If I Die
Wed, Oct 30, 2024 Year 2, Winter 18Al and Jonnie talk about mysteries in farming games
Timings
00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:01:39: What Have We Been Up To
00:16:54: News
00:31:01: New Games
00:36:55: Farming Mysteries
01:09:06: Outro
Links
Balatro Stardew Pack
Fae Farm Xbox Delay
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank on Mobile
Gourdlets “Spooky” Update
My Time at Sandrock “Anniversary” Update and “Love Chronicles” DLC
Horticular “Halloween” Update
Disney Dreamlight Valley Showcase
My Little Life
Ghost Town Pumpkin
Contact
Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot
Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/
Transcript
(0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to a spooky episode of the harvest season. My name is
(0:00:40) Jonnie: “My name is Johnny!”
(0:00:42) Al: No spooky version of your name, no?
(0:00:46) Jonnie: Sorry, I was laughing way too hard, that really caught me off guard.
(0:00:49) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:00:51) Jonnie: Do you think this video was made possible?
(0:00:53) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:00:53) Al: And we’re here today to talk about spooky games.
(0:00:55) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:00:56) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:00:57) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:00:58) Al: » [BLANK_AUDIO]
(0:00:58) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:00:59) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:00) Al: » Fantastic. I wasn’t planning to do that. There we go. Welcome. Yeah, we’re going to…
(0:01:00) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:01) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:02) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:03) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:04) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:05) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:06) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:07) Jonnie: What’s the point of this video?
(0:01:12) Al: This is the annual spooky episode that is totally original and no one else ever does.
(0:01:19) Al: We’re going to specifically talk about spooky stuff that is in farming games. And I’ll leave
(0:01:28) Al: Leave it to that just now and we’ll–
(0:01:30) Al: Leave you in the suspense unless you want to obviously skip forward to that chapter.
(0:01:34) Al: Which obviously you don’t want to do because you want to hear all the news that we’re going to talk about.
(0:01:39) Al: And also you want to hear what Johnny has been up to.
(0:01:42) Jonnie: Yeah
(0:01:45) Jonnie: Beat up just some games
(0:01:47) Jonnie: I’ve been playing the the Legend of Zelda Echoes of Middon
(0:01:52) Al: Echos of wisdom. Yeah.
(0:01:52) Jonnie: I feel like yeah, no, no, I’m gonna quite call it Middon cuz I
(0:01:57) Al: Oh, okay. I missed the joke first time round, sorry.
(0:01:58) Jonnie: don’t know so I
(0:02:02) Jonnie: I
(0:02:03) Jonnie: like the
(0:02:05) Jonnie: idea of what the game is trying to do and
(0:02:08) Jonnie: I feel like they ran out of ideas after about 36
(0:02:12) Jonnie: seconds, because the whole game is just use these echoes to climb up on things.
(0:02:18) Jonnie: That’s it. That’s the that’s the game, right?
(0:02:20) Jonnie: Like I it’s I’ve done like maybe the first three big riffs and I bounced off and I
(0:02:31) Jonnie: don’t really feel a strong desire to go back because I just don’t think that game
(0:02:35) Jonnie: is doing. It’s got a cool idea.
(0:02:37) Jonnie: It’s just not actually using that idea to do anything interesting is kind
(0:02:42) Al: So, what I would say is I don’t disagree with you in so much as you are right and the game
(0:02:49) Al: is basically figuring out different ways to climb up things, right? That is true. However,
(0:02:58) Al: I’m personally finding that fun because it’s more and more convoluted ways to climb up
(0:03:04) Al: on things because the, you know, the areas you have to reach are higher. But no, I mean,
(0:03:11) Al: not wrong and I can see how
(0:03:13) Al: that would not necessarily be fun for everyone.
(0:03:14) Jonnie: yeah like cool idea I think it suffers from a problem that I have with a lot of nintendo games
(0:03:21) Jonnie: that like the writing is exceptionally basic um like try hard you’re con I mean yeah like you’ve
(0:03:25) Al: Wait, is there writing in this game?
(0:03:29) Jonnie: got try hard right you’re like companion that just says the same thing over and over and is
(0:03:34) Jonnie: very annoying um you know like that oh my friends are stuck here and I can open a door and we have
(0:03:40) Jonnie: have to go around and find fight like it just feels this overly formulaic which I
(0:03:44) Jonnie: think is kind of depressing given the conceit of the game or the idea of the game is like
(0:03:50) Jonnie: creativity and like there’s no creativity in the world or the writing or anything else
(0:03:56) Jonnie: that’s going on around it.
(0:03:57) Jonnie: It’s just I don’t know for me this game is just kind of missed the mark in a way that
(0:04:01) Jonnie: I feel like I’m maybe out of step with the majority opinion but I just have higher expectations.
(0:04:07) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. I mean, I don’t think I’m not trying to claim it’s like game of the
(0:04:11) Al: year or anything, but I am having fun. I have taken a break from the game because the Pokemon
(0:04:19) Al: keep bringing me back and making me do things.
(0:04:22) Jonnie: But before we get to your jump back into Pokémon, the other game we’ve been playing, because
(0:04:27) Jonnie: it is Spooky Month, is Inscription.
(0:04:29) Jonnie: I don’t know if you’ve played Inscription, Al.
(0:04:36) Jonnie: I’ve had a lot of thought about how I described this game today, because it’s technically,
(0:04:42) Jonnie: I guess, a roguelite card game.
(0:04:44) Al: No
(0:04:47) Jonnie: That description also feels very, uh, unfair in that.
(0:04:52) Jonnie: Um, and so the description was really popular, like, I don’t know, or when it first came out.
(0:04:57) Al: Ah, never mind then.
(0:05:14) Al: Yes, that does make sense.
(0:05:20) Jonnie: I think it got quite, you know.
(0:05:22) Jonnie: And I thought it was good. I don’t think it was as good as, you know, I remember people being about it and I could be, you know, misremembering, but I kind of felt like it fell off.
(0:05:49) Jonnie: And it had one of those narratives that
(0:05:52) Jonnie: While decent, it did have a little bit of
(0:05:58) Jonnie: thinking it was more of an intelligent narrative than it was.
(0:06:04) Jonnie: It’s kind of a little bit flimsy when you start to scratch past the surface of what they try to do.
(0:06:09) Jonnie: But I think a cool concept, fine game for the length.
(0:06:14) Jonnie: I’m not a big spooky fan, so that’s about as spooky as I want to get in spooky month.
(0:06:16) Al: So not playing that, pumpkin panic.
(0:06:18) Jonnie: So that’s my bit for October.
(0:06:22) Jonnie: Uh, no. I will probably not be playing Pumpkin Pack.
(0:06:28) Al: Yeah, I don’t think I would play that again.
(0:06:30) Al: It was quite terrifying.
(0:06:32) Jonnie: Uh, but yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to. What have you been up to?
(0:06:36) Al: Yes, well, um, Pokemon for some reason.
(0:06:42) Jonnie: Why, Al? Why?
(0:06:42) Al: No, I think we all, I mean, we all, we all know the reason, right?
(0:06:45) Al: Like I’m getting my change.
(0:06:46) Al: You’re not being paying attention to that.
(0:06:48) Jonnie: No, I-I-I legitimately do not know.
(0:06:52) Al: So they added an update to Pokemon Home that meant that if you have completed the all three
(0:07:02) Al: Pokedexes for Scarlet and Violet, and you’ve transferred all of those Pokemon into Home
(0:07:09) Al: from the games, so they all have to be either caught or bred in Scarlet and Violet, then
(0:07:16) Al: Shiny Meloetta, which is the first time that Meloetta has been released as Shiny.
(0:07:22) Jonnie: Wait, what do you mean all three- all three Pokedexes?
(0:07:24) Al: So the Paldea Dex, and then the two DLC ones, the one for Kitikami and the one for Blueberry
(0:07:29) Jonnie: Ah, right.
(0:07:32) Al: Academy.
(0:07:32) Jonnie: I am, like, legitimately looking up Melloish now ‘cause I don’t even really know what that Pokemon is.
(0:07:37) Al: The Singing Pokemon.
(0:07:38) Al: It was Gen 5?
(0:07:39) Jonnie: That has not helped me at all.
(0:07:41) Al: Meloetta was Gen 5.
(0:07:44) Jonnie: I do not think I’ve ever seen this thing before.
(0:07:45) Al: This is where I find out if I’m a failure.
(0:07:46) Al: In my Pokemon knowledge, Gen 5, I was correct.
(0:07:49) Jonnie: It is.
(0:07:54) Al: Sad.
(0:07:55) Al: Well, there you go.
(0:07:57) Al: So I’ve been doing that and look, we all know those games have issues.
(0:08:06) Al: I’m not trying to claim they do not.
(0:08:11) Al: I’m not going to say I’m not enjoying myself, but I’m not going to say I am
(0:08:14) Jonnie: Yeah, so you’re not enjoying yourself.
(0:08:17) Al: I am not hating it.
(0:08:19) Jonnie: I’m sorry, we don’t understand.
(0:08:23) Jonnie: Well, not hating it, high praise from our home.
(0:08:29) Jonnie: I only dislike it, I don’t hate it.
(0:08:32) Al: OK, but moving on to something that I am still not sure whether I like or not,
(0:08:39) Al: and that is Ballattro, I decided to have been playing that more.
(0:08:42) Al: I think I talked about it on a previous episode, but I’ve been playing it more.
(0:08:46) Al: And I still can’t decide if I like it or not.
(0:08:51) Al: It feels I think the thing that annoys me is there’s no room for error, right?
(0:08:57) Al: If you you’ve played Ballattro, right?
(0:09:00) Al: Yeah, so I think the thing that frustrates
(0:09:03) Al: me is you get a really great run and then you have one round where or sorry,
(0:09:10) Al: not one round, what is it they call it, one blind where I know that is a round.
