Tangent Factories
Wed, May 6, 2026 Year 3, Autumn 18Al and Greg talk about Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream.
Timings
00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:04:13: What Have We Been Up To
00:21:57: Game News
00:57:42: Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream
01:49:37: Outro
Links
Outbound Un-Delay
Farm To Table Early Access Release Date
Farm To Table Un-Delay
Tales of Seikyu 1.0 Release
Horticular Switch Release
Starsand Island “New Connections” Update
Hello Kitty Island Adventure “Month of Meh”
Animal Crossing x Sealife Expansion
Contact
Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/
Transcript
Theme Tune
(0s) Theme Tune:
[Music]
Intro
(30s) Al:
Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Al
(35s)
And we are here today to talk about cotch score games
(36s) Greg:
And my name is Greg.
(38s)
I have a, I’ve always had this question.
(45s)
Who came up with the term cottage core?
(48s)
Like where did this come from?
(49s)
Because it was not a thing back in the day and then suddenly now it’s a thing.
(53s) Al:
I think it’s our 2020 thing.
(55s) Greg:
Okay.
(58s)
That makes sense.
(1m 1s)
like there’s a there’s a there’s that
(1m 3s)
whole genre.
(1m 6s)
But whenever it was like, it’s something something core. It’s hope core. It’s sadness core. I don’t know.
(1m 9s) Al:
Yes.
(1m 13s)
So it looks okay.
(1m 14s)
I have an answer for you that is very rare to have an answer,
(1m 17s)
but the answer is it started in 2018 on,
(1m 22s)
guess what social media say?
(1m 23s)
You’ll get it, you’ll get it in one.
(1m 26s) Greg:
It’s got to be Tumblr. I mean, that’s, that’s where, that’s where all weird things stem from.
(1m 27s) Al:
It’s Tumblr.
(1m 28s)
[laughing]
(1m 32s)
Yeah, yeah, I knew you’d get it,
(1m 34s)
but yeah, Tumblr in 2018.
(1m 35s) Greg:
Weird things come from Tumblr. Angry things come from Reddit. That’s, if somebody’s that rage,
(1m 40s) Al:
[laughing]
(1m 41s)
racist things come from Twitter.
(1m 43s) Greg:
yeah, well, boy. What? How far the most popular platform has fallen is still
(1m 56s)
shocking to me? How quickly, I mean, there’s people are still on it, doesn’t surprise me,
(2m) Al:
What’s more shocking, that or the fact that people are still on it?
(2m 7s) Greg:
because like, I’m still on it with everything locked down, because I have an identity there,
(2m 11s)
and I don’t want anybody to steal it. But like, I don’t use it. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, it’s not. I mean,
(2m 13s) Al:
Right, okay, having an account is not the same as being on it, I don’t think.
(2m 19s) Greg:
I check it every once in a while, because I’m just like, okay, is something over here happening.
(2m 24s)
Do I need to be aware of somebody trying to…
(2m 26s)
message me through Twitter, even though I’ve told them not to?
(2m 30s) Al:
Yeah, I think the people the people to blame other people who are posting on it if you don’t post on it
(2m 34s)
I don’t think you’re cuz I still technically have an account as well
(2m 38s)
And very occasionally someone will post a link and I go on and look at it and then look at the replies and then click the home button and go
(2m 45s)
No, no, this place is still horrific
(2m 46s) Greg:
No, this is and it’s getting worse. That’s the thing. It’s so wild how it’s getting worse anyways
(2m 49s) Al:
Yeah
(2m 53s) Greg:
That’s not what we’re here to talk about
(2m 56s) Al:
I thought we were here to
(2m 56s) Greg:
We’re gonna talk about some some other random weird thing that happens
(3m 1s) Al:
I thought we were here to talk about genres of games and debate that let me tell I
(3m 4s) Greg:
I mean we could look if I want to drive you up the absolute wall
(3m 9s)
We can get into genre of games
(3m 11s)
We’ll start with what’s a mainline Pokemon game, and I will watch you
(3m 14s) Al:
Oh
(3m 16s) Greg:
slowly devolve into the game.
(3m 18s) Al:
Look the mainline Pokemon game one is easy
(3m 20s)
It’s what does game freak say because this is the thing that the whole point of main series is for the creators of it to say
(3m 26s)
This is the main series right and doesn’t mean that fine
(3m 30s)
fans can’t have other terms and it doesn’t mean the fans can group things in different ways.
(3m 34s)
But like the point of the main series is for the developers to say this is what it is.
(3m 40s) Greg:
[laughing]
(3m 45s) Al:
All right, well, we’re here this episode to talk about
(3m 50s)
the most bizarre game with the most odd decisions, we’ll talk about them later and that is
(3m 58s)
Tom Adacio Life Living the Dream.
(4m) Greg:
Boy, they made decisions. Boy, they made some decisions in that game.
(4m) Al:
I have so much to talk about with this game, which we will get to later.
(4m 10s)
Before that, we have some news, but first of all, Greg, what have you been up to?
(4m 12s) Greg:
Okay
What Have We Been Up To
(4m 15s) Greg:
Yes, I have been up to well, so
(4m 20s)
I’m playing Tomadachi life. I’m still actively playing PCopia. I actually play PCopia more than I
(4m 24s) Al:
Yeah, I mean, that’s fair.
(4m 27s) Greg:
Play Tomadachi life, which we will get into why I
(4m 32s)
Will get into why because there’s they’ve made some choices with our with our little Tomadachi
(4m 39s) Al:
What’s your Procopius status then, where are you?
(4m 42s) Greg:
Oh, like
(4m 44s)
Environment-wise or like how happy I am
(4m 48s) Al:
Where why do you want to talk about?
(4m 49s) Greg:
So I have wastelands to 10 I have bleak beach to 10 I have
(4m 57s)
The Rocklands to nine I have pallet town to eight and I have
(5m 4s)
Skylands to eight and then I’m like oh, yeah, there’s a cloud area
(5m 9s)
That I can play with so I just started over there and
(5m 12s)
then I also have my own personal pallet town place at an eight, but am I at all happy with anything? No. Like like the beach is at 10 and I’m like cool, but I have to repair an entire ship and I’m only I only have marble flooring down for one because I was trying to figure out a good way to do the wireless wiring and
(5m 42s)
just like, okay, well, I can’t hide everything. It is there’s just some places where you’re going to see a weird brass plate in the ceiling, but only if you look up and nobody looks up. So I’m just going to put it there and then I’m like, oh, I have to do something with this stage and so I get into these situations where I’m like, okay, well, I have this thing to do. Oh, I have this thing to do. I need to do this.
(6m 6s)
I think it’s one of the brilliant things about spoke up yet is every time I log in. I always feel like oh,
(6m 12s)
I can go work on this for a while and then I can switch over here while that’s being done. Like I finally built all of the altars. I have all three altars done in pallet town and I put them in pallet town. Like I know people took them to other areas and I’m like, I have, I cannot clear out a space for these gigantic places. I’m just going to put them in the in the blank slate and I will build accordingly around them.
(6m 22s) Al:
Yeah, see you.
(6m 42s) Greg:
But yeah, there’s just it’s surprising how good that game is and how much it just has things to do and at any point, like at any point, anybody can just be like, okay, well, I’m done and you still got so much out of that game. It’s just shocking how having such a clear vision can make a game worthwhile.
(7m 9s) Al:
Imagine that
(7m 10s) Greg:
I mean yeah like they kind of do it
(7m 12s)
exactly what I was going to do. It’s not like it’s a new game like it was based off of the dragon, whatever. Yeah yeah right yeah yeah yeah yes right it’s a huge
(7m 16s) Al:
Sure sure, but someone a Pokemon went even if they didn’t have the idea
(7m 21s)
Even if it was the the dragon quest builders guys went to Pokemon and said we’d like to make a Pokemon version of this
(7m 26s)
So I’m gonna Pokemon still had to go yes, right, which is a big thing for them to do
(7m 33s) Greg:
like that company. What the thing is is what’s so what’s so frustrating is they have
(7m 42s)
this tremendous amount of goodwill from Pocopia and then they release champions and it’s hot garbage like it’s first four days is like what are you doing it I do that I think I think they
(7m 48s) Al:
I want point that they regret announcing that champions would be the competitive game for
(8m)
this year.
(8m 1s) Greg:
regret announcing everything they announced. I think if they would I think if they had their way they would never say a word and then something would just come out.
