080 - Wilmot Works It Out, Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery, & Dorfromantik (Guest: hey_itsHayley) - Underplayed

Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Thank you for pressing start on episode 80 of Underplayed, KZUMS
indie video game podcast. Today we have two secret games,
a discussion with Hey It's Haley, and a review of our
featured game Dwarf Romantic. Here on Underplayed, we review

(00:29):
indie games of all kinds, the games with small budgets but big
hearts, the lesser known experiences with imaginative
ideas. I'm Bo Po and I'm joined by
another. He got the platinum in going
under. It's one of his numerous claims
to fame. He's the obture IB in a
cooperative game. He runs like a pony.
He loves pepperoni. It's the one and only Disco

(00:51):
Cola. What's going on?
I almost didn't make it today. I was stuck on a railroad to
nowhere, but a quick Sprint through the lilac field got me
here just in time. How are you?
I'm doing just fine. My perfect hexagonal tile with
grass, a field, a train track, ahouse, a forest and a river,
each on one of its sides. Those are references to our

(01:12):
featured game, Dorf Romantic. I can't imagine getting that
tile in a perfect placement if I'm honest.
Right. Well, that's why I had to call
it out because it was very noteworthy.
And you were that tile. Yes, Bless you, but we're going
to talk about Dorf Romantic. Today is our featured game.
It's kind of unlike a lot of ourother featured games.

(01:34):
It is sort of a board game like game and we've got a guest who's
very passionate about it, who's played it a lot in their time
and definitely more than us. That guest is hey, it's Haley, a
friend of ours, Variety, Twitch streamer and content creator of
Art Co working in games. And since we do have another

(01:55):
kind of bonus section where we'll talk to Haley about her
and her contents, we will make this intro pretty brief.
But before we move on, there area few very easy ways to support
underplayed. They cost nothing and they take
almost no time at all. And we would really appreciate
you doing these things for us ifyou haven't already.
One, give us a follow and a fivestar rating on podcast platforms

(02:19):
like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.That makes us appear more
consistently for you and others.Two, you can follow us across
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for that. And three, sharing our podcast
by reposting our stuff on socialmedia and telling your indie
game loving friends about us means the world.
And as always, we love you. Thank you for listening.

(02:40):
It is time for our secret games.Secret Games.
Secret Games Secret Games SecretGames is our first longer

(03:01):
segment where we each review an indie game we've been playing in
Secrets since our last recording.
I have no idea what Disco Cola has been playing these last few
weeks. He doesn't know what I've been
playing recently, and we're going to reveal these games to
us as a surprise right now. Why are they surprised?
Just because it's fun that way. Yeah.
Yeah. So any game can be chosen as

(03:22):
long as it's indie and as long as we haven't reviewed it
before. We will start with you, Disco
Cola. Let the mystery be no more.
Reveal your secret game for Episode 80 of Underplayed.
My secret game is I'm looking real quick here, might be my
first sequel. Well Mighty Gunvault Burst I
think is technically a sequel but for sure this is maybe my

(03:46):
first sequel. Apart from that it comes from
Richard Hogg and Hollow Ponds. My secret game is Wilmot works
it out. This is Wilmot Works It Out, a
puzzle building game where you make Wilmot's house into a home.

(04:06):
Oh, another box. Come on, Wilmot, let's open it.
When Wilmot receives a box of puzzle pieces, he needs your
help sorting them and putting them together.
This one looks like a burger. Yeah, that looks like maybe a

(04:27):
space cow. Hopefully this will be the final
piece of the burger. Amazing.
I love this. Yeah.
So this is a a pretty recent game.
I know this came out last year. Yeah, I think like late last
year too. But yeah, and the synergizes a

(04:47):
lot better than I thought with our future game and also kind of
our guest because Wilmot's basedin the UK presumably.
Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.
But anyways, Wilmot works it out.
Follows our old friend Wilmot, presumably after his warehouse
job was automated, alone at home.
Oh, that's so sad. Well, he's not sad.

(05:11):
He's relaxing. That's good.
He's finding a new purpose. A new.
A new chapter of life. He's enjoying forced retirement.
This is what he's doing. Before long, Sam the post woman
arrives at the door to deliver our latest parcel from our
puzzle subscription. And after Wilmot has made enough
correct placements in the puzzlepieces, which in this game are

(05:34):
just squares, so they're not like jigsaw puzzles, Sam will
arrive with another parcel, and the parcels we receive may
include puzzle pieces for more than one puzzle.
You don't necessarily get that at first, but eventually.
It's like opening a box and unpacking.
You know you're you're opening aprimarily bedroom box, but then

(05:56):
outcomes. Toasters in there.
Outcomes the toaster. Outcomes your toothbrush.
Outcomes the toilet paper. Yeah.
Yeah, so you'll get pieces for more than one puzzle.
The number of pieces included inthe parcel does also increase to
a point as you progress through the game and as you finish
individual puzzles, Wilmot will arrange them on the wall in his

(06:18):
living space. And once you finish a series of
puzzles, or like a season kind of as it was in Wilmot's
warehouse, you'll be able to place those puzzles in a
different room in the house, such as the basement or the
bathroom or the puzzle room, which is where you're not doing
the puzzles for some reason. You'll also be able to pick

(06:39):
wallpaper for each room once youget there.
And I didn't notice it, but in the trailer apparently you can.
You can decorate with other smaller pieces of furniture as
well. I didn't notice that feature
when I was playing, but apparently you can do that as
well. But the game is pretty
straightforward, so from here I'll go on to my feelings about

(07:00):
the game, unless you have any questions at this point.
No, I might have questions at the end.
Yeah I cuz I'm seeing how this works in the trailer.
I'm watching that silently whileyou talk and it definitely makes
sense. Lots of beautiful, cute art
going on. Yeah.
Absolutely. One of the first things I want
to point out is that art. Pretty much everything in this
game is monochrome except for those puzzle pieces.

(07:23):
Not only does that help those puzzle pieces pop, but the
puzzles are illustrated with this like really bold and
beautiful colors. And then the illustrations
themselves are just really attractive and kind of cartoony.
So just the in general, the whole game is just really
attractive to look at. Controlling the game feels just
right. It takes a lot from Wilmot's

(07:44):
Warehouse, but feels even betterin parts.
This is because 1. The stakes are lower.
You're not on a timer trying to please a bunch of customers
sorting through a bunch of crap.But just the simple nature of
selecting multiple pieces to move instead of just like one at
a time. Just that feels much better than

(08:06):
it did in Walmart's warehouse. Because there are a lot of like
quick button triggers that you can do to select a bunch of
items at once in Walmart's warehouse.
But because the stakes are lowerand because of the way I think
they changed it, just selecting like you could select an L shape
of pieces and it's a lot easier to do.
It. Works it out than it was in
warehouse. Yeah, and you're going to want

(08:27):
to do that a lot, because when I'm assembling A jigsaw puzzle,
for instance, I definitely do sections.
And then you do that thing whereyou carefully slide a section of
10 pieces that are all together and you attach it to another
section of 10. And I'm seeing that in the
trailer too. Yeah, Speaking of lower stakes,
again, that's just something I really appreciate about this
over Willmott's warehouse. You know, granted the stress is

(08:50):
kind of the point of the warehouse, but relaxing puzzle
time is the point of works it out.
And while your room may eventually start to look
overwhelming as you get parcel after parcel, you will never get
a new batch of pieces until you are well enough done with your
previous batch. So it it does start to look
overwhelming, but it the game doesn't get ahead of you.

(09:14):
Progression comes from progress,so you get to take your time.
Honestly, not playing either of these games and knowing what you
said about Wilmot's Warehouse, that's a big relief.
I have heard a lot of people saythat this was relaxing, and I'm
kind of seeing why specifically with that point.
Yeah, absolutely. Pieces will snap together if
they match up. This gives really satisfying

(09:36):
visual feedback, but it's also not necessarily permanent.
Like if you if you want to take a piece out even after you found
the match that it goes up against, you can, and there may
be cases where this will be necessary.
That actually gets to a questionI was going to have later is, is
it possible to close two groups of collected pieces together and

(09:58):
then have a spot in the middle and then you're stuck?
You can't get to that. You can.
Uncouple things, yeah, but on more than several occasions,
Wilmot was trapped inside of a alittle box.
No, Wilmot, No. And then another thing that I
really love about this game is that there's actually a bit of

(10:18):
story in this game. Like you kind of get a little
bit in Wilmot's warehouse, but not a ton.
You know, basically the story becomes The thing is automated
at the end, that's about it. But in here you get a bit of
story. And the story isn't really about
Wilmot. Everyday Sam the post woman will
exchange pleasantries with us. And as the days go on, we learn

(10:41):
more about Sam. We also learn more about the
neighborhood outside of Wilmot'shouse, or the cat that maybe
comes up to Sam when she visits Wilmot's house, or maybe the
state of repair our house is in.And yeah, the, the story is
really more about Sam than anything.
And I think it's, it's deliveredin a really touching way.

(11:03):
And I really appreciate the theythey took that swing and then it
paid off in my opinion. Yeah, I would call that like
when I look at surprises of listening to you talk about your
games, that's something I wouldn't have expected.
Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, really pleasant and
then just awesome, awesome pay off at the end too.
As far as like things that I don't love quite as much.

(11:25):
There are several puzzles that were pretty hard, mostly because
you have occurrences of puzzles that will have similar colors
and shapes and you get a taste of that in the trailer.
But there were a few that were incredibly challenging to what I
consider an unfun level. The puzzles that I wrote down as
being ones that I just kind of like brute forced that matching

(11:47):
click, that auto clipping are are the puzzles named the
numbers of the beasts, Meyer's sacrifice and camping.
Those were just three that I wrote down.
There were a couple other that Ican kind of picture in my mind,
but I just like I brute forced them.
They're just like, is it match here?
No, does it match here? No, OK, this one.

