Surprise! Kim and AJ sat down and discussed their games of the year in the context of the themes that jumped out to them! What will be crowned Theme of the Year by the end of it?? Only one way to find out!

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Discussed in the episode (🚨Spoilers for games and themes, but no spoilers for the TOTY winner🚨):

• Themes of the year spreadsheet

Exercising Power and Control in the Face of Hegemony

• of the Devil
• Michel Foucault and the panopticism theory of disciplinary power on Wikipedia
• Q-Up
• Leila
• FACEMINER
• Occlude
• Faustian bargain on Britannica
• The Dark Queen of Mortholme
• Öoo
• Centum
• DEAD LETTER DEPT
• Known Mysteries

Fear and The Mind

• Eclipsium
• The Children of Clay
• Without a Dawn
• Phoenix Springs
• Interstate 35

Life's Weird, Huh?

• Eclipsium
• Centum
• Mini Mini Golf Golf
• Occlude (or not)
• Strange Jigsaws
• Unfair Flips
• Q-Up
• A Pizza Delivery***

Why Do We Puzzle?

• Strange Jigsaws
• The Worst Puzzle of All-Time | Design Delve on YouTube
• Your House
• Occlude
• Leila
• Is This Seat Taken
• Dark Queen of Mortholme
• Öoo
• (and Bubumbu)

Work is Terrifying

• Constance
• DEAD LETTER DEPT
• Children of Clay
• Qualia
• FACEMINER
• The Dark Queen of Mortholme
• Q-Up
• A Pizza Deilvery
• (and Easy Delivery Co.)

Environment's Fucked

• Known Mysteries
• FACEMINER
• Centum
• Mini Mini Golf Golf

Artificial? Intelligence??? (slash Technology)

• FACEMINER
• Qualia
• Making Kin with the Machines by Jason Edward Lewis, Noelani Arista, Archer Pechawis, and Suzanne Kite for Journal of Design and Science 
• Mini Mini Golf Golf 
• Centum
• Q-Up
• Phoenix Springs
• ChatGPT made me delusional by Eddy Burback on YouTube
• of the Devil
• DEAD LETTER DEPT

Legacy

• Hades 2
• Carimara: Beneath the forlorn limbs
• Interstate 35
• Phoenix Springs
• Mini Mini Golf Golf
• Your House

Sometime It's Just Nice to Go Fishing

• Cast n Chill
• PEAK
• Unfair Flips
  • Subscribe to our Kofi to see AJ's playthrough!
• Kabuto Park
• Q-Up
• (and like all of the other games on this list)

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Art by Tara Crawford

Music by _amaranthine

Additional sounds by Boqeh

Produced and edited by AJ Fillari
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Timecodes:

• (00:00 ) - Hey remember RAMs???


• (00:47 ) - Check out ZOTY if you haven't yet!


• (01:09 ) - GOTY but make it dotzip


• (02:33 ) - Structure of the episode


• (03:15 ) - The year of Discrete Experiences


• (08:50 ) - A very good place to start (Hegemony)


• (09:00 ) - Exercising Power and Control in the Face of Hegemony


• (12:30 ) - Q-Up SPOILERS


• (16:02 ) - Exercising Power and Control in the Face of Hegemony


• (32:23 ) - Fear and The Mind


• (35:36 ) - Eclipsium SPOILERS!!!


• (41:29 ) - Fear and The Mind


• (43:09 ) - Life's Weird, Huh?


• (47:16 ) - Centum SPOILERS!!!


• (50:14 ) - Life's Weird, Huh?


• (51:01 ) - Why Do We Puzzle?


• (57:12 ) - Why do we puzzle? (derogatory)


• (58:37 ) - Work is terrifying


• (01:04:41 ) - Environment's Fucked


• (01:11:01 ) - Cleanse the palette or keep digging the hole?


• (01:11:33 ) - Artificial? Intelligence??? (slash Technology)


• (01:28:11 ) - Legacy


• (01:41:35 ) - Sometimes It's Just Nice to Go Fishing


• (01:49:36 ) - Crowning the Theme of the Year


• (01:51:37 ) - TOTY is the bag!


• (01:52:06 ) - Hey that's it. See you next year!