(8m 12s) Al:
Which is how things I think is the best way when a company is as big as Pokemon for them is the best way for them to work
(8m 12s) Greg:
Yeah yeah. Yeah.
(8m 20s) Al:
Of course, there is the argument around like maybe that’s bad for the rest of the industry
(8m 26s)
And you know cuz we’re gonna I mean we’re gonna talk in the news about you know games delaying because of other games releases
(8m 33s) Greg:
which I so wild.
(8m 36s)
I have thoughts about that.
(8m 38s)
So many thoughts about how wild of a choice that is.
(8m 39s) Al:
Yeah, oh yeah
(8m 42s) Greg:
But here’s the thing.
(8m 43s)
I don’t, so I went to PAX East
(8m 47s)
and I don’t understand what the video game industry
(8m 50s)
wants to be currently.
(8m 53s)
And I don’t understand what the choices anybody’s making
(8m 59s)
like we’re in such a weird
(9m 3s)
time of like, the council wars are essentially dead. You either are a PlayStation or an Xbox. Nobody can afford all of them anymore. So you had to make a choice. You’ve made your choice. And you just sort of stuck there. And like, you can’t argue to people like, hey, you should come over and buy a Switch too, because they’re going to be rightly so. Like, great. Give me a thousand dollars.
(9m 30s)
Because that’s pretty much how everything is costing right now.
(9m 33s)
I will get a console for $600, $700 that I will buy two games, which will bring me close to a thousand dollars.
(9m 42s)
That is a huge investment.
(9m 45s)
And the PlayStation and Xbox are no better.
(9m 46s) Al:
Yeah. Yeah.
(9m 49s) Greg:
So, like, the people are like arguing about consoles and like, great.
(9m 54s)
But you buy me the other one then, because I have no way of comparing.
(9m 58s)
because they cannot possibly afford $3,000.
(10m 3s)
And then steam is like, “Hey, do you want to carry everything in your pocket?”
(10m 13s) Al:
it’s time that I find is the biggest issue with these things. Like if you have infinite
(10m 13s) Greg:
I mean, I guess, but that’s another $1,000.
(10m 22s)
Yeah. Yeah.
(10m 25s) Al:
money, you still can’t play all the games. So I just did a quick check. So comparing
(10m 32s)
games to films. So in 1980, there were about four and a half thousand films released.
(10m 39s)
in 2023, which was in my quick Googling.
(10m 43s)
The latest year I could find numbers for. They were about double the number. They released. Okay. A lot more. But in 2000,
(10m 51s)
there were less than a thousand games released in the entire year.
(10m 55s)
Last year, there were 20,000 games released on Steam.
(11m) Greg:
It’s
(11m 3s)
Unbelievable. I mean
(11m 4s) Al:
20,000 games on one platform in one year.
(11m 7s) Greg:
Like
(11m 10s)
It’s like hooray like an embarrassment of riches, but also
(11m 15s)
Nobody can find it anymore like you get like it’s so bad for
(11m 22s)
The consumers to have so many choices because it’s so overwhelming that
(11m 28s)
So many people are fighting
(11m 31s)
for your attention, fighting for your time.
(11m 36s)
It is easy to be like,
(11m 39s)
you know what?
(11m 40s)
I have 10 minutes at the end of every day
(11m 45s)
where I can sort of do some research.
(11m 50s)
What just released today?
(11m 53s)
Because I can’t possibly go back.
(11m 55s)
And the state of online
(11m 57s)
rating systems has been so bad for ever.
(12m)
That you can’t trust any rating online.
(12m 3s)
Like, if somebody sneezed funny three years ago, their reviews would be like, never covered
(12m 11s)
their mouth, horrible, horrible product.
(12m 14s)
It’s like, okay, well, the person’s bad, but did they make something good?
(12m 19s)
And like, what exactly did they do?
(12m 22s) Al:
Yeah, there’s two, it’s one thing like fundraising for hating an entire group and removing
(12m 22s) Greg:
Like, what’s the context?
(12m 24s)
We are just this wild.
(12m 31s) Al:
their rights, for example, and just being a bit of a not-nice person, just to put
(12m 34s) Greg:
Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
(12m 38s) Al:
out there, I think we both agree that it’s fine to not support someone who is actively
(12m 46s)
working towards the removal of human rights for certain people, and then it’s a completely
(12m 52s)
and obviously it’s your call, right, what you do with what you support, but probably not liking,
(12m 54s) Greg:
- It’s your call, yeah.
(12m 59s) Al:
I was saying a game is bad because the person who made it is just not a nice person, there’s
(13m 3s)
a whole different thing, but.
(13m 5s) Greg:
Yeah, and the other thing that was like are they not a nice person to you
(13m 9s)
Are they nice person to other people and what was your interest? It’s one of the things about having a a minor bit of internet fame
(13m 16s)
that I have is like
(13m 19s)
the constant one the constant awareness of
(13m 24s)
When you meet people there is always an expectation of
(13m 30s)
tearfulness, willingness, openness, the flip side of that is awesome.
(13m 35s)
So a lot of people feel they have a lot of access in right to your life, your mood in your body.
(13m 44s)
And so like, it’s such a difficult thing to navigate.
(13m 51s)
And when I see people are like, I met them at a con and they were sharp with me and I’m like,
(13m 55s)
okay, but that’s humans. They’re like, what was the context?
(13m 57s) Al:
And what was the context on that, right? Like, did you talk to them while they were like setting up for something or like, you know, there’s so many different things.
(14m 5s) Greg:
Yeah, it’s just wild. Anyways, I’ve been up to making all my other podcasts and playing these
(14m 14s)
games when they can. What have you been up to? Now that we’ve took another huge legend.
(14m 19s) Al:
If that’s what this party is, it is tangents.
(14m 21s) Greg:
I know his tangent. That’s what all podcasts are. Podcasting is tangent.
(14m 27s) Al:
Obviously, I’ve been playing time with judge to life as well.
(14m 31s)
No, I keep mongous amount.
(14m 33s) Greg:
Well, we’ll get it done! That’s a reason why!
(14m 33s) Al:
We’ll talk about that later.
(14m 39s)
But I also picked up.
(14m 41s)
So unless you listen to the most recent episode
(14m 45s)
of the podcast, you probably won’t know that I currently have
(14m 47s)
have a–
(14m 49s)
so I was like, okay, I was finished with pocopia, so I decided maybe now is the time to use up my no longer cheap three month subscription. So one of the things I picked up to play was Planet of Lano. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it.
(14m 58s) Greg:
[Laughs]
(15m 16s)
I’ve heard of it.
(15m 22s) Al:
Maybe anyway, yeah, yeah, something like that. It’s relatively recent, but they’re they’ve got a second game that’s just about to come out
(15m 28s)
So I thought let’s try out see what it’s like
(15m 31s)
It’s a very nice looking game. I I really enjoy looking at it
(15m 37s) Greg:
[laughs]
(15m 37s) Al:
And
(15m 41s)
I’m not a huge fan of playing it
(15m 44s)
But this is probably this is this is a hundred percent or it’s not for me rather than it’s bad thing
(15m 50s)
So.
(15m 52s)
The game starts off where you’re in this little town and then your village you’re in this little village and your village gets like destroyed by aliens and one of your loved ones gets kidnapped by the aliens.
(16m 4s)
So of course your plan is to get to the aliens and save your loved one. I still loved one because I can’t even remember what the relation to you was.
(16m 13s) Greg:
[Laughter]
(16m 15s) Al:
But that’s a me problem. It is very much I would describe it as a stealth.
(16m 22s)
2d platformer very much focused around puzzles and I think my problem with it is I am not a huge fan of stealth just in general and this does all of the things about stealth that I don’t like the things I don’t like about stealth is as soon as you make a mistake you die and you reset that’s it you know there’s no way of solving the problem if you get spotted.
(16m 52s)
There’s really only one way out of everything right like the puzzle is how do you get from the left part of the screen to the right part of the screen without being seen basically that that’s the entire game.
(17m 4s)
It is a relatively short because of that it’s maybe about 4 hours long. So I think a game that was like you know 40 50 hours long would just become dreadful.
(17m 16s)
So I think if you like that sort of thing it’s a good implementation of that it’s just that’s not.
(17m 22s)
I’m not what I’m looking for. I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess I looked at the the 2d platforming part of it and it looked kind of spit it fader s can I thought maybe it’ll be like that.
(17m 34s)
But when I say platforming it’s not really what I would consider platforming like yes you are transporting yourself between platforms but it’s very much more the stealth puzzle aspect of it right like there’s not hard.