(12:07):
I have another reason to dislikecamping now noted.
So Speaking of brute force, while I ultimately loved that
auto clicking for correct matches, it did kind of remove a
certain level of challenge. Now again, some of these puzzles
are like mad hard, but easier ones were just a little bit too

(12:29):
easy as a result of that auto placement.
OK, the music is really solid, but like Wilmot's Warehouse,
it's all a bit samey. It's good.
I just want a little bit more variety because I love what this
composer does. I just, I just want it.
I want a little bit more flexing, you know?
Sure. And then maybe my biggest

(12:49):
complaint is about decorating the rooms after completing each
season, I'm just kind of thrown in and maybe I spent a lot of
time arranging my puzzles in themain room where we're putting
our puzzles together. But when we move all of those
puzzles to say, the bedroom or whatever, the the placement

(13:10):
doesn't match up what I spent all that time doing in the main
room. So at least it it seemed like
some of them moved. So after a while I was just
like, well, what's the point of like taking all the care in the
main room if I'm just going to have to rearrange it in the
other room? And then it just kind of throws
me in with picking wallpaper andcolors.

(13:32):
Like I get a selection of maybe two different kinds of wallpaper
and two different colors, but the next room will offer maybe
one of those same colors that I had the option of before and
then another color that I didn'thave the option of before.
So like, why can't I select all of the colors when I first get
to that room? Or why can't I select all of the

(13:53):
Wallpapers? And honestly, I don't really
like the Wallpapers. I'd rather just not have
wallpaper, but I don't think that's an option.
Like you have to pick one. So with all of this over time,
did you find that the decoratingwas less important to you or you
you I? Just kind of skipped it after a
while. Just wanted to do the puzzle
solving, yeah. Yeah, because I'm just kind of
thrown in. I'm just, I'm just kind of

(14:14):
moving around in the dark. I don't really know what I'm
doing there, and my options don't make sense to me.
And apparently there are even more options that I didn't even
know about, like decorating withthose smaller pieces of
furniture that you see in the trailer.
And I don't feel like the game told me that that even existed.
Now, at any time, you can go into all of your different rooms

(14:36):
or like see your previous collections.
And maybe that's where those features are amplified.
Maybe. But to me, once I did that room
that said to me, OK, this is this room is done.
Like you painted that picture and posted it on the wall.
It's you're done with that room now, but that's really it

(14:57):
though. I think some games really shine
with the less is more approach, and Wilmot works it out is a
pretty good mascot for the concept, for those that want to
do some puzzles. You get that, but you also get
some optional stuff too. If you want to look at your
previous work, you can. If you want to get a bit of
story, that's here too, but you can also skip it really quickly
too. All of that is done with really

(15:19):
satisfying gameplay and then youget a really satisfying
conclusion that is shown to you through the gameplay in a really
creative way. This game is so cute with very
few flaws and it's a really goodgame length so I'm going to give
it a nine point O out of 10. Amazing.
I really want to play this. You're now 3 for three for
having secret games this season that I I at least want to play a

(15:41):
little bit. And so I don't know, Disco Mon
Cage might still be at the top of my list, but Wilmot works it
out is I already wanted to play Walmart works it out from last
year and I never got around to it.
So yeah, I can see, I can see Mon Cage still being like you're
jealous game, but I still think,I think Walmart's one that
you'll just be like, I'm just going to play this sometime.

(16:02):
I How long would it take to kindof just finish?
To finish well. Like not 100%, just like I
assume you get credits. You do get credits.
How long? Would that take 2?
Things. I did it on the the same road
trip where I played Mon Cage. Oh, Mon Cage, and so I played it

(16:23):
for at least six hours. Might have been made more.
OK, maybe 2 play sessions then. Yeah, 2 healthy play sessions.
Yeah, 3. Possibly three, OK, because it's
I got to a point and I'm like, oh, there's still, there's still
another season. Like I thought I I filled all my
rooms and then they gave me two more.
I'm like, OK, well. That's good that it's like

(16:43):
sizable. Yeah, it's it's not, it's not
that short, but it's it's a goodgame length for what the game
is. That's another surprise to me is
that it's not like I would have thought 2 1/2 hours.
Oh yeah, it's definitely longer than that.
Unless you're like cracked insane insane.
Oh man. I won't be that way.
I'm not good at the jigsaw puzzles.
And even though it's squares, even though it's a little bit

(17:06):
more straightforward, I will still take that time.
I guess I don't have any questions about the game itself,
like you've explained it really well, but I want to pose a
question, just throw it out there.
I don't have any ideas for this,but what do you think is next
for Wilmot? Wilmot is kind of like.
Are you familiar with the turnipboy games like?

(17:27):
I've heard of. Them.
Turnip boy commits tax evasion. Turnip boy robs a bank.
Each game in the turnip boy series is a different genre, and
the 2 Wilmot games are doing thething of like sliding blocks.
One was a little bit more stressful than the next one,
one's more relaxing. So I'm curious, what within this

(17:48):
world of moving squares could wedo next with Wilmot?
Oh, that's hard because I'm the first thing the like word
association game in my head brought me to this mini game
from and get ready for this title, the misadventures of Tron

(18:09):
Bon, the Mega Man legends spin off game.
And it's a mini game where you're picking up crates and
moving them on like predetermined paths.
But then there's also crates of crabs and you're trying to get
those onto the ship and you're like driving around in this
mech. So in my head, maybe it's

(18:32):
something like that train game where you have to like you can
only move the blocks in One Direction and you have to create
a straight path to the exit and the exit is just on that.
Let me see if I can pull up a picture of what I'm talking
about because it's it's been represented in a bunch of
different ways. So like.

(18:54):
Oh yes, I have played that. I mean, I've played video game
versions of that, but you're, you're showing me like a, a
little square board that has these wooden pegs and there's
one that's red and you need to get the red one to the exits.
Yes, I I understand. Yes.
So this is totally different from the misadventures of Tron
bond analogy I was making. But sure, I could see Wilmot

(19:15):
maybe doing something kind of like this.
Yeah, which would be more stressful than the works it out,
but less stressful than the warehouse probably.
Right, So one idea I had was something that's really hot
right now is the Resident Evil 4like inventory management and
you know, like dredge. Dredge did the let's organize

(19:37):
our fish and our all of our components in our cargo.
That's a mini game in its own. And maybe this is kind of like
warehouse, but could there be something with we have a
confined space can will not pushthings into the spaces to
aesthetically pleasing, you know, layouts?
So that that may actually be a more likely scenario because it

(20:01):
could you could story a Fiat. As to you're packing your bag
for a vacation and that would play into some of the story
elements of Wilmot Works it Out.Oh.
Wow, so this could be like a. Prequel like an in between game?
Yeah, it could be like a pack your bag Wilmot packs his bags

(20:22):
or something. Yeah, and I've recently explored
that idea in a demo for a game called One Move Away, which is a
wholesome first person game. It's kind of like a reverse
unpacking where you're loading up your car with all the stuff
that you need to fit in the car and there are boundaries.

(20:45):
I found it to be fun, but I kindof wished at a certain point
that I wasn't in the 3D space. I kind of want a 2D version of
this, maybe a top down version of this.
So I will always take like an inventory, a backpack management
game and Wilmot has like a certain charm to it that still
calls to me. Yeah.
So, yeah, just like his toothpaste is just like 2

(21:07):
squares and maybe his like snorkel is an L shape.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I guess that's also getting into like this whole other brand
of puzzle games like the I talked about this in our Haven
episode, actually, when we talked about things we've been
doing recently. Our Haven episode on no small
games not of underplayed. That's right on on their feed at

(21:28):
the end where we talked about what we've been getting up to
lately, like the one small thingand I talked about dogs
organized neatly. Oh, Yep.
That's where you have you have acertain number of things.
And there's also cats organized neatly, birds organized neatly.
I think Wilmot would fit into that whole world too.
Yeah, that's a better idea than what I had.
Very, very, very, very astute. I hope Wilmot gets to explore

(21:48):
lots of of different games. Over time, he's a He's adorable,
nice job Wilmot. Wilmot Works It Out is available
on Mac, PC and Nintendo Switch which is where I played it.
Beautiful, it is time for my secret game.
My secret game is also a wholesome game.
It is a game that I know that our guest today.

(22:10):
Hey, it's Haley has played and enjoys it is called Frog
detective the entire mystery. The Oh, not duck detective.

(22:46):
Frog Detective. Correct, correct.
I I've actually was afraid of accidentally saying duck
detective in this episode. I might accidentally let that
slip. I always have duck detective on
the brain, at least a little bitDisco.
You're always thinking about thesecret select.
I knew that was coming. How did I know that was coming?

(23:09):
So this is a, this is a bit of aTory 2 kind of situation in a
sense. Kind of.
Except this is not me just playing one sequel and kind of
skipping another game that is basically the same.
This is a collection. So what happened here is the
entire mystery came out in 2023 as a collection, but the games

(23:31):
that released were originally released in 2018-2019 and 2022,
and the third one is the last one.
So this is a definitive like this is the entire series, thus
the entire mystery. And it was developed by Grace
Bruxner and Thomas Boker as WormClub.
It was also published by Worm Club and Super Hot Presents.

(23:52):
And we've talked about Super HotPresents in the past.
That was the publishing label ofthe Super Hot team.
After they did so well with Super Hot, they decided to help
other Indies and this is an example of a game that they've
published. So the game synopsis from the
Nintendo storefront says quote, you're a detective and a frog

(24:12):
and it's time to solve 3 thrilling mysteries.
End Quote. Now I wanted to play this game
because I knew our guests is familiar with it.
I also have seen Frog Detective show up as a cameo in other
games we've played in the past. Oh, maybe that's OK.

(24:34):
So I recognize the frog and maybe that's why.
Maybe because I know that this frog shows up in chicory.
A colorful tale. OK.
He might show up in the game Teacup if I'm remembering
correctly. There's like a game I played.
It was now years ago that I I feel like he was just kind of

(24:55):
chilling next to a body of wateror something.
Or I could maybe I'm mixing thatup with chicory, but I'm also
pretty sure he showed up in the gardens between.
OK. And I still haven't played that,
so I I wouldn't recognize him from that, no.
Sure. I, I just know that he's one of
those characters, you know, one of those mascots that you just

(25:18):
see pop up again, not Shovel Knight levels of appearances
like Shovel Knight's probably like the one I think of as the
poster child of cameo appearances in indie games.
But I have seen Frog Detective. Frog Detective is pretty well
known. And in this game, you play as
the frog detective, who also just goes by detective, and you
work for a mystery and crime solving agency.

