Subscribe to Flow State: https://youtube.com/@flowstatecrit
Fretless on Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2429050/Fretless__The_Wrath_of_Riffson/
Support my work at ko-fi.com/MattHorton
Read more of my writing at https://MattHorton.live
Hoard's LLC: Limited Labyrinth Corporation is a block puzzle game about a minotaur who wants to unionize his workplace, a corporate dungeon. I sat down with Cephalopod Ink, the developer of Hoard's LLC, to learn just what kind of team makes a game like that.
Read more of my writing at https://MattHorton.live
Listen to my podcast at https://cantletitgo.gay
Listen to Lex's podcast - The Legend of Podcast: Trails Through Trails - https://trailspod.transistor.fm/
Expedition 33 is just one of many great turn-based RPGs released in the last 10 years. Here's a bunch of RPGs that you should play when you're finished with Clair Obscur.
0:00 - JRPGs never died
2:12 - Turn-based RPGs are killing it
4:25 - High-fidelity 3D graphics
6:11 - Art Direction
7:21 - World Maps
8:23 - Combat
11:02 - Characters & Social Sim
13:11 - A Message
14:56 - Turn-based RPGs aren't ancient history
Find me elswhere:
Support my work at ko-fi.com/MattHorton
Read more of my writing at https://MattHorton.live
Listen to my podcast at https://cantletitgo.gay
My video on the end of Expedition 33 https://youtu.be/J_gfIx5VIqY?si=bv2Uvhpjpp_uK5tC
Lex's podcast!!!
The Legend of Podcast: Trails Through Trails - https://trailspod.transistor.fm/
Credits
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https://youtu.be/p00EF6_b5pI?si=rl5eCMgy3MqMHQi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i87Bk7OqAUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8azSzG-Fls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkm1I7ngQb0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCuaejfDvR0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-6Aa3_86Lo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVLEPdSX8DY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6daXBKYT6N4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asf4DmuukZA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz0g9hxq7L8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?index=2&v=j_-dPgRy4LI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEo9rB4WmCM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV5rIW1Qums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsdxLwqUH6g
https://youtu.be/LUNL-Pey7BU?si=00AE5Gf1r6vtchsQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raWYLdIqy5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Wj5bpID80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgtBM23ltuw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcwMFWZksQ
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-v6DRmersc
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF96tpchink
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https://youtu.be/Woz3mS9Ao5k?si=sJGQru1pFn8iMg7z
https://youtu.be/yvSWRg_oPyw?si=nAKsR0Voifbny0JB
We've GOT to talk about the ending of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and why it's the worst part of an incredible video game
0:00 - Spoilers ahead
0:09 - The speech
0:52 - Expedition 33 is beautiful
1:18 - The endings
2:45 - We just need consistency
That sick edit by @monners5910 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bd3Zgf964k
Thanks to my writing partner, Lex, and to my friend Jason for coming up with this video's punch line in our Discord DMs.
I don't recommend Wanderstop.
Find the video of this episode at https://youtu.be/MXGSgWCv90Y
Find the written version of this episode at https://MattHorton.live
0:00 - How you make tea in Wanderstop
1:37 - Not just another "cozy" game
4:02 - I'm reminded of Indika
4:54 - Why tea?
Play Known Mysteries: https://www.solarserver.games/onnow.html
References:
More about Solar Server: https://karastonesite.com/2022/11/03/solar-server/
The Bluesky post: https://bsky.app/profile/raantuva.fyi/post/3liahynaoyx2v
More of me:
More writing at https://matthorton.live
Support my work at https://ko-fi.com/matthorton
0:00 - I'm tired of pretending things are normal
0:52 - What is Known Mysteries?
I couldn't decide which game was the best this year. So I didn't. There's a universe where every one of these is the game of the year.
Thanks to Cosmosis and AJ Fillari for being in this one!
Thanks to phloup_ for the cover of "I Will Protect You"
Find the written version of this video at https://MattHorton.live
Sudden Death on itch - https://dominoclub.itch.io/sudden-death
0:00 - The best game of 2024
0:16 - Mystery game
2:36 - Fishing game
5:25 - Fantasy game
9:16 - Spooky puzzle game
11:22 - The remake (w/ AJ)
11:30 - Tactics game
14:47 - Gay romance game
16:47 - Game from 2020
18:48 - Survival car game (w/ @Cosmosis )
20:11 - Card game
21:16 - Game about death
23:09 - Narrative game
We crave failure, or at least the chance of it. Why?