(17m 52s)
It jumps to do or like difficult things to figure out it’s how do you get past this enemy without them seeing you basically and it’s about crouching behind grass and claiming up certain things at the right time and that’s not really what I’m looking for.
(18m 8s) Greg:
- Yeah, I mean, I notably do not like platformers.
(18m 12s)
[laughs]
(18m 14s)
Platformers, I just, there’s a twitchiness of platformers
(18m 18s)
and the sort of like, it’s just gonna be moved
(18m 20s)
into like the 3D space where I’m like,
(18m 23s)
I am really not great at judging distances.
(18m 25s)
I have, my eyes are two different sizes,
(18m 28s)
so I already have a difficulty with,
(18m 30s)
without my glasses, but even with my glasses,
(18m 32s)
like really understanding distances
(18m 35s)
because they’ve never looked right to me.
(18m 38s)
But generally, the idea of like,
(18m 41s)
jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping,
(18m 43s)
to get to a thing is fun once for me.
(18m 46s)
And then it’s like, now here’s 40 more worlds
(18m 49s)
where you do the same thing,
(18m 50s)
and I’m like, no, I did it once, I did it.
(18m 53s)
And then funny, it’s like, it really,
(18m 56s)
I really hate platforming in games that aren’t designed
(19m)
for platforming.
(19m 1s)
Like Final Fantasy XIV has platforming aspects in it,
(19m 4s)
and I’m like, hard pass.
(19m 8s)
So are so loose because they have to be,
(19m 10s)
and like, is like, jump on this one tiny square,
(19m 14s)
and I’m like, no, this is not possible for me
(19m 19s)
in this context, and there are people who do it,
(19m 21s)
like there are actual, they built jumping puzzles
(19m 24s)
into that game, where you can go to certain areas
(19m 27s)
and see if you can get all the way up to the top.
(19m 30s)
And then you get like an achievement,
(19m 31s)
and I have never cared about achievements.
(19m 36s) Al:
Yeah I can’t I can’t about achievements if it’s a game that I would otherwise be completing
(19m 38s) Greg:
And to me,
(19m 40s)
like, okay, great, I have a title that only I see big,
(19m 50s) Al:
most of it anyway and it’s more I find it useful as a checklist right listeners will
(19m 56s)
know it’s become a joke in this lack I love lists I love a checklist I love being able
(20m 2s)
to go. These are the things that I need to do in and get rid of them.
(20m 6s)
I feel like achievements are like that for me. If I’m not enjoying a game or I’m
(20m 15s)
not going to finish a game, I enjoy a little bit of it and I’m done. Yeah, achievements
(20m 19s)
do nothing for me. I don’t care about them. But do I like looking at my platinum level
(20m 24s)
for Astrobot? I do. I like looking at that. Do I like looking at the fact that I have
(20m 26s) Greg:
[laughing]
(20m 29s) Al:
100% of the achievements in Stardew Valley on Steam? Yeah, I do. I like looking at that.
(20m 34s)
Is it a reminds?
(20m 36s)
Well, yeah, Planet of Lana, not for me, but yeah, stay tuned and see what I’m playing
(20m 43s) Greg:
We’re different people.
(20m 53s) Al:
on game pass next.
(20m 54s)
I did download, haven’t put more than five minutes into it yet, but I have downloaded
(21m 1s)
them like a dragon infinite wealth. So well, well,
(21m 6s)
we’ll see what comes of that. It’s very possible that nothing comes of that, and I just spent the time looking at it and going,
(21m 11s) Greg:
[laughs]
(21m 12s) Al:
“Yeah, I should play that,” and then going and playing something else.
(21m 15s) Greg:
It’s called the steam wishlist that everybody’s like,
(21m 18s)
“Oh, put that on there.”
(21m 19s) Al:
Yeah. But the beauty of, but the beauty of game pass compared to that is you get to even download the game.
(21m 19s) Greg:
And then I get notifications like,
(21m 20s)
“Hey, this thing on your wishlist is on sale.”
(21m 23s)
I’m like, “Cool, I’m not.”
(21m 25s)
It’s on the wishlist and that was the game.
(21m 27s)
The game was putting it on my wishlist
(21m 29s)
and I completed that task, and now I’m moving on.
(21m 36s) Al:
And then not play it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Look, I’ve got a terabyte on my not to steam deck, and I got to use it for something. Yeah, I think that’s, that’s why I’ve been up to. So let’s talk about some news, some game news.
(21m 36s) Greg:
[laughs]
(21m 38s)
Hi, eat up my space.
(21m 41s)
I’m like, “Oh, I’m like…”
Game News
(22m 1s) Al:
So, here we go, right, first up, outbound.
Outbound
(22m 6s) Al:
This is the campervan game. Have you heard of this game, outbound?
(22m 8s) Greg:
I’ve heard of it. I don’t know anything about it really. Other than it’s like you’re in a camper van running around.
(22m 16s) Al:
Yeah. So the interesting thing to me is the fact that, so on top of your campervan, you
(22m 21s)
can build a little like house and it looks like you can make it incredibly large, like
(22m 26s)
comically large. That’s what intrigued me about this game.
(22m 30s) Greg:
Like I those raft games where you’re like out of the ocean and getting stuff
(22m 30s) Al:
Anyway, yeah. Yeah.
(22m 37s)
Yeah. So the context behind this is the format to come out in April and then they delayed
(22m 42s)
it the game until the 14th of May. And now they’ve kind of undeladed, but not really.
(22m 50s)
So since they announced that they were coming on the 14th of May, so not to go to announce
(22m 55s)
that they were launching on the 14th of May. And of course, you can’t have two games
(22m 58s)
releasing on the same day. And so they’ve decided, in fact, in fact, yes, you do as well
(23m 1s) Greg:
Yes, you can yes, you can
(23m 6s) Al:
in the later minute. So they decided that their, their, their PC and Xbox releases are releasing
(23m 14s)
three days earlier on the 11th of May. I love the idea that you’re going to be, if, if
(23m 18s)
someone’s someone was going to be like, I’m not going to play outbound because it’s releasing
(23m 22s)
on the same day as not to get three. Is instead going to go, oh, three days before, yes,
(23m 26s)
I will definitely play both of those games.
(23m 27s) Greg:
Yeah, I’m yeah, I’m gonna I’m gonna play outbound for three days. It is so
(23m 34s)
Like the thought process to me is we only got about three days worth of game in us
(23m 41s) Al:
[laughing]
(23m 41s) Greg:
So get that and then go play the good game
(23m 45s)
Subnautica 2 like what are you saying with this press release? It’s like
(23m 51s)
absolutely bonkers to be like we’re gonna release three days
(23m 57s)
before our planned release because Subnautica 2 is coming out and we all know everybody wants
(24m 2s)
Subnautica comes out in three days. I’m not looking for something to fail three days of my time
(24m 10s) Al:
Yeah. And of course, the funniest thing to me is that it’s only on PC and Xbox because the
(24m 10s) Greg:
Like what are you talking about?
(24m 17s) Al:
PlayStation and Switch ones console releases take time to set them up. You can’t just change
(24m 21s) Greg:
Yeah.
(24m 22s) Al:
your mind in release three days earlier. So they’re not. So you now have two release days
(24m 25s) Greg:
Right. I don’t.
(24m 28s) Al:
depending on what you’re playing on. They spray all this effort into releasing everywhere at the
(24m 34s)
same time. They explicitly said, oh, I’m sorry, PC backers, we’re going to delay a little
(24m 40s)
week and release everything at the same time. And now they’re not.
(24m 43s) Greg:
Yeah, and I mean, I feel like what they’re saying is we are the exact gameplay loop as subnautica,
(24m 52s)
but we are clearly not as good. I mean, it’s a choice. It’s a choice to say that, I guess.
(24m 55s) Al:
Yeah. But it then gets more ridiculous. So, farm to table announced that they were releasing
Farm To Table
(25m 9s) Al:
on the 11th of May. However, then, when outbound really announced that they were no longer
(25m 15s)
releasing on the 14th of May, but releasing on the 11th of May, farm to table decided
(25m 20s)
They were not going to release on the 11th of May. They wouldn’t find going to release two days
(25m 25s)
earlier on the 9th of May. Their announcement literally says followed by subnautica 2’s recent
(25m 33s)
date reveal outbound recently announced its new release date which now falls exactly on our planned
(25m 38s)
early access launch date. They’re delaying or they’re pre-laying. I don’t know what would
(25m 45s)
What would the words for that?