(25:40):
You walk around in the first person, you're engaging with
dialogue with other anthropomorphic animals in each
of the three episodes, and everyepisode is focusing on a
different mystery. So episode 1 is the Haunted
Islands, where a sloth has reported sounds of ghosts.
Episode 2 is the case of the Invisible Wizard, where a parade

(26:02):
for a new resident of a forest town has been ruined, and
episode 3 is Corruption at Cowboy County, where you work
with Lobster Cop to investigate stolen hats in a sheriffless
Wild West town. That old chestnut.
So it's irreverent. It's goofy, it's somewhat of an

(26:22):
anthology series, but certain characters show up again,
there's a through line for bits of the story and lore, and as
you're selecting these episodes,you're in the main menu
selecting which one you want, and they're just side by side,
so it feels cohesive. It feels like, you know, this is
intended to be played as a collection.
You're supposed to just move from one to the next, and it

(26:43):
happens pretty seamlessly, and you have a magnifying glass you
can use to look at things closer.
You also get a journal in episodes two and three that
track all the personal bits about the suspects you come
across, and you often are finding items that you need to
trade with the various characters to get what you want.
Someone might need an explosive to clear a pile of rocks, or

(27:07):
ingredients for a soup or a forged ID, and they'll give you
something you need for another character when you help them
out. So it's about finding that right
string of quests and fetching things for people to finish the
stories, and you're talking to everybody about what they know
about the particular case. Frog Detective is the #2 best
investigator behind Lobster Cop.So by chapter 3, you end up

(27:31):
working with him and the series works up to a conclusion for the
entire story. So what I liked about Frog
Detective, the entire mystery, is the personality and the
humor. This is something you can see in
the trailer. There's just a lot of witty,
goofy dialogue that happens. A lot of understated comedy is
happening. It's silly and cartoonish, but

(27:53):
also really light and charming with how it's delivering the the
humor. It's not like, I don't find it
to be like childish, even thoughit does look like a game that
you might play with a family. It looks appropriate for any
age. But I think there's like some
really witty stuff here. There's a lot of nonsense to
what the characters want, which I find funny too.

(28:14):
You never know quite what a character will ask of you like
to make an explosive in the 1st chapter, you have to find
toothpaste, wool, a chunk of gold and pasta and all those
things combined together to makean explosive.
I've made that one before. Yeah, it's in the.
It's in the cookbook. Ravioli.

(28:34):
Explosioli. Yeah.
And I love the character designs, too.
There's a monkey, you know, There's a panda.
There's a cow, you run into lobsters, there's this mole that
shows U multiple times and ends U being important later, and
they're all really cute and provide moments of levity.
I also really enjoy how the games progress.

(28:56):
So episode 1 is relatively basiccompared to episode 3.
When they made episode one, theymade it really straightforward.
There's no journal, you don't get as many of the features.
You're just kind of walking around talking to people.
By episode 3, you can ride on a scooter to explore the Wild West
town. You have the journal, you can

(29:17):
get a rundown of like what everybody wants.
And so it feels like over time they expanded what these games
were able to do, and so you could tell that they put more
and more care in over the years.Characters also call back to the
events of previous chapters, andthings can connect in really fun
ways. So I liked being in Chapter 3

(29:37):
and hearing someone reference something that happened in
Chapter 1, and that made it feeleven more appropriate for this
to be a collection. Each chapter is visually
distinct as well. So we're on the island during
the day in Chapter 1, we're in adark forest town at night in
Chapter 2, and then we're in thedesert town in Chapter 3.
So you can look at any screenshot from any of the games

(30:00):
and you just know what place you're in.
I also really like the fun touches that you find
throughout. One of the developers, Grace
will appear as an in game interjection to break the 4th
wall. In all three of the chapters
you'll just be in a conversationand Frog Detective will talk
about something with a characterand Grace will come in and

(30:24):
comment on that for a moment. And sometimes it's to give real
world advice. Also, the end of the third
episode has a wild series of developments that I didn't see
coming. As for things that I didn't like
as much, I find that the gameplay in all the Frog
Detective games is pretty basic and I don't feel as stimulated

(30:46):
as I was hoping to be. So despite this being a series
of mysteries, these games reallyonly amount to reading the
dialogue, which is great, and looking for items here and there
and fetching items for people. You don't actually solve
mysteries yourself. You're not taking in the clues
and using your brain to connect the dots.

(31:09):
And I think this is just an instance where you need to set
your expectations appropriately.I had no idea that that's how
these games were. I thought, you know, the name of
the game is Frog Detective. I've played other games like
Duck Detective where I had to use logic and information I had
gathered to fill in blanks. You don't do that, really.

(31:31):
You walk around, you talk to people, you have a silly time
and you find items. So it's a foregone conclusion,
and the only way you get to thatconclusion is just by completing
your side quest. That's right.
Yeah, that's right. And a lot of it is walking
around in first person. Sometimes you're looking for
things, you know, things will beon the ground or hidden in
places, and you need to find like a certain number of objects

(31:53):
for a person. That happens from time to time.
But other than the talking, the collecting, it's not a whole
lot. And the end of Episode 3 has
really interesting ideas, but itdid feel pretty drawn out and I
think it could have been tightened up a bit for my taste.
That's what I point out for dislikes.

(32:13):
Not a lot of dislikes, but the fact that the nature of the game
wasn't what I was hoping for in this time means that I think you
should play this if you want a wholesome, easygoing and silly
time. It's not going to be
challenging. It's not going to ask you to use
your minds to connect clues, butI do find it to be pleasant.

(32:34):
It's not going to be 1. I think back on much.
So I'm going to give this, I'm going to give this a 6.5 out of
10. So still fairly positive on
this. I I do recommend it to quite a
few people and it's playable on PC, Switch, PS4, PS five which
is the version I played, Xbox One and Xbox Series.

(32:57):
Most of what I am still unsure about is gameplay related.
Like, is it? It's first person, right?
Yeah, it's first person until you talk to someone, then you're
watching the conversation. Third person.
Like, you know, last episode we talked about Sable.
It's kind of looks like that style where you're not hearing
the voices you're reading. OK.

(33:19):
And then as far as moving around, how does that feel
compared to other 3D first person games that maybe we've
played recently? Like how does it feel compared
to Valley Peaks? Is the first thing I think.
Oh. OK, there's only one speed you
move, but in the 1st 2 episodes the area that you're walking

(33:41):
around in is so small that I didn't mind that there wasn't a
run button in the desert town. That place is the largest area
wise, but they do give you a scooter.
If you press Y on your Xbox controller or triangle on your
PlayStation controller, for instance, you'll hop on your
scooter and then you're in the third person now and you can

(34:02):
kind of really zoom to where youneed to go.
So that was fun. That was an instance where I
could tell they thought about that and making things easier
for the player. So I wasn't bothered by the
movement just because most of the time it doesn't take long to
walk from one point to the next.OK.
I appreciate that it's disciplined and it's boundaries
and then where you can go. And then I guess lastly, just

(34:26):
how, how long did all three? Because this is 3 episodes, how
long did all three take you? The episodes at their shortest
can be what feels like 45 minutes for the first one.
The last one took me the longestbecause that ending was pretty
drawn out and just had more conversations.
I feel the whole package I wouldsay is 3 to 4 1/2 hours

(34:48):
depending on how fast you read and how leisurely you are with
moving around. That would be my estimate.
I did all these in one day and Idid it in two play sessions.
I like spent an afternoon I got through the 1st 2 episodes.
Then I did a another session later that night on just chapter
3 and I got it all done in like,you know, a handful of hours.

(35:10):
Perfect. So all right, that's all I
needed to know for for what I need.
I think your kids would like this at maybe when they're a
little bit older they might enjoy these characters.
I'm, I'm starting to get ready for stuff that they can do once
they can read. Yeah, that's what I'm starting
to think because I'm like, all right, Bug, let's let's pick out
your favorite Digimon so that when you're old enough to read,

(35:33):
I can teach you how to play the card game because you kind of
have to be able to read, but. Oh.
Yeah, so I'm. Starting to think about that
kind of stuff. Well, some of the humor might be
a little over their heads, but it's nothing that there's.
It's like watching a cartoon like Ed and Eddie.
There's going to be like jokes in there that are for the
adults. And yes.
But all the language is all agesappropriate and things like
that. So yeah, great game for young

(35:55):
kids and families I would say. And if you just want a relaxing
time, those are our secret games.
Wilmot works it out and frog detective, the entire mystery.
Let's move on to our discussion with Hey, It's Haley, this
episode's special guest. Our guest today is going to

(36:25):
teach us all something, how to get perfect tiles with no undo
button. She streams tons of games that
you should all play on her channel.
You're more productive the longer you stay.
It's the artist and crafter, theboard game broadcaster, the Co
working master. Hey, it's Haley.
What's going on? Hello, what an intro.

(36:46):
Oh my goodness. Can you incorporate that into my
content? I think.
Yes, I I didn't incorporate the part that we talked about at the
end of our last season where I think we said she does it all
y'all. Yeah, it just didn't fit the the
meter. I know, but you got you got
broad caster in there. So you you got the emphasis on
the caster. Yes.

(37:07):
So that was pretty cool. Welcome.
Hey, it's Haley. Hey, Haley is our friend and
just a wonderful content creator.
And we're really glad you could join us for this episode.
Thank you so much. I'm so glad to have been
invited. Thank you so much for having me.
Do you do you mind if I if I shorten it to Haley for the rest
of the episode? Is that cool with?
You. That's absolutely fine.

(37:27):
That's just my name. So no, yeah, that's absolutely
fine. We'll call you Haley from this
point, yes. So again, welcome to
Underplayed. Something we always want to do
when we have a guest on is to have you tell us about yourself.
What are what? What do you like to do inside of
your content creation? Outside of your content

(37:48):
creation. So yeah, I'm I'm Haley.
I'm a variety content creator and artist with a focus on
gaming and hobbies. I've been streaming on Twitch
now for like over 4 years and I also somewhat recently branched
into other forms of video content as well.
I'm very much a homebody, so lots of hobbies that are in my

(38:12):
house. I I like to stay at home, video
gaming, board games, arts and crafts, stuff like that.
And that's, that's both my content and also my time outside
of content. So yeah.
Yeah, that makes it a natural fit.
When you're doing a variety of things week in and week out, it
it's always refreshing because you have a variety of interests
and they're just things you loveto do.

