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

Slay the Princess

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2025/04/30

You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Podcast… I mean Princess. In this episode Bryan, Josh, and Clint steel their nerves and descend the staircase to discuss Slay the Princess. Developed by Black Tabby Games and released for PC in 2024, Slay the Princess was developed as a side project to support the ongoing development of their other game Scarlet Hollow. And what a side project it is! Boasting a dizzying variety of possible

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Neongarten

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2025/04/15

Have you ever wanted to play a turn-based city builder that’s inspired by Luck be a Landlord and Islanders? That’s drenched in a stylish cyberpunk aesthetic and boasts intricate tactical depth? One with a dark sense of humor and killer hip-hop inspired soundtrack? Well you’re in luck! Josh’s latest game, Neongarten, is releasing on April 22nd, 2025 on Steam! As is tradition, Bryan and Josh sat down to record a podcast about the game, its inspirations, and the process of creating it. Neongarten was a

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Persona 4 Golden

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2025/03/30

In this episode Bryan and Josh welcome host of Tales from the Backlog, Dave Jackson, to discuss Persona 4 Golden! Bryan’s played Persona 5, Josh has played Persona 3, so now they’re meeting in the middle and asked Dave to join for a wide ranging discussion that starts with an analysis of the studio’s evolving approach to game design then pivots to a deep dive of Persona 4 Golden’s characters, combat mechanics, and broader themes. The Persona series is an interesting game for multiple reasons, not

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Game Poems (ft. Every Day the Same Dream and Under a...

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2025/03/15

In this atypical episode of Pixelated Playgrounds Josh and Bryan talk through a couple of “Game Poems”. A “Game Poem” (as defined by Josh) is “An experimental/artsy/short game or some combination therein. A game that the player can play once, for five or thirty minutes, and experience a distinct sort of message." Two such games are Every Day the Same Dream, released in 2009 by Molleindustria and Every Day the Same Dream released in 2020 by Cecile Richard. Every Day the Same Dream bills itself as a

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Horizon: Zero Dawn & Forbidden West

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2025/02/28

Horizon Zero Dawn and its sequel Horizon Forbidden West have had an uphill battle to become some of the most successful AAA open world games. The first entry released alongside The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the follow-up came out just ahead of Elden Ring, two games that are not just direct competitors for the Horizon series, but also genre re-defining titles. Yet, much like the series’ protagonist, Aloy, the Horizon games have persisted. They have eventually found their audience and

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Arctic Eggs and CLICKOLDING

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2025/02/15

The indie game space is full of creative and inspiring projects. Projects that spark joy. Projects that make you feel a sense of awe, or joy, or wonder…. and then there are some that are just plain unhinged. In this episode Bryan and Josh discuss two games that are very different, but equally unhinged: Arctic Eggs and CLICKOLDING.Arctic Eggs by the Water Museum puts you in the shoes of a nameless, faceless, drone in a post apocalyptic antarctica with but one remit: cook eggs for the people. From

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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2025/01/30

There was probably no greater end of the year gaming surprise in 2024 than the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Clint’s skepticism about swapping out Harrison Ford for Troy Baker was only matched by Bryan’s confusion about what this game was supposed to be drawing comparisons to Dishonored and Hitman, while being developed by the studio behind Wolfenstein, Machine Games, and the producer of the last several Elder Scrolls games, Todd Howard. It turns out Baker delivered the performance

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Pixelated Playground’s Top 5 Games of the Year 2024

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2025/01/15

Happy New Year! This year Bryan, Josh, and Clint tried something a bit different… which every other video game podcast on earth is already doing: We recorded our Games of the Year for 2024! So listen in as the guys discuss the top 5 games they enjoyed in 2024 among others and take a look forward to 2025 and just generally chill out and reminisce on a year of gaming!Here’s what we talked about:Look back at 2024 / Plans for 2025Games we have our eyes on to coverGames you missed in 2024 and still want

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Black Myth: Wukong

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/12/30

Black Myth Wukong is perhaps the least ‘under the radar’ game to have ever caught Clint and Bryan by surprise. As the breakout single player offering from GameScience, a team of former Tencent employees hailing from China, Wukong is certainly a game that is entering the 3rd person action genre during a moment of particularly stringent demands for both novelty and quality. Luckily for us, Black Myth: Wukong succeeded on both counts to provide an extremely polished action game experience borrowing

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Arco

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/12/15

In this episode, Josh and Bryan don their pixelated sombreros and head into the Mesoamerican wilderness to check out the latest in indie tactical greatness with Arco! Boasting some snappy writing, inventive tactical gameplay, and truly gorgeous pixel artistry, Arco has a lot on offer. Arco is the product of Polish pixel artist Franek Nowotniak (one of Josh’s pixel artist idols), Australian game developer Max Cahill, Spanish composer and sound designer José Ramón "Bibiki" García, and Mexican

