PODCAST

Pixelated Playgrounds

Taking one game per month (old, new and everything in between) and talking though an in-depth examination of narrative, mechanics, theme, and the interplay between the three.

leisure video games

All Episodes

00:50:53

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travellers

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2021/10/01

If On A Winter’s Night Four Travelers by Laura Hunt and Thomas Möhring, who together make up Dead Idle Games, is a masterwork in terms of writing, art, and overall tone. Spanning three stories inside of a larger framing narrative, this (Free!) indie game delivers a punch of tension, suspense, and horror well above its weight class. Listen in as Josh and Bryan discuss what was so affecting about this indie horror gem, and reveal their ignorance of Italian postmodernist novelists.Three Word

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00:48:27

Sea of Thieves

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2021/09/15

Ahoy, Matey! Clint, Josh, and Bryan recently set sail on the Sea of Thieves and recruited fellow buccaneer and friend of the show, Andy, to reminisce on some of their most memorable mischief on the high seas. Sea of Thieves is a special kind of co-op multiplayer game, that values both whimsey and diegetic action to a high degree, whether you’re taking over one of many aspects of successfully piloting a ship, or just passing the time on deck by playing your hurdy-gurdy. Listen in to hear about how

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Stellaris

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2021/08/31

Join Josh, fluent Paradox games veteran, and Bryan, an enthusiastic newbie for a discussion of Paradox Games’ signature 4X space strategy game, Stellaris! We both put a good amount of time into this game recently and our play actually straddled the big 3.0 update back in April 2021. Paradox games have always thrived on the support given to them by their developers, and this game is no different. Stellaris is a special game among space sims due to the huge amount of flavor infused not only into the

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Islanders and Dorfromantik

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2021/08/16

City builders have always been among the more meditative and ‘flow-state inducing’ genres for many people. This week we play two city-builder games, Islanders and Dorfromantik which offer simplified but vastly different takes on the city builder genre. Islanders is a low poly score-chasing city builder that always nets you a view of one or more gorgeous cities at the end of a round. Dorfromantik is a hex-based city builder that tasks the player with keeping the city going by pursuing quests the game

en-US

Donut County

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2021/07/30

In this episode Bryan and Josh go down the raccoon(?) hole and take a close look at Donut County, the hole physics game from Ben Esposito. Aside from being an utterly delightful experience, Donut County is also in that increasingly valuable class of games that Bryan and Josh feel can be ‘squeezed into’ almost any schedule. Shout out to the sleeping and eating habits of newborns and toddlers. So kick back, relax and enjoy listening to what the guys feel makes Donut County great for almost any player

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