084 - South of the Circle, Fresh Tracks, & 1000xRESIST (Guest: Lucy Blundell, AKA Kinmoku) - Underplayed

Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Thank you for pressing start on episode 84 of Underplayed KZUMS
indie video game podcasts. Today we have two secret games,
a discussion with Lucy Blundell,and a review of our featured
game 1000 Times Resists. 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 obtior 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?
There is a recording that beginsand begins and begins the Co
host that is feeling something that I am not feeling.
I'm doing just fine. My whale plushie that doesn't
fit in the backpack resonance. Those are references to our
featured game 1000 Times Resist and it's a very special episode.

(01:14):
Disco Cola because we have a guest today, Lucy Blundell, AKA
Kinmoku, the game developer behind One Night Stand and Video
Verse. They're gonna join us to talk
about their game development journey, but then also help us
review 1000 times resists a gamethey picked from our list.
So it's gonna be a a big episode.
Yeah, it's I'm, I'm looking forward to it.

(01:35):
It's gonna be a great discussion.
Yes. So we're gonna keep the top of
the show segment short. We're going to move on.
But before we do, there are a few easy ways to support us.
They cost nothing and they take almost no time at all.
We'd really appreciate you doingthese things for us if you
haven't already. One, give us a follow and a five
star rating on podcast platformslike Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

(01:56):
That will make us appear more consistently for everybody.
Two, you can follow us across social media and we have links
in our show notes. And three, sharing our podcasts
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.
It's time for our secret games. In Secret Games, we each review

(02:35):
an indie game we've been playingin secret since our last
episode. We don't talk about what we're
playing in advance. We're going to reveal a game
we've been playing recently and talk about things we like,
things we don't. And we'll start with you, Disco
Cola. Let the mystery be no more.
Reveal your secret game for Episode 84.
Of underplayed I am so excited to share with you this game, My

(03:01):
secret game. This episode ended up really
synergizing with our featured game.
It is a fully voice acted, narrative driven sort of walking
simulator from state of play. My secret game is South of the
circle. We can't change the past, but we

(03:21):
can't learn from it. I thought you can't handle it.
I can. I can't.
Before we fool ourselves into remembering it too kindly.
We'll make a soldier of you yet,Pete, my boy.
Hello. Hello.
Can anyone hear me come in? As you know, I have some friends

(03:42):
in high places. I need to be absolutely sure we
are on our guard. Our only hope is for you to.
Find a friendly out there. If you don't do this, we're both
done for. You hear me?
We are dead. I think I have heard of this.

(04:02):
Have you? I have a special story later
about how I found out about it, so, yeah.
From Steam, South of the Circle is a deep, derrative experience
of the emerging relationship between Peter and Clara
Cambridge academics involved in a political conflict.
The story focuses on promises made in between career and true

(04:23):
love, where our choices burdenedby our past seem to be illusory.
So early in the game as Peter, we wake up after a plane crash
in an Arctic setting. The pilot is injured and while
we are assessing our situation, we will have the choice to
respond to what the pilot tells us by selecting certain sort of

(04:46):
pictographs of sorts. These can appear like a green
rectangle or like a red shivering circle or like this
green dual colored circle. And these will convey how we
respond. So for example, if you select
the green rectangle, you will communicate something that is

(05:06):
either honest or straightforward.
If you choose the red shivering circle, it will communicate a
response of like fear or panic or uncertainty.
And so you kind of get to choosethe mood with which you respond
to die. You're not reading the words
that are about to be said, right?
Just the emotion. Exactly, and this is how we

(05:28):
interact with the story, the occasional dialogue choice and
and a little bit of walking. So you can, you can play Peter
as someone with like really low self esteem or with certainty
and there will occasionally be other types of pictographs you
can choose between. And then there are about seven
of these that will result in something more concrete down the

(05:51):
line. And as far as how this narrative
unfolds, we jump back and forth between the present, adventuring
the Arctic after our plane crash, and the past, including
the development of our relationship with Clara and our
academic journeys as we attempt to study and publish our paper

(06:11):
about nuclear radiation in the clouds.
Now, based on the subject matterof the research, you might be
able to predict that this takes place in the height of nuclear
tensions in the Cold War. So as a result, among other
things, nationalism becomes a subject in this game as well.
And that's the barest of bare bones for story synopsis.

(06:33):
The rest, I really think should be experienced for yourself.
So moving on, I really want to explain what I liked, what I
didn't like about one of my favorite narrative driven games
I've ever. Played Wow.
OK, high praise. High praise.
First up, this time I want to talk about music.

(06:53):
Music's actually how I discovered the game and not in
like that algorithmic recommendation way or an article
that I happened to read. Just one night I was gathering
music for press Start to listen KZMS video game music program
and I was trying to play music from games that I hadn't played
before or was unfamiliar with. And I did this by going to the

(07:17):
Machinarium remix album and clicking on the contributing
artists. So in this case, I clicked on Ed
Critchley because he did one of the remixes and I sampled a few
of the songs from this soundtrack and he's the, he's
the composer on it. And that's, that's how I found
out about South of the Circle. And I, I love the songs and I

(07:41):
just, I happened to discover this right when I needed to
start my secret game for today'sepisode.
So it was just, it was kismet. And then in the game itself,
like the music is really cinematic, but like not
cinematic in a way that's subdued.
This music gets tons of moments to shine and just damn, it

(08:03):
doesn't shine. It's so good.
It's so pretty. Visually.
This game takes a bit of a simplified approach, akin to
something like Virginia or Kentucky Root 0, but it it does
take it up just a couple of notches.
The characters have faces, for example, and body languages may
be a bit more animated, and I think it works really well for
this level of of narrative experience.

(08:27):
I like how the pacing gets to bebroken up with our jumps back
and forth between time. Sometimes that can be really
jarring in other games, and maybe there are one or two
points in here where it is drawing or maybe they overlap in
a way that is not immediately like something we're familiar
with. But it allows me to experience

(08:48):
the parallels between our Arcticexpedition as well as the
parallels between our relationship with with Clara in
the past. And so as I see those parallels,
it's changing and evolving, likehow I feel about Peter and how I
feel about Clara and changing mymy motivation to survive the

(09:10):
cold. So really effective
storytelling, even though we're jumping back and forth between
time. That's good to know because
jumping back and forth can be a little daunting to me.
I, I don't always love that, butyou're just, you're exciting me.
I'm feeling a I'm feeling a jealous game.
Maybe this game is fully voice active like I said, and everyone

(09:33):
does an amazing job. No notes it.
It goes a long way in making thenarrative experience that much
stronger. I love our cast of main
characters in Peter and Clara. There is vulnerability,
understanding, and partnership that I really value.
There's also a significant supporting cast of various kinds
of characters and I love them aswell.

(09:55):
Not in the sense that I love each of them as people.
There's a definitely non 0 number of characters that I love
to hate in this game. And I think that's important in
a story like this, to just have people that don't speak to your
moral compass. And I get to experience through
the use of maybe the most important part of this game, I

(10:18):
love that we get to make all these micro decisions as Peter
to paint a picture of Peter thatfeels more like who we want to
be. So when we meet, for example,
when we meet Clara's friend who is protesting to achieve nuclear
disarmament, we get those moments to choose whether we are

(10:39):
either more disagreeable or passive with her opinions.
You know, in this specific case,I do wish we were able to agree
with her a little bit more personally.
But you know another example? In the case of our dude bro
colleagues, we can choose to be more agreeable or more
dismissive with their crappy takes.

(10:59):
So my Peter could end up kind oflooking a lot different than
your Peter. Yeah, at least if you, like, sat
down and watched reel to reel, you know how you played the game
and how I played the game. I think the ultimate result
doesn't change, but you get a different version of Peter,
essentially. And yeah, this is most

(11:20):
importantly done with the professor.
I find him to be like super manipulative.
He's sexist, he's an elitist, he's a nationalist.
These are all like some of my least favorite character traits.
And it's really important to me to have the ability to to buck
what he stands for where I can. And all of that just makes me
more invested in Peter because Iget to see in him more of who I

(11:44):
want to be. So maybe unlike our featured
game, where I think there are other forms of media that could
effectively tell the same story,I think the engine of the story
are these little micro choices. And so I think this is a
narrative experience that needs to be a video game to be

(12:04):
experienced in the best way thatit can.
Nice. As far as things I don't like as
much visually, the character models can kind of clip through
the floor if you're on a slope. I, you know, I have loads of
forgiveness for this kind of thing.
And I really don't think it's a big deal in a narrative game.
But there will be times where character models are like
literally knee deep in the ground.

(12:26):
So it's just kind of like, that's what my eye is going to
when it's happening. Not, not a big complaint.
Another thing, some of the Arctic sections are just a
little bit too long. And that's the point.
But it's just a little bit too long.
Not by much, just a little. And while I had massive praise
for all our decision moments, there is an important moment at

(12:48):
the climax of the game. And it kind of had me second
guessing all my decisions up to that point.
Like based on what was happening, what I was
witnessing, I was like, oh, there must be another ending,
another way in those seven or soimportant moments to to achieve
a different ending. And without getting too into it,

(13:09):
because I really want people to experience this game, when you
get to that moment and you'll you'll know it when you get
there, it basically plays out the same no matter what.
So what I would say to new players is just experience it
for what it is. Play Peter the way you want to
play Peter. That does mean that if you
didn't hear this podcast and we're curious about how to

(13:30):
change the ending, you might walk away with a bitter taste in
your mouth because you went backand spent all that time to
ultimately not really change anything.
So my recommendation is to just play Peter the way you want to.
OK, good to know. Yeah, because I don't want you
to walk away from a second playthrough.
Just like I don't understand what I did wrong.

(13:52):
So either way, after learning that the the ending afterward is
still something that I loved. So I'm a little bit conflicted
about that climax, but everything else around it was
superb. In the end, this is a game that
affected me on emotional level that I could not have

(14:12):
anticipated when I started You Know Me.
I preferred my action games, andnarrative games don't always
quite resonate with me as much as I wish they did.
But not since Ghost Song have I been more invested in the
outcome of our characters. If you follow me on Blue Sky or
are in the unfortunate position of being messaged by me at 2:00

(14:36):
AM like Bopo was, you'll you'll be able to track about the time
I finish this because this game really did hit me in the fields.
Not only that, but among all of the narrative driven walking
simulator like games I've played, I think this makes the
best use out of being an interactive medium.

(14:56):
The only thing that really holdsit back at all in my book is
that replaying it probably wouldhave been disappointing, and
because of that I really only need to play it once, which is
maybe a shame. And as a result I give this a
nine point O out of 10. Wonderful.
Wow, I am so excited to try this.
I this might be in my backlog, Imight have gotten it on a sale

(15:18):
or something and I it's like just way deep in the backlog, so
I don't know that I would have picked it anytime soon.
For games that are set in a particular time in history, I'm
always interested in how much the game does to paint the
picture of those events and maybe inform and educate on
those time periods. I think of one of my past secret

(15:41):
games was 1979 Revolution Black Friday.
I thought about that while I wasplaying.
This OK, which told us about theIranian revolution and I learned
a lot from that game. So are you learning a lot about
the Cold War from this game? So I don't know how much of this
is factual, So I'm going into itwith the assumption that it is.
And with that assumption in play, yes, I am learning.

(16:04):
Like, what's a good way to say this?
We're Americans, you know how Americans can be.
We don't really pay attention towhat's going on if it doesn't
serve our interests. Yes.
And so I'm learning how other players maybe were behaving
during this conflict. Air quotes, right, This tension,

(16:27):
yeah. That I didn't know, but I'm not
necessarily surprised about either.
So just like how certain nationsare acting.
It's sort of filling in the corners of what you already
understand, I bet. Like, I understand the two big
sides of things, but there were global implications too.

(16:48):
And I, I could make assumptions,but I don't remember learning
about that stuff in school. You know, I don't remember
researching that on my own. Generally know who is allied
with who, but that doesn't mean that you know people aren't up
to stuff. And so, based on the ending of
this game, I learned something. OK, sweet.
Well, I think that's all I have curiosities about.

(17:12):
I really want to play this now. And you had messaged me late at
night saying, OK, I'm 10 minutesin, I think you would love this.
OK, I'm 30 minutes in. I think you would have really
loved this. So it's probably going to be a
front runner for my jealous gameof the season.
Amazing, where can you play South of the circle?
South of the Circle is availableon several platforms, PC, Mac,

(17:35):
iOS, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, Apple Arcade,
PS4, which is where I played it,and PS-5 which is where I'll get
a second stack of trophies in the future.
Amazing. It's time for my secret game.
My secret game is one that I've mentioned on our show.
I when I went to PAX East, I went to the booth for this game

(17:57):
and came away really excited forthe release of it.
It's now out. Can I guess?
Yeah. Is it fresh tracks?
My secret game is fresh tracks, heckers.
Once Upon a rhyme, as we say in Norwin, the story Song of a
champion was about to begin. Well, well, well.