(0:09:15) Al: Anyway, it doesn’t matter where you just…
(0:09:16) Al: Have a terrible hand after terrible hand and there’s nothing you can do because it’s
(0:09:22) Al: only like, you know, you’ve only managed to have like a certain number of rounds before
(0:09:28) Al: and there wasn’t, you know, you’ve done all the things you could have done and it’s just
(0:09:32) Al: not worked out well and you fail it and then you’re like, well, back to the start, I guess.
(0:09:38) Al: And that I find very frustrating.
(0:09:41) Al: I am having fun with the figuring out different combinations of jokers and the best way to
(0:09:47) Al: use them to build up big hands.
(0:09:51) Al: It’s just really frustrating that then you’re like, oh, now I have to start it all again
(0:09:55) Al: from scratch after one failure.
(0:09:58) Al: Yeah, I don’t like that.
(0:09:59) Jonnie: Yeah, and I guess that’s kind of what they’re going for, right, because, you know, they want winning a run to be not a thing that happens all the time.
(0:10:10) Jonnie: And have you won a run yet?
(0:10:14) Al: No, not yet. I got to… I don’t know, so do you have to just do, is it the eight sets of blinds?
(0:10:19) Al: Is that how you win? By getting to the end of that? Right. I’ve been on seven out of eight.
(0:10:20) Jonnie: Yes. Yeah.
(0:10:25) Al: That’s the farthest I’ve been. I’ve never got to eight yet.
(0:10:25) Jonnie: Right. Yeah, so like my experience with Bellatro was like I was kind of in the same spot as you.
(0:10:34) Jonnie: I was like I don’t know if I’m really enjoying this and then I beat a run and then I went back
(0:10:40) Jonnie: and I was like I feel like I kind of cracked what the formula is for how to beat a run
(0:10:46) Jonnie: been beloved her and to your point like there’s lots of
(0:10:50) Jonnie: different combinations of jokers and different ways you could get there but
(0:10:54) Jonnie: I also couldn’t see many other parts like so I tried a couple of runs after
(0:11:01) Jonnie: beating it and like it was very obvious to me very early which runs were going
(0:11:05) Jonnie: to have a chance of being successful versus once I was like I’m not gonna
(0:11:10) Jonnie: make it very far and at that point I was like no I actually am not enjoying this
(0:11:14) Jonnie: like I got to do the thing where I beat it once so I sort of you know have seen
(0:11:19) Jonnie: what the game has to offer.
(0:11:20) Jonnie: And I just don’t think it’s a very good version of that sort of game.
(0:11:26) Jonnie: I would much rather play something like Slay the Spire.
(0:11:28) Al: Hmm. I keep hearing about Silly the Spire. I’ve never actually investigated it. So is
(0:11:33) Al: that what it’s like? A similar sort of idea?
(0:11:36) Jonnie: Yeah so Slay the Spire is, I guess, different in that there are different characters with very different deck styles and there’s a lot more, in my view, there is a lot more creativity in something like Slay the Spire.
(0:11:54) Jonnie: It’s probably not as popular as Bellatro because it doesn’t rely on common mechanics that I think are accessible to a wider group of people.
(0:12:00) Al: I don’t know, I feel like you hear a lot about Bellatro just now, but I’ve heard about Slay
(0:12:04) Jonnie: But, anyway.
(0:12:09) Al: the Spire from so many people over so many years that I feel like it is a very popular
(0:12:14) Al: game. It’s just Bellatro is newer and therefore it’s getting more attention right now.
(0:12:19) Jonnie: So I think Slay the Spire is very popular with people that are in the genre of these sorts of games.
(0:12:26) Jonnie: Whereas I feel like Bellatro has jumped out of people that are into deck builder games
(0:12:32) Jonnie: and has become more generically popular would be my take.
(0:12:37) Jonnie: So I think Bellatro is bringing in people that wouldn’t normally play these games
(0:12:40) Jonnie: whereas Slay the Spire was very much like people who are into these games know that
(0:12:45) Jonnie: play the Spire is like the premiere of of the
(0:12:50) Al: Okay, fair enough. It does, I don’t have exact numbers for these things, obviously, but it does
(0:12:55) Al: look like Balatro is outsold, Slay the Spire. 2 million sales for Balatro in August, and the
(0:13:01) Al: latest number I can see for Slay the Spire is 1.5. But that was in 2019, so it’s possible it’s
(0:13:08) Al: higher now. But obviously, as we know, these things always make the most of their sales very early on,
(0:13:15) Al: in the first couple of months, and then the first big sale.
(0:13:20) Al: Oh, 90% off. Well, I may as well buy it, then it would be rude not to.
(0:13:30) Al: I feel like I’m going to get to the same point as you did where I really do want to at least
(0:13:33) Al: have one run where I’ve completed it, especially as seeing as how, you know, I theorized that that
(0:13:40) Al: was it, like the out of eight meant that once you finish eight, you’ve beaten it. Because I’ve been
(0:13:48) Al: pretty close. I feel like I…
(0:13:50) Al: want to do that. Because I’m pretty sure I got a higher score in one round than the
(0:13:56) Al: round I failed. I just had a bad hand. And sometimes it’s just not possible to overcome
(0:14:03) Al: that if you’ve not. I guess people would argue if you get the right jokers then you can deal
(0:14:09) Al: with anything but I don’t think that’s quite true. There’s only so much.
(0:14:12) Jonnie: No, it’s definitely true. I would say the run I won, I knew I was going to win before
(0:14:19) Jonnie: going into the final because my deck was absurdly consistent.
(0:14:24) Al: Well, anyway, we’ll see what happens.
(0:14:25) Jonnie: And I guess it was like, I was relying on like a peer or maybe it was even a high card.
(0:14:32) Jonnie: So it was like, it was not.
(0:14:34) Al: Yeah, I mean that is kind of where I’ve been going with things as well but I still found that that
(0:14:40) Al: was the round I managed to get up to seven as I was doing pairs because I was like this feels like
(0:14:46) Al: a good consistent thing to do because you’re almost always going to have a pair and if you
(0:14:50) Al: don’t have a pair you’re almost always going to be able to discard and get a pair next. You know,
(0:14:55) Al: it’s like so easy especially if you’ve done, you know, added any extra cards to your deck.
(0:15:02) Al: But there was, it was just.
(0:15:04) Al: It wasn’t quite hitting the numbers that it needed to.
(0:15:08) Jonnie: - Yeah.
(0:15:08) Al: Anyway, that’s the other thing that annoys me a little bit about it.
(0:15:11) Al: I don’t want to talk too much about it because we might be talking about it in
(0:15:13) Al: the future, but the other thing that annoys me about it is you like build up one of
(0:15:21) Al: the hands and then suddenly a pair is worth more than a royal flush.
(0:15:25) Al: And you’re like, why would I ever do a higher hand now?
(0:15:27) Al: And it becomes a bit annoying.
(0:15:29) Al: So if you’re, you know, got to the point where you can’t get any higher with a
(0:15:33) Al: pare because you’ve, you know,
(0:15:34) Al: your jokers are all maxed out with what you can do. There’s nowhere to go from there because
(0:15:39) Al: you’ve put all of your effort into that one hand, and now the other ones are pathetic compared to it,
(0:15:47) Al: you know? Anyway.
(0:15:48) Jonnie: Yeah, I think that’s kind of what you’re meant to do though, right?
(0:15:50) Jonnie: You know, it’s like you start out with many possible strategies and then based on the
(0:15:54) Jonnie: jokers and that sort of thing you’re trying, like ultimately these sorts of games you are
(0:15:58) Jonnie: trying to get your deck to do the same thing every single turn.
(0:16:01) Jonnie: So I think the run I ran with, we had some stuff that enabled higher multipliers the
(0:16:10) Jonnie: more you discarded.
(0:16:11) Jonnie: And so just use all of the discards on the first turn, play a high card or a peer or
(0:16:17) Jonnie: or whatever it was and the game.
(0:16:18) Jonnie: It was just consistent, we could just do that every single game and get 250, 300,000 points.
(0:16:27) Jonnie: And that’s what the game is sort of pushing you towards doing.
(0:16:31) Jonnie: And I think this is where it sort of disconnects from reality or from what we know as poker,
(0:16:38) Jonnie: where it’s like we’re getting a real flush is really hard, so that should be worth stuff.
(0:16:42) Jonnie: And the point of the game is to make it, yeah, it was worth stuff.
(0:16:48) Jonnie: 17 blinds ago, now that is just not useful enough to even worry about.
(0:16:52) Al: Yeah. All right, well, let’s talk about the news, because we can lovely segue into the
(0:16:57) Al: first piece of news, which is that Bellattro have announced some more packs of cards, including
(0:17:03) Al: a Stardew pack of cards. I haven’t used any of these limited packs, because I think there
(0:17:05) Jonnie: Yeah, um, I have a look too
(0:17:10) Al: was like a Witcher one, and I’m not interested in the Witcher, and I can’t even remember
(0:17:14) Al: what the other ones were in the first update, but none of them kind of screamed at me that
(0:17:18) Al: I wanted to bother doing them. So I can’t even remember how to do it. I need to go double
(0:17:22) Al: in the settings to see how it works. But I think it’s just like in the settings, isn’t
(0:17:26) Al: it? You can do that from the start of the game. You don’t have to unlock these packs,
(0:17:30) Jonnie: I’m not sure, I haven’t actually tried any of these, but I think these sorts of collaborations
(0:17:39) Jonnie: are cool and it makes total sense in a game like Bellatro where they can just add a couple
(0:17:42) Jonnie: of jokers.
(0:17:43) Jonnie: I think they’re re-skinning the base deck as well to have imagery associated with whichever
(0:17:48) Al: yes yeah yeah yeah it is um fun fact I saw about this is concerned ape did all the art for the
(0:17:51) Jonnie: pack you’re using, which I think is quite cool.