00:00 - You crave failure
01:39 - Citizen Sleeper’s ideas of failure
06:46 - We fear failure
09:29 - The Paradox of Failure
12:19 - The queer art of failure
14:48 - CW: Homophobia
17:22 - How Citizen Sleeper 2 uses failure
22:15 - Who gets to fail?
25:33 - The risk of making games
30:29 - Failing the contract in Citizen Sleeper 2
34:18 - Why we crave failure
Find links to everything I do online at MattHorton.live
Support the channel at ko-fi.com/matthorton and get access to the full interview with Gareth Damian Martin!
Wishlist Citizen Sleeper 2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2442460/Citizen_Sleeper_2_Starward_Vector/
Subscribe to the Jump Over the Age substack - https://jumpovertheage.substack.com/
Research sources:
The Art of Failure, Juul - https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262529952/the-art-of-failure/
The Queer Art of Failure, Halberstam - https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-queer-art-of-failure
Queer Games Studies, Ruberg and Shaw - https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517900373/queer-game-studies/
No Fun: The Queer Potential of Video Games that Annoy, Anger, Disappoint, Sadden, and Hurt, Ruberg - https://ourglasslake.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Ruberg-No-Fun-QED.pdf
Music:
Signalchaser, Citizen Sleeper 2, Amos Roddy - https://youtu.be/M4BhsWWy4F0?si=D-djTl2B_-WJWk0P
Suncatchers, Citizen Sleeper 2, Amos Roddy - https://youtu.be/YL5LWm5Nk84?si=0vEwUiNKMRWV5HDI
Media sources:
Why do God of War's Characters Keep Spoiling Puzzles?, Game Maker's Toolkit - https://youtu.be/cZgjRcYGkY8?si=ynaXk8O8RP3eHzUb
In Defense of Dark Souls 2, hbomberguy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRTfcMeqhig
Into the Aether's Pokémon Emerald Nuzlocke - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bYvqnTvUCg
Animal Crossing (Gamecube) with Stephen - https://youtu.be/_8e7wd6x9Ow?si=nS0VrrMR8xmnkP4P
Jesper Juul - Who cares if it's a Game? The uses and misuses of a dangerous word - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1RUiMY2MEs
The Cult of Microsoft by Ed Zitron - https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-cult-of-microsoft/
I made the worst ever 1-1 remake in Mario Maker 2 by YTSunny - https://youtu.be/eb60pnjABGg?si=ijyLAhsOxSFHGpcx
What is Super Mario Bros? by Into the Aether - https://youtu.be/ydoGs2Sflw4?si=cZPLJ3pXDw8rBOOc
Bo Ruberg: The Queer Games Avant-Garde - https://youtu.be/pc1az37mEvo?si=nUuxI9hQAmigJIE0
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Balloon Battle Gameplay - https://youtu.be/4xZ3TnVk9bQ?si=2hWRrtZfyhLhW9rs
Microsoft Closes Studios Behind Redfall, Hi-Fi Rush, And More To Prioritize 'High-Impact' Games, Kotaku - https://kotaku.com/xbox-closing-arkane-austin-tango-gameworks-1851460685
Ubisoft to Shut Down ‘XDefiant,’ Nearly 300 Employees Laid Off as San Francisco and Osaka Game Studios Close, Variety - https://variety.com/2024/gaming/news/xdefiant-canceled-ubisoft-layoffs-1236235023/
Aaron Greenberg's tweet praising how well Hi-Fi Rush did across their measurements - https://x.com/aarongreenberg/status/1649431572137779203
What this on YouTube at https://youtu.be/wGwtEtuuChM
Read more from Matt at matthorton.live
Support Flow State at ko-fi.com/matthorton
“Is Persona Gay?” by GarfieldKermit - https://youtu.be/37LacI2erq8?si=rEMKHsbLvATmSGRk
Gameplay footage provided by Faz
Read Brendon Bigley's review at Wavelengths - https://wavelengths.online/posts/persona-3-reload-a-review
"Katsura Hashino, directing Persona 5" by Archipel - https://youtu.be/jGb3BNgU7SE?si=O3V4WbM4nu7AchMu
"You should play 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim" by me! - https://youtu.be/O7EhtgGg4pc?si=_ng5V8GvgBWX_Tcw
0:00 - Persona has a problem
0:50 - Love things and critique them
2:05 - Persona 3 Reload is a masterpiece
5:27 - What is Persona 3 Reload?