(18:22):
Another body for the grave. This was not the end of Sky's
journey, only a new beginning. I can't believe they chose us.
We're going to have. So much fun.

(18:48):
So Fresh Tracks is a 2025 rhythmaction game developed and
published by Buffalo Buffalo. And I got to talk to the folks
at the Buffalo Buffalo booth at PAX East.
They were super nice, Buffalo. And yeah, they were super nice.
And they made an appearance in our PAX East episode.

(19:09):
If you go back earlier in our feed you can listen to that the
game synopsis from the Steam storefront reads Quote.
Jump, dodge and fight to the rhythm of the gods in this
thrilling music action game on skis.
Take on obstacles and menacing enemies as you ski further into
the darkness that has befallen the snow covered land of Norwin.
End Quote. I want to thank Evolve PR for

(19:32):
providing a key to fresh tracks.I saw that they were doing a
campaign. They were very kind to provide a
key for the game, and I got to stream it as well and I had a
blast. But before I get to things I
like, I just want to say that inthis game, it takes place in the
snowy region of Norwin, where there was once no song.

(19:53):
But from the heavens emerge these mythics, these beings by
the names of Sagvar, a warrior type who favored heroes.
There's Farzan, DRAM, Masters ofdramatics.
There's Mar, the Queen of Terror, and there's Koda, the
voice of inspiration. And they.
Brought story songs to the world, but Mar seized control of

(20:14):
the land and the melodies began to wither.
So you play as a champion named Sky whose mission is to bring
the songs back. And you do this in this rogue
light style of playing songs on tracks and swinging a sword and
jumping, leaning, crouching, etcetera, your way through

(20:36):
obstacles that come at you. This is in the first person.
The songs explore all kinds of genres.
There are 28 different tracks inthe game.
They are genres such as pop, house, hip hop, Hard Rock.
There's even Mongolian throat singing, which we've talked
about before. And as you progress through the
levels, you can find collectibles called Whispers

(21:00):
that let you buy upgrades duringyour run.
And there are echoes that allow you to buy unlockables between
runs. You can buy things like
different kinds of skis that give you different passives.
You can buy items like consumables to use during your
runs. You can find new swords to swing
that give you a different ability, and you sometimes face

(21:23):
boss stages. And when you beat them, you
unlock a new mythic to join you,and they add their own
commentary to the world, and they also give you their own
versions of the songs. And so your goal is to restore
the land of Norwin by making your way through all the stages
and unlocking more and more mythics.

(21:44):
This game is very intense. There's a lot of swinging.
There's a lot of reacting. There's a lot of just moving to
the beats. Yeah.
And what I loved is that the music is so fun and diverse.
I love the music in this game. There are different versions of
songs through the various mythics that join you.
And a lot of times the action ofthe gameplay will mimic what's

(22:06):
going on in the song. So there's a song where, you
know, the lyrics of the song might say hop, hop, hop, and
you're actually doing a jump, jump, jump to the rhythm of
that. And the way you lean and Crouch
is timed so cleverly to the music musicality of the stages.
I also really love the very clean winter themed style.

(22:29):
It feels like one of those gamesthat's winter through and
through, kind of synergizing with South of the Circle.
But yeah, I just love how this game looks.
I also really like the options for letting the player customize
their runs. You can equip the different
mythics. You also get rhythmics, which

(22:49):
are active skills you can use when you've built up a a meter
and you build up that meter by doing perfect timing with swings
on things. And this can allow you to, for
instance, heal as you get hit. And if your health bar depletes,
then your run ends and you have to start over.
There's a rhythmic that lets youuse your built up energy to heal

(23:14):
back some lost health. So that really gives the player
some options and it rewards you for playing well.
So I really like that. Then I get to some things that I
dislike. Getting further into a run can
involve a lot of time investment.
Sometimes you're spending 30 or 40 minutes to get to the spot
where you may be last died, and you can sometimes get to that

(23:36):
end of that run to the song thatyou died on, and you might not
make a lot of progress because things get really challenging.
But you can practice individual songs in a separate mode once
you like, find them. You just have to take the time
to do that and then practice it.And then you feel prepared to
maybe get past that song when you get there.

(23:58):
But you do have to spend all that time getting to the spot
where you died. There are shortcuts that allow
you to skip past boss stages at the expense of maybe not getting
an upgrade that you would have otherwise gotten for your run.
So it's making your run harder. And then songs and tracks can
vary according to your mythic that you have equipped.

(24:22):
But sometimes there's this repetition of hearing the same
earlier songs a lot if you're doing lots of runs.
And so that repetition started to set in for me and I would go,
OK, there's here's the song again.
This is maybe like the 5th, 6th time that I'm hearing it.
And so the luster of the songs can sometimes fade a bit.

(24:43):
And then I actually have not quite finished this game yet
because it gets very Dang hard. It looks it.
And I found doing multiple runs to be fatiguing, so I could only
play a few runs in a session before I started to feel a
little, not motion sick, but just kind of my senses were

(25:03):
activated. The room is still like moving in
your peripherals. A little bit, yeah.
It it is a lot on the senses, especially the visual sense.
So I can't play this game in long stretches, but I think
Fresh Tracks is a great game forrhythm fans.
The music's awesome, each run isa great length, but for me it
works better in short bursts than for long play sessions.

(25:26):
Fresh tracks for me is an 8 out of 10.
I know some people who have beenhaving even more fun with it
than I have. I really like it.
I recommend it to pretty much anyone who doesn't mind a rhythm
game in the first person. I did have a couple people I
talked to who were watching me play and they said I personally

(25:47):
might get motion sick playing a game like this, but I like sort
of glancing at you playing here and there.
So yeah, it's it's super great. Feels great to play.
And I'm just so excited for the Buffalo Buffalo team.
So yeah. With games like this, certain
actions can sort of be automated.

(26:10):
I'm guessing, just looking at this, that the only thing that
you are really not controlling is just the rate and speed at
which you are traveling, is thatcorrect?
That's correct. Yeah.
You, you don't set that tempo. And I think if you could control
that, that would throw off the timing of the songs.
Everything's very intentionally placed.
So yeah, you're not, you're not speeding up or slowing down

(26:31):
necessarily, at least in what I've played.
OK, yeah, I don't. I mean, this looks like your
version of Thumper perhaps. Maybe not quite as hard, I don't
know, but. I think Thumper's probably
harder, but the hardest stages in this game I don't know if
I'll ever be able. To play them, yeah, there's
just, you know, at a certain point this is one of those kind

(26:53):
of games where it's just like there are people that physically
probably cannot perform the inputs to finish this.
Yeah, so, and there are difficulty levels, I think they
mostly affect like how much you're damaged or something.
I played on the second easiest one, I think.
So the the game does give you like a little bit more padding

(27:17):
and cushion if you want to play on the easiest difficulty
settings. So that could be a a way in for
people who feel a little dauntedby this.
But yeah, otherwise I recommend listening to the music at the
very least if you can find that somewhere.
I think it's really good and I'mvery impressed with the
diversity of tracks in here. Yeah, it just the name alone is

(27:38):
just like, why didn't we? Why haven't we thought of that
already? Like.
Yeah, it's a really cool idea. And if I didn't mention it, it's
playable on PCPS 5, which is theversion I played in Xbox Series.
And those are our secret games, South of the Circle and Fresh
Tracks. Let's move on to our discussion

(27:59):
with Lucy Blundell, this episode's special guests.
We're so excited for this guest we have planned.
They made video verse and one night stands.

(28:20):
A crafter of stories with lots of appeal and plenty of emotions
that you want to feel. So say hello to the game dev
Kimmoku. Let's get to know you, Lucy
Blundell. How's it going?
Oh, that's such an awesome interview.
Thank you. You're.
Welcome. Welcome to the show.
We appreciate you doing this. I was a huge fan of Video Verse

(28:42):
when I played it for our last season.
It's one of my favorite narrative indie games and we've
been talking to some indie game devs on our show periodically.
We had the idea to to have you on the show and it's just so
special to have you here. So welcome.
Thank you so much for having me.It's really an honor to be here.
Oh, that's great. So Lucy, can you give listeners

(29:04):
some quick pitches about your games?
You've got one night stand and video verse and if you have any
other projects you want to highlight or you know anything
else you've made. Yeah, sure.
So yeah, at first glance both games look completely different,
but One Night Stand is what I made in 2016.

(29:24):
It was my first released game and it was originally made for a
game jam and Nana Renault which is a month long visual novel
game jam. And then when I released it, it
kind of exploded like all a loadof Youtubers played it and then
I decided to develop it into a ball game.
So it was development for another like 5-6 months.

(29:47):
And it's a game about waking up after having a one night stand
and you're you're hungover, you're disorientated and there's
this complete stranger lying next to you and you've no idea
how you got there. And you start kind of like
looking around the room, exploring, trying to find hints
and clues, a little bit of a mystery game.
But you can also just try and get out of there as well.

(30:10):
Like you don't have to try and find out who she is if you don't
want to. You can just try and get out
with your dignity intact. But there are in total, there
are 12 endings. And if you get them all, you
will find like kind of the truthof what happened.
And then over the years, becauseof its popularity, I managed to

(30:31):
add several more languages to it.
So I think it's in 10 different languages now.
And there's also a console version, and there was a
physical version, like a limitedrun on PlayStation 4 as well.
I don't know if I knew that. Wow, that that perked up discos.
Ears. I'm a big physical collector.
Oh well, I have a few copies left.

(30:51):
If you want one, I can send you one.
I won't say no. Oh my, yeah.
They're just sitting there on myshelf, so.
Kind Oh my gosh, I'm so excited.That's that's awesome.
And then can you tell listeners about Videoverse as well?
Yeah. So then Videoverse came out two
years ago in 2023, and that was in development for just over

(31:12):
three years. So Video Verse is a decision
based narrative adventure game that's set in this fictional
video game era back in like 2003.
It's quite retro, nostalgic and very much inspired by me Verse.
It's a game about like characterdevelopment, friendship and

(31:33):
love. And you play as a young teenage
boy called Emma. And he is like a big video game
fan, but he's also an aspiring artist.
And you get to kind of choose your path with him throughout
the game, whether he's more kindor cocky or whether he's more
lawful or, you know, he can become a bit of an online troll
as well if if you want. But it's generally like it's

(31:56):
it's a bit of a nicer experienceif you're kind around video
verse, if you like try and report trolls and you also like
can form more friendships, get closer to people and try and
make video verse just a nicer place.
And then there are a few different endings.
There's a lot of teenage drama. It's very hard to talk about

(32:17):
this game without spoiling it, but there's a lot of like video
game references. I recommend it for anyone who's
like a fan of video games. And there's also like some like
corporate conspiracies and little little like, you know,
things to find in there. And there is a Japanese version
translation like in development.At the moment it is very, very

(32:40):
close to being done, but I can'tquite announce when it's coming
yet. Please stay tuned for that all.
Right. Great luck with the rest of
that. Sounds like you're almost there.
Yeah, it even though the game takes place in the early 2000s,
it definitely feels like it has a lot of themes that relate to
things that gamers and other online communities experience

(33:02):
today. A lot of the themes feel
timeless. That's something that I that I
found really immersive and really engaging about the game.
Yeah, I, I didn't play video verse yet.
I did play One night stand. But just the way that you and,
and Bobo have described video verse, it's like, oh, in 2003,
you know, I was online and like the Mega Man forums all the time

(33:24):
and I was aspiring pixel artist,you know, that didn't go
anywhere. But so it's, it's quite
paralleling, you know what I experienced just on its surface
at least. Yeah, it was very much inspired
by my time on like Deviantart fan forums, like Sailor Moon
forums, Final Fantasy forums. And then you know, people will

(33:46):
be on there sharing their fan art and it's just really cute.
And obviously there's me verse element as well to it.
And it does at times the game does cheat a little bit where
there are some like more modern day references and quality of
life features just to make it appeal to an audience of today.
So it's not like too clunky or like old in design or anything.

