just a massive undertaking, especially to do it solo. (0:45:27) Jordan: Like I did all the art, animations, the coding, and there’s just so much content like you need. (0:45:33) Jordan: There was like 10 or 10 to 15 bosses at the end, you know, it’s just so much work. (0:45:39) Jordan: Like each boss needs their own unique animations, attack patterns, all this sort of stuff. (0:45:45) Jordan: And I was like, vowed to myself that I’m never going to (0:45:48) Jordan: put myself through this again, that I’m going to try and make (0:45:52) Jordan: something smaller and simpler as my next game. But when I (0:45:56) Jordan: finished from Metroidvania, that I didn’t know what to do. So I (0:46:03) Jordan: had this sort of brainwave of, I’m just going to make these (0:46:07) Jordan: sort of small prototypes, spend about two weeks on an idea (0:46:11) Jordan: because, you know, I had a bunch of ideas I wanted to try out, (0:46:15) Jordan: spend about two weeks on each sort of idea. (0:46:18) Jordan: And just test them just to want to see if I could actually do some of this stuff, you know, like some my technical capability isn’t like fantastic. I’m not like a fantastic coder. So some of this stuff is just simply out of my reach, just from a technical standpoint. (0:46:34) Al: You’re not making a 3D Zelda game. (0:46:35) Jordan: And then (0:46:37) Jordan: Yeah, or like, you know, I love strategy games and forex games as well. So like, but those things are like humongous. I would never be able to do something like that. (0:46:47) Jordan: And, and yes. (0:46:48) Jordan: So I just did these prototypes and I made Rusty and funnily, funnily enough. (0:46:55) Jordan: I actually shelved Rusty for like three months because I made it and most (0:47:01) Jordan: of the prototypes I made, and then I showed them on Twitter, right? (0:47:06) Jordan: I showed like, Hey guys, what do you think of this sort of thing? (0:47:10) Jordan: Just to kind of gauge, you know, interest and stuff like this, because I (0:47:14) Jordan: didn’t want to make something that, you know, at the end of the day, (0:47:17) Jordan: nobody wants to play. (0:47:18) Jordan: I was kind of trying to find this balance of like, okay, I’m going to do these (0:47:21) Jordan: ideas that I want to make and find out if I want to make them, but then also (0:47:26) Jordan: show them to people to see if there’s interest because I think if there’s (0:47:28) Jordan: interest, it also kind of motivates you to make it as well. (0:47:31) Jordan: You know, so it’s like this balance. (0:47:34) Jordan: Uh, but for Rusty, I thought, man, this is such a stupid idea. (0:47:38) Jordan: Nobody’s going to want to play this. (0:47:40) Jordan: And I just shelved it for like three months. (0:47:42) Jordan: Uh, but luckily I had commissioned, um, the sprites for. (0:47:48) Jordan: Rusty and they came through and I was thinking, you know, I should at (0:47:52) Jordan: least put sprites in the game now that they’ve done, just see what it looks like. (0:47:56) Jordan: And that’s when I thought, Oh, it was pretty cool. (0:47:58) Jordan: And I should make this into something. (0:48:00) Jordan: But before that, I hadn’t played any farming games or anything like that. (0:48:04) Jordan: But then once I kind of had this rusty idea and I also put it on Twitter (0:48:09) Jordan: and people really liked it, then I started like, uh, researching more (0:48:13) Jordan: into farming games and stuff. (0:48:14) Codey: » Mm-hmm. (0:48:16) Al: if you still not played any. (0:48:16) Jordan: But interestingly enough, I… (0:48:18) Jordan: No, I haven’t, because I was tempted to play Stardew Valley, (0:48:22) Jordan: but I didn’t want to get too influenced by the decisions that were made in that game. (0:48:29) Jordan: Like, I researched enough to know what’s the sort of loop, the core gameplay loop, (0:48:34) Jordan: and understand how that works, but I didn’t want to play it and see exactly how it’s done, (0:48:39) Jordan: because then I felt like it’s just going to influence my decision too much. (0:48:43) Jordan: And that kind of happened with my first game that I made, the metroidvainer, like… (0:48:48) Jordan: And after playing Hollow Knight, it was, wow, like, there’s so much stuff here that is great, (0:48:55) Jordan: and I just want to add to my game. And then it became a little bit too much like Hollow Knight. (0:49:01) Jordan: So I wanted to try and move away from that and try and do something that’s a bit more on my own. (0:49:06) Codey: So what I mean, what was the through line? (0:49:09) Codey: I guess like were you just kind of throwing things at the wall and making them stick because I’m thinking trying to think of like a (0:49:15) Codey: if you’re making the comparison to Hollow Knight like trying to make the comparison of like there’s this warrior and (0:49:23) Codey: And they’re fighting and they save the world or whatever and they just kind of like retire like was that kind (0:49:28) Jordan: Well, yeah. Yeah, yeah. (0:49:30) Codey: Because like cuz I I mean I’m watching I have the game up because of course I do and I’m watching haiku (0:49:36) Codey: Like just he’s just bopping around he’s just helping it out (0:49:37) Jordan: Yeah, it’s just chillin man. It’s just chillin, but at the end of the game he accomplishes what he needs to do (0:49:39) Codey: But and then I looked (0:49:43) Codey: Okay, I mean yeah (0:49:44) Jordan: So like you know it made it made sense to transition him to like to just retire alongside Rusty (0:49:51) Codey: That’s such a cute idea I love (0:49:53) Jordan: And I thought it was I thought it was like because obviously you know when I when I had this idea of like making this (0:49:59) Jordan: Farming game. It’s like completely different to a Metroidvania where you hack and slash (0:50:05) Jordan: bosses and enemies and all sorts of stuff. (0:50:07) Jordan: So I was like, how can I not completely alienate that sort of audience and player base that (0:50:14) Jordan: have built up over the last two years or three years even. (0:50:18) Jordan: And, you know, so I was trying to look for like a bridge and I felt like the bridge was (0:50:24) Jordan: I could at least keep it in the same world because a lot of the story for Haiku is about (0:50:30) Jordan: how nature always prevails. (0:50:33) Jordan: So I feel like it somewhat ties in with the farm. (0:50:37) Jordan: It’s a farming aspect and expanding your farm because on Rusty you have like these sort of debris on older sides and you have to clear the debris and then like there’s farmland underneath so I felt like it somewhat related. (0:50:52) Codey: So, I mean, I guess you’ve, you’ve already mentioned that you’re not a coder. (0:50:58) Codey: What is your back? (0:50:59) Jordan: Well, I am sort of now because I’ve been doing it for five (0:51:02) Codey: Okay, well before I mean so like what what was the impetus to start developing games like what what was your career before or like, how did you get into this of game development. (0:51:14) Jordan: Yeah, this is like one of my favorite stories, actually. (0:51:16) Codey: Oh, cool. (0:51:18) Jordan: Because I studied architecture, but I didn’t do anything with architecture. In fact, I dropped (0:51:24) Jordan: out of architecture. And then I went into marketing in like a sort of startup slash (0:51:31) Jordan: medium sized company, which was going a bit corporate and stuff like this, right. (0:51:36) Jordan: And I don’t know what happened. But one day, I just had a really, really, really bad day at work, (0:51:42) Jordan: Which we all do. (0:51:44) Jordan: And I just went home and I thought, there’s got to be something outside that I can do in my life. (0:51:50) Jordan: And my father lets a joke that I was like touched by God or something like he’s not religious, but that I was touched by some unknown spirit. (0:51:58) Jordan: And they guided me to just Google how to make a video game. (0:52:03) Jordan: And and that was it. (0:52:05) Jordan: Basically, I just watched one YouTube tutorial and I just didn’t stop since then. (0:52:12) Jordan: Like, I was just very invested in it. (0:52:14) Jordan: Like, I think from playing games in my childhood, maybe the architecture sort of just being creative aspect ties in as well. (0:52:23) Jordan: So I felt like it was just a little fun and it all started from just a bad day at work. (0:52:28) Jordan: It’s really, really, really weird, really weird to think back. (0:52:29) Al: That’s a very productive way to, you know, have a bad day at work. I just go in like (0:52:33) Codey: Sorry, what? (0:52:38) Al: grump and go play some games instead. Or record a podcast. (0:52:40) Codey: Well, I wonder if each like career path has a different version of this because in entomology (0:52:50) Codey: and in the sciences, like in biological sciences in general, we all have the desire to quit (0:52:55) Codey: and start either a bookshop, a cafe or a bakery. (0:52:58) Al: Hmm (0:52:59) Jordan: bakery yes bakery is high on my list (0:53:00) Codey: So maybe like in, you know, design and tech and marketing, it’s more like. (0:53:10) Codey: Okay, I’m going to develop stuff now. (0:53:12) Jordan: I don’t know, Bakery’s still pretty high up on my list. (0:53:15) Codey: You can still do it. (0:53:17) Codey: I will leave it to you. (0:53:19) Jordan: Yeah, it’s like a joke in the startup world that you try and make enough money (0:53:25) Jordan: so you don’t have to work in tech anymore, so you can just live on a farm. (0:53:27) Al: Yeah, I know that feeling. Although I’d like to do with working, I think that sounds fun to me. (0:53:27) Codey: Yeah, yep, yeah, so what, I mean, from that background, what, what about it gave you the idea for this kind of second screen, like aspect of, of Rusty’s retirement, I think I can’t think of anything else that really does this. (0:53:36) Jordan: I think it’s the desire to create something and do something with your hands yeah. (0:53:58) Codey: Did you have like something that inspired you to have kind of Rusty on the bottom of your screen as you’re working or what, what was the creation of that? (0:54:06) Jordan: Yeah, I saw there’s a few games out there that (0:54:10) Jordan: don’t quite do it the same. (0:54:12) Jordan: But they have this idea of there’s management on the top. (0:54:16) Jordan: And then you have at the bottom where stuff is happening. (0:54:21) Jordan: And I kind of looked at the bottom part (0:54:24) Jordan: and thought, that’s interesting. (0:54:26) Jordan: But all this stuff on the top is like, (0:54:29) Jordan: what if you could put that in the bottom part as well? (0:54:32) Jordan: So you could actually do just something else. (0:54:37) Jordan: I don’t know. (0:54:37) Jordan: It was just like this sort of– (0:54:39) Jordan: I felt like there’s literally no point of just having (0:54:42) Jordan: a game at the bottom. (0:54:44) Jordan: This sounds really harsh. (0:54:45) Jordan: There’s no point of having a game at the bottom (0:54:47) Jordan: and then having all this stuff on top. (0:54:49) Jordan: I felt like the idea was like half there sort of thing. (0:54:54) Jordan: And I was just thinking, there must (0:54:56) Jordan: be a way where you can just push all that top stuff (0:54:59) Jordan: into the bottom part. (0:55:01) Jordan: And then the game is just exclusively at the bottom. (0:55:05) Jordan: and then you can just… (0:55:06) Jordan: do other things at the same time. I mean, like I said, when I made this prototype, (0:55:12) Jordan: I thought it was such a stupid idea that I just didn’t touch it for like three more months. (0:55:16) Jordan: And then, I don’t know, I shared it on social media and it turns out that people were actually (0:55:21) Jordan: quite interested in it. But to me, it’s still still still a weird idea to just come across, (0:55:29) Jordan: just be like, oh, that’s interesting. I’m going to try that, you know. (0:55:32) Codey: Yeah, I think that’s it’s it is it’s really innovative, honestly, and like, they’re with for people who are in fields where you’re like science and coding and stuff like that. It’s easy to like you have all these windows to just like have kind of an idle game going on in the background. It’s, it’s one of those things where it’s like, that makes so much sense. Why hasn’t this thing? And I really like, yeah, go for it. (0:56:00) Jordan: Yeah, I mean, for just for example, in my day to day work, (0:56:02) Codey: Yeah. (0:56:04) Jordan: if I write a piece of code, I have to wait for the game engine (0:56:08) Jordan: to recompile, which usually only takes like, 1015 seconds, but (0:56:13) Jordan: 1015 seconds in today’s world is so long. So like, I just open my (0:56:18) Jordan: phone and next thing you know, it’s been five minutes. And it (0:56:21) Jordan: was it was only I was only supposed to wait like 1015 (0:56:23) Jordan: seconds. So it felt like it was almost combat and that sort of (0:56:27) Jordan: issue that I had as well. (0:56:30) Al: So do you, yeah well Cody was telling me the other day that that’s exactly what they do, (0:56:35) Al: it helps them focus on the things rather than getting pulled into that (0:56:39) Al: phone hole exactly as you described it. So do you play it while you’re working on (0:56:46) Al: whatever your future stuff is or even just like updates for Rusties, are you playing it as well? (0:56:51) Jordan: I do sometimes, but the thing about making your own game is you play it so much that (0:56:58) Al: Yeah. (0:57:00) Jordan: you get very tired of it very quickly. So it’s weird because this has happened twice now and (0:57:06) Jordan: both times. So I think it’s a thing. Like I’m sure like first time when it happened, I was like, (0:57:11) Jordan: “Am I just weird or is this like a thing?” But I think it’s definitely a thing. Yeah, (0:57:16) Jordan: you just keep playing it. You know the ins and outs, you know exactly how everything works. (0:57:20) Jordan: There’s no discovery. (0:57:22) Jordan: So that sort of initial period of when you’re starting the game and you’re super excited about the game is like so important that you get right, because then after that excitement’s gone, it’s just like a, it’s just like a slog to get it finished, basically. (0:57:39) Al: Yeah, it’s definitely a thing. It’s an interesting, I think it’s specific to game (0:57:40) Jordan: So you have to, yeah. (0:57:44) Al: development though, because I’m a software developer, so I don’t make games, but I make (0:57:48) Al: other things. And generally, other than obviously my work, which is doing stuff for other people (0:57:53) Al: that I don’t care about, but like I got into that through making things to solve my problems. (0:57:58) Al: And so the very fact that I make it is so that I can use it. And so it’s like you don’t end up in (0:58:03) Al: that situation where you’ve made it and then you’re like, oh, I’m not going to use it. Because (0:58:06) Al: otherwise you just wouldn’t make it in the first place, right? (0:58:10) Jordan: Yeah, and it is very satisfying for me, like, software development, or game development, (0:58:17) Jordan: I think this sort of very quick loop of like, Oh, I had this idea in the morning, and then (0:58:26) Jordan: by the afternoon, you’ve got it like implemented, that’s like super satisfying, in my opinion. (0:58:31) Jordan: So like, those smaller goals, like very nice. And I think they help with the day to day, (0:58:36) Jordan: Like you could wake up in the morning with this idea for an enemy, whip some- (0:58:40) Jordan: -screwed sprites together and then work on the code and it’s pretty much done by the end of the (0:58:45) Jordan: day. You just got to polish it up a bit, which is super satisfying to go from like nothing to (0:58:50) Jordan: something within just one day versus, you know, working at my corporate job where it’s like, (0:58:56) Jordan: you got to submit tasks. That task has to be estimated and groomed. Then it has to be put (0:59:01) Jordan: in the sprint and then, you know, it’s like one task now takes four weeks because the sprints are (0:59:07) Jordan: two weeks and you know all this sort of stuff. (0:59:10) Jordan: So it’s a big change to go from four weeks to like two days or maximum like a week. (0:59:18) Al: Yeah, that’s the advantage of working on your stuff on your own, (0:59:22) Al: because I suspect game development and the big companies is much more like the slow process. (0:59:26) Jordan: Yeah, yeah, true, true. Yeah. True, true. That probably going for the same thing of submitting (0:59:28) Al: I don’t think anyone on Call of Duty is implementing an enemy in one day. (0:59:38) Jordan: in a task, waiting for the sprint, et cetera. (0:59:40) Al: Yeah, yep, yep, yep, definitely. The other thing that I’d been thinking about is, I feel like it’s (0:59:46) Al: kind of linked to the games that you were talking about was kind of the Wii U in terms of its like (0:59:55) Al: second screen type thing. I know it’s not exactly the same because that’s, you know, playing a game (0:59:59) Al: across two screens, but it kind of, it almost feels like the ideas are coming from the same sort of (1:00:05) Al: Space? Did that factor in at all? (1:00:08) Jordan: Um, not really because I never owned the Wii U. So I, I, I’m just hearing about, I kind (1:00:11) Al: Fair enough. (1:00:16) Jordan: of skipped the whole Wii thing, to be honest. I only played like a friend’s house, the Wii (1:00:21) Jordan: bowling, and maybe, was it Super Smash, Milly? No, that’s the, yeah, it was the GameCube (1:00:25) Al: » Melee was the game coupon, I think. Fair enough. (1:00:28) Jordan: one. Yeah, I can’t remember what, I kind of skipped the whole Wii thing. I don’t know, (1:00:32) Jordan: it’s just like a phase in my life that just, just never played the Wii. (1:00:36) Codey: Well, I guess the DS is kind of similar. We’ve got two screens, (1:00:39) Jordan: Yeah, maybe DS, yeah. (1:00:41) Codey: like the one that has the screen in the bottom and the screen up top, right? (1:00:45) Jordan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they had like, with the stylus, stylus, where you could touch (1:00:47) Al: I guess it’s just all just like different ways of interacting with games here, right? (1:00:52) Jordan: the thing. Yeah, I mean, I’ve never thought of it, but maybe, maybe somewhere in the back (1:00:57) Jordan: of my mind, I was thinking of my DS. (1:01:03) Al: It’s not the same thing because one is two screens and one is half a screen or a quarter (1:01:08) Al: of a screen or whatever, right? (1:01:10) Al: It’s not the same thing. (1:01:12) Al: It just feels like what other ways can we interact with games that isn’t just you have (1:01:18) Jordan: Yeah, and for Rusty, it was very important for me to make sure that it’s not like something (1:01:26) Jordan: that needs your constant attention, because otherwise it defeats the purpose of being (1:01:30) Jordan: on your screen at the same time. Because if you only do that, then you might as well just (1:01:36) Jordan: have it full screen and you play it like any other game, because that’s the only thing (1:01:40) Jordan: you’re focusing on. So it was like a balance of making sure that I had like these rules (1:01:48) Jordan: that everything’s super, super simplified. And there’s only literally like two things (1:01:52) Jordan: that you can do. You can only plant seeds, or you can build buildings, or you can place (1:01:57) Jordan: buildings, like that’s it. So everything was like whittled down to that. And the game would (1:02:05) Jordan: just take care of the rest, like it’s automated, it would, you know, the robots move around (1:02:08) Jordan: and do all the tasks for you so you don’t have to. So then once you’re done, or like, (1:02:14) Jordan: you know, you planted your seeds or you’ve built your buildings. (1:02:18) Jordan: you had no more money, and there’s nothing else for you (1:02:20) Jordan: to do other than wait, then you go, it kind of pushes you away (1:02:23) Jordan: from the game and back to whatever you were doing. So the (1:02:27) Jordan: idea was like, you know, if it’s on the screen, at all times, (1:02:31) Jordan: then it shouldn’t be too distracting. It should act as (1:02:34) Jordan: like, for that, that short break that you need that short moment (1:02:38) Jordan: where you just need a bit of downtime from whatever you’re (1:02:40) Jordan: doing, you do something, somebody compared it to like pet (1:02:44) Jordan: and animal like your cat or something, you know, like you’re (1:02:48) Jordan: on your computer, you’re getting a bit tired, you look at your (1:02:50) Jordan: pet, you’re like, Oh, give it a few pets and then go back, you (1:02:52) Codey: I think for me it’s the same as you said where you know you you’re running a task or running (1:02:53) Jordan: know, they compared it to that. I was like, that’s that’s a (1:02:56) Jordan: pretty good comparison. (1:03:03) Codey: a code or something on your computer and then you have this downtime and same I would grab (1:03:08) Codey: my phone or if like my brain just kind of shuts off from the task I’m doing on my computer (1:03:13) Codey: excited HD if I’m like oh I need like a break mental break I’d like go walk away from my (1:03:19) Codey: computer and then suddenly I’m, like, doing all these dishes. (1:03:22) Codey: And doing, like, all this stuff and I am not doing my work and this is great because it keeps me on the screen versus, like, looking at another screen or walking away from my computer entirely. (1:03:34) Jordan: Yeah, or like looking at a different tab. Like that’s the (1:03:37) Jordan: one that gets me as well. It’s like when I’m waiting for (1:03:41) Jordan: something, I’m like, oh, let me just quickly check Twitter, you (1:03:44) Jordan: know, nobody ever quickly checks the Twitter. It’s like you check (1:03:48) Jordan: it and then you’re there for like five minutes, just scrolling (1:03:50) Jordan: and scrolling and scrolling. So yeah, it was very important to (1:03:52) Codey: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, success for me at least. Mm hmm. Well, and, and it’s funny for not only (1:03:53) Jordan: try and keep that sort of balance. (1:04:01) Jordan: I’m happy to hear that and I think a lot of the reviews say that and it makes me (1:04:05) Jordan: very happy as well to read those sort of reviews. (1:04:08) Al: Yeah, well, 10,000 of them. (1:04:11) Jordan: That, yeah, it’s crazy. (1:04:15) Codey: from the podcast, but like, I was, um, anytime I zoom with like other students and then I (1:04:19) Codey: share my screen they’re like what is (1:04:22) Codey: going on down there and then I explain it and then they’re like oh that’s (1:04:26) Codey: really cool. So we have definitely the podcast is definitely referred a lot of (1:04:29) Jordan: So you’re where all my sales come from then, huh? (1:04:36) Codey: humans yes and then I’ve mentioned it to other grad students that also have (1:04:42) Codey: difficulty focusing but (1:04:44) Al: So I’ve what I’ve noticed since in the last few months is there’ve been a lot of games very (1:04:51) Al: similar to the idea, you know, the second the popping up on the bottom of your screen idea, (1:04:58) Al: you know, we’ve got this this one coming, which is like a life sim, there’s a cat cafe one, (1:05:03) Al: there’s a creature collector one. It feels a little bit like you’ve essentially created (1:05:08) Al: a new genre of games. How does that feel? (1:05:11) Jordan: It was crazy, right? (1:05:15) Jordan: Honestly, I don’t know what to think. (1:05:18) Jordan: Yeah, I don’t know. (1:05:19) Jordan: It’s cool and all. (1:05:21) Jordan: And I feel like– (1:05:23) Jordan: yeah, it’s very cool. (1:05:24) Jordan: It’s like any indie developer’s dream to– (1:05:31) Jordan: because there’s that expression, like, what is it? (1:05:34) Jordan: Imitation is a form of– (1:05:38) Jordan: I can’t remember, flattery, right? (1:05:38) Codey: - Flattery, yeah, yeah. (1:05:39) Al: - It’s inceded, it’s inceded as a form of flat tree, (1:05:41) Jordan: » Yeah, there you go. (1:05:43) Jordan: And I completely agree with that sort of expression because it definitely feels like. (1:05:49) Jordan: And I’m just happy to share all of these games because some of them look great. (1:05:53) Jordan: Some of them are like fantastic ideas. (1:05:56) Jordan: And I mean, indie developers are kind of, it’s a tough thing. (1:06:01) Jordan: It’s not super easy because they’re on like limited budgets and stuff like this. (1:06:06) Jordan: So I don’t see it as competition. (1:06:09) Jordan: to see it. It’s more just like we. (1:06:11) Jordan: Should be teaming together to help improve our chances of success because otherwise you’re trying to compete with big studios that have a lot more resources than you do and it’s impossible. (1:06:22) Al: And the games cost a lot more, so they’re probably, you know, if you’re buying indie (1:06:27) Al: games you’re probably buying more games, right, because they generally cost less. (1:06:32) Jordan: Yeah (1:06:33) Jordan: but also just (1:06:35) Jordan: Publishers exist where they like pump a ton of money into these indie games and you know (1:06:40) Jordan: Like so there’s there’s a lot of layers to this sort of thing and I think (1:06:45) Jordan: You know, like you shouldn’t view these people as like the enemy is like, oh, they’re copying me. This is my idea (1:06:49) Jordan: This is only mine, you know, it’s like no lots of people have asked me are there any other games like this? (1:06:54) Jordan: So I’m gonna do my best to try and show them that there are other games coming (1:07:00) Jordan: That I like this if you want more (1:07:02) Jordan: this type of thing so I don’t see any harm in that because you know if those games do well then (1:07:08) Jordan: more hopefully you know their audience might be looking for similar games which you know (1:07:13) Jordan: ends up leading to Rusty and it creates kind of like this ecosystem of of just indie games that (1:07:21) Jordan: are all in a similar style. I don’t see any harm in that like you know if you like that sort of game (1:07:27) Jordan: you’re probably going to look for more types of those games. (1:07:32) Codey: Yeah, you basically get to be the Stardew Valley of this type (1:07:36) Codey: of game now. (1:07:37) Codey: Like everyone compares everything to Stardew. (1:07:38) Jordan: Well, I mean, nobody compares Rusty to Stardew as well, you know what I mean? Whatever. (1:07:43) Codey: It’s different, but I don’t know. (1:07:46) Codey: I think that they’re different, personally. (1:07:48) Jordan: I agree, I think they’re different, but it is what it is. (1:07:52) Codey: A lot more automation. (1:07:52) Jordan: Yeah, on the surface level I can see how you might make the comparison, but it’s all good. (1:07:58) Al: We just need to come up with a good name for the genre, I think. I’m currently with Rusty Like, (1:08:04) Al: but it doesn’t really describe what it is if you don’t know the game. (1:08:08) Jordan: Yeah, it’s weird like what you call it bottom of your screen games side of your screen games. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue (1:08:15) Al: No, you could argue it’s an idle game, but it feels so much more than that, right? Because (1:08:20) Al: idle games are generally like on your phone and it’s something you pop into once every so often, (1:08:26) Al: in where this is obviously. (1:08:28) Al: Designed with a much more, not active view of things, but having it there means that (1:08:34) Al: you’re not having to like, as you say, context switch as much. (1:08:38) Jordan: - Mm-hmm, yeah. (1:08:39) Codey: Okay, I just got sucked into the game, but so I guess a very important question for me, because I just unlocked a new farm, which I mean, I’m going to run out of farms here soon. So are there any updates that you have planned or any anything that you’re thinking about doing to expand the game in any way? (1:09:03) Jordan: Yeah, there are. Sorry if that’s, yeah, not very helpful. I’m just trying to (1:09:09) Al: - No, that’s fine. (1:09:11) Jordan: process my thoughts right now. There’s a lot of things, a lot of ideas. (1:09:17) Jordan: It’s always tricky to say, oh, this is definitely coming, unless it’s (1:09:27) Jordan: at a stage of development where I’m like, yep, this is definitely in. (1:09:31) Jordan: at the moment the winter (1:09:33) Jordan: map was what was in and the new character that came with that, that was like what I was (1:09:39) Jordan: working out and figuring out if that’s going to fit into the game. Now I’m kind of experimenting (1:09:46) Jordan: with conveyor belts and sort of underground level which is more of like a factory sort of level. (1:09:54) Codey: Rustorio. (1:09:56) Jordan: Basically, but not as complicated because there’s a balance between, you know, (1:10:03) Jordan: keeping the game simple because Rusty is a dead simple game in terms of like, you know, how to (1:10:09) Jordan: play, just place buildings, plant crops. So it’s important for me, this is why I don’t like to (1:10:16) Jordan: promise anything because I’m still, you know, working this out is it’s important that the (1:10:21) Jordan: conveyor belts don’t become complicated, like in Factorio, you know, like where you have to (1:10:26) Jordan: split things and you have to, you know, combine different pieces and it’s a. (1:10:33) Jordan: You know, it’s a lot of brain power and a lot of work to get a good factory running in Factorio, (1:10:38) Jordan: so I don’t want it. I don’t want that, you know, so it’s like it’s very much in the experimentation (1:10:45) Jordan: phase and it could just be completely scrapped because as much as I try and fit, you know, (1:10:50) Jordan: it could be this cube that I’m trying to fit into like a circular hole or something, you know, (1:10:55) Jordan: so I don’t want to do stuff like that. So yeah, I’m experimenting with that at a moment, (1:11:00) Jordan: but that’s not promising action. (1:11:03) Jordan: And then– but there are definitely things that are coming, (1:11:04) Al: I constantly help people. (1:11:05) Al: Don’t promise things. (1:11:07) Al: Never promise things. (1:11:07) Codey: and I constantly promise things on Al’s behalf. (1:11:11) Al: Yeah, you do. (1:11:15) Jordan: which I can’t talk about too much, (1:11:18) Jordan: because they’re actually under NDA, (1:11:21) Jordan: but doing some crossovers with other games. (1:11:21) Al: Ooh, well, that’s exciting. (1:11:25) Codey: Mm-hmm. Oh, exciting. (1:11:28) Jordan: So there will be new maps, and hopefully these crossovers (1:11:34) Jordan: the characters from those games. (1:11:36) Jordan: So all of Rusty’s characters get swapped out. (1:11:38) Jordan: So it would be kind of like, I don’t know, (1:11:40) Jordan: let’s just pick a random game, just a random, random game. (1:11:45) Jordan: But let’s just say Pokemon. (1:11:46) Codey: Mario. Oh, no, Pokemon’s great. (1:11:47) Jordan: It’s never– it’s never– or Mario. (1:11:48) Jordan: Mario Pokemon, it’s never going to happen. (1:11:51) Jordan: But imagine that sort of scenario. (1:11:54) Jordan: Rusty becomes Mario. (1:11:55) Jordan: Haiku’s Luigi. (1:11:56) Jordan: You have Peach on the farm, all this sort of stuff. (1:12:00) Jordan: So that’s the kind of vibe. (1:12:01) Jordan: And then hopefully, bye. (1:12:04) Jordan: I would like to add sort of like a interesting game mechanic or challenge to the map. (1:12:09) Jordan: So it feels like it’s a little bit of a different play through versus just the skin. (1:12:14) Jordan: So then like, you know, players who have already played through the majority of the game can still have fun with the new map. (1:12:21) Jordan: And it’s not just a skin that there’ll be at least some sort of challenge or something that’s different on the map. (1:12:28) Codey: I mean, I’m doing the flower meadow map right now and I really like it. (1:12:31) Codey: Cause you don’t even have to have wells because there’s just the, the little (1:12:36) Codey: stream going through everything that your water bots can take. (1:12:40) Jordan: Yeah, that one’s my favorite. (1:12:40) Codey: So even that, yeah, even that level of just environmental, like using (1:12:46) Codey: the environment, um, is really neat. (1:12:49) Jordan: Yeah, so hopefully we weren’t trying to just just more of those and then like I said, this underground level is really, really, really tempting because essentially basically doubles the whole game like it would be a fully fledged like second game essentially just underground. (1:13:01) Codey: Mm-hmm. (1:13:09) Codey: I feel like you’d have to have like light down there too. There’s like another element of (1:13:15) Codey: making sure that there’s lights on the plants that need like sunlight for growth. (1:13:21) Jordan: Yeah, well, little wives, the little bees that fly around are not bees, they’re actually bulbs, (1:13:25) Codey: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, okay. (1:13:29) Jordan: because the game is supposed to be already underground, sort of thing, because that’s, (1:13:33) Jordan: if you play Haiku, then you’ll see that everything’s underground, sort of thing. (1:13:37) Jordan: But like, you know, it’s a loose connection, loose bit of lore. (1:13:41) Jordan: People just think they’re bees. And I had actually called them bulblets. (1:13:41) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (1:13:47) Codey: I do remember that, yeah. (1:13:49) Jordan: But they just caught so much computer. (1:13:51) Jordan: I just ended up in the most recent patch the winter update, I just reverted everything to bees, so it makes me a bit sad, but sometimes you just gotta let go of these things. (1:14:02) Al: we’re still going to keep it. The bees are bulbs, even if they’re called bees, they’re bulbs. (1:14:02) Codey: Ma’am. (1:14:05) Jordan: Yeah, they’re like little light bulbs with wings. (1:14:08) Al: I love it. (1:14:09) Codey: It’s really cute. (1:14:12) Codey: Yeah. (1:14:14) Al: Just a quick question on the farm maps. Were you aware that that’s something that Stardew does? (1:14:14) Codey: I don’t know. (1:14:19) Al: Because I feel like that’s one of the things that I love most about Stardew, because you can come in, (1:14:24) Al: have a new save, and be like a completely different game because of those changes. (1:14:30) Jordan: Yeah, yeah, I was aware. That’s that’s part of like the research (1:14:30) Al: You were right. That’s fine. (1:14:32) Al: Yeah, no, that’s fine. It’s just because I don’t see any other games doing it, like no other farming game does that thing and it’s a thing that I love so much and I don’t know why other games don’t do it. (1:14:33) Jordan: that I did without actually playing the game. Really? Well, I (1:14:46) Jordan: was, you know, planning on doing it. And I was like, okay, I’m (1:14:50) Jordan: gonna just make one small map and see how it feels. And I made (1:14:54) Jordan: the, the one with all the rivers. And as soon as I made that, I (1:14:56) Codey: Mm-hmm (1:14:58) Jordan: I was just like, “This is–” (1:15:00) Jordan: “This is amazing, this is– I gotta– I gotta– I gotta do more of this,” you know? (1:15:00) Codey: Yeah (1:15:04) Jordan: Like, the– the river one is– is my absolute favorite, especially because it’s– (1:15:08) Jordan: it becomes more of like a puzzle piece where you have to fit the buildings in between the nooks and crannies of the rivers and stuff. (1:15:14) Jordan: And, yeah, I– I just love that one. (1:15:16) Codey: Yeah, it’s definitely what I’m finding right now. (1:15:19) Codey: It’s like, oh, I want to build the specific– (1:15:22) Codey: like a four by four crop field, but this area (1:15:26) Codey: isn’t big enough for that. (1:15:27) Codey: So it makes you change things and use things differently. (1:15:31) Codey: And it is really fun. (1:15:34) Codey: Does it randomize each time or is it the same? (1:15:36) Jordan: It doesn’t. It doesn’t. It’s the same, but it’s one of those things where I look back on it, (1:15:43) Jordan: and I wish that it would be randomized. But when you’re like, I had like a very (1:15:50) Jordan: specific deadline that I wanted to hit for this game. And these sort of things, they just take (1:15:57) Jordan: so much time to make sure that they’re correct, they’re not buggy, they save, you know, like, (1:16:02) Jordan: there’s all sorts of stuff that can go wrong, so it’s much easier to kind of… (1:16:06) Jordan: do something that’s fixed and then potentially later go back and make it randomized, which I would still like to do, but I don’t know if it’s high on my list. (1:16:18) Jordan: Another thing would be an endless mode as well, I think would be pretty cool, so you can just keep going as long as you want. (1:16:25) Jordan: I think that would be quite interesting, see how far people can get until the game breaks. (1:16:26) Codey: Mm-hmm. (1:16:32) Jordan: Well, I think that’s yeah, that’d be pretty cool. (1:16:33) Codey: Really stress test it for you. (1:16:36) Jordan: But yeah, like these things, they can come later or they can (1:16:41) Jordan: always come later. But we’ll see. (1:16:43) Al: For sure, for sure. Our last question I feel like you’ve already answered because it was going to be (1:16:48) Al: about is there anything secret and I feel like your point about the possible crossovers coming (1:16:54) Al: is it probably answers that but I have one other question I want to ask that. I’ve not played the (1:17:00) Al: game a huge amount because I’ve told the listeners before I work on a client machine so I can’t (1:17:06) Al: install the game on it but what I’ve done in the last week or so is I’ve been putting it on my (1:17:13) Al: and just having that sitting next to my computer. So my question is are we going to get full screen (1:17:15) Jordan: Oh, OK. (1:17:20) Al: mode anytime? (1:17:22) Jordan: Oh, man, that’s such a great question because I recently (1:17:27) Jordan: bought a Steam Deck so I could look into making a full screen (1:17:28) Al: Oh. Nice, nice. I mean, it works reasonably well. Yeah, it works reasonably well. It’s (1:17:31) Jordan: mode. (1:17:34) Codey: It’s like you’re, you might be invested in this. (1:17:39) Al: just everything’s slightly too small. And so it’s like a little bit difficult to tap (1:17:42) Al: on the right thing. But, and obviously then. Yeah. Yeah. (1:17:46) Jordan: Yeah, but I mean, I would just implement full controller support if that’s the case, you (1:17:52) Jordan: know, that’s the reason why I got it because I’ve made my previous game, I ported it to (1:17:57) Jordan: the switch myself as well. And the sort of development and testing on the switches is (1:18:04) Jordan: way too convoluted for my liking. So I was like, I’ll just get a steam deck, it’s super (1:18:10) Jordan: easy to update to build on Steam, and then it just downloads straight onto my onto a (1:18:16) Jordan: steam deck, basically, especially because I have like these developer builds and stuff (1:18:19) Jordan: like that. And I can just play it. So I was like, and it also has touchscreen. And Nintendo (1:18:26) Jordan: is a bit weird. They don’t only want to rely on touchscreen probably because you can dock (1:18:30) Jordan: it and then you can’t touch the screen anymore. So I mean, it makes sense. But with steam (1:18:36) Jordan: deck, they don’t have to worry about stuff like that. So I thought, I’m gonna buy myself (1:18:39) Jordan: steam deck. I’m gonna test out the idea. Like I said, I can’t promise anything. I’ve got (1:18:44) Jordan: test it first. (1:18:46) Jordan: My only concern with these sort of consoles is that there is a lot of downtime, so I (1:18:50) Jordan: don’t know if maybe you can tell me if I should speed up the gameplay a little bit (1:18:55) Jordan: more for those Steam decks or if I should lower how long it takes for a crop to grow (1:19:00) Jordan: and these sort of things, because the other option (1:19:02) Al: - Yeah, I mean, I think I’ve only done a few days now, (1:19:04) Al: but I feel like it’s been working pretty well (1:19:06) Al: in terms of things. (1:19:08) Al: Like I don’t, I have it plugged in, obviously, (1:19:12) Al: which is obviously, (1:19:13) Al: I’m gonna destroy the battery doing this. (1:19:14) Al: However, I’m enjoying it. (1:19:17) Al: That’s the main thing. (1:19:18) Al: And I feel like the screen is staying on (1:19:21) Al: kind of like long enough that they finish doing everything (1:19:24) Al: and then I can go and do some more again. (1:19:25) Al: So it doesn’t feel like it’s too slow (1:19:28) Al: for what it’s trying to do. (1:19:30) Al: it feels right. (1:19:32) Al: I’ve not slowed it down because I definitely don’t want that. (1:19:37) Jordan: Okay, because the other option is offline progression. (1:19:41) Jordan: So then it becomes a bit more like your mobile games (1:19:44) Jordan: that you were talking about earlier. (1:19:47) Jordan: And that, I’m not so sure. (1:19:48) Al: Yeah, I think in an ideal world, that would be really nice, but it also feels incredibly (1:19:53) Al: complex and any time you spend on that obviously takes away from other things that you would (1:20:02) Jordan: Yeah, but if I do do it, then I could (1:20:04) Jordan: reuse it for Switch and other consoles and stuff like that. (1:20:06) Al: Fair and mobile. (1:20:07) Jordan: So it’s not like– (1:20:09) Jordan: yeah, it’s a balance. (1:20:09) Al: What I really want is an iPad version, but that is a whole other kettle of fish. (1:20:14) Jordan: I mean, yeah, I would love if you could put it (1:20:21) Jordan: on an iPad or a tablet or a phone, (1:20:23) Jordan: and it also has the split screen functionality on your phone (1:20:26) Jordan: while you’re browsing TikTok or Instagram or something. (1:20:30) Jordan: That would be amazing, but I just don’t. (1:20:32) Jordan: I don’t think I can do that. (1:20:34) Jordan: Especially considering that I made it in Unity game engine and there’s like a whole SDK for Android that you need to work around, wrap the game around. (1:20:44) Jordan: Yeah, it seems it’s just way out of my skill set, to be honest. (1:20:48) Codey: And we’re trying to get people off of social media, so that’s fine. (1:20:52) Al: - All right. Well, I think that’s all of our questions. One last thing is, is there anything (1:21:00) Al: that you want to tell the listeners about or talk about that we haven’t brought up? (1:21:04) Jordan: - I don’t know, but then maybe if you’re thinking (1:21:09) Jordan: of starting game development and making games, (1:21:12) Jordan: it’s as simple as just going to Google (1:21:16) Jordan: and typing in how to make a video game, (1:21:18) Jordan: try out a few tutorials, that’s how I got started, (1:21:22) Jordan: and then see if it’s for you. (1:21:24) Jordan: And if I can do it, I feel like, you know, (1:21:28) Jordan: a lot of other people can do it as well. (1:21:30) Al: Fair enough. What a great way to end. Thank you so much for joining us to talk about your game. (1:21:38) Al: Obviously, we’ll have links to the game on Steam and stuff like that in our show notes. (1:21:44) Al: Is there anywhere in particular that you want people to go to find you? (1:21:48) Jordan: I’m on Twitter and Instagram mainly, so if you want to reach out and chat, I’m usually pretty open to talking to people. (1:22:00) Jordan: I try to reply to comments and messages as best as I can, so yeah. (1:22:04) Codey: - What’s the usernames for that? (1:22:06) Jordan: Mr. Morris Games, normally you can just type in “Rusty’s Retirement” and that’s why I put my name as the profile anyway, so you should be able to just find it by searching for “Rusty’s Retirement”. (1:22:18) Codey: That’s why you’re Mr. Rusty. (1:22:20) Jordan: Exactly. But thank you so much for having me. It’s been great talking. (1:22:24) Al: Awesome. No, thank you. You’re the first. (1:22:27) Al: You’re the first winner of our Game of the Year who actually responded to me. (1:22:32) Jordan: I’m honored to receive such an award. (1:22:36) Al: A prestigious award. (1:22:45) Theme Tune: you (1:22:48) Al: Well, I enjoyed that interview. Thank you, Cody, for joining me for that. (1:22:52) Codey: Yeah, it was really fun. (1:22:53) Al: Sorry, it sounded like there was more coming there. (1:22:56) Codey: Oh, no, it was it was really, really fun to talk to to Jordan and kind of understand, (1:22:56) Al: Just the intonation there. Is it really fun? (1:23:03) Codey: like, the thinking behind how this game came to be. (1:23:09) Codey: I still can’t believe that he said that thing. (1:23:12) Al: Have you forgotten already what it was? (1:23:16) Codey: No, I’m just trying to like make that joke of like. (1:23:21) Al: Like we’ve recorded this before, we recorded the interview. (1:23:22) Codey: I actually, my brain was like, they’re gonna hear this before they hear the interview, but that is not how that works. (1:23:24) Al: Shocking developments in Rusty’s internet. (1:23:32) Codey: Because I was like, I’ll say that, and then they’ll be like, what was it? I have to listen. (1:23:42) Al: The episode! (1:23:51) Al: Fantastic. (1:23:52) Al: Yeah, I have been thinking, I’m not going to try and pontificate at this point as to (1:23:58) Al: what games it is that he can’t tell us about, because I think that would be mean to do so, (1:24:02) Al: but I have spent the last four days thinking about what games it could be that would be (1:24:07) Al: big enough to give him an NDA, but not big enough that it’s obviously not going to be (1:24:11) Al: the massive games. (1:24:12) Al: I’m not going to use any names of games because I think that’s unnecessary, but I (1:24:14) Codey: I don’t know if it has to be a big game for an NDA. (1:24:29) Al: just feel like a game built by one individual is not going to be giving out NDAs for things (1:24:37) Al: like that. (1:24:37) Codey: uh stardew valley oh okay I i would think that that would be a thing no no I don’t think it (1:24:38) Al: Yeah, I don’t think he would. It’s a lot of work for one person. (1:24:42) Al: I also don’t think it will be Stardew Valley, because I don’t think they would have an (1:24:53) Al: appropriate character that would be Rusty. No. Because the character that would be Rusty (1:24:55) Codey: linus who’s trying to retire (1:25:00) Al: is your player character, and the whole point of Stardew is you’re making your own character, (1:25:05) Al: and so any character they put into that would break an illusion for most people. (1:25:10) Codey: Yeah, you’re right. What if you could bring your character into Rusty’s retirement? (1:25:12) Al: Anyway, that would be way too much work than is worth it. But we still see. Cody, where (1:25:21) Codey: Fair I (1:25:23) Al: can people find you on the internet? Not on TikTok. Sorry. Too soon? OK, so you don’t (1:25:28) Codey: Know I thought the great thing is I’ve never I’ve never been on tick-tock. So that is perfectly fine. Yeah (1:25:34) Al: care. Fine. We’re recording this on the last day before the ban, but it’s still not sure (1:25:37) Codey: Has that officially happened oh (1:25:39) Codey: - Oh. (1:25:41) Codey: Yeah, okay. (1:25:42) Al: whether it’s actually going to happen. (1:25:46) Codey: Well, I guess this was technically (1:25:49) Codey: me being a prophesier since it hasn’t actually happened yet. (1:25:52) Codey: But if Elon Musk buys TikTok, the world is doomed. (1:25:55) Codey: ‘Cause that is something people think might happen. (1:25:58) Codey: And I would hate that. (1:26:01) Codey: But I am not on TikTok. (1:26:03) Codey: That is not where people can find me. (1:26:04) Codey: People can find me on the other hellhole Instagram. (1:26:10) Al: Yeah, that went really great over the last week, didn’t it? (1:26:11) Codey: - It’s, it’s so hard to like be on platforms these days (1:26:18) Codey: because just by using it, (1:26:20) Codey: you’re like aligning yourself with awful opinions. (1:26:26) Codey: Yeah. (1:26:27) Codey: So anyway, but I am on Instagram (1:26:30) Codey: @hikingbeagle, beagle, and blue sky, (1:26:34) Codey: which has not really thrown up any red flags yet. (1:26:38) Codey: I’m on that, but it’s just my name. (1:26:38) Al: Yeah, lots of investors of it are crypto bros, so I suspect something will happen sometimes to go badly wrong for it, but yeah, they haven’t actively done anything that has been a massive problem. I’m just expecting it to happen at some point. (1:26:54) Codey: and it has my favorite, not accessibility, (1:26:59) Codey: but like a setting that you can turn on, (1:27:00) Codey: which is that it won’t let you post an image (1:27:03) Codey: until you’ve added an alt text, (1:27:04) Al: that is absolutely accessibility feature. Yeah. Yeah. I think that is good. Because I have that (1:27:05) Codey: which I am in love with because I would post something (1:27:10) Codey: and just completely forget, (1:27:12) Codey: and then you can’t add it secondarily. (1:27:14) Codey: So I was like, no, make me do this. (1:27:20) Al: turned on as well, I think. On one hand, I really wish that was default, because it would make (1:27:27) Al: everybody do it. But on the other hand, I know that lots of people would end up putting in useless (1:27:31) Al: alt text and so it would make the feature less useful. (1:27:34) Al: But yeah, complicated. Just do alt text on your images. It’s not hard. Just do a very (1:27:44) Al: quick sentence as to what the image is and it will help people with limited vision. Please (1:27:50) Al: and thank you. Or people who, this is the other reason why I love alt text, people who don’t get (1:27:55) Al: the joke, right? If you’re looking at an image and you’re like, I don’t understand what this has (1:27:56) Codey: That’s true. (1:28:00) Al: got to do with the tweet, you click on the alt text and people explain the joke for you. Fantastic. (1:28:06) Al: Some people are absolutely fantastic about alt text as well. They’ll put in a huge explanation. (1:28:11) Al: You’re like, I love you. Thank you so much. (1:28:11) Codey: I posted a picture today of this pseudo scorpion that I just found in a trap that like made me so happy and I was explaining, I was typing in the alt text and I saw that I could put 1500 words to the alt text. (1:28:29) Al: Words, not even characters. (1:28:30) Codey: Oh, it might be characters, it’s probably characters actually. You’re right, but that’s so many, like, I’m gonna write a whole essay with characters. (1:28:32) Al: I think I think that’s probably characters. (1:28:35) Al: That’s still a lot. Yeah, that’s good. (1:28:43) Al: Yeah. All right. I think we’re… Oh no, I’ve not talked about whether you can find me in the podcast. (1:28:50) Al: Goodness me, I’m tired. (1:28:52) Al: If you want to find me on the internet, you can find me. Search for me, I don’t care. (1:28:56) Codey: That’s not a lie, or that, sorry, that is a lie. (1:28:58) Al: Interesting on the internet. No, it’s not. This podcast is the thing I do that’s interesting. (1:29:06) Al: There’s nothing else I do. If you listen to this podcast, you’ve found it. Congratulations. (1:29:07) Codey: If you, if you and I were not on the internet at all, we wouldn’t meet each other. (1:29:14) Al: Right, okay, okay, okay, but yeah, okay, fine. If you’re in the Slack, (1:29:14) Codey: We wouldn’t be friends. (1:29:18) Al: then you’ll find I might do some interesting stuff in there. Happy? (1:29:21) Codey: That’s true. (1:29:22) Codey: some pretty hilarious stuff in the slack. (1:29:23) Al: No. Thank you so much. I do like to think so. (1:29:28) Al: Funny. If you want to follow the podcast, we’re on Tumblr and most of the other social (1:29:35) Al: networks, even the hellscape still. Go to our website, harvestseason.club. There you can send (1:29:41) Al: us feedback. That stuff I do read. I will definitely read your feedback sent from the website. You can (1:29:46) Al: also find links to everything about the podcast, including our link to our Patreon. That’s the most (1:29:51) Al: important place. Go to Patreon. Support the podcast if you are able to. I really appreciate it. (1:29:52) Codey: Mmhmm. (1:29:57) Codey: Mmhmm. (1:29:57) Al: If you’re not able to support (1:29:58) Al: it monetarily, you can still go on Patreon and get like notifications for it. If you want, (1:30:02) Al: that’s also a possibility. You can be like a free supporter just to show support for the (1:30:03) Codey: Mmhmm. (1:30:06) Al: podcast, even if you can’t pay. But if you do pay, you can get access to our Slack, (1:30:12) Al: our aforementioned Slack, on which hilarious things sometimes happen. Are you going to post (1:30:15) Al: the picture of the pseudo-scarping on there? I don’t know. Do you think it… Oh, is that… (1:30:17) Codey: Gasp Yeah… (1:30:19) Codey: Should I do like a content warning? (1:30:23) Codey: I’m trying to think who… (1:30:25) Codey: I mean, do you think it’s scary? (1:30:28) Al: I don’t have any sort of phobia that would lead to that. But it’s not spider-shaped. So I feel (1:30:34) Al: like it wouldn’t be an issue. You know, you need to stick it in a thread if you’re going (1:30:36) Codey: uh only look at this image if you’ve listened oh yeah no yeah i’m saying only look at this image (1:30:42) Al: to do that, right? Don’t just post the image. You know, making sure. Just making sure. (1:30:47) Codey: if you listen to the what is this january 21st episode no i’m just gonna i’m just gonna do it (1:30:51) Al: You could also schedule a post. You know, you can schedule a post on Slack. (1:30:58) Al: » This is all getting cut anyway. (1:30:58) Codey: because then whoever whoever uh reacts to it is a liar (1:31:06) Al: You can also get access to our bonus podcast episodes as well, (1:31:10) Al: of which we have some coming soon. (1:31:13) Al: We have the most recent one is our, (1:31:17) Al: what we’re most excited for coming this year, (1:31:19) Al: that’s not farming games and we’ll have other things coming soon. (1:31:22) Al: I think that’s everything, goodness, I need to go to bed. (1:31:25) Al: Thank you, Cody, again for joining me. (1:31:26) Codey: Thank you for listening to my rant-ing. (1:31:29) Al: » Thank you listeners for listening and until next time, have a good harvest. (1:31:32) Codey: Have a good harvest. (1:31:34) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:31:36) Codey: We’re the best at that. (1:31:44) Theme Tune: pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:31:48) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:31:53) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:31:59) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:32:08) Codey: Yeah, I was really happy because I was I came to that the game of the year podcast and I was (1:32:16) Codey: like, Oh, I’m gonna really break the like minds by recommending this game and then someone else (1:32:21) Codey: recommended it first. Yes. Yeah. (1:32:25) Jordan: Amazing.…

The Harvest Season

1
Macabre Like Death 1:19:34

7 weeksที่แล้ว1:19:34

1:19:34

Al and Dalan talk about Honkai Impact 3rd, and it's farming minigame, Wilderness Development Logs Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:37: What Have We Been Up To 00:28:48: Game News 00:35:02: Honkai Impact 3rd: Introduction 00:52:29: Honkai Impact 3rd: Wilderness Development Logs 01:14:23: Outro Links My Little Life Release Date Sun Haven Switch Patch Echoes of the Plum Grove “New Year” Update Roots of Pacha Upcoming Regions Wilderness Development Logs Youtube Playlist Wilderness Development Logs Fandom Page Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al, and we are here today to talk about cottagecore games. (0:00:35) Dalan: And my name is Dallen (0:00:43) Al: I honestly thought it was Dalen, not Dalen. (0:00:46) Dalan: Uh it that I do get that a lot it is it is Dallen (0:00:49) Dalan: Uh, it’s mostly the way it’s spelled. I think that confuses people. Uh, it is more common to have double li (0:00:53) Al: » Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that one. Not spelling, either. (0:00:56) Dalan: Instead of the two a’s so that’s that’s the main reason (0:01:03) Dalan: I have met… one person who spells… (0:01:05) Dalan: it the same as me and that was in Utah where there are about 50 people named (0:01:10) Dalan: Dalin Persuarian. It’s not quite that populous but yeah. (0:01:12) Al: Right, okay, so I see the issue, I see why it’s not a name that I am very much aware (0:01:20) Dalan: Yes. It’s… there is a particular culture. Yeah. So I’m always surprised finding (0:01:20) Al: of if it’s within a particular community, very prevalent within a certain area of the (0:01:24) Al: United States. Yeah, they do exist outside of there. It’s funny, because sometimes I (0:01:28) Dalan: people outside that place who have the same name and I’m like come on. They do (0:01:35) Dalan: because it is the name other people have. (0:01:38) Al: only realise how people’s names are pronounced when they come on the podcast. (0:01:41) Dalan: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Nami, I had that problem for a while. Yeah. I have to remind myself (0:01:42) Al: It was the same with Nami, who of course, that’s not how I pronounced his name for a long time. (0:01:49) Dalan: sometimes. Sorry, Nami. (0:01:52) Al: Regularly, regularly. (0:01:53) Dalan: Yeah. (0:01:54) Al: Anyway, welcome, Dallin, to the podcast again. This is your second episode. (0:01:57) Dalan: Thank you. Second time. Only took like a little bit over a year, I think. I was (0:02:04) Dalan: here. (0:02:05) Dalan: 2023 August ish or September I want to say it was fishing month yep yep because I was the only (0:02:08) Al: It was the fishing month, wasn’t it? (0:02:12) Dalan: other person who owned a play date that you do yeah yeah I have not touched that in a long time (0:02:14) Al: Oh, that’s it. Yeah, we did the Playdate one. That’s what it was. That was good. (0:02:20) Al: We should see if there are any more Playdate games to play. (0:02:23) Dalan: that would be fun yeah I’ll figure out one where I put it and then to uh charge it I brought it (0:02:28) Al: Yeah, I need to charge mine up. Thankfully, mine is here. I have it in my hand because it just (0:02:30) Dalan: I think I brought it with me - oh, that’s nice. (0:02:33) Al: sits on my desk. I know where it is, but it’s not charged because I don’t have the dock that (0:02:36) Dalan: Mmm, the dock still… probably not, no. (0:02:38) Al: I have to release any more. (0:02:40) Dalan: I, uh, I think I took it with me to the Japan trip I went on this summer. (0:02:45) Dalan: Or, I can’t remember if I did and then never used it or if I was like, “Yeah, no, I’m not gonna use that and left it home.” (0:02:46) Al: hmm fair enough anyway so dallan is here to talk to me about a game that I have definitely (0:02:51) Dalan: What did it do? Either way, I did not play it. (0:03:01) Al: not played and a name that i’m definitely going to mix up the order of words in the name because (0:03:01) Dalan: Yes. (0:03:06) Dalan: That’s okay. (0:03:08) Al: it is definitely the wrong order but this game is called honkai impact third right it’s (0:03:13) Dalan: That is correct. (0:03:16) Al: not third impact it’s impact third is it the third impact game (0:03:17) Dalan: No, because, well, no. (0:03:24) Dalan: It is the third Hong Kai game maybe, kind of. (0:03:27) Al: maybe interesting (0:03:30) Dalan: We’ll get, I’ll go into that a little bit about how crazy that all is. (0:03:31) Al: yeah we’ll talk about we’ll talk about that when we talk about it (0:03:36) Al: for some reason we’re going to talk about a honkai game uh we’ll (0:03:39) Dalan: I’m as confused as you are, listeners. (0:03:42) Dalan: But, you know, slow, I did, I did, I didn’t think you would take me up on it. (0:03:43) Al: You suggested it, not me. (0:03:46) Al: You said it. (0:03:47) Dalan: But there is enough to talk about. (0:03:49) Dalan: So I, and I will be trying to focus mostly just on the farming stuff. (0:03:54) Dalan: Because there are many things I could blab about. (0:03:57) Dalan: And I need you to hold me back. (0:04:00) Al: I mean, look, I’ll be honest, if someone comes to me and says, “How about a podcast (0:04:04) Al: episode on this?” and it even tangentially connects to the podcast, I will say yes, (0:04:10) Al: because as I’ve said before, the hardest part of this podcast is not the editing, (0:04:15) Al: it’s not the podcasting, it’s not the news, it is not the actual recording, (0:04:20) Al: it is figuring out which episode is going to be which. (0:04:24) Dalan: I’ll take a note of it. I have a couple of games that I’ve played recently that I think could fit into that, so we’ll also see if those will come up in future episodes. (0:04:36) Dalan: Do we want to talk about what we’ve been up to lately then? (0:04:36) Al: it’s fine. Yeah, let’s do it. What have you been up to? (0:04:40) Dalan: Yeah, so I am trying to enjoy the last pieces of my holidays before I go back to the college grind to have some other stuff I’ve been working on. (0:04:54) Dalan: So most of the games I’m writing are kind of like last week, but I’ve played a little bit this week. (0:05:00) Dalan: I have obviously been playing Honkai games because those are relevant to what we’re talking about. (0:05:08) Dalan: I also started Potioncraft recently because during the holidays we remembered the family steam-sharing thing got updated, and I guess one of my siblings bought it at some point. (0:05:20) Dalan: So I’ve been playing that. Are you familiar with Potioncraft at all? (0:05:22) Al: And I think I’ve heard of it, I don’t know if I’ve, I don’t know if I’ve actually. (0:05:26) Dalan: Right. (0:05:28) Dalan: Yeah, I find it a pretty relaxing game. (0:05:32) Dalan: There were a couple nights where I was just kind of playing it an hour each night before bed. I could see myself kind of continuing that. (0:05:40) Dalan: It’s basically a game where you make potions, but the way you do that is interesting, where you basically have this map that you’re moving around your little potion on. (0:05:54) Dalan: You’re putting in different ingredients that have set patterns, and so you’re trying to put in the right ingredients to get to the location on the map you want to in order to get the potion. (0:06:06) Dalan: And so it’s mostly that gameplay and then balancing that with how do I get more materials to make my potions and then selling them to customers and stuff. (0:06:16) Dalan: Pretty relaxed. I think I made it to like day eight or something. There’s a progress system, but it’s basically just like, “Have you made these kinds of potions?” (0:06:26) Dalan: “Did you discover being able to do this thing?” So it’s pretty open, I’d say. (0:06:30) Al: I like the look of the graphics, it’s very distinct. (0:06:34) Dalan: It’s very… Yes, it’s got a nice feel to it. I think they did just have an update, which I was surprised by. I think this past December, like last month, I’m not certain. (0:06:46) Dalan: It seemed like it was what it said on the store page when I looked it up. (0:06:48) Al: But yeah, it’s almost like it’s on like old parchment paper, it’s like kind of CPR based, (0:06:54) Al: just I really like the look of the farming looks like it could be fun. (0:06:54) Dalan: Yeah. There is a bit of farming, yes. (0:07:00) Al: It looks very simple. It’s basically just it’s more gardening, I guess, (0:07:02) Dalan: Yes. Yeah, it’s basically like you get your materials for the day and then you water them every day, etc. (0:07:04) Al: rather than farming, right? You’re planting. Yeah. (0:07:12) Dalan: You can plant new things, and I think they added more functionality to kind of expand it, but I am not at that point in the game. (0:07:20) Al: But what I will say is the actual potion making looks like I would absolutely. (0:07:24) Dalan: I see also just finicky (0:07:28) Al: I do not like the kind of very specific motions and having to do that. (0:07:35) Al: I think that sort of stuff is fun in one very specific circumstance and that’s in party (0:07:40) Al: games. (0:07:41) Dalan: Yeah (0:07:42) Al: So I will play Mario Party and WarioWare anytime somebody suggests them to do these little (0:07:45) Dalan: Right (0:07:48) Al: weird motions and stuff. (0:07:50) Al: I know it’s not like motion control, I know you’re using your mouse, but I don’t want (0:07:55) Al: have to pick up a pestle and mortar it. (0:07:58) Al: And I don’t want to have to stir a cauldron and pour it, no, it’s too detailed and specific (0:08:04) Dalan: All right (0:08:07) Al: for me, I think. (0:08:08) Dalan: Yeah, that’s fair enough I will say like the (0:08:11) Dalan: The fact that you’re able to add water to kind of mess with that that is the core gameplay (0:08:16) Dalan: So if it doesn’t interest you probably none of the quality of life things they’re adding to it are gonna change that for you (0:08:22) Dalan: But there are some nice things where it’s like once you have a potion that you like like if you made really strong version (0:08:28) Dalan: Of a potion and you’re like that was annoying to do but I want to have that a lot (0:08:31) Dalan: you can save it and it will just automatically make it with the increase. (0:08:34) Dalan: for you so it’s more about like kind of exploring the map and discovering new (0:08:39) Dalan: things and then being like oh is there like a more optimized route I can take (0:08:42) Dalan: to this to you know cut back on ingredients or something so but yes (0:08:47) Dalan: that’s there’s some finicky-ness to it so if you don’t enjoy that you probably (0:08:52) Dalan: yeah I don’t think any of the changes are really gonna fix that for you (0:08:54) Al: Yeah, it’s like, it’s like when every time I hear about a new Soulslike game, I’m like, (0:09:01) Dalan: Mm. Right. (0:09:02) Al: sounds great. I’m still not going to like it because I do not like the fundamental part (0:09:07) Al: of the game. And so I’m not going to try it. Except one, there is one that has interested (0:09:10) Dalan: Right. (0:09:13) Al: me and that’s another crab’s treasure. That’s something the only Soulslike that has ever (0:09:15) Dalan: Ah, true. (0:09:18) Dalan: Yeah, I think that one… (0:09:20) Dalan: It’s… I mean just by visuals it seems more friendly, and then also I think like… (0:09:25) Dalan: um… (0:09:26) Dalan: The problem I tend to have with Soul’s likes is that like I want to do (0:09:30) Dalan: a build that works, but it… and for my playstyle, but it feels like a battle to figure out what I enjoy (0:09:36) Dalan: while also (0:09:38) Dalan: trying not to waste all my materials on making some (0:09:40) Dalan: things I won’t like to play, so, a little, a little stressful. (0:09:42) Al: It has a lot more options as well in terms of difficulty and stuff, which I quite like. (0:09:50) Dalan: Mmm, that’s nice. (0:09:51) Al: Not that I’m going to use them necessarily, I’m not going to use them, because I love (0:09:56) Al: how it kind of ties them in in the same way where it’s got like the easy mode is basically (0:10:01) Al: just you have a gun that sits on your head that kills anybody. (0:10:02) Dalan: you’re right that’s good (0:10:04) Al: I love how ridiculous that is. (0:10:05) Al: I’m not going to use that, but having that leads me to liking it more purely because (0:10:10) Al: it allows me for more. (0:10:12) Al: around those options, because there’s just been thought gone into that, which, which then leads (0:10:19) Al: to a game that I’m more likely to like. So it’s not, I don’t know if that’s if that’s obvious enough (0:10:25) Al: how I’m explaining it, but yeah, but I think that the the idea of actually having difficulty options (0:10:32) Al: generally leads to a game being designed more like I would enjoy it. (0:10:36) Dalan: Mm. That makes sense. It’s, uh, having, like, more flexible design or ways to interact with it versus feeling like there’s sort of one path you have to take. (0:10:48) Dalan: Maybe that’s not the right way to put it, but I kind of get what you’re saying. (0:10:49) Al: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. But like, if we just took a, you know, standards (0:10:58) Al: Souls game, like Elden Ring, right? So we take Elden Ring. If you just put a difficulty (0:11:03) Al: level in that, that I don’t think I would enjoy that game, because it’s still the same (0:11:07) Dalan: Right. (0:11:08) Al: game is just easier, right? Like it’s not, I don’t just, I don’t dislike those games (0:11:09) Dalan: Yeah. (0:11:10) Dalan: Yeah, 100%. (0:11:11) Dalan: It’s not built around that. (0:11:14) Al: because they’re hard. I dislike those games because of their whole philosophy. (0:11:19) Al: And it just feels like another crab’s treasure does that differently. (0:11:20) Dalan: Right, 100%. (0:11:25) Al: Anyway, potion craft. (0:11:26) Dalan: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. (0:11:29) Al: Yeah, maybe. (0:11:29) Dalan: Yep, that’s Potion Craft. (0:11:32) Dalan: I could see that being an episode topic at some point, (0:11:34) Dalan: But anyway, I– (0:11:36) Dalan: Started Warframe recently. Well, that’s maybe– (0:11:40) Dalan: Started is maybe the wrong word. (0:11:42) Dalan: So… (0:11:44) Dalan: This game– Are you familiar with this game at all? (0:11:46) Al: I am not. (0:11:48) Dalan: Okay, Warframe… It’s kind of like– Are you familiar with Destiny? (0:11:53) Al: I am aware of it and I have seen some gameplay. (0:11:56) Dalan: Okay, we’ll do the most basic version. Warframe is Space Ninjas. That’s pretty much the game. (0:12:02) Dalan: You go around space, you fight things with friends, and (0:12:06) Dalan: materials to upgrade your things, and it is a completely for you to play game. (0:12:12) Dalan: All the money you spend is for cosmetics and, like, (0:12:15) Dalan: speeding up timers, which are basically just crafting things. So it’s– (0:12:21) Dalan: Has been going for a long time, so much so that the first time I played it was actually in 2013. (0:12:26) Dalan: And… (0:12:27) Al: Yeah, this game says it was released in March 2013. It was released two days after my first child was born. (0:12:30) Dalan: Yes. (0:12:35) Dalan: Yeah, yeah, and (0:12:35) Al: Yeah. (0:12:36) Dalan: I was solidly still a child at this point. (0:12:40) Dalan: The reason I didn’t stick around with it is, (0:12:43) Dalan: one, it was a bit overwhelming, (0:12:45) Dalan: and I don’t know if my computer could handle it at the time. (0:12:47) Dalan: And two, I believe maybe a week prior, (0:12:50) Dalan: I had told my mother that I was not interested (0:12:53) Dalan: in playing an M-rated game ever, and she hugged me. (0:12:55) Al: Yeah, well, I tell my mom I don’t swear, so. (0:12:56) Dalan: And then this game was M-rated, (0:12:58) Dalan: and I immediately felt strong feelings of guilt (0:13:01) Dalan: for being like, “This is kind of fun.” (0:13:05) Dalan: so I did not return that. (0:13:06) Dalan: I’m playing it on the television, and currently living with family, and no stinks have been raised. (0:13:19) Al: There are other things you do to disappoint them instead, that’s the thing. (0:13:21) Dalan: Yes, yes, very true. (0:13:23) Dalan: Like living in their basement. (0:13:25) Al: If you’re worried about how someone thinks about a certain thing that you do, (0:13:28) Al: just do something worse. That’s how it works, right? (0:13:30) Dalan: True. Yeah, I think that is the best method. (0:13:34) Dalan: Anyway, but yeah, I started playing that because we had (0:13:37) Dalan: My sister and her husband came over for the holidays and (0:13:42) Dalan: Her husband’s been playing it a lot longer (0:13:44) Dalan: But my sister was like I want to download this to see if we can play it because I can’t play it on my laptop (0:13:48) Dalan: And she kind of gave up on that pretty quick because she didn’t like the controller (0:13:53) Dalan: Inputs, but I was like oh this game’s kind of fun (0:13:55) Dalan: So I might be playing with that that with them in the future which would be fun because I don’t get to hang out with (0:14:01) Dalan: Them as much anymore on the count of them living in a different place (0:14:05) Dalan: So yeah warframe not (0:14:07) Dalan: But that’s interesting game and then there are lots of other games I could talk about but I’ll just quickly mention (0:14:14) Dalan: 1000 I think it’s x resist. I don’t know if it’s times or what I don’t know what it means yet (0:14:19) Dalan: But that is a game. I should be playing more of it’s just (0:14:24) Dalan: Draining because it’s a very involved sci-fi story that I want to soak in. Have you heard of it? (0:14:29) Al: Fair enough. No, I have not even heard of this game, no. (0:14:30) Dalan: Also, let me pull it out all the strange games (0:14:36) Dalan: Was like a game that was popular in a couple circles (0:14:38) Al: Oh, this is one of the ones that was added to Bellatro. (0:14:42) Dalan: Yes, yes, it was there I do remember that yeah, so this is like this is sort of a far future sci-fi story (0:14:51) Dalan: it’s (0:14:52) Dalan: kind of some people might kind of put it in the realm of a walking sim I guess but it’s it’s (0:14:58) Dalan: Interesting. It’s a lot of going around talking to characters and it has some interesting kind of time (0:15:05) Dalan: Compilation mechanics where you’re flipping back (0:15:06) Dalan: and forth between different scenes sometimes to find different information or go places. (0:15:12) Dalan: So there’s a little bit of that but the gameplay mechanics mostly serve as a catalyst for the story (0:15:17) Dalan: and like what’s going on. The basic premise I’ll say is that it seems to be a far off future where (0:15:27) Dalan: everyone is now like clones of this one person who could survive this deadly illness and you’re (0:15:33) Dalan: playing as this person called the (0:15:36) Dalan: watcher because everyone is named by (0:15:38) Dalan: their roles and you’re trying to you’re (0:15:42) Dalan: kind of figuring out what happened in (0:15:44) Dalan: the past and it seems like that’s going (0:15:46) Dalan: to lead to some sort of rebellion thing (0:15:48) Dalan: going on so it’s really interesting it’s (0:15:51) Dalan: tackles a lot of different themes (0:15:53) Dalan: there’s like it’s kind of about Asian (0:15:55) Dalan: diaspora and Hong Kong protests which (0:15:59) Dalan: is not what I would expect going into (0:16:00) Al: Oh heavy (0:16:00) Dalan: this game but it’s also about a lot of (0:16:02) Dalan: other things so covers a large range of (0:16:06) Dalan: I would recommend it. It was a big narrative game last year that people liked, but it didn’t really get nominated for anything. (0:16:15) Al: I don’t think I’ve ever actually played a walking sim and so I can’t say that I don’t (0:16:20) Dalan: Mm-hmm, I see. (0:16:23) Al: like walking sims, but what I will say is I think walking sims are everything about (0:16:28) Al: games that I don’t like and therefore I would assume that I would not like them. (0:16:34) Dalan: To me, this is more like reading a sci-fi novel with full visuals and experiences. (0:16:35) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly and it’s like I sort of like the kind of one of the (0:16:45) Al: people would argue it’s not a walking sim, but I think some people would argue it is (0:16:49) Al: a walking sim. What’s it called? Why have I forgotten the name of it? Big Sony game, (0:16:57) Al: they made a TV series of it. The Last of Us, yeah. I know it has some combat and gameplay (0:16:59) Dalan: Oh, the last of us? (0:17:04) Al: to it, however, feels very narrative heavy and I guess the kind of famous walking sim (0:17:11) Al: is more, is the Overwatch, not Overwatch, over. (0:17:14) Dalan: Uh, Firewatch. (0:17:15) Al: Firewatch, there we go. Names are too similar. There’s too many words. There are more words for (0:17:18) Dalan: It’s true, there are many similar names. (0:17:21) Al: your games, use other words. Firewatch is kind of the big one. And these games, it’s like, (0:17:28) Al: I’m not against story in game, but I guess I don’t like being in control of story because it takes (0:17:38) Al: two times longer than if they were just telling me the story. So, like, I love watching TV and (0:17:46) Al: but if I were to have to press A constantly to get the next bit of the film or TV series, (0:17:51) Al: I would not do it. (0:17:52) Al: on. (0:17:53) Dalan: Right (0:17:55) Dalan: Yeah, and I I think it very much depends on the game (0:17:58) Dalan: like there are some where I would say that is kind of more of a (0:18:02) Dalan: Just feeling kind of bored and I almost feel like I’m doing a disservice by calling it a walking sim because there’s so much (0:18:09) Dalan: Like I don’t know it like I said, it feels like us (0:18:13) Dalan: it kind of feels like walking around inside of a TV scene for me where I feel like I’m (0:18:20) Dalan: experiencing like this setting and trying to figure out what’s going on. (0:18:23) Dalan: I don’t know, but on the other hand, I’m someone who like tends to not watch as many TV or films because like I don’t like, well, I’ll have to dig into that aspect of my psyche later, but I think some of the control I enjoy being able to take it at my own pace and see what’s going on. (0:18:36) Al: Interesting. Well, anyway. (0:18:44) Dalan: Yeah, that’s that’s a wrap for me. Let’s hear about your week. So it’s not just me talking the whole episode. (0:18:50) Al: I have finally started playing Rusty’s Retirement. So I, for people who aren’t aware, the reason (0:18:57) Al: I wasn’t playing Rusty’s Retirement before was because I work for a client and so I use (0:19:04) Al: their machine, and I can’t just– (0:19:06) Al: I don’t want to install things on that machine, so I obviously do not have Rustys retirement installed on my work machine, but what I realized I can do is I have it on my Steam Deck. Now, granted, it is not great on the Steam Deck because it is not full screen, you can’t like change where it is, you’ve just got your little thing, but I have it running on my Steam Deck on, I’ve got the Steam Deck dock sitting on my desk, and so I just have my Steam Deck sitting open, charging, playing Rustys Retirement on my Steam Deck. (0:19:16) Dalan: Mmm. (0:19:34) Al: charging playing Rusty’s retirement. (0:19:37) Al: I’ve not done this very long, I think this is only my second day of doing it. (0:19:40) Al: But I thought this was an interesting way of trying to use play with the game and see how it fares like that. (0:19:46) Al: I think it could do really well like that, but there would have to be a few changes for it to work optimally. (0:19:54) Al: Obviously being in full screen and the, you know, it doesn’t have any gamepad support. (0:20:02) Al: So we’d have to have those to be really good. (0:20:06) Al: Screen makes it a lot better to work with than just using the analog sticks or the touchpads. (0:20:13) Al: And because of what its gameplay is, obviously you’re not actually interacting with it very much. (0:20:18) Al: So the interaction not being ideal doesn’t make it dreadful. (0:20:23) Al: So that’s one. (0:20:24) Al: The other thing that I have been absolutely obsessed with over the last week is Pokémon Legends Arceus, you know, just three years after release. (0:20:33) Al: I did play it when it first came out, but some– (0:20:36) Al: Keen listeners will remember that nearly two years ago, (0:20:40) Al: I had a terrible, terrible situation (0:20:44) Al: where my main Switch died, and I lost all of my Pokemon saves (0:20:47) Al: except one. (0:20:49) Al: And this was the only set of Pokemon games on the Switch (0:20:54) Al: I didn’t have a save for. (0:20:56) Al: Now I’ve been slowly building them up. (0:20:58) Al: So I don’t have all of them sorted. (0:21:01) Al: I just have one from each generation, (0:21:03) Al: one from each set of games now. (0:21:07) Al: I’d never played it a second time. (0:21:09) Al: I play most Pokemon games two times (0:21:10) Al: because I’ll buy both games, and I’ll play one (0:21:14) Al: just reasonably quickly, and then I’ll (0:21:16) Al: play one as generally a Professor Oak Challenge, (0:21:20) Al: but sometimes something else. (0:21:22) Al: So I’d never done a second playthrough of Legends Arceus. (0:21:25) Al: And so I was like, well, it’s time to do that, I guess. (0:21:28) Al: And let’s do a Professor Oak Challenge. (0:21:30) Al: And it was quite fun, Professor Oak Challenge. (0:21:32) Al: I like how they’re all very different nowadays (0:21:34) Al: Cause you’ve got like, um. (0:21:36) Al: Um, let’s go and brilliant diamond shining Pearl, which are kind of how they’re more (0:21:42) Al: like how professor challenges would have been in the older games, you know, kind of standard (0:21:49) Al: progression with gyms and catching and stuff like that. (0:21:52) Al: But let’s go had, uh, the catch combo, which meant you could get XP really quickly, um, (0:22:01) Al: and kind of sped up the first one, uh, then you obviously have sort (0:22:07) Al: is the only series of switch games that I’ve not done a professor of challenging now, which (0:22:11) Al: I’ll probably do at some point, which I think has. (0:22:12) Dalan: Yeah, I was gonna say like how does it seems like that gets a little trickier with the more open world ones (0:22:18) Al: So yeah, so obviously then you’ve got, you’ve got scarlet and violet. (0:22:18) Dalan: Obviously sword and shield isn’t quite there yet, but it’s got the wild area (0:22:24) Al: I, I love how ridiculous it is. (0:22:27) Al: I think I can’t remember exactly how many ways. (0:22:30) Al: I don’t know whether it’s quite 300, but it’s, it’s over 200 Pokemon you catch before you (0:22:34) Dalan: My goodness! (0:22:35) Al: do the first thing. (0:22:36) Al: Um, and yeah, it’s kind of ridiculous, but I also kind of love it because there’s (0:22:42) Dalan: There’s a charm there (0:22:43) Al: there, it is, it’s very front loaded. (0:22:47) Al: So you do that and then you just absolutely whiz through the story after that, which is (0:22:52) Al: like, I have my, you know, level 50 Pokemon killing the first gym sort of thing. (0:22:56) Dalan: Yeah. (0:22:57) Al: And it’s like wild, but I also like, yeah, but yeah, well, exactly. (0:23:00) Dalan: Like, “Welcome to your journey,” and (laughing) (0:23:04) Dalan: don’t know what’s coming. (0:23:06) Al: But I also like how there are so many Pokemon you can just catch in the wild now. (0:23:13) Al: And that’s the same for Legends Arceus. (0:23:15) Al: There’s so many Pokemon that you don’t have to evolve, you can just catch all of them (0:23:19) Al: in the wild. (0:23:20) Dalan: Wow (0:23:21) Al: I really like that part of it. (0:23:24) Al: So yeah, so I guess Legends Arceus was kind of a kind of between the two. (0:23:29) Al: So I think you have like 60 or so in the first region, and then it gets smaller and smaller (0:23:34) Dalan: Right (0:23:35) Al: as you go. (0:23:36) Al: It felt pretty well balanced in terms of how many Pokémon you have to get for the first (0:23:41) Al: three areas at least, and then the last two were quite quick. But yeah, well, the last area would (0:23:48) Al: have been quick if it weren’t for Spiritomb. Oh my word. I love Legends Arceus, and I love it even (0:23:52) Dalan: - True, yeah. (0:23:56) Al: more now that I’ve done a second playthrough. I just love so much about it. But Spiritomb, (0:24:02) Dalan: But yeah, no, I that’s understandable. (0:24:04) Al: I did not enjoy it. It’s like… (0:24:06) Al: 107 wisps across this huge game was not fun. Yeah, it is. (0:24:11) Dalan: It’s kind of a lot. (0:24:13) Dalan: Yeah, I never finished Legends Arceus, but I I did enjoy playing that game a lot. (0:24:19) Dalan: And I do think that is a game that could lend itself pretty well to that kind of (0:24:23) Dalan: Professor Oak challenge, because it kind of does let you do the areas as you want to. (0:24:28) Dalan: Like, obviously, it’s like, OK, now you can go to the next area. (0:24:30) Dalan: and that’s kind of encouraged, but you can also just stick around. (0:24:32) Dalan: and keep doing stuff in that one spot. (0:24:34) Dalan: So it’s pretty cool. (0:24:36) Al: Yeah, yeah, I just played the story until it said right now go do the Lord to at the (0:24:40) Dalan: Yeah. (0:24:40) Al: end of this area. And I’m like, I’m going to catch all the Pokemon first. And it didn’t (0:24:44) Dalan: Yep. (0:24:44) Al: feel forced. It felt like I was just kind of cleaning up as I went. Whereas quite a (0:24:48) Dalan: Yeah. (0:24:49) Al: lot of Professor Oak challenges, they feel like you’re like, no, I’m going to stay in (0:24:53) Al: this area and I’m going to battle this specific Pokemon, which gives the most XP before the (0:24:54) Dalan: Yeah. (0:24:59) Al: first gym to evolve my level 36 starter. (0:25:04) Dalan: It’s a fight against the game (0:25:06) Al: Exactly, exactly. Whereas the way this game works is much more like, no, I’m actually (0:25:11) Al: playing it how they wanted me to play it. Now they didn’t expect that I would necessarily (0:25:15) Al: catch absolutely everything before the next area, but there’s absolutely no forcing there. (0:25:21) Al: It definitely feels designed like that. (0:25:22) Dalan: Yeah, honestly, I think I should have played the game more like that because I kind of wanted to keep the story going but (0:25:27) Dalan: At the I was I was torn between wanting to like see how things were progressing and also being like (0:25:34) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (0:25:35) Dalan: Because it’s sort of fun it’s it’s satisfying to move around and to to throw the pokeballs and stuff (0:25:40) Dalan: I haven’t really touched scarlet and violet. I think I (0:25:44) Dalan: Might have briefly tried playing it in Japanese as practice and then I was like, oh, yeah (0:25:49) Dalan: I’m still terrible at Japanese. So I gave up a bet (0:25:53) Dalan: But I do I would like to return to it at some point and did Arceus as well (0:25:58) Dalan: I think that would be a really fun time because I did enjoy that game quite a bit (0:26:04) Al: I decided that it was time to do it because with the new game coming out, I either, (0:26:10) Al: I’m not going to be able to go back to Legends Arceus because the new game is just that but better, (0:26:15) Al: or it’s not going to be good and I’ll be disappointed, but then I will have played (0:26:20) Al: a good game this year. So it’s like, one or the other, I want to have played it now, you know. (0:26:22) Dalan: Yes, yes. (0:26:23) Dalan: Silver lining. (0:26:26) Dalan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. (0:26:28) Al: Because there are some games that I really struggle to go back and play like, (0:26:30) Dalan: Mmm. (0:26:30) Al: Breath of the Wild, I can’t play anymore after Tuesday. (0:26:34) Al: of the Kingdom, because of what Tears of the Kingdom added. (0:26:38) Al: So yeah, I think if it was, which I really hope, I mean, we (0:26:41) Al: obviously have no indication of this yet, hopefully we’ll know (0:26:44) Al: more in a month and a half, but I really hope that Legends ZA is (0:26:49) Al: basically the same catching and traversal style as Legends (0:26:54) Al: Arceus, but more of that and more fun and more to do and more (0:27:00) Al: story and some, you know, quality of life improvements. (0:27:04) Al: What I would really like is them to add the Let’s Go feature from (0:27:08) Al: Scarlet and Violet into it as well, because I think having those (0:27:10) Al: two ways of being able to run around and catch everything in balls (0:27:14) Al: or send out your Pokemon to go and kill everything nearby. (0:27:17) Dalan: Mm-hmm (0:27:18) Al: I think those are both fun and could work really well together. (0:27:21) Dalan: Yeah, that sounds like an interesting sort of combo of those ideas, man, I need to play this Krillin Violet (0:27:27) Al: Scarlet and Violet is a really mixed game and it’s like I, at one point I said if it ran better, (0:27:35) Al: it would probably be my favourite Pokémon game, but actually I don’t think that anymore. I think (0:27:38) Dalan: Mmm (0:27:39) Al: no matter what, I think Legends Arceus is my favourite Pokémon game. It’s just… (0:27:44) Dalan: Yeah, I would say that legends Arceus was definitely like the one I had been most charmed by and quite some time probably since like (0:27:51) Dalan: First Pokemon game like black and white and they didn’t enjoy the others per se but it was like, oh, this is new and interesting (0:27:57) Al: - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:28:00) Al: All right, so yeah, well, yeah, (0:28:02) Al: I finished the Professor Oak Challenge. (0:28:03) Al: I’m just catching the last few postgame Pokemon now. (0:28:04) Dalan: Oh, nice! (0:28:06) Al: So I think I’ve got the, I think before this recording, (0:28:12) Al: I just caught the Lake Spirits. (0:28:14) Al: So I think all I’ve got left are Geratina, (0:28:18) Al: the weather genies, and then Arceus, (0:28:22) Dalan: Mm-hmm great those guys (0:28:24) Al: and the two mythical. (0:28:28) Dalan: Mm-hmm cool. I look forward to hearing about that also curious about (0:28:28) Al: So, that shouldn’t take me too long. (0:28:33) Dalan: More thoughts on Rusty’s retirement as you play that more because I know we both talked about how we weren’t sure if that was (0:28:36) Al: Yes, it will be interesting to see how that goes. I will hopefully have more to talk about (0:28:38) Dalan: Game that really worked for us (0:28:45) Al: Rusty’s retirement in the near future. All right, let’s talk about some news. (0:28:48) Dalan: Sweet. (0:28:51) Al: Obviously, we had our big news catch up last week, and this is, as Dallin was saying before (0:28:58) Al: the recording, the quiet time of the year, which is very true. I think this is a very quiet time (0:29:00) Dalan: - Yes. (0:29:04) Al: for games for two reasons. (0:29:06) Al: Well, three reasons. One is January. (0:29:08) Al: Not a lot happens in January when put in games. (0:29:08) Dalan: - Yeah. (0:29:11) Al: Two, the Switch 2 is about to be announced, right? (0:29:14) Dalan: - Right. (0:29:14) Al: Like, that is imminent. (0:29:16) Al: And you know that everybody’s waiting for that. (0:29:18) Al: Some will be waiting because they have dev kits (0:29:21) Al: and they can’t announce anything yet. (0:29:23) Al: And some will be waiting to just see what it is (0:29:25) Al: and see if they can run their Switch games on it (0:29:27) Al: before they talk about it. (0:29:29) Al: And three, everybody’s terrified of GTA. (0:29:32) Dalan: Mmm, yeah, no, that’s a big game coming. (0:29:37) Al: So there’s basically no games announced coming this year outside of the first three months, (0:29:42) Dalan: Mmm. Yeah, it’s yeah, it’s a weird time right now in many ways. (0:29:42) Al: like for anybody at all. So yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. But we do have some news. (0:29:53) Al: So first of all, My Little Life, which is what I like to call a rusty retirement like, (0:30:00) Al: it is another game played on the bottom part of your screen. And this is a (0:30:06) Al: life sim rather than a farming sim. So you have your different rooms in your house and (0:30:15) Al: I presume office, I’ve not actually investigated whether you have more than (0:30:20) Dalan: My gosh this I’m looking at the announcement. I just haven’t muted right now, but in the release date announcement (0:30:26) Dalan: They have rusty’s retirement pulled up over top of the my little life screen. Yeah, let’s about 46 seconds in (0:30:30) Al: Oh, do they? Amazing. (0:30:35) Al: Oh, so they do. (0:30:36) Dalan: You can do it well answering work emails or even playing other games and then rusty’s retirement pops up (0:30:41) Dalan: So that’s that’s pretty funny. It’s just like yeah, I know what I know. This is sort of a copy (0:30:42) Al: I just read the transcripts of what they’re talking about, what you can do while playing (0:30:46) Dalan: Happy. (0:30:53) Al: it. And one of them is “or playing other games”. So they’re showing you playing My Little Life (0:31:01) Al: and Rusty’s Retirement at the same time, which I would say probably don’t do that. (0:31:02) Dalan: Two for one. (0:31:06) Dalan: I think that’s overload. (0:31:08) Dalan: I think that would break my brain. (0:31:11) Dalan: Too much things I can look at. (0:31:12) Al: Anyway, this game has announced, as Talon just said, their release date. So this is coming (0:31:17) Al: out on the 31st of January. So in two and a bit weeks. Yep. So if you like Rusty’s Retirement, (0:31:27) Al: you want another one like it, or you like the idea of Rusty’s Retirement, but you didn’t (0:31:31) Al: want a farming game while you’re listening to this podcast, then that comes out very soon. (0:31:34) Dalan: Yeah, very interesting, also like the Windows XP background in the tree. (0:31:39) Al: Next week. Yeah. (0:31:43) Dalan: Where’s that Vista? (0:31:43) Al: Yeah. (0:31:44) Dalan: I don’t know, I’m too young for this. (0:31:48) Al: Next we have the Sun Haven have released their next update for the Switch version. (0:31:54) Al: The Switch version. I mean it’s all just bug fixes basically. (0:31:56) Dalan: Hmm (0:32:00) Al: Except one thing which says added a save button in the settings menu. (0:32:03) Al: Could you not save the game before? I don’t. (0:32:05) Dalan: Ah, no idea. That seems good to have. (0:32:09) Al: Yeah. So if you’re playing, Sunhee, (0:32:12) Al: haven on the switch, you now have fewer bugs. (0:32:16) Al: Hopefully. (0:32:16) Dalan: More save buttons and hopefully you already had more than zero (0:32:18) Al: And more safe bugs. (0:32:20) Al: I’m guessing it does the Stardew thing of saving overnight, (0:32:24) Dalan: Right probably (0:32:25) Al: but they also have a save on demand thing. (0:32:29) Dalan: Right that would make sense (0:32:30) Al: Next we have Echoes of the Plum Grove (0:32:32) Al: have released their new year update. (0:32:35) Al: This is mostly bug fixes, but there’s a few features as well. (0:32:39) Al: You can add rugs and put things on those rugs. (0:32:44) Dalan: I was a little worried I misread the thing it says put furniture over rugs (0:32:49) Dalan: and I and costumes for kids and I combined them as put furniture and rugs (0:32:53) Dalan: over kids and I was like oh okay I know this is the sort of wacky or the like (0:32:58) Dalan: not wacky but uh macabre macabre game there we say that macabre it’s the R (0:33:03) Al: Yep, macabre, macabre, macabre. (0:33:06) Dalan: pronounced this is this is important I need to (0:33:10) Al: This will probably be a cultural thing, right? (0:33:12) Dalan: macabre. It’s macabre. (0:33:12) Al: Like macabre, death, about death. (0:33:15) Dalan: He got out again. (0:33:17) Dalan: That’s seems. (0:33:20) Dalan: Cool. Thanks. (0:33:22) Dalan: I knew that part. (0:33:22) Dalan: I was wondering how to say you. (0:33:24) Dalan: Thanks word. (0:33:24) Al: No, I know, I’m just simplifying it. (0:33:28) Dalan: It’s about it’s got some depth in it. (0:33:31) Al: And also new Halloween outfits. (0:33:33) Al: We’re a little bit late for Halloween outfits. (0:33:36) Dalan: Oh, some amazing fixes, Winter Gala should still be available even if the quest giver dies the night before. (0:33:42) Dalan: Good. (0:33:44) Dalan: There’s some spoiler ones I’m not looking at, but that’s the only fun one, so you don’t need to look for any more fixes. (0:33:52) Dalan: But, man, this game does intrigue me, I gotta say. (0:33:56) Al: Yeah, not many games have to worry about their NPCs dying, right? (0:34:00) Dalan: Yeah, that’s usually a Bethesda kind of thing. (0:34:07) Al: And our final piece of news, (0:34:08) Al: ‘cause I told you it was short, right? (0:34:10) Al: We had about half an hour of what we’d been up to, (0:34:12) Al: and now we’ve got five minutes of news. (0:34:13) Dalan: Well, I don’t think I saw this one. (0:34:15) Al: This is, that’s ‘cause I added it in (0:34:18) Al: like two hours ago or something. (0:34:18) Dalan: Ah, I see. (0:34:21) Al: Roots of Patcher have detailed (0:34:25) Al: their upcoming new regions to the games. (0:34:28) Al: So if you’re interested in Roots of Patcher, (0:34:30) Al: there’s some more details on that. (0:34:33) Al: Yeah, it’s not hugely detailed, (0:34:36) Al: but they’re just kind of talking about the new regions, (0:34:37) Al: which feel like the next update’s gonna be pretty big. (0:34:40) Dalan: There’s some, there’s some fun screenshots, well not screenshots, they’re slightly animated. (0:34:45) Al: Yes, there are. (0:34:47) Al: I still haven’t played this game, (0:34:48) Al: and I still want to at some point. (0:34:50) Dalan: It does, it looks nice, I could see myself enjoying it. (0:34:53) Dalan: I will keep an eye out. (0:34:56) Al: Well, that’s the news! (0:34:59) Al: So, Dalon, you’re gonna talk to me about Honkai Impact 3rd, and I have not played this game, (0:35:03) Dalan: All right. (0:35:06) Dalan: All right. (0:35:09) Al: so I have no idea how to start this other than, why are we talking about this game? (0:35:13) Dalan: okay yes let’s let’s start with why this is getting mentioned because honkai impact dirt is (0:35:18) Dalan: not a farming game and unless you count farming for materials uh oh I sure I have no idea what (0:35:19) Al: Shall I see what you said to me about the game? Let me read what Dallin said (0:35:25) Dalan: I sent to you oh boy (0:35:27) Al: when they first suggested playing this game. (0:35:32) Dalan: i’m half expecting like there to be an emoji with me like doing the the fingers pointing at each (0:35:37) Dalan: other I don’t know I i think it (0:35:39) Al: Where did you say it to me? (0:35:44) Dalan: it was probably a threat in the like the not the harvest slack but the other slack (0:35:49) Dalan: I don’t even think it was like a dm or anything I was like no it was just like we could do this (0:35:51) Al: It wasn’t a DM, no. (0:35:54) Dalan: so I i don’t think that’s even anywhere now we have we have no idea how this transpired just (0:35:59) Dalan: occurred uh yeah I think it it came up in video games because I mentioned that I was doing like (0:36:00) Al: so confused. We seem to have talked about it in multiple different channels, (0:36:04) Al: but I can’t actually find where you said it about it. (0:36:09) Dalan: a farming event in this game. You said there’s farming in this game? (0:36:13) Dalan: I was like, “Yeah, right now.” (0:36:15) Al: Okay, so, you said to me back at the end of November, the new Honkai Impact Third Update (0:36:22) Al: has a side mode that is Bilateral + Marvel Snap. The previous two side modes were a Farming (0:36:26) Dalan: Oh yes, I didn’t mention that. (0:36:28) Al: Sim and then Candy Crush Battles. And I said, “A what now?” (0:36:30) Dalan: Yes. (0:36:32) Dalan: Yes. (0:36:34) Dalan: That one just wrapped up, the Bellatrosnap. (0:36:38) Al: So yeah, you said, “I thought I posted about it, but I guess not. It was a Farming Sim (0:36:42) Al: that was about getting not Pokemon who (0:36:45) Al: run various buildings in your town, farm crops, mine for materials etc. They also had fishing, (0:36:51) Al: gotta have a fishing minigame. If you ever need a filler episode, (0:36:53) Dalan: That is correct (0:36:54) Al: I could definitely talk for at least 20 minutes about it, so set that timer now! (0:36:58) Dalan: All right, set the timer see how long we get to cool (0:37:04) Dalan: Yeah, I mean good job past me. That’s a pretty good summary (0:37:08) Dalan: So that’s that’s what we’re gonna talk about. I’m going to briefly just explain the concept of what the heck (0:37:14) Dalan: Hong Kai impact there it is. It’s a gotcha game first and foremost. So if you’re not familiar with gotcha games, it’s (0:37:21) Dalan: gambling, but legal. (0:37:24) Dalan: They have usually have these things called banners where there are usually anime girls that you spend points on, and then you have a chance to get that character it’s usually guaranteed after however many times you pull for that character as the terminology and yeah, that is that is the bulk of how they make their monies by having you pay money to get their new characters. (0:37:51) Dalan: So one of the ways (0:37:53) Dalan: they do this is by having these characters show up in side modes and (0:37:57) Dalan: stories and stuff. Usually they’re in the main story, but sometimes they also have (0:38:01) Dalan: sort of filler side content, and they tend to–Hoyoverse is the company that (0:38:07) Dalan: does this, formerly me, Hoyo, and I think that’s like–I don’t remember all the (0:38:12) Dalan: branding nonsense, but I go by Hoyoverse, and yeah. (0:38:12) Al: It looks like Mihoyo is still the name of a company. (0:38:20) Dalan: Yeah, it’s like international kind of stuff. (0:38:23) Dalan: It was Hoya vs. Kind of a rebranding thing that I tend to stick to just because most of their games are connected in some sort of multiverse way. (0:38:34) Al: So, the publisher is called Huyoverse. (0:38:38) Dalan: And the developers Mihoyo? Okay, interesting. I did not know that. (0:38:40) Al: Correct. (0:38:42) Al: But I believe they are separate companies, but it looks like Huyoverse was spun out from… (0:38:49) Dalan: Yeah, they’re essentially the same thing I imagine. (0:38:52) Dalan: They just handle like different parts of the process. (0:38:56) Al: Yes, but they are separate companies, they’re not, as far as I can see, not kind of possibly, (0:38:58) Dalan: Yes. (0:39:00) Dalan: All right, I figured it was a thing where like (0:39:02) Dalan: one was owning the other somewhere, but I don’t know. (0:39:04) Al: but I’m not, I can’t see any information on the ownership of Hoyoverse. But also, Hoyoverse (0:39:07) Dalan: I do not have the Wikipedia open right now (0:39:09) Dalan: and it’s not that relevant. (0:39:12) Al: is also called Cognosphere. That’s just another name for the same company. I don’t know why (0:39:15) Dalan: Hognosphere, I’m not familiar with that one. (0:39:19) Dalan: Okay, interesting. (0:39:25) Dalan: I assume it has something, (0:39:28) Dalan: the first result from three, (0:39:30) Dalan: the second result from three years ago on Reddit (0:39:31) Dalan: says it was a new proxy publishing label. (0:39:34) Dalan: So it’s probably ‘cause they’re based in China (0:39:34) Al: It does. Right. (0:39:36) Dalan: and they needed like other companies (0:39:37) Dalan: to be able to publish things. (0:39:38) Al: Yeah, but why is HoYoverse also called Cognosphere sometimes? (0:39:42) Dalan: Oh, no idea. (0:39:44) Al: But yeah, it does look like it’s fully owned subsidiary of of miHoYo. (0:39:49) Al: So parent company miHoYo, HoYoverse also called Cognosphere. (0:39:54) Dalan: publisher cool (0:39:54) Al: Subsidiary publishing company. Got it. (0:39:57) Dalan: Cool, that’s not confusing got it got it (0:39:57) Al: Perfect. Makes sense. (0:40:00) Dalan: Need a chart. I don’t need some diagrams after this anyway (0:40:04) Dalan: the brief history of miHoYo is (0:40:07) Dalan: Al have you ever heard of Evangelion? I? (0:40:10) Dalan: Want you to imagine that you are a couple you’re several people and that’s there (0:40:15) Dalan: There is a team of a few people in China in like (0:40:20) Dalan: Early, I think like the late 2000s who are really into Evangelion and they decide (0:40:24) Dalan: let’s make games inspired by that and so yeah that was kind of that is I assume (0:40:31) Dalan: why this game is called impact third because it is very heavily inspired by (0:40:34) Dalan: Evangelion which has something in it called the third impact however I assume (0:40:38) Al: Right. Okay. You lost me there for a minute. You were like, I think that’s why (0:40:39) Dalan: they little bit okay Evangelion has something in it called the third impact (0:40:41) Al: it’s called this because Evangelion. I’m like, I don’t understand what that means. (0:40:45) Al: Okay. I’m learning so much. (0:40:48) Dalan: so I think they took inspiration from that name and some of the things that (0:40:53) Dalan: that happen in that series. (0:40:55) Dalan: Uh, cause it features in this game is kind of a thing. (0:40:58) Dalan: Uh, basically just, yeah. (0:41:00) Al: Oh, this is also the Genshin Impact company. Anzendless don0. Goodness me. (0:41:02) Dalan: Yes, that is, they took the, yes, that’s Hoya verse. (0:41:07) Dalan: They have a lot. (0:41:08) Dalan: They also have something called tears of Themis, which I think is like a hot (0:41:11) Dalan: boy dating simulator, but I didn’t ever hear anyone talking about it. (0:41:12) Al: Yeah, I saw that as well, but I didn’t really care because it’s not one I care of. (0:41:14) Dalan: So I don’t know anything about it. (0:41:17) Dalan: Yeah, I, I don’t particularly care, but it does exist. (0:41:20) Dalan: Um, yes, yes. (0:41:20) Al: This game is older than those games. (0:41:25) Dalan: This is the one that I think really first took off. (0:41:27) Dalan: Uh, there were two that proceeded it, but one was literally just kind of like, (0:41:30) Dalan: uh, uh, you know, twin stick shooter, very short game. (0:41:35) Dalan: And the other was kind of like a prototype of this game. (0:41:39) Dalan: That was like a lot more zombie focused because zombies were really big back in (0:41:43) Dalan: the, uh, like late, uh, odds, I think, if you remember everyone liked zombies and (0:41:50) Dalan: bacon and pirates and mustaches and that, that kind of period of time. (0:41:52) Al: Yeah, I don’t think that ever actually went away, did it? (0:41:55) Dalan: No, no, well, no, but it was like, that was sort of a weird cultural (0:42:00) Dalan: cachet we had at the time. (0:42:00) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get you, I get you. (0:42:02) Dalan: Yeah. (0:42:03) Dalan: Anyway, so yes, that game I now, now I’ve confused myself. (0:42:08) Dalan: Uh, where am I anyway, how can I impact third it’s game. (0:42:12) Dalan: You can play, uh, one of the, as Hoya verse starts getting more and more money. (0:42:16) Dalan: Uh, they need to put like side events in their gotcha games. (0:42:19) Dalan: And I guess some of the game designers are like, what if we just started doing (0:42:23) Dalan: doing entirely different. (0:42:25) Dalan: And so across a lot of their games, there are events where you will just play like entirely separate games as side events, and some of them are really interesting. (0:42:34) Dalan: The problem is a lot of them go away after the event period is over because that’s not what the focus of the game is. (0:42:41) Dalan: I have noticed some lately and Impact Third seem to be like getting saved as things you can replay. (0:42:47) Dalan: And I think Honkai Star Rail keeps most of its events that happen, but not all of them. (0:42:54) Dalan: Part of that is because these are games you can play both on your phone and PC in consoles. (0:43:01) Dalan: Impact Third is only phone and PC. (0:43:05) Dalan: So to be playable on a phone, they wanted to decrease storage size. (0:43:10) Dalan: So they tend to delete content events that happened so your phone doesn’t explode from being just the game and having space for nothing else. (0:43:20) Dalan: So the event we’re talking about is they made, essentially, (0:43:24) Dalan: a farming sim that you can play. They’ve done this apparently twice. I was not playing when (0:43:28) Dalan: the first one happened, so I don’t know anything about it. It’s farming enough. I mean, that’s, (0:43:29) Al: or two farvings, some specifically. (0:43:34) Dalan: I would say it’s more focused on automation, sort of. Yeah, but it is around farming and development. (0:43:38) Al: Sounds like my kind of game (0:43:43) Dalan: So yeah, I, I’ll just, we’ll just focus on the, the event thing. And maybe I will explain more later. (0:43:51) Dalan: I don’t know because there are (0:43:54) Dalan: I don’t even know what to explain about the premise and it’s not actually that relevant to the story because it’s so (0:44:00) Dalan: So far off from where it began (0:44:02) Dalan: And in fact, I don’t know how it ties into the current story because I’m so behind in the game’s main story. Oh (0:44:12) Dalan: Man so basically this event was like there is oh shoot. I’ve immediately realized the thing I’m going to have to explain (0:44:22) Dalan: Well, it’s time to talk about parallel universes. (0:44:24) Al: Amazing. I look I am I am a nerd. I am a Marvel fan. I I love parallel universes. Give me give me some parallel universe stuff. (0:44:24) Dalan: Okay, so as far as I can tell, based on what I’ve played in the story, there is something in Hong Kai Impact 3, and possibly in the other Hong Kai game, I’m not sure, called the Sea of Quanta, which is just named after quantum stuff, which is like… (0:44:50) Dalan: imagine there are a bunch of parallel universes or alternate (0:44:54) Dalan: universes, but they’re all separated from each other. (0:44:58) Dalan: So there’s this space between them where weird stuff happens, where there are possibilities (0:45:04) Dalan: and things outside of it, and that’s called the Sea of Quanta. (0:45:07) Dalan: So sometimes you end up with things called bubble universes, which are like small specks (0:45:12) Dalan: of worlds or places or whatever that might have once existed. (0:45:16) Dalan: So that’s how they get away with a lot of their side content is this happened in a bubble (0:45:20) Dalan: universe somewhere. (0:45:20) Al: Ah, the comic book strategy. (0:45:24) Dalan: Sometimes it’s relevant to canon and sometimes it usually events are non-canon, but it’s (0:45:29) Dalan: non-canon in the kind of like, well, technically like this character was here for this thing. (0:45:35) Dalan: So it’s like, oh, okay. (0:45:37) Dalan: But this, this, this mode, you can’t play anymore. (0:45:39) Dalan: So I maybe I guess it wasn’t canon enough. (0:45:42) Dalan: So the main structure is like everybody’s gotten stranded in this bubble universe. (0:45:47) Dalan: You play as this character that they all really don’t trust because you’re the biggest prankster (0:45:52) Dalan: ever and also maybe you like (0:45:54) Dalan: kill people in the past. I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far in the game and you’re helping basically all of them set up thing. You have to have enough energy to escape this bubble universe. And so you’re trying to collect materials to power that and figure out what’s going on. So the game the game loop is basically you unlock new facilities and structures. So there’s a there’s a field. There’s a mine. You can go fishing at some point. Those are like the (0:46:24) Dalan: three main things you I would say you do the kind of activities. And so each day you were able to go to the main board which had a task and you’ll get some rewards from that. But you’re generally trying to follow this guy that is like add this structure collect this many not Pokemon. We’ll get to them in a sec and then complete these goals and more of the story will happen and you’ll unlock new abilities and features. (0:46:55) Dalan: And upgrade like your tools and stuff as you go. So it’s now I’m like going to the video thing I had to remember how things work. So one thing that any questions so far. Let’s take let’s take stock of what we know. (0:47:08) Al: I’m not even sure if I know much yet like it’s it might exist wait does this so does (0:47:13) Dalan: Okay, cool, cool, cool. Fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair. (0:47:19) Al: this one exists in a barrel in a bubble this is in a bubble okay right okay so I don’t (0:47:20) Dalan: This is in a bubble. This is all about this in a bubble. (0:47:24) Al: need to know about the rest of the game or any lore or anything like that right does (0:47:25) Dalan: You don’t need to know anything about the game to understand how the game works here. (0:47:31) Al: it cross over with the characters in the main game just non-canonly. (0:47:33) Dalan: Oh. (0:47:36) Dalan: I mean, again, I’m like, I think it is canon. (0:47:40) Dalan: It’s just like this is just a side event that didn’t really impact much. (0:47:42) Al: I guess my question is like, why does this game do this? (0:47:48) Al: Why does it add in random other games into it? (0:47:48) Dalan: no idea oh no no okay that that I should make clear this is all all of this (0:47:57) Dalan: world hopping that I’m talking about all these alternate universe this is in the (0:48:00) Dalan: same game this game plays with its own alternate universes there are (0:48:00) Al: You know, I get that. (0:48:03) Al: I get that, but this is a whole different style of game. (0:48:06) Dalan: yes uh I don’t I think like the developers at hoyo verse are just like (0:48:15) Dalan: they’ve got so many people chomping on the bit to just make new games that (0:48:18) Dalan: they must just be like alright you guys can go make this cool new side mode for (0:48:23) Dalan: this thing and they like let them off the chains and they they run and go make (0:48:28) Dalan: a cool new thing because they’re constantly doing stuff I know I maybe (0:48:33) Dalan: Kevin knows about this because I think he played zenless zone zero is like one (0:48:37) Dalan: of the events I missed in that was like there was almost a papers please mini (0:48:40) Dalan: game kind of thing where you play as an entirely separate character like a police (0:48:45) Dalan: recruit and you’re like helping figure out (0:48:48) Dalan: People’s problems and filing paperwork or something. (0:48:53) Dalan: Different events in Honkai Star Rail, I’m trying to remember. (0:48:57) Dalan: They had a much more direct Pokemon game you can play there. (0:49:01) Dalan: Cuz that’s an RPG, whereas I didn’t even talk about the genre of this game. (0:49:06) Dalan: I’m a fool. (0:49:07) Dalan: This is sort of an action game, I guess. (0:49:11) Dalan: Action RPG, sort of, there’s a lot of leveling up. (0:49:15) Dalan: but it’s similar to Zendless Zone 0 but (0:49:18) Dalan: much as I’d love to tell you random facts (0:49:26) Al: that’s fine okay I guess we don’t we don’t hugely need to know about the (0:49:32) Al: context right it doesn’t massively matter if you’re if we just will have (0:49:37) Dalan: Greenhouse exclusive me ASMR I tell you Hong Kai lore for 30 minutes (0:49:38) Al: another episode which is just you like brain dumping about the game itself so (0:49:48) Al: so key points it’s an action RPG game that for some reason adds in bubble (0:49:48) Dalan: yes yes (0:49:54) Al: universes that may or may not (0:49:56) Al: be canon that are completely different styles of games, because I don’t know why, doesn’t matter. (0:50:04) Al: And this one was key point was because they’re all temporary. Most of them are temporary. (0:50:08) Dalan: yes (0:50:09) Dalan: most of them yes for some reason some of the more recent ones you can play like the the (0:50:13) Dalan: Bellattro snap one you can play still it looks like (0:50:16) Al: Okay, and so this one is a farming sim of some sort. Great. That may be the longest introduction (0:50:18) Dalan: this is a farming sim yes farming sim automation thing it’s a rabbit hole man there’s so much (0:50:27) Al: that we’ve ever had. So let’s talk about the Honkai Impact third farming game. Does it have a name? (0:50:32) Dalan: stuff let’s yes I’m going to try and yeah so the name of this event was I think like (0:50:40) Dalan: wilderness wilderness development log so you’re like in this wild place we’re developing this (0:50:45) Dalan: ruined abandoned city where people might have (0:50:49) Dalan: lived just like millions of years ago in this bubble universe and getting stuff from it. (0:50:53) Al: It’s, is there one guy whose job it is at this company to make up names for these games? (0:51:00) Dalan: Oh, I have to assume there’s multiple. (0:51:04) Al: Because it’s like, we’ve got Honka- for goodness sake, Honkai Impact Third. (0:51:09) Dalan: I can explain all of the names very simply. Zendless Zone Zero sounds cool. That’s the only (0:51:16) Dalan: lead inspiration for that name. (0:51:18) Dalan: Honkai Impact 3rd, Honkai is actually a changing of the word “hokai” from Japanese, which means–and this is a Chinese company, I want to remember, they’re just massive weaves–which means, like, destruction or collapse. (0:51:32) Dalan: So, Honkai is, like, supposed to be this supernatural force in the canon of the game that–you could kind of think of it like entropy, almost, but a lot more direct. (0:51:44) Dalan: And so the impact there is just like, (0:51:46) Dalan: hey, there’s cataclysmic events. (0:51:48) Dalan: And we like Evangelion. (0:51:50) Dalan: Star Rail, that game, you are on a train in that game. (0:51:53) Dalan: That game is about going around the universe in a train. (0:51:55) Dalan: Hence Star Rail. (0:51:58) Dalan: And then I think Genshin Impact was just like, (0:52:01) Dalan: well, we need to have it connect to our game somehow, (0:52:04) Dalan: but we don’t want to call it Honkai (0:52:06) Dalan: because it’s not really about that. (0:52:07) Dalan: So they put the impact part. (0:52:09) Dalan: And I think Genshin means like Open Field or something. (0:52:12) Dalan: So that’s all the names. (0:52:13) Dalan: That’s why they’re called that. (0:52:15) Al: Fair enough. We were just going to talk about the farming game, (0:52:16) Dalan: There you go. (0:52:17) Dalan: Where was I? (0:52:19) Dalan: Yes, so– (0:52:22) Al: which you just said was wilderness log something. (0:52:22) Dalan: Yes. (0:52:25) Dalan: Wilderness Development Logs was the name of the event. (0:52:28) Al: Yeah. Okay, cool. Let’s do it. (0:52:30) Dalan: Yes. (0:52:30) Dalan: So I’m just going to like scroll through this video (0:52:33) Dalan: really quickly so I can remember the order of events. (0:52:35) Dalan: Basically, you plop in. (0:52:36) Dalan: It sets up the basics for the story. (0:52:38) Dalan: The story is mostly told in kind of like a visual novel. (0:52:41) Dalan: Two characters talk at each other thing. (0:52:44) Dalan: And then you get into the sort of top-down open world (0:52:47) Dalan: where you can walk around. (0:52:48) Dalan: with various facilities so starts you off just planting crops it does sort of (0:52:54) Dalan: a similar thing to Stardew Valley I mean all these kinds of games where you have (0:53:00) Dalan: the gradual upgrade of you can do one thing at a time now you can you know (0:53:05) Dalan: till multiple crops at a time etc which was pretty nice basically you start (0:53:12) Dalan: farming a lot of stuff and then it starts introduce it introduces the (0:53:17) Dalan: concept of these. (0:53:18) Dalan: I don’t know why they’re simulated because I’m like, wait, is this real or are we in a computer program? (0:53:27) Dalan: I’m not sure about that. They just call them that they got like there’s like a little pumpkin dude. They got like crabs, etc. (0:53:34) Dalan: And so all of those you find these randomly by like sometimes you’ll get one farming crops. They start introducing a shop where you can buy like one a day. (0:53:45) Dalan: you can get them in the mine and so you get these eggs that you can basically (0:53:49) Dalan: incubate and then you hatch a new one and it has, the higher the rarity, the better stats it’s going to have. (0:53:55) Dalan: And so all of them have stats. I think they’re, you know, like strength, intelligence, etc. (0:54:02) Dalan: And you want to assign them to facilities where they’re going to be the most effective. (0:54:08) Dalan: So yeah, you start with the farm, then I think you get like a ranch where you can start getting like milk and stuff, etc. (0:54:16) Dalan: And then as you progress into the game and you- (0:54:18) Dalan: had enough of these missions, you’ll get like, that’s the first, like, day or part. (0:54:23) Dalan: It’s not a day, but like the first part done. (0:54:26) Dalan: And then you unlock different character moments where you can be like, (0:54:29) Dalan: “Okay, here’s an event that happens with these characters.” (0:54:32) Dalan: And you can go see how they hang out. (0:54:35) Dalan: And then you get a little reward from going through it. (0:54:38) Dalan: Like the first one, you get a bunch of basically these things you need to craft stuff. (0:54:42) Dalan: The main currency, you get that. (0:54:46) Dalan: the other, the next one you, it’s like a lower. (0:54:48) Dalan: Where stamina costs, that’s something we should talk about actually is there is a stamina system in this game because it is mobile and it’s meant to be a game that you’re completing over the course of like a week. (0:55:00) Al: Oh, no. (0:55:00) Dalan: It’s an event so they don’t want you to do it all at once. I never really had. (0:55:03) Al: Oh, so it’s stamina, but like, let me guess, can you pay to get stamina back? (0:55:08) Dalan: There’s, I don’t think you can pay for it in this case but I could be wrong. (0:55:12) Dalan: It is. There is stamina this game has stamina systems and they’re kind of annoying, but it’s a good way for me to be. (0:55:18) Dalan: Like, okay, I’ve played too much of this game already time to go do something else and also like, I don’t know how you get them, but if you do run out of stamina, there is a like machine that just gives you more stamina and I never had to do anything to get those. (0:55:34) Dalan: It just gave it to me. So I have no idea what the stamina is for in this mode. It just kind of is so weird, weird thing. (0:55:42) Dalan: But yes, there’s like a list of facilities that would make this much faster for me to destroy. (0:55:48) Dalan: But that’s the main conceit is that you’re advancing the story, you’re unlocking different facilities. There’s a farm, there’s a mine, there’s a factory, etc. (0:56:02) Dalan: And then you, yeah, you keep collecting better simulated beasts that you can put into those things and they are giving you the materials you need to upgrade your facilities to be better with the end goal of having enough energy. (0:56:18) Dalan: To escape from the things and the story is almost kind of like rewards where it’s like, okay, cool. Now, what are these characters doing? What’s happening next? (0:56:26) Dalan: But if you don’t know what the heck is going on like me, you can also just be like, okay, cool. I don’t it seems like they’re having a cool conversation. That’s probably important to somebody. (0:56:38) Al: Yeah, yeah, fair enough. (0:56:39) Al: So I think it’d be good at some point to talk about the actual farming mechanics, (0:56:43) Dalan: Sure (0:56:43) Al: because that’s but before we get to that, I have a question. (0:56:47) Dalan: Yes (0:56:47) Al: Say now, obviously, this is in the past, so you can’t do it, but say (0:56:50) Dalan: Right (0:56:52) Al: the day it was announced, you come to me and you say, hey, this has been announced. (0:56:53) Dalan: Right (0:56:57) Al: I go, great, I want to play that. (0:56:59) Dalan: Right (0:57:00) Al: Do I just download the game and just click (0:57:02) Al: the farming bit of it, or do I have to play through a bunch of the main game to get to it? (0:57:03) Dalan: I think so (0:57:07) Dalan: I don’t think the events the main events. I don’t think are usually that restricted by it (0:57:14) Dalan: I will say I’m currently at max level so I don’t don’t have a reference point before level one what that’s gonna be like, but I (0:57:23) Dalan: Most of the game like side content is I think like the limited time event stuff is gonna be fairly open (0:57:30) Dalan: I don’t think you need to do much for that, but I could be wrong (0:57:34) Dalan: There might I know level 30 is like basically where pretty much everything in the game is available to you (0:57:40) Dalan: But and it doesn’t take that long to level up, but (0:57:43) Dalan: it is. Yes, 100%. You know, two hours. Yeah, 100%. Yes, it looks like this was a required level of 30 or higher. So it does seem like you would have to be playing the game already. So boo. You could get that in a week. It’s not fair, fair. I acknowledge I have more time. (0:57:44) Al: It’s, yeah, that’s still like, there’s a big difference though between you don’t have to do anything and you only have to put in two hours, right? That’s a big difference. (0:57:54) Al: And the other thing I would. (0:58:00) Al: Okay, that’s 30 seems quite high as well. (0:58:06) Al: Well, you might. (0:58:14) Dalan: Yes. (0:58:14) Al: The, the other question I have before we get into the specifics about the mechanics is the events over what happens. This, this part of the game is just completely gone, or right. (0:58:19) Dalan: Sure. (0:58:22) Dalan: Yes. (0:58:27) Dalan: Pretty much. (0:58:28) Al: So you log on one day and it’s there and you’re farming, blah blah blah blah. The next day, nothing. (0:58:32) Dalan: Yep. (0:58:35) Dalan: Yep. Yeah, it’s it’s pretty wild. It is. It is not good for any sort of game preservation. That’s, that’s the very. (0:58:36) Al: That’s fascinating. Why? (0:58:42) Al: Well, there is, I wasn’t even thinking about that. (0:58:44) Dalan: Frustrates me the most personally. (0:58:44) Al: What all I was thinking about was just like, if you’re enjoying a part of a game and then it’s gone too bad, right? Like that seems like such a restrictive thing. (0:58:52) Dalan: Yeah. (0:58:54) Al: I’m guessing, like, do people play this game in general, Honkai Impact? Third, do they play it for story? (0:59:04) Dalan: I would say if you are still playing this game, you are definitely invested in that. (0:59:10) Al: presumably that’s what this is for then. The reason you’re playing these side games is to get (0:59:14) Dalan: Yeah, it’s like the devs have fun doing a different game and you get to see your little scrunklies interact or whatever (0:59:22) Al: Just seems so weird to just not even let you do it even like they don’t even need to add any more story into it (0:59:27) Al: But like some people just like the gameplay of things (0:59:30) Dalan: Yeah, yeah, I agree. (0:59:33) Al: I love I love the graphics of this mode certainly (0:59:33) Dalan: It’s a bit silly. (0:59:38) Al: I don’t know if this is the same as other parts of the game, but it’s very it’s kind of like gds (0:59:39) Dalan: Yeah, I will say, (0:59:43) Al: - Yes, yes. (0:59:43) Dalan: they tend to do that for a lot of the signed content (0:59:45) Dalan: where like that’s sort of a, (0:59:47) Dalan: I think they have like this top down walk around thing, (0:59:49) Dalan: pretty set as like a thing in their code (0:59:52) Dalan: that they can pull out for, (0:59:52) Dalan: okay, we need a thing where you’re walking around (0:59:55) Dalan: an environment and we can pull that out. (0:59:57) Dalan: Not that they don’t have like physically walking around (1:00:00) Dalan: this is a lot less demanding and a lot more chill. (1:00:02) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah (1:00:05) Al: Okay, great. Well, tell me about the farming mechanics for I’ve had a quick look through a video of the gameplay (1:00:08) Dalan: Yes (1:00:10) Al: And they look pretty kind of standard. Tell me how it actually feels to (1:00:11) Dalan: Yeah (1:00:13) Dalan: It’s pretty standard (1:00:14) Dalan: Yes, uh, so it is honestly playing it on my phone. It was kind of annoying to you like (1:00:21) Dalan: Get the right setup for the grid though. I where it’s like, okay. I have to water the plants that I just put (1:00:29) Dalan: and (1:00:30) Dalan: The other weird thing about it is that basically anything you plant grows in like five seconds (1:00:35) Dalan: So you set up you take like (1:00:37) Al: Ah, interesting. (1:00:38) Dalan: Five minutes farming your entire thing or like setting everything up watering it by the time you finish watering one road did (1:00:47) Dalan: And go to the next one the beginning of that row is already almost done, which is (1:00:52) Dalan: Probably why the stamina thing is there? (1:00:54) Al: So you’re not just infinitely getting farming stuff forever. (1:00:57) Dalan: Yeah infinitely getting materials it’s a way to pace the game (1:01:01) Dalan: So you can’t just you have to figure out how you’re going to spend your energy instead of just being like, all right (1:01:08) Al: Yeah, I do. I have an interesting aspect. I mean, I had completely forgotten, of course, (1:01:12) Al: this is a mobile game. So yeah, it looks like a really not great. Oh, right. Like by like (1:01:14) Dalan: Right. You can play it on your PC, I did not. (1:01:20) Al: they have an official released on the PC version or OK, I feel like that. So I think the person (1:01:22) Dalan: There is an official release on PC. (1:01:29) Al: I’m watching is using a controller because it’s like all the all the. Oh, did you link (1:01:32) Dalan: yeah is this the video I linked or the I did link of it I did I linked it might be the same (1:01:35) Al: a video? (1:01:38) Dalan: one uh it’s in my reference points I have a wilderness logs event playlist and okay doesn’t (1:01:44) Al: It is not. It’s a different it’s a different account. (1:01:49) Dalan: that matter yes yes same here the one i’m looking at but yes those it is definitely going to be (1:01:49) Al: But, no, no, it doesn’t matter. (1:01:52) Al: But my point is just the icons all have a controller buttons on them. (1:02:03) Dalan: a lot easier to just tap on your screen though it does i’m pleasantly surprised that they have like (1:02:09) Dalan: different things written for all of them for just press this button like r2 plus x to open this (1:02:14) Al: - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:02:16) Al: But I guess one of the things about mobile farming games (1:02:20) Al: is they’re very rarely ever like this, (1:02:23) Al: your standard farming game, right? (1:02:24) Dalan: Hmm (1:02:25) Al: They’re much more like, first of all, (1:02:28) Al: they tend to be like bigger plots, right? (1:02:29) Dalan: Yeah, I’m aware of Farmville yeah, yeah, yeah, no I give it (1:02:29) Al: Rather than individual plots. (1:02:31) Al: Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, exactly. (1:02:32) Al: You know what I’m talking about. (1:02:33) Al: They’re all based on Farmville. (1:02:35) Al: They’re all based on that sort of structure. (1:02:39) Al: And obviously they also have stamina, (1:02:42) Al: but they tend to be, oh, very little stamina. (1:02:45) Al: And things take time to do it, but if you pay, you can get it faster sort of thing, which (1:02:47) Dalan: Yeah (1:02:50) Al: this doesn’t seem to be doing. (1:02:51) Al: And. (1:02:51) Dalan: Yeah, I would say the the actual farming of this game is probably one of the most annoying parts like the setting it up (1:02:58) Dalan: It’s nice that it’s so quick to get it and there’s there is one thing about the farming (1:03:02) Dalan: I do like is that they have a chance when you put a bunch of crops and epsks together (1:03:06) Dalan: There is a chance to get a really big crop (1:03:09) Dalan: So you can have four pumpkins next to each other and just get a giant pumpkin and then (1:03:10) Al: Oh, nice. (1:03:14) Al: I always enjoy that when it’s in-game. (1:03:15) Dalan: Yeah, they have the chance to mutate (1:03:17) Dalan: into the simulated beast things that we talked about earlier so you could plant (1:03:21) Dalan: a crop and I was like oh actually got like a new thing that I can put in one (1:03:24) Dalan: of my facilities so it it is kind of fun but it was like okay I do my things for (1:03:29) Dalan: the day and then I’m I’m done for now and I didn’t it becomes a lot more (1:03:36) Dalan: satisfying when you upgrade because of that because you get like these areas (1:03:41) Dalan: and I like I’ve seen that with the you know like in farming (1:03:47) Dalan: it’s like you upgrade your watering can it’s like okay now you can do a line (1:03:50) Dalan: now you can do a grid versus in the mines that they have it’s like now now (1:03:56) Dalan: your hammer is like hitting in a three by three grid where I feel like usually (1:03:59) Dalan: it’s just like oh you can you know break something that’s harder and they have (1:04:04) Dalan: that to some degree but like the idea of being able to clear out a lot at once I (1:04:08) Dalan: think is a fun upgrade for the mining section (1:04:12) Al: Yeah. OK, so the mining talk about that. (1:04:15) Dalan: Great. (1:04:16) Al: How does that work? (1:04:17) Dalan: Let’s talk about the mining. (1:04:19) Dalan: It’s pretty limited, I would say. (1:04:21) Dalan: And part of it is because the stamina is like you’re not going to have that much ability anyway to get very far. (1:04:29) Dalan: The ladders are set on set positions in the floor and the mine refreshes every day. (1:04:35) Dalan: But on the day that you’re playing it, the layout doesn’t change or anything. (1:04:39) Dalan: It’s all going to be permanent. (1:04:40) Al: Just to clarify, when you say day, do you mean endgame day or a person day, right? Okay, real life day. Okay, cool. (1:04:43) Dalan: I mean literal in-person day. (1:04:45) Dalan: It resets every day. (1:04:48) Dalan: It resets every real life day. (1:04:50) Dalan: So every real life day, you’ll have a different mine, but during the day when you go in and out of there, it’s going to be the same layout, anything you’ve mined will be gone. (1:04:58) Dalan: So if you clear out the entire mine somehow, you cannot get any more things from it until the next day. (1:05:04) Dalan: Except from the mined facility, which is separate, which is like automatically collecting like iron or gold or whatever. (1:05:12) Dalan: Depending on what you’ve upgraded it to. (1:05:15) Dalan: So, yeah. (1:05:17) Dalan: Each floor, I think there’s nine floors in total, and so you have to like hit certain levels in the rebuilding guide. (1:05:25) Dalan: That’s kind of the progression system for the game. (1:05:27) Dalan: You’ve completed all these missions, you’ve unlocked the next level, and here are the new things you can do. (1:05:32) Dalan: So I think it’s like level three, six, nine, maybe, you are unlocking like three sets of floors at a time so that you can go a bit deeper. (1:05:41) Dalan: You can teleport to, I think, again, like every three floors so you don’t have to go all the way. (1:05:48) Dalan: Through each time and you’ll get like more rare rewards the further down you are. (1:05:54) Dalan: So which tends to correlate with the kinds of materials you need for upgrades. (1:05:58) Dalan: So it’s like I made it down to floor six. (1:06:00) Dalan: I don’t remember the exact floors, but it down to floor six. (1:06:02) Dalan: I need gold to make the lab that I want to build to make that facility for the first time. (1:06:09) Dalan: So I’m going to go down there and I’ve mine all the gold and then I’ve upgraded. (1:06:14) Dalan: Once that’s set up, now I’ve upgraded my… (1:06:18) Dalan: …mine for the auto-collecting materials so that those guys are getting gold. (1:06:23) Dalan: And then I can use that gold to get the new thing that I need to craft and to make a new facility. (1:06:30) Dalan: So it’s a very clear progression thing. It’s pretty much always telling you this is the next thing you need to do. (1:06:37) Dalan: Here’s what you need to do to get there, and what’s in your way is mostly just… (1:06:43) Dalan: the time really is like what you’re willing to do in person and then when you’re willing (1:06:47) Dalan: to set up with the beast so that the you get the the sentence going nowhere (1:06:54) Dalan: what you’re willing to set up with the beast so that you get the automatic (1:06:58) Dalan: rewards each day when you log back in so it’s it’s set around that like sort of (1:07:02) Dalan: daily check-in do a little bit of stuff use that stuff to upgrade see the next (1:07:06) Dalan: thing that you’re done for that day (1:07:08) Al: Fair enough. Is there a day/night system in the game at all? And if so, is it linked to… (1:07:16) Al: Because I know you said the Minions reset on real-life days, (1:07:16) Dalan: Hmm (1:07:20) Al: but is there anything else that happens day-wise in the game? (1:07:21) Dalan: Right (1:07:25) Dalan: No, not that I’m aware if there’s no day night cycle there is I think there might be like an event where it takes (1:07:30) Dalan: Place at night, but that’s just like a story visual thing. It doesn’t affect anything in the gameplay (1:07:32) Al: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s fine. That’s right. (1:07:36) Al: That makes sense. (1:07:37) Al: It’s all sounding pretty, I mean, other than, (1:07:39) Dalan: It’s pretty standard in a lot of ways (1:07:41) Al: yeah, it’s all sounding pretty standard, other than obviously not having the day (1:07:44) Al: night cycle means that obviously you don’t have to go to bed. (1:07:45) Dalan: Hmm (1:07:46) Dalan: Yeah, yeah (1:07:47) Al: It’s more, I guess, animal crossing esque in that in that aspect of things. (1:07:48) Dalan: Yeah, yeah. (1:07:52) Al: But, yeah, it sounds kind of, yeah, pretty standard. (1:07:58) Dalan: it was a chill event I enjoyed going through it definitely uh in terms of the like I we kind of (1:08:04) Dalan: talked I think you mentioned before the kinds of games where you like to check in once a day to do (1:08:09) Dalan: things and that’s definitely like where this fits for me and why I enjoyed the event partially was (1:08:14) Dalan: just kind of the the incremental progress and what do I get today oh did you okay right okay I was (1:08:18) Al: I think I said I don’t like those kinds of games. No, it’s fine. It’s a good way of (1:08:22) Dalan: I was mixing up with something I read recently, I think. (1:08:29) Al: comparing things. That’s just not how my brain likes to work with games. I am what Cody calls (1:08:34) Dalan: Mm. Yeah, no, I do kind of get the hyper focus too, which is kind of why I think I appreciate (1:08:37) Al: a game guzzler. (1:08:43) Dalan: things that put limits on me. Like I’m out of stamina and I’m like, okay, too much. That’s (1:08:48) Al: Yeah, no, I just get frustrated with those. (1:08:49) Dalan: enough for today. Yeah, no, that’s understandable. (1:08:55) Al: Yeah, you know, I think the other thing that I think you haven’t talked about mechanics wise is fishing. Tell me about that. (1:09:02) Dalan: fishing yes so fishing uh let’s see if I remember how this works generally fishing (1:09:07) Dalan: once you unlock it is there’s like a couple spots that will show up on the beach as like (1:09:12) Dalan: oh here’s like a little circle where you can uh get fish i’m going back to the video to remember (1:09:18) Dalan: the fishing minigame is kind of stardewy where it’s like you I think when you uh (1:09:25) Dalan: get your fishing rod on the water circle that’s kind of like bubbling or whatever you immediately (1:09:32) Dalan: and then it’s just a matter of making sure that you’re moving it up and down in the (1:09:38) Dalan: the little fish bobber whatever I what do you call it what is the the fish bobber or line gauge (1:09:44) Al: the oh um uh yeah you mean the actual the yeah the gauges is uh because I initially (1:09:51) Dalan: the gauge that goes up and down no no no (1:09:52) Al: I initially thought you meant like the the thing on the actual end of the fishing rod (1:09:56) Al: no you mean the actual yeah gauge is a good one let’s go with it (1:09:58) Dalan: Yeah, yeah, so you you get that you get the fish it’s very (1:10:03) Dalan: Sometimes you get a fish sometimes it is an egg for one of the simulated beasts and like those (1:10:08) Dalan: There are different kinds you get depending on the area you got them from so like there are like water themed ones that you’re gonna get (1:10:15) Dalan: from getting the eggs from over there and then and so I’m trying to remember if it’s like a thing you unlock or if it’s (1:10:24) Dalan: Just automatically starts happening where you have a chance (1:10:27) Dalan: I believe to see ones that like have sparkles around them (1:10:30) Dalan: And I think you get like a treasure chest. (1:10:32) Dalan: Along with them. (1:10:33) Dalan: So I think there are only like a certain amount of, uh, excuse me, a certain amount (1:10:39) Dalan: of fish that you can get in a day. (1:10:41) Dalan: Once all of the like bubbles are gone, you cannot fish anymore. (1:10:44) Dalan: Cause there’s nothing or it might just be, no, I think you do need the bubbles. (1:10:48) Dalan: I don’t think that prompt will pop up for you to fish unless there is a spot. (1:10:52) Dalan: So that there’s, you’re fairly limited there. (1:10:55) Dalan: Uh, and you’re going to be gathering more from probably the fishing facility (1:11:00) Dalan: that you unlock, whereas you’re more likely to get (1:11:02) Dalan: rare, like, eggs and treasures from when you’re fishing yourself. (1:11:06) Al: Fair enough. Awesome. Is there anything else that you think is something that would be interesting? (1:11:11) Al: Okay, let me reword that. Let me reword that. What about this game do you think other farming (1:11:18) Dalan: I think the let’s see I appreciated the guide as kind of like a (1:11:24) Dalan: Very easy way to see what was next clear goals of like here’s the next sort of phase in the game (1:11:30) Dalan: Again, I’m sort of a just give me tasks to do kind of person. That’s why I enjoyed (1:11:35) Dalan: Luma Island so that I don’t know how much other people agree with that but that was good. I (1:11:42) Dalan: It has a lot of like (1:11:44) Dalan: sort of achievements (1:11:46) Dalan: There’s a collection where you can see every single (1:11:48) Dalan: like item you can get in the game basically and so if you want to you can (1:11:52) Dalan: go for all of those there is some I completed the full like story but there (1:11:56) Dalan: was some like extra content if you did one or two things and some interesting (1:12:01) Dalan: achievements you could get I looked them up after the fact and it was just story (1:12:06) Dalan: stuff that I had no context for so I was like that’s fine that I didn’t do that (1:12:08) Al: Yeah, something related to something that happened in like 2015. (1:12:10) Dalan: this is way behind yes yes I don’t know what is the card of it but yeah (1:12:18) Dalan: more recent stuff what else like one thing that they tend to do with these (1:12:25) Dalan: events is that the way that they incorporate them back into the main game (1:12:29) Dalan: is like once you hit certain milestones with the side stories you basically get (1:12:35) Dalan: achievements in the main game that’s like oh now you have more of this (1:12:39) Dalan: material or this reward that you can use for the main stuff that you’re doing so (1:12:43) Dalan: it’s still kind of rewards you the way that playing the main game would is just (1:12:49) Dalan: abstracted to a different game so I don’t know if I would want farming games (1:12:52) Dalan: to learn from that necessarily because that’s more of a gotcha game thing in (1:12:56) Dalan: general but I do think that is interesting how gotcha games make use of (1:13:01) Dalan: side stuff like this to try something different but also be like okay and (1:13:07) Dalan: here’s the stuff that you want for the regular game that you can stop playing (1:13:11) Dalan: or cool side project now (1:13:14) Al: Yeah, I guess they with farming games. They just tend to be a new game if they’re trying something new (1:13:19) Al: They don’t I mean like, you know who other than stardew is still updating their farming? (1:13:19) Dalan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:13:24) Dalan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:13:25) Al: Alright, well (1:13:26) Dalan: People who are still making it, I guess. (1:13:28) Al: Anything else you want to say before I wrap up? (1:13:30) Dalan: Uh, no, not really. (1:13:32) Dalan: I mean, it’s Hong Kai is an interesting series. (1:13:36) Dalan: If you want to join me in the pit of endless suffering, you certainly can. (1:13:42) Dalan: I don’t know if I’ll recommend it, per se. (1:13:45) Dalan: I’ll leave off with my one lower thing that I did. (1:13:49) Dalan: The way that Hong Kai Impact 3rd and Hong Kai Star Rail are connected is that one of the guys, there’s a dude in Hong Kai Impact 3rd from Finland who goes to this alternate universe in Hong Kai Star Rail, and he’s just your grandpa buddy on your space train, so that’s pretty fun that he’s the only character canonically from Earth in this other. (1:14:08) Al: Oh. (1:14:13) Al: And he’s from Finland. (1:14:14) Dalan: He’s from Finland specifically. Yes, specifically Finland. (1:14:15) Al: Of all places. (1:14:18) Dalan: He’s also an animator. Pretty fun. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for letting me blab. Pretty standard game, but it’s fun to talk about. (1:14:21) Al: I mean, you have to be from somewhere, I guess. (1:14:24) Al: All right, well, thank you for joining me, Dallin, again. (1:14:30) Al: Who knows? (1:14:32) Al: Who knows what we’ll be talking about next time? (1:14:34) Dalan: Oh, who knows? The bar is in the pit now. (1:14:41) Al: - Where can people find you on the internet? (1:14:42) Dalan: Yeah, so right now I mostly just talk on blue skies, so if you want to… (1:14:48) Dalan: See what I’m doing. You can check valiant.amm.bluesky.social. I mean, I’m on other places, but that’s mostly the place I talk now. (1:14:58) Dalan: So I have like a blog I’m working on, but I’m not. There is no intelligent thought there yet, so no need to read it. (1:15:04) Al: You can find me on mastodon.scot at thescotbot, I’m other places as well, but I’m not really (1:15:13) Al: prioritizing anything else just now. You can find the podcast on tumblr at THSPod, (1:15:19) Al: but the best place to go to find stuff about the podcast is our website, harvestseason.club, (1:15:24) Al: where you can send us feedback. We’ve got feedback from there. I read all the feedback sent into (1:15:31) Al: there. So if you have feedback, send it there. You can also… (1:15:34) Al: Find links to everything to do with the podcast, including a link to our Patreon, patreon.com/ghspod, (1:15:39) Al: where you can support the podcast. You can get access to our Slack, where lots of conversations (1:15:45) Al: happen. What’s happened recently in that chat, we have talked about… (1:15:51) Dalan: I scrolled up to see the picture of the puppy. (1:15:54) Al: Oh yes, yes, if you want to see Kevin’s puppy and also Cody’s dog… (1:15:59) Al: » Yeah. (1:16:00) Dalan: I think I stopped listening to the episode after that. I’m like, I need to see with puppy (1:16:04) Al: Also, you get to debate on whether Johnny buys Hank Hootie or not, (1:16:05) Dalan: I’ll shoot is it gone now? (1:16:11) Al: although I think it’s too late now. He’s either bought it or not. (1:16:12) Dalan: He’s probably he’s either bought it or he hasn’t influenced Johnny’s future purchases on (1:16:20) Dalan: Hoodie wear (1:16:20) Al: Let’s be honest, if Johnny is asking if he should buy something, he’s probably already bought it. (1:16:25) Dalan: That’s true, that’s a good point (1:16:28) Al: And I’m sure we’ll be talking about lots of other things soon. (1:16:32) Al: you can also get access to all (1:16:34) Al: our bonus episodes of the podcast. (1:16:36) Al: We just had one about what be and who was I on with? (1:16:43) Al: Me and remove the filter, delete the filter. (1:16:50) Al: Good thing I can edit podcasts. (1:16:54) Al: Me and Johnny and Kev, or did it just end up being me and Kevin for the upcoming (1:16:59) Al: episode, because it was meant to be me and Johnny and Kev, but I feel like Johnny (1:17:02) Al: through that. What does it just mean, Kevin? (1:17:04) Al: Anyway, whoever it was, me and some people talking about what games we’re looking forward (1:17:08) Dalan: And that was all, really all you need. (1:17:11) Al: to this year, and I’m pretty sure I say on that that I do not think that GTA is coming out this (1:17:16) Al: year. That’s my big prediction for 2095. GTA 6 is not coming out this year. (1:17:16) Dalan: Mmm hot take (1:17:22) Dalan: I can’t believe that escaped the premium feed y’all are lucky (1:17:26) Al: That’s my hot take. I can’t even remember. Oh yeah, the other thing was I predicted that there will (1:17:32) Al: will be both a new (1:17:34) Al: 3D Mario and a new Mario Kart this year. (1:17:37) Dalan: ‘cause you’re not gonna give them anything to listen to. (1:17:40) Al: Find out what other people are saying, (1:17:42) Al: because I’m not the only person with hot takes. (1:17:42) Dalan: - True. (1:17:46) Al: There’ll be other episodes coming up. (1:17:47) Al: I think we’re going to do a Sonic 3 episode, (1:17:50) Dalan: Oh. I saw that movie. (1:17:52) Al: because many of us have watched it now, (1:17:55) Al: so we’re going to talk about that (1:17:56) Dalan: Look forward to it. (1:17:58) Al: and some other things as well. (1:17:59) Al: All right. How do I finish this podcast? (1:18:00) Dalan: Alright. (1:18:02) Dalan: I’ve forgotten. (1:18:02) Al: I can’t remember. (1:18:04) Al: That’s everything. (1:18:05) Al: Thank you for listening. (1:18:06) Al: Thank you for joining me, Delyn, Dallin. (1:18:10) Dalan: Dallin. (1:18:10) Al: So close. So almost. (1:18:11) Al: Every single other time I said it in the episode, (1:18:12) Dalan: Let’s see if he remembers next time I’m on in two years. (1:18:13) Al: I said it correctly. (1:18:16) Al: Yeah, because you’re probably correct. (1:18:18) Al: You may have a year and a half ago. (1:18:21) Al: I think that’s everything. (1:18:23) Al: Until next time, listeners, have a good harvest. (1:18:26) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:18:26) Dalan: Have a good harvest. (1:18:27) Al: Woo! (1:18:36) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:18:40) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:18:45) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:18:50) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:19:00) Al: But I can’t actually find where you said it about it. (1:19:04) Dalan: Yeah, I think it came up in video games because I mentioned that I was doing a farming event (1:19:11) Dalan: in this game and you said, “There’s farming in this game?” (1:19:13) Dalan: I was like, “Yeah, right now.” (1:19:16) Al: I need to find this now. We’re not we’re not we’re not doing any more until I’ve found this. (1:19:21) Dalan: I’m just going to use the restroom while you’re looking for this. (1:19:23) Dalan: I need to make sure I’m ready, one second. (1:19:28) Dalan: I’m back for my potty break, any luck?…