(25m 47s) Greg:
I mean at this point, just we’re pushing, we’re releasing our game in 2020 to get ahead of everybody, like it’s also so
(25m 57s)
Incredaled incredibly almost egotistical to me to be like well, we all are fighting for the exact same players
(26m 6s)
Are you?
(26m 8s)
I don’t I don’t think you are I think you are distinctly buying for a distinct audience like the beast
(26m 8s) Al:
These games are getting smaller and smaller as they really is.
(26m 17s) Greg:
Yeah, I like like I mean
(26m 22s)
Are you like are you also saying you’re just a subnautica clone or
(26m 27s) Al:
And which, which, which, this is the thing, is nothing like Subnautica.
(26m 29s) Greg:
They’re dead. I’ve watched the trailer. I’m like this is a different game
(26m 34s)
Why just
(26m 37s)
What do you like the idea that you can’t release at the same time as your competition?
(26m 44s)
Are they your competition?
(26m 47s)
At that point, every game is your competition by this point, and you’re never going to find a unique release.
(26m 53s) Al:
Like, I think there is something to some of it, like, I understand the people who are like,
(26m 58s)
I, the people who are not announcing their release date until they know when GTA 6 comes out,
(27m 3s)
because GTA 6 will suck up all of the oxygen on every website. Everyone’s going to be talking
(27m 9s)
about it basically and trying to get your name game noticed. If you’d release at the same time
(27m 14s)
as GTA 6, I understand that one. But there has to be a limit somewhere where you’re like,
(27m 19s)
because as we mentioned 20,000 games released on SteamLash
(27m 23s)
year, if you if you tell about mass, you might notice that’s more than the number of days in the year by quite a bit.
(27m 33s) Greg:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, the thing is, like, if you’re trying to, to grab the presses attention,
(27m 42s)
I mean, there are, there are many ways to do that. And releasing early, unless you’re like,
(27m 48s)
we have all of the reviews out, and we’re going to get reviews in everybody’s hands,
(27m 54s)
and release, before this comes out, you are still fighting a clock of reviewers reviewing it,
(28m 1s)
writing a positive review.
(28m 3s)
And I’m just going to be talking about advertising it, getting it out to people, people seeing it and then buying your game. Like changing your release date earlier and earlier, especially when it’s like two days, is not really winding that clock back very far.
(28m 23s) Al:
I just, it’s their, like, I sometimes feel like I don’t spend a lot of time on some games because I start them and then like within a week, I’m like, this is not for me. I’m done with this. But like, two days, really two days.
(28m 39s) Greg:
Yeah, yeah, two days. That is, that is like three days before subnautica, two days before the
(28m 47s)
one that’s going before subnautica, like it is just, I mean, do what you think you need to do.
(28m 53s)
I guess it’s just people don’t know what to expect from you. And like the people who are already
(29m 2s)
excited about your game, who care about when you’re releasing it, are going to play your game.
(29m 9s)
Regardless if it comes up against subnautica, if they are excited enough to follow you for
(29m 16s)
updates about when your game releases, they’re going to choose your game over subnautica.
(29m 23s) Al:
Yeah, yeah, fun times especially funny with its like farming games because generally they’re like long term games, right? Like you don’t play stardew for two days
(29m 35s) Greg:
Right, right
(29m 38s)
Right, like these are long haul games and
(29m 41s)
Like they’re gonna play your game, but I mean some not to get is also a long haul game, but also
(29m 47s)
If they’re like technically the third subnautica because then they did one in ice or something. I don’t know
(29m 54s) Al:
I, I don’t know.
(29m 56s)
But the first one only came out in, oh wait, either 2014 or 2018, depending on which thing
(30m 2s)
I’m listening to.
(30m 3s) Greg:
[laughing]
(30m 4s) Al:
Oh, early access was 2014.
(30m 8s)
Yeah, I know it’s a while ago, but like also six years for the sequel of a large game
(30m 13s)
like that doesn’t feel like it was ridiculous, right, both, both of them, both of
(30m 15s) Greg:
No, it’s not. It’s not. I mean some some franchises would have you believe otherwise, but yes, that is not a tremendous amount of time
(30m 19s) Al:
of them. Both of them.
(30m 24s)
I’ve released between GTA 5 and GTA 6, so do you know the funny thing about GTA 5 is I’ve
(30m 32s)
said this a couple of times on the podcast but I’m not sure you would have heard that.
(30m 37s)
I, GTA 5 came out the week I started work after uni, so like it’s basically been my entire career
(30m 46s)
since GTA 5 and it’s not like I’ve now been working for so this was this 2026.
(30m 54s)
They’ll be 13 years between the games probably more because as I’ve said before, I don’t think that game is coming out this year.
(31m 2s) Greg:
Oh, it’s not coming out this year it we’re lucky if it’s coming
(31m 5s) Al:
Yeah, I think probably probably by the end of next year, but yeah, it’s not coming out this year.
(31m 13s) Greg:
I mean, if they can delay until America decides to actually do something right and not ruin the
(31m 20s) Al:
[laughter]
(31m 21s) Greg:
world economy, like I’ve talked about this on my other podcast a lot. Like, 2026 for most
(31m 27s)
companies is just a planning year because it’s impossible to know what in things going to cost.
(31m 34s)
And everybody is just praying that something will happen, which we all also are praying, we’ll
(31m 42s) Al:
Don’t say don’t don’t don’t make don’t make me delete things like this podcast
(31m 43s) Greg:
be able to correct the the sinking ship a little bit. I won’t. But like, the only only easy thing to
(31m 56s)
release this year is digitally if you do not have to rely on any physical anything because making
(32m 4s)
something in person physically right now is so outrageously expensive. And
(32m 13s)
It’s so hard to get to places that like, you know, they are, they are well within their rights
(32m 21s)
to be like, we’re going to wait another year if they want to sell any physical copies because
(32m 28s)
there’s already sort of because of the subscription model and because of so many other things
(32m 35s)
people want to feel like they’re holding something. Like, I have this physical thing in my hand
(32m 40s)
and you can’t take it away from me because everybody’s being
(32m 43s)
burned by subscription models so much right now. Like, I do not think they have any pressing
(32m 52s)
any pressing needs to release in 2026 and I don’t think they will. Yeah.
(32m 56s) Al:
No.
(32m 57s)
It’s gonna make all the money whenever it releases.
(32m 59s)
[laughing]
(33m 2s)
Oh dear.
(33m 2s)
All right, fun times.
Tales Of Seikyu
(33m 4s) Al:
We have a couple of new releases coming.
(33m 7s)
So first off, tales of psyche have announced
(33m 10s)
that they’re 1.0 is coming on the 11th of June.
Horticular
(33m 13s) Al:
And, horticula, horticula is now out on switch.
(33m 19s)
So if you were waiting for either of those things,
(33m 21s)
there you go.
(33m 22s) Greg:
They’re here at last.
(33m 24s) Al:
Congratulations.
What Makes Us Play Games
(33m 24s) Greg:
This, okay, you don’t play all of these, right?
(33m 27s) Al:
[clears throat]
(33m 30s)
Right, okay.
(33m 31s)
So just to give you an idea, in 2025,
(33m 35s)
they’re where 76 games that were released.
(33m 38s) Greg:
Oh yeah, I would be there where I would obnoxious them out.
(33m 41s) Al:
I covered on the game.
(33m 43s)
No, I maybe played maybe a sixth of them.
(33m 49s)
And that’s a stretch.
(33m 50s)
Like some of them would have been very short.
(33m 53s) Greg:
Okay, so what what about a game catches your eye? Like as there’s so many what about one of these games to you is like
(34m 3s)
Oh that that has mechanics or themes that I want to play
(34m 8s) Al:
very good question. So I think in terms of when we’re looking at say stargy lakes,
(34m 16s)
it has to do something different. It can’t just be it’s stargy, right? Because I played stargy
(34m 23s)
and stargy is excellent. Now I’m not saying stargy couldn’t be better and I’m not saying games
(34m 28s)
couldn’t be better than stargy, but trying to be just stargy is really hard because you’re not
(34m 34s)
not going to do as well with the characters.
(34m 38s)
That’s what it does the best in my opinion and all of the other mechanics.
(34m 43s)
If you can have all of those mechanics, but why would I then play that game?
(34m 48s)
If I can just go and play Stardew again.