(34:09):
Right, yeah, we're we're not allstuck with like dial up you.
Know no, no, there's no there's no screeching when you log on.
So video verse tells a story of relationships and online
communities and gaming culture, all of which are powered by the
characters. You'd mentioned some of the
forms, but did any of your real life connections inform how you

(34:32):
wrote the characters of the game?
Yeah, absolutely. I think I'm someone who's been
like kind of chronically online since since an early, early
teenager really. And I think that started with
like the forums I mentioned, butalso like MSN Messenger, get
home from school. You'd be like straight on there,

(34:53):
talk, talk to your friends that you, you know, you're hanging
out with, changing your status with like all your favorite song
lyrics, all that kind of stuff. I was also quite obsessed with
like chat rooms. I really liked Habbo Hotel.
If there was like a chat room where there was like little
characters, you could like a little avatars you could walk

(35:14):
around with. I used to love that.
And then when I got a little bitolder, it became like World of
Warcraft. I was someone who who was pretty
obsessed with that. You know, it got it got to a
point where I was like a Guild master and I was like running
raids and like chatting to my friends.

(35:35):
And some of them are still like,you know, really close lifelong
friends. And yeah, like I, I feel like
the Internet has just always been a part of my life.
And I really feel like with video verse, I was writing with,
like, my strengths, really. Like, it was just very, very
natural for me to like, write these characters and think of

(35:56):
all this person's, like that friend I had on World of
Warcraft or this was like, you know, even in some cases, the,
like, the trolls, it's like, well, they're just Internet
comments. You could probably find a
YouTube video and see, like, some really bizarre response to
something. And I'm just always inspired by,
like, pretty much anything I see.

(36:16):
Yeah. Your story there really shows
how your level of interaction with people online can evolve
over time, but it's nonetheless very important and formative.
Can we take a step back and haveyou tell us about how you got
started in game development and how Kinmoku came to be?

(36:36):
Yeah, so I think I've been gaming since I can remember,
really like 3 or 4 years old. I have an older brother so I was
always seeing him game and I just really wanted to to play
games. And we had an Amiga and I think
the first game I played was Lemmings, which I I still really

(36:59):
love. I think it's a great game.
For those unfamiliar with the Amiga that I don't know much
about it, but the sound chip on the Amigo is is really
impressive for its time. Yeah, it's really nice.
And I I think it had really goodgraphics as well for, for the
era there's yeah, there's like avery strong community even to
this today for like Amiga fans, which my brother is still really

(37:20):
into, which is really cool. But I, I did move on to like the
Mega Drive a few years later andthe PC as well.
So I remember when my parents were like, well, we're going to
get APC now. We're going to sell the Amiga.
I, I must have been about 6 years old, six or seven, and I

(37:41):
bawled my eyes out. I was so upset.
I was like, you can't get rid ofmy game.
Why can't we have both? Yeah, exactly.
I was like, put games on the PC,they're so expensive and on the
Amiga we were getting like a load of demo discs and you know,
we have friends who we could swap with and stuff.
So I was really upset about it. But I eventually we got the PC

(38:05):
and I started playing The Lion King, which a lot of millennials
like. We played that games really,
really hard. But then, yeah, like I got the
Mega Drive. I played a lot of games on that,
like started playing like Sonic and Streets of Rage.
And then later on it was the N64.

(38:27):
So which that was like my first Nintendo console.
And I also, I think a very like monumental point for me really
falling in love with games was when I played Final Fantasy 7.
And that was like the life changing moment where I'm like,
wow, games can do this. Like, they can tell these epic
stories. And I didn't really realise it

(38:47):
back then. Like, I wanted to do that, but I
think that's when that spark kind of was, was starting.
But yeah, like, skipped forward several, several years and I
graduated university as a animator.
And at the time, like animation in England was a lot of studios

(39:10):
were closing down and we had therecession in 2008 and I
graduated just a year later. So it was kind of difficult to
find work. But I got a job a few months
later at Chillingo, who are a mobile games publisher, and they
published the original Angry Birds and Cut the Rope.

(39:31):
And I was there as a graphic designer.
And at the time, like, this publisher was really small.
It was like, I think it was likeless than 10 people when I
started. So I was kind of doing all kinds
of jobs, like doing graphic design, like skinning.
They had a social network calledCrystal.
So that was like some experienceI could put into video verse as

(39:54):
well. This was before like there was
like Apple Arcade and all these,you know, kind of things that we
have now. There was there was that there
was like magazine adverts. I'd design.
I'd do App Store icon design, screenshot design.
Sometimes like event booth design, there was even a time
where my my bosses came to me and were like, oh, we'd love you

(40:16):
to design a plushy of one of theAngry Birds.
And I'm like, that is I, I finally put my foot on.
I was like I I don't know how todesign plushies because this
sounds. Hard, yeah.
I think a lot of artists have had this thing where, you know,
people are like, oh, you're an artist, you can do all.
These things you have a big toolbox and you can just do

(40:36):
anything, right? I work with graphic designers
and they get strange requests all the time.
And I make videos for my job andI always get requests about,
hey, since you know how to make videos, can you also do this?
And it's like, well, I could learn, but you're probably
better going to somebody who's specialized.
It's like, oh, can you make thiscool motion graphic for me real
quick? I'm like I can but no.

(41:00):
You probably, you might not likeit.
I can do this instead. So yeah.
Yeah, there was. There was a lot of that, but I
was, I was there for five years and we were like publishing like
one or two games a week, these mobile games.
So I think by the end of it I'd worked on over like 200 games

(41:22):
and most of them were indie games.
But there were also bigger games.
Like we had like a He Man game, a Superman game, an ET mobile
game. So we got to work with like
bigger IPS as well, but it gave me a lot of experience and

(41:42):
confidence and I, I learned a lot about game design being
there. And I was also just able to save
up a lot of money and then be like, right, I'm going to take
that that leap, that risk and try indie, indie development.
And that was 10 years ago now. So I've been doing this for just
over 10 years. And I can't believe, thank you.

(42:05):
I can't believe it's been this long at all.
I really can't. But yeah, like, it's, it's been
working out for me. And I just really wanted to
like, tell my own stories. And I basically taught myself
programming. That's a big reason why I make
visual novels. They are something I enjoy.

(42:26):
They're not my maybe my favoritegame genre, but they're a lot
easier to program. So it's a good way for me to
like, illustrate, do my animations in a, an easier
engine. Yeah.
Wow, That's the way you sort of broke into the space is so
interesting because you started with graphic design and you you
learned a lot by just interacting with so many

(42:48):
projects. You were observing so many games
being made and that gave you a special kind of experience,
didn't it? I think so, yeah.
I sometimes get people asking melike, oh, what's you know,
what's your experience? I, I want to get into game dev
as well. And it's a bit tricky.
Like, I, you know, I can say, oh, go on, go on Steam, play

(43:09):
load of games, maybe play some bad games, get an idea of, of
games of why some games have been successful and why some
haven't. But it's really hard when you
don't see the kind of the back end of it.
You know, you if you don't see how the game started and and did
it get much better over time? Like did the developer get
everything right or did they have difficulties?

(43:30):
It is a very fortunate position and I didn't realize it at the
time that I could see how some games were succeeding and others
weren't. And it is still, there's a lot
of luck involved. There's still always going to be
look involved, but when I launchone night stand, like it did do

(43:51):
really well. It wasn't like a a huge
Undertale or you know, a Starchyvalley or anything, but it was a
success and I felt like my experience.
If I didn't have that experience, that wouldn't have
happened. So surprising no one.
One night stand and video verse are probably a little bit
different story wise. Can you can you talk about the

(44:14):
process of writing the story anddialogue for One Night Stand and
how is it different from from video verse?
Yeah, so with One night stand being made for a game jam, it
was, you know, I just didn't have much time.
So you're allowed to like prep for Nano Reno.
So I, I'd spent like a month on it and I just had to come up

(44:36):
with an idea really quick. And then when I was thinking
about it one morning, I just sawthis like drunk guy on a tram.
He looked quite ashamed. I started thinking like, oh, has
he had a like a one night stand?This looks like a walk of shame
kind of thing. And I was like, I don't know if
that's a great idea, but this thing is like coming up.
I need an idea. So I just kind of like dived in.

(44:59):
I was like, well, it's funny. I think it's funny.
It's full of drama. So let's let's just run with
this and, and see what what happens.
And then whilst writing, it was like, oh, you know, what if,
what if I added this, what if, you know, the guy picked up the
wrong underwear? Or what if he got caught wearing
the wrong, you know, wearing herunderwear?
What if you got caught like trying to get out of the fight?

(45:22):
Like what if she sees you? And all these all these things I
even had, I had to like chop offat some point some of these
ideas because they were just, there's just too many of them.
Well, what if like the guy opened the window and jumped out
and it, you know, it was for initially for a game jam.
So it's like, OK, I have to justkeep it just a few ideas.

(45:45):
And that also because it had that initial game jam release.
That was something I didn't get with video verse.
I would watch like Youtubers, people playing it, streamers,
and they would say things and I would really like observe what
they were doing. And some people like for
example, one guy takes the photoof her when she's naked and you

(46:08):
only see like her back. And the guy was like, oh, why
she's so upset? It's just her back.
It's not a big deal. And I was like, oh, I never
thought of it like that. Because if I, if someone put a
photo of me online, like even ifit's just a normal photo without
asking me, I'd be a bit upset. But this guy was like, oh, it's
not, it's not a big deal at all.So I was like, right, Well, some

(46:29):
people playing this might not think it's a big deal.
So I put that option in there. I was like, you can argue back
with her like, oh, it's, it's just your back.
Why are you getting so upset? And then of course, if you say
that, she gets really mad at you.
So I had that advantage of beinglike, it's almost like a soft
launch for, for a narrative gamebefore, you know, people really

(46:52):
did that. And I, I was just very observant
and I was like, I really want toadd things that people will feel
their choices are really reflected here.
Whereas video verse was like a longer development time, Three
years in total. And I think I got most of the
story done in like the first year, but I'd be playing it and

(47:12):
then thinking, try, try to remember that guy and be like,
well, what is, is everyone got the choice here that they want
to do. And there's only so much of that
you can really do on your own. So, you know, then it goes to
like play testers. And it was a much more formal
process. I was like, oh, were there any
points where you wanted to make a choice where you couldn't?

(47:33):
But I think it's, it's differentwhen it's play testers.
Generally, people are a little bit more nice than like some
random guy who doesn't know you are streaming it.
So I just had to kind of do the best in the situation.
But I do think like ultimately video versus A is a much more

(47:54):
heartfelt, meaningful, passionate game.
It's definitely like one night stand.
Was this like almost like a throwaway idea?
Like it's just a quick thing. It was really a versus like I
want to tell this very importantstory about these online
communications, like being so important, especially for like

(48:15):
teenagers, people who are disabled or people that are
stuck at home. I started development of it at
the beginning, the pandemic. I think it was like April, May.
So I was thinking a lot about like that just my appreciation
for the Internet. So it definitely come from like
a completely different place to one night stand.

(48:38):
But I do think both games are like still have like the kind of
heart or like I try to put a bitof like moral, like advocacy in
my games with video versus it's like ableism and kind of a
little bit anti capitalist messaging.
But with one night stand, it wasmore I was just very concerned.

(48:59):
I he wasn't too long out of university and I'd seen a lot of
people in like one night stand situations just getting treated
quite badly. And I was just very concerned
about it. So there was that angle as well.
Like it's, it's not just this throwaway silly idea.
It's still coming from a place of like, I want you to interact

(49:20):
with the stranger and be very like, kind of kind and
understand that she's a real person.
So yeah, I think both games havelike the heart, but they came
from totally different places. Yeah, all that is so revealing.
I hadn't even imagined the idea of play testing a narrative game
like video verse or one night stand.

(49:40):
I think of play testing happening with other genres for
sure, but it really goes to showhow everybody's mind works
differently. When you're watching someone who
responds to a a problem or a situation differently than you,
it opens the door to possibilities for the player to
make a choice then. And also just how inspiration

(50:03):
can come from unexpected places.Like shout out to that drunk guy
on the tram. You know, he's, he's out, he's
out there somewhere and he doesn't even necessarily know.
He definitely doesn't know that that morning he made an impact
on the world. Anyway, that's just wild to me
on the heels of talking about advocacy in games.

(50:25):
In a lot of games in recent years, especially in the indie
space, we see games represent marginalized groups and
underrepresented perspectives. As you have been a game
developer for over 10 years, howhave you seen the the stories of
games represents people in that way and maybe what progress

(50:46):
might still need to be made in the space?
So I think we've made a huge improvement in this in the last
10 years for sure. I am a little bit worried
though, but I'll get I'll get tothat in a little bit.
We've definitely seen much more like diverse like races of
characters, especially in like visual novels, like I am playing

(51:12):
date everything at the moment. And it has a very wide cast of
people. And I have seen like some fair
criticism of it as well, like, oh, you know, it's very much
introducing people to certain races, like they've never heard
of people from Africa, for example.
So I think like there's a lot ofeffort, but maybe some of these
things are still not fully executed brilliantly.