The Harvest Season

1
Tell Us About Your Puppy 1:41:07

8 weeksที่แล้ว1:41:07

1:41:07

Codey and Kev catch up on all the recent news Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:06: Feedback 00:08:21: What Have We Been Up To 00:43:30: Game Releases 00:57:44: Game Updates 01:06:41: New Games 01:28:43: Outro Links Harvest Hills Release Chill Town Development Update Dragon Shelter Trailer Steamworld Build Physical Release Echoes of the Plum Grove Digital Art Book Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home “Controller and Cloud Save” Update Research Story “Shimmering” Update Go-go Town Roadmap Terra Nil “Heatwave” Update Cattle Country Litchi Town Cinnabunny Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Codey: Hello, farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Cody. (0:00:36) Kev: My name is Kevin, and we are back in the sad woodbeam. (0:00:40) Codey: Welcome to a new year. This is actually, this is actually being recorded in the new year. (0:00:41) Kev: Wow. (0:00:44) Kev: Oh yeah. (0:00:46) Kev: The first one. (0:00:49) Kev: Yeah. (0:00:50) Kev: Unlike the last one, which is recorded before a lot of the ones before that, which is wild. (0:00:55) Codey: Yeah, I just, I just finished. (0:00:57) Kev: Oh, wildflowers got a sequel, prequel, and I wouldn’t say it. (0:01:04) Codey: Yeah. So I guess so. Okay. So this episode is about a news catch up, (0:01:09) Codey: but we do want to hear Kev. (0:01:10) Kev: Yup. (0:01:14) Codey: I want to hear. So there’s a couple of things that we have to, (0:01:17) Codey: we have to talk about first, uh, all, but yeah, (0:01:19) Kev: I saw the note (0:01:22) Codey: I’ll put any feedback on game of the year. (0:01:24) Codey: So do you have any feedback on Rusty’s retirement winning game of the year? (0:01:28) Kev: Oh, so like, I’ll tell you what, my feedback is that this is just the, the, the (0:01:36) Kev: revenge of the, the coral island debacle of the previous year. (0:01:40) Kev: That’s what this is. (0:01:41) Codey: No, who would you have well you probably would have had wildflowers win, right? (0:01:41) Kev: Um, me, no, I mean, well, okay. (0:01:49) Kev: Some deep inside baseball, right? (0:01:51) Kev: Like this is, we’ve been talking a little bit on how to structure this (0:01:54) Kev: game the year, because it’s challenging, right? (0:01:57) Kev: with so many games that come out, right? (0:01:58) Kev: And we cover, you know, at most 52 games in a year, and obviously we’re not going to bring 52 games in a year. (0:02:06) Codey: Right (0:02:06) Kev: And furthermore, they’re probably not all going to be games that came out that year. (0:02:12) Kev: So that is a lot of games that we don’t play and consider and, you know, we might be missing things, right? (0:02:22) Kev: So like Wildflowers, we missed it the year it came out. (0:02:26) Kev: came out, so I didn’t put it in. (0:02:28) Kev: It wasn’t in the running for Game of the Year, so I think that we should maybe try (0:02:34) Kev: to aim for next year is like, we already started doing the categories or whatever kind of, (0:02:41) Kev: so I think there should be one for actually 2020, whatever, four, five, whatever, and then (0:02:47) Kev: one that we covered on the show that year, you know what I mean? (0:02:50) Kev: That’s probably how we should structure that, but either way, I mean, yeah, either way, (0:02:55) Kev: But a lot of thought was just not going to be my vote because we didn’t cover it last time. (0:02:58) Kev: I would have gone with Mika of course, but I get it. (0:03:00) Codey: Okay. (0:03:02) Codey: That was me, I was gonna say maybe Mika. (0:03:06) Kev: I will say I haven’t played Rusty’s retirement in myself. (0:03:10) Kev: Like I said, I don’t like the concept of something playing on your screen as you’re doing other stuff. (0:03:20) Kev: I’m the total opposite end of the spectrum from that. It doesn’t tell me at all. (0:03:26) Kev: Um, but I’m sure it’s fine. (0:03:27) Kev: Like what, what I, you know, (0:03:28) Kev: what I want to talk about, it’s great and, and what, right. (0:03:31) Kev: Um, and furthermore, like, uh, I think it was my, I don’t know, brought it up like (0:03:36) Kev: that, you know, it’s breaking more new ground than say Mika’s because Mika, you (0:03:42) Kev: know, there’s no doubt that Mika is definitely standing on the shoulders of (0:03:46) Kev: giants leaning on a Wind Waker aesthetic and the studio Ghibli and all that. (0:03:52) Kev: Um, so, you know, I can appreciate that. (0:03:54) Kev: Um, so, you know, Mika would have been my vote. (0:03:57) Kev: But I don’t know. (0:03:58) Kev: I’m fine with my sister’s time. I’m not complaining. I do like the rule but um but uh but yeah um yeah that’s that’s my only real thought um like yeah it’s fine not my vote but again for two-fold reasons and and I get why you guys picked it so I’m not complaining too much. (0:04:00) Codey: Mm hmm. Okay, yeah. (0:04:13) Codey: Hmm. Yeah, those of us with ADHD, it just tickles that itch for sure. (0:04:24) Codey: Okay, so the second question would be wild society. How are you? How do you? What are your thoughts? (0:04:30) Kev: So, obviously I’m hyped, right, because Studio Drydock has done fantastic work, kind of across the board, right, not just, except maybe the art style, which, you know, I’m not going to defend it per se, but the story they wrote, the mechanics, how they came about it, even their promotion, how they interact with the community. (0:05:00) Kev: Um, just call it stuff across the board, right? (0:05:04) Kev: Um, obviously I’m biased, you know, I’m going to go dove into wildflowers because of Ray and yada, yada, but, um, and bother is a lot of fun and whatnot, but, um, like the fact that we’re getting a sequel, one, that’s great, right, or people, I guess. (0:05:20) Kev: Um, and what’s exciting is that it’s not going to probably be a, you know, one-to-one sequel. We’re not on a farm now. We’re running a hotel bed and breakfast thing. (0:05:30) Kev: I don’t know if you remember, so, you know, I’m interested to see what we’re going to do. I’ll probably put, we had a lot of emphasis on the social interactions and whatnot, but, um, you know, that was, I think, one of the strong suits from wildflowers, like the community of that little island and people interacting and whatnot. (0:05:48) Kev: So, you know, focusing more on that, I think it’s going to be fun. (0:05:52) Kev: Um, I do wonder how the magic will fit into everything because, you know, you use the magic. (0:06:00) Kev: For farming, but here we’re just hosting key parties, question mark. So what are we, you know, what spiking drinks with potions was a feature in wildflowers. (0:06:08) Codey: - Yeah. (0:06:14) Kev: So, um, oh yeah, you’re right. There was like a seance thing. Yeah, right. There you go. That’ll be interesting. Um, but yeah, um, I mean, yeah, of course. (0:06:14) Codey: - Didn’t they have in wilds? (0:06:16) Codey: Didn’t you have a seance in the trailer for wild society? (0:06:28) Kev: Yeah, of course, I’m super excited for it. (0:06:32) Kev: I believe they already confirmed there will be returning characters, which is interesting because they think it’s going to be a fairly large time gap. (0:06:38) Kev: But there are characters who could show up. I can already name two or three of them. (0:06:44) Kev: So it’ll be fun to see them show up. (0:06:50) Kev: This is generally somewhat bad form, but I’m pretty sure the voice in the trailer was Valerie Rose Lohman. (0:06:56) Kev: So I’m sure she’s going to get a character in there. I feel like she has to, right? She has to. (0:06:59) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:07:02) Kev: So, you know, but we’ll see. I don’t know. (0:07:06) Kev: All in all, obviously, I’m very excited. It’s fun. (0:07:10) Kev: Yeah, well, John, my eyes are peeled and I’ll be day one buyer, of course. (0:07:14) Kev: I’m so open. (0:07:15) Codey: Well, and I will say that after everything that you’ve talked about the game and looking (0:07:22) Codey: at wild society, well, maybe we’ll be doing a second harvest of wildflowers this year (0:07:31) Codey: because I want to play it. (0:07:31) Kev: Oh, oh, oh, like, you know, obviously my hyperbolic cartoonish adoration of the game is great now, but like it is still a very solid game. (0:07:44) Kev: Like I cannot recommend enough. (0:07:45) Kev: Like it is up there with the, you know, the top Stardew clones or farming is whatever. (0:07:52) Kev: Um, it’s solid. (0:07:54) Codey: Yeah, yeah, no, it looks great. (0:07:54) Kev: Um, you know, cause you could just pass the, the style, I don’t play many once. (0:08:01) Kev: But hey, that’s good. That’s good. (0:08:02) Codey: So, okay, so, yeah, the, as I’ve already mentioned, today, the topic is news catch up, so we have (0:08:11) Codey: a lot of news to get through, but next section is the what have we been up to section. (0:08:19) Codey: And here’s the final question for Kev. (0:08:22) Codey: - Kev, you have to– (0:08:24) Codey: - I just remember you saying, “oh yeah, I got a puppy,” (0:08:26) Codey: and I’m like, “ah, I need details!” (0:08:28) Codey: And this is the first time we’ve been on a pod together, so… (0:08:30) Kev: Mm-hmm. Okay (0:08:30) Codey: I just remember you saying, “oh yeah, I got a puppy,” (0:08:32) Codey: and I’m like, “ah, I need details!” (0:08:36) Codey: And this is the first time we’ve been on a pod together, so… (0:08:38) Codey: together, so. (0:08:39) Kev: So yeah, um (0:08:42) Kev: Some recording I don’t I don’t remember where or what was the like where the harvest season (0:08:51) Kev: Time-wise where I was when I recorded near puppy (0:08:54) Kev: But okay, so I I feel like I did so, you know (0:09:00) Kev: Here’s show time if you go listen to if you listen to the the Rainbow Road radio the neutral show (0:09:02) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:09:06) Kev: I do with our friend now, it’s so are you things? (0:09:07) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:09:09) Kev: You you could he hear the puppy saga in real life in real time because I’ve given up updates (0:09:14) Kev: But anyways, so, okay, I’m gonna give context for people who might not know I imagine most folks might know (0:09:21) Kev: Things I brought it up here and there but okay. So first of all (0:09:26) Kev: two years ago (0:09:29) Kev: October (0:09:30) Kev: 29th, I know that I know the date it’s weird, but I I have a reference point but we lost our first dog passed away two (0:09:38) Kev: Years ago on October 29th heard (0:09:42) Kev: Whatever do you know it’s new year, whatever (0:09:45) Kev: His name was though though he we had him for 18 years same age as my brother (0:09:50) Kev: toy poodle (0:09:52) Kev: obviously left the big (0:09:54) Kev: hole in the family and all that (0:09:57) Kev: and so (0:09:58) Kev: Uh, but for the first while we were. (0:10:00) Kev: We’d been petless, right? (0:10:01) Kev: Um, uh, Kiyo about a year later, a little, it was actually around the (0:10:06) Kev: same time around November of 2023. (0:10:09) Kev: Well, we got two kitties, um, Daisy and Teddy, and they were very small kittens. (0:10:15) Kev: And they were just a couple, like three, maybe four weeks old when we got them. (0:10:19) Kev: Um, and so that was my first time having cats and, and, and they were fun and, and, (0:10:24) Kev: and all the weird and wonderful and really weird things that cats are. (0:10:30) Kev: But, um, you know, but they’re relatively chill compared to dogs, right? (0:10:33) Kev: They’re a little more low home maintenance. (0:10:36) Kev: Um, uh, anyway, so Q this past year on by like, did you no one realized? (0:10:43) Kev: Well, I was the first one to realize it on the same date, October 29th of 2024. (0:10:48) Kev: Two years to the day after though, though. (0:10:50) Kev: Um, I was given lucky as an early birthday gift. (0:10:54) Kev: Um, so he was a toy poodle, much like the, um, the other was a (0:10:59) Kev: blonde, light brown color. (0:11:01) Kev: is like red cinnamon type of fur color. (0:11:05) Kev: Um, he was two months old, I think when we got him, he was still a really little guy, all in all. (0:11:13) Kev: Um, so yeah, um, we got him, uh, took probably a week or two to pick the name and settled on Lucky. (0:11:20) Kev: That is his name. (0:11:21) Kev: Um, and he has been a handful, like, so Dodo was the chillest guy. (0:11:30) Kev: He was smart. (0:11:31) Kev: He was chill. (0:11:32) Kev: Like he, he, he putty trained himself. (0:11:35) Kev: It was wild. (0:11:37) Kev: Um, uh, and whatnot. (0:11:39) Kev: Um, and, and he was just chill. (0:11:41) Kev: He just loved hanging out in cuddling and whatever. (0:11:43) Kev: Lucky is your stereotypical, you know, or would you think of the dog like puppy storm? (0:11:50) Kev: Like he’s chewing everything, biting everything. (0:11:53) Kev: He’s running. (0:11:54) Kev: He’s very friendly. (0:11:55) Kev: He’s very social. (0:11:56) Kev: He loves meeting people. (0:11:57) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:11:57) Kev: Sometimes to Marsha Grin because if he ever gets up (0:12:00) Kev: the leash or will run up to other people and so you know but but yeah he (0:12:08) Kev: that he’s been here we set up the Christmas decorations he’s been chewing (0:12:12) Kev: on them so it’s been a handful I mean it’s obviously still very puppy and so (0:12:17) Kev: learning but he is a joy a bundle of joy he’s probably double means maybe even (0:12:24) Kev: triple not triple but at least double in size I’m sure since we got him but he is (0:12:30) Kev: a toy poodle so he’s still gonna be a little guy on all but but yeah he’s part (0:12:37) Kev: of the home now he’s obviously a lot of attention a lot of work now the cats are (0:12:43) Kev: interesting he gets along with one her name is David Daisy she’s pretty chill (0:12:48) Kev: with him usually but sometimes he’ll try to knit and you know nip play with her (0:12:53) Kev: like a dog would replay fighting or whatever and so she did she doesn’t like (0:12:56) Kev: that, obviously, because even though they’re a year old, they’re like, (0:13:00) Kev: he’s already bigger than both of them. (0:13:02) Kev: Um, and then Teddy, uh, I feel so bad cause poor Teddy, he is our sweetheart. (0:13:08) Kev: He is only, he lives up to his name of Teddy. (0:13:10) Kev: He’s a Teddy bear. (0:13:11) Kev: He’s, he’s, he’s sweet and calm and chill, but he’s so skittish and nervous. (0:13:18) Kev: Like he still freaks out over lucky. (0:13:21) Kev: He’s not used to him on like, not even like I’d say 50% like he’ll, he’ll hiss (0:13:28) Kev: and, you know, and do all this stuff. (0:13:30) Kev: keep his distance and obviously Lucky’s just a puppy he just wants to like run up and play (0:13:34) Kev: at him he’s not he’s never you know Lucky doesn’t have a mean boat in his body or anything um (0:13:41) Kev: but he’s just uh had he just not dealing well with the new so yeah um no that’s unfortunate (0:13:46) Codey: Yeah. I’m sure there’ll be best of friends because that’s how it always goes right like (0:13:52) Kev: yeah yeah yeah I imagine it certainly takes time right like obviously like I said never (0:13:57) Kev: had cats before, so I’ve always never had cats and dogs together before. (0:14:00) Kev: And obviously I did some research on that, and yeah, it looks like it can vary, like I said, (0:14:06) Kev: Daisy and Lucky can get along pretty well. But yeah, I’m sure Teddy will just kind of give it (0:14:13) Kev: time. He’s a very giddish sort of fella that’s the only thing about him. But yeah, that is Lucky. (0:14:23) Kev: Hold on. Let me send you a picture. I’m talking about it, but I didn’t even send you a picture. (0:14:26) Codey: I was going to say, please post one in the Slack, so that yeah, if y’all want to see (0:14:28) Kev: Sure, hold on, Lumi. (0:14:30) Kev: Okay, yeah, there you go, there’s your Patreon Slack exclusive. (0:14:36) Kev: Yeah, I’ll have to dig and find them. (0:14:38) Codey: baby toy poodle pics, and I am all for it. (0:14:46) Kev: I’ll try to find some earlier ones when he was real little cuz he was real like, (0:14:50) Kev: he could barely poke out of the grass standing a little. (0:14:54) Codey: Um… (0:14:54) Kev: But he’s a good bit bigger, but he still acts very much like a mate. (0:15:01) Codey: Yeah. That doesn’t go away for a while. Stella’s finally, can you stop? She’s also all up in my (0:15:03) Kev: Yeah. (0:15:08) Codey: business right now. Um, she, uh, only just started getting out of some of her puppyish like (0:15:09) Kev: Speaking of which, yeah. (0:15:18) Codey: behaviors, like, um, Aussies, both healers and shepherds will like bite at ankles, um, (0:15:27) Codey: to like try and herd you. She’s finally- (0:15:32) Codey: to me, she only ever did it to me, which is stupid. My partner would like be like, “get mommy, get mommy” and like she would come up and get my ankles and I would be like, “are you serious?” (0:15:36) Kev: Hmm (0:15:49) Kev: Yeah, oh my gosh, that’s the thing with (0:15:53) Codey: Look at the little lint. Oh, he’s- (0:15:56) Kev: Yeah, though the one on the left aside posted the picture on slack (0:15:59) Kev: He slackers can look at it now or you probably already have but um on the left side (0:16:04) Kev: Yeah, that’s close to when we got him. (0:16:06) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah. (0:16:06) Kev: He’s tiny. You can see him next to the leaves like for comparison and then to the right. That’s a more recent picture (0:16:11) Kev: That’s him with Daisy. Um, like I said, he’s bigger now (0:16:15) Kev: but (0:16:16) Kev: But yeah, the biting the biting’s insane cuz honestly though they never did the biting (0:16:21) Kev: But we hear he’s just nipping at everything (0:16:25) Kev: I you know, I have some facial hair. So he it’s not heavy facial hair, but he likes to nibble on it (0:16:31) Codey: It doesn’t, yeah, yep. (0:16:34) Kev: I just, you know, just nip, nip, nip. (0:16:36) Kev: at it. Um, but that’s, yeah, that’s the lucky saga. Um, good, (0:16:41) Kev: you know, good, uh, obviously good times. A lot of work every (0:16:44) Kev: day. Everyone is yelling, because he’s running around (0:16:49) Kev: causing chaos, but we still love him. And, and he, he’s a pretty (0:16:53) Kev: good boy. Like I said, he’s not aggressive or anything like that. (0:16:57) Kev: You know, he’s, he likes to bite because he’s playful or whatever, (0:17:00) Kev: but, um, yeah, he’s a puppy. Yeah. Um, yeah. (0:17:00) Codey: he’s a puppy that’s just puppy behavior classic puppy behavior (0:17:06) Kev: So that is the lucky saga. Um, well, you know, I’ll do it, you (0:17:10) Kev: know, as I look forward to Mark Phillips or whatever, I’ll, I’ll (0:17:14) Kev: bring up news if things happen. Um, but, uh, but yeah. Um, so (0:17:21) Kev: there you go. There, there you go overseas and folks, there, (0:17:23) Kev: there’s your catch up. Um, okay. So aside from that more recent (0:17:24) Codey: What else have you been up to? (0:17:30) Kev: times, um, I talked about it like when we record cause they’d (0:17:36) Kev: just come out. Like I think when, uh, when Al, I think I did (0:17:40) Kev: the episode of Al Marvel Rivals has been on the big ones, the (0:17:42) Codey: Yeah (0:17:43) Kev: Overwatch clone with Marvel stuff. Um, like. Yeah. Yeah. (0:17:46) Codey: That was really fun to listen to because (0:17:50) Codey: You like basically mentioned it and I was like, oh thank goodness that I don’t like games like this (0:17:57) Codey: Because then I don’t have to play it and then you were like, oh no, no (0:17:57) Kev: Yeah. Yeah, the funny thing, the funny thing is we were just talking and just shooting (0:18:00) Codey: Like it’s not what you think he was like, oh no, no, I have to play it (0:18:10) Kev: the breeze before we started recording that episode and I was talking about rivals and (0:18:14) Kev: he mentioned because like the camera thing was like the big thing and he mentioned that (0:18:16) Codey: Yeah! (0:18:18) Kev: and that’s when I was like, I’m going to button this right now so I can save this for the (0:18:22) Kev: show to drop the reveal on. (0:18:25) Codey: Oh, that’s so funny. (0:18:27) Kev: Oh, yeah, I am as best as I can. So there is a weird thing about like being multi-platform (0:18:27) Codey: So yeah, you’re still enjoying it. (0:18:37) Kev: or whatever. So Calvin likes it too, right? So he plays on our PlayStation. I play on (0:18:38) Codey: - Mm-hmm, okay. (0:18:43) Kev: a laptop that I have just so we can both play it or whatever at the same time. And the kicker (0:18:52) Kev: on being PC is I’m not a PC gamer, generally speaking. I can’t do the– (0:18:57) Kev: a mouse and keyboard and all that stuff, right? So I hook up a controller and I play that (0:19:03) Kev: way but I get bodied because there are those insane mouse and keyboard super aiming people. (0:19:11) Kev: And it’s also like you can tell the population skews younger because of course it’s free to (0:19:18) Kev: play so all the teenagers and kids and it’s Marvel, right? They’re hopping on. So they (0:19:23) Kev: They get a lot more practice time than say I do. (0:19:27) Kev: I get bodied. I’m trying my best. I try to focus or whatever, but it can be rough. (0:19:34) Kev: It can be a bit bumpy at times. I won’t lie, but yeah, it’s good stuff. (0:19:40) Kev: And we actually on the end of the first, they call it season zero, whatever the first battle pass, yada, yada. (0:19:48) Kev: So then there’s new content probably in the next week or two coming out, including the Fantastic Four. (0:19:56) Kev: And so, yeah. (0:19:57) Kev: Good, more exciting stuff to look forward to. (0:20:01) Kev: I’m always down for that. (0:20:03) Kev: But yeah, Marvel Rival continues to be a joy in the curse at times. (0:20:07) Kev: But but that that is it is what it is. (0:20:12) Codey: - Are you still playing Spider-Man? (0:20:13) Kev: Let’s see. (0:20:14) Kev: Um, so I play not Spider-Man is hard. (0:20:18) Kev: I’m not going to lie. (0:20:19) Kev: Spider-Man is really hard to play (0:20:19) Codey: Okay. (0:20:21) Kev: because he plays just like the PlayStation Spider-Man games. (0:20:24) Codey: Yeah. (0:20:25) Kev: but in this context, it’s real. (0:20:28) Kev: I struggle with him, and in fact, when I see Spider-Man players, I’m scared, because I know I’m a good player. (0:20:35) Kev: But, let’s see, my go-tos, I think after all this time, like, did you watch Spider-Verse, the first one into the Spider-Verse? (0:20:45) Codey: - Yes. (0:20:46) Kev: Okay, so Penny Parker, the anime one with the robot, the anime Spider-Verse, she’s in this game. (0:20:50) Codey: - Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:20:52) Kev: Um, yeah, she’s a little older, she’s more like, I think college age, I think. (0:20:57) Kev: It’s just, but she still has a robot. (0:20:59) Kev: I play her, she’s fun. (0:21:01) Kev: Um, she’s, she sets up like a little tower that shoots out spider robots and (0:21:05) Kev: mines and stuff, and so you kind of, you’re, you kind of set up an area where (0:21:09) Kev: you defend, um, that’s what she’s good at. (0:21:11) Kev: Um, so she’s my go-to tank, um, for healer, Jeff the Landshark, I don’t know. (0:21:17) Kev: Have you ever seen Jeff Landshark? (0:21:18) Codey: No. (0:21:19) Kev: Um, he, he, oh my gosh. (0:21:22) Kev: Okay. (0:21:22) Kev: So just hold on, let me send you a picture. (0:21:22) Codey: Okay, you’re fine. You could just say like, I’m sure that everyone, every listener probably knows what you’re talking about. So. (0:21:27) Kev: No, you see, here’s the thing. (0:21:31) Kev: No, here’s the thing, Jeff the Landshark in one of the freaks, (0:21:35) Kev: the deep butt pics that no one on Earth knows. (0:21:36) Codey: Oh, okay. (0:21:38) Kev: [LAUGH] Yeah, but Jeff the Landshark, okay, he’s basically a puppy, (0:21:44) Kev: but he’s a shark with legs, he doesn’t talk or anything. (0:21:49) Kev: And he just swims around and or like he can do the shark thing with the fin sick and (0:21:55) Kev: with the fin sick and now I can move around he heals people (0:21:57) Kev: and he shoots ice balls and all sorts of stuff (0:22:00) Kev: he’s fairly straight forward but he’s pretty satisfying (0:22:04) Kev: so he’s my go to healer (0:22:06) Codey: a puppy. But he’s a shark. Okay. (0:22:07) Kev: he acts like a puppy he does all the (0:22:10) Kev: yes he’s a shark yeah (0:22:14) Kev: yeah so he’s my go to healer he’s (0:22:17) Kev: yeah and like I said one of the cool things about rival is they weren’t (0:22:21) Kev: afraid to get some really deep cuts weirdo pics (0:22:24) Kev: Um, like Jeff, uh, (0:22:28) Kev: what is this that I do? (0:22:29) Kev: Alright, there we go. (0:22:31) Kev: Okay. Uh, sorry. (0:22:32) Kev: Um, so that’s my go-to healer just because he is pretty easy to use and he’s adorable. (0:22:38) Codey: Okay, he definitely looks like a puppy. (0:22:39) Kev: Um, he is just a puppy, but he’s all shark with legs. (0:22:46) Kev: Um, like, it’s a weird description, but that is exactly what it is. (0:22:50) Kev: Um, and then for my damage person, I picked Squirrel Girl. (0:22:54) Kev: She has squirrels, she shoots acorns with a sl- (0:22:57) Kev: she’s oh you don’t know squirrel girl ah okay again okay no you know what no (0:22:58) Codey: Squirrel girl dude I don’t know much of Marvel I yeah okay (0:23:07) Kev: again squirrel girl is a pretty deep but so her pull power is she can communicate (0:23:13) Kev: with squirrels like she you know she’s athletic or whatever but her superpower (0:23:20) Kev: is she can communicate with squirrels and so she will you know send armies of (0:23:24) Kev: squirrels on people and so on and so forth. (0:23:27) Kev: Um, she is an incredible character, something of a joke character, but also (0:23:33) Kev: played for like straight, incredible, like, like in her first issue, she goes (0:23:39) Kev: up against Dr. (0:23:40) Kev: Doom and takes him down with an army of squirrels. (0:23:42) Kev: Um, and, and just, she’s the best, like funny character, um, and she (0:23:49) Kev: dresses up kind of like a squirrel. (0:23:50) Kev: Um, and she has one on her shoulder at all times. (0:23:54) Kev: Um, but yeah, she, her name, in fact. (0:23:54) Codey: Okay, okay. (0:23:57) Kev: The moniker she’s often used is The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. (0:24:00) Kev: Again, just because she’s so, like, hyperbolic, um, goofy, um… (0:24:06) Codey: I mean, if a squirrel is trying to come at you, they’re going to get you from working (0:24:10) Codey: at the Wildlife Center, like I used to have this one squirrel that would sit on my shoulder. (0:24:11) Kev: Yeah? (0:24:11) Kev: Yeah. (0:24:16) Kev: Yeah. (0:24:17) Codey: But if he decided that he wanted to run all over and like suddenly be on my back and then (0:24:23) Codey: and suddenly be on my leg. (0:24:24) Codey: like he they they can do some crazy things oh you sent me a picture of her okay (0:24:28) Kev: Oh, yeah. (0:24:30) Kev: Yep. (0:24:32) Kev: Um, yeah, so she’s great. (0:24:34) Kev: People who know her love her. (0:24:35) Kev: She is, she is a, he is adored. (0:24:38) Kev: Like I said, she’s obviously low-tiered. (0:24:40) Kev: She doesn’t get pushed, like, some, but, um, but she, she’s great. (0:24:44) Kev: Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s Squirrel Girl. (0:24:46) Kev: That’s Marvel Rivals, and those are my three. (0:24:48) Kev: That’s my wacky crew. (0:24:49) Kev: Um, let’s see, aside from Rivals, uh, so I picked up a game, uh, just a couple days ago. (0:24:57) Kev: It’s called Armored Core. (0:24:58) Kev: Are you familiar with this? (0:25:00) Codey: No. (0:25:00) Kev: Okay. (0:25:00) Kev: Uh, are you familiar with, from software? (0:25:02) Codey: No. (0:25:03) Kev: Okay. (0:25:04) Kev: The Elden Ring, people. (0:25:06) Codey: Okay, okay. (0:25:06) Kev: Okay. (0:25:07) Kev: So. (0:25:08) Codey: So you don’t, you like pain. (0:25:10) Codey: You like… (0:25:11) Kev: Yes. (0:25:12) Kev: Yes, I do. (0:25:12) Codey: Okay, okay. (0:25:13) Kev: Okay. (0:25:14) Kev: So you’re familiar with Elden Ring? (0:25:15) Kev: Of course everyone is, right? (0:25:16) Codey: Yeah. (0:25:16) Kev: ‘Cause it’s the biggest game that year, whatever. (0:25:18) Kev: Okay, what if I told you the Elden Ring people said, “What if we, okay, now we wanna do a game, but it’s all robots and mecha?” (0:25:25) Kev: that in that case (0:25:27) Kev: gives you armored core (0:25:30) Kev: so it is a (0:25:32) Kev: it is the same level of polish (0:25:34) Kev: a very like grounded (0:25:36) Kev: you know realistic-ish visual style and whatnot (0:25:40) Kev: the challenge (0:25:42) Kev: I don’t think it’s as hard as Elden Ring (0:25:44) Kev: because Elden Ring is hard (0:25:46) Kev: it’s really hard (0:25:48) Kev: but armored core it’s a different flavor (0:25:50) Kev: because you (0:25:52) Kev: you know you’re controlling a robe alright (0:25:54) Kev: so you switch out parts you can (0:25:57) Kev: think you’re whatnot (0:25:59) Kev: and that’s a big part of the puzzle (0:26:01) Kev: like when you’re given (0:26:03) Kev: a new boss or whatever (0:26:05) Kev: they’ll heavily like hint hint (0:26:07) Kev: use this kind of robot (0:26:09) Kev: because if you’re not (0:26:11) Kev: you’re gonna be in trouble right like (0:26:13) Kev: Pokemon type advantages basically (0:26:15) Kev: so (0:26:17) Kev: there’s a lot of love and attention to detail (0:26:19) Kev: being a robot game you can (0:26:21) Kev: paint your robot however you want (0:26:23) Kev: and I’ll spend a lot of time doing that (0:26:25) Kev: Um, and, and, and. (0:26:28) Kev: It’s very fun. (0:26:29) Kev: Um, like I said, I don’t think anywhere near as hard as Elden Ring, but, uh, still satisfyingly challenging. (0:26:35) Kev: Um, it controls like how I’d want to, the robots will fly, they’ll dash, they’ll, you, you held two weapons. (0:26:41) Kev: You can have double guns or a melee weapon and a gun and missiles, all the, all the good stuff. (0:26:47) Kev: It is, it is very straightforward Mecha. (0:26:50) Kev: Um, so if you’re a fan of that, uh, you know, that’s definitely a thumbs up. (0:26:55) Kev: Okay. (0:26:56) Kev: Uh, that’s a lot from me. (0:26:57) Kev: But now, Cody, tell me, what have you been? (0:26:58) Codey: I have been, um, so I’ve still been playing like, uh, pocket and go, um, go, I am burned (0:27:14) Codey: by because, uh, the shiny work party hat weren’t bull was in, um, in the like new year’s challenge (0:27:26) Codey: or whatever. (0:27:28) Codey: And I still have it, like I’ve been playing every time that there’s an event where you can get this worm bowl and I still have it, like I’ve been playing every time that there’s an event where you can get this worm bowl and I still have it. (0:27:36) Kev: Oh no. (0:27:40) Codey: And I still have it, like I’ve been playing every time that there’s an event where you can get this worm bowl and I still have it, like I’ve been playing every time that there’s an event where you can get this worm bowl. (0:27:54) Codey: I’ve been playing every time that there’s an event where you can get this worm bowl. (0:27:58) Codey: And last year I was so mad about it that I got it tattooed onto my body because I was (0:28:05) Codey: like, if I cannot have a shiny party hat worm bowl in the game, I’m going to have one (0:28:12) Codey: as a tattoo. (0:28:14) Codey: And I’ve had plenty of friends be like, oh, I have one. (0:28:17) Codey: I can trade it to you. (0:28:18) Codey: And I’m like, no, no, no, no, no, I need I’m not going to have any traded until I’ve (0:28:22) Kev: do they not know the story of captain cody in the white wormhole (0:28:24) Codey: caught one on my own. (0:28:28) Codey: and the in the worm bowl. Yeah. Moby worm bowl basically. (0:28:32) Kev: actually I don’t think it’s white it’s like purple but anyways um (0:28:38) Codey: Um yeah, so yeah, it is my white whale. Um still didn’t get (0:28:43) Codey: it. I got to shiny Jigglypuff and I refused to click on the (0:28:47) Kev: Mmm! (0:28:49) Codey: hoot hoot. Um and yeah, but no worm bowl. So that game is now (0:28:56) Codey: dead to me until the next time. (0:28:58) Codey: that there is an event that I care about. (0:28:58) Kev: that’s cruel but no it’ll be back like oh that it so I’m not a fan of go it’s (0:29:04) Codey: I know (0:29:08) Kev: when it came out especially I was not an area that was conducive to it and so in (0:29:14) Kev: my whole lifestyle I’m still not the most conducive to it um excuse me um but (0:29:20) Kev: I do think that the party hats are probably like one of the best things to (0:29:24) Kev: come out of that game, especially if you put it on a ridiculous. (0:29:28) Kev: Those Pokemon like weren’t pull that that’s solid. (0:29:29) Codey: Yeah. (0:29:31) Kev: Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:29:31) Codey: Because the party hat’s almost too big for him. (0:29:35) Codey: It’s clearly about to fall off. (0:29:39) Codey: Yeah, so that has also started a thing. (0:29:42) Codey: I’m going to be meeting with my artist, again, probably (0:29:45) Codey: during spring break. (0:29:47) Codey: They’re going to be back in town. (0:29:48) Codey: And they’re going to add three more bug-type Pokemon (0:29:53) Codey: with party hats on. (0:29:54) Kev: I was about to say a warble tattoo every year until she catches it (0:29:55) Codey: No, no, we have, um, I think we have a Snome, um, with, with the, a party hat on each of (0:30:04) Kev: Oh, no, no, no, no, oh, that’s good. (0:30:07) Codey: its little bumpies, um, and then I want a Shedinja, but I want, um, it, it to be like (0:30:17) Codey: a ghost. (0:30:18) Codey: Um, no, so it’s a ghost, so it’s a ghost Pokemon, but like, I want it to be like ethereal, look (0:30:18) Kev: Okay, is it not already more ghosts than it? (0:30:25) Codey: game. (0:30:25) Kev: Materiel, alright. (0:30:26) Codey: Like I don’t just want it to look like it looks in the game. (0:30:28) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:30:30) Codey: And then I want the party hat to also be ethereal. (0:30:32) Codey: And then the last is, uh, not Sizzlepede, Sizzlepede, um, because it’s so grumpy and (0:30:42) Kev: mmm (0:30:42) Codey: I want it to have a black party hat. (0:30:46) Codey: I need my, my emo phase, yeah, my emo phase that was not a phase needs to be somewhere. (0:30:48) Kev: Oscar the grouch at the party. Oh, that’s that’s it (0:30:55) Codey: They’re presented. (0:30:57) Kev: So (0:30:58) Kev: Oh man, these man pokemon like so many solid bug pokemon. These are all solid picks of course. Um (0:31:05) Kev: she didn’t (0:31:06) Kev: it was like (0:31:08) Kev: And how many years been what 20 years since ruby and sapphire it’s still (0:31:12) Kev: my mind how they came up with that concept first you didn’t Joe and like (0:31:14) Codey: I just love it. As an entomologist, like every time I see a cicada shed, I’m just (0:31:16) Kev: you have to have the extra pokeball oh my it’s so good (0:31:26) Kev: yeah oh my gosh and it’s so good right like and (0:31:27) Codey: like, it’s its own thing. It’s a one hit point. Love it. (0:31:42) Kev: like you know obviously coming from Japan right like the whole cicada thing (0:31:46) Kev: schedules like that’s the bug collecting that’s a way bigger there um it’s genius (0:31:51) Kev: so good man bug Pokemon are so cool yeah I like hair across I like a lice upon (0:31:54) Codey: Correct. Send a scourge. (0:31:59) Kev: I like um like the other one and not that sizzle feed the other no no um not (0:32:13) Kev: no the big one Scolipede Scolipede that’s the one been five yeah that’s a good one (0:32:14) Codey: Oh. I think people know by now that I’m going to talk about bugs at some point in every (0:32:18) Kev: big old purple huge train bug oh I love it welcome to the bug appreciate Pokemon (0:32:24) Kev: appreciation podcast (0:32:31) Kev: that’s fine with that (0:32:34) Codey: pod. Yeah, so I’ve been playing that or I guess I’m not going to be playing that for (0:32:40) Codey: a while. Um, I’ve been playing Slay the Spire. So (0:32:44) Kev: Okay, have you- have you in fact slayed the spire? (0:32:45) Codey: Jeff, I have slayed the spire during the daily climbs. So have (0:32:53) Codey: you ever played this game? Okay. Yeah, so it’s like a card and (0:32:54) Kev: I have not but I am familiar with it’s the cards, right? (0:33:00) Codey: you’re going up a tower and slaying things. And there’s four (0:33:03) Codey: different types of characters that you can play, but one of (0:33:05) Codey: them is unlocked at first. But they have this thing called the (0:33:08) Codey: daily climb every day, which is like a random, like, version of (0:33:12) Codey: the game, but with modifiers. (0:33:14) Codey: So it’s like, Oh, you get this character, but every time you add a card to your deck, (0:33:20) Codey: it adds two more copies of that card and you can’t, you can no longer upgrade your cards (0:33:27) Codey: and you’re cursed, like, so it’s, they just like add all this stuff to it. (0:33:31) Codey: And so it’s kind of like a more difficult version and you have to change your gameplay. (0:33:36) Codey: So I have slayed the spire in the daily climbs, but that doesn’t count for achievements. (0:33:40) Kev: Yeah. (0:33:44) Codey: And I cannot for the life of me, beat this game without a daily climb. (0:33:52) Kev: mmm wow oh well hey I know that I know that feeling and then discuss it because ever present (0:33:54) Codey: So my partner has had to do it for me. (0:34:02) Kev: but i’m i’m still belatruing I actually just unlocked the final difficulty just yesterday (0:34:04) Codey: -Oh, yeah. (0:34:08) Codey: Yeah. (0:34:08) Kev: um so i’m i’m there but um I i get it i’m i’m trying to climb my own spire verbally (0:34:16) Codey: Yeah, I’ve, I’ve not quite gotten to Bellatro yet, but that’s because I’ve, I recognize (0:34:22) Codey: based on my love of Slay the Spire that Bellatro would take over my life. So. (0:34:25) Kev: That is correct that I look I look at sleigh as fire and I can see it’s it’s one-to-one (0:34:32) Codey: Yep. (0:34:32) Kev: It’s just a different flavor, but it’s the same concept your cards, and you’re you’re doing your runs with cards (0:34:36) Codey: Yeah. (0:34:40) Kev: Yeah (0:34:41) Kev: That’s good. Good stuff (0:34:44) Codey: - Yep. (0:34:46) Codey: And then I’m still playing Honeygrove, (0:34:48) Codey: still really liked that game. (0:34:51) Codey: Still play it every day, multiple times a day. (0:34:54) Codey: And also I have now begun the final year of my PhD. (0:35:01) Codey: I’m gonna be a bug doctor soon. (0:35:04) Kev: Oh, well, congrats. Okay, congrats. So, uh, not for a second, cause I thought you were talking about Honeygrove, but, um, but, um, uh, okay, so, so I have a friend who’s also been PhDing for a long time now, he’s had unfortunate professors and issues, so it’s dragged on for a long time. (0:35:14) Codey: Oh, yeah, sorry. Switch. (0:35:32) Kev: Um, now you say this. (0:35:34) Kev: Are you like, you know for a fact, that like, it is gonna be this year? (0:35:39) Codey: Okay, well, yeah, so basically, like, I, I set it at this year for this to be like the (0:35:40) Kev: I, I said, I don’t mean to sound threatening, but… (0:35:44) Kev: Uh, don’t re– (0:35:46) Kev: Look, oh– (0:35:53) Codey: last, like, possible time for my timeline. (0:35:59) Codey: Um, I mean, theoretically, like, stuff happens, but I do not have any more field work. (0:36:06) Codey: All I have to do is finish writing one of my chapters. (0:36:09) Codey: I’ve already published one of them in a journal and so that will just literally get like stapled into my dissertation as one of my chapters and I don’t have to look at that again. (0:36:19) Codey: This other chapter that I’m about to publish will be the same thing. So it’ll just be two chapters that my committee can’t say anything about because they’re already published. (0:36:26) Kev: Hmm, yeah, I look at that that’s the way to do it (0:36:29) Codey: So they’ll basically just be like, they’ll just be like, oh, yep, you did that. (0:36:35) Codey: like yep I did um so they’ll only have to (0:36:39) Codey: they can talk about um and it’s just can I get the stuff done in the time that I have and the (0:36:46) Codey: answer is yes um I will try and defend in the summer but um that’s I actually didn’t ever plan (0:36:55) Codey: to defend in the summer but I might be able to um but we’ll see I mean I don’t have to um I have (0:37:05) Codey: guaranteed funding for the rest of the year. (0:37:08) Kev: Oh, that’s great. (0:37:09) Kev: Well, oh, that that’s huge relief then. (0:37:09) Codey: Yeah, PhDs man, they’re great. Well, I guess PhDs in the life sciences, that’s the standard is that you get paid and you get tuition remissions so you don’t have to pay your tuition. (0:37:10) Kev: All right. (0:37:11) Kev: Well, Hey, congrats on that. (0:37:26) Kev: you know like yeah yeah for sure oh absolutely because I have a friend who I don’t think that (0:37:26) Codey: I have health insurance, like all of that stuff. So it’s not true everywhere. (0:37:36) Kev: is the case for him sadly um man like such nonsense like the way to get there the the road to it like (0:37:36) Codey: Yeah. (0:37:46) Kev: I you know I have my undergraduate degree right so like I it it boggles my mind because you know (0:37:54) Kev: up so pretty much up. (0:37:56) Kev: undergraduate it’s very clear like okay here your classes do them all satisfy (0:38:00) Kev: the requirements you get your thing right but once you go past especially the (0:38:06) Kev: PhD it’s it’s all just so nebulous question your checklist is question or (0:38:12) Kev: question your requirements are satisfied when the your professors say they are oh (0:38:20) Codey: Yeah. It’s basically like choose your own adventure. It’s like, undergrads degrees are (0:38:20) Kev: it’s why I don’t I don’t know how yeah man (0:38:26) Kev: I guess (0:38:31) Codey: basically like, okay, here is the proper formula, here you go, you need to have this done this done (0:38:38) Codey: this done, etc, etc. And then for a graduate degree, they’re basically like, here are some (0:38:44) Codey: courses that you need done, but you’ll get these done in the first two years of your degree. (0:38:50) Codey: It’s kind of a big old shrug. It depends on your funding. It depends on your advisors. It depends (0:38:55) Codey: on whatever. And if you have bad advisors, like you said your friend has had, they can keep you (0:39:00) Kev: Yeah. Oh. (0:39:03) Codey: forever. Like one of my friends, one of my friends, her advisor like would not let her defend even (0:39:11) Codey: though she was done, like she’s she was long done, because the advisor could just pay her (0:39:17) Codey: less money than having to like get a post. (0:39:20) Codey: I’m going to go to the postdoc. To do all that work. Yep. (0:39:21) Kev: right right like that’s one that’s one aspect that’s one aspect of it that just seems so grimy (0:39:28) Kev: like there’s clearly an element of very cheap labor for your advisory professors right like (0:39:37) Kev: I mean not yours specifically but like the the system is set up where that can be exploited (0:39:42) Kev: very easily and wow it’s oh academia oh oh (0:39:50) Codey: Yeah, I’m blessed in that, like with the advisors that I have, (0:39:51) Kev: uh-huh (0:39:54) Codey: the advisor that I have now, (0:39:56) Codey: like he doesn’t really do that kind of stuff, (0:39:58) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:39:58) Codey: but a lot of advisors do, they’ll just be like, (0:40:00) Codey: okay, well, I’m paying for your stuff. (0:40:02) Codey: And because of that, like you also have to help me (0:40:05) Codey: with these other projects. (0:40:06) Codey: So at this one point in the year, (0:40:09) Codey: so you have to drop everything (0:40:11) Codey: and like do this research with me, (0:40:12) Codey: even though it’s not gonna be in your dissertation. (0:40:16) Kev: It is to some degree a hostage situation, isn’t it? (0:40:17) Codey: like. (0:40:20) Codey: Kind of, yeah, and then it’s worse if you’re an international student because (0:40:22) Kev: Haha, that’s uh, huh. (0:40:26) Kev: Oh, oh that sounds terrifying, oh gosh. (0:40:26) Codey: then you have like less protections and yeah. Which is why some of us, some universities (0:40:34) Codey: have unionized and we at my university just recently submitted our letter to the Dean, (0:40:43) Codey: Dean, President, President of the university that we intend to unionize, so thank yous. (0:40:48) Kev: Hey, good for you. That’s great. (0:40:50) Codey: I think he’s crossed there because last time they did this, they threatened people. So (0:40:57) Kev: Oh, oh, fuck. (0:40:57) Codey: they can’t do that. They’re not, that’s illegal, but they did it last time and it didn’t, (0:41:02) Kev: Well, well, I don’t know if you know about strikes in the U.S. (0:41:03) Codey: but we’ll see. Yeah. Oh yeah, we’re gonna, we’re gonna have to do it possibly. (0:41:12) Codey: Hopefully they’ll, they’ll work in good faith and we won’t have to, but we’ll see. (0:41:16) Kev: Oh (0:41:18) Codey: So maybe, maybe. (0:41:20) Codey: Sometime in this year, uh, my, what have I been up to will be striking (0:41:25) Kev: Well, but you know (0:41:27) Codey: because yeah. (0:41:29) Kev: Over on Rainbow Road radio friend. I do a mutual friend Alex. He’s also striking last month. So (0:41:36) Codey: Oh my gosh, we’re just, we’re just rebels. (0:41:38) Kev: Hit him up for some for some tips (0:41:41) Kev: I guess (0:41:43) Kev: Oh (0:41:45) Kev: Oh. (0:41:46) Kev: Oh, labor, academia, good, good times. (0:41:52) Codey: 10 out of 10 would not (0:41:52) Kev: Welcome to the harvest season, where we talk about cozy games. (0:41:56) Kev: Ss, ss, ss, ss, ss, ss, ss, ss, ss. (0:41:57) Codey: We talk about so I mean that’s the joke right is that we play these games where we can live in fantasy worlds where we (0:42:04) Codey: can have a house and (0:42:06) Codey: Afford a house and a and a like all this (0:42:12) Kev: Where’s the unionizing update to research story? (0:42:12) Codey: Because that’s uh, not not reality (0:42:19) Codey: Oh my gosh (0:42:22) Codey: I would love to have a union (0:42:25) Codey: Like storyline in any game like where you just strike that would be (0:42:32) Codey: Amazing. I don’t know how you would incorporate that (0:42:34) Kev: Oh, I mean, like, alright, I’ll give you the relatively low-hanging easy path, the Jojo (0:42:42) Codey: Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah, I could see that. (0:42:43) Kev: route in Stardew, right, like, yeah, I mean, you got, there’s other people working for (0:42:51) Kev: Jojo already, so, you know, there’s, oh, oh no, I like this, this Spandfic I’m writing, (0:42:58) Kev: oh no, no. (0:42:58) Codey: oh no don’t don’t say this out loud he might listen and then haunted chocolatier will be even (0:43:04) Codey: more delayed because he’ll be like hey wait a minute that’s a great idea (0:43:10) Kev: Unless the ghosts in the Chocolatier, you mean, nice. (0:43:14) Codey: maybe he adds it into that game and stuff uh so yeah that is what we’ve been up to (0:43:18) Kev: Hmm. (0:43:21) Kev: Well, that’s a lot. Happy new- (0:43:23) Kev: Look guys, it’s a new year. There’s been a lot going on. (0:43:25) Codey: It is. It is. We’re. (0:43:28) Codey: We’re here for it. OK, so first we have some game releases. (0:43:34) Codey: So the first one in the list is Harvest Hills. (0:43:39) Codey: So this game released on the 15th of January and or will release. (0:43:46) Codey: Sorry, that’s the future. (0:43:50) Codey: Quote, thanks to the feedback from two major demo updates, (0:43:53) Codey: I’ve been able to fine tune game mechanics and make the experience even better. (0:43:57) Codey: The full game now features… (0:43:58) Codey: …an updated system for growing vegetables and fruits… (0:44:01) Codey: …an improved fertilizing system… (0:44:03) Codey: …a refined leveling system… (0:44:05) Codey: …a brand new product selling system… (0:44:07) Codey: …and more crops, vegetables… (0:44:09) Codey: …vegetables, fruit trees, livestock and homemade product machines. (0:44:15) Codey: My only comment about this is I looked at it and I need more information about those beehives. (0:44:23) Codey: They look… (0:44:23) Kev: - So. (0:44:24) Codey: They look legit. (0:44:26) Codey: Like those look like the standard Langstra Thives. (0:44:28) Codey: And we always paint them each frame or not each frame each body of the hive is always colored in really ridiculous colors and they did that. (0:44:40) Kev: Is that done intentionally or is that done just for giggles? (0:44:46) Codey: I don’t remember so I know that we paint them because you want there to you don’t want the heat like if it’s hot out you don’t want the heat of outside to like cook the hive. (0:44:59) Kev: Oh, oh. Yeah. Sure, sure. (0:44:59) Codey: So you always want it to be light colors but yeah on top of it being like colors I mean you can just have it be fun colors. (0:45:09) Codey: Sometimes you can like make it a color per hot like a certain color per hive or whatever but we always just painted them fun colors so I need. (0:45:18) Kev: Wow. So I’m, I’m looking at the trailer and stuff like my, okay. (0:45:24) Kev: It is more management style, like zoo tycoon, you know, (0:45:29) Kev: floating cam sort of thing, as opposed to starting where you can fill in the (0:45:32) Kev: character, but there’s a character who follows your like air where you click. (0:45:35) Kev: And he runs over there and then does the activity, which are kind of fun. (0:45:38) Kev: I think the coolest thing about here is the visual style. (0:45:41) Kev: Cause it’s almost like origami paper, like three heavy polygonal. (0:45:46) Kev: Um, so I’m like the cows almost look like (0:45:46) Codey: - Mm-hmm, yeah. (0:45:48) Kev: they’re made of origami or a box or something, um, which is charming. Um, so hey, but hey, good, (0:45:56) Kev: yeah, it looks decent enough. Um, I like those cows and you go pretty beehives. That is surprising. (0:46:02) Kev: We don’t have those before, but, um, there you go. January 15th, experience it yourself, (0:46:04) Codey: I like those cows. (0:46:06) Kev: the world of box shaped cows and fun colors. (0:46:13) Codey: So next on our list is Chill Town. (0:46:16) Codey: Um, they have a new announcement on Steam. (0:46:20) Codey: Um, and the gist of it is this just that the project slowed down because of money (0:46:25) Codey: issues, um, and they’re pretty transparent in there about what they are and where (0:46:30) Codey: the money is going and all of that, except for they can’t like mention (0:46:35) Codey: specifics because of confidentiality agreements, but, um, if you’re curious, (0:46:41) Codey: I recommend going and looking at that. (0:46:43) Codey: The biggest thing out of it, other than the fact that it was delayed, is, or is being slowed down, is that the 1.0, they expect it to come out this year, and that when the 1.0 comes out, it will have a museum system, it will have additional quest lines, different seasons and festivals, and clearly bug fixes and gameplay improvements from what is on the early access. (0:47:11) Kev: Uh, all right, so well, I mean, hey, first of all, props to like game development is so hard, right? (0:47:17) Kev: It’s such a brutal space to be quite frank. So yeah, condolences. But they they’re being, um, very, uh, (0:47:23) Kev: Up front and clear about it. Um, so, you know off to them and best of luck, like hopefully they are still on track, right? (0:47:31) Kev: this is one of the parts of early access as much as I uh, (0:47:36) Kev: begrudge the concept like giving these guys (0:47:42) Kev: a chance to make a little money, get a little few bucks coming in to help make the whole thing possible. (0:47:48) Kev: Um, but yeah, so, you know, yeah, best of luck to them. (0:47:53) Kev: Um, the game looks, it’s Animal Crossing E really, um, like there’s no doubt about it. (0:47:58) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:48:00) Kev: Um, I wish they would use at least a different name. (0:48:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:48:04) Kev: That’s, that’s the big, like, obviously the name is the first thing you see when we look at these things and just, (0:48:09) Kev: Oh, why, why, why does. (0:48:11) Kev: This corner of the game sphere struggle names, just make up your own fake island name or something. (0:48:19) Kev: Just to stand out a little. (0:48:21) Kev: But anyways, yeah. (0:48:24) Kev: Oh, my God, this is just and they got the pontoon is just crossing. (0:48:29) Kev: I’m sorry, but you do have a cat with you like running around with you, which Animal Crossing does not. (0:48:36) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:48:37) Kev: Oh, there’s a tarantula. (0:48:38) Kev: That’s a real look on the tarantula. (0:48:40) Codey: Yup. (0:48:42) Kev: But yeah, there you go. (0:48:43) Kev: If you need the animal crossing fixed, check the tilt down. (0:48:46) Codey: Yep, next up is dragon shelter. I don’t ever remember talking about this, so I (0:48:59) Codey: Got really excited. There’s a new there’s a teaser trailer out now (0:49:05) Codey: And I am here for this art style. I love how this looks (0:49:10) Kev: okay yeah that’s what it’s about to say right like with a bullet this thing like it’s very (0:49:19) Kev: dense forest right like it’s it’s you know we’re talking fantasy of course (0:49:20) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:49:26) Kev: dragon shelter right but it’s just beautifully done vegetation that’s what’s selling me like (0:49:31) Kev: even the dirt paths have like dirt sticking out and and just oh it’s such a piece for the eyes it’s (0:49:37) Codey: Yeah, and the physics engine of a lot of the stuff is really good too. (0:49:44) Codey: It just looks more textured and detailed than your average cozy game. (0:49:54) Codey: So I am here for it, props for that. (0:49:58) Codey: Also I loved that in the middle of the trailer, at some point you are carrying your dragon (0:50:05) Codey: friend to their (0:50:06) Kev: - Yeah. (0:50:08) Codey: Very little home there not their home, but they’re little like bed by the hearth in your in your home and (0:50:15) Codey: That is just the cutest (0:50:16) Kev: Yes (0:50:17) Kev: It is all right. So with a name like that (0:50:20) Kev: You the dragon part needs to be good. All right, and it looks really good because it is one dragon (0:50:26) Kev: It looks like that’s you know your pet slash friend and oh to start we are there more. I don’t know (0:50:28) Codey: to start with yeah yeah so later it says that there’s like other dragons and they each have (0:50:35) Codey: unique abilities and (0:50:35) Kev: Yeah, I see it. Okay. Yeah, I see it now then make it that far in the trailer (0:50:40) Kev: But but yeah, at least like you are taking care of a dragon. Oh, yeah, build your dragon shelter (0:50:46) Kev: Okay, this is a very solid concept for a game. I’m I’m looking forward to this (0:50:52) Kev: I love the dragon design to like what they’re using predominantly the trailers like blue. It kind of glows almost as like translucent wings (0:51:01) Kev: This is it what a good game (0:51:04) Codey: Yeah…definitely excited. (0:51:08) Kev: This is how you stand out take notes everyone else this is (0:51:11) Kev: This is how you stay in town. (0:51:13) Kev: Look, I’m all alone. (0:51:15) Codey: And then in their blurb, I really liked this one quote that stood out to me, so “For us, (0:51:22) Codey: this game is more than just a farming simulator. (0:51:24) Codey: We want you to experience how important it is to be friends, care for each other, and (0:51:28) Codey: become part of something bigger. (0:51:30) Codey: shelter is a story about friendship, warmth, and building (0:51:34) Codey: a world where you feel at home. (0:51:36) Kev: Mm-hmm (0:51:37) Codey: And I just like that emphasis on like, because you, you do, (0:51:38) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:51:41) Codey: like, care for your friends. And then also, it seems like you (0:51:45) Codey: help out your neighbors in kind of a unique way. (0:51:49) Kev: I do hope that pans out because like that’s one of the challenges a lot of cozy on for (0:51:56) Kev: games face right like a lot of the social interactions just become very transactional (0:52:02) Kev: right. (0:52:04) Kev: Like just sort of checklist of things to do to to get the benefits or raise your hearts (0:52:09) Kev: or whatever. (0:52:11) Kev: So you know and I think part of it is the fact that you’re like restoring your building (0:52:17) Kev: this town because yeah everything’s overrun (0:52:19) Kev: and they’re densely vegetated and you’re helping repair buildings and stuff like that (0:52:24) Kev: but I think that is a clever way to get your invested into the community and the town (0:52:29) Kev: oh man, what a good looking game (0:52:34) Kev: no obviously no date or anything yet but it’s (0:52:38) Codey: Yeah. (0:52:40) Kev: oh gosh I hope it comes out (0:52:43) Kev: actually actually (0:52:45) Codey: Keeping my eyes on it for sure. (0:52:49) Kev: oh teaser trail this looks like a lot of work has been done you know a lot of polish to (0:52:54) Kev: be quite frank so I’m actually confident on this yeah I’m looking forward to it (0:52:55) Codey: yep next bit of news is steam world build is going to have some physical copies (0:53:08) Codey: whoo um so on january 9th um which will be the day after this um there will be a physical release (0:53:22) Codey: and I’m wondering if it’s just like the first 2000 order. (0:53:25) Codey: or whatever because they say that there’s only 2000 copies of the PlayStation 5 available (0:53:30) Codey: and 4000 copies of the Nintendo Switch. (0:53:33) Codey: So I’m wondering if it’s just something you like order online. (0:53:37) Codey: And it’s the first however many people. (0:53:38) Kev: Yeah, no, it’s so it’s in with a third party site called super games and not familiar thing, but I’m assuming it’s just a limited run game situation. That’s, that’s just what I’m assuming this is. (0:53:40) Codey: I doubt it’s like we put a hundred copies at this GameStop and this place and like… (0:53:52) Codey: Okay. (0:53:55) Codey: Okay. (0:53:56) Kev: Um, yeah, and so they have, uh, yeah, PS5 switch up their trading cards, just like pay me to run games. Um, so (0:54:08) Kev: you can check that out. Um, they have, uh, yeah, they have a link to their website. There’s duck detective. Um, oh, smooshy physical smooshy on this website. (0:54:18) Codey: Ooh, interesting. (0:54:20) Kev: Oh, okay. Um, wow. Wow. They just went, they really, this is just limited run games at home. I’m sorry. Nothing to do with steam world bill. Just their, their, their abbreviation is SRG instead of LRG. That’s though. Um. (0:54:38) Kev: Yeah. Well, there you go. Well, I know steam world’s popular, so I’m sure people will be interested. Um, so yeah, I can keep you at 6 p.m. GMT or 10 a.m. PST. I’m gathering knives, you know, make sure you’re logged in so you can, or whatever. Stay up early. Um, all those good times to get your limited edition. (0:55:02) Codey: Yup. Next, just basic, the Echoes of the Plum Grove, you can now buy the digital art book. (0:55:13) Codey: So quote the art of Echoes of the Plum Grove is now available on Steam for $2.99 USD. (0:55:19) Codey: Come check out all the behind the scenes content and journey to making this game. The art book is (0:55:23) Codey: already available for those who’ve purchased the collector’s edition. So if you purchase that (0:55:27) Codey: edition, you already have it. But if not, this is now something you can buy. (0:55:32) Kev: You know, this feels like something I think almost every indie game should do. (0:55:38) Kev: Cause it feels like such a win-win, right? (0:55:40) Kev: Like it gets them a little more cash in their pocket, but it’s also, uh, it’s, (0:55:46) Kev: it’s cool art books are very cool. (0:55:48) Kev: Getting the behind the scenes look and just looking at the pretty pictures. (0:55:51) Kev: Um, this is a thumbs up for sure. (0:55:54) Codey: My brain, I was like, how much would you pay for a wildflowers art book? (0:56:00) Kev: Oh (0:56:02) Kev: Okay, are we talking? Okay for his oh gosh, I think like how how nice of a physical are we talking? Okay? (0:56:11) Kev: I did so (0:56:12) Kev: maybe I’m just (0:56:14) Kev: This is just me old manning. I’m like about the digital art books. Don’t do it for me as much like (0:56:20) Codey: Yeah, I get that. (0:56:20) Kev: So I and all is maybe 15. It’s a it’s a really big one (0:56:28) Kev: Now the physical though like that (0:56:30) Kev: We can you know, there’s some room to play because if you’re coming out with a real nice one hard copy (0:56:34) Kev: Oh, you would I pay 50 maybe? (0:56:40) Kev: The answer is not no (0:56:44) Kev: Well like 20 30 bucks, I think is a reasonable starting price for (0:56:49) Kev: And you know, it wasn’t just wild flowers for any card book. I think um, yeah (0:56:53) Codey: Mm hmm. Give me the, give me the art book for a dragon shelter. (0:56:55) Kev: That yeah, so but hey (0:56:58) Kev: Thank you. (0:57:01) Kev: » My gosh, please, you imagine how it must be like a painter or something, right? (0:57:06) Kev: Somebody made like, football and just, landscape, spoil, yes. (0:57:07) Codey: Yeah, there’s there’s some legit artists on that game. (0:57:12) Kev: My goodness, mm, that would be incredible, my gosh. (0:57:18) Kev: All right, but there you go, that’s available now already, yep, it is three bucks. (0:57:23) Kev: I will say three bucks is a great price, cuz it’s a small game. (0:57:26) Kev: It’s the art style is very paper Mario we so you know (0:57:31) Kev: Maybe not exactly quite the art book content you’d expect from other games, but yeah three dollars great price (0:57:37) Codey: Yep, just something you can do to just support the people a little bit more if that’s a game that you really like (0:57:45) Codey: Okay, so we have some game updates (0:57:52) Codey: So first is harvest moon home sweet home (0:57:55) Codey: They now have controller support and cloud save and that is available now the controller support (0:58:01) Codey: This is from owl the controller support works (0:58:03) Codey: well you can still use the go to this point on the map feature even when the (0:58:07) Codey: controller is enabled. Nice. He also says the cloud save doesn’t work. (0:58:12) Kev: The hot’s sick! (0:58:15) Kev: Oh yeah! (0:58:17) Kev: Oh, it’s got- it’s Harvest Moon, we can’t have it to feel good. (0:58:21) Kev: Um… (0:58:23) Kev: Well, yes! (0:58:25) Kev: Um… (0:58:25) Codey: I don’t remember what the issue is, but excuse me. (0:58:29) Codey: We talked about it a little bit in the Slack. (0:58:33) Codey: And it seemed funny, but I just didn’t listen. (0:58:36) Kev: Mm-hmm good times (0:58:39) Codey: But yep, so if you wanted to play that game (0:58:45) Codey: and you were waiting for controller support, there you go. (0:58:48) Codey: If you’re waiting on Cloud Save, maybe (0:58:50) Codey: wait a little bit longer. (0:58:51) Codey: Um, for them to figure that out, hopefully they have it figured out by by now, but I don’t think so. (0:58:52) Kev: Oh, oh, maybe, maybe a little, maybe a lot longer. (0:58:59) Codey: Yeah, they’re still figuring that out. (0:59:00) Kev: Uh, okay. (0:59:02) Kev: Like, I, these, when did this game come out? (0:59:07) Codey: I don’t know. (0:59:09) Kev: Because these, these always feel like, you know, they should be, um, (0:59:14) Kev: you know, kind of at launch almost really, right? (0:59:18) Codey: Yeah, like come on, you’re a big enough company that you should wire you to make it this way, yeah. (0:59:24) Kev: Yes, actually not sumi. Thank you right like an indie developer. That’s one thing but but yeah, that’s (0:59:31) Kev: That’s… (0:59:34) Codey: getting these big companies that are just like riding on the backs of people’s (0:59:39) Codey: compassion for indie games and they’re just like oh cool we can also do like no no no (0:59:44) Kev: do you know the worst part is like I know it’s been literally decades but it still breaks (0:59:53) Kev: my heart to see the harvest moon logo on this (0:59:56) Kev: oh my installed (0:59:59) Kev: alright there you go home sweet home you you you got your news that doesn’t fully work (1:00:06) Kev: on the date (1:00:10) Codey: Research story, the last major update before 1.0 is out now, (1:00:15) Codey: and they call it the shimmering update. (1:00:19) Kev: Where were we talked about this? (1:00:19) Codey: So they– yeah, so they add more shimmers, (1:00:25) Codey: which are basically shiny versions of the little creatures (1:00:31) Codey: that you can find in the game. (1:00:35) Codey: They add a greenhouse. (1:00:37) Codey: And a new heart level. (1:00:40) Kev: There you go. There’s a guy with a singular horn off to the side, not unicorn style. (1:00:45) Kev: I’m just noting that. The characters, they decided to do this person. (1:00:48) Codey: Oh, yeah, yeah. (1:00:50) Kev: I don’t know what their dinner is actually, but yeah, there’s a character with a horn. (1:00:55) Kev: Okay, good to know. (1:00:56) Codey: He might have one on the other side, but he’s in a side view so you don’t see that. (1:01:05) Codey: Yeah, so that is the that update is out now and then they’ve mentioned that in the 1.0 (1:01:14) Codey: update will add Red Heart events, a full marriage system, legendary research, ooh, continuation (1:01:22) Codey: and completion of our main story quest. (1:01:24) Codey: So if you’ve been playing in (1:01:26) Codey: the early access, like Bev and I did when we covered it on the pod, Bev played a lot more than I did, so I need to play more than they will be continuing that story in 1.0, which should be coming out sometime this year. (1:01:46) Kev: Yeah, well, yeah (1:01:48) Kev: Don’t hey there. It does sound like they’re gonna hit 1.0. They’re gonna hit all the tick marks (1:01:51) Codey: Mm-hmm we’re here for it. Next up is Gogo Town. They have a new road map so they (1:01:53) Kev: So good good for your research story (1:02:05) Codey: kind of in this update on Steam they kind of talked about what they did in (1:02:15) Codey: all of 2024 and they kind of like showed they actually got a lot done looking at (1:02:19) Codey: that the (1:02:21) Codey: updates that they had throughout this whole year, this (1:02:24) Codey: whole last year. They did a lot. kudos to them. And they (1:02:24) Kev: Yeah. (1:02:30) Codey: also talked about some updates coming up. So one is called bits (1:02:35) Codey: and bobs update. That’s coming just q1 this year sometime. And (1:02:42) Codey: they’re cleaning up gameplay and doing some other quality of (1:02:45) Codey: life things. They also talk about three other major updates (1:02:49) Codey: in their new roadmap. (1:02:51) Codey: All of these updates are to be determined when they’re coming out. (1:02:56) Codey: They have an online multiplayer or co-op one, which I think is probably what most people (1:03:01) Codey: are waiting for. (1:03:02) Codey: That’s what we all want in this game because this is such a goofy little game. (1:03:03) Kev: Yeah, really I mean (1:03:06) Kev: Yep (1:03:09) Codey: So that will be exciting. (1:03:13) Codey: And they also have a thing called grinding gears, which will give more automation. (1:03:21) Codey: So Al is rejoicing and then content explosive. (1:03:30) Codey: So a content explosion, they just say that they’re adding like more, I mean, more content, (1:03:31) Kev: More everything, I mean, that’s kind of what they need, right? (1:03:37) Codey: more things that you can collect or everything. (1:03:39) Codey: Yeah. (1:03:40) Codey: I mean, yeah, they’ve, they have the basics. (1:03:43) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (1:03:44) Codey: So now they just need to flush it out or excuse me. (1:03:50) Codey: You know, when there’s like. (1:03:51) Codey: You just randomly get hit with with the sleepies. (1:03:55) Kev: I’m pretty sure I’ve never been diagnosed, but I’m fairly confident. I could say I’m narcoleptic. So yes, I do know that feeling oh (1:04:01) Codey: Oh, wow. OK. (1:04:03) Kev: Yeah (1:04:05) Codey: Well, yeah, so I I’m just young and aware right now, (1:04:09) Codey: even though I do not really feel tired. (1:04:09) Kev: Oh (1:04:12) Kev: Oh man, oh (1:04:12) Codey: My brain was just starved for oxygen. (1:04:17) Kev: Yeah, um, yeah narcolepsy’s fun, let me talk (1:04:23) Codey: Ugh. The… (1:04:23) Kev: All right, you know what? (1:04:25) Kev: Is Star for Oxygen a (1:04:29) Codey: What? (1:04:30) Kev: Rundown world that’s all (1:04:34) Kev: Polluted and corrupted and that’s when the terra nil people show up (1:04:39) Kev: and so (1:04:41) Kev: We’ve got an update from terra nil. And so I’m my best. I’m trying not to scream people (1:04:50) Kev: It is the post is very short it is a heat wave coming (1:04:55) Kev: to Taranil Sue, they cool more details next year we have an image that looks (1:05:02) Kev: like two three new biomes several new animals oh we’re getting all we’re (1:05:10) Kev: getting new stuff for Taranil I’m so excited and look look at the the (1:05:19) Kev: audacity of these people they know what they’re doing they just drop it you know (1:05:23) Kev: just they’re too cool for us. (1:05:25) Kev: and then they’ll be back later. (1:05:26) Codey: - They’re taking something out of a concerned apes book (1:05:27) Kev: they dropped the mic and left. (1:05:33) Codey: with just dropping like one picture and like 12 words. (1:05:38) Codey: 12 words. (1:05:40) Kev: working because i’m here with my magnifying glass just just scraping this oh man oh there’s (1:05:47) Kev: a giraffe in there that’s new too very excited I love terranil very much so um so there hopefully (1:05:55) Kev: it’ll be new you know we get this content update this year whatever we’re gonna mess it like me so (1:06:00) Codey: - Yeah. (1:06:01) Kev: looking why I don’t think whatever um you know (1:06:04) Codey: Yeah, so I’m wondering if, so it says heat wave. (1:06:07) Codey: I’m assuming it’s gonna have drought (1:06:08) Codey: and probably fire, that should work. (1:06:11) Kev: probably so what’s interesting is that fire is a mechanic in terranil but it’s usually controlled (1:06:17) Kev: and you’d use it um so that’ll be interesting see you have to deal with it um yep um and yeah (1:06:18) Codey: Yeah, that’ll be uncontrolled. (1:06:24) Kev: clearly this is going to be a like big update that’s why it has the subtitle like beta nova did (1:06:29) Kev: um looking forward to it nothing I i can do nothing else but just sit and wait um because (1:06:36) Kev: There’s nothing else they didn’t tell us. (1:06:40) Codey: Yep. (1:06:43) Codey: OK, so finally, we have some new games. (1:06:47) Codey: There are three new games in this wrap up of things. (1:06:53) Codey: So the first is called Cattle Country. (1:06:57) Kev: All right, all that we know what has to be done. (1:07:01) Kev: Howdy, Parton. (1:07:03) Kev: Welcome to Cattle Country, the cozy cowboy adventure life symbol. (1:07:08) Kev: Become a determined pioneer traveling west to start a new life. (1:07:12) Kev: Make a home in the mountains, take on bandits, (1:07:16) Kev: discover dastardly plots, build a farm, (1:07:19) Kev: develop your town, and make friends with fellow residents. (1:07:23) Codey: Hell yeah. (1:07:23) Kev: There’s square dancing in this trailer. (1:07:28) Kev: It really is. (1:07:28) Codey: There’s also, I don’t know if you’re listening to the trailer, but they have a- it’s legitimately a song. (1:07:34) Kev: That’s the all I didn’t listen to. (1:07:36) Codey: It’s like a song that- (1:07:37) Kev: Oh my gosh! (1:07:38) Kev: Lyric! (1:07:39) Codey: There’s a lyrical song that’s like about come to cattle country. (1:07:46) Kev: Oh, that’s so good! (1:07:46) Codey: And like all the stuff. It’s pretty- I was listening and I was like, oh man, what song are they like? (1:07:52) Codey: Did they get the right (1:07:53) Codey: thing to play over this thing and then I was like oh no this is this is their song (1:07:58) Kev: Yeah. Oh, this is good. (1:08:00) Codey: which is wild because it’s like it seems like it’s a really good like quality like song (1:08:06) Kev: yeah they put effort into that absolutely um and this is just for like the revealed announcement (1:08:12) Kev: trailer or whatever um oh man this is yeah all the well so all right the game it’s well the game (1:08:21) Kev: it’s pixel art it’s stardew esque but more emphasis on the battles though the cows are quite big (1:08:28) Kev: actually there’s a lot of cows even you’ve got trained they’re bandits I don’t know what’s going (1:08:33) Kev: on you’re fighting like six seven bandits at one (1:08:36) Kev: you’re you’re you’re it’s it’s like what was that game called king of the (1:08:37) Codey: - Dude, and you straight up murder them. (1:08:48) Kev: prayer whatever the prairie game in stardew it’s that mini game but it’s (1:08:50) Codey: Oh, yeah. Yeah, you basically just Yeah, go on, scoot over. Stella decided to be on my lap and I didn’t want that. Yeah. (1:08:51) Kev: real yeah there’s a there’s a two-person (1:09:03) Kev: and sawing the thing going on here. (1:09:06) Kev: Okay, like, you know, all cowboy stuff aside, it looks like you get people going with you frequently, right? (1:09:16) Kev: And I’m gonna assume they’re not even just other players. It looks like maybe NPCs will join you for stuff. (1:09:21) Kev: And if that’s the case, that’s super exciting. (1:09:26) Kev: Obviously my interest is piqued. (1:09:28) Codey: Yep (1:09:28) Kev: Will we cover this so I can sing a version of the song? Maybe! (1:09:34) Codey: Whoever covers this on the podcast has to learn the song and you have to do a duet (1:09:37) Kev: » Yeah, yeah, there we go. (1:09:41) Codey: I’m looking (1:09:42) Kev: They got a demo, my gosh, I didn’t pay attention, they have a demo. (1:09:46) Codey: Mm-hmm (1:09:47) Kev: On Steam and all that stuff, that’s fascinating. (1:09:49) Codey: Yep, so (1:09:51) Kev: All right, there you go, Kappa County. (1:09:52) Codey: Something something to keep keep track of (1:09:54) Kev: Wow, this thing’s coming for real. (1:09:58) Kev: There you have free orders for Switch and PS5 versions. (1:10:02) Kev: Yeah, this is a real game. (1:10:04) Codey: a date? Oh, it just says this year. I think it just says 2025. Yeah, Nintendo Switch PS5 and PC (1:10:14) Codey: on Steam. So (1:10:16) Kev: There you go, um, yeah, like, you know, all fun and goofiness is the fact that NPC can join you around. (1:10:24) Kev: That feels like something they’ve been missing for so long in cottagecore games. (1:10:28) Kev: I can’t wait to experience that. (1:10:30) Kev: Um, good stuff. (1:10:32) Kev: Um, uh, all right, next. (1:10:32) Codey: Yep. Um, so the next, yeah, next game is called, uh, Litchy Town. (1:10:40) Kev: Yeah, which is an interesting name. (1:10:41) Codey: Um, quote, enter, enter the Litchy Town, a game that turns the rural life into a (1:10:49) Codey: canvas for your creativity, forge bonds with the townies and engage in the timeless (1:10:55) Codey: art of designing your own farm and cultivating friendships as the seasons (1:10:59) Codey: shape the landscape, savor the simple pleasures, (1:11:02) Codey: and the physical nature of the world. (1:11:06) Kev: So I will not be playing this because it looks like we’re (1:11:12) Kev: talking about slow games here. (1:11:15) Kev: You remember that whole thing? (1:11:19) Kev: Oh, I’m not. (1:11:21) Kev: I’m just remembering the, the, it wasn’t the end of the year episode. (1:11:24) Kev: We were talking about you didn’t like slow games or the, the slow aspects of games. (1:11:29) Kev: Um, that said, it doesn’t look particularly slow. (1:11:32) Kev: It looks, uh, it looks a lot like other farming games. (1:11:36) Kev: The art style is kind of nice. (1:11:37) Codey: Mm hmm. No, it’s it’s. (1:11:38) Kev: It’s kind of Japanese, not kind of, but it’s, there’s literally (1:11:42) Kev: Japanese on the walls. (1:11:44) Kev: It’s Japanese and oh, Chinese. (1:11:44) Codey: It’s China, it’s Chinese. (1:11:46) Kev: I’m sorry. (1:11:46) Codey: Yeah, it’s Chinese. (1:11:47) Kev: Let me see. (1:11:48) Kev: Um, uh, well, there you go. (1:11:51) Codey: I actually really like that. (1:11:52) Codey: So a lot of it looks like it incorporates (1:11:55) Codey: like traditional Chinese cooking and farming and festivals. (1:12:01) Codey: In one of the pictures or video, I can’t remember. (1:12:04) Codey: There’s a classic lion dancing. (1:12:08) Codey: Yeah, so I think it would be so cool if you are part of the lion in one of the like festival mini games or something and you do like a dance, oh my gosh, and it would be so cool if there was like a lion dance part of a festival where if you played with another friend, I don’t know if there’s co-op or not, or if they’re planning on co-op, (1:12:08) Kev: What? So cool. (1:12:19) Kev: Oh, that’d be so cool. (1:12:32) Kev: Yeah, you guys have to sync up the lion. (1:12:34) Codey: was the, yeah, like someone’s the front of the lion. (1:12:37) Codey: Someone’s the back of the lion. (1:12:38) Kev: That’d be great. (1:12:39) Codey: Uh, we had, my high school had, um, a couple families that were from China (1:12:46) Codey: and they did lion dancing and they brought a lot of that stuff to like assemblies. (1:12:51) Kev: Uh-huh. (1:12:51) Codey: It was so fun to watch. (1:12:53) Codey: Um, it’s just such a beautiful culture and like one of the oldest, we (1:12:53) Kev: That is so cool. (1:12:57) Kev: It is. (1:13:00) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (1:13:00) Codey: know, like that has everything. (1:13:03) Codey: So I’m excited to play for that reason specifically because (1:13:07) Codey: it seems like I would learn a lot about, um, because this isn’t, this isn’t like the regular (1:13:10) Kev: Yeah, they’re, they’re in there. (1:13:14) Codey: farming that you think of because this isn’t like Western like farming. It’s very much like (1:13:21) Codey: traditional Chinese farming. So though I will say it says rich relationships as part of one of the (1:13:22) Kev: Yeah. (1:13:23) Kev: Um… (1:13:30) Codey: things that’s in this game, the characters names are like shoe store owners. (1:13:38) Codey: And teacher. (1:13:38) Kev: Blacksmith, Pea House Daughter, and of course everyone’s favorite, the Flower Shop Girl. (1:13:44) Codey: Flower shop girl. (1:13:45) Kev: Actually, maybe my favorite, I don’t know what to say. (1:13:50) Codey: I like the dialogue. (1:13:51) Kev: Barber is very pretty. (1:13:53) Kev: What a very pretty barber. (1:13:54) Kev: Oh, teacher! (1:13:55) Codey: Yeah, teacher. (1:13:55) Kev: You’re gonna be hot for teacher! (1:13:58) Codey: Um, the dialogue looks great. Like the things that the people are saying, (1:14:02) Codey: like it seems like they have personalities and stuff. And I’m wondering if you come up (1:14:07) Codey: and you just know that they are the teacher and then after, and then they can introduce themselves (1:14:13) Codey: and then you get their name. Um, that would be cool. But so I look forward to learning (1:14:13) Kev: Oh, that, that would be cool! (1:14:21) Codey: these people’s names. Um, but yeah, I really like the look of this game. Um, (1:14:30) Codey: it just says coming soon. So there’s not like, uh, there’s nothing really going on in the (1:14:37) Codey: way of timing, but they do have a discord and, um, a Kickstarter project. Oh, and it says click (1:14:43) Codey: to follow our Kickstarter project. And there’s nothing you can click. Why can’t I click? (1:14:47) Kev: Oh, that’s a good choice (1:14:51) Codey: Why can’t I click? (1:14:52) Kev: So I need to (1:14:55) Kev: Okay, okay, hold on this through. Oh this threw me off for a second (1:15:00) Kev: Because the developers called us second life games (1:15:03) Kev: I googled it and I was getting results for that one game second life (1:15:09) Kev: And it’s a bit the virtual you know that one (1:15:10) Codey: Oh. (1:15:12) Codey: Yeah, yeah. (1:15:12) Codey: No. (1:15:13) Kev: Who me off for a second like wait, isn’t it? No, I don’t think it is (1:15:14) Codey: It’s not. (1:15:17) Kev: But um, um, okay. Yeah, okay. That’s all right. Well, I guess these guys are now don’t see a lot about them, but (1:15:27) Kev: Wow, this is a really impressive looking game. I got is um, cuz we’re talking full 3d. Everything is it visually it’s very pretty (1:15:35) Kev: um a (1:15:36) Kev: Lot of work in a lot of details like there’s so many cost outfits. There’s a you can jog in jogging gear (1:15:44) Kev: Like, you know, your full- your full sweatsuit. (1:15:48) Kev: Cooking systems interesting. Looks like you’re throwing like- or there’s a menu and you’re throwing ingredients and there’s different pots and woods and oh, it’s very pretty. (1:15:58) Kev: This is pretty cool looking. Also, you’re beating a giant toad with a stick. You’re just whaling on it. I don’t know why, but you’re just beating up on that toad. (1:16:04) Codey: Yeah. (1:16:06) Codey: crying yep (1:16:12) Kev: Yeah, that looks cool. There’s a- there is a panda. Panda confirmed in this game. (1:16:17) Kev: And like I said, the Chinese culture are very pronounced, very gritty. Yeah, they’re very nice looking game. I’m intrigued for sure. (1:16:27) Kev: Well, they even got one of those little family memorial shrines too. That’s very cool. Yeah, very, very cool looking game. (1:16:34) Codey: Yep. I don’t know. So the final game that we have to talk about is we saved the best for last is (1:16:35) Kev: Litchi means something in Chinese. I don’t know. (1:16:46) Kev: I was about to say, forget everything else. (1:16:48) Kev: This is the only thing that matters. (1:16:50) Codey: is called Cinnabunny. (1:16:53) Kev: Okay, all right, hold on, hold on people. (1:16:56) Kev: Like, that name can mean different things. (1:16:58) Kev: Like, well, go ahead, just go ahead, yeah. (1:17:00) Codey: Okay. Oh my gosh. So Senn and Bunny, quote, Senn and Bunny is a cozy life simulator game (1:17:05) Codey: where you play as a bunny who runs a bakery. So you unlock new recipes, go birdwatching, (1:17:13) Codey: collect mushrooms and charm your community. Save up enough carrots to help your family move. (1:17:19) Codey: So that last line got my attention. So I then went deeper into their steam page and I found this, (1:17:27) Codey: Quote, Oh, no, you’re cute. (1:17:30) Codey: I love that this is not your traditional, your grandma, or your grandfather, or your (1:17:58) Codey: uncle gave you a farm. (1:18:00) Kev: So on the slack that’s something we talked about relatively recent right like (1:18:00) Codey: I love that this is not your traditional, your grandma, or your uncle gave you a farm. (1:18:04) Kev: How much there’s plenty of room for the the miss of the the what’s kicked off your journey, and this is a great one (1:18:12) Kev: This is a fantastic one (1:18:14) Kev: Um and also like it also gives you a clear end goal, right? (1:18:18) Kev: Like you know when you’re gonna hit credits probably when the your family moves in or whatever (1:18:23) Kev: Um, I like that a lot, you know an actual objective (1:18:28) Kev: So yeah, that is very cool (1:18:30) Kev: Somehow that’s still not the coolest thing because this game is just I’m I’m astounded by everything (1:18:36) Codey: Yeah. (1:18:39) Kev: So, okay, it was said but we cannot emphasize this enough you are playing as a bunny (1:18:44) Codey: You are a bunny. (1:18:48) Kev: Everyone is bunnies and it’s so cute. You’re baking bread. You’re kneading the dough (1:18:53) Kev: You’re you’re placing furniture (1:18:55) Kev: sure you’re farming all his bunnies, you’re putting your bread in the oven. (1:18:58) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (1:19:00) Kev: Oh my goodness, Cinnabunny is such a good name. There’s other bunnies, but then they weren’t finished because towards the latter half, you get to start seeing the other stuff you can do, such as one of those little mine carts, but the kind with the handles, you know, the two-sided one, you operate one of those. (1:19:25) Kev: “I don’t know where you’re going! Looks like there’s a cave! Um, you churn butter!” (1:19:30) Kev: “You can fly planes as a bunny!” (1:19:33) Codey: Yeah, the- the plains was ridiculous. (1:19:36) Kev: “You can go… uh, what is it called? Windboarding? Or whatever when you’re… the… parasail? I don’t know which one this one is, but…” (1:19:43) Kev: “…the sail’s up in the wind and you’re on the lake skiing or whatever. You’re doing that as a bunny!” (1:19:46) Codey: Mm-hmm. You also write a deer at some point in the trailer? (1:19:49) Kev: “You’re…” (1:19:54) Kev: “I… I… I miss… I might have missed that, or… ugh, I have to go… there’s a lot going on in this trailer!” (1:19:59) Codey: Yeah. (1:20:00) Kev: “You can listen to the band, or the Lumineers, with E-A-R-S playing!” (1:20:05) Codey: The Lumen Ears. (1:20:07) Codey: ‘Cause bunnies have ears. (1:20:09) Codey: Perfect. (1:20:10) Kev: “So… let’s… okay, and you’re… you’re running your bakery, you have a little stand outside…” (1:20:18) Kev: “I love how the bunnies both, you know, hop on all fours, but will stand up upright too to do things.” (1:20:24) Kev: “Um, you have binoculars, you’re looking at stuff, um…” (1:20:27) Kev: Oh, there it is, you’re right, you’re writing a deer as a bunny, I don’t know- (1:20:29) Codey: Yep, yep, you do (1:20:30) Kev: I don’t know why, but you can, so, let’s see, planned release date, February 19th, 2025, that’s very soon, uncomfortably soon, this comes from Reki Studios, I don’t know, let’s see, they have another game called Bunhouse, so they’re not strangers in the bun world, they have a game called You’re Not Special, I don’t know what that’s about, but, okay, so they, you know, (1:20:38) Codey: Count me in. (1:21:00) Kev: well, you know what, congratulations, I’m clapping my hands, Reki Studios, I don’t think anyone ever has won Game of the Year at the start of the year, but you did it, Reki Studios, congratulations, and Cinnabunny for winning our Game of the Year 2020 because this game’s very ace! (1:21:18) Codey: So I, I have a lot more to say about this game, but I just went to go look at the system requirements and they got, they got funny down here. (1:21:30) Codey: They got funny. (1:21:32) Codey: So graphics, they recommend a certain like graphics card or whatever, and then they have, you probably can’t run this on your mama’s generic laptop. (1:21:43) Kev: Oh, oh, that’s how you’re gonna be (1:21:44) Codey: And then they have sound card. (1:21:48) Codey: You probably have one of those too. (1:21:50) Codey: You should probably have one of those too. (1:22:00) Kev: And to be fair, that’s very possible. (1:22:05) Codey: And then additional notes. (1:22:07) Codey: Look, I’ll level with you. (1:22:08) Codey: I’m a solo dev with marginal experience and optimization (1:22:11) Codey: using a resource-hungry engine. (1:22:13) Codey: So you’re going to need a mid-tier gaming computer (1:22:16) Codey: if you want to keep up a good (1:22:18) Codey: FPS and visual fidelity yeah I love this other wreck another thing it says (1:22:20) Kev: This is a single person. (1:22:27) Codey: recommended sound card put your head inside a tuba while your best friend (1:22:32) Codey: goes crazy oh my gosh they had fun with this yeah this this human is doing great (1:22:36) Kev: Oh my God. (1:22:39) Codey: because this looks great these things are adorable (1:22:41) Kev: This is, oh, it makes sure you have at least (1:22:45) Kev: one additional controller. (1:22:47) Kev: Wait, co-op, you’re saying there’s co-op? (1:22:48) Codey: Oh, yeah, yeah, so that’s I have more stuff. So I got sorry, I got sucked into the hilarity. (1:22:54) Codey: So I wanted to mention three different things. First, bird watching. So they say use your (1:22:59) Codey: bird oculars. I don’t know why they’re called bird oculars instead of binoculars, but whatever. (1:23:04) Kev: because they’re watching birds. I’m pretty sure that’s self-explanatory. (1:23:05) Codey: Okay, but we use by not we use binoculars in the real to watch bird. Okay, anyway, to (1:23:13) Kev: Well, maybe we should be using bird oculars. That seems like an issue with us. (1:23:13) Codey: pictures. Oh my gosh, the capture picture. (1:23:18) Codey: A picture of the various bird species around Sugar Creek Burroughs with over 30 species (1:23:23) Codey: of birds to discover each with true to life bird calls. You’ll have to scour the skies (1:23:28) Codey: in various weather seasons and times of day to find them all this. Yeah, the red tail (1:23:31) Kev: They won’t all be that one falcon or hawker (1:23:34) Kev: that’s for everything. (1:23:35) Codey: hawk that they then put on to an eagle. Yeah, no, so I’m super excited because by that because (1:23:36) Kev: Yeah. (1:23:42) Codey: I do bird a little bit in real life. And especially because I work in forests. So I’ve come to (1:23:49) Codey: know different bird calls. So while I’m playing this game, I’m going to be like, Oh my gosh, (1:23:53) Codey: it’s a yellow bellied sapsucker or whatever. And I’ll just like try and go look for it. (1:23:56) Kev: you (1:23:58) Codey: And I like that people might learn birds. You’ll also mushroom (1:24:00) Kev: That’s very cool (1:24:02) Kev: Just I was gonna say just a just an aside (1:24:06) Kev: random thought completely, um (1:24:09) Kev: like this is I don’t know is bird hunting big in other areas of the world like (1:24:14) Codey: Birding? (1:24:15) Kev: Yeah, I mean like and I’m talking about like what about where you have like ostriches or emu (1:24:16) Codey: Yeah. (1:24:22) Codey: I mean, yeah, but those are– (1:24:25) Codey: I think people aren’t really looking (1:24:27) Codey: for those in the same way. (1:24:31) Kev: But anyways, sorry, yeah, so you can find birds that’s very cool birds are very cool. I will say that (1:24:36) Codey: Yeah. (1:24:37) Kev: So yeah, there you go. Well (1:24:38) Codey: Cool. (1:24:39) Codey: And then, yeah, you can collect mushrooms. (1:24:40) Kev: One I don’t like mushrooms, but okay, that’s nice (1:24:41) Codey: Um… [laughs] (1:24:44) Codey: They just say that the surrounding forests and caves are home to 40 different species of mushrooms, and you can become an expert mycologist. Love that. (1:24:52) Kev: Yeah, I’m pretty sure there’s like a mushroom museum house or something in the trailer. (1:24:57) Codey: Ooh, okay. Um, I mean that’s cool because there are… it’ll… I’m excited to learn about different mushrooms. (1:25:05) Codey: Mushrooms are crazy, and I know a lot of my friends that go mushrooming, and I could never because there’s always, like… (1:25:15) Codey: They really like these certain mushrooms, but there’s always another mushroom that looks very similar that could kill you. (1:25:23) Codey: And I don’t trust myself to know the difference, so… [laughs] (1:25:27) Codey: But I’ll trust my friends. Also, it’s… I don’t like mushrooming, but I always find morels, and people love morels. (1:25:35) Codey: I had a friend, I put a morale on iNaturalist, and she texted me the next day, and she was like, “Take that down, I’m gonna go get it,” and I don’t want other people to see it. (1:25:45) Codey: Oh my gosh. Yeah, so you can do that. Okay, and then the final blurb here, this is about the being multiplayer. (1:25:53) Codey: So this is what… this is from the developer, quote, “Cinebunny is a local multiplayer game, meaning two people can play on the same system. There is no native online multiplayer. (1:26:04) Codey: In order to play with another person, you will need at least one gamepad. Xbox controllers work well. There is no split keyboard controls. It is possible…” (1:26:14) Codey: “…to play online multiplayer via Steam’s Remote Play Together feature, one computer will connect to another to play.” (1:26:22) Codey: “However, the second player must have a controller for this to work. This is a limitation of the game engine I use, and how it handles local multiplayer.” (1:26:32) Codey: So it looks like you can have both controllers, like you can each have controllers, but you can’t each have keyboards? (1:26:42) Kev: keyboards yeah I well I mean that might not be a problem like I assume a key I’m (1:26:44) Codey: Okay. (1:26:48) Codey: No, I’m sh… (1:26:50) Kev: guessing the keyboard is probably more like shortcut stuff and actual like you (1:26:53) Kev: know the mandatory or whatever stuff so I’m sure it’ll be worked just fine so (1:27:02) Codey: No, and there’s always like in most friend groups there’s always a person who prefers controllers and a person who prefers keyboards (1:27:09) Codey: So you’re set (1:27:10) Kev: Yeah, man, there’s that yeah (1:27:15) Kev: Man I can’t I I just keep looking through everything there’s more and more I see like I (1:27:20) Codey: Mm-hmm (1:27:22) Codey: You (1:27:22) Kev: love how the scales of the bunnies are kind of off because they’re big enough to ride bird, but (1:27:24) Codey: You (1:27:26) Kev: Also, there’s birds (1:27:30) Kev: I’m not sure how to get work. Okay, I saw you farm in the game because of course you do (1:27:37) Kev: It looks like you’re farming wheat for your flour and your (1:27:40) Kev: bread and whatnot. I like how when they’re, you know, harvesting, they’re kind of samurai sorting, slashing. The wheat looks very cute. Also, just look at that. So clearly the currency is carrots. I like how they can farm, but they’re not going to farm carrots, apparently. (1:27:57) Kev: Um, he had to sell for this. Um, this game six weeks. Oh no. I don’t, I wasn’t ready for this. Oh no. (1:28:12) Codey: Yeah, we’ll see what happens. (1:28:14) Codey: I’m sure we’ll probably get rid on the pod. (1:28:16) Codey: Um… (1:28:17) Kev: I do I now I’ll says, you know, Alice tells me not to make problems. I’m making a promise we will cover this (1:28:24) Kev: Stay by the cell! (1:28:27) Codey: We promise, Al doesn’t promise, (1:28:28) Codey: but if a couple of us promise, then it’s good enough. (1:28:32) Kev: I will go solo, he knows I will! (1:28:38) Codey: For sure. (1:28:40) Codey: And that’s the last game. (1:28:42) Codey: So, thank y’all for coming in to our first, (1:28:49) Codey: actually in the new year pod, (1:28:53) Codey: where we got caught up on some. (1:28:54) Codey: News Kev, where can people find you? (1:28:58) Kev: All right. Well, um, you can find me on Twitter that Koopa prez or blue sky. (1:29:06) Kev: I try. (1:29:07) Kev: I like blue sky, but Twitter is just, it’s like a drug. (1:29:10) Kev: It’s, it’s got the dank memes on it. (1:29:12) Kev: I can’t get away from it. (1:29:14) Kev: Um, but, um, sometimes I’d like to look at the trash five. (1:29:18) Kev: Um, anyways, um, uh, so yeah, Koopa prez, of course, everywhere. (1:29:22) Kev: Um, that’s spider squared. (1:29:24) Kev: I have an account I’m work. (1:29:27) Kev: I do want to make the serious effort on blue skies. (1:29:28) Kev: I have been doing a lot of work off the social media, so that’s been nice. (1:29:44) Kev: Thanks for watching! (1:29:58) Kev: If you want to hear my thoughts on mushrooming, I can tell you all about the bee mushroom, the rock mushroom, the spring mushroom, and so on and so forth. (1:30:14) Kev: Thanks for watching! (1:30:30) Kev: What about you, Cody? Where do people find you? (1:30:30) Codey: They can find me on Instagram @hikingbeagle, Kev I’m pretty sure you’re the one that made (1:30:41) Codey: me change it. (1:30:42) Kev: Yeah, I was the one who brought the attention. I’m glad you went with it (1:30:47) Codey: Once you mentioned it, I was like, I have to do that. (1:30:52) Kev: Pretty, pretty, yep. (1:30:53) Codey: It’s pretty good. (1:30:54) Codey: I love it. (1:30:57) Codey: So yeah, that’s me on Instagram and then I am (1:31:00) Codey: also on Blue Sky at my name. (1:31:02) Codey: I technically still have a Twitter, (1:31:04) Codey: but I really only check it like once a week (1:31:07) Codey: to see if anyone’s messaged me on there. (1:31:10) Kev: Well, let’s see, hey, here’s the thing, I almost rarely actually tweet myself, I’m just (1:31:10) Codey: Other than that, I’ve already scrubbed all of my tweets (1:31:13) Codey: off of that site so that they can’t be used by AI. (1:31:22) Kev: always retreating other stuff, so, good to go! (1:31:23) Codey: Yeah. (1:31:24) Codey: Woo! (1:31:25) Kev: But yeah, no, that’s the move, that’s the move, I want to, yeah, yeah, and blue skies, (1:31:32) Codey: Yeah, I like it a lot (1:31:35) Codey: So that’s where I am for the most part (1:31:39) Codey: You can find Al at the Scott bot on Macedon Scott and a lot of other things (1:31:47) Codey: You can find the pod on tumblr and other places at ths pod (1:31:54) Codey: You can give us feedback and get links to the show notes and transcripts and all of that (1:32:02) Codey: harvestseason.club (1:32:04) Codey: You can also find our link to the patreon patreon.com slash ths pod where you get (1:32:11) Codey: access to the (1:32:15) Codey: Slack and the patreon exclusive version called the greenhouse (1:32:23) Codey: We recently had a greenhouse episode with kev and al talking about what they’re excited for (1:32:30) Codey: this year that is (1:32:32) Codey: not a Cottagecore game. (1:32:34) Codey: I scoffed at one of the things that Al was excited about. (1:32:36) Kev: but because I love how we’d start wait wait what what did you wait what do you (1:32:44) Kev: scoff at which one it’s been a while I remember (1:32:46) Codey: He said he was excited for Mario Kart. (1:32:50) Kev: oh (1:32:51) Codey: And I detest the fact that they just like basically are a nostalgia machine (1:33:02) Codey: and they just put the same game out every time. (1:33:07) Kev: Hi. Mmm. Well now that word you’re talking in my bro. Um, okay Mario Kart in general across the board (1:33:14) Kev: I wouldn’t say that but the problem is Mario Kart 8 has been the (1:33:20) Kev: Yeah, the game for 10 years now actually so in that sense. You’re absolutely right. I can’t contest that and what’s (1:33:22) Codey: Yeah well you said because yeah you said they were gonna put out mario kart 8 super deluxe (1:33:32) Codey: ultimate or something I mean that’s a joke but (1:33:32) Kev: That’s correct and what scares me is (1:33:35) Kev: No, we’ll see. Here’s the thing. I always say that (1:33:37) Kev: as a joke, but at the same time, very, very well be the case. Right? Because we’re getting switched (1:33:44) Kev: to slapping the completed Mario Kart 8 with ever all the DLC that came out on the switch (1:33:50) Kev: on the new than the new on the switch to like is within super within the realm of possibility. So (1:33:57) Kev: yes, I’m scared. Um, yeah, but no, so you’re not wrong about Mario Kart 8. Like in general, (1:34:03) Kev: Marker, I think there’s more to offer, but that’s 10 years (1:34:06) Kev: I’m running. (1:34:07) Kev: So, ah. (1:34:08) Codey: Yeah. I’m just sick of the nostalgia machine that is everything nowadays. Like I was listening (1:34:15) Codey: to a podcast about how all of this year’s movies were like best movies, top grossing movies were (1:34:23) Codey: like Kung Fu Panda 4, Inside Out 2, Moana 2, the Wicked movie, which is technically (1:34:32) Codey: a prequel to Wizard of Oz and is the musical. Yeah. And like- (1:34:35) Kev: An adaptation of a musical! (1:34:38) Codey: all this stuff. And then also, so when I- I went and saw Sonic 3 and- but trailers! (1:34:44) Kev: I was about to say, “Okay, but what about Sonic 3, though?” (1:34:48) Codey: So I love Sonic- I love Sonic 3. I thought it was really- I mean, it’s what I expected it to be, (1:34:53) Codey: um, but there were some hilarious moments. But there were trailers before Sonic 3. (1:34:54) Kev: Oh, yeah, for sure. (1:34:59) Codey: They are coming out with a Lilo and Stitch live action. (1:35:02) Kev: Oh, do they have to trailer for that? (1:35:04) Codey: They had the trailer for that. And then they also had the trailer for How to Train Your (1:35:08) Codey: Dragon live action, which was basically a one for one of the animated version. (1:35:08) Kev: Live action, yeah! (1:35:16) Kev: yes yes so people yeah yep it’s awful it’s awful um and I love heart of (1:35:17) Codey: I hate that. I hate that. Like- (1:35:23) Kev: train your dragon so much what a great film and just one (1:35:26) Codey: But Toothless looks exactly the same. Like they pretty much took the How to Train Your Dragon, (1:35:33) Codey: like trailer for the first movie and just put it (1:35:38) Codey: in the other version and it, I was just, if you’re going to do a live action, do something (1:35:42) Kev: It hurts it hurts (1:35:46) Codey: like show something new, show something cool. Um, so. (1:35:49) Kev: Yeah, yeah (1:35:52) Kev: You know what hurts that the light like the actual like model first did live-action quote-unquote them and stitches CGI but (1:36:00) Kev: It looks decent like I you know look at the stitch (1:36:02) Codey: - Yeah. (1:36:03) Kev: It looks decent, but I hate the concept of it, but are you excited for live-action Moana? (1:36:04) Codey: - Yep. (1:36:08) Kev: Which we’ve already seen the rock in the bodysuit (1:36:10) Codey: - Ugh. (1:36:12) Codey: Ugh. (1:36:13) Kev: Oh (1:36:15) Kev: Oh, it’s great. Oh, but sonic 3 though. How about Keanu? (1:36:20) Codey: Song of three was really good. (1:36:22) Codey: So that was really funny because my partner was with me and he was just like, “Is that Keanu Reeves?” (1:36:30) Kev: - Yeah, dude. (1:36:30) Codey: He was so upset. (1:36:32) Codey: And then there was another actress that popped on the screen and he was like, (1:36:36) Codey: “How did they get her in this movie?” (1:36:38) Codey: And it just kept happening. (1:36:39) Kev: i (1:36:42) Codey: And they had some really good… (1:36:43) Kev: How do (1:36:45) Kev: It was yeah, oh man like I will so (1:36:50) Kev: the (1:36:51) Kev: When jim carrey got announced his egg map way back in the original sonic like (1:36:53) Codey: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (1:36:55) Kev: I had some complaints because I knew jim carrey was going to just jim carry it up (1:37:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. (1:37:00) Kev: Which which he does which is not exactly egg man per se right? Um, I wanted something a little more faithful (1:37:06) Kev: but (1:37:07) Kev: this far and he’s really (1:37:09) Kev: hamming it up. I haven’t seen it yet, but you know just off the bits and the trailers (1:37:13) Kev: and things, he is just him carrying it as hard as he can and you know what, he’s won (1:37:19) Kev: me over. So yeah, no. Yeah. (1:37:19) Codey: Yep, if if it wasn’t him like he basically made this movie and it’s to the point where he’s almost like Robin Williams did where (1:37:30) Codey: With certain Robin Williams movies like if it was not him, it wouldn’t be good like the original Aladdin. I (1:37:38) Kev: Heh heh! (1:37:38) Codey: Would not have enjoyed it so much if it didn’t have the genie (1:37:42) Kev: Nobody would per- (1:37:42) Codey: like his genie (1:37:44) Kev: It wouldn’t be- (1:37:46) Kev: It wouldn’t be notable, right? Like, it’d be maybe (1:37:47) Codey: No, yeah (1:37:48) Kev: FINE, I guess? I don’t know. (1:37:49) Codey: You (1:37:50) Kev: Who cares? ‘Cause, yeah, the genie, right? (1:37:52) Kev: Like Robin Williams singing (1:37:52) Codey: Mrs. Mrs. Doubtfire like no one else could have pulled that movie off like and (1:37:54) Kev: Friend Like Me? (1:37:56) Kev: Nope. (1:37:58) Kev: Yeah, you’re right. (1:37:59) Codey: That’s that’s how I feel about Jim Carrey in this movie and I thought about it (1:38:03) Codey: Like I was talking to my partner on the way home and he was like man (1:38:06) Codey: it’s been a while since I’ve watched many of Jim Carrey’s movies and we just started talking about like all of his previous movies like (1:38:12) Codey: Liar liar and the mask and (1:38:15) Codey: Ace Ventura and I was like I we need to do a Jim Carrey (1:38:19) Codey: Marathon because I haven’t seen a lot of these in a long time (1:38:23) Codey: but (1:38:24) Kev: you you know what one of the greatest tragedies of my life was that my mom like one day I don’t (1:38:24) Codey: He’s pretty great (1:38:36) Kev: remember what the context was but basically like my mom was I was talking about jim carrey and my (1:38:41) Kev: mom having a hearing just like oh you know he was just here in atlanta like yesterday he was a book (1:38:44) Codey: No! (1:38:46) Kev: signing and I was like oh I missed him I could have met jim carrey and he did it (1:38:54) Kev: oh so there you go one of my greatest misses um you know but (1:39:02) Codey: He’ll come back around. (1:39:03) Kev: yeah and oh you know what you know what while as a fan of sonic 3 to the movie you know who knows (1:39:10) Codey: Okay, we should do we should a greenhouse about it (1:39:11) Kev: maybe I was subtly hinting like uh and I had already talked about it so but we’ll rope you (1:39:19) Kev: in for that too for sure because yes. Yeah, so look forward to some point. (1:39:20) Codey: sweet sweet greenhouse and to listen to that you have to be a patreon subscriber so go to (1:39:24) Kev: In the near future. Well, there will be a Sonic 3. (1:39:29) Kev: Yeah, greenhouse. (1:39:33) Codey: patreon.com/chspod this whole it’s been a ruse this whole time of leading up to to that and (1:39:40) Codey: I just posted a photo a real life photo of stella while I am recording looking at me like oh my gosh (1:39:47) Codey: mom. It is time to go lay down. Please leave me alone. (1:39:50) Codey: Please shut up and stop recording. I’m sure I was saying (1:39:53) Codey: the same thing because we’re almost two hours. And so with (1:39:56) Kev: Thank you, Cody, for joining me as well, I guess, question mark. (1:39:56) Codey: that, I will say thank you, Kev, for joining me. Thank you. (1:40:06) Kev: Thank you, Al, for having us on. (1:40:08) Kev: Thank you, listeners, for bending through this for the Cinnabonny Hype Test. (1:40:12) Codey: Sinner bunny. Have a good (1:40:15) Kev: And until next time, if you’re not sick of us yet, have a good harvest! (1:40:19) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:40:30) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:40:34) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:40:38) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:40:44) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:40:54) Kev: Did you get the Sonic the Hedgehog popcorn bucket? (1:40:54) Codey: No, I didn’t know that they had one. (1:40:59) Kev: Calvin did oh yeah, I’ll send you a picture Calvin got it (1:41:03) Codey: Okay. (1:41:04) Kev: All right, that’s good…

