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This past Sunday, for the first time since before the pandemic, I had the opportunity to share a panel with attendees of PAX East! Demakes Decoded: From HD to 8-Bit In an age of HD remasters, demakes buck the trend by reimagining a modern game for a more primitive console. Ever wanted to play Silent Hill 2 on the NES, Disco Elysium on Game Boy, or Portal on N64? Now you can! But how much of a game’s core gameplay is dependent on technology? What features are important to preserve, and how do you adapt the rest? Is it really the same game — and do the original copyright owners think so? We’ll chat with four demake devs about their projects, inspirations, and challenges, exploring how they balance modern innovation, technical constraints, and retro nostalgia. Featuring: Ken Gagne (he/him/his) [Editor, Juiced.GS] James Lambert (he/him/his) [Developer, Portal 64]  Jasper Byrne (he/him/his) [Designer, Superflat Games]  Colin Brannan (he/him/his) [Developer, Disco Elysium: Game Boy Edition] Animal Planet (they/them) [Developer, PicoWars] The audio from this panel is presented as a bonus episode of the otherwise defunct IndieSider podcast. Stream it below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, or RadioPublic, and click past the jump for a written transcript. Transcript Ken Gagne: Welcome to the last day of PAX East 2024. Thank you for waking up before the crack of noon to join us for Demakes Decoded: From HD to 8-Bit. My name is Ken Gagne, pronouns he/him. Very excited to be sharing with you a panel of amazing developers today. A little bit of introduction and information before we get started. First, I want to start with a blank slide, land acknowledgment saying that we are residing on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Massachusetts people whose name was appropriated by this Commonwealth. We pay respect to the Massachusetts elders post and present. We acknowledge the truth of violence perpetuated in the name of this country and make a commitment to uncovering the truth. So this panel is about Demakes Decoded: From HD to 8-bit. And first, how many people here have no idea what a demake is? We got one person, two, three, four, five. Excellent. So for those five people, let’s establish what a demake is. A demake is not Resident Evil 4. That would be a remake. We’ve had some amazing, wonderful, very enjoyable and highly received and acclaimed remakes in the last few years. Resident Evil 4, Super Mario RPG, that weird game by Square that nobody thought would ever come back. And of course, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. So those are all remakes. A remake is re-imagining an older game for a newer system. It’s not just applying a new coat of graphics like The Last Of Us. It’s such a technological leap that they are actually almost going back to the drawing board and making a new game inspired by the original game. A demake, what we’re talking about today, is just the opposite. It’s re-imagining a newer game for an older system going backwards in time. And we have four developers here today who I’m about to introduce. So first, who remembers Portal? Yeah. Portal came out in 2007, 17 years ago, for Windows and Xbox 360. 11 years before that the Nintendo 64 came out, and James here has ported it, has ported Portal to the N64. And this is what it looks like. James, say hello! James Lambert: Hi, I’m James Lambert. Yeah, and I ported Portal to the N64. And I guess I just repeat what he said. It took me about two years to get to this point. And then the YouTube channel, if you want to check it out, you can see kind of the progress in the videos. And unfortunately you can’t get the ROM for me right now because Valve told me to take it down. But I’m sure if you searched online, you would be able to find it somewhere, but not just from me. Ken Gagne: Yeah, it’s like the Streisand Effect. The more you remove it, the more visible it becomes. James Lambert: Of course, yeah. Ken Gagne: Where are you coming in from for the panel? James Lambert: Yeah, I’m from Utah. That’s it. Ken Gagne: Well, thank you for coming all this way. James Lambert: And nobody else is. Ken Gagne: Another game that is actually going in both directions right now, a remake is coming for Silent Hill 2, which was originally released for the PlayStation 2 in September of 2001, where, speaking of James, James Sunderland is trying to find his dead wife, who he mysteriously received a letter from. And even more mysteriously, the game has been ported to the 8-bit Nintendo called Soundless Mountain 2. And the master of that thesaurus would be Jasper Byrne here. Hello, Jasper. Jasper Byrne: Hi there. Yeah, I made this one in 2008, so it’s quite a long time ago now. But it was originally for a competition for demakes run by The Independent Game Source, or TIGSource. It was a forum where a lot of indies used to post back in those days. And to my surprise, actually won the competition. And