(51:36):
However, there are other games that when I I think of 1 Vemba,
for example, about Indian immigrants and it's all about
cooking. And I believe that was made from
a team with that background. And that's something you would
never have really seen 10 years ago, at least not to this kind

(51:56):
of popularity and scale. And I thought that was a
fantastic game. And when it comes from people
who've lived that experience, then I, yeah, I'd love to see.
I really, really love that game.And there's been like, you know,
several other games like that recently as well, some that I
haven't played, unfortunately, because I never have time.

(52:17):
But yeah, like that definitely. And more like there's more
stories told by women as well, it seemed like.
And maybe some of the cosy gamesfor example, like that's it
feels like a bit of a movement almost like to push back against
games typically being for men orviolence.
However, I do feel like sometimes we can get a little

(52:38):
bit stuck. Maybe at the moment it feels
like cosy games, for example, are all maybe kind of copying
each other or doing the same thing.
And then there's also, I think my biggest concern right now is
the kind of push back with the payment processes and how
they've stopped games with any sexual or queer representation.

(53:04):
And it's very concerning becauseI think it goes beyond just like
non safe for work games. I think there's a lot of safe
for work games that are queer that are also getting hit by
this. And I think we've made so much
progress and it's so sad to see.It feels like a very big step
back. And I think it's very damaging

(53:26):
as well because the developers tend to be behind these games
are also more marginalized. They tend to be like women or,
you know, queer identities. So that is something that I am
very concerned about at the moment.
I'm also concerned because my next game, which I haven't
announced yet, but that has veryqueer themes and it's reaching a

(53:49):
point where I'm like, oh, I've been working on this for like a
year and a half. Is this going to be for nothing?
Is Steam going to reject it? Is is itch IO going to reject
it? It's very, very concerning.
And it's it's sad because I wantto, you know, I don't think
there are enough stories like this.
I there have been many more overthe 10 years or even longer, but

(54:13):
I still don't think there's enough.
And there's definitely not enough that have a really big
budget. I always see some really nice
games, but they're usually very small budgets because publishers
or investors don't really want to take the risk on games made
by women or marginalized people or queer people.

(54:33):
And yeah, I think there's still a lot of a lot of work to be
done, but things are better thanthey were.
It's when you look at the whole 10 years, it's easy to see that
that progress overall. But yeah, it's things definitely
aren't perfect. And a lot of these teams that
come from these very particular backgrounds, the teams that
should be making these stories, a lot of times my understanding

(54:56):
is that they put a lot of resources, a lot of their own
resources, a lot of their free time into making these projects.
And that might be the one solid chance that they ever get to
make a game. And so if if they're at that
disadvantage, that's really unfortunate for the possibility
of their future, of their demography.
You know, they might not be ableto make a second and a third

(55:19):
game if their project is rejected by a certain
marketplace. So thanks for talking about
that. That's that's very revealing.
What we're saying is that we need to destroy the all mother
of of. These.
Payment processors and build a rogue one.
Tying it into the game, I love it.
So what other visual novels and other narrative focused games

(55:42):
have have made a big impact on you?
Obviously, the game that I've picked 1000 times resists, but
we will talk about that in a bit.
If I look more at visual novels,there's Virtues Last Reward,
which was the first of the nonnery games that I played.
So there's 999 Virtues Last Reward and 00 Time Dilemma.

(56:08):
So I love all those games, but Virtues Last Reward was the
first one that I played and I still think it was the best one.
It's another like 1000 times resist as another like sci-fi.
You've got time jumps going intodifferent timeline, you know,
all kinds of like crazy things going on.
And, and it was my first like Kataru Uchikoshi game that I

(56:31):
played and I he's like one of myfavorite game developers now
because I really love how whenever there's like a
timeline, he kind of uses that as part of the story.
Like there's a reason why you'relike jumping between like
different choices and things. And that's part of the
narrative. I, that was just the first time
I'd seen something like that andit really like blew me away.

(56:51):
But the other visual novel that means a great deal to me is the
House in Theta Morgana, which isvery highly rated on Switch.
At least I think it was one of the highest Switch games for a
while. And that's a story set in this
like eerie, spooky house over like 1000 years and of 1000 year

(57:16):
game. But there are lots of different
stories in this house that involve there's always like this
maid that never seems to age andthis girl with white hair who
always comes back to the house but is like being reincarnated.
And this just tells like severaldifferent stories.
And then about the halfway point, all of these stories

(57:38):
start to come together as to whythey're linked.
And I think it's just one of thesmartest, one of the smartest
narrative games I've seen that it's very it's a very static
visual novel. And there's also not that many
choices. It's almost a linear visual
novel. But for it to tell so much like
emotional story with just like still images and characters, you

(58:02):
know, a very good soundtrack, but quite a limited soundtrack
for the for the length of the game.
And it's just it's very impressive how much they did
with so little. I think So I really recommend
that one. It has again, I can't I can't
really spoil it, but it has a really beautiful emotional take
away from it. I think if you liked video

(58:23):
verse, I'd like to think he's like that as well.
But it has a very like gothic art style.
So it is. It is very different.
Instant wish list based on what you've said.
So yeah, thank you. It is, it is a you have to be
very patient with it. Give it like 10-15 hours.
But at that point, I mean, I'm hoping it will grab you because

(58:44):
it's that's the point for me where I was like, I can't stop.
Well, like knowing that from a recommendation, that little
caveat, knowing that upfront definitely helps to keep me
invested if I. I think so because I I was about
5 hours in myself and I I'm not into horror games that much and
the second story is quite dark and horrific and I nearly gave

(59:07):
up on it. I was like, I don't think I can
get through this but I'm so gladthat I did OK.
It's kind of a life changing game I really liked.
Wow wow, OK, we talk about gameson our show as sometimes
changing our DNA, so it sounds like that has the possibility to
change us forever in a small way.
Cool. This is a fun question we like

(59:27):
to ask any game dev we talk to. But as a game developer, what's
1 tool or source of inspiration you rely on that some people
might be surprised by? Yeah, I found that this was the
question that I found quite difficult to think of an answer
for because like the guy on the train in the morning, I kind of

(59:49):
just get inspiration from anything.
I just kind of, yeah. I'll just, you know, I if I'm
just in the right train of thought, I can find anything
interesting. So I thought it was difficult
because it's also, you know, you're realizing that this is
inspiring you consciously or is it kind of subconscious?

(01:00:13):
Because I realized one of the characters in video verse who is
also in one of my other unfinished projects, that she's
just a small character. But in my like law, she has
quite a deep story. And all these years I was like,
I don't really know where she came from.

(01:00:34):
Like she's just there. And then I was reading one of my
shojo manga that I read when I was a teenager.
I reread it and I was like, oh, she's really like a lot like
this character. That's where that came from.
And I had totally forgotten about it.
So I, I get surprised myself sometimes like, oh, like that's

(01:00:57):
that's where the inspiration forthat person or that setting or
whatever it is. But you know, with video verse,
for example, it was, it was veryclear, like when I played me
verse or when I took part in me verse.
And that was very conscious. I was like, oh, this platform,
this deserves like a proper sendoff.
It was really sad that Nintendo closed it down.

(01:01:18):
And now like, you know, Twitter and social media is all kind of
scattered and I really wish it was still around.
So, you know, I wanted to make this game and and that was a
very like strong like this is inspired by and also a bit of a
like a thank you to to me verse.So yeah, like I, I, I don't know
how to answer that any better than that, I'm afraid.
I think that was very satisfactory.

(01:01:39):
That was very great. I yeah, a lot of what we
experience, it can Burrow into our minds and we don't even know
we're tapping into that sometimes.
Exactly. And sometimes it just pops out
in strange ways and you've no idea until, I don't know, a
decade later when you reread that book or whatever.
Yeah, definitely. Well, I want to thank you for

(01:02:00):
telling us about when I stand invideo verse, but we want to know
what are you looking forward to doing next?
Whether as a game developer, we know you mentioned you have a, a
project you can't really talk about, but what else are you
looking forward to doing game wise for dinner?
What? Whatever.

(01:02:21):
Well, I, that's a it's a good question.
I am. I am looking forward to my next
project. I'm very much looking forward to
announcing it because it's been a while and the game is quite in
my eyes is quite far along, but it is missing some key things
like a title for example, and without that I can't get very

(01:02:43):
far. So I need to settle on that.
And it is also missing music, soI'm looking forward to getting
that as well. I'm also working on something
else and the Japanese video verse localization as well.
So I want to get that out to a wider audience on more like
personal things. I, I've just started playing

(01:03:07):
pirate Yakuza and I am a big Yakuza fan and I'm usually
playing them on day one. But for some reason or other,
like this year, I'm just really behind on games.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to to playing more of that and
later at the end of the year, hopefully going to Japan for

(01:03:28):
Christmas. But that is that's quite off
topic at this point. But I do love like retro game
hunting in Japan and very bizarre, like visual novels that
I can find. My Japanese isn't perfect, but I
can understand a little bit. So it's really nice to find
these like really niche and strange artifacts out there.

(01:03:49):
Yeah, Japan seems to have a a much larger well of of visual
novels. Are there any that you've played
that you would recommend that might seem like a more universal
experience, even though they're sort of relegated to this just
this one region of the world? I mean, the one that I really

(01:04:12):
like is on the Saturn, which is the revolutionary girl Utana
visual novel, because that's oneof my favorite animes.
And there's a visual novel of itthat's like on the Saturn and
it's really, really cool. And of course, like, I think
Tokameki Memorial is like a classic, but there's also like

(01:04:33):
Tokameki Memorial spin offs and I'm forgetting the name of it
right now, but there's like a like puzzle matching version of
it. And all the girls will like kind
of like scream and cheer for youand me and my husband are just
obsessed with like playing that head to head.
Like it is so much fun. So we're we're always like,

(01:04:54):
whenever we go there, we're juston the hunt to try and find like
any more crazy games. I, I love watching hall videos
from people who visit Japan, whogo game hunting.
I've, I've watched a few of those and I've never been to
Japan, but it's a, it's a very interesting experience that you
just can't get anywhere else it seems.
It's what's what's so surprisingas well is like these games,

(01:05:16):
they're all second hand, but they are in beautiful Immaculate
condition. Like my revolutionary girl
Lieutenant game has like stickers in that and like little
almost like top trump cards, like of the characters.
And they're all like they're allperfect.
There's no like fraying on the edges.
The stickers haven't been used. There's a manual.

(01:05:36):
It's just everything is like so beautifully cared for.
So yeah, it's it's an expensive hobby, but I like it a lot.
OK. Well, one last question before
we move on to our next segment with you.
Can you just tell listeners where they can find your games?

(01:05:57):
Yeah, One night stands pretty much on anything, whether it's
like console or Steam or Humble GOG games, you can find it
almost almost anywhere. Video verse is a little bit more
difficult. It's just on PC, Mac and Linux
right now, but it is on Steam, Epic Games, GOGHIO and the Steam

(01:06:20):
Deck version. It says it's not verified, Steam
just haven't prioritised it. But it works really well on
Steam Deck and I really recommend if you have one,
that's the best way to play it. Perfect.
Well Lucy, thank you so much fortelling us about your game
development story, your interestin games and everything else.
It's been an absolute pleasure so far.

(01:06:40):
We're not done with you yet though.
We're going to move on to reviewing the game you picked
from our list. 1000 Times Resists.
It is our featured game. Tell me, watcher, is there a
feeling worth getting incinerated over?
Love your mother and trust in her teachings.
Do your duties and carry out your function for a future.

(01:07:05):
Far from sin or incineration. We're all just flowers in a
garden of her making so we'll grow beautiful in love to be

(01:07:31):
worth taking. Be your mother.
She shines so bright, but Mother's clothes not as warm as
it had seemed to be. And it feels very far from me.

(01:08:04):
And it feels very far from me. So 1000 Times Resists is a 2024
narrative sci-fi adventure. It was developed by Sunset
Visitor and published by fellow traveler.

(01:08:25):
The game synopsis from the Steamstorefront reads quote. 1000
Times Resists is a thrilling sci-fi adventure.
The year is unknown and a disease spread by an alien
invasion keeps you underground. You are Watcher.
You dutifully fulfill your purpose in serving the All
Mother until the day you discover a shocking secret that
changes everything. So this game has a lot going on

(01:08:50):
story wise. There are 10 chapters to the
game, each of them is pretty long and there are lots of
themes, lots of characters, lotsof different storylines
interweaving. So we're going to give the note
up top that since this is such astory heavy game, it's hard to
avoid spoilers here and there. So if you want to go into this

(01:09:10):
game completely fresh, we recommend you play the game
first. I don't off the top of my head
have like the how long to beat time but.
The how long to beat as I think is something like 10 hours at
least on the website. That's I.
Think when when I played it it took me about 15 but I was like
doing everything. Yeah.
And I I was probably close to like 12/13.