The Harvest Season

1
Upcoming 2025 1:02:59

9 weeksที่แล้ว1:02:59

1:02:59

Al and Kevin discuss their most anticipated games of 2025 Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:22: What Have We Been Up To 00:27:27: What We Are Looking Forward To In 2025 00:58:05: Outro Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to the first episode of the harvest season of 2025. My name is Al. (0:00:38) Kev: Wow, I’m Kevin and hmm. Did you smell that new 2025 smell that New Year’s? No (0:00:46) Al: It smells very much like 2024. We are recording this episode quite early. Four weeks early, (0:00:56) Kev: Yeah, something like that yeah, we broke a favor no (0:00:56) Al: three weeks early three weeks early three weeks early so uh (0:01:01) Al: so yeah who knows what the world will be like in three and a half weeks (0:01:06) Kev: Oh, and boy! (0:01:08) Kev: Oh, gosh, that, you know, that was a time that could have been a “haha” joke, you know, that’s a serious threat these days. (0:01:14) Al: So obviously, we will not have any news, any news that we’ve missed over the last two weeks (0:01:15) Kev: Oh, no! (0:01:24) Al: will be in the next episode. We’ll probably do a news catch-up episode. But yeah, we’re (0:01:30) Kev: Yep. So, you know, very. (0:01:31) Al: going to talk about our exciting, what we’re looking forward to for this year, our most (0:01:37) Al: anticipated games of 2025. (0:01:40) Kev: I mean, surely, you know, chocolate, or haunted chocolatier, which undoubtedly will have the release date by this point, because we’re not recording it early. (0:01:51) Kev: But yes, no. 2025, look at-looking. (0:01:53) Al: I mean, considering he just said that he hasn’t worked on it at all in the last year, (0:02:02) Kev: Yeah (0:02:03) Kev: Yeah (0:02:03) Al: basically, I don’t think that’s the case. (0:02:04) Kev: Yeah (0:02:06) Kev: Those screenshots were doctored (0:02:09) Kev: Yeah, no probably not but uh, but hey things to look forward to 2025 because boy do we need to find those especially out here in the (0:02:19) Al: So we’re going to talk about that, but first of all, Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:02:28) Kev: Okay, so all right since we already broke (0:02:32) Kev: All in um, I mean I’ve been playing a lot of the usual Marvel snap is it’s very busy right now (0:02:38) Kev: There’s a lot going on Marvel snap. I’m playing on its new season (0:02:43) Kev: I’m having fun with it (0:02:44) Al: Of course, when this comes out, it will be nearly time for another new season. (0:02:48) Kev: Probably actually the new season will be out but it’s funny though because (0:02:50) Al: No, because this is releasing on the 1st of January, so it will be another couple of days. (0:02:55) Kev: You’re right, you’re right. Okay. Well almost yeah (0:02:57) Kev: well the end of uh almost the end of that season well either way i’m having fun (0:03:02) Kev: at the start of the season I can’t say about future kevin who he’s out of my mind probably (0:03:07) Kev: um but um honestly that goes hand in hand with uh uh what i’ve really been up to uh because the (0:03:17) Kev: marvel snap season for december is a crossover season with marvel rivals which at the time of (0:03:24) Kev: recording just brought the kids to be here the day before yesterday it’s been a little more than 24 (0:03:29) Kev: hours. (0:03:32) Kev: It’s just Overwatch, but with Marvel, it is just Overwatch, and original Overwatch, (0:03:44) Kev: so I played Overwatch when it first came out in 2016, almost 10 years ago, which is wild, (0:03:50) Kev: 8 years at this point I guess, and I loved Overwatch, I adored it, I played so much Overwatch, (0:03:58) Kev: And then they basically ruined it. (0:04:02) Kev: It was two things. I mean, even before Overwatch 2, (0:04:06) Kev: they, the way they updated and patch things and balance things or whatever, (0:04:14) Kev: they started gearing it very much towards like high level competitive tournament stuff or whatever. (0:04:21) Kev: So they reworked a lot of characters and just basically they ruined a lot of it for me. (0:04:25) Kev: It was just nowhere near as fun when I dropped out. (0:04:30) Kev: which I can’t remember. (0:04:32) Kev: Pre-COVID I think when I finally kind of dropped it, but yeah. (0:04:35) Kev: And then Overwatch 2 came out, which was great because they just– (0:04:40) Kev: here’s the secret, Al, it really was just more Overwatch. (0:04:44) Kev: It was not Overwatch 2. (0:04:46) Kev: It was just the same thing, except they made it even worse (0:04:49) Kev: because I don’t think all the characters were free. (0:04:54) Kev: They changed it from 6v6 to 5v5 and just all sorts of nonsense. (0:05:02) Kev: It’s so– embarrassingly so, I would say. (0:05:06) Kev: Actually, just like the week before Rivals dropped, (0:05:08) Kev: Overwatch 2 did a mode called Overwatch Origins or something. (0:05:11) Kev: I don’t remember. (0:05:12) Kev: Basically, they had a mode where everything (0:05:15) Kev: was set back to the original Overwatch cast and abilities (0:05:19) Kev: and balances and stuff like that, which is really funny. (0:05:22) Kev: They were trying to capture that magic again (0:05:24) Kev: because Rivals was right around the corner. (0:05:28) Kev: But it doesn’t matter because Rivals is here (0:05:32) Kev: and die now. (0:05:34) Kev: So yeah, Mar– (0:05:35) Kev: OK. (0:05:37) Kev: First of all, Marvel Rivals, very stylistic. (0:05:41) Kev: It’s made by NetEase, a Chinese company. (0:05:43) Kev: They have that, what I call Chinese anime aesthetic, (0:05:47) Kev: like ancient impact and stuff. (0:05:49) Kev: Here’s this very edgy, pointy, and stylistic. (0:05:52) Kev: I like it myself. (0:05:55) Kev: But they also have– (0:05:56) Kev: I counted them where, I believe, 29 characters (0:05:59) Kev: at launch, which is insane. (0:06:02) Kev: Then when Overwatch 1 shut down, just at launch, which is wild. (0:06:07) Kev: So we have a good, healthy pick. (0:06:10) Kev: I’ve been trying to play different characters, (0:06:12) Kev: but there’s so many of them. (0:06:15) Kev: There’s– I mean, I like Squirrel Girl a lot. (0:06:19) Kev: She’s like the first one I picked. (0:06:20) Kev: And I think she still might be my favorite. (0:06:22) Kev: Penny Parker with her robot is pretty fun. (0:06:25) Kev: Captain America is really fun. (0:06:27) Kev: His shield just reflects everything. (0:06:29) Kev: I just stand there and let things hit the shield. (0:06:32) Kev: I’m contributing, yeah. (0:06:35) Kev: Hulk is fun. (0:06:37) Kev: Some characters are really hard. (0:06:39) Kev: OK, so Spider-Man played just like Spider-Man (0:06:42) Kev: from the PS4 or 5 games. (0:06:44) Kev: He has a swing. (0:06:45) Kev: He punches. (0:06:46) Kev: He does the web shoot. (0:06:47) Kev: His movement feels just like the PS5 version. (0:06:52) Kev: But that also makes him insanely difficult (0:06:54) Kev: because it’s such a chaotic game. (0:06:56) Kev: So you have to be very precise with Spider-Man. (0:07:00) Kev: and you’re trying to hit other, you know, actual… (0:07:02) Kev: players and such um it’s uh yeah it’s it’s uh it’s great great fun so you’ve never played overwatch (0:07:12) Al: I have not. I’m not a big first person game of any sort kind of person. Like, I’m struggling (0:07:18) Kev: - Mm-hmm. (0:07:19) Kev: - Okay. (0:07:20) Al: to think of any first person game that I actively enjoyed, whether it’s a shooter or anything (0:07:22) Kev: - Yeah. (0:07:24) Kev: - Short. (0:07:26) Al: else. I’m not a huge fan of the perspective, because I think the thing is that you’d think, (0:07:27) Kev: - Short. (0:07:33) Al: oh, well, first person should be the most realistic thing, right? But the problem is (0:07:38) Al: that your screen is not as wide as your (0:07:42) Al: peripheral vision is so I just feel like and this happens in a lot of games (0:07:43) Kev: Yeah, oh, that’s a good point (0:07:46) Al: with movable cameras in that I just feel almost claustrophobic is obviously (0:07:47) Kev: Uh-huh (0:07:51) Al: not a phobia but it’s that sort of idea of like I feel hemmed in and I can’t see (0:07:52) Kev: Yeah (0:07:54) Kev: I get it right yet (0:07:57) Kev: It feels busy. Yeah, I totally can get that. I’m generally not a first-person shooter person either (0:08:03) Kev: I did pick it up for overwatch and whatnot, but you know, here’s here’s the secret out. Here’s a surprise (0:08:09) Kev: Marvel Rivals is not first-person (0:08:11) Al: Oh, it’s not! (0:08:13) Kev: It’s it’s you you hold the back third-person camera. You see your full character when playing (0:08:19) Kev: So as you say you do have a much wider (0:08:23) Kev: Like scope you like how much you can see at once it is my yeah (0:08:26) Al: Oh, yeah. (0:08:29) Kev: So the camera is is focused on you like you’re always centered on it and whatnot (0:08:35) Al: Is Overwatch like this as well? (0:08:37) Kev: No, it is not (0:08:38) Al: Is Overwatch first person? (0:08:39) Kev: Overwatch is first-person. Yes, so you’re not you’re not (0:08:40) Al: Okay, so I’m not so I’m not just making I’m not just making because because people are (0:08:43) Kev: No [LAUGH] Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I know, yes, because you’re not crazy, no, right? (0:08:44) Al: just saying this is just and you did this exactly. (0:08:46) Al: It’s Overwatch, but Marvel. (0:08:48) Al: So so I’m not going crazy. (0:08:50) Al: I was thinking if it’s Overwatch like Marvel, that would mean it was first person, but it’s (0:08:54) Al: not. (0:08:55) Al: Okay, fine. (0:08:56) Al: I was like, have I just miss on miss remembered this game for like, what, 10 years? (0:09:02) Al: Is that how long since the first one came out? (0:09:04) Kev: No, yes, no, no, no, you are correct and but yeah, here’s like, that’s a big thing, right? (0:09:10) Al: Not 10 years, eight years. (0:09:11) Kev: And yeah, eight years almost ten years, but. (0:09:13) Al: 2016 that year. (0:09:13) Kev: Well, okay. And that’s a big thing because I mean, first of all, like you said, the whole camera thing, like, yeah, I can understand. And so obviously that improves that, especially like I couldn’t imagine playing that as Spider-Man, like being first person while swinging around and fly. (0:09:31) Al: No, no, I’d feel sick. (0:09:32) Kev: Oh my gosh. That would be insane. That would be unplayable. So it works well. They can do stuff like that, right? (0:09:41) Kev: And furthermore, I think (0:09:43) Kev: Because much like overwatch one of the (0:09:50) Kev: Foundations let’s say of the game the pillars is cosmetics right like different skins and emotes and so on and so forth, right? (0:09:56) Kev: so (0:09:57) Kev: When overwatch you get a cool skin well, you can’t see it most of them (0:10:01) Kev: You don’t see it when you’re actually playing the game, right? You see like the characters hand maybe but and the death camera (0:10:06) Kev: I guess but here you can actually see your costumes the whole time when you’re playing the game, which is you know, very nice (0:10:14) Kev: And so and actually on that note (0:10:17) Kev: monetization like they were very clear and (0:10:21) Kev: Transparent about it. They dropped the link a blog like actually two days before the game came out (0:10:25) Kev: we didn’t actually know what it was gonna look so right then but (0:10:29) Kev: Two things they were very adamant and clear about one the game is free to play which overwatch (0:10:34) Kev: original was not I don’t know about overwatch - but Marvel rivals is completely free to play and download and play and (0:10:40) Kev: and furthermore, every character is free to play. (0:10:43) Kev: Like I said, Overwatch, I believe that is not the case anymore. (0:10:46) Kev: In Overwatch 2, you have to buy characters or whatever. (0:10:49) Kev: But here, nope, you can pick whatever character you like. (0:10:52) Kev: They have a Season Pass, Battle Pass thing. (0:10:55) Kev: They have bundles that they call them, (0:10:58) Kev: where you can buy a skin and an emote and an animation. (0:11:01) Kev: All sorts of different things, it’s all grouped up together, right? (0:11:05) Kev: And that’s how they’re going to focus on the monetization. (0:11:08) Kev: It’s all going to be cosmetics, which is fantastic. (0:11:12) Al: And so this game is free to play, and you can play all the characters, and it’s in third (0:11:13) Kev: It is free to play, yep. (0:11:17) Kev: That’s correct. (0:11:18) Al: person, and it’s characters I like. (0:11:20) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. (0:11:22) Al: Damn it. (0:11:23) Kev: Yes, I did it, score. (0:11:26) Al: And it’s on Steam, presumably, so I can play it on Steam Deck. (0:11:26) Kev: It is on Steam, PS5, and Xbox, whatever the current one is, I’ve lost track. (0:11:32) Al: Is it cross-play? (0:11:34) Kev: Okay, actually, I think they did a very fair way of approaching that. (0:11:38) Kev: It is cross-play, if you’re playing casual matches. (0:11:41) Kev: if you’re just doing quick play. (0:11:43) Kev: It is cross play and I see that all the time if you’re playing ranked. (0:11:48) Al: what about cross save (0:11:50) Kev: I think it is cross save. (0:11:52) Kev: I haven’t looked too hard into that but that probably should be I think so. (0:11:53) Al: so if I want to if I want to start it on my steam deck and then go on to my ps5 (0:11:59) Al: presumably I can keep any settings I have (0:12:01) Kev: I I yeah, I don’t I don’t have that hard information in front of me, but I would wager that’s the case. (0:12:10) Kev: But yeah, so if you play ranked, it’s uh, yeah, I know right. (0:12:13) Kev: They’re answering all the questions correctly. (0:12:16) Kev: If you, uh, play, um, if you play ranked, you, you just play with (0:12:20) Kev: people on the same systems or whatever you’re on, which seems fair. (0:12:23) Kev: Yeah, that’s, that’s fine. (0:12:24) Kev: Um, but you can totally play cross play with other folks on slack or whatever. (0:12:28) Kev: Um, so yeah, all right. (0:12:30) Kev: There you go. (0:12:31) Kev: Al’s on board. (0:12:32) Kev: You people should try it too. (0:12:33) Al: Oh, my word, forty seven gigabytes. (0:12:37) Kev: It’s, it’s a beefy boy. (0:12:38) Al: Oh, I literally don’t have enough space on my steam deck. (0:12:39) Kev: Um, wait, 40. (0:12:43) Al: Forty seven, I’m seeing forty seven is what it’s saying on Steam. (0:12:43) Kev: seven? Really? Oh. Good times. Good times. Um, but yeah, it’s, I can’t recommend it enough. (0:12:47) Al: Forty seven gigabytes. (0:12:48) Al: I need to uninstall something or get a bigger SD card. (0:12:52) Al: Because I have forty three gigabytes free. (0:12:59) Kev: It’s, it’s fun. It’s got lots of different styles of play. Groot builds walls. He’s fun. (0:13:06) Kev: Um, Iron Man is always flying. He’s just shoots from the air. He is always lying. Like a little, (0:13:11) Kev: I don’t think he can actually run. (0:13:14) Kev: Loki creates duplicates, so on and so forth. It’s good fun. (0:13:18) Al: this feels like a game that I’m going to stick on my PS5 and use, because I am one of those suckers (0:13:25) Al: that has a PS Portal. So it feels like I’m going to stick it on my PS5, use my PS Portal, (0:13:26) Kev: There you go. (0:13:32) Al: rather than trying to fit it on my Steam tech, which is full to the brim of different games. (0:13:38) Al: Whereas my PS5 currently, I have been playing Astro Bot on it just the last few games. They’ve (0:13:45) Al: they’ve added some the like speed as. (0:13:48) Al: Speed run levels, so I’ve been doing them and I’ve just about to once I’ve finished (0:13:54) Al: playing Zelda, which I will have done by the time this episode comes out, (0:13:57) Al: but I’m not going to talk about that because I’m talking about that. (0:13:59) Al: In the second episode that I’m recording today, just a little behind the scenes. (0:14:00) Kev: that is releasing that is releasing before this episode so you’ve already (0:14:07) Al: March before, three weeks before, I will, I’m going to once I finish Zelda, I’m going to start. (0:14:09) Kev: so you’ve already talked about it actually (0:14:18) Al: Hopefully finish before the end of the year, Sonic Shadows. Sonic Shadow generations. (0:14:24) Kev: Oh I gotta get into that too. Generations, yeah. Oh man I gotta get to that too. (0:14:27) Al: Yeah, because you finished it, haven’t you? (0:14:29) Kev: Uh, no, I finished Sonic, uh, uh, Frontiers, the, the, the open world one. (0:14:33) Al: Oh, I thought you said you finish it, January. I thought you said something about that. (0:14:36) Kev: Oh, I put, uh, original, Sonic Generations, the original Sonic, mm-mm, no, no, I’ve not (0:14:38) Al: No, no, no, no, no. I’m sure I saw you saying something about Shadow. (0:14:42) Al: Did I just misread what you said? (0:14:43) Kev: gotten, maybe, because I finished Sonic Frontiers, but not, uh, I’ve not touched Shadow Generations (0:14:48) Kev: yet, um, I, I actually do have it, it is ready to open, and as soon as I… (0:14:54) Kev: probably finish up the, well, we’ll see, I don’t know, because Marvel Rivals is eating (0:14:57) Kev: my life right now, so at some point I will get to it. Um, uh, going back to, dude, I just posted, (0:15:05) Kev: uh, in the chat here, uh, a Penny Arcade comic, you gotta see it, it’s about playing Marvel (0:15:09) Kev: Rivals on the Steam Deck, just like you were talking about, good times. Um, but yeah, that’s, (0:15:14) Kev: uh, Marvel Rivals, I’m glad I sold Al on it, sick, um, big thumbs up, I’m sure it’s even better by (0:15:21) Kev: by the time this actually comes out. (0:15:21) Al: Oh, well, what I’m going to talk about. Obviously, I’ve also been playing, (0:15:24) Kev: what do you have been up to, Al? (0:15:26) Kev: other than (0:15:30) Kev: yes, other than the Zelda (0:15:32) Kev: which you’ve already talked about (0:15:33) Al: yeah, I’ve also been playing Snap, but I think I’m kind of wrapping up on that for just now, (0:15:39) Al: because I’m just getting a bit tired. I’ve been playing it every single day (0:15:43) Al: a lot, because, I mean, you know, you’ve seen the leaderboard on there. I don’t stop. (0:15:47) Kev: I you you do you I play daily but yeah you curve saw me on the leaderboard (0:15:52) Al: I would love to see, what do I play? I play it on my Mac. I don’t think it has, like, (0:15:54) Kev: every every week you do play good (0:16:00) Al: time, amount of time you’ve played on that. But, like, yeah, the amount of time I put in is just (0:16:07) Al: stupid. Like, I would be playing it for, like, what, two to three hours every single day, (0:16:16) Kev: That’s not, ha ha ha ha ha ha. (0:16:16) Al: two to three hours minimum every single day for about six months. (0:16:21) Kev: Ahhhhhh. (0:16:21) Al: I think I’m rolling back on that a little bit, just because I want to play some other things, (0:16:25) Kev: I don’t, weren’t you so high? (0:16:29) Kev: Yeah, until they bring you back in. (0:16:30) Al: and I’m just getting a little bit tired. They will, of course, because this happened last (0:16:32) Kev: It’s the ebb and flow. (0:16:35) Al: time as well. I played it from launch for a good nine months or something like that, (0:16:41) Al: and then I got tired again, and stopped for a while, and then got back into it six months ago. (0:16:48) Al: I’m sure it will get me back in again, and I’m sure I’ll be annoyed that I… (0:16:51) Al: I took the break because obviously I will be so far behind with the cards, but… (0:16:55) Kev: Well, hopefully they’ll have fixed it by then. (0:16:59) Al: We’ll see. We’ll see. (0:17:00) Kev: We’ll see. (0:17:01) Kev: Probably not. (0:17:01) Kev: It’ll probably take them a minute to fix it. (0:17:04) Al: And I’ve been playing Pocket as well, just my regular daily Pocket. (0:17:09) Al: I’m managing to actually do that as an actual how people do daily games, right? (0:17:13) Al: Of putting like 15 minutes into it a day. (0:17:18) Al: Crazy, I know. I don’t do that. (0:17:18) Kev: I don’t blame you but um well hey pocket no I would just say like I still haven’t got (0:17:19) Al: I put my entire game. (0:17:21) Al: gaming time into a game normally when I’m playing it. (0:17:23) Al: But the other thing I’ve been up to recent. Oh, sorry, are you gonna say something? (0:17:34) Kev: into it and like I don’t know something about it it just feels almost uh the more I hear (0:17:41) Kev: about it while not playing it the weirder it sounds to me which like is very much a (0:17:46) Kev: a me thing like I don’t have all the pieces (0:17:48) Kev: in the puzzle but it’s just I don’t get it I still but regardless good for you (0:17:54) Kev: enjoy your wonder pics which I just learned what is today what’s that it’s (0:17:57) Al: I enjoy it, I like collecting things, and this allows me to collect things without battling. (0:18:09) Al: The other thing I’ve been up to, because I will have talked about all the other games (0:18:13) Al: in different episodes, I’m going to talk about I have been watching the TV show Legion. (0:18:19) Kev: Okay, I have not, but I am familiar with it. First of all, who thought of that premise? (0:18:26) Kev: Let’s make a show about Legion, the Professor X’s son. (0:18:28) Al: it’s it’s yeah and it’s funny it’s funny because um that it that’s the entire link (0:18:36) Al: to marvel stuff is legion and minor spoilers for legion but if you know anything about the (0:18:44) Al: character this will not be a spoiler for you shadow king right that is that that’s it (0:18:48) Kev: yeah yeah I actually found out about shadow king just yesterday I don’t remember how I ended up (0:18:55) Kev: it was a wiki hole and somehow I ended up well I don’t know too much about legion to be honest (0:19:00) Kev: but shadow king showing up threw me for a loop i’ll say that um I guess it makes sense because (0:19:05) Kev: he’s a telepath that’s probably the entirety of it um uh I will say um shadow king actually looks (0:19:05) Al: Yeah. (0:19:13) Kev: decent like they did a good job with how it looks. And Aubrey Plaza is sha- (0:19:18) Kev: I’m not okay when I read that. I was like, “Well, she’s possessed.” I know. Yeah. (0:19:20) Al: she’s yeah I don’t want to say too much because there’s some spoilers but yeah she is acting (0:19:26) Al: shadow king for some of it yeah it is she’s fantastic I mean she’s fantastic and everything (0:19:32) Al: I think I have never been disappointed by her and she does but it’s like such a different character (0:19:32) Kev: I was about to say that “yes” in everything. (0:19:39) Al: to other characters that she’s done like I know she does weird characters like that’s her thing (0:19:44) Kev: Yeah, I was about to she’s not her weird because she has the you know that very blasé face and a lot of the characters (0:19:44) Al: she does weird characters yeah no this is (0:19:50) Kev: They run into that, right? (0:19:50) Al: this is very much she turns up the evil rather than the weird right which is what you want from (0:19:54) Kev: That is yeah, yeah, that’s that’s interesting. I can’t remember the last time I saw replaza play, you know evil (0:20:02) Al: properly evil rather than just like accidentally evil. (0:20:03) Kev: but (0:20:06) Kev: Yeah, oh, yeah, yes, okay. Yes, that’s correct (0:20:10) Kev: Or let’s it may be malicious maybe not outright evil, but (0:20:13) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, for sure. (0:20:14) Kev: But yeah, but yeah like a straight evil that’s that is fascinating but hey, but look (0:20:19) Al: Straight evil and nobody said straight. (0:20:22) Kev: Yeah (0:20:24) Kev: She’s um, I mean hey good good. She’s good. She’s a great actress though. Like everyone. I’ve seen her so I’m sure she kills it (0:20:31) Al: Yeah, no, she absolutely does. (0:20:32) Al: She kills, the role is fantastic, but other than, yeah, other than Legion and Shadow (0:20:40) Al: King, every other character is like an original character for the show, which is a little (0:20:44) Kev: Okay, what about not even Charles like cuz that’s (0:20:46) Al: bit weird. (0:20:48) Al: He is, he’s hinted at, but he’s never explicitly said. (0:20:52) Kev: Okay as about this like I I don’t (0:20:54) Kev: Okay, cuz I don’t expect them on screen, but you know that’s kind of a fundamental part of Legion’s characters (0:21:01) Al: So I think they can. (0:21:02) Al: They kind of hint at the fact at some point they hint about his dad being a telepath and they have like a cartoon drawing of who is clearly Charles Xavier, obviously, but it’s just like it’s hinted at, he has never explicitly said. (0:21:17) Kev: Okay (0:21:20) Al: said. (0:21:21) Kev: Okay, so okay (0:21:24) Kev: Two questions one do they ever I’m assuming they don’t have the really stupid Legion here that you see in the comics (0:21:31) Kev: But do they ever make a joke about it? (0:21:32) Al: No, I haven’t, I haven’t noticed anything I like that he has. (0:21:33) Kev: Yeah (0:21:36) Kev: Okay, darn it (0:21:36) Al: I mean, his hair is kind of, yeah, I mean, it kind of sticks up in some way, (0:21:41) Kev: It’s vertical (0:21:42) Al: but it’s not, yeah, it’s not as tall. (0:21:44) Al: It’s nowhere near, it’s like, it looks like a normal, like a possible (0:21:47) Kev: Okay, it’s a plausible hairstyle, okay (0:21:48) Al: realistic hairstyle that is an homage to it, I think they do. (0:21:51) Kev: Okay, so they translated it. Okay. I see. All right. Okay, because yeah, his comics hair is ridiculous. It’s like taller than his head (0:21:57) Al: Yeah. (0:21:59) Al: Yeah. (0:22:02) Kev: Okay, the other question (0:22:04) Kev: how is the (0:22:06) Kev: Multiple personality stuff done right because the bar is now set at moonlight, right? How is how do (0:22:11) Al: So, the interesting thing, so I’m finished season two, and I’ve got one season left to (0:22:17) Al: go, the up until the end of season two, they don’t touch on the multiple personalities (0:22:26) Al: very much. (0:22:26) Kev: What? (0:22:26) Al: Obviously, they’d know, let me finish, let me finish, because up until that point, he’s (0:22:33) Al: almost, he’s not quite sure of what his deal is, right? (0:22:41) Al: He starts off the series being diagnosed with schizophrenia in a mental hospital, and then (0:22:48) Al: gets out of the hospital and is like, “Oh, I wasn’t mentally ill, I was just a powerful (0:22:53) Al: mutant and people didn’t understand that.” (0:22:57) Al: And by the end of season two, they’re like, “No, no, you’re not, it’s not that you’re (0:23:02) Al: not mentally ill, it’s that you’re both.” (0:23:06) Al: So that’s how they finish the second season. (0:23:09) Kev: OK. (0:23:11) Al: Up until the last episode of season two, they’ve done a thing where he’s got voices (0:23:19) Al: talking to him, but until the last episode of season two, they don’t do explicitly his (0:23:25) Al: different personalities talking to each other. (0:23:28) Kev: Okay. Well, yeah, towards. Yeah. Okay. (0:23:28) Al: So they’ve not done that very much. (0:23:32) Al: With Moon Knight, his personalities don’t talk to each other, right? (0:23:36) Al: that is dissociative. And I know that I know that legions meant to be dissociative. (0:23:41) Al: But they do seem to be talking to each other, which is interesting. (0:23:46) Al: So it’s very different from how “Moonlight” works. (0:23:51) Al: And this is probably one of these things where this is not at all what it’s like in real life, (0:23:54) Al: and I understand that, I’m not trying to say. (0:23:55) Kev: oh yeah oh yeah for sure like I have even less expectations of legion in that end because legion (0:24:03) Kev: is so over the top with everything he’s got going on so yeah okay so uh-huh okay (0:24:06) Al: It’s, yeah, it’s very much more towards schizophrenia rather than DID, because it’s like, it’s framed (0:24:16) Al: as voices talking to him in his head, and he talks back to them. And then, yeah, so (0:24:21) Al: are we interested to see what they do in season three with it? Because he’s now kind of like (0:24:26) Al: realized this and like, everybody else realizes it. And he’s kind of like moving towards a (0:24:30) Al: kind of almost villain arc, but it will be interesting to see where they take that because (0:24:34) Kev: Ah. (0:24:35) Al: ‘cause obviously he’s a complicated– (0:24:37) Al: –character who, you know, yeah. (0:24:37) Kev: Whoops. (0:24:38) Kev: Oh, just a little. (0:24:41) Al: So it’ll be interesting to see where they end up, but I’ve enjoyed it so far. (0:24:41) Kev: Just a little. (0:24:43) Kev: OK. (0:24:45) Kev: Well, that’s great. (0:24:45) Al: But yeah, it’s been very weird. (0:24:46) Al: It’s like there’s a character that’s clearly meant to be kind of like rogue, (0:24:52) Al: but not really, in that if she touches someone, she swaps bodies with them. (0:24:54) Kev: Mmm (0:24:58) Kev: Her name is bros not rogue (0:25:01) Al: No, it’s not. (0:25:02) Al: It’s Sydney. (0:25:02) Al: But no, instead of like stealing someone’s power, she literally swaps bodies. (0:25:03) Kev: Okay (0:25:05) Kev: Yeah, that’s that’s pretty cool (0:25:06) Al: With them is interesting, and they’ve very much gone in a dark way with this, rather like, you know, there’s a like, we go into her, her childhood and there’s some like really not great moments where she realizes she can do this and. (0:25:21) Kev: No, I’m sure. Oh, oh gosh. There’s a lot of bad places you can go with that. Oh, that’s not great. Oh (0:25:28) Al: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m not going to talk about them on the podcast, but I mean, I might, if you’re if you’re not going to watch it, I might tell you one of them after the podcast because it. (0:25:32) Kev: Sure, but (0:25:36) Kev: Dude I can already take a guess but do tell like mmm (0:25:37) Al: I don’t think that particularly got me. (0:25:40) Al: After the podcast. (0:25:40) Kev: Y’all you could you can yeah there is room to work with there. Absolutely (0:25:46) Al: But yeah, so everyone else, including her are like, as far as I can tell, unique characters, because I was like, I don’t recognize these characters and I went on to Wikipedia and they’re not like. (0:25:58) Al: Legion is linked as the Marvel Legion, and then obviously Shadow King is linked as Shadow King, the Marvel Shadow King and all the other ones, they’re just. (0:26:02) Kev: Yeah, no. (0:26:06) Al: So and so, as this character name, and there’s no like link to a Marvel equivalent for them, so I’m assuming they’re all original characters. (0:26:12) Kev: Uh-huh (0:26:15) Kev: Sure, sure. Okay. Okay. Well (0:26:17) Al: They also have Jermaine Clement. I don’t know if you know who I who I’m talking about. (0:26:21) Kev: That name sounds familiar, let me see. Ah, okay, okay (0:26:22) Al: He was a flight, one of the flight of the concords. No flight of the concords? Yeah, he’s excellent in it as well. So yeah, no, it’s very good. I’m enjoying it and I’m looking forward to season three. (0:26:36) Al: But I’m still finished by the time you hear this episode because I’m going to watch it this week. I’ve only got eight episodes left to go. (0:26:42) Kev: it is it’s such a fascinating thing right because he’s I mean Legion is he is a (0:26:50) Kev: character of some note but not like you know he’s not an A-lister to name in the (0:26:57) Kev: Marvel verse let’s say that right but here they are making a spin a show (0:27:04) Kev: entirely centered or out to him without any of the other Marvel connections so (0:27:09) Kev: So when you hear that, it’s such an interesting practice. (0:27:12) Kev: It’s very cool that they managed to do good with it. (0:27:14) Kev: I have heard good things about it. (0:27:18) Al: Maybe. Yeah, so that’s mostly what I’ve been up to that I haven’t talked about on other episodes. (0:27:26) Kev: All right, cool (0:27:27) Al: Shall we talk about what games we are most looking forward to in 2025? (0:27:34) Kev: “Wildflowers 2” which might be announced by the time this comes out. (0:27:38) Kev: I don’t know. (0:27:39) Al: Oh yeah, they’ve hinted at something coming, haven’t they? (0:27:42) Kev: Yeah, I think it’s coming out. (0:27:44) Kev: So I don’t remember any dates or anything, but that may actually be announced by the (0:27:49) Kev: time this comes out. (0:27:50) Al: Yeah, so I know. (0:27:51) Kev: That may not be a joke. (0:27:53) Al: I know that so I I sent you a link, didn’t I? (0:27:56) Al: Yes, here it was. (0:27:57) Al: So they’re announcing something in the wholesome snack, (0:28:00) Al: which as we’re recording, it’s happening in three days. (0:28:04) Kev: Oh, great. Wildflowers 2 is going to be announced in three days, and I’m not for– (0:28:05) Al: So. (0:28:09) Kev: I can’t confirm it, because I don’t actually know at the time of the recording. (0:28:14) Al: Like, have they hinted towards there being a Wildflowers, too, and it’s not just (0:28:17) Kev: No, okay. That’s me just being hyperbolic. I don’t know, but it’s Drydock Studios. (0:28:22) Kev: It’s from their account, isn’t it? The Wildflowers account, so… (0:28:26) Kev: I don’t know. Who knows? It could be. That would be my hope, of course. Maybe with a different art (0:28:31) Kev: style but you never know um who knows what it’ll be (0:28:35) Kev: um i’ve got my eye on it though for sure though so we’ll see (0:28:37) Al: You’ll play whatever they make, basically, is what you’re saying. (0:28:41) Kev: yeah basically (0:28:44) Al: OK, cool. So we’re going to go through. We’ve each got a list, presumably. (0:28:48) Al: I can’t see Kevin’s list, but presumably we both have a list. (0:28:52) Al: I think what we’ve previously done is talk through one each. (0:28:59) Al: I just kind of go alternately and we’ll talk through our opinions on why we’re looking (0:29:05) Al: looking forward to it, et cetera. (0:29:10) Kev: I am where I cannot find my list I do right if you have a big you had a big list on you (0:29:15) Kev: Where is it? Uh, hold on. Let me see. I’m trying to remember here. You need to go on in slack (0:29:22) Al: I don’t think I’ve posted a big long list of what’s coming out, but it should be on if you look on the notion, there’s a big long list. (0:29:23) Kev: You did yeah (0:29:34) Kev: Um, oh, here it is. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yes. Sorry. Okay. Yeah, I could not find it. Um, but alright, let’s uh, let’s um, yeah. Alright, you start it. (0:29:46) Al: All right, so my first one, and I feel like this has been on my list so many times, but (0:29:52) Al: that’s because I still haven’t properly played it. And that is Snacko because obviously Snacko (0:29:58) Al: is in early access. I haven’t played it yet because it’s been so busy. I think when it (0:30:04) Al: came out last year was a really bad time because it’s December and I’m not going to play a (0:30:08) Al: brand new farming game in December because I’m already like out of it. But. (0:30:16) Al: At some point this year, Snacko will release 1.0 unless something goes seriously wrong. (0:30:23) Al: Like they’ve posted their updated roadmap and it has four updates on it. And it sounds (0:30:29) Al: like they’re expecting that to be done kind of reasonably early next year. So I would (0:30:33) Al: be very surprised if Snacko 1.0 doesn’t come out. So I think that’s probably the thing (0:30:37) Al: I’m most looking forward to. (0:30:38) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:30:42) Kev: All right, yeah, no, that’s fair like I (0:30:45) Kev: snako isn’t on my radar, but like I (0:30:49) Kev: this is one of those I’ve talked, you know ad nauseam like (0:30:53) Kev: Games that are in early access forever and then they get the 1.0 release like it’s uh (0:30:59) Kev: It’s I don’t know something almost perplexing unless they have a send some games do do it. We’re like a massive (0:31:06) Kev: Addition or patch change, right? (0:31:09) Kev: To list the features to 1.0 (0:31:12) Kev: But you know, we’ll see if it can’t drop. Hopefully it will drop (0:31:15) Kev: Um, I will say the art style still looks great. I will say that right like the pixel cap, but everything else is 3d (0:31:22) Al: Yeah (0:31:22) Kev: um (0:31:23) Al: They’ve they’ve done a lot of work as well (0:31:26) Al: So I’ve seen some recent screenshots and some screenshots from like when they first announced it and they’ve they’ve improved the graphics (0:31:34) Al: A huge amount while still feeling like it’s the same style, which is really impressive (0:31:40) Al: And it’s just I think the thing about snako is I have been talking about this game since we started the podcast. I’m pretty sure (0:31:46) Kev: Oh, that sounds about right. (0:31:48) Al: So, you know to to go that long (0:31:52) Al: I can’t even remember how long is it is this is this the end of year six or is this the end of you? (0:31:57) Al: I think it’s the end of year six in January. It will be six years of the podcast. So (0:32:02) Al: Yeah, just the idea of you know, I’ve been talking about this game for that long (0:32:07) Al: And I’m super excited to to finally properly played it. Obviously I played a (0:32:12) Al: demo (0:32:13) Al: Years ago now, but it’s obviously changed a huge amount since then (0:32:16) Kev: Yeah, that will be cool. Once it hits 1.0. I will say heck maybe even I’ll get on board at that point. I don’t know (0:32:26) Kev: But yeah, it’s uh (0:32:28) Kev: That’s good. Can you imagine that the finally that since it’s you finally get into it (0:32:35) Kev: I mean everything talking about it for this many years and finally we get 1.0 and you play the game proper (0:32:42) Kev: But yeah, all right, I’ll (0:32:45) Kev: I’ll, I’ll take the baton. (0:32:46) Kev: Um, my first pick, um, kind of like, I just talked about Snacko, but this is a similar boat where the game is already out, but I haven’t gotten to it. (0:32:58) Kev: And more importantly, it’s going to be the console release of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. (0:33:02) Kev: Um, ah, well, there you go. (0:33:02) Al: Ah that’s on my list as well. This I’m so excited for because yeah I really liked the game in (0:33:12) Al: general but I hated playing it on my iPad so I was like I played it as much as I needed to (0:33:18) Al: for the episode and went I will play this when it’s on something else because it is such a good (0:33:25) Al: game it is such it looks great it feels great everything about it is great I just did not want (0:33:31) Al: to do it on a touch screen! (0:33:32) Kev: It looks like it looks I know I say this knowing Hello Kitty is like one of the biggest franchises in the world just (0:33:43) Kev: monetary wise right but it looks so much better than what I expect it to be right because I’m not saying Hello Kitty is isn’t like it (0:33:52) Kev: doesn’t do quality stuff but it just does so much stuff right like it’s so everywhere that I’m just I don’t know and I don’t (0:34:00) Kev: expect, you know, super high (0:34:02) Kev: highs, let’s say that, right? But this looks incredible. Just everything going on. Like the (0:34:08) Kev: writing, you write minecarts in this game, it’s wild! And finding the Gudetama’s hidden around, (0:34:15) Kev: oh my, it just sounds incredible. And like, just the massive list of Sanrio characters. (0:34:24) Kev: Yeah, no, this, this, like ever since the, you guys talked about it on that one episode, I’ve been so (0:34:28) Kev: hype for it. You and Maddy talk about it. (0:34:32) Kev: This is probably number one, just because I mean, of course, like we know what it is more or less, right? It’s come out. (0:34:39) Kev: We know I know what to expect. So that’s probably why out of all the names here, it is the one I’m most looking forward to, I would say. (0:34:46) Al: Yeah, I wonder, here’s a question for you. (0:34:47) Kev: Yeah, good stuff. Yeah. (0:34:49) Al: Do you think this will be a Switch 2 launch title? (0:34:57) Al: So as of just now, we just know 2025 for Hello Kitty Island Adventure. (0:35:02) Al: We don’t know when in 2025 and also we’re expecting the Switch 2 to be released in (0:35:10) Al: 2025 and it was announced that it was coming to Switch. (0:35:17) Al: Or it was announced that it was coming to anything else (0:35:20) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. (0:35:21) Al: in a Nintendo Direct, you know, in 2024 this year, June 2024. (0:35:29) Al: You know for a fact that if the Switch 2 is coming out next year, (0:35:33) Al: there are developers that have a version to build against an SDK, right? (0:35:40) Al: You know for a fact that there are games (0:35:41) Al: companies that have that because there’s no way they would release the game (0:35:46) Al: Switch exclusives and this feels like it could be something, right? (0:35:51) Al: Like, do you know? (0:35:52) Kev: fact that it’s already have you know it’s already out right it’s it’s just a port as opposed to ground-up game doesn’t make it a (0:35:58) Al: Exactly, yeah. (0:35:59) Kev: Lot more likely um I I don’t know how strong lead field I’ll say it’s greater than 50% chance. It’ll be a launch title (0:36:06) Al: It’s the fact that we still don’t–it’s been six months, and we still don’t know when it’s (0:36:08) Kev: You know I don’t know (0:36:12) Al: coming out next year, you know? And there were many–like, the general assumption is (0:36:13) Kev: Yeah, you know what that’s that’s fair um (0:36:16) Kev: Umm… (0:36:22) Al: that the Switch 2 release announcement was delayed from September. So June to September (0:36:30) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah (0:36:31) Al: could be a sort of expected timeline between announcement and date. Don’t know. (0:36:54) Al: Yeah, it will be backwards compatible, but I will say, and this is the thing that people (0:36:58) Al: keep getting wrong, backwards compatible does not mean it will run better on the Switch (0:37:02) Al: 2, necessarily. That’s not how these things work, right? (0:37:04) Kev: No, you’re right, I’m not saying, you know what, that’s a good point. (0:37:10) Kev: Yeah, no, you’re right. (0:37:10) Al: So if they make, because it’s the same thing with PS4 versions on a PS5, do not run better (0:37:16) Al: than on a PS4. Well, not better than a PS4 Pro. They do run better than a PS4, but they (0:37:21) Al: don’t run better than a PS4 Pro (0:37:24) Al: They’re not compiled for the PS5, they’re compiled for the PS4 and PS4 Pro (0:37:29) Al: and then they also work on the PS5 and so like when we got, I remember when I first got a PS5 (0:37:36) Al: Fall Guys was just the PS4 version and then like a year later they released the PS5 version and it (0:37:39) Kev: yeah (0:37:43) Kev: um really oh wow I didn’t try on the ps5 i’ll have to try that (0:37:48) Kev: um (0:37:48) Al: With your ps5 that’s just sitting in the corner (0:37:51) Kev: that’s cool look ps5 was my zen the zone zero machine (0:37:56) Al: Would you have a ps5? Oh, I didn’t know that fair enough (0:37:57) Kev: it was stupid oh yeah I do (0:38:01) Kev: yeah yeah yeah I like I use it it’s not just even the ps5 like in general my playstation or (0:38:08) Kev: or non-Nintendo consoles are– (0:38:09) Kev: get used just from a handful of games, right? (0:38:11) Al: » Yeah. (0:38:11) Kev: Like, they’re games, I want them, right? (0:38:12) Al: Same. (0:38:14) Kev: Like, it’s my Street Fighter machine, (0:38:16) Kev: it’s my Send the Zone Zero machine. (0:38:18) Kev: Now my Mar– well, actually, no, (0:38:19) Kev: I’m not even playing Marvel, (0:38:20) Kev: I’m playing Marvel, I was on Steam, (0:38:21) Kev: Calvin got the– (0:38:23) Kev: ‘cause Calvin was a big Overwatch fan, too, (0:38:25) Kev: so we’re both hyped about it, (0:38:26) Kev: so I was like, okay, you know what? (0:38:27) Kev: I have a computer that can run it, (0:38:29) Kev: I’ll run Marvel, I was on Steam, (0:38:31) Kev: you play on the PlayStation, (0:38:32) Kev: and that’s how we split it up. (0:38:33) Kev: But anyways, but there’s another– (0:38:36) Kev: yeah, Fall Guys, right? (0:38:40) Kev: I probably won’t try it, actually, (0:38:41) Kev: ‘cause I don’t have too much other stuff. (0:38:44) Al: I still love fall guys. It’s great. I don’t play as much as I used to, but I still, it’s (0:38:46) Kev: Oh, yeah, Fall Guys is excellent, (0:38:48) Al: a good fun, good. They they’ve been adding, they’ve been adding loads of great, uh, what’s (0:38:49) Kev: like, there is no denying that, (0:38:51) Kev: they knocked that out of the park. (0:38:52) Kev: I wonder how far it’s come. (0:38:53) Kev: Oh, now I’m curious, maybe I will. (0:38:58) Al: the word I’m looking for? Um, skins. And I really like how they’ve been doing the skins (0:39:04) Al: in that you can quite often get a lot of skins for free. Um, so there’s, there’s a, they (0:39:09) Al: They have a, okay, okay, here’s what I really love about what they’ve been doing. (0:39:14) Al: They have a premium pass, or what do you call it, a ladder, or whatever it is you (0:39:20) Al: call it. (0:39:21) Al: I can’t never remember the terminology these games use. (0:39:24) Al: The battle pass, yeah, sure. (0:39:24) Kev: Battle pass, season pass, I don’t know. (0:39:26) Kev: Yeah. (0:39:26) Al: Season pass. (0:39:27) Al: There we go. (0:39:28) Al: Season pass. (0:39:29) Al: They’ve got a season pass. (0:39:30) Al: But the season pass gives you back the currency that you use to buy the season pass. (0:39:38) Kev: Okay (0:39:38) Al: So if you reach level 40 in the season pass, you have a sentry. (0:39:42) Kev: Yeah (0:39:44) Al: Eventually, refunded your season pass. (0:39:47) Kev: You have the next one free which is always great, yeah (0:39:48) Al: Exactly, so if you’re playing it regularly, you can get so much stuff without actually (0:39:55) Al: having to pay except that first payment, which is really good. (0:39:58) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:40:00) Al: And they have like a whole bunch of bundles where it’s like, here’s a bunch of skins and (0:40:03) Al: the currency that you use to buy the battle pass. (0:40:04) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:40:06) Al: So I think, obviously, it still is shoving these things in your face a lot and there’s (0:40:11) Al: a lot of stuff you can’t get without paying. (0:40:14) Kev: Yeah. (0:40:14) Al: You’re exclusive to pay money, pay 20 quid, and you’ll get these skins, but that’s fine. (0:40:20) Al: It’s skins. (0:40:21) Al: Who cares? (0:40:22) Al: You know. (0:40:24) Kev: yeah yeah yeah exactly right at the end of the day even if you don’t care like the game’s (0:40:27) Kev: free and you can still play and it’s entertaining on its own right absolutely um yeah no um so so (0:40:29) Al: Exactly, but my other point about Hello Kitty is they are releasing on PS4 and PS5, they’ve (0:40:35) Kev: there you go fall guys one of my most anticipated 2020 (0:40:44) Al: exclusively said that, so it’s not like they aren’t known to release on two generations (0:40:48) Kev: Yeah, yeah, that’s great. Oh, so there you go. Maybe we’ll get (0:40:49) Al: of the same console at the same time. (0:40:56) Kev: That’s switch to version after all then the ounces (0:41:00) Al: we’re getting close to the point where we’re going to know when the switch is coming out and we’re (0:41:04) Al: going to get the first indications of what the launch titles are. Obviously there will be some (0:41:10) Al: Nintendo stuff but there’s going to be some third-party stuff as well and I would not be surprised if (0:41:15) Al: this is one of them. All right my second one, I guess, I mean my third one was Hello Kitty (0:41:16) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, you know, yeah, I could see it. Um, okay. Okay, go ahead. Yeah. (0:41:27) Al: island adventure as well. So how many more do you have? (0:41:28) Kev: All right. Oh, god. I, wait, how many do you have? I’ll just try to match you, because I’m, I’m… (0:41:30) Al: For organizing this. I have four in total, but that included Hello Kitty. But if you have four. (0:41:38) Kev: Oh, oh, well, I could probably go, I could probably do… (0:41:42) Kev: We’ll see. I’ll see. I’m going down the list. Just double check again. (0:41:44) Al: You do another one, do another one now, then because I’ve just (0:41:47) Kev: Okay. All right. Well, first of all, stop the presses. Sorry, as I’ve been double checking all these things, I’ve been in double checking trailers. (0:41:47) Al: done alligator as well. So what’s your, what’s your next one? (0:41:56) Kev: There’s Professor Layton got an out. This is neither here nor there. This might be for the greenhouse. This is Professor Layton. Oh, my gosh. Anyways, okay. (0:42:05) Kev: Okay, here’s one. I’m going to say this not because I (0:42:13) Kev: I might not play it, but I’m just so… (0:42:16) Kev: …curious about it? (0:42:19) Kev: Uh, WANDERSTOP? (0:42:21) Kev: Because that’s the one by the Stanley Parable guy, right? (0:42:25) Kev: And it’s, like, such a wild departure from that. (0:42:30) Kev: I’m… I just wonder what it’s gonna look like, right? (0:42:33) Kev: And, like, we have a trailer, and the game looks fine and whatnot. (0:42:36) Kev: Um, it just looks like a straight, you know, straight-shooting, cozy-type game. (0:42:41) Kev: But, um, so, you know, I don’t know if it’s gonna bring anything super new, but… (0:42:46) Kev: Just the history of that developer really has me wondering what that’s gonna look like. (0:42:50) Kev: Because I’m not expecting there to be some weird Stanley Parable-esque twist, (0:42:57) Kev: but at the same time, I don’t know, maybe? (0:43:00) Al: I don’t expect it to be like a meta-commentary on games the way that Stanley Parable was, (0:43:01) Kev: Like… (0:43:05) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (0:43:06) Al: but I will say that it’s describing itself as a narrative-centric cosy game about change and T. (0:43:12) Kev: Uh-huh. (0:43:13) Al: I feel like it’s going to do something interesting, and that’s not going to be a really boring story. (0:43:16) Kev: » Yeah, it might. (0:43:21) Al: It’s going to be hard-hitting in some kind of way, like I don’t think they would make it (0:43:26) Al: just to make a cosy game. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was… (0:43:30) Al: Maybe a meta-commentary on coziness or something like that, you know, like I could see them (0:43:36) Al: like completely appending what you would expect from a cosy game. (0:43:40) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I I could see that absolutely (0:43:45) Kev: Yeah, so you know like I don’t know if I will get to it (0:43:49) Kev: Maybe it drops out and it’s amazing, but it certainly has grabbed my attention. I’ll say that (0:43:53) Kev: that. (0:43:54) Al: it will, even if you don’t play it, you’ll find out a lot about it because this is going (0:43:58) Al: to be talked about. You know, like the same way that the Stanley Parable was talked about (0:44:00) Kev: Oh, oh, absolutely, right? Like, oh, I’m sure, right. I mean, just having that pedigree alone, like, it’s gonna get talked about, absolutely. (0:44:14) Al: I just noticed the music is done by C418, the guy who did Minecraft music. (0:44:18) Kev: Oh, what? (0:44:20) Kev: Minecraft guy, yeah. Oh, I’m like, ooh. Ooh, that’s, that’s strong. That’s good music. Oh. (0:44:20) Al: » Yeah. (0:44:26) Kev: Um, alright, well, that was an honorable mention, but here, let me, uh, let me- (0:44:30) Kev: I can actually throw one. I probably will play, um, “Tales of Sekyu”? I think that’s how you pronounce it. (0:44:36) Al: say yeah I can I who knows yeah (0:44:38) Kev: I think so. Um, okay. (0:44:44) Kev: Uh, so there is, um, so it is a, you know, it’s- (0:44:50) Kev: What’s the premise? It’s- it’s farming, but it’s yokai. (0:44:51) Al: Jokai. Farming, but Jokai, yep. That’s a perfect explanation of it, really. (0:44:54) Kev: Farming but yokai, right? So, that is what it is, right? (0:44:59) Al: Do you need to say any more? That’s it. (0:45:01) Kev: Yeah, yeah. Okay, first of all, the art style is- we’re looking full 3D, and it’s not, like, super cutesy. It’s a little more, uh, (0:45:12) Kev: realistically proportioned, let’s say that, right? Like, we got full proportioned humans and s- characters. (0:45:18) Kev: Um, you transform into yokai to do farming tasks. You turn into a slime thing to water your crops. (0:45:24) Kev: You can fly around as a bird, and yeah, I don’t know. There’s a lot going on here. Um, (0:45:30) Al: Can I can I say that I feel like it looks like Sakuna, is that (0:45:30) Kev: it- I was about to- if you look at the trailer, there’s a blacksmith, and there’s an otter guy, and he looks (0:45:40) Kev: just like, um, I forget his name, whatever, the guy from, uh, Sakuna. Yes, I- I can totally get it. (0:45:44) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you got a type of game by any chance? (0:45:49) Kev: Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, you’re not wrong. Um, yeah, I mean, it is- because I- it’s- (0:45:59) Kev: It’s not a coincidence, right? (0:46:00) Kev: They’re both leaning into the very traditional Japanese folklore-esque roots and whatnot, right? (0:46:08) Kev: So that’s what they’re going for. (0:46:10) Kev: But, honestly, it’s the fact that you can transform into the yokai that’s really selling me on it, right? (0:46:16) Kev: Like, you don’t water a king, you transform into a little slime ball to water the crops. (0:46:22) Kev: I’m curious to see what else they can do with that. (0:46:24) Kev: That, I think, has really piqued my curiosity. (0:46:27) Al: Yeah, it looks really smooth as well like the the transforming into the you’re the flying one to (0:46:30) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:46:32) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:46:34) Al: To fly to move like Luke’s really fun (0:46:37) Al: I suspect that’s the sort of thing that you’re gonna have to build up to you’re not gonna immediately be able to transfer (0:46:38) Kev: Yeah. (0:46:42) Kev: Oh, for sure. (0:46:43) Al: Tran transform into all these you okay, but I just I feel like building up to that will be fine (0:46:44) Kev: Oh, yeah, you gotta collect ’em. (0:46:49) Al: And and it will be I think I hope the movement feels fun like that (0:46:55) Kev: Yeah. No, I agree. Um, yeah, so that that’s and like, I think it does look nice like it’s not heavy stylistic like other ones and maybe that’s why it sticks out. It almost reminds you of like an Atlas game how it looks kinda. (0:47:09) Kev: Um, so yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, there you go. Tales will take you. We got it slated for next year, but that’s all. (0:47:16) Al: Yep. My next one, which I don’t know if it’s on your list, but you’ll probably be looking (0:47:23) Al: forward to is Super Zoo Story. (0:47:25) Kev: I was actually on my list, of course, I mean, you know after let’s build a zoo (0:47:30) Al: I may have reordered my list so I could say this one so you couldn’t steal it from me. (0:47:34) Kev: Yeah, I (0:47:36) Kev: Don’t blame you. I mean like it’s farming but zoo right instead of Yoka (0:47:45) Kev: Like it’s not just (0:47:48) Kev: So zoo let’s build a zoo was just zoo tycoon type game, right? (0:47:52) Kev: This is more Stardew-esque, where you’re running– (0:47:55) Kev: We’re running around actually taking care of the animals and such, and there’s villagers, and I think they said there’s romance, because you have to apparently, and you’re farming. (0:48:04) Kev: Um, but it’s still centered on zoo animals and stuff, so like, I like animals, so you know, that’s a big one for me. What can I say? (0:48:12) Al: That’s my that’s my thing like I really wanted to like let’s build a zoo, but I don’t I’ve mentioned it before I just not a huge (0:48:19) Al: fan of (0:48:21) Al: management Sims and so this feels like the perfect balance of you know running a zoo, but it’s also (0:48:28) Al: You know you’re playing as a character, so (0:48:31) Al: Presumably it’ll feel much less (0:48:34) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, hopefully, right? Like, I agree, right? Because the problem with management type (0:48:42) Kev: games, it’s once the scale gets big, it’s really hard. Like, there’s so much you have to do and (0:48:46) Kev: whatnot, right? And here, if they’re, you know, you have to run around and actually fill the trough (0:48:52) Kev: and stuff, like, hopefully, they’re going to dial that back down or give you automation or systems (0:48:57) Kev: to make that manageable because there’s a lot going on in these trailers, right? There’s, you used to, yeah. (0:48:59) Al: That’s the key. Yeah, that’s the key to me. If there’s good automation, it will be a fantastic (0:49:04) Kev: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you’d hope so, right? Because there’s a lot that, like I said, there’s full-on (0:49:05) Al: game. If there’s not, I will be so frustrated. So that’s my one thing that I’m hesitant about, (0:49:10) Al: is like, are they going to do the automation? (0:49:18) Kev: farming systems here, right? Like, there’s bug catching, it looks like, and all sorts of other (0:49:23) Kev: stuff. Hey, there’s a Caffee Bear. But, I’d miss that in PlayStation. (0:49:27) Al: Of course, there was a capybara in Tales of Sakeu as well. (0:49:31) Al: I don’t know if you noticed that. (0:49:34) Kev: Um, there you go. There you go. I mean, yeah, it’s a pretty easy way to win us. So, um, yeah, so there we (0:49:35) Al: If in doubt, capybara. (0:49:44) Kev: go. Um, that’s, uh, that’s a good one. Yeah. Yep, I agree fully. Um, all right, so, so I’m just looking (0:49:48) Al: Yep, I’m really, I’m really looking forward to it. I hope (0:49:50) Al: it’s gonna be, hope it’s gonna be good. (0:49:57) Kev: down the list and, like, so many are TBA, right, that I’m interested in, but, um, but. (0:50:02) Al: I know, I know, I know. I’m trying to limit it to ones that have at least hinted that (0:50:04) Kev: Yeah. Yep, absolutely. Um. (0:50:07) Al: they’re going to be next year. Because there’s still so many of those on that list, right? (0:50:15) Al: We still have like 25, 30 games that say they’re coming out next year. (0:50:20) Kev: I mean like I’ll say Southfield is going to be the number one most (0:50:24) Kev: I look forward to give every year until it comes out. (0:50:28) Al: Yeah. I feel like, did they just announce something? (0:50:29) Kev: That’s that’s the one for me. (0:50:34) Al: No, they’ve not announced when their early access is coming out again yet. (0:50:38) Al: It’s been six months and we’ve not got… (0:50:42) Kev: Yeah, no (0:50:44) Kev: Here’s (0:50:49) Kev: But yeah, no, that’s good. Um, let’s see here. I’m trying to (0:50:55) Kev: Out of the other ones. I’ve seen go ahead if you’ve got another one. Yes (0:50:56) Al: Well, I’ve I’ve got another one that I just remembered about Starbirds. (0:51:02) Al: So this is it’s a game that is being made in conjunction with Kurskizat. (0:51:08) Al: I don’t know if you know them. (0:51:09) Al: They’re a YouTube channel that focus on science education. (0:51:12) Kev: - I don’t think so, no. (0:51:16) Kev: - Oh, okay, oh, that’s cool. (0:51:17) Al: They’re really cool and they’ve got a very (0:51:19) Al: distinctive art style in their videos, and so this game uses that art style. (0:51:24) Al: And it’s a B. (0:51:26) Al: An asteroid based building resource management game. (0:51:30) Al: So it’s a little bit management game (0:51:32) Al: style, but I feel like it’s less big and stressful and it’s more like focusing (0:51:38) Al: on a small asteroid at a time, which I feel like will pull that back and and (0:51:42) Al: make me enjoy it more. (0:51:44) Al: But yeah, I really like the look of it. (0:51:46) Al: I think it’s (0:51:48) Al: I suspect it’s going to be doing some science education. (0:51:52) Al: You sort of stuff inside of it, right? (0:51:53) Al: Like I don’t think Kurzgesagt will just go, “Let’s make–” (0:51:56) Al: No, we’re like, “Let’s make a game that does what we care about,” which is science education. (0:51:58) Kev: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, look, I’ve already seen, like, on the trailer, you can see you’re (0:52:06) Kev: just loading up a planet with circuits and solar panels and stuff, so absolutely they’re (0:52:14) Kev: leaning into the science-y aspect of it. Yeah, I love this art style, it is very cute, and (0:52:20) Kev: the 3D look of it, it’s great. Yeah, that’s a good one. I, you know, yeah, I’m looking (0:52:26) Kev: for early so it’s going to (0:52:28) Kev: get early access in 2025 they’re saying so you know definitely keep my out for that one (0:52:34) Kev: all right I think you you still have one more you said right now I think okay really because I i mean (0:52:38) Al: I have one more to mention. It’s not a big one, but yeah. (0:52:43) Kev: is it not the one i’m thinking of because I feel I thought that would be the the the finisher for us (0:52:48) Al: I don’t know. Go for it. Tell me. (0:52:49) Kev: uh I mean are we not going to talk about tales of the shire (0:52:52) Al: No. I’m not like… OK. I don’t know. I feel like I’ve gotten less and less excited about this game (0:52:58) Al: over time. Let me talk about my last one, and then we’ll talk about the other side. (0:52:59) Kev: Yeah. (0:53:02) Kev: Yes. OK. (0:53:03) Al: So my last one is Fields of Mystery. I’ve really been enjoying it, (0:53:06) Al: and I want more of it so I’m looking forward to it. (0:53:07) Kev: Hmm. (0:53:08) Al: Hopefully we’ll be next year. That’s a good question. I don’t know for certain. We’ll see. (0:53:09) Kev: Yeah. (0:53:11) Kev: Sure. (0:53:12) Kev: Fair enough. (0:53:14) Kev: Yeah. OK. (0:53:16) Al: Right, come on, let’s talk about Tales of the Shire then. Tell me why you’re excited. (0:53:20) Al: Or should I tell you why I’m not excited first and then you can talk about why you’re excited. (0:53:20) Kev: Well, actually. (0:53:23) Kev: I was about. (0:53:23) Al: We can finish off as a positive. (0:53:25) Kev: Much like Wander Stop. (0:53:28) Kev: like I’m not sure if I’m (0:53:29) Kev: excited or play it myself right because like it’s it’s it’s very much the same (0:53:34) Kev: thing right like it looks like your standard cozy fishing and then crafting (0:53:40) Kev: and all that good stuff right but it’s friggin little rings right like how is (0:53:46) Kev: that going to be integrated let’s that’s what I need to know I I don’t know like (0:53:52) Kev: I was just watching Lord of the Rings the other day and like you know that that’s (0:53:55) Kev: good stuff. It’s like a shocker though. (0:53:59) Kev: The Lord of the Rings movies are good and high fantasy and all that. Are they going (0:54:04) Kev: to capitalize on what makes Lord of the Rings popular and successful? I don’t know. That’s (0:54:10) Kev: what I’m wondering here. Gandalf has to wander into town, right? Absolutely. (0:54:18) Al: Yeah, he’s not gonna be someone you can see every day, but he’s gonna turn up for I don’t know there’s a (0:54:24) Al: Traveling there’s a traveling market and he’s coming (0:54:29) Kev: Yeah, he’s gonna be crazy red. Watch out for the Ford Breezy stuff. (0:54:35) Al: Yeah, I think my thing about it is I like the concept of it, but I’m just and this (0:54:42) Al: is not saying it’s bad, I’m just not a fan of the art style. (0:54:46) Kev: mmm you know that’s very fair um I i think you know I can echo that sentiment i’m not a (0:54:52) Kev: fan of the uh art style myself um yeah no I don’t blame you at all (0:55:00) Al: So, yeah, I don’t know. I’m also a little bit worried about how it will play. (0:55:04) Al: And I feel like it might just end up being just stardew but Lord of the Rings, (0:55:09) Al: which is fine, but I don’t know. (0:55:11) Kev: Yeah. (0:55:12) Al: Is that what I’m looking for? (0:55:13) Kev: Yeah. (0:55:14) Al: Maybe. (0:55:15) Al: I probably did say when this was announced that that was what I was looking for. (0:55:19) Al: But I don’t know. (0:55:21) Al: I’m going to play it like I’m not let’s not lie. (0:55:21) Kev: I (0:55:23) Al: I’m going to buy it and I’m going to play it and I’m going to talk about it. (0:55:27) Al: but the question is, am I going to enjoy it? (0:55:27) Kev: Know (0:55:30) Al: We’ll see. I’m keeping an open mind, but that doesn’t mean I’m super excited about it. (0:55:31) Kev: Yeah (0:55:33) Kev: Okay, yeah. All right. So what is the actual one on your last on your list? Oh (0:55:38) Al: Oh, that was fields of mystery. (0:55:40) Kev: All right, yes, sorry, I forgot okay, yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. Yes. I forgot. Yes, you’re just (0:55:46) Kev: Your your (0:55:49) Kev: The most anticipated 2025 is… (0:55:51) Kev: I think one of your top games of 2024… (0:55:54) Kev: Uh, that’s shocker. (0:55:54) Al: Imagine that, right? I want more of it. That’s, I mean, that’s the thing because like in the (0:55:58) Kev: Ugh, uh, okay. (0:56:00) Kev: - Ah, okay. (0:56:02) Al: episode, that was my main problem was it’s unfinished and I want more of it. Please give (0:56:07) Al: me more. And I kind of wish I hadn’t played it early access because I just want to, you know, (0:56:13) Al: whatever. But there we are. (0:56:14) Kev: Yeah, they’re, um, you know, one more special shout out for me. (0:56:19) Kev: I almost forgot, like I’m torn because I love the aesthetic and how it looks (0:56:25) Kev: like gaucho and the grassland. (0:56:27) Kev: We got the Western cowboy thing. (0:56:27) Al: I was going to say, I’m surprised you’ve not brought that up. (0:56:29) Kev: I was about to say, right? (0:56:29) Al: Come on, you’ve got to be stereotypical, Kevin. (0:56:31) Kev: Like, I don’t know. (0:56:33) Kev: I know it looks so good. (0:56:35) Kev: Cowboys. (0:56:36) Kev: You last saw a bull. (0:56:38) Kev: I really like that. (0:56:39) Kev: Um, it’s got a cartoony, almost fabled them kind of look to it. (0:56:43) Kev: I don’t know how the game plays (0:56:44) Kev: going to feel that’s that’s the kicker right I love how it looks I love the (0:56:48) Kev: concept I just don’t know how the game play gonna be but on paper telling me (0:56:50) Al: Yeah, yeah (0:56:53) Kev: you got a cowboy grab you know it’s the farming game that’s awesome a ranching (0:56:58) Kev: game oh I love that concept so much but um like the actual gameplay I just I (0:57:04) Kev: don’t know how it’s gonna be you guys are hurt you get to move a herd of cows (0:57:08) Kev: Al how could you not like good times (0:57:14) Al: Fair, fair. (0:57:15) Kev: yeah all right there you go so that’s all I’ve got for 2025 there’s broad until (0:57:22) Kev: Southfield says they’re 2025 then forget everything else I just want stuff (0:57:27) Al: Anyway, great. (0:57:28) Kev: all right there you go (0:57:29) Al: Thank you for joining me to talk about your most exciting games for 2025. (0:57:33) Kev: yeah (0:57:34) Al: We’ll see in a year where, you know, which of those we’ve actually played. (0:57:40) Kev: Okay, well hello kitty’s pretty calm. Yeah, I mean I can I can count on hello kitty (0:57:46) Al: I think so. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that’ll come out at some point next year, this year. (0:57:49) Kev: That that one’s I’m safe on that one and playing now and that that’s the most likely and confident one (0:57:55) Kev: I’ll say that right think the others (0:57:58) Kev: Tells the sake you I am interested in I just I don’t know you know when it actually drops. That’s the question but um (0:58:04) Kev: Yeah, there you go (0:58:05) Al: All right, well, Kevin, where can people find you on the Internet? (0:58:09) Kev: All right people fine (0:58:10) Kev: me at scooper guys on Twitter or blue sky Chinese blue sky more, but Twitter Twitter draws me and it has the dank memes (0:58:17) Kev: I can’t get away from it. Um (0:58:19) Kev: That’s brighter squared. You want to see some of my art? (0:58:21) Kev: I need a you know, that’ll be a good New Year’s resolution revamp my art stuff cuz I’ve I don’t have my blue sky count. Yada (0:58:29) Kev: Or you can find me at (0:58:32) Kev: Rainbow Road radio (0:58:35) Kev: Mario theme pocket. Yes, I do with our mutual friend Alex (0:58:39) Kev: You know, we finished (0:58:40) Kev: The Bowser’s Inside story, so we’re kind of it’s the holidays. So we’re (0:58:46) Kev: You know, it take a little slower right now. We we’ve got something cooking something lined up, but I don’t know when we’ve got (0:58:54) Kev: When we’re going to drop that but right now we’re just kind of going through the news and then and all that good stuff (0:59:01) Kev: It’s still a good listen. So tune in (0:59:04) Kev: Good stuff. Good stuff. I would buy you out. We’d be flying down your neck (0:59:09) Al: People can find me in the usual places. (0:59:13) Al: You can find me at the Scottbot on massadon.scot and most other social media. (0:59:20) Al: Just go search for me. (0:59:21) Al: You can find the podcast on Tumblr at THSPod. (0:59:26) Al: Also on some other things. (0:59:28) Al: I think I’ve set up the blue sky now, (0:59:29) Al: so that’s going, but I’ve not done anything else yet. (0:59:30) Kev: Yeah (0:59:32) Al: So you can find us there as well. (0:59:34) Al: You can find you can send us feedback from our website, harvestseason.club. (0:59:39) Al: Where you can also find links to everything to do with the podcast, (0:59:42) Al: including our Patreon, where you get access to our Slack and chat to people there. (0:59:51) Al: You get some kind of insights into how the podcast runs as well. (0:59:54) Al: And you also get access to the extra bonus episodes of the podcast. (0:59:59) Al: We just released our, obviously we just had the Game of the Year episode of the podcast. (1:00:05) Al: we also had a game of the year game of the non (1:00:09) Al: farming year on the greenhouse episode. So that should be up now and we’re just about to record (1:00:16) Al: our greenhouse episode for what we’re most looking forward to outside of Cottagecore Games (1:00:20) Kev: I’ve already got one, I just found one. (1:00:21) Al: this year as well. So yeah, look for them, come join us, come subscribe and get access to all that. (1:00:24) Kev: I’ll record this episode. (1:00:32) Al: I think that’s everything else. Thank you Kevin again for joining me. (1:00:34) Kev: Thank you all for having me on my… (1:00:37) Al: Thank you listeners for listening and until next (1:00:39) Al: time, have a good harvest! (1:00:40) Kev: Good harvest. (1:00:41) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:00:51) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:00:55) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:01:00) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:01:05) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:01:15) Al: It’s always fun to look back on what we said for in the previous year. (1:01:19) Al: Should we have a quick look about what we said? (1:01:22) Al: We’re going to be our I was I was me and Johnny last year. (1:01:25) Kev: Yeah Oh, yeah, that was a good one. (1:01:26) Al: And I Johnny said Tales of the Shire, lol. (1:01:32) Al: Mika Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, fair, that worked. (1:01:37) Al: Rusty’s Retirement, fair. (1:01:40) Al: Tamagotchi Adventure Kingdom. (1:01:43) Al: I don’t think that’s out, is it? (1:01:45) Al: Is it out on iOS, but I don’t think it’s out on anything else. (1:01:53) Al: I don’t know if it’s meant to be coming on anything else. (1:01:55) Al: I’m not seeing announcements, but anyway, I don’t know if he ended up playing that. (1:01:59) Al: And Horticular, which is out. (1:02:03) Al: I don’t know if he’s ended up playing at all, has he? (1:02:06) Kev: I don’t think I’ve heard him play it. (1:02:06) Al: It is out now. (1:02:08) Kev: Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s out. (1:02:08) Al: It came. (1:02:09) Kev: I don’t think I’ve heard him say anything about it. (1:02:11) Al: and then Minewear, Minewear, lol, Snacko. (1:02:16) Al: Mika and the Witches Mountain and Google 10. (1:02:20) Al: So, two of them came out. (1:02:21) Kev: Snacko. (1:02:23) Kev: Yeah, Snacko most anticipated of the game of the year. (1:02:27) Kev: Six years running. (1:02:28) Al: I mean, you know, like 2023, let’s see my list. (1:02:32) Kev: Yeah. (1:02:34) Al: Snacko was on that list. (1:02:36) Kev: » There you go. (1:02:38) Al: Mineko’s Night Market and Story of Seasons, (1:02:40) Al: a Wonderful Life. (1:02:45) Kev: Well, anyways, I put down. (1:02:45) Al: Story of Seasons, a Wonderful Life was on my list. (1:02:48) Al: I’ve never played it. (1:02:50) Kev: » I don’t do it, maybe cuz you knew other people I tell you. (1:02:54) Al: Why was it on my list of most exciting games?…