so that actually ended up getting it noticed a little bit by, I guess, journalists and stuff. And ended up leading onto me doing another game like Lone Survivor, which was sort of using what I’d learned from this if you like. So another 2D survival horror game basically. So yeah, it only goes up to the apartment section, but I did always want to finish it. Ken Gagne: But all these demakes are fully playable. These aren’t just tech demos, which is pretty awesome. You can actually just download them and play them. The next panelist we have is somebody who was inspired by Disco Elysium, which is a noir-style game that came out for Windows originally in October 15th 2019. And it just seems a natural candidate of course, to port to the original Game Boy. So we have Disco Elysium: The Game Boy Edition by Colin Brannan. Colin Brannan: Hello everybody. Yeah, it was like a pandemic project for me four years ago really. I was just trying to figure out something to work on in my spare time. I hadn’t done anything creative in a few months. And there’s a really neat tool out there called GB Studio, which I totally recommend to anyone for making Game Boy games like this. And so this is actually completely without code. I’m an artist, not a programmer or an engineer. So yeah, there’s some really cool stuff you can do with such a small tool and then they even let you export an actual ROM. So people have been playing it on actual Game Boy hardware as well, which is super cool to see for me. Ken Gagne: Wow. Is this your first project like this? Colin Brannan: I’ve done other small game stuff before, but this is the first thing that really got any traction or had anyone talking about it. Yeah, my first demake, yes. Ken Gagne: Awesome. That’s really cool. And last but not least, another game that’s also been remade, Advance Wars, originally came out for the Game Boy Advance on the same day as Silent Hill 2, September 10th, 2001, remade for the Switch in 2023, and re-remade, this is the original up there, or rather the Switch version. This is a tactical game of sorts. And it was remade by Animal Planet at the end there for the PICO-8, which is what exactly? Animal Planet: So it’s a fantasy console, as in it takes the idea of older consoles and makes it run on modern hardware. It’s all fake. No, but it introduces fictional constraints. Is there anything else to that video or is it just the- Ken Gagne: Sorry. Animal Planet: There we go. There’s the game. Yeah, so the PICO-8 takes ideas of making games for older consoles. You’ve got constraints, but all these constraints in this example are kind of artificial. It’s got an artificial palette, token limit, things like that. It creates interesting constraints for making the game. And originally I’ve been kind of making this game for over a decade since I started programming because I was enamored with how artificial intelligence works for games like StarCraft and the old Advance Wars games. And I wanted to get into that and see how that really works. So it was an off-and-on project for very long, and I restarted it many times. And eventually I was like, “I’m making it so.” Ken Gagne: Awesome. Thank you. And then that brings us back to me. I am not a developer or an artist. I am an editor of a magazine called Juiced.GS. It’s currently in its 29th year of publication. It’s print only, not a PDF. And it’s a magazine all about the Apple II computer. Who remembers the Apple II? Yeah, you probably remember it because you grew up playing Oregon Trail in school, or maybe other games like Wizardry. Wizardry, the Apple II version of Wizardry is actually on the show floor at the Atari booth. It’s amazing. I’m not kidding. You can go play it. And the Apple II originally came out in 1977, and it has been the home to many amazing demakes in the last few years, like The Secret of Monkey Island, Out of This World, also known as Another World, Myst. And these are all playable by the way, Kerbal Space Program, and Portal. And those were all actually made by the same demake artist. And he recently submitted Portal to an online competition. And when you fill out the form, they asked, “What is the name of your game?” And so he said, “My game is called Don’t Tell Valve.” And we did a cover story a few years ago all about demakes for the Apple II. I have some copies here I’ll be giving out later if you want to read that. And so these are our panelists and we’re here today to talk about the demakes that have been created, that we’ve outlined. And I want to start with an open question to any panelist who would like to answer, and that question is but why? Why demakes? Why? Anybody, why? Colin Brannan: I think with, Animal Planet, you mentioned constraints earlier with your response, and I think that’s what it was for me is that when you’re working with a modern engine like a Unity or an Unreal, you can do anything really. When you’re working with older hardware, you have those constraints and that makes your project sc