(01:09:33):
I would say 10 to 15 hours is a good estimation.
So go ahead and experience the game for yourself if you want
before continuing on with this episode.
I'll set up the story and setting.
There's so many ways I could do this.
I could really go in depth, but I'm going to go pretty top
level. But then if there's anything
else either if you want to throwin to help set up the game,

(01:09:55):
please feel free. So I would say that this game
cold opens with a pretty dramatic scene.
Your character Watcher murders acharacter called the All Mother
and you don't know why. And then we start chapter 1.
And the background to this worldis that on Earth, an invasion by
beings called the Occupants caused a disease that wiped out

(01:10:19):
much of humanity. We Fast forward to the future
and All Mother is the creator ofthis Society of clones that live
in an underground facility called the Orchard, and they're
split into functions that are led by the Sisters.
The Sisters are Fixer, Healer, Knower, Bang Bang, Fire, and

(01:10:40):
Watcher, who you play as, and all of them are supervised by
Principal. And as Watcher your function is
to see and interpret the memories of the All Mother,
which you do through an act of communion.
And through communion you learn more about all Mothers past who
she was before this time, and you learn 1000 year secrets.

(01:11:06):
That kicks off a pretty wild series of events, so I'm keeping
it there, but otherwise we can go to gameplay.
What do we do in this game? Disco Cola.
Yeah, I I won't say gameplay is light, but there are only just a
couple of inputs you're going tobe doing.
Most of what you're going to be doing is walking around to find

(01:11:27):
the correct entity of sorts to interact with, whether it be a
character or an object or other non human character.
Many times you will have a choice of dialogue options to
pick from, and then at times thegame will give you tasks.
Some of them will be optional, some of them mandatory to

(01:11:48):
progress the story. When more than one are active,
you can check your tasks on a task screen.
You also usually have access to a waypoint system which is super
helpful. On Switch.
This would be activated by pressing the LB button and it'll
show you all the various optional and mandatory

(01:12:08):
waypoints, even using sort of a color-coded system.
So very helpful waypoints in this game.
And then lastly for inputs, occasionally there will be these
like sprawling sections of the game where you can kind of like
warp jump to certain locations marked by these like red
circles. And it often happens over these

(01:12:30):
like massive pits or chasms whenthere is either no ground to
walk on or when the area is so expansive that walking would be
kind of unbearably grueling. So it's it's both considerate,
but also a necessary function toavoid wide open pits.
Yes, definitely good observationthere.

(01:12:50):
But that's the that's pretty much it for like active gameplay
that you do. It's mostly walking around and
talking to. Things, yes, it's very dialogue
focused. You're listening to voice acting
a lot in this game and also reading dialogue.
When it comes to accolades for this game, 1000 Times Resist was

(01:13:10):
nominated for all kinds of narrative and debut awards.
It won the Peabody Award for Interactive and Immersive work,
which I know the Sunset Visitor team was very excited about.
I remember when that happens, they were posting about it and I
think it was just so well deserved.

(01:13:32):
So here we are over a year latersince release.
Lucy, you looked at our lists offeatured game ideas.
You picked a short list, and from that list we picked 1000
Times Resist. What about the game stood out to
you and why did you pick it? So I really wanted to choose one
of my favorite like narrative games from recent years.

(01:13:54):
I played it, I think it like just after it launched and it
was like one of my favorite games of last year.
I took like a whole week off basically.
I do that maybe like once a yearand just like play through like
a game and that that was this game.
So I got to spend a lot of time with it.
But also the director, Remy, he's also a really big fan of

(01:14:18):
video verse. That's awesome.
And yeah, I love that. And I, I, I messaged Remy just
the other day saying, oh, I'm coming on this podcast.
Is there anything you'd want me to say?
Any. And they're just like, just say
that I love video verse and I played it in one sitting.
It was a fever dream. And it's like, I feel almost the
same with 1000 times, except I had to play it in a week.

(01:14:42):
But but yeah, So yeah, this it'sjust been really, really nice.
Nice to me. Always like boosting my posts
and things. So yeah, really nice person.
And it's just really nice to talk about a game that I think
is, I think it's also a very difficult game to talk about
because there's so much going on.

(01:15:05):
There's a lot of like time jumping, character jumping,
going all the way back, like 1000 years back, you know,
almost like our time now, the Hong Kong riots and then this
strange future. When I, when I finished playing
it, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it because it's like,
well, which part of it do you want to kind of dissect?

(01:15:26):
So I thought it would also be a really interesting game to
discuss with you guys. Yeah, it I think it is
challenging, but we will. I think we'll each have our
observations. And I don't think any review of
the game could be comprehensive and complete, which I think is
kind of special too. Yeah, that everybody could take

(01:15:47):
away something else and maybe focus on a different aspect of
the game, a different theme. It's like a meta incentive to
that force people into playing The game was like, I, I didn't
even cover everything, you know,I can't even speak to this part
of the game. Exactly.
And I've I've now replayed the game, I was noticing different
things or I was focusing on different parts of the story
just because I first played it around seven months ago, I want

(01:16:11):
to say. And I've just replayed it within
the past week and different parts of the story grabbed me.
This time I was focusing on on new things.
I Yeah. So I think you've requested that
one of us goes first with our overall thoughts.
So Lucy, you'll go second. We're going to go to Disco Cola

(01:16:31):
first. What are your overall thoughts
after playing through 1000 timesResist?
So long time listeners will knowthat I'm very much like the move
fast jump and shoot man in games.
And I don't always like click with the the narrative
experience as often or as easily, mostly due to like poor

(01:16:54):
reading comprehension skills probably.
But I am pleased to say that I actually really like basically
everything about 1000 times resist Amazing.
OK, Certainly one of the better narrative experiences in gaming
I've experienced. So yeah, it it's no surprise I

(01:17:15):
was dreading this game as far aslike gameplay that had I had
seen before, all that I had seenwas our communion with nowhere,
which is a very unique chapter because you're talking to the
occupants in a very strange language.
And so that stuck in my head andI'm like, oh, great.

(01:17:35):
In addition to being long a narrative, this is also going to
have weird puzzles in it throughout the whole game.
And so like, I had that stuck inmy head.
I was like, this doesn't look appealing and I was worried that
I was going to struggle through it, but that wasn't the case.
And I actually kind of breezed through that chapter.
I kind of like clicked with withwhat was going on in that weird

(01:17:57):
language. I'm happy to say that the music
is really surprisingly good. I just, I wasn't expecting it to
really stand out necessarily, but it's very awesome I found.
I'm a big fan of it. Yeah, it's so good and I'd.

(01:18:18):
I want to find a place to listento it more.
I think the story is gripping. A lot of times when I'm gaming,
I'm multitasking. I have the news in one ear
catching up at the end of the day, and I'm playing video games
than the other, but I just I couldn't do that, not only
because I couldn't divide my attention, but I also was just

(01:18:41):
that invested. I just didn't want to pay
attention to anything else. It required my my full,
undivided attention. Almost everyone has something I
care about. You know, their character.
I think Iris sucks and I think principal sucks, but even they
each have their moments where I'm like, I care about them and

(01:19:01):
I'm invested in in how they got to this point.
And while I think generally people tend to put too much
weight into the nature side of nature versus nurture, this game
kind of goes maybe a little bit too far in the other way where
it's like nurture can can shape who you are this much.
So I don't, I don't know if thatbalance is is quite right, but

(01:19:24):
it how else do you make clones be various different characters?
Yeah, that's a good point. And I I found myself not really
connecting with characters in this game.
And then it would be one or two or three chapters later, maybe
like 6 hours later, that something happens and I'm

(01:19:45):
suddenly sympathizing with this character that I didn't expect
to ever sympathize with just because I'm now seeing something
they went through. And maybe part of that I can
kind of relate to based on something that's happened to me.
Just very, very powerful in thatway.
And. There's something that happens
near the end of the game where you're reckoning with a lot of
those things sort of all at once, and I think that's when

(01:20:07):
the when the game really gets powerful.
Yeah, I think the voice performances are awe inspiring,
especially considering like mostof the characters are supposed
to have the same vocal cords. I saw the credits later and it
turns out that there are just like a bunch of different voice
actors here, but it's it's interesting how the same literal

(01:20:30):
DNA can present itself in so many different ways.
While I consider clones to only be like a few spots behind time
travel in story tropes that lackstakes, I think this game still
goes to incredible places. And it takes the inherent ethics
question of clones and not only runs with it, but I think makes

(01:20:53):
it like a key part of the story by having all mother, but then
also having Bang Bang fire nowhere healer and just like the
rest of that hierarchy and then adding another layer by
introducing new clone factions in the second-half of the game.
So it's it's, it's taking that like ethical question of clones

(01:21:13):
running with it and then just like doing something really
creative with it. And I you.
You get the rules, like at that point it's like I understand how
this society treats clones and and all that.
So really fascinating way to approach that, that I hadn't
really seen necessarily and other clone related media.

(01:21:34):
No, I don't think I have seen that either.
Like it's very unique with the story that it's telling, with
the clones especially. And I, I'm sure I've mentioned
this on previous episodes of Underplayed, but I like sets of
things and the color-coded function system as one of the

(01:21:55):
first things I interact with. I'm just like, even if I didn't
like the rest of the game, I would have been on board with
that. It's just like a weird brain
thing. But I I love sets of things,
especially if they're color-coded like that.
No, yeah, there's, there's a visual branding to this place
that's very consistent. Like you could make a, a brand
guideline for the orchard and you would have the colors and

(01:22:18):
what they all mean, the functions, the roles hierarchy,
and it's just so consistent. And that really aids in the, you
know, helping the player understand the dynamics of
what's going on. Yeah, it's like a very simple
rule set that helps me get invested a lot quicker.
Yeah. From there I'll move on to
things that I don't love as much.

(01:22:38):
This is probably the biggest 1. I don't like navigating the
orchard. I think that maybe if the
orchard had been designed by theprovisional government, which
they kind of seem to be a stand in for a very specific modern
government, it probably would have had like quadrilateral
symmetry. And you know, maybe it would
have been more soulless, but it would have been more efficient

(01:23:00):
to navigate. So I would have, I would have
appreciated that version of the orchard.
Yeah, it is. It is perplexing.
My understanding is that this design is intentional.
It's supposed to emulate this feeling of navigating places
like Hong Kong, which we see in the story, and places like
Tokyo. But it's nonetheless

(01:23:20):
frustrating. And I, I found myself even on
replay, I was still getting lost, and I was still having to
pull up in the map and trying tosee the two halves of that map.
It is challenging. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, and I, I had the same
thing and I could never, never get the hang of it.
I think they have added a map inan update because I don't
remember that being there when Ifirst played it.

(01:23:42):
But even with the map, I still found it really difficult.
And even the way marker, it's still like, are they up or down?
No matter how many times I've run around, I just never seem to
know where the staircase is. Or yeah, it's it's it's rough.
Yeah, I think specifically of a path that runs through the

(01:24:03):
middle next to some glass panelsand there's some some plants
like some foliage and things. And I always think that that's
going to lead me to one side of that area, but I actually have
to go to the outer rim and find a different entrance.
I always get those two paths mixed up.
I was usually able to use the map to help me out in that spot,

(01:24:25):
but when we look at the levels, like the levels 123, that's
where I can sometimes do a lot more trial and error to find
where I'm going. Yeah, so it's it's rough and I
won't, I won't go so far as to say it's like intentionally
padding out the length of the game.
But there were times where I'm like, there could be stairs here

(01:24:48):
or this could go all the way around, but.
And there are the optional tasksof catch up with all of the
shells and all of the sisters. In those early chapters.
It does tell you, hey, you have stuff you can talk to all the
shells about. And I felt compelled to do that
even though I was getting lost. Like, I really, I didn't want to
leave any of that behind. They give you a lot of good

(01:25:10):
tidbits in there, but it does kind of feel like it is padding
out things for those who want todo the 100%.
Yeah, understanding of the story.
Yeah, and I really wanted to do all of that as well, but I
accidentally progressed the story when I so that I missed
out on some of it. But I I got the gist of it.
Yeah. Up next, while I do find the

(01:25:30):
story incredibly gripping, I do still have that innate need for
a little bit more action. So I can only play this for so
long before I'm kind of like checked out, you know, and most
of the times when I play this, Idid warm up with a run in Elsie
or maybe finished with a run in Elsie just to like massage that

(01:25:50):
part of my brain. So I mean, this game kept my
attention pretty well, but I I did have my limits as far as far
as that goes. I found when I first played it I
would play 2 chapters at a time so I had about 5 play sessions
with it. That's that's roughly how it
worked out for. Me too.
And Lucy, you said you played itover the course of a week.
Did did you find that you were kind of taking breaks like that?