The Harvest Season

1
Game of the Year 2024 2:23:06

10 weeksที่แล้ว2:23:06

2:23:06

Al, Codey, and Micah talk about their favourite farming and cottagecore games of 2024. Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:37: What Have We Been Up To 00:22:18: Rules Explanation 00:26:13: Update Of The Year 00:42:17: Early Access Of The Year 00:52:11: Game Of The Year Nominations 01:46:31: Debate 02:01:59: Winner Discussion 02:10:47: Outro Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to the sixth annual harvest season (0:00:35) Al: game of the year episode. (0:00:37) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:38) Codey: And my name is Cody. (0:00:40) Micah: And I’m Micah. (0:00:41) Al: And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:44) Codey: Ooh. (0:00:45) Micah: Yay. (0:00:48) Codey: Make it, it’s a woo, not yay. (0:00:49) Micah: Yeah, wooh. (0:00:53) Al: All right. This is. Spicy, we, as mentioned, this is going to be our game of the year episode (0:00:54) Micah: I’m trying to add a little spice to it, you know, spice it up a little bit. (0:01:04) Al: for this year. Why all that? This is the sixth one. I don’t know how to deal with that. (0:01:10) Micah: Yeah, I can’t believe it’s it’s been that long you said I didn’t even register (0:01:15) Micah: I saw the list of the the previous ones you said six just now and it hit me like a truck (0:01:20) Al: We’ve changed things up this year a little bit compared to previous years. (0:01:21) Codey: Yeah you said it and I was like no way. This is wild. (0:01:30) Al: I’m not going to go into that just now, but just bear in mind listeners, there are some (0:01:34) Al: slight changes. (0:01:37) Al: Before that, Micah, what have you been up to? (0:01:38) Micah: Aww, I’ve been playing a lot of Jeragon Quest 3, HD2D, which I might talk a little bit about the Greenhouse episode. (0:01:50) Al: I love how you say might like we’ve not just recorded it. (0:01:50) Micah: Might, maybe, you’ll have to tune into the Greenhouse episode to find out. (0:01:56) Codey: You could cut it. (0:01:57) Codey: You could cut it out. (0:01:58) Micah: Great. (0:01:58) Al: No, it’s fine. It’s fine. I love when we like we break through the barrier and like stop (0:02:04) Codey: Oh, yeah. (0:02:04) Al: pretending like we record the greenhouse later. (0:02:06) Micah: that is primarily what I’ve been playing when I have the time to play games. Cody and I were (0:02:09) Codey: You’re right, you’re right. (0:02:17) Micah: just talking before we started recording about just being busy and not being able to play a (0:02:22) Micah: whole lot of games this year. So it’s always nice doing a game of the year recording because it (0:02:27) Micah: gives me an excuse to kind of revisit and catch up on things and have a an allotted time to play (0:02:34) Micah: games, but other than that, it’s been Drangle. (0:02:36) Micah: Quest 3. And I have also been shiny hunting a lot more in (0:02:41) Micah: Pokemon, but in older Pokemon games, I’ve been kind of (0:02:44) Micah: revisiting and kind of I don’t know what the term is, like (0:02:53) Micah: realigning myself with what I loved about Pokemon, and not so (0:02:56) Micah: much the how what modern Pokemon has become, I guess. And there’s (0:03:03) Micah: been a lot of like interesting I found in the (0:03:07) Micah: the kind of like deeper level in community, there’s a lot (0:03:12) Micah: of like really interesting new things that people have found (0:03:15) Micah: or like, you know, different hunts that people have set up (0:03:20) Micah: like one of the things that I’m working on right now is shiny (0:03:22) Micah: hunting, Kanto starters in the original gen one virtual console (0:03:27) Micah: games, which is something that you can do, but you have to do (0:03:27) Al: Oh, why? Why? (0:03:29) Micah: it by like, trading them over to a gen two virtual console game (0:03:33) Micah: to see or if you (0:03:37) Micah: have a totally legal copy of the virtual console games, (0:03:42) Micah: there’s a patch that you can apply that will just show you (0:03:44) Micah: if it’s shiny or not, which is very cool. (0:03:47) Micah: But there’s been a lot of like really neat little things like (0:03:49) Micah: that that I’ve been kind of experiencing and re-linking (0:03:56) Codey: You’re you’re getting back to your roots now. What’s your current hunt? (0:03:57) Micah: myself with and yeah, yep. (0:04:02) Micah: I think there’s been a lot of, well, yeah, that Gen 1 hunt is (0:04:05) Micah: my current hunt. (0:04:06) Micah: Uh, I’m doing all four of this stuff. (0:04:10) Micah: So like the three Kanto original Kanto starters and the Pikachu in the (0:04:15) Micah: games that they originate in, um, which is, has been a little bit complicated (0:04:22) Micah: to set up, uh, but it has been pretty enjoyable, like learning how things, (0:04:28) Micah: uh, work and how, how to, you know, like set things up properly. (0:04:33) Micah: Uh, it’s just been, I don’t know. (0:04:36) Micah: Interesting. (0:04:37) Micah: And I think there’s been a lot over the years that has like kind of had me (0:04:44) Micah: disconnect from Pokemon and in specific ways that like, kind of, like you said, (0:04:51) Micah: you know, coming back to my roots has kind of retaught me what it is that I (0:04:56) Micah: love so much about creature collecting and, you know, these core games and (0:05:02) Micah: stuff like that, this of course has nothing to do with the fact that, uh, (0:05:07) Micah: you know, earlier this year, they shut down the three S, uh, internet (0:05:12) Micah: capabilities and that may be possibly in the future. (0:05:15) Micah: Pokemon bank is going to shut down and that I am anxious about the (0:05:19) Micah: possibility of losing, you know, and I’m not rushing to, you know, it has (0:05:24) Micah: nothing to do with the fact that I’m like prepping for the quote unquote (0:05:24) Codey: Yeah. (0:05:28) Micah: end of the world when it comes to, but yeah. (0:05:32) Al: Prepping for something they haven’t even announced is going to happen yet. (0:05:35) Micah: Yes. (0:05:36) Codey: But it’s going to happen, though. (0:05:36) Micah: You know, that’s the glory of anxiety. (0:05:41) Al: Well, yeah, fair. (0:05:44) Codey: You can’t choose what you get worried about. (0:05:45) Micah: Yep. (0:05:46) Micah: Yep. (0:05:46) Codey: You just– yep. (0:05:47) Micah: And then you just over prepare for it. (0:05:48) Micah: And everyone’s like, why did you do that? (0:05:49) Micah: And I’m like, I don’t know. (0:05:50) Micah: I just felt like it was a good idea. (0:05:52) Al: There is no why there only is. (0:05:54) Micah: Yep. (0:05:55) Micah: That’s right. (0:05:56) Codey: Yep, I did that. I’ve been doing a PhD. I don’t know if you all know about that. So, I mean, I’ve just had like, this is like conference season. And then I’ve also had a lot of review requests lately. So journals have been like, hey, there’s a paper that you’re really like is within your like niche. Can you review this? Since you’re a subject matter expert? (0:05:56) Micah: So that’s primarily what I’ve been doing. (0:05:59) Al: Cody, what have you been up to? (0:06:26) Codey: And I’ve learned that I’m bad at saying no. So I am about to finish that. Like, literally after this, I have to write something for a nomination. And then I have to finish a review. And then I will finally be free of my obligations. And then I can actually focus on just my, my PhD. Yeah, lots of insect identification. Lots of that. And then (0:06:52) Codey: recently started playing, uh, Pokemon Pocket. (0:06:56) Codey: And, uh, I, during that Venusaur event that happened, um, I got three (0:07:03) Codey: of the promo Venusaur, but I did not get any of the Jigglypuff or the (0:07:06) Codey: Hunter and I am really salty about that. (0:07:08) Micah: Oh no. (0:07:10) Codey: Like I literally opened my game. (0:07:13) Codey: I was like, Oh, I need to do those. (0:07:14) Codey: Cause I thought today was the last day, like through like 11 59 tonight, (0:07:19) Codey: but it was yesterday, so rip. (0:07:21) Al: Yeah, this is the problem Cody, you need to be doing this this event all through the event, (0:07:26) Al: otherwise it’s going to because I did, I kid you not, 38 packs of that event. 38 packs I opened (0:07:32) Codey: That means, that means you won 38 of the, okay, with no Venusaur. (0:07:36) Al: with no Venusaur. Yes, correct. With no Venusaur in 38 packs. The last three packs that I could (0:07:44) Micah: That is unbelievable. (0:07:49) Al: could have opened in the game because of the timer. (0:07:51) Al: Without paying gold, the last three packs, all Venus are. (0:07:56) Codey: They turned up the Venus or the Venus or knob. I mean, maybe (0:08:00) Codey: that’s where they opened the cannon. Um, maybe that’s where (0:08:07) Codey: that’s my issue because I did start doing it near the end. And (0:08:11) Al: I don’t, yeah, I don’t think, I don’t think, I think it’s just cause like there were loads (0:08:12) Codey: so they, there was like all Venus or it’s just like (0:08:18) Al: of people I know who couldn’t get any Grinninja and kept getting Venus or instead. So I don’t (0:08:22) Al: think it’s, I don’t think it’s quite that simple, but yeah, if you want it like 41 is what I got, (0:08:27) Al: 41 packs is why I opened and that, and I needed to get, you know, 39 to get one of each. (0:08:30) Codey: Wow. (0:08:30) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:08:34) Al: So like, yeah, you can’t, you can’t half-heartedly do these events. If you want everything, (0:08:38) Al: You got to go all in. And the good thing is that like one. (0:08:41) Al: Once you’ve done the first couple of days, if you do all of the, like, use all of the (0:08:46) Al: hourglasses in the first couple of days, like just kind of like do everything as quickly (0:08:50) Al: as you can, then the most you can do a day is two because of the 12 hour timer. So it (0:08:56) Al: makes it really quick and easy after the first couple of days. I guess the problem. Well, (0:08:59) Codey: I mean my I’m not a try-hard though (0:09:03) Al: I think you’re always going to be disappointed in pocket if that’s the case, then. (0:09:06) Codey: I’m just I’m just always gonna be disappointed in myself. Let’s be honest. That’s never gonna not (0:09:10) Micah: I got the inverse of that initial I eventually did get to Venus or which was I was happy (0:09:22) Micah: with that because that’s you know, the max that you can put in a deck is two of a card. (0:09:26) Micah: But it took a very, very long time and I got an endless amount of Haunter like just a ridiculous (0:09:33) Micah: amount of Haunter to the point that I thought it was like something either was wrong or (0:09:34) Al: Yeah. (0:09:38) Micah: Or I was like, it’s been. (0:09:40) Al: Opening the wrong packs or something. (0:09:40) Micah: Having a trick played on me or something. (0:09:42) Micah: Yeah. (0:09:42) Micah: Like something was going wrong because it was just, it was just (0:09:46) Micah: Haunter all the time and I w I went to my, my work team and I was like, (0:09:51) Micah: Hey, is anybody else just pulling Haunter and everyone was like, no, (0:09:56) Micah: I got all of them already. (0:09:57) Micah: I figured, you know, whatever. (0:09:58) Micah: And I’m like, what is wrong with my game? (0:10:00) Al: Yeah, I got 13 Hunter and 11 Jigglypuff. (0:10:00) Micah: I’m like hard resetting and (0:10:04) Codey: Well, why don’t you save them for me, please, because I need it. (0:10:05) Micah: incredible. (0:10:09) Micah: - Yeah. (0:10:10) Micah: - There’s no shortage of, no shortage of Haunters for you when the trading happens. (0:10:11) Al: We’ll see what trading ends up being like, but yeah, got your name on it. (0:10:19) Micah: - Al, what have you been playing? (0:10:26) Al: Because I’m recording so many, I’m literally recording the live. (0:10:30) Al: So I am specifically going to talk about one game that I haven’t talked about on the other episodes so that I don’t get confused about things. (0:10:46) Al: So this is not all I’ve been up to. This is just what you’re getting this episode. I have played Sonic Shadow Generations, Sonic X, or to be specific, I’ve played Shadow Generations. (0:11:00) Al: I wasn’t playing Sonic Generations because I did enjoy it when I played it the first time, but I don’t have time to be replaying games. Come on, that’s not my life anymore. (0:11:08) Al: So I bought the game to play Shadow Generations. And let me tell you, I still do not like 3D Sonic games, even when it’s Shadow you’re playing as instead. (0:11:21) Micah: Okay, so is it is it sonic generations just with like added? Oh (0:11:28) Al: So, think of it like Bowser’s Fury with Mario. (0:11:31) Al: Did you play that? (0:11:32) Micah: Sure, yeah (0:11:33) Al: It’s exactly the same as that. (0:11:35) Al: You open up the game and it shows you the two things side by side, and you either choose (0:11:38) Al: Sonic Generations or you choose Shadow Generations, and they are different games. (0:11:40) Micah: » I see. (0:11:41) Micah: » Okay. (0:11:45) Al: It’s not like you’re playing Sonic Generations, but with Shadow, no. (0:11:48) Al: It’s a different story. (0:11:49) Al: It’s your different character, and it’s different levels, and he has different powers. (0:11:55) Al: It’s completely different. (0:11:56) Micah: And a motorcycle and swears I mean he has a gun and (0:11:58) Al: » Yeah, exactly, exactly. (0:12:01) Al: So, I keep trying to like 3D Sonic games, (0:12:04) Al: and I think part of the problem is I did enjoy Sonic Generations, (0:12:08) Al: which did have some 3D levels, (0:12:10) Al: and I don’t know whether maybe I should play Sonic Generations to check, (0:12:14) Al: but I’m not going to. (0:12:16) Al: But I wonder whether I liked that despite the 3D levels, (0:12:20) Al: and I just mostly enjoyed the 2D levels, (0:12:22) Al: or whether I actually enjoyed the 3D levels in that game. (0:12:25) Al: I can’t remember. (0:12:26) Codey: Well, the more important question is are you gonna see the movie or when are you gonna see the movie? (0:12:28) Al: Oh, yeah, I’ve already got tickets. (0:12:33) Codey: Okay (0:12:34) Al: Let me check when I’ve got them booked for. (0:12:36) Al: So I have them booked for the Saturday because I’m, yeah, I couldn’t do the Friday because (0:12:41) Al: Rona’s out to a concert, but yeah, I’ve got tickets booked for the Saturday. (0:12:42) Codey: Mm hmm. So there’s some showings on Thursday for me where I’m at, but I that’s also my partner’s (0:12:52) Codey: Christmas holiday party. So and we always go to like a fancy place and they pay for everything. (0:12:56) Codey: So I’m going to get a bunch. I’m going to slam free food in my face, but I’ll probably like really. (0:12:59) Micah: The dream. (0:13:02) Al: You’re gonna eat as much food as you can as quickly as possible and then go to see Sonic? (0:13:06) Codey: Uh, I don’t know if that’s going to work, but I will probably see Sonic on Friday. If not the (0:13:13) Codey: after when it’s like cheap, cheap, cheap. Um, because. (0:13:14) Al: hmm I see I don’t care about the price because I have the like season pass (0:13:20) Codey: Oh, what? Wait, what? (0:13:21) Micah: there’s a there’s a season pass to the theater (0:13:23) Al: you guys don’t have that yeah I i I paid 135 pounds and I can go to the (0:13:26) Micah: at least not that i’m aware of (0:13:31) Al: cinema as many times as I want it for a year for the whole year yeah (0:13:34) Micah: - What? (0:13:35) Codey: - What? (0:13:36) Micah: I’ve never heard of this. (0:13:38) Micah: What is your like, big name, like theater, like cinema? (0:13:42) Al: So we have, we have two bigs, we have two. (0:13:44) Al: big cinema chains. One is called ODEON and one is called Cine World. And both of them, (0:13:49) Micah: Okay, neither of those (0:13:51) Al: but yeah. Well, so I think, is ODEON I think is owned by MGM maybe? I don’t know. They’re (0:14:00) Al: both owned by big US brands, but they kept a specific name. No, maybe it’s not. Oh, sorry. (0:14:07) Al: It’s AMC, the audience owned by MGM and do not own actual cinemas. (0:14:10) Micah: - Okay, AMC, I do know. (0:14:15) Al: There is a filmmaker. Let’s see what. (0:14:17) Micah: They make the movie. (0:14:20) Codey: Literally all that they offer to us is $15 a year gets you like points and you don’t have to pay fees for if you buy tickets online and that’s pretty much it. (0:14:36) Micah: Okay. So I do see, I’m looking now, cause this is mind blowing, so I didn’t know this (0:14:39) Codey: It is yeah. (0:14:40) Micah: concept existed. Uh, we have Marcus theaters has a, it’s $10 a month and you get one movie (0:14:47) Codey: - Oh. (0:14:49) Micah: credit per month, which means you just get a, a single movie ticket. Yeah. I mean, you’re (0:14:51) Al: What’s the point, then? (0:14:56) Micah: kind of, I mean, if you’re seeing one movie a month, you’re probably not really, I guess (0:15:03) Micah: Maybe you’re saving a little bit (0:15:06) Micah: I mean (0:15:06) Al: Yeah. Yeah, whereas I, I see like easily for like, I’m easily seeing one. (0:15:14) Micah: Okay, so there’s there is also unused credits rollover so like if you miss a month you say there’s nothing right (0:15:20) Al: Yeah but that’s still, unless that’s cheaper than a cinema ticket, there’s no point. (0:15:22) Micah: You’re still paying for the month (0:15:26) Micah: Which I think it is I think it’s $10 a month (0:15:29) Micah: I don’t know what what like a movie ticket is there but here in the (0:15:34) Micah: Great (0:15:36) Micah: I think we’re in the ballpark of at minimum like 16 to 20 dollars for a movie ticket (0:15:41) Al: Oh my word. For 20, I’d be expecting at least IMAX. That’s wild. (0:15:42) Codey: - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:15:43) Micah: So you are saving some but you’re also (0:15:50) Micah: No, you’re talking standard you’re talking getting your chairs kicked (0:15:54) Al: Oh no. So yeah, so that’s just because you said that. That’s the same company that is (0:15:56) Codey: Yeah, so regal which is a cinema place in some parts of the United States has (0:16:08) Al: world technically it’s cine world owns regal not the other (0:16:11) Al: for this one but yeah they’re the so they’re the same same company (0:16:12) Codey: Ok. (0:16:14) Codey: But you said you pay what? $100? (0:16:16) Al: I paid 135 pounds for the year so what does that work out at 135 (0:16:19) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:16:21) Codey: That is $170 US dollars. (0:16:24) Al: uh it’s (0:16:24) Codey: We can get… (0:16:26) Micah: Just I just looked at what you’re (0:16:28) Al: yeah so that’s that’s 14 dollars uh 14 dollars a month or 11 (0:16:32) Codey: Mm-hmm Regal unlimited pricing for the base tier that only has access to 148 theaters (0:16:39) Codey: So 100% not you’re not gonna get it where you are like where most people are going to be (0:16:46) Codey: is (0:16:49) Codey: $260 a year (0:16:50) Al: for the cheapest. (0:16:52) Codey: For the cheapest and that’s about $22 a month you get unlimited tickets (0:16:52) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:16:53) Al: Oh, my word. (0:16:58) Codey: It says tickets, but I’m assuming it’s just like you get a ticket. It’s not that’s probably it’s probably purpose (0:17:01) Micah: Right, I would imagine, yeah. (0:17:03) Al: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it is. (0:17:03) Codey: and (0:17:05) Codey: Then you get 10% off concessions, which is nothing (0:17:08) Al: Yeah. Yeah, we get that as well. We get that as well, which is is is totally just a way to get you to buy more of the cinema, which I obviously do because I’m a sucker and I know that I’m a sucker. (0:17:09) Micah: Yeah, that’s pretty much nothing. (0:17:15) Micah: Now, (0:17:20) Micah: the next question is because our ticket prices (0:17:23) Micah: are so much higher than yours, (0:17:24) Micah: are your concession prices as high as ours are? (0:17:27) Al: I mean, so okay. (0:17:27) Micah: ‘cause we can, I mean, a small popcorn is $5, maybe. (0:17:31) Micah: And a small soda or small beverage is probably also like $5. (0:17:31) Codey: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. (0:17:36) Al: So I feel like they’re not too bad. (0:17:38) Al: So if I go, I can go into my app just now, because the good thing about (0:17:41) Al: the cinema that I have, that I go to now, which is like fantastically like 10 (0:17:45) Al: minutes drive from my house, which is, is amazing, um, which is, you know, for (0:17:50) Al: city people might seem weird, but like, yeah, I don’t have things 10 (0:17:54) Al: minutes away from my house. (0:17:56) Al: Uh, if I look, I can get, so you said a small popcorn, $5. (0:18:02) Al: Let’s see for us. (0:18:03) Al: uh yeah a regular popcorn would be five (0:18:07) Al: um but they do like deals that make them cheaper (0:18:10) Codey: they used to do that. They don’t do that anymore. I remember you could get like a meal deal. I don’t (0:18:16) Codey: think they do that anymore. (0:18:17) Al: - Yeah, so like me and Rona went to see Wicked (0:18:19) Al: and I never get run into the cinema. (0:18:21) Al: Like that’s the first time she’s been to the cinema since. (0:18:24) Al: Oh, what was that other musical? (0:18:26) Al: The one about the kid who kills himself. (0:18:28) Codey: You have to be more specific. (0:18:28) Micah: Holy moly. Yeah, there’s oh (0:18:29) Codey: You have to be more specific. (0:18:32) Al: Dear Evan Hansen. (0:18:33) Al: There we go, dear Evan Hansen. (0:18:33) Codey: Oh yeah. (0:18:34) Al: So that was the last film she saw in the cinema (0:18:38) Al: before Wicked. (0:18:39) Al: So that’s kind of, was that like two and a half years ago (0:18:41) Al: or something like that? (0:18:42) Al: So she doesn’t come out to the cinema very often (0:18:45) Al: just because she just doesn’t like going out in the evening. (0:18:47) Al: Which is fair, we went to see Wicked and we bought, we got two hot dogs, a large portion (0:18:57) Al: of tater tots and one large slushie and that was 17 pounds, so it’s not cheap, but for (0:19:08) Al: me that felt not terrible. (0:19:09) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:19:11) Micah: Yeah, we we really don’t get that much it’s I mean it’s it’s kind of the like the the the (0:19:12) Codey: Yeah, that’s a lot for that amount of money. (0:19:14) Codey: Yeah, I-M-O. (0:19:22) Micah: common concept of going to the theaters and eating anything is that you’ve kind of like (0:19:27) Micah: just bring your like sneak your own stuff in yeah. (0:19:29) Codey: You sneak. You sneak your own. Yeah, 100%. (0:19:31) Al: Oh, yeah, yeah. And I, to be fair, I do that a lot. I don’t often buy stuff from the cinema, (0:19:36) Al: right? We were doing that because it was a special occasion type thing, like let’s go. (0:19:37) Micah: Which like (0:19:40) Al: We went to IMAX because I have to pay more to go to IMAX. I don’t, it doesn’t include (0:19:44) Al: IMAX in the, in the bundle. I think I have to pay five, five pounds to upgrade a ticket (0:19:48) Al: to IMAX, which I feel is not too bad. But it’s not something I do every week, obviously. (0:19:53) Al: So we went to IMAX and we paid like stupid amounts for her ticket. And then we, we got (0:20:00) Al: their spindle of feed didn’t. (0:20:02) Al: And we just like made an evening of it. (0:20:03) Al: So it was fun. (0:20:06) Codey: All of this to say, I’m really excited for Sonic 3. (0:20:09) Codey: And I didn’t realize that Shadow is voiced by Keanu Reeves. (0:20:15) Al: Yeah. Wild. Wild that they have Keanu Reeves’ shadow and Idris Elba’s knuckles. It’s like, (0:20:18) Codey: Wild. (0:20:20) Codey: And Idris Elba. (0:20:23) Al: what a combination. Amazing. What other famous massive actors can they get playing furries. (0:20:26) Micah: That’s incredible (0:20:28) Micah: You (0:20:30) Micah: You (0:20:35) Codey: - I guess whose tails? (0:20:37) Al: Oh, I don’t know (0:20:39) Codey: I’m gonna Google it. (0:20:40) Codey: We could probably move on and fuck this. (0:20:42) Micah: Uh, I am also seeing the Sonic movie, but it’s, I’m not like a huge Sonic fan. (0:20:48) Micah: I like Sonic, but I’m not like, you know, mega fan or anything, but my like best friend (0:20:54) Micah: is absolutely obsessed. (0:20:56) Micah: So as part of our like Christmas get together, we’re going to see the, the Sonic three, um, (0:21:05) Micah: that like opening weekend, which is like, not don’t typically go to the theater that (0:21:09) Micah: often anymore. (0:21:12) Micah: So I’m kind of excited because it’s very rare. (0:21:14) Codey: Yeah (0:21:16) Micah: This is the first time I’ll be at the theater, I think, all year. (0:21:19) Codey: Tails is uh, Colleen O’Shaughnessy (0:21:20) Micah: Yeah, I don’t know what that is either. (0:21:22) Al: Don’t know who that is. (0:21:24) Codey: I don’t she sees she’s a voice actor. Uh, looks like that’s what it is (0:21:27) Al: Right, okay. So the only actual voice actor. (0:21:28) Micah: Okay. (0:21:30) Micah: I have seen the two previous Sonic movies, though, and they’re really good. (0:21:30) Codey: Yeah (0:21:31) Al: Because of course Ben Schwartz is Sonic as well. (0:21:34) Codey: Yeah, I’m just (0:21:39) Codey: I love those movies so much so good (0:21:39) Micah: They did a really good job of them. (0:21:42) Micah: Great. (0:21:42) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:21:42) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:21:42) Al: Yeah, I think they’re exactly what we need from Sonic films. (0:21:47) Al: And I think if you did this, what they’ve done with Sonic films, if you did it with anything else, (0:21:51) Al: it wouldn’t work the same. It works because of what it is, and nobody takes it too seriously. (0:21:58) Al: So yeah, I don’t like 3D Sonic games. That’s a shame. Maybe I should stop trying. I do still (0:22:06) Al: like 2D Sonic games, so hopefully they make another one of those. But yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to. (0:22:12) Codey: - Woo. (0:22:13) Al: Whoo! (0:22:19) Al: All right, so we are gonna go into our… No, let me just… Right, I’ll explain what’s happening (0:22:27) Al: first before I try and do a funny segue. So I’ve changed things up a little bit this year (0:22:35) Al: because there have been so many questions about early access games and updates and what counts (0:22:41) Al: for game of the year. So I decided. (0:22:43) Al: To make it simpler going forward, we’re going to have three awards now. (0:22:47) Al: Okay, we’re going to have update of the year, which is for any game that has (0:22:52) Al: previously released out of early outside of early access and now has a content update. (0:22:58) Al: We’re going to have early access, which is for games that are in early access. (0:23:02) Al: And then we’re going to have game of the year, which is for any game that has (0:23:05) Al: released their first non early access version. Does that make does that is that clear? (0:23:08) Codey: » Sounds good. (0:23:10) Codey: » Yep. (0:23:11) Al: See you next time. (0:23:12) Micah: Yes, I guess a great system (0:23:12) Al: Excellent, we’ll see, we’ve never tried it like this before, we’ll see whether it’s good or not. (0:23:14) Codey: Yep. (0:23:20) Al: So that this game, this episode isn’t three times as long as the previous ones, we’re going (0:23:27) Al: to do the nominations a little bit differently for update and early access. So for game of the (0:23:32) Al: year we’re going to do the same as we always have, except one slight change, which I’ll get to that (0:23:36) Al: in a minute, in round robining our nominations and then we’ll decide from. (0:23:42) Al: What we’ve done, which should be the winner for update and early access, we’ve just got a list (0:23:48) Al: of all the ones that came out that we could think of because there’s less than 10 of each. (0:23:54) Al: So it’s a nice list to just list them all and then we can debate. The one other thing is, (0:24:00) Al: because of the debacle last year of Carl Island not winning, I have been forced into, (0:24:06) Codey: - Got scammed. (0:24:11) Al: I would suggest to do. (0:24:12) Codey: - No one is forcing you. (0:24:12) Al: I was suggested by Johnny and I thought it was a good idea that when we, I sent (0:24:18) Codey: - It’s a good suggestion. (0:24:19) Al: out a Google farm to the other people who have been on the podcast this year, I think this year, (0:24:24) Al: I don’t know, some people who have been on the podcast, I sent them a form so they can input (0:24:29) Al: as well. So we’re going to also read their feedback on what they think should win the awards. (0:24:35) Al: And maybe that will, maybe that will stop the co-hosts complaining after (0:24:40) Codey: Nope nope (0:24:40) Al: - Sure. (0:24:42) Micah: I am convinced that the reason that Cody and I are both on this episode with you is because (0:24:42) Al: - I don’t know. (laughing) (0:24:46) Codey: You can uh you can dream out (0:24:56) Micah: this is the equivalent of the Coral Island committee jumping me in a back alley for my (0:25:03) Al: Oh yeah, because it was Kevin last year, wasn’t it, is that right, because Cody had played (0:25:05) Micah: game of the year 2023. Yes. Yeah. (0:25:12) Micah: It was, and it mostly was, yeah, it mostly was down to that. Kevin and I hadn’t played it. (0:25:13) Al: Carl Island (0:25:14) Al: Exactly, exactly. (0:25:18) Codey: Yeah, and you were like, oh, I really think it should be and we were all screaming at our podcast players. (0:25:19) Al: Because I think all three of you, you and Johnny and Bev all, all said that you would (0:25:27) Codey: Yeah. Yeah. 100%. (0:25:33) Al: be playing for Carl Island. (0:25:34) Micah: This is this is my formal apology to (0:25:38) Micah: everyone. [laughs] (0:25:39) Codey: You’re no you’re allowed to have like you provided your input with the knowledge that you had and I’m here to make sure that you do it the right way this time. (0:25:47) Al: This is why we have the farm. (0:25:50) Al: It’s so that we can see people, we can see the other co-hosts opinions (0:25:50) Micah: - Under, (0:25:53) Al: before we make a bad decision and then still make a bad decision. (0:25:56) Codey: And we can still make, yeah, we can still make that decision. (0:26:00) Al: No, I’m excited for this one. (0:26:01) Al: We’ll see, we’ll see how it goes. (0:26:02) Al: I’ve seen, I’ve seen the feedback from the other hosts. (0:26:05) Al: So I’m, I’m, I’m interested to see what your guys’s are. (0:26:07) Al: We’ll get to that in a minute. (0:26:10) Al: And I’m in it. (0:26:10) Al: Goodness me, probably like two hours, we’ll see. (0:26:14) Al: We’re going to start off with update of the year. (0:26:18) Al: And so I’ll just, I’ll read through the nominations for that this year. (0:26:21) Al: Uh, and hopefully I’ve not missed anymore. (0:26:23) Al: Cause apparently I list missed three off the list. (0:26:25) Al: When I sent the form to the other costs, we have Stardew Valley, 1.6, Carl Island, 1.1 (0:26:34) Al: Moonstone Island, cooking update, Disney, Dreamlight Valley, a rift in time, which yes, (0:26:39) Al: was this year, the whole thing we released it this year, which is crazy. (0:26:43) Al: I thought some of it had released last year, but. (0:26:45) Al: but uh (0:26:47) Al: farm skies of Azoria, Dave the Diver DLCs, those would be Godzilla and I can’t remember (0:26:54) Al: the other one. Yeah what was oh um oh Dredge Dredge uh Terranil Vita Nova and Wildflowers (0:26:55) Micah: whatever the non Godzilla one is, (0:26:57) Micah: ‘cause the Godzilla one is the only one I made it. (0:26:59) Codey: Yeah, I was gonna say it was a dredge. (0:26:59) Micah: Oh, sure, sure, sure, yeah, yeah. (0:27:05) Al: Magical Creatures. Yeah yeah because Kevin decided not to put anything in the farm until (0:27:15) Al: literally, what, five hours before we start? (0:27:18) Al: I’m not sure, and was the only person to mention wildflowers, I had completely forgotten the (0:27:24) Al: wildflowers had an update this year. Anyway. (0:27:28) Micah: You know, I looked at the show notes last night, too, and did not see that on there. (0:27:32) Micah: So that makes complete sense. (0:27:34) Al: Yeah. So, um, I’ll just go through our other hosts opinions and what should win, and then (0:27:39) Al: we can discuss what we think as well. Uh, so we have one person says, Dave, the diver, (0:27:47) Al: we have, uh, two people saying stardew outright, uh, one person adding stardew as one of their (0:27:55) Al: three that they decided, uh, but not like the ultimate, what they think should win. (0:28:01) Al: one for wildflowers. (0:28:04) Al: one for terra nell, vita nova, and then one for disney dreamlight valley. (0:28:09) Al: I feel like I need to read johnny’s out, because it’s just, this is a weird year for best update. (0:28:16) Al: carl island 1.1, a great update no doubt, it added everything carl island and yours were asking for, (0:28:20) Al: but to reward this with update of the year feels wrong, it should have been 1.0 but it wasn’t. (0:28:25) Al: stargie 1.6 added more to a great game and the updates are good, but also just stop, (0:28:30) Al: it’s okay for stargie to be done, i’m ready for it. (0:28:33) Micah: Which is funny maybe I’m wrong and in assuming this but I feel like that’s a wild take from Johnny is that. (0:28:40) Codey: No, I think he’s he would be a proponent of like, let like, like, stop the nostalgia machine from cranking. Yeah, I think that’s also Yeah. (0:28:46) Al: I think he’s worried for concerned apes mental health. (0:28:48) Micah: Okay, okay (0:28:49) Micah: for concern days (0:28:51) Micah: Yeah, I mean after that interview where he was kind of like, uh, I could just keep going forever. I don’t know (0:29:00) Al: I think that leaves Disney Dreamlight Valley is the one that stands at his best update that (0:29:03) Al: continues to add to a great game bringing in memorable characters in a way that continues (0:29:07) Al: to surprise and delight. So that looks what I can see that looks like two stardew votes, (0:29:13) Al: One Wildflowers, one Drusney Dreamlet Valley, and one Davey. (0:29:16) Al: The Diver. What do you guys think? (0:29:19) Codey: Um, so I, so I mean, some of these, I didn’t play. So like, I didn’t play moonstone island. Uh, I (0:29:23) Al: Fair. That list is just going to get longer as we go through the episode. (0:29:28) Codey: right. I feel like it’s true. I feel like Fay Farm Skye’s Zozoria when we were talking about it on (0:29:33) Codey: the pod, it did not fix the issues that people wanted in the first one. So I think in my opinion, (0:29:35) Al: No (0:29:38) Codey: we can just strike that off. Um, I think the same about Taranell. I don’t think that that added (0:29:39) Al: I agree. Yeah (0:29:43) Codey: anything really. Um, and I honestly like, honestly, like, (0:29:46) Al: R.I.P. Kevin’s option. (0:29:49) Codey: I will just like double retweet Johnny’s thing because I agree. Like my go-to was (0:29:59) Codey: Coral Island 1.1. Um, I really loved it, but it did basically add like, one of the reasons I loved (0:30:05) Codey: it is because it added the rest of the story, but that should have been in the initial game. (0:30:06) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah. (0:30:10) Codey: Like why, like you can’t have an update, just be like, oh, adding the things that we didn’t (0:30:17) Codey: I had originally, but finished again. (0:30:20) Codey: So I don’t want to go with that. (0:30:22) Al: I would, I would agree with that. (0:30:23) Al: Any objections, Micah, to those three being struck off. (0:30:26) Micah: I think Coral Island is an incredible game, and I think it should win. (0:30:32) Al: Have you played it yet? (0:30:34) Micah: So okay, I have not, but this is where I’m at with Coral Island, because if you recall on the (0:30:40) Micah: previous Game of the Year episode, the reason that I said that I didn’t get it yet was because I was (0:30:44) Micah: waiting for the Switch version, which we all kind of know how that went. So I did eventually just (0:30:48) Al: Awkward. You. (0:30:53) Micah: kind of buckle and get it on the steam deck so I do have (0:30:56) Al: Yeah, nice. (0:30:56) Micah: it now to play on the steam deck haven’t had a chance to (0:30:59) Micah: play it yet but I am excited to play it especially after (0:31:02) Micah: hearing uh how much 1.1 kind of made it a 1.0 I guess um but (0:31:06) Codey: Yeah. (0:31:10) Micah: there’s just you know II’ve been I’ve yeah I don’t know I’ll (0:31:15) Micah: get I’ll get into that more later but I have not played it (0:31:17) Micah: yet. (0:31:18) Codey: Okay. And then yeah, Stardew is the same, like, I agree with Johnny, like, let it, let it lie. (0:31:24) Codey: And so for what I’ve played. (0:31:25) Al: I’m not, just for the record, I’m not, I’m not striking stardew off the list. (0:31:28) Codey: Correct. Did not strike Stardew off the list. This is just my opinion. (0:31:30) Al: I’m not, yeah, I don’t care what you’re saying. I’m not doing it. (0:31:32) Al: I’m not letting that happen right now. Right. We’ll get to that. (0:31:37) Codey: My top one would be Disney, Journey Valley. They really did add a lot of really good characters. (0:31:42) Codey: I didn’t play specifically the Rift in Time, like the paid deals, because that’s the paid one. (0:31:46) Codey: Um. (0:31:48) Codey: But I saw all the stuff from it and I know that it added like a considerable amount to the game and added to the story and I would like to play it when it becomes free. Fingers crossed that that ever happens. (0:32:00) Al: Is it not included in Game Pass? (0:32:02) Codey: Um, yeah. (0:32:06) Codey: No, you have to pay, you have to buy the DLC in Game Pass. (0:32:08) Al: Oh, weird. (0:32:10) Al: I think for, right, that’s interesting, because the whole point of Apple Arcade is everything (0:32:10) Micah: - I think it’s the same way with Apple Arcade, (0:32:17) Al: is free and you never have to pay for anything, but anyway, well, okay, yes, but you don’t (0:32:20) Codey: You have to pay for Apple Arcade. (0:32:22) Micah: Yeah, yeah (0:32:23) Al: have to pay for anything else. (0:32:24) Al: Like it removes in-app purchases from every game and stuff like that. (0:32:26) Al: I think, for the purposes of argument, we will crown it for a game. (0:32:30) Al: I feel like nobody is arguing for Moonstone Island, is that correct? (0:32:34) Codey: Well then it’s gotta, if it’s just gonna be for a game, (0:32:36) Codey: then it’s gotta be Coral Island, right? (0:32:38) Codey: No, I’m kidding, I’m kidding. (0:32:40) Micah: - I agree, definitely, Coral Island. (0:32:43) Codey: Yeah, so that’s my two cents. (0:32:50) Micah: I have not played enough of Moonstone Island to be able to confidently to even touch the cooking update, so I don’t think that I could justify it. (0:32:58) Al: Yeah, I don’t think I think cooking is a fun thing to add and it did add a few more (0:33:04) Al: spirits, but I don’t feel like it added enough to be like (0:33:08) Al: Major like I don’t think it stands aside stardew 1.6 and all of the stuff that Disney dream life alley added (0:33:17) Micah: Uh I still have yet to play Dave the Diver. I’ve heard great things about it. Uh it just (0:33:21) Al: At all. Come on, maker. (0:33:25) Micah: it just there’s something about it that just you know just hasn’t like clicked with me yet. (0:33:31) Micah: It hasn’t hooked me. That’s not I didn’t mean that as a pun but uh but I will say the Godzilla update (0:33:32) Al: you need to start it, that’s why. You need to just play it. (0:33:39) Micah: got me enticed me a little bit because I I do love my Kaiju but uh I I want to play it and I’ve (0:33:47) Micah: heard nothing but good things about it. My boss is like in love with it and sings its praise all (0:33:50) Al: David Diver is a fantastic game. The Godzilla DLC in particular is so silly. I love it so (0:33:51) Micah: the time but um (0:34:00) Al: much, right? Like any game where you like find Godzilla in a cave underwater and then (0:34:07) Al: you end the story by literally controlling Godzilla has my vote. (0:34:12) Codey: Oh, so you’re, is that your vote then? (0:34:12) Micah: That sounds awesome. That sounds incredible, honestly. (0:34:17) Al: What was that Cody? Well, I mean, it’s, it would definitely be on the shortlist. (0:34:18) Codey: I said, is that your vote then? (0:34:24) Codey: Okay. (0:34:25) Al: I’m not saying it’s definitely my favorite, but I feel like it’s, I could be convinced of that. (0:34:30) Codey: Okay. (0:34:32) Micah: uh as far as the rest of them I think you know looking at the the two current feels like top (0:34:40) Micah: contenders being disney dreamlight valley and stardew I like cody have played disney dreamlight (0:34:48) Micah: valley base not the the paid dlc portion of it yet um and I did really really enjoy it (0:34:56) Micah: uh I just the the cost to get to (0:35:02) Micah: you know we kind of talked about this when I was on previously right around what disney (0:35:06) Micah: dreamlight valley came out um that I was under the impression that it was cheaper than it was (0:35:13) Micah: or that there was a they were doing a uh like a like a um uh like a free to play version of it (0:35:21) Micah: when it had originally started to come out but you know I feel like the price of disney dreamlight (0:35:26) Micah: valley has just felt bigger and bigger over the the years (0:35:32) Micah: and that’s that’s great if the amount of content is there and it’s a very like pretty game it seems (0:35:38) Micah: like there is plenty of content there um but it’s a really like pitting that against stardew which (0:35:47) Micah: you know I know stardew has been around for so long it is it’s it just keeps going I do agree (0:35:54) Micah: it is okay for stardew to be done again I i love the game but it is okay concerned you can focus (0:36:02) Micah: here now it’s okay you can work on other things it’s all right but the the 1.6 update for stardew (0:36:09) Micah: is so massive for free content that like it’s hard for me to pit it against you know something that (0:36:20) Micah: the total cost of it is like what are we you know pushing a hundred dollars at this point (0:36:27) Micah: with in-app currency and all this stuff. I don’t know. Again, (0:36:32) Micah: I really, really like Disney Dreamlight Valley and I’m looking forward to playing more of it. (0:36:38) Micah: I love that they have kept it up. The community for it seems great, but yeah, it’s just such a (0:36:46) Micah: hard comparison because it’s like massive franchise, massive brand, costs a lot of money. (0:36:54) Micah: They’re still keeping it up and doing a great job with it versus one guy making stuff for free (0:36:58) Codey: - Yeah, I get that. (0:37:02) Micah: and I’m like, you know, I don’t know. It’s hard. If I personally had to put it on something, (0:37:08) Micah: I would put it on Stardew, but I would not be opposed to Disney Dreamlight Valley yet, (0:37:12) Codey: I mean, you do have to put it we have to we’re here to put it on (0:37:17) Micah: which is very hard for me to try. But yeah, that would be my nomination. I think would be Stardew 1.6. (0:37:23) Al: I feel like we’re probably we’re striking wildflowers off right? I think I don’t think (0:37:30) Codey: Sorry, Kevin. (0:37:30) Micah: Sorry Kevin (0:37:32) Al: even he was seriously suggesting it because I think yeah I yeah so so he says wildflowers (0:37:34) Codey: Yeah, the first thing in his thing is stardew. (0:37:36) Micah: Just more the representation, you know (0:37:41) Al: because it hasn’t won anything yet and it’s amazing and wildflowers but in reality but (0:37:45) Micah: It’s got to get the wildflowers representation in this understandable (0:37:48) Al: in reality Terranell is the only update I’ve played is great so he hasn’t even played wildflowers (0:37:54) Al: I think I understand why he would want wildflowers to win something because he thinks it probably (0:37:59) Al: should have won game of the year last year but yeah I think as an update it I don’t think (0:38:06) Al: it compares to stardew 1.6 or to all of the updates that Disney Dreamland valued so we’re (0:38:12) Al: down to 3 stardew 1.6 Disney Dreamland Valley and the day of the diving (0:38:19) Codey: I think from what Micah said, I’ve moved over to Stardew. (0:38:24) Codey: I didn’t play it, but I know literally dozens of people who have. (0:38:31) Codey: And yeah, I think the amount of effort that this solo human keeps pumping into this game (0:38:37) Codey: that is so beloved by the communities, it deserves it. (0:38:42) Codey: - Bye. (0:38:43) Al: - Say that with more passion. (0:38:45) Micah: But, you know, that’s in the context of like how much effort and how much content there (0:38:47) Al: Yeah. (0:38:53) Micah: is in something like the Disney Dreamlight Valley DLC, like I think it’s just the greater (0:39:00) Micah: context of the amount of effort and money that is put into one versus the other, I suppose. (0:39:05) Al: I think I would also say that as much stuff as there is in the Disney Dreamland Valley (0:39:12) Al: updates over the last year, the fact of the matter is the day that Stardew 1.6 came on, (0:39:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:39:18) Al: it became like the fifth highest consecutive players on Steam for like a week. That is (0:39:23) Micah: Mm hmm. Which is (0:39:25) Al: a wild amount of control that that game still has over. (0:39:31) Micah: Yeah, that’s, I mean, remarkable for a game as old as it is to be able to update and hit (0:39:38) Micah: that milestone is incredible. (0:39:41) Micah: It’s just, you don’t see that with really anything aside from like me, you know, multiplayer (0:39:45) Al: Yeah, and legitimately, like, I can’t find the chart, but it’s all time peak was miles (0:39:47) Micah: online games or something like it’s, it’s impressive. (0:40:00) Al: lower than that. And then the update came out and then suddenly it was high up. So it’s (0:40:08) Al: all time peak takes a 56 place, place at 56. But I think on the week that it was out, it (0:40:15) Al: was top five. I think I can’t remember because we don’t have obviously the historical, historical (0:40:17) Micah: Mm-hmm, sure. (0:40:21) Al: data for that. But like, yeah, abs and that was, you know, I think it’s previous peak (0:40:26) Al: was something like 50,000 or something. So it like quadrupled its highest consecutive (0:40:32) Al: players for an eight year old game. That’s that’s mad. And I also got me to the point (0:40:38) Micah: Yeah, it’s pretty remarkable. (0:40:43) Al: of perfecting the game. (0:40:45) Al: Like I had never gotten close to that, and with 1.6, I put so much time into it because (0:40:51) Al: of all of the different things that it had and all the different additions it had. (0:40:56) Micah: Mm-Hmm (0:40:57) Al: I got to the point where I was like, Oh, I can, I can complete this game. (0:41:01) Al: You know, it’s like I created a new save, a brand new save, because I hadn’t really (0:41:01) Micah: Mm-Hmm (0:41:06) Al: played it on my steam deck. (0:41:07) Al: I had done it originally on, on switch and so I brought a brand new save and I sunk (0:41:14) Al: a hundred hours into it. (0:41:15) Al: So we’re giving it to Stardew, Stardew 1.6 update of the year with honorable mentions (0:41:20) Micah: Yeah. I think so. (0:41:30) Al: for Disney Dreamlight Valley and Dave the Diver, specifically the Godzilla one. (0:41:33) Codey: Godzilla. (0:41:34) Micah: I am floored. (0:41:36) Al: The dredge one is fun and has more content on it, but the Godzilla one was the one that (0:41:41) Codey: You’re floored. (0:41:43) Micah: I’m floored that Coral Island did not. (0:41:45) Micah: Going into this, I prepared, reading the list, I prepared that I was just going to fold to (0:41:50) Micah: Coral Island the second that you both defended it, but. (0:41:52) Al: No, I think everybody’s opinion is the same about Coral Island, is that 1.1 should have (0:41:58) Al: been 1.0. This is obviously what matters to them, but if they had waited until the 1.1 update to (0:41:59) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:42:06) Al: release 1.0, I reckon it would have been Game of the Year this year. For us, obviously not, (0:42:10) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yep (0:42:10) Codey: Yeah, yep, for everything. (0:42:14) Al: for the Game Awards. All right, next we have Early Access Game of the Year. (0:42:20) Al: So our nominations for this. (0:42:22) Al: A new leaf memories chill town for lands fields of mystery garden life cozy simulator go go down like your frontier of life and land and over magic. (0:42:36) Al: And the opinions from other hosts are one that I think we can probably discount over magic because it sounds magical. I think this person. I think this person has not played any early access games this year. (0:42:46) Codey: With the shrug emoji? (0:42:50) Al: Uh, we have to vote. (0:42:52) Al: I think the early access game of the year should be demos. (0:42:58) Al: Honestly, everything that’s come out in early access has been a disappointment. (0:43:02) Al: It’s become the vehicle for a game with a single cool concept to release, get bits of hype, and then proceed to deliver something exceptionally mid. (0:43:10) Al: Meanwhile, there has been a resurgence of demos, games trying to win your business by offering a slice. (0:43:14) Al: These games are the ones that have brought me joy this year. (0:43:18) Al: this year, death to early access, long-lived demos. (0:43:22) Al: So that’s two votes for Fields of Mystery and one for demos. (0:43:27) Al: There’s not any specific demo, just demos in general. (0:43:34) Al: For me, it’s Fields of Mystery. (0:43:36) Al: I think Fields of Mystery is a fantastic start for the game. (0:43:40) Al: I think it does. (0:43:42) Al: What I really hate about Early Access is when it’s like, here’s the game, but it’s buggy. (0:43:49) Al: I much prefer how Fields of Mystery have done it and how (0:43:52) Al: like Ooblets did it and Carl Island did it, which is here is a very solid base for the game. It feels (0:43:59) Al: like it’s a complete game and you just hit roadblocks along the way. I think that’s a really good way (0:44:03) Al: of doing it. I do kind of agree with Johnny and that this can be a problem in many cases. It’s (0:44:08) Al: sometimes hard to go back to games when you’ve started with early access, but I do think that (0:44:13) Al: means most people probably just shouldn’t play early access games, but you know, what can you do? (0:44:20) Al: I also enjoyed Gogotown. (0:44:22) Al: I am not sure if this is a good one, but I feel like they have a lot more work to do to make a fully formed game. (0:44:28) Al: It also released in AWP, it didn’t feel buggy sort of aspect and you had the core bones of the game there, but there’s no real narrative there and it kind of felt a little bit like it fell off quite quickly. (0:44:42) Al: So that’s why I would vote for Fields of Mistreer. (0:44:44) Al: Hmph. (0:44:44) Codey: Uh, I didn’t play any of these and, um, I kind of agree with Johnny, but also (0:44:51) Codey: like, basically early access is just a way to almost like crowdfund something. (0:44:56) Codey: So you’re like pitching your, your base ideas to an audience and then they (0:45:02) Codey: give you money to like, make it what you want it to be like to develop it. (0:45:07) Codey: Cause they’re, they believe in what you’re doing. (0:45:09) Codey: Uh, so like I see the value of early access, but I also. (0:45:14) Codey: I, I think that it’s often like abused in that it’s just, like you said, like (0:45:21) Codey: release the buggy version or release like a small version to like, generate (0:45:26) Codey: hype or something. (0:45:28) Codey: Um, so yeah, I’m, I mean, I, I am willing to just like pass or defer my (0:45:35) Codey: judgment to y’all, like whatever y’all decide, cause I just personally, unless (0:45:39) Codey: there’s this super big argument for any one particular thing, and we want to (0:45:43) Codey: thing and we want to discuss. (0:45:46) Micah: Well, that might make things easy because I also not voting for fields of mystery. (0:45:52) Codey: Yay, fields of mystery. (0:45:53) Micah: Yeah, I, I do, I agree with what a lot of what Al said that, you know, the, the core (0:46:05) Micah: of the game is so solid. (0:46:08) Micah: It’s also just, you know, it does feel so, so heavily based in like stardew core. (0:46:16) Micah: Or that like, you know, I think that can be seen as a negative sometimes now where like, (0:46:22) Micah: you know, it’s just, it started with a coat of paint or like, it started with like a different (0:46:28) Micah: slightly different feature or whatever. (0:46:30) Micah: But I think there’s enough things that stand out in fields of mystery to separate it. (0:46:36) Micah: Like, I don’t know, just quest progression and I just feel like the, I mean, personally, (0:46:47) Micah: I like the pixel, the pixel art is beautiful. (0:46:49) Micah: The, the character portraits are fantastic. (0:46:53) Micah: They’re done in that kind of like 90s Bishoujo, like anime style, like, like magical girl, (0:47:01) Micah: kind of like Sailor Moon era anime. (0:47:03) Micah: And I, it, it just also, you know, everybody in the game is, is beautiful, which I think, (0:47:12) Micah: you know, Cody had the issue with Coral Island, but you know, like (0:47:16) Codey: Yeah. (0:47:16) Micah: just like one, somewhat like normal person, you know, would be cool to see but, but, but yeah, I mean, everyone is very, very nice to look at that, I think, definitely adds to that kind of like, because it’s, it’s high fantasy, right? So it has this kind of like, magical, magical girl kind of, you know, vibe to it that I really like. (0:47:21) Al: We need ugly representation. (0:47:43) Micah: like, and I think, haven’t really seen– (0:47:46) Micah: represented in this genre at least this well. (0:47:52) Micah: But as far as the game itself and the mechanics and stuff (0:47:56) Micah: like that, I think, especially with the recent patch and stuff, (0:48:02) Micah: I think it’s a really, really solid game (0:48:05) Micah: and a really good case for– (0:48:08) Micah: or a really good standard for early access, (0:48:10) Micah: I guess, especially in, again, a world where (0:48:14) Micah: I agree with that like. (0:48:16) Micah: Maybe more demos, less early access would be a better thing, but. (0:48:21) Al: I do think that it set itself up with a lot of potential, which I think is what you want (0:48:27) Micah: Mm-hmm (0:48:28) Al: with an early access game. We will see whether it follows through on that potential or not. (0:48:38) Al: I’m not saying that because it’s done well here means it will win game of the year one year. (0:48:42) Al: Who knows? We’ll see. I also think the whole like, oh, it’s just a stardew clone with a different (0:48:47) Al: pain to like yeah that’s actually really hard (0:48:51) Al: to do right like how many games have we played that are stardew clones that are just not fun (0:48:52) Micah: Mm-hmm. (0:48:56) Micah: Yep. Oh, yeah, totally. (0:48:56) Al: so many like and this is actually this is fun right and if it just recreates stardew and adds (0:49:02) Al: some extra stuff so what that’s fun right like I like when people do new things as well (0:49:04) Micah: » Mm-hmm. Yeah. (0:49:09) Al: but I also like when a game is fun and a lot of a lot of what I want from these games (0:49:15) Al: is easily plowing in tens of hours into it you know I don’t i’m not (0:49:21) Al: looking for something I have to plow in 500 hours to do everything but i’m also not looking (0:49:25) Al: for something that after 10 hours I feel like i’ve done everything even in an early access (0:49:30) Al: and I got to the point where i’ve basically done everything in this game but i’m at slightly over (0:49:34) Al: 40 hours so like that feels like pretty decent and I feel like maybe the game is like a quarter done (0:49:41) Al: so that feels like a good amount of content if they continue that sort of level of things (0:49:47) Al: I’m probably not going to touch it again until it’s 1.0 because I’m scared of burning. (0:49:51) Al: Before it releases, but yeah, I think it, I think it does a good balance for an early access. (0:49:59) Al: And if we’re going to give an early access game, an award, I feel like. (0:50:04) Micah: Yeah, I agree. (0:50:04) Codey: I think my favorite thing that you said there is that some year it might win (0:50:11) Codey: a game of the year and so you’re really not saying next year. (0:50:14) Al: Oh, I don’t think it’s, I don’t think, no, no, it’s not, like, so when did this, when did this (0:50:15) Micah: I thought it was later than that, oh, maybe it was, yeah, you were pretty close, yeah. (0:50:19) Al: first cut? Was it July? Let’s have a look. August, oh, 5th of August. I was pretty close when I said (0:50:22) Codey: Yeah, I thought it was later. (0:50:28) Al: July. That’s pretty close. And it’s, so it’s been four months and they’ve had one update, and that (0:50:30) Codey: - But you were wrong, so. (0:50:31) Codey: Thank you. (0:50:36) Al: one update has mostly been quality of life stuff. There’s not really been a huge amount of extra on (0:50:43) Al: on top of that. (0:50:45) Al: after four months with one update that it’s coming out in the next year. (0:50:49) Al: I’ve got some, I’ve, you know, come on, that’s not happening. (0:50:54) Al: And when have I ever been wrong about this, Cody, right? (0:50:56) Al: Always err on the side of it’s not coming out next year. (0:51:00) Codey: Oh yeah, oh yeah, we gotta in some episode this year, we gotta talk about all the games that the fallen the ones that were supposed to come out this year that are not. (0:51:12) Al: Yeah. How many times have I said that Snacko is my most anticipated game of the year? (0:51:16) Codey: Oh, no. (0:51:18) Codey: Yeah. (0:51:19) Al: The answer is four times. That’s how many times. (0:51:20) Codey: Oh. (0:51:21) Micah: I’m in, I’m in that boat. (0:51:24) Al: I suspect next year will be the year. (0:51:26) Codey: Okay, we’ll say that I get someone clipping (0:51:28) Al: But we’ll see. (0:51:30) Codey: It. Yep. (0:51:33) Al: OK, well, it sounds like this is an easy one, then, right? (0:51:35) Al: We had two other people saying Fields of Mistria and (0:51:39) Al: both me and Mike are saying Fields of Mistria. (0:51:42) Al: That feels like an overwhelming Fields of Mistria win. (0:51:42) Codey: and me agreeing with whatever you say. (0:51:46) Micah: We did it. (0:51:46) Al: Congratulations, Fields of Mistria, Early Access Game of the Year. (0:51:47) Micah: He he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he (0:51:50) Al: There was not a lot of competition. (0:51:53) Codey: Congrats, it’s like when my mom told me (0:51:56) Codey: I was her favorite child. (0:51:58) Al: To be fair, with some parents, that’s a hard thing to do, be their favorite child, even (0:51:58) Codey: Like, I’m your only child. (0:52:06) Al: if you are the only one. (0:52:08) Codey: womp womp. It’s true. You’re not wrong. (0:52:09) Al: All right, time for the big one, game of the year. (0:52:16) Al: So we have five previous winners of game of the year. (0:52:21) Al: In 2019 it was DeRaymon’s Story of Seasons, in 2020 it was Summer in Mara. (0:52:24) Codey: Woohoo! (0:52:28) Codey: Woo! (0:52:28) Al: In 2021, it was Spiritfarer, which definitely didn’t come out in 2021, in 2022 it was Ooblets. (0:52:30) Codey: Woo! (0:52:34) Codey: We don’t care. (0:52:38) Al: And last year, 2023, it was Mineko’s Night Market, slash Carl Island. (0:52:42) Micah: Well, with the runner up, Corel, (laughs) (0:52:47) Codey: Depending on who you start to. (0:52:50) Al: This year, we have too many games to count released, so I’m going to go through the list (0:52:56) Al: to release games. (0:52:58) Al: And then, like previous years, we’re going to round robin our nominations, and then (0:53:02) Al: I will read out the nominations from the other hosts as well, and then we’ll get into (0:53:06) Al: our discussion trying to decide the winner. (0:53:08) Al: So here’s our long, completely unnecessary list. (0:53:11) Al: Amber Isle, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp complete. (0:53:15) Al: Botany Manor, Creatures of Ava, Critter Crops, Distant Bloom, Dreamland Farm, Echoes of the (0:53:22) Al: Plum Grove, Ever After Falls, Ever Home, Fabledom. (0:53:28) Al: Farmagia, Farming Simulator 25, Garden Trails, Garden Witch Life, Gourdlets, Harvest Days, (0:53:37) Al: Harvest Moon, Home Sweet Home, too many H’s in that name. (0:53:41) Al: Honey Grove, Horticular, Immortal Life, Kamairu, A Frog Refuge, Little Known Galaxy, Luma Island, (0:53:49) Al: Mellowbot, A Last Song, Mika and the Witches Mountain, which just for the argument’s sake (0:53:55) Al: we have decided that this is not an early access game. (0:53:58) Al: I don’t care, tweet at me, I really don’t care, go away. (0:53:59) Codey: Especially because we’re not checking Twitter anymore. (0:54:03) Al: It is not, it is not an early access game. (0:54:06) Al: Shut up and go away. (0:54:09) Al: Natsuma on 20th century summer kids, orange season, petite island, pixel (0:54:14) Al: cross, story of seasons, plant, which, yeah, I know it’s not a card to go game. (0:54:18) Al: I don’t care. (0:54:19) Al: It’s story of seasons. (0:54:21) Al: Plant to be, Rusty’s retirement, song of the prairie, star struck (0:54:25) Al: Fagobond, the Guardian Path. (0:54:28) Al: The Last Farmer, The Palace on the Hill, Window Garden and Web Fishing. (0:54:34) Codey: Whoo! (0:54:34) Al: Goodness me. (0:54:35) Al: Oh, that’s such a list. (0:54:35) Micah: - What a list. (0:54:36) Codey: Yeah. (0:54:37) Al: That list took me two and a half minutes to read out. (0:54:40) Codey: Next year, it’ll take three minutes to read it. (0:54:43) Al: Well, interestingly, it’s not significantly bigger than last year. (0:54:49) Al: It is bigger, but by like three, I think. (0:54:52) Al: So we might have plateaued on the number of games released each year, (0:54:56) Al: which I really hope we have. (0:54:58) Al: In which case, can it start going down as well? That’d be great. Please and thank you. (0:55:03) Codey: - Now I’m gonna be, Vernon, (0:55:05) Codey: or I’m gonna be Dudley here being 36, (0:55:07) Codey: but last year, last year I had 37. (0:55:10) Al: All right, we’re going to round robin these nominations. We haven’t seen each other’s (0:55:17) Al: of this ones. People might have sneaked their peaks at the hosts, the other hosts ones, but (0:55:22) Al: Micah, what’s your first nomination? (0:55:26) Micah: Uh, I, my personal biggest game of the year for cottage core games, which (0:55:33) Micah: I feel like is going to be an uphill battle. (0:55:35) Micah: So I’m going to get it out of the way right away is a Natsuman 20th century kid. (0:55:41) Micah: I think that it is a fantastic game. (0:55:44) Micah: It is a sort of re-imagining of this series, uh, called Boku no Natsuyasumi, (0:55:52) Micah: which is, you know, like the, the Shinshan games that have been recently released. (0:55:57) Micah: Uh, this is more closer to the non-collaborative, uh, you know, core of the series, (0:56:04) Micah: not Shinshan, Kran Shinshan branded. Um, but it is a newer take on it. So like the Kran Shinshan (0:56:13) Micah: versions of the game, the two now we’re at, um, do feel much more like the, the core games. They, (0:56:21) Micah: they’re, uh, you know, designed in a way where the backdrops are. (0:56:26) Micah: Are beautiful, hand-painted. It’s, you know, kind of static and you’re moving around (0:56:31) Micah: in these, these, you know, static backgrounds that change, but the, the position, the camera (0:56:37) Micah: direction is always the same, you know? Um, and this is more of a 3D, uh, it’s 3D, first of all, (0:56:46) Micah: which is like, like entirely 3D, which is, which is kind of big, but it’s also a third person POV, (0:56:53) Micah: Uh, which is new for this, this series. (0:56:57) Micah: But I think it is a much needed introduction for people to this, this series. (0:57:03) Micah: I think it’s, they’re really doing a push to get people in the West to appreciate it. (0:57:09) Micah: And I think that’s definitely been seen with, you know, the, the tuition (0:57:14) Micah: Chan games and now this, uh, localizing this as well, which I absolutely did not (0:57:19) Micah: think we were going to get a localization of it, I thought for sure. (0:57:23) Micah: This was a niche enough thing that we were not. (0:57:26) Micah: going to get it localized, but I’m happy that we did, and they did a really great job with it. (0:57:30) Micah: I bought it originally and on the Japanese eShop when I didn’t think it was going to be localized (0:57:35) Micah: because I was looking for something that was a little bit slower paced to help with learning (0:57:42) Micah: Japanese, which I’ve been doing for a long time. And I was disappointed to learn that it was very (0:57:51) Micah: quickly the dialogue and it was was very fast. (0:57:57) Micah: There was no pausing there was no like I can take some time and dissect the sentence structure and you know the characters and stuff so that was kind of my initial disappointment with it but when they localized it obviously that isn’t a problem anymore the the the my interest in it has shifted to more just enjoying the game itself. (0:58:19) Micah: And it is such a like unique and beautiful way to play a game like this like a. (0:58:26) Micah: Like a this kind of you know just living in this cute little town and you every day you have you know like your morning breakfast and then your morning stretches and then you have the day to do whatever you want because it’s your kid and it’s summer vacation and you can go climb trees and catch bugs and go fishing and explore you can meet people in the town and like have conversations with them. (0:58:54) Micah: A lot of times those wind up turning in. (0:58:57) Micah: Deeper quests that you would otherwise miss if you just decided to do something else that day. (0:59:04) Micah: And the glory of it, I think, is that it is a digestible game because you’re kind of on this (0:59:12) Micah: time limit where you just have the summer vacation. So you just have this certain amount (0:59:19) Micah: of days that you can play through. And then once it’s over, it’s over. The summer vacation is over, (0:59:26) Micah: but there is so much replayability. So you can complete the game and say, you know, 20 hours, (0:59:33) Micah: maybe, but there’s so much replayability for it that you can continue to experience the things (0:59:39) Micah: that you missed previously. Like, you know, there’s a whole subsection that’s dedicated (0:59:47) Micah: specifically to the shrine or to this specific type of bug or, you know, filling the museum with (0:59:56) Micah: rare fish or something like that where, you know, you can kind of pick and choose and then go back (1:00:02) Micah: and do things that you missed. And it’s just a very feel good carefree game that really kind of (1:00:12) Micah: taps into that childlike wonder that I feel like we don’t really get as much as adults. (1:00:20) Al: I suspect, I suspect, Michael, this is going to be the Coral Island of this year, in the. (1:00:20) Micah: That’s my case for it. I love it. (1:00:30) Micah: - For me, person, just me. (1:00:33) Al: I haven’t, I haven’t played it. And the funny thing is behind the scenes, we actually planned (1:00:39) Al: an episode on this game. But the problem is that we planned it for what, two weeks after (1:00:47) Al: Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home came out and then. (1:00:50) Al: They announced that it was coming out that day and I was like, Oh my God. (1:00:52) Al: I think we just need to, I think we need to cover Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home. (1:00:55) Micah: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (1:00:56) Al: And so we just, we just, uh, pivoted and did that instead. (1:01:00) Al: And of course, if I don’t have a podcast to record on the game, (1:01:03) Al: I’m probably not going to play it. (1:01:04) Al: Um, I do, however, suspect that if I had played it, it wouldn’t have (1:01:10) Al: been one of my games of the year. (1:01:12) Al: And that is purely because I don’t like games that are slow. (1:01:17) Al: Um, and, and that is a definitely. (1:01:17) Micah: Mm-hmm (1:01:20) Al: And, but I, yeah, you’re, when you were like, Oh, I love how every morning you eat (1:01:26) Al: your breakfast and you do your morning stretches. (1:01:29) Al: And I’m in my brain. (1:01:30) Al: I’m going, Oh no, I have to look at this man. (1:01:32) Micah: I should clarify that those segments are extremely short scripted segments, so they’re not like (1:01:33) Al: Oh, it’s just so like, Oh no, just let me do the things I want to do. (1:01:37) Al: You know, just like even that, even that tiny thing just stressed me out so much. (1:01:49) Micah: things that you have to do. It’s basically like the the loading. Yeah, you can skip any (1:01:50) Codey: Can you pass them, though? (1:01:54) Micah: cutscene that you want in the game, so you can skip it. There’s just I choose not to because (1:01:59) Micah: Sometimes there’s dialogue for certain things that like. (1:02:02) Micah: You know you can you can use to determine what you want to do for the day or maybe like there’s something that you wouldn’t know about you know. (1:02:08) Al: Well, this is the problem. This is the problem with those cut scenes, right? Like, it’s like, (1:02:11) Al: would I want to skip it? Or would I feel like I want to skip it, but I can’t really skip it? (1:02:16) Micah: - You can’t bring yourself to it ‘cause… (1:02:17) Al: You know, it’s just one of those things that it’s like this. Yeah, well, exactly, exactly. It’s like, (1:02:20) Micah: - Yeah. (1:02:21) Al: it’s probably, it was like, you know, Isabelle talking in Animal Crossing. It’s like, this is (1:02:25) Al: pointless and silly, and I don’t want to do this, but she might say something that matters to me. (1:02:28) Al: So I have to watch it, right? Like, and it’s just so slow. It’s the same reason why, like, I just, (1:02:36) Al: As much as I played Animal (1:02:38) Al: Crossing or I still don’t know whether I enjoyed that game or not because it is just so slow. And (1:02:45) Al: that’s not where my that’s not what I like. Like I, I speed run farming games. Well, not, (1:02:51) Al: not all of them, but I speed run spring of year one in every farming game. It’s like, do the bare (1:02:56) Al: minimum, get my plants. I want to get to the, I want to get to the fun bit. I want to get to the (1:03:00) Al: bit where I have money rolling in, you know, that’s, that’s what I’m there for. And it sounds (1:03:06) Al: like this is this game (1:03:08) Al: is just entirely spring one. (1:03:10) Micah: There is a lot of, you know, there’s a lot of content to it and you can realistically (1:03:18) Micah: kind of, so there is one of the things that they’ve, they’ve added somewhat recently. (1:03:24) Micah: I can’t remember if this is, they’ve added this in the Shinchan games or if this is new (1:03:28) Micah: to this one, but there’s a time, uh, speed, there’s like a clock speed setting. (1:03:35) Micah: so you can set it to so that the day moves super quick. (1:03:40) Micah: And that the time and the sun rises and sunsets very quickly. (1:03:46) Micah: Or you can set it even longer, right? (1:03:49) Micah: There’s like three settings to it. (1:03:51) Micah: There’s a fast day, there’s like normal time, (1:03:53) Micah: and then there’s a long day. (1:03:54) Micah: So I personally chose the long day (1:03:57) Micah: because that gives me more time throughout each day (1:04:00) Micah: to do all of the things that I want to do. (1:04:04) Micah: But yeah, if you’re not, (1:04:07) Micah: know, if kind of like moving slow. (1:04:10) Micah: And living your daily life is not something that you enjoy (1:04:15) Micah: that probably not for you, but there is, I would encourage. (1:04:18) Codey: That provides no dopamine for Al. (1:04:21) Al: It really doesn’t and it’s sad because I feel like I could enjoy that sort of thing, but (1:04:27) Al: it’s just my brain doesn’t like me. (1:04:28) Micah: Yeah, I mean, I would encourage you to try it at some point (1:04:31) Micah: if you get the opportunity to, if it’s, you know, cheaper. (1:04:35) Micah: I can’t remember what it is, maybe $38 USD on the eShop. (1:04:36) Al: Well, yeah, Micah, Micah, I own the game. (1:04:41) Micah: But oh, well, yeah, well, then, uh, you know, in that case. (1:04:41) Codey: He’s locked and loaded. (1:04:42) Al: This is this is this is my problem. (1:04:46) Al: This is my curse. (1:04:46) Al: I own all the games. (1:04:48) Al: I just never play them. (1:04:53) Micah: Uh, yeah, I mean. (1:04:54) Codey: - I think it sounds really cute. (1:04:56) Codey: I think like for me, nostalgia games, (1:04:58) Codey: especially nostalgia for like the summers of your childhood, (1:05:01) Codey: they would, it would hit a little too close to home for me. (1:05:04) Codey: Like, oh man, I miss this. (1:05:06) Codey: Like I miss just going to my grandma’s (1:05:08) Codey: and playing in the backyard and playing with the aunts (1:05:10) Codey: and like, you know, things like that. (1:05:12) Micah: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s primarily what it’s designed to do, you know, like that, the designer (1:05:22) Micah: Kazayabe of the like Malayim Kitchen is the company that makes all these Boku no Natsuyasumi games. (1:05:30) Micah: He had designed the game with the intention of like, you know, living, he lives this, you know, (1:05:38) Micah: high, like fast moving, high stress life. (1:05:42) Micah: In, uh, you know, downtown Tokyo and as a like salary man and, you know, he yearned (1:05:49) Micah: for that. (1:05:50) Micah: It’s the slower days than the country, the Japanese countryside as a kid. (1:05:55) Micah: And so that is essentially, he made this to kind of recapture that and the, you know, (1:06:00) Micah: the, the serious to recapture that, not this one specifically, but, uh, yeah. (1:06:04) Micah: And it’s just the characters have such like unique, um, they’re just designed so uniquely (1:06:12) Micah: physically and, uh, you know, um, uh, personality wise are just very unique. (1:06:19) Micah: So I, I would encourage people to try it if it’s something that they would, you know, (1:06:24) Micah: it sounds like something that they would like, but especially if you are an animal crossing (1:06:28) Micah: van, I think you probably, you might, you might like it, which Al clearly is not. (1:06:33) Micah: And so, uh, probably will never play it. (1:06:36) Al: Look, right, I opened the game three times to try and play. And I know no Animal Crossing, (1:06:42) Micah: not to one okay all right yeah yeah yeah yeah (1:06:43) Al: I put stupid amounts of time into despite still not knowing whether I’ll enjoy it or not. (1:06:48) Al: Look, it was 2020. It was like, we don’t talk about 2020, right? (1:06:55) Al: No, I yeah, I tried. I opened this game three times before they announced Tarver’s (1:07:01) Al: been homeschooled home really state and I went oh, thank goodness. I don’t know why. (1:07:06) Al: I just couldn’t get through even just the loading screen. And I know this sounds so stupid. (1:07:13) Al: And I don’t know why. And eventually I do need to go back and I do need to properly play it (1:07:18) Al: because I can’t just like, wave it away. There are some games that you just really want to like, (1:07:25) Al: even if you never will get there. And I need to try again. I really want to like it in theory. (1:07:32) Codey: Well, it sounds like a game that tries to make you be present and like that can be really (1:07:37) Codey: hard for people. I mean, like I, I have this little phone game for self-care and I have (1:07:43) Codey: to take care of those little birds of a game called Finch. And the game, I told the game, (1:07:47) Codey: I wanted to be more present and it gave me a task to do every day, every once a day to (1:07:53) Codey: eat a meal without distractions. And I hate that. I hate it, but I do, but I have to do (1:08:01) Codey: And it’s one of those things like- (1:08:02) Codey: because I hate it, I want to do it. (1:08:06) Codey: But it makes me be present and makes me think about what I’m eating (1:08:10) Codey: and maybe kind of go over my day instead of constantly distracting myself. (1:08:14) Micah: Mm hmm. I have used that app as well, and I do like it. (1:08:14) Codey: And sometimes you gotta do that. (1:08:16) Al: I feel super uncomfortable with that concept. (1:08:20) Codey: Yeah, I love Finch. So cute. (1:08:21) Micah: I think it’s great. Yeah, I can understand from everything that you’ve said about the (1:08:27) Micah: games that you like, Al, that you are uncomfortable with that concept. (1:08:31) Micah: But that’s definitely what I think Natsuman and the Boku no Natsuyasumi games are all kind of that (1:08:38) Micah: definitely with the intention of making you kind of feel a little bit more present. (1:08:42) Micah: But it’s also, you know, it’s… (1:08:45) Micah: It’s just so open-ended, you know, you can really do whatever you want day to day. (1:08:50) Micah: You can do nothing. (1:08:51) Micah: You can spend your entire, you know, summer vacation just waking up, going fishing every day and going home. (1:08:58) Micah: And that’s it. If that’s really what you wanted to do, like you can do the entire game that way. (1:09:03) Micah: You can, you know, do min-max everything that you want to min-max. (1:09:08) Micah: You know, it’s really, it’s really open-ended in that way. (1:09:10) Micah: but it definitely is designed with the intention. (1:09:14) Micah: I would love to talk about it at some point, further than just, you know, (1:09:26) Al: Well, we just need to schedule a time again for this episode and we know I will put in at least five hours into it, right? (1:09:36) Al: Yeah, we just need to schedule it for a time they’re not going to release a Harvestment or a story of seasons, simple, right? (1:09:38) Micah: the way that it’s designed. (1:09:42) Codey: There needs to not be an excuse for Al to not play. (1:09:45) Al: Yeah, exactly. That’s exactly it, we need to, because the thing is, right, if there’s a clear, the reason why I got out of that was because it was a very clear, this is the alternative. (1:09:55) Al: if I’ve organized an (1:09:56) Al: episode, I will do that episode unless something gets in the way because you know what is the (1:10:01) Al: hardest thing to do is deciding on episodes. That is the hardest bit of it. Cody knows this (1:10:08) Al: because they’re in a chat with me in Slack and I feel like every week we have a discussion of what (1:10:15) Al: are we doing, right? Because deciding on 52 episode topics a year is really difficult and so if we have (1:10:24) Al: decided on one and it’s going to happen. (1:10:26) Al: But the problem is it was just the absolute perfect timing because we knew it was coming (1:10:33) Al: at some point but we didn’t know when it was coming and I was kind of expecting it (1:10:37) Al: to come later because they’d shown us literally nothing about the game but then they announced (1:10:45) Al: it and it was like yeah two weeks after or two weeks before we were planning on recording and (1:10:49) Al: I’m like that’s just enough time for us to play this game enough for the episode and it’s like (1:10:52) Micah: Sure, right. (1:10:55) Al: It’s, you know, it’s. (1:10:56) Al: So hard for us to organize specific episodes and it’s like, anyway, (1:11:00) Al: it doesn’t matter that’s way too inside baseball. (1:11:00) Codey: Yeah. (1:11:02) Al: Great. (1:11:03) Al: Thank you for your first nomination. (1:11:04) Codey: Oh, that’s a great question. Um. (1:11:04) Al: Cody, what’s yours? (1:11:05) Al: Hmm. (1:11:10) Codey: My first one is window garden. So this is the game the game on the iOS where you have these little plants. (1:11:18) Codey: And you’re basically like at a window and you grow the plants across days, you have to make sure you water each plant every day give them the amount of suns that they want. (1:11:30) Codey: And then everything died and then everything died. (1:11:39) Al: what’s that I don’t know her (1:11:44) Codey: You know that that classic, uh, you, you’re like, Oh yeah, I need to check on my plants. And then five days later, like, you’re like, Oh yeah, I remember this morning reminding myself I need to check on my plants and it was really five days ago. (1:12:00) Codey: Yeah. (1:12:00) Al: This is why for my real life plants, I have an app that notifies me every day. (1:12:01) Micah: I was going to say, at least this is like the digital, they’re, they’re perishing instead (1:12:05) Al: If I need to do something for them. (1:12:10) Al: Yeah, exactly. (1:12:12) Micah: of actual plants. (1:12:14) Codey: Yeah, I so I mean, my actual plants like they’re pretty front (1:12:20) Codey: and center in my living room. And so if they start dying, I can (1:12:23) Codey: like very clearly see, especially because I have I also (1:12:26) Codey: have like idiot proof plants, like pathos, where the second (1:12:31) Codey: they start looking droopy, you just throw water at them. And (1:12:35) Codey: then they’re happy the next day again. Anything that’s like (1:12:39) Codey: fidgety, not going to survive in my house. Um, yeah. (1:12:44) Codey: That was my only real frustration with window garden. And then also like you build, you, you (1:12:50) Codey: have all these plants and you keep wanting to get the new types of plants. And then sometimes (1:12:55) Codey: the game will give you like a bonus plant. So you’ll have like two strawberry plants or whatever. (1:13:00) Codey: And then it’s just upkeep simulator. Like every day you have to log on and you suddenly have to (1:13:04) Codey: take care of like a hundred things. Um, I do think you were able to like put some things, (1:13:10) Codey: Oh, you could put them in like storage, but then they’re not I wanted (1:13:14) Codey: to look at like a cacophony of plants and I just would have liked if (1:13:18) Codey: there was a certain point where I didn’t have to take care of them anymore. (1:13:21) Codey: They kind of just took care of themselves. (1:13:23) Codey: Um, like once you hit a certain level, but I don’t know, but I really, that (1:13:29) Codey: was a game that I played this year that I did really enjoy, um, and (1:13:33) Codey: that I would recommend, so that’s mine. (1:13:37) Al: My first one is I was struggling to get a third game because apparently most of the games I played this year were not 1.0 releases, they were early access or updates. (1:13:51) Al: So my first suggestion is not a real suggestion, that is Harvest Moon Homes Field. This is not the game of the year, right? I just want to make it clear, this is not the game of the year, at all. (1:14:06) Codey: It’s an honorable mention from you. (1:14:07) Al: What I do think is that it is the closest we have got to a good Harvest Moon game since the split, and that is something to be commended, even if that is a very low bar. I think it is so close to being good, really good. (1:14:26) Al: I think they have got a lot of the bones there now, and honestly if I think this game was on Switch, it maybe would have been one of my games of the year, but the not being on Switch. (1:14:37) Al: Switch and Steam and not having controller support and all those little things that we talked about in the episode that really annoy me about it, just mean it is just not quite there, but it is like I really want it to be, can you just be good already, you are so close to it. (1:14:44) Micah: Mm-hmm (1:14:51) Micah: Yeah (1:14:52) Al: We have been doing this for six years now on this podcast, no what, seven, nearly seven years? Nearly seven years now we have been doing that, no six years, I am confused, what is time? Nearly six years we have been doing this for. (1:15:07) Al: And you are so close, you have gone from one earth that you are doing to almost good, but just frustratingly close. So I am more nominating it as can you just hurry up, because actually you could be there, you could be the farming game of the year, if you just did those last few things, come on. (1:15:30) Micah: Yeah, I agree. I want to see them succeed. I want to see them make a good Harvest Moon. (1:15:41) Micah: Obviously I had some very strong opinions about this one, you know, primarily the user (1:15:47) Micah: experience more than like the progression of the game or anything like that. I mean, (1:15:52) Micah: it’s just simple things like controller support or cloud saves or, you know, things that you (1:15:58) Micah: would come to expect for a special. (1:16:02) Micah: Game and you know, coupled with the $18 price tag for a mobile game with like no other option for, you know, I don’t know, it’s it was just it was it was a hard one to to watch turn out the way that it did. And I’m hoping that something changes. Has there been any like update to it or anything? Are they just kind of done with it? (1:16:24) Al: I don’t think so. I don’t think so. Well, so, I mean, we talked about this in the episode, (1:16:28) Al: I think this is coming to consoles. I think that’s what the next thing is happening. (1:16:32) Al: I think they’re working on porting it to consoles and steam. And so, (1:16:32) Micah: Yeah. It’s just interesting that it’s been so long and we haven’t seen anything in it. (1:16:38) Al: well, it’s been four months, right? That’s not actually that long a time. Like, if you look at, (1:16:42) Micah: Has it? Oh. (1:16:43) Al: yeah, it was August. It was late August, so maybe three months, three and a half months. (1:16:48) Micah: Yeah, yeah. No, it’s really not. (1:16:49) Al: But like that’s not a long time. And if you think about say like. (1:16:52) Micah: But. Mm-hmm. (1:16:54) Al: Hello Kitty, Island Adventure, there will have been three years between it coming out on (1:17:00) Al: Apple Arcade and coming out on Switch. No, two years, sorry, two years, no, two years, (1:17:03) Micah: » It’s been three, I can’t, that’s, holy cow, okay. (1:17:08) Al: it will have when it comes out, it will have been two years, sorry, not two years, two years. (1:17:13) Al: So, you know, I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard something about it next year. But yeah, (1:17:19) Al: what I suspect is they’re porting it to Steam and Switch and as part of (1:17:24) Al: that I think or I hope that they will add quality of life features to that and they will (1:17:30) Al: back port them to the iOS now Android version that is my current theory as to why we’ve not (1:17:36) Al: because yeah you would think if they were just working on that you would expect an update at this (1:17:41) Al: point because like most of the complaints about these quality of license prunes right (1:17:46) Al: but if they’re working on a port at the same time they’ll be incorporating that into it and (1:17:49) Al: and then backboarding them I think. So probably so they release it this (1:17:51) Micah: - Yeah. (1:17:52) Micah: Yes. (1:17:54) Al: time. My theory, but we’ll see what happens. Anyway, I really wanted to be good. Come on, (1:18:01) Al: you’re so close. Micah, you’re number two. (1:18:02) Micah: And just to follow up quick, I did play Window Garden Cody. (1:18:09) Codey: Okay, yeah (1:18:11) Micah: I I do like it. (1:18:13) Micah: I like the premise of it. (1:18:15) Micah: I like the concept. (1:18:17) Micah: I was a little disappointed in not being able to unless there is a way (1:18:22) Micah: and I don’t know how, but not being able to like pay to get rid of ads (1:18:27) Micah: or something like that. (1:18:30) Micah: Thank you. (1:18:32) Micah: The ads kind of and probably no fault to the developer, because I don’t know what goes into picking what ads you get and what ads you don’t get like that run on your your app. (1:18:46) Micah: But the my first experiences with it were really like I was enjoying it. (1:18:51) Micah: It was really kind of cute. (1:18:52) Micah: I pressed something to claim something and I got hit with the most unbelievable ad I think I’ve ever experienced, which was someone like, you know, (1:19:02) Micah: like fake streamer kind of like playing a game ad. (1:19:03) Codey: » Yeah. (1:19:05) Micah: But the first line was, oh, my mom is dead. (1:19:09) Micah: Oh, my dad’s also dead. (1:19:11) Micah: And it was like I think it was some like superhero simulator thing where it’s like that they’re kind of doing a like, oh, it’s Batman without really saying it’s Batman. (1:19:21) Micah: You know, but like the way that it took me out completely of the like, I’m cozy. (1:19:22) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (1:19:28) Micah: I’m having a nice time. (1:19:29) Micah: I’m watering my plants. (1:19:32) Micah: in my sunshine. And then this guy screaming in my ear, my mom’s dad, my dad’s dad. It (1:19:39) Micah: just kind of just kind of took me out of it a little bit. But I would love the ability (1:19:44) Micah: to for games like that to be able to just pay like a flat, you know, like I would rather (1:19:49) Micah: pay the $20 that Harvest Moon home sweet home made me pay to even try the game to even touch (1:19:54) Al: You mean twice? (1:19:55) Micah: the game. I’d rather pay that to yet to what well, you know, but that’s either (1:19:58) Al: If you want to hear that story, tune in to our Harvest Moon, Hope Sweet Home episode. (1:20:02) Micah: here, right there to. But I would rather that be the fee to like disable ads on something (1:20:07) Al: Why was it a story? (1:20:14) Micah: like that, you know, or like, but yeah, I don’t know. That’s my little gripe about it. (1:20:19) Micah: My second nomination for game of the year is something that has been talked about in (1:20:26) Micah: this podcast, Rusty’s retirement, which is just. (1:20:30) Codey: Yay! (1:20:32) Micah: Such a unique idea and cute. And it’s it’s, you know, little retired robot plant a little (1:20:43) Micah: running a farm and generating biofuel and stuff that sits on the bottom of your monitor (1:20:48) Micah: while you work. And I always I not always, but I tend to have it up underneath my discord (1:20:56) Micah: window on the monitor that I use discord on. And it just kind of runs. It’s really nice (1:21:00) Micah: is to, you know, (1:21:02) Micah: if something stressful is going on to look over and see all my (1:21:05) Micah: little old rusty retired robots kind of bopping around on my (1:21:10) Micah: little farm and planting stuff. There’s so many aspects to it (1:21:16) Micah: too, that feel like as an idle game made it feel really not (1:21:23) Micah: just like, you know, set it and forget it kind of like, you (1:21:27) Micah: know, I there’s the progression made me really want to. (1:21:32) Micah: Stick with it, and I do like to that you have the option to set it to like focus mode. (1:21:36) Codey: Mm-hmm (1:21:37) Micah: I don’t know if that’s recent, a recent edition or not, or if that was in the base game, but. (1:21:42) Codey: I think it was in the base game because I think I wouldn’t have played it if they didn’t have (1:21:46) Codey: Let’s be honest. (1:21:50) Micah: But the game has a focus mode that basically just like extends the time that everything (1:21:55) Micah: takes to to develop on your farm so that you’re not just constantly checking everything, which (1:22:02) Micah: I have found myself doing, you know, and I’ve had to kind of shift to that mode, because (1:22:06) Micah: I will get really like distracted by, okay, I got to plant the stuff and I these if this (1:22:11) Micah: is what I need to plant in order to unlock this next crop and this is, you know, where (1:22:16) Micah: I want to place my next, you know, house or whatever, and it’s just, they also recently (1:22:23) Micah: had a little Christmas update that lets you put, you know, like a holiday update that (1:22:27) Micah: let’s you put candy canes and trees and stuff on your on your (1:22:32) Micah: your your plot and your little under under your discord land (1:22:36) Codey: - Yeah. (1:22:38) Micah: that you have. Yeah, he’s got a little Santa hat and he kinda (1:22:40) Codey: - And he has a little Santa hat on, doesn’t he? (1:22:43) Codey: That’s so cute. (1:22:46) Micah: bops back and forth with him as he moves around. It’s very (1:22:49) Micah: cute. II really really love the game. It was such a like neat (1:22:53) Micah: surprise to me because II it was what is it like $5 or (1:22:57) Micah: or something, it’s such a low price and (1:22:59) Codey: Yeah, yeah. (1:23:02) Micah: it’s not something that I was fully aware of, you know, it didn’t like have the same (1:23:07) Micah: level of coverage, I think that, you know, like wider coverage that something like Fields (1:23:14) Micah: of Mystery had or something like that. But it’s just such a it’s just such a good game. (1:23:16) Codey: Mm hmm. It kind of came out of nowhere, yeah, for sure. (1:23:21) Micah: And I think it’s a good contender too, because it has already started to inspire more, you (1:23:29) Micah: You know, it’s got that, like. (1:23:32) Micah: A Stardew sauce of being, being the baseline for people to start making new idle sims that can sit on the, you know, the bottom of your monitor or the side of your monitor or whatever and run while you do other things. (1:23:46) Al: There are so many of them now. It’s wild how that is just like, because I think, (1:23:54) Al: yeah, I don’t have this on my list because one, I’ve not played it, which is mainly because I do, (1:24:01) Al: I work on a client machine. I’m a consultant, I work for clients, so I use their machine, (1:24:05) Al: and I’m not exactly installing Rusty’s retirement on a client machine, but also because I just don’t (1:24:13) Al: think it works again for my brain. (1:24:16) Al: I think I would end up in the situation where you find found yourself unable to turn on that (1:24:22) Al: setting. Like I would just be like focusing on the game and I just don’t think that would work (1:24:23) Micah: Mm-hmm. (1:24:27) Al: for me. Because I would turn on the focus mode and I’d just be like now it’s just boring, right? (1:24:32) Al: Like we’re back to that problem of me wanting games to be faster. Like I’m gaming or I’m not. (1:24:36) Codey: Yeah, you want to get your, you’re a game guzzler. (1:24:40) Al: But what I am and I’m totally fine with that. Like that’s how I like to play games. That’s (1:24:44) Al: That’s just how life is. (1:24:46) Codey: That’s totally fine, yeah. (1:24:46) Micah: Yeah, yep. (1:24:46) Al: gotta accept that. But I think that I love what it has done, even if I don’t want it myself, (1:24:54) Al: right? I think it’s impressive how it’s gone from like, this is not a thing I’d thought of. (1:25:01) Al: And then they announced it and I was like, fascinating. And now we have, I think, three (1:25:05) Al: other games announced this year that are doing a similar thing, but different game categories. (1:25:11) Al: And that’s really interesting. Like it’s not, it’s not often you get a genre defining. (1:25:16) Micah: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s really not (1:25:18) Codey: Yep. Well, what a great time for me to skip over my second one and announce that Rusty’s retirement is my number one game of the year. (1:25:28) Codey: Because I mean, it’s for all the reasons y’all just said, I mean, I think that the fact that it is kind of the stardew of its genre, like it started its like category and it has inspired other games. (1:25:44) Codey: But it’s just so like like people have (1:25:48) Codey: And then they also have the like set it and forget it games that they might have up on a screen or something. And they were like, hear me out. What if both? And it’s just on the bottom of your screen and you don’t have to have it in like a separate window. They’re just doing their thing and you and the fact that you can have it on the side and wherever you want it and yeah, so that was my that’s my number one, personally. So. (1:26:16) Al: While we’re talking about it, I think I’m going to input Johnny’s comments into this because it makes, I think, I was going to leave all these till the end, but I feel like this one makes sense to talk about just now. (1:26:25) Codey: Yeah. Yep. (1:26:28) Al: So Johnny has said while my favourite game of the year has been Mika and the Witches Mountain, which we may talk about later, I firmly believe Rusty’s retirement should be game of the year. (1:26:36) Codey: Mmm. (1:26:36) Al: Cottagecore as a genre has largely stagnated the last few years as we’ve seen the tail end of the Stardew but X games being released and are now firmly stuck in the era of genre but with- (1:26:46) Al: where games are low on innovation and what appeals to any individual is simply based on how much they like the merged genre. This is why Mika and Luma Island are my personal favourites. (1:26:54) Al: I enjoy the puzzle exploration nature but at their heart they are just fine Cottagecore games. (1:27:00) Al: In this world, Rusty’s retirement has done something truly novel that has opened an amazing new design space for the genre we love. Cottagecore and farming at its heart utilises time as a key mechanic. (1:27:10) Al: A partial screen overlay is an elegantly simple idea that provides the core cottage court (1:27:16) Al: while enabling a game that progresses at a slower pace. While Rusty’s retirement hasn’t (1:27:19) Al: had the widespread success of something like Stardew, we are already seeing new games being (1:27:24) Al: developed that are taking and evolving this concept in a year full of games that have been (1:27:28) Al: fine but with nothing that has really stood out. I would love for us to be on the bright side of (1:27:32) Al: history and recognize a game that I believe will have a huge impact on the genre and consequently (1:27:37) Al: the harvest season for years to come. (1:27:40) Codey: Here, here. (1:27:40) Micah: Incredibly well said. (1:27:42) Codey: Yeah. (1:27:43) Micah: And I think very much empowers my feeling that, you know, (1:27:49) Micah: I think Natsuman was kind of my wild card. (1:27:52) Micah: It is my personal favorite game of the year, (1:27:56) Micah: but I think as far as the genre goes, (1:27:59) Micah: for sure that I think Rusty’s retirement kind of (1:28:02) Micah: takes the cake on it for me. (1:28:02) Codey: Yep. Okay, well, that’s mine. What’s your second? (1:28:06) Al: My number two is Echoes of the Plum Grove. I haven’t put a humongous amount of time into this, (1:28:13) Al: but what I love about this game is how it… And I know this is a little tropey, (1:28:19) Al: but cutesy face to it, but also you can dive dysentery. I love the balance there. (1:28:31) Al: I do have issues with how the game actually plays, which maybe I’ll talk about in a future (1:28:35) Al: your episode. (1:28:36) Al: We’ll see if I can get anyone to go on a podcast about with that about me. (1:28:41) Al: No with me about it. (1:28:42) Codey: I mean, I, I mean, you said you die of dysentery and I am intrigued, so count me in. (1:28:49) Al: I just I love and I also like because you know people talk about how much they enjoy (1:28:54) Al: in what was the Harvest Moon game where you can play as your kid. (1:28:57) Micah: Wonderful life. (1:28:58) Al: Wonderful life yes that’s what that’s what it’s called. That concept of like you you die and life (1:29:05) Al: moves on. (1:29:07) Al: And just because you aren’t there anymore doesn’t mean your farm isn’t, and you can (1:29:10) Al: continue that and you can play as continually going down the generations. (1:29:15) Al: I really love that idea and I think it’s been done pretty well in Echoes of the Plum Grove. (1:29:23) Al: And I also just I really love the art style it’s kind of paper Mario-esque thing I really (1:29:28) Al: like and you know as Johnny talks about like oh yeah this is just a genre of a game but (1:29:35) Al: with farming, it actually. (1:29:36) Al: Feels like echoes of the plum grove is trying to do farming game, but different. (1:29:42) Al: Um, and I, I, yeah, I really like that. (1:29:42) Codey: Yeah. (1:29:45) Codey: Cool. I’ve not, not played, but we’ll be on an episode with you then. (1:29:52) Al: Careful, I’m going to write it down, Cody. (1:29:52) Micah: I also have not played (1:29:56) Micah: But I have added it to my wish list because I do really like the art style I like how it looks and I like the (1:30:03) Micah: You know everything that you said has enticed me to (1:30:06) Micah: Want to try it, but I haven’t I haven’t touched it personally (1:30:08) Codey: But what’s the console? (1:30:10) Al: I played it on Steam but I don’t know if it’s on any consoles. I think it might just be (1:30:14) Micah: Yeah, we’re supposed to sit on Steam but (1:30:15) Al: Steam. It’s on Windows and Mac though. So there you go. Yeah, true. Yeah, so I know (1:30:19) Codey: Ooh. (1:30:21) Codey: Well, if I get a Steam Deck for Christmas, (1:30:23) Codey: then it won’t matter. (1:30:27) Codey: Cool. (1:30:28) Micah: That’s exciting. It’s a great console. (1:30:28) Al: it’s not going to win because I’m literally I think the only person who’s mentioned it but (1:30:34) Al: I think it’s up there. Yeah, I think we did have, did we maybe have one person mentioning it? (1:30:34) Codey: Yeah, it’s a little out of left field. (1:30:41) Al: One person mentioned it as one of their top three but didn’t make an argument for it being game of (1:30:45) Al: the year. So, all right Micah, your final game, your number one game of the year. Well, (1:30:54) Al: if that’s how you’ve been doing it, I’m not sure. (1:30:56) Micah: Maybe this is you know, I think that this is maybe a little bit of wild card, but it’s all of these all of my nominations have been (1:31:06) Micah: Kind of things that take the the genre and kind of flip it on its head a little bit or do something new with it (1:31:13) Micah: um (1:31:14) Micah: That’s kind of what I looked at as like (1:31:17) Micah: Criteria personal criteria for what? (1:31:20) Micah: Makes something kind of game of the year for me as far as these games go this this genre goes (1:31:26) Micah: So contrary to maybe popular belief, it is not harvest or story of seasons pixel crossing (1:31:34) Micah: uh (1:31:35) Micah: I (1:31:37) Micah: Played played that game to completion but was not necessarily a huge fan of it. Uh, but that’s neither here nor there (1:31:44) Micah: Uh, my final nomination is web fishing (1:31:49) Micah: uh (1:31:50) Micah: because it is (1:31:52) Micah: such an (1:31:54) Micah: Interesting game, it’s just- (1:31:57) Micah: I don’t even know. I mean, it’s- you’re fishing, right? Like, that’s the whole thing. (1:32:00) Micah: It’s kind of like, if you took, uh, you know, the art style of Animal Crossing and made it, like, (1:32:07) Micah: low poly, uh, and it’s just the fishing part of it, but you also added some, like, chat room to it. (1:32:17) Micah: Like, like a- like a- it’s just- you just fish with people. And you can just fish with your friends, (1:32:24) Micah: or you can just fish by yourself or you can just… (1:32:27) Micah: fish with random people, but the whole concept is that like you just hang out and it’s… (1:32:34) Micah: I saw a, you know, a video about how this is re-bringing the like chat room game back to life, (1:32:43) Micah: right? Like games like maybe Club Penguin or, you know, the games in that style where it’s like, (1:32:50) Micah: you can play games together and it’s just, you kind of like goof off and there’s not really like (1:32:54) Micah: a whole lot to do but… (1:32:56) Micah: You know, there is if you want to, but it’s also just fun, like it’s just there to be fun. (1:33:02) Micah: It’s not there to have like high stakes or, you know, hyper-specific things that you need to do. (1:33:08) Micah: You can just catch weird fish and there’s a lot of like really good humor in the game. (1:33:15) Micah: And it’s just, it’s very cute too. So like, you know, there have been a lot of instances where, (1:33:21) Micah: you know, people will join with, because you can, you can use a microphone or not. (1:33:26) Micah: You can just, you know, use text chat. You can disable mics entirely if you choose to. (1:33:32) Micah: You can just, you know, kind of exist on your own if you want. (1:33:38) Micah: And it’s, there have been so many instances where it’s like, you know, (1:33:43) Micah: somebody kind of just waddles up to you and is like, do you need help doing this thing that (1:33:47) Micah: you’re trying to do? Or do you need help figuring out how to do this thing? Are you new here? (1:33:52) Micah: whatever, and then they just kind of bop around the little little forest together. (1:33:56) Micah: And they show you how to do things, or they’ll give you stuff, or you know, you like make friends (1:34:01) Micah: just kind of sitting on the dock fishing. And it’s just such a weird, unique game. And it, (1:34:08) Micah: I think, gained a lot of popularity quickly because of that, because it’s such a like, (1:34:14) Micah: different style of this kind of, you know, cozy, but like connected kind of game. (1:34:22) Micah: And I think it’s, I think it’s doing some really cool and interesting. (1:34:26) Micah: Things and I am excited to see what comes of it because I know that because of the popularity that it garnered that there it’s going to inspire some, you know, new games similar to this and I’m excited to see what happens with it but yeah webfishing is great. (1:34:44) Micah: It’s very fun and very weird. (1:34:46) Al: So you might, you might be a bit surprised by this. It’s not on my list. I’m not going to say that, (1:34:51) Micah: Shocking. (1:34:51) Al: but, but two other co-hosts have nominated web fishing. So both Kelly, who has been on (1:34:56) Micah: » Okay, all right, now we’re talking. (1:35:03) Al: several episodes this year, and Dalen, who I don’t think has been in an episode this year, (1:35:07) Al: but was on an episode last year. Both of them nominated web fishing for their, their farming, (1:35:12) Al: they are Cottagecore Game of the Year. So you’re not the only one. It’s not on my list. (1:35:17) Al: And I’m guessing it’s not on Cody’s because I haven’t heard Cody talk about it. (1:35:20) Codey: Well, yeah, yeah, no, it’s not (1:35:23) Al: But, I mean, you know, based on our current voting, it is in second place just now, (1:35:29) Al: which is probably not what you were expecting coming into this, Mike. (1:35:32) Micah: It is not what I was expecting, but it’s good, it’s a good game. (1:35:35) Codey: That’s so that’s what’s so that’s what’s so fun about this like I you know with Rusty’s retirement as my number one (1:35:41) Codey: I was like, okay, I’m gonna be coming out here being like I like the little the little bottom of the screen game like (1:35:49) Codey: and like (1:35:51) Codey: Before I had the chance to say all the cool all the wonderful things like y’all said it and I was like, oh wow (1:35:55) Codey: Like I’m not I’m not a lone wolf in my appreciation for this game (1:36:00) Codey: So yeah, that’s cool that other people have heard of and played with fishing (1:36:04) Micah: Yeah, it’s it’s it’s fun (1:36:05) Codey: uh (1:36:06) Codey: Yeah, my number two because I already said my number one is honey growth, which is another (1:36:16) Codey: mobile game and it’s this game where you’re a little a little bee a couple of bees actually or you you use resources to (1:36:25) Codey: How you collect resources by using these bees that have different tasks (1:36:29) Codey: And you have a little garden that you bet that you plant that has food products, but also (1:36:35) Codey: just flowers and you collect resources from the flowers and you harvest the food and you can cook and you can (1:36:42) Codey: Craft and it’s just such a cute little game and you can really put as much or as little time as you want into it (1:36:50) Codey: Um, there is there are no ads, which is amazing. Um (1:36:56) Codey: honestly (1:36:57) Codey: and (1:36:59) Codey: Yeah, I just I really love this game. Um, i’ve been playing it quite a bit (1:37:05) Codey: and I think it’s one of the only games that i’ve played for the podcast that i’m not just gonna (1:37:11) Codey: Uninstall the moment like the podcast is over like the podcast the recording is over. So (1:37:18) Codey: um, yeah, that’s my my number two and I think that’s kind of my wild card because um (1:37:25) Codey: We haven’t talked about it a lot. So (1:37:26) Al: » We all got to have a wildcard. (1:37:29) Micah: it looks really cute. I’ve not heard of this, but I do like the, uh, (1:37:34) Micah: what I see of it and what you described of it. (1:37:37) Micah: Sounds like something that I would like, but (1:37:40) Al: It’s not on my list. I have been playing it because I don’t need to keep the secret because (1:37:40) Micah: and no ads as a, you know, (1:37:48) Al: it’s already out by the time this episode comes out because I normally like to be really secretive (1:37:49) Codey: I know. (1:37:51) Codey: We’re covering it. (1:37:54) Al: about the episodes that are coming out because I don’t want to promise anything but it’s already (1:37:58) Al: happened. We have done an episode, the last episode was on Honeygrove and well I don’t want (1:38:00) Codey: by the time this is released. (1:38:07) Al: want to spoil anything for Cody, because we’re recording that in two days. (1:38:08) Codey: Yeah. (1:38:10) Al: It’s not on my list, and we’ll talk about that maybe why on Sunday. (1:38:14) Codey: That’s fine. (1:38:18) Al: No, I think it’s fun and I love how it looks, and I think it is (1:38:22) Al: a good game. I suspect a lot of it is just, it’s not for me, which is just what happens. (1:38:30) Al: But yeah, I mean, in terms of mobile games, it is better than most mobile games we have covered (1:38:38) Al: on the podcast. (1:38:40) Al: Agreed. My final one is one I’m a little bit disappointed hasn’t been mentioned (1:38:40) Codey: - Correct, though the bar is on the ground, so. (1:38:50) Codey: Here’s every five seconds. Here’s some ads. Yikes. But yeah, this game does not have any, (1:39:01) Codey: which is lovely. Al, what’s yours? Your game of the year. (1:39:10) Al: anyone before, but it’s okay because other hosts have also nominated it. And that is (1:39:14) Al: Mika and the Witches Mountain. This is absolutely like, this is, I think my favorite game of (1:39:19) Al: the year full stop. We talk about my non farming game game of the year in the greenhouse episode, (1:39:26) Al: but I think this beats it as well. It is such there’s something about chibi games and the (1:39:32) Al: games that they do, right? Like Summer in Mara was the first game that I played of theirs. (1:39:37) Al: It was just so fun. (1:39:40) Al: It’s like there are bad things that happen, but they’re all just like things for you (1:39:48) Al: to overcome. (1:39:49) Al: They’re never like actual bad things, right? (1:39:52) Al: Like in Summer in Mara, you get kidnapped by pirates, but that’s just fine, right? (1:39:57) Al: Like, cause you then convince the pirates to help you, right? (1:40:01) Al: And then in this, it’s like our plane crashes and bursts into flames. (1:40:06) Al: That’s fine because, you know, the person who was flying it got it. (1:40:10) Al: In their parachute. (1:40:13) Al: And you can just go and find all the things that it dropped and go deliver them, right? (1:40:17) Al: Like the bad things happen, but that’s okay. (1:40:20) Al: We can get over it. (1:40:20) Al: And I love that because I’m never that. (1:40:24) Al: That’s not me. (1:40:24) Al: I’m not that kind of positive, but I love the idea of being that. (1:40:29) Al: And the, particularly with Miikka, the movement is just so fun. (1:40:36) Al: They do movement so well in their games, right? (1:40:40) Al: Summer in Mara, the boat riding was just perfect. (1:40:44) Al: Like it was so good. (1:40:46) Al: And with Miikka, the flying is just so fun. (1:40:50) Al: Like I was a little bit unsure of how it worked to start with, (1:40:55) Al: because it didn’t work exactly how I expected it to the flying. (1:41:00) Al: But after like an hour or so of playing, I was totally in. (1:41:04) Al: And this idea of being able to fly around in a broom and deliver packages to people. (1:41:10) Al: It was just a little fun story to go along with it. (1:41:12) Al: It’s everything I wanted from that. (1:41:14) Al: And I didn’t know I wanted it until they announced it. (1:41:16) Al: And then I was like, that’s exactly what I want. (1:41:18) Al: And they released it. (1:41:19) Al: And I was like, yep, this was exactly what I wanted. (1:41:21) Al: And very rarely do you have that with a game where they announce it and you go, (1:41:26) Al: I need that. (1:41:27) Al: And then they release it and you go, (1:41:28) Al: that was exactly what I expected and exactly what I wanted from it. (1:41:31) Al: That is such a rare thing to happen. (1:41:33) Micah: Mm-hmm now have you yet played Wind Waker? Okay (1:41:33) Al: I love it so much. (1:41:40) Al: I am waiting. (1:41:40) Al: I’m waiting for the switchboard. (1:41:46) Micah: Hey, you might be waiting a little longer (1:41:49) Al: Look, it’s coming. (1:41:50) Al: It’s going to come eventually next year. (1:41:50) Codey: That’s a long time waitin’, waitin’, it’s a long time waitin’ for a ship don’t come. (1:41:52) Al: Next year is coming. (1:41:55) Micah: Yeah, we’ll see (1:41:57) Al: I’m so surprised. (1:41:58) Al: I’m so surprised it didn’t come when they decided to delay the new console again. (1:42:02) Al: It’s like, how are you still not releasing this game? (1:42:02) Micah: Yeah (1:42:03) Micah: Really weird circumstance too because that was one of the times that we got like a leaked (1:42:05) Al: Would you release it already? (1:42:10) Micah: Like store listing for it, you know, like a like a reputable like target (1:42:14) Micah: I think released the store listing for it like leaked the store listing, but it still never came out (1:42:18) Micah: So clearly it has existed to some degree (1:42:21) Al: Well, and the, well, and the rumours are that it has been finished completely for three years now. (1:42:27) Micah: That’s (1:42:29) Al: And they’re just waiting for the right time to release it. (1:42:30) Micah: Interesting (1:42:33) Al: And I’m like, what is the right time? What are you waiting for? (1:42:33) Micah: Uh (1:42:36) Micah: Yeah (1:42:38) Codey: Corporations are not don’t have any incentives anymore. (1:42:43) Micah: But I ask because obviously for anybody who has played it or listened to the episode that (1:42:48) Micah: The harvest season episode about it. Uh (1:42:51) Micah: It it very much plays like wind waker. Um (1:42:55) Micah: and I did I did (1:42:57) Micah: Play it not enough of it. Not as much as I would have liked to play but I played (1:43:01) Micah: Uh, good amount of… (1:43:03) Micah: Mika and the Witches Mountain, because, again, also a big Chibig fan, and I like the stuff that (1:43:09) Micah: they make. Uh, the kind of, like, premise of this, that, that sort of, um, Studio Ghibliification of (1:43:19) Micah: this, this, you know, style of game is really cute. The, uh, you know, the characters that, (1:43:26) Micah: the people that inhabit the island are very cool, very, like, unique, very cute. (1:43:34) Micah: And the interactions are fun. The movement is great. I was very pleasantly surprised by, uh, (1:43:41) Micah: how well the movement was in this game. Um, how, how, how much they made it work from, you know, (1:43:48) Micah: kind of, like, the, the start of it being that you’re, you have, like, the lowest possible function (1:43:55) Micah: on your, your flying broom, uh, and then kind of goes up from there. But even at the lowest (1:44:01) Micah: possible function it’s still (1:44:03) Micah: like it performs really well. (1:44:06) Micah: So I also really, really liked it. (1:44:09) Micah: I just didn’t include it in my nominations (1:44:14) Micah: because it didn’t feel like, you know, (1:44:17) Micah: I guess, unique enough to me. (1:44:19) Micah: As someone who has played Wind Waker, (1:44:21) Micah: it does feel like it borrows a lot from it. (1:44:23) Micah: Obviously, makes so much of it its own. (1:44:27) Micah: And it’s more kind of just in how it plays (1:44:30) Micah: general aesthetic is, but (1:44:34) Micah: Yeah, it’s it’s it’s still really good. I like it a lot (1:44:37) Al: I think the other thing that it does really well is the thing that all GB games do well, (1:44:42) Al: which is their characters. The stories aren’t huge and overarching, but I always feel like I (1:44:48) Al: care about the characters. And obviously it has a storyline about taking down a capitalist, (1:44:54) Al: which I’m always fun with. Collective action. Sorry, Micah, spoilers. (1:44:55) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (1:44:58) Micah: Now you’re speaking my language. (1:45:05) Al: Yeah. And yeah. (1:45:07) Al: Right. It definitely does borrow a lot from what I’ve seen from Wind Waker. If I understand (1:45:14) Al: correctly, so did Summer and Mara. But the… Yeah, exactly, exactly. But yeah, what I love (1:45:17) Micah: Yeah, yeah, primarily the boat, I think the sailing aspect of it, so. (1:45:25) Al: about this is, yeah, how they make it their own. And the characters are a huge part of that. And (1:45:30) Al: yeah, there’s some crossover from previous ones, but it’s not a huge… It’s maybe like three (1:45:35) Al: characters crossover between the game. (1:45:37) Al: And so they still have loads of characters that are new, and I still really care about them. (1:45:44) Al: And yeah, you’re right, the upgrading of Brooms was done really well. (1:45:49) Al: And it could have ended up really badly. (1:45:51) Al: It could have just not been fun. (1:45:53) Al: But the way that you upgrade felt really rewarding for playing the game. (1:46:00) Al: And was a great way of expanding more of the island without having like unnecessary. (1:46:07) Al: There’s no gates in your way, like you can get around the whole island, there’s just like high up places you can’t get to until you get a better broom, which works really well. (1:46:18) Al: And yeah, I enjoyed the story. (1:46:21) Codey: Another game that does that really well is, you know, a little kitty big city. (1:46:21) Al: So I’ve already added to my wish list. (1:46:22) Micah: Very cool. (1:46:27) Al: Come on. (1:46:28) Al: You don’t have to convince me. (1:46:30) Codey: Yep, cool. (1:46:31) Al: I guess at this point, I should probably point out that multiple people had Mika from the other co-hosts as well. (1:46:37) Al: So Johnny had it as one of his top three. (1:46:39) Al: Obviously, he wasn’t arguing for it to win overall. (1:46:42) Al: But I’m counting anybody that’s put the games in their top three. (1:46:48) Al: So that’s Johnny and Kevin. (1:46:51) Al: And where was the other one? (1:46:54) Al: Was it just two? (1:46:55) Al: Just Johnny and Kevin put Mika. (1:46:59) Al: So I think I’m looking through the other hosts options. (1:47:04) Al: Other than that, so we’ve got Rusty’s retirement has. (1:47:07) Al: I’m ignoring Spencer’s vote for Rusty’s retirement because he says Rusty’s retirement (1:47:13) Al: because you told me so, which is not quite true. (1:47:17) Al: That’s not what I said to him. (1:47:20) Al: Spencer actually voted for Animal Crossing Pocket Camp complete, which sure, fine. (1:47:26) Micah: I’ve got feelings about that, but you know, we’ve already been at this for quite a while, (1:47:29) Al: We also have, we’ve also, yeah. (1:47:30) Codey: Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. (1:47:33) Micah: so I won’t go on that tangent. (1:47:37) Al: Also got Luma Island, one vote for Luma Island, one vote for Pixel Cross Story of Seasons, (1:47:43) Al: one vote for Amber Isle, one vote for Gerdlets, two votes for Luma Island, sorry, Daelin voted (1:47:49) Codey: Yeah, two votes for Lim Island. (1:47:51) Al: for Luma Island as well, one vote for Echoes of the Plum Grove, one for Botany Manor, and (1:47:57) Al: interestingly one for Infinity Nikki. (1:48:00) Micah: - Okay. (1:48:01) Micah: Okay. (1:48:04) Al: So I’m gonna read out what Dylan says about Infinity Nikki because yeah I saw (1:48:07) Al: that and went okay interesting. So the whole thing that Dylan said was I’m a (1:48:14) Al: big fan of completed tasks so I think it’s gonna be Luma Island for me. That (1:48:18) Al: being said I would give thought to Infinity Nikki because I think it’s (1:48:21) Al: Cottage Core E and it’s gonna be a big deal but it’s also a gacha game so (1:48:26) Al: that’s a big demerit. I think it’s pretty accessible though and because it’s a (1:48:29) Al: 3D game I think it can maybe pull people into that style of playing who are not (1:48:33) Al: is familiar. Infinity Nikki came out. (1:48:37) Al: This week, didn’t it? (1:48:39) Micah: It came out very recently and it I haven’t seen a lot about it besides some like trailers and some ads for it. (1:48:42) Al: 5th of December, last week. (1:48:47) Al: Oh, my word, every second ad on TikTok for me is Infinity Nikki. (1:48:51) Al: Every second ad… (1:48:51) Micah: Yeah, and. (1:48:53) Micah: It’s interesting because the the way that it’s being advertised or the way that it initially was advertised, I don’t know, gave me the feeling of like a kind of. (1:49:09) Micah: » What’s a like PG way to say this? (1:49:11) Al: Cosplay. (1:49:12) Micah: Sure, yeah, like a cosplay heavy gotcha game with like anime girls in it, right? (1:49:20) Micah: But the more that I, so that was my initial reaction to it was like, okay, (1:49:24) Micah: all right, I don’t really, this isn’t really for me. (1:49:26) Micah: But the more that I’ve seen about it and heard about it, people are just describing it as (1:49:31) Micah: that like, as basically that, that it’s like a kind of like a cozy open world game. (1:49:39) Micah: Which is interesting because that’s not the impression that I got from a lot of (1:49:43) Micah: the trailers or ads, so I would be interested to try it. (1:49:47) Micah: I just didn’t get that impression, which is very strange to me, but. (1:49:48) Al: Yeah. So I’m going to read the gameplay description on Wikipedia. Infinity Nicki features stylist (1:49:59) Al: duels where players select outfits based on attributes such as sweet, fresh, elegant, (1:50:08) Al: sexy and cool to compete against opponents. Specific attire enables gliding or shrinking (1:50:16) Al: to x-axis otherwise unreachable. (1:50:18) Al: What is this game? (1:50:34) Micah: Yeah, it’s so like baffling to me, and I think I’m that alone. I’m like interested to try it and you know, like obviously I’m not opposed to like sex positivity or anything like that. I think it’s just a lot of these games that are like, gotcha. (1:50:52) Micah: Anime girl heavy tend to feel a lot more like exploitative than they do. Like, you know, sex positive so I guess. (1:50:58) Al: Yeah, they quite often, they quite often skew younger, which can feel a little not (1:51:04) Micah: Right. (1:51:07) Al: great, shall we say. (1:51:08) Micah: Yep, yep. So if this really tones down the, you know, the like, horniness of it, then I think maybe that is, like, I’m more inclined to try it but, yeah, I don’t know. (1:51:26) Micah: It’s just very strange that it’s, it gives the impression of one thing but apparently is (1:51:34) Micah: very much different. So. (1:51:36) Al: Yeah, is it? Yeah, I mean, it’s an open world adventure game where you you can explore (1:51:45) Al: based on powers that you get from competing in dress up competitions. Weird. (1:51:50) Micah: which like that sounds cool you know like I absolutely loved like fashion dreamer and uh (1:51:59) Micah: you know what was the the ds one style savvy so if there’s like some aspect of that that’s (1:52:06) Micah: like a you know like a fashion kind of like and a lot of the outfits that i’ve seen for it look (1:52:12) Micah: cool you know like that they’re very like kind of cute stylish outfits and stuff um so (1:52:20) Micah: maybe fun if that’s an element to it I just you know i’m i’m just maybe jaded by the like (1:52:28) Micah: exploitative nature of what games like that this feels like have been like in the past so (1:52:35) Micah: we’ll see I guess I don’t know clearly it wasn’t on anyone else’s list so (1:52:39) Micah: So… (laughs) (1:52:41) Al: Yeah, it’s obviously not winning. But it has, well, this is one of the things I like about (1:52:45) Al: this episode is it always gives us something new to think about. Like, it’s normally Mika bringing (1:52:53) Al: that. But I feel like we’d already, we’d already talked about it in previous episodes, not fully (1:53:00) Al: covering it, but at least talking about it. We knew about it. He didn’t bring us something we hadn’t (1:53:04) Al: heard of this year, Mika. But (1:53:08) Micah: - I’m happy that that’s the case (1:53:11) Micah: ‘cause otherwise I’d probably extend the runtime (1:53:15) Micah: even longer, I’m sure, so. (1:53:16) Al: So yeah, I guess thank you Daelynn for bringing up Infinity Nicky and maybe we’ll look into (1:53:24) Al: it. But yeah, it’s a bizarre game. (1:53:28) Micah: Mm-hmm. That’s odd, I think pretty much everything, like it’s on mobile and stuff too, right? (1:53:34) Al: Yeah. It was the Gacha game. Of course it’s going to be on mobile. That’s where people spend the (1:53:34) Micah: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Of course, yeah. (1:53:37) Al: money on Gacha games, right? I know that Dalen loves Gacha games. They are all over the Gacha games. (1:53:44) Micah: And you know, what is Pokemon Pocket if not a gacha game in the form of cards, so… (1:53:49) Al: Well, sure. Sure. Fine. If you’re going to, if you’re going to go there, then yes. (1:53:57) Al: I was going to say, but I’m not suggesting it’s game of the year, but I literally do that in the (1:54:00) Al: Karina’s episode. (1:54:04) Al: Moving on! So I think we’re down to three finalists, if I’m counting correctly, (1:54:11) Al: and that is Mika and the Witches Mountain having three votes, (1:54:14) Al: WebFishing also having three votes, and Rusty’s Retirement having four votes. (1:54:19) Codey: Woooo! (1:54:20) Micah: Like, you know what that means. (1:54:22) Al: So, I mean, so I don’t, I’m just going to say this, I don’t think we have a clear 100% (1:54:30) Al: Rusty’s retirement definitely wins this because as one more. (1:54:34) Al: I think we need to at least discuss this. (1:54:37) Al: Although I did before this episode, I did predict that Rusty’s retirement would win. (1:54:42) Codey: - Wow, well, ‘cause you had to see everyone’s things. (1:54:42) Al: Uh, but I didn’t look at your twos. (1:54:48) Al: I only looked at the other host opinions. (1:54:48) Codey: But you saw everyone else’s, yeah. (1:54:50) Al: Yeah, I did. (1:54:51) Al: Um, but you two, like that was only two before you two started giving your suggestions. (1:54:58) Al: Um, I think, I mean, I would still argue that I think Mika should win personally. (1:55:04) Al: Um, I’m not really sure what else I’m going to say other than what I said before. (1:55:08) Al: Right. (1:55:08) Al: I think it is a fantastically fun game. (1:55:11) Al: I think it gives everything that it expected to. (1:55:13) Al: And, um, I mean, I’m always going to, well, I was going to say I’m always going to (1:55:16) Al: love chibi games, but that’s not true. (1:55:18) Al: Cause I didn’t like the puzzle one they did. (1:55:21) Al: Was it last two years ago? (1:55:22) Al: Can I remember what it was called? (1:55:22) Micah: It ain’t Cora was I get I’ve lost track of (1:55:24) Al: Yeah. (1:55:25) Al: And Kora lost days. (1:55:26) Al: Yeah. (1:55:27) Al: Yeah. (1:55:27) Al: That one, um, didn’t like that one. (1:55:30) Al: Uh, but I’ve liked every other one. (1:55:32) Al: in the games. (1:55:34) Micah: Yeah, and I’ve been a big fan of it. Sorry, go ahead. (1:55:34) Codey: Oh, I was just gonna say, I mean, I didn’t play either of these other two games. (1:55:41) Codey: I think that web fishing is a game that wouldn’t appeal to like all cottagecore fans. (1:55:48) Codey: I think it’s kind of a niche thing. (1:55:51) Codey: So for me, it would be between either Rusty’s retirement or Mika, but I think that because (1:55:55) Codey: Rusty’s retirement has that innovative quality, I think it is still my top pick. (1:56:04) Codey: But I can understand that Mika is like a phenomenal game, but it’s not a tiny little robot retiring (1:56:08) Micah: I. It’s just the cutest way possible. (1:56:12) Codey: and making a garden at the bottom of my screen. (1:56:17) Codey: He’s living his dreams. (1:56:20) Micah: I’m so proud of him. (1:56:23) Micah: I do think that I’m surprised that we’re fishing at three votes. (1:56:27) Micah: I’ll say that I came into this fully expecting that it was going to be kind of (1:56:31) Micah: like a maybe not because I had seen that it had gotten some some level of like (1:56:36) Micah: recognition, uh, but (1:56:38) Micah: I, I guess I wasn’t expecting it to be in the top three, I guess. Um, so I am okay (1:56:45) Micah: with striking that from the list. I think that you’re right, Cody, in that it is maybe (1:56:52) Micah: a little bit more niche. I, as someone who is not typically a fan of multiplayer games (1:56:57) Micah: myself, uh, you know, I was a little bit apprehensive playing it, but once I got over that, the (1:57:04) Micah: experiences that have had in it have been so like fun and goofy. (1:57:08) Micah: And impossible to replicate in A, other sessions and B, any other game. (1:57:19) Micah: But it does require kind of like getting over that hump of stepping into online socialization (1:57:27) Micah: where maybe some people are just averse to that. And I totally understand that as someone who (1:57:32) Micah: a lot of times feels that way too. So I think that that is maybe a good enough case (1:57:39) Micah: to maybe remove it from contention, in addition to the fact that neither of you had it on your list. (1:57:46) Al: Yeah, I’ve already scored it off (1:57:46) Micah: But I appreciate that it got where it did. So yeah. (1:57:49) Al: Top three is impressive, you know, a lot of games were mentioned a lot of games released (1:57:55) Al: I haven’t I yeah, I haven’t played it. I keep (1:58:00) Al: thinking about it because I’m intrigued by it and like you say I like (1:58:05) Al: the way it’s kind of like (1:58:07) Al: Bringing chat rooms back right like that’s such a weird thing to do (1:58:12) Al: Which I feel like is a theme this year is that’s (1:58:16) Al: a weird thing to do with games, but I like it. So that’s 2024 in a nutshell. Why are (1:58:19) Micah: Yeah, yep. (1:58:26) Al: you doing that? Please do it more. I’m happy with it being in the top three. It would feel (1:58:38) Al: weird to make webfishing the cartridge core game of the year. (1:58:42) Micah: Yeah, I agree. I do agree. That being said. (1:58:46) Al: Purely from the fact that I don’t think we should have a game where you could have slurs (1:58:52) Al: shouted at you as cartridge core game of the year. (1:58:53) Micah: Sure, or like yes someone just ruin it for you (1:58:56) Codey: Yeah, I think that’s, that’s another part of it. Like, it just makes me think of being on those types of chat rooms and how you can be having a totally cozy conversation and then people could come in and just like spoil a book or spoil a TV show or say. (1:59:10) Al: I love how that’s your thinking, spoil the book, and I’m thinking shout the N word! (1:59:10) Micah: Yeah (1:59:15) Micah: Which you know, I’m sure (1:59:18) Micah: Thankfully in my experiences with it. I have not (1:59:22) Al: Oh, yeah, I’m not saying it definitely happens. (1:59:22) Micah: encountered that I (1:59:24) Micah: Haven’t encountered any but I’m sure there is you know (1:59:25) Al: I’m just saying that the stress of that would make it not cottage core for me. (1:59:28) Micah: Yes, and that’s why (1:59:29) Al: You know, it’s not calm and yeah. (1:59:32) Micah: That’s why I say, you know, I know that some people are reversed do that like, you know (1:59:36) Micah: Social interaction online social interaction in that way because (1:59:40) Al: Or you didn’t have to put online just any social interaction (1:59:40) Micah: there is that possibility. Yeah, or just, you know, at this (1:59:44) Micah: point, just any social interaction, unfortunately. But (1:59:47) Micah: I think that if that is a concern for you, and it is a (1:59:51) Micah: game that you’re interested in, I would say, you know, try to, (1:59:56) Micah: try to experience it with because you can have private (1:59:58) Micah: games too, right? Like you can just play with just your friends. (2:00:01) Micah: So, you know, try experiencing with just your friends, maybe (2:00:04) Micah: instead of like getting in a discord group chat or something, (2:00:07) Micah: you get in a web fishing group chat and you all just fish and (2:00:09) Micah: Talk about your day or something. (2:00:10) Micah: You know, but yeah, there is, you know, I don’t know what the filtering is like. (2:00:16) Micah: I should have looked into that more, but I’m not sure what the filtering is like (2:00:19) Micah: and things like that, as far as the moderation goes for the game. (2:00:22) Micah: I’ve heard that there is some like fairly decent levels of moderation with it, (2:00:26) Micah: but I don’t know for sure. (2:00:29) Micah: And I don’t know from experience if that’s the case or not. (2:00:31) Micah: So. But yeah, that’s web fishing. (2:00:36) Codey: So what are your thoughts, Micah, on Mika versus Rusty? (2:00:40) Micah: I got I have to go with Rusty’s retirement, I think, for my number one. (2:00:45) Codey: YEAH! (2:00:47) Micah: It’s just and I think because, you know, I came into this saying that like my (2:00:53) Micah: my criteria, personal criteria for this was (2:00:57) Micah: games that have made a difference or like change the genre in some way (2:01:01) Micah: or done something new and Rusty’s retirement clearly has done (2:01:05) Micah: that has already started to define its own sub genre. (2:01:09) Micah: and… (2:01:10) Micah: As much as I love Mika and as much as I love chibi games, which I do, it’s just… (2:01:19) Micah: It’s not that it’s, you know, more of the same. It just doesn’t feel like it is as, like, unique or groundbreaking as Rusty’s retirement is. (2:01:28) Micah: You know, I can’t imagine that there’s gonna be a lot of episodes of this where, you know, you’ll be talking about Mika and the Witches Mountain… (2:01:41) Micah: Clones. But I can see it in a situation where you’re talking a lot about Rusty’s retirement clones. (2:01:48) Micah: And I think that in its own right is a pretty big plus for it. That’s my personal thought. Sorry, Al. I know that that’s not what you want to say. (2:01:53) Codey: Yeah, all right. (2:01:56) Al: No, I don’t apologize. Look, I mean, I’m not going to be unhappy about Rusty’s retirement (2:02:03) Al: winning, right? Like it’s not my game of the year, but I totally understand why it is Cody’s (2:02:11) Al: game of the year and not Johnny’s game of the year, but Johnny’s opinion on what should (2:02:15) Al: be game of the year and Micah’s second game of the year. Like I totally understand why (2:02:21) Al: people love this game. It is not for me, but if I were only to (2:02:26) Al: let things win that were for me, it wouldn’t be the harvest season game of the year. It (2:02:30) Al: would be my game of the year, which nobody wants that let’s be honest, right? So I’m (2:02:39) Al: okay with it. You know, Micah will always be my game of 2024, but I get Rusty’s retirement (2:02:47) Al: and I do agree completely with what Johnny is saying about Rusty being that genre. (2:02:56) Al: It hasn’t even taken that long because of how simple a concept is and how a small game (2:03:06) Al: like that can be built reasonably quickly leading to so many other games. I’m not going (2:03:13) Al: to say copycats because I hate the term because it’s such a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, that’s (2:03:15) Micah: » Right. (2:03:16) Codey: clones. (2:03:18) Al: even worse. It’s a term that’s just filled with such a ignorance of how art happens. (2:03:26) Micah: Mm-hmm. It really removes the element of inspiration from it, I think, which is really important. (2:03:26) Al: That just makes me hate it so much. Exactly. Exactly. And like the idea that if you were (2:03:37) Al: to create something completely unique, like, come on, everything’s based on something. (2:03:41) Al: It’s such a stupid idea. And yeah, it’s so ignorant to call it a clone or whatever. So, (2:03:49) Al: we’ll call them rusty lakes, right? You know, the. (2:03:52) Micah: which is very funny because there is an entire genre of games called Rust-Likes (2:03:54) Codey: - I love that. (2:03:56) Al: Amazing. And I love the idea that, you know, a single developer can release this crazy (2:03:59) Micah: which are games that are very similar to the game Rust so (2:04:02) Codey: - There you go. (2:04:10) Al: idea they have, and then suddenly it’s a whole new genre and people are doing it. And like, (2:04:14) Al: to an extent that happened with Stardew, but that was still very much based on Harvest (2:04:20) Al: Moon. And yes, this was clearly based on Stardew and other things, but it’s, it’s different (2:04:26) Al: that it feels completely new, if that makes sense. And I love that idea. (2:04:28) Micah: Yeah. And it’s not, it’s not even the first time that there has been something like this (2:04:36) Micah: kind of like background PC existing on your desktop kind of thing, that it is just the (2:04:42) Micah: most fleshed out version of it and the most like, you know, modern version of it. You (2:04:48) Micah: know, I, I very distinctly remember, you know, back in like Windows 98 days or whatever, (2:04:56) Micah: I’m just, you know, aging myself. (2:04:58) Micah: But like old PC, you know, when there wasn’t a whole lot that you had to work with, there (2:05:05) Micah: were little like widgets and stuff that you can install, even like on older Macs, too. (2:05:10) Micah: They had, you know, widgets that would be like a little thing. (2:05:13) Micah: Maybe it’s like a little Tamagotchi or something that exists. (2:05:16) Micah: So this is just a so like a like a much more involved version of it and a much more developed (2:05:23) Micah: and polished version of it that has opened up people’s eyes to like. (2:05:29) Micah: Oh yeah, this is something that people really like or just like there’s something, I don’t (2:05:34) Micah: know innate about like having something running, especially in this day and age where, you (2:05:40) Micah: know, you need that constant input of stimulation. (2:05:44) Micah: So you’ve got, you know, your work on the top screen and underneath it, you’ve got Rusty’s (2:05:48) Al: Yeah. And I think it’s, it’s also been successful, right? Like if you look on Steam, it has 10,000 (2:05:50) Micah: retirement going. (2:06:01) Al: reviews, which I have no idea how many people leave a review, but it’s, it’s a fraction (2:06:07) Al: of the people that play a game, right? Have either of you ever left a review on Steam? (2:06:09) Micah: Oh yeah for sure, I think maybe like once or twice, very very rare. (2:06:14) Codey: Yeah, it’s yeah, maybe. (2:06:17) Al: exactly, right? It’s just not a thing that people do. And to give you a concept, Disney Dreamlight (2:06:22) Al: Valley, right, an incredibly popular game, has 17,000. Not even double Rusty’s retirement in terms (2:06:27) Micah: Yeah. Yeah. Right. (2:06:31) Al: of review. Now that doesn’t give us an idea on how many sales either of them have. But that is (2:06:38) Al: overwhelmingly positive 10,000 reviews. Like it’s got a SteamDB rating of 94%. Like Disney Dreamlight (2:06:46) Al: And my valley has 89% (2:06:47) Al: So, like people love this game (2:06:48) Micah: Yeah. It’s also time too, you know, like how long has Rusty’s retirement been out versus (2:06:50) Al: Yeah, well, in fact, in fact, looking at the steam dv stats, it looks like Rusty’s (2:06:54) Micah: how long, you know, something like Disney’s. So the fact that it acquired or accrued that (2:07:00) Micah: many positive reviews in that timeframe is wild. (2:07:07) Al: retirement currently has more people playing it than Disney Dreamland Valley does. (2:07:10) Micah: Well, yeah, you know, you can kind of just like let it run in the background. (2:07:16) Micah: But yes, I completely understand. (2:07:19) Codey: - Mm-hmm, cool. (2:07:21) Micah: It’s great. (2:07:22) Micah: I love it. (2:07:23) Micah: I just I’m a big fan of Rusty and everything that he’s done for us in his previous life (2:07:28) Micah: as a robot. (2:07:29) Micah: He earned his retirement. (2:07:31) Codey: Yep. I look forward to my rusty days. (2:07:36) Micah: I have moved to that to kind of speak to what you said, Al. (2:07:39) Micah: I’ve moved to that. (2:07:40) Micah: You know, instead of going into focus mode, there are now just times where I’ll just boot it up and just play it and then close it when I’m done playing it rather than like, let it run in the background, not all the time, but sometimes I’m just like, I just want to focus on playing rusty right now. (2:07:55) Al: I would love to see how it works on a Steam deck. (2:08:00) Micah: That’s a great question. I would love to too, actually. (2:08:05) Al: Yeah, I’ve got no more other thoughts other than that. (2:08:08) Al: Just like, how is it? (2:08:11) Al: That’s all. (2:08:13) Al: Let me see if it’s got a rating. (2:08:13) Micah: - Yep. (2:08:15) Al: It has playable on the compatibility. (2:08:19) Micah: - Oh, no way. (2:08:19) Al: So entering some text requires manually invoking the on-stream keyboard. (2:08:24) Al: that’s a pretty standard one. (2:08:26) Al: All functionality is accessible when using the default controller configuration (2:08:32) Al: and the default graphic configuration performs well on Steam Deck. (2:08:36) Al: So, looks very playable. (2:08:36) Micah: Interesting. Okay. Cool. Yeah. (2:08:39) Al: Obviously removes kind of half of the point of it. (2:08:44) Codey: I want them to port it in a way where if I’m playing with my steam deck, I can dock my steam deck and watch a movie and have Rusty in the bottom. (2:08:53) Micah: Oh, that’s a great idea. (2:08:56) Al: I mean, you could do that, right? There’s nothing stopping you doing that because (2:08:58) Codey: I don’t know. (2:09:00) Al: if you dock your Steam Deck, you can then just open the Windows mode or the desktop mode and then (2:09:07) Al: open up whatever you want to stream and just have it playing there. Pretty sure that would be easily (2:09:13) Micah: - Yeah, I just don’t know if it’s like, (2:09:15) Micah: you would have to do it as like a screen extension (2:09:18) Micah: rather than like mirroring when you dock it, you know? (2:09:21) Al: No, I don’t think you… Oh, do you mean have Rusty on the deck and with the streaming on the screen? (2:09:26) Micah: Yes, I think that’s what you were saying, Nightcody. (2:09:31) Micah: Like having Rusty on the deck while it’s docked (2:09:31) Codey: Why me? Oh, no, I meant like you’re watching, like I’m watching Lord of the (2:09:33) Micah: and then doing something else on your actual like… (2:09:38) Codey: Rings and while, uh, the writers of Rohan are, are riding into Minas Tirith, like (2:09:45) Codey: Rusty’s on the bottom, like farming of my TV screen. (2:09:50) Al: Right, okay. Yeah, no, I think yeah. Yeah, that’s why I thought you meant. I’m pretty sure that would be that would be possible from (2:09:50) Micah: Oh, I see, I see. Yeah, that’d be great. (2:09:55) Micah: Yeah, that may actually be possible through the, like, Windows mode, yeah? (2:09:55) Codey: That’s what I want in life. (2:09:59) Micah: That’s funny. Or it’s Linux mode, I guess, you know, but… (2:10:02) Al: Yeah, it’s it’s it’s called desktop mode, but yeah, I accidentally said Windows initially I don’t know why don’t know why. (2:10:05) Micah: Mm-hmm (2:10:08) Codey: Well, like, window, because it’s a window. (2:10:11) Al: That’s probably why I thought about it. Yeah, but then I realized that that was a silly thing to say. So change what will change what I was saying. (2:10:13) Codey: Yeah. (2:10:17) Codey: Cool. (2:10:18) Codey: Yay, Rusty’s retirement. (2:10:19) Micah: Yay! (2:10:22) Al: Congratulations to Rusty’s retirement for winning. (2:10:25) Al: You are in a unique group of six games that have won this award. (2:10:32) Al: I think the reason why Rusty’s retirement winning is that I suspect that Rusty’s winner with Rusty’s developer will respond to this because the big ones never do. (2:10:42) Codey: Hmm. That’d be fun. (2:10:45) Al: So, yeah, we shall see. (2:10:47) Micah: - That’ll be cool. (2:10:48) Al: All right, well I think that’s everything for this episode. (2:10:52) Al: Where can people find you on the Internet? (2:10:54) Micah: Uh, mostly, I think blue sky at this point it’s been, you know, as everybody has kind (2:11:02) Micah: of like had the mass exodus from Twitter, I think it’s, that’s kind of where I’ve landed, (2:11:07) Micah: uh, which is at Mike, the brave.be sky social, always a mouthful. Um, but I’m pretty much (2:11:13) Al: I love how they’ve done this, we’re federated but we’re not really federated because it (2:11:15) Micah: just, yeah, I’m just, yeah. (2:11:21) Al: doesn’t really work, but we still have the negative of federation that you have to have (2:11:24) Micah: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but I am at Mike and the brave pretty much anywhere you can find (2:11:25) Al: your domain, even though everyone’s domain is the same just now. (2:11:36) Micah: me. I’ve been doing a little bit of twitches. I’ve been, you know, shiny hunting, but you (2:11:41) Micah: know, a lot cat more casually, I guess. So just wherever you want to find me, I guess (2:11:46) Al: I feel like you’re missing something, Maker, your new podcast. (2:11:47) Micah: I’m there. Where am I missing? Oh yeah. I mean, you know, I don’t (2:11:54) Micah: want to, I don’t want to advertise on my, uh, yeah, I do have a podcast with, uh, one (2:11:58) Codey: No, please, do it! (2:11:58) Al: Why not? (2:11:58) Al: I asked you to, I asked you where people can find you. (2:12:01) Al: No, tell them. (2:12:06) Micah: of my friends and coworkers Kiefer. Uh, we, it’s called the soft reset and it’s a shiny (2:12:13) Micah: hunting podcast. Well, we shiny hunt. So we talk about Pokemon or shiny hunting stuff (2:12:19) Micah: and we shiny hunt while we’re talking about it. So it’s primarily a video podcast, but (2:12:24) Micah: it’s a podcast where you do, uh, it’s very, very casual. It’s not, you know, like it’s (2:12:28) Micah: kind of just a fun thing that we do when we have the time to do it. Um, not super, supers (2:12:36) Micah: here. There’s only two episodes so far. We have the third episode filmed. We just have (2:12:39) Micah: not had the time to finish the editing process for it because it is, uh, including a guest, (2:12:45) Micah: which is, has changed the video format from two people to three people. So, uh, it’s made (2:12:51) Micah: it a little bit harder to figure out but (2:12:54) Micah: yeah it’s a lot of fun you can find it on Spotify primarily right now and yeah (2:13:02) Micah: we’re also on Twitter unfortunately for the time being and blue sky if you just (2:13:09) Micah: search the soft reset pod at BSky social or at the soft reset pod on Twitter (2:13:14) Al: I do love that you say two episodes. You also in the second episode said it was the third episode (2:13:23) Al: because that was that secret first episode that you never released. (2:13:24) Micah: there was technically a first yeah we did a first episode we we did and felt that maybe we should (2:13:26) Codey: A secret third thing? (2:13:34) Micah: try again so uh yeah so maybe someday eventually you know but uh (2:13:36) Codey: It’d be that way. (2:13:41) Al: But you can’t get it out your head, which is why in the second episode, you said it’s (2:13:44) Al: the third episode. And I was like, wait, did I miss an episode? Oh, wait, no, you were (2:13:47) Al: just meaning the episode that you talked about that you never released. Nice and confusing. (2:13:50) Micah: technically a third episode yeah hey no problem that’s what i’m here for (2:13:51) Al: Thank you very much. But I’m enjoying listening to it. It’s good. Um, and I don’t think every (2:13:55) Micah: happy to help (2:14:00) Al: podcast needs to be weekly or, or whatever. Like I think just, you know, do what, do what (2:14:06) Micah: Yeah, yeah, we kind of planned for like biweekly (2:14:10) Micah: is what we were going for. (2:14:12) Micah: And it’s still kind of what we’re shooting for. (2:14:14) Micah: It’s just over the holidays and I work for both of us (2:14:17) Micah: ‘cause we work together has picked up quite a bit. (2:14:19) Micah: So we, you know, haven’t had as much time to get through (2:14:24) Micah: this little bit more of a behemoth of a third episode. (2:14:27) Micah: So after that, probably more back to the biweekly (2:14:32) Micah: but I don’t want to promise anything. (2:14:34) Al: That’s all good. (2:14:34) Micah: It’s casual. We’re having fun, you know? (2:14:36) Micah: That’s all that really matters. (2:14:39) Al: The fun about a podcast that isn’t weekly is like, you just get a new episode. (2:14:45) Al: That’s fun. (2:14:46) Al: I wasn’t expecting that. (2:14:47) Al: There’s only a few podcasts I listened to like that and I wouldn’t want every podcast (2:14:52) Al: like that. (2:14:53) Al: I like most of my podcasts to be regular. (2:14:54) Al: So I know that they’re going to come every day or they’re every, every week or whatever, (2:14:58) Micah: I will preface this with or you know the leave the disclaimer that it is a little bit more (2:14:59) Al: but having a few that just pop up every so often is a fun little surprise. (2:15:11) Micah: crude humor on the soft reset than maybe I’m usually like contributing so just mostly because (2:15:21) Micah: of my co-hosts got pretty crude sense of humor so you know just a lot of butt jokes you know so (2:15:28) Codey: I love, first of all I love the name, that’s an amazing name, and second of all, is that (2:15:28) Micah: that I guess if you’re not (2:15:34) Codey: a Pokemon TCG in your pocket? (2:15:39) Codey: I love that. (2:15:40) Codey: That’s all I’m gonna say. (2:15:42) Codey: Yeah, there you go. (2:15:43) Codey: Ooh, sleepy. (2:15:44) Micah: - Great, then we did it, that’s already success. (2:15:46) Al: Cody, where can people find you on the internet? (2:15:55) Micah: They’re sleeping! (2:15:57) Al: Just get out. (2:15:58) Codey: - I think I’m on, I’m on Blue Sky. (2:15:58) Al: I want to go to bed. (2:15:59) Al: It’s nearly 11. (2:16:04) Codey: So just my name, Cody Mathis. (2:16:06) Codey: I doxx myself all the time. (2:16:08) Codey: My name has an E in it. (2:16:11) Codey: And hiking, oh, I spelled it wrong. (2:16:12) Codey: Hiking beagle, B-E-E goal, like the bees on Instagram. (2:16:18) Al: Could you miss the pun out of your name? That’s shocking. (2:16:20) Codey: - I don’t. (2:16:20) Codey: - Well, ‘cause it didn’t start out as a pun. (2:16:22) Codey: And then I think it was Kevin that was like, (2:16:25) Codey: oh my gosh, like a bee? (2:16:26) Codey: And I was like, I should, yeah. (2:16:28) Codey: I should do that. (2:16:28) Al: You can find me at the Scottbot on primarily Mastodon at Scott, but I’m also on Blue Sky (2:16:29) Codey: Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s where I’m at. (2:16:39) Al: and some other stuff somewhere. I think I’m cross-posting to Mastodon and Blue Sky now, (2:16:49) Al: so you’ll get it on there. I don’t do anything on threads or Twitter anymore. But they exist. (2:16:56) Al: there if you want to follow me, but I don’t do anything. (2:16:58) Al: there. You can find the podcast at THSPod on Tumblr, and also Blue Sky, and maybe some (2:17:09) Al: others soon. We’ll see. You can send us feedback, tell us what your game of the year was, (2:17:16) Codey: And why it was rusty’s retirement (2:17:18) Al: and why you disagree with us. You can find that feedback form on our website, harvestseason.club, (2:17:26) Al: or you can, you know. (2:17:29) Al: Was the blue sky posting? (2:17:32) Al: It’s some stupid name, isn’t it? (2:17:32) Codey: Uh, we’re just, we’re just saying posting. I don’t, it used to be skeeting. I don’t (2:17:36) Al: Oh, my word. Is that… (2:17:36) Micah: I mean they kind of adopted that on Twitter too and just started calling it zeeding but (2:17:37) Codey: like that. (2:17:38) Al: Oh, that’s terrible. (2:17:48) Micah: with an X you know? (2:17:49) Al: Nobody said that literally nobody has ever said that though, that’s the thing like people will have said skeeting but not a single person has ever non ironically referred to posting on X as cheating. Nobody has ever done that. (2:17:50) Codey: - Yep. (2:18:02) Micah: You’re absolutely right. I would argue that most people don’t even call it X, so, yep. (2:18:02) Codey: Yeah. Yeah, true. (2:18:08) Al: Well, yeah, I wouldn’t use it wouldn’t say X it just only made sense in the context of talking about that stupid word. (2:18:17) Al: You can post that to us. (2:18:19) Al: On Blue Sky with that if you want. (2:18:22) Al: Or you can be like the single person that goes through and likes every single one of our Tumblr (2:18:26) Al: posts. Thank you. I appreciate you. Or you can comment on Spotify. That’s a thing. Thank you to Jack. (2:18:42) Al: Thank you to Jack for your comments as well. We responded to Jack’s comment about Fields (2:18:48) Al: of Mystery and then did an episode on it. You’ve asked us to cover We Harvest Shadows. (2:18:54) Al: Probably not. We’ll see. I don’t know, it looks scary. It’s a horror survival farming game. (2:18:56) Micah: I (2:18:59) Micah: Don’t know about that (2:19:04) Codey: Whoa! (2:19:04) Micah: Interesting that sounds kind of interesting (2:19:07) Al: Okay. Maybe somebody will cover it. I don’t think I’m, I don’t, I don’t think I’m going to be, I don’t think yet. (2:19:10) Codey: Michael, let’s do it! (2:19:10) Micah: Yeah, maybe Cody and I’ll cover (2:19:12) Micah: You (2:19:12) Al: Feel free. I’ll write it down. I don’t think I want to because I did Pumpkin Panic and that one scared me (2:19:14) Micah: You (2:19:18) Al: enough and that wasn’t even realistic. So I don’t think so. But if you two want to do it, feel free. (2:19:23) Al: Maybe we will, Jack. Tune in. Find out. If you also want to comment on Spotify like Jack, you can do that (2:19:29) Al: and I will read them eventually when Spotify notifies me about them. But it takes ages to do that. (2:19:38) Al: You can also find links to everything related to the podcast on our website. (2:19:42) Al: HarvestSeason.club, where you can find a link to our Patreon, patreon.com/thspod, (2:19:48) Al: where you can get access to our Slack community where we talk about these things. (2:19:53) Al: I have been posting to the Slack while we’ve been recording this podcast. Shocking. (2:19:57) Al: You can go there and find some fun stuff, like how I found out that the new next Stardew concert (2:20:05) Al: that I’m going to in Glasgow in February of 2026 will be just two weeks before the 10th (2:20:11) Al: anniversary of Stardew Valley. (2:20:12) Al: Wow, that’s wild. (2:20:14) Micah: That’s, yeah, that’s pretty wild, 10 years. (2:20:18) Al: I know 10 years. (2:20:20) Al: I also posted a theory about something related to that, (2:20:23) Al: which I’m not going to talk about here because that’s special for the patrons. (2:20:28) Al: You can also get access to our greenhouse episodes, our bonus podcasts. (2:20:33) Al: We have one coming out on Saturday, which is our non-Cottagecore Game of the Year, (2:20:38) Al: and we have a lot of games that we mention, and no game is mentioned twice. (2:20:43) Al: Come listen to that. (2:20:44) Codey: Mm-hmm (2:20:45) Al: Find out what are games of the non-Cottagecore year. (2:20:50) Micah: What was the term that Kevin came up with, neighborvania? (2:20:51) Al: Why am I so bad with the name of these podcasts? (2:20:53) Codey: Non not a cottagecore game, but that game of the year (2:20:58) Codey: You (2:21:00) Codey: You (2:21:02) Al: Oh, I don’t even. (2:21:06) Al: He didn’t come up with it, but he brought the video to our attention and I hate him for it. (2:21:07) Micah: Okay, got it. (2:21:11) Micah: Yeah, I can’t imagine I’m ever gonna say the term neighborvania ever again. (2:21:18) Al: It’s so stupid. I just I hate it. (2:21:19) Micah: But… (2:21:20) Codey: However, we will be saying, we will be saying rusty-like for everything going forward. (2:21:21) Micah: But it’s funny. (2:21:24) Al: Yeah, fine. That’s a good Rusty like I think that’s everything. (2:21:25) Micah: Absolutely. (2:21:31) Codey: » Mm-hm. (2:21:32) Al: Great, perfect. I can’t keep this going for another three minutes to make it the longest episode ever. (2:21:37) Al: Sad for that, but there we are. Thank you for listening. (2:21:41) Al: Listeners, thank you, Michael, for joining me. Thank you, Cody, for joining me. (2:21:41) Micah: Yay. (2:21:42) Codey: Yay (2:21:44) Micah: Yeah, thanks for having me. (2:21:45) Codey: Whoo (2:21:46) Micah: Always a pleasure. (2:21:48) Al: And until next time, have a good harvest. (2:21:49) Codey: Have a good harvest (2:21:50) Micah: Have a good at a harvest. (2:21:52) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinley, with support from our patrons, including our (2:22:01) Theme Tune: pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (2:22:05) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (2:22:09) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed (2:22:15) Theme Tune: in this episode. (2:22:24) Micah: close to, you know, after three hours or whatever, close enough. (2:22:28) Al: And I think you’ll find it’s actually four hours since we started. (2:22:30) Codey: We did it, Reddit. (2:22:35) Micah: Oh, my God, you’re right. (2:22:35) Codey: It is, it is, yikes. (2:22:38) Codey: I can’t feel my feet. (2:22:41) Codey: The room I’m in has no heat and it is 28 degrees up. (2:22:46) Micah: I am. Yeah, I’m freezing right now, too. (2:22:48) Micah: It’s was it was like two today. (2:22:50) Codey: I should have grabbed a heater. (2:22:52) Micah: I don’t know where we’re at now, but it was (2:22:53) Codey: Oh, you win, I’m at, you win, I’m at 28, so. (2:22:54) Al: oh we oh you’re talking about farn height as well what is that you have to see that is minus 16 (2:22:55) Micah: almost below zero. (2:23:00) Micah: Yes, yeah. (2:23:03) Al: Woo-hoo-hoo! (2:23:05) Micah: Yeah, it’s getting cold.…

The Harvest Season

1
Madame Web Is a Period Piece 1:16:57

11 weeksที่แล้ว1:16:57

1:16:57

Al and Codey talk about Honey Grove Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:18: What Have We Been Up To 00:11:21: Game News 00:33:27: New Games 00:44:24: Honey Grove 01:14:35: Outro Links Stardew Concert Dates Pixelshire Delay Hello Kitty: Island Adventure Release Date Rusty’s Retirement Winter Update Go-Go Town “Creative Corners” Update Mika and the Witch’s Update 2nd Update One Lonely Outpost “Act 2” Update Sugardew Island Romance Info Loftia Neighbourhoods Info Wylde Society Litle Rocket Lab Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season my name is Al and we’re here today to talk about being sleepy. (0:00:36) Codey: And my name is Cody. Or zzzzzz. Z’s. Oh, you say zeds. How do you do you count sheep? Do you count sheep for zed? Like, does that make sense? (0:00:49) Al: Don’t make me laugh. (0:00:56) Al: What? (0:00:57) Al: Oh, isn’t sleep right? (0:00:58) Al: Yeah, okay. (0:00:59) Al: Right. (0:01:00) Al: I understand the concept of counting sleep, counting sleep, counting sheep. (0:01:04) Codey: Yeah, okay. (0:01:04) Al: I don’t personally count sheep because, as discussed previously on the podcast, I have (0:01:08) Al: aphantasia, so I can’t see the sheep to count them. (0:01:12) Al: And then it’s just, if I’m counting sheep, then I’m just counting. (0:01:16) Al: » It doesn’t really. (0:01:16) Codey: Wait, what’s aphantasia? (0:01:19) Al: Have we not talked about this, Cody? (0:01:21) Codey: I don’t really think so. There’s a word for that? Because same. (0:01:21) Al: I can’t see anything in my brain. (0:01:24) Al: Yeah. (0:01:27) Al: Oh, nice. (0:01:29) Codey: I have to explain this to my boyfriend all the time. Because he’s a very visually conceptualization (0:01:31) Al: Yeah, yeah, I know. (0:01:36) Codey: human. And I’m like, you can tell me to imagine a strawberry and I imagine a plague space. (0:01:42) Al: Yeah, yeah, I can I can tell you about a strawberry I (0:01:43) Codey: and I can’t see it. (0:01:46) Al: Can give you facts about a strawberry. I can’t see a strawberry can’t visualize one. Yeah (0:01:46) Codey: It’s not my brain, though. (0:01:50) Codey: OK. (0:01:51) Codey: Well, today I learned a Fantasian. (0:01:53) Al: So I can’t count sheep (0:01:55) Al: It was because I used to find this so confusing because I didn’t know that (0:01:59) Al: other people actually could see things in their head until like six years ago or something and so like when people would say like (0:02:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:02:02) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:02:05) Al: Counting sheep. I’d be like I don’t understand what you mean. I’m just lying in bed counting (0:02:10) Al: Like how is this? (0:02:10) Codey: Yeah, so that was my problem too, because like, I would just be counting and I would get bored after like, 17. (0:02:12) Al: Yeah. What am I meant to be? How is this counting sheep? I don’t understand. (0:02:22) Codey: I don’t know, I just get bored and then I’m like, I don’t know, I don’t know. Wow, okay. (0:02:25) Al: It’s like I’m meant to get a video up like that. I feel like that’s not ideal, you know? (0:02:30) Codey: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, awesome. Well, the lore continues. (0:02:32) Al: Anyway. This episode, we’re going to talk about honeygrove, a mobile bee. (0:02:42) Al: Before that, we have some news. The news is maybe a third of the news is from last week’s wholesome (0:02:53) Al: snack. So there’s that. Did you watch the wholesome snack? No. Fair enough. (0:02:54) Codey: Mm hmm. Yep, you’re no, because I saw it. And then I asked you and you were like, that’s (0:03:04) Codey: pretty much what the news is from. And I was like, dope. And I moved on with my life. (0:03:07) Al: There’s some stuff probably that we won’t talk about, right? Because not all of it is cottage (0:03:10) Al: But yeah. (0:03:13) Al: The news is probably mostly filtered down to you, the stuff that matters anyway. (0:03:16) Codey: - Mm-hmm, correct. (0:03:18) Al: But first of all, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:03:22) Codey: I went to PAX Unplugged two weekends ago now, I think. (0:03:28) Al: What is PAX unplugged? Because I keep hearing you mention it, and I realized I just assumed (0:03:32) Codey: Okay. (0:03:33) Al: it was just like PAX, but presumably it’s a different thing. Yes. Yes. I think there’s (0:03:36) Codey: You know what PAX is, right? (0:03:38) Codey: Okay, so there’s PAX in like the different regions (0:03:43) Codey: of America or whatever. (0:03:44) Codey: Packs unpl– (0:03:46) Al: one in Australia as well, but be that as it may. (0:03:47) Codey: Ooh, OK. (0:03:49) Codey: It’s in different regions. (0:03:51) Codey: Packs unplugged is not video games. (0:03:54) Codey: It’s the type of games that you do, (0:03:57) Codey: like board games, card games, stuff like that. (0:04:00) Codey: So it’s an entire convention that (0:04:02) Codey: is just dedicated to those tabletop games and all of that. (0:04:08) Codey: So there is basically a huge expo hall. (0:04:11) Codey: It’s downtown in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. (0:04:14) Codey: and it has a huge (0:04:16) Codey: expo hall and a huge like thousands of tables where you can sit and just play games with your (0:04:22) Codey: friends. You can bring your own games. There’s spaces where you can buy games. They have different (0:04:27) Codey: libraries that you can like rent game. Like you check it out using your badge. And then you can (0:04:35) Codey: play like a game that you might have wanted to play for a really long time but haven’t had access to. (0:04:41) Codey: Or like Jeff and I, I would pick a game, we’d play it, and then I’d be like okay go turn it (0:04:46) Codey: and pick your own game. And we would just do that just to like what game looks interesting to you. (0:04:51) Codey: Okay let me go pick a game that looks interesting to me. And now we have games that we want to buy (0:04:57) Codey: for when he moves here. So yeah so it’s just this huge convention for that. I mostly went to meet (0:05:05) Codey: up with friends that live across the country and we’re converging upon this location since it’s (0:05:11) Codey: only like three hours from me. Um, I got to stay in. (0:05:16) Codey: Um, a friend’s, um, spare room. Thank you, James. Um, so I didn’t have to pay hotel. (0:05:25) Codey: I literally just had to pay for the tickets and then parking. I mean, and parking could have been (0:05:30) Codey: expensive, but it was only, it was not as expensive as I thought it was. But yeah, there was a lot of (0:05:34) Codey: different things like that. Um, and just got to play a bunch of games. And one game that we saw, (0:05:43) Codey: so many people like board games that we saw so many people walking around. (0:05:46) Codey: This is a huge board game. It was called Slay the Spire and we started talking about it and about how apparently it’s not. It didn’t start out as like a board slash card game. It was a game game like a video game. (0:05:57) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s like it’s uh, uh, what’s the word I’m looking for? Um, yeah, but it’s, uh, it’s a real roguelite deck building game. It’s like people quite often will compare other roguelites to it to be like, oh, it’s like, it’s like Slay the Spire Bot, sort of thing. (0:06:02) Codey: It’s a deck building game. (0:06:12) Codey: Oh, okay. Okay. Uh, well, yeah. So because of that, uh, I was like, huh, I wonder what (0:06:23) Codey: Slay the Spire is and like how different it is. And so I went to Game Pass on Xbox and it is (0:06:30) Codey: available on Game Pass. So I have now played Slay the Spire video game and I am horribly (0:06:36) Codey: offended, Al, that you are pulling me from that game right now. Um, I can’t (0:06:42) Codey: could be playing that right now, but I have to focus on this. So I’m not. So instead I’m (0:06:45) Codey: playing Honey Grove. Um, yeah, that’s the other game I’ve been playing is Honey Grove. (0:06:51) Codey: Um, yeah. What about you? What have you been up to? (0:06:52) Al: Cool. So like the other episodes that you have heard and are going to hear listeners, (0:07:01) Al: my brain is confused. So I’m going to talk about one specific game in this episode, (0:07:05) Al: and that is Zelda. I think I talked about that in the last episode as well, (0:07:09) Al: but I have finished Zelda Echoes of Wisdom now. And I think I can safely say that I did enjoy the (0:07:12) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:07:17) Al: game. But I feel like it falls to- (0:07:18) Codey: Okay, nope (0:07:23) Al: on to the fact that you have Link’s abilities, like you can actually go around and use your sword, (0:07:31) Al: I think makes a lot of the boss fights just waste some time and then turn into Link and (0:07:40) Al: kill it sort of thing. And because it’s just like traditional bosses, like the bosses aren’t (0:07:41) Codey: Right, right (0:07:47) Al: more complicated versions of the other puzzles. They’re just standard Zelda bosses. (0:07:53) Al: And I get that the idea is this is Link’s world and you’re doing things that Link would be doing (0:07:58) Al: if he was there sort of thing, but it still just feels like they kind of gave up on the bosses and (0:08:04) Al: they couldn’t figure out a good way to design bosses that worked well for Zelda’s powers. (0:08:09) Al: So it feels like that didn’t feel great, right? Especially as Link’s powers, I don’t know if (0:08:16) Al: you’re aware of this code, you gain them part of the way into the game, but you can only use them (0:08:23) Al: so you’re also like really stressed while being Link, right? You like turn into this weird (0:08:28) Al: shadowy version of Link because any second you’re in Link’s powers. Not like it doesn’t go down (0:08:35) Al: based on how much you use your sword or whatever, it goes down purely based on the time that you are (0:08:40) Al: as Link. Every second you’re Link is stressful because you’re like, oh no, should I be turning (0:08:45) Al: this off now or do I need to keep it on, you know, these sorts of things. So I just, I didn’t end, (0:08:50) Al: I didn’t have fun with the bosses. (0:08:52) Al: And the puzzles at the beginning were fun, but the puzzles in the middle and the end (0:08:59) Al: were basically just the same thing. (0:09:01) Al: So you just ended up like the puzzles were like, Oh, you have to get up high. (0:09:05) Al: So you’re, you’re just doing the same thing again. (0:09:08) Al: Right. (0:09:09) Al: So it’s like, Oh, I know how to get up high. (0:09:10) Al: I can do that. (0:09:11) Al: Right. (0:09:12) Al: And they didn’t, there was like a couple of other types of puzzles that they had, but (0:09:17) Al: they never really felt like they were challenging you in a different way, or even. (0:09:22) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:09:22) Al: Just harder in the same way. (0:09:24) Al: It was just, Oh, here, here’s again, the same thing. (0:09:31) Al: And it just felt like time and doing things rather than actually playing the game. (0:09:39) Al: Like more, cause most games, like they start off easy and they introduce you to a few mechanics (0:09:42) Al: and then they get harder and they introduce you to more mechanics. (0:09:45) Al: And then by the end, you’re using all of the different mechanics that you’ve learned and (0:09:49) Al: all the different skills you’ve gained. (0:09:51) Al: and. (0:09:52) Al: This one, it felt like if you had done the first area, and say you could go to the (0:10:01) Al: final area straight after that, which you can’t, because it’s not fully accessible in (0:10:05) Al: that sort of way. You have to go through the story to get to the end. But if you could (0:10:10) Al: go to the last area, the only thing that would be standing in their way is like health, right? (0:10:16) Al: Like you know everything and you have everything and you don’t really, and if you’re good at (0:10:20) Al: you’re doing, you could do that. And yes, sure, that might. (0:10:23) Al: Be fun in some ways, but it didn’t feel fun in this case. Cause this was like, (0:10:27) Al: it’s meant to be a puzzle game, right? And puzzle games are meant to be different. Like it’s not (0:10:34) Al: just like, if you just had a puzzle game, that was the exact same puzzle over and over and over (0:10:37) Al: again, not puzzle type, but the exact same puzzle, right? Like every five puzzles, it was that same (0:10:43) Al: pattern that wouldn’t be fun. Right. So yeah, I didn’t, I enjoyed it enough to keep, to finish it (0:10:50) Al: off, but more in the case of like, I feel. (0:10:52) Al: Like I’m close enough, I may as well finish this, rather than I really want to get to the end. (0:10:57) Al: Like was the case with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. (0:11:02) Al: So it’s a fun idea and it’s implemented great at the beginning, but yeah, (0:11:06) Al: just it falls off a cliff quite quickly, I think. (0:11:09) Codey: That’s unfortunate, but maybe they can innovate it in the future. (0:11:13) Al: Maybe, maybe, we’ll see. (0:11:16) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything that I’ve been up to that I’m going to talk about just now. (0:11:20) Al: So now we’re going to talk about the news. (0:11:22) Al: So as mentioned, some of the news from today is from the Wholesome Snack Game Awards edition, (0:11:33) Al: which I always find it funny that they do it in collaboration with the Game Awards, (0:11:38) Al: because it happens three days before the Game Awards. And so it’s like, is it Game Awards, (0:11:42) Al: or is it just like, they’re just like a fancy ad, right? It’s sponsored by the Game Awards. (0:11:46) Codey: Yeah. (0:11:51) Al: And like, fair enough, I know you- (0:11:52) Al: want money. But like, come on, anyway, whatever. We’re not going to talk about specific things (0:12:01) Al: about the wholesome snack or like go through it like sometimes we do. We’re just going (0:12:06) Al: to, we’re just going to talk about the news and some of them will be from the wholesome (0:12:09) Al: snack. So if you really care, I will obviously link the wholesome snack in the show notes (0:12:14) Al: is linked in last week’s episode as well. You can go and watch it if you really want. (0:12:19) Al: All right, first of all, the stardew value. (0:12:22) Al: It looks like most of the new dates now are on sale. There’s a few that are coming soon in (0:12:42) Al: Australia. But yeah, if you haven’t managed to get a ticket, go check. There might be another (0:12:47) Al: date for you. There is a second date in Scotland now. Wild. (0:12:53) Al: Which is good because it’s almost sold out the one night that I booked for. (0:12:59) Al: It’s in the same place. The same, what’s it called, concert hall. Yeah, venue. (0:13:07) Al: But yeah, so go look. Next we have Pixel Shire. It’s been delayed until 2025. (0:13:15) Al: I think we’re nearly done with delays. I have like two things left on my list that say they’re (0:13:20) Al: they’re coming out this year. (0:13:22) Codey: What are they? (0:13:22) Al: Oh wait garden trails that did come out didn’t it because that was two days ago. (0:13:26) Al: So we’re down to one which is SunKissed City. I haven’t seen anything about that. (0:13:34) Al: Oh no okay if you go to Steam it now says planned release date 2025 they just didn’t post anything (0:13:39) Al: about that. So sneaky, sneaky delay there. So that’s everything, nothing else is coming (0:13:45) Al: out this year, everything’s done. Huzzah no more delays. Speaking of releasing next year, (0:13:53) Al: Island Adventure have announced their release date and it’s super soon. It is the 30th of (0:13:58) Al: January which I was not expecting because when they so I think they announced earlier this year (0:14:02) Al: that it was coming to console and so Switch, PlayStation, and Steam they announced it was (0:14:08) Al: coming in 2025 and I was like oh probably like a summer release or something no no end of January. (0:14:14) Al: So if you have been looking forward to playing this and you either didn’t want to play it on (0:14:18) Al: a phone or tablet or you didn’t want to get Apple Arcade. Here you go. (0:14:22) Al: It’s coming to Switch. Go get it. In just over a month. (0:14:28) Codey: Yeah, I honestly hadn’t really looked at it. (0:14:31) Codey: I think I listened, half listened to the episode, (0:14:34) Codey: but I watched this trailer and I was like, (0:14:39) Codey: oh, oh, wow, okay. (0:14:41) Codey: Like this is more than just like Hello Kitty (0:14:44) Codey: meets Animal Crossing. (0:14:45) Al: Mm-hmm. (0:14:45) Codey: Like I feel like they basically like made it more, (0:14:50) Al: It’s an adventure game. (0:14:52) Codey: it really is. (0:14:53) Codey: It like has the look of Animal Crossing (0:14:55) Codey: and like, I loved looking at like (0:14:56) Codey: how you can decorate your houses (0:14:59) Codey: and the other stuff you can do with the other characters, (0:15:00) Codey: but then they were like climbing a mountain (0:15:04) Codey: and underwater and like all, I was like, oh, okay. (0:15:08) Codey: So, (0:15:09) Al: And it feels really open. So in the trailer, you see five different areas. A lot of those (0:15:17) Al: areas you can get there straight away if you try hard. It’s not super easy to, but you can. (0:15:24) Al: The exploration is really detailed. You can jump up areas and try and climb areas, and you can only (0:15:32) Al: have a certain amount of stamina, but you can figure out other ways to get up in different… (0:15:37) Al: It’s really expansive. (0:15:39) Al: So you can’t get underwater until you’ve unlocked that, and there’s like another area (0:15:44) Al: that you can’t get to until you’ve progressed the story, but like the volcano and stuff (0:15:49) Al: like that, you can just try and figure out your way there. (0:15:53) Codey: Yeah, it looked really interesting. (0:15:57) Codey: I might have to give it a shot around that time I don’t know what’s going to cost but yeah. (0:16:03) Al: a good question. I don’t know if they’ve announced that information. I played it on Apple Arcade (0:16:07) Codey: Did you when you, you played early access or demo. (0:16:12) Al: because that was what it was on when it first came out. Regular price is, oh wait, is that (0:16:20) Al: not a… No, that’s not. That’s a different thing. I was about to give you an incorrect (0:16:25) Al: phrase. I don’t think they’ve announced. I can… (0:16:25) Codey: I was liking what it sounded like though. (0:16:32) Codey: Okay, I would like it to be around $30. (0:16:33) Al: That would feel good. That would feel good. Yeah, the only thing I can see is Play Asia (0:16:34) Codey: I doubt it’s going to be that low, but I can see how they would just be like 60 bucks. (0:16:45) Al: have it listed, but obviously they’re just assuming, I think, they’ll be able to get (0:16:48) Codey: Yeah. (0:16:50) Al: their hands on copies and I don’t think they have a confirmed price. They’re saying £60, (0:16:56) Codey: No. (0:16:57) Al: which would be $70. I don’t think there’s… I mean, obviously that would be inflated (0:16:58) Codey: No. (0:17:02) Al: because… (0:17:03) Al: they’re having to import it. (0:17:05) Al: Oh, they’re saying $60 for that. (0:17:07) Al: I don’t think it will be $60, surely, right? (0:17:10) Codey: I hope not. (0:17:11) Codey: If it is, then there goes my hope of playing it. (0:17:15) Codey: Unless it’s actually really not that popular, (0:17:21) Codey: and then I can go to GameStop two weeks later, (0:17:23) Codey: and it’ll be lower priced. (0:17:25) Codey: But we’ll see. (0:17:27) Codey: Cool. (0:17:28) Al: There’s a new trailer as well, which I’ll link in the show notes. (0:17:32) Al: Rusty’s retirement have released their winter update. (0:17:36) Codey: It’s so cute. (0:17:36) Al: So you want the snow, there you go. (0:17:40) Codey: Well, so it’s the snow, but it’s also you get– (0:17:43) Codey: there’s deer that run around in your thing now. (0:17:47) Codey: You make all these Christmas decorations. (0:17:50) Al: I wasn’t just, I wasn’t about, yeah, I wasn’t pretending it was just, no, I was about to (0:17:54) Al: explain more just to me, just to make it clear. What I quite, what I like about this is it appears (0:17:56) Codey: There’s dogs, Al. There’s dogs. (0:18:02) Al: to be a different map that is the wintery map. And I like that because one, it implies that it’s (0:18:06) Codey: Uh-huh. (0:18:06) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:18:08) Al: going to like stick around. And two, I just, I’m never a huge fan when they’re like, when games (0:18:14) Al: are like, oh, here’s our winter event. And then it’s like, the game is now winter. And I’m like, (0:18:19) Al: I get that and I know. (0:18:20) Al: But artificially restricting me on that doesn’t feel great. (0:18:27) Al: Obviously I’m in the Northern Hemisphere, but maybe Southern Hemisphere people want (0:18:31) Al: to flip it around and do it in their actual winter. I like having the flexibility for that. (0:18:38) Al: So it just being a separate map is a fun way to do it. (0:18:42) Codey: Yeah, I really liked the dogs and cats too, and how they’ll either sleep or (0:18:46) Codey: they’ll just follow you around, or they’ll help harvesting with harvesting the crops. (0:18:51) Codey: Like the dog just kind of like trots up to some wheat and takes it and clips it (0:18:55) Codey: in the house and then just wags its tail. (0:18:59) Codey: It’s so cute. (0:19:00) Al: Looks like a pretty meaty update. (0:19:03) Codey: The characters now talk to each other if they’re bored. (0:19:07) Codey: It’s so cute. (0:19:08) Al: So that’s out now. (0:19:09) Codey: Yep. (0:19:09) Al: Go get it. (0:19:10) Codey: Yep. (0:19:11) Codey: No, well, it’s, it’s, I think it’s just part of. (0:19:13) Codey: This is the base game. (0:19:15) Codey: Oh, yeah. (0:19:15) Al: Yeah, I know. (0:19:16) Al: But people still need to update the game. (0:19:19) Codey: Yeah, correct. (0:19:22) Al: Next, we have the Creative Corners (0:19:23) Al: update for Go Go Town. (0:19:25) Al: That is also out now. (0:19:27) Al: And the main feature is that it adds player housing. (0:19:31) Al: Obviously, you didn’t have a space for your own. (0:19:33) Al: Now, you do. (0:19:34) Al: You have a space for your own. (0:19:36) Al: You can purchase the house from Tier 1 in the tech tree, (0:19:40) Al: which is basically unlocked from the start. (0:19:43) Al: And there’s a whole bunch of props (0:19:45) Al: and what they call doodads, a new type of buildable object. (0:19:49) Al: Doodads are any number of objects (0:19:51) Al: that can be placed on surfaces, walls, or floors. (0:19:56) Codey: It has a lot. I mean, you can pick your color palette like on an actual color wheel instead of like buying (0:20:02) Codey: You have black or blue or purple or whatever. Like you can just straight up pick the color you want (0:20:08) Codey: um (0:20:09) Codey: My biggest thing for them in this trailer is they have singing wall fish. Did you ever have those fish? (0:20:16) Al: I never had one, but I was aware of it. It was all over contemporary media, shall we say. (0:20:22) Codey: Yeah, so I saw that and I loved it. And then there was a (0:20:26) Codey: trailer. There’s like a pentagram on the floor and (0:20:29) Codey: there’s candles around it. (0:20:32) Al: The funny thing is it’s not like an actual pentagram either. It looks like this universe’s (0:20:35) Al: version of a pentagram. A completely normal decor. You can get a murder outline. (0:20:36) Codey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it is, you know what it is. Like you (0:20:46) Codey: can’t get exactly you can get a murder outline. Yeah. (0:20:50) Al: It’s very expansive. There’s a lot of stuff here. Next we have the Mika and the Witches (0:20:57) Al: Mountain update. Apparently I’ve written Mika and the Witches update. (0:21:03) Codey: It’s the sequel. (0:21:08) Al: So this is the second content update. Breaking News, they’ve announced that there’s a third (0:21:14) Al: update so they haven’t put everything that they said was going to be in the second update in this (0:21:18) Al: update. They’ve released this one early. And then they’re (0:21:20) Al: going to have a third update coming. So, buh-buh-buh. (0:21:22) Codey: - I just, in this event, like news press, they say, (0:21:27) Codey: the roadmap has suffered a slight modification, (0:21:30) Codey: but we can explain, we’ve received many messages. (0:21:30) Al: It’s such a weird. (0:21:33) Codey: So now there’s another update. (0:21:35) Codey: And it’s just like, they make it seem like it’s this, (0:21:38) Codey: like, oh no, we’re so sorry. (0:21:40) Codey: We have to confess that we’re sorry. (0:21:43) Al: Yeah, we’re so sorry that we’re giving you another update with more things that people (0:21:43) Codey: And it’s just like, this is a good, more stuff. (0:21:52) Al: have suggested. (0:21:53) Codey: - Yeah, yeah, it was interesting, but, yeah. (0:21:55) Al: How dare you! (0:21:58) Codey: It was interesting, but yep. (0:22:01) Al: Keep on going with the early access tag for some reason. (0:22:03) Al: I still don’t understand why this game is early access. (0:22:06) Al: You can update your game without it being early access, I mean, look at Rusty’s retirement. (0:22:10) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:22:11) Al: And it’s not like Mika feels like an incomple– (0:22:14) Codey: Yep. (0:22:14) Al: It feels like a reasonably small game, but small games are complete, right? (0:22:19) Al: Like it’s like saying oh this film was only 70 minutes long, that makes it not a film, (0:22:25) Al: because it’s incomplete. And you’re like no no, it tells a complete story, it is a complete thing. (0:22:30) Codey: Mm-hmm. There’s just a, yeah, there’s just another. (0:22:31) Al: Just because they do a sequel later on doesn’t mean it’s like what are you doing? Or like yeah (0:22:35) Al: there’s like a TV show that they do afterwards, or there’s deleted scenes, like it doesn’t make (0:22:39) Al: it not a complete film. What are you talking about? (0:22:42) Codey: And all Marvel movies are now just early access copies. (0:22:53) Al: So this content update brings the Phishing minigame. (0:22:57) Al: It brings a minimap to the game, so that’s nice. (0:23:01) Al: I did miss having that. (0:23:04) Al: I would have very much enjoyed that for the main story. (0:23:07) Al: And a new language, Philencian, is a very specific language. (0:23:13) Al: Is it? (0:23:14) Codey: I think that’s where they’re from. (0:23:15) Codey: I think so because they say at the bottom had to include (0:23:15) Al: Oh, it does say, yeah, we’re very, okay, yeah, we are very proud of our land and language. (0:23:23) Codey: Valencian. (0:23:24) Codey: Yep. (0:23:24) Codey: Yep. (0:23:24) Al: Fair enough. (0:23:25) Codey: Even so, we know that very few people will play in this (0:23:25) Al: That makes sense. (0:23:26) Al: I just thought it was like, are they going to go through all the small European languages? (0:23:29) Al: Are we going to get Scots in there? (0:23:33) Codey: language, but we’re proud of it. (0:23:35) Al: I guess it’s weird that they didn’t, if they are from Valencia, and presumably at least (0:23:39) Al: one of them speaks full engine, right, presumably. Weird that they’ve (0:23:43) Al: didn’t add that at the beginning because they had language support, and adding a translation (0:23:50) Al: is not a huge job for someone that speaks the language that it’s in and the language (0:23:58) Al: they’re translating to. It’s not like, I mean, it depends on how much text it is, obviously, (0:24:02) Al: but it’s not like you’re talking months and months. It just seems weird that it would (0:24:06) Al: take to the second update to add that. I guess maybe they just prioritise it. Just feels (0:24:10) Al: funny to me. Anyway. (0:24:12) Codey: Mm-hmm. The third one is coming out in early 2025. (0:24:13) Al: Yep. And that will add dungeons or something? I don’t know what to make of that, but dungeons. (0:24:18) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s what they said. (0:24:26) Al: We’ll see. Speaking of updates, one lonely outpost have announced their Act 2 update, (0:24:26) Codey: Ungeons. (0:24:38) Codey: Mm-hmm. And they specifically have this, like, warning triangle, like, alert sign, (0:24:44) Codey: and it says that it’s recommended that you start a new save. (0:24:48) Al: So I think the Warning Triangle feels unnecessary, I think it’s just to drag attention to it. (0:24:54) Codey: I know. (0:24:54) Al: I think they’ve recommended that because there’s a lot of updates that you would only (0:24:58) Al: experience early game. (0:25:00) Al: And so if you want to experience it to its full, then you would best to… (0:25:05) Al: I don’t think it’s all like, “Oh, things won’t work properly,” or anything like that. (0:25:08) Codey: Okay, okay. That makes sense. (0:25:10) Al: It’s like what Concerned Ape said about Stardew 1.6, it’s like, “You can keep going and it’s (0:25:14) Al: fine. (0:25:15) Al: you’ll just miss a bunch because they’re really early on. (0:25:18) Al: You know, it’s like how if you started 1.5 with you already fishing 10, then you’re (0:25:27) Al: never going to experience the starter rod, right? (0:25:30) Al: Because that’s something that they added in that update that doesn’t make any sense unless (0:25:35) Al: you are right at the beginning of the game. (0:25:36) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:25:37) Al: That sort of stuff. (0:25:38) Al: So I wouldn’t, yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it. (0:25:41) Codey: Okay, cool (0:25:42) Al: Yes, it brings marriage, which I guess makes sense in a colony. (0:25:48) Al: New characters, quests and maps, there are nine eligible characters that you can marry. (0:26:01) Al: I think the five are part of those nine. (0:26:06) Al: I’m not 100% sure though. (0:26:07) Codey: Mm-hmm. I think it is, yeah. (0:26:10) Al: They’ve also added to teleportation, so fast travel, which is cool. (0:26:14) Al: There’s not a huge number of God school games that have that. (0:26:16) Al: I know Carl Island has it. (0:26:18) Codey: Mm hmm. Doesn’t start to have it, but you have to use the totems. (0:26:18) Al: Can’t think of another. Yeah, I guess it’s not, it’s very limited and it’s basically like (0:26:26) Codey: But. But like, you have to constantly have the total, like, (0:26:27) Al: it’s okay. Fine. Technically. Yeah, it does. It does have a yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. (0:26:32) Codey: it’s not just go up to a thing and just get like whooshed. (0:26:36) Codey: Yeah, it’s a different. Yeah. (0:26:36) Al: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I like the, the, the rod that you can carry around and start you that (0:26:43) Al: always takes you to your house. That I find very useful because it’s like you just hold it. (0:26:48) Al: But with the other ones, the, the, the consumable totems, I just never bother using because you (0:26:54) Al: have to craft them and then use only one use. They do have the pillars that you can buy, (0:27:01) Al: I can’t remember what they’re called that transport you, but they are like so end game. (0:27:04) Al: They’re basically pointless because you’ve basically finished everything by that point. (0:27:06) Codey: Yeah, by the time you get them you don’t really need them anymore because you don’t need to go around. (0:27:12) Al: Exactly. It’s like woo. I can teleport to the mountain. It’s like, okay, fine. (0:27:18) Al: Going to the mountain. I don’t need to. The only one I ever really used was the, the desert one, (0:27:24) Al: because the advantage of that is you can get there earlier than the bus can get you there. (0:27:29) Al: Because you can, you can teleport anytime so you can wake up and go straight there and have more (0:27:33) Al: time in skull cavern. But again, you, you only get that really late on. So also changes to seasons (0:27:44) Al: and weather and gene splicing. (0:27:47) Codey: Yeah, I looked at that and I was like, what, uh, and it says you experiment with a common, (0:27:54) Codey: so you, by doing it, you create like five new things that you can plant and you experiment (0:27:59) Codey: with combinations of seeds, fish and insects. (0:28:05) Codey: So what you take a seed and you’re just like, I’m gonna give it insect mandibles now, or (0:28:11) Codey: like, I’m gonna take this genetic, but I mean, I guess the scientist in me is like, yeah, (0:28:17) Codey: that’s how it works. (0:28:18) Codey: Like it does. (0:28:20) Codey: There are actually things that plants or insects will take from each other, but to like make (0:28:24) Codey: a new thing or like have a new adaptation, but like, I don’t think it works the way that (0:28:30) Codey: it’s fine. (0:28:31) Codey: It’s a game. (0:28:32) Codey: I need to not look for reality. (0:28:35) Codey: I’m really curious what these new plants are like, is it a, an insect plant? (0:28:41) Codey: Like, does it move? (0:28:42) Al: Everyone wants an insect plant. Well, maybe you’ll have to play and find out. (0:28:44) Codey: I do. (0:28:45) Codey: No, that’s not happening. (0:28:47) Codey: Listeners, tell me what the new points are like. (0:28:52) Al: And a new festival. (0:28:55) Codey: Yeah, that too. (0:28:57) Al: Next we have Sugardew Island. They have announced their information on romance. I think this was (0:29:03) Al: their first public announcement that they’re going to have romance. I forget whether I’ve (0:29:06) Al: mentioned it or not because they mentioned it on Kickstarter like two months ago. (0:29:12) Al: The way they’re doing romance is weird. So there are four nature spirits, which I guess are like (0:29:18) Al: the like Harvest Sprites and stuff like that and other in Harvest Moon games and story seasons. (0:29:24) Al: Those four are the only romanceable characters in the game. It’s like they went, okay, romance, (0:29:29) Al: right? Well, let’s make it completely separate to the rest of the game. I find that a little bit (0:29:34) Al: weird. And also they all look like literal children. Like this isn’t like… (0:29:34) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:29:38) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:29:42) Al: Oh, they look a little bit young. No, they look like they’re eight. And I know that Harvest (0:29:46) Al: Sprites, like what are they called? Harvest spirits, is that what they’re called? (0:29:49) Codey: Yeah, I think so. (0:29:51) Al: So they’ll be like ancient, but they look like children, right? Like this is weird. (0:29:58) Codey: Yep. Yeah. It’s a, I didn’t, I don’t, I saw that. I also just like the, the idea that you come to an (0:30:06) Codey: area and there are like other humans around, but you’re like, no, no, I’m going to go. (0:30:14) Al: I want to romance the mythical creature that looks like a child. (0:30:20) Codey: Yeah. That’s a little, a little odd to me, but whatever. (0:30:27) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:30:29) Codey: You do. You sure do. I, (0:30:32) Al: So they’re sticking with their March release date (0:30:37) Al: and they have announced, I don’t think the physical editions is a new information, (0:30:44) Codey: Mm. I just copy pasted it in there. (0:30:45) Al: Yeah, you confusing me by posting stuff not in your color. (0:30:49) Codey: Sorry, some, some, uh, insider baseball, y’all, I just copy pasted a bunch of stuff (0:30:53) Codey: that I was like, Ooh, this might be interesting to talk about. (0:30:54) Al: which normally, well normally it’s fine because you normally put all your stuff in purple (0:30:56) Codey: And Al then has to read it live and be like, that’s not, I don’t care. (0:31:04) Al: and so I see purple and I know it’s you whereas and if I see white I assume I’ve put it there (0:31:05) Codey: That’s true. (0:31:05) Codey: I didn’t. (0:31:09) Al: so I’m like oh this is a thing I’m going to read out. I’m guessing it’s not purple because (0:31:09) Codey: Okay. (0:31:09) Codey: Okay. (0:31:10) Codey: Okay. (0:31:12) Codey: Let me do my, I’m going to do all my. (0:31:14) Codey: Yeah, and I was lazy. (0:31:14) Codey: I was lazy. (0:31:15) Al: you copy pasted it so it kept whatever it was from the from the the website. Shocking. I mean (0:31:16) Codey: Let’s be honest. (0:31:16) Codey: I did. (0:31:18) Codey: Cause I want to, I want to look as if we have like multiple, if we had like three people, (0:31:23) Al: I mean, I never asked you to put stuff in practice. (0:31:25) Al: You just did that right from the first time we used this. (0:31:31) Codey: I want people to know that it was my stuff. (0:31:34) Al: It’s just nobody else ever does it. (0:31:36) Al: It’s only you that ever adds things into the news, (0:31:38) Al: which I’m not complaining about you doing, for the record. (0:31:42) Al: All right. (0:31:43) Al: Loftia have announced a new feature coming to their game, (0:31:48) Al: which is neighborhoods. (0:31:52) Al: Attach your personal floating island to others, (0:31:54) Al: farming a small, cozy community where you can host events, (0:31:56) Al: hang out, farm together, and more. (0:31:58) Al: So I’m guessing this is like online multiplayer. (0:32:02) Codey: I think it adds multiplayer is the vibe I’m getting. (0:32:04) Al: Yeah, yeah, so presumably the whole neighborhoods thing is just like when you connect online, (0:32:12) Al: the other islands come and join yours and then you can walk to their island because Loftia is a (0:32:18) Al: floating island based game. And presumably when you’re offline, they disappear and it’s just your (0:32:20) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (0:32:24) Al: floating island. So I’ve been keeping an eye on this game for a while. I think it’s interesting (0:32:32) Al: licking. Uh, yeah. (0:32:35) Al: This is a nice addition to it. It’s, it’s the, the animal crossing, uh, (0:32:41) Al: multiplayer rather than the Stardew multiplayer, but connecting your islands together means that (0:32:48) Al: you can go to any of the islands that you connect to go together rather than with animal crossing. (0:32:53) Al: It’s like, we’re all going to this person’s island and you, you do that. Whereas here it’s let’s join (0:32:59) Al: our islands together and we can both see both of our islands at the same time. That’s a cool change. (0:33:04) Codey: Yeah, I like the idea of going and mucking about on your island and ruining things while you and Kevin and Johnny are like off doing something actually useful. (0:33:11) Al: Oh dear, don’t multi-play with code. (0:33:15) Codey: And me just like putting B. (0:33:21) Codey: Me just putting like B graffiti all over. Yep. (0:33:28) Al: and that’s all the game updates the game news we also have two new games announced one of which (0:33:36) Al: i’m a little bit sad that kevin isn’t here to actually revel in his prediction but we do have (0:33:42) Al: a new wildflowers game wild society which by the way fantastic name love it and this is (0:33:48) Codey: Yep (0:33:50) Al: I believe a prequel it is a what they call period piece which I just hate the term because all (0:33:51) Codey: It is yeah (0:33:58) Al: means is in the past um uh (0:34:02) Codey: I mean don’t don’t they ever I think I feel like they only use period piece to talk about like Victorian or Renaissance past like I wouldn’t call something that goes to like cave and times like a period piece. (0:34:12) Al: Nope, nope, no, no. If it’s set in the 90s, it’s a period piece. If it’s set in the 1100s, (0:34:18) Al: it’s a period piece technically. So the definition of a period piece is a work of art, literature, (0:34:23) Al: film, music, or furniture that evokes a historical period. It can be anything. (0:34:28) Codey: He was you were ready (0:34:30) Al: I was ready, yeah. Like, I think the idea is that it’s very clear that it’s set then. So like, (0:34:36) Al: say something like Madam Webb, which is based in the 90s. (0:34:42) Al: But it’s not like so very clearly based in the 90s, right? Like it’s not, we are making this so (0:34:48) Al: obvious. It is because if you pay attention, it’s clear, but it’s not like they don’t shove it in (0:34:53) Al: your face. Whereas if you take, what is that one that people like from Netflix, the sexy one? (0:35:02) Al: Bridgerton. If you take Bridgerton, it’s like very clear it’s set in a specific time period. (0:35:08) Al: But if you take like, for example, I watched our (0:35:12) Al: A time travel slasher film a few months ago, which is almost entirely set in the ’90s, (0:35:14) Codey: Okay. (0:35:18) Al: and because of the story, it’s very clearly set in the ’90s. And everything about it is (0:35:25) Al: trying to evoke the fact that it’s based in the ’90s. That’s a period piece. (0:35:30) Codey: Okay, I need to change my, yeah, (0:35:30) Al: So, yeah, that’s why I hate the term. [LAUGHS] (0:35:34) Codey: I need to change my brain, the rewiring of that term, (0:35:39) Codey: for sure. (0:35:40) Al: I mean, I do think it’s one of these things where it could be argued that because people (0:35:44) Al: mostly just use it for that sort of time period, then what, like 1700s, 1800s, that it’s morphing (0:35:50) Al: into meaning that. But I’m not going to let it happen. Anyway, step into the elegant heels (0:35:57) Al: of Vivian Wilde. Was she Wildflower’s character’s grandmother, I think? (0:36:08) Codey: That makes sense, though. Yeah. Yeah, I went back to the- (0:36:10) Al: So step into Elegant Hills of Vivian Wild, which socialite and host in period drama sim (0:36:19) Al: wild society. Build, run and customize your magical boarding house in turn of the century (0:36:24) Al: Fairhaven, host splendid events, expand your witchcraft and influence the top town. Who will (0:36:29) Al: you invite for tea? So I don’t think nothing says that this has farming as far as I can see. (0:36:38) Al: It’s it’s more kind of (0:36:40) Al: B&B style gameplay. So there’s a screenshot of them moving items around in your boarding house. (0:36:51) Al: So presumably your if you’re running the boarding house is going to be that’s going to be like the (0:36:55) Al: main gameplay. It’s mostly I think the trailer was entirely like pre-rendered story trailer type (0:37:03) Al: thing rather than gameplay and the Steam page has like four five screenshots. (0:37:10) Al: So we’re not seeing a huge amount it’s obviously the same graphical style as Wildflowers (0:37:17) Al: but yeah I mean I know that Kevin is very excited about this and it looks it looks fun. (0:37:23) Codey: You can perform a seance and then at the bottom it says whose spirits will you help with their unfinished business? (0:37:30) Al: Oh interesting, so that’s going to be like the overarching story thing rather than the mystery (0:37:35) Al: that is wildflowers. Yeah interesting yes because presumably you’re starting out as (0:37:37) Codey: Yeah, instead of, like, learning to be a whip. (0:37:44) Al: you are already a witch and I would assume that if because there is like spells and potions and (0:37:51) Al: stuff that you do in wildflowers presumably that stuff will all exist in this game. You’ll start (0:37:52) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:37:54) Codey: Yeah, yeah, but your character already knows them yeah (0:37:56) Al: off being able to do them. Yeah. And they see, say on the (0:38:01) Al: you’re learning new and that. And then obviously you’re running the boarding house as well. (0:38:05) Codey: Yeah, run the boarding house, have a host of parties, and run a (0:38:09) Codey: seance, and hopefully help a ghost to kill their cat revenge (0:38:13) Codey: with murder. (0:38:14) Al: Oh, I mean, that’s that’s one way to go with it. (0:38:17) Codey: I would love that. (0:38:18) Codey: Oh, you can also have a familiar of a cat or an otter and other (0:38:22) Al: Obviously. (0:38:24) Codey: things. So yeah, that’s what it says. Cats, cats to otters. I (0:38:24) Al: An otter, obviously, I mean, what else? (0:38:28) Al: Where does it say that? (0:38:29) Codey: want a familiar underneath the seance. I want (0:38:31) Al: Oh, yeah, (0:38:33) Al: I love that from cats to otters, like that is the entire spectrum of animals. (0:38:35) Codey: And that’s pretty, that’s pretty small spectrum. (0:38:39) Al: Yeah, it’s like from cats to water cats. (0:38:39) Codey: You just, you just listed pretty much. (0:38:44) Codey: I’m pretty sure, oh, okay, but no, yeah. (0:38:48) Codey: But they’re all in the family mammalian or the order class, class mammalian. (0:38:53) Codey: So they’re all mammals. (0:38:54) Al: They’re all mammals. (0:38:55) Al: Is that what you’re trying to say? (0:38:57) Codey: Yeah, and they’re all in the order, the order carnivora. (0:38:57) Al: Yeah. (0:38:59) Al: I’m translating for the listeners. (0:39:02) Al: Huh. (0:39:02) Codey: They’re all carnivores, but then they’re in two different families. (0:39:05) Codey: But yeah, give me a familiar, uh, Mantis. (0:39:12) Codey: I want to know. (0:39:12) Al: well, like the stick insect type thing. Yeah, I’m just like a praying mantis. Oh, yeah, yeah. (0:39:14) Codey: I want to, yeah, you don’t know what a Mantis is. (0:39:17) Codey: Oh, cause you guys don’t have them. (0:39:20) Codey: Yeah. (0:39:20) Codey: Like praying Mantis. (0:39:23) Codey: Um, no, I want a tarantula because I, we just got a new tarantula for our (0:39:27) Codey: insect zoo and I put her on my shoulder the other day and she just sat there (0:39:31) Codey: for like an hour and I want that in a familiar. (0:39:33) Al: I mean Tarantula feels like something that would work as a witch is familiar as well. (0:39:35) Codey: Yeah, praying nature is pretty cool though, or I just really like praying nature. (0:39:38) Al: Praying mantis, not so much. (0:39:43) Al: The other new game we have is a little rocket lab. (0:39:47) Al: Transform your childhood home as you build brilliant factories and forge lifelong friendships. (0:39:52) Al: Then reach for the skies and finally finish your family’s dream, your mother’s precious (0:39:58) Al: rocket ship. (0:39:59) Al: Roll up your sleeves. It turns out that saving this town really is (0:40:03) Al: rocket science. I think so but it’s also it you’re also individually you (0:40:05) Codey: Ha, ha, ha. (0:40:10) Codey: Is this just cozy factorial? (0:40:12) Codey: Thank you. (0:40:17) Al: playing a character like it’s not management style where you’re just like (0:40:22) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:25) Al: clicking and doing things like you are a character in the world who’s going and (0:40:28) Al: doing things, which I’ve talked about in previous episodes, I (0:40:33) Al: I’ve still not played a game like that, because there’s a bunch of games that are coming out soon (0:40:36) Al: that are like that style. And I feel like that might help feel less overwhelming than management (0:40:44) Codey: Mm hmm, yeah. (0:40:45) Al: games normally do. Yeah, it looks fun. The graphics are cute, kind of what, SNES style graphics. (0:40:54) Codey: I’d say that. Yeah. I mean, I just, I see that you build like the little conveyor belt (0:41:01) Codey: systems and you, like it, it looks very, it’s got that kind of like build a, an empire of (0:41:08) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what? Do you know what? I think that might actually really help me as well, (0:41:09) Codey: resource collection that factorial has, but then it also has like an RPG element and you’re (0:41:17) Al: because one of the reasons I’m not a huge fan of management games is it feels like they’re just, (0:41:21) Al: there’s no real goal other than build. Whereas here, your goal is to build a rocket. You’re (0:41:24) Codey: Yeah. (0:41:27) Al: fixing your rocket. So like that feels to me like I can set that as my goal and play until I get to (0:41:28) Codey: Yeah. Yeah. (0:41:33) Al: to that point and then finish that, you know, could help. (0:41:35) Codey: Well, in fact, Toria does that too, but like the goal once you launch the rocket, you like (0:41:42) Codey: win or whatever. (0:41:43) Codey: And then now with a new expansion, they have more, more to it, but it once you do that, (0:41:47) Codey: it’s like, okay, I sent game over. (0:41:53) Codey: That’s it. (0:41:54) Codey: Whereas this, it’s like, you get to build the RPG aspect of it and like the blueprints (0:42:02) Codey: are really cute. (0:42:03) Codey: your little dog follows you around, and yeah. (0:42:06) Al: Lots of the machines look super fun, like there’s a toaster grasscutter type looking thing, (0:42:12) Codey: Yeah, yeah, and it just cuts harvest hay for you. (0:42:14) Al: which you ride along on. (0:42:18) Al: Yeah, and there’s like a washing machine on tracks that I have no idea what it does. (0:42:23) Al: It’s just one screenshot of it. (0:42:24) Codey: Well, and in the, one of the screenshots, like, is it the one that’s no, (0:42:28) Codey: there is just a washing machine named scrubs who just walks around, (0:42:32) Codey: but his, his language is just like symbols. (0:42:32) Al: Oh, right. Okay. Gobble the gook. Yeah. Wingdings. Oh, you can throw a ball for your dog. So under (0:42:39) Codey: Yeah, it is a wing day. (0:42:42) Codey: So yeah. (0:42:48) Al: about this game, there’s like a gif of a bunch of different scenes, and one of them is throwing (0:42:50) Codey: okay okay i’m almost there i’m assuming oh my gosh I saw it that is very cute so yeah (0:43:03) Codey: this I mean this game looks really cute uh let me see oh it’s just gonna be windows (0:43:08) Codey: lame but that’s fine maybe by then i’ll have a seen dick (0:43:14) Al: Yeah, Steam Deck. (0:43:17) Codey: It has full controller support too for Xbox controllers. (0:43:19) Al: Uh, yeah, yeah, will have like, it’s all very, it’s, it’s funny when we say it, (0:43:20) Codey: » Right, right, coming soon. (0:43:24) Al: because it’s like, what is that? (0:43:26) Al: What is that? (0:43:27) Al: Yeah, coming soon has control control support. (0:43:30) Al: I’m like, are you finished the control support? (0:43:33) Al: Are you just saying that you will have it before you release? (0:43:37) Al: Or is that before our 1.0, like, will it be an early access? (0:43:40) Al: Like you just never know with developers nowadays, you know. (0:43:44) Codey: Well, so the developer is, it’s the, this is going to be their first thing. (0:43:48) Codey: Teenage astronauts. (0:43:49) Codey: I think this is their first thing. (0:43:51) Codey: And, but the publisher also published a let’s build a zoo. (0:43:55) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah, they’re no more robots. They’re pretty big (0:43:58) Codey: Yep. (0:43:59) Al: publisher (0:44:00) Codey: Yep. (0:44:01) Codey: Looks cute. (0:44:01) Codey: I’m excited. (0:44:02) Codey: We’ll keep it on our radar. (0:44:05) Al: Absolutely, I’ve got it on my wishlist on Steam already (0:44:08) Al: - Thank you. (0:44:10) Codey: I told, I played factorial with my partner and I told him, I was like, oh my gosh, (0:44:14) Codey: there’s a cozy factorial coming out. And he was like, disgusting. Tell me more. (0:44:18) Al: Alright, that’s all of the news. We’re now going to jump into Honey Grove, which is a (0:44:22) Codey: Yeah. (0:44:30) Al: game we’ve been playing. So this is a mobile game. It is I would describe it as before we (0:44:36) Al: talk about the official description, which is you’ve put in there, I would describe it (0:44:38) Codey: - Right, right. (0:44:40) Al: as bees planting flowers and then making honey. (0:44:46) Codey: That sure is something that happens in this game. (0:44:48) Al: I mean it’s the core main game. There’s other parts to the game, but it feels like it’s (0:44:58) Al: the farming in Stardew. Yeah, you can do lots of other things and that’s fine, but it feels (0:45:05) Al: like without that nothing else would happen. (0:45:08) Codey: I mean, the honey part, the only reason you do the honey part is because you then use the honey for cooking. (0:45:14) Al: I see I didn’t, I’ve not really played this game a lot, Cody, do you want to talk about (0:45:18) Al: this game? (0:45:19) Al: The one thing that I, the one big thing, and this is actually the reason why I’ve not played (0:45:24) Al: it as much as I should have is because it doesn’t have cloud support, cloud save support. (0:45:31) Al: So I’ve put it on my iPad that’s next to me at work initially. (0:45:36) Al: And then I was all ready to put it on my laptop, which is what I generally do things on when (0:45:42) Al: when I’m in the evenings. (0:45:44) Al: And yep brand new save and I was like well that’s a shame. (0:45:49) Codey: Yep, that would suck. (0:45:51) Al: I’m not going to be able to play in both settings so that’s going to reduce my game time quite a bit. (0:45:55) Codey: Well, you know me, uh, I dive right in. (0:45:58) Codey: So we’re good. (0:46:00) Codey: Um, bees. (0:46:00) Al: Bees yes tell me about this game Cody. (0:46:03) Codey: Yeah. (0:46:03) Codey: So they’re, um, they’re blurb is that honey Grove is the cozy gardening and (0:46:08) Codey: farming game that you’ve always wanted to play, which is a bold statement. (0:46:12) Codey: Uh, design and nurture your garden of wildflowers where every bloom and harvest (0:46:17) Codey: will help you revive honey Grove. (0:46:19) Codey: So I would classify this game as a hive growing game. (0:46:24) Codey: So like you’re growing your home base basically, and (0:46:28) Codey: you’re reconstructing the town. (0:46:30) Codey: Um, and there, cause there’s three like main parts, like, um, not parts, but (0:46:38) Codey: like three main like physical locations in the game that you can go to to (0:46:44) Codey: interact with the game and help rebuild the town or build up your hive or (0:46:48) Codey: build your bees, etc. (0:46:50) Codey: So yeah, I think of it more as like a town reconstruction (0:46:54) Codey: game. And like, I just have to say I am loving the fact so all (0:47:00) Codey: of the bees that you can get have like realistic names. So (0:47:04) Al: Yes. (0:47:06) Codey: like, well, so Beatrice Wood, for example, is the first gardener (0:47:11) Codey: bee that you get. And it also says leafer, but I have no idea (0:47:15) Codey: what that means. And she it says. (0:47:19) Codey: European honeybee apis mellifera. And then when you go to the second one, um, it’s a (0:47:26) Codey: blue orchard Mason be Osmea lignaria. And like that Osmea lignaria is the scientific (0:47:33) Codey: name for the blue orchard bees. So I really liked that. Um, that they have that. And I, (0:47:39) Codey: my favorite one is, Oh my gosh, they have Khalidies in here. Wow. Sorry, I’m getting (0:47:44) Al: I think the leaf cutter, by the way, is like how experienced they are, because mine all (0:47:48) Al: say rookie. (0:47:50) Al: Was it after gardener? (0:47:51) Al: Was it gardener, comma? (0:47:52) Al: Leaf cutter. (0:47:52) Codey: Yeah, Gardener comma Leifer. (0:47:53) Al: Yeah. (0:47:54) Al: Leafer. (0:47:55) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:47:56) Codey: Oh, that makes sense. (0:47:56) Al: I think that’s their rank of how experienced they are. (0:47:58) Codey: Because I have for my explore. (0:48:02) Codey: I have three explorers now and I have an explorer who’s. (0:48:04) Codey: I have two explorers who are buzzers and then one is a scout. (0:48:08) Codey: And then I have four. (0:48:10) Codey: I have all the crafters so far. (0:48:12) Codey: So the first one is the professor who’s like the big. (0:48:16) Codey: I mean, she’s kind of like the queen, basically. (0:48:18) Codey: She’s the one who is directing the show. (0:48:20) Codey: She’s at a computer. (0:48:22) Codey: And she’s always just bossing people around. (0:48:24) Codey: It’s very hilarious. (0:48:26) Codey: Um, and then there are other crafters. (0:48:30) Codey: So there’s one that’s an Eastern carpenter B, um, and she runs the. (0:48:37) Codey: Like crafting tools and crafting like doors and stuff like that. (0:48:42) Codey: And then there’s the, um, what does she do the cooking one? (0:48:48) Codey: Yeah, the cooking one. (0:48:49) Codey: and then there’s one that (0:48:51) Codey: Um, (0:48:52) Codey: and I love her. So she has one of her one side of her hair shaved. And I love that. And she also, (0:48:58) Codey: um, is an andrenid, which are mining bees. So it’s funny that like, and they, they actually like will (0:49:05) Codey: make little mud things. And so it’s, I love that she’s the one that’s, they made an andrenid, the, (0:49:10) Codey: the kiln bee. Um, yeah. So I just really kudos to them for that. Love that. Thank you. They also have (0:49:17) Codey: two pairs of wings. (0:49:22) Codey: That have to like, there are four, so there’s four wings total because bees don’t have two wings. (0:49:30) Codey: They have four wings. Yep. That’s me. (0:49:34) Al: Do they just look like one wing with two parts? (0:49:36) Codey: No, they look, if you look at them like in the, if you zoom in on anything like in the game, (0:49:43) Codey: it’s very clear that there are, there’s a four wing, which is the bigger wing and the hind wing, (0:49:47) Codey: which is the smaller wing and which is what bees have. They have four wings. (0:49:52) Codey: Um, and when they fly, they use a special hair to hook their wings together so that they (0:50:01) Codey: look like they have two wings, but then they really have four wings. So anyway, (0:50:06) Codey: that’s me being pedantic. Um, just about this. (0:50:08) Al: I mean, I think that’s what people expect. (0:50:12) Al: I don’t think they would want you to talk about bees and not be specific. (0:50:15) Codey: That’s true. Uh, about this very specific topic. Uh, what level are you at now? (0:50:21) Al: How do I find that? (0:50:22) Al: Is that the number in the star? (0:50:23) Codey: Yeah, okay. I’m at level nine. (0:50:25) Al: I’m at four. (0:50:28) Al: Oh, okay. (0:50:28) Al: That’s not, I mean, I presume it’s like, it takes longer and longer to get to each level, (0:50:33) Codey: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And so there’s multiple mechanics in the game that I’m going to go (0:50:33) Al: but it’s not like I’m at level two, you know, I’ve played some of the game. (0:50:43) Codey: through. And like, it’s, I kind of also, when I do that, I go through the, the different locations. (0:50:52) Codey: Three locations. The first location is the garden. And that’s where you have gardening (0:50:58) Codey: bees that do the garden. So when you go outside of the hive, there’s a map that you, that’s, (0:51:06) Codey: when you first start, it’s just cluttered and has stuff like weeds that you need to pick or (0:51:15) Codey: stumps or rocks all over the place. And so you clear those things with those tools. (0:51:22) Codey: And you can build the tools. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. It’s not, the weeds are just really, (0:51:23) Al: Although I have to question, right? (0:51:26) Al: So the weeds you get rid of with scissors. (0:51:28) Al: The scissors die after one use. (0:51:30) Al: What’s our terrible scissors of these? (0:51:32) Al: Right, seriously. (0:51:36) Codey: there’s a lot of, like, they’re hefty, you know, you gotta, (0:51:39) Al: They’re little B scissors. (0:51:41) Al: They can’t just… (0:51:43) Codey: the weeds are just like, they’re a lot and they just dull the scissors really fast. (0:51:48) Codey: Well, they’re shears. But yeah, like gardening shears. (0:51:52) Al: It’s just a different can of scissor, come on. (0:51:52) Codey: Uh, I’m curious if in the, within the definition of sheer. (0:52:02) Al: Are they just like garden scissors? (0:52:04) Codey: Yeah. I want to know. So it’s a verb. I don’t see anything definition. I love, I love this. (0:52:12) Al: Define garden shears. Large shears used for gardening. Come on, helpful. (0:52:14) Codey: Shears. Shears may refer to scissors. (0:52:23) Codey: Which are also called shears. Hair cutting shears. (0:52:24) Al: Ah, here we go. A cutting instrument in which two blades move past each other, like scissors, but typically large. (0:52:32) Codey: but it looks like it looks like “shears” is the original word and “scissors” is within. (0:52:38) Al: It depends. Yeah, it depends what language. Old English had sira here and scissor. (0:52:40) Codey: Okay, so “shear.” (0:52:49) Al: Yeah, it looks like sira is probably older word than scissors. (0:52:53) Codey: Okay, cool. We’re starting off great. (0:52:55) Al: We love the etymology of words. (0:52:59) Codey: Yeah. So (0:53:02) Codey: in this area, this is where you’re going to grow different things and collect resources. (0:53:07) Codey: You start off with only one gardening bee at first. And but as you explore the town, (0:53:12) Codey: you find more and then you recruit them to your hive and to help out with gardening. (0:53:18) Codey: So there are three like kind of classes of things that you can garden. So there’s flowers, (0:53:25) Codey: which you plant a flower and then it has stages, four stages of being nurtured. (0:53:32) Codey: And so it just like grows and grows and grows. And then when it becomes a full flower, (0:53:36) Codey: your bees will gather nectar from it. And then nectar is what is used as the energy to (0:53:43) Codey: fuel the exploration. It’s not honey, it’s nectar. It’s just nectar. Well, I mean, (0:53:44) Al: Oh yeah, it’s not even funny. (0:53:49) Al: I was wrong on so many levels. (0:53:53) Codey: honey is nectar that has been like cooked basically. Okay. (0:53:58) Al: Stop trying to stop trying to make it sound like I was being correct. (0:54:02) Codey: Okay. So yeah, that is what nectar is. Yeah. So once you fully grow a flower, (0:54:03) Al: Look, it’s orange, it’s an orange sticky liquid. (0:54:12) Codey: it will stay as a flower. So it stays there. It just kind of goes to sleep. So it has like (0:54:16) Codey: inactive periods and then active periods. And during its active period, your bees will (0:54:21) Codey: passively collect nectar from it and fill your nectar tank, which is something you can also (0:54:27) Codey: expand so I’m at 75 space in my nectar tank. (0:54:32) Codey: Um, the next thing you can grow are fruits and veggies, um, where anything that there’s (0:54:39) Codey: actually any fruits that are what I’m talking about here. So I guess I’ll just say veggies. (0:54:42) Al: I think it’s just veggies. Yeah, I don’t think it’s any (0:54:43) Codey: Um, yeah, I think it’s just veggies. So these are things that are similar. So you plant them (0:54:49) Codey: and then you have to go through the nurturing cycle and whatever, but you have to like whenever (0:54:53) Codey: something’s being nurtured, you have to manually tell your bee like, Hey, go upgrade that. Like, (0:54:58) Codey: go check on it or whatever. And then it upgrades. (0:55:02) Codey: And then once you collect it or harvest it, the plant disappears. So your veggie is harvested, (0:55:08) Codey: that little plot goes away and there’s just nothing there. You do get the plant and it goes (0:55:17) Codey: into your inventory, I guess. I don’t, there’s no way to look at your inventory that I can tell. So (0:55:23) Codey: I’m assuming that’s where it went. You also receive one seed of the next plant rarity up. (0:55:32) Codey: It’s common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. So if you have harvested a common plant, you will (0:55:41) Codey: then get an uncommon seed. And then the final category are shrubs and trees, which I guess (0:55:47) Codey: is also, it’s a fruit. This is a fruit. Again, you manually nurture it and then you harvest it, (0:55:56) Codey: but once it’s harvested, the plant just goes on a cool down. So like the shrubs kind of just go to (0:56:02) Codey: pop up with new fruits eventually. Yeah, no, there isn’t. Other than looking at the crafting (0:56:08) Al: Yeah, there really is no way to find to see your inventory. That’s weird. Why? (0:56:14) Codey: things and seeing what you have. So I’ve, yes, yeah. But I’ll be like, oh, I wonder how many (0:56:14) Al: Yeah, but you’re only seeing there what’s related to that specific thing, right? Like that is an (0:56:24) Codey: of this one resource I have. And so I’ll just go to the crafting thing and look for something (0:56:28) Al: Yeah. Yeah. But there’s no like way to see all those resources and also like your consumables (0:56:29) Codey: that uses that resource. And I’ll be like, Oh, I should probably go (0:56:32) Codey: get more. Yep. Yep. The garden. Yeah. Yeah, so, um, there’s Yeah, I (0:56:36) Al: like your shears and your watering cans and stuff like if you want to know that you have (0:56:40) Al: to go to the garden and yeah. (0:56:51) Codey: guess I forgot to mention the watering cans. So that basically (0:56:54) Codey: stops your it makes your plans wake up. So if they’re all on a (0:56:59) Codey: the cool down, they’re all sleeping. (0:57:00) Codey: Um, you know, I think that’s a good question. (0:57:02) Codey: water them and then they start producing nectar again. So this (0:57:05) Codey: is good if you have like, if all of your flowers are inactive, (0:57:09) Codey: and you want to go adventuring and you’re out of nectar, you (0:57:12) Codey: just wake up all your plants, but I barely ever use it. I have (0:57:16) Codey: 102 watering cans right now, because I just don’t do it that (0:57:18) Codey: often. So that’s gardening. The next thing is all the different (0:57:22) Codey: things that you can do inside the hive. I think the biggest (0:57:26) Codey: thing in the hive is a merge table. I’ve never played a merge (0:57:28) Al: Yeah. You’ve never played one before. And it is funny that this is just, yeah, (0:57:29) Codey: game before so this (0:57:32) Codey: I don’t think so. (0:57:36) Al: the crafting is literally just a merge 3 game, which it is exactly, listener, what you would (0:57:38) Codey: Yeah. (0:57:42) Al: expect. It’s like you have, you add some things to the table and then you put them next to each (0:57:48) Al: other and they turn into different things. But what this is used for then is like, it gives you (0:57:54) Al: other items that you can use. So like you have seeds that you can put together. (0:57:58) Al: And it gives you like generic seeds that don’t actually aren’t a seed for something (0:58:03) Al: that you can’t use them. And you put through them together and it will give you (0:58:07) Al: an actual seed that you can use for a random plant. And it kind of works like that. (0:58:10) Codey: Yeah, it randomizes it. (0:58:11) Codey: Um, Mm-hmm. (0:58:13) Al: It’s an interesting way of doing that, I guess, compared to other games. (0:58:18) Al: I’m not sure I would say I find that super fun, but it’s interesting. (0:58:22) Codey: Yeah, I think for me like there are so many plants that I have not found (0:58:29) Codey: like you can look in your compendium or whatever and and look and see how many things you’re missing and (0:58:34) Codey: There’s so many that I haven’t found and I’m like, I don’t know how to I don’t know how to get those I’ve done (0:58:40) Codey: the (0:58:42) Codey: I’ve opened up so many of these seeds. Why have I not received at this point like another? (0:58:50) Codey: Like why have I not filled all of the (0:58:52) Codey: I’m like missing like half of them. (0:58:56) Codey: And there’s nothing on the ones I’m missing that say, Oh, these are received by this. (0:59:00) Codey: This is received by this. (0:59:00) Codey: I’m just assuming it’s just through as you play the game, they’ll just come up, but it was a little weird. (0:59:08) Codey: Yeah. And there’s two merge properties that just are on a cool down. (0:59:14) Codey: One of them is the pollen that builds up that you then merge into a random goop pile. (0:59:20) Codey: and then that merges to become. (0:59:22) Codey: And then also whenever you send your bees on missions during the town, (0:59:26) Codey: there’s like certain areas that you can go to to get resources. (0:59:30) Codey: And then you can merge those resources. So for example, (0:59:32) Codey: there’s a lumber yard from that. You get a pile of sticks. (0:59:34) Codey: You can then merge the sticks and then you get like a piece of usable (0:59:38) Codey: wood. (0:59:38) Codey: That you can then craft used for crafting. (0:59:40) Codey: So for example, (0:59:42) Codey: if you’re going to be able to find a lot of wood, (0:59:52) Codey: if you’re going to be able to find a lot of wood, (0:59:54) Codey: you’re going to be able to find a lot of wood. (0:59:56) Codey: So, yeah. (1:00:00) Codey: I also think it’s interesting that like, (1:00:00) Codey: you usually have to merge three items, but then if you merge. (1:00:02) Codey: It like goes to the cost goes down. (1:00:06) Codey: So if you merge five items. (1:00:08) Codey: You would think that you would get one of the crap. (1:00:12) Codey: Like created item and then have two leftover. (1:00:15) Al: I don’t know yet. I think it depends on the game. I think it’s fun. I think for this, (1:00:16) Codey: But if you merge five, you actually get two, like it uses everything. (1:00:18) Codey: I was just really surprised when that, when I, when that happened. (1:00:22) Codey: I think. (1:00:24) Codey: Okay. (1:00:26) Codey: Thank you. (1:00:30) Al: I think it makes more sense because it’s like you can get more of the, you know, the rarer (1:00:38) Codey: Yeah, I think it’s so I also think it’s funny because like, you actually have to think about the merge tables, and where everything is because if it’s not touching. There’ve been so many times where I’ve had, I thought I’ve had four of a resource, and then I go to merge and like, oh, well, I’m just gonna have something left over and then I merged them and I there’s one left over and then I just see one of another one of the things over off in the corner and I’m like, ah, I could have used you. (1:01:03) Al: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s nice because you can like, it doesn’t automatically merge them. (1:01:04) Codey: I’m like, “Dang it!” (1:01:08) Codey: Mm-hm. (1:01:08) Al: You can put them next to each other and then you just drag one of them onto the rest of (1:01:12) Al: the group and it merges them all together. So if you, if you are in that situation and (1:01:14) Codey: Yep. (1:01:17) Al: you don’t have ADHD, you can look around the entire board and see what you have and put (1:01:21) Al: them all together. (1:01:22) Codey: Yeah. (1:01:23) Codey: Which I usually catch, but not always. (1:01:26) Codey: So, so it’s kind of interesting because like if you, for example, collected three legendary seeds, (1:01:32) Codey: you could merge those or you could wait to get two more legendary seeds and then merge them into two plants. (1:01:38) Al: Yeah (1:01:38) Codey: And it’s like a delayed gratification thing, but that’s not happening. (1:01:42) Codey: Not in this economy. (1:01:44) Al: You’re eating the marshmallow (1:01:44) Codey: So, yeah. (1:01:47) Codey: I am eating my cookie. (1:01:48) Codey: I’m not gonna, I don’t care if I receive two the next day. (1:01:51) Codey: Because I’m gonna forget it. (1:01:53) Codey: If it’s that I’m just gonna be like, oh, I got two cookies today. (1:01:55) Codey: That’s cool. (1:01:56) Codey: I don’t know why that happened, but. (1:01:58) Al: Yeah. (1:02:00) Codey: And then you expand the merge table through the quests. (1:02:04) Codey: Yeah. (1:02:05) Codey: And then there’s also just regular crafting. (1:02:08) Codey: There’s like a chef, there’s a regular crafter who makes like lumber out of base wood and makes nails and roof tiles and whatever. (1:02:17) Codey: And a kiln worker who makes clay and I think glass eventually, but I haven’t gotten that yet. (1:02:24) Al: » I definitely haven’t. (1:02:25) Codey: Yeah. (1:02:26) Codey: And then you, you use those resources for improving the town, trading with folks, upgrading the hive, like different things like that. (1:02:38) Codey: But you can go to the town map. (1:02:42) Codey: So you go to that and there’s different quests that you see. (1:02:46) Codey: And you can choose the quests and they usually use nectar and there are certain distance away. (1:02:54) Codey: So you have to make sure that the bees that you have can make that distance. (1:02:57) Codey: Or if you only have two bees that can, like each bee can move, has like 50 power or whatever. (1:03:03) Codey: And the thing has like 90. (1:03:05) Codey: you have to take both of the bees to. (1:03:08) Codey: And then you get 100% success on that mission. (1:03:13) Codey: You start off the map is very limited at first everything’s in fog, but pretty quickly you clear an area of the map, and it gives you access to like a resource gathering point like the walnut tree, so you go and collect walnuts and then you can use that to make like an oil. (1:03:33) Codey: That is then, for whatever reason, given to your exploring piece, usually. (1:03:38) Codey: Um, or it’s used, sorry, it’s used to for crafting, but also sometimes they want it. (1:03:42) Al: Has everything– isn’t everything? (1:03:43) Codey: Yeah. (1:03:45) Codey: Yeah. (1:03:46) Codey: Um, there’s also like villagers that you like neighbors that you have that you find (1:03:52) Codey: them and you give them things. (1:03:54) Codey: So they usually want like a salad or, or a muffin or whatever. (1:04:00) Codey: And so you can just make that and give it to them and your reputation with them (1:04:03) Codey: increases, and then you can, they give you free stuff every now and then. (1:04:08) Codey: Sometimes it’s useful. (1:04:09) Codey: Sometimes it’s not. (1:04:13) Codey: Um, but yeah, you’re basically like cleaning up the town with all of that. (1:04:17) Codey: Um, so there’s the, oh, there’s also the shops. (1:04:20) Codey: So there’s a gardening shop where you can buy things. (1:04:23) Codey: It’s usually two different tools, a specific flower, and then a bag of random (1:04:29) Codey: veggie seeds, um, there’s that, uh, there’s a decoration shop, which I don’t touch. (1:04:39) Codey: And then there’s a cafe, and then that will buy things that boost your (1:04:42) Codey: bees, um, like make them go faster for a bit, uh, expedition or whatever. (1:04:49) Codey: Um, and each of these shops have their own currency that (1:04:51) Codey: you just get through gameplay. (1:04:54) Codey: Um, like you gain flower petals from your flowers eventually. (1:04:59) Codey: And then you can take that to the gardening shop and then they’ll, she’ll (1:05:01) Codey: give you points for giving her combinations that she wants. (1:05:05) Codey: Oh, I didn’t mention that there’s also like a question. (1:05:08) Codey: board or a request board, I guess, where it’s just like someone wants these resources and (1:05:15) Codey: they’re willing to give you these, these rewards. And you can do that to get, I usually do that (1:05:22) Codey: for anything that gives me resources to make the tools, because I want to clear that map, (1:05:29) Codey: my garden map. I want it to be pristine so that I can not decorate it. Everything levels (1:05:36) Codey: up throughout the game as per (1:05:38) Codey: gameplay as games do. So for example, your explorers start out (1:05:43) Codey: with, oh, I said 75, but I think it’s 50 power. But by doing, if (1:05:49) Codey: you look at their like collection page, it’ll tell you (1:05:52) Codey: what they want. So right now I have one that wants to complete (1:05:56) Codey: 30 walnut tree expeditions, 20 in the Woodlands, 20 in the (1:06:00) Codey: quarry and 20 in the oat field. And if I do all of those things, (1:06:03) Codey: then she’ll increase her power to 125, I think. (1:06:08) Codey: Guess where I’m at right now. And that’s the same for all (1:06:11) Codey: these. So that’s my explorers, my gardeners want to like (1:06:15) Codey: nurture common flowers 50 times nurture this blah, blah, blah, (1:06:19) Codey: blah, blah. crafter, this crafter wants to craft vegetable (1:06:24) Codey: soup 10 times. And yeah, it just makes them more efficient or (1:06:31) Codey: provides more options for things that they can build. Yeah, (1:06:35) Codey: number of Gober number get big. (1:06:38) Codey: Yeah, number get big. There’s some in game currencies. Like there’s the pay. Yeah. (1:06:38) Al: Yeah, you struggled with that initially, a little bit. (1:06:48) Al: Yeah, let’s talk about the monetization in general, right? Because the interesting thing (1:06:54) Al: and the thing that obviously we want to praise is that this game doesn’t have ads, and it (1:07:00) Al: definitely doesn’t feel like it’s trying to shove paying lots of money all the time in (1:07:06) Al: your face. Which is good, just to make it clear, we like this. (1:07:06) Codey: Yeah, I actually, I didn’t even realize that it, that it did this until I was talking to (1:07:15) Codey: someone recently about ads and how some games, like so many of these mobile games, they just (1:07:20) Codey: throw ads at you constantly and you can barely play before they just throw an ad at you. (1:07:25) Codey: And this game doesn’t do that. (1:07:26) Codey: It just doesn’t, there’s a little shop thing that you can go to that’ll give you tokens (1:07:30) Codey: or event tickets or the in-game B-Bucks and you can use the B-Bucks to then make things (1:07:36) Codey: go faster, but I’ve had no, no desire to do any of that. (1:07:42) Codey: You don’t have to, which is really cool. (1:07:43) Al: Yeah. (1:07:47) Codey: I think the last like big main gameplay thing for this game is that the traveling trader (1:07:52) Codey: B, her name is Abigail. (1:07:57) Codey: Actually she’s not a B, she’s a ladybug. (1:07:59) Al: It’s shocking! Shocking! Come on, Cody. (1:08:00) Codey: I just went to her page. (1:08:01) Codey: I was like, oh, this is a ladybug. (1:08:04) Codey: I’m sorry. (1:08:06) Codey: Look for tiers of, I don’t even know what to call this, like requests. (1:08:14) Codey: So the first one is always going to be easy, the easiest requests. (1:08:18) Codey: So she just wants like one of this, two of that and five of that or whatever. (1:08:22) Codey: And you get a pretty basic request, basic reward. (1:08:26) Codey: And then as you go down the tiers, you get more things. (1:08:27) Codey: So I made sure to go through so I could get three shares because I wanted that really (1:08:32) Codey: bad. (1:08:33) Codey: Um, if I do this next one, I get speedy grow, which hurries. (1:08:36) Codey: The time left on a plant by 30 minutes. (1:08:38) Codey: And then the last one, she gives you three rows. (1:08:42) Codey: Grape is currently the one that I have, which I would like, but she departs (1:08:46) Codey: in a day and there’s no way I’m getting this done. (1:08:48) Codey: So, um, so yeah, that’s a way to get more resources, get more flowers, get (1:08:53) Codey: decorations sometimes are the, are the end goal and she’s just around for a week. (1:08:59) Codey: And yeah, it’s not too in your face. (1:09:02) Codey: So I don’t know. (1:09:04) Codey: That’s it’s it’s just a cute little little game not (1:09:06) Codey: too difficult. It hasn’t really like like we’ve been playing I’ve been playing it for (1:09:11) Codey: like three weeks now and it doesn’t really like the difficulty level doesn’t increase (1:09:18) Codey: a lot like some mobile games. It’s like oh but now you got to go do this so that you (1:09:22) Codey: can do this so that you can do this other thing and oh here’s this other mechanic and (1:09:26) Codey: it’s it’s just the the three places and it adds stuff that you could do but you don’t (1:09:31) Codey: have to like I could just leave that bunny never visit the bunny again either of the (1:09:37) Codey: I think they’re both bunnies oh one’s a mouse but I could just like ignore them for the (1:09:41) Codey: rest of my life and never talk to them and the game’s not going to punish me for that so. (1:09:45) Al: Yeah, I didn’t get super into it. And I think that’s mainly just because it’s… (1:09:51) Al: Why didn’t I get into it? It’s always a hard one to figure out. (1:09:53) Codey: Oh, because of the cloud save. (1:09:55) Al: I mean, that’s part of it, right? But like, I still sit next to my work tablet for eight hours a day, (1:10:01) Al: right? And I could absolutely have had it on my screen and playing it loads if I wanted to. (1:10:06) Al: So it’s always a hard thing to figure out why a game never grabs you. (1:10:11) Al: I think for me, certainly to start with the game. (1:10:15) Al: The game feels very busy, and because you don’t understand all of the mechanics to start with, it feels a little bit overwhelming. (1:10:24) Al: It introduces things to you slowly, but all those things it introduces to you slowly are on the screen to start with. (1:10:31) Al: And it’s like you go to the garden initially, and it’s completely overgrown. You’re like, “Whoa, this is well overwhelming.” (1:10:39) Al: And then you get introduced to the fog cleaning mechanic, and you get shown this humongous map. (1:10:45) Al: That is a lot of fog to clear. I was looking for a quite casual cam game, and although that can be what it is, it also in that moment felt quite overwhelming to me. (1:11:04) Al: And I probably never got over that initial feeling. (1:11:10) Codey: Yeah, that’s that’s fair. I think for me it’s like, I looked at it and I was like, oh, that’s, that’s something to do over like a period of time, like, I can do this, this is just something that I’ll play until like, and finish the clearing and stuff and, but it’ll be satisfying. (1:11:28) Codey: So, versus like a game, and it seems like there’s an end because you can see that the garden map ends you can see that there’s not more past the fog areas or. (1:11:40) Codey: Whatever. So yeah, so you could totally, I mean, they could add to it for sure if they wanted, but as it currently stands, like there is an end in sight versus, you know, sometimes in some of these games, it’s like, and it’s sometimes it seems so unattainable, but I currently have like maybe a quarter of my garden cleared out. (1:11:40) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. It’s very much an island. (1:12:04) Codey: So I’m feeling pretty like I know that I can, like, I can attain this. (1:12:04) Al: Right. Yeah, I also think that I never really mesh well with like crafting to craft games, (1:12:10) Codey: It just takes time. (1:12:16) Codey: Yeah. (1:12:16) Al: which is what this is, and it’s kind of a little bit unfortunate that we had Luma Island two weeks (1:12:20) Al: ago, and then we’ve got this later, which is like they’re very different games, but also (1:12:24) Al: fundamentally, they are both craft for the sake of crafting. And I think the craft to craft can (1:12:33) Al: also over realm make. (1:12:34) Al: quite a lot because it’s like there is so much. And yeah, sometimes we just I mean, (1:12:41) Al: there’s just types of games that we never we don’t gel with. But if that’s something (1:12:44) Al: that you like, then I can understand why it would be a good game. I mean, it looks gorgeous. (1:12:49) Al: I love how it looks. And I think a lot of what it does is good. It doesn’t feel scammy (1:12:54) Al: like a lot of mobile games do it. It worked really nicely on my 13 inch iPad Pro. It filled (1:13:01) Al: of the screen, like it wasn’t trying to be like a small window in there. (1:13:04) Al: So that’s good. Like it does a lot of things really well. It’s a well made game. (1:13:12) Al: Other than my cloud save issue, I think it’s really good. (1:13:16) Codey: Yeah. I concur wholeheartedly. So yeah. In conclusion, I said this is the first game that dot dot dot and then I said it’s a mystery for Al because I was like I was going to write it out but then I was like, no, I’m going to wait. (1:13:22) Al: if that’s oh yep oh yes yes you had a you had a little secret for me for some reason (1:13:35) Codey: Hello, I’m going to go on for dramatic effect. This is the first game that I’ve played on this podcast. (1:13:42) Codey: That’s a mobile game that I will have. (1:13:47) Codey: I have no intention of uninstalling this game going forward. (1:13:54) Codey: I don’t see it. (1:13:56) Codey: It doesn’t annoy me. (1:13:58) Codey: I don’t feel overwhelmed by it personally. (1:14:02) Codey: I’m going to keep playing it until I’m done. (1:14:06) Codey: I was just thinking about all the mobile games we’ve played. (1:14:10) Codey: And usually it’s just like, I’ve already uninstalled it. (1:14:13) Codey: It’s like, “Please, Al, let’s record it.” (1:14:16) Codey: I can uninstall this game, but not this one. (1:14:19) Al: Yeah I guess that’s good because it’s like in most of the time when you’ve done that it’s not (1:14:20) Codey: This one’s good. (1:14:24) Al: because you don’t like the game it’s because you get too sucked into it and it consumes your life. (1:14:28) Codey: Also that yes, there’s also that this this has struck a nice balance for me for sure. That’s it (1:14:36) Al: All right. Well, thank you, Cody, for joining me to talk about Honey Grove. (1:14:40) Al: Everybody loves a Cody talking about bees episode. (1:14:44) Codey: I am on Instagram @hikingbeagle and I am on Blue Sky at Cody Mathis. (1:14:46) Al: Where can people find you on the Internet? (1:15:00) Codey: It’s my name. (1:15:00) Codey: That’s it. (1:15:02) Codey: What about you? (1:15:03) Al: You can find me at thescottsbot on mastdons.scot and also blue sky and probably some others, (1:15:12) Al: but I don’t care about them. You can find the podcast on tumblr and on blue sky at THSPod. (1:15:20) Al: You can find a feedback form on our website harvestseason.club. Send us feedback there. (1:15:27) Al: Also on the website you can find links to everything to do with the podcast, (1:15:30) Al: including our link to our patreon patreon.com/th (1:15:34) Al: where you can get access to our slack. Sometimes you get sneak peeks of what’s coming up (1:15:39) Al: and you also get access to our bonus podcast episodes. We have two (1:15:46) Al: recorded and edited ready to go exciting episodes of the greenhouse coming up. (1:15:53) Al: I think that’s everything. Thank you Cody again for joining me. (1:15:56) Codey: Thank you, as always, for having me and the listeners for listening to me ramble about bees. (1:16:00) Al: Until next time, have a good harvest. (1:16:02) Codey: Have a good harvest. Holiday harvest? Oh, yes. (1:16:03) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:16:03) Al: Have a good nectar harvest. (1:16:14) Theme Tune: pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:16:18) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:16:22) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestsseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:16:28) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:16:38) Codey: Do you want me to take the reins on this one, or you got it? (1:16:39) Al: No, I’m good. I’m good. I’m good. I need to, I need to, no, no, it’s not, it’s not, it’s (1:16:43) Codey: Stop taking my podcast, Robbie! (1:16:46) Al: not that, it’s not that. I just, I like to, I like to drive it because otherwise I think (1:16:46) Codey: Okay. (1:16:53) Al: I get distracted by other things. (1:16:54) Codey: Yeah. Sounds good.…