(34m 51s)
So it has to do something different and that’s a hard thing to judge on
(34m 55s)
whether there’s something different is interesting or not.
(35m 1s)
I’ve never really thought about why some grab me and some don’t.
(35m 5s)
I think sometimes there’s something
(35m 8s)
different, can just be a little bit laughable, right? Where it’s like, oh, it’s stardew, but in space is a classic one. There’s loads of stardew, but in space, there’s stardew, but in the past, there’s stardew, but in the future, there’s stardew, but all of the animals are weird. None of them have particularly interested me a lot. I didn’t play roots of
(35m 11s) Greg:
Mm-hmm. In space! [laughs]
(35m 34s) Al:
which was the big stargy bit in the past one, although it’s always
(35m 38s)
been on my list of I would like to play it, but I’ve never actually got round to it,
(35m 42s)
because that’s the other issue, right? As we know, being interested in the game does not mean
(35m 47s)
playing it. I think half of the ones I would play are ones that I, sorry, let me rephrase that,
(35m 54s)
half of the ones I have played are ones that have at least some wider grab-on things, right?
(36m 4s)
So take this year, for example, one word about to talk about it.
(36m 8s)
I initially thought that I mean, initially thought it was a scam.
(36m 14s) Greg:
[laughing]
(36m 17s) Al:
I’ve, you know, I’ve put 50 hours into it now and I’m still not sure whether it’s a scam or not.
(36m 23s)
And that one initially, I was like, looks okay, but I’m not, you know, massively looking
(36m 30s)
to set aside a bunch of hours to play it.
(36m 33s)
But then I saw a few other kind of more mainstream places start talking about it.
(36m 37s)
And I was like, “Okay, maybe they’re…
(36m 38s)
there is something to look at here, and so that’s when I pick that one up.”
(36m 42s)
And then I would say the other ones are ones that are, “I’ve not seen anyone talk about.”
(36m 46s)
And so I think it’s fun to try smaller, particularly faster ones, right?
(36m 53s)
Like, if someone has here is a, here is a farming game where there’s a specific hook to it.
(37m)
And realistically, you’re not going to get more than 10, 20 hours out of this.
(37m 5s)
I am much more willing to try those ones because I
(37m 8s)
can get the entire game played in a week and I will know immediately
(37m 14s)
whether or not it’s worth it and there’s a part of that which is just content
(37m 19s)
is hard sometimes and getting something to cover can be hard. We actually had a
(37m 26s)
comment on Spotify this week which was asking us to please stop covering
(37m 29s)
Pocopia which is I so I think is
(37m 32s) Greg:
Uh, no. [laughs]
(37m 39s) Al:
I understand if you are not super into Pocopia we have now done like eight
(37m 44s)
games in a row eight episodes in a row on Pocopia and so I understand if
(37m 48s)
you’re if that’s not your game you’re like oh my word can you please stop
(37m 51s)
talking about it I’m just I’m fed up with it I know it’s I know you like it
(37m 56s)
but like come on let’s talk about other games but actually being able to play a
(38m)
game long enough to have something interesting to talk about exactly and it
(38m 2s) Greg:
Right. Every time is a feat.
(38m 7s) Al:
actually led me to
(38m 8s)
a lot of Barton out at the end of last year when I seriously considered just canceling
(38m 13s)
the podcast before figuring out a better way that allows me to continue doing it while not
(38m 20s)
having to worry about that as much.
(38m 22s)
And so that’s why I think smaller games are quite useful because it’s like, oh, here’s a game
(38m 27s)
that I have played the entirety of.
(38m 29s)
I can talk about this, right?
(38m 31s)
Because it’s nice and small.
(38m 31s) Greg:
Right right. Yeah, it’s nice and small and it’s gonna
(38m 32s) Al:
Yeah, exactly.
(38m 34s)
Because the thing is, we don’t all have, not all games are like Tomodacti life where
(38m 38s)
for an hour, I’ve played it for more than that.
(38m 40s) Greg:
- Right.
(38m 40s) Al:
But like, and I were then, you know, I have so much to talk about, uh, we can
(38m 46s)
record a podcast on this, even if I don’t play it anymore.
(38m 49s)
Like if a game is like, okay, you’re not going to know straight away, it takes a while
(38m 55s)
to figure that out.
(38m 57s) Greg:
Yeah, and I think…
(38m 57s) Al:
I start saying dialing is a good example of that.
(38m 59s)
Like when I were then I would have no idea what to talk about with that game.
(39m 3s)
I needed to play a lot more of that when it’s Tomodacti life.
(39m 5s)
like, I know immediately what to talk about.
(39m 9s) Greg:
Yeah, I do think there’s something about, particularly things that they call cozy games where
(39m 15s)
you have to sit with that game for a while to see if, is it cozy or is it boring?
(39m 23s)
And is there something in there that is an interesting loop, an interesting game play that keeps
(39m 30s)
it from being boring or is there nothing here, but I think a lot of cozy games.
(39m 39s)
A lot of cozy games get a lot of gameplay out of people by the fact that the start is always so
(39m 46s)
much the same, that you have to get through the like, here’s how I set up my farm. And now I have an
(39m 54s)
axe and here’s how I break trees down. And now I can do rocks. And like that intro alone for almost
(40m 3s)
every cozy game is often like the first at least half an hour, but sometimes
(40m 9s)
four hours of that game. And it’s like, okay, I’ve finally done all the things where I have a home.
(40m 16s)
And I’ve now discovered that there’s an ancient ruin that’s poisoning the town’s people.
(40m 22s)
And now this is actually
(40m 25s) Al:
Yeah. No, absolutely. I think it’s why I have so many opinions on tutorials and the start
(40m 32s)
of games is because I’ve played more of that than, you know, I’ve played that in every game
(40m 37s)
that I’ve played, right? But sometimes that’s all you play in a game because it’s just so frustrating
(40m 43s) Greg:
Right. Right. When I also really wish a lot more games,
(40m 43s) Al:
and bad that you stop.
(40m 48s) Greg:
cozy games feel like they need to establish the coziness up front.
(40m 54s)
And I think they should really at this point understand that everybody at
(40m 59s)
this point kind of like Stardew Valley,
(41m 2s)
made sure everybody knows what a cozy game is, throw us into the interesting
(41m 6s)
action first, make us like invested in the world and then
(41m 13s)
we can go set up our house because we all know what we have to do. We all know
(41m 16s)
what the chores are. We have to make plants and we have to cut trees and we
(41m 21s)
have to mine rocks and we have to give people presents like we know all of
(41m 27s)
that that could come after why am I in this world and what makes this world
(41m 33s)
unique and interesting. It’s about my have with a lot of beginning Pokemon
(41m 38s)
games like they also do this where it’s like this low thing
(41m 43s)
I’m now yeah here we’re going to slowly talk to this person who slowly talks to you about
(41m 43s) Al:
Here’s how to catch a Pokemon.
(41m 44s)
I know.
(41m 45s)
[laughing]
(41m 51s) Greg:
the world and then you make a choice and I want to actually find out what the main conflict is
(41m 58s)
for maybe five towns like throw me into something interesting I think it’s one of the things that I
(42m 5s)
really appreciated about Sun and Moon is they have that opening cutscene of a person
(42m 13s)
danger to get you invested in like there is really something going on here
(42m 18s)
and then when I’m thrown back into my world it’s not long before I find that person that I was thrown into
(42m 27s)
like I still do my short beginning but almost immediately I run into Lily again
(42m 32s)
and now I’m like okay I have a better sense of what’s going on in this game I’m much more invested
(42m 39s)
Where as if we look at something like Scarlet and Violet?
(42m 43s) Al:
Hey, have you been to school?
(42m 44s) Greg:
Which is one of the most boring beginnings of any game is like I have you been to school like yeah
(42m 52s)
I’ve been to a lot of school
(42m 54s)
Have you met this
(42m 56s)
really intense person before yeah, I know a lot of intense people and
(43m 1s)
Nothing interesting in that game happens until you’re well within the school
(43m 7s)
Got in a class assignment and then said now you’re free to go on your own
(43m 11s)
And that’s like an
(43m 13s)
hour into that game.
(43m 14s) Al:
it’s so long. You know, the more I think about those games afterwards, the longer I am from
(43m 19s)
initially playing them, the less I like them. I definitely like the more than you did.
(43m 21s) Greg:
Oh yeah. I am not a fan of Scarlet and Violet.
(43m 28s)
Yeah.
(43m 29s) Al:
Having, you know, talk to you a lot about them. I definitely liked it more than you did.