(0:17:58) Al: stardew deck yeah just constantly showing that he can do everything uh yeah so if you want that
(0:18:06) Al: it’s a free update uh if you already own balatro your game should just update and if you don’t own
(0:18:11) Al: the lateral then and you want to do it then you know go do it next we have
(0:18:18) Al: arm have announced that their xbox version is delayed so very sad for anybody who cares about
(0:18:24) Al: that do you care about that of course you don’t care about that
(0:18:27) Jonnie: - Uh, no.
(0:18:29) Al: but have you seen the conspiracy theories
(0:18:32) Jonnie: No. (laughs)
(0:18:34) Al: this is amazing I was reading through the twitter replies it’s absolutely amazing they
(0:18:34) Jonnie: I’m excited.
(0:18:40) Al: there are so many conspiracy theories in this because they think that this is delayed because
(0:18:48) Al: they’ve done a deal with sony
(0:18:52) Jonnie: So they’re delaying releasing their own game on a platform because of PlayStation.
(0:18:58) Al: Yeah, because why?
(0:19:00) Al: Because this is just such a bizarre suggestion.
(0:19:04) Al: I love it.
(0:19:05) Al: It’s unhinged.
(0:19:06) Jonnie: It’s such a, um, in this day and age where everyone loves to take sides on everything,
(0:19:12) Jonnie: it is such a classic, I’m on Xbox, everything bad that happens to Xbox is the fault of PlayStation.
(0:19:20) Jonnie: Where, like, never change people.
(0:19:24) Al: Yeah. It’s literally right. I’m looking at the top 10 and at least half of them are people saying,
(0:19:33) Al: “Oh, you’ve done a deal with Sony. Congratulations on losing fans.”
(0:19:40) Al: I know it’s so stupid.
(0:19:43) Al: Oh, dear.
(0:19:44) Al: Amazing. Anyway, so if you want to play Fafarm on Xbox, that’s delayed. I don’t think we know
(0:19:50) Al: when the other versions are right now.
(0:19:52) Al: So it’s pretty much on everything except.
(0:19:54) Al: This is the funny thing, right?
(0:19:55) Al: Like if they’re like, “Oh, it’s going to conspiracy theory.”
(0:19:58) Al: It was first released on Windows, right?
(0:20:02) Al: On PC.
(0:20:03) Al: Why would there suddenly be a conspiracy for it to and why would the conspiracy be about
(0:20:09) Al: specifically Xbox and like, why would they let it go on, on Switch?
(0:20:13) Al: And if there was going to be this conspiracy, why would they wait until the day that it
(0:20:17) Al: was meant to come out to announce the delay?
(0:20:20) Al: Why would they ever announce the date of it?
(0:20:23) Jonnie: Yeah that’s maybe the best point right is like PlayStation and Sony are the worst with
(0:20:29) Jonnie: any cross-platform stuff so yeah it wouldn’t be coming out on anything else if it was Sony.
(0:20:36) Al: Yeah, yeah. And the thing is that these deals happen all the time, right? So it’s not like
(0:20:42) Al: this is an odd idea, and so they would want to keep it secret. No, they like when, like,
(0:20:47) Al: they constantly say it when it’s exclusives. Why do you need to conspiracy theorize everything?
(0:20:53) Al: Apparently so. Next we have your other favorite game here, Johnny. Turn it by Rob’s bank.
(0:21:02) Jonnie: boo
(0:21:06) Al: - Thank you.
(0:21:07) Al: I was waiting for the reaction.
(0:21:08) Al: We needed that.
(0:21:10) Al: They have announced that they’re coming to mobile.
(0:21:13) Jonnie: interesting did um turnip boy commits tax evasion
(0:21:17) Jonnie: come to mobile yeah that makes that makes sense thing because I was going to
(0:21:21) Jonnie: say if if turtle boy robs the bank has come to
(0:21:24) Jonnie: mobile before like they didn’t convert commits tax evasion
(0:21:28) Jonnie: uh that would have been an interesting choice because I can totally see
(0:21:32) Jonnie: turnip boy commits tax evasion on mobile um the bullet hell bullet heaven
(0:21:38) Jonnie: nature of turnip boy robs the bank makes me feel like it’s maybe not a
(0:21:42) Jonnie: great fit for mobile um they’d be interesting to see how it
(0:21:46) Al: Yeah, I don’t know, because I feel like things like vampire survivors, are they not really
(0:21:52) Al: popular on mobile?
(0:21:53) Jonnie: Yeah, and like I love vampire survivors
(0:21:58) Jonnie: The thought of trying to play that game on mobile just does not fill me with joy
(0:22:02) Al: Oh, I’m not saying that it’s, I’m not saying that it is a good experience or one you would
(0:22:02) Jonnie: - Oh.
(0:22:06) Al: enjoy.
(0:22:06) Al: I just, like, the surprising things end up being popular.
(0:22:13) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s totally fair, like, um, although I don’t know how popular things like Vampire
(0:22:17) Jonnie: Survivors are, but I guess given the number of those sorts of games that seem to be converting
(0:22:22) Jonnie: to mobile, they must be doing pretty well, um, and, I don’t know, like, I, my take on
(0:22:28) Jonnie: this is if you really want to play Tuna Boy, Rob’s a bank, and you are listening to the
(0:22:32) Jonnie: show, play it on the thing that you have that is not your phone, it will be better.
(0:22:37) Al: Yeah, I think you’re probably right. Yeah, I think it would be a better experience on
(0:22:42) Al: the switch or the Steam Deck than it would be on mobile. But some people, it’s the only
(0:22:48) Al: thing they’ve got, girdlets. They have announced a spooky content update. So with the game
(0:22:58) Al: being obviously relatively simple, it’s just cosmetic stuff. But I mean, that’s the game
(0:23:04) Jonnie: That’s the game
(0:23:05) Al: Anyway
(0:23:07) Al: So if you like girdlets, you’ll be happy with more, probably.
(0:23:12) Jonnie: Yeah
(0:23:14) Jonnie: So I have mixed feelings on
(0:23:18) Jonnie: this getting like spooky stuff and that’s partly because I just when I first played it I kind of wanted it to have
(0:23:25) Jonnie: more stuff in general and
(0:23:30) Jonnie: Spoo like I feel like there was more stuff that I wanted before you start getting maybe
(0:23:34) Jonnie: the theme specific stuff so while cool that it’s getting more stuff I’m like this is not the new
(0:23:42) Al: That is fair. I think I know why they’ve done it and that’s because this probably is much better
(0:23:50) Al: and easier to explain to people. Oh it’s a spooky content update rather than we’ve got
(0:23:55) Al: a new update with a bunch of stuff that would be quite disparate.
(0:23:58) Jonnie: Yes. I completely agree. I’m just being selfish and saying I want the stuff that I very specifically
(0:24:06) Al: never right my time at Sandrock have announced a new update as well this is
(0:24:15) Al: their their anniversary update and love chronicles DLC I’m not quite sure what
(0:24:23) Al: the anniversary update has because all they talk about is cowboy outfits but
(0:24:27) Al: presumably it has more than that
(0:24:29) Jonnie: It would be weird if it was called the Love Chronicle DLC, and all it was was Calpria.
(0:24:32) Al: well so there’s two separate things just separate things so the anniversary
(0:24:36) Al: update has the cowboy outfits the love chronicles DLC has I’m not sure cuz so
(0:24:41) Jonnie: Oh, right.
(0:24:45) Al: it says the love chronicles DLC is officially launching on November the
(0:24:48) Al: 1st we know you’ve been looking forward to it and it’s almost here so that feels
(0:24:52) Al: like they’ve explained it elsewhere but I’ll be honest I’m not reading much
(0:24:56) Al: about this game whether you want to deepen your connection with Fang Logan
(0:25:00) Al: Mian or Nia this is the perfect chance to explore more of their stories and
(0:25:04) Al: and relationships. Are they putting…
(0:25:06) Al: …relationship progress behind a paywall?
(0:25:10) Jonnie: It certainly sounds that way, although maybe it’s converting some previously non-romanciful
(0:25:16) Jonnie: characters into romanciful, which I guess is more work, and maybe that’s why it’s
(0:25:21) Jonnie: behind a paywall.
(0:25:22) Jonnie: Yeah, I dunno, it’s crazy to me that my time at Samrock has been out for a year.
(0:25:27) Jonnie: It feels like that game only.
(0:25:29) Al: Well, yeah, and the the being out for a year is the early is the non-early access.
(0:25:35) Al: I’m pretty sure it was an early access for a while before that.
(0:25:38) Al: Yeah, May 22 was the early access release.
(0:25:41) Al: So there we go.
(0:25:42) Al: I don’t really have much to say about my time at Sandrock.
(0:25:44) Al: If you’re excited about it, listener,
(0:25:46) Al: there you go, go look in the show notes and you can
(0:25:49) Al: try and figure out what’s in this update.
(0:25:53) Al: Horticular have also announced their Halloween update.
(0:25:56) Al: This is either 1.2 update.
(0:25:58) Al: Yeah.
(0:25:59) Jonnie: Yeah it’s a bunch of spooky stuff. I feel like Horticula has kind of been on my list of like game I really want to try for a while and I just haven’t quite got round to playing.
(0:26:07) Al: mmm fair I might play at some point I’m not like desperate to but I can see
(0:26:15) Al: that it looks interesting but it’s hard to justify playing any games nowadays
(0:26:18) Jonnie: I was taking so many and I think one of the challenges that a lot of farming games have
(0:26:20) Al: right so
(0:26:31) Jonnie: is they have a relatively long time commitment and particularly the first few days or that
(0:26:40) Jonnie: sort of ramp up thing where the formula has become so known, it can actually be hard to
(0:26:46) Jonnie: to grab players early.