The Harvest Season

1
Spider Mode 1:35:11

12 weeksที่แล้ว1:35:11

1:35:11

Al and Jonnie talk about Luma Island Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:03:55: What Have We Been Up To 00:13:53: Game News 00:37:20: Luma Island 01:32:07: Outro Links Wholesome Snack Wholesome Snack Humble Bundle Wanderstop Release Date Overthrown Early Access Snacko Roadmap Haunted Chocolatier Development Update Farm Folks Gameplay trailer Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al and we’re here today to talk about cut to story games. (0:00:35) Jonnie: And my name is Jonny. (0:00:40) Al: Ah, welcome Johnny. (0:00:44) Jonnie: I am good for reasons that are entirely my fault. (0:00:48) Jonnie: We were recording at a really convenient time for me today, (0:00:50) Al: “Yes, I’m the one that’s that’s gone up early, so… (0:00:50) Jonnie: so I am way more awake than I usually am. (0:00:53) Jonnie: How are you, Al? (0:00:54) Jonnie: Thank you. (0:00:56) Al: Look, I mean, we used to do this occasionally, record early my time, and it just, it feels (0:01:05) Al: like it’s less, it’s less convenient for me because of your later time zone now, like… (0:01:12) Jonnie: Yeah, the time zone now works really well actually for me to record early because it’s a good time zone for that. (0:01:14) Al: Yeah, because if we want to record at 5pm, you’re in. (0:01:20) Al: time, which on a weekend is fine, probably, but on a weekday is probably the earliest you could do. (0:01:29) Al: That’s 7am my time, so it kind of basically gets rid of that for weekdays, (0:01:34) Al: which we used to do a couple of times is record an evening your weekday and morning my weekday, (0:01:40) Al: because we were exactly 12 hours apart, I think, when you were in New Zealand, (0:01:44) Jonnie: Yep. Hey, Al. (0:01:45) Al: which made it perfect. So it could like, we could start at 5am my time and 5pm your time, (0:01:49) Al: Whereas now it’s like… (0:01:50) Al: I start work at 8am, so it’s like starting recording at 7am. It’s not ideal, but it’s Sunday, so it doesn’t matter. (0:01:57) Jonnie: And we are now just going to rebrand to a logistics podcast. (0:02:01) Jonnie: I’m sure our listeners are very excited to be hearing of that. (0:02:05) Al: I have this great app from my Mac now where I have everybody’s time zones for the podcast typed into it. (0:02:12) Al: And I have a slider where I can just choose my time, and it tells me what everybody else’s time is at that point. (0:02:16) Al: It’s great for organizing stuff. (0:02:18) Jonnie: Okay, one, I’m gonna need you to send that to me (0:02:20) Jonnie: after the show, that sounds very convenient. (0:02:22) Jonnie: I work across like five different time zones, (0:02:24) Jonnie: so that sounds amazing. (0:02:26) Jonnie: And two, I’m curious how many time zones we have as folks, (0:02:29) Jonnie: ‘cause there’s quite a few, I’m guessing. (0:02:30) Al: So if we just talk about the base team, so we’re not talking about the people that are on a couple times a year, that is four time zones. (0:02:42) Al: So I’m in one, you’re in one, Kevin is in one, and then Cody, are we counting Bev still? They’ve not been on in a while, but Cody and Bev are in the same time zone. (0:02:52) Al: So that’s four time zones. (0:02:54) Al: Obviously, other people then have different ones, but I think Kelly is in a different one, and who else? (0:03:00) Al: Is that it? Have we covered all the American time zones now? (0:03:02) Jonnie: What about Micah, where’s Micah? (0:03:04) Al: Oh, Micah Central, is that the same? (0:03:09) Jonnie: I think it’s got to be the same as like one of Kiv and/or Cody. (0:03:12) Al: it’s not the same as Cody. What time is Kevin? Yeah, I think Kevin’s in Central as well. So, (0:03:20) Al: it’s the same as Kevin. Anyway, moving on. This episode, we’re going to talk about Luma Island. (0:03:20) Jonnie: We needed like a west coast American to you know really round it out (0:03:35) Al: Yeah, that was a full stop. We’re going to talk about Luma Island. (0:03:41) Al: Um… (0:03:43) Al: Before that we have some news, surprisingly still busy with news considering the time of year, (0:03:50) Al: and I don’t think it’s about to stop now, and we’ll explain why in our first game news, but (0:03:56) Al: before that, Jonny, what have you been up to? (0:03:58) Jonnie: What have I been up to? (0:04:00) Jonnie: I’ve been up to pocket of all varieties, many varieties, (0:04:05) Jonnie: all the pockets. (0:04:06) Jonnie: Pocket TCG, still plugging along with that. (0:04:06) Al: I haven’t done today’s battles yet. I’ll maybe set them up on auto during this podcast. (0:04:09) Jonnie: But Al, I really want to know, have you got any Venus yet? (0:04:19) Al: And maybe I’ll get the Venusaur today. I don’t know. We’ll see. (0:04:24) Jonnie: I’m not going to lie, I would be very stoked if you got the Venus (0:04:26) Jonnie: or while we were recording. (0:04:28) Al: Live on a podcast. Yeah. Let’s do it. I’m setting up. (0:04:29) Jonnie: Yeah, yeah. (0:04:32) Jonnie: Just for the listeners, how dry are you at this point? (0:04:36) Al: I think I’m at 28 promo packs and no Venusaur. So, interestingly, I only have two of the (0:04:42) Jonnie: Life has not been gone to you at all. (0:04:45) Al: Greninja. I mean, two’s what I want, right? I don’t want any more than two. But it’s not (0:04:50) Al: the Greninja that I’m getting lots of. I’ve got two and then it stopped. It’s the Jigglypuff (0:04:56) Al: and Haunter and Onyx that I’ve got nearly double digits of each of them. (0:05:01) Jonnie: Although, annoyingly, you kind of do want more of the more rare ones, because you get more Shine Dust for the duplicates, and while Shine Dust is not currently useful for anything worthwhile, number big means good. (0:05:06) Al: That’s, yeah, true. (0:05:14) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, right. I said those, I said those battles off. So we’ll see what happens. (0:05:20) Jonnie: But outside of Pokémon Pocket, I’ve also been playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete, whatever it’s called, which… (0:05:31) Jonnie: …is now fully come out in its complete edition, and there is a lot in this game now. There is so much. It is very overwhelming. (0:05:39) Al: Well, it is like eight years old at this point, and they’ve just shoved everything into it, so. (0:05:44) Jonnie: Yep. I feel like it will get to a good place, but at the moment it’s very overwhelming, and I’m just trying to work out what is the limited time stuff that I need to get done, particularly being December with all of the various Christmas events. (0:05:57) Jonnie: events. So just trying to work. (0:06:01) Jonnie: That out. But other than both of those Marvel Rivals is this new hero shooter game that came (0:06:09) Jonnie: out and look, I don’t like shooting games. I played a little bit of Overwatch. I’m terrible (0:06:15) Jonnie: at them. But there was something fun about being part of a thing that is having a moment. And I (0:06:20) Jonnie: feel like Marvel Rifles is that. And so while I’m terrible at it, I am having fun playing it in (0:06:26) Jonnie: these first few days. Well, that’s all it seems everyone is talking about. (0:06:29) Al: I have not played it, but I don’t want to say too much about it, but on the on the last (0:06:37) Al: podcast that I recorded, which is coming out in three weeks time, you will hear Kevin convince (0:06:43) Al: me to try it. So we’ll see, I guess, at some point. I wonder if by the time I next record (0:06:53) Al: an episode in a week, whether I will have played it or not, whether we have some. (0:06:59) Al: True out of time podcasting where I talk about the fact that I was convinced to play about (0:07:05) Al: it, and then I talk about the fact that I’ve played about it, and then you actually hear (0:07:09) Al: the being convinced to play it. We’ll see. We’ll see. We’ll see. I was totally not going (0:07:13) Jonnie: I really hope that that is the case and my prediction for your take on the game, Al, (0:07:18) Jonnie: is you will play it and you will be like, “I see why people like it and it is not for me.” (0:07:23) Jonnie: That will be your take. But… (0:07:26) Al: to play it until one thing in the episode, which I’m not going to spoil… (0:07:29) Al: There’s one specific thing that Kevin tells me about that I did not realize was the case (0:07:34) Al: for it, because I hadn’t seen any gameplay. And I had just been assuming based on everything (0:07:39) Al: that people had been saying, because people are like, “Oh, it’s just Overwatch, but Marvel.” (0:07:43) Al: And yeah, you’ll hear about that in three weeks’ time, listeners. (0:07:48) Jonnie: Amazing. (0:07:52) Jonnie: Yeah, but those are the things… (0:07:53) Jonnie: I guess just because I feel like it’s something you have to talk about (0:07:55) Jonnie: if you’re talking about a hero shooter. (0:07:57) Jonnie: So far, the character that I am liking the most is Hela, (0:08:02) Jonnie: which is probably not what I would have predicted (0:08:04) Jonnie: going into playing this game. (0:08:06) Jonnie: But that’s part of the fun of these sorts of games (0:08:08) Jonnie: is you find and connect with characters (0:08:11) Jonnie: that maybe you wouldn’t have otherwise. (0:08:15) Jonnie: Hela’s gimmick is a movement ability. (0:08:19) Jonnie: She’s kind of just a standard damage dealer. (0:08:21) Jonnie: She hits hard and has a relatively slow fire rate. (0:08:26) Jonnie: She has a stun ability and she throws some knives (0:08:30) Jonnie: that deal some delayed damage. (0:08:33) Jonnie: I don’t know how much of it really has anything to do (0:08:35) Jonnie: with her abilities from the comics and/or movies. (0:08:40) Jonnie: I know some feel particularly Hela-ry, (0:08:43) Jonnie: but I’m also not super familiar with her as a character (0:08:46) Jonnie: outside of that one Thor movie. (0:08:49) Jonnie: So yeah, she’s a pretty good stand-in sort of DTS-style character. (0:08:53) Al: I have talked about most of what I’ve been up to in the episode that will be coming in (0:08:54) Jonnie: And that’s what I’ve been up to. What have you been up to, Al? (0:09:02) Al: three weeks, but I specifically saved one thing to talk about in this episode, because (0:09:06) Al: I know that you’re on the same page as me with this game, and that is I have been trying (0:09:11) Al: to finish Legends of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom, because I started it when it came out, and (0:09:18) Al: I enjoyed it to start with, and it’s not like I’m not enjoying it anymore. (0:09:24) Al: But I just feel like I’m doing the same thing over and over again. (0:09:29) Al: And I know you’re going to say you don’t need to finish it. (0:09:31) Al: I know, I know, but I’m like two dungeons away from finishing. (0:09:35) Al: I feel like I just I want to finish it before I before I stop. (0:09:40) Al: But the I think the thing that I realised last night (0:09:46) Al: specifically was that I do not enjoy the boss fights in this game specifically. (0:09:53) Al: Because they are very passive, right? (0:10:00) Al: So you’ve got two ways of dealing with enemies in this game. (0:10:03) Al: You can either you can either turn into, you know, shadow link and attack them (0:10:11) Al: like you are link, which is kind of, you know, the traditional Zelda way of doing (0:10:15) Al: things, or you can use the echoes of enemies and they will attack instead. (0:10:21) Al: and for most… (0:10:23) Al: For most enemies, I’ve just been using this big floating plant with spikes, which works (0:10:28) Al: really well. It’s such a good… It’s so good that you… And you get it so early that basically (0:10:28) Jonnie: Yep, that’s what I used. (0:10:35) Al: nothing else replaces it. And I’m so close to the end of the game. But the problem is (0:10:43) Al: that I don’t find that fun for the boss battles, right? Because the whole point of boss battles, (0:10:48) Al: especially in like a Zelda game and stuff like that are for you’re figuring out what they (0:10:53) Al: do and you’re trying to figure out their weaknesses and you’re trying to take them (0:10:56) Al: down when they get to their weak point, right? But that is not possible to do with the echoes, (0:11:04) Al: right? Because you’re just throwing echoes up and hoping they don’t die, (0:11:07) Al: right? Because you can’t control them once you set them up. And the problem is you then, (0:11:12) Al: so then you default to going, “Well, maybe I do need to just be the link and attack them.” But (0:11:20) Al: Quite often, you just don’t have enough energy because you use (0:11:23) Al: up the energy while you’re linked. So you can’t be linked all the time, (0:11:28) Al: deliberately so, which is fair, but you just end up in this situation where (0:11:33) Al: you run out very quickly because the energy moves really quickly, and if you’re not immediately (0:11:42) Al: hitting the boss, you’re just dying. Finding it just such a frustrating situation, (0:11:53) Al: I really like the bosses because you’re having to figure out how to defeat this boss. Here, (0:11:59) Al: you’re just essentially throwing echoes at it and hoping they don’t die. (0:12:04) Jonnie: Yeah, I kind of agree and I feel like I feel like it would be better if there was more of a puzzle mechanic to the bosses where you weren’t just using the enemy echoes, but you were using other echoes that you had picked up in the dungeon to, you know, solve a puzzle that would expose a weak plane tour. (0:12:22) Jonnie: Like I feel like there was there was more space and it’s kind of my frustration with the whole game where I feel like there was more space to do more interesting things than ultimately what they ended up doing with them. (0:12:34) Al: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s, that’s about what I am just now with that game. Um, uh, I, as (0:12:41) Al: I say, I have two, I think two left to go. Um, presumably there’s a final boss after (0:12:46) Al: those last two dungeons. Um, but I will, I will see how that goes. I’m determined to (0:12:52) Al: finish it. Um, and I’m, you know, as I say, it’s not that I’m not enjoying it. I just (0:12:57) Al: kind of wish that it could have been more, um, than it is. (0:13:00) Jonnie: Yeah, I mean, it’s, you know, my take on the game was, you know, it was good. (0:13:06) Jonnie: It was really fun at the start and then it fell off. (0:13:08) Jonnie: And I think the fall off rate is probably going to be different for everyone. (0:13:13) Jonnie: And, you know, as close as you are, I think I would probably also finish the game if I was that close. (0:13:18) Al: Yeah. I think the thing is that I did fall off. I was just determined to come back and (0:13:22) Al: finish because of, well, just because that’s who I am. Right. I don’t, I don’t feel the (0:13:29) Al: need to complete every game, including a game we might talk about this episode, but I do (0:13:37) Al: with Zelda ones in particular, except the older 3D ones, I do tend to feel like I want (0:13:43) Al: to complete it just for having completed it, you know? (0:13:46) Jonnie: Absolutely. (0:13:48) Al: Anyway, so yeah, that’s, that’s about it. I’ve not been playing a huge amount else. (0:13:54) Al: Shall we talk about some news? So I think I probably should have talked about this first (0:13:59) Al: piece of news in the last episode, but I forgot. I’ve been really bad at that recently, apparently. (0:14:03) Al: This is the second piece of news in three weeks that I’ve forgotten to talk about in (0:14:07) Al: its, in its first episode. But here we go. Wholesome Games have announced their Wholesome (0:14:13) Al: knock the game of the wards edition the game of the game awards edition (0:14:19) Al: and that is happening on the 10th of December which is in the past if you’re listening to this (0:14:24) Al: episode. So we will cover whatever has happened in that in the next episode, whatever the next (0:14:31) Al: episode is. I’m so confused. For listeners, I’m recording four episodes of this podcast in two (0:14:38) Al: weekends, so I’m really confused about what’s happening, but there is an episode being recorded (0:14:43) Al: next week that will be listened to the week after, and that’s the one that we’ll be talking about (0:14:46) Al: about this in. So I. (0:14:48) Al: What makes sense for you when it happens? Yes, it may not make sense until January, (0:14:50) Jonnie: Let’s just listen to all of the episodes and everything will make sense at some point, except for the stuff that doesn’t. (0:14:59) Al: but yeah, they’ve also launched a wholesome snack bundle. If you are of the bundle persuasion (0:15:10) Al: and you like playing games, it includes Fe Farm, Little Kitty Big City. (0:15:18) Al: The Ranch of Riverside, Minami Lane and Rusty’s Retirement and also Spirit City LoFi Sessions, (0:15:27) Al: which I guess is a game. It’s calling itself a gamified focus tool, so it’s not really (0:15:34) Al: game game. But yeah, that is a pretty good bundle for what it is. I already have multiple (0:15:42) Al: of these games, so I don’t think I’ll be buying the bundle. But if you are interested. (0:15:48) Al: And these is a very good deal. (0:15:50) Jonnie: Yeah, I think this is a really cool bundle if you don’t if you don’t have many of these games (0:15:55) Jonnie: This is a bundle that is definitely worth getting (0:15:58) Al: - Absolutely. (0:15:59) Al: - Is there anything you’re hoping for (0:16:02) Jonnie: I (0:16:04) Jonnie: would like more information on (0:16:07) Jonnie: Tales of the Shire like (0:16:09) Jonnie: Everybody else other than that. I feel like we are in this era of there being so many games (0:16:17) Jonnie: I want announcements of when things are going. (0:16:20) Jonnie: They’re coming out and not as early access, but like, yeah, just give us release dates for stuff. (0:16:24) Al: you want some release dates of 1.0 releases. I know what Kevin’s looking forward to. That (0:16:25) Jonnie: Make hours scheduling life next year really easy. That’s what I want out of this wholesome stack. (0:16:33) Jonnie: Correct. (0:16:36) Al: is whatever the developers of Wildflowers are going to announce, because they have basically (0:16:42) Al: said they’re going to announce their new game in the Wholesome Snack. And what it could (0:16:47) Al: be, we don’t know, but that is happening. (0:16:49) Jonnie: Well, the listeners will have the ability to find out by the time that they are listening to this. (0:16:54) Jonnie: So, go watch the Wholesome Snack and see if you can find out what Kevin is really excited about. (0:17:00) Al: Yes, I won’t tell you the developer of the game. (0:17:03) Al: So you have to guess the other. (0:17:07) Al: I mean, this is part of the game awards. (0:17:11) Al: I don’t understand why it’s part of the game awards because it’s announcing new (0:17:14) Al: stuff and I’m confused about the game awards. (0:17:17) Al: They seem a bit confused themselves. (0:17:19) Al: I also here’s my thing, right? (0:17:22) Al: I don’t particularly care about the I don’t (0:17:25) Al: particularly have an issue with the game awards. (0:17:27) Al: It’s fine. (0:17:27) Al: I think it’s a bit weird that it’s become the one that people like. (0:17:31) Al: You know what people like their like, they like their Oscars. (0:17:35) Al: They like all their award ceremonies. (0:17:37) Al: I don’t particularly feel amazed about one particular awards. (0:17:42) Al: But hey, what he put in the effort into making a big event and people seem to like (0:17:47) Al: it, although I do feel like people just complain about it more than anything else. (0:17:52) Al: But I don’t have an issue with it. (0:17:54) Al: What I do have an issue is why is it in December? (0:17:58) Al: I’ve never understood why people do (0:18:00) Al: their game of the year, so early in December, it’s like the 10th of December, they’re doing (0:18:07) Al: this. And I’m like, that feels like, do it at the end of December, or do it in January, like all the (0:18:14) Al: awards seasons for film and TV, they happen in March and April, and they have like a specific (0:18:19) Jonnie: Yeah but people in games are dumb. So you know we get what we get and I don’t like game awards, (0:18:19) Al: cutoff date. (0:18:27) Jonnie: they suck and don’t pay attention to them. What you should pay attention to is the harvest season (0:18:34) Jonnie: game of the year awards because that is much better and I was gonna say much less controversial (0:18:40) Jonnie: but that’s definitely not true because last year was very controversial. So yes I don’t know don’t (0:18:47) Jonnie: Don’t pay attention to them. (0:18:50) Al: I do aim to be controversial. (0:18:54) Al: Yes, our Game of the Year episode will be coming out on the last Wednesday of the year, (0:18:59) Al: as usual. (0:19:00) Al: This year, the earliest it can possibly happen, because of how the year worked out, the 25th (0:19:05) Al: of December. (0:19:06) Al: It cannot happen any earlier than that, because if it were to try and happen a day earlier, (0:19:11) Al: it would actually happen a week later. (0:19:13) Al: Fun times. (0:19:15) Al: Next, we have a release date for Wonderstop. (0:19:20) Al: It is releasing on the 11th of March 2025 for PS5 and Steam. (0:19:28) Al: And this is the game, the tea-making game by the creator of the Stanley Paradox. (0:19:34) Al: So, I’m very intrigued. (0:19:34) Jonnie: I was I was trying to place why I knew the like why I knew this game and it was the I (0:19:42) Jonnie: had forgotten about the (0:19:45) Jonnie: That connection. Yeah this I (0:19:49) Jonnie: Don’t know. This is gonna be weird, right? Is there any other options? (0:19:53) Al: Yeah, I think it’s going to be something. I don’t know what it is. I’m not expecting it to be (0:19:58) Al: necessarily a meta-commentary on games like the Stanley Parable was. I think that would be boring (0:20:04) Al: if it was just the exact same thing, and I don’t know why they would do a cosy game for that. But (0:20:08) Al: I could see it addressing some sort of tropes on cosy games in some sort of way, because it talks (0:20:16) Al: about it being a narrative-driven game, and I think that that is probably very deliberate. (0:20:23) Al: The way they’re wording that, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they upended some of our expectations. (0:20:32) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think the other thing that’s interesting is like in the about this game (0:20:36) Jonnie: they say it’s about change and tea like and putting a game about change as sort of your a (0:20:43) Jonnie: Number one thing that your game is about like if anything my expectation or not my expectations my hopes for this game (0:20:51) Jonnie: That it’s sort of on a par with (0:20:54) Jonnie: spirit fear (0:20:55) Al: - Mm, so you wanted to make it cry. (0:20:58) Jonnie: Uh, so I thought about a second like spirit fear but like on a par with (0:21:03) Jonnie: it could be a more pleasant version of a heavily narrative given game like spirit fear. Like I want (0:21:09) Al: is that possible? Is it possible to make you feel something without it being crying? (0:21:09) Jonnie: I want this game to make me feel something. Just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it’s not possible. (0:21:18) Al: Fair, fair, fair, fair. They’ve also released a new trailer for the game as well. Overthrown, (0:21:25) Al: I have announced their early access and it’s out now. Yep, so if you’ve been looking forward (0:21:31) Al: to this game, it’s out now. I’m undecided, I think I might wait for 1.0 for this game (0:21:37) Al: because I played the d- (0:21:39) Al: and I enjoyed it, but it definitely felt like I wanted much more than what it was initially (0:21:45) Al: um (0:21:46) Jonnie: Did you watch the video that went with the announcement of Early Access? (0:21:54) Jonnie: The one thing I was curious about was if there was anything in this video that looked like stuff (0:22:00) Jonnie: that wasn’t in the demo that you played. They did focus quite heavily in the video on multiplayer, (0:22:08) Jonnie: which seems very smart for this game, the chaos that I think that could bring sounds. (0:22:15) Al: Yeah, I don’t think the early access starts with multiplayer though, does it? (0:22:16) Jonnie: Pretty amazing. (0:22:20) Jonnie: That would be surprising because that felt very prominent in the… (0:22:22) Al: Well, maybe it does. The demo definitely didn’t have multiplayer, (0:22:27) Al: but that might have been because it was the demo. (0:22:27) Jonnie: Yeah, it felt like that was the whole focus of the trailer. (0:22:32) Al: Yeah, no, you’re right. It does feel like that, and I’m not seeing it in their roadmap anywhere, (0:22:39) Al: so I guess maybe it does have multiplayer already. (0:22:43) Al: Anyway, yeah, I’m obviously going to buy. (0:22:45) Al: this game and play it again at some point. (0:22:47) Al: I’m just undecided as to when that is. (0:22:49) Al: It’s not going to be this year because this year is already spoken for. (0:22:53) Al: I’ve got to finish Zelda and I’ve got to play Sonic. (0:22:56) Al: So we’ll see when that happens. (0:22:59) Al: It’s on Steam in early access. (0:23:01) Al: It’s also on Xbox game preview, apparently they call it, (0:23:05) Al: because it can’t be called the same thing. (0:23:09) Al: Next, we have a roadmap for Snacko has been announced (0:23:15) Al: the remaining updates before 1.0. (0:23:19) Al: They have four updates left to go down in the mines. (0:23:23) Al: Slice of life sprites evolution and dress to impress. (0:23:27) Al: So you can guess on what those might bring to the game. (0:23:30) Jonnie: Now I’m just going to jump on, you know, your little bandwagon, but on this roadmap, (0:23:35) Jonnie: why do they list the version numbers? They don’t need to. They could just have town and guild update (0:23:40) Jonnie: down in the mines, sprites evolution. Putting the numbers next to it doesn’t add anything, (0:23:46) Jonnie: and if they need to do a 0.9, 0.8, point something else because they’ve got some bug, like I just… (0:23:53) Jonnie: Anyway, I understand where you’re coming from, or even fit to my brain. I don’t know which, but (0:24:00) Al: Yeah, Snacko in particular have, um, look, I really like the developers of Snacko, so (0:24:07) Al: this is not personal. They really picked a weird version number thing in general to do (0:24:14) Al: for their early access. I feel like they started at zero point, nine point, zero point something. (0:24:21) Al: I don’t know what the problem is. Like I don’t know why they’ve done that, but it is what (0:24:27) Al: it is. Yeah, I think that I think (0:24:30) Al: the game developers should just not focus on version numbers in front of consumers (0:24:39) Al: at all, right? Consumers don’t care about a version number, they care about are they (0:24:44) Al: on the most recent update or not. That’s it. And Steam tells you that. Steam tells you (0:24:47) Jonnie: Sorry. (0:24:48) Al: if there’s an update. That’s it. Right, like you don’t need more than (0:24:53) Jonnie: I totally agree. (0:24:54) Jonnie: There’s just a silly thing to do. (0:24:56) Jonnie: And you can market your game better if you just say, (0:24:59) Jonnie: hey, look at all this exciting stuff (0:25:01) Jonnie: that we’ve got coming on our roadmap. (0:25:03) Jonnie: And it’s not 0.9.7 followed by 0– (0:25:06) Jonnie: because that 0.9.8, because that doesn’t (0:25:09) Jonnie: make it sound exciting. (0:25:10) Jonnie: It’s a very small number that it is going up by in the way (0:25:13) Jonnie: that humans interpret numbers. (0:25:15) Jonnie: So let’s not be silly. (0:25:17) Jonnie: I guess. (0:25:18) Al: Yes. Anyway, this confirms to me that it’s not releasing this year, so we’re safe. A few. (0:25:29) Al: They can’t get four updates done in December. (0:25:29) Jonnie: Well, particularly given that all four of the updates have names and then a bunch of (0:25:35) Jonnie: question marks underneath them, so there’s literally no detail on, well, there is some (0:25:38) Al: Yeah, I suspect that’s deliberate, that’s not because they don’t know what’s in it, (0:25:39) Jonnie: detail in the post about what’s coming. (0:25:44) Al: I think that’s definitely because they just want to keep the suspense and tell you it (0:25:50) Al: when it comes. (0:25:51) Al: All right, we now have our development update from Concern Date about Haunted Chocolatier. (0:25:59) Al: It’s a lot of words and it’s mostly, sorry I haven’t done much, but here’s some screenshots (0:26:05) Al: to keep you happy. (0:26:06) Al: Is that fair way to describe it? (0:26:08) Jonnie: I think it’s, sorry, I haven’t done much, I’ve been busy doing stuff on Stardew Valley. (0:26:12) Al: Yeah, oh yes, yes, I’m sorry, I thought that bit was obvious. (0:26:14) Jonnie: Also, in brackets, look, sometimes it might not be, also in brackets, I’ll probably keep (0:26:22) Jonnie: doing stuff on Stardew Valley. (0:26:24) Al: Yeah, are we ever getting this game, Johnny? (0:26:29) Jonnie: So I don’t know, like I found the framing around, the consent I put in the blog post (0:26:35) Jonnie: around Stardooth very concerning. (0:26:38) Jonnie: In that they discussed a strong feeling of obligation, I guess towards continuing to add to Stardooth because of, broadly speaking, how successful the game has been. (0:26:52) Jonnie: Which, to me, feels like someone chasing some idealized version of perfection that will never be achievable. (0:27:04) Jonnie: And I think we’ve already talked about this on the show. (0:27:08) Jonnie: But I feel with the most recent update, 1.6, was it good? (0:27:12) Jonnie: Yeah, it was good. But Staju was finished. (0:27:16) Jonnie: It is time to move on. (0:27:20) Jonnie: And I just don’t see what value there is to be achieved by adding more to Staju at this point. (0:27:28) Jonnie: And I would love to see a focus on anything else. (0:27:30) Jonnie: It doesn’t even have to be haunted chocolate here. (0:27:32) Jonnie: that’s not the thing that is, you know, making (0:27:38) Jonnie: bringing joy or whatever it is like find something else but yeah, I don’t know this blog post did not fill in (0:27:46) Al: Yeah, it’s interesting. I’m hoping that he can find it in his brain to focus on Hunter (0:27:55) Al: Jugletier until he’s happy with it. But yeah, I think you’re right. I don’t expect that (0:28:03) Al: most of his expectations on the obligations on him for Stardew are external. I suspect (0:28:11) Al: they’re internal in that he is, as you said in (0:28:16) Al: different words, a perfectionist, right? Like he wants it to be something, but (0:28:21) Al: that, as we all know, is impossible, and therefore he wants to completely keep it (0:28:27) Al: going. And I do worry a little bit that he might end up with like that with (0:28:30) Al: Haunted Chocolate here as well, but before it gets released, and so we may (0:28:34) Al: never get a version of it because he’s never fully happy with it. Well, I guess (0:28:38) Jonnie: - I agree, and I think you’re right, sure. (0:28:42) Al: we’ll see. You know, we could get into a situation where in two (0:28:46) Al: or three years, Hunter Chocolatier is out, and we then just get like one year we get a stardew (0:28:51) Al: update, the next year we get a Hunter Chocolatier update, and he’s infinitely updating both games (0:28:56) Al: until he dies. Who knows? Any comments on the screenshots we got? Because obviously there’s (0:28:58) Jonnie: - Look, it’s certainly possible. (0:29:04) Al: no context behind them, it’s just here are four screenshots. (0:29:10) Jonnie: Yeah, and it’s very hard to take anything significant (0:29:15) Jonnie: from these screenshots because there’s clearly (0:29:17) Jonnie: a heavy reuse of Stagio assets in them, right? (0:29:22) Jonnie: So like, and given where the game is at (0:29:25) Jonnie: and it’s developed in the life cycle, (0:29:27) Jonnie: largely a lot of that work. (0:29:28) Jonnie: It would be placeholder, I assume. (0:29:33) Jonnie: However, there were some things that (0:29:35) Jonnie: seemed obvious from the screenshots (0:29:36) Jonnie: that there was farming in the game. (0:29:40) Jonnie: I guess for me, I didn’t see anything in these screenshots. (0:29:43) Jonnie: I was like, oh, that’s interesting. (0:29:45) Jonnie: I wonder what that is. (0:29:46) Jonnie: It was mostly like, OK, this looks like a game (0:29:51) Jonnie: from the person who made Stardew. (0:29:53) Jonnie: And it kind of just looks, feels, has the vibe of– (0:29:59) Jonnie: Stardew, there is literally a line (0:30:01) Jonnie: of crops growing in some grass. (0:30:06) Al: Yeah, I so I looked at that. That’s obviously not your house. (0:30:11) Al: So I’m wondering if that’s not actually you growing stuff. (0:30:14) Al: And that is just someone else in the village who’s doing that. (0:30:19) Al: Right. Because I I don’t know if we know for certain that it has farming and this (0:30:24) Al: would obviously hint at that, but it wouldn’t be weird if there wasn’t farming. (0:30:29) Al: But a house in the village had crops because, of course, someone’s going to have crops. (0:30:35) Jonnie: interesting. How do you know? Do you know for certain that it’s not to get the players house? (0:30:40) Al: Well, you live in a castle in haunted juggler (0:30:45) Jonnie: I clearly have forgotten way too much about this game that we (0:30:50) Al: So if you go into the screenshots link on the web page, the top one is a picture of (0:30:59) Al: your shop that is attached to the house that you stay in. (0:31:04) Al: Like you live in a big mansion type house, hence haunted. (0:31:08) Al: Like it’s an old haunted house type thing. (0:31:11) Al: So yeah, I’m pretty confident that the picture with those crops is now. (0:31:16) Jonnie: There we go. The other thing that I’ll say about the screenshots is the second one is the player (0:31:22) Jonnie: being attacked by a bunch of slimes, and the thing that I’m like, “Oh, I don’t like Stardew (0:31:27) Jonnie: Combat. It’s very bad.” This looks like more Stardew Valley-style combat, not less, (0:31:33) Jonnie: so that’s definitely heading in the wrong direction. (0:31:34) Al: he has he has commented that he’s done a lot of different things with the combat (0:31:39) Al: whether it addresses your complaints about it I’m not sure but he yeah that (0:31:45) Al: he’s said that in previous blog posts that it’s he’s done a lot of things to (0:31:50) Al: the combat that he didn’t do in Stardew so I guess we’ll see what what that (0:31:54) Jonnie: - Yeah, do you have any takeaways from any of the screenshots? (0:32:02) Al: I don’t think anything that you’ve not brought up, I guess maybe, maybe I think (0:32:08) Al: it’s interesting that he’s posted two portraits of characters and I don’t know (0:32:13) Al: whether this is just a brain pattern match type thing, but my brain looks at (0:32:17) Al: them and goes, they look very similar to existing stardew characters. (0:32:22) Al: Like the guy on the right looks a lot like Sam’s dad. (0:32:27) Al: I can’t remember his name. (0:32:28) Jonnie: - I can’t, you’re the king. (0:32:29) Al: Kent, looks a lot like Kent. (0:32:32) Al: You’re right. (0:32:33) Al: Um, and the one on the left almost looks like a young, long haired Abigail, but (0:32:39) Jonnie: Yes. It is not your brain. The Abigail one in particular is very close, I think. (0:32:39) Al: maybe this is just my brain trying to see things that aren’t there. (0:32:50) Jonnie: I definitely see both of those characters in those portraits. (0:32:55) Al: So yeah, I don’t know. I think the thing about Stardew is one of its best things is its characters, (0:33:00) Al: and that doesn’t mean the characters in this need to look completely different to the characters (0:33:05) Al: in Stardew. Like if they are characterised well, then it will still be good. Yeah, we’ll see, (0:33:12) Al: I guess. We’ve got a long time to wait. Maybe we won’t. The last blog post before (0:33:14) Jonnie: Maybe we won’t see L, maybe we won’t. (0:33:18) Al: this one was posted three years ago. Christmas Day 2021. (0:33:23) Jonnie: That cannot be accurate, but I guess I’ll have to believe you. (0:33:25) Al: I mean, you can check yourself. Go onto the blog link and scroll down. You see this update (0:33:32) Al: December 4th, 2024, and the next one December 25th, 2021. It’s been over three years since (0:33:37) Jonnie: I refuse to believe that. (0:33:41) Al: this game was announced, that’s all. It’s been over three years, and that was over (0:33:44) Jonnie: It cannot be more than two years, that’s all I’m saying. (0:33:55) Al: half into Covid. Time means nothing, Johnny. (0:34:01) Jonnie: I know we’re on a podcast now, but I would really love for you to stop talking. (0:34:07) Al: OK, the last piece of news is that farm folks have released a new trailer. They’re calling (0:34:12) Al: it their Reveal Trailer, which is funny because I’m pretty sure they revealed this game a couple (0:34:17) Al: years ago, so I’m not sure why this is the reveal trailer. But anyway, yeah, here’s a game called (0:34:25) Al: Farm Folks that we definitely haven’t talked about before. Yes, we have. Scrolling back on Steam, (0:34:35) Al: their first announcement of the game was in February 2021. So yes, it is not. I don’t know (0:34:41) Al: why they call it a reveal trailer. This is a thing that lots of people do, is they announce (0:34:45) Al: these things like they’ve never announced them before. We’ve seen so much gameplay of this game. (0:34:48) Jonnie: I think it’s because they’re revealing their gameplay, like actual gameplay footage. (0:34:55) Jonnie: They say they are claiming it is their first gameplay trailer. (0:34:55) Al: Or maybe a professionally produced full trailer, but I’ve seen almost all of this gameplay before, (0:35:06) Al: and they keep posting it on Twitter and TikTok. Oh, so it’s Gameplay Reveal Trailer. Interesting. (0:35:13) Al: Anyway, I’m cautiously optimistic about this. I think what I like about this game is the (0:35:18) Al: very heavy lean into automation. (0:35:21) Jonnie: I don’t have a strong feel for this game, (0:35:24) Jonnie: and that is because it gives me strong Minecraft vibes, (0:35:30) Jonnie: which is not really my thing, (0:35:34) Jonnie: but I am with you on the automation side of things, (0:35:38) Jonnie: seeming like that is, of all of the things in this game, (0:35:42) Jonnie: that is the one thing that stands out. (0:35:44) Jonnie: And if it is good, I feel like this is the sort of game (0:35:47) Jonnie: where I would like to watch YouTube videos (0:35:50) Jonnie: of all of the. (0:35:51) Jonnie: Cool and weird automation things that people do in this game. (0:35:54) Al: Yeah, yeah, I do suspect that that will be a fun way to experience it, but yeah, I get (0:36:04) Al: that. Personally, I loved Minecraft as well, so I can’t really combat your point about (0:36:12) Al: it being Minecraft-y. I do think I felt more Sims-y about it than anything else, especially (0:36:20) Al: with the building, the building of buildings. (0:36:22) Jonnie: Yeah, I guess for me the building looks more like the modern version of what I would expect (0:36:26) Jonnie: Minecraft building to be. You know, where they’ve got the roof parts and wall sections (0:36:31) Jonnie: and things like that. It’s sort of like the level up that has happened in the survival (0:36:36) Jonnie: game genre in the last five years. (0:36:40) Al: Yeah, maybe. (0:36:41) Jonnie: I also really don’t like the word folks. I think it’s such a dumb, lame word. Yeah, (0:36:45) Al: Hey, folks. (0:36:50) Jonnie: Just to say, like, I mean, obviously– (0:36:52) Jonnie: I’d say the name “farm people” would be darn, but if you ever are going to use the word “folks,” just don’t. Just say “people.” (0:36:57) Al: I like it. (0:36:58) Al: I like folks. (0:36:59) Al: It’s generic guys. (0:37:00) Jonnie: No. (0:37:00) Al: It’s gender neutral guys, folks. (0:37:04) Jonnie: Folks is better than guys, but it’s still like a detail way of addressing a group of people. (0:37:08) Al: It’s folksy. (0:37:11) Al: No. (0:37:13) Al: Okay. (0:37:14) Al: Well, good. (0:37:15) Al: Now I know another thing to annoy you with. (0:37:16) Al: Just what I like. (0:37:18) Al: Okay. (0:37:19) Al: That’s all the news. (0:37:21) Al: We are now going to talk about Luma Island. (0:37:24) Al: And I’m going to try and not make Johnny too disappointed with my opinions on this game. (0:37:31) Al: So Luma Island. (0:37:34) Al: Let’s introduce it, I guess. (0:37:37) Al: It is, uh, I think it’s fair. (0:37:40) Al: Fair to say that this is a farming game, but I think it’s, it’s less focused on farming (0:37:45) Al: than most farming games, but I would say it’s, it feels like an evolution of a Stardew-like (0:37:52) Al: in that it’s, it doesn’t feel like Stardew, but it feels like it takes a lot of the ideas (0:37:58) Al: and moves them in a different direction. Would that be fair to say? (0:38:00) Jonnie: Yeah, I can. I completely agree. And like for me, the thing that Luma Island is is it’s kind of like a puzzle exploration game that has strong roots in a Stardew Valley or a core sort of (0:38:16) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s definitely everything that you would expect in, in, in (0:38:21) Al: a stardew, like, except maybe characters that you care about. Um, you know, there’s farming, (0:38:26) Al: there’s mining, there’s fishing, there’s actually, I don’t know. Can you, can you get animals? (0:38:30) Al: I haven’t actually experienced that you can write. Okay. Um, I’m going to lean on you (0:38:31) Jonnie: - Yes, you can, you can get animals, yep. (0:38:35) Al: a lot for this. Cause I think I looked at last episode, I said, I’d played 10 hours (0:38:40) Al: of this game. I, and then I checked after the episode, I had not played 10 hours of (0:38:44) Al: this game. (0:38:46) Al: The big thing about this game that’s different is the job system. (0:38:58) Jonnie: Yeah, so I guess the the job systems are also questlines, (0:39:04) Jonnie: there’s seven job systems, you know, there’s cooking, which (0:39:07) Jonnie: is and brewing, which are very closely tied to farming. There (0:39:11) Jonnie: is fishing, which is what it says. There’s also, I think (0:39:17) Jonnie: they call it crafting. But it’s like, or treasure hunters, I (0:39:21) Jonnie: think it’s treasure hunting, where you’re making pirate (0:39:24) Jonnie: outfits. That’s also sort of loosely tied. (0:39:28) Jonnie: To fishing, there is archaeology, which is tied to sort of exploring and going down into the mines. (0:39:39) Jonnie: There is smithing and jewellery, which are more tied to the sort of mining as gathering mechanics. (0:39:48) Jonnie: So in some way, all of the job systems are tied to one of the core mechanics that you require (0:39:55) Jonnie: to gather resources for the game. (0:39:59) Jonnie: And I think this is probably the thing that most people that are listening to a show like ours (0:40:08) Jonnie: will… it might be the thing that puts them off the most, right? Because the way (0:40:13) Jonnie: the job system works is they will say go and craft, you know, a thing, the first version of the thing, (0:40:20) Jonnie: you make that thing and you sell it for a lot of money. And that is its only purpose. And the job (0:40:25) Jonnie: system really exists as sort of the, the hems to work. (0:40:28) Jonnie: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s really important to keep the wheel, that drives you needing to get to new areas and acquire new stuff, but there isn’t anything that you can actually do with the things that you’re making beyond selling them for more money to kind of keep the wheel turning. (0:40:42) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s fair. It’s also the the profession as you say, like very much dictates (0:40:48) Al: what you do in this game. And that can both be a good and a bad thing. I think it doesn’t (0:40:55) Al: stop you doing other things, but it very much like takes you on a journey through that profession. (0:41:02) Al: The quest system, I think, has I like a quest system that tells you here are things to do. (0:41:12) Al: Those need to stop at some point. And I don’t know whether it’s just that I didn’t go on (0:41:18) Al: far enough, but I felt like I was always dictated. Everything I do in the game was dictated very (0:41:26) Al: much by a quest that is like a very much immediate quest. It’s not like, oh, now just do more (0:41:34) Al: of that and explore other things. Right. It’s always like, oh, make a horseshoe. And I went (0:41:39) Al: with a blacksmithing profession, right? Because I thought that… (0:41:42) Al: sounded like the most interesting one to me at the start, and you don’t get a huge amount of (0:41:46) Al: information about what they’re going to do before you pick one. So I picked the blacksmithing one (0:41:50) Al: because I was like, I like mining. Mining is generally a fun thing in games. Let’s try this, (0:41:56) Jonnie: Just on your thought about the the direction, I think that continues through the game, but potentially the important thing is you can get multiple professions, so you can purchase additional licenses for additional professions and so I think once I got to the second area, (0:42:16) Jonnie: I purchased three different professions, so I always felt like I was kind of bouncing from thing to thing based on what I had the reason. (0:42:26) Jonnie: So I started with the archaeologist profession, then I added the brewing profession, which is the one that I did in the demo, and then I added the treasure hunter profession to that as well, and I think having three made it slightly more varied. (0:42:46) Jonnie: Equally, there are some quests in the town and I don’t know if you discovered any of those that also had some variety. (0:42:55) Al: I did not. Yeah, I think it’s a good idea. I like the professions in general as an idea. (0:43:07) Al: I just felt very pigeonholed after picking one and considering you don’t know truly what the game (0:43:14) Al: is like when you pick one first, right? Like it’s very early on in the game that you pick a job, (0:43:19) Al: a profession. Like it’s almost like 15 minutes into the game. You’ve done almost (0:43:25) Al: nothing and you’re deciding what your next 10 to 20 hours of your game is going to be based on (0:43:33) Al: not knowing what those are, which I think is part of the problem. I feel like it could have done a (0:43:37) Al: better job of like giving you examples of each of them in the first hour of the game and then you (0:43:42) Al: pick a profession, but that may work better for other people. I don’t know. (0:43:49) Jonnie: Yeah, I don’t necessarily disagree with any of that. And I think the thing that stands out to me (0:43:55) Jonnie: most about this game, and it’s probably the reason that I like the game is I feel I always felt like (0:44:01) Jonnie: there was kind of like something to be doing. You know, so in addition to the job system, (0:44:06) Jonnie: which requires you going around a different area and sort of exploring that area and to get the (0:44:12) Jonnie: resources that you need, there are so many little puzzles in integrated sort of in the world that (0:44:20) Jonnie: doing and I really like those sorts of exploration games. And so I what I enjoyed is the fact that (0:44:26) Jonnie: you’re like, you’re just wandering around, doing lots of little puzzles, you know, getting the (0:44:31) Jonnie: collecting the resources that you need, and sort of finding stuff that way. I really liked that sort (0:44:36) Jonnie: of sense of progression that this game gave that is very distinct from pretty much every other (0:44:43) Jonnie: college core farming. (0:44:44) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s fair. I did think… I think my profession led to me not (0:44:52) Al: exploring as much because the blacksmithing is very much gather as (0:44:58) Al: much as you can from the mines and craft as much as you can to sell. I didn’t (0:45:05) Al: really explore the area around the island a huge amount. I did a couple of (0:45:11) Al: times, and I saw the sort of puzzles that you’re (0:45:15) Al: talking about, but I didn’t manage to unlock very many of them because of that, if that makes sense. (0:45:26) Jonnie: It does. And did you make it to the forest area? (0:45:30) Al: I don’t… Is there a specific area that’s… Because it all feels very foresty. (0:45:36) Jonnie: Yes, so when you start, you start on the farm and the farm is the first area. (0:45:36) Al: Like, is there a specific area that’s called forest? (0:45:49) Jonnie: There is the town that is the second area, but once you have progressed your progression (0:45:54) Jonnie: far enough in the farm area, you get a short quest to unlock the second area that is the (0:46:02) Jonnie: forest and there are multiple different areas. (0:46:08) Al: No, I didn’t. I felt… I think part of the thing why I thought maybe you were talking about just (0:46:15) Al: an area on the farm is because it feels like a very large area the farm does and I got… (0:46:21) Jonnie: So the farm feels like a large area. It is the smallest of the areas. (0:46:27) Al: This game confuses me. I get lost any time I explore away from just the initial area, (0:46:35) Al: the initial, you know, your, your camper van. (0:46:38) Al: And the mine and the entrance to the town. (0:46:41) Al: Anytime I go much further away from that, I cannot figure out where I am. (0:46:48) Al: I just get completely lost because it’s so massive. (0:46:51) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s a big end. For me, this is one of the things that I loved about because I definitely (0:46:58) Jonnie: had that same experience on the farm where I was getting lost. And over time, I explored so much (0:47:04) Jonnie: off the farm that like now I know my way around that area really well. Then I went onto the forest (0:47:09) Jonnie: area, got exceptionally lost. Part of the archaeologist profession that I had was you have to go (0:47:16) Jonnie: through these dungeons without dying, and I was trying to find… (0:47:21) Jonnie: all of the dungeons because they were sort of spread out, like there was three of them in the (0:47:25) Jonnie: second area, and they were very spread out. And I got lost a lot in the forest, but I enjoyed… (0:47:32) Jonnie: I guess I enjoyed the feeling of being lost because like there were so many little puzzles, (0:47:35) Jonnie: and so I would just stumble across a little puzzle and try and complete it, and then sort of make my (0:47:40) Jonnie: way around. And then eventually I would come out on a space that I knew and sort of find my way (0:47:45) Jonnie: back. And so I really enjoyed that side of things. This is the thing. (0:47:52) Jonnie: That makes me like this game, right? And this is the thing that’s like, would I recommend this game to (0:47:57) Jonnie: everybody listening to the show? The answer to that is probably no, because I think this game (0:48:02) Jonnie: does a lot of things that I specifically really, really enjoy, but are not core to the Cottage (0:48:09) Al: Yeah, I think that’s fair. I think before we get into the specific mechanics, (0:48:18) Al: I want to talk a bit about the controls and stuff like that, which I didn’t write down on the list, (0:48:23) Al: but I’m now remembering. But before we get into that, let’s talk about the character creator, (0:48:28) Al: because I feel like whenever we’re going to talk about it, now that we’ve already started talking (0:48:32) Al: about things, we’re going to end up feeling like it’s a weird jump in time anyway. But we need to (0:48:38) Al: to talk about the character creators. (0:48:39) Al: Let’s do that now. (0:48:41) Al: The character creator, I think, works really well in that it has a lovely (0:48:45) Al: little random button that will randomly generate something. (0:48:48) Al: So if you don’t care about what you (0:48:49) Al: look like, you can just press that a few times and go like, oh, that one looks fine. (0:48:53) Al: And then continue on. (0:48:55) Al: I like when things (0:48:57) Al: customize, things have that it’s like names in Stardew Valley for your animals, (0:49:01) Al: stuff like that, giving you a way to go, I don’t really care what this is. (0:49:04) Al: Just give me something. (0:49:07) Al: But what I really liked is the fact… (0:49:09) Al: that I pressed it three times, and on the third time, it came up with a guy in a (0:49:13) Al: kilt with ginger hair, and I was like, “Oh, it’s me!” (0:49:16) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s it’s a nice little character creator. (0:49:21) Al: So that was a good start. (0:49:24) Al: How much time did you spend creating your character? (0:49:28) Jonnie: Two minutes. (0:49:29) Al: Yeah, fair enough. (0:49:30) Jonnie: Look, I. (0:49:30) Al: I pressed the random man three times and went, “Yeah, that’s me. Let me maybe add a hat.” (0:49:35) Al: And then I found that there was a stereotypical “Hey Jimmy, Scottish hat” as well. (0:49:36) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:49:39) Al: I put that on him and I was done. (0:49:40) Jonnie: - Yeah, yeah. (0:49:43) Al: Okay, cool. Well, if we’re done with that, let’s talk about controls. (0:49:47) Al: I hate the camera in this game. (0:49:52) Al: I feel I don’t have enough movement in the camera, and I hate it so much. (0:49:59) Al: And you’re going to be like, “Oh, I don’t… But you can move all… You can move 360.” (0:50:02) Al: Yeah, but you can’t move up and down very much. (0:50:04) Al: and I feel I always like in a game to be able to see (0:50:09) Al: quite far ahead, rather than, you know, more high up down on me. (0:50:15) Al: And I cannot get the camera to go far enough down that I feel comfortable. (0:50:20) Al: And I just I can’t I can’t see around me enough. (0:50:24) Al: And I think that’s part of the reason I (0:50:25) Al: got lost is because you can’t bring the camera down enough to actually see far (0:50:30) Al: away from you and figure out where you are, see landmarks to move around. (0:50:34) Jonnie: I hadn’t really thought about that (0:50:35) Jonnie: ‘cause it didn’t stand out for me. (0:50:38) Jonnie: It does make sense. (0:50:39) Jonnie: I suspect the reason for that is I think a lot (0:50:43) Jonnie: of the puzzles would be quite trivial (0:50:47) Jonnie: in the way that they’ve been designed (0:50:49) Jonnie: if you had the ability to see further around, (0:50:52) Jonnie: like it would reduce the need to explore (0:50:55) Jonnie: because you would see where stuff is, (0:50:58) Jonnie: which I’m not saying means they made the right decision, (0:51:00) Al: Yeah, I just, it puts me off. It was immediate like, I don’t like this, you know, and that’s, (0:51:00) Jonnie: but that would be my guess as to why (0:51:10) Al: I just, it’s not, I talk about this on, on the upcoming episode a little bit about some other (0:51:15) Al: things. It’s not, it’s not claustrophobia, but it’s a similar sort, because it’s definitely not (0:51:22) Al: a phobia, right? I’m not trying to say it’s a phobia. But that’s the best way I can describe it, (0:51:27) Al: is that it feels claustrophobic. I just feel (0:51:30) Al: hemmed in. I feel controlled and I feel like I need to be able to see more. And I think (0:51:36) Al: it’s because when I’m in the real world, that’s not how I view things. And so I want to be (0:51:43) Al: able to be see, and I want the control to be able to not see like I would see in the (0:51:49) Al: real world, but I want to be able to see out to the horizon because that’s how I see in (0:51:55) Al: in real life, and when I cannot do that, it makes me feel off. (0:52:00) Al: It’s different for something like Stardew, which is a fixed camera angle, and you’re (0:52:06) Al: seeing things. (0:52:07) Al: It’s actually why I really disliked Animal Crossing to start with, it’s just because (0:52:10) Al: I’m not a huge fan of how the camera works in that game, but I think for something like (0:52:15) Al: Stardew Valley, it’s okay because it’s wide enough, I think. (0:52:20) Al: It’s hard to explain why that one’s okay, because it’s just a completely different way (0:52:24) Al: of viewing things, right? Like you’re viewing side on, top down, rather than having a control (0:52:30) Al: of a camera that’s behind your character. (0:52:32) Al: I don’t know if I’m explaining that well enough. (0:52:32) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think with starchy, right, like you don’t get lost, you know, like rotating your camera wouldn’t actually achieve anything and like, look, I played, you know, an hour of this game before I realized you could rotate the camera at all. (0:52:46) Jonnie: So, you know, clearly, like, camera control was not something that I was really thinking about. (0:52:52) Jonnie: And probably, like, for me, it was like I got a cool feature that I wasn’t expecting added, whereas you maybe felt like you had something taken away. (0:52:59) Al: Yeah, I think because it’s I think if it had been a fixed camera (0:53:03) Al: I probably would have been annoyed less (0:53:06) Al: But it’s also like I don’t know if you notice this but when you come out of the mines (0:53:09) Al: It resets the camera angle to a different different act camera than angle than you started that which is also a different camera angle (0:53:16) Al: Then it starts the game at so I get I get lost every time I come out of the mines because suddenly I’m facing (0:53:22) Al: Out from the mines, but that is not how the camera starts and it’s so it was not how it was when I went in and it (0:53:29) Al: The game started and I’m like, why is this the camera angle? They’ve chosen for this point. It’s very weird (0:53:34) Jonnie: It’s the same when you come back from town. (0:53:37) Al: Yes, yes it is and I suspect what happened was (0:53:41) Al: They tried to get this game to have a fixed camera angle (0:53:45) Al: but they realized the game doesn’t work well with it because there’s so many things that you (0:53:50) Al: You know you get in between and stuff and like the puzzles wouldn’t work as well if you couldn’t control the camera at least a bit (0:53:57) Al: Um, and so they, (0:53:59) Al: ended up having to put in a moveable camera. I suspect that’s what happened. But, um, (0:54:05) Al: yeah, I think that’s, and that certainly set my tone with this game is I’m already uneasy (0:54:12) Al: because of not being able to see what I want to see. Um, yeah, I think, yeah. Okay. I think I know (0:54:19) Al: why I get lost easily this way. If you have a fixed camera angle, no matter where you are on (0:54:25) Al: the board, you walk the opposite direction from what you started. (0:54:30) Al: And you’ll get back to where you wanted. (0:54:31) Al: But the problem is that with a movable camera, you’re constantly moving (0:54:35) Al: the camera to see around the trees and see, look for the cotton plant or, you (0:54:40) Al: know, look for the mushrooms or whatever, and you then have no idea which direction (0:54:46) Al: is which because you’ve moved the camera around. (0:54:49) Jonnie: Yeah, that makes sense. It’s funny because it’s not something I’ve really thought about at all. (0:54:55) Al: Yeah, fair. That’s why we’re different. (0:55:00) Al: OK, cool. I just wanted to quickly talk about the fact that the tutorial in this game is (0:55:07) Al: basically just the quest line, and I think that’s mostly good. But I think that the initial (0:55:14) Al: quest line before you get to professions, I think, should give you a sample of all of (0:55:20) Al: the professions. I think that that is the only thing I’d say about the tutorial. The (0:55:25) Al: they’re pretty clear about what they’re wanting you to do. And I never felt like I don’t know (0:55:29) Al: what to do. There was one time where I was like, I don’t know what this means. And I can’t (0:55:37) Al: remember what it was. And it probably is down to the fact that this game, for me, probably (0:55:44) Al: because of the profession I chose, felt like infinite crafting. OK, I can’t remember. There (0:55:48) Jonnie: I mean, there was a lot of crafting in this game, regardless of proficient. (0:55:52) Al: There was one specific thing that I didn’t write down that I felt I didn’t (0:55:55) Al: know exactly what it meant when in the quest line and it said, do this thing. (0:55:59) Al: And I’m like, I don’t know what you mean, but that only happened once. (0:56:03) Al: And I think after you’d done it the first time, the second time a quest like that (0:56:07) Al: showed up, I would understand it. (0:56:09) Al: Can’t remember what it was. (0:56:10) Al: Anyway, let’s move on to the mechanics. (0:56:13) Al: So the first two, I think, to talk about are gathering and crafting, um, which are (0:56:17) Al: kind of like your main, the kind of main game loop, certainly at the beginning is (0:56:23) Al: There are trees and plants. (0:56:25) Al: And things together, and there are infinite things to craft. (0:56:33) Al: This does the thing about crafting that I hate, which is every crafting thing is a different thing. (0:56:41) Al: So you have to, let’s say you want to make a horseshoe. (0:56:45) Al: Well, to make a horseshoe, you have to have copper bars and you have to have bronze bars. (0:56:50) Al: OK, so to get a bronze bar, you have to have. (0:56:55) Al: To get bronze or you have to get bronze rubble and put it through the rubble machine to get bronze rubble you go into the mine fine that’s that’s that cycle done to get the copper bar you have to melt it down from copper or to get copper or you have to get it from the mine that was not too bad but I just it then it just starts going out and out and out and out like to get another thing you might have to have cloth and copper and bronze and. (0:57:25) Al: Something else, and you have you end up having this whole line of like 20 different crafting stations that you have to go to and you have to remember which one does which thing it’s like Oh, is this the smelter or is this the. (0:57:38) Al: The rubble thingy or is this the whatever and they all have different names that you just don’t care about these names and you’re just like I just want to craft the thing just give me a single crafting menu. (0:57:50) Jonnie: I love you, Al, but you’re wrong. (0:57:54) Jonnie: So I think this is where the early game throws (0:57:58) Jonnie: a lot of crafting tables at you. (0:58:01) Jonnie: And once you get through that initial wave, (0:58:05) Jonnie: they don’t add more as you progress through the game. (0:58:10) Jonnie: So that number is there, and they probably (0:58:13) Jonnie: introduce a few too many too soon. (0:58:16) Jonnie: But now I’m like very like I know exactly which. (0:58:21) Jonnie: I have like a setup of like all of my things that are from you know needed from the vines are in a certain spot. (0:58:28) Jonnie: I have a space like I have spaces for everything and I can very effectively and efficiently run around and do all of the crafting things that I need to do. (0:58:41) Jonnie: So I totally get where you’re coming from, but I actually think this is a good implementation of the crafting table mechanic. (0:58:48) Jonnie: Obviously, if you don’t like that mechanic, you– (0:58:48) Al: Well, no. So I actually do think that it could have been done better, and feel free to disagree (0:58:51) Jonnie: you’re not going to like another version of it. (0:58:53) Jonnie: But I think this is a really good version of it. (0:59:00) Al: with me on this. But I think there’s a nice balance between… I understand why they have (0:59:05) Al: different crafting things, because different things do different things. I understand that. (0:59:10) Al: But what I think would be a better way of doing it, rather than like, here are your (0:59:13) Al: 10 different crafting tables, is you have like a crafting centre. (0:59:18) Al: And it can only do certain things until you add extra components to it. And so my issue (0:59:24) Al: is not like, oh, I have these different things that do different things. I think my issue (0:59:29) Al: is I have to go to a different place to do a different crafting thing. And so if you (0:59:33) Al: just had like, here’s the crafting station, and you upgrade it by adding these things, (0:59:37) Al: but there’s still one set of controls for it, I feel like that would be better. So you (0:59:41) Al: could go, here’s the crafting machine, and I go to it, and then you select what you want (0:59:45) Al: from it that you’ve upgraded with these other things that I feel (0:59:48) Al: would be a nice balance of the two. (0:59:52) Jonnie: Yeah, I don’t agree. I just like the ability, you know, because you can have them all running (0:59:56) Jonnie: on different things sort of side by side and like I’ll have something in the, you know, (1:00:00) Jonnie: at the moment I’m breaking down gold for gold ore while I’m smithing some moonstone bars (1:00:06) Jonnie: in my smelter like it, you know, but I would be kind of… (1:00:08) Al: could still do that. I’m not talking about them being completely the same thing. It’s just about (1:00:14) Al: having one set of controls for them. That’s the thing that… Because I have to remember where to go. (1:00:18) Jonnie: And I like the flexibility. (1:00:21) Jonnie: If I want to build 10 Rubble machines (1:00:23) Jonnie: and have them all set up in a little Rubble machine zone, (1:00:26) Jonnie: I can do that. (1:00:28) Jonnie: I like the flexibility that the current system offers. (1:00:30) Al: Yeah, I don’t and it just, it, I just felt overwhelmed. (1:00:34) Jonnie: But you know what I do really love, Al? (1:00:36) Jonnie: That I think you will– (1:00:38) Jonnie: yeah, that’s fair. (1:00:39) Al: Oh yeah, I love it. Fantastic. More games need to do this. I think this is fantastic. (1:00:39) Jonnie: But how do you feel about infinite pocket size, Al? (1:00:48) Al: And it does. When I first did it, I was like, oh my word, am I dreaming here? Like, am I, (1:00:54) Al: have I really got an infinite, infinite bag? I love it. You can get stuff. (1:01:01) Al: You can craft storage and put things in it, but I guess I can’t see why you would do that. (1:01:07) Jonnie: Yeah, I think that the main reason I think you would do storage is like, you know, maybe you want like very (1:01:13) Jonnie: You know (1:01:14) Jonnie: You want a clean storage your pockets to be clean and there’s some you know (1:01:19) Jonnie: Maybe a quest item that you’ve got that you don’t plan on using any time soon (1:01:22) Jonnie: And so you want to store it there, but yeah, you don’t you don’t need to do it. Oh (1:01:24) Al: Have you just put it further down in the back so you don’t have to see it like why would you why would you limit yourself. (1:01:28) Jonnie: I agree (1:01:29) Jonnie: I (1:01:30) Jonnie: Agree, but you know if you’re some sort of sicko that wants to put things in storage that is an option that is available to you (1:01:34) Al: yeah I unlocked it and I was like oh okay does that mean my storage isn’t infinite but nope (1:01:45) Al: i’ve never gotten close to filling it so um and I think it’s necessary for this game as well (1:01:53) Al: because this game just has so many different things (1:01:56) Jonnie: Yes, 100% agree. And the nature of the game, why does it want you to run around and explore and find stuff and if your pockets were constantly getting filled and you had to go back to the farm, that would just ruin the loop of this gameplay, which is so important. (1:02:11) Al: Well, it’s it’s also not it’s not it’s not just that you’d get you come across a thing and you’re like, Oh, I have that thing that I need to solve this problem. It’s in my bag, not I have to go all the way back to get the thing and then come back and put it in this on this thing. (1:02:20) Jonnie: Yes. Exactly right. And this leads to the other quality of life thing that I love is this game (1:02:30) Jonnie: has a day night cycle on, you know, I assume it’s about 20 minutes like every other game, (1:02:36) Jonnie: but you don’t need to go back and sleep. There is no stamina mechanic. There is no energy mechanic. (1:02:44) Jonnie: There are certain things that refresh daily. There are some puzzles that are (1:02:50) Jonnie: only available at night or during the day. There are different monsters that have different (1:02:56) Jonnie: sleep cycles. There’s a difference between day and night. It’s not a pointless system, (1:03:02) Jonnie: but you just don’t have to sleep. You can just live your life and just run around and do what (1:03:08) Jonnie: you want without having to worry about any stupid limiting system. It’s amazing. (1:03:13) Al: My one confusion about it, and I do agree that it’s generally good. (1:03:16) Al: My one confusion is why? (1:03:19) Al: The only thing I can think of to want to sleep is to pass time quickly. (1:03:26) Al: But you can’t sleep just at any point in the day. (1:03:30) Al: No, if you go to the bed when it’s daytime, it says you’re not sleepy yet. (1:03:35) Al: You can’t sleep. (1:03:36) Al: And I’m like, I don’t understand why you’ve got this arbitrary restriction for (1:03:40) Al: feature that this is literally the only reason (1:03:43) Al: you would ever want to use it is to just pass time quickly, let me do it at any point (1:03:49) Al: in the day. (1:03:50) Al: In fact, I think they should do the like napping mechanic that was Doraemon Story Seasons had, (1:03:56) Al: which is like you go to bed and you say how long you want to sleep for. I think that would (1:03:59) Al: be a good way to do it. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Like the Zelda, the Breath of the Wildfires (1:04:00) Jonnie: Yeah, do you want to sleep till evening or or till morning, that would be that would be good. (1:04:07) Al: feature. Yeah. Just say, I want to sleep till this point in the day. Like that’s literally (1:04:11) Al: the entire point of this this thing. (1:04:13) Al: I don’t like you’re not you can’t even go oh it’s because it’s more realistic (1:04:17) Al: because you can literally never sleep in this game that’s not realistic. (1:04:22) Jonnie: Yeah, thankfully there’s not really that many reasons that you would want to accelerate time at least not that I’ve come across the main one is (1:04:22) Al: » Okay. (1:04:30) Jonnie: The resource that comes from Loomis (1:04:32) Al: Yeah, OK, I think that’s all I really had to say about the crafting gathering. (1:04:38) Al: I just yeah, I don’t I don’t it just feels like forever crafting. (1:04:42) Al: And I’m not a fan of that. (1:04:46) Al: Let’s talk about the mining, because that’s the other big thing that I did. (1:04:49) Al: The mine is really interesting in that it is a fixed mine that doesn’t change between (1:04:56) Al: you going in so very different to other farming games. (1:04:59) Al: And I think that is both good and bad. (1:05:02) Al: So, in good, I quite like being able to go down and you’ve still got all your fire, (1:05:10) Al: your torches, that you’ve there, although a little bit annoying that they go out after (1:05:15) Al: a while and you have to run over to them and reset them, but at least it’s nice and quick (1:05:19) Al: to do that. (1:05:21) Al: It’s quite cool coming down and having this consistent area that you can go into. (1:05:26) Al: This is another area I’m building up, essentially, and it’s obviously not the same thing, right? (1:05:30) Al: They’re not like building in it, but it’s. (1:05:32) Al: Still feels like it feels like yours. (1:05:35) Al: It feels like this is your mind that you are mining in and it feels permanent. (1:05:40) Al: I quite like that. (1:05:42) Jonnie: I agree. It’s a nice twist, rather than the randomly generated flaws that we’ve had in so many games. (1:05:51) Al: The negative of it is it makes it much harder to get the stuff that you want over time, (1:05:57) Al: because you are slowly creating like an area around the entrance where there’s nothing (1:06:03) Al: left because you’ve already strip-minded and you have to keep going further and further (1:06:08) Al: to find stuff, whereas in the like Stardew Harvest Moon style mine, you just go to a (1:06:16) Al: level that you know this item will be on. So it does make that a little bit more difficult. (1:06:22) Jonnie: So I think the way that they’ve done the mine is really cool. (1:06:27) Jonnie: And one of the things– so on the edge of each of the mines, (1:06:32) Jonnie: there are a couple of reset buttons, (1:06:35) Jonnie: so you can build a path out to that. (1:06:37) Jonnie: And then you can hit that button, (1:06:39) Jonnie: and it will reset all of the resources in the mine. (1:06:42) Al: “A what now?” (1:06:44) Jonnie: There’s a button that you can hit to basically respawn (1:06:47) Jonnie: everything in the mine. (1:06:48) Al: Where is that? (1:06:49) Jonnie: And they’re very far out. (1:06:52) Jonnie: And it’s one of those things where I think these are things (1:06:56) Al: I’ve presumably just not hit that point yet. (1:06:56) Jonnie: that I encounter– like, the nature of this game (1:06:58) Jonnie: is it really rewards exploration. (1:07:00) Jonnie: So I found that button very early on, (1:07:03) Jonnie: because, Al, you’re describing– (1:07:05) Jonnie: you build this ring around the center. (1:07:07) Jonnie: In my head, I was like, what? (1:07:09) Jonnie: No, I built a path straight out, because I (1:07:12) Jonnie: wanted to see how far I could go. (1:07:13) Jonnie: And if there was an edge to it, I was like, what? (1:07:15) Jonnie: No, I built a path straight out, because I (1:07:18) Jonnie: wanted to see how far I could go. (1:07:19) Jonnie: And if there wasn’t an edge to it, (1:07:22) Jonnie: I would have gone to mine. (1:07:24) Jonnie: And so I found all of these things very quickly. (1:07:26) Al: - Oh man. (1:07:27) Jonnie: It sounds like at your current pace, (1:07:29) Jonnie: it will take you a long time to find one of these buttons. (1:07:31) Al: Yeah, probably, probably. (1:07:32) Al: Well, it won’t ‘cause I’m not gonna continue playing it, (1:07:34) Al: but that’s a discussion for later on in the episode. (1:07:37) Al: Um… (1:07:37) Jonnie: Yeah, but so my mind my minds are full of like these these singular parts of like, you know, (1:07:42) Jonnie: sort of spider web their way out from the center. (1:07:44) Al: Well, I’m glad you mentioned spiders, because that’s the other thing about the mine that (1:07:49) Al: is utterly horrifying, is that there are killer spiders in the mine, and they are coming to (1:07:55) Al: get you. (1:07:56) Jonnie: - Yeah, you can kill them, it’s fine. (1:07:57) Al: Yeah, but they’re also just horrifying. (1:08:01) Jonnie: - They are horrifying. (1:08:01) Al: First time you experience one, you’re like, “What? (1:08:06) Al: What is- what- what?” (1:08:07) Al: And it’s like when you start up the game, it says, “Do you have arachnophobia?” (1:08:10) Al: And I probably should have taken that as some sort of assumption for what’s going to happen, (1:08:14) Al: but yeah, good that they have that option, but yeah, also, they’re horrifying spiders. (1:08:21) Jonnie: Yeah. And they’re fast. (1:08:23) Al: They’re the size of you so fast. (1:08:28) Al: You can just about outrun them, just. (1:08:29) Jonnie: Yeah. If you move perfectly, you can stay ahead of them, (1:08:35) Jonnie: but if you bump off of anything, that will probably catch you. (1:08:38) Al: You have you have a whip that you can use to attack them and to start with it (1:08:38) Jonnie: But the good thing is, it’s like… Yes. (1:08:44) Al: just stuns them but I presume once you get to a certain upgrade level it yeah (1:08:50) Al: it deals enough damage that it kills them. I think I’m maybe like four levels (1:08:52) Jonnie: - Correct. (1:08:52) Jonnie: Um. (1:08:54) Al: up on the upgrading on that which I feel like what I quite like about the (1:08:59) Al: upgrading is it’s nice and fast if you come to it with a lot of stuff you don’t (1:09:04) Al: have to, unlike Stardew and Harvest Moon, you don’t have to have like (1:09:08) Al: specific, you don’t have to have like, oh, this is the steel time, and this is the gold one, (1:09:15) Al: like you just, it’s the same stuff you use to upgrade it each time, I think. (1:09:20) Jonnie: So there’s multiple levels, so you upgrade it four times within the bronze tail, which I think it starts on, and then you go to the iron tail. (1:09:30) Al: Right, okay, so you still have to do that. It’s just it’s just later on right? (1:09:30) Jonnie: And so you need iron to upgrade. (1:09:34) Jonnie: Yeah, but there’s no time delay, right? It’s all instantaneous upgrades, which is nice. (1:09:38) Al: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And the first few upgrades are really cheap and easy to get. Like I upgraded (1:09:40) Jonnie: The other thing about this… (1:09:45) Al: all of my tools to the like by two levels as soon as I had that ability, which might have been (1:09:53) Al: because I was blacksmithing. I don’t know. Maybe I was like, obviously getting a lot of the stuff (1:09:57) Al: that you need for that quite quickly. (1:10:00) Jonnie: Yeah, and it depends on the tool, right? (1:10:01) Jonnie: Because I think your axe and your hat (1:10:04) Jonnie: should take stuff that you get from the mines, (1:10:06) Jonnie: but your whip requires leather, which is more from foraging. (1:10:11) Al: - Mm-hmm. (1:10:12) Jonnie: Because it requires mushrooms as an input for the leather. (1:10:15) Jonnie: The other thing about the spiders– (1:10:16) Jonnie: and it’s kind of just how damage works in the game. (1:10:19) Jonnie: So if a spider hits you in the mine, (1:10:21) Jonnie: all that happens is your character passes out (1:10:23) Jonnie: and you get teleported outside the mine. (1:10:25) Jonnie: You don’t lose any stuff. (1:10:28) Jonnie: And later in the game you encounter… (1:10:30) Jonnie: …the enemies in the overworld, and it’s not a huge number, but the damage mechanic is you drop stuff from your pockets. (1:10:36) Jonnie: And that’s kind of totally fine because you just drop stuff while you’re killing the monster and then you go around to pick it back up. (1:10:42) Jonnie: So it kind of feels like there’s a consequence, but there’s not really a consequence to taking damage unless you’re just trying to run past and you get hit. (1:10:48) Al: organization, organization is the consequence, you have to (1:10:51) Al: organize things again. (1:10:53) Jonnie: It is a shame that there is no auto-organize button for the inventory. (1:10:58) Al: I wouldn’t use it anyway, because it wouldn’t organize things the way I want. (1:11:01) Al: I’m very particular about these things, but I’ve talked about that in previous episodes, (1:11:05) Al: so we don’t need to cover that again. (1:11:06) Jonnie: I should take a photo of my inventory and send it to you while it will give you nightmares. (1:11:07) Al: Look, I don’t have an issue with people doing what they want to do. (1:11:14) Al: It’s just that I’m particular about how I want things to be, right? (1:11:17) Al: That’s fine. (1:11:18) Al: Those are two different things. (1:11:20) Jonnie: Yeah, mine’s just ordered in the way I picked things up. (1:11:20) Al: Anything else on… (1:11:24) Al: Anything else on mining? (1:11:27) Al: You have to, okay, uh, I guess. (1:11:28) Al: The key point, you have to have torches because you cannot be in the dark, you pass out in the (1:11:34) Al: dark, and the same thing as if you’re attacked by a spider. So you have to like add the torches (1:11:41) Al: as you go, otherwise you can’t. (1:11:44) Jonnie: Yeah, and actually, I will say I find the Dark Stones to be a (1:11:46) Jonnie: little bit unforgiving, where I’m like, I’m in a space that I (1:11:48) Jonnie: think I should be fine. And the game’s like, no, that’s too dark. (1:11:52) Al: Well, the good thing is it does it is a few seconds from when it starts going like your your screen starts going dark and you can move back into light and you’re fine. (1:12:01) Al: But yeah, yeah, there are some areas where I was like, why would that count as the dark? (1:12:06) Al: Come on. (1:12:08) Jonnie: The only thing I’m mining is the spiders. (1:12:10) Jonnie: So the spiders only really appear when you mine gems (1:12:12) Jonnie: rather than mining ore. (1:12:14) Jonnie: Occasionally, they will appear, I (1:12:16) Jonnie: think, if you’ve been in the mine for a long time. (1:12:19) Jonnie: But you kind of have the rough idea of when a spider is coming. (1:12:22) Al: “Did you do much farming?” (1:12:25) Jonnie: Yes, I’ve done a decent amount of farming. (1:12:26) Al: OK, let’s talk about farming then, because I did no farming, because of the profession (1:12:33) Al: I chose, it didn’t walk me through that, and so I never figured out how to buy seeds. (1:12:38) Jonnie: So there is a store in town that sells seats and you buy. (1:12:42) Al: I presumed so, but I was just following the quest that it gave me, and then at one point (1:12:48) Al: And I was like, I’ve not done any farming, oh no, on this. (1:12:51) Jonnie: Yeah, so farming is quite nice in this game in that there are a few things that they do (1:12:52) Al: This farming game. (1:12:58) Jonnie: differently, but at the core you buy seeds, you over the land, you plant the seed, you water it, (1:13:06) Jonnie: there’s no compost mechanic, and then after a certain period of time the plant grows and (1:13:14) Jonnie: you harvest it and that’s kind of the core loop. The few things that they do differently is (1:13:20) Jonnie: is. (1:13:21) Jonnie: As you get to higher level seeds, there are things that can happen that impede their growth. (1:13:27) Jonnie: Like weeds can sprout up, which stops the plant from growing. (1:13:30) Jonnie: They can get beetles on them. (1:13:33) Jonnie: I think there’s a few other things that can happen to the plants. (1:13:38) Jonnie: And so that stops them from growing. (1:13:41) Jonnie: But this is where animals come in. (1:13:44) Jonnie: So the first animal that you get access to is rabbits, and rabbits eat weeds. (1:13:49) Jonnie: so they go around and they eat the water. (1:13:51) Jonnie: The other thing that’s cool from a farming perspective is so my character, I would say the way I’m playing, is not a big farmer, so it’s not something I spend a lot of time doing, but there are, you can find rare versions of the seeds as you do puzzles called everseeds. (1:13:57) Al: Yeah, interesting. I hadn’t, yeah, I hadn’t experienced. (1:14:09) Jonnie: So if you get the wheat everseed, it just continually… (1:14:22) Jonnie: The wheat continuously regrows, so I don’t have to go and get new seeds, which is really nice for a farm design perspective. Yeah, it’s so good because I have like… (1:14:26) Al: Nice, I like that, that’s a good balance of the crops forever needing to buy new seeds (1:14:37) Al: and crops never needing to buy new seeds that some games have done, it’s a nice balance (1:14:40) Al: where you have to do the mechanic itself before you get to the infinite seeds. (1:14:46) Jonnie: Yes, and like it would be different based on your playthrough, right? So like Altheor (1:14:51) Jonnie: mining playthrough, you could get six of the, or you could get however many of the wheat (1:14:56) Jonnie: ever seed before, like without ever buying a wheat seed, because you don’t need wheat (1:15:01) Jonnie: to necessarily progress. So if you wanted to have a little farming patch of wheat because, (1:15:06) Jonnie: you know, you wanted that for some reason, then you can have access to it. You just don’t (1:15:11) Jonnie: have to focus in on, you know, growing and buying and doing that sort of core. (1:15:16) Jonnie: For me is leading to what I’m enjoying about this game in terms of farm design, because for most of the crops, I’m just waiting till I get six of the ever seed and I’m doing, you know, like a nice little patch where I’m sort of like, you know, planting out all of the things with, with the ever seeds, which is, yeah, I know, so I’m just having a lot of having more fun that I thought designing my farm. (1:15:40) Jonnie: seeds, which is, yeah, I know, I’m just having a lot of having (1:15:44) Jonnie: more fun than I thought designing my farm. (1:15:46) Al: Fair enough, fishing is a very different (1:15:52) Al: mini game than most other farming games. (1:15:55) Al: So you cast towards a fish. (1:15:59) Al: So you see the fish in the water, you cast towards a fish and then the fish notices (1:16:05) Al: and then you have to chase the fish with your fishing rod. (1:16:10) Al: It is very odd because obviously you can’t control a fishing rod like that. (1:16:17) Al: Yeah, like it starts swimming away from you (1:16:19) Al: and you literally have to chase it with your bait and eventually (1:16:25) Al: you get into a position where it then grabs onto it and then you can pull it out of the water. (1:16:30) Al: It’s different at least, I guess. (1:16:32) Jonnie: Yep. It is different. (1:16:34) Al: I don’t know if I like it, but it’s different. (1:16:38) Al: It’s not just trying to do the same thing. (1:16:39) Al: So that’s something. (1:16:41) Jonnie: - Yeah, I don’t love it, I don’t necessarily hate it. (1:16:43) Jonnie: I haven’t done much fishing outside of, (1:16:46) Jonnie: for the treasure hunter profession, you do have to fish, (1:16:51) Jonnie: but that’s more just about casting into a pool of bubbles (1:16:54) Jonnie: and then you instantly reel it back in (1:16:55) Jonnie: and you get the resources. (1:16:56) Jonnie: So it’s a nice way to get started with fishing (1:16:59) Jonnie: is if that’s something you want to do, (1:17:01) Jonnie: but you don’t like the idea of chasing fish, (1:17:03) Jonnie: maybe look into the treasure hunting profession. (1:17:06) Al: Yeah, so you’ve added in temples here before the Luma Raising. I guess, yeah, you have (1:17:10) Al: to do a temple before you can raise a Luma. There are temples, I guess, there’s not a (1:17:15) Al: huge amount there. There are areas where you go in and you have like a, it’s kind of like (1:17:21) Al: a Zelda dungeon, I guess, a small Zelda dungeon where you’re kind of going through an area, (1:17:26) Al: unlocking other areas to get to the end and then you get some treasure. (1:17:30) Jonnie: Yeah, this is where like the reason I put these on is like they are probably more important for the archaeologist profession. (1:17:38) Jonnie: So with the archaeologist profession at the start of the dungeon, alternate room opens up where you get two broken relics. (1:17:48) Jonnie: And you can only take those relics out if you get through the dungeon without dying. (1:17:52) Jonnie: And then that profession is all about fixing up those relics. (1:17:56) Jonnie: So it makes the puzzles more interesting because they are (1:18:00) Jonnie: higher risk. The first dungeon is very easy. I don’t know that I would describe any of the (1:18:06) Jonnie: dungeons as hard necessarily but you know there’s definitely been like you know like oh I have to (1:18:11) Jonnie: really think about this or you know there’s a mechanic in one of the dungeons where if you step (1:18:17) Jonnie: on a certain tile a rock drops from the ceiling and maybe I’m paying attention to something else (1:18:21) Jonnie: and I step on a rock and and die. So there is a bit more to it particularly if you’re doing (1:18:28) Al: Yeah. But you have to do it before the next thing, which is get your first Luma. So we’re (1:18:34) Al: finally figuring out what the name of the game is, and that is Luma. Luma are the, I guess, (1:18:42) Al: are they all based on animals? So we start off with the one that I’ve got to start with, (1:18:45) Al: and I don’t know if this is the same as everyone’s first one. It’s a crab, I think. (1:18:50) Jonnie: No, I think they’re different. I think they’re tied to your initial profession. (1:18:54) Al: Profession, right? Okay, okay (1:18:55) Jonnie: Yeah, because my first one was a dragon, I want to say. (1:18:59) Al: Oh, that’s much more exciting than a crab. I want a dragon. (1:19:05) Al: So you get Lumet eggs, and then you have to build an incubator to get them, to hatch them. (1:19:13) Al: And then once you’ve done that, they follow you around, (1:19:17) Al: and you use them to get more things for crafting. (1:19:22) Al: It’s just like everything, it is a thing to get more things to craft with. (1:19:24) Jonnie: So, so when you get your luma, they will follow you around the world and they can point out (1:19:32) Jonnie: hidden chests that you can dig up and you can feed them and pat them once a day to get (1:19:38) Jonnie: luma energy, which you do use for crafting. So you can have one luma that’s following you, (1:19:42) Jonnie: but you can also have luma enclosures, enclosures is the wrong word, but essentially you can have (1:19:50) Jonnie: the rest of the luma that you get wandering about on your farm and you can feed and pat them as (1:19:54) Jonnie: for more of the luma energy. I think at this stage, I’ve got about eight or nine different (1:20:02) Jonnie: luma. My favorite is there’s one that’s based on a worm and it’s literally a worm tied to a balloon. (1:20:10) Al: I feel like it’s pretty simple other than that right like it’s a creature collection (1:20:16) Al: type thing and it gives you some energy to craft with. I kind of expected them to be (1:20:22) Al: maybe a bit more fundamental than that, although I guess they are quite fundamental in that (1:20:26) Al: you need that energy for a lot of things. (1:20:29) Jonnie: - Yeah, and it’s not clear to me (1:20:31) Jonnie: if there is some larger thing that they play, (1:20:34) Jonnie: ‘cause I would guess I’m maybe, (1:20:38) Jonnie: like I think I’m in the third era at the moment (1:20:41) Jonnie: and I know there’s at least a fourth (1:20:43) Jonnie: and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was like, (1:20:46) Jonnie: here’s the secret fifth area where we actually reveal (1:20:48) Jonnie: sort of the final thing of the story. (1:20:52) Jonnie: So I’m guessing, yeah, I’ve got a bit to go (1:20:58) Jonnie: from an exploration and maybe the- (1:20:59) Jonnie: Luma’s will mean something more towards the end. (1:21:02) Jonnie: You can also get a cat and a dog. (1:21:04) Al: Oh, didn’t know that. Did they do anything? (1:21:05) Jonnie: You get them through. (1:21:07) Jonnie: They basically act like Luma except they don’t produce Luma (1:21:10) Jonnie: energy. I know the dog, I think you get it through one of the (1:21:13) Jonnie: professions. Yeah, so it’s I think it’s a way to give you (1:21:19) Jonnie: kind of the Luma mechanic before you have maybe completed the (1:21:22) Jonnie: temple. No, it was the crafting. (1:21:23) Al: Is that the archaeology one perhaps if it’s about (1:21:30) Jonnie: ‘Cause I think the the buried treasure chests have some of the (1:21:33) Jonnie: resources that you need for crafting the pirate outfits. (1:21:36) Jonnie: Oh, there’s also a snail Luma and he writes escape. (1:21:39) Al: Obviously, is there anything else, mechanics-wise, that we haven’t talked about? (1:21:45) Al: I feel like that’s a result. (1:21:47) Jonnie: Um, I don’t think so. I think that’s pretty much everything. (1:21:53) Al: I guess selling things, we haven’t really talked about that, but you go to the village, (1:21:57) Al: the town, and there’s people with shops that you can buy and sell from, and that’s how (1:22:02) Jonnie: Yeah, the game’s quite good in that as you sort of open up more regions like the shops just expand to the inventory to include that stuff. (1:22:10) Jonnie: So if you’re like, I really don’t want to do mining, for example, I just want to purchase all of the mining stuff, then you can do that. (1:22:16) Jonnie: It is quite expensive, though, to purchase the purchase resources instead of collecting them yourself. (1:22:22) Al: Yeah, that’s fine. I’m okay with it being expensive for those things, because I like (1:22:25) Al: it being an option, because it’s the same in fields of mystery. It’s quite expensive (1:22:29) Al: to do these things. But I think if you want to focus on a specific thing, that’s the negative (1:22:36) Al: that you’re going to have to deal with. And that’s fine, because that’s life. But like (1:22:40) Al: sometimes you just do that, right? Like that’s, I like the option. Okay. Then I guess we also (1:22:42) Jonnie: Yeah, exactly. (1:22:46) Al: have to talk about the characters. We’re not really going to talk about the story, I think, (1:22:50) Al: that’s quite fundamental to the game. (1:22:52) Jonnie: Agree, yeah, it’s fundamental. And also, like, I feel like I will hold my opinions on the story (1:23:00) Jonnie: until I finished the story. (1:23:02) Al: Fair, fair, but we can talk about characters or, as I’ve written in this, (1:23:08) Al: our lack of interest in the characters. (1:23:10) Al: I’ve not particularly found anybody I’ve found interesting to talk to. (1:23:15) Jonnie: No, the characters literally exist as, you know, (1:23:18) Jonnie: just placeholder fodder for the world. (1:23:21) Jonnie: You know, you will have a mentor for your profession (1:23:24) Jonnie: who basically just gives you the quest (1:23:26) Jonnie: and you check in with them like every five quests (1:23:28) Jonnie: and they’d be like, you’re doing good. (1:23:29) Jonnie: Now, try harder versions of the stuff. (1:23:32) Jonnie: And there is a mayor in the town (1:23:34) Jonnie: who you can do some quests for. (1:23:37) Jonnie: This is like the mildest of spoilers, (1:23:40) Jonnie: ‘cause I’m guessing this is the part (1:23:41) Jonnie: that you didn’t get to, Al. (1:23:42) Jonnie: But after some period of time, (1:23:46) Jonnie: the earthquake that hits the town, (1:23:46) Jonnie: that breaks a bunch of things that… (1:23:46) Al: - No, I, no, I hit the earthquake. (1:23:49) Al: I hit the earthquake. (1:23:50) Jonnie: Ah, so the earthquake breaks a bunch of things (1:23:53) Jonnie: around town and it opens up quest lines (1:23:56) Al: uh see I didn’t I didn’t actually go into town after the earthquake I did the earthquake and went (1:24:01) Jonnie: Well, and to be fair, there is nothing that prompts you to find and fix those things, (1:24:02) Al: oh okay I don’t know what that means (1:24:09) Jonnie: like there’s no quest that automatically generates you only get it by sort of almost (1:24:12) Jonnie: accidentally stumbling across and interacting with something broken. (1:24:16) Al: which you would have to have known (1:24:18) Al: that it wasn’t broken beforehand, (1:24:19) Al: ‘cause you can very easily spend almost no time in town (1:24:23) Al: in this game, up to the point that I’ve. (1:24:25) Jonnie: Yeah, they’re like so to get to some of the later regions you do have to walk through town (1:24:29) Jonnie: So that was like so it’s probably introduced to you at the right time (1:24:34) Jonnie: Because you need resources from those later areas in order to fix some of the things around around town (1:24:40) Al: that makes sense. But yeah, you have to go into town to get your profession and then (1:24:46) Al: you also have to go to buy and sell things and that’s it. I never found any pull towards (1:24:54) Al: going in other than that, which I guess it feels like its weakest point. One of the things (1:24:59) Al: that I really like about farming games is getting to know the characters and I just (1:25:03) Al: felt no interest in them whatsoever, which is a bit of a shame. (1:25:06) Jonnie: But I think that’s the intent, right? They have not put any effort into making the characters. (1:25:09) Al: Sure. (1:25:11) Jonnie: There’s no relationship system. To me, it’s one of the things I like about this game, (1:25:16) Jonnie: because that’s not part of the game that they’re selling. (1:25:18) Al: can have interesting characters without having a romance system. Those two things don’t have to– (1:25:24) Jonnie: Oh, 100%, right? But that is not a feature of this game that they are aiming for. For me, (1:25:31) Jonnie: this game is very much about… The game that they are selling is like, “Do you like farming games?” (1:25:36) Jonnie: “Do you like exploration and puzzle?” “If yes, this game has that stuff.” (1:25:41) Jonnie: “If you are looking for something else, go play a different game, because this game is not that.” (1:25:44) Al: Yeah, and I think that’s my point. That’s my point is like, I’m just trying to make (1:25:45) Jonnie: like. (1:25:48) Al: it clear to people, if that’s what you like about these games, it’s not here for you. (1:25:54) Al: Like at all. It’s not even just like it doesn’t talk about it. There’s nothing. They are husks (1:26:02) Al: of people. (1:26:04) Jonnie: They’re not husks of people, because that would make this game Fei Farm, because Fei Farm is trying to give them personality and failing. (1:26:10) Jonnie: This game is very clear that these characters are not there for you to get invested in. (1:26:16) Jonnie: So they’re not husks, they are just regular-ass game NPCs. (1:26:23) Al: Yeah, yeah, fair. No, I get, no, no, I get that, I get that, I get that. I’m just, I’m (1:26:26) Jonnie: Because for me, there’s a difference between trying to do it and failing really badly. (1:26:32) Al: saying like they’re not, there’s nothing really there in them. That’s why I was meaning by husks, (1:26:38) Al: right? They’re just, they’re not, they’re absolute bare minimum of, to be able to be called a (1:26:44) Al: character. OK, so, let’s conclude then. I’ll start off because mine is more negative. (1:26:53) Al: And then we can go back to yours and get more positive take on it. I like that it’s doing (1:26:59) Al: some different things and I like that it exists. I don’t particularly enjoy playing the game. (1:27:08) Al: And it was a real struggle to actually get the amount of time into it that I did. (1:27:13) Al: I think that there’s lots of little things that frustrate me specifically. (1:27:18) Al: And I guess I guess I’m not an exploration. (1:27:23) Al: I don’t think I’m an exploration game kind of person is what I’ve learnt from this. (1:27:26) Jonnie: I would agree, Al, based on this conversation, (1:27:28) Jonnie: I would say you are not an exploration game, this. (1:27:33) Jonnie: And I feel like that’s what I love about this game, (1:27:36) Jonnie: because I have had so much fun playing this game. (1:27:40) Jonnie: I will continue to play it. (1:27:44) Jonnie: I will very likely complete every single profession (1:27:47) Jonnie: on this playthrough. (1:27:49) Jonnie: And the thing that I like most about this game (1:27:52) Jonnie: is that it is very clear… (1:27:56) Jonnie: about what it is, which is, you know, as we talked about, this exploration puzzle game with strong sort of farming and crafting mechanics. (1:28:03) Jonnie: And if that’s appealing to you, this game is unapologetically being that. (1:28:08) Jonnie: It is not overloaded with mechanics and other features just because they are in other farming games. (1:28:17) Jonnie: Like, some of the professions are weird, right? (1:28:19) Jonnie: Like the treasure hunter profession where you are crafting pirate outfits. (1:28:22) Jonnie: it makes almost no sense whatsoever. (1:28:26) Jonnie: Does that change my enjoyment of the game at all? (1:28:29) Jonnie: Absolutely not. (1:28:30) Jonnie: Like, it’s dumb and it’s silly, but I don’t really care. (1:28:35) Jonnie: And the other thing that I love about Luma Island (1:28:37) Jonnie: is all of the little quality of life things (1:28:40) Jonnie: that I want from these sorts of games, it has done them. (1:28:45) Jonnie: So for me, like, I want to say this is like a perfect game (1:28:49) Jonnie: because it’s not. (1:28:51) Jonnie: But this is pretty close to like what I most want (1:28:55) Jonnie: from (1:28:56) Jonnie: from a game like I am this might be the peak of me on the show of ever liking a game (1:29:00) Al: Fair enough. I love that. I’m like, I really don’t like this game. And you’re like, is (1:29:06) Al: this a perfect game? I think that’s the thing. It’s just an example of how different people (1:29:08) Jonnie: But that’s what I like about it, right? (1:29:10) Jonnie: Because I know that this game is perfect for me, right? (1:29:17) Al: like different things. And I’m not saying that this makes it a bad game. I just, it (1:29:21) Al: definitely hasn’t clicked with me. It’s not one of these games where I’m like, I don’t (1:29:24) Al: like this and it’s because it’s bad. It’s I don’t like this because it’s not designed (1:29:30) Jonnie: Yeah, and it’s funny because like, as I was thinking about like sort of in the lead up to recording this, my second episode on the show was an episode I did with Kev on a game called The Lost Tower. (1:29:44) Jonnie: I wish I could remember. (1:29:46) Al: Oh, oh yeah, is that the, um, the, uh, what’s it called? (1:29:52) Al: Oh, goodness. (1:29:53) Al: I know the game you’re talking about, I think. (1:29:54) Jonnie: Yes, it’s from the the group of developers are Mexican. Yeah. (1:29:57) Al: The Mexican dev team. (1:30:00) Al: Yeah, what is it called? (1:30:03) Al: This is going to drive me insane now. (1:30:03) Jonnie: Anyway, yeah, it’s like Kevin and I were both on the episode (1:30:07) Jonnie: and we both couldn’t remember the name of this game, so Lonesome Village. (1:30:11) Jonnie: Thank you. Thank you. (1:30:12) Jonnie: So Kevin and I were on an episode about Lonesome Village, (1:30:15) Jonnie: which was a very puzzle heavy game. (1:30:18) Jonnie: And for both of us, that game like missed the mark quite substantially (1:30:21) Jonnie: because it just felt a little bit unfocused and not really sure what it was. (1:30:24) Jonnie: It was trying to do too much. (1:30:27) Jonnie: And I after this, I’m going to go back and listen to that episode (1:30:30) Jonnie: because I feel like a lot of the things that I was wanting out of that experience. (1:30:35) Jonnie: I feel like I am getting from Luma Island and maybe just to sort of (1:30:40) Jonnie: sum up my my thoughts and like a little story. (1:30:42) Jonnie: I’ve been exploring the forest area, which is the the second region. (1:30:46) Jonnie: And I was chopping down some trees to get some resources. (1:30:50) Jonnie: And I uncovered a puzzle. (1:30:52) Jonnie: And like this puzzle was not difficult, right? (1:30:54) Jonnie: I chopped down some trees, there’s some lights on the ground (1:30:56) Jonnie: and you have to stick on all of the lights in a certain amount of time. (1:31:00) Jonnie: So you’re just sort of carving out a path. (1:31:01) Jonnie: And I was like, that’s really cool. (1:31:03) Jonnie: I didn’t like it’s cool that they’re introducing puzzles in the second area (1:31:06) Jonnie: because I hadn’t, you know, like I was I hadn’t encountered that puzzle in the farm. (1:31:12) Jonnie: And then I was back exploring the farm and I saw a little light poking out (1:31:15) Jonnie: from one of the trees and I was like, oh, my God, this puzzle is on the farm. (1:31:18) Jonnie: I just didn’t encounter it. (1:31:19) Jonnie: So I got that like reverse exploration where I had this fun moment, (1:31:23) Jonnie: discovered a puzzle like (1:31:24) Jonnie: it was cool. And then as I was doing something that I had already thought I had completed in (1:31:29) Jonnie: the game, I uncovered another little puzzle to do that I had missed the first time. That was, (1:31:35) Jonnie: it’s just like, for me, that is just such a fun experience. And that’s what I love about. (1:31:40) Al: I find it funny that you didn’t find that one on the farm because I found that very early on. (1:31:45) Al: It’s actually really, really close to the start. It’s like the first area that I started cutting (1:31:46) Jonnie: Yeah, like it’s it’s really close to the start, yep, it’s it’s yeah, and I completely. (1:31:51) Al: trees down. And that’s probably just coincidence that I chose that bit because there’s still quite (1:31:56) Al: a lot of areas around there that you could. But yeah, that’s funny. (1:31:58) Jonnie: Yeah, so I yeah, I like Alan, you need to shut me up because I otherwise would just keep talking about how much I really like scare. (1:32:08) Al: All right, well, thank you, Johnny, for joining me to talk about Luma Island. (1:32:08) Jonnie: Yeah. (1:32:12) Al: Yeah, because we do need to shut it down there, because I have children to look after. (1:32:17) Al: Where can people find you on the internet? (1:32:20) Jonnie: As always, in the Slack, get to your render now. (1:32:25) Al: You can find me on maston.scot and other social media at thescotbot. (1:32:30) Al: You can find the podcast on Tumblr and other social media at THSPod. (1:32:36) Al: You can send us feedback from our website. (1:32:38) Al: We read all the feedback that’s submitted from there because there’s not very much that’s submitted there, and you can also find links to other things to do with the podcast, including our Patreon, patreon.com/dhsbod, where you can get access to our Slack, where there are lots of people to talk to and get bonus episodes of the podcast, including upcoming ones such as our game of the year, game of the non-farming year. (1:33:08) Al: episode and what we’re looking forward to in 2025 that isn’t farming games. I really need to get a better name for that because it’s been six years now, and I still don’t have a good name for that episode. (1:33:24) Jonnie: just give up. Venus will check, did you get it? (1:33:27) Al: No, I did not. I got a Haunter and an Onyx. (1:33:33) Al: I swear this game is gonna, it’s trying to make me crack. (1:33:38) Al: Thank you again for joining me. (1:33:42) Al: Thank you listeners for listening, and until next time, have a good harvest! (1:33:47) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:33:48) Jonnie: Have a good Venusaur. (1:33:50) Al: I tried, I tried to have a good one. (1:33:58) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:34:02) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:34:06) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:34:12) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:34:22) Al: Uh, the last piece of news is that, for some reason, my computer stopped recording. (1:34:31) Al: Well, it’s a good thing that Zoom is still recording. (1:34:34) Al: I have no idea how long that’s not been going for, (1:34:36) Al: because I just looked over to see how long we’ve been recording for, and it’s not recording. (1:34:41) Al: Weird. (1:34:43) Al: OK, I’m definitely using the Zoom recordings this time. (1:34:46) Al: I presume my, uh, my mic did, like, I didn’t cut it at all. (1:34:52) Al: I didn’t see how long that comes in, did I? (1:34:54) Jonnie: Nope. It’s been clean the whole way through. (1:34:56) Al: Hmm. (1:34:57) Al: Weird. (1:34:58) Jonnie: Um, can we just get, like, you know, checked for ghosts? (1:34:59) Al: OK, fine, I’m just gonna go with it. (1:35:02) Jonnie: ‘Cause I feel like, I feel like this show, these episodes, (1:35:06) Jonnie: I feel like we’re haunted or cursed or……