7:46 - The best parts of Persona 3 Reload
15:02 - Critiquing what I love
24:45 - I want a Persona 6 without problems
28:54 - I recommend Persona 3 Reload (with caveats)
Listen to Flow State on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or wherever you get podcasts
Support my work at Ko-Fi.com/matthorton
My writing - MattHorton.live
My podcast - cantletitgo.gay
Kim's video game podcast - dotzip.online
Kim's frod podcast - frogpod.online
1000xRESIST by Sunset Visitor - sunsetvisitor.studio
Gameplay footage by @samussonic-plays
Check out the dotzip 1000xRESIST spoilercast at https://share.transistor.fm/s/9180106a
1000xRESIST is not only a game about remembering. It is a game about we carry forward and what we must choose to forget. Holding onto every memory from every person on the entire planet is both impossible and dangerous. Some things just don't fit in the backpack.
Chapters
0:00 - Spoiler Warning
0:29 - Sometimes you just don’t fit in the backpack
3:07 - Making 1000xRESIST
5:02 - Watcher
8:03 - Iris
19:35 - Youngest
23:09 - The Occupants
27:47 - Blue
38:51 - Watcher
42:31 - Iris & Clara
48:20 - Principal
52:39 - Secretary
59:49 - What do we carry forward?
It turns out that it's easier and more enjoyable to get things done when you're nicer to yourself.
Text version at https://MattHorton.live
Listen to our podcast, Can't Let It Go, at https://cantletitgo.gay
The IGN review of Animal Well - https://www.ign.com/articles/animal-well-review
My short blog about Animal Well - https://matthorton.live/2024/05/11/animal-well-isnt-tunic/
0:00 - Something is wrong with me
3:50 - Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
7:55 - Tearing down the Wall of Awful
8:31 - Animal Well
14:45 - Making things easier
15:45 - Elden Ring
Citizen Sleeper changed my life. Did it make it any better?
Citizen Sleeper: How to Escape Dystopia - https://youtu.be/Eiyf-4FhdFs
0:00 - Citizen Sleeper changed my life
1:17 - Did it help?
Get Balatro running on iOS - https://old.reddit.com/r/iosgaming/comments/1bnf0zy/tutorial_run_balatro_on_your_ios_device/
Read more at https://MattHorton.live
0:00 - X-Men '97 rules (no spoilers)
1:10 - It's not just X-Men
I swear you don't need to watch all of X-Men the Animated Series to start X-Men '97. And you don't need to catch up. I swear.
Stop doing homework just to have fun. Just enjoy things!
0:00 - Yakuza: Like A Dragon is good
1:06 - Why I played it
1:33 - Why I enjoyed it
More writing at https://MattHorton.live
I'll spoil the point up front for you. Yakuza: Like A Dragon rules. It's a great game, and I regret not playing a game in this series until now.
You know what I usually hate? Long, overly complex games, over the top, macho violence, and turn based combat. So why did I start Like A Dragon?
Because Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth features a famous Hawaiian t-shirt shop that was also featured in the now defunct reality Netflix show Terrace House.
That's truly it. Just imagining the vibe of watching Terrace House Aloha State and playing Infinite Wealth at the same time sounded so fun.
This video and more writing at https://MattHorton.live
My podcast https://cantletitgo.gay
0:00 - Marvel's Midnight Suns
4:12 - What is Midnight Suns?