(38:32):
You do them anyway. So that just makes sense.
Yeah. So on your Twitch channel, which
we're both fans of, you do all kinds of things.
You do art, you do Co working, you do video gaming, board games
from time to time and more. What have been some of the most
fulfilling aspects of exploring all these categories with your
community? I think one of the best things

(38:55):
about it is all of the differentkinds of people that I've gotten
to meet. Like we have community members
who have come to the stream fromall sorts of different
categories and then just kind ofstuck around, which is cool.
And also a lot meeting lots of different streamers that way as
well, plus having that sort of flexibility when it comes to my

(39:15):
schedule and sort of being able to just stream whatever feels
right and knowing that the community is OK with that
because that's the way that it'salways been.
It's, it's very refreshing as you, as you said a minute ago,
so. Awesome.
Yeah, it it's a great community you have.
You do lots of community games too.
You include people? Recently I've seen you do the

(39:37):
Skyrim crowd control stuff can. You.
Explain a little bit about that.Yeah, absolutely.
So for those who aren't familiarwith, well, Skype, I mean, I
assume people are familiar with Skyrim, but that's a Bethesda
Elder Scrolls open world adventure.
I'm bad at game genres. Is that that's what Skyrim is.
Crowd control is an application that links up with the game that

(40:00):
you're playing and your Twitch stream.
So the people who are watching your Twitch stream can redeem
for these special crowd control coins and then they can
influence the game by. For example, in that one they
can give me some coins, they cangive me some arrows, they can
take things away from me, they can spawn enemies.
And it's just adds a level of chaos into the game and and

(40:24):
gives Chad a way of interacting with what would otherwise be a
single player game. So yeah.
I've been in some streams that are like that and I'm I'm more
an agent of chaos spawning spawning enemies is my go to.
It's good to have the balance ofsome good actors and some bad
actors, yeah. A lot of people particularly
like the crowd control option tothrow a bunch of cheese at my

(40:46):
head. It's called the Cheese Splosion.
So that's that's a fan. Favorite.
That is a more creative one thanI've seen.
Never complain about cheese being thrown in my head.
I I don't like the soft like liquidy cheeses.
I would be upset if that got in my hair.
This is the This is the mammoth cheese, I imagine, or something
similar. You know, it's the it's the big

(41:08):
yellow cheese wheel. Oh, the big.
Cheese wheel. OK, that might hurt.
Yeah. Probably it does.
Actually it causes. Damage.
That's amazing. Wow.
And then I've also seen you playJack Box games and things like
that. So if people are interested in
getting involved in Haley's community, Haley's very
welcoming. So are her mods and all the
people who are regulars there. And we'll put links to your

(41:32):
stuff in the show notes so people can check you out.
Yeah, absolutely. Another thing we like to ask all
of our guests is just get the get the roots of your gaming
taste. So So what are some games that
got you started and and where doyou come from in the gaming
world? I have quite varied gaming
tastes. I mean, we've we've so we've

(41:52):
already mentioned Dorf romantic and Skyrim.
I would I would say those are not similar games.
You know, I love puzzles, I lovecozy art styles and wholesome
games, but I do also really likestrategy and adventure games.
Pretty much as long as it's not like a platformer, horror or
shooting them up, those are not for me.
But anything else, pretty much, I'd probably give it a go.

(42:14):
The first game I remember owningis Pokémon and Pokémon stuck
with me through, you know, I'm I'm still a big Pokémon fan to
this day. My parents got me and my little
brother matching Game Boy and I had Pokémon Ruby and he had
Sapphire. That was that was my my start.
I remember my older brother having a PlayStation that lived

(42:35):
in the living room because thereweren't TV's in the bedrooms at
that point. And there were games like Spyro,
Crash Bandicoot. I think I remember Lord of the
Rings game as well. So those are some of my earliest
gaming influences. But yeah, my tastes are very
varied for sure. Yeah, Pokémon Sapphire was my my
first one. Like I've been around for for,

(42:56):
you know, I've known about Pokémon since forever, but that
was the first one I actually physically owned.
Yeah, nice. Yeah, I, I had a lot of those
PS2 games you mentioned, especially The Lord of the
Rings. I had The Two Towers and Return
of the King, and those were justgreat action games and addicting
because you could just keep upgrading characters and things.
So that's awesome. Now, we're also interested in

(43:19):
the content you create about indie games on social media.
This is something you do in yourfree time.
You make these little vignettes about newer games that come out.
How do you choose what games to highlight and what have you
loved discovering and making that content?
Tell us a little bit about that.So a lot of the times I will

(43:39):
just scroll through the list of Steamx Fest demos and just pull
out any that catch my eye, whichdoes mean that it, it ends up a
little bit more catered to my tastes, but I just still try and
get a variety in there. But yeah, pretty much just if I
see a demo or if I, if I hear about it, if a, you know, a
fellow indie game content creator mentions it and it seems

(44:01):
like my kind of thing, I'll playit.
Also, occasionally publishers reach out with game keys to
cover on stream. And so then I sometimes will use
that footage in shorts as well, and then as long as I don't have
any like glaring issues with thedemo, then I'll generally end up
making a short about it. A lot of the time the footage

(44:22):
sits on my computer for a while and they'll sort of get spread
out over the few months between Nextfest.
But yeah, and I've discovered lots of cool games this way.
One of my favourites from for example the most recent Nextfest
which I know you played as well but was Dispatch.
Yes. Dispatch demo.
Oh my gosh. Yes, that one really caught my
eye. I'm not sure if disco if you've

(44:43):
played it but. I actually talked about it in
our last episode. We did.
We did a little round of like games we're looking forward to
that are imminently coming out or coming out sometime in the
next year or so. Dispatch was one of the three
that I talked about. I remember, yeah, I remember I
was donating plasma and trying to catch up on a bunch of like,
showcases or whatever, and that trailer was in one of them.

(45:05):
I was like, oh, dope. And also Aaron Paul's in it.
Cool. It has a stats test, yeah.
Yeah, I was going to say it's it's got such a mix of like
talented actors and the game mechanic seems like interesting
and clever, but not like overly complicated, which is good,
yeah. There are a lot of dynamics
going on. You're trying to pick the right
heroes for the right problems, and they're talking over each

(45:27):
other and like talking over the decisions you're trying to make.
It's it's really funny. Throw a bit of humor in there
and the demo seemed really polished because I know you
said, you know, just upcoming and I don't think it has a
release date yet, but it seemed very polished.
Yes, definitely. We're here for indie games.
Obviously this is underplayed, the Indie game Podcast.
So if we look at indie games from the last few years, we want

(45:50):
to know what you've noticed, which which Indies have left an
indelible mark on you? I mean, in terms of specific
titles, I mean of course, or fermenting.
A couple that stand out to me are for example, Sleigh the
Spire, which I feel like I haven't been playing it since it
launched, but I've been playing it for a few years.
I feel like it's sort of carved the way for the whole rogue like

(46:13):
deck building. Like it really made that sub
genre boom. Tara Neil is one that stands out
and more recently blueprints as well.
Like I feel like they took an interesting twist on a common
genre of game, which was which was really cool.
And then also I noticed that there's been an increase in
games with like a super impactful story, like emotional

(46:37):
stories. Devs aren't afraid to like cover
hard hitting stories and get emotional with it.
Like Wanderstop recently for example.
Spirit Fair as well. Stuff like that's really cool to
see. Yeah, We encounter those more
mature, heavier themed stories from time to time.
And I feel like every season we might have like one or two of

(47:00):
those, you kind of have to spacethem out because they sometimes
do what we call change our DNA, like, like a story that's so
impactful that we think about itforever afterward.
Yeah, our our Slay the Princess episode is only just a little
fledgling right now, but I stillthink about that one all the
time. That's one of those and and I
never stopped thinking about Ghost Song.

(47:21):
Yeah, very recent additions to that phenomenon and yeah, slay
the Spire. You love that so much.
You made emotes based on. I did, yeah.
What what characters did you make from that?
Did you make like all the? I did the the four player
characters and the cultist. Oh, that's right.
Yeah, I've seen the cult is coola lot.
Yeah, yeah. And you, I mean, I don't if this

(47:44):
is OK to mention people can Commission you for art from time
to time. And you've used the sleigh, the
Spire art as sort of an advertisement for like, here's
an example of what I can do. And it's it's very good.
Yeah, very good stuff. I think I know the answer.
I think I've asked you before, but what is your favorite Sleigh
the Spire character to play as? But to play as the the Ironclad,

(48:04):
partly for nostalgia reasons, but also just it's so satisfying
to just get really, really henchand then just slam down on his
enemy, to be honest. Yes, get hench, folks.
Yeah, hashtag get hench. Actually, let me take a note
here. That'll be wait, I need to
guess. I need to predict something.

(48:25):
Is that going to be a stream tagwhen you broadcast this episode
early on Twitch? Disco likes to take the little
inside jokes from the episodes and just insert them as stream
tags on on our early premieres. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cool. Those are great games.
We're going to play Blueprints pretty soon for the podcast.

(48:48):
We might look to you for maybe not to hold our hands through
it, but if we have thoughts about the game, we might have to
nerd out with someone else that we know has played other than
our guest. So.
Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
My, my, my inbox is open. You know where to find me.
I love the blueprints. Amazing.
Cool. And then when you look ahead

(49:10):
with all of your projects, all the content you want to make,
maybe just personal things, whatare you looking forward to doing
next? So what, Yeah, what what's,
what's coming up for me in termsof like projects, like content
and stuff. I'm right now trying to sort of
focus on maintaining my schedule, keeping up the regular
streams, the regular variety. I am still trying to work on,

(49:34):
you know, the indie game shorts.But I'm currently in the process
of getting a chronic health diagnosis.
I'm getting ACFS, chronic fatigue syndrome diagnosis.
So more personal goals for me sort of, you know, discovering
my my new limits and reaching good balances.