(01:26:13):
Yeah. So if I take like a week off to
play a game, I'm usually like, I'm now like I'm going to just
sit and play. That's that's what I'm doing
that week. But I think it it did take me a
little bit longer. Like I was probably doing like
an hour or two, maybe another hour in the afternoon.
But then yeah, like maybe like achapter a time kind of thing.

(01:26:35):
Yeah, you kind of want that timeto think about the current place
you're at. I I don't think this would would
be a marathon game for me. On my replay, I actually did
play four or five chapters in one day.
Yeah, I saw that blue. Sky Post yeah, I played, I got
to Chapter 7 within 24 hours andI think I was only able to do

(01:26:56):
that because I had such a clear memory of the game to start.
And so I I was just devouring iton the repo.
Yeah, yeah. When I tried playing a little
bit of it this week, I did like just the first few chapters.
But I like you, Bo. I I felt quite like a little bit
more into it, I think than the first time.

(01:27:17):
Like when you know where the story's going to go, it's kind
of hooked you and you're like, yeah, I actually do want to go
into the next chapter now. And, and yeah, so I think when
you, when you know what like thepay off's going to be, it is
quite compelling. Yeah.
Definitely. Yeah.
And then lastly here, but in thefew instances where I do have

(01:27:37):
choices, it doesn't seem to meanmuch in a more at least
immediately recognizable way like it is with Peter.
But then at the end of the game,you know where my choices do
matter. There are just like so many
different combinations and variables that I don't really
have the patience to try them all.

(01:27:58):
And it at this point, I don't really know what I would call a
good ending is. And I I don't know that I have
the patience to go through to even figure out what my favorite
ending is if there is like how all those variables play out.
Yeah, my understanding is there are several endings.
I still have only seen one. So yeah, I, I don't have that

(01:28:20):
experience to draw from. So how I feel comfortable there
is knowing that maybe the endingthat I got, I'm focusing more on
like those choices I was making and trying to imagine what the
future looks like from there. That's sort of where I sit with
the ending and how it satisfies me.

(01:28:41):
OK, so I looked up a lot of different endings online because
I tried three different scenarios.
And so technically I haven't seen the credits to this game.
I haven't beaten this game because all three innings that I
tried to do not deliver credits.So interesting.

(01:29:02):
I did I did look up some of the other endings and it I don't
know that I had not looked that up.
I would have taken the time beyond what I'd already seen.
Sure. Maybe if we didn't have a
podcast, I'd be like, OK, what if I turn this one on and turn
this one off and, and, and then find out just by process of
elimination. But that's where I stand with it
right now. Interesting.

(01:29:25):
So yeah, this game was somethingI was dreading, but it wormed
its way into my good graces. And if a game pulls my undivided
attention, then that means it's doing something pretty
incredibly powerful. And that's what I got here.
This is one of my favorite narrative experiences in the
games that we've played for Underplayed and I would watch

(01:29:46):
the hecky out of a 1000 times Resist limited series.
Like seriously, if that if that came to Kickstarter or
something, I would back the heckout of it.
If I live in a world where 1000 times Resist is a video game or
it doesn't exist, I pick a videogame.
But if I live in a world where 1000 times resist is a video
game or limited series, I might pick the series if I'm honest

(01:30:10):
'cause I think this is a really incredible sci-fi story and it
at the end of it, my only significant pain point really is
navigating the orchard. I love this game.
To score it, I give it a 9.5. Oh, awesome.
Great. I'm so glad you loved it, Lucy.
You picked a game that Disco loves.
That's so. Great.

(01:30:33):
Would you like to share some of your general thoughts about the
game? Yeah, so I, I think the first
thing that struck me was the, how the game looks like the
lighting and the rendering, you know, 'cause this is made by
like a smaller team and the 3D is quite, you know, simple.
Like the characters like don't have lip sync, but they get so

(01:30:54):
much out of just how everything is shot, how everything is lit.
Every, it feels like every frameand angle is like a piece of
artwork to me. And I feel like that's why I've
sometimes a little bit overwhelmed by like, oh, you
could, I could talk so much justabout certain like shots of this
game. And I think like a lot of

(01:31:15):
narrative games and visual novels as well could learn a lot
from this. I, I think we, we're always very
used to like having like a background and just a character
standing there. And here is like, there's so
much thought gone into what colours should we use?
There's a lot of like, you know,red to blue and shots with like
red and blue in them and, you know, certain characters

(01:31:36):
standing in different bits. And it's like there's just so
much love and thought gone into like just just the, the camera
angles. Yeah, it feels like it.
Feels like Sunset Visitor has members of the team that have
real deep experience with cinematography.
Like. Specifically as as like an art
form as a craft. Yeah, it's a beautiful looking

(01:31:57):
game and you know, when I was like replaying it this week, I
walking around when you look at like the textures and things on,
on the 3D, it's really low quality stuff like, you know,
this is this is low budget, thisis, you know, it was designed to
work on the Switch 1. You know, they've it's not like
the most like detailed rendered 3D art you've seen or anything,

(01:32:21):
but they get so much out of whatthey've got there.
I'm very, I find it very, very impressive.
And like this goes to the voice acting as well, like and the
music. So you've got the visuals
looking stunning and then you'vegot like, I think like this is
some of the best voice acting like I've ever heard in a game.
I think it was the first thing, the first time I played it, that

(01:32:43):
really struck me. And I was a bit surprised, like,
oh, why have they not got the same voice?
But I think that the voices sounded almost similar enough
that they did sound like sisters, and they did sound like
they had their own kind of personalities.
And I think that was probably the point to make the, you know,
not make them seem too much likeclones like at this point

(01:33:08):
thousand years later, like things are, you know, these
these women have like all like kind of branched off in all
these different areas and roles.So yeah, I really, really like
the voice acting. I'm also like, really into
narrative stories where it feelslike you're kind of going down a
rabbit hole. So you're like going inside of

(01:33:30):
of like a well, the communions or they feel a bit like a dream
almost, or a memory. And you're like diving in and
you're, you're watching these things and, you know, you find
out halfway through spoilers that that it's been, I think
you've been playing as blue the whole time and you've been like
communing and figuring out what Watcher was doing.

(01:33:51):
And it's like, oh, it's like a, you know, a memory within a
memory kind of thing. And I just, I really like that.
I know that 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim was an inspiration for this
game. And that's another like one of
my favourites. So it really feels like, oh,
you're going down and you think you know what's going on, but
you're just scratching the surface.
Like keep going. There's like way more down there

(01:34:14):
for you. I've had that one on my shelf
for a while now I want to play it even more.
So good. But yeah, like, I just think
it's 1000 times there is just very elegant, very well written,
extremely deep law. Like they have like almost their
religion and their language and the way they talk, the hecky

(01:34:38):
Elmo, hecky grace, it just kind of throws you in to this world
without really any introduction.I think that takes a lot of,
like, guts to do that and pull it off.
So yeah, like I'm kind of just like in awe of how it's been
crafted. However, my dislikes as we've
already mentioned the orchard. So talk about that.

(01:35:00):
That's going to be on all. 3 I think for me, I just tend to
prefer games that are a bit morelike maybe emotionally touching
and there are like some very emotional moments.
I guess there's like almost too many of them.
There's like there's So I find there's so much going on.

(01:35:21):
I'm kind of don't know what to focus on and it almost, it's
like perhaps there isn't like time to pause on something that
is really emotional, that is to maybe quite upsetting.
I, I do like a game that like makes me cry or like really gets
like some emotion out of me and it didn't do that.

(01:35:41):
So that's only my criticism. I, I think, and I think that's
just a me thing, but it is still, it is still a thing of
like, I think it's really well designed.
I'm not that fussed about there not being too much action or
puzzles or anything. I, I really like the Life of

(01:36:02):
Strange Games and just walking around and talking to people is
usually enough for me. But yeah, it, it's just, it
didn't quite like hit me right in the fields.
And that's just, I think that's just dependent on who you are
really. Yeah, well, I highly recommend
to you my secret game for today,which I kind of want to leave

(01:36:22):
you in suspense even though the listener already knows it, but
I'll send it to you after. OK, OK, cool.
All right, awesome. And then Are you ready to assign
a score to the game out of 10? Yeah.
So I would give it a nine out of10.
Nice. Very good.
Yeah. One of your favorite games from
last year. That's no surprise.
And I find myself agreeing with a lot of what you each said.

(01:36:46):
I have now replayed the game, and I appreciate so much about
it even more. This might be a game I want to
revisit again in maybe a year ortwo.
And I think I would I would notice new things and I might
talk about this later, but I wasnoticing little details, little
foreshadowing moments in early chapters that would have been

(01:37:07):
just totally over my head in thefirst play that I did.
And so there's a lot of thought,a lot of thoughtfulness in
leaving those bread crumbs and just kind of having all these
through lines that intersect andweave.
And I think this story is so wholly unique.
There's so much to think about and take away.

(01:37:27):
I agree with both of you that the voice acting is superb.
There are tons of dramatic and committed performances.
And on the topic of the the vocal cords sort of diverging a
bit, that point specifically reminds me of listening to old
recordings of myself, Lucy Discoand I used to do a radio show

(01:37:49):
here at the station where we're recording.
We first did that over 10 years ago now.
And I go back and listen to someof our recordings and I find
that my voice sounds different. And I think that that can kind
of show that, you know, maybe just physically we evolve over
time. And so our vocal cords are going
to change. But I also think how we carry

(01:38:10):
ourselves, what we think about ourselves, what we might be
going through at a certain time,that can affect our voice.
And so those little touches makeme think about the human
experience too. I, I still record a lot of the
announcements around here and it'll just just, depending on
the week, you know, can jump back and forth between different
sounds. Yeah, definitely.

(01:38:31):
I listen to a film podcasts that's been going on for I think
around 15 years. And the host has said that he
doesn't like listening to his old episodes from the early
years because he had a lot of sinus stuff and he just sounded
different. He doesn't really like putting
those episodes out there anymore.
Just just fascinating. I I love that idea of how the

(01:38:51):
voices can can differ. Very tiny point, but just wanted
to sidetrack on that. No, that's really interesting.
Yeah. I also love that the game has so
much personality and this mannerof speaking.
You mentioned a lot of these Lucy, like Hecky Grace, the
roles of the sisters and what those each mean, what what their
responsibilities are, the natureof the occupants and how they

(01:39:16):
use memory and then the idea of communions.
All of it is so interesting and has a lot of texture.
And there's this idea of show, don't tell.
We see that a lot in movies where instead of doing an
exposition dump, show us the details of the world.
I actually think this is a game that really succeeds in showing

(01:39:40):
and telling. I think immediately you're shown
a lot in the Orchard and other places, but then also you're
just told they're speaking in this way and you don't always
know what's going on. But I found that especially in
the replay, there were plenty ofopportunities to get that
context. I just needed to know where to

(01:40:01):
look. So a lot of the vernacular of
the place that confuses me at first.
Noah has a little section, a little area with all of the
purple shells. You can talk to one of the she's
kind of a librarian. She'll give you these
explanations for a lot of these sayings if you take the time to

(01:40:22):
look. And so it's one of those games
that gives you more the more youexplore and the more you dig,
which I always really appreciate.
I find that every chapter is distinct too.
I always love that in chapterized games, you can look
at any chapter and you can know,OK, Chapter 1 is where we're
exploring that school. Chapter 2 is in the first

(01:40:44):
person. It's a very different
perspective. And we're going back through
Iris's early life. We're seeing stuff about her
parents. Chapter 8 is this entirely like
2.5 D side scrolling level that's so unlike everything
else. So every chapter you can look at
it and you can immediately know where you are in the story,

(01:41:04):
what's going on, and it helps you segment things in your mind
as you're piercing together things.
So you get a totally different experience all the time in this
game. And also the game is just super
surprising. You'd you'd never know at a
certain point what it's going tothrow at you.
I stopped guessing what was going to happen after like

(01:41:24):
chapter 3 or 4 because I realized, OK, there's no way I
can even ever be close to right.So I'm just going to let this
game take me on a ride. And chapter 6 onward in
particular, like really changes things up.
So I just, I love that too. I have several dislikes as well.

(01:41:45):
I find that with all the events of the story, my awareness of
things, the temporal order and organization of things can feel
a little bit scattered. It's it's hard to keep the the
events straight in my mind sometimes as far as like
sequences of things. And sometimes I don't know how
much time has passed between events.