(0:26:48) Jonnie: Because you’re often doing something that feels quite similar, right?
(0:26:52) Jonnie: Whether it’s like, you know, you’re planting your first thing and waiting for it to grow
(0:26:56) Jonnie: and maybe meeting some villagers.
(0:26:58) Jonnie: And it’s kind of like, you know, because we’ve done that loop so many times,
(0:27:02) Jonnie: it’s not as novel as it was when we first, you know, tried out Stardew or whatever that first.
(0:27:08) Al: Yeah, and Disney Dreamlight Valley have announced a showcase for their next update. This will,
(0:27:18) Al: annoyingly, have happened before this episode comes out, but after we’re recording. So yeah,
(0:27:27) Al: it’s like exactly 24 hours before this episode comes out that this is happening. So we’ll
(0:27:32) Jonnie: What- what’s your big prediction now?
(0:27:32) Al: have more for it in the next episode. Oh, I need to watch this little video.
(0:27:36) Jonnie: So people- ‘cause people will be able to guess whether or not you’re right or not.
(0:27:38) Al: Don’t I to figure that to figure out what I’m okay. So we’ve got a book and we’ve got Hades and
(0:27:44) Al: oh, what’s her name? Maleficent. No, not Ursula. It’s Hades. Yeah. Oh, do you thought that was
(0:27:46) Jonnie: Ersel. Ah, yeah, you’ve got Maleficent and… Oh, is that Hades? I thought that was Ursula first.
(0:27:53) Al: Ursula? No, no Hades. He has the fire hair. So are they already in the game or is it just
(0:27:55) Jonnie: No, you’re right, it’s Hades.
(0:27:59) Al: going to be them?
(0:28:00) Al: » Thank you.
(0:28:02) Jonnie: I feel like it’s gonna just be them.
(0:28:04) Jonnie: Maybe it’s like the sort of story where it’s like two different bad guys but you kind of have to work with each of them to kind of stop the other one
(0:28:14) Jonnie: because their goals are sort of, you know, both evil and they’re kind of, you know, bad people fighting each other.
(0:28:20) Jonnie: Kind of like how you work with Ursula.
(0:28:20) Al: Yeah.
(0:28:25) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(0:28:26) Al: I’m also wondering, cause they have said that there’s going to be a new DLC, but they haven’t
(0:28:31) Al: announced what it is or anything about it.
(0:28:35) Jonnie: Oh, yeah, sorry, I think I I think this is very much implying that this is the next year
(0:28:40) Al: Well, it’s going to have both. They’re not going to just talk about DLC. They have clearly
(0:28:45) Al: decided, since they are no longer free to play, that they’re going to lean into,
(0:28:50) Al: “We are always going to have free updates as well.” So I think they’ll announce the next free update
(0:28:55) Jonnie: Yeah, I think so my take is that like the characters like Maleficent and Hades fit more from a DLC perspective.
(0:29:03) Jonnie: I think what they’ve been doing with the free updates is putting all of the main good characters, I guess, into those free updates.
(0:29:15) Jonnie: And the story has often weighted more towards sort of the evil characters.
(0:29:23) Jonnie: you know, like there was a lot of stuff recently.
(0:29:23) Al: Well, you So there was there was like an overarching
(0:29:25) Jonnie: around Ska.
(0:29:30) Al: story in the in the first set of DLCs, but there were also the smaller ones, right? And
(0:29:35) Al: the overarching one was that not was that Jafar? So will this is this hinting at Maleficent
(0:29:42) Al: and Hades together being the overarching story of the next DLC? Or I wonder if that yeah,
(0:29:47) Jonnie: That’s my that’s my guess
(0:29:51) Al: there’s some sort of–
(0:29:54) Al: yeah, disagreement between the two of them that causes– that leads to chaos
(0:29:59) Al: outside of that, and you have to stop this, maybe, something like that. We’ll
(0:30:03) Jonnie: That sounds good.
(0:30:05) Al: find out, and we’ll bring it to you hopefully in the next episode, assuming
(0:30:08) Al: nothing goes wrong. Very aware of people’s mortality, shall we say. I’m
(0:30:10) Jonnie: I sounded very ominous.
(0:30:23) Al: planning on dying, for the record. You’d never know.
(0:30:24) Jonnie: Unnecessarily groomed, but okay, let’s see.
(0:30:32) Al: If I died, how long would my patreon still get money?
(0:30:34) Jonnie: I think for a long time, like, people just forget, right?
(0:30:41) Jonnie: I mean, at the very least, I forget, so…
(0:30:46) Al: Yeah, especially if you have multiple, right, and you just have, like, “here is
(0:30:51) Al: is the monthly Patreon thing.
(0:30:53) Al: So that’s all of the updates for existing games.
(0:30:54) Jonnie: » Correct, yep.
(0:31:06) Al: We also have two new games to talk about.
(0:31:08) Al: First up, we have A My Little Life, which is, if you remember - I’ve forgotten the name
(0:31:16) Al: of it - Rusty’s Retirement.
(0:31:19) Al: Thank you, Johnny.
(0:31:20) Al: If you remember “Rusty’s to Retirement,” which was a farming game that ran
(0:31:23) Al: at the bottom or the side of your screen on your computer while you’re doing other things,
(0:31:27) Al: this is that but a more standard life sim rather than a farming sim.
(0:31:34) Al: So if you like that, maybe you’ll like this.
(0:31:36) Jonnie: Yeah, like this one looks cool, like the idea that you are building rooms and putting stuff in and
(0:31:46) Jonnie: look, your character poops. That’s a thing that is like, it’s very prominent in the thing,
(0:31:49) Al: Everybody poops.
(0:31:53) Al: Yeah.
(0:31:56) Jonnie: but it looks like you can like build quite a big town and there’s a piece where they show,
(0:32:02) Jonnie: you know in order to recruit other villages you
(0:32:06) Jonnie: or other townspeople you have to have like a certain combination of
(0:32:10) Jonnie: items so it seems like there’s like you know going to be quite a good little
(0:32:12) Jonnie: discovery element to it. Very strangely at the end of the
(0:32:18) Jonnie: teaser trailer they show my little life playing with Rusty’s
(0:32:23) Jonnie: retirement above it which for me had the like question of
(0:32:28) Jonnie: is the a legit collaboration or is it just that
(0:32:31) Jonnie: you know they were inspired and they kind of wanted to show that it’s the
(0:32:35) Jonnie: same idea and so they just put
(0:32:36) Jonnie: a lot of stuff in there. I’m not sure but very clearly maybe similar sources of interest.
(0:32:46) Al: Yeah, because it’s definitely a different developer, because I saw the Rusties developer
(0:32:52) Al: plugging this, but it’s a different person developing it. Yeah, I don’t know. It looks
(0:32:56) Jonnie: But yeah, literally the first thing they show is your character pooping.
(0:32:57) Al: a little bit more… Well, it is a life sim, and that’s a big part of my life. It certainly
(0:33:00) Jonnie: Like, I just can’t get past, like, how much they show people pooping in this game.
(0:33:12) Al: seems like this one with the with the scope of it seems
(0:33:16) Al: a lot bigger because obviously there’s update upgrades and stuff in the farm but you are just
(0:33:21) Al: basically running a farm and there’s there’s limits to how you can do that with the the space
(0:33:26) Al: and the way that they designed it whereas because this has um like I think it has scrolling it looks
(0:33:34) Al: like it has you can scroll along so you have quite a lot more room for expanding things here
(0:33:36) Jonnie: Yeah.
(0:33:41) Al: the other new game that we have is ghost town pumpkin
(0:33:46) Al: festival so this is from the creator of a short hike so already got my interest there
(0:33:54) Al: it is a pumpkin carving mmo
(0:33:57) Jonnie: What?
(0:34:00) Al: it’s an mmo a multi multi play massively multiplayer online game for pumpkin carving
(0:34:05) Jonnie: Messily multi
(0:34:09) Jonnie: Sorry, I’d like you just jump on in your car thing with a bunch of people
(0:34:14) Al: I think the idea is you carve your own pumpkins.
(0:34:16) Al: But then you can see what everybody else is carving in this town, I guess.
(0:34:20) Jonnie: That sounds kind of great.
(0:34:23) Al: I haven’t actually played it yet, but it is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
(0:34:28) Al: So and it is pay what you want.
(0:34:31) Al: So that’s cool.
(0:34:33) Al: It is only running until sometime in November.
(0:34:37) Al: They haven’t announced exactly when.
(0:34:39) Al: But so, I mean, if you’re listening to this now, when the episode comes out,
(0:34:44) Al: you might only have a day go get
(0:34:46) Al: carving.
(0:34:46) Jonnie: That is a very cool
(0:35:04) Jonnie: Yeah, like a lot of games want to come out before Christmas
(0:35:06) Jonnie: ‘cause they want to get the Christmas rush right.
(0:35:08) Jonnie: This game has to come out in October or it doesn’t work.
(0:35:09) Al: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I wonder if they’ll set it up again next year. Like, it feels
(0:35:16) Al: like something they could do as like an ephemeral MMO, a yearly ephemeral MMO. I mean, yeah,
(0:35:21) Jonnie: I hope so. I think that’s just a super cool idea.
(0:35:25) Al: like that in and of itself makes it completely unique. And I kind of like the ephemeral nature
(0:35:29) Al: of that, because it is like, the point is it’s this, like pumpkins are ephemeral in
(0:35:35) Al: in and of themselves, right? Like they, they, they die, rather.
(0:35:39) Al: A lot, whatever. Um, and the idea of like every, every October you’re starting new
(0:35:44) Al: with a new pumpkin sounds kind of cool.