The tenth annual PAX East was held last month, and I was honored to host two panels of brilliant speakers. One, “The Art of Craft: Inspiring Game Creations”, can be seen and heard on the Polygamer podcast. The other was “The Return of Couch Play”, looking at offline multiplayer as an alternative to online games such as Fortnite, PUBG, and Tetris 99. Steam, PS+, and Xbox Live make it easier than ever to get matched online — yet gamers are increasingly rediscovering the appeal of local, offline play. What are the unique challenges and opportunities of taking a game offline? How do you design a game for competitive or cooperative gameplay on the same screen? We’ll look at how to innovate this ancient tradition and design a game that makes the most of couch play. Featuring: Ken Gagne [Digital Content Developer, Gamebits] Tanya X. Short [Creative Director, Kitfox Games] Christoffer Holmgård [Director, Die Gute Fabrik] Danny Silvers [CEO, Lantana Games] Zachary Johnson [Code / Design, Space Mace LLC] Tommy Sunders [Art / Design, Space Mace LLC] Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Spoke, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, or RadioPublic.

CRYPTARK is a 2D sci-fi roguelike twin-stick shooter in which players pilot mechs charged with salvaging alien technology from derelict spaceships. Technological defenses remain active on these procedurally generated abandoned hulks, and players must shut them down and shoot the core if they hope to escape with enough artifacts to sell and fund their continuing expeditions. CRYPTARK is available from Alientrap for PS4 and Steam (Mac, Windows & Linux). In this interview, I speak with Alientrap creative director Jesse McGibney about this game’s artistic departure from Alientrap’s previous game, Apotheon, which was based on Greek mythology and pottery. We also chat about CRYPTARK’s two-player co-op mode and the lack of online play; how the game fared in early demos at PAX East 2016; the challenges of creating a game with procedurally generated levels; and the CRYPTARK’s time in Steam Early Access — a first for Alientrap — and the one-week delay between its Steam release and its arrival on PlayStation. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: CRYPTARK by Alientrap Apotheon Gamasutra – Game Design Deep Dive: Visualizing Cryptark’s 2D sci-fi world CRYPTARK soundtrack by by Ryan Roth & Ryan Henwood “A richly strategic shmup” — Marsh Davies of Rock, Paper, Shotgun This is the final episode of IndieSider. My thanks to everyone who listened!

Old Man’s Journey is a 90-minute puzzle through the hero’s memories. After receiving a letter, he sets out on a journey across rolling landscapes that the player can reshape, allowing the old man to leap from foreground to background, making his way across obstacles. At the end of each level, he reminiscences about his past, unraveling a tale of love, hope, and regret. Old Man’s Journey by Clemens Scott and Felix Bohatsch of Broken Rules is available for iOS, Android, and Steam. In this podcast interview, I chat with creative director Clemens Scott about how two young developers felt qualified to tell and old man’s story; whether the game should make us feel bold or hesitant to make life-changing decisions; how the gameplay could be a metaphor for the narrative; and if a game’s marketability influences its game design. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Old Man’s Journey by Broken Rules Broken Rules on Twitter Clemens Scott on Twitter Old Man’s Journey wins Apple Design Award 2017 GDC Vault – Happy Inside the Box: The Art of Old Man’s Journey A review copy of this game was provided by the developer for the purpose of this interview.

Kona from Parabole is a first-person exploration game set in the cold northern reaches of Canada in the 1970s. A private investigator has been hired to investigate some petty crimes but soon stumbles into a larger mystery hidden in the supernatural cold. What secrets lie within in this chilly interactive tale? In this week’s IndieSider, I speak with Jean-François Fiset, community manager for Parabole. We discuss how Kona evolved from a snowmobile simulator to an episodic adventure to its current form; why mystery games seem to be set before the advent of cell phones; how one builds community around an adventure game; the use of the term “walking simulator” as a pejorative; whether Firewatch‘s success influenced Kona’s development; how to communicate a delay to one’s Kickstarter backers; and how to survive working at the same company as your brother. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Kona is available for Steam, GOG, PS4 & Xbox One. A review copy was provided for the purpose of this interview.