(49:56):
So I'm not, I'm not aiming for any new big projects for the
time being. Just why I sort of figure all of
that out. So just just maintaining the
status quo right now is my my main goal essentially.
Yeah, I think that's a very noble goal and thank you.
Best of luck with that journey of of getting that diagnosis.
I'm sure that's not a one step thing and it's something that

(50:19):
you can find yourself in the middle of for a bit, but we hope
that that is smooth as possible.And it can be hard to to know
what parts of your lives you canchange when when something
becomes concrete on paper. You're like, OK, well, what do I
do now? And what, you know, what advice
can I seek to to make everythingflow the most efficiently and

(50:42):
prosperously as I can? So yeah, I do wish you the best
of luck with all that. Thank you.
And while you're seeking that status quo and continuing to do
your thing, I guess this is a good place for us to have you
tell listeners where they can find you and your content
online, if you don't mind. So the best place to find me is
on Twitch. That's my my main platform

(51:04):
twitch.tv/hey under score. It's Haley.
That's Haley HAYLEYI. Stream Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday in the afternoon UK time.
A variety of content as we've discussed, and you can also find
me on various socials with some variation of that username.
Perfect. Well, Haley, it's been great

(51:24):
having you talk about yourself and all your interests and your
contents. We're going to move on now to
our next segment with you, whichis reviewing the game you picked
from our list, Dorf Romantic. It is our featured game.

(52:13):
Dorf Romantic is a 2022 strategypuzzle game.
It was developed and published by Tukana Interactive.
Do we know if I'm saying that right, Tucana?
I mean, you could maybe Midwesternize it, Maybe go
Tucana Tucana. It.
Was. Developed and published by
Tucana in Reactive. I think it's.
Tucana. Tucana, one of those has got to

(52:36):
be right. The game synopsis from the Steam
storefront reads quote. Dorfromantic is a peaceful
building, strategy and puzzle game where you create a
beautiful and ever growing village landscape by placing
tiles, explore a variety of colorful biomes, discover and
unlock new tiles, and complete quests to fill your world with

(52:57):
life. So when we start describing the
game, usually we begin with the story in the setting.
I'm not sure that there is a proper story or descriptive
setting other than the fact thatyou're in this blank space and
you start with one hexagonal tile usually.
And from that you get a stack ofprocedurally generated tiles

(53:19):
that can be placed onto your starting tile and all the tiles
you place after that. And you see your creation expand
as new landscapes are unlocked. So this is very much a game
that's it's just a game. You know, this is a game.
This is a game. Is is the story slash setting.
I mean, from what I recall, you start the game and it says for

(53:44):
me it said continue was the first option, which was odd
because I've never played it before.
Description. It's not pulling in a
description. I kind of wish it did.
That'd be interesting to see in a game.
Like yeah, imagine a a secret horror twist.
I know, right? Yeah.
That might turn into a game thatHaley might not like so much.
You have to get to the the tile that has the shed and in the

(54:06):
shed is the secret. Oh my gosh.
And then it turns into a grun like or something.
But yeah, it says like, you know, you have your options.
I believe it encourages you to start with the tutorial, but I
can't say anything else here because now I would throw it to
Disco Cola to talk about the gameplay.
I think you have the the heavierjob.

(54:27):
I do have the heavier lift, which is not usually the case.
Indoor romantic, you can't really do a ton, as you might
imagine, because you're in this blank space and you just start
giving these tiles. But there are a lot of like
little mini actions you can perform as inputs.
So like Boppo said, you'll be given a random tile and for the
most part you can place those anywhere you like.

(54:48):
But you will, there's a, there'sa point system.
So you get more points if one ormore of the sides of that
hexagon match where you place it.
And so to maximize points, you will be able to rotate most
tiles. That way you can maximize
matching up, you know the the different landscapes which

(55:08):
include, I'll call it forest andfields.
Blank space like empty space. Yeah, like just simple grass.
Grass, maybe, yeah. And then you've got water and
train tracks. Yes, those are the ones.
I'm I'm. Aware of and villages.
And villages, yes, yeah, thank you.
I knew there was 1 missing. There was like, there's the one

(55:28):
that I like the second most and I can't remember it.
Same, Yeah. You can also use your stick to
move around the tiles you've already placed and you can also
pan the position of your camera to get in different angle on
your board. Some tiles that you're given
will have like an extra bonus that will require you to place

(55:53):
in a way that has a a contiguousamount of the same environment.
And so this is where camera panning becomes extra helpful
because the the bonus signs can sometimes obstruct your view
pretty often. So having that camera pan is is
nice when you've start placing all those bonus tiles.
And then as far as other inputs,you have the option to undo one

(56:17):
move as well, your most recent move.
That's all I could remember thatwas noteworthy as far as inputs.
Yeah, they're different game modes.
As we play, we can unlock different looks for certain
kinds of tiles. Anything else we should call out
about the gameplay in general? Can't think of anything, it's
pretty straightforward. I can't think of anything that

(56:38):
sounds. Yeah, it's a it's very
straightforward game. It is, and when it comes to the
history of this game, it was made by a handful of German and
Swiss students in a game design program in Berlin.
I think maybe just like 4 peoplemade this initially and the
game's title is a German word that means village
romanticization. Did I say that word right?

(57:00):
Romanticization. Romanticization.
Yes, romanticization. It's just hard.
And the game is inspired by romanticists and impressionist
landscape paintings, as well as other city building games.
We might talk about some games that this reminds us of later,
and Dorf Romantic was in early access for about a year when it

(57:22):
first was made available, and itwas fully released in 2022.
A board game adaptation was released in 2023, just the very
next year, which I find very. Impressive.
Very fast. Wow.
Yes, and that board game won theI hope I'm saying this right,
Spiel de Jars. Is that right?

(57:43):
Hey, are you familiar with this award?
The. I mean, I know Spiel is correct.
The rest of it I'm not sure. OK, but do you know this award?
This is like. I'm vaguely familiar with it,
yeah. OK.
It is basically game of the yearfor board games, I guess, and
it's a very prestigious thing. So like Settlers of Catan got
this back in 1995 for your awareness.

(58:06):
I didn't know it's been around that long.
Right before. I was born.
That's wild. And then another example would
be like Ticket to Ride got the spiel de jars in 2004.
I was just doing research on this earlier today and I was
trying to find like some extra noteworthy board games that have
gotten us. So I hope that gives people an

(58:27):
idea of how well received the board game has been and the the
board game was obviously directly inspired from the video
game. This is an example where the
video game version came first and inspired a board game.
We see it go both ways sometimes, but Haley, you picked
this from our list. We gave you a long list of

(58:47):
featured game ideas. You picked a short list, And
from that list, we narrowed downto Dorf Romantic.
We know you love Dorf Romantic, but what stood out about Dorf
Romantic? Why'd you pick it for this
episode? Yeah, I mean, just looking for
another opportunity to gush about the game.
Really nice. I was.

(59:07):
I was honestly a little surprised.
Also relieved to see that it wasstill on the list, that that you
hadn't covered it before. It's a game that I go back to
quite frequently. I've been playing it since it
was in early access. I think April 2021 was when it
started, and I've been playing it since a month or two after
that, I think. So it felt like the perfect pick

(59:29):
for me since it's such a comfortgame for me.
So yeah. Yeah, in early access, this came
out like kind of at the peak of those pandemic times when people
were still isolated and not doing a whole lot.
So I imagine it was a comfortinggame for a lot of people, just a
source of relaxation, maybe meditation.

(59:50):
Did you find that it was a comforting game for you in that
time? I did somewhat, yeah.
So I was already streaming at that point.
So it actually was one that I did.
I started doing it on stream, which was which was good.
I was very early in my. Content creation journey at that
point. So it was, it was good to have a

(01:00:10):
game that made me feel good and safe and calm to sort of have
that. So.
So yeah, in a sense. Nice, and then so we know you
love the game, but could you walk us through your overall
feelings on Dorf Romantic? Yeah, so I like that the puzzle
mechanics are difficult, but notcomplicated.

(01:00:35):
So it you, you, you get this satisfaction when you do well,
but it's not too heavy on the brain.
And also since the mechanics areso straightforward, I find it
really easy to come back mid game and pick up where you left
off, which is how I like to playit all sort of have a game in
progress and I'll come back and I'll play like 30 to 40 minutes

(01:00:56):
of it while I'm like watching something or or whatever.
I I also like the blend of strategy and like logic puzzle
gaming with the wonderful soothing atmosphere from like
the background music and the artstyle and stuff like that.
It just makes for a really gentle puzzle game, which I
think is a really nice combo. Awesome, and if you had to give

(01:01:20):
a score to the game from 1:00 to10:00, what would you give Dorf
Romantic. It's difficult.
I've, I've been trying to think about this because I knew you
were going to ask. I I feel maybe a nine or a 9.5,
but I can't really pinpoint any particular dislikes.
Yeah. So I'm not really sure what
would bring it up to A10. Yeah, it's interesting.

(01:01:43):
My philosophy on this is that even if you don't really have
dislikes for a game, that doesn't mean it's necessarily
A10, because sometimes there's nothing inherently wrong with
the game, it's just not elevatedto that level that would warrant
a 10. So yeah, whatever whatever you
feel like is good on your heart right now, it's only going to

(01:02:06):
get locked into stone forever. So it's not a not a big
stressor. I.
Hope ready with the chisel? Yeah, we'll lock it in as a
nine. Then we'll lock it in as a nine.
Nice. Very cool.
All right. Disco Cola.
What are your thoughts on Dorf Romantic?
You got to play for several hours.
OK, so for the most part, I'm gonna I'm gonna throw this out

(01:02:29):
there. I don't play and or enjoy too
many board games. Just throwing that out there at
the start. But as far as things that I like
about Dorf romantic, I like the general vibe of the game.
It's peaceful. I kind of feel like I'm in a
screened in porch during a gentle rain and that's just a

(01:02:51):
really pleasant feeling. You know, maybe I just have like
a little a little lap blanket ina, in a crazy wooden rocking
chair, just having a good old time.
I think the visual feedback of placing tiles and especially of
getting bonuses or perfect placements, that's incredibly

(01:03:11):
satisfying because you get the placement visual feedback, but
then you get an extra little like pulse from the perfect
score. You get the bring.
Yeah, yeah, you get the score popping up.
So it's that's real, a really satisfying visual effect that
rewards me for for doing something strategic.