(43m 31s) Greg:
Yes. Yeah.
(43m 36s) Al:
But even, yeah, like I totally see all the complaints about it. And yeah, the more time there is,
(43m 44s)
the less, the less I like them. I do, I think the idea of being in a school is an interesting
(43m 52s)
initial hook, maybe, as I’m like writing on a black, you know, whiteboard, here’s some ideas
(43m 58s)
in a school is an interesting idea to me. But if you think about it, right, if you’re a kid
(44m 5s)
playing these games, you’re like, I’m not in school. I don’t want to talk, I don’t want to think
(44m 9s)
about school. Let me play my game. This is meant to be escapism. And if
(44m 10s) Greg:
right. Yeah. Yeah. I’m not connected to this at all.
(44m 14s) Al:
you’re an adult, you’re like, oh my word. I’m so part past school. This doesn’t mean anything to me.
(44m 22s)
So like, yeah, I get why someone would think it was an interesting concept, but getting to an
(44m 28s)
actual good version of that is hard. I actually think the blueberry academy bit is done better because
(44m 36s)
it’s not your school. You’re coming into the school and experiencing that as an outsider is actually
(44m 44s)
more interesting than I am in a school, especially as like, you’re not, though, aren’t you, right?
(44m 50s) Greg:
Right, right.
(44m 50s) Al:
Like, sure, you can take, I’m about to say you don’t go to classes. I know you technically can go to
(44m 57s)
classes, but you never have to touch that, right? So you’re not. You’re not going, and most people
(45m) Greg:
you never have to and yeah what frustrates me about that also is there is so much of the story hidden
(45m 3s) Al:
wouldn’t, right?
(45m 10s) Greg:
in those dumb classes but also they were hidden so far into those dumb classes that after you took
(45m 17s)
two you’re like well why am I doing this like so yeah yeah i
(45m 19s) Al:
I think I experienced more of that story through people telling me about what the experience
(45m 25s)
rather than which, by the way, might be really, might also be something else we’re talking
(45m 30s)
about this episode.
(45m 31s) Greg:
yes but yeah like I think one of the things that when we’re talking about like 20,000 games
(45m 42s)
you people need to understand you have 20 minutes of people’s attention
(45m 48s)
to get them hooked into what you’re doing and a tutorial of how to chop wood or
(45m 56s)
winding around and going into tall grass and then have somebody coming up to you for the four million
(46m)
time to tell you hey you can’t do that without a Pokemon these are no longer ways to get
(46m 7s)
people’s interest into games. Like you need to make a case early on because you are fighting for
(46m 13s)
a, you’re fighting against a lot of people for attention and if you can’t make your case quick
(46m 20s)
you’re not going to make your case at all. It’s one of the things that I learned that was interesting
(46m 25s)
a person talking just about how to present to a
(46m 30s)
like in this public life, like if you have to do a presentation for your office, for your work for school or whatever,
(46m 41s)
they’re always like, you have a tendency to try to do the justification first.
(46m 48s)
They’re like, state your conclusion, like state, hey, I am saying this is what’s
(46m 54s)
happening. And then people are like either they have an immediate reaction of
(47m)
you know, you’re wrong. OK, you’re going to try to prove me wrong or interesting. I’m curious how you got that, but everybody sort of knows where we are going with this, and you’ve got that almost immediate buy in, whereas if you’re like, I spent 14 years in the field and I went around talk to people and talked about your methods. People are like, yeah, yeah, everybody does that. Where is this leading? And I think that’s the same with a lot of games. It’s like, OK, stop, tell me at least why I should be interested.
(47m 30s)
And then get me into the details of how you’re going to get me to the part where I will be interested.
(47m 37s) Al:
Jim was interesting because I think that games are uniquely bad at that in terms of media because
(47m 45s)
they’re almost complacent because you’ve put all the marketing in the please buy my game
(47m 51s) Greg:
Right. Yeah, yeah.
(47m 51s) Al:
and now you’ve bought the game and now we don’t care right so like the hook that got you to buy
(47m 57s)
the game might be 10 hours into the game but I don’t care you’ve already bought the game
(48m 3s) Greg:
It’s such. It’s such. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but also it’s it’s such a
(48m 3s) Al:
Whereas film and TV need to grab you straight away because you’re straight
(48m 7s)
dreaming it, you’re not buying it, and it’s all in how much you’re actually watching.
(48m 15s) Greg:
Capitalistic CEO thinking of we just need you to make that initial purchase and we don’t we don’t care about how you feel after that
(48m 24s)
Because we will have gotten your money and then we are going to wait for the cycle for people to forget and
(48m 33s)
people knowing that the Internet is hot garbage and so when they hear bad things about a previous game they can write them off as cranks and
(48m 40s)
a lot of people do
(48m 41s) Al:
Or we’ll release a really nice side game in between the main games and then then you’ll be like, Oh, yeah, no, the next one. Oh, have to be good.
(48m 42s) Greg:
Yeah, yeah
(48m 47s)
Have to be good because we bought we bought good will
(48m 53s) Al:
Oh dear. All right, let’s finish up this news. So three more things. First up, star signed island has a new update.
Starsand Island
(49m) Al:
It adds dating. So if you were looking for dating in star signed island, I was not, but I’m sure plenty of people playing star signed island where because it’s all about, it’s all about the
(49m 6s) Greg:
[laughs]
(49m 11s) Al:
the anime design, right? People always want to date their anime characters. There you go. Weird to me that that wasn’t in the first version because I feel like that’s a big part of what lots of people were probably looking for in that game. Again, not me, but that’s because I mean, they’re all, they all look like kids.
(49m 30s) Greg:
Ah, that it drives me back.
(49m 34s) Al:
I mean, it’s worse for you like quite often most of these games will at least have, you know, one that’s kind of like my age, but
(49m 41s) Greg:
it drives me but like I don’t mind if they’re like in their 20s and 30s like great that’s
(49m 47s)
that’s a core audience. There is such a level of creepiness when you know your core
(49m 53s)
audience is light 20s early 30s and most of your characters especially your female characters
(50m)
look 17-18. If you’re lucky and like you are sort of winking and nodding that they’re of age
(50m 2s) Al:
if you’re lucky.
(50m 9s) Greg:
But like, you are fi-
(50m 11s)
just kidding into such a gross concept, and it- it- it particularly anime is not good at portraying
(50m 23s)
ages very well, like all anime characters have giant eyes, which say to people they are young.
(50m 31s) Al:
- Yes, just the eyes.
(50m 32s)
[laughing]
(50m 37s) Greg:
Big eyes is a facet of younger people.
(50m 41s)
And so just if you take away the rest of their body and just focus on their face, they give them childlike faces.
(50m 50s)
It’s why we also fall in love with animals, they have big round eyes, and they kind of look like little sweet little children.
(50m 58s)
And like, anime really plays on that line, as they really like playing on that line with their female characters.
(51m 7s)
and then they’ll make like this 400 million.
(51m 11s)
And then like this 700 year old man loves this just 18 powerful, which I’m like, stop, just stop, just stop like, we need, we need this little thing to sort of, I mean it’s been, it’s through all time.
(51m 33s)
It will not end in time soon. It’s just at this point in my life. I’m like, I see, I see what you’re going.
(51m 41s)
for, I understand who you’re tapping into and maybe we shouldn’t.
(51m 51s) Al:
icky. Next up, Hello Kitty Island adventure have their next event, which is the month of
Hello Kitty Island Adventure
(52m 1s) Al:
May. So during May, there’s a Gujitama con is apparently what they’re calling it with a bunch
(52m 12s)
of extra clothing and stuff. And also it says there’s a costume contest, but it doesn’t
(52m 19s)
If you have any details on that, I’m not sure what that means.
(52m 20s) Greg:
[laughing]
(52m 23s)
Hella Kitty Allen Ventures again that I want to play,
(52m 27s)
and I promptly forget it exists every time,
(52m 29s)
and then I’m reminded of him like,
(52m 30s)
“Oh yeah, I’ll find how to do that, and then I don’t.”
(52m 33s) Al:
I loved playing the game. I think it was fantastic, but also I didn’t finish it.
(52m 33s) Greg:
And the thing is,
(52m 39s)
yeah, I mean, I love so many of the same Rio characters,
(52m 43s)
but also it’s just, I don’t.
(52m 46s)
I don’t have time.
(52m 48s)
It’s not a big enough grab for me.