Future Unfolding is a top-down exploration game set in a pastoral world. Without direction or tutorial and with very little written text, the game invites players to go whichever direction they wish as they discover secrets in the woods, make friends and foes of the fauna, and solve puzzles. A rustic palette, rich mythology, and soothing soundtrack complete the ensemble. In this week’s IndieSider, I speak with Andreas Zecher, one-third of the development team Spaces of Play. We discuss the poem from which the game draws its name; the benefits of developing their own game engine over using Unity; the melding of procedural generation and hand-crafted design; the ways in which Future Unfolding is inspired by The Legend of Zelda and Journey; and how sales of their previous game, Spirits, informed the release strategy for Future Unfolding. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Future Unfolding by Spaces of Play Development blog Andreas Zecher on Twitter Thimbleweed Park Polygamer #48: Gillian Smith on procedural generation Let’s Play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Open Sorcery is a cyberpunk hypertext adventure. You play as BEL/S, a fire elemental who has been bound by C++ code to serve as a firewall. Your job is to scan the local environment and detect any other elementals or poltergeists who could be interfering with your creators or neighbors. As you identify their material and motive, you will learn more about the world around you and gain sentience — possibly posing a threat yourself. In this episode of IndieSider, I chat with Abigail Corfman about her first published game. We talk about how she used Javascript to expand the Twine game engine used in Open Sorcery; how the game evolved from open source to mobile to Steam, and the code bases she merged to make it happen; why hypertext is a natural evolution of text-parser adventure games; the difference in exhibiting at GaymerX East vs. PAX East; why Abigail’s games, despite having dark qualities, focus on emotional connection and gentleness; the emotions she was experiencing that led her to create both this game and her webcomic, A Moment of Peace; and what we can expect from the game’s sequel, Open Sorcery: Sea++. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. A complete transcript is provided after the shownotes. Links mentioned in this episode: Abigail Corfman on Twitter Open Sorcery Steam iOS Android Interactive Fiction Database Twitter Twine Interview with Abigail Corfman by Leonardo Faierman of Black Girl Nerds A Moment of Peace webcomic Transcript [Announcer] Welcome to IndieSider, where we go beyond the game and meet the developers behind today’s indie hits. [Ken Gagne] Hello, and welcome to the IndieSider podcast, where I play indie games and then interview the developer. I’m your host, Ken Gagne, and this week on episode number 57, I’m playing Open Sorcery, by Abigail Corfman of Open Sorcery Games. This game was released on February 22nd for Steam, that’s Mac, PC and Linux, for $3.99, and previously was released for Android and iOS for $2.99. Open Sorcery is a point-and-click text adventure based on Twine, an open-source text adventure game engine. In Open Sorcery, you play as a Fire Elemental, one of those living embodiments of nature that you often find in Dungeons and Dragons-type settings, except you are a Fire Elemental who has been enslaved to serve as a computer firewall. This game is set in some sort of modern-day melange of Dungeons and Dragons, and Shadowrun, and cyberpunk. So you are a living firewall, charged with scanning certain areas of the network, and identifying other Elementals who may have invaded the area. You have to pay attention to the clues and deduce which of six Elements it is: just earth, fire, wind, water, light or dark. And then you have to deduce what their motive is. Are they here to instill order or chaos? Life or death? Once you have identified the Elemental, you are given a variety of menu-based options, such as should you speak to the Elemental, and convince it to leave the area? Should you cleanse it with fire, the substance of which you are made? Or more. As you have these interactions, what impact does it have on your own consciousness as you start to learn more about the world around you? Will you, eventually, yourself become a threat? The game has a Spartan aesthetic: it has white text on a black background, and any text that appears in red, you can click on with you mouse and choose that option, or to see what branch, either permanent or short-diversion, it takes you on. At occasional points in the game there is some background music, but mostly it is silent. There is no voice acting. However, what the game does have a lot of are words. 