(01:42:06):
They might tell you later, but there are times where I am so
disoriented that I feel like I'malso trying to pay attention to
what's being said to me, but I'malso trying to catch up, if that
makes sense. Yeah.
So it can kind of be a lot. And that's also contributing to
my need to take breaks. Honestly, it can kind of be a
heavy story. It can be a lot of information

(01:42:28):
to absorb, but then the organization of the story can
require me to just need to take a break, think about it, let it
percolate in my mind. I found too, that there are
groups and factions throughout the story that might have
deserved a bit more attention. O I'm thinking of like

(01:42:48):
bartenders friends, the gang that Chris runs from Old Town.
Yeah, when I got to the ending, those were the two that I'm
like, I don't really even remember where I met you.
Yeah. And on my replay I had the same.
You had the same thing happen, Lucy.
Yeah, like I when they said Chris, I was like, wait, who's

(01:43:09):
that? And you know, at the end, it's
this choice. And you're like, I don't, I
don't really know. I guess I'll just leave the
light on. Yeah.
It's yeah. So sometimes you're making these
choices that are sort of half informed on replay.
I'm noticing that they're bringing these characters up in
a special way to help reinforce them in my mind.

(01:43:30):
So I get what they're doing, butI still feel like I want to know
more about the characters. And I guess that's kind of a
compliment to that. I just want to know more about
all the factions here. There are also the people, the
the religious factions that you do get a taste of, but maybe a
little bit more could have been told there.

(01:43:51):
I also find that, like you said Lucy, there can be a lot of
emotional moments but also a lothappening at once.
And so it can feel a bit scattered and it can feel a bit
difficult to focus on what I should be focusing on.
But that's going to hit different for every player
depending on your personal experience.

(01:44:12):
And then the point about navigating the orchard, that
persists from my first play to my replay for sure.
But overall, I think 1000 Times Resist is such a surprising and
textured and ambitious piece of science fiction.
Replaying it has me even more inawe of what it does.

(01:44:34):
I'm going to rate it a nine out of 10 like Lucy.
So all of us love it. All of us had a great time.
When we look at the game, it's definitely a narrative first
experience. And so I want to go to the
storytelling and the style of 1000 times Resist.
What is making this game significantly different than

(01:44:54):
other games? I know we've touched on this a
little bit, but is there anything specifically that jumps
out at you, especially when you think back to all 10 chapters?
Yeah. So I think I mentioned it a bit
before with the cinematography. I don't think there are that
many games that really take it to this level as particularly of

(01:45:15):
this like size and scale and budget.
Even, you know, a AAA game is more shot like a film or a movie
when I think of like maybe The Last of Us, you know, great,
great game, but it's very, it's very much, you know,
conversational, very realistically looking very

(01:45:37):
realistically lit. Whereas here it's just so it's
so striking and it has this visual style like pretty much
across like the whole game. Even when you're looking at
things in the past that happenedwhen Iris was still like a young
teenager living with her parents, it still has this kind
of haze about it. And I, I really, I just, I just

(01:46:00):
think that's really, really striking.
But I'm really interested to know what you guys think.
So for me, immediately the thingthat stands out in my mind is
that when we're, especially whenwe're doing communions and then
again in like chapter 8 or 9, weuse that ability to jump forward

(01:46:21):
and backward through different time periods.
And that's a really interesting way to keep you in the same
room, keep you in the same setting, so you don't have to do
all that walking or whatever, but still deliver a timeline of
events. And so I think that's that's the
first thing that pops into my head that is kind of different

(01:46:42):
from anything else I've experienced before.
Yeah, the time jumping I noticedAI noticed something this time
that I breezed past it when I first played.
But in Chapter 7, I believe you do a sequence of jumping through
times and you see a character standing in front of something.
I'm just going to keep it vague.And then you time jump forward

(01:47:03):
and it's there's a character in that exact same spot and they're
standing in front of something else.
And then you time jump again andthere's another character
standing in that same spot looking over something else.
And it's showing over the courseof so much time, cause and
effects, I think is what what's going on here.
And I found that super powerful.I was cycling through all of
them and it's just, it's the same framing.

(01:47:26):
It's the same stage picture thatwe're seeing, but who is
occupying the picture changes over time.
And in a moment it wordlessly shows you cause and effects as
I, I found just that small moment.
I don't see that with time jumping in other games.
Usually when I'm time jumping or, you know, switching time

(01:47:48):
periods, there's a very drastic change and sometimes it's just a
subtle change that really grabs me in this game.
I would also say striking is a great way to explain how the
storytelling feels, and I think it can happen just with camera
angles and hard hard cuts to help to help.

(01:48:10):
So, yeah, because I, you know, when I played it again this
week, I was actually, I made a note of that like the hard cuts.
I, I didn't, I didn't really notice it the first time I
played, but there's so many of them.
And usually, you know, most games like will fade out or
it'll be really gentle. I don't think I've seen a game

(01:48:30):
use hard cuts as much or as wellas this one does.
And there's something very impressed.
There's something subtle about that, I think when something
hard cuts and we see maybe it feels like something's cut short
and so there's a conflict there.There's a a sense of unease in
the player, like I didn't get tosee everything, or I feel like

(01:48:53):
I'm on a cliffhanger a bit, or we jump to something that's
completely unexpected. It adds a a feeling of suspense
maybe. Yeah, For me, it's like I'm, I
am no longer in control of that situation that I just hard cut
away from. So I can't control its outcome.
And it makes me kind of like, nervous, scared, like, yeah.

(01:49:14):
And it just. Yeah, it's like you're on edge
the whole time whilst you're playing.
That feeling that anything couldhappen is is persistent because
of style choices like that for sure.
And yeah, I would just also add that the game loves to subvert
your expectations and keep you guessing.
Chapter 6 onward. You're going to places you could
never predict because you don't realize the scope.

(01:49:36):
You don't know the boundaries ofthe place.
Yeah, and the rules, the rules change drastically at that point
too. But so Next up, how did our
experiences or expectations evolve throughout the story?
I know Beau said that he kind oflike gave up after a while
expecting anything, but how about you, Lucy?

(01:50:00):
Yeah, I think I, the first time I played it, I had a similar
kind of experience, like, oh, I,I, I don't really know where
this is going. Especially like after chapter 5.
I, you know, you think like, oh,we're pretty much going to wrap
up now, right? Like we've seen how this started
and it's like this is more like a a prequel or an introduction

(01:50:21):
the first five chapters. And then it's like, no, no,
we're going to, we're going to keep going.
And I was a bit like, first I was a little taken back, like,
oh, I thought this was going to end.
Like, I'm not, I'm not sure where this is going to go now.
And that at this point you're inlike unknown waters.
Like who is blue? What is this Old Town underneath

(01:50:42):
the orchard? Like what is all this?
Who are why there's so many miscellaneous here.
So yeah, like at that point it felt like the rug had been
pulled a bit. Yeah, a lot of what was
surprising to me were little things.
And I look at this, the pitch for the game, I look at the
story set up, and I think it's going to be this heavy, highly

(01:51:05):
emotional story. And it is.
But I was also taken aback by how funny it can be in a usually
a dark way. It'll happen in dialogue, but
also just passing moments, just moments you might miss running
through the orchard. You'll hear shells having these
side conversations. They, you know, because they

(01:51:25):
have they have moments where they're talking about current
events and they'll just say these like really catty comments
about you or someone else. And it's like, whoa.
And I always laugh at those because it's like this gossip
that's happening. And you think, oh, that that
probably would happen in in a place like this where there's a
lot of drama and there's a purple shell that overanalyzes

(01:51:49):
everything. And I, I just, every time I
interacted with her, I was laughing too.
So yeah, I and then there are times where a character will
just say something so brutal in such a smart way, in such a
brilliant way that that can be funny too, even if they're like
kind of taking down another character.
So yeah, that's something that Iwould note as surprising.

(01:52:12):
I think for me, my expectations evolved the most in regards to
like certain characters. So I knew pretty early on that I
wasn't going to love Iris for most of the game, if not all of
it. But like I would say that in

(01:52:32):
most cases, when I was like pretty sure I knew how I felt
about a character, something would happen maybe way, way down
the line and it would just be like, oh, no, I actually really
like this character, you know, and, and even like sometimes the
needle would move a little bit and then later it would move a
lot. And I'm thinking specifically of

(01:52:54):
like, healer, you know, early onI'm just like, I don't really
care about healer. And then the needle moves a
little bit during communion, butthen later on I'm just like, oh,
no, healer's great. I love healer so much.
So I thought I felt a certain way about her.
And I was, I was just like, wrong.
And certain characters are more complex in that way, like

(01:53:15):
nowhere and nowhere's full storyline.
And you're allowed to feel a lotof different ways about her
depending on who you are definitely.
So she she gets to be a little bit more ambiguous.
I remember at the end turning the light on and off and on and
off on. I think it was nowhere like

(01:53:37):
multiple times. I kept going over to her lamp
and I'd turn it off and I'd be like, well, hold on.
I'd go over to secretary and I'mlike, I'm ready to block this in
and secretary's like, Are you sure?
It's so. It's so perfect how they do it.
They know that you're probably going to have second guesses
about things. And I turn around 180° and I'm

(01:53:58):
like, oh, she's all the way down, let me go down there.
And I turn it, I turn it on and I turn it off and I turn it on.
So yeah, I there are so many Gray areas.
With the characters and can I make a note about that moment
that I still don't think spoils anything?
Their specific word choice is will you care?
I know. And that's like such a heavy way

(01:54:21):
to phrase that question it. Is and just.
I love the writing in that section, specifically the way
they describe the implications of carrying something forward,
carrying a group of people forward.
Like a hammer when it's needed and when it's not.
Just like. So dope, so poetic.
Yeah, I am very much in awe, like, as a, you know, a visual

(01:54:45):
Marvel writer, like how well thewriting is and how heavy it is,
not just in that scene, but in pretty much every chapter.
It's so beautiful. And it's like, you know, I was
always saying with the shots before even, like all the words
have been like, really thought out.

(01:55:08):
It's so beautifully designed. Yeah, it feels like whoever was
responsible for the writing was really closely involved with the
environment, and whoever was responsible for crafting, like
the spatial placement of things.Everything feels so intentional,
just in every single chapter. And then this is something I'm

(01:55:30):
so curious about because I was taking away different themes
this time. I feel like there are very
explicit themes that you could take away.
I think they're also implicit themes throughout.
What themes of the storytelling were were profound to us?
I really liked the story when itwas talking about Iris and her

(01:55:54):
parents and how they immigrated to Canada, particularly around
the time of the Hong Kong riots.And we see like, certain parts
of the game we're running through like a 3D corridor.
And then you start seeing like the smoke and, you know, the
guys with the masks and everything.

(01:56:16):
And it's really, well, like, theway it comes in like this is
really effective. I particularly like the story
with the parents though, becauseI think I one of my favorite
characters is probably her dad. I can't really like put my
finger on why. He just seems quite kind of

(01:56:39):
thoughtful, empathetic kind of character.
I think in contrast to like Iris's mum, who is quite most of
the time you just hear her voicethrough the door.
And I can really sympathise withIris of like why she kind of
wants to get away from them. And like later on, like when

(01:57:00):
they kind of have that reconciliation, like right at
the end where Iris and her mum are both on the stairs, it comes
from like a place of parental love.
And, you know, I think Iris asks, like, how did you do it,
mum? How did you actually, like raise
me? How did how did you do it?
And she's like, well, your dad was there.

(01:57:20):
I just thought it was just very,very beautiful in this, like,
otherwise quite troubled, difficult family, you know?
And they're all like, you know, having a great stress because
they've like, left their home country and they have to try and
make it work. And they have this apartment,
which I feel like it's really small by design on purpose.

(01:57:43):
So, yeah, like I think that was the part that kind of got to me
the most. And I think that Irises story
being raised in Canada contrasted very well with Zhao,
who moved later and didn't have the kind of, you know, the
benefit of like learning Englishyounger, fitting in with the

(01:58:06):
other students, all this kind ofstuff.
And I think that's quite explicit.
It's quite obvious. But yeah, I thought their
friendship like Iris and Zhao is, at least for me, it was very
similar to like a relationship Ihad with my friend, except I was

(01:58:26):
more in the Zhao position when Iwas younger.
And I was kind of like looking up to her, like, oh, I want to
be just like you. And it just felt very real.
So this like friendship that's troubled and this parent child
relationship that's also troubled, but both of them still
appreciate. And I think by the end, Iris

(01:58:48):
really kind of loved Xiao. She just was terrible at showing
it. Yeah, there's, there's a lot I
think about with generational stuff and what's passed down.
And I think there's a lot that'sexplored with things that you
might be very well aware that you're inheriting from a
previous generation, but then things that you don't know

(01:59:09):
about, you might never fully comprehend or understand.
And I think pain and sort of inheriting pain is something
that I, I took away here. Like pain begets pain,
wrongdoing begets wrongdoing. We see how someone being in a
bad place can cause a ripple effects.