(0:35:46) Jonnie: It does. And I wish there was more. I kind of wish like I think the nature of games has
(0:35:53) Jonnie: progressed such that people kind of don’t like to lose progress or lose access to stuff, right? And
(0:35:59) Jonnie: I am much more in the category of like I like games as sort of contained experiences. Going
(0:36:04) Jonnie: back to the start of the episode where we talked about Pokemon, like I don’t have Pokemon Bank
(0:36:09) Jonnie: because I don’t care about having access to my Pokemon. They exist in the game that I play them
(0:36:14) Jonnie: I enjoyed that experience and.
(0:36:17) Jonnie: I like to move on to a new one and I have no need to transfer or take those Pokemon.
(0:36:22) Jonnie: So I don’t use Bank or whatever, it’s not Bank right, what’s this new one?
(0:36:27) Jonnie: Home, yeah, so I don’t have home because I kind of just feel like that those games should just be that experience.
(0:36:34) Jonnie: And then you move on and you have a new experience.
(0:36:37) Jonnie: And so I like stuff like this that kind of encourages people to have more sort of contained experiences and not have this persistent.
(0:36:45) Jonnie: I have to keep everything with me at all times.
(0:36:48) Al: Yeah, that’s fair.
(0:36:50) Al: I mean, I completely disagree with you on the Pokémon front, but agree with you on
(0:36:54) Al: a conceptual nature.
(0:36:55) Al: All right, that’s all of the news then.
(0:36:59) Al: So we are going to talk about spooky stuff in Cottage Go Games, or farming games.
(0:37:04) Al: I think it’s pretty much turning out into farming games, right?
(0:37:06) Jonnie: Uh yeah, sure.
(0:37:08) Al: Oh, you’ve got another game written down there.
(0:37:10) Jonnie: Yes.
(0:37:12) Al: Okay.
(0:37:12) Al: It counts as a farming game.
(0:37:15) Al: There’s farming in it now.
(0:37:16) Jonnie: No, it was not kind of fun again.
(0:37:17) Al: No!
(0:37:18) Al: This was an idea that, well, Johnny had, when I suddenly remembered that we had Halloween
(0:37:28) Al: coming up and we did not have a Halloween episode. So the idea is that there are lots
(0:37:35) Al: of mysteries in games. So we’re going to talk about a few of our most spooky and interesting
(0:37:41) Al: mysteries in farming games that we like, or Kojiko games that we like. Is that a fair
(0:37:47) Al: explanation doesn’t really
(0:37:48) Jonnie: that is a fair explanation you know like any good mystery we might delve into some
(0:37:53) Jonnie: conspiracy theories into some of the though all of the weird and wonderful
(0:37:58) Jonnie: and some of the unexplained things that happen in the games that we love
(0:38:02) Al: Absolutely. Well, Johnny, would you like to start us off?
(0:38:04) Jonnie: all right uh i’m gonna start us off with animal crossing um and there is
(0:38:09) Al: I can’t imagine anything being spooky in Animal Crossing. I’m looking forward to that.
(0:38:12) Jonnie: well I don’t know if it’s I don’t know if it’s spooky as much as it is uh unexplained
(0:38:18) Jonnie: so in the I think it’s the very first animal crossing there is a letter that you get from
(0:38:25) Jonnie: your mom and it says my dear character’s name I hope you don’t mind all these strange letters
(0:38:31) Jonnie: but I just want to share my life with you even if you have chosen to live with animals
(0:38:35) Jonnie: which i’ll never understand don’t they smell love mum that letter has huge implications for
(0:38:44) Jonnie: how you think about the Animal Crossing world, because…
(0:38:48) Jonnie: This implies the existence of other humans, the fact that your character has decided to go and live with the animals, maybe some sort of segregated society going on.
(0:38:58) Jonnie: Um, you lay it in…
(0:38:58) Al: Yeah, I love the idea that animals are sentient and intelligent, unable to create societies
(0:39:11) Al: like humans are, but yeah, they’re segregated.
(0:39:14) Jonnie: Mm-hmm. And you layer into that that there are some items in Animal Crossing, like there is the hamster cage, there is the catch tower.
(0:39:24) Jonnie: That also implies the existence of animals as we think of animals today, right?
(0:39:28) Jonnie: Like there are, you know, we have fish in the game that we catch, there are insects in the game that we catch.
(0:39:34) Jonnie: So it kind of gets you thinking about what is the nature of the other villages and the animals in Animal Crossing?
(0:39:36) Al: Yeah, that’s interesting, because obviously the interesting thing about the other animals,
(0:39:50) Al: you know, like the, I hesitate to say non-sentient, but you guess the non-intelligent versions
(0:39:55) Al: of those animals. Some of them are the same, like you have a hamster, the hamster is a
(0:40:01) Al: kind of villager you get in Animal Crossing, and the…
(0:40:06) Al: Fish and bug collections are run by an animal, so there’s obviously not just like a generic
(0:40:12) Al: offence that animals would take to the idea of you keeping animals as pets.
(0:40:20) Al: So is there then three levels in this hierarchy, the humans, who think they’re better than
(0:40:27) Al: the animals, and the sentient animals who think they’re better than the other animals?
(0:40:30) Jonnie: Exactly, right. And there’s potentially a fourth layer to add to it, because within the animal-villager construct there are those that seem natural, but there are also robotic animals. There is one villager that is inflatable.
(0:40:48) Al: Hmm
(0:40:52) Jonnie: How? How do they exist? How do they? How? How? How? How? Please explain.
(0:40:59) Al: A good question, I don’t think I have an explanation, sorry.
(0:41:02) Jonnie: Also, why do the, you know, it’s interesting that the animal-villagers, they never really other you as being human, but equally they don’t talk about humans as being a thing.
(0:41:18) Jonnie: And while they don’t, like, you are very much put on a pedestal, right, in the society. And you’d say, well, that’s just the nature of the game. It’s just the player character.
(0:41:26) Jonnie: But to play a character is a human in a world full of animals and…
(0:41:30) Jonnie: You know, you’re always the mayor, or kind of, you know, you’re the one that makes whatever town you are in run, right?
(0:41:37) Al: Yes, and I think that that is in, if I remember for New Horizons, that is, I mean, in, I think
(0:41:39) Jonnie: Yeah, I kind of went down a…
(0:41:47) Al: in New Leaf it’s almost accidental, right? You just appear and they’re like, “Oh, you
(0:41:51) Al: are our mayor, aren’t you?” And you’re like, “Am I?” If I remember that correctly. Yeah,
(0:41:55) Jonnie: Yes, because the new mayor was arriving that day, yeah.
(0:41:59) Al: so I guess that would make that make sense, right? Like the only human to arrive should
(0:42:03) Al: be the mayor, right? That would make sense. Why would another human arrive?
(0:42:07) Al: If I remember correctly in New Horizons, it’s almost like, oh, you can just do some stuff.
(0:42:17) Al: Like, you’re not the mayor in New Horizons, but you are kind of put above the rest, and like,
(0:42:22) Al: you can be important here. We’ve got stuff to do. You can do it. And maybe that is the same thing.
(0:42:29) Al: It’s like, that’s because you are human, and automatically assumed to be a leader.
(0:42:34) Jonnie: Yeah. So I went kind of deep on various animal crossing conspiracy theories, which kind of slightly segues into the second one, which is “For New Leaf” is that your character is actually a criminal on the run who murdered the person that was supposed to be mayor, and didn’t realise that they were supposed to be mayor and stole their ticket.
(0:42:52) Al: Yep, I like that one.
(0:42:57) Jonnie: That one’s kind of like “That conspiracy theory just exists, there’s never going to be any evidence that either proves or deserves it”.
(0:43:04) Jonnie: This proves it because it’s never going to come out, but.
(0:43:06) Al: Oh yeah, like if you ever asked, if Nintendo were to ever explain, you know where that
(0:43:11) Al: wouldn’t be the case, but that’s what makes it fun.
(0:43:12) Jonnie: Correct. Yes.
(0:43:16) Jonnie: But the… So going back to the animal sort of theory, the most interesting side of that that I think I’ve come across is that the human population is kind of slowly becoming extinct.
(0:43:29) Jonnie: And you know, so humans managed to create these or I can.
(0:43:34) Jonnie: I guess, pass sentience on through whichever means you want to assume to animals, and you’ve kind of got this sort of expanding, growing animal society, where you’ve got this human society who’s segregated themselves from the animals.
(0:43:50) Jonnie: And that’s why your character going to live with them is kind of weird, but also sort of humans are in that sort of fearful state.
(0:43:58) Jonnie: And it explains why there’s so many uninhabited sorts of islands and, you know,
(0:44:04) Jonnie: lots of unexplored land and why the animals don’t really bump into humans is because they’re sort of in this one segment and you have chosen to sort of brave the gap and crossover into their society.
(0:44:18) Jonnie: So not very spooky, but when I when I pitched this episode, that was not the sort of thing I was expecting to come across and primarily started from one one little letter, which I absolutely love. So that’s my first one.
(0:44:32) Al: So my first one is, it’s probably one that quite a few people know about, but just if
(0:44:39) Al: people aren’t aware, in Stardew, you can disappear your children, which is one of the options
(0:44:48) Al: is to give a prismatic shard to the dark shrine of selfishness, and that will make it so your
(0:44:55) Al: children don’t exist. They don’t die, they just don’t exist. They will turn into doves.
(0:45:02) Al: And they’re gone, and I believe no one ever talks about them. Except, and this is where
(0:45:08) Al: the creepiness comes into it, you will sometimes, when watching TV, you will see a message on
(0:45:17) Al: the TV that says, “You’ve brought this upon yourself, now I’m free. Hee hee hee.” And
(0:45:22) Al: an ancient doll will pop out of the TV. Sometimes also you will receive a phone message, and
(0:45:32) Al: you place the receiver to your ear and are met with a roiling, abrasive static. But wait,
(0:45:37) Al: beneath it all, you can make out something else. An otherworldly voice, you have forsaken
(0:45:43) Al: us. So I just like the creepiness of the idea that your children still exist somewhere,
(0:45:50) Al: and they’ve decided to haunt you because of your self-receiving.