90,000 words, that’s 9-0, 0-0-0. That’s a lot of text, and a lot of different endings. You’re not expected to play the game all in one sitting, you can save to one of multiple slots and load and restore, so if you come to a choice and you’re not sure which one to take, just like the old choose-your-own-adventure games, you can stick your finger on that page, see where the path takes you, and then go back and try again. I really dug this game, because I felt like I got to know the inhabitants of this world. There are only four locations that you are constantly scanning, and you get to meet their inhabitants and see how they go about their day-to-day lives. And as you interact with them, you develop relationships with them, which are graded on a scale from zero to a hundred. As they get to a certain point, you can actually use those relationships in some of the decisions that you make later on, as those colleagues, partners and friends become available to you. And so, in this episode of IndieSider, I’ll be speaking to the game’s creator, Abigail Corfman, at whose website, abigailcorfman.com, you can find Open Sorcery. You can also find links to Open Sorcery and all the other resources mentioned in this episode of IndieSider, at our own website, indiesider.net/opensorcery, for this particular episode. Where you can also find YouTube footage of me playing the game; as I said, it has a lot of text. I was excited to discover this game at GaymerX East in New York City back in December of 2016, and then to see it again at PAX East 2017 this March in Boston, and now I’m finally delighted to be able to bring to you my interview with Abigail. [Ken] Joining me today is the creator of Open Sorcery Abigail Corfman of Open Sorcery Games. Hello, Abigail! [Abigail Corfman] Hello. [Ken] How are you today? [Abigail] I’m great, how are you? [Ken] I’m also great thank you. I am so happy to finally have my hands on your game. I first played it at Gaymer X East in New York City back in November of 2016, and then I was delighted to see you at PAX East in my hometown of Boston, just a few weeks ago. And your game is out, it came out in February for Steam and it came out a while before that for Android and Python is that correct? [Abigail] Yes that’s correct. [Ken] How long have these games been available? [Abigail] Ah available, I think I put out the first build on mobile platforms in May of last year. And they’ve slowly been expanding and progressing up until the Steam launch as the year goes on. [Ken] Because I saw reviews of your game in the Interactive Fiction Database as far back as May of last year so that was referring to the mobile ports? [Abigail] Actually the way it started was this is my first game ever. Like I found Twine I thought hey this is lovely and I like doing this so I’ll just make a tiny game and it’ll last, it’ll take me about a month. And then a year later I had Open Sorcery and I had no idea if anyone was going to like it at all so I decided I’ll put this up online and I’ll make a mobile version because I like playing games on my mobile and I’d like other people to do that and I’ll make it a little bigger ’cause it’s going to have to cost something. So people who really like it can buy the mobile version. And a lot of people really liked it and it got accepted to some conventions and it got an award which was very nice. And I talked to some devs and looked at the culture online and decided that by having it out online for free I was devaluing the work that people do to make games. It was a big project and I didn’t think it was right and I was also hamstringing my dreams of eventually someday doing this professionally all the time, so I took it down. And I put it up on Steam. [Ken] And what is the difference between the mobile version as that came out originally and the Steam version. I understand there is a huge expansion. [Abigail] There were two levels of expansion. The original mobiles were expanded over the free online version. And the Steam version was expanded over both of those. I think there was about 10,000 words added, that includes code and text together. But, and also I added the menu and a save system which is very innovative for Twine which is, it’s built-in. And a whole bunch of other little things that made the game easier, like a speed mode, so that you could go through it quickly. It’s a game that requires a lot replays to get the full value out of it. But like any game that’s largely narrative based there are a lot of things that repeat themselves, so being able to skip through things quickly I think makes for a better replay experience. Also makes it a lot easier to debug. [Ken] And those are all things that, as you said, were not built into Twine, you added those yourself. The save system and the speed mode. [Abigail] There’s a rudimentary save system built into Twine but I had to expand it and I did it and massaged it a bit to make it work in the traditional format like, you know, press save and it saves the file and displays that. I ran into a serious problem on Steam actually wherein people, when I first released it on Steam, people were having a lot of errors with the save system. And that’s because Twine saves the entire game, like every single action you’ve ever taken, everything that’s ever been changed in the game, instead of just having a save file with straight variables. And so the save files that Twine saves balloon very quickly. They’re just text but they can get really big and my game is really really big in comparison to most Twine games. It’s seven megabytes. In comparison to most Twine games it’s very large and there are lots of different things that you can do and get baked into the save files. With five different save files I actually ended up overloading a local storage and yeah so, long story short, there were some logistical problems I’ve had to deal with for porting Twine. [Ken] You were already a professional programmer by the time you were introduced to Twine is that correct? [Abigail] Yes. [Ken] Some people market Twine as sort of an introductory programming language and, whereas you, you already knew a lot of other