(01:03:32):
Though I don't really like the intervals at which I get them, I
do like the cosmetic unlocks. They really, they feed really
well into that vibe. I like getting the tiny little
tugboat, or the the little trainon the track, or the lilac
fields. I I don't think I get them often
enough, but I do like getting them.

(01:03:54):
I get a great satisfaction in thinking about how my board got
to where it is at the end, and maybe thinking of a story to
explain why they decided to build a house in the middle of a
train loop or why there are houses in between these long
stretch of fields. And then three fields away,
there's two more houses. I kind of like thinking of the

(01:04:17):
the geography and the story of how that might have happened as
time went on. I would try to go for a long
stretch of houses and most of myruns, but sometimes you get
those tiles that are hybrid tiles.
They might have forests on one side and then like maybe a house
on one of the edges. Yeah.
And you really want to put that mostly forest tile in a string

(01:04:37):
of forests tiles. And that means you have to
commit to putting a house down. And I would do the same thing.
I would think, like, oh, this person just loves the living.
They love being in a remote. Place that's Kate, that we just
place Kate on the board. It is.
Maybe it's Maine, Yeah. That's the forest Ranger.
Yeah. There you go.
Maybe they like to hunt or shoottheir guns a lot.

(01:04:59):
Or maybe they're a I was a hunter.
Yeah. Anyways, I would think about
that all the time, especially when it came to like, houses
being placed in seemingly remotespots.
I like that in creative mode, I get to control the rate at which
certain tile elements will appear.
And related to that, it's because I love the look of

(01:05:20):
forests and cobblestone villages.
And while I can find that they are often a pain to deal with, I
do love the intelligence of water tiles as you place them
next to other tiles. On the flip side however, this
is where I move into my dislikesfor the game.
I really hate the train tiles a lot.

(01:05:42):
Oh, interesting. And I, I know that the game like
needs some sort of challenge, but the amount of dread I get
when a train track shows up, it's just like, I can only place
this in two spots maybe. And it, it's disrupting other
things. But I'm also trying to plan
ahead for other train tracks that might show up, so that I

(01:06:04):
can keep the train tracks isolated from everything else
that's going on, because I feel like they're the most fickle,
incompatible with other tiles. That you have less options for
where to place. Them.
I would find that sometimes I had a string of bad luck with
getting train track tiles that would split into 3 paths.

(01:06:25):
I would get maybe two or three of those in a row.
Yeah, and that's just the RNG, right?
That's the just the randomization.
Sometimes that's the hand you'redealt.
But by and large, I did find that a lot of the pieces were
either like the curved corner orjust the straight train track.
And I totally get you. You don't want to start putting
down train tracks everywhere that can get chaotic.

(01:06:46):
But also trying to manage one ortwo train tracks.
You know, you can be limited in where you're supposed to go.
And I also was worried about closing in a train track.
So many times I'd I'd get that train track end piece, like
where a train starts and then it's in basically a corridor.
It's surrounded on all sides almost by other tiles I've
placed. And I've, I thought, Oh no, I

(01:07:07):
have to remember, don't close itin because I want to commit to
building this train track. So it does.
And I would look forward to trying to close it off.
Could be like, OK, this one's done.
I can start building around thistrack now and I don't have to
worry for sure. I don't like the look of the
fields. I don't think they're especially
attractive, especially when compared to how pretty fields

(01:07:29):
can actually look from the sky in real life.
I didn't think the fields in thegame really matched that beauty
personally. Sometimes when I'm being super
strategic about placements, I can end up with a really like
oblong shaped board and I guess that's not a huge deal.
But when I have to like move camera from one end to the
other, that can get kind of tedious.

(01:07:52):
And I guess I should mention that I played this on Switch.
I don't know if you played this on Switch or PCI.
Played it on PC? Have you mostly played it on PC,
Haley? Yeah.
OK. So maybe that's not an issue on
PC. Maybe camera movement is just
like like that, you know, I don't know, but at least on
switch it, it can get kind of tedious to move from one end.

(01:08:12):
Yeah, I I would find myself kindof scrolling for a few seconds.
I don't know if that sensitivitycan be cranked.
I I forgot to look into that. You can use shift to scroll
quick. If you're using wazda to move.
You can. I only discovered less than a
year ago like within the last few months I think That's funny.
I I don't know that that's an option on switch though, so

(01:08:34):
that's fair that that it would be very slow without that so.
And I was playing on PC, but I was just using my mouse, which
people can laugh at me for that that, you know.
That's just, I would imagine that anyway, that's like, it
seems a mouse would make more sense to me.
But anyways, we mentioned that this is kind of like a, it's a,

(01:08:56):
it's a puzzle game. You're supposed to try and be
strategic about where you place tile.
For me, I would find myself in aspot where it was less about
what is the best placement and more about what is the least bad
placement. So I was kind of in that that
half empty glass kind of a a spot for a lot of.

(01:09:16):
It yeah, I get what you're talking about.
But as I alluded to at the start, I think prominently, this
game just doesn't totally speak to me.
When you do well in the game, you get more tiles.
And like, that's the point, right?
You're supposed to play for as long as you can.
But for me, that eventually started to feel like a
punishment. Like I would be at 40 something

(01:09:39):
tiles left, right. And then I would keep playing
for a while and I'd be like, OK,surely I must be near the end of
my tiles and then I'll look at it.
And I had more than I had when Ilooked at it before.
You're doing really. Well, I'm doing really well, but
eventually it was just like I'veplayed for a long time and the
reward kind of starts to feel like a punishment.
So maybe that's a pretty good sign that the game just isn't

(01:10:01):
for me, you know? Sure.
And that's that I think just goes back to like, I don't love
board games and I just don't like sitting on the the same
thing for a long time. Like I need, I need more mini
goals and and stuff like that. Again, a lot of this point here,
you know, some of it is maybe objective, but some of this is

(01:10:22):
also just, it's not anything inherently wrong the game is.
No, I think it's just. A personality thing.
Yeah, I think the game is doing everything that it's set out to
do to great success. It's just not the kind of game
that I can vibe with. You know, it's a short attention
span platformer guy. So at the end of it, I love the

(01:10:43):
chill forest vibe a lot and I love taking a final look at my
map that I made and and how pretty all the forest and the
villages look. But unfortunately I only enjoy a
small amount of the journey it takes for me to get to that
landscape. Train tracks or a drag.
Despite the fact that I actuallylike trains.
I I kind of liken this to a similar experience that I had

(01:11:07):
with Towem. Though I've been thinking about
Towem lately and I kind of want to give that another shot.
But anyways, to play dwarf romantic is sort of like to
experience a journey instead of a destination, and I usually
need more than play as long as you can.
So for me and my mind this is This is still maybe higher than

(01:11:27):
you might think. A7 Point O out of 10.
OK, that's actually exactly whatI expected to come out of your
mouth. That's great.
Sweet. So I think it's pretty
undeniable that this is a very relaxing, non stressful time.
And for me, what I really liked is that Dorf Romantic strikes a
cozy balance of strategy and meditation.

(01:11:47):
So there are no timers, there's no pressure.
It feels very serene through thesoundscape and the visuals.
But I still care about placing things optimally and I get a big
dopamine hit when I connect perfect tiles.
And I love that feedback that you described.
That's exactly what I'm looking for.

(01:12:07):
I'm not the best at keeping track of what tiles are set up
to potentially be perfect. Tiles.
Most of my perfects were surprises to.
Me, I, I had one string of perfect tiles where I play
something and it created like, Idon't know, it created 5 perfect
tiles as like this domino effects.
And I was like, whoa, I totally meant to do that guys.
I didn't. But I, I care about placing

(01:12:31):
things well and I love the idea of trying to get 250 plus houses
in a row or 800 plus trees in a row, you know, so I'm still
challenged, but it's this great balance of trying to manage that
challenge while also feeling relaxed.
I it just not many games can tout that balance and it's

(01:12:52):
virtually impossible to make something that looks bad.
You know? I think you could randomly place
tiles down and it still looks somewhat aesthetically pleasing
even when tiles are mismatched on one side.
The game will sort of adapt the look, especially with those
water tiles. As time goes on you will unlock
alternate looks of the same terrain that add variety.

(01:13:16):
It looks like you're making a work of arts one tile at a time.
And throughout a run, I'm going to call it a run, you know, I
feel like, you know, we're chasing a high score.
We only have so many tiles. And eventually that run dies, it
ends. And throughout the run, I will
stop focusing on an individual task and I'll just zoom out and

(01:13:38):
I'll look at this lovely pictureI'm making.
So I'm not like hyper focused ontrying to do the best I can.
Sometimes I just want to take inthat beauty too.
I get a rush from unlocking boats and trains.
I think this game has very lovely music and sound effects
too. I love the birds and the the
other wildlife. It makes it feel like a living,

(01:14:00):
breathing place. I also have dislikes I I don't
feel particularly attached enough to Dorfromantic to keep
playing it many, many more times.
Now this is something that couldchange over time.
I'm still very recent in playingit, but it is a perfectly
pleasant time for a few runs andthen I feel full.
Which is actually compliment I can give the game to like it

(01:14:23):
after I'm done playing it. I feel full, which is great, but
sometimes I do want something more.
Maybe this is where I could try to explore more of the game
modes and we can talk about those in a bit.
I kind of wish, like you, I wishthe weight between some of the
collectibles was not as long. They are kind of spread out
sometimes. I might like the ability to to

(01:14:46):
decorate more. That might keep me drawn in.
Then we're sort of getting into games like Guardian Galaxy,
which is more about the customization and not really the
the strategy as much. But those kinds of things will
keep me attached a little bit longer.
But this game also has me consistently in the few runs
I've played, failing around the same time because the quests can

(01:15:09):
get exponentially harder. You'll start getting quest for
closing off your paths, and whenyou do that, you might still get
a quest for really long chains of houses or trees or things
like that. And now I'm not actually set up
to do that quest really well because the game incentivized me
to close off my longest stretch of houses.

