Unconsoleable

Hellooooooo there, dear listeners! Anna is at GDC this week, but the show goes on as usual, not least because Jessica has Some Strong Feelings about a game she played this week. Spoiler alert: they aren’t good feelings :-p Meanwhile, Anna talks in more detail about Clash Royale, Amazon has some sort of new type of app store that we can’t figure out, and Jessica wonders if there’s a very specific and political reason that Supercell is so successful.

After two weeks of guests, we had a lot of complaining bottled up, so here we go! And because we didn’t want to just complain to each other, we asked our friend and sometime developer of games, Joe Macirowski, to join us. But don’t worry. It’s not only complaining as we also talk about what we are playing (Jessica has built a robot army, what?), some awesome news of course, and, well, yes, ok, there is a lot of shouting at Apple. But then what else is new? So, sorry we’re not sorry that this episode is over an hour long, but the complaining wasn’t going to record itself!

We are back with another awesome guest this week. Incidentally, it’s someone else we had trouble luring in; is there some sort of conspiracy to see how long game developers can evade our clutches? The answer is, not long! So after persistent badgering, we bring you Rumpus Animation’s Seb Burnett, the brains behind the adorable Victorian comedy adventure game,  Bertram Fiddle. It turns out Bertram is basically Seb. Or is Seb really Bertram? They live inside each other on Twitter so who really knows? What we do know is that Dad jokes are great, meat should be sold door to door, and quirky, funny adventure games should be plentiful.

At long last, we welcome special guest Barry Meade! Barry is the head of Fireproof Games, the studio behind the enormously popular and award-winning Room games of which we are huge fans and whose third installment won our 2015 GOTY. Barry talked with us about his career in the industry, how Fireproof was born and what he thinks has been the key to his company’s success. But more importantly, he made an impassioned plea for innovation and excellence in mobile game design. And he asserted that developers and the industry at large need to rethink the way they approach the platform and its gamers. We might have gotten goosebumps a little.

Yes, yes, we know we promised you special guest Barry Meade on this episode, but everything imaginable went wrong and then we had technical difficulties soooo… no Barry for now. But next week! Next week there will be Barry and in the meantime there is us reveling in our awesome new listener reviews, talking about what we’re playing (or not), the news of the week, and what’s that? Someone thinks Neko Atsume is a dirty capitalist game?! For our thoughts on that and much more, listen now :-)

Even though Jessica is trapped in an alternate universe, luckily that universe has both warm cats and recording equipment. So the show goes on! :-) We announce our next super exciting guest, talk new and old games we’re playing, try to figure out if Nintendo stole their first mobile game idea from a nascent social app and much, much more.

We were all ready to love new puzzler Twofold, but we're... unsure. Also, Anna dives pretty deep into Crashlands while Jessica tries to stay objective about a game designed by Donald Rumsfeld. Yes, that Donald Rumsfeld. We also fill you in on the latest adorable updates to the games we care about, wonder if we’ll even attempt The Witness, and hey, there’s a contest specifically for indie mobile games. All this and more, so get to listening!

Because we are suuuuper important gaming podcasters of note (not really), we got some codes for some games this week. So, you know, disclaimer given, we have ethics, blah, blah, blah :-p Meanwhile, Jessica also plays a game with cats, because of course, and Anna dives into the new Star Trek game, among others. You know you want to hear our opinions on all of the above. In gaming news this week, some people are pissed that The Witness is going to cost $40? PUH-LEASE. You’ll hear about this and more in our news discussion.

What is the Bechdel Test for Games? No, it doesn't have anything to do with the real Bechdel Test. You'll just have to listen to find out. Also, it turns out that Jessica isn't cut out for critiquing games unless she thinks no one is listening, while Anna has no problem savaging the games she tries, because hey, they totally deserve it. Meanwhile, a developer contemplates making the sequel to their game F2P and their struggle to decide strikes us as very problematic, we talk about what we're playing, read a new iTunes review, and much more!

Our first guest of 2016 joins us on this episode and we are super excited to welcome him. Neven Mrgan is a designer at his day job, but he has also made some unforgettable iOS games, most recently Grayout, which is a prequel to the earlier Blackbar. We talked to Neven about how he decided to start making games, where he gets his inspiration, how the App Store should be revamped, and much, much more.

It is with great sorrow that we must tell you, dear listeners, that one of your hosts has become a console gamer. Well... maybe not exactly, but the evidence is fairly strong! Yes, your very own Jessica Dennis has played a console game on more than one occasion and streamed it on Twitch to boot. What game has caused her to go over to the Dark Side? How did she do? All will be revealed on this episode! We also try to figure out if a recent game’s controls are bad and should feel bad, look forward to what 2016 will have to offer mobile gamers and much, much more.

Are you ready for... our first ever game of the year episode??!!! Yeah, we’re just a little bit excited :D After an amazing year of some absolutely incredible games, we made a list of 35 that we feel are the best of what mobile had to offer us. And from them we picked our Game of the Year, as well as some other winners in special categories we came up with.

On this episode we actually talk about what we're playing! For more than three rushed minutes! And we're going to keep doing it early in the episode every time we don't have guests. Novel idea, huh? :) We also have lots of plushie news to tell you about and even a few things that aren't about stuffed toy chickens! For instance, has F2P won as the only sensible monetization strategy on mobile? What the heck is COPPA? And whose butt did that sweaty money come from? You'll learn all this and much more.

As we near the end of 2015, we’ll be talking a lot about various top lists of games. On this episode we go over some highlights of Apple’s annual top charts of most downloaded games and apps as well as the picks the App Store editors make. Did we agree or disagree with their picks? You’ll have to listen to find out :)

Help us settle the question of last week’s episode and vote for your favorite Aussie Matt on Twitter using the hashtag #MattWars :-D While we ponder that important question, we cross our arms and declare that games don't have to be hard and certainly shouldn’t be made so for the wrong reasons. Meanwhile, is Jessica having a hard time with the newly updated You Must Build A Boat? You'll need to listen to find out. We also revel in the accolades that some awesome mobile games are receiving (again), but sigh at some bad behavior by those types of mobile gamers; the ones who don't want to pay for games. All this plus exciting news and much, much more!

This being the episode with our third Aussie Matt (Matt Ditton, to be precise), you know we had to ask the question. But what's the answer? You'll have to listen to find out! Other than wondering why there are so many Matts in Australia, we also talked about super serious gaming topics like the Men of Gamedev calendar. No, really, there was actual talk about games and mobile as a gaming platform, we promise!

Ok., games can be sold. Or can they? We tried to figure that out and much, much more when we talked to Tigerstyle's Randy Smith.  Tigerstyle made some of the iconic, early games when mobile gaming was still young. But their latest game hasn't done well and we talked about the realities (and brutalities?) of the App Store and how it influences what games get made and what games succeed.

  This episode is a departure from our usual happy-go-lucky ways, but we think it was fitting and important. We hope you'll agree. We talked with the fabulous Kiva Bay about her game 12 Hours, homelessness, and much, much more. So the discussion was weighty and we couldn’t feel more strongly about it.

Yet another special guest joins us this week, perhaps the most special guest of all! It's our beloved friend, Joe Macirowski, creator of Yeti Pie  and eventually (we hope) other games we will all be able to play on the toilet :D

On this episode, we are super thrilled to welcome back our awesome and talented friend, Shareef Jackson. Shareef is our Nintendo guru, or is it ninja? We figure that out and much, much more, like what the heck is Miitomo going to be and why is it Nintendo's first mobile game? Would Nintendo ever develop for the Apple TV? Is Shareef really a Yoshi?!!! All these and other pressing questions will be answered!