Circles is an abstract puzzle game for Mac and PC that uses only mouse control. Each level consists of circles that behave in different ways but all of which must be avoided to reach the level’s end. As the game uses no written or spoken language and offers no tutorial, it is up to the player to decipher each level’s mechanics to manipulate and navigate the shapes. In this podcast, I spoke with Jeroen Wimmers of Illusive Games, the sole developer of Circles. After working on the Adult Swim game Westerado, Wimmers spent years creating Circles and responding to feedback he received at PAX East and Gamescom. I asked him about the hardest part of developing Circles; whether he toyed with adding written words, and the benefit to not doing so; why the game was developed for mouse input and not touch; how much code he was able to repurpose for the game’s free online demo; how working on his own compared to working on a team; and the indie game dev scene in the Netherlands. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Circles Steam Humble Store Jeroen Wimmers of Illusive Games Westerado by Ostrich Banditos Ellipsis on IndieSider #38

Warlock’s Tower is a 2D puzzle game with a retro Game Boy aesthetic. Tim the mailman must scale the wizard’s tower, but each step he takes costs him a hit point. Players must carefully plot their course through each room to overcome such obstacles as zombies, slimes, barriers, conveyor belts, and more. Warlock’s Tower is developed by Midipixel, a Brazilian studio consisting of Ygor Speranza and Werther Azevedo, and published by Whippering. In this week’s IndieSider, I speak with Speranza about Warlock Tower’s retro color palette; developing using the LÖVE game engine; the controversial humor of the antagonist’s broken Engrish; the involvement of Gregory Love at Whippering; and the game development scene in Brazil. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Warlock’s Tower Steam iOS Google Play Ygor Speranza on Twitter Whippering indie game publisher LÖVE — 2D game engine in Lua Twitch Plays Pokemon FRUE DESTRUCTION in Lufia 3 Update (May 31, 2019): This game is now available for Nintendo Switch!

Induction is a time-bending puzzle game from Bryan Gale. A veteran of such AAA studios as Electronic Arts, Gale’s first indie game employs temporal mechanics to create time loops. The only way to pull levers and cross bridges is if a player can be in two places at once — as long as they don’t cause temporal anomalies. The geometric art style is complemented by a soundtrack from Tim Shiel, resulting in an experience that challenges players to rethink their concept of time. In this week’s IndieSider, Gale and I talk about the time-travel books, movies, and video games that inspired Induction; the mathematical concept for Induction and the physics underlying this game; how working for EA prepared him to be an indie developer; the development and feedback opportunities Gale enjoyed at Stugan and EGX; and what other platforms we’ll be seeing Induction on. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Induction Steam Humble itch.io Bryan Gale on Twitter Stugan — a non-profit accelerator program for talented game developers EGX Time-travel movies & books The Terminator Primer The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold Predestination Time-travel video games Blinx: The Time Sweeper Hologram Time Traveler (Sega) Still Time by Alan Zucconi Thomas Was Alone Monument Valley Tim Shiel on Soundcloud

Owlboy is a 2D adventure-platformer — a Metroidvania — developed by D-Pad Studio and recently released for Windows. Otus, the main character, is the titular hero with the power of flight, but without the power of speech. Can he and his friends come together to save his besieged floating hometown? And can an indie game that’s been in development for nine years achieve success? This week, I speak with Owlboy’s composer and sound designer, Jonathan Geer, whose sweeping symphonic soundtrack is a beautiful complement to the game. I asked him how he chose to pair a modern orchestra with the game’s pixel art; why he used real musicians instead of virtual ones; how his degree in film scoring from Berklee prepared him to score games, and the differences between the two media; what it’s like to write a soundtrack for a game over the course of a decade; the game’s ultimate reception at PAX West 2016; and what to look forward to from Geer’s next game: Heart Forth, Alicia. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Thanks to Sabriel Mastin for providing the video introduction and gameplay for this week’s episode! Links mentioned in this episode: Jonathan Geer Bandcamp Twitter Owlboy is a masterful tale of transcending disability (Brent Ables for Killscreen) Berklee College of Music minor in video game scoring Heart Forth, Alicia

Beholder puts you in charge of an apartment building in a totalitarian state. As a public servant, you are tasked to spy on your tenants and report any suspicious activities or ideological subversions to the authorities… whatever the consequences. Will you do what’s best for your family? Or will you risk your life to save others? Beholder is developed by Warm Lamp Games and published by Alawar Entertainment, both based in Siberia, Russia. This geography gives the team a unique perspective on what qualifies as a totalitarian state. Is the game set in East Germany? Or, given what Edward Snowden has revealed about the NSA, could the game be about the United States? On October 18, 2016, I spoke with Evgeny Kapustin at Alawar Entertainment about the game’s development and the commentary it provokes about morality, patriotism, and escapism. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Beholder Steam Facebook Twitter Kickstarter This War of Mine on IndieSider Papers, Please The Lives of Others (2006) Note: This video is based on a free demo version of Beholder; the full game wasn’t released until Nov. 9.