(52m 50s)
Those characters alone aren’t a big enough grab for me to constantly seek it out.
(52m 54s)
And I think I actually technically have it for free on my Apple TV and I still haven’t checked it out.
(52m 58s) Al:
Yeah, generally interesting thing about it, though, is actually a good game, which was the most surprising thing for me.
(53m 3s) Greg:
I’ve heard it’s a good game.
(53m 8s)
I need to find time. I don’t have time.
(53m 10s)
Maybe this summer it’s not going to happen.
(53m 12s)
Let’s just trust me.
(53m 14s)
Narrator voice, it didn’t happen.
(53m 15s) Al:
and our final news information. So a little bit about the story to this. Last year it was announced
Animal Crossing X Sealife
(53m 24s) Al:
that there was going to be an animal crossing collaboration with sea life, UK-based aquarium
(53m 32s)
company, and they were going to be doing what they called a UK tour of sea life
(53m 39s)
doing animal crossing exhibits within the aquariums. And when we actually looked into it,
(53m 45s)
it turned out that the only sea lives that were going to were in the very south of England. It
(53m 49s)
wasn’t even far into England at all, just the very south of England. There were about four of them
(53m 53s) Greg:
[laughing]
(53m 55s) Al:
and they were all within like two hours driving each other, all like south of Wales, like really far
(54m 1s)
to it. Well, I was frustrated about this because there were sea lives all over the place. There’s even
(54m 7s)
one in Scotland and they did not include that in their list. Good news for me.
(54m 13s) Greg:
You are you
(54m 15s) Al:
Maybe, I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out whether I can do this or not, but they have announced
(54m 21s)
that it is coming to the Loch Lomond one, the only Scottish sea life, but that does technically make
(54m 28s)
it a UK tour now. It’s not just in England, woo! The problem with this is not, so it’s not too far
(54m 31s) Greg:
Yay!
(54m 36s) Al:
away from me. It’s maybe about an hour and a half stride. It’s not too bad. I mean, well, it’s Scotland.
(54m 45s)
an hour and a half gets you most of the way across the entirety of this country. But the main issue for
(54m 51s)
me is they’ve only just announced it and it’s this month. I’m actually away for the last week of this
(54m 58s)
month and it doesn’t start till next week. Basically, there’s three weeks that I can go and it’s like,
(55m 4s)
no. I can’t plan this for three months time or something. I’ve got to decide if I can do it in the next
(55m 6s) Greg:
Yeah, okay. Well, right, right, have they like that’s got to be pictures from the from the other events, right?
(55m 11s) Al:
Three weeks.
(55m 15s)
I think so. It’s not it’s not like it’s super it’s most it’s mostly like kind of posters and cards and stuff, but there have been like they have Tom Nick and Isabelle in like proper a person in a costume type thing and there’s like
(55m 18s) Greg:
Does it look like there’s enough stuff that it’s worth going?
(55m 40s) Al:
stuff for the kids to do, right, which is obviously important for me because I
(55m 45s)
will have, if I’m going to an aquarium I’m obviously bringing my kids along, right, so it does seem pretty kid focused, I suspect, on individual adult might feel a little bit awkward going to that, but we’ll see, I don’t know, you know, the sort of thing.
(56m) Greg:
like if anybody asks you say yeah I’m trying to find my kids and then walk off
(56m 8s)
that’s what you handle all those yeah make kids around here somewhere I’ll find
(56m 9s) Al:
But the other real problem for,
(56m 15s)
I mean, is that we live five minutes from an aquarium, one of the biggest in Scotland and we have an annual pass to that aquarium.
(56m 26s) Greg:
Well, maybe it’ll come.
(56m 31s) Al:
Well, it’s a different different company. So yeah, we’re trying to, I plan to figure out how to make this work.
(56m 33s) Greg:
Oh, well, no.
(56m 45s) Al:
But it needs to happen like now, so I don’t have a long time to figure it out. But yeah, I asked for it to come to Scotland and I guess technically it has come to Scotland.
(56m 57s) Greg:
It has. You got your wish. You can’t complain now.
(56m 59s) Al:
Got to go to put my money where my mouth is. I just maybe wish we had to go a little bit more of advanced noticed of that, but anyway, also is coming to the Birmingham one, but I don’t care about that.
(57m 12s) Greg:
Get get ragged, burbing them. Get out of here. Nobody likes you. You’re the
(57m 15s) Al:
I’m just not in the south of England, but it feels like the south of England to me. Actually, probably true.
(57m 24s) Greg:
the birth of the UK. That’s a deep cut. Yeah, but that’s the main city that people care
(57m 31s) Al:
Yeah, but the funny thing is that there’s a pair of things in Scotland. It’s one of the main cities in Scotland.
(57m 39s) Greg:
about.
Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream
(57m 42s) Greg:
Sure. Are we are we living the dream though? That’s a that’s a valid question.
(57m 42s) Al:
Should we talk about Tomodat, your life living the dream?
(57m 48s)
We’re living the dream or living the nightmare.
(57m 53s)
All right, I’m gonna try and explain this game in a sentence
(57m 58s)
and you can tell me how good you think I’ve done.
(58m)
‘Cause I’ve previously described this as just silly sims,
(58m 4s)
but how I would describe this is it is silly sims,
(58m 8s)
but if you have to babysit the sims to a ridiculous degree,
(58m 13s)
but focused around social media hype,
(58m 19s)
while making it incredibly difficult to share to social media.
(58m 24s) Greg:
so I would argue that even if you babysit them a lot it is nothing is in your control
(58m 34s)
like it’s silly sims where you actually have no power to a
(58m 41s) Al:
Well, yes and no, it’s like everything and nothing is in your control at the same time.
(58m 46s) Greg:
Yeah, that’s the problem. Yeah, it’s so
(58m 50s)
Bizarre and I sort of forgot I didn’t really forget but like
(58m 58s)
Playing the game. I had to remember like oh, yeah, I just have to lean into the fact that I will I will put pieces around and
(59m 7s)
then
(59m 9s)
Then sit back and let the pieces do whatever the random generator decided for them to do
(59m 16s)
I can’t actually
(59m 18s)
I don’t have any way of finding out what they like. I have no hints that I’m gonna give them something and they something gonna hate it
(59m 25s)
And I’m gonna lose their happiness because there’s nothing about them that says that they wouldn’t like this outfit and yet
(59m 32s)
I gave it to them and they’re like hmm
(59m 34s)
I’m like, okay, we’ll use your words
(59m 36s)
Because you are actually speaking to me you can actually speak in this game
(59m 37s) Al:
[laughs]
(59m 42s) Greg:
Tell me exactly what you want but also since I’m limited to
(59m 46s)
what happens to show up in the store, I don’t have a full catalog. You’re like, “Find me something pretty.” And I’m like, “Well, I have a egg costume.” And that’s the only thing I have in this shop.
(59m 56s) Al:
[laughing]
(1h)
- Yeah, yeah.
(1h 2s)
Okay, let’s roll back a little bit, try and try.
(1h 4s)
I’m gonna try and get some sort of structure to this.
(1h 7s)
‘Cause it’s always the problem when you’re covering a game
(1h 9s)
that is, shall we say not your cup of tea?
(1h 14s)
It’s easy to just spend your entire time complaining about it.
(1h 18s)
But I do have some positive things to say about this game as well.
(1h 22s) Greg:
I mean, I’m playing the heck out of it, but there are things about it that I’m like, “Why?”
(1h 22s) Al:
- Bye.
(1h 26s)
- So let’s start off with,
(1h 28s)
what is your history with Tomodetche life?
(1h 30s)
Have you played any of the people?
(1h 33s) Greg:
Yeah, so I played the 3DS game. I played the mobile game for as long as it was alive
(1h 39s) Al:
Oh, I was not aware there was a mobile game when Nintendo were obsessed with phone games
(1h 40s) Greg:
Yeah, there’s like a weird mobile Tomadachi like you could invite your friend
(1h 48s) Al:
for some reason.
(1h 54s)
It does look like it was just called Tom of that life.
(1h 56s) Greg:
Yeah, I think it was just called toe and touchy life and you could have it on your phone and then you check in every day and you’d be there and then you would sometimes connect with other people and
(1h 1m 5s)
Whatever so I played that
(1h 1m 7s) Al:
do you know I think I would actually prefer this game to be on my phone.
