It’s the ultimate video game power fantasy: the power to clean up after ourselves. Terra Nil is a unique “city builder” in the lineage of Sim City, but with tasks you with revitalizing a wilderness...

401: Open Roads

16 days ago 1h 16m

After an incredibly troubled development, we finally have the latest game from the team that brought you Gone Home and Tacoma… Sort of. Open Roads, from publisher Annapurna and the developers known here as The...

400: Episode 400 Trivia Spectacular!

24 days ago 1h 13m

400 episodes. Nearly 10 years. I absolutely can not believe it. To celebrate, Laura put together an incredibly well produced trivia night game for us to play! Who knows the most about the last 10...

A Quick Word on Slice & Dice 3.0

1 month ago 26m 35s

Slice & Dice is a game that just keeps giving, and we don’t just mean incredible dice-rolling gameplay. Since we last covered Slice & Dice, it has received two major updates. As we prepare for...

398: Home Safety Hotline

Mar 19th, 2024 55m 17s

As we close in on Episode 400 (where did the time go?) Shane and Raygan are talking about weird-horror phone bank simulator Home Safety Hotline. Is that caller suffering from bedbugs, or Bed Teeth? Tags...

398: Grab Bag! Mario and More

Mar 11th, 2024 49m 26s

This week we go rogue and chat about a whole bunch of games — Super Mario Wonder (short to mid-length), Helldivers 2 (long!), and an assortment of “daily games” (seconds to minutes!).

397: Balatro

Mar 4th, 2024 1h 9m

A card based roguelike that is arguably related to Poker has been blowing up recently, so naturally we gave it a shot. Turns out, yeah, it’s good!

396: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Feb 26th, 2024 1h 7m

Debatably a short game, but indisputably a classic. Raygan has played SotN many times but the rest of the crew is experiencing it for the first time. What will they make of this revolutionary 1997...

395: Subpar Pool

Feb 19th, 2024 1h 11m

Golf + pool + the developer behind holedown? Be still our hearts. Subpar Pool brings polish and charm to the (pool) table, with tons of variations and challenges to keep it fresh — we highly...

394: The Forever Labyrinth

Feb 14th, 2024 1h 16m

When inkle drops a surprise release, we dive in — and this time, we dove into a maze of art from museums around the world. The Forever Labyrinth is a totally free, browser-based “replayable narrative...

393: Gravity Circuit

Feb 5th, 2024 1h 11m

Turns out all of us skipped the tutorial and (whaddayaknow!?) had a really hard time with the early hours of this retro action platformer. Don’t be like us! In the end though we all had...

392: Playdate Update

Jan 30th, 2024 1h 11m

I can’t believe it’s been almost two years since we last talked about the Playdate, the cute little console with a crank. We start with an update on if/how we’re still playing out Playdates, and...

391: The Roottrees Are Dead

Jan 23rd, 2024 1h 2m

The famous Roottree sisters and their parents, heirs to a billion dollar candy empire, have suddenly died in a plane crash. The inheritance is in question, with a massive family tree full of potential beneficiaries. ...

390: Jusant

Jan 15th, 2024 52m 3s

This week Nate and Laura cover Jusant, somehow our second 2023 tower game and our second 2023 climbing game — but micro-genres aside, Jusant’s got plenty of charms of its own. Don’t Nod, the creators...

389: Game of the Year 2023

Jan 8th, 2024 1h 17m

We’re a little late, but it’s time to talk about The Short Game’s Game of the Year! As with previous years we’re also handing out many superlatives, including returning awards like Dirtbag of the Year....

388: Chants of Sennaar

Dec 20th, 2023 1h 2m

Laura and Raygan manage to shift one small shovel of their pile of shame before the holidays. We’re so glad to have made time for Chants of Sennaar, an incredible puzzle adventure game in which...

387: A Highland Song

Dec 7th, 2023 1h 18m

The latest game from Short Game favorite Inkle has proved to be a bit divisive. Laura enjoyed it, but Raygan hit some major issues that spoiled the experience. It made for an interesting conversation!

386: Short Game Gift Guide

Nov 27th, 2023 56m 31s

Oh dang it’s a holiday weekend and we don’t have time to prep for an episode… Let me see what everybody else on the internet is doing right now… … So here’s the Short Game...

385: Slay the Princess

Nov 20th, 2023 1h 36m

You’re here to slay the princess. Don’t believe her lies. This horror adventure (visual novel?) sets you a simple if trope-reversing task right in the title, then blows the doors off with an extraordinarily wide...

384: Cocoon

Nov 15th, 2023 57m 53s

Orb! Orb orb orb orb orb. Orb Orb? Orb Orb Orb!…

383: IFComp 2023 Part 2

Nov 6th, 2023 1h 5m

We continue our coverage of IFComp 2023 with a few more games AND THEN WE GET KICKED IN THE NUTS!!!!

382: Gordy and the Monster Moon (and a Spooky IFComp Double Feature!)

Oct 31st, 2023 57m 12s

Gordy and the Monster Moon is a bite-sized exploration-driven game about a pumpkin astronaut going on spooky adventures. It’s also a tiny part of the Frog Fractions extended universe, brought to us by Jim Stormdancer....

381: Gunbrella

Oct 23rd, 2023 1h 12m

This week we’re talking about Gunbrella, a game that gets in its own way more than anything we’ve played in a while.

380: IFComp 2023 Part 1

Oct 9th, 2023 54m 53s

This week we are kicking off our coverage of IFComp with coverage of a handful of games, including some new names and returning Short Game favorites. Looking forward to playing more over the coming month!

379: Baldur’s Gate 3

Oct 3rd, 2023 1h 12m

This week Shane and Raygan betray the premise of the podcast and have a nice long chat about Baldur’s Gate 3, an immense game we’re both enjoying immensely, with some digressions into D&D and (ding)...