Pankapu is a family-friendly episodic platformer. The land of Omnia is being invaded by Nightmares, so Iketomi, the god of dreams, creates Pankapu, an avatar charged with bringing hope back to the realm. Only by discovering the three Aegis — Bravery, Ardor, and Faith — will Pankapu master the abilities needed to access all of the land and save his friends. Pankapu is the first game to be featured on IndieSider to have been accepted to the Square Enix Collective, a program that provides indie game developers with feedback and marketing assistance. After graduating from this program, developer Too Kind Studio then launched a successful Kickstarter campaign. In this podcast interview, studio co-founder Jimmy Kalhart discusses how Pankapu changed as a result of these crowdsourcing opportunities; how his team’s background in MMORPG development lent itself to creating a 2D platformer; why the game is wrapped in the context of a story a father tells his child, and whether modern games need narrative; and whether Pankapu will be a launch title for the Nintendo NX console in 2017. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Pankapu Steam Kickstarter Square Enix Collective Interview: Dreams, nightmares, and Lakota culture intertwine in Pankapu Disclosure: a review copy of this game was provided to me by the publisher.

Four Sided Fantasy is a puzzle-platformer for Steam and PlayStation 4. As with most platformers, the screen scrolls side-to-side and up-and-down — but with the push of a button, players can toggle the scrolling and make the screen wrap, where one side connects to the opposite side. Using this power, players can navigate puzzles and access new areas through the game’s many seasons. In this interview, I speak with lead designer Logan Fieth, founder of Ludo Land and graduate of DigiPen, about Four Sided Fantasy: the unusual gameplay mechanics that predate Logan; how narrative works in a game without language; how various aesthetic artifacts contribute to this being “a game about the screen”; the use of gender and gender identity as a storytelling device; the relinquishment of creative control in exchange for Kickstarter funding; and pairing with Serenity Forge to publish the game on consoles. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Four Sided Fantasy Steam Kickstarter Facebook Logan Fieth on Twitter Serenity Forge IndieSider #22: Luna’s Wandering Stars Seattle Indies VVVVVV The Fourth Wall Perspective Disclaimer: a review copy of this game was provided to me by the publisher.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a visual gamebook — a cross between choose your own adventure and tactical RPG. As your adventure in this classic dungeon crawler, you’ll be presented with paths and choices. The character you choose determines your narrative as you encounter orcs, goblins, dwarves, dragons, and more. In this interview, I speak with Tin Man Games creative director Neil Rennison and technical artist Ed Blanch about adapting Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s original 1982 gamebook; how a gamebook differs from both Choose Your Own Adventure and traditional RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons; how they used Kickstarter to fund an entirely new visual game engine; what their future plans are for this engine, including Deathtrap Dungeon; and advice for surviving in Firetop Mountain. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition below or from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain by Tin Man Games Steam iOS Kickstarter The original gamebook on Amazon.com ZX Spectrum version of the game PlayStation 3 version of the game Other World Miniatures Deathtrap Dungeon for PSX Disclaimer: a review copy of this game was provided to me by the publisher.

Lifeless Planet is a narrative puzzle-platformer for Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. A astronaut has been sent to what’s supposed to be a verdant, unpopulated world — but his arrival reveals a barren wasteland populated by Cold War-era Russians. How did they get here, and what happened to the lush planet NASA had detected? In this episode, I speak with David Board of developer Stage 2 Studios about the game’s evolution from its Kickstarter in 2011 to its PS4 release in 2016; the updated graphics engine; how movies such as The Martian, Gravity, and Interstellar have affected public perception of space exploration; manned vs. robotic exploration; and science fiction. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Lifeless Planet on: Steam Sony PlayStation 4 Microsoft Xbox One Twitter Kickstarter Hayden Waugh’s interview with Lifeless Planet’s David Board What a big Kickstarter success looked like – before Double Fine came along Luna’s Wandering Stars by Serenity Forge on IndieSider Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott’s Road to the Stars Disclosure: a review copy of this game was provided to me by the publisher.