(0:45:53) Jonnie: Yeah, I think it’s a good theory, it’s definitely creepy, but it’s kind of creepy in the way
(0:46:01) Jonnie: that there should be creepiness if you choose to sacrifice your children.
(0:46:04) Al: Mm-hmm, for sure.
(0:46:10) Jonnie: I feel like it’s one of those things that you wouldn’t expect in a game like Stardew
(0:46:14) Jonnie: and when it happens I can see it being very disconcerting.
(0:46:18) Al: Are people who want to get all of the achievements but don’t actually want children?
(0:46:18) Jonnie: But I also don’t think I would ever end up in that position because who is sacrificing
(0:46:31) Jonnie: I guess that is fair.
(0:46:35) Al: No, it is not.
(0:46:38) Jonnie: No, OK, that’s fair.
(0:46:42) Jonnie: Let’s stick with Stardew.
(0:46:43) Jonnie: And this one is, I guess–
(0:46:46) Jonnie: I’ve said a few different versions,
(0:46:48) Jonnie: but it’s the Stardew is purgatory sort of idea.
(0:46:53) Jonnie: So this really, I guess, leans into the fact
(0:46:57) Jonnie: that you can just play endless numbers of years
(0:46:59) Jonnie: and no one ever ages and nothing ever changes.
(0:47:03) Jonnie: So I guess the two different versions
(0:47:05) Jonnie: I’ve seen most often are the player character
(0:47:09) Jonnie: and the rest of the village are basically in purgatory.
(0:47:16) Jonnie: And all of the stuff happens.
(0:47:19) Jonnie: And it works nicely in the same way
(0:47:22) Jonnie: that the ashes in a coma theory works,
(0:47:27) Jonnie: where it’s not a theory that I particularly like or think
(0:47:30) Jonnie: is good, but it lines up nicely because basically the characters
(0:47:35) Jonnie: don’t age.
(0:47:37) Jonnie: The version that I maybe like a little bit more.
(0:47:38) Jonnie: Is that the wizard is kind of keeping everybody in stasis because something significant has happened in the outside world and he is effectively resetting the year each year.
(0:47:52) Jonnie: So while time feels like it’s progressing within the game, nobody is aging because the wizard is trying to research a way to fix the thing that is broken outside of your bubble.
(0:48:03) Al: I guess I would explain why seasons are so abrupt as well.
(0:48:06) Jonnie: Yes, and I think it-
(0:48:08) Jonnie: like kind of both of those theories for me are like kind of, it’s just a theory that kind of,
(0:48:14) Jonnie: you know, explains video game mechanics more than anything else. But I’m kind of interested in the
(0:48:21) Jonnie: nature of magic in the world of Staju because you’ve got the, you know, the Junimos and I haven’t
(0:48:28) Jonnie: done much research into the Junimos and if there’s any sort of lore behind them but you’ve got the
(0:48:34) Jonnie: Wizard and the… um… uh…
(0:48:39) Jonnie: uh… the witch as well, and then you’ve got like Crobus and how he fits into everything.
(0:48:47) Jonnie: So yeah, Al, have you thought much about the like the nature of magic in Stardew Valley?
(0:48:52) Al: Not really. I have been interested in a little bit in the witch because, like, the witch
(0:48:57) Al: exists possibly in two different scenarios, but I don’t know if it’s the same one, right?
(0:49:02) Al: Because you have the witch’s hut. You never meet the witch in there, but you know there
(0:49:06) Al: is a witch. And you also sometimes get the witch going over your farm and giving you
(0:49:12) Al: an egg, a void egg, and I’m not sure whether that’s meant to be the same witch or a different
(0:49:17) Al: So that is a question I have and I want to know more about the which because we
(0:49:22) Al: know nothing about her other than she was married.
(0:49:26) Jonnie: Yes. I’ve always assumed it was the same witch. I haven’t thought about the possibility of the existence of multiple witches and I think what’s interesting about the fact that they used to be married is we never get an explanation for why they broke up, right?
(0:49:45) Jonnie: And so, you know, is that something significant that has caused something that is, you know, present or relation to the game?
(0:49:55) Al: yeah interesting because it definitely we don’t know anything about why it happened but we do
(0:50:00) Al: know that it wasn’t a great breakup shall we say because he’s not willing to go and meet her to get
(0:50:07) Al: something that he needs so you have to go and get it for him so either it was a really bad breakup or
(0:50:16) Jonnie: I mean, I don’t like the idea of him being a massive baby, just because that’s Klinskinik, so…
(0:50:24) Al: - You’re all right too.
(0:50:28) Jonnie: Yeah, I’m just going to throw one really small other stargiobelli
(0:50:33) Jonnie: theory out there. This is maybe my favorite because it’s so silly, is that Linus found a Jochimart.
(0:50:39) Jonnie: It’s just a dumb conspiracy theory that he found a Jochimart.
(0:50:44) Jonnie: And he’ll you know choose
(0:50:46) Jonnie: This is the life that the character in the game now chooses because of the guilt
(0:50:50) Jonnie: That’s that’s what I have on statue
(0:50:50) Al: All right, we’re limiting ourselves to one stardew thing each.
(0:50:57) Al: Um, my… no?
(0:50:59) Jonnie: We can we hit we can go more if we want to
(0:51:01) Al: And let’s keep going and see how we feel when we get to the end, because we’re both tired.
(0:51:10) Al: My next one is the evil farming game.
(0:51:13) Al: Now, this needs a little bit of background.
(0:51:17) Al: there was a person.
(0:51:20) Al: A person who posted on Twitter in 2016, trying to find out, trying to get the name
(0:51:28) Al: of a game that they had experienced or heard of, they weren’t quite sure, they were a little
(0:51:33) Al: bit unsure of things, but they posted basically it was kind of like Harvest Moon but with
(0:51:39) Al: a dark twist.
(0:51:40) Al: You stab your wife to death and you run your life like a, you know, Stardew Valley Harvest
(0:51:49) Al: moon-type thing.
(0:51:50) Al: farming to remain unsuspicious, but part of the game is that you have
(0:51:56) Al: to hide the corpse of your wife from the cops who visit your house occasionally.
(0:52:01) Al: They said it wasn’t 3D, it wasn’t on a browser, it was on a console,
(0:52:06) Al: but they weren’t sure what, and it was released sometime between 2000 and 2015.
(0:52:12) Al: And this let off a multiple year hunt
(0:52:16) Al: for people on the Internet of trying to figure out what this game was.
(0:52:21) Al: There then turned out to be other people
(0:52:23) Al: who posted similarly, saying the same sort of thing,
(0:52:27) Al: that it was basically explaining it in the exact same sort of way.
(0:52:32) Al: And so people were like, what is this game?
(0:52:34) Al: We need to figure out what this game is.
(0:52:36) Al: It sounds interesting.
(0:52:36) Al: And people just like a
(0:52:40) Al: mystery and they like to figure this out.
(0:52:43) Al: There’s a spreadsheet, a Google Doc
(0:52:46) Al: in the show notes that goes through all the information and all of the
(0:52:49) Al: investigation that people went
(0:52:50) Al: through. But it was actually solved a few years ago. It turns out, it didn’t exist.
(0:52:59) Jonnie: Wait, it didn’t exist?
(0:53:01) Al: It didn’t exist. So basically, the solution around it is that there was somebody who had
(0:53:08) Al: done a Twitch stream. I think the idea was that they were coming up with ideas for games,
(0:53:17) Al: and they came up with this as an idea for a game.
(0:53:20) Al: And that then stuck in someone’s brain as this is a real game that exists.
(0:53:25) Al: And that’s they’d forgotten where they’d originally heard of it.
(0:53:28) Al: And that’s where it led to that.
(0:53:30) Al: And then obviously other people then got the same idea in their head from probably
(0:53:34) Al: from reading this or from reading other things.
(0:53:36) Al: And this just led to like a cycle of people convincing themselves that it
(0:53:43) Jonnie: That is, uh, is that the, is it the Mandela effect?
(0:53:47) Jonnie: Is that what that’s?
(0:53:48) Al: So, I mean, so part of the problem is that these things are hard to study. The Mandela
(0:53:56) Al: Effect is a little bit different in that it’s kind of similar in so much as like there’s
(0:54:01) Al: a large number of people who believe that something was the case that isn’t the case.
(0:54:06) Al: And no, we’re not talking about, you know, conspiracy theories, election denialism or
(0:54:13) Al: anything like that. It comes from, if you want to know the history of the Mandela Effect,
(0:54:18) Al: it comes from the idea that there were a significant number of people who honestly
(0:54:22) Al: remembered and believed that Mandela, Nelson Mandela, had died in prison rather than getting
(0:54:28) Al: out and becoming president of South Africa. And like we’re talking like thousands of people
(0:54:36) Al: on the internet saying that they honestly believe this. Now, whether they were actually
(0:54:39) Al: saying that or not, I don’t, whether they meant that, whether they were just saying
(0:54:42) Al: it to go along with it, who knows? But it’s not because this is something that apparently
(0:54:49) Al: happened before a large number of people were on the internet, right? Because the idea is he
(0:54:53) Al: would have died in ‘88 or ‘89 in prison if he had died. He wouldn’t have died any later than that
(0:54:57) Al: because he got out in ‘90, I think. It’s a complicated thing. And the fact that people
(0:55:04) Al: now know that that is a thing that can happen, maybe, is that then it leads to more and more of
(0:55:11) Al: these things existing. So it might be related in a way, right? I think there’s some more silly ones,
(0:55:18) Al: but was it a book series or was something called the Bernstein Bears in America? I can’t remember
(0:55:24) Al: what it was because I have no idea. I’ve never seen or heard of the outside of the Mandela effect,
(0:55:29) Al: but the one around that is that people believed it was spelt differently than it actually was.
