A Study in Games Podcast – Spelunky – S7, E5

Spelunky game title
Spelunky by Mossmouth

Greetings all you cave divers out there in podcast land, and welcome to this month’s episode. For the last game in our season of procedurally generated games, Tanner chose the classic game Spelunky developed and produced by Mossmouth. We were all surprised at how challenging this game was, but the challenge sparked a great little chat about how our perceptions of games change with age and our worldview as gamers.

Give us a listen on the link above or on your favorite podcast service. And, as always, if you played Spelunky along with us, please share your thougts with us in the comments below, on the Little Rock Games Facebook page, or on our Discord channel. We’d love to hear from you!


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – Wildermyth – S7, E4

Wildermyth logo banner
Wildermyth by Worldwalker Games

Hello storytellers and mythmakers, and welcome to this episode of A Study In Games Podcast. In keeping with our theme of procedurally generated games, this season this month, we played Wildermyth, developed and published by Worldwalk Games. As their website describes it …

“Wildermyth is a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG, designed to help you tell your wildest stories. Like the best tabletop roleplaying experiences, Wildermyth gives you choices and answers your every decision with consequences that drive your characters forward.”

Join us for the podcast as we talk about the magic of automated storytelling and the pitfalls of wanting to see behind the curtain a little too much. And if you played Wildermyth along with us, be sure to tell us what you think in the comments below, on the Little Rock Games Facebook page, or on our Discord channel! We’d love to hear from you.


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – Valheim – S7, E3

Valheim Title Banner
Valheim from Iron Gate AB and Coffee Stain Publishing.

Hej Viking vänner! (That’s Swedish for “Hello, Viking friends!”) We’ve been playing the super popular Valheim for the month of March as part of our season of procedurally generated games. Valheim, developed by Iron Gate AB Studio and published by Coffee Stain Publishing, is a viking-themed survival-crafting game set in an enormous procedurally generated world. It’s been EXPLODING on Steam with over 5.5 MILLION copies sold in the first five weeks! Du skojar!

Join us as we talk about the survival-craft genre, the art of simplicity in making elegant games, and the thrill of being a fierce Viking who just wants to tend a little garden in the meadows. As a bonus, find out just how many hours Brad logged on both Valheim AND Elder Scrolls Online. The answer will shock you!

If you like the podcast or if you played Valheim along with us in March, let us know on the Little Rock Games Facebook page or on our Discord channel! We’d love to hear from you. Bygg gärna!


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – Caves of Qud – S7, E2

Caves of Qud title screen
Caves of Qud from Freehold Games

Hello fans of tiny, retro, pixel-graphics games, and welcome to this episode of A Study in Games podcast. This season, we’re playing procedurally generated games, and this month Joe picked Caves of Qud from Freehold Games. Join us as we talk about our nostalgia for retro RPGs, the art and poetry of randomness in big data sets, and leading your enemies into giant packs of baboons for the WIN! Let us know what you thought of the game in the comments below, on the Little Rock Games Facebook page, or on our Discord channel!


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – Kingdoms Reborn – S7, E1

Kingdoms Reborn title screen
Kingdoms Reborn by Earthshine Games

Happy New Year, podcast pals! Welcome to a brand new season of A Study in Games podcast. Our theme for this season is procedurally generated games, and for January 2021, we played Kingdoms Reborn, developed and published by Earthshine. It’s a fun mix of city-builder game and civilization game with impressive procedurally generated maps, global trade economics, and an interesting “card” system that we haven’t seen before in this genre of game.

Join us in the podcast as we discuss the ins and outs of Kingdoms Reborn, the ups and downs of virtual economies, and the highs and (mostly) lows of “early access” games. And let us know what you thought of the game in the comments below, on the Little Rock Games Facebook page, or on our Discord channel!


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – Crescent Loom – S6, E5

Crescent Loom by Olive

Happy End of the Year, friends! We made it the end of another one, AND to the end of another season of A Study In Games Podcast! For Season 6, we featured games that were included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that ran in June of 2020 in support of the Black Lives Matter moment. For the month of November, Tanner picked the wonderful life sim game Crescent Loom by Olive as his game of the month.

Join us as we talk about sim games, the game/toy paradigm, and a bunch of stuff that we only half remember from our Biology classes in high school and undergrad. And, as always, if you played along with in the month of February or if you have any thoughts or comments on Crescent Loom, let us know in the comments below, on Little Rock Games Facebook page, or on our Discord channel!


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – American Election – S6, E4

American Election start screen logo.

My fellow Americans (and also non-Americans)! Welcome to this month’s episode of A Study In Games podcast. For Season 6, we’re featuring games that were included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that ran in June of 2020 in support of the Black Lives Matter moment. For the month of October, Robbie chose “American Election;” Greg Buchanan‘s browser-based, choose-your-own-adventure, interactive narrative game about a fictional alterative take on the 2016 American presidential election. Just in time for the 2020 election, this game had us on the edge of interesting entertainment and nervous anticipation for what’s to come in the next few days … or weeks or … GOD PLEASE LET IT BE OVER SOON! Give us a listen on the link above or on your favorite podcast service. And thank you for VOTING TODAY!!!

As always, if you played along with us this month, join the conversation in the comments below, on Little Rock Games Facebook page, or on our Discord channel!


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – User Is Typing – S6, E3

Header graphic for User Is Typing // Message Sent taken from the itch.io website.
User Is Typing // Message Sent

Hi friends! Welcome to this month’s episode of A Study In Games podcast. For Season 6, we’re featuring games that were included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that ran back in June in support of the Black Lives Matter moment. And for this episode, Olivia picked “User Is Typing // Message Sent;” a single-player, table-top, print-and-play game from Nevyn Holmes for our play-along game. Give us a listen on the link above or on your favorite podcast service.

As always, if you played along with us this month, join the conversation in the comments below or on the Little Rock Games Facebook page.


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – Tonight We Riot – S6, E2

Tonight We Riot Splash Screen
Tonight We Riot!

Hello Comrades and welcome to Episode 2 of Season 6 of our little podcast about the we play. This season, we’re featuring games that were included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that ran back in June in support of the Black Lives Matter moment. For this episode, Joe picked Tonight We Riot as his choice for us to play and discuss. Developed by Pixel Pushers Union 512 and published by Means Interactive, this fun little arcade platformer packs a mighty punch with it’s message solidarity, revolution, and takin’ it to The MAN. Give us a listen at the link above or on your favorite podcast service.

And as always, if you played along with us this month, join the conversation in the comments below or on the Little Rock Games Facebook page.

¡LA LUCHA CONTINUA!


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

A Study in Games Podcast – Odd Realm – S6, E1

Cartoonish image with each of the five in-game races on a landscape below the Odd Realm title .
Odd Realm from Unknown Origin Games Inc

Hello friends and welcome to Season 6, Episode 1 of our podcast. This season, we each picked a game from the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that was featured on itch.io back in June. For July, we picked Odd Realm from Waylon Snedker at Unknown Origin Games Inc.

As the description on Steam put it, “Odd Realm is a settlement simulation game set in a procedurally generated, fantasy world where you control a group of Settlers to build, explore, and survive… probably…” We had a lot of fun playing this quirky take on the Rim World/Dwarf Fortress genre. Give us a listen at the link above or on your favorite podcast service.

And as always, if you’ve played Odd Realm we’d love to hear your thoughts. Tell us all about it in the comments below or on the Little Rock Games Facebook page.


Music credits: Plain Loafer, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/