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/11/30

This episode Clint, Josh, and Bryan pledged their eternal service to the Emperor and suited up in some fancy new blue power armor to defend humanity in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2! While only one of us has played the series’ first entry, the Warhammer atmosphere and Saber Interactive’s tight and polished co-op gameplay pulled all three of the guys through to victory. Its rare in today’s video game release landscape to get a well-scoped and extremely high fidelity co-op campaign like Space

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Tactical Breach Wizards

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/11/15

Have you ever asked yourself what quirky humor forward take on a breach and clear tactics game featuring wizards might look like? Well about 8 years ago Tom Francis of Suspicious Developments did just that, and what started as a throw away in-joke amongst colleagues is now one of the most impressive and enjoyable indie games of 2024. Bringing his signature wit in the writing and character development along with a tactics sandbox that is polished to a mirror shine Tactical Breach Wizards is a step in

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Townscaper and Tiny Glade

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/10/30

Join Josh and Bryan as they flex their design skills, mostly unsuccessfully, and still manage to create incredibly charming scenes with Townscaper and Tiny Glade. Both of these games offer a different take on the ‘city painting’ or ‘diorama design’ genre of creative game. With little to no direction, and a not insignificant helping hand extended to the player, both of these games interpret the player’s design decisions and render them into utterly gorgeous structures, landscapes, and villages

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1000xResist

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/10/15

Its been a while since Bryan and Josh sat down and recorded a podcast about a good old fashioned Narrative Game… enter 1000xResist, the narrative game that Bryan brought to Josh after being completely blown away by the game’s incredible economy of storytelling and deep, varied themes. Needless to say, both were enthralled with Sunset Visitor’s foray into game development and the lengthy conversation they had is testament to the deep read the game received, and deserves. At its heart 1000xResist is a

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Tiny Rogues and SNKRX

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/09/30

In this podcast Bryan and Josh dive into two minimalistic, manic roguelikes: Tiny Rogues and SNKRX! Tiny Rogues by RubyDev a fantasy rogue-lite dungeon crawler that plays in the bullet hell genre, complete with twin-stick controls. It also boasts some lite RPG elements and a cornucopia of classes to choose from. The ability to end up with a completely wild and enjoyably broken build in Tiny Rogues is extremely entertaining, and kept both Bryan and Josh coming back to see how far they could advance

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Nuclear Blaze

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/09/15

Things are heating up over at Pixelated Playgrounds HQ, but that just because Bryan and Josh have been playing firefighting / cat saving platformer, Nuclear Blaze! Created by Sébastien Bénard, one of the developers behind the excellent Dead Cells, Nuclear Blaze was originally designed for Bénard’s child as he noticed a striking lack of firefighter focused video games. Bénard and his studio Deepnight games, took on the mission of creating a game that his child could play, creating Nuclear Blaze with

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Unicorn Overlord

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/08/30

After a development cycle spanning almost a decade, Unicorn Overlord released in March of 2024 to the joy of Ogre Battle fans everywhere! Two of those fans, namely Bryan and Josh, picked up the game and dug right in. With Vanillaware’s signature art and polish on full display Unicorn Overlord makes a stunning first impression and backs it up with an incredibly deep and complex battle system which is fitting for the titles which inspired it. It has been over 25 years since Ogre Battle 64 released for

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Animal Well

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/08/15

In this episode Josh and Bryan go down a rabbit hole with 2024 indie hit, Animal Well. What starts off as a non-violent, platforming based metroidvania game, quickly gives way to a truly mysterious and intricately puzzle-driven experience. As the first solo endeavor from developer, Billy Basso, as well as the first title for game game’s publisher, Big Mode, Animal Well is a triumph critically, commercially, and perhaps most importantly, in terms of sheer novelty and design polish. So grab your

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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/07/30

Before 2020, Square Enix had been dancing around the question of how to do justice to a Final Fantasy 7 remaster for over a decade, and with the release of Final Fantasy Remake they finally answered that question. Using a state of the art combat system, a faithful re-interpretation of the source material (with some twists!), and a stunning meta-commentary on what it means to re-make a game, Final Fantasy 7: Remake was a stunning experience that both Clint and Bryan loved. Four years later, with the

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DotAGE

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/07/15

Bryan and Josh recently spent some time managing a series of settlements in rogue-like city builder and prophecy-defier, DotAGE. Long time project of solo game developer, Michele Pirovano, DotAGE is wonderful little management sim with bright cheerful pixel art, sharp entertaining writing, and a level of ease and polish that you do not often see in the worker placement genre of games. What really sets the game apart though is the game’s prophecy and apocalypse mechanics, which sets up a series of

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