(0:55:35) Al: And that is obviously a really stupid one because that’s just people being stupid.
(0:55:40) Al: But yeah, I don’t know. There are other Mandela effects, apparently. There’s not much research
(0:55:48) Al: how much of it is actually true because you actually have to rely on people believing that
(0:55:53) Al: people are telling the truth, I guess.
(0:55:55) Jonnie: yeah this um going back to the the evil game the level of documentation that is
(0:56:04) Jonnie: done and like if if you have not heard of this before like I haven’t it’s just
(0:56:10) Jonnie: worth looking through the Google Doc that exists that explains all of this
(0:56:15) Jonnie: like it’s it’s not super long it’s 11 pages with a ton of links and I think
(0:56:22) Jonnie: this sort of stuff is just like I love the sort of stuff in games right where
(0:56:25) Jonnie: fascinating it’s well documented it’s it’s kind of just crazy that this is
(0:56:31) Jonnie: like the the the core concept being a game about murdering your wife and
(0:56:36) Jonnie: hiding the body it sounds very sort of like a early 2000s thing that you can
(0:56:43) Jonnie: totally imagine would have existed so it’s like just believable enough right
(0:56:46) Al: Yes, and I think it sounds interesting enough as a slightly different farming game that
(0:56:55) Al: people would be interested in playing it, and it also took hold in the time that Stardew
(0:57:01) Al: was becoming really popular. This was posted in 2016, the year that Stardew came out, and
(0:57:06) Al: then 2017 was the year that Stardew became super popular because it was the only game
(0:57:10) Al: on the Switch. I’m trying to find the exact information about how it was at this solution.
(0:57:16) Al: Because I know there’s a post on the subreddit from five months ago of someone saying it’s
(0:57:22) Al: real and no other information, but I’m assuming that someone has created a game. They’ve created
(0:57:31) Al: the game now, presumably. Yes, exactly.
(0:57:32) Jonnie: But that would not surprise me if, yeah, this led to the game being created.
(0:57:38) Jonnie: So the lesson to take from this is if you want a game to exist, and it doesn’t,
(0:57:43) Jonnie: pretend that it does, make a good conspiracy about it, and then someone will make the game.
(0:57:48) Al: Yeah, why not? I’m trying to find the confirmation of exactly what the solution is. I don’t know.
(0:57:57) Al: Anyway, the game almost certainly doesn’t exist, or didn’t exist, and it was a perfect
(0:58:04) Al: storm period of time, 2016, 2017, that sort of time. A wild time in life.
(0:58:12) Jonnie: Like it isn’t at the moment
(0:58:13) Al: Just another side, have you ever heard the real life theory, as in the theory about real life?
(0:58:18) Al: Not a theory, but a game. The theory that 2016 was a point where the universe altered
(0:58:29) Al: into a separate universe, and that’s why things have been really weird since 2016.
(0:58:34) Jonnie: I have not heard that theory.
(0:58:37) Al: I love the idea that this could tie into it, because this was posted in 2016, someone was
(0:58:42) Al: like “I’m sure this existed!” and they’ve switched into the other universe that it doesn’t
(0:58:42) Jonnie: the…
(0:58:46) Jonnie: this…
(0:58:47) Al: existing. [laughs]
(0:58:48) Al: That’s also another theory about the Mandela Effect. I don’t know whether people actually
(0:58:50) Jonnie: uhhhhh…
(0:58:52) Jonnie: I feel like though…
(0:58:58) Al: take it seriously or not, but the theory is that the people who have the Mandela Effect
(0:59:03) Al: are from a different universe, and they were switched at some point to this universe from
(0:59:09) Jonnie: I feel like that could be true but if the 2016 theory is true we would be in the world that has
(0:59:17) Jonnie: the farming game where you murder your wife because that’s weirder like if we’re in the normal universe
(0:59:20) Al: Yeah, but it might also make, it might, it would make, it would make the universe better,
(0:59:26) Al: wouldn’t it?
(0:59:30) Jonnie: I don’t know that games about murdering your spouse are necessarily a great thing to have
(0:59:34) Jonnie: in the world.
(0:59:40) Jonnie: If you want to disagree with that takeout, you are more than welcome to.
(0:59:45) Al: No, I love my wife.
(0:59:56) Al: Anyway, yeah, please don’t.
(0:59:56) Jonnie: I’m trying really hard to not make jokes about you bettering your wife.
(1:00:03) Al: Okay, what’s your?
(1:00:05) Al: Have you got three as well as me or have you got more?
(1:00:07) Jonnie: Uh, I have got a last one, uh, I’m gonna stick with-
(1:00:09) Jonnie: I’m gonna start you for the last one, um, ‘cause this one’s just so, like-
(1:00:12) Jonnie: This one is gen- I find it to be genuinely creepy, which is the Cursed Mannequins.
(1:00:18) Jonnie: Um, I-
(1:00:19) Al: Oh, yeah. Okay. Yep, go for it.
(1:00:20) Jonnie: Yeah, uh, I don’t know.
(1:00:23) Al: Can I just point out it is half ten at night and I am sitting in my office,
(1:00:29) Al: which is a separate building from the rest of my house.
(1:00:31) Al: I have to go outside in the dark to get back to my house after this.
(1:00:35) Al: So I just want to just want to put that out there. Anyway, yes.
(1:00:38) Al: Talk about the creepy mannequins. I hate them.
(1:00:38) Jonnie: Yes, they’re so weird.
(1:00:42) Jonnie: I think they’re in one of the more recent updates, like maybe they’re a 1.6.
(1:00:47) Al: I think they were at a 1.6 update, yeah.
(1:00:48) Jonnie: Yeah, so they’re a piece of furniture that you can place in your house, like a mannequin.
(1:00:56) Jonnie: But every night when you go to sleep, basically they can do one of three things.
(1:01:02) Jonnie: So if it’s wearing clothes, it can swap that with the clothes that the player is wearing.
(1:01:09) Jonnie: It can move just around the house and it can change the wallpaper and flooring.
(1:01:14) Jonnie: And if it does it when you wake up, it’s like violently shaking.
(1:01:19) Jonnie: I don’t know why this exists. It’s exceptionally creepy.
(1:01:22) Jonnie: It adds nothing to the game. It’s just weird.
(1:01:23) Al: Yes, thankfully, they only do these things if you have them placed around your house,
(1:01:30) Al: so stick them in a chest and stick it at the farthest reaches of your farm. That’s what
(1:01:37) Al: I did.
(1:01:37) Jonnie: There’s also, you can turn them into a normal mannequin.
(1:01:38) Al: Oh, can you? I missed that. Go on.
(1:01:44) Jonnie: Yes, so if a cursed mannequin is placed in the chapel in Pierre’s General Store, it will become a normal mannequin the next day.
(1:01:51) Al: Oh.
(1:01:51) Jonnie: So you can de-cursify your mannequin.
(1:01:57) Al: You’re basically having a, what’s it called?
(1:02:00) Jonnie: Exorcism.
(1:02:02) Al: An exorcism, yeah, you’re exercising, you’re a mannequin.
(1:02:03) Jonnie: Yum.
(1:02:07) Jonnie: It’s just super weird, super creepy, and it has no need to exist, right?
(1:02:12) Al: as all the best things do, right?
(1:02:14) Jonnie: The one thing I do wonder is like, is this something that Concern Date was testing out
(1:02:25) Al: Oh, interesting. See, I was thinking, was it originally a bug? And then he was like,
(1:02:32) Jonnie: Ahh…
(1:02:32) Al: that is a great idea. I need to make that real now. Because you can absolutely see a bug where
(1:02:35) Jonnie: Into a thing. I like that theory. That’s a– that’s a good theory.
(1:02:41) Al: he’s like, you know, just something stupid happens and he wakes up and the clothes are
(1:02:45) Al: switched and is like, oh, that’s a brilliant idea. I love it. You know? Yeah, I think it’s horrifying.
(1:02:48) Jonnie: Yes. Yeah.
(1:02:53) Al: I hate them so much.
(1:02:55) Al: Um, I have to convince myself that although the character, you never see the character
(1:03:01) Al: getting changed when they get into bed, I have to believe that the character gets changed
(1:03:05) Al: when they, into pyjamas, when they go to bed.
(1:03:08) Al: And so therefore, it’s less creepy that the mannequin’s in your clothes, right?
(1:03:12) Al: Because otherwise, the mannequin is getting you undressed.
(1:03:15) Jonnie: Oh, I heard it’s all about the logistical element
(1:03:17) Jonnie: of what was happening.
(1:03:20) Al: And that’s a horrifying idea.
(1:03:20) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s very creepy.
(1:03:23) Al: and I didn’t notice the mannequin getting me undressed.
(1:03:26) Al: Oh no, no, no, please no, can’t deal with that.
(1:03:28) Jonnie: Yeah, okay. That’s enough talk about these curse mannequins. What have you got out there?
(1:03:33) Al: Okay, so on a I feel like a similar level of creepiness.
(1:03:38) Al: Have you ever heard about the cellar groans in in Carl Island?
(1:03:43) Al: So the good thing is this does actually have a solution that is less creepy, but let’s go with the creepiness.
(1:03:48) Al: So if you before the 1.1 update, I don’t think the cellar existed.
(1:03:55) Al: There’s doors next to your house, which now you can unlock the expansion of your house and you’ve got a cellar like you do in Stardew Valley.
(1:04:03) Al: But before that, it’s just you see the like storm shelter doors that you see a lot the time and it is the half tornadoes and stuff like that.