(01:15:30):
There's a conflict there with what the game's asking me to do.
Not only are the quests asking us to make long chains of things
or specific chains of things, sometimes it is encouraging us
to make smaller areas of the same terrain.
But then when an opposite quest pops up of OK now give us 300
houses, I'm like uh oh, I probably don't have enough tiles

(01:15:53):
in my stack to do that even if they all had houses.
So I do find myself kind of getting to the same point range
in my runs because of this. It could be because there's
something about the game I don'tunderstand though, and I just
want to make the note that I am newer to do Romantic than
someone like Haley. So overall I think Dorf Romantic

(01:16:14):
is a perfectly pleasant time. I am very happy that I got to
catch up on a very popular videogame that was adapted into a
board game, and board games are something that I'm becoming more
and more interested in these days.
And it's both not challenging but also has me consistently
getting to a pretty similar spotwith how I play.
So I don't feel a huge drive to keep playing and playing, but I

(01:16:36):
did enjoy my time a lot. I'm going to land on a score
directly in the middle of you 2.I'm going to give this an 8 out
of 10. So I like our spread here with
the with the with the scores. And now Haley, you have played
the board game. This is an interesting part of
the history. You started playing the video

(01:16:59):
game when it was in early access, I believe, before it had
an undo button I think you mentioned to me.
That's wild. I can't imagine that now that
you have played both versions and you've especially absorbed
the video game version over a few years, how do they compare?
I think one important distinction I'll say, because I

(01:17:20):
know you mentioned earlier boardgames that get turned into video
games and video games that turn into board games.
And I feel like what it frequently is is if it's a board
game first, then normally the video game is just a straight
digital adaptation. Whereas when it's a video game
first, like Dorf Romantic, like Slay the Spire for example, then

(01:17:42):
they have to that that becomes an adaptation rather than an
implementation. If that makes sense.
Because like obviously for example the the infinite tiles
wouldn't work in in a physical. True, yes, the there the
boundaries just by virtue of being a digital game.

(01:18:03):
When you start with the video game, the boundaries are much
wider, aren't they in a lot of these?
Yeah, so I, I, I do think the tabletop version of Dwarf
Romantic is a really good adaptation.
It pulls from the strengths and the overall vibe of the original
while also bringing like its ownfeatures and being like

(01:18:23):
functional as a physical version.
Like we said, I will also say there is, so there's Dorfman
take the board game, which is the one you mentioned.
The awards came out in 2023. The one I have.
There's also a dual version. That's the competitive one.
I haven't played that one. I've played the original which
is cooperative and I think that's definitely its main

(01:18:43):
strength over the video game is the cooperation so being able to
work as a team compared to the original just being single
player. The video game unlocks are
purely cosmetic for the for the most part.
You can unlock new tiles, but they are only new combinations
of the same things essentially, whereas the campaign version of

(01:19:05):
the board game lets you unlock like utility cards and tiles and
stuff like that that help you inout in future games.
So it's got much more of a campaign aspect in that sense.
So those are the main strengths of the board game.
I will say one big point for thedigital version is that it's not
only much cheaper. Since board games are a very

(01:19:26):
expensive hobby, it's also quiteeasy to just pull out and play
whenever you have some time. Whereas the board game requires
time and lots of table space to to set up.
And one key difference also likeI said is that the tabletop
version to not endless because that wouldn't where if they just

(01:19:48):
come to your house and drop off more tiles.
That's your real thing. Just like in my secret game.
Peek, peek. I do think I prefer the video
game just because it feels like a lot more relaxed.
But I do also enjoy playing the board game.
I play it cooperative with my partner, so different, they feel

(01:20:10):
different niches I I think. But yeah, those are sort of the
key pros of both. I like what you described there
because if you're a fan of one, it's not like you're just
getting the same experience withthe other.
It's like they complement each other really well.
And then if you're into competitive stuff, you can try
that. That other version that did that
come out last year 2024, I want to.

(01:20:31):
Say. I'm not sure specifically.
OK, maybe a little bit more recent than the the 2023 board
game. So if like when you and your
partner sit down to play the cooperative board game, what
does the play look like? I mean, is it like you make one
move, the other person makes a amove?

(01:20:51):
Yeah, so it, it's, it's essentially the same as if it
were single player. You just go back and forth on
whose turn it technically is. But you, you know, yeah, you'll
pull a tile from a stack, but you have a conversation with
your team about where it's goingto go.
Functionally it's it's a single player, but you're just all

(01:21:11):
playing as the single player basically.
Yeah, I think of board games as,you know, gathering two to six
people around a table usually and competing.
Maybe people are in teams, but this is, this feels like a a
board activity what you're talking about.
Like it's a it's a way to bond with people and just like do

(01:21:32):
something tactile, which I find is very interesting.
Yeah, yeah. I guess I'm especially curious
about this because I don't play a lot of this kind of stuff, but
how does Dorf Romantic remind usof other strategy or or building
games? I know you mentioned Terra Nil,
which is like one of the only other games kind of like this
I've played. So how does it remind you of

(01:21:53):
those or other board games that you've played?
I definitely think one key element is a tile placement in
general, being a very sort of popular mechanic in board games
and board game adjacent video games.
For example, the the matching upedges reminds me of Carcassonne.

(01:22:14):
I'm not sure if either of you are familiar with that I.
Heard you talk about that and I'm always a little unsure of
how to say it. So it's good to hear you say it
and that that just calling back that one.
The spiel de jars in 2001 or something.
I early aughts I think so there's another classic board

(01:22:37):
game. Yeah, yeah, Carcassonne's a a a
really popular one there. It's square tiles with different
elements on them. It's competitive.
So you'll place a tile, you haveto match up at least one edge
with the pre-existing tiles. And then when you place a tile,
you can claim something that's on it.
Yeah. Carcassonne is a place in

(01:22:59):
France, City Castle. It's a place in France.
So it's based on that, the castle there.
Nice, but yeah, so the the the tile placement definitely, you
know, is is similar to a lot of other sort of building games
like I I've seen games that havesimilar mechanics to
Dorfromantic bubble gum Galaxy is when it comes to mind.

(01:23:20):
I know that the amateur if either of you've played the demo
for that, but that. Is very trust, yeah.
That obviously there's the wholeoverarching story of that one,
you know, which as we've said, Dorfromantic doesn't really
have, but the the mechanics around building out the galaxies
are very, very similar. Hexagonal tiles, points for
matching edges, stuff like that.So that's definitely something

(01:23:43):
similar to other games of that genre, as it were, that I've
noticed. I was noticing similarities to
Cascadia, which is a more recentboard game I've played.
I haven't played as many board games, but this one I got to
play maybe like 2 years ago. And Cascadia has hexagonal
tiles, it has different kinds oflandscapes and you're trying to

(01:24:06):
sometimes match sides. So immediately thought of that.
I also thought of Garden Galaxy,which is a video game I've I've
played and it's that's not a strategy game per SE, but there
is the coziness that I find in both games.
And then there's the tile placement.
It is square tiles in that game,but Garden Galaxy has more

(01:24:26):
collection going on. That's definitely a focus.
Much, much bigger focus on decorating.
Decorating, collecting decorations, trying to fill out
your index of just stuff that you've found.
And then another thing that I thought of was, now I have not
played these games in full, but I've played the second games,
demo, the Islanders games. There's Islanders and Islanders

(01:24:51):
New Shores. Islanders New Shores might not
be out yet, but it's demo was part of Nextfest, I want to say.
And this is very much the same thing where there's more
verticality to the environments.So you can choose where to place
things depending on if it's a Cliff or if it's a beach or
somewhere in the middle. But you are placing down

(01:25:14):
buildings and other features, trying to get points, I think
for similarity or consistency with what you're placing down.
So if you already know you love Dorf Romantic, you might check
out some of these games we're mentioning, or the other way
around. If you've played some of these
other things, Dorf Romantic might be for you.

(01:25:35):
Then one thing that we've all sort of pointed out is that
there's the tranquil feeling to the game.
I think that's something you can't ignore.
Like, I think most people would agree with that, but what parts
of the game are artful? What things do you point out as
being soothing? I think one key aspect of that

(01:25:57):
is the, in my opinion at least, very laid back nature of the
gameplay. I think that dwarf takes a
really dwarf we're on a nicknamebasis takes takes a really
gentle approach to like strategyand building where unlike a lot
of city builders builders, we were just comparing it.
But to contrast it, for example,in other city builders where you

(01:26:18):
have lots of different resourcesto manage.
In this one, you just have your stack of tiles and any ongoing
goals, and the main idea is justbuilding out a lovely landscape
until you're done basically. I think the art style really
helps as well. It's very simple but effective.

(01:26:39):
And like we've mentioned, the the the sound design, both the
little sound effects and the background music as well.
And I also, I think since the game is so forgiving in a sense
where running out of tiles doesn't lead to game over.
It just says session completed which I think is is a very

(01:27:03):
gentle parenting way of of saying it and you have your
little undo button if needed. It all just feels very laid
back. Yeah, it feels almost
celebratory when you fail. It's like, hey, we made
something. Yeah, it's very calm.
I I can know that I have less than 10 tiles left and I might

(01:27:23):
really get focused on placing them, not even realizing that
the last tile is a last tile. And I place it and then it just
kind of gently says, oh, yeah, that that was good.
That is nice. Yes, yes, thank you game.
And it feels like you're improvising a painting, you

(01:27:45):
know, like it feels like while I'm placing tiles, I have a big
idea of what I want to do. Like maybe I want the northwest
corner to have all my trees. Maybe I want the northeast
corner to have all my houses andthen it spills down South to my
SE things like that. But I'm also making impulsive
decisions like I'm Bob Ross or something.