Stage of Development is a video documentary series featuring the human stories of Chicago’s indie game developers. Produced by Russ Pitts of Flying Saucer Media, Stage of Development goes behind the scenes with Bit Bash, Young Horses (Octodad: Dadliest Catch), William Chyr (Manifold Garden), Culture Shock Games (We Are Chicago), and The Men Who Wear Many Hats (Organ Trail: Director’s Cut; Max Gentlemen). The video series is currently seeking $42,891 in funding on Kickstarter by Sep 3, 2016. Since Stage of Development shares a common subject and passion with IndieSider, I backed the Kickstarter and invited Russ on the show to discuss how he narrowed his project from a chronicle of video game luminaries around the globe to indie game developers in Chicago; what he learned from the project’s first failed Kickstarter in August 2015; what will happen to his original project’s footage of John Romero and family; and what other cities he hopes to expand Stage of Development to next. The interview was recorded between shoots while Russ was on location in Chicago. Download the audio edition of this podcast from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Stage of Development by Flying Saucer Media Stage of Development: Indie City Edition by Russ Pitts on Kickstarter 2015 Kickstarter (canceled) Footage of the Romero Family Russ Pitts of Take This on Polygamer #7 Desert Bus for Hope: The Documentary on Kickstarter John Romero as KansasFest 2012’s keynote speaker

Chime Sharp is a 2016 sequel to the 2010 puzzle game Chime. In this puzzle game, players rotate and place pentomino blocks onto an open grid, trying to form perfect quadrangles (squares and rectangles). As the the timer counts down, a beatline moves across the level, clearing completed quads and triggering musical tones that complement the techno soundtrack. I spoke with designer Ste Curran about what rough edges he filed away from the original Chime to create Chime Sharp; how he chose the soundtrack for the sequel; why the game had two crowdfunding campaigns on two different platforms; and his many other interests, including video game karaoke. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Chime Sharp Designer Ste Curran Developer Twistplay Publisher Chilled Mouse Original publisher Zoë Mode Chime Sharp on Kickstarter Chime Sharp on Indiegogo Agency Consulting w/Leigh Alexander One Life Left radio show Marioke — video game karaoke Full disclosure: I backed this game on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Update (May 29, 2019): This game is now available for Nintendo Switch!

Perchang is an iOS puzzle game that’s been described as a cross between Lemmings, Marble Madness, and Lunar Lander. Manipulate moving parts in each level’s Rube Goldberg machine to get the marbles into their goals. Color-coded flippers, fans, magnets, and more are at your disposal — but all the red parts are activated together, as are all the blue parts. Group the parts by assigning the right colors to solve each puzzle. Perchang is the debut title from Perchang, a two-person studio consisting of Ben Murch of Rodeo Games and Pete Akehurst of Popcorn Entertainment. In this interview, we spoke about what brought these two developers together; how Perchang’s 3D levels and puzzles were conceived and modeled; what prompted the two developers to create a game so different from their previous titles; the lame duck status of the Nintendo Wii U; and the future of augmented reality gaming. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Perchang on iOS On Twitter: Perchang Ben Murch Pete Akehurst Touch Arcade castAR — augmented reality by Jeri Ellsworth Disclosure: a review copy of this game was provided to me by the publisher.

Lumo is an isometric puzzle-platformer in the style of Solstice, Equinox, or Head Over Heels. With modern design sensibilities, a fantastic design aesthetic, uncomplicated controls, a quirky sense of humor, and plenty of secrets and allusions, Lumo is a fun and original revival of a genre that’s lain fallow for nearly a decade. It’s the debut game from Triple Eh?, founded by Gareth Noyce, a veteran of such triple-AAA titles as Crackdown, Black Hawk Down, and Fable 2. In this interview, Ken and Gareth chat about the advantages and challenges of working within an isometric perspective; the classic games that inspired Lumo’s design; how to market a game that has few, if any, contemporaries; and how Triple Eh? nearly pursued either an Advance Wars-type tactics game, or an isometric game with a time-travel mechanic; instead of Lumo. Finally, we geek out over our favorite old computers, including the ZX Spectrum, Apple II, and Amstrad CPC. Watch the video above, or download the audio edition from Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Links mentioned in this episode: Lumo director’s commentary Lumo on Steam Gareth Noyce on Twitter Other interviews with Gareth Noyce of Triple Eh? By James Batchelor for Develop By Sam Sharp for Xbox One UK By Paul Semel for paulsemel.com Disclosure: a review copy of this game was provided to me by the publisher.