(1:04:13) Al: You know the standard thing where you’re the tornado film and that’s where you go.
(1:04:17) Al: You go into the cellar through those doors.
(1:04:21) Al: But if you walk up to it, I think it’s…
(1:04:25) Al: It’s on like rainy days, sometimes you will hear groans coming from the cellar doors.
(1:04:31) Al: And you need to… let me get off…
(1:04:33) Al: So if you go into the link on the on the Reddit link that I’ve posted, the video has it.
(1:04:38) Jonnie: Oh, that’s really weird.
(1:04:41) Al: Isn’t it? It’s really creepy.
(1:04:41) Jonnie: Oh, it’s like very, it’s very ghastly.
(1:04:45) Al: Yeah.
(1:04:46) Al: And so obviously there were before the 1.1 update, there were many theories about what is behind these doors.
(1:04:51) Al: like is this like a story thing where it turns out that you’re actually
(1:04:55) Al: a psychopath and you have someone locked down there, or like what is happening down there?
(1:05:00) Al: Is it a haunted area that you get to go in? Turns out it was just a cellar, but
(1:05:05) Al: that doesn’t remove away the groaning. The groaning? Do you want to know the actual reason for it?
(1:05:10) Al: It’s a frog. There’s a specific frog that makes that noise.
(1:05:14) Jonnie: I mean, I do like that because like if you’ve ever done camping or you know, being out in
(1:05:22) Jonnie: the dark in nature where there’s animals around, animal sounds do sound weird at night and
(1:05:30) Al: I 100% understand why there are so many stories from humans over the centuries of monsters
(1:05:38) Al: and all these things, because my goodness, some things are creepy.
(1:05:42) Al: There was one time where I was helping run a campsite and there was no one there except
(1:05:49) Al: the three of us that were running the campsite this night.
(1:05:50) Al: We were just kind of setting some things up.
(1:05:53) Al: And let me tell you, we heard the most horrifying noise.
(1:05:56) Al: We heard what sounded like with somebody shouting for help from a beach.
(1:06:00) Al: Because we were right next to the beach and it was pitch black and we’re like “Oh my goodness,
(1:06:04) Al: I can’t not go and figure out if someone needs help, right? Like, if you hear someone shouting
(1:06:08) Al: for help, I feel like I need to go do it.” Especially as it wasn’t just me on my own, you know,
(1:06:14) Al: obviously I’m, you know, male presenting person that have that privilege, right? Where I’m not
(1:06:20) Al: going to fear for my life as much as some other people. Like, there were three of us, like, we
(1:06:25) Al: need to go do this. It’s horrifying, I need to go do this though. We got onto the beach, it was a
(1:06:30) Al: the seal. The seal sounded so much like a human shouting for help. It was
(1:06:35) Al: kind of creepy in its own right? Even though we knew what it was, right?
(1:06:38) Al: Oh
(1:06:38) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s um, it’s weird. I have a similar story. I looked after a house for a while that had emu on it and at night they make very deep theory.
(1:06:48) Al: hmm those are terrifying by the way just seeing them run
(1:06:54) Jonnie: They’re kind of terry. They’re largely hardless, like they’re dice birds, but yeah, they’re quite big.
(1:06:57) Al: oh harmless sure harmless sure but if you don’t fully understand them and you
(1:07:01) Al: just like especially if it was like a little bit dusk or whatever and you just
(1:07:04) Jonnie: Yeah.
(1:07:04) Al: see this large creature just like scurrying past you
(1:07:08) Jonnie: Yes.
(1:07:09) Jonnie: And they make a very deep guttural noise that’s very terrifying.
(1:07:13) Al: Oh
(1:07:14) Jonnie: I’ll have to see if I can find her and send it to you because it’s…
(1:07:20) Jonnie: The first couple of nights it was just waking up to that noise going off was very disconcerting.
(1:07:30) Al: Oh, oh, that is so low I was not expecting that
(1:07:34) Jonnie: Yes.
(1:07:37) Jonnie: So waking up and hearing that in the middle of the night was terrifying.
(1:07:42) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Nature’s creepy. Yeah. Yeah. With the lights on. Oh dear. Yeah. I went see whenever
(1:07:47) Jonnie: That’s why we only played in video games and from the comfort of our NASA houses.
(1:08:00) Al: I go to the cinema to watch a horror film of some kind. I don’t watch a huge number of them,
(1:08:05) Al: but I’m trying to kind of push my boundaries a little bit. If I walk into the cinema and
(1:08:10) Al: There’s no one else in there.
(1:08:11) Al: I’m like, no.
(1:08:12) Al: I’m not doing this.
(1:08:14) Al: There needs to be at least two other people here.
(1:08:17) Al: Two people specifically, so the one person can’t kill me, right?
(1:08:21) Al: Because if there’s one person, they’re going to murder me.
(1:08:22) Jonnie: Two of you.
(1:08:23) Al: There has to be two people.
(1:08:25) Al: If there’s no people, if there’s no people, the monster’s going to get me.
(1:08:28) Al: If there’s one person, they’re going to kill me.
(1:08:29) Al: If it’s two people, nobody will do anything.
(1:08:31) Al: We’re all good.
(1:08:32) Jonnie: What if it’s two people but they’re together?
(1:08:32) Al: No, that’s not good enough.
(1:08:34) Al: It has to be two separate groups of people.
(1:08:36) Jonnie: Yeah okay, yep.
(1:08:42) Al: Anyway, there we are, the joys of going to the cinema on your own, and also creepy stuff
(1:08:48) Al: in games, whoo.
(1:08:50) Jonnie: You can be the judge of that, because you have to go to bed. I still have a whole day ahead of me to put this behind me.
(1:08:53) Al: And have we freaked ourselves out enough this episode?
(1:09:00) Al: I do.
(1:09:01) Al: I’m going to message my wife and see if she’s still awake.
(1:09:07) Al: Thank you, Johnny, for joining us to talk about this incredibly creepy subject.
(1:09:10) Jonnie: Thank you, Al, for having me on.
(1:09:13) Al: Where can people find you on the internet?
(1:09:15) Al: Oh, wait, you don’t care.
(1:09:16) Jonnie: Correct.
(1:09:21) Jonnie: - As always, just Patreon.com/THSPOD.
(1:09:24) Jonnie: Support Elle, support the show.
(1:09:26) Jonnie: Come chat to us about your favorite
(1:09:29) Jonnie: cozy game conspiracy theories
(1:09:31) Jonnie: or non-cozy game conspiracy theories.
(1:09:33) Jonnie: I just like good game conspiracy theories
(1:09:38) Al: Yeah, cool.
(1:09:40) Al: You can find me on mastodon.scot at thescotpot.
(1:09:45) Al: You can find the podcast on Tumblr at THSPod.
(1:09:49) Al: You can find links to those and everything else,
(1:09:52) Al: as well as a feedback form on the website,
(1:09:56) Al: harvestseason.club.
(1:09:57) Al: Send us some feedback.
(1:09:58) Al: Tell us what your favorite creepy thing is
(1:10:01) Al: in a Cottagecore game.
(1:10:03) Al: Maybe we haven’t talked about your favorite one.
(1:10:05) Al: Maybe you know about ones in games that we haven’t played.
(1:10:09) Al: If it’s just pumpkin panic in general, yes, that is a horrifyingly creepy game. We already know. Thanks
(1:10:16) Al: But other things let us know about them
(1:10:19) Al: You can also
(1:10:20) Al: Support the podcast on patreon as Johnny mentioned patreon.com slash THS pod where you can get access to our slack to talk about things
(1:10:28) Al: Where you can I’m sure there will be people talking about the creepy stuff
(1:10:31) Al: but also
(1:10:32) Al: You can get access to bonus episodes of the podcast of which there will probably be some new ones soon
(1:10:39) Al: Been really bad at that last couple of months. We’ll get more out soon
(1:10:43) Al: But there’s still lots if you sign up now. There’s what four years worth of episodes now
(1:10:49) Al: So lots to listen to I think that’s everything. Thank you Johnny again for joining me
(1:10:54) Jonnie: Thanks, half.
(1:10:54) Al: Thank you. Thank you listeners for listening and until next time
(1:10:58) Al: Have a good harvest. Oh, yeah, that’s a good
(1:10:58) Jonnie: Have a good harvest!
(1:11:02) Al: good harvest
(1:11:04) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our
(1:11:14) Theme Tune: pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:11:17) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:11:22) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed
(1:11:28) Theme Tune: in this episode.
(1:11:37) Al: We needed Kevin’s enthusiasm on the voices, right?
(1:11:43) Jonnie: Yeah, yeah.
(1:11:45) Jonnie: He would’ve been much better.
(1:11:46) Jonnie: Although it’s probably good that like one of us
(1:11:48) Jonnie: didn’t have to sit opposite Kiv doing that
(1:11:49) Jonnie: ‘cause they don’t just rely on that.
(1:11:51) Jonnie: It’s not even gonna try.
(1:14:23) Jonnie: And, Al, when you say pooping is a large portion of your life, as a percentage, how much
(1:14:28) Al: Hmm. Let me just do some maths. So, I maybe poop like three or four times a day, and then
(1:14:39) Al: for each of those I’d maybe be on for like five minutes. So we’re talking about 20 minutes
(1:14:43) Al: in a day, and how many minutes are there in a day? That many. So we’re talking maybe 1%?
(1:14:48) Jonnie: okay is one percent a big portion of your life I guess so I guess one percent is yeah
(1:14:52) Al: It feels like a big part. There aren’t many things that would be that much, right? 20
(1:14:56) Al: that’s a D.
(1:14:57) Jonnie: no I guess I guess not I guess not well there you go listeners that’s probably more than you
(1:15:01) Jonnie: wanted to know about owl birds that’s an owl there for you to think about