(01:28:05):
Like I'm going to put a happy little train track right there,
you know, like I I feel like, you know what, let's just make
some quick decisions as we're going to so and I don't usually
like I don't gravitate toward that mindset, but something
about dorf romantic makes me feel that way.
For me it's it's pretty much allin the visuals.
I find forests just soothing. The concept of them thinking

(01:28:28):
about all the cool little beetles that live in there.
It's just a pleasant feeling. And something about cobblestone
villages is just really attractive to me.
It just makes me feel quaint. It's it's the same thing.
We don't have any cobblestone villages here, but we do have
some like brick roads. And I like coming across the
brick roads here in town. And I'm just like, this is a

(01:28:50):
quaint little St. to live. On a simple thing.
And I also love those little details you mentioned, like
trains and boats. Those add life to a scene.
I love seeing those. When I first unlocked a boat, I
didn't know I was necessarily inthe game.
I knew there were trains. I for some reason didn't know
there were boats and I was streaming at the time and
there's. Train tracks so they're.

(01:29:11):
Having train tracks, right, thatthere's water.
And it's like, I didn't think that there might be boats.
And I unlocked the boat and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I got a boat.
I think Haley was watching. I was like, Haley, where's the
boat? How does it happen?
And she was just calmly explaining in chat, oh, it'll
come up as a tile eventually. Just wait, you'll get your boat.

(01:29:31):
I was like, I want a boat. And then we got a boat.
So that was really fun. So we we've alluded to various
game modes, which ones have we all tried?
What do you like to do in them? Haley, if you, since I assume
you've played them multiple times, what have we tried?
What have we done in them On which ones are our favorite?

(01:29:53):
So I haven't tried all of them. Actually I've never tried custom
mode since the original feels like a good balance to me so I
have never tried that one. But maybe one day if I'm feeling
adventurous I can like set myself a custom little challenge
or something. I pretty much exclusively play

(01:30:14):
the original mode. I've done a couple of the
monthly modes, which I think that's cute that they have that
as a little like themed challenge.
I know at least in the past, I'mnot sure if they still do, but
they were giving little sort of background stories almost to the
the theme of the monthly mode, which was which was cute, cute.
And then like I said, I pretty much just stick with the

(01:30:38):
original. I I have tried quick mode and
hard mode, but they're not really for me personally, since
for me Dwarf is like a casual pick it up and play for a short
window kind of game. So quick mode doesn't.
I'm already playing it. Oh yeah, for for a short time
anyway. Yeah, it's not in the way a
shorter mode. Yeah, Yeah.

(01:31:00):
I think it's 75 tile. You can up place up to 75 tiles
and then it cuts you off. But I do like that those options
are in there for for people who would prefer those.
Quick Mode kind of seems like the mode you might throw on for
a guest's just really quickly tointroduce them to the game.
Or maybe me, who wants to get your landscape at the end of it
and that's the satisfaction. Yeah, there you go.

(01:31:21):
And I felt like in quick mode, Idid play quick mode several
times. The formula for what kinds of
tiles you get feels different. Maybe it's just the luck of what
I got, but in quick mode, I would put down a forest was my
first tile and then it would immediately give me like a house
quest and it would give me a field quest and it would give me
a train track quest. Just rapid fire.

(01:31:42):
It wants to get me just going ona bunch of quests immediately.
So it feels like maybe the classic mode condensed down into
a just a really concentrated version.
But yeah, you're only placing down 75 tiles trying to get a
high score. Maybe that was an instance where
I got a certain score. It was, I don't know, 3060

(01:32:03):
points. My next attempt I got 3040
points. So I'm like really, really
consistent. I'm like, OK, I did about the
same. I don't know that I'll get
better, but it was nice to just sort of dip your toe in.
And I've done mostly classic. I don't think I want to try the
hard mode. I think that might be the
antithesis of what I come to this game for.

(01:32:23):
For me, even though I don't necessarily know what's
entailed, I would try the creative mode.
Is that where you just place down any tiles you want?
So you can also no, because it'sstill randomly generated, but
you can change the rate at whichcertain terrains will show up.
And so I went in there and I turned well, first I turned

(01:32:44):
everything off except for trees.And I just placed a bunch of
trees down. But if you wanted to, you could
go in there and turn off trains entirely or turn off fields
entirely. But it's it's endless as far as
I could tell. Like you don't gain tiles,
there's no challenges, you just build.
OK, no, you're. Right, your tiles are still

(01:33:06):
randomly. Generated but.
Yeah. Cool.
Yeah, I would try that. That sounds fun.
And then I guess that's probablyhow people get the the really
cool looking, expansive big mapsvery easily.
Yeah, it's certainly much easierto do that in creative mode.
And then monthly modes I looked at, I didn't try one, but you

(01:33:30):
have me interested in that as well.
And then finally, the topic we want to talk about is who would
we recommend the game to? I think we've already talked
about similar things Dorf Romantic reminds us of, but if
you had to suggest a certain person play Dorf Romantic, who
comes to your mind? Me.

(01:33:50):
If you're me. I think, well, I think I think a
key point is the sort of openness, particularly in the
regular game mode. So if you're someone who prefers
like a lot of goals and structure in your gaming, then
I'd maybe not recommend it or atleast, you know, suggest going

(01:34:13):
for one of the challenge modes. But if you're someone who's
looking for something very laid back, something to scratch and
itch in your brain without beingso complicated that it gives you
a headache, something like that.If you're, if you're, if you're
into logic puzzles, that sort ofthing, then I I definitely, I

(01:34:35):
definitely recommend Dorfromantic to puzzle lovers or
people who are looking for something very low key, I would
say. Nice, I agree with that.
What about you, Disco? Yeah, I showed it to my wife.
She doesn't play a lot of video games, so I showed it to her.
I was like, I know that you'll think this is pretty to look at

(01:34:57):
and it'll be similar to some of the like app games that you've
played because you play a lot ofthose like jigsaw puzzle or
puzzle like ones. So I was like, I I showed it to
her. She didn't pick it up.
I also shoulder Wilmot works it out and she hasn't picked that
up either. But I think she would like
either one of them. But anyways, people who who

(01:35:22):
maybe played, you know, just like puzzle app games that don't
really explore a lot of video games or you know who who might
be attracted to this new take orjust like the visual style.
Yeah, like people who want to have an interactive experience
that's just more relaxing. I would, I would recommend this

(01:35:42):
to almost anyone. Multiple people came through the
Twitch chat while I was streaming this to say oh I love
this game and I had no idea theyhad played it before.
So people that I don't usually associate with playing games
like this had played it. Yeah, my buddy Jacob, who I've
mentioned on the podcast before,never would have thought, but he
he specifically mentioned it in a text to me before he even knew

(01:36:04):
we were playing it for the season.
Yeah, like a streamer friend whoplays lots of Souls likes and
hard games. Yeah.
And like narrative heavy, depressing games, they came
through and they're like, oh, I love Dorf romantic.
It's like, oh, OK. Or I had other people saying
this looks so beautiful, I have to try this.
And so it's just immediately attractive to people.
And then I would say people who love both games and beautiful

(01:36:27):
art. Maybe it's you like to make art.
Maybe you just love looking at art.
And I would I would argue that lots of people love both of
those things. So that's why I say almost
anyone. I would recommend this too.
Yeah. I will just chime in also just
because Disco mentioned like apps and stuff, I do think there
are there are talks of a mobile version of Dorfromantic coming
out, which is which is cool. I don't know if they have any

(01:36:50):
specific dates for that, but I think there are talks of it
coming to the remaining consolesbecause it's already on the
Switch like you said and and mobile which is cool.
Yeah, just makes sense. Yeah, it's supposed to.
It's on PC and Switch now. It's supposed to come to
PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X&S, and
mobile sometime soon, hopefully,but no release date yet.

(01:37:13):
You're right that there's no release date.
So yeah, it's it's accessible too.
Who doesn't have one of those things, right?
Haley? Is there anything else you
wanted to say about Dorf Romantic wrapping things up?
I think I think we've covered itall.
If the Dorf Romantic team is listening to this and you ever

(01:37:34):
want to collab, hit me up. That would be amazing shooting
the shot. They've moved on to other
projects, but I, I love Dorf Romantic, so yeah, I, I think
we've covered everything I wanted to say about it.
Sweet, cool. Well, Haley, thanks again for
being our guest in picking this game.
It's been an absolutely lovely time.

(01:37:55):
Anna, thank you for having me. Yes, one more time.
Could you remind folks where to find you and your content
online? Absolutely over on twitch.tv you
can find me at Hey under score. It's Haley for streams Monday
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday that'sCo working streams, video games,
arts and crafts, all sorts of stuff.

(01:38:17):
And you can find links to my other socials there as well.
Perfect. Well, Haley, thanks again.
Good luck with everything. In the future, we look forward
to more of your contents and that.
Thank you both. Absolutely.
That will do for our review of Dorf Romantic.
You can play it on PC and Switch.
And again, it's coming soon to PS4, PS 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series

(01:38:41):
and mobile. Haley rated it a nine.
Disco Cola rated it A7. I rated it an 8.
That's the end of this episode of Underplayed.
You can find more of our episodes at KZUM dot org slash
Underplayed and on common podcast platforms like Spotify
or Ale Podcasts. Our music was composed by Jack
Rodenberg. Our art comes from Oni Mochi.

(01:39:04):
Check out our show notes where you can find and follow us
across social media. We'll also have links down there
for Haley's stuff. Underplayed is on Blue Sky
Instagram and Threads. You can also find my links down
below, and I stream a variety ofindie games on Twitch.
My links are also down below, usually as Disco Cola or Disco
Cola three O 4. And hey, we have a little thing

(01:39:29):
on our blue sky. Underplayed is on blue sky.
We have a form that you can fillout if you have any questions
about any of the feature games that we'll cover or about any of
our other upcoming guests. So if you want to head over to
Blue Sky, if there's something that you think we might not
think to ask, fill out that formand we'll we'll cover it either
in that episode or in the seasonfinale or not at all.

(01:39:51):
It doesn't guarantee a coverage,but check it out there.
Check it out. Next time we will have two more
secret games to review, and our featured game will be Rogue
Legacy, a roguelike developed byCellar Door Games.
Until then, everyone keep on playing.

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080 - Wilmot Works It Out, Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery, & Dorfromantik (Guest: hey_itsHayley)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}080 - Wilmot Works It Out, Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery, & Dorfromantik (Guest: hey_itsHayley)