The Harvest Season

1
Episode About a Game 2:18:31

13 weeksที่แล้ว2:18:31

2:18:31

Al and Kelly talk about Fields of Mistria Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:05:39: What Have We Been Up To 00:13:12: November Game Releases 00:15:25: Stardew Concert 00:27:34: Game News 00:40:41: New Games 00:51:38: Fields Of Mistria Links Stardew Valley Symphony of Seasons Sun Haven UK/Switzerland/NZ Switch Release Everdream Valley “Family Time” DLC Snacko “Builders Dream” Update Spiritea “Phantom Friends” Update Farlands 0.3 Update Ratopia Dreamland Farm Ooze Keeper Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Kelly: And my name is Kelly. (0:00:37) Al: and we’re here today to talk about cartridge core games. (0:00:43) Al: Welcome back Kelly, how are you doing? (0:00:46) Kelly: Pretty good. Enjoying the long weekend. It’s been nice. (0:00:49) Kelly: It’s nice to be back, too. How have you been? (0:00:51) Al: Yes, yes, good, good, good. (0:00:54) Al: I’m, yeah, doing all right. Just, you know, I’m cramming in as many farming games as possible (0:00:58) Al: before the end of the year. (0:01:00) Al: My game of the year episode is as accurate as possible. (0:01:04) Al: So busy. (0:01:06) Kelly: - Good dedication, really dedicated. (0:01:08) Al: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I probably could have played half of these in the first half of the year, but, you know, procrastination. (0:01:13) Kelly: But yeah, where’s the fun without that? (0:01:18) Al: Yeah, this is when the ADHD kicks in and goes, “Oh, deadline, great!” (0:01:22) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, no, literally. (0:01:25) Kelly: Do you have any things I did in like the 10 minutes (0:01:27) Kelly: before I sat down to record this? (0:01:29) Kelly: I think I ran through like five chores, just, why? (0:01:30) Al: Yeah, classic. Well, this is also Kelly’s 10th episode on the podcast. (0:01:40) Kelly: Whoo, I can’t believe it’s been 10. When you said that, I was so shocked. (0:01:40) Al: It’s wild. Yeah, yeah. I was surprised as well. I didn’t expect it to be that many because (0:01:52) Al: I guess it’s just been over a long time. Your first episode was in 2021. So we did Spirit (0:01:56) Al: and then the Spiritfare DLC, and then you and Kev did. (0:02:00) Al: Cult of the Lamb, and then you and Bev and Maddie did Potion Permit, (0:02:05) Al: and then we did Fishing Break, you and Kev did Graveyard Keeper, and then we did Pumpkin Panic, (0:02:11) Al: an episode called “What is Stardew still missing?” which I don’t even remember doing, (0:02:15) Al: but apparently we did. Yeah, sure. (0:02:16) Kelly: I remember that. (0:02:17) Kelly: That’s when it came out for the PC. (0:02:23) Al: I need to see how many episodes we’ve done on Stardew, and then the Dave the Diver story episode. (0:02:29) Kelly: Oh, yes. (0:02:30) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:02:31) Al: And then this will be your 10th one, wild, there you go. (0:02:34) Kelly: So many fishing– (0:02:35) Kelly: farming games, not fishing games. (0:02:37) Kelly: Also fishing games. (0:02:38) Al: Well, yeah, one of them was specifically a fishing game. (0:02:41) Kelly: Yeah. (0:02:42) Al: And the others almost all have fishing in them. (0:02:44) Al: Does Dave the Diver count as fishing? (0:02:46) Kelly: I wanna say yes, but I feel like no, because realistically to me it’s the mechanic of fishing. (0:02:55) Al: Well, that’s why that’s why I’m questioning it. (0:02:58) Kelly: Like I think the fishing is so different. (0:02:58) Al: But like, there’s a lot. (0:03:02) Kelly: Would you count scuba diving and animal crossing as fishing? No, that’s like it. (0:03:07) Al: You’re not catching fish when you’re scuba diving, though. (0:03:08) Kelly: Oh, you’re not? Oh, the dive thing? No. (0:03:10) Al: No. (0:03:12) Al: No, you only catch fish with a fishing rod in Animal Crossing. (0:03:16) Al: You, there are, it’s quite, yeah, yeah. (0:03:16) Kelly: Is it just like clams? (0:03:18) Al: I think maybe as far as like a crab, but I don’t think there’s any fish. (0:03:23) Kelly: Okay. No, I would not count David Diver as a fishing game, honestly. (0:03:28) Al: Interesting. OK, that’s this is our controversy of the episode. (0:03:33) Al: Listeners, tell us, do you think Dave the Diver is a fishing episode or not? (0:03:40) Al: If you make me decide, I would say yes, it is a fishing game (0:03:44) Al: because I think that fishing would be catching fish. (0:03:48) Al: I don’t think you specifically have to use a fishing rod or a fishing net (0:03:52) Al: to count as fishing. (0:03:54) Kelly: I see your point. I think I’m going more off of the vibes of every other mini fishing game. (0:03:58) Al: Yeah. (0:04:01) Kelly: Because definition-wise, you’re correct. It is a fishing game. What else am I doing, (0:04:05) Kelly: if not fishing? But I wouldn’t count it with the fishing games. It almost is kind of like (0:04:06) Al: Yeah. I mean, I would say it’s a– Sure. Okay. I would say it is a fishing game, (0:04:11) Kelly: that little controversy they had with the indie game thing. Okay, okay. (0:04:18) Al: but not a cottagecore game, which is ironic because it’s a cottagecore podcast. And I feel (0:04:24) Al: like we had the discussion about whether it was cottagecore or not, multiple times throughout the (0:04:27) Al: summer. Anyway, five minutes discussion on the Diver who expected that. This episode, we are (0:04:34) Al: finally going to talk about Fields of (0:04:36) Al: Mistria. I realised that, apparently, Spotify has the (0:04:40) Al: ability to leave comments and I went on and noticed there’s a (0:04:43) Al: person on Spotify that has just been commenting regularly. Are (0:04:46) Al: you going to cover Fields of Mistria? So, yes, here we are (0:04:51) Al: covering Fields of Mistria. Shout out to you, our single (0:04:53) Kelly: For that one Spotify– (0:04:54) Al: commenter. I can’t even remember the name. Yeah, episodes as (0:05:01) Kelly: I didn’t know you could comment on Spotify stuff, either. (0:05:07) Al: Yeah, so there’s Jack. There we go. Jack, you’re the one who’s (0:05:12) Al: commented multiple times asking for Fields of Mistria. As (0:05:15) Kelly: Hey, Jack. I hope you enjoy this episode. (0:05:16) Al: recently as nine days ago. Yeah, I mean, we had decided to do (0:05:19) Kelly: This is personally for you, Jack. (0:05:25) Al: this before I even looked at Spotify. But yeah, sure. So (0:05:30) Al: we’re going to talk about Fields of Mistria. Before that, we (0:05:32) Al: We have some news. (0:05:36) Al: A bunch of new games and a bunch of updates. (0:05:39) Al: First of all, Kelly, what have you been up to? (0:05:42) Kelly: I have been playing a lot of Rimworld again, because I think it’s a (0:05:49) Kelly: like, I don’t know what it is, Stardew is like a march game for me. And I think Rimworld is a (0:05:57) Kelly: late fall game for me. So I am back to Rimworld, which is not cottagecore, but it is a lot of (0:06:01) Al: Okay. (0:06:04) Kelly: farming. I mean, I guess technically, you could play cottagecore style, because they do have like, (0:06:10) Kelly: No violence mode, which I have (0:06:12) Kelly: played because I just want to like build. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no. And then I’ve also (0:06:14) Al: yeah it’s a management game though isn’t it management style game yeah yeah I’m (0:06:18) Al: not playing it then (0:06:21) Kelly: been playing web fishing, which is really cute and fun and like, very simple, but like the core (0:06:27) Kelly: mechanic of fishing that I just enjoy in every farming game without like the deadline of having (0:06:33) Al: So. (0:06:35) Kelly: having to go to bed at night. (0:06:36) Al: So I have a question about that. (0:06:39) Al: I have been interested in this, but not enough to play it. (0:06:43) Al: But what do you do you interact with the chat room aspect of? (0:06:50) Kelly: You can play alone, or you can join a random lobby, or you can play with your friends. (0:06:55) Al: And what have you been doing? (0:06:56) Kelly: I have been either playing alone or playing with friends. I’m not really a big like, go into random people’s lobbies. (0:07:01) Al: OK, but you have you have done it with friends. (0:07:04) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:07:05) Al: What does that actually like? (0:07:08) Al: What is actually like? Is it audio? (0:07:10) Al: Is it text? It’s text. (0:07:10) Kelly: No, it’s text. It’s text. And then you kind of get the, like, Animal Crossing sounds as you hit send. It, like, does that. (0:07:20) Kelly: On top of your little chat and it pops up above your head and like, you also have like a little chat message bar so you could like see what you’ve been talking about. (0:07:29) Al: Okay. Okay. Okay. Because I hadn’t I know I looked through the screenshots and I hadn’t seen anything that actually showed the chat room aspect of it. It was all just like, you know, pictures of the fishing. (0:07:37) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it’s, it’s like a cute little aspect. I like that. I think it’s good (0:07:48) Kelly: that it’s like text. But very, very cute little game. Very cute. I just love fishing games. (0:07:49) Al: Yeah, yeah for sure (0:07:57) Kelly: I’m not going to lie. What have you been up to? (0:07:58) Al: Fair enough. (0:08:04) Al: I have obviously been playing Fields of Mistria quite a bit. (0:08:09) Al: We’ll talk about that when we come to it. (0:08:10) Al: I’ve also been keeping going with Marvel (0:08:13) Al: Snap and Pokemon Pocket. (0:08:16) Kelly: Oh, that’s the TCG one, right? (0:08:18) Kelly: I’ve been playing that. (0:08:19) Al: Yes, yes. (0:08:21) Kelly: I keep forgetting to open my pack, so– (0:08:24) Al: Do you not just open it when you get the notification, no? (0:08:26) Kelly: I don’t have notifications for things. (0:08:29) Al: OK, right, OK, so I turn off a lot of notifications, right? (0:08:34) Al: But, right, if you forget things, which. (0:08:39) Kelly: Yeah, but I’m just going to swipe the notification away. (0:08:40) Al: Yeah. (0:08:42) Al: No, you tap on it and then you open the app, open the gate, open the thing, right? (0:08:46) Al: You just do it then, you do it there and then it’s so fast. (0:08:46) Kelly: No, I’m not gonna do that. (0:08:49) Al: This is so this one, but this is the beauty of this game is it’s so fast. (0:08:53) Al: It’s like you open it and you press it and you get your five cards, you get your (0:08:53) Kelly: It is, that is nice. (0:08:56) Al: Dopamine hit, you swipe the app away the next- (0:08:58) Al: and the notification comes up, you do exactly the same thing. (0:09:00) Kelly: Al, listen. You’re right. I’m not going to try to fight you on this because you are 100% right. (0:09:02) Al: Ten seconds. (0:09:08) Kelly: However, many times I open the app and a message pops up that says, “You didn’t finish opening your card pack!” (0:09:16) Al: did stop doing that then. Yeah, I do. I do that. Yeah, I have to say, yeah, that is a bit of a (0:09:18) Kelly: So that is– [Laughter] (0:09:21) Al: problem. I don’t know why this game is so obsessed with that. It’s like you open up, you open a pack (0:09:26) Al: and you see it and then you write, close the app. And it’s like, I’ve seen my cards. I saw my cards, (0:09:28) Kelly: Mm-hmm because I forgot to like swipe it up. Yeah (0:09:32) Al: right? Don’t tell me I didn’t finish just because I haven’t gone and seen the 15 million animations (0:09:37) Kelly: Yeah, exactly. (0:09:37) Al: after that. It’s the same because it’s the same thing with, uh, with the battles, especially the (0:09:41) Al: solo battles is bizarre, right? Because it’s like, if you, you know, (0:09:46) Al: you do a battle and then you get annoyed because you lose. So you close, (0:09:49) Al: you just swipe the app away in anger. It’s like a really satisfying thing to do. (0:09:53) Al: And then you open it next time and it’s like, oh, did, you know, you didn’t finish this battle. (0:09:57) Al: I’m like, I did. I lost because I didn’t go through this stuff. Don’t make me relive this. (0:09:58) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, I actually I haven’t battled yet, but I completely understand. (0:10:01) Al: Why are you making me relive this? Go away. (0:10:10) Kelly: Yeah, but I do like the aspect of the whole idea that it is a two second app where you just open it open your card pack and then close it again. (0:10:18) Al: Perfect. That’s fair. That’s fair. But the problem is you can (0:10:18) Kelly: Like, I just want it for the cards I don’t want to really battle. (0:10:25) Al: get more cards by battling. Oh, yes. Absolutely. I don’t I (0:10:26) Kelly: Is it better than Pokemon Go? (0:10:28) Kelly: I’m not sure. (0:10:30) Kelly: Okay. (0:10:32) Kelly: Maybe I’ll try it, maybe I’ll try it. (0:10:34) Kelly: We’ll see. I gotta get more cards first. (0:10:36) Kelly: Yeah. (0:10:37) Al: don’t do PvP battles very much because like, you know, people (0:10:41) Al: suck. But I do there’s a lot of solo battles in the game. And (0:10:45) Al: know, there’s a new solo battle event going on right now. (0:10:48) Al: now that has unique cards for winning things. So yeah, against the computer. (0:10:51) Kelly: Oh, you can just play it yourself. (0:10:53) Kelly: Okay, okay, I didn’t I didn’t even look at that. (0:10:56) Al: The best bit is you can also tell the game to play for you. So you can have the computer (0:11:02) Al: playing against the computer. Yes, but what I do is when I’m sitting at my desk and I want just (0:11:04) Kelly: What? Kinda lazy? (laughs) (0:11:10) Al: a couple of battles and I don’t care about it because I’ve already beaten these battles, (0:11:14) Al: I just want to beat them more for more rewards (0:11:16) Al: Then I just have it sit (0:11:18) Al: In here I like just down on my phone (0:11:22) Al: Stand it’s just sitting there and it’s just doing the battles and every so often (0:11:27) Al: I look over it and see if I’ve won or lost and then I start again (0:11:30) Kelly: that is nice. I agree. That is a nice feature. Oh, yeah, I should go check mine. I do really (0:11:34) Al: Speaking of which I just got a notification that I’ve got packs. Let’s see. I’ve already got that already got that already got that (0:11:39) Al: Already got that no new cards great (0:11:43) Kelly: like looking at the card art, though. I think that’s the most fun of it. (0:11:46) Al: I’m just in an (0:11:48) Al: unfortunate position right now where I have most of the cards so most days I’m getting nothing (0:11:52) Kelly: Hmm. I only started like a week ago, I think. Also, I’ve noticed I’m very biased. I like almost (0:11:59) Kelly: never opened a Charizard pack. I know, I know. But I don’t want to. I know. I’m just, I have my own problem. (0:12:00) Al: Yeah, some of the cards are specific to that pack. (0:12:09) Al: I don’t know what to tell you. (0:12:15) Al: Anyway, so yeah, Pocket and Snap, I am at 98 on Snap now, so hopefully I’ll get to 100 by (0:12:22) Al: the end of Tuesday. We’ll see. And I’ve also started playing, speaking of playing games (0:12:31) Al: until the Game of the Year episode. I’ve been playing Luma Island as well, so yeah. (0:12:38) Al: I think it’s doing some interesting new things that I may or may not talk about in a week, and (0:12:45) Kelly: - Okay. (0:12:48) Al: I think I appreciate what it is doing, but I don’t know if it’s for me. (0:12:56) Al: But I’ve only put in like 15 hours into it so far, so. (0:13:00) Al: I’m gonna need more time to make that, isn’t it? (0:13:02) Kelly: I think that that sounds like it’ll be fun to see where it goes at least, (0:13:06) Al: Yeah. (0:13:07) Kelly: you know, and sometimes even if the mechanics aren’t for you, (0:13:09) Kelly: it’s like nice just to see people trying. (0:13:11) Al: Oh, for sure, for sure. (0:13:14) Al: All right, that’s what we’ve been up to. (0:13:18) Al: Next is our monthly segment of the recent releases, (0:13:22) Al: because this is only a second time doing it, but I decided that because there’s so many releases (0:13:28) Al: of games. (0:13:29) Al: And I’m always talking about the future. (0:13:30) Al: Talking about the past, I felt like people might want a monthly recap on what’s out (0:13:35) Al: in case they’ve heard of something that they’re like, “Oh, that’s something I want to play.” (0:13:40) Al: And now you can. (0:13:41) Al: So there have been four releases in November. (0:13:43) Al: I know it’s now December when you’re hearing this, but this is for November. (0:13:47) Al: So we have Farming Simulator 25. (0:13:50) Al: So if you love that Farming Simulator, there’s your new one, it’s out now. (0:13:55) Al: We also have Everhome, which I think… (0:14:01) Al: I don’t think that was previously Early Access, was it? (0:14:04) Al: No, I’m not seeing anything about Early Access, so that’s just a release now. (0:14:10) Kelly: Oh, that one looks cute. (0:14:11) Al: It does. (0:14:12) Al: It’s definitely on my list of “I want to play this,” but that list is very long. (0:14:15) Kelly: I’m going to add it to my list right now. (0:14:18) Al: And then we have Petite Island, which I’m pretty sure was in Early Access. (0:14:23) Al: So that is now 1.0. (0:14:25) Al: Is that correct? (0:14:26) Al: Oh, no. (0:14:27) Al: No, it’s not saying anything about Early Access. (0:14:28) Al: I was wrong. (0:14:30) Kelly: Honestly, with the amount of games that are in early access for forever, it’s like, (0:14:37) Kelly: who’s to remember anymore? Everything feels like it’s in early access. (0:14:42) Al: And and then Luma Island as well, which is also not in early access. (0:14:48) Al: So that’s four releases. (0:14:49) Al: None of them in early access. (0:14:51) Al: None of them have been in early access one unusual month. (0:14:54) Kelly: That is pretty crazy is it is it like I wonder if it’s like a pre-christmas thing (0:14:58) Al: Possibly, possibly. (0:14:59) Kelly: You know (0:15:00) Al: I do think a lot of I mean, a lot of games get delayed at this point. (0:15:04) Al: Like you don’t get a huge number of games coming out just now (0:15:06) Al: because they’ve either come out in October in time for, you know, (0:15:12) Al: the Christmas sale or they come out next year because they didn’t quite manage it. (0:15:18) Kelly: Mm hmm. Yeah, that. (0:15:18) Al: They don’t tend to like to come out in December or November (0:15:21) Al: because there’s too much happening. (0:15:25) Al: All right, next, we’ve got the news. (0:15:28) Al: The first news is a piece of news that I (0:15:30) Al: meant to talk about in the last episode, but I forgot (0:15:34) Al: because I didn’t write it down for some reason. (0:15:36) Al: And that is that they’ve announced a new series of stardew concerts. (0:15:40) Al: they had the previous series. (0:15:42) Al: Stargie Concerts that were called Festival of Seasons. (0:15:44) Al: The new ones are called Symphony of Seasons, and these are bigger. (0:15:49) Al: It’s a 35 piece orchestra. (0:15:52) Al: I believe the last one was under 20. (0:15:55) Al: I can’t remember exactly. (0:15:56) Al: I don’t know if it has it listed, but it was it was certainly much more intimate. (0:16:01) Al: It called it a chamber orchestra. (0:16:02) Al: Is that a specific number? (0:16:04) Al: I suspect not. (0:16:05) Al: Rona would be shouting at me if she was in the room. (0:16:06) Kelly: I have no idea. (0:16:07) Al: No, it just means just means small. (0:16:12) Al: So we may if you’ve not listened to it, me and Rona did a greenhouse episode on (0:16:18) Al: going to the previous Stargie Valley concert because Rona, my wife, is a big (0:16:23) Al: musician. She enjoys music. (0:16:26) Al: She does not play Stargie Valley. (0:16:27) Al: So it was a fun discussion to have about the music versus the the game sort of thing. (0:16:34) Al: I have successfully purchased tickets for the new concert. (0:16:37) Al: one the one that they’re doing in Scotland which (0:16:42) Al: obviously one is not very many, but we actually get one in many cases we don’t even get one. (0:16:47) Al: So I’m very happy to actually have one. (0:16:48) Kelly: Whoo! Whoo! Yeah, that is exciting. I forgot you went to the last round. (0:16:55) Al: And the Yeah, yeah. (0:16:58) Al: So that was earlier this year sometime, April or something. (0:17:04) Al: And that was in a converted church in Edinburgh. (0:17:08) Al: This new one is in 2026. (0:17:12) Al: It’s over a year away, which is just because of the time of the year that makes it sound (0:17:17) Al: even further away. (0:17:18) Al: It’s actually only like a year and two months away or something. (0:17:21) Al: I think it’s February. (0:17:22) Kelly: - Oh yeah, it’s heavy, all right. (0:17:22) Al: So it’s not that bad, but it does sound ridiculously far away. (0:17:30) Al: But they’re doing that, and this shows you how they’ve gone up a little bit. (0:17:32) Al: They’ve gone from a converted church in Edinburgh to the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, which (0:17:38) Al: which is, I think, three times the size. (0:17:42) Kelly: It’s, it’s, you know, you know, Stardew is big, but I think when you see it like in this kind of aspect, it’s like, wow. (0:17:48) Al: Yeah, this is their second world tour, and this one’s bigger. (0:17:52) Kelly: Yeah. (0:17:54) Kelly: The next one’s going to be stadium level concert. (0:17:58) Al: Yeah, I don’t think I would want to see stardew music in a stadium. (0:18:02) Kelly: No, I think this is much cuter. Yeah. Yeah. But no, that’s so that’s so cool. (0:18:03) Al: I feel like concert hall works best. (0:18:09) Al: So, yeah, it was funny because (0:18:11) Al: so there was a presale that if you signed up to the newsletter, you got the code. (0:18:14) Al: I signed up for that and then we got the code (0:18:17) Al: and then I forgot all about (0:18:18) Al: it. And it was like, because I had my laptop next to my work, because it was 9am on Monday. (0:18:24) Al: I had my personal laptop like next to my desk, ready to log on at nine, and then completely (0:18:29) Al: forgot. It was really unfortunate. And then I looked at the time, there was, I can’t remember (0:18:36) Al: what it was, I just randomly looked at the clock, and it was 11 o’clock and went, “Oh, (0:18:40) Al: the concert. Oh, no.” And so I went on and thankfully they still had. (0:18:49) Kelly: That’s good, especially because, like you said, you only have one night for Scotland, (0:18:53) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And well, yeah. And it’s like I could go to England, but there’s only (0:18:54) Kelly: so it’s not like, “Oh, I could drive a few states over if I have to.” (0:19:01) Al: two in England and one of them is London, which is like four hour train ride or yeah. (0:19:06) Kelly: You wanna go to London? (0:19:07) Al: And who wants to go to London? And it’s like, it’s always annoying when you, cause like (0:19:11) Al: London gets the, cause I think you get like, obviously New York gets the, you know, Broadway (0:19:16) Al: musicals first cause obviously Broadway, uh, it’s kind of in the name. Um, but then they, (0:19:17) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:19:20) Al: They tend to go to London next and they take forever. (0:19:24) Al: You can always go to London for these things. (0:19:26) Al: It’s like, I don’t want to go to London, oh my word. (0:19:29) Kelly: Yeah, I don’t even want to go into the city for some of this stuff, so I feel you (0:19:34) Al: London is one of them, and Manchester is the other one. (0:19:36) Al: Manchester, despite being further north, is harder to get to than London. (0:19:41) Kelly: Oh, really? I thought I thought that would be closer to you, honestly. (0:19:44) Al: If you’re driving, it’s faster. (0:19:46) Al: But if you’re getting the train, it’s more difficult. (0:19:48) Al: It takes longer to get there. (0:19:48) Kelly: Mm. That makes sense. (0:19:50) Al: because they’ve got like a super fast train from Edinburgh to… (0:19:53) Al: London. It’s like four hours on the train which is fine but then it becomes a whole weekend thing (0:20:01) Al: rather than a night thing. Whereas this is, it starts at 7pm it’s like I can get my kids (0:20:08) Al: mostly ready for bed and then head off and then be back in for midnight. (0:20:13) Kelly: Yeah, you know, that’s nice. Yeah, that’ll be exciting. I didn’t realize it was, I mean, (0:20:18) Kelly: like you said, it’s only like a year basically away. (0:20:20) Al: Yeah, I think the American dates start in like August or something. (0:20:25) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yeah, end of August. (0:20:26) Al: Yeah, the first dates in Seattle. (0:20:30) Kelly: I will say it’s funny. There’s no New York City date. (0:20:33) Kelly: It’s only upstate New York and New Jersey. (0:20:35) Al: Oh, that’s funny. Is that because New York City is just stupidly expensive to? (0:20:40) Kelly: That’s what I was about to say is it’s definitely because of that. (0:20:42) Al: Of all the places, of all the places in the world, it’s like you do not want to do that. (0:20:47) Kelly: Yeah. So that one makes a lot– because at first I was like, wow, there’s no New York City one. (0:20:54) Kelly: but there is a new (0:20:55) Kelly: New Jersey, which is close enough. (0:20:57) Kelly: I would go there instead of Albany. (0:21:00) Al: Yes, yeah, because, well, I don’t know where New York is, but New Jersey’s closer, I mean, (0:21:06) Al: much of New Jersey is closer to you than most of New York, right? I know, because I read (0:21:09) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, exactly. (0:21:14) Al: a lot of Ms. Marvel Comics, and she’s based in New Jersey City. (0:21:19) Kelly: Yeah, those are my sister works, actually, (0:21:21) Kelly: right across the water. (0:21:23) Kelly: It’s nice there now. (0:21:24) Kelly: They’ve been making it nicer. (0:21:24) Al: New York is right there. You’ve got New York, and then you’ve got Manhattan, and then you’ve (0:21:32) Al: got Jersey City, and then you’ve got New York. That looks… Yeah, that would… Yeah. (0:21:33) Kelly: No, yeah, literally. (0:21:38) Kelly: Oh, they put all their businesses on that side, (0:21:40) Kelly: I’m pretty sure, because they’re like tax reasons. (0:21:42) Al: Because there’s also casinos in New Jersey as well, isn’t there? (0:21:43) Kelly: You know? (0:21:46) Kelly: Mm-hm. We have them in New York now, just they’re more limited. Yeah, there was one that (0:21:49) Al: Howdy! (0:21:52) Al: I thought New York was quite strict with gambling. (0:21:55) Kelly: they were, I think when I was like in my early 20s, stuff started to change (0:22:02) Kelly: and they opened up a casino near where I lived. But I think they were, it wasn’t, you know, (0:22:08) Kelly: as open as like other states are with the gambling even inside of there. You know, (0:22:13) Kelly: like not every game I guess is allowed or stuff like that. Difference. (0:22:17) Kelly: I don’t know what gambling rules are. I just go in and I pull the lever. (0:22:23) Al: - Okay. (0:22:27) Kelly: But yeah, usually people from New York would go to Jersey to gamble because it’s better over there. (0:22:32) Al: It’s really funny, I’m just looking at the Google Maps and I knew there was weird stuff around (0:22:36) Al: exactly who owned Ellis Island and Liberty Island and I noticed that on Google Maps it has most of (0:22:44) Al: Ellis Island listed as New Jersey with like a big chunk of it including the Immigrations Museum (0:22:52) Al: listed as New York. So it’s like because you’re over the line, technically the island is within (0:22:53) Kelly: Oh, that’s funny. (0:22:58) Al: New Jersey. So most of it is New Jersey, but then there’s like an (0:23:02) Al: exclave of New York. We love border disputes. Did you know that Greenland and Canada now (0:23:04) Kelly: I forgot about that whole debacle. (0:23:13) Kelly: Who doesn’t? (0:23:20) Al: have a land border due to a solved border dispute? Yeah, so there’s an island between (0:23:23) Kelly: No, I did not (0:23:27) Al: mainland Greenland mainland Greenland between (0:23:32) Al: Greenland Greenland and like the very north of Canada. (0:23:36) Al: What is that? (0:23:37) Al: It doesn’t have a name. Nobody cares about it. (0:23:41) Al: Which is like right in the middle of the water, (0:23:44) Al: which is where they put the border between them. (0:23:47) Al: So it like crosses the island. (0:23:48) Al: So they spent decades arguing over who owned it. (0:23:52) Al: And then eventually they decided they just split it. (0:23:53) Al: So now technically it’s half and half. (0:23:55) Al: So they have a land border there. (0:23:57) Kelly: that’s cool. It’s kind of like the two little islands in the bearings straight between what (0:23:59) Al: Thank you. (0:24:02) Al: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:24:03) Kelly: are they called? Something with a D. I don’t remember. Yeah. Yeah. That one’s messed up though (0:24:06) Al: Diomede, a big Diomede and little Diomede. (0:24:10) Kelly: because like people live there and then they can’t, they got split up and now they can’t see their (0:24:11) Al: Yeah. (0:24:14) Kelly: relatives. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But you can’t cross that ice. It’s not allowed. (0:24:15) Al: Well, and it’s, and it’s essentially a land border half of the year anyway, because of the ice. (0:24:23) Al: Well, not, well, yeah, not allowed is very different from Kant. (0:24:27) Kelly: That’s true. That’s very true. (0:24:29) Al: Anyway, enough about geography. (0:24:32) Al: That’s the Stardew Valley Concert. (0:24:33) Al: Are you going to go to any of them? (0:24:34) Al: You’re going to go to the New Jersey one? (0:24:36) Kelly: Probably not, no. Yeah, probably not. (0:24:44) Kelly: It would be cool, but no. Yeah, no. I’m very excited for you. That is very cool. (0:24:46) Al: I’m excited for it. (0:24:52) Al: We don’t go to stuff very often because kids. (0:24:54) Al: So this year we went to the Stardew Concert (0:24:56) Al: and we went to Hamilton. (0:24:58) Al: Hamilton were in Edinburgh. (0:25:00) Al: And then next year, next year. (0:25:00) Kelly: Oh, nice. What is that? (0:25:02) Al: Next year, we’re going to see six. (0:25:04) Al: I think that’s what it’s called. (0:25:06) Al: So I believe it’s about Henry VIII’s wives. (0:25:08) Kelly: Oh, you know what? I think I might have heard something about this, actually. (0:25:11) Al: You’ll probably have seen music from it on TikTok. (0:25:15) Al: It’s all over the place. (0:25:15) Kelly: Yeah, that makes sense. TikTok is a great marketing ploy for that. (0:25:17) Al: So yeah, so many, so many musicals I’ve learned about that, yeah. (0:25:25) Kelly: Yeah, they’re really catchy. They get stuck in your head really well. (0:25:31) Al: Yeah, it’s a modern retelling of the lives of the six waves of Henry VIII. (0:25:36) Kelly: Okay. That’s cool. Yeah. No, yeah, yeah. Yeah, why not? And that’s fun. And now that you (0:25:38) Al: All I know is the music’s catchy, and Rona wants to see it, and I was like, yeah, let’s (0:25:45) Al: go see it, because I like the music. (0:25:49) Kelly: can, like, now that the kids are a little older and can actually get out a little bit (0:25:53) Kelly: more. It’s like, why not? (0:25:54) Al: So that’s our one for next year. (0:25:56) Al: And then we’ve got the Stardew concert the year after. (0:26:01) Al: Maybe I’ll see Wicked in 2026. (0:26:04) Kelly: Oh, yes, I want that to come out. I want them to release that on the streaming so that I don’t have to go into the theater for it. (0:26:10) Al: So here’s an interesting thing for you, apparently you can go into the New York Public Library (0:26:20) Al: and watch it. (0:26:20) Kelly: Oh, but I didn’t have to go to Manhattan. (0:26:21) Al: No, I know, I know, right? (0:26:26) Al: But you can, at least. (0:26:27) Al: I can’t. (0:26:28) Kelly: Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. That’s fair. That’s fair. That’s fair. (0:26:29) Al: Yes, it would be work, but less work than going to the theatre. (0:26:30) Kelly: It would be a trek to get there and then have to sit there and watch it. (0:26:38) Kelly: Yes. I’ve heard it’s a lot of sing-alongs in the theaters, (0:26:42) Al: Goodness, thankfully, I live in a very, a place where it is unacceptable to sing. (0:26:44) Kelly: which I’m happy for those theater kids, but you know, I don’t, I’m not a theater. (0:26:54) Al: So when we went to see the film, there were not people singing. (0:26:59) Kelly: I wish. (0:27:00) Al: This is what is unusual. (0:27:01) Kelly: My mom, actually. (chuckles) (0:27:02) Al: This is what is unusual is actually the people clapped at the end of it. (0:27:06) Al: I have never had people clap at the end of the film. (0:27:07) Kelly: Oh, it’s like clapping when a flight lands. (0:27:11) Kelly: I hate both of those. (0:27:12) Kelly: I hate those kind of people. (chuckles) (0:27:12) Al: There is one situation where clapping when a flight lands is acceptable, (0:27:16) Kelly: Yes, yes. (0:27:16) Al: and that is when you thought you were going to die. (0:27:18) Kelly: Yeah. (chuckles) (0:27:20) Kelly: Every other time, it’s just like, (0:27:22) Kelly: that guy was just doing his job or her job, (0:27:24) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:27:26) Kelly: like, this is how it should go, don’t clap. (0:27:29) Al: If you thought you were going to die or you’re flying Ryanair. (0:27:35) Al: All right, so let’s get into some game news now. (0:27:37) Al: So the first in the news is Sunheavour. (0:27:40) Al: I’ve announced their UK, Switzerland, and New Zealand release date. (0:27:46) Al: If you’re not up to date with the weird situation here, I will just summarize it. (0:27:51) Al: Sunheaven announced their America’s release date, and then they announced their Asian (0:27:57) Al: release dates. (0:27:59) Al: And then they announced most of Europe and also Australia, but not Switzerland, the United (0:28:05) Al: Kingdom, and New Zealand. (0:28:07) Al: And I, at the time, and still do think they just forgot. (0:28:10) Al: Well, so the Switzerland and United Kingdom I noticed were alphabetically at the end of the list, after all the other countries, so I just think they just copied and pasted incorrectly. (0:28:12) Kelly: ‘Cause I was like, what a weird bunch of countries to kind of like… (0:28:26) Al: I’m not sure why New Zealand, maybe they just forgot it existed, but I’m not 100% sure what the system. (0:28:34) Kelly: Because I would think New Zealand and Australia would be paired together like (0:28:36) Al: Well, so, so, right, OK, so… (0:28:40) Al: The weird thing about… So, the way the eShop works is there are, I think, six different regions. (0:28:47) Al: There is one for North America and one for South America, one for Europe, Australia, (0:28:55) Al: and New Zealand, and South Africa, I believe, and then there’s one for Japan, one for Hong Kong, (0:29:02) Al: and one for South Korea. Was that six? That was six. I believe that’s all of them. (0:29:04) Kelly: Okay. Yeah. (0:29:09) Al: what I understand based. (0:29:10) Al: So I think this is just them like cleaning up after their mistake and not admitting it, (0:29:30) Al: which is weird. And I also think the reason that they got they released it region by region is (0:29:36) Al: because they didn’t realize there were multiple regions until they’d already added it. (0:29:41) Al: To the Americas one. (0:29:42) Kelly: That’s so funny! (0:29:45) Al: And the problem is we don’t know any of this because the Sunhaven developers are very bad (0:29:49) Al: at communicating their discard after they announced the European release date before (0:29:54) Al: they announced that also included United Kingdom Switzerland and New Zealand was just people (0:29:59) Al: saying, so is it not coming to the UK? Is it coming a different date? What’s happening? (0:30:03) Al: And it turns out it’s exactly the same date, which would back up my they just forgot to tell you (0:30:08) Al: about it because there are two. (0:30:10) Al: There is a possibility of that, but I mean, generally the regions are very similar politically. (0:30:29) Kelly: which I could see because it’s like, aren’t some countries kind of (0:30:40) Kelly: Yeah, that’s true. (0:30:41) Al: But if that is the case, what happened was they ticked all of the boxes except the UK, (0:30:48) Al: Switzerland, and New Zealand. They did not check those boxes and then they put in a different (0:30:53) Al: release and checked just those three countries. Because it’s not even like an EU versus not EU (0:31:01) Al: thing, because Norway was in the first release and is not in the EU, and obviously Australia is (0:31:01) Kelly: No, it’s a, it’s a weird. (0:31:06) Al: is not in the EU and Switzerland is not in the EU but for (0:31:10) Al: and purposes regulatorily it is the same and the UK is mostly the same because obviously it was in (0:31:17) Al: the EU until four years ago so it’s a bit of a mess I miss clicks or copy and paste mistake which (0:31:22) Kelly: Yeah, that’s, that’s, that sounds like a misclick, a few misclicks, for sure. (0:31:31) Al: is what I think I think they went and tried to copy the entire list and just missed the last two (0:31:35) Al: of them. (0:31:38) Kelly: and then did not even like acknowledge it or any like. (0:31:41) Al: Yeah well that’s the weird thing right? Like people have been talking about this from the (0:31:45) Al: moment they published their post about it coming to Europe and they said nothing (0:31:51) Al: and so like if they had just it almost feels like they just don’t want to admit their mistakes (0:31:56) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But they could just make a joke about it like this. People would (0:31:56) Al: and but why in such a weird way? Yeah! (0:32:01) Kelly: find it funny like it’s not a it’s an inconsequential mistake like nobody’s. (0:32:06) Al: Yeah. And the people already think they don’t communicate. And so making this weird like, (0:32:13) Al: oh, we weren’t wrong. We were right all along. Thing just makes it seem even weirder. Oh, (0:32:22) Al: anyway, living on. We have one DLC release. So Everdream Valley have announced a family (0:32:31) Al: time DLC. This is coming to Steam on the 6th of December and then in consoles. (0:32:36) Al: Next year Q1. This has new story quests, new NPCs, new animals and new furniture. That’s (0:32:45) Al: an interesting thing to put in a DLC. Well, quests, were quests, animals and furniture. (0:32:52) Al: I guess NPCs like, I guess that’s not an unusual thing to put like new characters in, but the (0:32:54) Kelly: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, like I could see, like a lot of games will do like a new DLC with (0:33:03) Kelly: more quests. You know, so maybe. Yeah, yeah, that’s how I would take it. Yeah, like it’s (0:33:04) Al: Mm hmm. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I guess. Yeah. They’re not saying like this is by the DLC to get (0:33:10) Al: quests. It’s the DLC comes with quests. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. The furniture (0:33:13) Kelly: like additional furniture, additional quests, additional NPCs kind of thing that that’s I (0:33:17) Kelly: could be wrong. But that’s how I would read it. Yeah, that’s just add on. (0:33:19) Al: is, I guess, not weird because it’s just like that’s pretty common thing. And then we have (0:33:24) Al: three updates to games. Snacko have released their builder’s dream update, which I’m sure (0:33:30) Al: you can guess where that is. It’s a whole bunch of crafting building stuff. (0:33:34) Al: Lots of good improvements. And I guess we’re not getting Snacko 1.0 this year. (0:33:41) Al: We’re probably getting next year. Because that’s 0.9.5. So close. (0:33:44) Kelly: They intentionally just decided we’re going to add a few more digits into this. (0:33:55) Kelly: It looks so cute though, I wanted to come out. (0:33:57) Al: Yeah, at this point I’m like, because I’ve not played it since the early access came out, (0:34:01) Al: I did play a very early alpha of it. Because I’ve not played it since the early access (0:34:07) Al: come out, at this point I’m like, I just need to wait for the 1.0, right? (0:34:10) Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, because I feel like at this point, it’s like if you don’t wait for the 1.0, (0:34:15) Kelly: like what are you getting out of the 1.0 when it comes out? (0:34:17) Al: Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. I will, I will say, I will say, Snacko Devs, listen to me. (0:34:25) Al: We’re good friends, we’ve talked before. (0:34:27) Al: Listen to me now, do not release this in December. (0:34:30) Al: You released the early access last December. (0:34:32) Al: Do not, do not do this. (0:34:35) Al: I beg of you, January, January’s fine. (0:34:39) Al: Do not release your 1.0 in December. (0:34:41) Al: I will cry. (0:34:43) Al: I will cry. (0:34:44) Al: Thank you. (0:34:45) Kelly: - You’re gonna release it December 31st at… (0:34:48) Al: That’s OK, that’s December 31st is fine. (0:34:50) Al: That’s basically January, because I will have recorded all the episodes by then (0:34:54) Al: for the year. It’s not like I need to then rush it, right? (0:34:57) Al: As a 2024 game, it was December the 31st. (0:35:00) Kelly: Also, I just love in their little notes the difference in communication where they literally (0:35:08) Kelly: have screenshots from the Discord talking about part of the updates here. (0:35:10) Al: Mm. Yeah. (0:35:13) Al: That is such a good point. (0:35:14) Al: Snacko Dev is fantastic with communication. (0:35:16) Al: Like they are literally just in the Discord talking to people. (0:35:20) Al: Sunhaven, I have never seen a single one of them talk in the Discord. (0:35:26) Al: Yeah, definitely. (0:35:28) Al: Spiritity have released their Phantom Friends update, which adds a… (0:35:33) Al: You can have your spirits as pets now. (0:35:40) Al: Interesting change. (0:35:40) Kelly: to like follow you around. (0:35:41) Al: If, yeah, yeah, they follow you around and replace your existing… (0:35:48) Al: No, they don’t replace your existing spirit companion. (0:35:50) Al: They add to… (0:35:53) Kelly: I wonder if I should give this game another chance. (0:35:55) Kelly: It seems like they’ve added so much since I last played. (0:35:57) Al: possibly, yeah. (0:36:00) Kelly: But I have enough other farming games. (0:36:08) Kelly: That’s that. That was my issue. (0:36:13) Kelly: Yeah. (0:36:18) Kelly: Now that is a good point, because I feel like I just at its core, (0:36:21) Kelly: I felt kind of listless playing the game. (0:36:25) Kelly: So, yeah, I think you do have a good point. (0:36:27) Kelly: I just like I want to like it so much. (0:36:30) Al: I agree. I also want to like it. Um, but I guess about it, that counts, right? (0:36:36) Kelly: - Yeah, it does have very positive reviews, (0:36:38) Kelly: so obviously other people are enjoying it. (0:36:39) Al: Which is good, which is good. And it’s, you know, yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Um, (0:36:39) Kelly: So I’m glad, yeah, I’m glad. (0:36:41) Kelly: ‘Cause I do like, I like the whole concept. (0:36:47) Al: and it’s over 500 reviews as well. So it’s not, it’s not like they’re, they must be getting (0:36:52) Al: enough. That’s, you know, 500 reviews means quite a lot more people buying it, right? Because (0:36:57) Al: most people do not review your game. (0:37:00) Kelly: Yeah, no, I don’t think I think I’ve reviewed like two games (0:37:00) Al: I don’t know if I’ve reviewed any of them on Steam. (0:37:09) Al: They’ve also added new spirits, so that’s what you care about in the game, right? (0:37:15) Al: The spirits. (0:37:16) Al: So there you go. (0:37:19) Al: And the final update is Far Lands. (0:37:22) Al: I’ve released their 0.3 update. (0:37:25) Al: This is the biggest update Far Lands has seen to date. (0:37:30) Al: It adds achievements, which is always a good thing. (0:37:34) Al: Another game we’re about to talk about later on in this episode could have. (0:37:37) Al: That would be great. (0:37:38) Al: Please and thank you. (0:37:42) Kelly: I also love achievements. (0:37:44) Kelly: It’s honestly one of the big things (0:37:45) Kelly: that I really like from not playing (0:37:47) Kelly: as many games on the Switch and switching over to PC. (0:37:48) Al: Mm, yeah, I wonder if, well, almost every game feels a mystery. I wonder if, because (0:37:51) Kelly: I’m like, oh, achievements in every game. (0:37:54) Kelly: How nice. (0:37:59) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:38:05) Al: obviously they have been slowly getting more and more features as they get a lot, you know, (0:38:10) Al: like the 3DS added a bunch of stuff that other games, other systems had, and then the Switch (0:38:16) Al: called Mostly Modern. (0:38:18) Al: Maybe the next switch you’ll have. (0:38:23) Kelly: Maybe. I always wonder, I didn’t know what the issue was, to be honest, because I know (0:38:28) Kelly: when some people, what is it called, port the games to the Switch, like I know for HoloNet (0:38:34) Kelly: I can’t do video screenshots. I could do plain image screenshots. Yeah, because I think it’s (0:38:37) Al: Yeah, interesting. That, so I believe the video screenshots is something they can disable. (0:38:46) Kelly: about how hard it is for the person porting it to, I guess… Okay. (0:38:51) Al: I don’t think that requires any work on their point. I think it’s more a case of they didn’t (0:38:53) Kelly: Which is, yeah, because it’s weird, because you can record it on every other device. But (0:38:55) Al: want to add that feature. I’m not sure why, but… Yeah. (0:39:03) Kelly: that was also one of the ones where I don’t have achievements, and I know there’s achievements (0:39:06) Kelly: for that game. Yeah. (0:39:07) Al: And some games add them into the game itself, like they’ll add, but that’s a lot of work. (0:39:11) Al: The whole point of the achievements in Steam and stuff is that they’re very easy to do, (0:39:16) Al: because it’s literally just, “Here’s my list of achievements,” and then you put in the code to say (0:39:20) Al: when the achievement is hit. Yeah, because it doesn’t have… Switch doesn’t have an achievement (0:39:22) Kelly: Oh, so that’s the issue is that it’s just hard to add them in on the switch, like the switch doesn’t make it okay. (0:39:29) Al: system. So if you want to have it on the Switch, you have to build it entirely yourself. And it (0:39:34) Kelly: Uh, I’m dumb. I understand now. (0:39:34) Al: And it would be only within game because there are a. (0:39:38) Al: Couple of games that have done that they’ve recreated the achievement system in their own game, but then it only works for that game and it takes a lot of work to do that. (0:39:40) Kelly: Mm hmm. (0:39:42) Kelly: Mm hmm. (0:39:46) Kelly: Yeah, okay, that makes sense. That makes a lot more sense. (0:39:47) Al: Whereas with steam and with Xbox and with PlayStation there’s a piece of code that they can call which just does the achievement for them so. (0:39:54) Kelly: Okay, I knew it was something to do with how it set up, but I never looked into the actual basic why behind it (0:40:02) Al: They’ve added to upgrade system as well. (0:40:04) Al: They’ve added food, they’ve added house upgrade system, they’ve added new (0:40:07) Al: furniture, they’ve added guests and better NPCs, one of which looks like a xenomorph. (0:40:12) Al: Not sure why. (0:40:14) Kelly: I like his jacket. (0:40:14) Al: Legally distinct, legally distinct xenomorph. (0:40:20) Al: Yeah, it looks like a pretty big update. (0:40:21) Al: I haven’t played this game yet. I do want that. (0:40:24) Kelly: Yeah, it’s on my list of games to check out. I just I tried to avoid most early access, honestly. (0:40:33) Al: Good thing we’re not talking about an early access today then (0:40:39) Kelly: Is it generally? (0:40:42) Al: So that’s the game updates. (0:40:43) Al: We now have three new games to talk about, (0:40:47) Al: the first of which actually, no, let’s go the other way around. (0:40:49) Al: Let’s talk about Dreamland Farm first, (0:40:51) Al: because I think this will be the quickest to talk about. (0:40:55) Al: Dreamland Farm. (0:40:56) Al: Since childhood, you’ve dreamed of being close to nature, (0:40:59) Al: but being born and raised in the city stood in the way of that. (0:41:02) Al: The closer you were to adulthood, the more time you spent with your grandma, (0:41:05) Al: who showed you all around her own farm, from crops to berries and mushrooms, (0:41:09) Al: everything she knew, she taught you, she prepared you to be her (0:41:12) Al: successor. I mean that’s just every farming game. I don’t know. I don’t know. And what (0:41:16) Kelly: - Yeah, why do they all do that? (0:41:19) Al: I find really interesting is like, so if you have a farming game, the description should (0:41:25) Al: tell you what’s different about it. Don’t be like, oh, it’s a farming game. It’s like, (0:41:27) Kelly: Yeah. This time it’s your uncle and not your grandpa. (0:41:28) Al: yeah, we know that, right? It’s like, if you have, yeah, exactly, exactly. It’s like, come (0:41:36) Al: on. Let’s not, let’s not pretend. This one looks… (0:41:42) Al: Pretty… I don’t see anything unique in this, personally. (0:41:46) Kelly: I only gave it a cursory glance and it does look pretty. (0:41:52) Kelly: It doesn’t look like it’s breaking any boxes or molds or whatever though. (0:41:56) Al: But equally I also didn’t think about Fields of Mistria and didn’t want to play that until I decided, until it got a lot of buzz and I was like okay it’s time to play this one, you know, like, sometimes you can’t tell without playing it, which is a PR problem, obviously. (0:42:12) Kelly: Which goes back to your point of pointing out the differences (0:42:14) Kelly: and not the similarities. (0:42:19) Kelly: That’s what you need to get in touch with all the devs (0:42:22) Kelly: about is changing their PR management. (0:42:26) Al: I will be your PR. (0:42:29) Al: No, no, I will not. (0:42:32) Al: That is very much a conflict of interests. (0:42:36) Al: This one interestingly, so it’s now it’s on Switch and Xbox, it is not on Steam, which (0:42:41) Al: is interesting. (0:42:42) Kelly: Oh, that feels so backwards. (0:42:43) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:42:47) Al: I wonder why. (0:42:48) Kelly: I wonder right too, especially if it’s on x. (0:42:49) Al: Yeah, because it’s not like it’s they had an exclusivity deal with Switch, because then (0:42:54) Al: and they wouldn’t be on Xbox. (0:42:57) Al: And the Xbox version did come out like a week after the Switch version. (0:43:01) Al: That’s not long enough for it to be an exclusivity. (0:43:04) Kelly: - No. (laughs) (0:43:04) Al: So yeah, weird. (0:43:07) Al: I don’t know, I’ll keep an eye on it. (0:43:09) Kelly: Hopefully it’s good. (0:43:09) Kelly: Hopefully they got something unique in it. (0:43:11) Al: Yeah, yeah, hopefully. (0:43:13) Al: Hopefully. (0:43:14) Al: It’s 10 pounds. (0:43:16) Al: Is it 15 dollars? (0:43:18) Al: Probably. (0:43:20) Kelly: Probably something like that, yeah. (0:43:22) Al: So it feels cheap enough to like buy it and play it. (0:43:26) Al: And if you’re not bothered by it, then it’s not the end of the world sort of thing. (0:43:30) Al: Next we have RATOPIA. (0:43:33) Al: RATOPIA. (0:43:35) Al: I keep wanting to say RATOPIA, but it’s only one T, so it’s definitely RATOPIA. (0:43:38) Kelly: Uh, to be fair, I say rat topia (0:43:41) Al: Yeah, but there’s no second T. (0:43:42) Kelly: Well, he sounds better I know but it’s funner to say that way (0:43:47) Kelly: For the podcast, I will say rat topia (0:43:50) Al: RATOPIA. RATOPIA is a new game that is combined first of all, a new game, come on. What is (0:44:01) Al: that? I just feel like sometimes I feel like this this podcast is just me editing and critiquing (0:44:07) Al: the descriptions of games. Is a new game. Yeah, we know that. Don’t add that in. Also (0:44:13) Al: just a point, you don’t need to put your name in the description because your name is elsewhere (0:44:17) Al: on the page, right? Just right. (0:44:19) Kelly: Uh, you sound like somebody’s like third grade English teacher critiquing their (0:44:20) Al: I mean, this is just off the top of my head, I could probably do better, but you don’t (0:44:25) Kelly: like a single paragraph. (0:44:29) Kelly: You used I five times in this one paragraph. (0:44:36) Kelly: I don’t think you’re wrong. (0:44:37) Kelly: You’re not wrong. (0:44:50) Al: need to do most of that sentence. You just need a strategic survival city builder. (0:44:54) Al: There you go. That tells you everything you need to in that sentence. It’s also too many (0:44:58) Al: words to describe your genre, but that’s a problem with every game. (0:45:02) Kelly: that, but also I feel like they left out the fact that it’s like a top-down vertical game. (0:45:08) Al: It’s not a say done. I’ve not seen the top down. I’ve not seen a top down view. (0:45:09) Kelly: It is, but it’s both. You’d go up and down. You dig down. But then you can also move side to side. (0:45:18) Kelly: I’m not a top-down view. You build up and down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is different than most. (0:45:20) Al: Oh, you mean it’s you’re digging underground. I see what you said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. (0:45:24) Al: Okay. It looks like you’re digging underground and creating a society underground. So, right. (0:45:27) Kelly: Yeah. Listen, I may not have the words to describe it at the moment, but it is an aspect that makes (0:45:33) Al: So here’s a good, because we love to compare games to games. Think about the boat in Spirit (0:45:41) Al: Fair, but underground rather than building up from a boat. And graphics wise, it’s kind (0:45:42) Kelly: Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:45:49) Al: I’m similar. (0:45:50) Al: I’m similar-ish. (0:45:52) Kelly: - Yeah, I would say it definitely has a similar feel (0:45:55) Kelly: to “Spirit Fair” style-wise. (0:45:58) Al: Let me finish reading their weird copy here with plenty of content available. (0:46:01) Kelly: Yes, go on. (laughs) (0:46:04) Al: Come on, goodness me, I told you, where? (0:46:07) Kelly: - Can you finish reading it? (0:46:10) Al: And more planned. (0:46:12) Al: Enjoy a vast world to adventure and populate with citizens. (0:46:15) Al: Build your own economical system, (0:46:18) Al: economical economic system to sustain your ideal city of Ratopia. (0:46:24) Al: Goodness me. (0:46:26) Al: Right. So it’s (0:46:29) Al: a side on city builder, underground with rats. There you go. (0:46:32) Kelly: And also the other key aspect that they didn’t even address whatsoever is you play as a character, which is so different than like most of these other city builders. (0:46:43) Al: Yes. (0:46:46) Al: Which is, from my point of view, much better. (0:46:48) Kelly: Yes. (0:46:48) Al: I much prefer that way of playing. (0:46:50) Kelly: It’s such an important aspect why wouldn’t they include that. (0:46:54) Kelly: That’s like my favorite part about it that’s what got me to play the game. (0:46:58) Kelly: Anyway, sorry, I’ll contain myself. (0:47:00) Al: It’s all right. Yeah, this is interesting. So this is why so many games fail. Describe (0:47:02) Kelly: You got to be mad about how dumb this is written. (0:47:07) Al: your game better. We want to play good games. Although my whole “this is my game” is doing (0:47:09) Kelly: There’s so many key aspects that they don’t tell people about in this, like. (0:47:16) Al: well. It’s got over nearly 3,000 reviews and it’s very positive. So clearly they don’t (0:47:21) Al: need my stuff. Apparently this first came out last year. How did I not know about this? (0:47:25) Kelly: Yeah, I came out like last April. (0:47:29) Kelly: I don’t know, I played it last winter. (0:47:30) Al: How am I only? You didn’t tell me about this? Wow. Well, still is early access. How has (0:47:32) Kelly: You know, I think I played it last February. (0:47:39) Kelly: It was early access. (0:47:40) Kelly: I don’t like to talk about early access games. (0:47:44) Kelly: To be fair, I think I told Mark about it. (0:47:48) Al: this game been out for over a year? And the most recent version is 1.0.0300 and it’s early (0:47:56) Al: access but it’s 1.0, start right. (0:47:58) Kelly: Yeah, every time I click on it, I get excited thinking that it’s officially released and then I do double take and realize it’s not. (0:48:00) Al: Guys, you’re naming and you’re numbering strategy. (0:48:08) Al: What are you doing? (0:48:10) Kelly: Look, they’re a mess, but the game is great. (0:48:10) Al: Like, okay, fine. (0:48:15) Al: It’s on my list to play, we’ll see, it looks interesting. (0:48:19) Kelly: It is, it’s very, you have like politics, you have city building, you have, you know, farming and like count management kind of stuff, a little combat. (0:48:30) Al: Uh, and finally we have Ooze Keeper, which I’m just pointing out just now is a roguelite. (0:48:38) Kelly: Yeah, I saw that. (0:48:38) Al: So, uh, I will probably end up playing this. (0:48:42) Kelly: It’s on my wish list right now. (0:48:47) Al: It’s on my wishlist as well, but that doesn’t really mean much. (0:48:50) Kelly: I literally saw Roguelike light and I was like, Oh, (0:48:50) Al: I have about three, I have 170 games on my wishlist. (0:48:54) Kelly: What is it why is out playing one of these again? (0:48:57) Al: Well, I’m not, I’m not playing it yet. (0:48:59) Al: That’s the point. (0:49:01) Al: Look, if I stopped playing roguelikes and roguelites after the first couple, (0:49:06) Al: I never would have played Cult of the Lam. (0:49:09) Kelly: That’s true. That’s very true. (0:49:09) Al: So, you know, there, there was one, there was one that I liked. (0:49:14) Al: Maybe there’ll be a second. (0:49:16) Kelly: Honestly, Cult of the Lamb is just so good too. It’s… (0:49:19) Al: It’s like a, it’s like a perfect storm. (0:49:21) Kelly: It really… and like I love dungeons. I spent so much of that time just farming. I would like actively not go into dungeons. (0:49:27) Al: Yeah. (0:49:32) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:49:32) Kelly: They really did crush it, but yeah, no see yeah, you got to try them. (0:49:36) Al: Oozkeeper is a, sorry, we’ll see. (0:49:37) Kelly: There’s there’s one for everybody (0:49:39) Kelly: everybody. (0:49:41) Al: Oozkeeper is a tactical roguelike that combines monster collecting and resource management. (0:49:46) Al: That’s a much better statement, but also, again, you don’t need your name in the description. (0:49:51) Al: The name is multiple times on the page. (0:49:54) Al: Just put a tactical roguelike that combines monster collecting and resource management. (0:49:58) Al: You’ll harness the unique abilities of various slimes. (0:50:00) Al: Construct efficient structures and optimize resources to grow your farm and earn money (0:50:05) Al: with each turn. Beware, miss your rent and it’s game over. I will hate this game. (0:50:10) Kelly: Oh yeah. That’s interesting. Yeah. I’ll still play it. Yeah, I’ll absolutely still play it. (0:50:14) Al: It does the roguelike bit that I don’t like, and I’m gonna hate it, (0:50:18) Al: but I will probably play it anyway. Especially as it’s only £6. (0:50:25) Kelly: But that’s a good paragraph. That, I feel like, you know, sums up (0:50:28) Kelly: the key aspects of the game much better than the other ones. Yeah. (0:50:30) Al: Much better, much better. (0:50:32) Al: Just remove the name. (0:50:33) Al: Just remove the name from the description. (0:50:35) Al: Much better. (0:50:36) Al: And this does not hide the fact there’s a roguelike (0:50:39) Al: that a lot of games do. (0:50:41) Al: This is good. (0:50:42) Al: I like the kind of whimsical graphics of it. (0:50:48) Al: I do enjoy a game that is like islands (0:50:51) Al: that you’re building out more– (0:50:52) Al: you buy more islands, and there are different biomes and stuff. (0:50:54) Kelly: Yeah, and who doesn’t like a slime, they’re so cute. (0:50:55) Al: I do like that. (0:50:59) Al: Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:51:00) Al: And the beauty of it is, they don’t need to put much work into the designs of them. (0:51:04) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, it’s just different colors. (0:51:05) Al: So they can have a lot. (0:51:07) Al: Well, it’s not just different colours, there’s things growing out of their heads as well. (0:51:10) Kelly: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, but the base slime is, (0:51:11) Al: Otherwise, you’re quite limited if it’s just colours. (0:51:14) Kelly: the base slime is very standard. (0:51:15) Al: Yeah. (0:51:16) Al: I don’t know, maybe I will like it. (0:51:20) Al: Maybe I’ll like it, who knows? (0:51:21) Kelly: Oh, oh yeah, the little cactus slimes (0:51:23) Kelly: They’re so cute, actually. (0:51:25) Al: I look forward to hearing Slack complain when I say that I might like it. (0:51:29) Al: the cows’ lambs. (0:51:30) Al: “That is all the new games” and with that we’ve wrapped up the news. (0:51:32) Kelly: Well, the cast lines are so cute, too. Anyway. (0:51:39) Al: We are now going to talk about Fields of Mystery Art. (0:51:42) Al: All the one person that has been asking for it. (0:51:47) Al: So here… (0:51:48) Kelly: - Ooh, Jack. (laughs) (0:51:50) Al: Was it Jack? I can’t even remember, it’s been so long. (0:51:51) Kelly: Yeah, that was his name. (laughs) (0:51:53) Al: I don’t remember things. (0:51:55) Al: So here’s an interesting thing. (0:51:57) Al: How long have you been playing Fields of Mystery Art for now? (0:52:00) Kelly: I started playing… When did I start? Right after I got back from Scotland, actually. So early October? The start of October? (0:52:07) Al: Okay, so not that long not that long. Okay. I (0:52:10) Kelly: No, because I try to wait for less early access. (0:52:16) Al: Generally agree there’s been a few games that I’ve played in early access and (0:52:20) Al: Sometimes I regret it. Sometimes I don’t (0:52:22) Al: I try to avoid it in many cases purely because I quite often find that when the 1.0 comes out (0:52:29) Al: I can never get back into it and that is always my worry (0:52:32) Kelly: Yeah, that is 100% my issue also. (0:52:37) Al: But this one was interesting because (0:52:40) Al: I’ve heard so much buzz about this game. Like obviously we heard about it (0:52:45) Al: I think it was first announced in a Nintendo direct interestingly considering it’s not on the switch yet (0:52:52) Kelly: Yeah, every comment section about this game is like, “Put it on the Switch, please!” (0:52:57) Al: Yeah, it’s like they clearly have a deal with Nintendo it’s clearly coming to the switch just calm yourself (0:53:02) Kelly: - Yeah, the game isn’t even out yet. (0:53:04) Kelly: We only have early access, people. (0:53:07) Al: Look if you want to be an early access player you got to get a steam deck. I’m sorry. That’s just how it is (0:53:14) Kelly: We’re just playing on your computer. I mean, I don’t have a great laptop. It runs (0:53:14) Al: The (0:53:17) Kelly: You (0:53:18) Al: Yeah (0:53:23) Al: Look if I what here’s the thing right? Okay, if I was not such a big Pokemon and Nintendo fan in general and I (0:53:31) Al: Would probably be saying if you can only have one console sell the switch by a steam deck (0:53:36) Al: I think that’s (0:53:36) Kelly: Yeah, I agree. I think if I wasn’t I didn’t even have a steam deck. (0:53:37) Al: I. (0:53:42) Kelly: And I love my switch. (0:53:43) Kelly: I played that thing so much. (0:53:46) Kelly: And then I got a laptop that could run steam and I barely touch it. (0:53:49) Al: Well, well, this is how much of that is like because of what it gave you. (0:53:53) Al: It’s not about the console itself, right? (0:53:55) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:53:55) Al: The console isn’t amazing. (0:53:57) Al: Even when it came out, it was I mean, it was revolutionary in what it did, (0:54:00) Al: but like it was still and I’m not trying to knock or anything, but (0:54:06) Kelly: It’s limited. It’s limited. (0:54:07) Al: it’s it’s limited and it’s like it is just what it is and your memories of it (0:54:12) Al: are what you play on it and and it’s the same thing. (0:54:14) Kelly: Exactly. And like, I played it on the… (0:54:16) Al: It’s like you don’t play on your game (0:54:17) Al: by anymore, despite the fact that you have many (0:54:19) Al: memories of that. It’s just one of these things where things are done and you’re going (0:54:20) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:54:23) Al: to stop playing your Switch Steam over the next couple of years and whether you replace (0:54:26) Al: it with a new Switch, sorry, did I say Steam? You’re going to stop playing your Switch over (0:54:31) Al: the next couple of years, whether it’s because you’ve got a new Switch or whether it’s because (0:54:36) Al: you get a Steam Deck, that’s just going to happen. (0:54:38) Kelly: Yeah. No, exactly. And when I had to switch, it was perfect. Like I was going to work, (0:54:43) Kelly: I was commuting to work, whatever. Unbeatable for that. Like I played it. I mean, I also played it (0:54:44) Al: Mm hmm, oh, yeah, I never I never play my switch on the TV except when I’m playing just dance. (0:54:48) Kelly: at home all the time in handheld mode, but like it was no. Okay. That’s fair. That’s a little harder. (0:54:58) Al: Yeah, playing just dance on a teeny tiny screen. (0:55:02) Al: No, thank you. (0:55:02) Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. That’s the ring fit is the only time I think I ever plugged mine in. (0:55:07) Kelly: But yeah, no, it’s true. (0:55:09) Kelly: It’s like, uh, you know, it gets outdated, things move on. (0:55:14) Kelly: The world moves on. (0:55:15) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, but it’s an interesting question as well, like, because, yeah, how (0:55:16) Kelly: It’s not to say it’s like done for like, I still go and play games on it every (0:55:19) Kelly: once in a while, but like, I’m not buying new games on it in the same way. (0:55:27) Al: much of the Switch’s success was because when it released and like, because they didn’t invent (0:55:36) Al: the idea of a portable console with the Switch. (0:55:38) Kelly: - No, but they definitely were the ones who… (0:55:42) Al: The hybrid nature of it is obviously what was, I think. (0:55:45) Al: The first big thing to do that, certainly with the controllers and stuff, and that was revolutionary. (0:55:53) Al: But how much of it was because of when it was, especially because only three years later Covid happened? (0:56:00) Al: And would we have been so big about that console if we had been in our houses all the time when it came out, sort of thing? (0:56:08) Al: I know it’s wild to think that it’s been longer since Covid started than it was, (0:56:13) Kelly: before the switch came out. Yeah. (0:56:13) Al: then the switch had been out before. (0:56:15) Al: Covid was like, that’s just, what is time? (0:56:20) Al: Anyway, right. No, we’re talking about Fields of Mistria, right? (0:56:22) Al: Fields of Mistria. So, I think it’s not just you, because it happens all the time. (0:56:25) Kelly: Is it me? Am I distracting you? Do I? Am I the cause of these, these things? (0:56:32) Kelly: Okay. Okay. Okay. Cool. Yeah. (0:56:34) Al: It’s just ADHD, right? No, no, no, no. No, for sure. For sure not. You might not be helping, (0:56:35) Kelly: I just wanted to make sure it’s not fully my fault for like tangiting. Okay. (0:56:41) Al: But, you know, it’s all good. (0:56:41) Kelly: No, I’m not. But okay. (0:56:43) Kelly: As long as I’m not. Yeah. Okay, cool. (0:56:44) Al: People love it. People love it. (0:56:45) Al: So Fields of Mistria, when it was first announced, I did not think this was what the game was going to be, right? (0:56:53) Al: Because they didn’t show any game. (0:56:54) Al: They just showed like a pre-rendered video that was high quality graphics, shall we say? (0:57:02) Kelly: Oh really? I don’t remember when it first… (0:57:04) Al: It’s actually on it’s on the steam. (0:57:07) Al: The first the beginning of one of the trailers is basically what it was up until they start throwing the up until they start (0:57:15) Al: and the actual gameplay footage is that quality with like, and I was like, that was not, I wasn’t expecting a stardew like, right? (0:57:18) Kelly: Oh, I see what you’re saying yes. (0:57:24) Kelly: It’s like almost like a watercolory like yeah yeah yeah and then you get this very like retro. (0:57:27) Al: Yeah, because that’s what this is. (0:57:29) Al: This is this is a stardew like, right? (0:57:30) Kelly: » Thank you. (0:57:31) Al: That’s what this is. (0:57:33) Al: That’s the description of it, right? (0:57:35) Al: They say start your new life, build the farm if you’re OK, it doesn’t matter. (0:57:38) Al: It’s a stardew like, you know what you’re expecting. (0:57:40) Kelly: Yeah. (0:57:40) Al: It’s a stardew like, but it has magic. (0:57:42) Kelly: Yep. (0:57:43) Al: and a lot of this will come. (0:57:45) Al: That’s what comes down to a lot of what we think about this game, which obviously we’re going to talk about over the next hour or so. (0:57:52) Al: Hopefully less, we’ll see. (0:57:52) Kelly: I don’t know, I don’t know, but (0:57:54) Al: Is how well it does what it does. (0:57:54) Kelly: I do. (0:57:56) Kelly: I do. (0:57:57) Al: That’s what comes down to with a stardew like nowadays is how well it does it and does it do anything new and interesting. (0:57:58) Kelly: I do. (0:58:00) Kelly: I do. (0:58:02) Kelly: I do. (0:58:04) Kelly: I do. (0:58:06) Kelly: I do. (0:58:08) Kelly: I do. (0:58:10) Kelly: Absolutely. Which is. (0:58:12) Kelly: It’s so funny because I try so (0:58:14) Kelly: hard not to do the stereotypical (0:58:16) Kelly: like, oh, stardew or not. (0:58:16) Al: I think we do a disservice if we don’t, because let’s not pretend like most people, that is the genre. (0:58:18) Kelly: Thing, but like it’s almost (0:58:18) Kelly: impossible to not do that anymore. (0:58:20) Kelly: Yes. (0:58:22) Kelly: That is true. I just hate, I hate the idea of like you made something and now immediately it’s just, I guess from like a creation standpoint, like as a creator it’s like, oh I made this piece of art, and now it will only be compared in terms of the Mona Lisa. (0:58:39) Al: Yeah, but I mean, you could– well, sure, but that’s– I mean, yeah, but OK, if you make (0:58:40) Kelly: It’s not a bad thing. I’m just saying that it’s always in the back of my head. (0:58:47) Al: a picture that looks like the Mona Lisa, then you should expect that, right? (0:58:50) Kelly: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:58:51) Al: Like, it’s not like you’re going to draw a picture of a cat and people will compare it (0:58:56) Al: to the Mona Lisa, right? (0:58:58) Al: Like, this is how these things work. (0:59:00) Al: If you’re clearly inspired by something and you’re building off the back of something, (0:59:04) Al: like how Stardew was building off the back of Harvest Moon, that is a thing that it– (0:59:09) Al: War on its sleeve, it was very clear what it was doing, and yet it has become– it has (0:59:12) Kelly: Mm-hmm. To become like the industry standard, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. That’s very true. (0:59:14) Al: superseded that, and it has become the standard, and it becomes the thing that everything gets (0:59:21) Al: compared to, but everything gets compared to something. (0:59:25) Kelly: I guess some people just tend to use that concept as like a crutch, (0:59:29) Kelly: or maybe I just see very negative opinions a lot of the time using. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. (0:59:32) Al: You mean in terms of describing what a game and like saying, oh, it’s bad because it’s just a stardew ripoff. (0:59:38) Al: Oh, yeah, for sure. And I think I would like to point out, I’m not saying it’s a stardew like as a bad thing. (0:59:44) Kelly: No, no, no, I don’t think you are, yeah. (0:59:44) Al: I’m saying it’s a stardew like as a way to describe what it is so that then we can continue with that discussion with that knowledge. (0:59:52) Al: And yes, we will be comparing some of it to stardew and saying that stardew did things better and it did things better than stardew because that’s just what life is. (0:59:56) Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s very true. Maybe I’ve been spending too much time in TikTok comments. (1:00:02) Al: Just like how every 2D platformer will forever be compared to Mario as well. (1:00:07) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, that’s very true. Every single, um, Hollow Knight-esque new Metroidvania is (1:00:10) Al: Whether it’s good or bad, you know. (1:00:16) Al: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. (1:00:17) Kelly: now, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, now, now I gotta make a Hollow Knight-esque new Metroidvania. (1:00:20) Al: A hollow night like. (1:00:26) Kelly: Hollow Knight Light. To put it in my hallway, thank you. (1:00:30) Al: Okay, so, I don’t- (1:00:32) Al: Do we need anything more explaining- explaining-ing? (1:00:36) Al: Do we need anything more to explain the concept of the game (1:00:39) Al: before we get into more stuff? (1:00:40) Al: It is stardew-like, but it also has magic. (1:00:43) Kelly: and dragons, I mean, yeah, but dragons are cool. (1:00:44) Al: And well, sure. (1:00:46) Al: Dragon statue that talks to you. (1:00:48) Al: Not actually seen any actual dragons yet. (1:00:53) Al: Okay, so before we talk about the game, I want to know your game time. (1:00:59) Al: So what is Steam- how long does Steam say you’ve been playing it? (1:01:00) Kelly: Oh, um, 94 hours. (1:01:02) Al: I also- wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. (1:01:05) Al: So I want to know your- I’ve got a list. (1:01:05) Kelly: Sorry. (1:01:07) Al: So I want to know your game time, what Steam says you’ve been playing. (1:01:11) Al: I want to know where you are in a year, like what year you’re in and where are you. (1:01:14) Kelly: Okay. Let me actually open the game. Okay. So according to Steam, I played for 94.1 hours. (1:01:16) Al: And- Oh, there was a third thing. (1:01:19) Al: What was the third thing I wanted to know? (1:01:23) Al: Yeah, well, yeah, I can’t remember what the third thing was. (1:01:27) Al: So nevermind, we’ll just do those two things then. (1:01:29) Al: So I want to know how long Steam says you’ve played. (1:01:32) Al: Thank you for watching. (1:01:39) Kelly: I think between October like 3rd and October 18th. (1:01:42) Al: Mm-hmm, I cannot. (1:01:44) Kelly: Um, and then, oh no, the sound. I hope you can’t hear this. Okay. Again, I am in fall. (1:01:52) Kelly: How do I tell what year it is? Uh, yeah, yeah. Uh, year two, fall 15. And my town rank. Is (1:01:53) Al: Oh, that’s a good question. If you go, if you pause, (1:01:57) Al: if you go to your inventory, the side, it says what year? Year X. (1:02:03) Al: Interesting. Okay, so I, oh yes, that was the other thing. Yes, yes, what’s your town rank? (1:02:08) Kelly: Is that what you were gonna ask, or Sapphire? (1:02:12) Al: So that’s interesting. So I am at 45 hours, so about half of what you’ve done. (1:02:18) Kelly: Okay (1:02:19) Al: I am in spring of year two, and I am at town rank Sapphire. So, (1:02:22) Kelly: Okay, okay, what was I doing? (1:02:28) Al: so I suspect is one of these things where I tend to speed run the start of farming games. (1:02:35) Kelly: Okay, you know what I tend to do is I tend to just leave my computer running with the game on yeah, that’s what it is (1:02:39) Al: That that probably doesn’t help but yeah like but yeah like (1:02:42) Al: the spring of year one for me lasts you know about three hours in total because I’m I’m (1:02:49) Al: going out I’m doing the the crops I’m like speed running a couple of things you know seeing if (1:02:54) Al: there’s anyone interesting to talk to doing the mines if I have any energy left and then I’m going (1:02:58) Al: straight to bed like I’m quite often going to bed at like 11 a.m in spring year one because you just (1:03:05) Al: you’re not you’re not spending money on getting more stamina you just it’s like I don’t understand (1:03:10) Al: they’re like, “Oh, I want to get everything done.” (1:03:12) Al: And, you know, in as little in-game days as possible, (1:03:16) Al: except as like a one-off challenge type thing. (1:03:18) Kelly: Oh, no, I was I was chugging berries to. (1:03:21) Al: Oh, (1:03:23) Kelly: So there’s I have some tricks that we could talk about later. (1:03:23) Al: fair enough. (1:03:27) Al: Sure. (1:03:29) Kelly: Oh, my other question was, what level are you? (1:03:30) Kelly: That was, I think. (1:03:31) Al: What level? (1:03:32) Kelly: So in the info menu, it’s fall year and then level. (1:03:33) Al: Oh. (1:03:37) Al: Oh, so that’s that’s the that is the town rank. (1:03:40) Kelly: Oh, OK, OK. (1:03:40) Al: Just, there’s like 10. (1:03:42) Al: 10 with it, so you’ll be 50 something because the sapphire is 50s. (1:03:46) Al: So I’m 58. (1:03:46) Kelly: - Yeah. (1:03:48) Kelly: - Okay, I’m 50. (1:03:48) Kelly: I think I quit right after I… (1:03:50) Al: Nice, nice. (1:03:51) Al: I beat you. (1:03:56) Al: So fine. (1:03:57) Al: Great. (1:03:59) Al: Let’s talk about, I just, I feel like that information is just for people. (1:04:03) Kelly: No, it is because I, you know, and we’re both clearly at a similar point in the game. (1:04:08) Al: Yeah, yeah. (1:04:09) Al: I think we’ve, we’ve basically both done all of. (1:04:12) Al: in-game story that exists, the main quests, yeah, yeah, because you’ve done the, the (1:04:14) Kelly: - Mm-hmm, that’s what I kind of, once I did that, (1:04:18) Kelly: I was like, “Okay, I’m done.” (1:04:21) Al: barn expansion, right? Yeah, yeah, that’s. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, you’re down at level (1:04:22) Kelly: Mm-hmm, I hit like every roadblock that I possibly could. (1:04:27) Al: 40 in the mine, you’ve done the barn expansion, you are maxed out on all the levels, except (1:04:28) Kelly: Yep. (laughs) (1:04:33) Al: the ones that you just cannot be bothered constantly doing and getting up to level 45. (1:04:36) Kelly: Yeah, literally. (1:04:37) Al: Uh, great. Okay, so let’s talk about the, uh, (1:04:42) Al: the start of it, the character creator. Um, one thing I noticed, everything in this game (1:04:50) Al: is changeable after the initial thing, except your birthday. And this is excellent. (1:04:54) Kelly: Yes, which is I like, I like, yeah, I like that a lot. (1:04:58) Al: Absolutely. Like, and it’s not just like, it’s your name, it’s your, your pronouns, (1:05:01) Kelly: This is (1:05:03) Al: it is literally everything is changeable. And I absolutely love this. Um, your farm, (1:05:09) Al: farm name, you know, your hairstyle like (1:05:12) Al: everything is changeable after the fact. And this is fantastic because one of the (1:05:17) Al: thing a lot of people have is the “oh no, I can’t decide on what to do”. That is a huge thing of (1:05:25) Al: starting with these games. And that’s not… yeah. This is the thing, this is why every single game, (1:05:26) Kelly: Do you know how long I wait to start some of these games because I literally just sit there (1:05:31) Kelly: on the naming screen? (1:05:34) Al: I just go, I just, my name is Al, my farm is the name of my house. These are just, this is what I (1:05:38) Al: I do, I don’t do anything else because I don’t have the imagination for that. (1:05:41) Kelly: Well, you have cute names for your houses and stuff. We don’t have that here. (1:05:42) Al: Well, most people don’t. (1:05:46) Kelly: What am I going to do, name my house like 90 or something? That’s not fun. (1:05:47) Al: Most people don’t. (1:05:50) Al: Most people don’t. (1:05:51) Al: It’s not, it’s not, it’s not super common for you have a name on your house. (1:05:54) Kelly: Oh, really? I thought it was my workout… (1:05:56) Al: No, no, it probably depends where you are and stuff. (1:06:01) Al: But yeah, no, like most houses don’t have a name. (1:06:04) Al: I’m the only one on my street that has a name. (1:06:08) Al: And I’m fine with them not making, letting you change your birthday because like, I (1:06:12) Al: you can’t change your birthday in real life, right? (1:06:14) Al: Like that’s, it’s the one thing on that list that is a thing that you can’t change. (1:06:19) Kelly: That is true. (1:06:19) Al: Everything else is something. (1:06:21) Al: And that’s, you know, even, you know, cause you don’t even have to go into the (1:06:24) Al: whole, oh, change your pronoun. (1:06:26) Al: It doesn’t, shut up, right? (1:06:28) Kelly: - Yeah. (laughs) (1:06:28) Al: Like there are so many reasons, like if you make a mistake, if you just can’t (1:06:31) Al: decide, there are so many reasons why these things should be changeable. (1:06:34) Al: And yes, also, also, obviously it’s good for people who would like to change their (1:06:38) Al: gender, which does happen. (1:06:38) Kelly: Mm hmm. Inclusive all around for the indecisive idiots and those who can’t want to change their (1:06:40) Al: Um, so that’s good. (1:06:42) Al: And the other accessible, inclusive thing that I liked, you can be bold, which many (1:06:56) Al: games you can’t. So it’s, it drives me insane. Cause you’re like, you’re looking as like, (1:06:58) Kelly: - You know, I didn’t even consider that, that is true. (1:07:01) Kelly: You really can’t be bald in most games. (1:07:06) Al: I don’t like any of these hairstyles and I don’t really have hairs. Like I have the shortest (1:07:10) Al: hair possible while still having hair. (1:07:12) Al: Um, and they don’t eat most games don’t have that hairstyle either. (1:07:15) Al: It’s like, oh, you’ve got short hair. (1:07:17) Al: And I’m like, that hair needs cut that is really long hair. (1:07:21) Al: Do not tell me that that’s short hair. (1:07:23) Al: Right. (1:07:24) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:07:26) Kelly: And it makes no sense, too, because you (1:07:27) Kelly: think it’s just the base character. (1:07:29) Al: Yeah. (1:07:30) Al: Yeah. (1:07:30) Al: Just don’t put hair on them. (1:07:31) Kelly: Just don’t put hair on it. (1:07:33) Kelly: There obviously something exists underneath that short hair (1:07:36) Al: Yeah, exactly. (1:07:37) Al: Exactly. (1:07:38) Al: Uh, so yeah, the, the character creator is quite good. (1:07:41) Al: It’s got quite a lot of (1:07:42) Al: stuff to start with. And then obviously you unlock more clothes as you go on. (1:07:47) Al: I was quite happy with the character I created. It didn’t take me too long to get something I was (1:07:51) Al: happy with. That’s not a problem for me. No, I don’t, I legitimately don’t think I have (1:07:52) Kelly: Yeah. I think I spent more time trying to figure out what crazy colors to use. (1:08:00) Kelly: You know, that’s always the hardest part. What color hair do I want to have? (1:08:07) Kelly: Clearly, this time. (1:08:12) Al: problems with the character creator. Pretty good. Happy with that. (1:08:15) Kelly: No, I liked it. It was good. (1:08:16) Al: The other thing I wanted to talk about, I like to talk about early is the tutorials (1:08:20) Al: because I have many opinions about them and lots of things. Every tutorial in this game is optional. (1:08:25) Al: It says do you want to see this tutorial and you say yes or no. And then the tutorial is like a (1:08:31) Al: slide deck of this is what you do and you can go backwards and forwards, sorry, forwards and (1:08:37) Al: backwards, which is key, that going backwards is very important, because (1:08:42) Al: how many times do you click on and then you realize you hadn’t read and you (1:08:45) Al: can’t go back? Not great. (1:08:46) Kelly: Every time. (1:08:48) Al: The one thing I’ve not checked is, can you actually go back and see those after the fact? (1:08:56) Kelly: I thought there was something. (1:08:57) Al: I can’t see them in the menu. (1:09:00) Kelly: Let me re-open the game in a second. (1:09:01) Kelly: But I will say, as someone who typically does not (1:09:04) Kelly: like hand-holding tutorials or tutorials for the most part (1:09:07) Kelly: in general, I thought these were structured really nicely. (1:09:10) Kelly: And I really liked the option that you could skip them (1:09:10) Al: I agree. Same. But if I do a second game, I will be skipping them straight away, which (1:09:12) Kelly: and that I honestly did not skip most of them (1:09:15) Kelly: just because I was like– (1:09:21) Kelly: exactly. (1:09:21) Al: is why I like when they do that. (1:09:24) Kelly: And also, even if you didn’t skip them, (1:09:26) Kelly: it’s like, oh, I’m just going through slides. (1:09:27) Kelly: Like you said, it’s not some long cut scene (1:09:30) Kelly: that you actually have to pay attention to (1:09:32) Kelly: because if you want to understand (1:09:34) Kelly: what’s actually happening, (1:09:35) Kelly: like there’s just some slides to look at. (1:09:37) Al: I agree. Um, yeah, I can’t see anything about being able to view the tutorials later on. (1:09:43) Al: So that would be one change I would make is give us a thing in the menu that allows you (1:09:46) Kelly: - I don’t either. (1:09:46) Al: to go back and see them. And that’d be good. But so far, you know, our accessibility is (1:09:49) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, I agree. (1:09:52) Al: doing pretty well. Let’s talk about mechanics. Um, so I guess overall, you know, movement (1:10:01) Al: and controls and tools and stuff, I think is mostly pretty good. There’s a few things (1:10:07) Al: that took me a while to figure out. Um, like the, by default, the button for an action (1:10:14) Al: is, so this was on the steam deck. So obviously I don’t know whether it works differently (1:10:18) Al: in terms of what it shows you when you’re not on the steam deck, but there was no mapped (1:10:23) Al: button that does the use the weapon or use the, the ax over and over again, for example. (1:10:29) Al: So you had to like press it and then press it and press it because that one was the charged (1:10:33) Al: one which obviously you don’t have access to at the beginning right because most of them they (1:10:37) Al: just start off with you just using it on one square and so I had to remap because I couldn’t (1:10:43) Al: stand that I couldn’t stand just that constant pressing to to cut down a tree you couldn’t know (1:10:46) Kelly: You couldn’t hold down just without remapping. Oh, that’s annoying because I could just hold down. Yeah, I (1:10:51) Al: yeah yeah so I that drove me insane so yeah so I there’s two buttons though presumably one for (1:10:52) Kelly: Was on keyboard though, so (1:10:57) Al: charge the one for the multiple use one right on the keyboard but on the presumably (1:11:03) Kelly: Wait what do you mean multiple use? Am I- did I miss a mechanic? (1:11:05) Al: So holding the button down and it. (1:11:08) Al: Just keep using it. (1:11:09) Kelly: No that’s charged for me. (1:11:11) Al: So well, there’s two different buttons. (1:11:12) Al: It’s two different options. (1:11:13) Kelly: Did I miss- did I miss a whole mechanic this whole time? (1:11:16) Al: So it’s it’s so I had to go into the settings and into the controls. (1:11:20) Al: Let me see what it was called. (1:11:20) Kelly: Let me open the game again. Why do I keep closing the game? I don’t know. (1:11:25) Al: So you’ve got used, used till charged and used till repeated. (1:11:30) Kelly: Interesting. (1:11:31) Al: Those are two different controls and. (1:11:32) Kelly: So could you just like go around like hammering the ground, essentially with the axe and like moving the–oh, that’s sick. (1:11:35) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:11:38) Al: I mean, for me, like that is the default to start with, right? (1:11:42) Al: Like that’s what start how stardew works is you, you hold the button and it does that to start with, I think, yeah. (1:11:47) Kelly: Mm hmm. Oh, I don’t have anything set. (1:11:51) Al: There you go then. (1:11:51) Al: So so there’s no default, there’s no default mapping for that button on on PC either. (1:11:57) Al: That’s interesting because. (1:12:00) Kelly: Yeah, I didn’t even know that existed. (1:12:00) Al: I think because I think that should be there as an option. (1:12:01) Kelly: Okay, I’m gonna change this. (1:12:05) Al: there as an option. (1:12:05) Kelly: There’s two charge, (1:12:06) Kelly: there’s two buttons for use tool charge though. (1:12:08) Al: That’s fine, that’s just because you’ve got two sets, that doesn’t… (1:12:10) Kelly: Yeah, but like why do that (1:12:13) Kelly: and not give one to the repeated one? (1:12:14) Al: I don’t know, I don’t know. (1:12:16) Kelly: None of the other options, (1:12:18) Kelly: none of the other interactions (1:12:21) Kelly: really have a secondary one except for like movement. (1:12:24) Al: I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know why they implemented this and then didn’t have it set (1:12:27) Al: to anything. So you only found it if you went into settings. Yeah. Because I couldn’t start (1:12:28) Kelly: That’s such a– (1:12:30) Kelly: That’s so obnoxious. I want to use that so much. (1:12:34) Al: because like, especially at the beginning, when you’re like hitting the tree for 10 things (1:12:37) Al: in a row, I couldn’t stand just press, press, press. It’s just it drove me insane. So I (1:12:43) Al: went to the settings and found it. So I have because I think the thing is that the different (1:12:48) Al: tools work better for different ones, right? You are never going to use the (1:12:54) Al: axe charged, right? You’re not. Yeah. Exactly. Like a three by three grid, like maybe when (1:12:56) Kelly: for trees? No, not unless you’re like doing like the first cleanup (1:13:00) Kelly: and then at that point you don’t have it, so. (1:13:01) Kelly: So. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. (1:13:05) Al: you get to the point where because there’s obviously levels of tools that we don’t, we (1:13:09) Al: have access to in the game yet, which are presumably going to get higher. But the highest (1:13:13) Al: you’ve got just now is three by six. You’re not using that for cutting down trees. Let’s (1:13:17) Kelly: - No, unless you’re literally not clearing trees (1:13:18) Al: not pretend anything. Exactly. Exactly. (1:13:20) Kelly: out of your yard for like two seasons, (1:13:22) Kelly: I don’t think that many trees (1:13:23) Kelly: are growing that close together. (1:13:24) Al: But you don’t, you also don’t use repeated for watering because it happens too quickly (1:13:31) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (1:13:32) Al: and you don’t move very quickly when you’re using that, right? So you use the charge for (1:13:33) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (1:13:37) Al: that one and you use the repeated for the other ones. And you could, you could, I, I (1:13:40) Kelly: Yeah. No, you’re right. (1:13:45) Al: would say, I think it would be legitimate to have just one button that does different (1:13:50) Al: things depending on what tool you have but I can understand why they have the (1:13:54) Al: ability to do both and I’m okay with that. (1:13:56) Kelly: Yeah, like, so I will say for the axe I have used the grid to hit like a bunch of twigs and stuff that are like, you know, if there’s like a bunch of rocks and like a bunch of twigs and stuff in one area, I will do the charge one just to clear them all out in one go. (1:14:06) Al: Yeah, no, that’s fair. So I think the tools are pretty good other than that. I like when (1:14:12) Kelly: But not for the trees, not for the trees. (1:14:22) Al: some games have the changes tool depending on what you’re doing, but I understand that’s (1:14:28) Al: a bit more complicated. So like, I will say, I will say I do. (1:14:29) Kelly: Yeah, it’s it’s fine. I didn’t mind going through flipping through those (1:14:36) Al: You like when games have like your tools in a different section and not in your bag, (1:14:42) Al: especially now when we have such. Yeah, especially now when you have such a limited bag. Because (1:14:43) Kelly: like a little mini menu. (1:14:48) Kelly: Mm hmm. (1:14:49) Al: especially to start with, you only have like the one thing. It’s so painful to carry all (1:14:52) Kelly: Yeah. (1:14:54) Al: your tools around, right? And it’d be nice to because like what I do is I store some (1:14:59) Al: of my tools in a box and only take them out when I use them. Well, that’s just annoying (1:15:02) Kelly: - Yeah, that’s what I do too. (1:15:04) Al: as well. (1:15:05) Al: So, like, there have been other games (1:15:06) Kelly: Yeah, ‘cause if you forget the tool, (1:15:06) Al: I’ve done that, and I feel like that’s a good thing to do. (1:15:09) Kelly: if you forget the tool while you’re out, (1:15:10) Al: Exactly. (1:15:11) Kelly: it’s like, oh, there goes that thing. (1:15:12) Al: Mm hmm. Mm hmm. (1:15:14) Kelly: If you have the tool on you and then your pack is full (1:15:16) Kelly: and then you can’t get the thing that you wanted, (1:15:18) Kelly: oh, that sucks. (1:15:19) Kelly: I will say it’s very nice that you could just, (1:15:21) Kelly: things just exist on the ground (1:15:23) Kelly: after you’ve interacted with them if your bag is full. (1:15:26) Al: Yeah, and I’ve not found them ever disappear they seem to be there because they’ve definitely they are like two days later (1:15:30) Kelly: No. (1:15:32) Al: So I suspect they’re just there forever, which is really good because yeah that like you’re just like I’ll throw this away (1:15:32) Kelly: Yeah. [LAUGH] (1:15:38) Al: And I’ll come get it tomorrow is fantastic (1:15:40) Kelly: Exactly. And if there is something you really want to, like, take out of your bag, instead of just, like, tossing it, you can, like, literally throw it, and then just go and pick it up the next day. (1:15:48) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah (1:15:51) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah because there’s a button to to just throw it from (1:15:54) Kelly: Yeah. The throw button and the jump button, I think, are two good little mechanics that they added. (1:16:02) Al: Yeah, so I do like the jump. (1:16:03) Al: I will say one thing about it is I’m describing this as sticky. (1:16:08) Al: So if you’re walking next to a wall and then you jump, you will lose your momentum. (1:16:15) Kelly: Oh, interesting. (1:16:17) Al: So it doesn’t happen if you’re out in the open, right? (1:16:19) Kelly: Okay, yeah. (1:16:20) Al: So if you’re just if you’re just walking (1:16:22) Al: around normally and you jump, you keep your momentum. (1:16:26) Al: I think it’s actually technically slightly slower than running, but that’s OK. (1:16:30) Al: But if you then walking next (1:16:32) Al: to something. So say you go up my next building or a bridge or something, and you’re walking, (1:16:38) Al: literally touching it. So like walking along the wall. If you jump, you will lose your (1:16:43) Al: momentum almost entirely. Which is not great. And I suspect that’s a collision detection (1:16:44) Kelly: Interesting. (1:16:46) Kelly: No. (1:16:50) Al: issue that they’re having. And it’s probably fixable, but I don’t understand their code. (1:16:54) Al: So I don’t know. But yeah, that doesn’t feel great to me. But the jumping in general is (1:16:59) Al: especially because you can jump over rocks and (1:17:02) Kelly: I’m like even like, yeah, like even like it’s like, oh, I came in to like the, the, the, (1:17:02) Al: weeds and stuff like that, that is a great thing. (1:17:04) Al: I love that. (1:17:05) Al: And I’m going to be really annoyed when I go back to stardew and don’t have. (1:17:13) Kelly: what’s his name? Hayden. I forgot his name now. His farm. Yeah. Like I’m coming from (1:17:14) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, and jumping over his fence. Yeah. Yeah. (1:17:18) Kelly: my farm to his farm. I’m not going to go around the front. I’m going to walk across the lawn. (1:17:22) Kelly: I’m going to jump over the fence. Like, come on. (1:17:24) Al: Yeah, I felt because this because fae farm had jumping as well and the jumping in fae farm (1:17:27) Al: I think is nicer. It’s more fun to do but this is good enough. I think it’s I think this should be (1:17:29) Kelly: Okay. (1:17:32) Kelly: Yeah, this is like, I’m not like jumping around the map, you know, but like, okay. (1:17:35) Al: Oh, I am (1:17:37) Al: Just because it’s fun. Um, I I think this should be the default for farming games (1:17:42) Al: Now, there aren’t a huge number of things that I go this- (1:17:44) Al: This is something that every farming game should have, but I do think this is something that every farming game should have now, is the jumping. (1:17:49) Al: It just, yeah, yeah, it adds to the combat in the mines a bit because you can like, you know, jump around and avoid, and that’s ignoring the fact that obviously there are some, you have to jump to navigate some area. (1:17:50) Kelly: It adds a nice touch to the minds, too, I think. (1:17:52) Kelly: It just adds a nice touch in general to things. (1:18:00) Kelly: That, yeah. (1:18:01) Kelly: And the– yes, yeah. (1:18:06) Kelly: But even on the navigation level, (1:18:08) Kelly: you get this kind of different level of exploration (1:18:12) Kelly: that you don’t always get in farming games, (1:18:13) Kelly: because they don’t typically let you jump over a river (1:18:15) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, how long did it take you to figure out you could go in the water? (1:18:16) Kelly: or into a river or (1:18:20) Kelly: and I literally cannot figure out how to build a fence. (1:18:22) Kelly: Because I couldn’t figure out where the gate was. (1:18:24) Kelly: And then I went on Reddit and someone was like, (1:18:26) Kelly: you just jumped over the fence. (1:18:26) Kelly: And I said, oh, okay. (1:18:28) Kelly: I see. (1:18:28) Kelly: Yeah. (1:18:30) Kelly: And then I went on Reddit and someone was like, (1:18:30) Kelly: you just jumped over the fence. (1:18:32) Kelly: And I said, oh, okay. (1:18:32) Kelly: I see. (1:18:34) Kelly: And then I went on Reddit and someone was like, (1:18:34) Kelly: you just jumped over the fence. (1:18:36) Kelly: And I said, oh, okay. (1:18:36) Kelly: That one wasn’t long. (1:18:38) Kelly: It did take me a long time to figure out that there are no gates because I (1:18:42) Kelly: could just jump over the fence. (1:18:42) Kelly: So I, I fully understood the concept of jumping. (1:18:44) Kelly: I did the jumping in the mines and the river and the blah, blah, blah. (1:18:46) Al: I have one other issue with two other issues with jumping, and one is that if you’re jumping (1:18:46) Kelly: And I literally cannot figure out how to build a fence. (1:18:50) Kelly: That makes sense. (1:18:52) Kelly: Yeah. (1:18:59) Al: over a cliff, you have to be at the right angle, otherwise you won’t jump off. (1:19:04) Al: So it’s like the cliff comes along horizontal and then goes diagonally up. (1:19:04) Kelly: - Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:19:08) Al: You can’t jump down off that cliff. (1:19:10) Al: You have to jump diagonally down off the cliff, which is not great. (1:19:14) Al: And finally, there is (1:19:16) Al: one cliff in the narrows that you can’t jump over because it’s too high. (1:19:20) Al: And that just drives me insane. (1:19:21) Al: Why have you got a one you can’t do? (1:19:23) Al: Because it’s like you’re running down from the mines and like it’s not an issue (1:19:26) Al: anymore because I have the missed me or whatever it’s called. (1:19:29) Al: But like I’m running down to get home and I’m jumping and jumping over the cliffs. (1:19:32) Al: And then I can’t jump over the cliff. (1:19:34) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (1:19:34) Al: I can’t always it’s because it’s the one that’s too high because it’s one pixel (1:19:37) Al: higher and you have to go around and back down. (1:19:38) Kelly: Yep. (1:19:39) Al: That’s really annoying. Just let us jump over that cliff. Come on. (1:19:41) Kelly: Yeah, and I like to jump off the cliffs in I like like in games in general. I just like jumping off the cliffs. It’s fun. (1:19:46) Al: It takes me back to Pokemon, jumping off the ledges. (1:19:52) Kelly: Yeah, I’m drowning. (1:19:54) Kelly: It’s like it was like Tony Hawk for like the first day of was that sword and shield? (1:20:00) Al: Yeah, yeah. (1:20:03) Al: Anything else movement wise? (1:20:05) Al: I think that’s basically everything I wanted to talk about. (1:20:08) Kelly: I think so too, I think that covers it. (1:20:10) Al: Let’s so let’s talk about the different aspects of farming then. (1:20:14) Al: So first off we have (1:20:16) Al: farming. That was probably bad wording. I probably could have worded that better. This (1:20:19) Kelly: Oh, let’s go back up to the bad paragraphs describing. (1:20:26) Al: is mostly pretty standard for a stardew like. There’s a couple of things that are changes (1:20:32) Kelly: Mm hmm. I love that. (1:20:34) Al: that I really like. One is that your watering can is infinite. Fantastic. Please, please (1:20:42) Al: don’t make me refill a watering can. I don’t care that it’s less realistic. (1:20:46) Al: It is more fun. (1:20:48) Kelly: we’re playing a farming game where I got to leave my city job to go build a farm what’s what’s (1:20:55) Al: My turnip grows in three days. Of course it’s not realistic. (1:20:55) Kelly: realistic yeah yeah no I hate I hate that so much (1:21:03) Al: Which is really funny, because you still have a well on the farm, but you just don’t have to use it. (1:21:06) Kelly: yeah it’s just for a show it’s just to be cute (1:21:08) Al: I was like, “How big is this watering can? When am I going to have to do it?” (1:21:09) Kelly: cute (1:21:12) Al: And then when it got to Ultima, I was like, “Oh, I don’t think I ever have…” (1:21:16) Al: And I was like, “You have to refill it.” (1:21:19) Al: The other thing is you can do a charged seeding, so you can do multiple seeds at the same time, (1:21:30) Al: which is great because I think the current situation I can do is 6x6. It’s just so fast. I love it. (1:21:36) Kelly: Yeah, yep. And it’s like, do you save any energy by doing that? I don’t think so, right? (1:21:44) Al: So I don’t think you do save any. (1:21:46) Al: Energy by doing that you save time because the because this is this is a decision that farming games make you either do (1:21:46) Kelly: But you save time. (1:21:52) Al: when you upgrade tools (1:21:54) Al: either they’re easier to use or (1:21:58) Al: you can do more with them with one thing or (1:22:00) Kelly: - Mm-hmm. (1:22:02) Al: they have a (1:22:04) Al: wider range or all of them and (1:22:07) Al: Stardew does all of them. It’s easier to use it uses less energy and you can do more at the same time (1:22:16) Al: Just does that you can do more in one time. So it’s faster, but it still takes the same amount of energy (1:22:20) Kelly: which is fine. Like, it’s fine for me. Yeah. Of course. But (1:22:22) Al: It’s a to say I don’t have a huge issue with it. It’s like would I like if it took less energy to do that? (1:22:28) Al: Yes, I would (1:22:30) Al: but (1:22:30) Kelly: like, you know, it’s, it’s not the worst. What? Yeah. Yeah. The (1:22:33) Al: But I’ll tell you what is the worst they don’t have sprinklers. Where are my sprinklers? (1:22:41) Kelly: lack of sprinklers. I’m like, I’m like, all I keep telling (1:22:44) Kelly: myself is I’m like, it’s an early development, early access, (1:22:46) Kelly: whatever it’s called, they better add sprinklers. (1:22:48) Al: It is. It is in early access, but it’s hit the point where I know I’ve got too many crops. (1:22:54) Al: I can’t play the game anymore, because it uses all of my energy, and it takes half the day, (1:22:55) Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. And all of your time. Yep. Yep. That is also how I felt year two. I was like, (1:23:02) Al: and I’m just constantly farming now. And that’s not fun. Add sprinklers. (1:23:09) Al: Yeah. (1:23:11) Kelly: I have overextended myself in terms of farming, and it has now taken up more of this game (1:23:18) Kelly: that I would like. (1:23:18) Al: Yeah, which the thing is that is the goal of these games is to get as big a farm as (1:23:25) Al: possible doing as much as possible, and you can’t do that without either making it cost (1:23:30) Al: less energy as you upgrade the tool, which they don’t do, and having sprinklers, which (1:23:32) Kelly: - Mm-hmm. (1:23:34) Al: they don’t do, or some kind of automation. (1:23:36) Al: It doesn’t have to be shrinkers. (1:23:37) Al: Feel free to do something different. (1:23:38) Al: I don’t care. (1:23:40) Al: It doesn’t matter. (1:23:40) Kelly: Do inground irrigation, I don’t care. (1:23:40) Al: Do some kind of, yeah, whatever. (1:23:43) Al: It doesn’t matter. (1:23:46) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s tough. (1:23:49) Kelly: I definitely noticed like towards the end of each season, (1:23:52) Kelly: I would stop planting stuff because I was like, (1:23:53) Kelly: I want to do other stuff. (1:23:54) Kelly: I don’t want to keep doing this. (1:23:54) Al: Yeah, especially near the end of year one, because like a lot of year one is just (1:24:01) Al: trying to fill out as much of the museum as possible. (1:24:02) Kelly: Yes, which I think I did mostly. (1:24:09) Al: I did it after spring. I mocked up spring. I didn’t realise that it had so many crops, (1:24:15) Al: and by the time I realised it was too late. So yeah, (1:24:17) Al: that’ll be the first thing I do when I get back into playing the game, because I’m now in spring. (1:24:17) Kelly: I missed some of the… Yeah, I missed some of the forageable items the first spring. (1:24:24) Al: Yes, yeah that too. (1:24:27) Kelly: But also, so for the farming also, I really like the aspect that when you harvest, (1:24:32) Kelly: or plant them sometimes even, you get seeds. And then… (1:24:35) Al: OK, yeah, let’s talk about that. So one of the things about this game is you have - so (1:24:40) Al: we just have to give a background to how this happens. So, no, it’s fine. I didn’t have it (1:24:42) Kelly: Oh yes, sorry, I didn’t mean to jump the gun. (1:24:46) Al: in the list, so this is the point to talk about it, because everything has upgrades like this. (1:24:50) Al: So at some point as you’re playing, this is where we get into very light story spoilers, (1:24:55) Al: but I will be honest with you listeners, there is no real story in this game yet. So you’re (1:24:55) Kelly: Oh, yes. (1:24:59) Al: not really spoiling much. But if you really care, this is - yeah, if you really care, this is your (1:25:01) Kelly: We’re just spoiling mechanics. (1:25:06) Al: if you like the sound of the game, go play it. You know, it’s good. Right. Now, if you’re listening, (1:25:12) Al: you don’t care about spoilers. So there is a point where you find a statue on your farm of a dragon, (1:25:19) Al: you repair it, I think, and it then starts talking to you and you kind of like upgrade it as you go. (1:25:27) Al: And it gives you as you level up your different professions, like you do in Stardew, the same (1:25:32) Al: thing, right? You do more of an item, you get better. (1:25:35) Al: You go up a level. As you go up those levels, you get things that you can unlock. There’s (1:25:40) Al: like another currency you get for doing things, and that lets you unlock these special abilities. (1:25:46) Al: And for the different things, you have different ones. So for farming, you have a bunch of really (1:25:52) Al: nice abilities, like these are really good abilities. One of them is that when you water (1:25:59) Al: a crop, you have a chance of getting a seed from a crop. If (1:26:05) Al: you one of them is when you sow a seed, you have a chance of watering the seed next to it. (1:26:13) Al: And there are others as well, one of them which I until I unlocked was going to be a complaint I (1:26:19) Al: had about the game, which is that there is no quick way to harvest crops except there is, (1:26:26) Al: because once you get to level 45 farming, you can upgrade, you can unlock sickle sword, which means (1:26:31) Al: your sword is used to cut down crops, which is much. (1:26:35) Al: faster. I really like that. So there’s a lot more of these as well. But yeah, as Kelly (1:26:40) Al: says, they’re really nice additions. Like the one that gives you a chance of getting (1:26:45) Al: a seed for a crop, your water, you get a lot. Like I have my farm is currently, let me just (1:26:53) Al: double check. It is six plots of six by six. Kelly, you’ve no idea. I’m all in on farming (1:26:58) Kelly: Oh, you have a big farm. (1:27:04) Al: games. I farm and farm. (1:27:05) Al: farming games. So that’s 216. That’s 216 plots. And for winter, I mostly just use the (1:27:15) Al: snow peas, which was the highest value crop. And just with watering that crop throughout (1:27:21) Al: winter, I have 100 seeds for that crop. So that is half of what I’ll need for my current (1:27:27) Al: farm the next time I go into winter. That’s really good. That’s really big. (1:27:31) Kelly: That is it makes such a difference. I I save them up and then I check them all before the first day of the season (1:27:38) Al: Mm-hmm. (1:27:38) Kelly: To see like oh how much money do I have to spend it saves you so much money (1:27:42) Al: It really does. (1:27:42) Kelly: Especially for like those like repeating crops they cost so much money (1:27:42) Al: It really does. (1:27:44) Al: Mm-hmm. (1:27:46) Al: Yeah. (1:27:48) Al: Yeah. (1:27:49) Kelly: When I went to go check I have three rows of six and then for some reason just one row that’s half (1:27:58) Al: Oh dear, oh dear. How much money do you have just now? (1:27:59) Kelly: So right (1:28:01) Kelly: now I have $4,000. I think I just bought like a new farm, a new barn, whatever it is, updated the barn. (1:28:06) Al: OK, I have one hundred and twenty thousand. (1:28:10) Kelly: $120,000? Oh, you’re a mid-maxing. (1:28:11) Al: Yes. (1:28:15) Al: Kelly, I don’t think you realize how I play these games like I’m either I either (1:28:20) Al: play almost nothing and barely get through spring or I am through into year (1:28:24) Al: two and nearly a millionaire, like, because this is. (1:28:27) Kelly: Listen, all my skills are full. (1:28:29) Al: But the problem is that there is, well, mine aren’t. (1:28:32) Al: There you go. That’s that’s where you’re that’s what you’ve done more than me. (1:28:36) Al: The point is, I feel like I’ve hit the peak (1:28:39) Al: just now because of the lack of automation, which means that up until this point, (1:28:43) Al: I was very quickly, you know, increasing money, right? (1:28:47) Al: Like, you know, got to the point where, you know, when I got to fall, (1:28:50) Al: I wasn’t able to buy the two hundred and sixteen of the most expensive crop (1:28:54) Al: because obviously that’s a lot of money, but by winter I could. (1:28:56) Kelly: Mm hmm. That’s crazy. (1:28:58) Al: So I bought two hundred and sixteen snow peas for winter, which then by the end (1:29:03) Al: I had 10x’d my money (1:29:05) Al: Um… (1:29:06) Al: But the problem is, because there’s no sprinklers, I physically cannot do any more than 216 crops. (1:29:12) Al: I just can’t do it without investing heavily, yeah, without losing my mind and investing (1:29:14) Kelly: Losing your mind. (1:29:18) Al: very heavily in something that would give me much more food, right? (1:29:25) Al: Like I’d need to do something else, but the problem then is everything that gives you food (1:29:29) Al: also costs you stamina to do. (1:29:31) Al: And I think I could only, if I did that, I could probably double the (1:29:36) Al: number of crops I’m doing, but I don’t think you could go any higher (1:29:39) Al: because you would just run out of time in the day. (1:29:40) Kelly: - Yeah, that’s true. (1:29:42) Al: Because there’s no more upgrades for the tools that I can. (1:29:46) Kelly: That is also true. (1:29:48) Kelly: Yeah, I know they need to do something about the sprinklers. (1:29:50) Kelly: That is truly also my shared complaint (1:29:53) Kelly: because man, it just makes such a difference. (1:29:57) Kelly: If I just wanna play more of the game than farming (1:29:59) Al: OK, next, we have anything else about farming. Are you happy with happy? We’ve covered that. (1:30:00) Kelly: and I’m not even at your level. (1:30:06) Kelly: No, I think that’s good, I think that’s good. (1:30:08) Al: So next we’ve got ranching out. So can you actually I know there’s all you mean like (1:30:09) Kelly: Oh, wait, wait, wait, I’m sorry. (1:30:11) Kelly: I do like that you can expand your farm. (1:30:14) Kelly: Yeah, I dug a hole. (1:30:17) Al: that. OK, sorry. So the reason why I asked Can you expand it is why men was there is (1:30:18) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:30:23) Al: an option at the carpenters to expand your farm. But it’s grayed out and I. (1:30:26) Kelly: Oh, but you can’t actually, yes. (1:30:29) Al: I don’t think you can unlock it yet, so you I think you’ll actually be able to buy more (1:30:29) Kelly: Yeah, it’s not an option yet. (1:30:31) Kelly: No, sorry. (1:30:33) Al: land later on, which, by the way, really nice mechanic. I’m looking forward to that when (1:30:33) Kelly: Yes. (1:30:36) Kelly: I think that’ll update your house too maybe. (1:30:37) Al: they implement that. And there’s a separate thing. There’s upgrading your house and there’s (1:30:41) Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah. No, I was talking more about tilling the soil (1:30:43) Al: there’s expanding your farm in two separate ones. So what you’re talking about is yes so. (1:30:48) Kelly: and the actual farm plot that you can farm in. (1:30:50) Al: So the way that’s yes, so the way the stardew works, this is where we’re comparing it to (1:30:54) Al: stardew, right, is you have land that you’re able to farm on and land you’re not able to (1:30:59) Al: and the land you farm on, you use the whole and then you can plant seed. In in in fields (1:31:06) Al: of mystery, you almost entirely just have land that you can farm on. There’s a few exceptions (1:31:15) Al: like you can’t do it too close to your house, et cetera. But you have plots of land that (1:31:21) Al: you can hoe and you have plots of land that you can’t hoe, but you can turn it into plot (1:31:27) Al: land that you can or can’t hold using this. (1:31:29) Kelly: Mm hmm. (1:31:29) Al: The spade, so you default to, I think it’s like a nine by nine square is the default, something like that, but you can then use the shovel to change which plots you can and can’t farm on and you’re like, oh, well, why wouldn’t you just be able to do it on all of it? (1:31:45) Al: It’s actually really nice because you can say these are the plots of land I’m allowed to farm on, and then if you use the hole to use a like a charged attack to do a large area, it will only hold the areas you’ve allowed it to do. (1:31:59) Al: So you can do a nice pattern, which I like to do because I like to have them like bunched together in specific ways, because it has to make sense. (1:32:11) Al: And it means you’re not going to accidentally plough some land that you don’t want to be ploughed, which is really nice. I agree. (1:32:16) Kelly: Yup. Yup. You can make cute designs for your farm. (1:32:21) Al: I wouldn’t say mine was a cute design, I would just say it makes logical sense. (1:32:24) Kelly: Tomato, tomato. (1:32:27) Al: » Thank you, Matt. (1:32:28) Al: » [LAUGH] (1:32:29) Al: » So. (1:32:30) Al: That’s fine. (1:32:30) Kelly: Okay, that’s, I’m done now. That’s, that’s the actual end of my notes for farming. (1:32:31) Al: Next, we have ranching, which I feel like my comments on this are going to be almost (1:32:39) Al: exactly the same as farming, which is, what is there is nice, but it needs automation. (1:32:44) Kelly: Yes, I will say. (1:32:48) Kelly: So I actually didn’t get a chance to play the update. (1:32:50) Kelly: However, the addition of the bell that. (1:32:55) Al: Or was that not in the original version? (1:32:57) Kelly: No, that was consuming my time also, which is so silly (1:32:59) Al: OK, so I. (1:33:02) Kelly: because it sounds like nothing. (1:33:02) Al: How did it how did it work before? (1:33:04) Al: Did you have to like manually tell each animal to go in or out? (1:33:08) Kelly: You had to do it by each barn and I thought it was no, no. (1:33:11) Al: Oh, you think you still have to do that, as there are? (1:33:13) Al: Oh, there’s a bit. Oh, oh, here we go. (1:33:14) Kelly: Oh, they said it’s a big Bell. (1:33:15) Al: There’s a big bell item which calls in out. (1:33:18) Al: Oh, how do you get that? (1:33:19) Al: No, I’m putting. (1:33:20) Al: I have one complaint about the bales on the the barns is that. (1:33:25) Al: Your animals will never go back to bed unless you tell them to, which I don’t like because. (1:33:30) Kelly: yeah you can’t just leave the door open like stardew and then have them (1:33:33) Al: Yeah, which I’m not, because if the weather’s nice the next day, you can, I think, (1:33:39) Al: and they won’t have any negative consequences, which is weird. (1:33:40) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (1:33:42) Al: But if the weather’s bad the next day, they’ll be grumpy at you. (1:33:46) Al: And I’d like them to go to bed themselves, please. (1:33:48) Al: They are animals, they’re not amoeba, they know where their bed is. (1:33:52) Kelly: Yeah, yeah. (1:33:53) Al: Why are they not going to their bed? (1:33:56) Al: We’ll do and it’s like, oh, it’s not realistic. (1:33:59) Al: I don’t care. (1:34:01) Al: Make them go to bed, please. (1:34:02) Kelly: It’s, it’s, especially. Yeah. Yes. I never remember half the time I’m running home from the mines. (1:34:02) Al: It’s fine. (1:34:03) Al: I’m totally fine with having to manually call them out in the morning. (1:34:06) Al: That’s fine. (1:34:07) Al: But let them go to bed themselves because I never remember. (1:34:15) Al: Exactly. (1:34:16) Al: It’s like, it’s half past one. (1:34:16) Kelly: Racing the clock. Yeah. (1:34:18) Al: It’s half past one. (1:34:19) Al: You’re about to fall asleep. (1:34:20) Al: You don’t have time to go and tell you. (1:34:21) Al: Yeah, agreed. (1:34:21) Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. No. Yeah. It’s like I am holding down that button to run as fast as I possibly can. And it is not doing anything but then all of a sudden the animals are still out and I’m like do I do I pass it. (1:34:22) Al: Yep. (1:34:32) Kelly: I don’t like that. So seeing that there’s one big bell to at least ring I could put that like right in front of my house and then just hit that hopefully. (1:34:44) Al: Oh, the big bell, it’s a tier four skill on ranching, which I have not unlocked, sadly yet. (1:34:52) Al: What’s my ranching at? (1:34:54) Al: I am at 30, so I’ve still got quite a bit to go for that, sadly. (1:34:57) Kelly: Oh, no, you know what? 30 was all I could do the last time I played, so I lied. (1:35:04) Kelly: You’re right. (1:35:07) Al: But no, that’s a nice update. (1:35:07) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (1:35:09) Al: Hopefully I’ll get to that, but I mean, I won’t be getting to it until 1.0, because I’ve (1:35:14) Al: decided I’m not playing any more of this game until 1.0, not because I’m not enjoying it, (1:35:16) Kelly: Yeah, no, that’s… exactly. (1:35:17) Al: but because I’m enjoying it and I want to play it, but there’s no more to play. (1:35:21) Kelly: Exactly, and I don’t want to burn myself out on it and then have the game come out and not want to play it. (1:35:26) Al: So ranching is pretty much like Stardew, right, like you have your animals, they go in specific (1:35:33) Al: buildings, you unlock them in the same way as you do in Stardew, you have to give them food (1:35:37) Al: and you don’t have to pet them, but obviously their friendship increases better if you do it. (1:35:43) Al: I will say, I feel like friendship increases so slowly with the animals. (1:35:48) Kelly: Uh, well, so I was doing the hand feeding also. (1:35:51) Al: Even doing the hand feeding, it still feels like I’m in year two and I have no animals. (1:35:52) Kelly: Yeah, it goes really slow. (1:35:56) Al: Do animals have two hearts? (1:35:58) Kelly: Oh, I have a bunch. (1:35:59) Kelly: I’ve been breeding animals. (1:36:01) Kelly: That’s what I started doing grub. (1:36:02) Al: Does that make it go faster? If you breathe them, do they start off higher? (1:36:07) Kelly: No, but you can’t breed them until they hit, I think two hearts. (1:36:09) Al: Oh, OK, OK, OK, OK. I just feel like it’s so slow. (1:36:11) Kelly: So I was like, and like the deluxe stuff doesn’t necessarily increase. (1:36:18) Kelly: The friendship anymore. (1:36:19) Al: Yeah, I just I feel like if I feel like with Stardew, if I do everything right, (1:36:25) Al: I can get them to max in a year, max hearts in a year. (1:36:29) Al: Whereas I feel like in this, I’m not even at two hearts and there’s ten hearts. (1:36:33) Kelly: Do you have the the toys outside because I definitely have a bunch of animals that are (1:36:34) Al: Right. Like it just feels so slow. (1:36:36) Al: I have now. (1:36:39) Al: Yeah, I mean, you are you are half a year later than me, so. (1:36:40) Kelly: higher up. Oh yeah yeah but I have bologna my cow is at uh can I read uh seven hearts. (1:36:50) Al: 7Hearts, I must be doing something wrong. (1:36:54) Kelly: I think you might be because most of my creatures are at at least four hearts because I’ve also (1:37:00) Kelly: been selling them as I breed them to make me. (1:37:03) Kelly: I think I need more room because I don’t want to deal with more animals. (1:37:06) Al: So to be fair, most of mine are reasonably new. (1:37:09) Al: I when I got into all the money, I decided to like buy a whole bunch of animals. (1:37:13) Kelly: Yeah, but even my my capybarra was pretty new and that’s a three already and they’re (1:37:15) Al: So I have like, was that 16 animals now? (1:37:19) Al: But only only. (1:37:23) Al: Yeah, see, I have one at three and I have to afford it too. (1:37:28) Al: And they are all my first animals that I bought. (1:37:31) Al: So I don’t know. (1:37:32) Al: I just need to maybe have not been in the effort. (1:37:34) Al: I don’t know. (1:37:36) Kelly: - Yeah, I think the hand feeding helps. (1:37:36) Al: It does, and I don’t do that every time because that’s just so much effort. (1:37:42) Al: Like, this is the thing. (1:37:42) Kelly: See, I don’t have as big of a farm (1:37:44) Kelly: so I can put in the effort to the ranching. (1:37:45) Al: Yeah, I just, I want more automation there, you know. (1:37:49) Kelly: That’s the compromise though, yeah. (1:37:51) Kelly: No, they both need an automation. (1:37:51) Al: Yeah, I know. (1:37:54) Kelly: ‘Cause like even just going into milk everybody (1:37:57) Kelly: and going in, yes. (1:37:58) Al: Although I do like that you don’t actually have to milk them. (1:38:02) Al: So you in Stardew, you have to go around and individually milk them. (1:38:06) Al: You go into a barn and the milk is just (1:38:09) Al: lying on the floor, which feels a little bit unsanitary. (1:38:12) Al: But you know what? (1:38:14) Al: I think it’s a good improvement in in game fun, shall we say. (1:38:18) Kelly: self milking cows. Oh, you know, you know what, the main reason I do the hand feeding also is (1:38:21) Al: Yeah, exactly. (1:38:25) Kelly: to get those little berries. No, I got gold milk and gold butter and (1:38:27) Al: Oh, the J– Yeah. (1:38:28) Al: But, I mean, that mostly just gets you pats, doesn’t it? (1:38:35) Kelly: and, uh, (1:38:36) Al: But, like, getting– Yeah, OK, you can get those, but, like, it’s not– (1:38:39) Al: You don’t get much of them, and it doesn’t feel like the effort you put in is worth it for that. (1:38:44) Kelly: Mm, yeah, I like the gamble of it. (1:38:46) Kelly: I think that’s really what draws me. (1:38:47) Al: When I could be doing anything else instead. (1:38:50) Kelly: Yeah, yeah. (1:38:52) Kelly: Look, I like a little gamble, OK? (1:38:55) Kelly: A little random generated content to give to me. (1:38:58) Al: Fair, I like the selection of animals. (1:39:03) Al: I love they’ve got capybaras, that’s a good addition. (1:39:03) Kelly: Yes, yes. (1:39:06) Kelly: The colors from the breeding are incredible. (1:39:07) Al: Yep, that’s the other thing. (1:39:09) Al: Yeah, so is it, I’ve not done any breeding, but I presume how it works is, (1:39:14) Al: so you’ve got, I have three colors unlocked to buy. (1:39:16) Kelly: Yeah. So like right now, if I remember correctly, yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:39:17) Al: And presumably the other ones unlock with breeding, is that correct? (1:39:21) Al: But then once you’ve unlocked one, you can then buy more of it from the shop. (1:39:26) Al: Cool. That makes sense because they listed there. (1:39:28) Al: Whereas there are three colors that are unlisted for each of the animals. (1:39:33) Kelly: And then the colors have like tiers. So it’s like the ones that you can initially buy in the shop (1:39:33) Al: Yeah. (1:39:36) Kelly: are tier one. And then you can get, you start getting tier twos from breeding the tier ones, (1:39:42) Kelly: and you can breed the tier ones with the tier twos, and you can potentially get tier threes, (1:39:46) Kelly: or more tier twos. Yeah, I was mostly using this to fill my time while I was like getting, (1:39:48) Al: Maybe I’ll get more into that when we get sprinklers, you know. (1:39:55) Kelly: I think, to the last few levels of the mines. But I will say the colors are really cute, (1:40:01) Kelly: and I really like all the different options. They had a lot of fun with that, which I think (1:40:06) Kelly: they kill stardew in because they crush stardew in the colors. (1:40:08) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean the especially the brain cow looks like a (1:40:16) Kelly: They crush stardew in the looks of the animals. The animals are so cute. (1:40:20) Kelly: Stardew could never. You got to get a mod to get stardew cute. (1:40:22) Al: big. So I think, I think, I think that the stardew chickens are cute, but the cows are not. (1:40:28) Kelly: They are cute. They are not, and the pigs are not. (1:40:32) Al: The pigs are not, but are pigs meant to be cute? Also, I don’t think this game has pigs. (1:40:35) Kelly: They can be. No, I think they chose capybaras instead. Yeah. (1:40:41) Al: Which, fair. Yeah, I don’t have my cap and berries growing up yet. What did they give you? (1:40:43) Kelly: - Yeah. (1:40:46) Kelly: » Hair, I think. (1:40:52) Al: Of like, that your capybara is just wandering along, moulting, (1:40:55) Al: and you’re just gathering up the hair after it. (1:40:57) Kelly: » Yeah, I think they give you hair. (1:41:00) Al: I love a good pile of hair. Who wants my capybara hair? (1:41:06) Kelly: » You make a copy of paint brushes and sell them for insane amounts of money. (1:41:11) Kelly: I don’t actually know. (1:41:13) Kelly: I don’t remember, mine are big enough though, let me see. (1:41:16) Kelly: I have to have something. (1:41:18) Kelly: Yeah, that’s probably better cuz I don’t remember what boxes hold what right now. (1:41:22) Al: It is here. (1:41:24) Kelly: Okay. (1:41:25) Al: Stiff hairs dropped from the coat of a capybara used in a variety of crafting recipes. (1:41:30) Kelly: Okay, but yeah, no, I really like their animals. (1:41:35) Kelly: I think those little toys that they get for outside are so cute. (1:41:38) Kelly: And then I have like 1000 screenshots of all my different animals playing together. (1:41:42) Al: Yeah, I literally only bought the toys like spring, because there was no point in buying them in winter, right? (1:41:47) Kelly: Yeah, yeah. (1:41:49) Al: And that winter was when I had the money. So I just bought them on the first day of spring. (1:41:54) Al: And I’m only on day two of spring year two. So again, something for 1.0. (1:41:56) Kelly: Yeah, that makes sense. But like little things. Yeah. (1:42:02) Al: Yeah, so I agree. I think in general, it’s an improvement on other farming games in general, (1:42:10) Al: But it needs it needs some ottomies (1:42:12) Al: I want a thing to automatically dispense food because yes, you’re it might be better to do it manually (1:42:17) Al: But I would like the option not to (1:42:18) Kelly: Oh, no, absolutely. I agree, because I have food in the chest. If I forget to go and refill it or (1:42:23) Al: Yep (1:42:24) Kelly: hand feed them, then what they starve? (1:42:25) Al: They starve exactly (1:42:28) Al: Let’s talk about fishing quickly because that shouldn’t take too long (1:42:33) Al: a pretty simple mini-game you see shadows in the water you throw your you (1:42:36) Kelly: - Mm-hmm. (1:42:40) Al: Through you cast your rod (1:42:42) Al: and into the water and an exclamation mark comes up and you you do it (1:42:48) Al: I like how they show the the fish shadows and you have to like target the fish shadows. I think that’s quite cool (1:42:53) Kelly: Yes, yes. (1:42:54) Al: Addition, I think I would prefer that over a more complicated catching minigames (1:43:00) Kelly: - I thought it was a nice little simple fishing minigame. (1:43:04) Kelly: It wasn’t anything crazy, you know? (1:43:06) Al: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. So, like, I would prefer having to find the shadows and aim for them (1:43:07) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:43:13) Al: over having a more complicated minigame for catching them. (1:43:13) Kelly: Oh, I see, I see. (1:43:17) Kelly: Yeah, I think it’s a different, I like, (1:43:21) Kelly: I know this is kind of controversial, (1:43:22) Kelly: but I like Stardew fishing, so. (1:43:24) Al: I wouldn’t say I like it, but I wouldn’t say I hate it. (1:43:26) Kelly: But I do like this, I do like this mechanic too, (1:43:31) Kelly: but I like to go around for the fish. (1:43:32) Al: Yeah, yeah, especially with like the different shadow sizes and stuff like that. (1:43:32) Kelly: And I think that’s fun, and I think it’s, (1:43:35) Kelly: it reminds me of Animal Crossing in that aspect. (1:43:41) Kelly: Yeah, so it’s like, oh, if I’m missing (1:43:43) Al: There’s a huge one. (1:43:44) Kelly: a certain type of fish, I know to go look (1:43:45) Al: Yeah, exactly. (1:43:46) Kelly: for that size fish. (1:43:50) Kelly: And yeah, and then you get the big ones, (1:43:51) Kelly: and then you could go diving too, which is cool. (1:43:54) Kelly: And you can go swimming in the water. (1:43:54) Al: Yeah, yeah, so that means it’s time to talk about this then. (1:43:58) Al: So, yeah, you can you can swim in all the water, basically, that exists. (1:44:00) Kelly: Yeah, which is cool cuz you could just like go random places. (1:44:05) Al: It’s super cool. (1:44:06) Al: I will say one complaint I do have is so just I’ve talked about the mist mare (1:44:11) Al: previously, this is like a mythical horse that you get at some point, (1:44:16) Al: which, by the way, is so much better than just riding a normal horse because it (1:44:19) Al: spawns when you want it. (1:44:20) Kelly: Oh, so I didn’t get to try the, I guess we should have talked about that with the (1:44:23) Kelly: ranching, but I didn’t get to try riding on the animals yet, but that’s. (1:44:24) Al: So, you’re not riding on the animals, you’re riding on the mist mare and you can make it (1:44:31) Al: look like your animals. So, have you had the mist mare at all? (1:44:32) Kelly: Oh, okay. (1:44:36) Kelly: No, I meant to play last week and I did not get a chance. (1:44:38) Al: Cool. That’s fine. No, I think it existed in the 1.0. So, near the cave, there’s like (1:44:46) Al: a horse statue. After the day that there’s the earthquake, you go to the mist mare statue, (1:44:54) Al: horse statue, and you can, once you’ve got to a certain level, you can unlock the mist (1:44:58) Al: mare, which is a mythical horse, that you press a button and it spawns with you on top (1:45:04) Al: of it. And then you press a button again and it spawns away. (1:45:06) Kelly: No, I think I don’t think that was I think that was part of the update because I talked to that statue. (1:45:11) Al: I don’t think so, because I’m pretty sure I had it before I had the update. It’s hard (1:45:20) Kelly: It is. Maybe I just, maybe I just missed it. I thought I talked to all the statues. I mean, (1:45:24) Kelly: I definitely could have missed a statue, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:45:26) Al: Anyway, it doesn’t matter. The point is, it is, yeah, it’s a mythical horse. I like this (1:45:32) Al: over like the normal way of like you get a horse and then you ride it because you always (1:45:36) Al: have to know where the horse is, whereas this is just, no, your horse just appears when (1:45:36) Kelly: Yeah, also there’s no, I guess that like, I don’t know if you do this, but I stupidly (1:45:45) Kelly: feel guilty if I like, you know, leave my horse behind, even though it’s magically going (1:45:46) Al: Mm, yeah. Leave it somewhere. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. For sure. (1:45:51) Kelly: to respond back at home. (1:45:54) Al: But the reason I bring up the mist mayor is because the mist mayor can’t go in water. (1:46:00) Kelly: Ah, okay. Yeah. (1:46:01) Al: And that is frustrating me a little bit because it’s quicker to go through the water sometimes (1:46:05) Al: than go and find the bridge, but it’s quicker to be on the mist mayor. And so it’s like, (1:46:10) Al: do you go in the mist mayor and go round the bridge or do you come off the mist mayor, (1:46:13) Al: weed through the water and then go back on the mist mirror. (1:46:16) Kelly: I see. Yeah, because I’ve done a lot of jumping in the water. (1:46:16) Al: You know, the mist mirror can jump and it can jump over obstacles. (1:46:23) Al: I think it can jump over bigger obstacles than you can and it can jump (1:46:26) Al: down the cliffs and everything. (1:46:27) Al: It just can’t go through the water. (1:46:28) Kelly: That’s annoying. It’s a horse. I mean, it’s not a horse, but it’s a mystical horse. Can it? (1:46:30) Al: Very annoying. (1:46:33) Al: Exactly, exactly. (1:46:34) Kelly: Horses go in water all the time. (1:46:36) Al: Just make it jump over the water if you don’t want it to go in the water, right? (1:46:39) Al: Just make it do a jump over the water, right? (1:46:39) Kelly: That too. (1:46:41) Al: It’s mythical horse. (1:46:42) Al: It can do what it wants. (1:46:43) Kelly: That too. (1:46:43) Al: And so, yeah, so but. (1:46:46) Al: Back to fishing, swimming. (1:46:48) Al: So you can swim in any water, and then there’s like little spots that show as diving spots, (1:46:52) Al: and then you press on them and you get a thing. (1:46:54) Al: And it’s like, you know, there’s like clams and seaweed and stuff like that, which is fun. (1:46:59) Al: But it also means that there’s some areas that you can get to by swimming (1:47:03) Al: that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to. (1:47:04) Kelly: Yeah (1:47:05) Al: There’s like an island you can get to that you have to swim to. (1:47:07) Kelly: Yeah, I do wish also that you could like jump onto those cliffs that are like out in the water (1:47:13) Kelly: So you could like fish from them. I think that would be cool (1:47:14) Al: I agree. Stones as well. I tried to jump up onto the stones to fish from there because there’s like (1:47:17) Kelly: Yeah, me too (1:47:20) Al: some points where you just can’t get them because you can’t get close enough to the fish shadows. (1:47:24) Kelly: They’re not close enough. Yeah. Yeah, and it’s like, okay (1:47:27) Kelly: Am I supposed to be patient and hope that they eventually come closer to me because sometimes they will but like what are the odds? (1:47:32) Kelly: of that actually happening. (1:47:34) Kelly: I don’t know. (1:47:37) Al: One complaint I have about fishing is that I get more annoyed with getting rubbish when you’re (1:47:43) Al: fishing at a fish shadow, because why does the rubbish look like a fish? I don’t understand. (1:47:46) Kelly: Oh, yes. Yes. (1:47:49) Al: However, thankfully, one of the upgrades for fishing is lowering the chance of getting rubbish, (1:47:55) Al: which is a good - I like that. It’s a very - and it does seem like a significant one, (1:47:59) Al: like I hardly ever get rubbish now, which is good. So it kind of like - it was one of those (1:48:00) Kelly: It does. It made a big difference, I think. (1:48:05) Al: things where I was like, right, this is something I’m going to (1:48:07) Al: complain about. (1:48:08) Al: And then later on I was like, I’m not going to complain about it as much anymore, you (1:48:10) Kelly: you know what actually it’s not so bad yeah no that is that is a good point um (1:48:12) Al: know. (1:48:13) Al: Yeah. (1:48:14) Al: Yeah. (1:48:15) Al: Yeah. (1:48:22) Kelly: I think that made a big difference because I hate that I hate catching the garbage (1:48:26) Al: It’s just so frustrating, so anticlimactic. (1:48:29) Kelly: yeah and it’s not even like stardew where you like have the recycling bins things the recycling (1:48:36) Kelly: machines whatever it is so you like actually get something out of your garbage but like (1:48:41) Kelly: no I don’t want to catch garbage just give me the fish (1:48:44) Al: All right, mining. (1:48:47) Kelly: mining (1:48:47) Al: So I guess the actual act of mining is pretty standard, right? (1:48:52) Al: You’ve got your axe. (1:48:53) Al: It does some stuff. (1:48:55) Al: And the mines are a little bit similar and a little bit different. (1:49:01) Al: So they’re similar in that, like, you know, you’ve got levels and you go down, you break (1:49:05) Al: rocks to find the ladder to go down. (1:49:06) Al: And then every five levels, you’ve got the lift, you know, that’s kind of standard stuff. (1:49:09) Kelly: Mm hmm. Yeah, like you’re themed. Yeah. (1:49:11) Al: there’s monsters in… yeah. (1:49:14) Al: And there’s monsters in there and you have to attack them, and I will say I quite like (1:49:19) Al: the design of the monsters. (1:49:20) Al: They’re quite fun. (1:49:21) Al: There’s like different ones. (1:49:22) Al: Like there’s a, there’s like one that’s designed like a miner’s light and it will electrocute (1:49:27) Al: you if you hit it at certain points. (1:49:29) Al: Like that’s quite fun. (1:49:30) Al: Different ways of thinking about things is one that’s like a, you, if you hit it with (1:49:34) Al: your sword, it will only do one damage, but if you hit back the projectile that it’s throwing (1:49:38) Kelly: Oh my god. Yes. (1:49:38) Al: at you, it will do proper damage. (1:49:40) Al: That’s really fun. Different ways of having to fight them is quite fun. (1:49:44) Al: And there’s also like, there’s different, exactly. And there’s different, so like you (1:49:44) Kelly: It is. I think it’s a fun spin on like a very simple concept. (1:49:51) Kelly: Because like they didn’t overly complicate it, but they made it so that you have to like, (1:49:54) Kelly: you know, learn how to handle each monster kind of differently. (1:49:58) Al: can, you can jump and ground pound and that’ll do damage as well, which is really, really nice (1:50:02) Kelly: Oh, I love that. (1:50:04) Al: addition, especially as, yeah, yeah, yeah, to flip them over and then attack them. But that is (1:50:05) Kelly: And you got to do it for the mushrooms to… (1:50:11) Al: It’s especially good because the one thing that’s (1:50:14) Al: compared to others is there are like caverns that you have to jump over in some on some of the levels (1:50:20) Al: Which means that if you see something across the cavern (1:50:22) Al: If you didn’t have the ground pound you would jump over and have to immediately hit it, which is really hard (1:50:28) Al: Whereas this way you can jump over and ground pound and attack them as you get over like immediately (1:50:33) Al: It’s that’s really really fun addition (1:50:35) Kelly: Yeah, no, I fully agree, and like you said I think the the monster designs are really cool like even even the slimes (1:50:42) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. (1:50:43) Kelly: They’re like they have different (1:50:45) Kelly: characters like personalities (1:50:48) Kelly: So it’s just like little things like that which I think are very fun (1:50:51) Kelly: And like it makes you employ a little more strategy than just like you know button mashing through the mines (1:50:59) Al: The other thing that’s different about this mine is that when you get to, I think it’s (1:51:03) Al: every 20 levels, you have a shrine that you need to unlock to get to the next level, and (1:51:11) Al: that requires you giving four items that you can find on the previous 20 levels. (1:51:16) Kelly: Yeah, I got so mad the first time because I had one of the items and I gave it to the museum. And then it took me forever. (1:51:20) Al: Yeah. (1:51:24) Al: Some of them could be doing with upping their spawn rate a little bit. (1:51:28) Kelly: Yeah, I was like on pages like looking to see if I was doing something wrong, like, (1:51:30) Al: Yeah, especially the insects. (1:51:32) Kelly: yes, that’s what it was. One of them was an insect, I think, for one of the NPCs, actually, too. (1:51:33) Al: The insects I found very hard to find. (1:51:37) Al: Yeah, super. (1:51:40) Kelly: Like, I had one, gave it to the museum, and then never saw the other one for ages again. (1:51:41) Al: Oh, no. (1:51:44) Al: Super hard to find, but it’s a fun concept, certainly. (1:51:48) Kelly: Yeah. (1:51:48) Al: I enjoy that. (1:51:49) Al: It’s like, if you’ve been keeping everything, you will immediately have all the stuff. (1:51:54) Al: If you’ve not, it gives you an opportunity to go back and complete things. (1:51:59) Al: That’s like, you know, get more stuff and it means that it’s not just about brute forcing your way through, you actually have to kind of spend some time in the mines, rather than just going as quick as you can down it. (1:52:11) Al: I think that’s quite fun. (1:52:12) Kelly: - Yeah, which like, I love going in the mines normally. (1:52:16) Kelly: I actually, I have a complaint after this, (1:52:16) Al: Agreed. (1:52:16) Al: Me too. (1:52:17) Al: Mm-hmm. (1:52:18) Kelly: I will talk about. (1:52:21) Kelly: So like, I have no problem going back. (1:52:23) Kelly: I think I just started getting frustrated (1:52:25) Kelly: when I had spent numerous days trying to find something (1:52:29) Kelly: and like having no luck whatsoever. (1:52:31) Al: Yeah, that’s the thing. I think they should up the spawn rate of the ones that you require, (1:52:35) Al: but other than that, it’s fine. Yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly. The other issue is the fish, (1:52:36) Kelly: ‘Cause it’s hard to juggle it too. (1:52:38) Kelly: It’s like, oh, if I did this in spring, (1:52:40) Kelly: I don’t have a lot of mining days in spring. (1:52:42) Kelly: Like that’s. (1:52:43) Kelly: Yeah. (1:52:44) Kelly: Yeah. (1:52:45) Kelly: Yeah. (1:52:46) Kelly: Yeah. (1:52:47) Al: because the spawn rate of fish full stop is really low. So like, especially in the first (1:52:47) Kelly: Yeah. (1:52:51) Al: 20 levels, even finding a pond is hard. And then once you’ve found a pond, there will (1:52:56) Al: be one fish in it, and it’s probably not the fish you want, and then they’re probably (1:53:01) Al: going to spawn more fish. So you have to go to another level to find more fish. So (1:53:02) Kelly: - Yep. (1:53:06) Kelly: Yep, yep, yep. (1:53:08) Al: they need some balancing there, but the concept is fun. I think that’s good. (1:53:14) Kelly: Yeah. And I think the other thing with the fish too, just to go off of that is like, (1:53:18) Kelly: I wasn’t always bringing my fishing rod into the mines, just so I could have another empty space. (1:53:23) Al: Yeah, just another reason to have the tool bag instead of the, go for it. (1:53:24) Kelly: So like, especially before I finished upgrading my bag space, it’s like, well, (1:53:31) Kelly: yeah. Okay, so my one complaint with mining, and I think this is just an overall game complaint, (1:53:38) Kelly: honestly, is the management of time. I. (1:53:44) Kelly: Think these days, like the days feel shorter, or it feels like I have less time (1:53:50) Kelly: and I’m getting less things done than I would in Stardew, even though the game goes till 2 a.m. (1:53:57) Al: Interesting, so. (1:53:59) Kelly: And I’m not the only one who thinks this. I’ve seen other people online complaining about this (1:54:03) Kelly: and asking the devs to like do something about it. So it makes mining harder. (1:54:03) Al: Yeah. (1:54:05) Al: So it looks like it’s only, so it looks like it’s only two minutes shorter than Stardew, (1:54:12) Al: but someone’s pointing out the map is much bigger. (1:54:14) Kelly: because that’s the issue is like the traveling which I’m hoping the mount and like you know (1:54:18) Al: Yeah, it does make things, it does make things much faster. (1:54:19) Kelly: having an animal to ride but it’s like also like god forbid I plan on a mining day get (1:54:27) Kelly: everything done get to the mines and then realize I forgot something or I have something (1:54:31) Kelly: in my bag like I have to go back to the house that’s it the day’s over I’m not mining that (1:54:36) Kelly: day anymore like that’s too much time wasted on other things so that is that is my biggest (1:54:37) Al: Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s just the same. I think it’s just the same sort of thing we’re saying (1:54:45) Al: for lots of things. It’s fun, but there’s a few balancing things they need to do, (1:54:49) Kelly: Yeah. And like, yes, exactly. I don’t want to be limited to, oh, I’m barely making it (1:54:50) Al: and we want more of it. Like, I want to go further down the mines, please. (1:55:00) Kelly: through five levels of minds, replaying through the minds, you know what I mean? Like, and then (1:55:05) Al: Yes, just to make it clear, as we say lots of times on this podcast, we’re complaining (1:55:05) Kelly: racing home, like, which, and also like, this is a complaint that has not stopped me from putting (1:55:10) Kelly: a hundred hours into the game. Or I don’t think it’s that much, but like, that’s what Steam says. (1:55:19) Al: because we enjoy the game. We would not put the amount of time, like when I don’t enjoy (1:55:20) Kelly: Yes. » [LAUGH] (1:55:25) Al: a game, I make it very clear on the podcast, because I’ve probably put in, like there are (1:55:26) Kelly: » Yeah, absolutely. (1:55:29) Al: some games I put in five hours, not because I don’t put in the efforts, it’s just so hard. (1:55:34) Kelly: And, like, I’ve talked about games on here that, like, I did not enjoy, so I will definitely (1:55:35) Al: Because I’m just not enjoying it. (1:55:37) Al: Yep. (1:55:41) Kelly: be vocal about that. But, like, yeah. This is not a complaint that is ending the game (1:55:46) Kelly: for me. This is just – I’m hoping that an update will fix it. It seems like they’re (1:55:50) Al: Yeah, which you probably will because there’s a lot a lot they’re planning on (1:55:55) Al: doing anyway, exactly like it only it came out in August, I think. (1:55:55) Kelly: doing a lot. Yeah, exactly. So. (1:55:59) Al: And we’ve had one big update since then. (1:56:01) Al: So, you know, hopefully there’s lots more to come. (1:56:04) Al: The other mechanics thing to talk about is (1:56:08) Al: what I’ve described as crafting slash blacksmithing slash milling. (1:56:12) Al: So crafting is not done like Stardew. (1:56:16) Al: done a crafting table, but I guess it’s very similar. (1:56:22) Al: What I find interesting is that it takes time to do stuff, so things will take 10 minutes (1:56:26) Al: or 30 minutes of in-game time, and you don’t have to wait for that time. It just takes (1:56:32) Al: up that time. I think that’s interesting. It’s funny because you can decrease the amount (1:56:39) Al: of crafting time. You can start off by decreasing it by 10 and then 20 minutes. I assume there’s (1:56:42) Kelly: Yes. (1:56:45) Al: a 30-minute one as well. (1:56:46) Kelly: Which is nice because yes, at a certain point, you will get to the point where certain certain crafting milling blacksmithing doesn’t cost you anything. (1:56:54) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah, so that’s yeah, so that’s the fun thing. (1:56:58) Al: You can do like 50 of something and it takes zero time, which is very funny. (1:57:03) Al: I haven’t noticed being able to decrease the time for the mill. (1:57:06) Kelly: Maybe I was just clumping that in. (1:57:08) Al: I know I know you because I wrote it together, (1:57:10) Al: but I was wondering, have you seen one because I I really want one because the (1:57:15) Al: mill is used for animal feed, but it’s also it’s also used for for some reason, (1:57:18) Kelly: Yeah, the mill pisses me off. (1:57:22) Al: mayonnaise, cheese and butter. (1:57:24) Al: using may a mill a windmill to make mayonnaise and cheese and butter I don’t care it doesn’t (1:57:31) Al: matter but I haven’t found a way to decrease that time and it takes 20 minutes to do a mayonnaise (1:57:32) Kelly: I don’t… Let me go, let me go double check. Yeah, no, that one pisses me off because you really have to make a decision on like, oh, I have enough spare time in this day to like, do one item. (1:57:36) Al: I have a lot of I have a lot of chickens (1:57:46) Al: Yeah, I do, I do like it compared to the like mayonnaise machines and stuff like that, because (1:57:56) Kelly: Oh, no, I like those because they’re passive and I could just… (1:57:57) Al: no, so I understand that they’re passive, but I like not having the machines on my ground, (1:58:06) Al: like wasting space on my farm. And, and I don’t like managing them, right? Like, I don’t (1:58:08) Kelly: Oh no, I like that too. (1:58:11) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (1:58:12) Al: like going, Oh, I’m going to go put in five eggs and then come (1:58:16) Al: back later and put in another five eggs. (1:58:17) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (1:58:18) Al: What I really like about the meal, and the only complaint I have is the time. (1:58:22) Al: Because if you could decrease it by 20 minutes, then mayo and butter and cheese (1:58:26) Al: wouldn’t take any time and you could just go in there and do 50 all at once. (1:58:28) Kelly: Yeah (1:58:30) Al: And that just is so much better. (1:58:32) Kelly: Yeah, like I have 78 milks right now (1:58:35) Al: Yeah, it takes so long. (1:58:37) Kelly: Yeah, no, it doesn’t decrease that (1:58:40) Kelly: Yeah, so it’s like and like I’m not doing I don’t want to spend more than an hour doing this in game time (1:58:44) Kelly: when like we just said there’s (1:58:47) Kelly: Kind of like an issue with the time balancing you called me out on the right thing. There is no milling update, unfortunately (1:58:50) Al: OK, no, no, that’s I wasn’t calling. (1:58:55) Al: I was just I was wanting to see it, because if you found one, I want to know what it is. (1:58:55) Kelly: No, no (1:58:58) Kelly: Yeah, that one that one truly makes me annoyed because I’m like you can’t do you can’t do the bird the bird fruit the (1:59:02) Al: Yeah. (1:59:06) Kelly: ranch food fast either (1:59:08) Al: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:59:10) Kelly: And like I have four barns right now like what do you mean I can do six of them are you kidding me (1:59:10) Al: Wild. (1:59:15) Al: Yeah, yeah, I have 16 cows. (1:59:18) Al: my word I can’t do (1:59:20) Al: 16 cheese every day (1:59:23) Kelly: Yeah, that’s crazy (1:59:26) Al: the other thing is the blacksmithing which is different from the crafting (1:59:30) Al: in so much as you so this is instead of like (1:59:33) Al: you know the furnaces and stuff like that in stardew (1:59:36) Al: um I quite like this as well in so there’s two things you can do with (1:59:41) Al: this one is obviously making like bars of copper and silver and stuff (1:59:45) Al: like that and the other one is upgrading your tools you can upgrade your tools (1:59:48) Al: with this or… (1:59:50) Al: you can buy the upgraded tools. (1:59:53) Al: I like that there’s options there. (1:59:56) Al: And I was initially confused because I thought blacksmithing cost you money to (2:00:01) Al: do because it shows a cost at the top right. (2:00:05) Al: But I realized later on, that’s just how much the item (2:00:09) Al: sell, the sell price for the item was, because I was looking at it going, (2:00:12) Al: it cost me 110 to make a copper bar and then it cost me 480 to make a copper ax. (2:00:18) Kelly: Yeah (2:00:18) Al: So I’m doing four copper bars cost me… (2:00:20) Al: 440 pounds and then it’s basically it was like it is 20 pounds cheaper to buy it than to make it. (2:00:21) Kelly: The thousand dollars (2:00:29) Al: That makes no sense. (2:00:30) Kelly: Yeah, yeah (2:00:31) Al: But it turns out that was just the sale price. (2:00:32) Al: So that’s fine. (2:00:33) Al: But I like that you can do this. (2:00:34) Al: You can either do no cost, put in the work to upgrade your tools, or you can just pay to get a new tool. (2:00:43) Al: I like that. (2:00:43) Al: That’s quite a fun, fun way of doing it. (2:00:46) Kelly: Yeah, I agree. I agree. I also did use the blacksmithing to make armor and then sell (2:00:52) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s also fun, yep. (2:00:52) Kelly: it early on in the game when I just had for extra money. That was great. Because it’s (2:00:59) Al: And again, I like… (2:01:01) Kelly: unlike milling, you can decrease the time for the bars and then you can decrease the (2:01:03) Al: Exactly. And that’s the thing. And that’s the thing. And this is why, you (2:01:08) Al: know, I actually like this compared to the furnaces and stuff in Stardew, (2:01:12) Al: because I don’t have to have, like, ten furnaces littering the side of my farm. (2:01:16) Kelly: Yeah, that’s true. (2:01:16) Al: And I can just go… Although I would like… So you can buy a cra- (2:01:22) Al: By default, you have to go to the carpenters or into town to use (2:01:28) Al: the crafting station, and you have to go to the blacksmiths to use (2:01:33) Al: the blacksmithing. You can buy a crafting station for your house. (2:01:37) Al: You cannot buy a blacksmithing system for your house, which I would really (2:01:40) Kelly: No. Yeah. Like, am I not trusted? I don’t understand. You trust me with the saws, (2:01:42) Al: like to do. It’s just a big hunk of metal. (2:01:50) Kelly: but not the metal smithing stuff? Yes, yes. No. I will say, I think the… (2:01:51) Al: Thank you. (2:01:53) Al: Yeah, I understand the milling, right? (2:01:56) Al: Because that’s like a huge windmill, and it’s not that far to go to the windmill. (2:02:00) Al: But the blacksmith is all the top, top left of the town. (2:02:04) Al: He’s so far away. (2:02:06) Kelly: See, I don’t think I minded that one as much because I think I was constantly going (2:02:10) Kelly: towards the museum or towards the mines so often. (2:02:12) Al: Yeah, I don’t I don’t I don’t go that direction. (2:02:16) Al: I go, I go through the Narrows. (2:02:19) Al: I find that faster. (2:02:20) Al: So I go out my farm to the north and then I go left immediately and then north. (2:02:24) Kelly: See, that’s what I would do, and then on the way back I would hit up the blacksmith and go through town and talk to everybody. (2:02:28) Al: Oh, yeah, I don’t know. (2:02:30) Al: Oh, I’m not talking to people. (2:02:31) Kelly: Oh. (2:02:33) Kelly: I mean I talked to them real fast so that they don’t think I’m some crazy person. (2:02:37) Al: All right, let’s talk about the characters then, shall we? (2:02:38) Kelly: Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. (2:02:40) Al: We’re not going to go through the individual cat. (2:02:42) Al: Oh, sorry, did you have something else to say? (2:02:43) Kelly: I was gonna say you should probably add to this list the kitchen, the, the cooking. (2:02:47) Al: Oh yeah, I guess so. (2:02:48) Al: Yeah, you can buy a kitchen as well and you can cook stuff. (2:02:48) Kelly: Because you can bike it. Yeah, exactly. (2:02:51) Al: It’s exactly what you expect it to be. (2:02:54) Kelly: Yes. However, I got really annoyed because I unlocked some recipes and then I wasn’t high enough level, but you can’t get a higher level. (2:02:57) Al: There you go. (2:03:02) Al: Oh yeah, that’s weird. (2:03:04) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (2:03:04) Kelly: Why show me. (2:03:05) Al: I understand it for the crafting. (2:03:08) Al: I don’t understand it for the cooking. (2:03:08) Kelly: Yes. Yeah, I don’t need to know that recipe right now just save it for later. (2:03:09) Al: That’s weird. (2:03:12) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s very weird. (2:03:14) Kelly: Don’t tease me with that like that’s mean. (2:03:18) Kelly: Anyway, okay, now we can go on to… (2:03:20) Al: Right, we’re not going to talk too much about the story and the characters, (2:03:24) Al: not least because we’re over two hours into this podcast, (2:03:26) Al: but also because there’s not really a story yet. (2:03:31) Al: And I think if we were going to talk about characters, we’d probably leave that till 1.0. (2:03:36) Al: And it may even be its own episode if there’s enough to talk about. (2:03:39) Al: But personally, I don’t know how you feel, Kelly. (2:03:42) Al: I’ve not been particularly enthralled by the character. (2:03:46) Kelly: No, which is interesting because I feel like my introduction to this game was like you said yours (2:03:50) Kelly: was that trailer that didn’t match the graphics. Mine was, I think somebody screenshotted it and (2:03:56) Kelly: was basically like, it’s like Stardew, but the characters are hot. (2:04:00) Al: Which, I’m not sure, that premise implies that they aren’t in Stardew, like some of (2:04:06) Al: them are. (2:04:06) Kelly: Yeah, it’s just like in this one, it’s like they’re clearly, you know, yeah, like they’re (2:04:10) Al: You see cleavage, that’s what they mean, right? (2:04:13) Kelly: they’re at the beach, you know, in their bathing suits, flexing their muscles, like, okay. (2:04:15) Al: Yeah, and I will say, some of those, some of their outfits, especially Junipers, are (2:04:24) Al: particularly interesting, shall we say. (2:04:25) Kelly: No, and I will say no, no, it’s clearly more adult. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And like, I do (2:04:30) Al: This is not your kid’s farming game, it’s not like it’s super inappropriate, but there’s (2:04:39) Al: some thirst, there’s some thirst, shall we say. (2:04:43) Kelly: think there’s something about like the the overall design of the characters is obviously (2:04:47) Kelly: more detailed and like, kind of like a cuter art style than stardew’s but like, it’s not (2:04:53) Kelly: like by much. (2:04:54) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. (2:04:55) Kelly: just show more of the character like in like it’s like you got like a three three (2:05:01) Kelly: quarter portrait instead of like you know a headshot for yes yes. (2:05:04) Al: Yeah, I think they’re higher quality a little bit as well, the stargy one and much more. (2:05:09) Al: They’re still kind of pixelated, whereas they’re high quality ones for this, which, you know, (2:05:14) Al: it’s I guess it’s easier to be attracted to something when there’s more pixels in it. (2:05:18) Al: Is that fair to say? (2:05:20) Kelly: I’m sure someone would argue against you online, but I’m not going to. (2:05:22) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (2:05:32) Al: So I. (2:05:33) Kelly: Yeah, no, none of the characters are really touching my eye in like a personality way or like, whatever, like I talked to all of them. (2:05:40) Al: Yeah, I think is I think some of them some of them are definitely have some they have (2:05:42) Kelly: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. (2:05:45) Al: glimmers of a personality right like the the blacksmith guy he doesn’t like you and like (2:05:50) Kelly: Yeah, he’s my favorite because he’s mean. (2:05:50) Al: I and and classic all right Haley and I’ll get sorry sorry sorry my they’re basically (2:05:56) Kelly: No, I go for Alex. Excuse me. (2:06:01) Al: the same character just gender swapped and the and Juniper is like (2:06:01) Kelly: It’s the same character. (2:06:10) Al: very much like kind of deliberately crazy sort of thing and like that sort of stuff (2:06:17) Al: so there’s glimmers of interesting things there but I don’t feel like we’ve pulled them (2:06:22) Al: out yet and I suspect that is still to come I hope that’s still to come for sure (2:06:26) Kelly: Yeah, same, because I feel like they have the potential, like, it they definitely have (2:06:32) Kelly: it they have like a ton of characters, they have some interesting stuff going on like, (2:06:37) Kelly: okay, potential spoiler, like the little kid quests like at the the Friday. Yeah, I was (2:06:43) Al: They’re not three of them. Oh, right, sorry. I interrupted you before you finish the sentence. (2:06:49) Kelly: thinking of the word. Like when you go to the tavern on Friday nights and you got to (2:06:54) Kelly: go talk to them, and they’re (2:06:55) Al: Yeah, there’s hints of a good story and good characters in there, but it’s not ready yet. (2:06:56) Kelly: like, you know, plotting their little schemey. (2:07:01) Kelly: It’s cute. (2:07:07) Kelly: Yeah, or like, again, I think it’s like the, (2:07:10) Kelly: going to the tavern on like Friday nights (2:07:12) Kelly: is what really makes me believe (2:07:14) Kelly: that they have a better story lined up or like more, (2:07:17) Kelly: because when you talk to those characters on Friday nights, (2:07:19) Kelly: it’s like, you’re getting a little glimpse into their world. (2:07:22) Kelly: Like they’re playing like D&D style games (2:07:25) Kelly: and like, you know, going in. (2:07:26) Kelly: to the details of it. (2:07:30) Kelly: They’re like making fun of each other for like the foods (2:07:32) Kelly: that they like or like the way they handle things and it’s (2:07:35) Kelly: like so so clearly there is more outlined. (2:07:38) Kelly: It’s just like are they going to flush it out more? (2:07:40) Al: I agree. So yeah, based on that, we’re probably not going to talk much more about that, but (2:07:46) Kelly: - Yeah, that’s all I got. (2:07:48) Al: hopefully there’ll be more to talk about if we talk about it after 1.0. I feel like if (2:07:54) Al: they’re good, we could have a whole episode just talking about the characters like we (2:07:57) Al: did for Stardew, but we’ll have to see whether they get to that point or not. (2:08:03) Kelly: Yes. (2:08:04) Kelly: Can I say one last thing actually? (2:08:05) Kelly: This is not a spoiler. (2:08:07) Kelly: I do think it’s very interesting (2:08:09) Kelly: because I didn’t notice this and maybe I missed it. (2:08:12) Kelly: But like, obviously when you play Stardew, it’s like, (2:08:14) Kelly: Oh, (2:08:17) Kelly: Hailey and Alex go together, Sebastian and, um, oh my God. Now all I keep thinking is Hailey. (2:08:24) Kelly: Um, I can’t think of her name, the Purple Hair Girl. Abigail. They go together. I don’t, (2:08:26) Al: Yes, abigail, yeah. (2:08:31) Kelly: I haven’t seen that dynamic in this game yet, which is kind of nice because I feel bad when I break up the goals. (2:08:36) Al: Yeah, yeah. (2:08:38) Kelly: So I thought that was kind of interesting because I do feel like that is something that a lot of (2:08:41) Kelly: farming games do. Yeah, yeah. (2:08:42) Al: Probably because Stardew does it. (2:08:46) Al: Yeah, no, that’s fair. (2:08:47) Al: We’ll see. We’ll just we’ll see how it goes. (2:08:49) Al: It’s early access. (2:08:50) Al: I’m not going to complain too much about the story not being fully fleshed out. (2:08:52) Kelly: - No, no, no, no. (2:08:55) Al: But yeah, we’ll see. (2:08:57) Al: It’s interesting. (2:08:58) Al: I have one thing I would like to request of the developers if they’re listening. (2:09:04) Al: So Stardew has two ways to go. (2:09:06) Al: You can either go against the Evo Corporation or you can go with the Evo Corporation. (2:09:12) Al: I would like the same here, but with the Royalty, right? (2:09:16) Kelly: It’s very Scottish of you. (2:09:17) Al: So it’s a monarchy. (2:09:18) Al: I would like to take down the monarchy, please. (2:09:24) Al: I just want to be able to work against the monarchy. (2:09:27) Al: Is that so much to ask? (2:09:29) Kelly: Is it very American of me to not even think about the concept of royalty and just say, (2:09:30) Al: Yeah. (2:09:34) Kelly: “Oh, okay. (2:09:35) Kelly: Yeah, of course they’re royal.” (2:09:36) Kelly: Whatever. (2:09:37) Kelly: Exactly. (2:09:37) Al: There’s people in charge, and I can’t really affect it. (2:09:38) Kelly: Exactly. (2:09:40) Al: And they just– things happen. (2:09:41) Al: So I’m just going to keep doing my rural family life. (2:09:47) Al: I also– I don’t think you can get very (2:09:50) Al: far in relationships yet, either. (2:09:52) Al: I don’t– I think you can only get up to, like, four hearts, (2:09:54) Kelly: Yeah, I think I only got like basic heart events so far, (2:09:55) Al: and you can’t marry a woman. (2:10:00) Kelly: like nothing crazy. (2:10:02) Al: And I didn’t even get that far, just because I was focusing on myself. (2:10:04) Kelly: I was talking to people. (2:10:06) Kelly: However, I was talking to the people. (2:10:09) Al: I think it’s important to make sure that you know who you are as a person before you try (2:10:14) Al: and inflict that on other people. (2:10:16) Kelly: Well, I just ran around like a little gremlin (2:10:20) Kelly: and yelled at people and then ran away and gave them things. (2:10:22) Al: throwing gifts and shouting at people I will say I do like it does do the thing (2:10:24) Kelly: I think that’s how you should handle life. Yeah, exactly. Yes, yes. (2:10:34) Al: where gifts make sense for people like I was I was like oh what should I give to (2:10:39) Al: Juniper and then I realized oh I have this midnight flower from the caves I (2:10:45) Al: bet she’ll like this and she did so you know it feels like it makes sense and a (2:10:50) Al: And a lot of people enjoy that sort of thing. (2:10:52) Al: Figuring out the gifts. (2:10:53) Kelly: Yeah, because it’s so easy just to go online and check the list, but it’s more fun to try (2:10:54) Al: So. (2:10:56) Al: Yeah. (2:10:59) Kelly: to figure it out. I do both. I do both when I don’t want to miss a birthday or something, (2:11:00) Al: Well, it depends who you are, but yeah, I like, I like that it’s. (2:11:06) Al: Well, that’s, that’s the thing I like, I like when it makes sense and you can figure it out, but I also quite often don’t want to put in that effort, but I like that they do. (2:11:07) Kelly: you know what I mean? Yes, I don’t want to risk it, but also I like the challenge of (2:11:20) Al: Yeah, also, I like it when the thing that you like doing a lot gives you the thing that the person you want likes, like mining and juniper, for example, anyway. (2:11:30) Kelly: - Yes. (laughs) (2:11:32) Kelly: Yeah. (2:11:36) Al: OK, cool. So I guess, quick conclusion for this, from my point of view, it is a pretty standard stardew like with a bunch of nice additions. (2:11:48) Al: Or we didn’t even talk about the magic. (2:11:50) Al: There’s magic, you get mana, you get mana and there’s a few spells, it’s not, there’s only a few spells just now, there’s one that refills your stamina, there’s one that I can’t even remember what the other one are. (2:11:51) Kelly: Oh, that’s so funny. It’s not even on your list. (2:12:00) Kelly: But the rest of your stamina, especially like earlier on in the game, is so nice. (2:12:04) Al: Yeah, you get like a quarter of an orb every day of mana, and then it takes like one orb to do one spell. (2:12:14) Al: And I think I’m at the point where I have three orbs, so you build it up quite nicely and it becomes a really useful thing. (2:12:21) Al: Yeah, but it also feels like it’s very much bare bones at this point, because I only have three spells and only one of them I care about. (2:12:22) Kelly: Yeah, I have three orbs. (2:12:30) Kelly: Yep. And even that one I kept forgetting about for a while. And then I was like, (2:12:34) Kelly: I would like get mad at myself because I would like, you know, be in the minds. (2:12:37) Al: Oh see, I only do mine’s days now when I have two orbs of stamina, two orbs of mana, sorry, so you can get three full stamina. (2:12:43) Kelly: Um, I know I used to use it when I would go into the mines like very early on when I had (2:12:49) Kelly: like one orb, cause it’s just, again, you don’t have to carry another food, you know? (2:12:50) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (2:12:55) Al: Food, exactly, exactly. (2:12:56) Al: Sorry, so back to my conclusion, (2:12:57) Kelly: So yeah. (2:13:00) Al: it is it is a pretty standard stardew like with a few additional nice features, (2:13:06) Al: and it feels like they have an idea for what the story in the characters is going (2:13:11) Al: to be, and I really hope that they flesh that out. (2:13:16) Al: And if they do, if the story in the characters is fleshed out (2:13:19) Al: and if quality. (2:13:20) Al: life improvements continue, I feel like this could be a real contender for being a very (2:13:26) Kelly: I have high hopes for it. I really do because especially with this most recent update, (2:13:31) Kelly: I think they added a good amount of things. So I think from that trajectory, they seem to be on (2:13:38) Kelly: a good path. I enjoyed playing the game. I thought it was a lot of fun. I think it has (2:13:45) Kelly: a lot of potential. So I want them to expand it out further and flesh it out more. Like you said, (2:13:52) Kelly: that I think it is a good contender for like it’s its own it’s (2:13:58) Al: Yeah, cool. Excellent. (2:14:01) Al: Well, I look forward to seeing where it goes. (2:14:03) Al: But yeah, I’m putting it down until I have more to play. (2:14:08) Kelly: That’s why when he said like, “Oh, do you want to do this?” (2:14:10) Kelly: I was like, “Hmm, yeah, let’s do it before I forget the game because I’m not playing (2:14:13) Kelly: it again.” (2:14:14) Al: Yeah, well, it means I’ve done it for the year as well, (2:14:14) Kelly: Yeah, well, yeah. (2:14:17) Al: so I can talk about it in the end of your episode. (2:14:20) Al: Thank you, Kelly, for joining me. (2:14:22) Al: Where can people find you on the internet? (2:14:25) Kelly: Thank you for having me. (2:14:26) Kelly: They can find me at @rallamew on Instagram, I guess. (2:14:31) Kelly: I don’t really use it, but it exists. (2:14:34) Al: It exists. People can find me on the internet. (2:14:41) Al: I am @thescotbot on most social media, primarily on mastodon.scot, but I’m on all the ones (2:14:49) Al: that you’re thinking of. (2:14:52) Al: You can find the podcast on Tumblr at THSPod. (2:14:55) Al: I also have accounts for that on the other social medias, I’ve just not set them up yet. (2:14:59) Al: So we’ll see. (2:15:00) Al: Oh no, I posted Blue Sky this week, I think. (2:15:04) Al: So maybe we’ll get there eventually. (2:15:07) Al: But you can search for that and it will be there. (2:15:09) Al: It’s the same handle everywhere, basically. (2:15:12) Al: You can send us feedback from our website, harvestseason.club, where you can also find (2:15:18) Al: links to everything to do with the podcast, including our Patreon, patreon.com/thspod, (2:15:23) Al: where you can get access to the Slack and chat to our fun community and also get bonus (2:15:29) Al: episodes of the podcast and planning the next couple of months. (2:15:33) Al: I’m planning the rest of the year. (2:15:34) Al: And we have some fun stuff coming up, so get in there for that. (2:15:38) Kelly: And if you’re Jack, please keep commenting on Spotify. (2:15:41) Al: Yes, you can comment on Spotify and I might eventually read your comments. (2:15:48) Al: If Spotify actually send me notifications about them. (2:15:52) Al: Otherwise, I’ll forget about it. (2:15:53) Al: It exists again. (2:15:57) Al: I think that’s everything. (2:15:58) Al: Thank you, Kelly, again for joining me. (2:15:59) Kelly: Thank you again for having me again. I love coming on these. I think they’re so much fun. (2:16:05) Al: I enjoy having you too. That’s why you keep coming back. Thank you listeners for listening (2:16:13) Al: and until next time, have a good Harvey. (2:16:16) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (2:16:27) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (2:16:31) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (2:16:35) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestsseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (2:16:41) Theme Tune: in this episode. (2:16:48) Kelly: oh my god this is a total side note and you can totally cut this out (2:16:52) Kelly: but we have for Christmas decorations we found a Christmas cow and I don’t know (2:16:55) Kelly: why they were selling like an outdoor light up Christmas cow (2:16:59) Al: Well, I mean, what’s more Christmas-y than a cat? (2:17:01) Kelly: but it was right I’ll send you a picture afterwards it’s (2:17:05) Kelly: so cute we were like how do we not get this (2:17:09) Kelly: like I don’t understand it but who cares (2:17:12) Al: Amazing. (2:17:12) Al: Yeah. (2:17:14) Al: I need to see a picture of that. (2:17:14) Kelly: Yeah. (2:17:14) Al: As a side note, just to tell you, you don’t have to tell me that I’m allowed to cut something (2:17:18) Al: out of my own podcast. (2:17:18) Kelly: I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t mean it like that. (2:17:20) Al: If I want to cut something out, I’ll cut it out. (2:17:23) Al: It’s like, it’s, it’s all right, this is, this is, this is great after credits content, (2:17:26) Kelly: Obviously, you can cut out my whole section and talk to yourself. (2:17:35) Al: but it’s the thing that like, have you ever get those things where it’s like people posting (2:17:39) Al: on forums or like Facebook groups and stuff and the like. (2:17:42) Al: Feel free to delete if it breaks the rules, and you’re like, they would do that anyway. (2:17:45) Al: You don’t need to give them permission to delete your post, that’s not how this works. (2:17:46) Kelly: - Yeah, I’m gonna do it. (2:17:50) Al: Just don’t write- like, I just- it’s so superfluous, like constantly. (2:17:50) Kelly: Yeah. (2:17:53) Al: It’s the same thing with like the description from Radopia. (2:17:56) Al: People just say words, and it doesn’t matter, and who cares? (2:18:00) Al: BLEH. (2:18:01) Al: Oh. (2:18:02) Al: No, don’t be. (2:18:02) Kelly: Sorry for sending you on a rant (2:18:05) Al: It’s great, we needed something for the post credits. (2:18:08) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, I don’t know how else do you have a how else am I supposed to say that in like a nice polite way? (2:18:14) Kelly: That’s not like I (2:18:14) Al: Yeah, I know. I’m just, I am just, I am just winding you up. Just, just say, as a site, (2:18:17) Kelly: Know I know I know I (2:18:20) Kelly: Know it is funny though because I get mad over the same thing. I’m like just just say it (2:18:27) Al: you can say as a site, no, that’s fine. It makes it clear. That’s all that tells me everything (2:18:30) Al: I need to know.…