(01:59:32):
It was it was really hard to watch and something I that made
me reflect back on my own life. So we see how Iris was wronged
and then Zhao and then youngest and then a lot more sisters
after that. And so it just made it's.
Definitely got that that theme of like generational trauma I
think for sure. Right.
And so it all kind of goes back to that immigration and Iris's

(01:59:56):
upbringing and her parents like you can, everything sort of
stems from there. So I think showing us that as
early as Chapter 2 is really powerful.
And you mentioned the the apartment being so small,
there's something extra impactful about those moments
often being in the first person,at least in the first, like in

(02:00:20):
Chapter 2 when we first go there, that being in the first
person. It really puts us in the gaze of
being in that place. It's very immersive and it feels
even more sort of claustrophobic.
And so you can understand why Iris would want to maybe escape
that and. Like.
Here's this reason. Here's this reason.

(02:00:41):
That's like suddenly blowing up their lives and she has an out.
And you can, you can take havingit stem from that immigration
and consider it coming full circle for another theme that I
really enjoyed, which is maybe the most shallow theme, but like
the theme of revolution and, youknow, resistance to authority.

(02:01:05):
And that's, that's a theme in the the latter half of the game
that I obviously enjoyed. But that's that's obviously I
knew you would love more of a shallow enjoyment.
I knew you would love. That very explicit and very much
in line with how I feel lately so.
Yes, definitely. It's a game for our times.

(02:01:27):
Oh, for sure. Yeah, definitely.
So what? What were our favorite
characters? Favorite story moments?
What's what's, who and what stands out the most?
I I find it difficult to pick a character I don't like, to be
honest. I think I really like having a

(02:01:48):
cast full of female characters because that just doesn't really
happen. And I know Disco said he didn't
like Iris. I can't just sympathize with her
at the end. It did come around a little bit.
She is like, she is very mean and nasty and that is her
character and she isn't necessarily someone I'd like to

(02:02:11):
like hang around with, but I still really connected with her
somehow. This like difficulty of like,
you know, how do you how do you perform like a mother?
How do you do these things? Like she seems so lost and she's

(02:02:32):
just trying her best. But she, you know, obviously has
these violent outbursts and likekills like quite a few people or
like clones anyway. But when you when you think
about like she's been kind of experimented on, we don't really
know the details of exactly whatlike the 50 were doing to her,

(02:02:54):
but it mustn't have been that nice.
And then she's got all these like little clones going around
that she didn't really agree to at the start.
And it's just really, I, I thinkthat's what I find really
interesting about this kind of clone story is like, it is just
this like sole human survivor and she's just a teenage girl

(02:03:18):
and it really throws her in thissituation.
So I do have a bit of a soft spot for her.
I also have a soft spot for Zhaobecause she was treated really
badly. But at the same time, you can
understand why the Iris wasn't far off being treated the same.

(02:03:38):
And she's like, I just want to fit in.
I don't want to associate with you because I want to be
accepted. It feels very normal for like a
high school. It's like age.
Yeah, it's like Zhao being therein front of Iris.
It's like this reminder of what she doesn't want.
And so she might not actually feel hatred toward the person.
It's hatred toward their situation, but it comes out as

(02:04:01):
just treating them so awfully. Yeah, exactly.
And I think it's just this fear of like other people like
picking on her or bullying her and she's like, I, you know, I
have to stay away from Zhao. I don't want to looking like me.
I don't want to following me. It's really like quite painful.

(02:04:21):
But then I I think the first character I really liked was
Fixer. I but this is mostly because of
why I love the helm. I love the design and Fixer and
I also really love Fixer's voiceactress.
I think I just, she has a slightly different voice and I
just really like it. I've found that more recently
this is a voice actor that I like.

(02:04:43):
I, I just kind of gravitate to put that character like, I
really like you. Yeah, there there are moments
with Fixer where the story just sort of roars to life.
Suddenly at the end of Chapter 7, there's a moment that I just
one of my favorite moments from the game.
So yeah, fixers in my list too. I would say Iris slash all

(02:05:04):
mother like just as a very complex character, a character
with so many layers and one thatI find myself sort of relating
to in more ways than I would have expected when it comes to
like story moments. I was really loving a lot of the
foreshadowing moments I referredto earlier.
There is a moment in chapter 1 where Watcher is sort of

(02:05:27):
summarizing her learnings and she reports to Principal that
Iris was mean and principal. Principal just says yes, yes she
was. And after you and after, you
know the deal behind principal. It's just in retrospect that
just 4 words carries so much weight, but you don't know that

(02:05:49):
at first. So it's sort of over your head.
So that's. Really.
Cool. I was loving those little
moments this time. And then in Chapter 7, I thought
the game did this really interesting splicing of there's
a character in prison and where we have their perspective, but
they fade in and out. And when they are sort of faded

(02:06:11):
out, we see memories of Iris's parents.
And on paper that might sounds like very disparate stuff.
It might sound like a mismatch, but I found that those two sides
actually really complemented each other.
And that's another thing where it's like, I didn't expect more
about Iris's parents this late into the game, but here we are.

(02:06:33):
And I thought that was super effective storytelling because
we're learning about their perspective, but we're also
seeing it through this character's subconscious while
they're passed out and stuff. Just so good.
Really good. I think there's a scene there
where the parents are both dancing on the table and they're
and they're dancing. It kind of changes its shot and

(02:06:55):
they keep dancing and that feelslike the best way to rebel
against like everything that wasgoing on is like just Just
Dance. And it's again, beautifully like
shot and lit and it's the, the kind of scene that I think I it
stays in my head the most. Nice.
That was powerful too. That's another instance where
you're switching time periods and what you see there's

(02:07:19):
something familiar, but there's also something new.
And the through line is love. It's just very powerful.
For me, I wish I had a more hipster answer than this, but my
favorite characters ended up being blue and Watcher.
Like you get to see Watcher, youknow, perceive the world for

(02:07:42):
more of what it really is and just kind of like shatters this
indoctrinated sort of perception.
And, you know, generally, I think the world could use a
little bit more of that. And then I really liked Blue's
disposition just in general. And I, I just really loved Blue
and, and her willingness to get done what she felt was

(02:08:05):
important, that she felt that things were bigger than herself
and that she was kind of workingfor the betterment of all of
clone kind. And I found her character to be
really powerful and and relatable, but not not the
coolest answer to that question.Yeah, as far.

(02:08:27):
As I like Watcher a lot, it's a very Watcher is a very nice
character to be the protagonist that you play us.
I think she's very emotional andfeels the emotions very similar
to how the players experiencing it and in a very kind of
empathetic way. I think like, maybe that's the

(02:08:49):
point that Watch is meant to feel quite relatable.
I really like to, yeah. Definitely feels kind of like an
audience surrogate, like ideallythis is kind of how I would be
in this situation, but it's alsoso hard to imagine myself in
this situation too. So yeah, I also love that
answer. And then for moments, I'm glad
you brought up the chapter in the prison, because toward the

(02:09:13):
end of that experience in the prison, it was a very shocking
moment with Nowhere. And I I kind of forgot about it.
But now that you've reminded me,I'm like, I can't believe this
is where we got to kind of. So it's just like, wow, unreal.
But yeah, the communion with Nowhere in Chapter 5 was a

(02:09:36):
memorable one for me just because it's so weird compared
to most of the other ones. And you know, conversely,
chapters where we are interacting with the the
occupants 'cause they're just such strange aliens and, and so
just like experiencing them is. It's interesting.

(02:09:58):
There's such a strange distance between them and the characters
of the story, but it's like the occupants don't even care or
realize that distance, right? Yeah.
They they just have no perception of that.
Yeah. It's, it's like a, yeah, a
totally different perception of reality.
And that's, that's fascinating to me, yeah.

(02:10:18):
Yeah, I feel like they're the most alien aliens I've really
seen because they're not, they're not even really
physical. They, you know, they almost just
look like beams of light that have then decided to shape into
this headless human. And what the way you try and
communicate with them is just, you know, they're even just
trying to figure that out. You know, it goes beyond like

(02:10:39):
what we've seen of Aliens in like other films or like games.
I feel like, you know, they're abit of a mystery.
Even when you finish the game or, or replayed it, you're still
a bit like these occupants. They're really strange.
Like what is their deal? Yeah, I want more about them.
That's actually an expectation that I had early on is that we

(02:11:01):
would know more about them and by the end of the story, like
there's a lot, there's a lot that's done with them, but I
feel like there's a, there's a whole story, there's a whole
game maybe about them or something.
And there's there's a whole stretch of the game where it's
like you're not even thinking about them for.
A while, and then when they comeback, it's like, Oh yeah, that's
the whole side of this thing too.
Wow. Yeah.

(02:11:21):
Incredible stuff. Those are all of our topics that
we had. But Lucy, is there anything else
you want to say about 1000 timesResist before we wrap up?
I think it's one of the best, like, indie narrative
experiences in recent years. And if you haven't played it but
you've listened to us talk so much about it, you should

(02:11:43):
definitely check it out. It's really well directed and
designed. There was one small point that I
really liked where I think it's in Chapter 6.
So you're in Old Town and I think it's just after bartender
is shot, you Walk Away is blue and the quest log that you've

(02:12:09):
seen throughout the game that's usually saying like, oh, it's
optional. You can go and talk to healer or
you should go and talk to Noah now or whatever.
That just fills up with like hate.
It's like go do this. Actually, no, go speak to Chris.
Actually, no, don't speak to Chris.
Go shoot someone, go get a gun or whatever.
And it just fills up with like all these angry thoughts.

(02:12:30):
I'm like, I love it when games kind of break out of the kind of
frame almost and like jump into the UI or almost out of the
screen. I really liked, you know, seeing
that again. I'd forgotten that that had
happened. So yeah, like it.
It really like pushes the boundaries in like so many

(02:12:52):
different ways and it's just a, it's just a feast really.
It's great. That's such a good way to find
it. Absolutely.
A lot to chew on with the game, Lucy.
Thank you endlessly for helping us review it and also for
talking about yourself so much earlier in the episode.
We really appreciate it. One more time, could you tell us

(02:13:12):
where to find your games? Sure, yes, my games are on
Steam. One Night Stand is on all
platforms. If you want to keep in touch,
the best way is on Blue Sky or Mastodon.
I'm there as Kinmoku. But also a really cool way if
you want to keep up to date withmy games, I have a newsletter.

(02:13:34):
My website is Kinmoku dot Games.And whenever I've got like an
update or sometimes I do giveaways, that is the best way
to see what I'm up to. Yeah.
And thank you so much for inviting me and talking about
this incredible game, because itis a meaty game.
There is so much to talk about with it.

(02:13:54):
Yeah, there is. It feels like maybe we've just
scratched the surface, but yeah,every review is special in its
own way. Everybody takes away something
else. And it was great having your
perspective here, too. So thank you again, Lucy.
We wish you all the best luck going forward with your next
game and everything else. Thank you.
Thank. You so much.
Thank you. Well, that is our review of 1000

(02:14:17):
Times Resist. You can play it on PC and
Switch. Lucy rated it a nine.
Disco Cola rated it a 9.5. I rated it a nine.
That's the end of this episode of Underplayed.
You can find more of our episodes at kzum.org/underplayed
and on common podcast platforms such as Spotify or Apple
Podcasts. Our music was composed by Jack

(02:14:37):
Rodenberg. Our arts comes from Oni Mochi.
Check out our show notes where you can find and follow us
across social media. Underplayed is on on Blue Sky,
Instagram and Threads. You can also find my links down
below. And I am at Disco Cola in many
of those places as well. And hey, Underplayed is on
Twitch as Underplayed podcast, where by the time this episode's

(02:14:58):
out, we've probably finished Human Fall Flat, I hope.
But we also premiere early our episodes the night before their
proper release. Yes, and next time we will have
two more secret games to review.Our featured game will be Human
Fall Flat, a puzzle platform game developed by No Breaks
Games. And until then, everyone keep on

(02:15:18):
playing.

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084 - South of the Circle, Fresh Tracks, & 1000xRESIST (Guest: Lucy Blundell, AKA Kinmoku)

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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;}084 - South of the Circle, Fresh Tracks, & 1000xRESIST (Guest: Lucy Blundell, AKA Kinmoku)