4:38 - Hero and Ability Management
7:14 - Combat
12:25 - Superhero Social Sim
17:19 - Abbey Grounds Exploration
18:37 - The Loop that keeps me playing
20:17 - The Problems with Midnight Suns
31:31 - This game deserves a sequel
0:00 - The Game Awards
1:25 - A sequel that outdid its predecessor
3:26 - A beautiful, smart puzzler
5:12 - The indie that surprised me
6:33 - Rethinking an earlier video
8:07 - A game DEMO?!
More writing at https://MattHorton.live
0:00 - I love broken games
0:41 - The game I can't quit playing
3:00 - The game that taught me imbalance is good
6:30 - Making games FEEL great
9:32 - Balance feels bad
0:00 - Cassette Beasts really works for me
1:04 - The vibe
3:58 - Cassette Beasts is Pokémon for adults
6:42 - It's not that deep
10:40 - Great battles
13:06 - Killer music
14:14 - Well-written characters
17:12 - Letting go
🔗 All my links @ https://matthorton.live
Kyle Labriola's Sea of Stars Review - https://cohost.org/kylelabriola/post/2762235-thoughts-on-sea-of-s
The Pre-Order Bonus podcast episode with Jay Baylis - https://www.buzzsprout.com/747596/episodes/12421340
The Back Page podcast episode with Jay Baylis - https://shows.acast.com/the-back-page-a-video-games-podcast/episodes/episode-126-how-to-make-a-video-game-with-jay-baylis
0:00 - A great game
1:50 - The expert
2:59 - What games work on Steam
4:21 - Where Season did well
6:01 - Why talk about Steam?
7:38 - Marketing doesn't mean success
8:20 - DATA
8:44 - A secret formula
9:32 - What games don't work
10:53 - What about Steam Deck?
12:11 - A buzzy game you might know
14:48 - Ways to make a game work
15:36 - What about cozy games?
17:16 - Sports games do bad on Steam
18:22 - Pokémon-likes, on the other hand...
19:38 - Something doesn't add up...
22:11 - This is like software design
23:24 - Twitter is not real life
24:25 - NBZ helps me
26:04 - What people read on a Steam page
28:01 - The false door test
At the end of January, a game released that changed how I think of games completely. Season A Letter to the Future had been building hype through multiple trailers during PlayStation events. Season, at its simplest, is a game about riding a bike, taking pictures, and recording audio. Call it wholesome or cozy, but Season fits nicely into this extremely popular niche of games whose goals are not to best an opponent or kill an enemy. In Season, Estelle's goal is simply to document her world and its culture before that culture comes to an end. Season's first trailer drew a lot of interest. It looked beautiful and contemplative and like a game I was going to devour. It was rather big news when word came out that the game's director and Scavenger Studios co-founder Simon Darvaux had harassed staff working on the game and had a toxic management style. It was a little quieter news when an investigation found that Scavenger Studios had dealt with Darveau's toxicity appropriately and that he would return to the studio in a more isolated role working on a different game. But perhaps the most shocking news came months after Season's release in June, when Scavenger Studios laid off half of their staff due to the game's extremely poor performance. After a strong indie game hype cycle and being featured in multiple PlayStation events, Season only sold around 60,000 copies across PS5 and Steam. The game underperformed what was expected in sales, and very likely, I think, underperformed what was necessary to make up the costs of development. When this news came out, I put a link to the gamesindustry.biz story in a Discord server that I frequent. The series of responses that I got from today's guest are what completely changed how I think about games, or at least how those games are marketed.
In this video, NBZ walks me through the ways that indie games are marketed and why some great games fail when others don't.
MY LINKS
Find MY Discord, Twitter, Instagram, and Twitch at https://matthorton.live
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🔗 ALL of my links - https://MattHorton.live
Welcome to Terra Nil, the unique city-builder game that challenges you to restore a barren planet rather than exploit it for resources. In this game, you're not the typical city-builder where you bulldoze forests, pollute rivers and strip-mine mountains to build your metropolis. Instead, you must work with nature to heal the planet and create a thriving ecosystem.
And it's the first game this year to truly blow me away.
0:00 - What is Terra Nil
1:03 - This is Devolver game?
1:24 - How Free Lives make games
2:08 - How I found the game
2:56 - Playing Terra Nil
3:54 - It's a power fantasy
4:47 - Recycling difficulty
5:16 - The first game to grip me this year
