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

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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Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/06/30

Bryan and Josh continue their race down memory lane for the Sonic series with a look at Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2! Both of the guys have a long history with these titles and were excited to take a look back at the character’s origins. While the original Sonic the Hedgehog was certainly an impressive debut for the Sega mascot, it did not have quite as much of the series’ signature speed as one might expect. Meanwhile Sonic the Hedgehog 2, refined and solidified what would become the standard-bearer

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Casino Cast 2 ft. Balatro and Slice & Dice

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/06/15

Its time for another Casino Cast with Josh and Bryan! Last time we tackled dice (Dicey Dungeons) and slots (Luck be a Landlord), so this time around we are tackling cards with recent world-beating indie success, Balatro, and more dice with the extremely compelling roguelike, Slice & Dice. Balatro is a game that at this point needs no introduction: The run based score-beating roguelike using the language of poker has captured the hearts and minds of critics and players of all stripes due to its

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Cobalt Core

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/05/30

Bryan and Josh recently got stuck in a time loop out in deep space and wound up playing a lot of cards trying to fight their way out… in other words: For this episode they played Cobalt Core! Even in a crowded genre like the roguelike deckbuilder, sometimes a game can do so many things right (and a few things transcendently) that it breaks through the noise to become a new favorite. Rocket Rat’s second game (and second IGF nominee) was such a game. What it brings to the table in terms of novel

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Helldivers 2

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/05/15

In this podcast the whole crew squads up to play the latest and greatest in Co-Op PVE action, Helldivers 2! As soon as word of the game’s rock solid mechanics and exceedingly fair live service implementation reached his ears, Clint boarded his Hellpod and shot like a literal bullet into the fray. His enthusiasm eventually spread to Bryan and Josh, and the team welcomed back seasoned Helldiver and re-appearing guest, Andy, to round out our 4 person discussion. This game has a fascinating evolving

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Idle Cast ft. Universal Paperclips, SPACEPLAN, and...

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/04/30

In this episode, Bryan and Josh dip their toes into the idle/incremental game space! Three idle games have been chosen: Universal Paperclips, SPACEPLAN, and (the) Gnorp Apologue. All are quite different manifestations of the idle/incremental game and each has its own strengths and unique offerings to explore. Universal Paperclips (2017) was created by Frank Lantz of New York University and has been acclaimed as one of the best of the genre. It features a unique retelling of the paperclip maximizer

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Chants of Sennaar

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/04/15

Aspiring linguist Josh and professional guess-and-checker Bryan recently made their way up the tower featured in 2023’s indie puzzle game Chants of Sennaar! Along the way they marveled at the game’s superb use of color, clever language puzzles, and occasionally regrettable use of stealth mechanics. At its heart, Chants of Sennaar is a game about culture and communication, so what better way to celebrate this wonderful game than through an in depth discussion about its design, themes, and artistry

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Tunic

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/03/30

Isometric Games’ Tunic, released in 2022, is a game that delivers stronger than almost any other title on the promise of a genuine feeling of discovery. From you moment that you are dropped onto the isometric, flat color-shaded beach with nothing but the ethereal soundtrack by Lifeformed and Janice Kwan to keep you company, you are expected to start exploring. To start learning about the game’s various rules, systems, and secrets… because the game will not teach you about any of them itself! Tunic a

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Jusant

Pixelated Playgrounds ·

2024/03/15

Climb to new heights with Josh and Bryan as they ascend the tower, learn its history, and rediscover a love of climbing while playing Jusant! Developed by the narrative powerhouse studio, Don’t Nod, Jusant puts the player in the shoes of a lone wanderer who must ascend a desolate tower filled with remnants of a civilization long past with only their little blue blob buddy and an endless endurance for gripping hard surfaces. Its a truly majestic game, from the vistas afforded as you look back on your

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