The Harvest Season

1
What a Joker 1:53:19

14 weeksที่แล้ว1:53:19

1:53:19

Al and Kev talk about Balatro Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:04: What Have We Been Up To 00:14:32: Game News 00:50:58: New Games 01:00:19: Balatro 01:49:09: Outro Links Len’s Island 1.0 Delay Amber Isle Switch Delay Sun Haven Switch Asia Release Sun Haven Switch Europe Release Coral Island 1.1b Update Lightyear Frontier “Trailblazer” Update Sakuna Chronicles: Kokorowa and the Gears of Creation Farmagia Anime Trailer Hobnobbers Desktop Cat Cafe Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al, and (0:00:36) Kev: My name is Kevin. (0:00:38) Al: we’re here today to talk about cottagecore games, and also one that’s very much not a (0:00:42) Kev: Woo. (0:00:44) Al: cottagecore game. Well, two, two games that are very much not a cottagecore games. (0:00:49) Kev: Well, I don’t know. (0:00:53) Kev: Actually, I don’t know which one you’re referring to. (0:00:55) Kev: But you’re referring to our main one. (0:00:57) Kev: How could you say it’s not? (0:00:58) Kev: It has both David Diver and Stardew Valley. (0:01:00) Al: I mean, I feel like there’s debates as to whether Dave the Diver is Cottagecore, but (0:01:07) Al: anyway, let’s not get into that right now. (0:01:08) Kev: » [LAUGH] (0:01:10) Kev: » There’s farming, how could it not be? (0:01:12) Al: Well, we are here to talk about bilateral. (0:01:17) Al: Now, why are you talking about bilateral? (0:01:19) Al: You might say it’s not a Cottagecore game. (0:01:21) Al: Well, they added a Stardew pack to it. (0:01:22) Kev: Yeah (0:01:24) Al: That’s why we’re talking about it. (0:01:26) Kev: That is the sole reason I mean, let’s let’s be real (0:01:29) Al: because me and Kevin both were (0:01:30) Al: playing it and it felt like an easy episode to do. So that’s what we’re doing. (0:01:32) Kev: Yeah (0:01:34) Kev: Also (0:01:36) Kev: And let’s not forget real the real reason right are not rogue likes robo glights etc runner up on this (0:01:43) Al: Oh, yes, we’re here today to talk about roguelites. (0:01:46) Kev: It was inevitable (0:01:50) Kev: Every time you put (0:01:52) Kev: this episode, it’s a different opening. (0:01:57) Al: All right, cool. Well, yes, so we’re going to we’re going to talk about bilateral. (0:02:00) Al: Before that, obviously, we have a good chunk of news. (0:02:04) Al: First of all, Kevin, what have you been up to? (0:02:08) Kev: uh I have been up to um oh not terribly a lot this week has been particularly busy and uh (0:02:18) Kev: uh tumultuous let’s say um uh yeah yeah it is um no um I won’t get into it here you can (0:02:21) Al: That’s a good word. Not a good situation, but a good word. (0:02:29) Kev: just ask elsewhere if you want it’s not not a fun but anyways um uh what what little game time i (0:02:36) Kev: have. I’m (0:02:38) Kev: enjoying the cards that have come out more or less. They’re decent, they’re not game breakers. (0:02:49) Kev: I like the wolf. It’s another Loki, Asgard, Norse mythology theme month and we get stuff like Freya, (0:02:58) Kev: the Fenris Wolf, Malekith. I’m having fun with it. Thanos got a buff recently and I’ve been playing (0:03:05) Kev: the Thanos deck with a… (0:03:08) Kev: and I’ve been having a lot of fun with him. (0:03:11) Kev: I like Thanos and his whole gimmick with something in the stones and the stretch. (0:03:16) Kev: You can do it with that. (0:03:17) Al: Yep. (0:03:17) Kev: Yeah, you’ve been playing. (0:03:18) Al: It’s definitely a fun deck. (0:03:20) Kev: It is, yeah. (0:03:22) Kev: It’s maybe not the highest risk, high reward, but it can be easily stomped on. (0:03:29) Kev: You know, you got your Shang-Chis, you’ve got a lot of counters for it running around (0:03:34) Kev: because Surtr has been pretty popular since the season passed. (0:03:39) Al: Yeah, I have. A bit more on and off this season, but yeah, still enjoying it. I’m still running (0:03:48) Al: my Black Panther symbiote deck. (0:03:52) Kev: That that’s it. It’s a it is such a solid one like the symbiote supposed to be that spider-man really added a (0:04:01) Kev: Insure consistency I think to that in fact that was really needed (0:04:02) Al: Yeah, it has. I mean, its main issue is Shrunki, which is obviously more common now, as you (0:04:10) Al: say, with the Serter deck, which is causing me a bit of a problem. And the other issue (0:04:13) Kev: yep (0:04:17) Al: is just everything needs to go right. Like, if you don’t, I mean, there are ways around (0:04:20) Kev: Yeah (0:04:23) Al: it, right? Like, there are. Yeah. And a lot of (0:04:24) Kev: There’s a couple of backup strategies, but the bread and butter has to be done in a very certain order definitely (0:04:32) Al: the backups require Wong, and the problem is that everybody seems to have a rogue, so (0:04:38) Al: they just steal your Wong, which is not great. But yeah, it’s getting me there. I’m still (0:04:46) Al: stuck in my 70s, because that’s where I always seem to get stuck. (0:04:48) Kev: Ah, you know what, it’s not just you. (0:04:51) Kev: I am also stuck in the 70s. (0:04:54) Kev: I don’t know what it is, if it’s like… (0:04:59) Kev: It’s probably something to do with like, (0:05:01) Kev: you know, the bell curve and whatnot, right? (0:05:04) Kev: Like 70s feels like this is where (0:05:06) Kev: a lot of the dedicated players are, right? (0:05:09) Kev: and probably the largest pop (0:05:12) Kev: it feels like. It is a lot. I don’t blame you at all because I’m there too. (0:05:20) Al: I hope to get up to 80 pretty soon then I can have some actual time to focus on the 90 to 100 (0:05:26) Al: because I suspect I’ll get to 90 very quickly because once you hit 80 it’s like you zoom up to 90 (0:05:28) Kev: Yeah, oh yeah, yep, though, that’s like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that. (0:05:33) Al: but then the 90 to 100 takes a lot of work as well so I’d really like to be able to get there (0:05:38) Al: this time. Yeah, the usual with that. (0:05:40) Kev: Um, yeah, so yeah, snap’s good. (0:05:46) Kev: Um, aside from that, a lot of my usual dialog into Zen with zero frequently, (0:05:53) Kev: and I’m still playing that daily with Calvin, because I don’t know. (0:05:58) Kev: Um, a lot of the time this week, though, uh, was dedicated to the wrapping (0:06:03) Kev: up of Bowser’s inside story, the third Mario and Luigi game. (0:06:08) Kev: Uh, you can check out our thy full review on Rainbow Road radio, the (0:06:13) Kev: Mario theme podcast study with our mutual friend, Alex. (0:06:16) Kev: Um, but that game is so, so good. (0:06:23) Kev: Um, it’s, it’s the, the Bowser part of the game. (0:06:28) Kev: Over the top, right? (0:06:28) Kev: Cause it has the Mario and Luigi, you know, foundations and that’s pretty solid. (0:06:32) Kev: Right. (0:06:33) Kev: You know, you can obviously not everyone’s plan of it, like, you know, the (0:06:36) Kev: dynamic blocking and timing and all that. (0:06:39) Kev: Um, and, and I think actually this, this one is a little, uh, a little more intense (0:06:44) Kev: than other, some of the other entries, but, uh, the Bowser stuff is so well done. (0:06:48) Kev: Obviously everyone knows I’m a huge Bowser for Nanak, but they just translated him so (0:06:53) Kev: well, you feel like you’re playing as Bowser, the big boss who does the big (0:06:58) Kev: and he’s ridiculous and charismatic and overconfident it’s, it’s so much fun. (0:07:04) Kev: Um, yeah, hardy thumbs up for that one for sure. (0:07:08) Kev: Um, but yeah, that’s, uh, that I think is roughly what I’ve been up to. (0:07:15) Kev: Oh, oh yes. (0:07:16) Kev: I’ve been, that’s what I’ve been up to. (0:07:18) Kev: But, uh, I mean, I don’t know when folks might hear an update on this, but. (0:07:23) Kev: I’ll, I’ve been getting niche. (0:07:25) Kev: I think I want to do a shiny hunt. (0:07:26) Kev: I’m scared. (0:07:28) Kev: I don’t know. I’m still– I’ve been looking, timing and hauling. There’s a couple of hunts (0:07:35) Kev: I never got to, like one in Sword and Shield for Larry and Meowth, the shiny gold kitty. (0:07:42) Kev: Yeah, I might go for that. But Micah was streaming just this week. He’s been streaming (0:07:49) Kev: again late in the past week and right beyond. Shout out to Micah. He’s got a little podcast he (0:07:56) Kev: does now with (0:07:58) Kev: shiny hunting actually on site. (0:08:01) Kev: Look up the name. (0:08:02) Kev: I forget the name of that. (0:08:03) Kev: I feel bad. (0:08:04) Kev: I’ll find it and then shout it out. (0:08:06) Kev: But but yeah, that’s really what’s been getting to me. (0:08:10) Kev: But but like I said that is yet to happen. (0:08:11) Al: It is called, it’s called the soft reset. (0:08:14) Kev: Soft reset. (0:08:15) Kev: Thank you very much. (0:08:16) Kev: There you go. (0:08:16) Kev: So go check that out. (0:08:18) Kev: There’s only like two episodes. (0:08:20) Kev: There’s not any regular schedule, but you know, Mike has always (0:08:24) Kev: a joy to listen to. (0:08:24) Kev: So I was happy to tune in too. (0:08:28) Kev: - Uh, what about you, L? (0:08:29) Kev: What’s been going on with you? (0:08:31) Al: I obviously talked about Snap, so I’ve been playing that, I’ve been playing Pocket, although (0:08:37) Al: the last week that’s mostly just been open some packs, and that’s about it because the (0:08:45) Al: events that we’re running are mostly finished now. There’s another Wonder Pick event, but (0:08:51) Al: that doesn’t take a lot of extra time, it’s not one of the battle events. (0:08:56) Al: But yeah, I’m very much at the end point. (0:09:00) Al: of the current set, so it’s pretty much like I’ve got maybe like five normal cards to get (0:09:09) Al: and then just a bunch of the secret rares which takes a long time to get them because they’re (0:09:15) Al: very rare. I think most of them are like 1% chance each deck. (0:09:20) Kev: Oh, goody. Of course, but uh, you know, I say to someone who just talked about shiny hunting gotta gotta pull that slot machine, right? (0:09:25) Al: you (0:09:25) Al: you (0:09:31) Al: Yeah, there was a person on Reddit who posted saying that they’d completed (0:09:35) Al: the set and it took them $1,500 to do it. (0:09:39) Kev: Oh, oh that hurts that hurts like (0:09:43) Al: And you’re like, “Oh my word, that is insane. I cannot imagine (0:09:48) Al: spending $1,500 on digital trading cards.” (0:09:52) Kev: See I could, okay, I mean, no, no, well sure, sure, sure, sure, yeah, but not even that, (0:09:56) Al: Okay, fine. It depends on how much money you have if you’re a billionaire (0:10:01) Al: Sure, sure. In that situation, I could justify it, right? (0:10:06) Kev: right? (0:10:06) Kev: Like of course the layman, it’s ridiculous, right? (0:10:08) Kev: But what I was going to say is like, I don’t, specifically on pocket is what blows my mind (0:10:15) Kev: because, you know, the, well, I don’t know, maybe I say this like the functionality, obviously, (0:10:22) Kev: um, uh, live these, you know, the standard card game, I think leans a little bit more (0:10:27) Kev: heavier into the, the actual playing of the game, right? (0:10:29) Kev: And since that goes hand in hand with the physical card game, I think that would be (0:10:34) Kev: a little more sense or I understand it a little more because, you know, people are invested (0:10:40) Kev: there because it’s the competitive nature on it and whatnot. (0:10:44) Kev: And I mean, pocket does have that, but it doesn’t, I think, emphasize it as much. (0:10:46) Al: I don’t I don’t get the difference between that like yet sure technically live is more battle (0:10:54) Al: focused however like they’re both you know a little world digital world garden right and they (0:11:00) Kev: Yeah (0:11:01) Al: both have battles they both have collections like one is a one is and one is a better app it is more (0:11:03) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:11:08) Al: enjoyable to play pocket than it is to play live live is just a bad app (0:11:11) Kev: True true and you know what actually I take it back because (0:11:17) Kev: Pokemon like the card game is (0:11:19) Kev: deep relatively compared to other card games because (0:11:24) Kev: You know the rarity the high money cards are just alternate arts (0:11:28) Kev: generally speaking, right, like they’re, (0:11:30) Kev: the pretty arts or whatever, right? Other card games, that’s not necessarily the case. Rare cards (0:11:36) Kev: are very good and strong, but only printed at high rarities. So people will spend big money on that. (0:11:44) Kev: So, you know what? I take it back. No, I don’t get how you spend 50. Oh, my gosh. (0:11:47) Al: Yeah, it’s a lot, it’s a lot of money. (0:11:52) Kev: Probably going to write it as a tax write off and business expense. (0:11:55) Al: Yeah, I suspect they’re just a person who works in tech and they’re single, they have (0:12:03) Al: no kids. (0:12:04) Al: So because they work in tech, they have a lot of money and they have nothing else to (0:12:04) Kev: Oh. (0:12:07) Al: spend on except themselves. (0:12:08) Kev: Oh. (0:12:09) Kev: Oh, I have the, you know. (0:12:12) Kev: If any listeners out there happen to be in such a situation, hit me up. (0:12:16) Kev: I could certainly give you a few recommendations on how to use that money. (0:12:20) Al: I mean you know that well this is yeah yeah well I mean this is the thing right like you (0:12:21) Kev: I know a guy who needs a new car. (0:12:29) Al: know there are a lot of you know young single people in the US with very high salaries and (0:12:38) Al: very little else to do with them especially with remote working (0:12:39) Kev: Yep, I mean that does explain the large amount of Teslas I see in the area. (0:12:43) Al: hahaha (0:12:50) Al: um yeah well that’s a that’s a whole other thing I judge people differently depending (0:12:55) Al: on which Tesla they have because if they have one of the original Tesla’s sure fine you (0:13:00) Al: had a decent amount of money and you wanted to wanted to buy a decent electric car there (0:13:00) Kev: Oh, right. Yeah. Okay. You know what? Yeah, I was about to say. Yeah, no, no, no. I was (0:13:03) Al: wasn’t anything else if you have a cyber truck if you have a cyber truck you are a (0:13:07) Al: terrible human being yeah yeah (0:13:11) Kev: about to say that. Yeah, a correction. I meant the large amount of Cybertrucks I see in the (0:13:15) Kev: area. You’re right. Yes. No, like there is a market for the, you know, the previous earlier (0:13:19) Kev: Teslas or whatever, especially early on, right? Yeah, absolutely. But like, yeah, yeah. Mmm. (0:13:28) Al: I really feel sorry for the people who bought the first Tezlas, and now they look like Elon lovers. (0:13:34) Kev: Oh boy. (0:13:37) Al: Goodbye. Anyway, so yeah, Snap Pocket, and I’ve also been playing quite a bit of Fields of (0:13:43) Al: Mistria, so may or may not have a reason for that, and may or may not talk about that in a future (0:13:49) Al: episode. We’ll see, but yeah, no, been playing through that. It’s interesting, because… (0:13:50) Kev: Oh, okay, wait, which, hold on, I have to look it up. (0:13:59) Kev: There’s many, oh, okay. (0:14:01) Kev: Here it is. (0:14:01) Kev: Yeah. (0:14:01) Kev: The nineties anime looking one. (0:14:03) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (0:14:04) Kev: Okay. (0:14:04) Kev: I got it. (0:14:05) Kev: All right. (0:14:05) Kev: Okay. (0:14:06) Kev: That’s, that’s interesting. (0:14:07) Kev: I’m keen to hear thoughts on that from some people, maybe in the future, (0:14:11) Kev: who knows, you know, you never know. (0:14:13) Al: Maybe, no promises, never promises. (0:14:16) Kev: Oh, I promise I’ll, I’ll promise you all the time. (0:14:20) Kev: Are some pretty anime people in fields of mystery. (0:14:25) Al: Yes, yep, oh, yep, all right, so we’re going to talk about some news now. (0:14:25) Kev: Do you like sailor moon and nineties anime? (0:14:28) Kev: Cause there you go. (0:14:28) Kev: There’s all your show Jovis. (0:14:30) Kev: You can basically see the sparkles. (0:14:38) Al: First up, we have Lens Island 1.0 has been delayed until mid-2025, they have said this (0:14:44) Kev: Okay. (0:14:47) Al: is because the game is not quite complete. (0:14:50) Al: Now, interestingly, they didn’t talk about it in our like, oh, it’s just like too buggy (0:14:54) Al: or whatever, which quite often– (0:14:56) Al: but no, they specifically talked about how they don’t feel like the story fully ties together (0:15:03) Al: properly, and it feels like it’s missing something. And that’s really interesting. And I really– (0:15:04) Kev: Mm-hmm okay it is (0:15:10) Al: I mean, obviously, just in general, I think that we obviously respect delays. Delays are fine. (0:15:15) Al: Get your game working well. But this is a particularly interesting one, because they (0:15:20) Al: could have done what Color Island did, which is just like, we’re just going to do it. We’re just (0:15:24) Al: just going to release and we’ll. (0:15:25) Al: Add more stuff later and it will feel incomplete, but so what? (0:15:26) Kev: story later yep yeah yeah yeah and like it’s a very tricky thin white line to (0:15:30) Al: But they’ve not done that. (0:15:31) Al: They’ve decided, no, no, we want it to be, we want it to feel complete. (0:15:36) Al: And I think that is absolutely the right way to do these things. (0:15:44) Kev: walk because right because yes I fully agree right there looking for a island (0:15:49) Kev: yes they should have waited to release a more fully realized 1.0 there a lot of (0:15:55) Kev: games up do then that’s that’s not (0:15:56) Kev: great. Right. And then there’s the other end of the spectrum, (0:16:00) Al: Yeah. Well, to be fair, to be fair, we don’t know the reason that Silksong is delayed. (0:16:01) Kev: right? That feature creep and just perfectionism. Looking at (0:16:06) Kev: you silk song, right? Like they Oh, okay. Sure, you’re you’re (0:16:12) Al: Like it could be that, it could be something else. We don’t actually know what the issue (0:16:16) Al: is with Silksong. But there are, there is, Re-Legend is a good example of that in this (0:16:19) Kev: right. But it’s plausible. Yeah. (0:16:26) Al: this area, right? Like they just kept adding things and kept adding things. (0:16:30) Al: And, uh, yeah. (0:16:33) Kev: Yeah, absolutely, but the way they framed it (0:16:35) Al: Also, Shikiji Island, which is a particularly bad one, (0:16:37) Al: because they’re adding extra features into the first version of Early Access. (0:16:41) Al: They’re not even releasing their 1.0, they’re releasing their Early Access (0:16:45) Al: and they’re like, “Oh, we want to wait until we’ve added romance.” (0:16:48) Al: And you’re like, “It’s just me, it’s an Early Access.” (0:16:49) Kev: Oh, no, oh (0:16:53) Kev: That’s rough. Oh gosh. Yeah, that’s well regardless (0:16:57) Al: So yeah, you’re right, there absolutely is a fine line there. (0:17:00) Kev: Yeah (0:17:00) Al: On the right side of the line, um, I think this is good. (0:17:03) Kev: The way they framed it and it’s a good degree of self-awareness like I you know, I absolutely (0:17:11) Kev: Props to them for uh, making that call. Um, assuming they’re you know, they’re on the money with for your sake (0:17:17) Kev: Um, so yeah, and obviously no shortage of other stuff to play so no rush (0:17:22) Al: Yes, my end of year was looking quite stressful, so thank you. (0:17:29) Kev: Thank you. (0:17:32) Al: Personally, I would like to say thank you for delaying. I do not speak for everybody. (0:17:37) Kev: You know what? You know what? I’d like to say thank you to someone else for delaying now. (0:17:44) Kev: I’d like to thank Amberisle for delaying. There’s so much reliefs. (0:17:46) Al: I thought you were disappointed by the switch release being delayed initially. (0:17:52) Kev: I was, but living where I am now, you know what? That’s fine. I could use in the new year. (0:17:57) Al: So, okay, so context here is they, was it the beginning of February? Sorry, the beginning (0:17:59) Kev: I have enough to keep me on my toes. That’s fine. (0:18:03) Kev: - You’re fine. (0:18:09) Al: of November that the Steam version came out, I think. And they said that the, yeah, and (0:18:12) Kev: Yeah, it is already out is (0:18:16) Al: they said the Switch release was delayed until later in November. And I feel like I remember (0:18:22) Al: us discussing this, Kevin, and saying that doesn’t feel, two weeks doesn’t feel like (0:18:26) Al: a lot of extra time. (0:18:28) Al: And I was theorizing that perhaps, I mean, we’ll have to go back and check the transcripts, (0:18:28) Kev: Oh gosh, yeah. (0:18:35) Al: but I was theorizing that perhaps it might get delayed again, and it has been delayed again. (0:18:40) Al: It is now delayed till February of 2025, which is obviously quite a bit more. (0:18:46) Kev: And yeah, yeah, just yeah, yeah, absolutely. (0:18:47) Al: Obviously, complicated by Christmas, right? (0:18:49) Al: Obviously, it’s not actually delayed by another three months. (0:18:53) Al: It’s probably more like two months, because December is a complicated time. (0:18:57) Al: But it’s not a big deal. (0:18:59) Kev: It is, you know, I will say, like, reading, you know, when you put the link, you can see (0:18:59) Al: It’s a big deal. (0:19:04) Kev: the link of their full explanation and whatnot. (0:19:08) Kev: They will say they’re aiming to have the Switch release to be a parody with the Steam release, (0:19:14) Kev: like all the updates and– (0:19:17) Kev: to see if it matches up to that point, so that’s a little (0:19:21) Kev: understandable. I get that. Sorry, I’m just reading it here. (0:19:28) Kev: Oh, it’s going to be on discount on Steam. That’s nice. But (0:19:33) Kev: yeah, I mean, the game is out, right? It’s not on Steam. I want (0:19:36) Kev: it on Switch, of course, but you know, that’s understandable. (0:19:41) Kev: Obviously, the Switch has a long history of not always being the (0:19:48) Al: Yeah, cool. Sunhaven have announced their release dates for their other regions. (0:19:55) Al: So they’d announced the US release was on the 29th of the sorry, the the Americas (0:20:00) Al: release was the 29th of November. (0:20:04) Al: They’ve now also announced that the Japan, (0:20:06) Al: South Korea and Hong Kong releases are also the 29th of November. (0:20:15) Al: Which I love my conspiracies. (0:20:18) Al: This proves my point that they didn’t understand there were multiple eShop (0:20:21) Al: regions, because why two separate announcements for the same day? (0:20:22) Kev: yeah yeah you know what you’re probably right (0:20:30) Al: Just saying. (0:20:30) Kev: here’s I one thousand percent you’re absolutely right (0:20:35) Kev: oh that’s that’s good oh that’s (0:20:39) Kev: oh I mean I feel bad for things because that’s rough but it’s also really funny (0:20:42) Al: Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. (0:20:44) Al: It’s not amazing, but yeah, for sure. (0:20:48) Al: Yeah. And. (0:20:50) Kev: But for us, that’s content. (0:20:52) Al: Well, true, they’ve also announced their (0:20:55) Al: Europe release date, which is the 16th of December. (0:20:59) Al: Interestingly, they listed the countries that were it was releasing in and it (0:21:04) Al: doesn’t include so I compared this list because I noticed it didn’t have the UK. (0:21:09) Al: So I was like, this is weird. (0:21:10) Al: Why doesn’t it have the UK? (0:21:12) Al: And I compared this list to the list of (0:21:14) Al: countries that the eShop is available in Europe. (0:21:18) Al: And the only countries missing from it are Russia, which I feel like maybe the (0:21:23) Al: list of eShop regions probably isn’t up to date, and I wouldn’t be surprised if (0:21:26) Al: Russia isn’t an eShop region anymore. So that’s one. And the other two are (0:21:28) Kev: Uh huh. I wonder why. Huh. (0:21:34) Al: Switzerland and the United Kingdom, which people who understand European (0:21:38) Al: politics might go, oh, but they’re both not in the EU. True. But Norway also (0:21:43) Al: isn’t in the EU but is in the list. Now, what is interesting about those two (0:21:46) Al: names is (0:21:48) Al: Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Do you see what’s interesting about those two names? (0:21:52) Kev: Ah… no. I’m not saying it, tell me. (0:21:56) Al: They are alphabetically after every other country in this list. (0:22:00) Kev: Wait. Haha, oh. (0:22:02) Al: I think they’ve copied and pasted the list and missed out the last two. (0:22:06) Kev: Sick. Sick. Oh, that’s awesome. Good times. Oh, I love copy-paste errors. Good times. (0:22:16) Kev: You’re pretty good at this, Detective Al. (0:22:16) Al: I don’t know that for sure, obviously. We will see on the 16th of December what happens, (0:22:22) Al: especially if they don’t announce another “oh no, it’s UK and Switzerland” and it does come out, (0:22:29) Al: then I will be proved right again. We’ll see, but that is my theory. If in doubt, (0:22:36) Al: always go for the stupidest option. (0:22:39) Kev: Yeah, Occam’s razor, right? (0:22:43) Al: Is that not Hamlin’s razor? (0:22:45) Kev: Wait, Hamlin? (0:22:46) Kev: Is there a different razor? (0:22:46) Al: Occam’s razor is the simplest explanation. Hamlin’s razor is never a tribute to malice, what can be adequately explained by stupidity. So it’s not quite the same thing, but they are very much tied together because quite often the most obvious explanation is the stupidest one, but I don’t think it was the most obvious explanation in this case. (0:22:51) Kev: Yeah. (0:22:57) Kev: Oh, attributed to, okay. (0:23:02) Kev: Okay. (0:23:02) Kev: I see. (0:23:03) Kev: Um, sure. (0:23:07) Kev: I, I, yep. (0:23:09) Kev: Yeah, absolutely. (0:23:14) Kev: Yes. (0:23:14) Kev: Okay. (0:23:17) Al: The most obvious explanation is they’re not releasing in the UK and Switzerland, but I don’t think that’s the case because I have never released a game on the eShop. But from what I understand, you cannot release within an eShop region to only specific countries within that region. I think you either release to the whole region or not at all. (0:23:35) Kev: Yeah, that that’d be really weird (0:23:38) Kev: Yeah, that would be very weird if you did that so yeah, I you’re probably right (0:23:44) Al: So we will, we will see. (0:23:47) Al: I do love, I do love my conspiracy theories. (0:23:51) Kev: Yeah, that’s good stuff. I’m excited. Can’t wait to see if you’re proven right or wrong (0:23:56) Al: Next we have Coral Island. They have released their Quality of Life 1.1B update. (0:24:06) Kev: how does that name make you feel Al not the 1.2 update but the 1.1 B I can’t wait (0:24:11) Al: I don’t know if I want to talk about it. (0:24:17) Kev: for 1.1 B 0.2 (0:24:21) Al: So here’s the thing, right? So would you assume that 1.1 and 1.1 (0:24:26) Al: a are the same thing then? Because there was no 1.1 a, right? (0:24:29) Kev: I mean like obviously I would assume that’s the case it’s obvious again (0:24:36) Kev: grazering it here like they didn’t expect to need a 1.1 B or whatever like (0:24:40) Al: Yeah, but yeah, also, also, just a thing. You could just call it 1.1.1 like most software (0:24:48) Al: development does. You don’t have to be weird and annoying with it with your numbers. (0:24:52) Kev: what (0:24:52) Al: I don’t understand why, how many times do I have to moan about this before (0:24:56) Al: people actually start just numbering things sensibly? It… Oh. (0:24:59) Kev: Yeah, look I don’t know if I talked behind the show obviously like yes, I’m in agreement that it’s not great and it’s a (0:25:09) Kev: It’s not the easiest problem to solve because you know (0:25:13) Kev: Whatever people have different ways of thinking and categories. Go there whatever in my opinion like when I know I you know, I (0:25:21) Kev: Naming files and and keeping records is important stuff. I’ve done and I always do well. I just go up a date (0:25:28) Kev: I’m Eric Leach. (0:25:29) Kev: Go with year, month, day, and then, like, 0.0. (0:25:29) Al: That is fine. That is absolutely an acceptable way to release software as well, but that’s also not (0:25:37) Al: what they’ve done. But I think the thing that drives me insane about this, I’ve never seen (0:25:43) Al: a letter in any of their version numbers before. I have never seen it. It’s not like this is just (0:25:49) Al: a long continuation of it. They had 1.0a, b, and 1.0c, and 1.0. No, they didn’t. They’ve never done (0:25:52) Kev: Yeah? (0:25:56) Al: it before. (0:25:57) Al: So why are we suddenly doing this? (0:25:57) Kev: What if? (0:25:59) Al: It’s just, like, they then release, they then, they then release the hot, did that… (0:26:01) Kev: OK. (0:26:02) Kev: Now, all right. (0:26:03) Kev: What do you want moving forward? (0:26:04) Kev: Do you want more letters, or do you just (0:26:07) Kev: want this to be the sole ugly stepchild with the letter (0:26:10) Kev: and all of all your updates? (0:26:11) Al: Nothing, I want them to retroactive, I want them to retroactively change it. (0:26:15) Al: And the thing that annoys me most about it is now they’re releasing a couple of small (0:26:19) Al: hot fixes, which are called 1.1b-1229, which is obviously, 1229 is obviously a build number, (0:26:24) Kev: Oh, snitch! (0:26:27) Al: that’s clear from that because then the next one is (0:26:29) Kev: Yep. (0:26:29) Al: one two three zero whatever sure like I just like it’s either it’s either give (0:26:31) Kev: Yep. (0:26:32) Kev: the (0:26:35) Kev: the (0:26:38) Al: it the 1.2 but you obviously don’t want it to be that to appear that big sure (0:26:43) Al: fine although I would argue I don’t think that that’s a problem but if you (0:26:48) Al: want if you don’t want it to be 1.2 that’s fine just give it another number (0:26:52) Al: right you don’t it’s just where is the letter coming from it’s just appeared (0:26:56) Kev: Um, actually, Al, it’s a hexadecimal. (0:26:56) Al: and he’s never been there before, and ugh. (0:26:59) Al: OK, we’re moving on. We’re moving on. (0:27:03) Al: Moving on. (0:27:06) Al: This adds as the name rather than the number, which includes a letter, (0:27:10) Al: would suggest about quality of life improvements. (0:27:16) Al: So there’s our daily goddess blessing. (0:27:18) Al: So every day you can get a blessing from the goddess. (0:27:21) Al: There’s a new type of rock called a mystery rock, which break, (0:27:27) Al: yields random things. (0:27:29) Al: They may yield oars, seeds, fish, insects, or occasionally monsters. (0:27:36) Kev: there’s ahh that’s fun I kind of like that I dig it it’s your pokemon rock smash (0:27:37) Al: They’ve also added fishing nets, which are a thing you can leave in the water and come (0:27:51) Al: back to fish. (0:27:52) Al: So I guess kind of like the crab pots, but I think it’s for fish rather than crusty. (0:27:59) Al: They’ve also lowered the requirements for turn rank A and B, so I suspect I will have (0:28:08) Al: jumped up a rank the next time I open the game, because I was so close to a rank and (0:28:12) Al: having it even slightly down will probably mean I’ve hit the next rank. (0:28:16) Kev: Well that’s interesting for sure, balance patches for pottagecore games, good stuff, good stuff. (0:28:23) Al: Maybe just enough people like me were moaning that it takes so long to go up the town ranks. (0:28:31) Al: I may or may not talk about how Fields of Mystery has a great town rank system and really (0:28:37) Al: rewards you in a much better way, but I obviously would not be talking about that before the (0:28:38) Kev: Oh, oh, oh. (0:28:44) Al: episode that we may or may not be talking about in. (0:28:48) Al: And finally, a great Quality of Life update removed the stamina cost for tools you need. (0:28:53) Al: It was the default in Fields of Mistria, which is fantastic, but yeah, why is this (0:28:54) Kev: Okay, how is that not the default in everything? (0:29:02) Kev: Heh heh heh! (0:29:03) Al: just not a thing? (0:29:04) Al: Because I think Stardew added it in one of its point updates. (0:29:07) Al: But it’s like, why do they all add on later? (0:29:08) Kev: Yeah. (0:29:10) Al: It’s just a really, I guess it’s kind of because they’re trying to lean more to the realism (0:29:16) Al: thing, right? (0:29:17) Al: Like, if you use… (0:29:18) Kev: Don’t disrupt my immersion, Al. When I swing the ax, I use the n- (0:29:21) Al: That’s the thing. (0:29:22) Al: - Okay. (0:29:23) Kev: Thanks. (0:29:23) Al: - Exactly. (0:29:24) Al: And I understand that argument, (0:29:26) Al: but I also think it’s important to remember (0:29:27) Al: that we play games because they’re fun. (0:29:30) Al: And I would always lean to the fun over the realism. (0:29:32) Kev: That is very not true. We say is Pokemon (0:29:37) Al: I still have fun with Pokemon games. (0:29:39) Al: I’m sorry you don’t, (0:29:40) Al: but that’s why I still play them and you don’t. (0:29:46) Kev: But (0:29:47) Kev: And you know what? All right, you know what? I’ll even play their game (0:29:50) Kev: I will say actually hitting something with a shovel or an axe is probably more exhausting than just swinging in the air. So (0:29:58) Al: Interesting, interesting point. Interesting point. (0:29:58) Kev: either way (0:30:00) Kev: It doesn’t (0:30:02) Kev: Doesn’t go through it. No, it falls apart. I’m trying to say (0:30:06) Kev: Yeah (0:30:07) Al: We don’t want to think about it too much. (0:30:09) Kev: What are you talking about that’s the entire point of this podcast (0:30:12) Al: I know, I know, I realized, I realized what was happening there as soon as I said what I said. (0:30:20) Al: And the last game update is Lightyear Frontier have announced their trailer. (0:30:28) Al: It’s coming out on the 27th of November, which is the day this podcast comes out. (0:30:34) Al: So if you’re listening to this, it’s out. (0:30:37) Al: And it just seems to have one big thing, Kevin, which is your mech can now turn into a car. (0:30:44) Al: Or it looks more like a tractor, but it’s super fast. (0:30:44) Kev: Yeah, which is, yeah, it’s that’s interesting because, like, I’m a little torn on this because, obviously the you know, a vehicle or whatever is very sensible in this sort of game, right? Absolutely. And, you know, it takes a lot of work. So I get it why it’s always at a release. (0:31:05) Kev: Um, I’m just part of me is also the mind that like, because the, the mech, like it’s just a car. (0:31:14) Kev: The mech, they just, they just stick it on a car, basically the top half of the mech. Um, I don’t know. I wish part of me wishes that they could have you. I’d hope so. Right. Or, you know, you never know. Maybe it just blows and transforms, you know, I don’t know. (0:31:20) Al: I’m assuming it does a Transformer type thing, surely. (0:31:32) Kev: But, okay, you know, if they have the total animation of it transforming or whatever, fine. I guess I can take that. But, like, wouldn’t you just also make the regular mech go faster? (0:31:44) Kev: Or, you know, something rocket boosters? I don’t know. (0:31:46) Al: So I suspect the idea behind this is that it’s, uh, so, oh, yeah, no, I, I’m, I was going to say like this can be added as an upgrade over time so you don’t get it at the beginning, but then I guess Rocket Bisterd would also work like that. (0:31:58) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, like, that’s maybe just the personal (0:32:02) Al: Um, yeah, no, that’s a fair point. (0:32:11) Kev: take. It’s not no end of the world. Overall, it’s a good (0:32:14) Kev: thing. And again, in this kind of open world, exploration, (0:32:19) Kev: parts, or vehicles, or whatever is always great. And it is still (0:32:23) Kev: connected to the mech, you know, maybe not exactly how I’d want (0:32:26) Kev: But it is there you have you’re still in (0:32:29) Kev: the cockpit of the mech which is a little weird but yeah (0:32:33) Al: All right. We have another couple of updates that are not specifically regarding the games. (0:32:39) Al: And so the first one is Sakuna. We have three pieces of news about Sakuna. The first one (0:32:40) Kev: Aww, I’m here wriggin’ my hands. (0:32:44) Kev: Yeah-heh-heh-heh-heh. (0:32:50) Al: is that they’re doing a new mobile phone game, but we don’t know. And it’s probably unlikely (0:32:59) Al: will get an English language release of this. It looks like it’s a (0:33:03) Al: Japanese-specific game. However, we don’t know anything about the game. (0:33:06) Kev: okay wait is sorry I’m sure this is all in the YouTube video because from the (0:33:15) Al: The YouTube video is a different game. (0:33:15) Kev: the blurb you put okay okay does that blurb like it’s not clear that it’s (0:33:22) Kev: specifically a sakuna game I mean that’s very likely right but it’s just from the (0:33:26) Kev: developers right (0:33:28) Al: They’ve specifically said it is a Sakuna game. (0:33:30) Kev: okay okay they did okay well mmm darn it mmm (0:33:36) Kev: yeah we’re not gonna see this in the US we didn’t get there’s a lot of good (0:33:41) Al: We’ll see. Well, you never know, you never know. But more exciting, (0:33:46) Kev: ones we don’t get they’re pleased to announce a new episode of the harvest (0:33:47) Al: more exciting for Kevin is that the anime is getting a season two. (0:33:53) Kev: season yeah I’m so excited because I well I mean guess well oh you know what (0:34:02) Kev: Let’s talk about the new the next because I think that’s (0:34:05) Al: okay yeah sure fine that’s fine that’s fine there is a there’s also another new game coming (0:34:06) Kev: what the season two is. (0:34:10) Al: called sakuna chronicles coca coca roba coca roba and the gears of creation um I presume (0:34:14) Kev: Pokurawa. (0:34:22) Al: you’ve watched the video for this (0:34:24) Kev: i’m watching I am watching it right now hold on one second um is this the book is my first (0:34:30) Kev: question because I know there was a book centered on cocoroa I don’t know if uh this is an adaptation (0:34:38) Kev: of that game um let me see here um oh my gosh i’m so excited we’re actually getting a new coca (0:34:45) Kev: sakana game um okay sorry hold on give me like one minute 27 um wow a robot (0:34:55) Kev: uh wow is this I don’t know if these are cuts wow the visuals larry look way updated which is pretty (0:35:01) Al: Well, and obviously the big thing about this one is that there is an English language trailer, (0:35:02) Kev: nice um uh (0:35:09) Al: so I’d be very surprised if this game isn’t being local. (0:35:10) Kev: Yeah right I mean it has to right because they’re dubbing it and clearly we um clearly we did our (0:35:20) Kev: job as influencers and brought Sakana to the forefront again which is why all this was announced (0:35:22) Al: of course of course my guess is that this will be a more crafting focus game (0:35:28) Kev: um I’m very (0:35:32) Al: rather than farming focused (0:35:34) Kev: yeah clearly because wow like is oh oh wait is that hurt (0:35:40) Kev: is this no no who is that what wait okay so (0:35:44) Al: Are you referring to the green haired one that gets off the boat? (0:35:47) Kev: yes okay I would is that lady sucking uh whatever it’s the big lady I think maybe (0:35:48) Al: Yeah, I don’t know who that is. (0:35:55) Kev: I forget the name no no yeah but it is it a small form of her because it really looks like her (0:35:56) Al: No cuz we see her we see her earlier than the trailer in her usual form. (0:36:04) Kev: like I’m thinking it is she even has the pink butt a thing I don’t know if it’s her daughter (0:36:09) Kev: or chibi for– (0:36:11) Kev: or something, it’s clearly related to her. (0:36:13) Kev: It’s clearly related to her. (0:36:15) Kev: The big thing I will say about this trailer– (0:36:19) Kev: Sakuna is not in it. (0:36:21) Al: Yes. (0:36:21) Kev: It is all Kokoro-wa and a whole bunch of new faces, which– (0:36:26) Al: Well, to be fair, to be fair, you don’t know that she’s not in it. (0:36:29) Al: She’s not in the trailer. (0:36:30) Kev: Yeah, I’m just saying she’s not in the trailer. (0:36:33) Kev: That’s all I’m saying, right? (0:36:33) Al: Yes. (0:36:34) Kev: Yeah, because I was about to say that exactly right. (0:36:36) Kev: She very well could be in the game, but they did not highlight that. (0:36:40) Al: I’d be surprised if she wasn’t, it’s literally called Sakuna Chronicles. (0:36:40) Kev: Yeah. (0:36:43) Al: Now, I know that the whole point is it’s tying it to the first game, (0:36:44) Kev: Oh. (0:36:48) Al: like, surely they can’t know how far in at all, right? (0:36:49) Kev: Kokoro. (0:36:52) Kev: Kokoro and the Gears of Creation, a knife’s out in the street. (0:36:55) Al: » Zach. [LAUGH] Yeah. [LAUGH] (0:37:01) Kev: Oh, those movies are great, but that’s just the funniest thing. (0:37:06) Kev: Regardless, um, okay, like I do suspect (0:37:10) Kev: she’ll be in there right like it would be I’d be very surprised if she wasn’t in there (0:37:15) Kev: like it just from the in-game story perspective it’s her best friend it makes sense she’d be in (0:37:21) Kev: there and from the outside like branding perspective you know she’s the face of the franchise or (0:37:27) Kev: whatever um but uh you know who cares whatever we get in here I’m gonna get um and even if it’s (0:37:34) Kev: not rice farming if we’re inventing robots that seems to be the premise of the game um (0:37:40) Kev: sending them out to do your fighting and stuff like that which is interesting I love controlling (0:37:44) Kev: minions and sending things out um I’m very curious to see how this will play and be um it’s in (0:37:52) Kev: development so we won’t see this for a long while because that’s all they said it’s in development (0:37:57) Kev: um and going back to the other one um I’m guessing season two is probably going to publish (0:38:04) Al: Oh, interesting. Maybe. Well, so here’s my question. From what you’ve said, (0:38:10) Al: I’m assuming you think this is a sequel, rather than a… (0:38:14) Kev: Ooh, good point. (0:38:17) Kev: I mean, regardless, that’s, you know, (0:38:20) Kev: the enemy could still cover it, (0:38:21) Kev: even if it was a, very cool. (0:38:24) Al: I yeah I guess I just I would be expecting season two of Sakuna to be a sequel. (0:38:30) Al: It’s different when there’s a game like they’re not saying that there’s going to be a different (0:38:36) Al: anime like if they’d called it a different thing but they’ve explicitly called it out (0:38:39) Al: as a season two of the anime like I feel like it’s going to follow Sakuna. (0:38:46) Kev: Oh, OK, you know, all right, well, I’ll run with this. (0:38:49) Kev: Let’s let me run with this, in which case that’s (0:38:52) Kev: triple exciting because that means we’re getting basically (0:38:55) Kev: two new entries in Sakuna, right? (0:38:57) Kev: Like a new Kokoro game and a whole new Sakuna adventure, (0:39:03) Kev: which I have no idea (0:39:07) Kev: well, that may be because the anime covered the entirety of the game. (0:39:10) Kev: So, you know, it will be totally open where that could go. (0:39:16) Kev: Um, that’s uh, that’s a (0:39:18) Al: The game that we’re probably not going, you did notice who’s making it, right? (0:39:20) Kev: exciting. (0:39:22) Kev: Oh, yeah, I saw that and that. (0:39:26) Al: Godzilla people. (0:39:28) Kev: Yeah, yeah. (0:39:32) Kev: Exceed games, which is (0:39:36) Al: Well, no, no, Exceed aren’t making that one. So Exceed are publishing… (0:39:40) Kev: wait, wait, oh, oh, sorry, the mobile game. (0:39:42) Al: No, right. Yeah, so we’ve got mixed up. We’ve gotten mixed up. We’ve gotten mixed up. Exceed (0:39:43) Kev: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. (0:39:44) Kev: - Oh, yes. (0:39:46) Kev: Sorry, yes, okay. (0:39:47) Al: aren’t making any of these games. Exceed are publishing the second sequel slash prequel. (0:39:51) Kev: Oh. (0:39:53) Al: The mobile game that we probably won’t get is being made by Toho, as in the Godzilla (0:39:54) Kev: Okay. (0:39:59) Kev: Yeah, which is pretty wild, okay. (0:40:03) Kev: Like, I don’t know what that game could compromise at all, (0:40:07) Kev: but this means a Sakuna Godzilla crossover DLC (0:40:08) Al: No idea. [laughs] (0:40:12) Kev: is in the realm of possibility now. (0:40:16) Kev: That’s all I have to say. (0:40:22) Kev: Sakuna of rice and rodents. (0:40:28) Kev: This is all so exciting, right? (0:40:30) Kev: Because holy mackerel, we just went from Sakuna being a great game series, whatever, (0:40:36) Kev: but kind of that’s it too. (0:40:38) Kev: Oh my goodness, we have a whole bunch of stuff coming up. (0:40:42) Kev: Oh, I am eating well right now! (0:40:46) Kev: It is wild that Toho is doing the mobile games. (0:40:52) Kev: Yeah, I don’t know, I’m excited for that anime, who knows? (0:40:56) Kev: I wonder, okay, you know what? (0:40:58) Kev: We might get an English dub of Season 1 now, if they’re pushing it this much. (0:41:02) Kev: We might just get an English dub. (0:41:06) Al: I would be surprised if they never did it because they have a voice actor set, right? (0:41:14) Al: And especially if they do end up using those voice actors for the game, they could do that (0:41:14) Kev: Yeah, I agree. (0:41:19) Al: at the same time. Voice acting in a game, if they have a story, could come quite early (0:41:25) Al: in the game’s development. So they could tie those two things in together and reduce their (0:41:28) Kev: true yeah um oh man I can’t I just can’t wait like we don’t have any dates for anything (0:41:40) Kev: so I don’t expect this until at least 2026 maybe something (0:41:40) Al: Well, yeah, this is the thing. These things, when our game is really announced as in development, (0:41:50) Al: it’s somewhere between two years and ten. And we’ll find out eventually. (0:41:55) Kev: Yeah exactly, eventually yeah the Sakuna book is not the same title as the the new game so (0:42:12) Kev: um the the yeah Pokoro book or whatever it’s so I expect it to be a different story entirely. (0:42:17) Al: We also have, speaking of Japanese games with animes, (0:42:23) Al: Farmagia, who they had already announced their anime. (0:42:28) Al: But we now have a trailer for it and a date. (0:42:31) Al: It’s airing in Japan on the 10th of January. (0:42:35) Al: And the English website says “coming soon”. (0:42:39) Al: So whether that’s just sub, whether that’s dub, I don’t know. (0:42:44) Al: we’ll see, but I mean, the English saying (0:42:47) Al: coming soon means something’s coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did the same (0:42:50) Kev: Uh-huh (0:42:52) Al: thing as Sakuna and we kind of get it like a month later on Frenchie Rolla, but we’ll see. (0:42:56) Kev: Sure (0:42:58) Kev: Yeah, that’s very likely. Oh my gosh. Are you excited for Sony to own crunchyroll? (0:42:58) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:43:04) Kev: But just reminded because you you heard about that right the big merger or whatever. They’re looking to buy that group (0:43:10) Kev: Crunchyroll is part of that. So mmm good times (0:43:14) Kev: But but I digress going back to the anime (0:43:20) Kev: It looks good, so the I don’t know the exact studio or whatever but they’re they’ve got (0:43:29) Kev: Mihima who is again the (0:43:32) Kev: Mangaka that they hired to work on for Majia’s art style and and whatnot (0:43:39) Kev: There and his works have been translated to several pretty successful and large anime (0:43:47) Kev: So, you know, the art style is (0:43:50) Kev: still retained. I don’t know if it’s the same sort of studios that worked on his stuff that (0:43:56) Kev: is making this, but my expectations are high for this. I imagine this will be pretty beefy (0:44:05) Kev: and substantial. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m looking forward to it. Okay. Okay. Okay. (0:44:08) Al: The studio is Bridge, and they have done a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh stuff and some Cardfight Vanguard stuff. (0:44:18) Kev: - Okay, mm, okay. (0:44:19) Al: They don’t seem to be one of the, like, super big ones, but yeah, they’ve done, they’ve done, they’ve been, they’ve been around since 2007. (0:44:20) Kev: Okay, so they’ve done enough to please marketers, (0:44:26) Al: And they’ve done, they’ve got quite a lot under their, under their belt. (0:44:35) Kev: and they’ve worked with franchises, right? (0:44:37) Kev: So, okay, I can stay confident this will be, (0:44:42) Kev: this will do the game justice, let’s say that, right? (0:44:46) Al: Yeah, I feel like the Yu-Gi-Oh! stuff is probably the biggest thing they’ve done. (0:44:46) Kev: I’ve yet to play the game. (0:44:49) Kev: - Yeah, right. (0:44:50) Al: Although a lot of, looking at it, actually re-watching it, a lot of the stuff is, (0:44:54) Al: oh no, that’s sources. I was looking at going, a lot of these things say manga, but no, that was, (0:44:58) Al: they said source. They have done a few adaptations from video games as well, so it’s not like they’ve (0:45:04) Al: never done that. In fact, their third one they ever did in 2013 was a video game adaptation. (0:45:10) Kev: No, that’s cool (0:45:11) Al: Devil Survivor 2 is based on a (0:45:13) Kev: Huh? Okay, that’s interesting (0:45:16) Al: Nintendo DS game. (0:45:17) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:45:21) Kev: Part of the SMT like a spin-off series or something like that I could be totally wrong (0:45:26) Kev: But you know that I think a double summoner good darn it (0:45:27) Al: What? (0:45:30) Al: A Shin Megatensei, or however you pronounce it. (0:45:32) Kev: Yeah, oh my gosh (0:45:33) Al: How many spin-offs does that series have? (0:45:36) Kev: Look you know who cares because persona already has passed (0:45:40) Kev: it in numbers like they hit persona five before SMT yes well it’s okay so (0:45:43) Al: Yeah, but did they not just do another spin-off? (0:45:48) Al: The new what’s the new spin-off they did? (0:45:52) Al: Metaphor, Rifantazzi, or whatever it’s called. (0:45:52) Kev: metaphor very fantastic yeah okay so yeah what they yeah you know that’s (0:45:55) Al: Stupid name, hate that name. (0:45:57) Al: Really bad name. (0:46:02) Kev: fine I don’t blame you okay I will say metaphor is not a spin-off because it’s (0:46:09) Kev: It’s just a new franchise, right? (0:46:10) Kev: The original Persona had the, you know, it was the thing with the subtitle, right? (0:46:14) Kev: It was Shin Megami Tensei colon Persona or whatever, right? (0:46:18) Kev: It was very explicitly a branching off the SMT series. (0:46:22) Al: you’re right. You’re right. It is an Atlas game. Devil Survivor 2. You’re right. Look (0:46:25) Kev: So yeah, that, so yeah, Metaphor is a new franchise. (0:46:32) Kev: Yep. There you go. There you go. See? That was totally… (0:46:35) Al: at you with this deep knowledge of random games. My word. (0:46:42) Kev: » Ow, I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a huge weeb. (0:46:44) Kev: » [LAUGH] (0:46:46) Kev: » Point blank, my God. (0:46:49) Kev: Speaking of weeb, I’m looking at the the Farmasia. (0:46:54) Kev: So it looks like a mid-cast or there’s like four primary cast members. (0:46:59) Kev: Man, so if you go back and look at Mishima’s other works, (0:47:02) Kev: he has these exact same four characters in all of his other works. (0:47:06) Kev: He just changes the hair, but the faces, the… the builds are all… (0:47:10) Kev: The same… (0:47:12) Kev: Oh, glorious Nippon. What would I do with that? (0:47:14) Al: The first ever Survivor game was actually called Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor, (0:47:22) Kev: I was right yeah all the (0:47:22) Al: so there you go. (0:47:26) Al: On the second one was also, the second one also had the Shin Megatensei start to the (0:47:32) Al: title as well. (0:47:33) Kev: Well, there you go. (0:47:34) Kev: Mm, all right. (0:47:36) Kev: Look at all these wonderful SMT spinoffs. (0:47:40) Kev: Vermaggia is not one of them, but it could be. (0:47:42) Al: atlas have done just an insane number of games like I cannot even that list like sure they’ve (0:47:47) Kev: It really is like– (0:47:51) Al: been going since 1987 did you know that their first game was 1987 but but like (0:47:54) Kev: Yeah, I didn’t know that, but that makes sense. (0:48:00) Kev: I mean, the early persona was pretty early. (0:48:04) Kev: Yeah, but I believe it. (0:48:05) Al: i’m looking at this list and I think there’s over a hundred games on the (0:48:11) Kev: And you know what the crazy part is? (0:48:13) Kev: We’re not talking, you know, janky mobile games. (0:48:16) Kev: We’re not talking quick and dirty things. (0:48:19) Kev: These games are massive. (0:48:22) Kev: Like, I don’t know if you– (0:48:22) Al: Well, they had done like 30 before mobile games even existed. (0:48:29) Kev: Yes, yes, and these games are massive. (0:48:33) Kev: Atlas is insane. (0:48:35) Kev: Holy moly. (0:48:37) Kev: Because their games, like, their flagship RPGs or whatever, (0:48:41) Kev: they’re easy, 100 hours, easy. (0:48:45) Kev: Wild to think about there, the volume. (0:48:47) Al: Sorry, sorry, my numbers were way off. They did 40 before Pokemon even existed. (0:48:54) Kev: Sick, sick. (0:48:56) Kev: Oh, my goodness. (0:48:58) Al: And then they did another 40 between Pokémon existing and– (0:48:59) Kev: She. Has that was done it for me? (0:49:03) Kev: As boy, could they. (0:49:05) Al: That’s a good question. (0:49:06) Al: I wouldn’t be surprised if something exists in here because there’s so many games. (0:49:11) Kev: They got my look, I don’t know if you play them, but SMTs are monster collectors. (0:49:15) Kev: So like, you know, it’s not that far off to get me an SMT farming game or something. (0:49:24) Al: I think there might be close to like, there might be over 200 there might actually be over 200 games in this list. (0:49:27) Kev: metaphor. She’s metaphor re. (0:49:33) Kev: Pardon me, Asia. (0:49:36) Kev: Oh. Oh. (0:49:36) Al: Like, I’m not even I’m not even joking. So if I do a control left of of to try and figure out how many that are on this list, I come up with 232 lines on this. (0:49:46) Al: But that includes maybe about 30 references. I think, yeah, I think there’s over 200. (0:49:47) Kev: See. Yeah. And you know what? (0:49:55) Kev: I just thought something like I’m making the jokes about the farming game, (0:49:58) Kev: but it’s not entirely off the table. (0:50:00) Kev: I don’t know if you know this. (0:50:01) Kev: The Persona games have dancing riffs. (0:50:03) Kev: them spin-offs and a fighter in there somewhere. Yeah. That’s awful but yes. I don’t too many (0:50:07) Al: Oh, you’re going to love this. (0:50:08) Al: So at Google, how many games have Atlas made? (0:50:11) Al: And, you know, Google now have this AI overview at the top. (0:50:14) Al: Do you want to know what it says? (0:50:16) Al: Do you want to know what it says? (0:50:18) Kev: to count. So I wasn’t wrong. Yep. Oh. (0:50:20) Al: Atlas has made many games. (0:50:24) Al: Many games, really? (0:50:28) Al: That is just amazing. (0:50:32) Al: Like I cannot that is so much better than any. (0:50:37) Al: Parody, you can make of AI. (0:50:40) Kev: Definitely more A than I. (0:50:43) Kev: Oh! (0:50:44) Kev: Good times. (0:50:46) Kev: Anime! (0:50:49) Kev: Excited for anime. (0:50:52) Kev: Oh man, we got at least two more anime episodes of THS lined up down the line. (0:50:58) Al: Now that we’re done with the anime section of the podcast, now it’s onto the new games. (0:50:59) Kev: Oh boy. (0:51:04) Kev: Okay, is one of them an anime? (0:51:07) Al: So the first game, I should note, is not a cottagecore game, so this is almost certainly (0:51:15) Al: not something we’re going to cover on the podcast. However, yes, of course it is. The (0:51:17) Kev: Ahh, so it’s a roguelike. (0:51:21) Al: reason why I’m bringing it up is because it’s made by Snoozy Kazoo, who you might know as (0:51:28) Al: a developer of Turnip Boy games. So I just felt like, because we’ve talked about both (0:51:32) Al: Turnip Boy games, I felt like we should talk about this just in our “this is something (0:51:36) Al: that exists”. You might find it interesting if you liked the idea of those games as well. (0:51:38) Kev: Turnip– Turnip boy feels like the antithesis of Karjikor. (0:51:44) Kev: Turnip boy’s all about cozy vibes, and turnip boy’s about unhinged chaos. (0:51:45) Al: So right, right, OK. I mean, do you want the reasoning behind why I covered Turnip Boy? (0:51:53) Al: Because I can do the reasoning of why we covered it. So no, it’s not. That’s not (0:51:54) Kev: It’s a vegetable. (0:51:56) Kev: That seems pretty simple. (0:51:58) Al: why. So the first Turnip Boy game, when I first saw anything about it, I saw, “Oh, (0:52:04) Al: here’s Turnip Boy. OK, cool.” And then he goes around and the first trailer started (0:52:08) Al: off with him going and watering something, and he got the sword. And I was like, “Oh, (0:52:14) Al: that’s really interesting. It looks like you’re growing weapons. That feels very farming. (0:52:19) Al: That’s a farming game. We can cover this.” Now it turns out that that’s only something (0:52:25) Al: you ever do once, right at the very start of the game. (0:52:26) Kev: - India. (0:52:28) Al: So I maybe covered it under false pretenses and then the second game which is even less (0:52:37) Al: a farming game because you don’t even do it once and even less cottagecore because it is so fast (0:52:42) Al: based and stressful. I don’t know I just wanted to cover it because I found it interesting. (0:52:48) Kev: I mean, we’d already done the first one, so why not? (0:52:50) Kev: Also, it’s a roguelike, so that puts it in the running for real. (0:52:54) Al: So, yet this game exists is called Hobknobbers. They say pillage them all with your friends, (0:53:02) Al: fight murderous pixies, and worship a divorcee lady goddess. Hobknobbers is a fast-paced (0:53:08) Al: 3D platformer where you and your crew of mischievous gnomish critters storm through multi-dimensional (0:53:16) Al: outlets and fight pixies or seek to harvest you for yummy snacks. Raid the shops and stuff (0:53:22) Al: shinies in your hat before the portal closes. (0:53:24) Al: Or risk being stranded in a whimsical capitalist hellscape. (0:53:30) Al: Deliver your loot to Lady Goddess, (0:53:32) Al: an enigmatic figure trying to get revenge on her ex-husband. (0:53:36) Al: Trade the items you recover for cosmetic upgrades, a.k.a. Drip. (0:53:36) Kev: sick (0:53:40) Al: Or if you fail, get turned into you. (0:53:42) Kev: Yeah (0:53:44) Kev: Well, why don’t they just call it Riz knobbers (0:53:50) Kev: Okay, so the game actually looks very entertaining I will say (0:53:55) Kev: First of all, it’s 3d right departure from turner boy. Um, we’re full 3d polygons and whatnot (0:54:04) Kev: But it’s very (0:54:06) Kev: You’re running around stealing stuff in a mall while you’re being chased by I guess those are pixies there are just little yellow dudes with (0:54:21) Kev: Baton spiked batons that are tough for you. It looks like (0:54:25) Kev: There is the four-player like co-op thing looks pretty entertaining (0:54:30) Kev: um (0:54:31) Kev: And yeah, I don’t know it looks kind of busy a steep a little bit (0:54:36) Kev: That was so a lot of the stuff moves (0:54:39) Kev: It’s it’s definitely whimsical. It’s chaotic. Very very turnip boy in that sense (0:54:46) Kev: I’m I’m excited to see what what they’ll do with it. No date yet (0:54:50) Al: Yeah, it looks interesting. I don’t know if I’ll play it or not, because it’s a lot of (0:54:55) Al: things that stress me out of great games. But there you go. If you’ve been interested (0:55:01) Al: in games this news because you make, here’s another one. (0:55:05) Kev: the 8 player online co-op haha I liked it so on the steam page they have a list a game (0:55:12) Kev: containing the following with their uh their highlights a whimsical multilute able pixies (0:55:19) Kev: to kill and be killed by up to 8 player co online co-op in game cosmetics rat as its (0:55:26) Kev: own bullet point a lady goddess you can impress a lady a lady goddess you can impress uh with (0:55:35) Kev: some kind of it looks like an emoji of the bird guy blushing and the ability to be thrown (0:55:42) Kev: into the stew by said lady goddess okay yeah all right there you go if you wanted to be (0:55:47) Kev: thrown into stew here you go (0:55:49) Al: This is definitely not going to have weird people playing it. (0:55:54) Al: Not saying everybody who plays it is weird. (0:55:56) Al: I’m just saying there are definitely going to be people who play this (0:55:59) Al: just to be thrown into studio by a goddess. (0:56:02) Kev: Look, I was about to say it’s the new updated 2024 version of Steppe on me. (0:56:03) Al: Kevin. (0:56:04) Al: Um. (0:56:12) Al: Yeah, yeah. Well, this is the thing. (0:56:16) Al: Moving on in this family friendly podcast, (0:56:19) Al: the final piece of news is the other new game that we have, which is desktop cat (0:56:25) Al: cafe. (0:56:25) Kev: Boy, what a what a juxtaposition here (0:56:30) Al: Build your dream cat cafe in this tiny, (0:56:32) Al: cozy management sim that lives at the bottom of your screen. (0:56:37) Al: Unlock exciting new recipes, (0:56:38) Al: decorate your space with our wide variety of goodies and hire cute (0:56:42) Al: staff to take care of the cafe while you’re doing other things. (0:56:46) Al: Which version of cute do they talk about when they say cute? (0:56:49) Al: Is it cute or is it cute? (0:56:50) Kev: don’t you want the answer i’m scared to find out I don’t know (0:56:56) Al: Well, I think, I think everything I see in a screenshot is a cat. (0:57:01) Al: So I’m guessing it’s all cute. (0:57:01) Kev: it does and and doesn’t answer anything (0:57:04) Al: No, no, no, stop. (0:57:08) Al: So I guess this is the fourth in our trilogy. (0:57:12) Al: This one, interestingly, is 3D. (0:57:16) Kev: Yeah, well, okay, so while joking aside, it is very cute, as in like cuddly animals, little kitties cute, um, they’re even like, are those ghost cats? Or no, wait, I don’t know what that is. I mean, it’s not ghost cats, um, I’m, go ahead, go ahead. (0:57:36) Al: Uh no, I was just laughing at you talking about ghost cats. Ghost cats? Oh wait, no, (0:57:40) Al: no ghost cats. What is that? I think this is our build mode thing, because if you look at everyone (0:57:42) Kev: It has the menu. Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. (0:57:49) Al: that has the ghost cats, they’ve got a menu up with items. What I find most interesting about (0:57:56) Al: this is that it’s a departure from the other bottom of your screen games that we’ve seen, (0:58:01) Al: in there it’s 3D. So instead of just being like a (0:58:02) Kev: Yeah, okay, so (0:58:06) Al: grid, where your person walks, it’s more kind of like pushed down and into the screen. (0:58:12) Kev: Yeah, so think of it as your screen as the sky background. (0:58:16) Kev: That’s probably the way I’d describe it. (0:58:16) Al: Yeah, that is a good way of describing it. Yeah. (0:58:19) Kev: It is– OK. (0:58:21) Kev: First of all, I’m not particularly (0:58:23) Kev: fond of these desktop idle games or whatever, (0:58:27) Kev: because I’m not that kind of multitasking person. (0:58:27) Al: Fair, totally fair. (0:58:34) Kev: I like to focus on whatever I’m doing. (0:58:37) Kev: So obviously, that’s a very me thing. (0:58:38) Kev: I know this has a lot of appeal for other people, (0:58:40) Kev: that’s great for them. (0:58:42) Kev: But one thing I will say, this looks like it’s taking up a (0:58:45) Kev: long real estate on your screen. (0:58:46) Al: Especially with the trees that extend up really high. (0:58:47) Kev: Like some, yeah, some screenshots. (0:58:52) Kev: It’s almost like a third of the screen. (0:58:54) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:58:54) Kev: Uh, that’s a lot of space. (0:58:59) Kev: I, um, I’m just trying to think how, how, how is the, the other stuff supposedly (0:59:06) Kev: weren’t running on your screen? (0:59:07) Al: Yeah, there’s actually this one screenshot where the tree extends to the top of the screen. (0:59:07) Kev: Because I noticed on all the screenshots that it’s either like just the blank (0:59:12) Kev: or like just some photos in the background. (0:59:14) Kev: How are you? (0:59:19) Kev: Oh, sick. (0:59:19) Kev: You know what, you know what? (0:59:21) Kev: You know, I’m kind of down for that. (0:59:23) Kev: Actually. (0:59:24) Kev: Give me one of these games, but the more you build, build it up, the more (0:59:28) Kev: it takes over of your screen. (0:59:30) Kev: And so it just starts taking over your attention. (0:59:32) Kev: Oh, I like that. (0:59:33) Kev: That’s a good, I like that premise. (0:59:35) Kev: Let’s do that. (0:59:37) Kev: Oh, um, so I will say like, obviously. (0:59:42) Kev: Cafe is a, uh, a crowded space in the gaming world. (0:59:46) Kev: Right. (0:59:47) Kev: But, uh, uh, you know, doing the desktop angle, that is something novel. (0:59:52) Kev: Um, and I do like the graphics, the visuals are cute. (0:59:55) Kev: Um, uh, but, uh, yeah, there we go. (0:59:57) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:59:59) Kev: It for people who enjoy this stuff. (1:00:02) Kev: I think it looks nice. (1:00:03) Kev: Like I said, I’m probably not going to get it because I’m this is, I would just (1:00:07) Kev: rather a full version of this game or whatever, but, uh, but, uh, good for you (1:00:14) Al: All right, that’s all the news. I know we’re in. We’re now going to talk (1:00:21) Al: about Balatro, for it is a game that has taken over the world. (1:00:26) Kev: it really take it over my world for sure but yeah kind of has taken over the world up for game of the year (1:00:35) Kev: Whoo! (1:00:36) Al: Which, by the way, I’m just going to say weird. Weird decision. Like, I understand why people (1:00:45) Al: like this game, right? And I don’t hate the game. Let’s start off like that. I think it is a very (1:00:54) Al: well-designed game, but calling this game of the year is a wild take to me. Like, it’s simpler (1:01:02) Kev: I mean yeah like yeah okay I think there is something to be said about a game’s impact (1:01:03) Al: poker. It’s one person. (1:01:06) Al: and poker. Like I don’t. Yeah. (1:01:16) Kev: right like uh let’s like I’ll point out to Minecraft let’s say right like Minecraft is (1:01:24) Kev: a game of the year whatever it’s it’s a top game of whatever right um there’s other games that have (1:01:32) Kev: formula better and you know stuff like that I’ve iterated or whatever but just because of the (1:01:37) Kev: influence like Minecraft still stands down on top right so there is something to be said about that (1:01:42) Al: I disagree with you. I disagree with your premise. I think that Ballattro is the best (1:01:46) Kev: okay (1:01:49) Al: version of this game. I don’t think Minecraft is the best version of the game that it could (1:01:55) Al: be. I do think that both of them are obviously very popular. I think my issue is it is both (1:02:05) Al: shallow and complicated at the same time. So it is shallow in so much. (1:02:08) Kev: - Sure, yeah. (1:02:12) Al: As it is a very simple concept, there are so many options and ways to go. I accept that. (1:02:16) Kev: It’s straightforward, it’s a simple concept, you’re right, but there are many options and ways to (1:02:26) Al: So I’m not trying to say as a game it is entirely shallow. But I feel like once you’ve figured (1:02:33) Al: out what the game wants from you, there’s nowhere else to go other than just completing (1:02:40) Kev: Or (1:02:42) Al: for the sake of it. (1:02:43) Kev: Sure, um, you know what that that’s that’s very fair (1:02:49) Kev: Like yeah, you’re right. Okay going like back to thinking back to the game of the year thing (1:02:54) Kev: I mean the second thing I was gonna say though is that it’s all nonsense anyways, right because especially the (1:03:00) Kev: the game awards like (1:03:02) Kev: Trademarked like they’re uh, it’s just Jeff Keeley doing whatever and it’s all a bunch of nonsense, right? (1:03:08) Kev: But there is no denying this game has had any (1:03:10) Kev: impact this year, right? It’s a standout name. It’s made a lot (1:03:14) Kev: of money and a lot of people are playing it. I’ve spent a (1:03:17) Kev: lot of time on it. But you know what, let’s let’s say a listener (1:03:23) Kev: has not been familiar with Bellato. Let’s let’s let’s just (1:03:27) Kev: go over it real quick, right? So the game is, as Al said, it is (1:03:31) Kev: essentially single player poker. You’re trying to create a poker (1:03:36) Kev: hand, right, the standard 52 playing card deck. (1:03:40) Kev: You know, full house, two pairs, three of a kind, all those hands that you see in poker, (1:03:47) Kev: and they give you an amount of points that correspond to the card you use that correspond (1:03:54) Kev: both to the type of hand you used and the actual cards, you know, the rank of the cards (1:04:00) Kev: or whatever, right? (1:04:01) Kev: So that’s the base premise, which is, as Al said, pretty simple and straightforward because (1:04:08) Kev: because it’s just building off the very well established. (1:04:10) Kev: But. (1:04:14) Al: And I think it does the start up till winning your first round very well. (1:04:20) Al: I think the curve, the difficulty curve and the improvements on how you understand the game, I think, worked really well up to that point. (1:04:26) Kev: Mm-hmm (1:04:32) Kev: Sure, yeah, yeah, no, I agree (1:04:36) Kev: but there (1:04:38) Kev: be (1:04:39) Kev: The whole the reality of the game the thing that makes the game are the joke what they call the jokers (1:04:45) Kev: So obviously jokers aren’t really used in poker (1:04:49) Kev: And here they’re not even just a joker. They are just (1:04:53) Kev: essentially modifiers. (1:04:54) Kev: They call jokers, but they are. (1:04:56) Kev: A variety of cards that you can at least standard you can have up to five of them, and they can have all sorts of wild and different effects on there are tons of these different cards that you can use right. (1:05:10) Kev: You can have stuff that gives you extra points, depending on if, like, you know, what kind of suit of cards you use, what. (1:05:18) Kev: What type of hands you use right there’s ones that will put things wildly like you can now play straights or flushes. (1:05:26) Kev: If it is with four cards, or you can skip a gap when playing straights you can you can get more points based on the amount of money you have oh oh that yeah right that’s what the other big thing right because so there is a shop after you finish around. (1:05:40) Kev: You get a certain amount of prize money based on your score how many hands you have left yada yada, and you can spend that in the shop, which is where you have all your jokers you have what they call vouchers which are long term modifiers that affect your whole run as they call it. (1:05:58) Kev: There is what they call tarot cards, which generally changed the individual cards on right like some parts will have a increase what’s called the multiplier for your score, give you more chips or points. (1:06:14) Kev: Or change the the suit of them or whatever all sorts of things right there’s the planet cards which improve the base score of each hand right like you buy Saturn and you get your straight. (1:06:26) Kev: So it’s a higher score thing, or like the base score for all streets will be higher, and the spectral cards which are kind of weird and all over the place they can be very powerful but have very high costs too. (1:06:40) Kev: And so yeah, so that is the kind of the gist of the game you’re modifying your, your poker your 52 playing card deck to get as high as possible scoring hands. (1:06:50) Kev: Because for every round you have you’re given a score and you have to beat that you know surpass that score to move on to the next one. (1:06:58) Kev: Okay, kind of the crash course there and Bellato but that’s how the game plays and it’s I personally consider very addictive. Okay, now let’s talk about into our individual experiences, how much Bellato have you played. (1:07:10) Al: So I have played, I guess I could probably bring it up, right? Because I played it on my iPad, (1:07:15) Al: so I can look in screen time and it can tell me. Because I was just about to give you like a vague (1:07:19) Al: idea of what I’ve played. I’ve completed the game, like I’ve finished, I’ve completed a run once. (1:07:28) Al: But I spent a long time, like you, you got to, you won your first run after like a day or something (1:07:28) Kev: Okay. (1:07:30) Kev: I think it was like three days, but yes. (1:07:35) Al: stupid. Whereas, whereas I, I was I was not… (1:07:41) Al: So, let’s have a look. Is there a way I can, I feel like there is meant to be a way you can (1:07:50) Al: just see what you’ve played on it. We’ve seen all app activity, here we are. So I need to go back (1:07:54) Al: to the last time I played Blanchro to click on it and see my total. (1:08:02) Kev: I play on mobile to the clear because this is like on everything now it came out on Steam first (1:08:09) Kev: I believe um, but it’s it is perfectly suited for mobile (1:08:10) Al: I did, yeah, I did. (1:08:15) Kev: Because you know, it’s it’s just (1:08:17) Kev: Very clean very straightforward screens, right? You have your poker hand in the shop (1:08:21) Kev: They’re like two two or three screens in the whole game and it all fits nicely on the mobile. So (1:08:28) Kev: And it’s not anything that’s running in tensor anything, right? (1:08:32) Kev: There’s very little in terms of animation or whatnot. (1:08:36) Kev: So it’s a perfect mobile game. It’s probably my audio or my primary one at this point. (1:08:42) Al: Yeah, I haven’t played it in a few weeks. Basically, when I did my one successful run, (1:08:47) Al: I was like, “I’m done. That’s me. I’m finished.” I think I probably put about 10 hours into it. (1:08:56) Kev: I don’t see how many hours I see of mine, but it’s a lot I could tell you. (1:09:02) Kev: I have like, I have, uh, geez, like I, I had my collections apparently at 78%. (1:09:08) Kev: Did you know was that high? Holy moly. (1:09:08) Al: Oh my word, that’s wild. Let’s see what mine is, because mine, I don’t think, is anywhere near- (1:09:16) Kev: My highest hand was 1,300,000 and some change. (1:09:22) Al: Where’s the percentage are you seeing the percentage. (1:09:22) Kev: I’ve done. (1:09:26) Kev: So there’s a, if, if I go to options, you can see stats. (1:09:30) Al: stats. I see. So my collection is apparently at 67%. That’s interesting. That’s higher than I expected. (1:09:37) Al: My. (1:09:38) Kev: Hmm. Well, you know, I think it’s like because like a lot of like the planet and the tarot cards you you know (1:09:46) Kev: There’s no limit on them. You can use right like I imagine that’s a good chunk that fills up pretty quickly, right? (1:09:47) Al: true. Yeah. Yeah, I think most of the ones I’m still missing are jokers. I’ve got all (1:09:54) Kev: I mean naturally right and there’s a lot of jokers to unlock (1:09:57) Al: of the tarot cards, all of the tarot cards and all bar three of the planet and spectral (1:09:58) Kev: talk. (1:10:03) Al: cards. So yeah, I’m missing 60 jokers. I think that’s most of it. I have. (1:10:12) Kev: Yeah, let’s see I’m at a hundred out of a hundred hundred seven out of 150 jokers (1:10:18) Kev: I’ve used all the vouchers all the tarot. I’ve only used nine of the twelve planet currents and only nine of the 18 spectral cards (1:10:24) Al: Well that’s because you’re focusing on the specific things, like who’s ever going to (1:10:31) Al: upgrade Royal Flush? Exactly. I’ve put about 10 hours into this game and I’ve never had a Royal (1:10:32) Kev: the royal flush yeah yeah you’re right you’re super I think I had one or two (1:10:42) Al: Flush. So it’s… (1:10:45) Kev: royal flashes in all my times I mean obviously it’s like the you know that’s (1:10:49) Kev: that’s the that’s the king the the top of the mountain right like yeah it makes (1:10:55) Kev: sense you’re right um so yeah no I’m not buying the royal flush planet um yeah (1:11:00) Kev: Let’s see, 107. (1:11:02) Kev: 150 Jokers. (1:11:04) Kev: I have one more deck to unlock, which is pretty wild. (1:11:08) Kev: I’m on like the fifth difficulty out of like six or seven, I think. (1:11:13) Kev: Yeah. (1:11:14) Kev: So I put a lot of time into this game. (1:11:16) Kev: Um, so, okay. (1:11:18) Kev: Let’s talk about your experience in tears is a little more limited. (1:11:21) Kev: Like, what did you like about the game? (1:11:22) Al: So, I think the overall, you know, the game loop is fun, right? Like building up a deck (1:11:31) Al: and jokers to do these wild combinations is fun. Like that in and of itself is fun. I (1:11:39) Al: really like that, especially like the first couple of times you do it, you’re learning (1:11:43) Al: all these new things and you’re figuring out all these new jokers and you’re like, Oh, (1:11:46) Al: that’s a really fun one. I can do this and that. And figuring out these different things (1:11:49) Al: to make combinations. (1:11:52) Al: It’s really fun. (1:11:53) Kev: - Mm-hmm. - All right. (1:11:56) Al: And yeah, I had a lot of fun the first couple of times. (1:12:00) Al: My real problem came with, and this is such a stupid thing to say, but when I first died (1:12:05) Al: and I realized it was a one and done, now you’re back to the beginning, I just felt (1:12:09) Al: that dread that I do when I realized some things are wrong. (1:12:10) Kev: Yeah. (1:12:12) Al: And you’re like, “Oh, no!” (1:12:15) Al: And you’re like, “I get… (1:12:15) Kev: No, it tricked me again! (1:12:17) Al: I… (1:12:18) Al: Well, this is…” (1:12:19) Al: So here’s the thing, right? (1:12:20) Al: understand that (1:12:22) Al: I understand that it’s a rogue light. And people are like, “Oh, well, how did you not (1:12:24) Al: know that that’s what would happen?” And I’m like, “Well, because not every rogue light (1:12:30) Al: has the exact same reset point, right? The point of a rogue light is that at some point (1:12:38) Al: you’ll reset.” And I wasn’t assuming that the first hand where you don’t manage to get (1:12:45) Al: the points, that’s it. Or sorry, not the first hand, the first blind, that you’re not able (1:12:50) Al: to get to (1:12:52) Al: the total amount, that’s it. There’s no room for recovery. And that is just my usual thing (1:12:58) Al: of like just like dread of like, oh, great. Now I am reset and everything I’ve just done (1:13:04) Al: is wasted and useless and doesn’t matter. And yes, sure, I’ve learned some stuff and (1:13:10) Al: I can do better next time, but it’s just like that frustration always gets to me every time. (1:13:17) Al: However, I kept going, I obviously enjoyed it enough to keep (1:13:22) Al: going to the point where I did win around and I was like, I (1:13:28) Al: think after a while I got to I got on to blinds, not blind, (1:13:34) Al: was it? The level eight, whatever they call it. (1:13:39) Al: There’s a word. Yeah, anti, yeah, the anti-eight and failed (1:13:40) Kev: the anti or anti. (1:13:45) Al: on the second last one and I was like, I was so close. (1:13:48) Al: I need to do this. (1:13:49) Al: I feel like I’m so close that I need to. (1:13:50) Kev: Ah, yep, yep, heh heh heh heh. (1:13:52) Al: I was like, so I will keep going until I’ve, I’ve won one and then we’ll see how I feel. (1:13:57) Al: Um, and once I won one, I was like, I now have no enthusiasm to do this again, because I get that there are lots of other strategies you can be doing, but also why would I not just do things that I know work? (1:14:12) Kev: Right, right. Yeah. No that that’s (1:14:14) Al: Like I could, I could run on, I could do another run and do a completely different strategy, but if I fail, I’ll just be like, I should have just done something. (1:14:20) Kev: » Yep. Yeah. You know what? That’s fair, right? I will say probably the biggest weakness (1:14:22) Al: And I don’t particularly find that fun. (1:14:32) Kev: or let’s say drawback of the design, right? Is the – I think compared to other Roguelikes, (1:14:41) Kev: it’s one you have a lot less control, it’s a lot more random and variables that – (1:14:46) Al: for sure, for sure. You can deal with that. You can deal with that in doing things that get you (1:14:50) Al: lots of money, so you just keep resetting. But yeah, it’s still a lot of randomization there, (1:14:50) Kev: » Sure. Sure. Right? Right. Right. That’s what I was about to do. (1:14:56) Al: and it’s like, let’s take, compare it to Hades, which is an action game. (1:15:05) Al: First of all, you’re unlocking things between runs to make yourself more powerful in the next run, (1:15:11) Al: so it’s not like everything disappears. In this game, the only thing that you (1:15:16) Al: have between games is your brain and what you’ve learned. And sure, okay, fine. Yeah, (1:15:20) Kev: Yeah, I guess the closest thing is you can unlock different decks, right? (1:15:24) Kev: There’s some with give you bonus money, some that are adjusted, but you’re right. (1:15:27) Al: they don’t fundamentally change it. They do not fundamentally change it. No. The decks (1:15:30) Kev: Yes, right. (1:15:32) Kev: It’s, it’s, it doesn’t build up. (1:15:33) Kev: Let’s say that it gives you different options, but it doesn’t build up. (1:15:37) Al: generally aren’t more powerful. The decks are generally different challenges, right? (1:15:42) Kev: Sure. Yeah, that’s fair. (1:15:42) Al: Whereas in Hades, you are gaining your abilities and you’re gating (1:15:46) Al: gaining new weapons and you’re becoming more powerful in that way. (1:15:48) Al: And a lot of it is to do with your skill. (1:15:51) Al: Yes, there is a little bit of randomization in what upgrades (1:15:53) Al: you can get during the run, but if you are good at it, you could (1:15:54) Kev: You don’t even need those upgrades. Just don’t get it. (1:15:56) Al: get through any run, right? (1:15:58) Al: Whereas in this, exactly, exactly. (1:16:03) Al: Whereas, well, no, that’s an absolutely right. (1:16:05) Al: Like the, absolutely right. (1:16:06) Kev: No, no, I know. I’m joking. But yes, that is true, right? Like there are people who could do that. I’m sure they’re good enough. (1:16:10) Al: Absolutely. (1:16:12) Al: Whereas in bilateral, you are 100%. (1:16:16) Al: 0% relying on good jokers coming up, not only that, but you’re relying on good ones (1:16:22) Al: that work with what you’ve already chosen. (1:16:25) Kev: Yep, and your hands. (1:16:25) Al: Because if you make a bad choice at the beginning, and then your future stuff never comes up, (1:16:30) Al: you are stuffed. (1:16:32) Al: And yeah, people who love the game are going to argue, “Yeah, but you just need to deal (1:16:35) Al: with that. (1:16:36) Al: You just need to have other ways. (1:16:37) Al: You just need to do better strategies.” (1:16:38) Al: And you’re like, “Well, in that case, all I’m going to do is focus on building up high (1:16:43) Al: card and pair as high as possible. (1:16:46) Al: Not fun, is it? That’s not a fun strategy. (1:16:46) Kev: Yeah, you are super right. (1:16:48) Al: Yes, there are there are there are unbeatable strategies that will always (1:16:52) Al: get you through, but then why are you just doing the same thing over and over again? (1:16:56) Al: Is not the fun of it doing new strategies and seeing if you can do it? (1:17:00) Al: And then you are fully relying on the on the randomization of what’s going to be (1:17:04) Al: chosen next. And that I don’t like. (1:17:06) Kev: - Yup, yup, I mean, I totally agree with you. (1:17:07) Al: That’s not fun. (1:17:11) Kev: Like I can see your frustration with that, right? (1:17:13) Kev: Going back to Hades, right? (1:17:15) Kev: All the upgrades, even like, (1:17:17) Kev: so there’s the different deities, right? (1:17:19) Kev: And the different types of upgrades. (1:17:21) Kev: And the, you know, the more we get a one, (1:17:23) Kev: the more they work well together and so on and so forth. (1:17:26) Kev: But let’s say every single upgrade you got (1:17:27) Kev: was a different kind, you’re still getting a boost, right? (1:17:30) Kev: You’re still, it’s still overall a net positive, right? (1:17:35) Kev: Maybe not ideal, but… (1:17:36) Kev: It can be used to benefit you. (1:17:38) Kev: In biological, there are some jokers that just don’t benefit you. (1:17:44) Kev: Or at least on the current run you have, right? (1:17:46) Kev: Like you can have a group of five jokers that are totally random (1:17:50) Kev: and you’re just totally screwed because they don’t all help you (1:17:53) Kev: or help you enough, right? (1:17:56) Kev: And some work really well together, but you, unless you get to the two (1:18:01) Kev: or three that run really well together. (1:18:06) Kev: It might not be that great separate. (1:18:09) Kev: And yeah, and that is I think one of the difficulties of this game (1:18:15) Kev: compared to other roguelikes. (1:18:17) Kev: Just it is a bit more limited. (1:18:20) Kev: What you get in the run is a lot more limiting than other games (1:18:27) Kev: that are more skill based or whatever. (1:18:30) Kev: Like because those blinds, especially in later difficulties, (1:18:34) Kev: like those numbers blind get really (1:18:37) Kev: So like you can’t just play good hands and win you need you need good jokers to win (1:18:44) Kev: and so you can just (1:18:46) Kev: Completely be out of luck and not even get these like almost any jokers on a run (1:18:51) Kev: Right because the shop will not always sell jokers you get the planets and the Terros or whatever (1:18:56) Kev: and so (1:18:58) Kev: Yeah, no, I can absolutely understand where you’re coming from (1:19:03) Al: Yeah. (1:19:03) Kev: Let me ask you this, okay, out of the runs you did (1:19:06) Kev: What are some of your favorite strategies that came to be or jokers that were memorable? (1:19:12) Al: Yeah, I think the thing I found most reliable was just building up like pair, or straight or flush, (1:19:26) Al: and then, you know, the straight or flush one obviously relied on you getting the one that (1:19:31) Al: allows you to do it with four cards, and then also have gaps and straights. Yeah, (1:19:34) Kev: Or have the gaps (1:19:37) Al: I thought I found that one was quite a good one the (1:19:40) Kev: Yeah, that’s probably one of the best in the game in my opinion it’s it’s so good (1:19:42) Al: Yeah, but also just, yeah, the building up pair was because you’re almost always (1:19:48) Al: going to get a pair and you can get that number up really high, especially if you then (1:19:54) Al: get the one that adds all cards that you play count. So you play a pair plus three other (1:20:00) Kev: No, that one’s great (1:20:01) Al: ones was good fun. (1:20:04) Kev: Yeah (1:20:07) Kev: Yeah, um, I think most of my success are there let’s say the runs (1:20:11) Kev: I enjoy the most and I’ve been successful it I’ve been very like focused on straights (1:20:15) Kev: I’m like I said, I like those where you can get the gaps or (1:20:20) Kev: Just make them in a for and because straights and flushes are pretty valuable (1:20:25) Kev: From their base, right? So if you can build that you’re already on a solid foundation (1:20:30) Kev: And oh, you know what and and we should point out right like not everything build there is upgraded at an equal (1:20:37) Kev: rate right like (1:20:40) Kev: Pairs and high cards though the simple ones stay (1:20:43) Kev: Every upgrade you get is not as big of an upgrade as say for the the straights when you buy the whatever Mercury (1:20:49) Kev: I think it is for a high card (1:20:51) Kev: It only increases the the multiplier by like one (1:20:54) Kev: But if you increase your straight increases the multiplier by two or three (1:20:58) Kev: Um… (1:21:00) Kev: So like, I think the game in some ways does incentivize you to try to focus on those higher, rarer, those more difficult hands to form. (1:21:10) Kev: But yeah, I also like strategies that focused on money, right? There’s a card called, I forget what it’s called, it’s a picture of a bull. (1:21:20) Kev: It’s a Joker with a bull on it. (1:21:22) Kev: And you get like the amount of money you have, you get double that number of chips for every hand you play. (1:21:30) Kev: So if I have $50, I get 100 chips on every hand I play, so you can build that up real high. (1:21:36) Kev: Like, I can go out to $100 or whatever and I’ll get 200 chips every hand I play, plus everything else going on. (1:21:44) Kev: Um, let’s see, did you ever see the blueprint Joker? (1:21:48) Al: I don’t… I’ve heard of it, but I don’t think I ever found it and remind me what that one does. (1:21:52) Kev: Hmm, okay. (1:21:56) Kev: That one. Okay. This one might actually be the best one because I, what it does. (1:22:00) Kev: It copies another Joker in your set. It’ll probably be the one to the right. So if you (1:22:04) Al: Right. Okay. (1:22:06) Kev: have another Joker that’s, say, doubling your score or whatever, and you put the blueprint (1:22:12) Kev: Joker, it’ll double that double. It’ll go times four. So you can start scaling ridiculously (1:22:18) Kev: high. It’s quite fun. And something interesting about Bellaccio, one of the finer points that (1:22:30) Kev: first easily visible is that the order you play things and your range, your cards actually (1:22:36) Kev: can have a big influence. (1:22:37) Al: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I realized that after a couple, I’m like, oh, wait, no, you have to have (1:22:43) Al: the plus-mult before the times-mult, because otherwise, your times-mult is going to be really, (1:22:46) Kev: Uh-huh. Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. (1:22:49) Al: like, if you have times 2 and then plus 10, if you put the times 2 first, it’s going to go to 2 (1:22:56) Al: and then add on 10, whereas if you have the plus 10, it’s going to go to 10 and then to 20, right? (1:23:01) Al: You’ve really got to think the maths through on these things. There’s also, I saw one joke, (1:23:05) Al: I never saw it in my run through, but I saw… (1:23:07) Al: on a YouTube video, which is one where it turns the chips and malt both into the same number, (1:23:16) Al: which is the total of them divided by two. So if you just get the chips up really, really high, (1:23:22) Al: it will then take half of that and put it in the malt and you suddenly get really high numbers that way. (1:23:27) Kev: I don’t think I’ve seen that in Joker. I think there’s a deck that does something similar what that sounds really good. Ooh (1:23:30) Al: Yeah. No, there’s a joke there. There’s a joker. There’s a joker that does that. (1:23:35) Kev: That sounds good. Um, I don’t think I’ve seen that one. Um, oh man. Yeah, this sounds great. Um, so (1:23:37) Al: Yeah. (1:23:42) Al: Yeah, because then you just want to get all the stone cards in that case, right? Like plus 50 for each one. (1:23:49) Kev: That’s clever I’d like I know obviously I stay away from the stones generally speaking but that’s pretty good. I like that. Yeah (1:23:54) Al: In general, yeah. (1:23:57) Kev: I uh, I found what I’ve found one legend Joker in all my playthroughs (1:24:04) Kev: And what it did it disabled the boss blind just completely ignited it (1:24:09) Al: Oh, wow. Wow. (1:24:10) Kev: The effect so it just was a regular blind (1:24:15) Kev: Obviously glibbed up to that legend rarity, right? Like how powerful that was (1:24:20) Kev: So, yeah, that was that was fun. Um, did you? (1:24:27) Kev: So like you said there’s a handful of different decks, right one that’ll give you extra hand to play and one extra discard (1:24:34) Kev: I think you said you won with the one that gives you extra money at the beginning if I’m correct (1:24:40) Al: Yeah, that’s so the one I the deck I was using all the time since I unlocked it was the yellow deck, I think, is it let me just double check if that’s the right one. No, not the yellow deck, the green deck. (1:24:47) Kev: Mm-hmm (1:24:52) Al: And that one gives you instead of giving you interest, you get $2 per remaining hand and $1 per remaining discard. (1:24:52) Kev: Okay (1:24:55) Kev: Uh-huh (1:24:59) Kev: That is a good one (1:25:00) Al: I found early on you get a lot more money that way because you don’t have, you’re not you’re not you’re trying to spend all your money because you need stuff. (1:25:09) Kev: - Yeah. (laughs) (1:25:10) Al: Early on you get no interest. Whereas this way, you can quite often have, especially, you know, in this in the second round, you can quite often have, you know, only one hand that you need to use and no discards and then you suddenly get another $10, you know, it’s pretty good. (1:25:24) Kev: Yeah, I agree with that. (1:25:29) Kev: That is, I think, one of the challenges, especially– (1:25:33) Kev: so you only beat the run once, but when you beat them, (1:25:38) Kev: you unlock something called stakes, which is basically (1:25:41) Kev: another difficulty modifier on top of everything else. (1:25:45) Kev: And every time you beat a stake, you unlock a new one. (1:25:47) Kev: It’s the levels of difficulty, right? (1:25:50) Kev: And one of the very early stakes– (1:25:52) Kev: The camera fits the first or second one. (1:25:54) Kev: If you basically you stop earning the small blind, the first blind of each anti gives you only it doesn’t give you prize money you. (1:26:02) Al: Yeah, that’s the first one you unlock, yeah. (1:26:05) Kev: Yeah, yeah, you don’t get prize money you only get from hands you have an interest rate, so we can be really painful to start after that first difficulty because the thing about the stakes they all on this deck up on top of each other, if you go past that first difficulty, you still have to deal with that. (1:26:24) Kev: So, especially on later difficulties early money is really important because you want to buy a good voucher or do you want to buy a joker, you have to pick. (1:26:32) Al: Well, that’s the thing. And if you don’t get money quickly, you’re dying in your first (1:26:37) Al: boss blind. If you don’t have a single joker by that point, unless you get a straight or (1:26:39) Kev: Yeah, pretty much, which actually leads me to my deck of choice on I think it’s called the orange deck. (1:26:45) Al: a flush, you’re dead. (1:26:54) Kev: So what it does, it removes all the face cards from the deck you only have a 40 card deck not a 52 card deck and only the numbers, you get the aces. So you go ace to 10. (1:27:00) Al: - Whoa, interesting. (1:27:05) Kev: And I like it because that makes straights and flushes a lot more consistent. (1:27:10) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s a good point. That’s a good point. I guess it’s also I don’t know if (1:27:11) Kev: Right. (1:27:12) Kev: Yeah. (1:27:15) Al: you but my brain always takes a minute to figure out how to do a straight with face cards. It’s (1:27:20) Al: like if you if you sit me down I can obviously I can I can get it but it’s not like immediate. I (1:27:21) Kev: Yeah. (1:27:24) Kev: Sure. (1:27:25) Al: don’t look at I look at two and three and know they’re next to each other. I look at a king and (1:27:29) Al: a jack and I’m like which order do they go in again? Oh yeah no they’re not next to each other. (1:27:32) Kev: Yeah, yep, you’re right about that. (1:27:35) Al: Especially when you have the card that that allows you to skip ones then it becomes even (1:27:40) Kev: Oh, yeah. (1:27:40) Al: you’re like wait which cards am I allowed to use right now? Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. (1:27:46) Kev: Yeah, can he nine or they next to each other. (1:27:49) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. (1:27:52) Kev: So yeah, so I really liked that because it adds a degree of consistency I really like. (1:27:57) Kev: And when I get those other cards that modify the straights, it’s good stuff. (1:28:03) Kev: But it counts as, I think, high, because it still counts as 11. (1:28:04) Al: Oh here’s a here’s a question for you in that one does ace count as high and low or just low? (1:28:14) Al: So you right okay so you can it’s both right that’s fine just because because obviously (1:28:14) Kev: But you can still–well, right, yeah, yeah, but you still count– (1:28:19) Al: obviously in your normal deck you can do either nine jack sorry ten jack queen king ace or you (1:28:27) Al: can do ace two three four five and my question was in in in the very can you do (1:28:30) Kev: yeah yeah um okay oh okay that’s what you mean then it’s it’s only low it’s (1:28:34) Al: both ways as well without the face cards it’s only a little row without the face cards okay (1:28:36) Kev: only low yeah you can’t do ace ten nine yeah yeah sorry man it gives you 11 (1:28:40) Al: yeah okay (1:28:43) Kev: chips but yeah no I don’t think maybe I’ve ever been doing it oh no (1:28:48) Al: Well, I guess, no, I mean, now that I think about it, of course, (1:28:51) Al: that wouldn’t make any sense, because just because you don’t have any face (1:28:53) Al: cards doesn’t mean they don’t exist. (1:28:55) Al: Like presumably they’re like, you can get them from booster packs and stuff. (1:28:56) Kev: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You can. So yeah. That’s correct. So (1:28:59) Al: Exactly. (1:29:00) Al: So in that case, my question is pointless. (1:29:02) Al: It works in exactly the same way as it would before. (1:29:05) Al: It doesn’t mean that those two, three cards don’t exist. (1:29:11) Kev: yeah, that’s, you’re right, that is unfortunate that it removes (1:29:14) Kev: that, the high part of it. But I mean, still, you know, going (1:29:18) Kev: from just to 10 to eight, it makes the straights a lot more (1:29:23) Kev: consistent. So yeah, that’s the one I’m (1:29:26) Kev: working with. There are some other good decks I’ve unlocked that I want to try and probably will (1:29:30) Kev: because I’m an addict to this game. But but yeah, oh, in the real downside. So obviously the big (1:29:38) Kev: downside to the orange deck is I don’t get the high chip points scores from all the face cards (1:29:45) Kev: because they’re all plus 10, right? So I lose that value. But the real pain is that I can’t (1:29:51) Kev: Use the crossover car. I mean I can’t use the crossover text, but I don’t see that (1:29:56) Kev: I don’t get to see Dave or the Witcher all that stuff because they only affect a face cards (1:30:00) Al: That is a great segue, because this is the reason that we, this is the 100% reason that (1:30:04) Kev: Yeah (1:30:08) Al: we are doing this. What are your favorite, what are your favorite packs on the decks? (1:30:10) Kev: Yup, there you go (1:30:16) Kev: Okay, I (1:30:19) Kev: I’m gonna get heat for this. I can already tell you (1:30:22) Kev: Oh, I don’t think I mentioned I have a puppy people (1:30:26) Kev: Hello everyone, I have a puppy now. Um, I don’t know if you just heard him. But um, anyways, um, the the one (1:30:34) Kev: Biter out. Um, he I like the among us deck (1:30:40) Kev: Good old and bogus. Um, I just something about the the (1:30:46) Kev: I don’t know the cartoony nature of it and the king being the little monster that’s eating everything. I think is very into enjoyable (1:30:54) Kev: Maybe it’s because it’s so (1:30:56) Kev: Cartoonian goofy as opposed to all the other ones which try to blend more into I think the regal themes of it or whatever (1:31:04) Kev: Okay, I do think it is absolute heresy in the Dave so, you know, let’s go over all of them, right? So they’re there (1:31:11) Al: OK, right, so let’s start in, let’s start with the spades, we’ve, oh yeah, just before (1:31:15) Al: we talk about this, what I found really weird, and I didn’t understand until I actually tried (1:31:19) Al: to set this up, is there only for, each one is only for a specific set, what they called (1:31:25) Kev: Suit yeah, yeah, yeah very weird (1:31:26) Al: suit, that’s the word, yeah, so like the stardew one only exists for diamonds, you cannot have (1:31:32) Al: it in anything else, which I found super weird. (1:31:35) Kev: It is very weird right because all I think all of these well (1:31:40) Kev: I I don’t know all of these games, so maybe I’m wrong, but that’s only you need nine characters right for all (1:31:48) Kev: To have all face cards of each suit, and that’s not terribly hard (1:31:52) Al: Well, it’s not even that you could just have them all the same, right? Because if you look at (1:31:58) Kev: Or that yeah (1:31:59) Al: the base ones, they look exactly the same, they’re just next to - or they don’t actually look exactly (1:32:04) Al: the same, they look slightly different, but only slightly different. If you look at them next to (1:32:06) Kev: Yeah, no, I don’t think so because yeah, yeah. (1:32:09) Al: each other, you can tell a difference, but if you don’t - especially as they’ve got a nice (1:32:14) Al: accessibility setting to add high contrast cards, which makes them all different colours, (1:32:17) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (1:32:20) Al: so it makes the spades black. (1:32:22) Al: The hearts red, the clubs blue and the diamond and the diamonds yellow, (1:32:23) Kev: Ooh, that’s nice. (1:32:25) Al: which makes it so much easier to see the different suits. (1:32:26) Kev: Yeah. (1:32:29) Kev: Oh, that’s really nice. (1:32:30) Kev: I like it ‘cause that sometimes that is, (1:32:32) Kev: especially on mobile where it’s a small screen, right? (1:32:34) Kev: Sometimes that’ll throw me off. (1:32:36) Kev: The clubs and the spades, they’re both like blackish. (1:32:38) Al: Yep. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, as soon as I learned about (1:32:39) Kev: They could be hard to put, to tell apart. (1:32:43) Kev: But you’re right, like, yeah, I don’t blame you at all. (1:32:43) Al: that setting, I just turned on I’m like, this is makes life so (1:32:46) Al: much easier. (1:32:51) Kev: But yeah, you know what? (1:32:53) Kev: You’re right. (1:32:53) Kev: They could have just gone with the three they picked (1:32:56) Kev: and applied them to each of the suits. (1:32:57) Kev: It is very weird that you can’t have (1:33:00) Kev: just a full Stardew Valley deck or whatever, right? (1:33:02) Al: If I want my cards to all look the same, why not? (1:33:04) Kev: Especially. (1:33:05) Kev: Mm-hmm (1:33:06) Kev: Yeah (1:33:08) Al: It’s not like they’re fundamentally different in the sets normally. (1:33:09) Kev: Yeah (1:33:12) Kev: Right, it’s it’s all cosmetic it’s very weird right and like especially like Stardew which is a character heavy game or has a lot of popular (1:33:20) Kev: characters (1:33:21) Kev: Why not throw them all off? I mean, so okay, let’s go through the list now because we talked about it. So spades (1:33:26) Al: Yeah, so, so we’ve got the Witcher, which is fine. (1:33:30) Kev: Uh-huh (1:33:32) Al: I’m not a Witcher fan. (1:33:33) Al: I know you’ve got, is it Geralt, is that his name, Geralt? (1:33:36) Kev: Geralt’s you’ve got (1:33:37) Al: I don’t know who the other two are. (1:33:38) Al: Oh, is the Joker, is that the bard that sings the song and the, yeah. (1:33:41) Kev: Yeah, that’s the bard I forget the one who sings the good song on the Netflix show (1:33:44) Al: Yeah, yeah, exactly. (1:33:46) Kev: Yeah, that one and then the Queen is the I forget her name. It’s the love interest basically the main primary love interest, I believe (1:33:47) Al: I don’t know the other character. (1:33:51) Al: OK, it’s fine. (1:33:53) Al: It’s definitely not not the best. (1:33:56) Al: Thanks Lord and mine, mainly because I don’t care about the Witcher and also (1:33:59) Al: because it’s not really that distinctive. (1:34:02) Kev: Yeah, they’re, they’re very, um, like the Witcher, I mean, the art style, right, is (1:34:06) Kev: very like, grounded fantasy or whatever, right? So, yeah, it’s not colorful or really distinctive. (1:34:09) Al: Like, if that wasn’t listed as Witcher, you wouldn’t automatically assume it’s the Witcher. (1:34:13) Kev: I agree with that. (1:34:20) Kev: Maybe not I think I could tell what Gerald but otherwise. Yeah, you’re right (1:34:25) Kev: The other one so far. Yep 2077. Um, I don’t know cyberpunk at all. So I don’t ask characters at all (1:34:33) Al: Yeah, I have no idea about these characters either, but I think the style is a little (1:34:37) Al: bit more interesting because obviously it’s more cyberpunk-y funnily enough. (1:34:40) Kev: Yep. Yep. And okay. (1:34:42) Al: So you’ve got one character with a guitar, an electric guitar, (1:34:46) Al: one with like, is that meant to be like a scroll, but like an electronic scroll or something? (1:34:53) Kev: something like that I don’t know or is it intended to switch yeah yeah that’s (1:34:54) Al: And then the jack with a gun. (1:35:02) Kev: fitting okay hold on let’s take a second because I don’t know the characters but (1:35:06) Kev: I can tell you who the king is that’s the Keanu Reeves character cuz he’s got (1:35:10) Kev: the sunglasses so Keanu Reeves in your Bellatro deck automatic wind right there (1:35:11) Al: Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. (1:35:17) Kev: he’s got a guitar he’s my king for sure I’ll play you that (1:35:23) Kev: um yep you have the little so it’s all the red crewmate which is kind of weird (1:35:24) Al: And then we’ve got the hearts one. We’ve got your favourite one among us. (1:35:31) Kev: I don’t know why they didn’t pick different colors but the okay okay yeah (1:35:33) Al: Well, because it’s red, because it’s hearts. (1:35:37) Kev: that makes sense okay so the king is an imposter it has the monster mouth with (1:35:44) Kev: the long tongue the queen is with a queenly crown I don’t know what’s going (1:35:50) Kev: and on there, I can’t, oh, (1:35:52) Al: I think I think she I think oh yeah then I was gonna say just running but yeah yeah (1:35:53) Kev: they’re popping out of the vent, the vent, (1:35:55) Kev: they’re popping out of the vent. (1:35:58) Al: then that makes more sense so that’s interesting because then both the king and the queen are (1:35:59) Kev: Yeah, the Joker or the Jack. (1:36:03) Kev: Yeah, you’re right, you’re right. (1:36:04) Kev: The Queen is an imposter. (1:36:05) Kev: The Jack is supposedly just a regular crewmate (1:36:09) Kev: with a little crown and a little mini Among Us pet (1:36:13) Kev: following them around, which is cute. (1:36:16) Kev: But yeah, the King and Queen are imposters. (1:36:17) Kev: Yeah, that’s a good catch, that’s fun. (1:36:20) Al: Then we have the Binding of Isaac. I’ve not played this game either, so I don’t know about the characters, do you? (1:36:20) Kev: Let’s see, then we have the, (1:36:23) Kev: which, (1:36:27) Kev: I don’t, either, the King has the baby, (1:36:29) Kev: that’s the face of the game, (1:36:30) Kev: that’s all I know, the little baby-looking person (1:36:32) Al: I think it’s just Isaac, isn’t it? (1:36:33) Kev: with the eyes. (1:36:35) Kev: Is it probably, is that their name? (1:36:36) Kev: I don’t even know. (1:36:36) Al: I think so. (1:36:37) Kev: They have a dice. (1:36:39) Kev: Queen, I can’t even tell what the Queen is. (1:36:40) Al: I think it’s a leg, like a monster-fied leg. (1:36:45) Kev: Oh, I guess, I was thinking a mushroom, (1:36:47) Kev: but you might be right, like it’s a stiletto, (1:36:49) Kev: and yeah, the skirt, yeah, like the lamp from, (1:36:53) Kev: The Christmas story or whatever, but just a weird and kind of lumpy. (1:36:56) Al: A decapitated dog. (1:36:59) Kev: And then the Jack, it’s a dog, with a separated head. (1:37:05) Kev: I don’t know what’s going on there. (1:37:08) Kev: Binding of Ozic fans, tell us what on earth all that means? (1:37:12) Kev: Cuz I don’t know. (1:37:14) Kev: All right, clubs, first one we got, okay, this is a fun one, Vampire Survivors. (1:37:19) Kev: I don’t know the cards, the characters in this one that much either. (1:37:22) Kev: I’ve never actually played vampire survival. (1:37:22) Al: I mean, does vampire survivors actually have a story? I don’t think it does. I think it’s (1:37:23) Kev: You know what? I should probably look on the internet. (1:37:27) Al: just run around and shoot, right? (1:37:45) Kev: I can’t tell what the queen is at all. (1:37:49) Kev: Oh, no crash. (1:37:51) Al: Looks like the Phantom of the Opera. (1:37:54) Kev: » Yeah, yeah, let’s see here, trying to find a list. (1:38:00) Kev: It might be a Phantom of the Opera thing. (1:38:02) Kev: And then the Jack is some kind of old man. (1:38:05) Kev: I don’t know who the old man is, I’m trying to find the list. (1:38:10) Kev: Let’s see here, but until then, let’s go to diamonds real quick. (1:38:15) Kev: I’m sorry, no, I’m skipping over Slay the Spire, which actually I think is a very, (1:38:18) Al: Yeah, what a failure. Sorry, I’ve got it here. The Queen depicts Queen Sigma in Vampire Survivors. (1:38:23) Kev: I kind of, okay, Queen Sigma, is this the sigma? (1:38:32) Al: Queen Sigma is one of the playable characters in Vampire. (1:38:33) Kev: You turn into the sigma deck, the sigma grind set? (1:38:40) Kev: Well, there you go folks, let’s see, then we have, wait, who’s the Jack then? (1:38:47) Al: Uh, Po. Yeah, he has, he has garlic as apparently his thing. (1:38:49) Kev: Okay, I don’t know, just some old guy. (1:38:53) Kev: Sorry, vampire survivors fan haven’t played yet. (1:38:57) Kev: That’s kind of, which makes sense for the surviving vampires. (1:39:01) Al: Vampire survivors game. (1:39:03) Kev: Let’s see here, yeah, okay, that’s, wait a second. (1:39:09) Al: - Yeah, so slay the spire. (1:39:11) Kev: The king depicts the vampire survivors cover art, but (1:39:15) Kev: the vampire doesn’t actually appear, it’s incredible, that’s good, I love that. (1:39:24) Kev: All right, now let’s get to the ones we care about, (1:39:28) Al: You just… yep, we’ve got Dave the Diver, and I can tell you these ones immediately, right? (1:39:28) Kev: truly the most valuable, the diamonds, cuz our first one is good old Dave the Diver. (1:39:35) Kev: Okay, well, sure, because they’re the three, right? (1:39:40) Kev: Like, who else would they be if they didn’t pick? (1:39:41) Al: The three main characters of the game. (1:39:46) Kev: So, okay, the one thing, I both kind of love this and (1:39:50) Kev: hate this. That Dave is actually the queen. (1:39:53) Kev: because Dave is clearly the star but he’s also constantly shortchanged in the (1:39:54) Al: Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep. (1:39:59) Kev: game and forced to do nonsense so it’s kind of fitting he’s the Queen it’s um (1:40:06) Kev: we have um watch what oh my gosh camera the names Oh Bancho Bancho is the king (1:40:12) Kev: the restaurant owner our sushi man and then Cobra is the jack (1:40:16) Al: Which makes sense because the whole thing couldn’t happen without the sushi chef. (1:40:20) Kev: Yeah, and he’s clearly the most commanding. (1:40:23) Kev: He’s running everything, I mean, Dave is doing everything, but Bancho’s kind of running things. (1:40:30) Kev: And then lastly at the jack, we have good old Cobra with a coin because he’s Mr. Business Money Man. (1:40:38) Kev: Dave has his harpoon gun, Bancho has his sushi knife, all what you’d expect. (1:40:44) Kev: They look stylish. They’re pixelated in game, so it fits perfectly. They look great. (1:40:49) Kev: Um, yeah, very nice, strong. (1:40:54) Kev: And then lastly, so what I like about the last set here, um, I think, uh, yeah, yeah, of course, drum roll please. (1:41:00) Al: The Stardew Valley set for listeners who might not actually be paying attention. (1:41:04) Kev: The Stardew Valley set. They actually maintain their characters’ colors. (1:41:09) Kev: Um, so all the, “Shoot, did we try to isolate this part or did I escape right over?” (1:41:14) Kev: “Oh no, I did!” (1:41:16) Al: You mentioned it, you mentioned it, but didn’t talk about the specifics of the cards. (1:41:17) Kev: Yeah, I don’t know the characters. Yeah, I don’t know who they are, to be honest. (1:41:23) Kev: I don’t know, uh, um, yeah, one of them’s like a dragon thing. That looks cool. (1:41:27) Al: They look fine. (1:41:31) Kev: Um, but, uh, yeah, okay, Stardew Valley. (1:41:34) Kev: So what I was gonna say is all the other cards, they kind of have, like, uh, almost monochromatic theme that matches their suit or whatever, right? (1:41:43) Kev: Uh, Stardew Valley kind of maintains their characters’ color schemes. (1:41:47) Kev: Or just, you know, just art of the colors. They’re not, like, uh, really decked out or anything. (1:41:53) Kev: Um, they’re just kind of stylized into the card set, which I think makes sense given the importance of the characters in Stardew Valley. (1:42:01) Kev: As, you know, as a general, like, how critical it was to that game’s success and whatnot and what the appeal of it. (1:42:07) Kev: Um, what I don’t know is how I feel about the choices, though. (1:42:07) Al: Yeah, they are more, they are more consistently coloured if you turn on the high contrast ones. (1:42:16) Kev: Ah. (1:42:16) Al: They turn a lot of the colours into the yellow. I think, yeah, so I think this is actually really (1:42:19) Kev: Okay. (1:42:21) Kev: Okay. (1:42:23) Al: clever, right? So the king is obviously Louis, he’s the mayor, right? Like, it’s a similar sort (1:42:26) Kev: Sure. (1:42:28) Al: of thing. And then, of course, who is Louis’s queen? Marnie. I mean, there couldn’t be another (1:42:35) Al: option for Queen. (1:42:37) Al: the king has to be the mayor, then of course Marnie has to be the queen. (1:42:41) Al: And then we’ve got the Jack. The Jack is the interesting choice, (1:42:45) Al: right? Because I think this, I think it makes sense. Why have I blanked on his name? Mr. Shopman. (1:42:52) Kev: it’s um here it’s such a the peak shop owner man gosh darn it what some fans we are thank you (1:42:58) Al: Yeah. Pierre, Pierre, yes, Pierre, Pierre, yes, Pierre, you’re correct. Pierre, I think it makes (1:43:03) Kev: Thank you. (1:43:04) Kev: That’s okay. (1:43:04) Kev: Yes, okay. (1:43:07) Al: quite a few of them. The Jack has money relations in some way, so it makes sense that that would (1:43:15) Al: be the case. I think you could make arguments for other things, but I think when you make the (1:43:19) Al: decision that king equals mayor, then I think it all just falls into place. I think it makes sense. (1:43:24) Kev: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, money-wise, he’s probably the highest ranking, right? I’d say that. (1:43:33) Al: You could have put, you could have put, what’s his name, the oh, why can’t I remember his name? (1:43:39) Kev: J for Joja? (1:43:41) Al: Yeah, the Georgia guy, what’s his name? (1:43:43) Kev: I don’t remember his name either. (1:43:44) Al: Oh, why can I not remember his name? (1:43:47) Kev: How high was he on our tier list? (1:43:51) Al: Morris, that’s his name. I think you could have made an argument for Morris for the Jack, (1:43:52) Kev: Morse. (1:43:54) Kev: That would be funny. (1:43:56) Al: but I think people would, exactly, and it’s not like you’re putting on our, (1:43:57) Kev: I guess so, but Pierre is the more recognizable, (1:44:00) Kev: iconic, right? (1:44:03) Al: we all hate. I think it would be different if you’d done that, then it would have been something. (1:44:05) Kev: Yeah. (1:44:08) Kev: Yeah. (1:44:10) Kev: Yeah. (1:44:12) Kev: You know, again, I wish they could have done a full deck, (1:44:16) Kev: so could at least get nine-star two characters. (1:44:18) Kev: But the more I think about it, you probably (1:44:20) Kev: have to stay away from the romances, right? (1:44:22) Kev: because you’d neither include all of- (1:44:24) Al: Yeah, yeah. Why quite? (1:44:24) Kev: them or none of them, granted there’s probably enough characters without the (1:44:29) Kev: romanceables to include for just nine, but yeah, yeah, there should be with all the (1:44:32) Al: Good question. Maybe, maybe just about. (1:44:40) Al: One last point I like about this is that Lewis and Marnie are, although they’re king and queen, (1:44:47) Al: they’re also the king away from each other, you know, kind of nodding towards the secrecy of their (1:44:52) Al: their relationship. (1:44:54) Kev: but the flip side are looking at each other (1:44:54) Al: Yeah, well, I think that’s deliberate, right? (1:44:56) Kev: ‘cause you know how the face cards, (1:44:57) Kev: they have the bob and bottom. (1:45:00) Al: So it’s like the standard side is looking away from each other, but the bottom one, (1:45:01) Kev: Yeah. (1:45:04) Al: the secret part, is looking at each other. (1:45:06) Al: I think that’s very deliberate. (1:45:07) Kev: That is pretty clever. (1:45:09) Kev: I like how Marnie’s holding a chicken. (1:45:11) Kev: I’ll say that. (1:45:13) Kev: But also, I think we’re over, (1:45:16) Kev: we haven’t mentioned probably the most important part. (1:45:20) Kev: In the King on Lewis’s, (1:45:22) Kev: He’s holding, I think, a bunch of grapes. (1:45:24) Kev: On top of that, there is a little junimo. (1:45:27) Al: It’s not, it’s not, it’s not a bunch of grapes. It’s his underwear. (1:45:32) Kev: Oh, it’s his underwear! Oh my gosh! Wow! (1:45:35) Kev: Good job, me. (1:45:36) Al: Kevin, Kevin, you just call yourself a Stardew fan. (1:45:37) Kev: Oh, wow. (1:45:38) Kev: I’m retired, I’m quitting, I’m done, my career’s over, I’m canceling myself. (1:45:41) Al: A bunch of grapes. Maybe it’s less visible, because are you playing it on a phone? (1:45:46) Kev: But yes, I’m looking on a phone, that’s probably why. It looks like grapes, but you’re right, it’s just his underwear. (1:45:46) Al: Yeah. Whereas I’m playing it on a tablet, so it’s much bigger on my screen. (1:45:54) Kev: Okay, yeah, oh my gosh, it is his just his underpants, oh my gosh, which of course, that makes sense, duh! (1:45:55) Al: a bunch of crepes! (1:45:57) Al: And, of course, Marnie is holding a chicken, and Pierre is, of course, holding a bag of (1:45:59) Kev: I thought I could, I thought I was like, “Oh, is his grapes like his favorite item?” No, no, either way, okay, so you have a junimo. (1:46:10) Al: money. (1:46:11) Al: Oh, absolutely. (1:46:12) Kev: that’s all he cares about, not even his family. (1:46:14) Al: Yeah, yeah, good fun. (1:46:20) Kev: Yeah, but the, look, the Junimo showed up. (1:46:23) Kev: What else should we, what else could we ask for? (1:46:27) Kev: Well, I mean, all in all, again, (1:46:29) Kev: very odd that they split it up by the suits. (1:46:33) Kev: It is kind of fun though, (1:46:34) Kev: that if you want to make a deck with the Witcher (1:46:36) Kev: and Stardew Valley and Slay of the Spire and Among Us, (1:46:41) Kev: you know, you can have all of that. (1:46:42) Kev: It’s a weird hodgepodge, but it would still be nice (1:46:45) Al: I would also even accept not having a full deck of stardew if we could also like switch (1:46:46) Kev: to have a full deck of Stardew. (1:46:53) Al: which one is which, right? So the fact that stardew and dave the diver are both on diamonds (1:46:55) Kev: Ooh, mm-hmm, that’s a good point. (1:46:58) Al: means I can’t have both of them in one day. (1:47:03) Kev: Yeah, why don’t they do that? (1:47:04) Kev: Like just instead of looking at, (1:47:07) Kev: okay, which diamond do you want? (1:47:08) Kev: Say, okay, here’s the different crossovers. (1:47:11) Kev: Okay, yeah, okay, I want to set David Diver to spades. (1:47:15) Kev: I’ll set Among Us to clubs, whatever. (1:47:17) Kev: You’re super right, they should do that. (1:47:19) Kev: That doesn’t seem terribly hard to do, (1:47:20) Kev: so Bellatro programmer who’s listening to us, (1:47:23) Kev: go fix that right now. (1:47:23) Al: So just final point, what is your deck look like then? Which ones have you chosen for each of the series? (1:47:26) Kev: Oh, okay, I’ve got Witcher, Among Us, I’ve got Vampire Survivors and I’ve got Day. (1:47:38) Kev: Sorry, Stormdew, but I love Nate Mediver. (1:47:40) Kev: The actual character, Dave, he makes me laugh. (1:47:40) Al: I have Cyberpunk among us, Slay the Spire and Stardew Valley. Obviously, I had to have (1:47:43) Kev: What about you, Al? What’s your set? (1:47:52) Al: Stardew Valley. I thought the Slay the Spire looked more interesting than the… Obviously, (1:47:54) Kev: - Yeah, that’s the question. (1:47:56) Kev: - It does, I don’t blame you. (1:47:58) Kev: I just like the grandpa. (1:47:59) Al: we both chose the Among Us, because it’s ultimately the best set they have in this game. And yeah, (1:48:06) Al: As discussed earlier, I just think that the Witcher looks too generic and Cyberpunk is (1:48:10) Kev: Yeah, that’s fair. And also you have Keanu with a guitar. So, you know, you win. (1:48:10) Al: much more interesting. (1:48:24) Kev: Sure, yeah, that’s fair. Um, yeah, well, here’s hoping but you know what like we just have this (1:48:31) Kev: But obviously this game has gotten a lot of success here’s hoping we’ll get so they’ll maybe change that and and (1:48:38) Kev: If that happens, it’ll be likely because we get more crossovers, which I think is very plausible (1:48:42) Al: I think we’re probably going to get more crossovers, yeah. Because they announced three, they announced (1:48:45) Kev: It’s not a hard thing to do (1:48:47) Al: four at a time. Like, yeah, it feels… Other fun fact about this, Concern Date made the art for the (1:48:54) Al: Stardew Pack himself, which is a classic, classic Concern Date thing to do. But yeah. (1:48:56) Kev: - Yeah, there you go. (1:49:01) Kev: - You mean, by thing for Concerned If to Do, (1:49:05) Kev: you mean everything, ‘cause he does everything. (1:49:06) Al: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, great. Thank you, Kevin, for joining me. (1:49:12) Al: To talk about the most, the most cottagecore game in the world, Bellattro. (1:49:18) Kev: Classic Cottagecore (1:49:21) Al: Where can people find you on the internet? (1:49:22) Kev: All right folks find me at Koopapres on Twitter or blue Scott I’m Chinese blue sky more (1:49:28) Kev: Find me at surprise square on Twitter see my art account. I’m trying to get the blue sky one going (1:49:33) Kev: I have a lot of plans for it. I just I have not had time (1:49:37) Kev: Find me at Rainbow Road radio, which is at Rainbow Mario pod on Twitter, but Rainbow Road or ever else again (1:49:43) Kev: That’s the Mario theme podcast. I do with our mutual friend Alex. We just did bows inside story (1:49:47) Kev: It’s a lot of good stuff (1:49:48) Kev: We got a lot of stuff happening over there in Mario World (1:49:50) Kev: We got new DK Land coming (1:49:52) Kev: Umm, what about you, uh, where do people (1:49:54) Al: You can find me on most social media as thescotbot, including my main one, masterton.scot, (1:50:02) Al: but I mean, if there’s a social media, you’ll probably find me on it now with that. (1:50:06) Al: You can find the podcast on Tumblr at THSPod. I do have accounts on other social media, (1:50:12) Al: but I haven’t set them up yet, so feel free to follow them, (1:50:14) Al: but there won’t be anything on them until I’ve, you know, started all that out. (1:50:20) Al: the best way to find us though is on. (1:50:24) Al: our website harvestseason.club which you know I’m always keeping up to date with links to (1:50:31) Al: things. There’s a feedback form on there if you want to send us some feedback tell us what your (1:50:36) Al: favorite strategy in Balatro is and you can also find links to everything to do with the podcast (1:50:43) Al: including a link to our patreon patreon.com/thspod where you can support the podcast and get access (1:50:51) Al: to our slack and bonus episodes of. (1:50:54) Al: the podcast. I am currently thinking about how it’s going to go going forwards because (1:50:59) Al: it’s been quite a few years now and I’m wanting to rethink a couple of things about the Patreon, (1:51:04) Al: but there’s always going to be exciting things for you. There will always be extra content (1:51:09) Al: that will always be a place to chat and we’ll see what else comes. (1:51:12) Kev: I mean the greenhouse and the slack are a lot of value on their own already like the greenhouse (1:51:16) Kev: you can go back and listen to like the majority of those episodes they’re still good they’re mostly (1:51:21) Kev: comments and opinions on all sorts of different things so go for it (1:51:26) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything. Thank you, Kevin, again for joining me. (1:51:29) Kev: thank you all for having me on (1:51:31) Al: Thank you listeners for listening, and until next time. (1:51:34) Kev: all that out uh given the nature of our episode I think it’s uh fitting we have a joke (1:51:42) Kev: uh sign us off no (1:51:47) Kev: well boys and girls I hope you’ve had fun we’ve had some tears we’ve had some laughs (1:51:54) Kev: tune in next week same bat kennel same bat time for another episode that will definitely put a (1:52:01) Kev: smile on your face but until then have a good harvest (1:52:09) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:52:18) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:52:22) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:52:27) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:52:33) Theme Tune: in this episode. (1:52:42) Al: Speaking of Japanese games with animes, (1:52:45) Al: Farmagia also have their anime coming, (1:52:50) Al: and we have a trailer for that. (1:52:50) Kev: Okay, okay one second. Hold on. I want to back up. I just want to comment one thing on sock and I real quick (1:52:55) Al: Oh, that was a great segue, (1:52:55) Kev: I looked it up (1:53:00) Al: and you’re just gonna get rid of my great segue. (1:53:03) Kev: You’re fine fine, let’s go let’s continue. I’ll bring it up later. I killed it. Okay fine and credits (1:53:03) Al: Oh, no, no, no, it’s fine, (1:53:07) Al: because I will just put it in the end credits. (1:53:09) Al: I will put it in the end credits, (1:53:11) Al: And, and, and people. (1:53:11) Kev: You (1:53:12) Al: Still hear my fantastic segue and you can still ruin it, right? (1:53:16) Al: Tell me what you want to tell me.…

The Harvest Season

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BeeDHD 1:13:04

15 weeksที่แล้ว1:13:04

1:13:04

Codey tells Al about the new bee breeding Minecraft mod Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:21: What Have We Been Up To 00:11:55: Should Codey Get A Steamdeck 00:16:50: Game News 00:41:54: New Games 00:50:04: Feed The Bees 01:08:32: Outro Links Botany Manor Playstation Release Grimoire Groves Release Date Sun Haven Release Date Sugardew Island XB and PS4 Release Ova Magica First Major Update Fields of Mistria First Major Update Whimside Honey Grove Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al, and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore games. (0:00:36) Codey: and my name is Cody. (0:00:41) Codey: Woo. (0:00:45) Al: A welcome back Cody. It’s been a while. (0:00:47) Codey: Oh, thank you. (0:00:48) Codey: It has really been playing a lot of stuff (0:00:51) Codey: that I haven’t played slash. (0:00:53) Al: Don’t you don’t you don’t you start yet. (0:00:55) Al: That’s not we’re not going into that section yet. We’ll get there. (0:00:58) Al: - Yeah. (0:00:59) Codey: What? (0:01:00) Al: I didn’t ask you what you’ve been up to, hello. (0:01:02) Codey: Well, yeah, I’m just saying that that’s why (0:01:04) Codey: I haven’t been on the pod. (0:01:04) Al: Okay, okay, it sounded like you were introducing that section. You gotta wait, you gotta wait. (0:01:07) Codey: No, no, no, my, my, my horses are held. (0:01:10) Codey: Nah, nah, nah, my horses are held. (0:01:15) Al: They’re heavy. This episode, we are going to talk about Minecraft again. (0:01:22) Codey: Woooo! (0:01:24) Al: Specifically, Cody has been playing a bee-breeding mod in Minecraft. So we’re going to talk about- (0:01:30) Codey: Thank you, Devin, my best friend who I play Minecraft with. (0:01:36) Codey: Who told me, “Hey, I put a mod that you might like on,” and surprise I do. (0:01:42) Al: Lo and behold, it was leaked. (0:01:46) Codey: Correct. (0:01:47) Al: Excellent. (0:01:48) Al: So we’re going to talk about that. (0:01:50) Al: Before that, we have obviously a lot of news. (0:01:53) Al: It’s a decent chunk of news, a decent chunk. (0:01:54) Codey: No, it’s– it seems on the lighter side, I would say. (0:01:56) Al: It’s not like an insane amount of news, but it’s enough news. (0:01:58) Al: It’s not. (0:02:04) Codey: Listeners, after the news section, (0:02:06) Codey: let us know if it’s a light amount of news (0:02:08) Codey: or a lot amount of news. (0:02:08) Al: Look, it all depends on how long it takes, right? (0:02:11) Al: so we’ll be clocking the tape. (0:02:12) Al: But before that, Cody, what have you been up to? (0:02:14) Codey: OK, so I’m not going to say anything (0:02:16) Codey: during the news section because I want to be right. (0:02:24) Codey: - Hello, I have been up to science. (0:02:29) Codey: So I’m getting to that point where, (0:02:32) Codey: whoo, I’m getting to the point where like a year from now, (0:02:35) Codey: I’m hoping to be defending my dissertation (0:02:38) Codey: and that is horrifying. (0:02:41) Codey: For a long time throughout your degree, (0:02:43) Codey: it’s like, oh, like two years from now, (0:02:45) Codey: oh, like, it’s like, you can kind of shove it forward (0:02:48) Codey: in the future. (0:02:50) Codey: And now it’s like, oh, oh shoot, you know. (0:02:54) Codey: Um, I was also just at a conference. (0:02:56) Codey: So the entomological society of America’s conference was in Phoenix, Arizona. (0:03:02) Codey: Um, so we went there and that was a thing that we did. (0:03:06) Codey: I actually, so it was actually, okay. (0:03:09) Codey: So when you go to conferences, like near the end of, of one chapter of your life, (0:03:13) Codey: you’re like, what am I going to do next? (0:03:15) Codey: And it was actually really gratifying because I had a few humans come up to me after like my talk (0:03:19) Codey: or that they just knew of me. (0:03:21) Codey: And they were like, Hey, I want to talk to you. (0:03:24) Codey: And they’re possibly interested in hiring me. (0:03:27) Codey: So that was really interesting. (0:03:30) Codey: One of them was, uh, a department of fisheries and wildlife on the Pacific Northwest, (0:03:34) Codey: which is where exactly where I want to be and exactly the kind of thing I want to do. (0:03:39) Codey: However, uh, government jobs are a little up in the air right now because of things. (0:03:44) Codey: And so, um, I’m kind of like, about that, like, like, Oh no, what do I do? (0:03:52) Codey: but I had someone from like literally (0:03:54) Codey: one of the best institutions for entomology (0:03:57) Codey: within the United States come up to me (0:04:00) Codey: and we were chatting and then he was like, (0:04:01) Codey: “Oh, when are you done? (0:04:02) Codey: Because we’re gonna be hiring a forest entomologist (0:04:04) Codey: here in a year.” (0:04:05) Codey: And I was like, “Holy crap.” (0:04:07) Codey: So that’s cool too. (0:04:09) Codey: So now I’m really, now the fire is under (0:04:13) Codey: the proverbial butt at this point (0:04:15) Codey: because I need to get this stuff finished. (0:04:19) Codey: But more importantly, I finally married Scott (0:04:22) Codey: in Coral Island. (0:04:22) Al: Wooo! You made your decision. (0:04:24) Codey: I also, I made, well, there was no decision to be made. (0:04:28) Codey: I just, he finally accepted my offer. (0:04:30) Codey: They like have, I think you have to go through (0:04:33) Codey: a certain amount of their heart events or whatever. (0:04:34) Al: You do, yeah. I ended up in that same situation with, oh goodness, I’ve forgotten my wife’s name. (0:04:42) Codey: Alice, was it Alice? (0:04:44) Al: Was it Alice? No, it wasn’t Alice. (0:04:47) Codey: It was the computer programmer girl, right, Suki? (0:04:49) Al: Yeah, no, not Suki. Suki’s Alice. (0:04:52) Codey: I don’t remember. (0:04:54) Codey: I also went for Alice for a bit. (0:04:57) Codey: But yeah, so I finally married him. (0:04:58) Codey: He finally got through all of his heart events. (0:05:00) Codey: And I’m happy to say that for a few days of the month, (0:05:04) Codey: at least, he does go to work. (0:05:06) Al: Oh, thanks. (0:05:07) Codey: There’s been a couple times where I see him (0:05:09) Codey: Walking around the town and i’m like who let you out? (0:05:11) Al: It probably doesn’t help that Lily, that’s her name, that I married Lily who, you know, (0:05:12) Codey: Got it. (0:05:22) Al: when she’s not married to you, spends all her time in her house. So that probably doesn’t help. (0:05:26) Codey: Yeah (0:05:28) Al: But the weird thing about it was not necessarily that she was in the house, (0:05:31) Al: because when she’s in her house, she’s like sitting at a computer doing work, (0:05:35) Codey: Yeah (0:05:36) Al: or, you know, in the kitchen. Whereas when she’s in your house, she’s standing next to the bed, (0:05:40) Codey: Yep (0:05:41) Al: staring off into space. (0:05:42) Codey: That’s what Scott does too, and I just feel so bad for him, especially because when you talk to him (0:05:47) Codey: He says cute things like you know people say that marriage changes a man (0:05:51) Codey: And you have changed me in all the most enticing ways. I love you, and I’m just like what the heck (0:05:56) Al: - No! (0:05:57) Codey: Or he’ll be like (0:06:00) Codey: Like babe, I love you so much. Thank you so much for for doing this and I’m like you’re just standing next to me (0:06:06) Codey: Please sometimes he goes outside for morning coffee, which is nice, but (0:06:10) Codey: Yeah, so I finally did that I also finally have unlocked the cave of memories (0:06:15) Codey: Oh, and I finally finished the frickin temple. I did that I did the temple (0:06:16) Al: Oh, nice. (0:06:20) Al: Nice. (0:06:22) Codey: So now I’m just trying to I don’t even remember what I got be honest (0:06:23) Al: “Is all you ever hoped?” (0:06:29) Codey: Yep, nope can’t remember so (0:06:30) Al: I don’t know if there’s like an overall unlock, I think. (0:06:37) Al: There’s different ones for different parts of it. (0:06:40) Codey: - Yeah, yeah, the last thing that I needed (0:06:42) Codey: was an osmium garlic, and I got that. (0:06:47) Codey: I haven’t finished the Cave of Memories 100%. (0:06:49) Codey: I finished enough to bring Gort back to the people. (0:06:56) Codey: He went dark, he was dark is the, yeah. (0:06:56) Al: » Cool. (0:07:02) Codey: So I’m trying to reach the bottom (0:07:03) Codey: of the Cave of Memories now, (0:07:05) Codey: and then just generally hitting that point (0:07:07) Codey: where I’m racking up money with nothing to spend at all. (0:07:10) Codey: But more importantly, Minecraft. (0:07:12) Codey: But I will talk about that later. (0:07:14) Codey: Al, what have you been playing? (0:07:16) Al: I have been playing, obviously, a lot of Pokemon TCG Pocket, I’ve talked about that in a few (0:07:24) Codey: Oh, okay. I mean, so I have been, because of conference and general malaise, I have (0:07:25) Al: previous episodes, but it sounds like you have questions. (0:07:33) Codey: not been up on the pod. I also have not really been listening to ISE very much. So what is (0:07:41) Codey: pocket? Is it good if you have, do you scan in real life cards that you have and that’s (0:07:47) Codey: how you get cards or… (0:07:49) Al: No, no, it’s entirely digital. It is so it is based on the TCG, but it’s some of the cards are (0:08:05) Al: digital equivalents of the real cards. Quite a lot of them are almost the same as physical cards, (0:08:11) Al: but like their attacks are slightly different or their retreat number is slightly different. (0:08:15) Al: And then there’s a few that are exclusive to the app. (0:08:19) Al: And basically, the idea is it’s a daily “you can open two packs of cards a day”. (0:08:20) Codey: Okay. Is it possible to literally just collect cards or do you have to fight people? (0:08:30) Al: Yeah, no, no, you can completely ignore the battles if you want to. (0:08:36) Al: You do get things for the battles, (0:08:36) Codey: BRB downloading this game right now. (0:08:40) Al: but you can just ignore that if you want, which is what I did to start with, (0:08:43) Al: and then I actually accidentally got into the battles. (0:08:46) Codey: It just happened out of nowhere, does it? (0:08:47) Al: oopsie (0:08:50) Al: I know well what they did is they’ve done three events right and uh two of them are event (0:08:56) Al: sorry battle-based events and so I was like well I need to try the battles for these events and (0:09:02) Al: get these exclusive items or whatever and then I enjoyed it and yeah I don’t know if i’ll be (0:09:09) Al: doing it outside of the events uh i’ve nearly finished the second event but um yeah it’s good (0:09:11) Codey: Okay, I’m downloading it. (0:09:18) Al: Fun! I really like it. (0:09:19) Al: And I reopened the other TCG app, the TCG Live, and I was like reminded of just (0:09:26) Al: how bad an app it is, is just so the interface just feels gooey, right? (0:09:33) Al: It doesn’t feel like anything does what you want it to do. (0:09:36) Al: And it’s overly complicated, whereas like you open up Pocket and you see the packs (0:09:43) Al: and you click on it and you open a pack, right? (0:09:46) Al: And if you want to go do other things, (0:09:47) Al: then sure you have to go down other levels but like you open (0:09:49) Al: the gap and the packs are there right in front of you. It’s (0:09:53) Al: really nicely designed in that aspect of things. And it’s like (0:09:57) Al: there’s five tabs along the bottom. And then that’s pretty (0:10:00) Al: much it. Whereas live is just like levels and levels of menus (0:10:06) Al: and it like opens up in this menu where you’re not really (0:10:08) Al: sure what anything is unless you use it regularly. Yeah, I don’t (0:10:12) Al: like him. So yeah, I’ve been enjoying that. I guess not much (0:10:17) Al: changed since I last talked about it it’s just yeah (0:10:19) Al: been going through the events that I talked about last week and i’ve hit the point where (0:10:26) Al: I because I played it during the beta period i’m at the point now where I am close to having (0:10:33) Al: finished the collection but that means that I almost never like I maybe get a new card (0:10:37) Al: every three days or something but I think they’ve said that they’re bringing out new (0:10:44) Al: cards in december so that’ll be fun but yeah it’s (0:10:48) Codey: Okay, I am opening it (0:10:49) Al: it’s nice I like it enjoy don’t get distracted on the podcast never i’ve been playing marvel (0:10:54) Codey: No, of course not (0:10:57) Codey: It’s not gonna happen (0:11:00) Al: snap as well although a little bit less this week because I was doing the battling in pocket but i’m (0:11:05) Al: sure i’ll get back into snap next week once i’ve finished the battles in pocket and i’ve started (0:11:09) Al: playing finally fields of mystery uh um it I have thoughts on the game but i’m gonna save them for (0:11:12) Codey: Whoo (0:11:19) Al: future episode um but it’s yeah I i don’t I definitely don’t hate it and it definitely has (0:11:28) Al: interesting ideas and it’ll be interesting to share my thoughts fully on the podcast (0:11:34) Al: but yeah I have started playing that so we’ll see how that goes I mean the good thing is i’ve (0:11:39) Al: actually been playing it right like sometimes when I play games for the podcast it’s really (0:11:43) Al: hard to get into them um so i’ve gotten over the initial hump and i’m actually like properly (0:11:49) Al: now uh every day so we’ll see how that continues on my steam deck (0:11:51) Codey: Mm-hmm, that’s good. How are you playing it? (0:11:56) Codey: Okay, I also have questions we can talk about this band about a steam deck because I was asked if I want and for Christmas (0:12:04) Al: This is the Steam Deck section. Talk to me. (0:12:09) Codey: So listen listeners if you’re also wondering if you should get a steam deck this section is for you. Hey Al (0:12:17) Codey: Why get a steam deck? (0:12:18) Al: because play games on portable console that aren’t on the Switch. (0:12:24) Al: I mean, realistically, right, like that’s that’s it. (0:12:27) Al: It is also more powerful than the Switch. (0:12:29) Al: Right. So some games will run better on it. (0:12:32) Al: But I mean, the the main reason that you would be doing it is because there’s lots (0:12:36) Al: of games that aren’t on the Switch yet or won’t come to the Switch or, you know, (0:12:41) Al: they are only coming to the Switch a couple of years after their Steam version. (0:12:45) Al: like Steam is still the default for most games. (0:12:46) Codey: Mm hmm. So is it can you play anything that’s PC or Mac on it? (0:12:56) Al: So it is the Steam Deck is Linux based but Valve have put a lot of effort into building (0:13:07) Al: a runtime engine that allows you to run the Windows versions of the games. So if it supports (0:13:14) Al: Linux or if it supports Windows, I don’t think anything just supports Mac, right? (0:13:18) Codey: Mm-hmm, okay. (0:13:20) Al: So I have not come across a game that you just flat out can’t play. There are a few games that (0:13:26) Al: controllers very well and in those cases it’s not great but it’s becoming a lot better now like (0:13:35) Al: most games will either launch with controller support or they will you know add it on if it’s (0:13:42) Al: an early access or whatever. Like Lens Island was one that didn’t have controller support to start (0:13:45) Al: with but it came out like right at the beginning of the Steam Deck so it wasn’t really popular at (0:13:51) Al: that point and they’ve obviously since added controller support. So I think most games have (0:13:55) Al: have controller support. (0:13:56) Codey: Okay, and then my other question is can you play it either like so is it like a switch where you can dock it and (0:14:02) Codey: Play it on your screen or carry it with you (0:14:04) Al: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so you can you can just connect it to a normal it’s just USB-C, right? (0:14:06) Codey: Mmm (0:14:10) Al: So you can just plug in a USB-C dock which you can get ones for like, you know (0:14:14) Al: 10 quid on Amazon or whatever and plug it into a monitor or a TV (0:14:16) Codey: - Mm-hmm, okay. (0:14:21) Codey: Well, to be determined, I probably will get one. (0:14:24) Al: I mean, if someone is offering to buy you one, I would definitely go on that, right? (0:14:30) Al: Like unless you have something else that you would want instead, it’s obviously the big (0:14:35) Al: thing for most people is it’s a lot of money, so you know, you probably wouldn’t be spending (0:14:38) Codey: Yeah. No, I was literally, it’s someone, correct. I would not buy one myself, but someone literally (0:14:41) Al: that money on it yourself. (0:14:45) Al: Yeah, the answer is probably yes. (0:14:45) Codey: saying, “Would you like one?” I’m like, “Wow.” Yeah. (0:14:51) Al: unless there’s like negative things that come from this. (0:14:54) Al: You know, you will owe this person something. But if it’s a friend or a family member who wants (0:14:58) Codey: No. Yeah. No, it’s my part. It’s my partner. So. (0:14:58) Al: to give you a gift, you know, and you don’t feel bad about it, then I would say yeah, absolutely. (0:15:03) Al: It’s great. It’s a bit bigger and chunkier. OK, it’s bigger and chunkier than the Switch, (0:15:09) Al: but personally, for me that actually makes it better. It’s better to hold. The ergonomics (0:15:16) Al: are better, so it less hurts my hands. So there’s that as well. But yeah, no, I really like it. (0:15:21) Codey: Okay. Yeah, I, I almost never play my switch in handheld mode. It’s almost always on the (0:15:27) Al: Interesting. (0:15:28) Codey: on my computer or not my computer, my TV. So, but I could then play that on handheld (0:15:34) Codey: and watch him play Factorio. Cause he’s been playing the Factorio like space age expansion, (0:15:40) Al: Yeah, I think the thing is that, you know, if you have like a gaming PC, gaming PC is (0:15:41) Codey: or maybe I could play the space age expansion on that. I don’t know. We’ll see. (0:15:51) Al: still going to be better, right? Because it’s still portable. But, well, that’s the thing, (0:15:53) Codey: Yeah, I would have to come all the way over here. (0:15:56) Al: right? The portable aspect of things is a massive, massive aspect. And yeah, it’s not (0:16:00) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:16:01) Al: as powerful, but it runs things just fine, right? Like most games will run on it in some (0:16:07) Al: way and because it’s like the bassline (0:16:10) Al: it’s like that’s what games are aiming for like if you can run on the steam deck then you’re fine (0:16:14) Codey: Okay. Final question. If you play something on your Steam Deck, so say I’m like playing (0:16:21) Codey: Lens Island on my Steam Deck, but I’m like, man, I want to play this on my desktop. Can (0:16:25) Codey: I just literally go to my desktop and it’s the same save? Okay. Okay. There. I told my (0:16:28) Al: Assuming that they support Steam and Cloud Save, yes. (0:16:31) Al: Games have to explicitly support that, but most games will. (0:16:38) Codey: partner after talking to Al, I wouldn’t say no to a Steam Deck. And that’s what we’ve (0:16:42) Al: And that’s the Steam Deck section. We’re gonna now talk about some game news. So, interestingly, (0:16:44) Codey: got to do. Whoo. Whoo. (0:16:56) Al: I can’t see any delays this week, which is rare for a November episode, but there we (0:17:01) Al: are. There’s still a lot of delays to come though, because I still see about 25 games (0:17:06) Al: saying 2024. Although some of them are special. (0:17:12) Al: They were like, “Oh, we’re in early access and we’re going to be in early access for (0:17:17) Al: a year.” And that means they’ll come out this year and then they’ve just not said anything (0:17:20) Al: because they never explicitly said they were coming out in 2024, but come on. So, it’s (0:17:24) Codey: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:17:28) Al: going to take some time going through that list and double checking if anybody said anything (0:17:31) Al: that I’ve missed. Anyway, Botany Manor have announced that they’re coming out on PlayStation. (0:17:33) Codey: - Yep. (0:17:38) Codey: - Mm-hmm. (0:17:38) Al: So I think they’re already out on… (0:17:42) Al: PC and Switch? (0:17:43) Codey: - I played it on Xbox Game Pass. (0:17:48) Al: Oh, yes. (0:17:52) Al: I probably should have double checked this. (0:17:53) Al: So they’re definitely on Steam. (0:17:55) Al: Yeah, they’re on Xbox, (0:17:57) Al: including Game Pass. (0:17:59) Al: They are also on Switch. (0:18:01) Al: So yeah, this is… (0:18:02) Codey: I was gonna say I think that Aislinn had played it on (0:18:04) Al: Yeah, so this is completing the standard list (0:18:08) Al: coming to PlayStation. (0:18:09) Al: they are releasing on the 17th. (0:18:12) Al: And that’s for both PS4 and PS5. (0:18:13) Codey: Woo. (0:18:14) Codey: Woo! (0:18:19) Al: Speaking of releases, (0:18:21) Al: Grimoire Groves is coming out. (0:18:26) Al: They have announced that their release date is the 6th of March next year. (0:18:32) Al: That feels like the length of time that I feel like is suspicious, right? (0:18:40) Al: Like when something says, oh, we’re going to. (0:18:42) Al: To come out on this date in two years, you know, it’s never going to happen. (0:18:45) Al: If they say we’re coming out on this date in a month, you’re like, okay, (0:18:47) Al: the game is ready and they’re just like making sure that they’re ready for (0:18:50) Al: release and, you know, getting all the release plans out. (0:18:53) Al: Like they’re not working on the game. (0:18:54) Al: Now they’re just ready to go. (0:18:56) Codey: Okay. (0:18:56) Al: But when they say four months away, I’m suspicious because that makes me sound (0:19:02) Al: feel like the game is not finished yet and they’re wanting to finish it. (0:19:05) Al: And they’re like, this is the point that we think we can get it done by, but (0:19:09) Al: something will probably go wrong. (0:19:12) Codey: Okay, are you making a prediction then? (0:19:12) Al: No, never, never make a prediction. (0:19:17) Codey: Okay, okay (0:19:18) Al: Never say you’re going to come out on a date. (0:19:22) Al: Do you see what I mean? (0:19:22) Al: No, it’s like, it’s a suspicious time frame. (0:19:24) Codey: Yeah, no I get it though, there’s also (0:19:26) Al: Like I’m not saying they don’t want to come out then, but I’m saying (0:19:29) Al: there’s a high probability that it gets delayed by a month. (0:19:33) Codey: Yeah, that’s fair. I detect no lies (0:19:38) Al: Good. (0:19:40) Al: I’m glad. (0:19:42) Al: Um, yeah, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll see. (0:19:45) Al: Will this be one of my 2025 games? (0:19:45) Codey: Correct. (0:19:48) Al: Maybe you don’t want to play this one. (0:19:49) Codey: It’s all you. (0:19:52) Codey: Um, I like how it looks, but I am over the witch aesthetic, personally. (0:19:57) Al: Oh, interesting. (0:19:58) Codey: So. (0:19:59) Al: I feel like we haven’t had many which games actually come out though. (0:20:01) Codey: No, I guess I just don’t I’ve never liked. (0:20:06) Al: Fair, fair. (0:20:07) Codey: So, yep. (0:20:10) Al: Uh, next we have Sunday. (0:20:12) Al: A release date for Switch. (0:20:16) Al: In the Americas. (0:20:18) Al: And only the Americas. (0:20:18) Codey: Bum. Bum. Bum. It is curious why it’s only the Americas. I know that they’re trying to do it (0:20:26) Codey: worldwide and they said that they’re encountering some “issues” or whatever with doing it. I mean, (0:20:33) Codey: it’s difficult, but I’m not entirely sure why because it’s not just the US. They have a bunch (0:20:38) Codey: in South America as well that it is coming out for. Correct, correct. (0:20:40) Al: Yes, yes. I did say Americas, to be fair. So it’s specifically coming to United States, (0:20:47) Al: Canada, Mexico. It sounds like the beginning. No, no, no. No, no, it’s not. It’s not. United (0:20:49) Codey: Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru, Republic Dominican. (0:20:55) Al: States, Canada, big pause, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. So I’m (0:21:05) Al: I’m guessing that it’s just that those are the only countries in the Americas that… (0:21:10) Al: the switch eShop is available in, and it’s not that they’re specifically saying you’re not allowed in Venezuela. (0:21:17) Codey: I am all four countries coming out in the order of that song. (0:21:23) Codey: And not just because the United States is the first one. (0:21:25) Al: Well, so my reason why I’m saying that I think it’s just those are the only… (0:21:29) Al: Because I don’t think you can do it on a country by country basis. (0:21:33) Al: I think you can only do it on a region by region basis. (0:21:36) Al: And there’s the Americas region. (0:21:38) Al: There’s– (0:21:40) Al: Europe and Africa, I think, and then there’s Japan, and then– (0:21:46) Al: Oh, sorry, Europe, Africa, and Australia are the same one, and then there’s Japan, and I don’t know what else there is. (0:21:50) Codey: interesting. Other countries. But yeah, so that’s coming out. And I really yeah, and they were really (0:21:58) Al: Oh yeah, we didn’t say the date, 29th of November. (0:22:02) Codey: wanting to try and make sure that the switch release did not was not like a version behind (0:22:08) Codey: or whatever. So it’s going to be released at the same version that it is, wherever else it’s (0:22:15) Codey: it’s released, except no multiplayer yet. (0:22:20) Al: Yes, that is the weird. It’s very not weird. It’s not weird. (0:22:24) Al: It makes sense. Multiple is difficult. (0:22:27) Al: But it is interesting that there earlier on in the announcement, they say (0:22:33) Al: essentially, and then in bold, zero content differences between the two platforms. (0:22:38) Al: So the thing you read because it’s like (0:22:40) Codey: Yep. (0:22:40) Al: in bold is zero content differences between the two platforms. (0:22:43) Al: But there is a word before which is essentially very sneaky. (0:22:46) Codey: Gotta look for that modifier. (0:22:48) Codey: Yep. (0:22:50) Al: And yeah, so no multiplayer. (0:22:52) Codey: Yep. Eventually. (0:22:52) Al: Yeah, I find it interesting why they’re doing because someone on I think it was (0:22:58) Al: the Kickstarter suggested it could be an issue with (0:23:04) Al: you know, some some law that something specific in the game isn’t (0:23:09) Al: covering, but it’s out on Steam world worldwide. (0:23:14) Al: So I don’t think that can be the case. (0:23:16) Codey: Hmm (0:23:18) Al: I suspect… (0:23:20) Al: This is a big theory, here’s my theory, my hypothesis. (0:23:25) Al: They didn’t know there were multiple eShop regions initially. (0:23:29) Al: And they went on, they set it all up, and then they realized, oh wait, this is just (0:23:34) Al: coming out in the Americas, and of course it takes a long time to get this stuff done (0:23:36) Codey: Yep. (0:23:36) Codey: Yeah. (0:23:38) Al: by Nintendo. (0:23:40) Al: Because who was it? (0:23:41) Al: There was another game that had a similar thing where they only gave eShop codes to people (0:23:46) Al: in the Americas. And they were like, Oh, we can’t we’re not these (0:23:50) Al: are the only codes we’re able to get. And everyone was like, but every game gets codes (0:23:53) Al: for the other regions. Why are you, why are you specifically not able to get ones for (0:23:57) Al: Europe and Japan, et cetera? And then yeah, then suddenly two weeks later, Oh, look, we (0:24:00) Codey: And then it’s ‘cause they had only applied for it. (0:24:05) Al: have the Europe codes now. It’s like, Hmm, funny that. So very suspicious. Maybe I’m (0:24:08) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:24:11) Al: being a bit unfair, but that is my theory. And we’ll probably never find out why. But (0:24:18) Al: I think if it’s like. (0:24:20) Al: A month later, or, you know, if it’s before the end of the year, I think that’s all it (0:24:23) Al: is. (0:24:24) Al: Because I don’t know what they could have been doing that was, I don’t know what else (0:24:27) Al: would have gotten their way because there’s no technical differences between the games, (0:24:32) Al: between the consoles. (0:24:33) Al: Right. (0:24:34) Al: Like I can, I can, I can create, and I have an American account on my switch as well. (0:24:38) Al: And I have a Japanese account. (0:24:39) Al: You can just download the games. (0:24:40) Al: There’s no content locking. (0:24:41) Al: The only content locking is the shop itself, which is based on your account, not your console. (0:24:47) Al: So I can’t imagine there would be a technical issue there. (0:24:50) Al: Only thinking is that it’s because they didn’t realise that there were multiple console, multiple (0:24:53) Codey: I mean, to be fair, that is weird. (0:24:53) Al: regions. (0:24:54) Al: What, that there’s multiple regions? (0:24:57) Codey: Like, yeah, like you would think that it wouldn’t be that there’s different shops, (0:24:59) Al: Ah, yeah. (0:25:04) Codey: just that there’s, it’s like, instead of Switch making, excuse me, all of these different shops, (0:25:11) Codey: different regions, they’re just, you just have one shop and then they would just choose what region (0:25:16) Codey: within the shop to sell it to. But that, but that makes too much sense. So they wouldn’t do that. (0:25:18) Al: I mean, it’s essentially the same thing, right? Like, it’s just a different way of doing it (0:25:23) Codey: Yeah. (0:25:25) Al: technically, right? Like, it doesn’t make any difference to users, right? It’s the same thing (0:25:30) Al: to them. But yeah, I don’t know. That’s my theory. Who knows? We’ll probably never know, but hey, (0:25:38) Codey: Yep. (0:25:38) Al: there we are. Sugardew Island. They’ve announced that they’re coming to Xbox and PS4. They were (0:25:46) Al: we’re already coming to PS5. (0:25:48) Al: Uh, this is, I don’t think I talked about this. (0:25:52) Al: They had posted this on Kickstarter like a month ago, and they were like, (0:25:55) Al: “We’re going to publicly talk about this later this month.” (0:25:58) Al: And I was like, “That’s really weird.” (0:26:00) Al: So I now have this information. (0:26:01) Al: I need to decide whether I’m sharing it or not. (0:26:03) Al: Cause they haven’t explicitly said, “Don’t share it.” (0:26:03) Codey: hmm okay oh is it up (0:26:05) Al: And I haven’t agreed to not share it, but also it’s like only pop- (0:26:09) Al: No, this one’s fine. (0:26:10) Al: It was the pre, like it’s now on Steam. (0:26:12) Al: Like they publicly said it now, but I was like, “Do I not share it?” (0:26:16) Al: because they’ve said we’re not (0:26:18) Al: there’s no like public version of it. (0:26:20) Codey: Yeah. (0:26:21) Al: Like I can’t cite my source because my source is a backer only Kickstarter post. (0:26:26) Codey: Yeah. (0:26:27) Al: I may as well say this now, the other reason they said this is one of the reasons on the (0:26:31) Al: Kickstarter, they said this is one of the reasons they put the delay in, (0:26:35) Al: because they got a grant to Xbox as well. (0:26:41) Al: But the other reason that they haven’t said publicly yet, but I’ve decided just to say it, (0:26:46) Al: is that they’re adding romance to the game. (0:26:48) Al: Um, which I’m not a huge fan of them delaying to add romance, but whatever. (0:26:50) Codey: Was. Yeah. Yeah. (0:26:55) Al: It is what it is. (0:26:56) Al: They haven’t said that publicly, so, um, I can’t prove it, but you’ll see (0:27:02) Al: in a couple of weeks, they’ll announce that they’re, they’re bringing romance (0:27:05) Al: to the game, um, lucky. (0:27:08) Codey: I also was laughing as I was looking at it that they titled themselves as the coziest (0:27:14) Al: which is a lot of a lot of technicalities there (0:27:15) Codey: farm shop game ever. (0:27:19) Codey: Yeah, like the coziest of not that many. (0:27:26) Codey: They also have a new trailer in it and I’m not, I watched the new trailer, but I’m not (0:27:29) Codey: really sure what in the trailer is new. (0:27:33) Codey: I did like, so they, they showed you like managing your shop. (0:27:38) Codey: And there was a point where like someone came up and they were (0:27:40) Codey: like, Oh, I only wanted this many, or I, I wanted this different. (0:27:45) Codey: I don’t know. (0:27:46) Codey: Someone was complaining. (0:27:48) Codey: And one of the things you could do is like offer a discount. (0:27:51) Codey: Um, so I don’t know. (0:27:55) Codey: I would never offer a discount. (0:27:56) Codey: I’ve worked retail before people can, people can follow the rules. (0:27:57) Al: They can they can buy it or they can not yeah (0:28:02) Codey: Yeah. (0:28:03) Codey: I’m not holding a gun to your head and saying you have to buy it or not. (0:28:06) Codey: like this. (0:28:08) Codey: Get out of here if you’re unhappy with the price. (0:28:12) Al: Yeah yeah I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again I don’t I just don’t think (0:28:12) Codey: But yeah, and this is still coming out in early 2025. (0:28:22) Al: that shops are fun gameplay experience and maybe this one will be the game (0:28:27) Al: that makes it happen but I highly doubt it based on what we’ve seen in the (0:28:30) Al: trailer it looks like every other game that has a shop ever which is where you (0:28:34) Al: put things out and then you have to stand there while people come and buy (0:28:38) Al: from you. And it’s like, this is not fun. Why would I? Why would I? (0:28:38) Codey: I mean, you could also do, uh, so Sims did it, they had a shop like where you could buy (0:28:42) Al: I don’t care about this, right? (0:28:43) Al: Um. (0:28:49) Codey: a business by a shop and then you have to run it, but you could hire people to like (0:28:54) Codey: greet or to run the register or to like schmooze with people. Um, but then you had to do whatever (0:29:04) Al: Yeah, and then it’s a management sim, and it’s like, that’s fine, those are games that (0:29:05) Codey: or else it is. (0:29:10) Al: people enjoy, but that is not what I want, and that is not, in my opinion, Cottagecore. (0:29:14) Codey: Yeah. Well, that’s the Sims for you. But yeah. So yeah, I don’t know. I mean, it reminds (0:29:14) Al: That is much more stressful. (0:29:16) Al: Well, exactly. (0:29:18) Al: There’s a reason I don’t play The Sims anymore. (0:29:28) Codey: me a little bit. We played, gosh, what is that? Galaxy Paws, Galactic Paws, something (0:29:34) Codey: Paws, Garden Paws, Garden Paws. There’s a store in that. Yeah. There’s a store in that. (0:29:37) Al: Garden Paws, there we go. (0:29:40) Al: Just put two generic words together, you’ve probably got a game. (0:29:45) Codey: That was really fun. (0:29:47) Al: Okay, I will correct myself. (0:29:49) Al: There was one game where running a shop was fun, and that was, of course, (0:29:52) Al: Meneko’s Night Market. (0:29:54) Al: But that was fun because of how very specifically curated it was. (0:30:00) Al: It was like one scene every in-game week, and you could still, you know, (0:30:05) Al: get money other ways at this (0:30:07) Al: was just the best way to get money, right? You got the most money if you sold things this way. (0:30:12) Al: So it, that one was fun, but these games where it’s just like every day you go to the shop, (0:30:16) Al: you put stuff up and you have to stand there. (0:30:20) Codey: Yeah. Garden Paws, you could just open your store and then walk away, but then if something like ran out or whatever. (0:30:28) Al: Well, this is the thing, they’re all just more annoying ways of doing the thing that (0:30:34) Al: in farming games we’ve had forever, which is you throw everything in a box and you get (0:30:38) Al: the money, right? Why would I want more complications to that? That’s not what I’m here for. I’m (0:30:45) Al: here for the farming, and for the living, and for the people sometimes. I doubt I’ll (0:30:51) Al: be here for the people in this game. I might be wrong, and I will admit when I’m wrong (0:30:55) Al: if it changes, but I suspect the- (0:30:56) Codey: if you’re wrong. Yeah. (0:30:58) Al: people will have no personalities. (0:31:01) Al: It’s going to be Faith Arm all over again, (0:31:03) Al: where there’s some nice stuff about the game, (0:31:05) Al: but overall the people are just boring. (0:31:08) Codey: Okay, you heard it here, heard it here first. Boring. (0:31:11) Al: Well, I mean, to be fair, I think I’ve said it multiple times. (0:31:16) Al: I will play this game, right? (0:31:17) Al: I need to play this game because it is getting so much buzz. (0:31:21) Al: Like people seem to really like the idea of this game, (0:31:24) Al: even though I don’t understand why. (0:31:26) Codey: Because it starts with an “S” and ends with “Dew Island”. (0:31:28) Al: » Oh man. I cry. I cry. What have we got next? We have OVA Magica. They’ve announced (0:31:29) Codey: And it starts with an “S” and ends with an “E” and ends with an “S” and ends with an “E”. (0:31:40) Al: that their first major update is out now. Yeah. I mean, to be honest, like, this is the sort of (0:31:44) Codey: - Yep. (0:31:45) Codey: It just… (0:31:49) Al: thing where it’s like, if you’re playing this game, you’ll be really excited about the updates (0:31:52) Al: in this. And if you’re not, you probably don’t care that there are new blobs, new blob worlds, (0:31:57) Codey: Yeah, but there’s new cosmetic. (0:31:58) Al: new events. It’s the wrong one. It’s in early access. I don’t think they’ve announced when… (0:32:00) Codey: Oh, nope, this is the wrong game. (0:32:02) Codey: Just kidding. (0:32:04) Codey: Yeah, that’s it. (0:32:05) Codey: When is this coming out? (0:32:09) Codey: No, this podcast. (0:32:11) Al: Oh, this episode. (0:32:13) Codey: If you are listening to this on release day, (0:32:17) Codey: if you are one of the cool kids, (0:32:19) Codey: you can get this game for 20% off right now on Steam. (0:32:24) Codey: But only for people, 20 on 20, (0:32:27) Codey: if you’re on the 21st, no 20. (0:32:30) Codey: No 20 for you. (0:32:31) Al: This is an example of one that will definitely not hit its time frame that it said in the Early Access. They said “Over Magic has currently planned to be in Early Access for roughly eight to 10 months with regular content updates leaving up to the 1.0 full release.” (0:32:31) Codey: That’s it, that’s all I have. (0:32:46) Al: The first version of this came out in July, and this is their first content update. So that’s what? Is that four months? (0:32:52) Codey: Yep. July is seven. This is, yeah, this, yes, four months. (0:33:02) Al: Which is fine, I’m not saying they have to rush it out, but they always underestimate it. (0:33:07) Codey: What if they’re not doing it regular? What if it’s like, here’s one update, and then here’s another one, here’s another one, here’s another one, and it’s released. (0:33:15) Al: Well, I mean, they did say regular, they did the best, but they use that word regular. (0:33:18) Codey: Oh, fair. They did. (0:33:22) Codey: Nevermind. (0:33:24) Al: You’re like, what if they don’t you mean this word that they used in the sentence? (0:33:27) Codey: That they literally say. (0:33:30) Codey: I tried, I tried to give them some grace. It did not work. (0:33:34) Codey: work. (0:33:35) Al: We’re not here for grace, we’re here for content. (0:33:38) Codey: Content, bam, bam, bam, bam. (0:33:41) Al: No, I actually, this is the problem with covering indie games. (0:33:45) Al: I actually really liked the developer of Emajica. She seems like a really nice person, (0:33:48) Codey: - Yeah. (0:33:50) Al: and I don’t want to be too harsh. So. (0:33:52) Codey: Yeah. (0:33:54) Codey: Well, and it’s all in good fun. (0:33:55) Codey: I mean, like I basically, (0:33:57) Codey: we joked about this at the conference that I was just at (0:33:59) Codey: that this is the third year in a row (0:34:01) Codey: that we’ve wanted to have a symposium about neurodiversions, (0:34:04) Codey: but all of the people who are trying to make the symposium (0:34:08) Codey: have ADHD. (0:34:11) Codey: And so it never happens because we all have ADHD. (0:34:15) Codey: And I’m at the point now where I’m like, (0:34:18) Codey: I’m not going to accept symposia ideas (0:34:21) Codey: or whatever until like March, (0:34:22) Codey: but I kind of want to start it right now (0:34:25) Codey: and just have it done (0:34:27) Codey: because I really want this to happen. (0:34:28) Al: Yeah, yeah, it’s why, yeah, I was talking to someone, a friend who’s been diagnosed (0:34:35) Al: with ADHD recently, and I was just asking, you know, what to expect if I end up looking (0:34:41) Al: for a diagnosis. And I was like, it’s really ironic that the way to start an ADHD diagnosis (0:34:46) Codey: Yeah, I saw this recently, it was like, people who have a thing that cripples their ability (0:34:47) Al: is to make an appointment. It’s like, what do you expect here? (0:35:01) Codey: to do small menial tasks and make appointments have to have three phone calls and make two (0:35:07) Codey: appointments and like all this stuff. (0:35:11) Codey: But that means that if you get through it all, you must really care. (0:35:14) Al: Well this is the thing is because she actually got the diagnosis because she, like someone (0:35:16) Codey: You don’t care enough. (0:35:25) Al: was noticing while she was postpartum, she’d just had a baby, and so they were like “I (0:35:29) Codey: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (0:35:31) Al: think we need to do this” and she was like “Great” so she didn’t even need to do that (0:35:35) Al: first step, like that’s the best way to get diagnosis when someone notices and does something (0:35:39) Al: about it, but most people don’t get that. (0:35:40) Codey: Yep. That’s pretty I had been going to doctors for a long (0:35:45) Codey: time. And then finally, one of them was like, oh my gosh, you’ve (0:35:48) Codey: been coming here for so long. Why don’t I just send you to (0:35:50) Codey: this other place? And the first person that saw me at that other (0:35:53) Codey: place was like, Oh, yeah, you have it. Like she didn’t even (0:35:56) Codey: have to take me through the test. But yeah, all of that to (0:36:01) Codey: say, our chiding is gentle, we please over magica human take (0:36:07) Codey: your time. We can’t do things. (0:36:08) Al: I mean, she probably doesn’t listen to the podcast anyway, you know. (0:36:10) Codey: Please, Claudia. We can’t do things on a timeline either, but if she does, you take (0:36:19) Codey: your time. We’re still here. We still are excited about your game. They’re cute. I want (0:36:23) Al: Your blobs are cute. (0:36:24) Al: I want your, I was just about to say I want your blobs, but that sounds really bad. (0:36:29) Codey: your blobs. One of the ones in the new trailer was a fox. That’s pretty cute. Yeah. I think (0:36:34) Al: Blob. You can, I’m pretty sure you can crossbreed the blobs as well. So could you make a Fox (0:36:41) Codey: it was a fox. I was thinking more fox B, but okay. (0:36:42) Al: cow blob? Ooh, Fox bee. Would that be like black and orange straighten? That’s too similar (0:36:51) Al: to be orange and yellow stripes. (0:36:54) Codey: I would yeah I would think it’s an orange and white striped bee that has a fox tail. (0:37:02) Codey: And maybe with like uh little fox ears too little white tipped ears could be cute. (0:37:08) Al: Interesting. Speaking of first major content update after an early access release. (0:37:16) Al: We have fields of mystery have also announced their first major content update, and that is out now as you’re listening comes out in the 18th of November, which is in the past now listeners. (0:37:32) Al: Similarly to the previous update, you probably don’t care about most of this stuff if you don’t play the game. (0:37:38) Al: It adds a bunch of stuff that will probably be really interesting to you. (0:37:42) Codey: This is the one that adds cosmetic things. (0:37:42) Al: So it does add cosmetic. (0:37:46) Codey: You can change how you look. (0:37:47) Codey: You can change how your pets look. (0:37:49) Codey: You can get new drops from the monsters in the dungeons (0:37:52) Codey: because surprise, there are new monsters in the dungeon. (0:37:54) Codey: Mines, it’s mines. (0:37:56) Codey: I said dungeon, I meant mines. (0:37:58) Codey: New heart events, new skill perks, a new festival, mounts. (0:38:02) Codey: I’m excited about the mounts. (0:38:02) Al: I don’t know, never say never. You know the fun thing about one thing I really like about (0:38:05) Codey: I’m never gonna play this game, (0:38:06) Codey: but I was excited about that. (0:38:13) Al: Fields of Mystery, just seeing as how we’re talking about it. I’ll talk more about this (0:38:15) Al: in the main episode that we talk about it in. But you can change everything about yourself (0:38:21) Al: after the initial thing, except your birthday. And that includes your pronouns, your name, (0:38:28) Codey: That’s cool (0:38:30) Al: your look, et cetera. (0:38:31) Codey: That’s cool (0:38:33) Al: Yeah, the number of times I’ve heard my trans friends say that they started a game (0:38:38) Al: pre-transition, and then they’re like, don’t want to play the game now because I’m pre-transitioning (0:38:43) Al: the game. Well, there you go in Fields of Mystery, you can just change. If only it was as simple as (0:38:46) Codey: In the real world, womp, womp, it is becoming more obvious, I guess. (0:38:48) Al: that. [LAUGHTER] (0:38:57) Codey: I’ve had a couple people, I don’t know if I’ve said this on the pod or not, but I have (0:39:01) Codey: decided to expand my pronouns to she/they, so anything she/her or they/them are acceptable. (0:39:10) Codey: This happened because I’m pretty sure my tattoo artist thought I was non-binary and they called (0:39:14) Codey: me think, for a really long time. (0:39:16) Codey: And I was like, you know what, that doesn’t sound wrong. (0:39:20) Codey: That does not sound wrong, but he does. (0:39:24) Codey: I do not identify as he/him. (0:39:26) Codey: So I am… (0:39:28) Al: Either you’re going to say “I do not identify as a he” or a him, a he or a him, either of (0:39:28) Codey: Yeah, or as… No, I don’t. (0:39:33) Codey: So yeah, I’m she/they. (0:39:35) Codey: Or him. Or his. None of those things. (0:39:36) Al: them. Or a his. Well, I don’t know. Well, I mean, it depends how traditionally possessive (0:39:39) Codey: So yeah. (0:39:46) Al: about relationships you want to go, because I presume your partner, does your partner (0:39:50) Al: go by he/him. Okay, but you could arguably say you are his. (0:39:51) Codey: Um, I think he’s also he they, but he Ooh, you, you’re right. (0:39:58) Al: But then I know that, you know, obviously there are negative connotations to the patriarchal (0:40:05) Al: view of relationships like that. Well, yes. Yeah, OK. Of course. Of course. I’m just saying (0:40:08) Codey: I mean, but he’s mine, so it’s not a one-way thing. (0:40:13) Al: that the idea of being owned by a man is obviously historically… What’s the word I’m looking (0:40:16) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:20) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:21) Al: for… “ablimatic” is the word, but yeah, it works. (0:40:22) Codey: Ick? (0:40:25) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:26) Codey: No, so all of this is to say like, (0:40:28) Codey: that is something that I have, (0:40:30) Codey: that’s recently occurred in my life, (0:40:31) Codey: but it’s kind of been like under the radar. (0:40:33) Codey: I didn’t have like a big, hey, this is happening now. (0:40:36) Codey: And I’ve had at least three humans (0:40:38) Codey: week reach out to me independently and say, (0:40:41) Codey: hey, may I ask what your pronouns are? (0:40:44) Codey: ‘Cause I think they’ve changed. (0:40:46) Codey: And I was like, wow, they have, thank you. (0:40:47) Codey: Thank you for confirming. (0:40:51) Codey: So it is, though, again, (0:40:53) Codey: I’m in a very liberal, progressive life. (0:40:57) Codey: But people are becoming more accepting of it. (0:41:01) Codey: I feel like in the general. (0:41:03) Al: the people you want to spend time with anyway. (0:41:05) Al: » [LAUGH] (0:41:06) Codey: Yeah. (0:41:07) Codey: Well, and it’s funny because (0:41:08) Codey: because of things in life right now, uh, there are those who are in hide (0:41:13) Codey: mode who are trying to protect themselves, which is 100% valid. (0:41:14) Al: Mm-hmm (0:41:17) Codey: Um, I’m in fight mode. (0:41:19) Codey: So both in my institution, uh, but also in my politics, I am not going to go (0:41:27) Codey: quietly into that good night. (0:41:28) Codey: I’m, I’m ready to fight. (0:41:30) Codey: Um, and I’ve told all of my friends that if they need someone to fight for them, (0:41:33) Codey: hit me up because I’m in fight mode right now, not flight. (0:41:38) Al: Fair enough. It’s fine, I’ll cut it. It doesn’t need to go in. Yeah, so a bunch of stuff. (0:41:39) Codey: Uh, that was a weird aside. (0:41:40) Codey: Anyway, we have a couple new games. (0:41:45) Codey: You don’t have to cut it. (0:41:46) Codey: It’s fine. (0:41:50) Codey: Mm hmm. (0:41:51) Codey: Woo! (0:41:54) Al: That’s all of the game news, but we also have new games. Two new games to talk about. (0:42:00) Al: The first is Whimsied, a creature collection game that sits at the bottom of your screen (0:42:07) Al: and fits easily into your… (0:42:08) Al: routine. Whether you’re working, studying, or relaxing, Whimsight is always ready to offer you cozy (0:42:15) Al: pauses, capture creatures, create new species, and decorate your whimsical space in this soothing (0:42:20) Al: adventure. So we’re finishing the trilogy of, we’re going to call them rusty retirement likes. (0:42:28) Codey: Yeah, that was a I said, Oh, no, what did Rusty’s retirement do? (0:42:34) Codey: Because they really opened up a a worm of cans. (0:42:38) Al: this feels like the most dangerous one to me (0:42:39) Codey: But yeah, I think it’s. (0:42:43) Codey: Yeah, yeah, because it’s it’s creature collection. (0:42:47) Codey: It’s also you breed things together and you create new things. (0:42:50) Codey: I also really like that the little creatures are 2D, like, (0:42:54) Codey: and when they turn themselves, they just turn they’re like a little plane of paper (0:42:58) Al: Like, yeah, people are mad at you, ask. (0:43:00) Codey: I don’t know. Yeah, very paper Mario esque and that was really cute. (0:43:05) Codey: Yeah. Oh, heck, I am. (0:43:09) Codey: My all my dollar bucks are going to go away for this. (0:43:12) Al: Oh, they call them winlings. (0:43:13) Codey: So, yeah. Yeah, they’re windlings. (0:43:20) Codey: Yep, it looks really cute. (0:43:21) Codey: The release date is currently to be determined, but you can (0:43:25) Codey: support the person, I think, on some way. (0:43:28) Codey: That I saw pre pre down. (0:43:32) Codey: I don’t know. You can do something to support them that one. (0:43:34) Al: Go add it to your wishlist. (0:43:37) Al: That’s always the best thing before games are out, (0:43:41) Al: because it pushes them up the charts when they do come out. (0:43:44) Codey: Oh, I didn’t know that. (0:43:46) Codey: The more you know. (0:43:48) Codey: Um, yeah, very cute. Are you are you are you going to get that one. (0:43:54) Codey: Or is that going to be a me and john. (0:43:56) Al: So the problem is, I do like the concept of it, (0:43:59) Al: but the problem is the time I spend on a computer is work. (0:44:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:44:04) Al: And I work on a machine owned by the client I work for. (0:44:07) Al: So I can’t just install things on there. (0:44:08) Codey: Yeah. (0:44:11) Al: And so I just don’t think there would be time (0:44:13) Al: that I would be sitting in front of a computer (0:44:15) Al: that I would be able to have it on. (0:44:18) Al: If I like, you know, worked on my own machine doing work, (0:44:22) Al: then I would absolutely be playing games (0:44:24) Al: like this in Rusty’s retirement. (0:44:25) Al: I just don’t see the time I could. (0:44:28) Codey: Yeah. I foresee, uh, much time in which I could play this game because, uh, in the next year, (0:44:35) Codey: probably in the latter half of the next year, I will be writing, um, and running code. In which (0:44:42) Codey: case I need much distraction. So, uh, bring it on. Quim side. I also love how you pronounce it (0:44:49) Codey: because the H comes first. Say it. Feel like there’s an H in there. A couple of times when (0:44:56) Codey: When you said it, you said quin- (0:44:58) Codey: I know, I like it. (0:44:58) Al: Oh yeah, well that was just, yeah, it was just over. It’s a Family Guy reference. (0:45:06) Al: Anyway, apologies for the Family Guy reference, people. I’m not one of those people. (0:45:13) Al: You know, there’s a couple of TV shows that I enjoy watching, but I do not want to be (0:45:17) Al: considered a fan of it, because fans of them are terrible people. That’s one of them. (0:45:20) Codey: Yeah, yeah. (0:45:22) Al: The other one is Rick and Marty. It’s like, I enjoy them, and I find them amusing, (0:45:28) Al: someone saying, “Oh, they’re so funny.” I start to go, “Do you like them for a good reason, (0:45:34) Al: or for a bad reason?” It’s like, specifically with Rick and Marty, it’s like, (0:45:37) Codey: Yeah. (0:45:40) Al: “Do you think of Rick as a role model?” Because that’s a problem. (0:45:45) Codey: - Yeah. (0:45:49) Al: Anyway, good fun. (0:45:51) Codey: There’s a lot of people when I meet them (0:45:53) Codey: and they’re like, “Man, I love Rick and Morty.” (0:45:54) Codey: And I’m like, “Ooh.” (0:45:58) Al: That is at least a number flag, right? (0:45:58) Codey: That’s not as good of a thing as you think it is. (0:46:06) Al: Like that is, we gotta figure out what the reason you like it is, but also the fact that (0:46:07) Codey: An amber flick. (0:46:14) Al: you’re so enthusiastic about it initially, you know, it’s fine to like it, but you gotta (0:46:18) Al: feel a little bit bad about it, right? (0:46:20) Codey: Yeah. (0:46:22) Al: It’s like, I like it, but please do not bundle me in with those people. (0:46:25) Codey: Yep, it’s people like me who I like it (0:46:28) Codey: because it takes existing like jokes and stuff (0:46:32) Codey: and like puts dark humor to it, which I like. (0:46:34) Al: Yeah. (0:46:37) Codey: But yeah, okay. (0:46:41) Codey: You have made this new section so long. (0:46:44) Codey: You did that on purpose. (0:46:46) Codey: We still have another game. (0:46:47) Codey: Come on, let’s go. (0:46:49) Codey: You did this on purpose, because I– (0:46:50) Codey: that it wasn’t going to be that long. (0:46:51) Al: I think you’ll find it just was long. (0:46:53) Al: The final new game is Honeygrove. (0:46:54) Codey: You did this on purpose, because it wasn’t going to be that long. (0:47:00) Al: I was just very confused, because apparently the Twitter account is called (0:47:03) Al: Beatrice, honey. (0:47:04) Codey: - Yeah, her name is. (0:47:05) Al: And I’m like, what’s the - oh, is that the main - is that the character Beatrice? (0:47:08) Codey: Yeah, the main character is, yeah, she’s Beatrice. (0:47:11) Al: Beeee Beatrice. (0:47:12) Codey: No, it’s spelled just Beatrice. (0:47:14) Al: No, I know, but Beatrice. (0:47:15) Codey: There’s no two, I’m aware. (0:47:23) Al: Oh, I die. (0:47:26) Al: And this just calls itself a cosy story driven gardening sim. (0:47:31) Codey: Oh, there was more to it. (0:47:32) Codey: Here, let me find it again. (0:47:32) Al: Well, that was all that was on the web. (0:47:35) Al: There’s almost nothing on the website and the website doesn’t even really work. (0:47:39) Al: So you have to go to the app stores because it’s on iOS and Android. (0:47:44) Al: But yeah, do you want to, do you want to take it away? (0:47:49) Codey: Uh, I did, and I also had it up, but then I had to find it again because I got, I ducked (0:47:54) Codey: out of it to download Pokemon pocket. Honey Grove is the cozy gardening and farming game (0:48:00) Codey: you’ve always wanted to play. Bold. Design and nurture your garden of wildflowers where (0:48:02) Al: I’ve always wanted to play. (0:48:07) Codey: every bloom and harvest will help you revive Honey Grove. So there are the following features. (0:48:14) Codey: Meaning, uh, you unlock plants over time, you harvest scrap. Sweet. Adore! (0:48:19) Codey: Trouble bee narrative. Meet a delightful array of bees. That’s for me to decide. Uh, each (0:48:24) Codey: with their own personalities and talents. From green-found gardeners to intrepid explorers (0:48:28) Codey: and skilled crafters. Weow. Save the town. Send your adventurous explorer bees to uncover (0:48:31) Al: Weeee! (0:48:36) Codey: new locations. Weow. Crafting. Gather resources, merge, and craft these into equipment essential (0:48:43) Codey: for Honey Grove’s rebuild. Explore rebuilt parts of the town, including the garden shop, (0:48:47) Codey: community cafe and decoration shop. (0:48:50) Codey: I think it’s only been out for a couple days. (0:48:51) Codey: It’s got a rating of 4.9, which is nice. (0:48:53) Codey: Uh, it’s free, but it says that there are internet purchases, uh, on the. (0:48:56) Codey: Comment or not comments reviews. (0:48:58) Codey: Someone said there are no ads. (0:48:59) Codey: Which is pretty awesome. (0:49:00) Codey: And despite the app saying that it is available worldwide. (0:49:02) Codey: Um, there are a bunch of, um, (0:49:04) Codey: I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:05) Codey: Um, I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:06) Codey: Um, I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:07) Codey: Um, I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:08) Codey: Um, I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:09) Codey: I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:10) Codey: Um, I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:11) Codey: Um, I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:12) Codey: Um, I don’t know if you guys can hear me. (0:49:19) Codey: one star or small star reviews from one person saying well why does it say it’s (0:49:25) Codey: regional when I can’t play in some country and then there’s another one (0:49:30) Codey: that’s definitely Russian and they’re saying something and so I’m assuming they (0:49:34) Codey: also can’t play so there it’s not a hundred percent worldwide yet so (0:49:38) Al: But it’s available for you and it’s available for me and that’s all that matters. (0:49:42) Codey: yeah yeah so possibly stay tuned for the future (0:49:48) Al: No promises! We never promise anything! I’m not writing it down. I’m not writing it down in (0:49:50) Codey: Al is promising it. Al is promising it. (0:49:54) Al: the episodes list right now. I am not promising it. Alrighty, that’s the news! (0:49:58) Codey: Wooo! (0:50:04) Al: Right now, Cody’s gonna tell me about bees in Minecraft. I thought Minecraft already had bees. (0:50:10) Codey: It does. So glad you asked, Al. (0:50:14) Al: I didn’t ask, I just stated. (0:50:17) Codey: Feed the Bees is an add-on created by Feed the Beast, which is the creator. It only cost 600. (0:50:23) Al: is that not a game feed the beast (0:50:25) Codey: I think it was going to be, I think that was a beast game. I think that was going to be (0:50:31) Codey: a game that Al created, but they ended up changing the name. (0:50:36) Al: Oh yes, because there was another game called Feed the Beast. (0:50:39) Codey: Sure. (0:50:40) Al: No, there is. I can see one. It’s called Feed the Beast. It’s on Steam. (0:50:42) Codey: Okay. (0:50:42) Codey: Okay. (0:50:43) Al: Make the Beast eat all the other players. That’s not El’s one, though. (0:50:44) Codey: But L’s. (0:50:46) Codey: No. (0:50:46) Codey: L’s got a new, it’s a new name. (0:50:48) Al: Yeah, it’s one based on Factorio. I can’t remember what it is, but they asked if Factorio- (0:50:56) Codey: remember that. But I want to know what it is. Tea Engineers, Mudborne, Apico, Snack Torrio (0:51:05) Al: There we go. (0:51:06) Codey: is their game. But not all of this to say, Feed the Bees is created by Feed the Beast. (0:51:13) Codey: It is 660 Minecraft coins, which is £3.29. Did I say that right? $4.50 USD. Really, (0:51:19) Al: Yeah, sure. (0:51:24) Codey: really not a lot of money. (0:51:26) Codey: Um, it adds a few, uh, NPCs that sell bee related things. (0:51:30) Codey: Plus most importantly, it adds 128 bees from different resources. (0:51:35) Codey: So there it is. (0:51:36) Codey: So there’s a lot of bees that are already in the game. (0:51:38) Codey: Like there are bees that are already in the game and they create these (0:51:41) Codey: like natural bee nests on trees. (0:51:44) Codey: And then you can. (0:51:46) Codey: Sheer the honey out of those nests. (0:51:50) Codey: I think you can also smoke them, like put like a little fire below them. (0:51:54) Codey: And then they’re not grumpy with you. (0:51:57) Codey: Um, and you can use them. (0:51:59) Codey: No one wants grumpy bees and you can use them to like, uh, improve your farming. (0:52:07) Codey: Um, and so that’s something that already exists in the game, but this (0:52:12) Codey: adds those 128 bees, add a whole bunch of other stuff too. (0:52:16) Codey: Um, and it’s really cool. (0:52:19) Codey: Uh, confirming, so there for the forestry mod, it was the original (0:52:24) Codey: Like adding of. (0:52:27) Codey: Be stuff into Minecraft. (0:52:30) Codey: And I believe that was also by feed the beast. (0:52:35) Codey: Um, so it might just be a reskinning of something that they’ve already done before. (0:52:40) Codey: But it is a completely different thing. (0:52:42) Codey: So that used to have like different types of bees that you could make. (0:52:46) Codey: And there were different farms and harvesters, harvesters, um, added beekeeping. (0:52:51) Codey: There were all these different things, but this, uh, creates specifically (0:52:57) Codey: source based bees. (0:52:58) Codey: So there is a coal bee and a granite bee and a gravel bee, like all of that kind of stuff. (0:53:05) Codey: When you first start up the game, after downloading the mod, you’re given a guide. (0:53:08) Codey: Um, plus like a box that has some starter bees. (0:53:11) Codey: It’s usually very simple, like dirt and water, um, basic ones. (0:53:15) Codey: Um, did you ever play? (0:53:16) Al: Just your, just your basic Bs. (0:53:18) Codey: Yeah, your basic simple ones. (0:53:19) Codey: Um, did you ever play alchemy or a game like that? (0:53:22) Codey: where you like. So it’s a game where you’re literally just melding. (0:53:26) Codey: Things together, like you’re smashing different things together and it creates new things. (0:53:32) Al: Is that like the the the one the grid based games and you’ve got like the thing (0:53:39) Codey: No, I mean, alchemy just had like, you had different resources and then you throw them (0:53:45) Codey: together and then it creates sometimes creates new things. Um, this isn’t creating bigger (0:53:49) Codey: things. It’s just like, like, for example, if you want a Moss B, you mix a water B and (0:53:56) Codey: a grass B and then they have a baby Moss B. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:54:00) Al: So how does that work gameplay-wise? (0:54:04) Al: Because obviously, are you crafting like you would in Minecraft, or are you doing something (0:54:10) Codey: So yeah, it’s like what you would do when you’re breeding anything in Minecraft where you have two adults of whatever thing. (0:54:17) Codey: Like, for example, with cows, you have two cows, you feed them each a wheat and then they have hearts around them and they hug. (0:54:27) Codey: And then they pop out a baby cow, a special hug. (0:54:29) Al: A special hug. (0:54:31) Codey: And it’s basically that. (0:54:32) Codey: So the bees can be in glass jars and then you drop them. (0:54:39) Codey: Break the jar on the ground and it uses up the jar and then the bee is in the world. (0:54:44) Codey: And then you do that with the other bee that you want to breed. (0:54:47) Codey: And then you give them both any flower and then they do the special hug and then a baby comes out. (0:54:56) Codey: There are bees that are resources. (0:54:58) Codey: There are bees that are things that are already created like barrels and chests. (0:55:05) Codey: So, it’s a little bee that looks like a barrel or a little bee that looks like a chest. (0:55:09) Codey: And that is how you breed them. My favorite is the Skeleton Bee. (0:55:17) Codey: Literally just looks like a floating bee skeleton. Skeleton bees don’t have skeletons. (0:55:24) Codey: They have exoskeletons made out of chitin, but it looks like a little floating skeleton, (0:55:30) Codey: and it’s really cute. Yeah, they’re really cute. It is really hard to find stuff online (0:55:37) Codey: about this mod pack. (0:55:39) Codey: If you want to get this mod pack and you want an excel file where you can keep track (0:56:00) Codey: of what you have, how you can get it, etc. (0:56:04) Codey: I have that already and I can share that with anyone. (0:56:07) Codey: Um, yeah, so there are these. (0:56:09) Codey: 128 bees to collect and you can collect them in a variety of ways. (0:56:13) Codey: Uh, the first one is some of them you can find in the world. (0:56:16) Codey: It’s some of the really basic ones. (0:56:18) Codey: Um, you can just find them, uh, as they’re flying around in whatever (0:56:25) Codey: biome they’re supposed to be a part of. (0:56:27) Codey: So for example, there’s birch bees, which you will find by birch trees. (0:56:33) Codey: They’re a, yeah, they’re a really light color. (0:56:37) Codey: like they look like little little (0:56:39) Codey: birch logs. Um and they’re just (0:56:43) Codey: flying around and I think they (0:56:45) Codey: have most of the ones that are (0:56:47) Codey: affiliated with a jungle or a (0:56:49) Codey: woody area have green, green (0:56:51) Codey: wings, just really cute. Um so (0:56:55) Codey: you just find it and you catch (0:56:57) Codey: it in the jar. Um and that’s (0:57:00) Codey: that’s like the main way to (0:57:02) Codey: acquire, I would say like the (0:57:04) Codey: bottom tier or basic ones that (0:57:06) Codey: are that you can then use to (0:57:10) Codey: again, we already mentioned (0:57:11) Codey: breeding. So if you already have (0:57:13) Codey: the two prerequisite bees and (0:57:15) Codey: you just breed them together, (0:57:16) Codey: you can create um the one that (0:57:19) Codey: you want. There’s also a guy I (0:57:21) Codey: think he’s called like the (0:57:22) Codey: wandering beekeeper. He you can (0:57:25) Codey: just buy yeah you can just buy (0:57:28) Codey: stuff from him. So it’s so funny (0:57:30) Codey: because he you know how there’s (0:57:31) Codey: that guy that has like wolves on (0:57:32) Codey: a leash and there’s the guy that (0:57:34) Codey: has the two llamas on a leash on (0:57:38) Codey: leads. (0:57:40) Codey: So there’s a wandering trader that just has like two llamas on (0:57:43) Codey: a leash, and then you can like trade with him and he just has (0:57:46) Codey: random stuff. This guy just has two bees on a lead on like two (0:57:51) Codey: different leads. And I remember going to like a meadow area (0:57:55) Codey: because I was trying to find a specific type of bee that shows (0:57:58) Codey: up in the meadow. And I just looked over and I saw two bees (0:58:00) Codey: flying around and I was like, Oh my gosh, there they are. And (0:58:03) Codey: then I ran over and it was this frickin guy. And so I killed (0:58:07) Codey: him because I was mad. (0:58:09) Codey: Um, but you, you can buy using, you can’t acquire the bees that he has. (0:58:15) Codey: If you kill him, he doesn’t drop them as loot, which is very sad, but you can buy (0:58:19) Codey: them from him with emerald. (0:58:21) Codey: You can get some really niche ones. (0:58:23) Codey: Like some of them are require pretty deep, pretty in-depth, like breeding (0:58:28) Codey: stuff to get them, like, like 10 process, 10 breed, breedings down the line, you (0:58:35) Codey: know, um, but he’ll just sell them. (0:58:38) Codey: So he had like the crying. (0:58:39) Codey: one, which is pretty cool. (0:58:44) Al: I’m very confused, because there seems to be a bee breeding mod from Feed the Beast. (0:58:49) Al: It doesn’t look like what I was expecting, and like all the YouTube videos on it are from 2017. (0:58:55) Codey: Mm-hmm. So that was his old one, their old one. I don’t know their pronouns. (0:58:59) Codey: This is their new one. I don’t know if they, so they basically repurposed whatever it was that (0:59:03) Codey: they had, I believe, because it seems pretty similar, but this is with resources. It’s called (0:59:10) Codey: Feed the Bees. Correct. (0:59:12) Al: It’s called Feed the Bees. (0:59:14) Al: Right, I’m Googling wrong. (0:59:17) Al: Feed the bees. (0:59:19) Al: There we go. (0:59:20) Al: Perfect. (0:59:20) Codey: Yeah. There’s really not a lot about it though, because it only came out a couple months ago, I think. (0:59:21) Al: Bound it. (0:59:24) Al: Yes, but that’s much easier to Google for than bees. (0:59:26) Codey: Yeah. Yeah. So you can purchase some from the guy and then you can also smelt or craft some (0:59:27) Al: Minecraft breeding. (0:59:35) Codey: of them. So if you have like some of them require that you literally just throw a certain type of (0:59:41) Codey: bee, I think like the charcoal bee, you have to put any wood bee into the smelter and then it pops (0:59:46) Al: Oh no, that’s very cute but also a bit horrifying. (0:59:47) Codey: out a charcoal pea, stuff like that. (0:59:50) Codey: I think you can also do– so like the water bee, (0:59:53) Codey: if you’re having a hard time finding it, you can use– (0:59:55) Codey: you can put just a regular bee and then put water around it, (1:00:00) Codey: and then it creates a water bee for you. (1:00:02) Al: Okay, yeah, so I’m seeing a video of this. This looks much more like what I was expecting. (1:00:06) Codey: Yeah. (1:00:07) Al: You can put the bees in jars. No, that’s okay. And then you create your A period. (1:00:09) Codey: Yeah, you catch them in jars. (1:00:10) Codey: Sorry, I should have said that. (1:00:13) Codey: That’s how you catch them when you see them in the world, is you– (1:00:20) Codey: Yeah, so you start out, so I guess like other than just collecting all of these random bees, (1:00:24) Codey: like why should you care? Correct. But you can create hives, which you can then make into bee (1:00:27) Al: Well, but what’s silly, why, why should you? (1:00:29) Al: Because you’re collecting bees. (1:00:31) Al: Why collect anything? (1:00:37) Codey: boxes. And then when you put a bee, say you put a diamond bee in a bee box, it then creates (1:00:48) Codey: Diamond Honeycomb. (1:00:50) Codey: And you can use the apiarists table to convert that into actual diamonds. (1:00:58) Codey: So it’s basically creating a renewable resource for diamonds. (1:01:03) Codey: Or for whatever it is that you want. (1:01:06) Codey: So I have like emeralds are really important because you use them to buy a lot of crap with all these like traders and stuff. (1:01:12) Codey: So really looking forward to finally getting our emerald hive going. (1:01:17) Codey: Emerald Beehive because then it just. (1:01:20) Codey: Emerald Honeycomb, and it just continues to do this, even when you’re not playing a game, which is wild or like when you’re not around, because I went back after doing some Fox stuff in my game, I went back to the B area because we have a thing called the B Dome. (1:01:37) Codey: And there was just like the hives were full because they act like storage containers. (1:01:45) Codey: They were completely full of honeycomb, (1:01:47) Codey: but then there was honeycomb like on top of the hives. (1:01:50) Codey: floating there because they’re just like, (1:01:52) Codey: they’re like, I don’t care that I’m full. (1:01:53) Codey: I’m just going to keep producing. (1:01:54) Codey: So there’s a ton of honeycomb that’s just like spawned (1:01:57) Codey: in the world above them. (1:01:58) Codey: So yeah, it basically makes you, (1:02:00) Codey: gives you the ability to free farm all of these resources. (1:02:03) Codey: So I don’t have to ever look for comb coal again, (1:02:07) Codey: because I just have my coal bees just pumping it out. (1:02:13) Codey: I never have to look for emerald. (1:02:15) Codey: I never have to look for like any of this stuff, (1:02:18) Codey: which is pretty awesome. (1:02:20) Codey: Some final things that I have written down (1:02:24) Codey: is that if you hit them, (1:02:25) Codey: they will all chase you like the chickens and Zelda do. (1:02:28) Al: Yeah, even the ones that you’re, you’re, that you’ve like captured. (1:02:30) Codey: Like if you hit one around a bunch of them, (1:02:32) Codey: they’ll all come after you. (1:02:34) Codey: So, oh, they’re, yeah, they’re all your, yeah. (1:02:38) Codey: Yeah, it doesn’t matter. (1:02:39) Codey: But if you’re, this gives you different armors. (1:02:42) Codey: And if you’re, if you have the beekeeper armor on, (1:02:45) Codey: they do not come after you. (1:02:48) Codey: Yeah, there’s also– (1:02:50) Codey: giant flowers, so you can plant these flowers, (1:02:54) Codey: and then you put fertilizer down on the flower itself, (1:02:57) Codey: and then they can become huge. (1:03:00) Codey: It’s crazy. (1:03:02) Codey: It increases their size by– (1:03:05) Codey: they’re almost tree-sized, but they’re (1:03:07) Codey: just the little flowers that you see in the world. (1:03:11) Codey: There’s the bee armor, the hive armor, and the beekeeper armor. (1:03:16) Codey: The bee armor is the cutest. (1:03:17) Codey: They can all be enchanted. (1:03:18) Codey: Really cute. (1:03:20) Codey: New decorative blocks so you can create like honeycomb buildings and stuff. (1:03:24) Codey: Um, to me, it just looks like sandstone, so I don’t super care, but I’m here for the, for the resources and the breeding and the collecting, to be honest. (1:03:36) Codey: And yeah, for that, I’ve already created an Excel file. (1:03:36) Al: Yeah. I mean, you never have to convince me that something is worth doing if it’s collecting, (1:03:45) Al: because that is my thing. And the bees look, the models look really nice. They’re in keeping with (1:03:46) Codey: - Mm-hmm, yep, yeah, it’s really fun. (1:03:55) Al: the original bee and just, you know, Minecraft stuff in general, which is nice. Yeah. (1:03:57) Codey: Yeah, it’s like a new skin, basically. (1:04:02) Codey: It’s just a new skin that goes over it. (1:04:04) Codey: And they all have unique appearances. (1:04:08) Codey: And they’re really cool. (1:04:10) Codey: I lost my mind when I saw the skeleton one in the nether (1:04:13) Codey: for the first time. (1:04:14) Codey: I was trying to find soul sand bees. (1:04:17) Codey: But I came upon a skeleton bee, and I was freaking out (1:04:21) Codey: because it was so cute. (1:04:27) Codey: That’s my tangent about bee breeding (1:04:32) Codey: and how I’m doing this. (1:04:33) Al: Nice. (1:04:34) Al: I don’t think I have any questions other than what I’ve talked about, because it’s pretty (1:04:37) Al: self-explanatory. (1:04:38) Al: Right? (1:04:38) Codey: Yeah, yeah, it’s pretty self-explanatory. (1:04:39) Al: Yeah. (1:04:40) Al: There’s nothing that I can think of that I would want in this that you haven’t. (1:04:41) Codey: It’s– yeah, I think it’s really useful– (1:04:48) Codey: first of all, it’s fun to collect. (1:04:49) Codey: Then it’s useful if you’re finding in your Minecraft (1:04:53) Codey: world, you’re having a hard time finding certain resources (1:04:55) Codey: because you’ve just stripped. (1:04:56) Al: - Yeah, yeah, no, that’s really nice. (1:04:57) Codey: Strip-minded area clean where you are, um, this is kind of fun because you can just go find the bee wherever it is. Like I, they need to go find like a snow be because although you do it, goodness, all the snow bees are really all the snowy areas are pretty far away from my where we’re set up my farm, not my farm base, my base. (1:05:22) Al: Is there a ghost bee? The bee? (1:05:25) Codey: No, there’s– (1:05:27) Codey: There’s not a booby. (1:05:30) Al: I’m so funny (1:05:33) Codey: I will say the reason I didn’t laugh at your Beatrice joke earlier was because we had– (1:05:37) Codey: When I had my field seasons between 2019 and– (1:05:41) Codey: No, 2018 and 2019, we called our field vehicle Beatrice. (1:05:45) Al: I mean, I don’t think you need to have a reason for not laughing at my jokes, (1:05:48) Al: other than just “they’re not funny”. (1:05:51) Codey: They are funny. It’s just that I’ve heard them before. (1:05:54) Al: I mean, they’re not, but OK. (1:05:55) Codey: But some people might not. (1:05:57) Codey: I have heard them before. It’s not kind of me to just like dead face. (1:06:02) Al: I mean, don’t worry, Cody, I am used (1:06:03) Codey: Okay, but yeah, that’s that. (1:06:08) Codey: That’s that listeners if you have any questions about it reach out to me. (1:06:12) Codey: Or if you want that Excel file let me know I can make a template version right now we’re using it. (1:06:17) Codey: My best friend Devin and I are using it to keep track of what all we have. (1:06:22) Codey: But yeah, and he’s making a Dewey Decimal System for us to like, category. (1:06:27) Codey: We’re putting it in the B-dome. We’re making it like a little museum, basically, and we’re putting it in the B-dome, because he made me a B-dome, which is just like a huge dome that has a bunch of bees in it and a bunch of flowers. (1:06:29) Al: - What a nerd. (1:06:41) Codey: So we’re putting it in there, and he wanted a way to figure out where they all were, and he was like, “Well, I’m going to make a Dewey Decimal System.” (1:06:50) Codey: figure out where they all were. (1:06:53) Codey: He was like, well, I’m gonna make a dood. (1:06:56) Al: Look, I know, I know you shouldn’t, you know, those who live in glass houses should not (1:07:00) Al: throw stones, but my word or a pair of nerds, that’s all I’m going to say. (1:07:00) Codey: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re trying to figure out exactly what because we thought we’re (1:07:10) Codey: almost done with the fox. Like I just have to finish one side of the fox and then it’s done. (1:07:15) Codey: I think we want to do something with the inside of the fox, but it’s pretty huge. (1:07:19) Codey: So we got to figure that out. Ooh, maybe I’ll just make it a huge library. (1:07:25) Codey: That would be horrifying. But yeah, we’re trying to figure out what to do next. (1:07:30) Codey: And this was the next thing that we found. So a bunch of, bunch of nerds with bees. (1:07:34) Al: with bees you don’t uh nobody messes with the nerds with bees (1:07:41) Codey: They really don’t. (1:07:43) Al: mainly because they just stay away from me uh sorry well thank you for talking to me about (1:07:50) Al: bees in minecraft uh maybe one day we’ll get a third minecraft episode um i’m sure we will (1:07:52) Codey: Yes, of course. (1:07:56) Codey: Oh, I’m sure we will. (1:07:57) Codey: Maybe I’ll try and find a farming one that’s like, that’s more than just farming that we, (1:07:58) Al: it’s the never-ending game (1:08:02) Codey: because we could do farming, we could do some pretty detailed farming on our farm as well to create bone meal. (1:08:08) Codey: But maybe I’ll find like a pretty intense farm mod. (1:08:14) Codey: I don’t know, we’ll see what happens. (1:08:15) Al: Yeah we did, because that’s what we were talking about in the main, the first episode was the (1:08:19) Al: farming in Minecraft, which I’m sure has changed since we talked about it, but I used to do quite (1:08:20) Codey: Yep. Yeah. (1:08:25) Al: a lot of, like have a bunch of mods for more automation stuff, and like make a big automated (1:08:30) Codey: Yep. Yup. Mm hmm. I have officially deleted all of my tweets. So you can find me on blue sky for (1:08:31) Al: farm. That was fun. Well yeah, anyway thank you for joining me Cody, where can people find you (1:08:37) Al: on the internet? Whoo! (1:08:45) Codey: professional content. It’s just my name Cody Mathis and on Instagram. Hiking beagle be eagle (1:08:52) Codey: for my fun content. That’s going to be video games, memes, my dogs, things like that. (1:08:58) Codey: Thank you so much for watching. (1:09:00) Codey: Yeah, so and I will say I deleted my tweets, but I did not delete my Twitter because I don’t want someone else to take my name and then pretend they’re me. (1:09:08) Codey: So I just deleted all of the content. (1:09:12) Codey: And it’s just sitting there now because I don’t want my content scraped for AI. (1:09:16) Codey: Whoo. (1:09:18) Al: a woo! You can find me on most social networks now. I haven’t figured out what I’m doing, (1:09:18) Codey: How about you? (1:09:26) Al: where I’m going to be, because everybody is different places, but I exist on most social (1:09:31) Al: networks as the Scottbot. So find me. You can find the podcast on Tumblr at THSPod. (1:09:40) Al: I’m probably going to join other social media for the podcast as well, because obviously, (1:09:45) Al: Like, I mean, I don’t post on social media myself very much. (1:09:48) Al: Right. Like I don’t do that anymore, but the podcast does. (1:09:51) Al: So got to be on everything. (1:09:54) Al: I’ve just not figured that one out. (1:09:55) Al: I’ve literally spent today, like slowly migrating off of Twitter, (1:10:01) Al: trying to find replacement for my farming games, (1:10:05) Al: Twitter list, which had 150 accounts on it. (1:10:10) Al: Not all of those are on other social media now, so that’s fun. (1:10:13) Codey: Yep. It’s a fun time to be alive right now. (1:10:18) Al: I will never forgive Elon Musk for this, because Twitter was the place to be, (1:10:24) Al: it was where everything was, and you didn’t have to worry about other places, and then he just (1:10:28) Al: turned it into this right-wing propaganda tool for a fascist government, and I hate him. (1:10:30) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah. I don’t think that you’re. Yeah. Yeah, they can’t let any of us have nice things. (1:10:37) Al: I mean, also the whole, you know, getting a fascist elected as well is obviously (1:10:41) Al: worse, but it’s particularly annoyed about him for ruining Twitter. (1:10:49) Al: No, no, it’s gotta be bad. (1:10:55) Al: You can send feedback to the podcast on our website, (1:11:01) Al: harvestseason.club, where you can also find links to everything to do with the podcast, (1:11:08) Al: including our Patreon, patreon.com/thspod, where you can support the podcast if you wish, (1:11:16) Codey: - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. (1:11:16) Al: you get access to our slide. (1:11:18) Al: And to our bonus podcast episodes. (1:11:21) Codey: And I will post a fun cute picture (1:11:24) Codey: on the Slack at this moment. (1:11:27) Codey: I’m gonna do it and you better come and look at it. (1:11:30) Al: I will. Oh, I’m not allowed to. (1:11:31) Codey: Not you, listeners. (1:11:34) Codey: I mean, I guess you can. (1:11:35) Al: Oh, thank you. I think that’s everything. (1:11:38) Al: Thank you again, Cody, for joining me. (1:11:40) Codey: Thank you for having me. (1:11:41) Codey: Sorry I have ADHD. (1:11:44) Al: Sorry, you have ADHD? Or sorry, I have ADHD. (1:11:46) Codey: That I have it. (1:11:50) Al: Sorry, we both. Thank you listeners for listening. (1:11:54) Al: And until next time, have a good harvest. (1:11:56) Codey: Have a good harvest! (1:11:58) Theme: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (1:12:08) Theme: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (1:12:12) Theme: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (1:12:17) Theme: Feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed (1:12:23) Theme: in this episode. (1:12:34) Codey: I mean, yeah, yeah, or BuzzBuzz. (1:12:36) Al: No, did you not get that joke? Yeah. So it’s like, instead of A-D-H-D, it’s B-D-H-D. (1:12:43) Al: So it’s like the second one, or it’s like, buzz buzz. (1:12:50) Al: See, I think this is why I’m not a comedian, is because like, I have like, (1:12:54) Al: the first initial thought about a joke, but never actually take it to the conclusion (1:12:58) Al: where it would actually be funny, other than just like, “Hey, this thing sounds like this other thing.”…