(1h 1m 10s) Greg:
I could still be around. I don’t know. I deleted it a long time ago
(1h 1m 13s) Al:
it’s not it looks like it looks like you can probably still get the like you could get the android
(1h 1m 18s)
version and download it but it’s obviously not supported so it might not work great but just I just
(1h 1m 23s)
think in general like I think this this would actually I think is it’s a game it would work well
(1h 1m 28s)
for me on a phone but that’s
(1h 1m 31s) Greg:
Well, I will say this, I found it’s easier to play. I almost play everything on my Switch exclusively on the TV.
(1h 1m 38s)
And this one I pull it out, and because the touch screens are much more important on this game.
(1h 1m 43s)
And also, there’s so little that I have to see that having it on a big screen doesn’t provide me
(1h 1m 50s)
any benefit. It doesn’t look any better on the big screen than it does handheld.
(1h 1m 57s)
Alright, back to the organization.
(1h 1m 57s) Al:
All right. Yeah, so I think I think let’s let’s start up talking about the start of the game
(1h 2m 5s)
Which is creating of bees right because you start up this game, and it’s like hey create me and I don’t know
(1h 2m 12s)
But you but I’m not a very creative person. I’m not I don’t have it. Well in terms in that aspect
(1h 2m 17s)
I’m of you know, let’s not get into debate about what creativity is
(1h 2m 21s)
I’m not looking at this and going oh, I have an idea that I’m gonna create Slenderman or Shrek or whatever
(1h 2m 27s)
Right, like I love what people are doing with it, but that’s not my thing, right? So my big problem with the creation
(1h 2m 33s)
I think the creative created create the the me creation is generally pretty good
(1h 2m 39s)
I do have a few complaints about it, but in general. I think it’s very flexible and
(1h 2m 44s)
You just need to go on tik tok or on blue sky or whatever and you’ll see so many people with really really
(1h 2m 51s)
impressively designed me use the look like real people or look like fictional characters
(1h 2m 56s)
very impressively.
(1h 2m 57s)
Um… that’s not… mmm…
(1h 2m 58s) Greg:
Yes, and I am, I am a creative person, like I can look
(1h 3m 5s)
at the pictures and say, okay, I know how to recreate this.
(1h 3m 7s)
My issue with it is it takes a really, really, really,
(1h 3m 12s)
really luck time to get there.
(1h 3m 14s)
And I’m already like, well, I only have like two hours
(1h 3m 19s)
to play this and spending half an hour on all of the options
(1h 3m 23s)
while they are super impressive and super deep.
(1h 3m 26s)
It’s just not something I can do.
(1h 3m 28s) Al:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s fair.
(1h 3m 29s) Greg:
And like I think the options that they have in there are quite impressive.
(1h 3m 35s)
Like this is probably the best me creator they’ve ever come up with because there are just so many things you can do.
(1h 3m 43s)
But that’s also part of the problem is there’s so many things you can do is that it’s easy to get lost in.
(1h 3m 48s) Al:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So I think there’s two problems with it. So as you
(1h 3m 50s) Greg:
Okay, well, how did I get these eyes to look like this?
(1h 3m 52s)
I don’t even know what I clicked anymore because it doesn’t really keep track.
(1h 4m) Al:
say, it’s fair, you can get lost in it, which you’d think would be solved by the fact
(1h 4m 6s)
that they have a second way to create them, which is called prompt. But it’s not prompt.
(1h 4m 9s) Greg:
and it’s awful.
(1h 4m 12s) Al:
It’s just let’s show you all the options in order. It’s not like it’s not.
(1h 4m 15s) Greg:
Yeah.
(1h 4m 18s) Al:
It doesn’t. What I totally assume to be like, give us a vague idea of what you want and
(1h 4m 21s) Greg:
Yeah. Yeah.
(1h 4m 22s) Al:
will create it. But it’s like, no, what face shape would you want? I don’t care. Like, I’m
(1h 4m 25s) Greg:
Yeah. Yeah.
(1h 4m 28s) Al:
here because I don’t care about the shape of the face. Right? If I cared about the shape
(1h 4m 32s)
of the face, I would have gone into the custom editor, just give me a better like how,
(1h 4m 37s)
it’s like somebody went, oh, create a linear way of creating means that means they don’t have
(1h 4m 43s)
to go through all the options. And someone went, okay, great. And nobody checked up on whether
(1h 4m 47s) Greg:
[laughing]
(1h 4m 48s) Al:
they actually wanted, right? Like, somewhere just like, yeah, sure, I’ll do that. I’m completely misunderstood
(1h 4m 52s)
the entire point of it. Like, I thought there was not a 3DS game with you could make me
(1h 4m 59s)
vaguely based on a picture that you took. They don’t have that. Right? Um, which it doesn’t need to be
(1h 5m 2s) Greg:
Yes, you could
(1h 5m 4s)
Yeah, no
(1h 5m 7s) Al:
perfect. I get that that might be complicated, but you can at least give them a start. And,
(1h 5m 12s) Greg:
Well, you’ve had it in the less complicated system,
(1h 5m 14s)
because I’m pretty sure it was part of Mitopia.
(1h 5m 18s)
Back in the 3DS, I don’t remember the switch one had it.
(1h 5m 18s) Al:
that yeah yeah did the switch one have that or did that miss it as well?
(1h 5m 26s) Greg:
I did play Mitopia for the switch,
(1h 5m 27s)
and I don’t remember if it had a picture on it.
(1h 5m 30s)
I mean, I get that there’s a camera built
(1h 5m 34s)
into the 3DS so that you could just take a picture of it.
(1h 5m 36s) Al:
sure sure sure sure yeah yeah yeah yeah but you can also do it in a different way being like
(1h 5m 37s) Greg:
But this is connected to the internet.
(1h 5m 39s)
And you have an album full of pictures
(1h 5m 42s)
that you can take, like you could do this.
(1h 5m 47s) Al:
or you know just like have a way for you to be able to select items that’s not just like
(1h 5m 52s)
choose a face shape choose an eye shape choose an eyebrow shape like I’m in that option because I
(1h 5m 59s)
don’t want to make those decisions but the other thing that I’m finding absolutely baffling
(1h 6m 4s)
is that they don’t have a way to share.
(1h 6m 6s)
Because I am dropped into this game as a non-creative in that aspect of games person going
(1h 6m 7s) Greg:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
(1h 6m 19s) Al:
like I just want to play this game and I’m seeing hundreds of people online with incredible
(1h 6m 23s)
designs and I just want to choose one of them.
(1h 6m 25s) Greg:
- Yes.
(1h 6m 27s) Al:
I theorize that the reason they don’t do this is because they don’t want to get into copyright
(1h 6m 33s)
or trademark issues but I don’t care.
(1h 6m 36s) Greg:
But I mean that
(1h 6m 36s) Al:
Like, you can, if you made it as a QR code, right, they’re not hosting anything, there’s no way for them to be sued surely because they’re not, they’re not the ones doing anything, it’s just like people sharing QR codes that you can then use to recreate me in your game. I’m not a lawyer but like…
(1h 6m 54s) Greg:
It’s also like pre-acting a problem that doesn’t exist, right?
(1h 7m 1s)
Like in a world of fan art, in a world of a lot of fair use,
(1h 7m 1s) Al:
Yeah. Good point.
(1h 7m 10s) Greg:
in a world where this isn’t a one-to-one recreation,
(1h 7m 17s)
it is difficult to make the case that a person could come after you
(1h 7m 23s)
for using their
(1h 7m 24s)
likeness in a personal game and a personal way that that isn’t even you like it’s not even you but even beyond that you didn’t stop people from doing the work to make them recreate people in your game so it doesn’t really matter because if people spend enough time they will recreate you in their game.
(1h 7m 42s) Al:
Yeah. Yeah.
(1h 7m 51s) Greg:
So you’ve just taken a tool.
(1h 7m 54s)
You’re a great comedy out your artist, you’re doing this, I’ll give you like 10 bucks to make a good version of me and then I can just drop it in my game.
(1h 8m 8s)
Or any of the like, they tried to fix it like Tomadachi share, which is a website that exists out there.
(1h 8m 16s)
Show us these choices that people made to get to that.
(1h 8m 24s)
They get that they made like there are ways that they have done it.
(1h 8m 29s)
And if not perfect, it can get you closer.
(1h 8m 32s)
And there’s just a lot of face painting that has to happen is the face paint part that really breaks down the argument of like, oh, we don’t want copyright.
(1h 8m 42s)
I’m like, well, then take away face paint like people can just paint a picture of the exact person and put it in.
(1h 8m 49s)
it in. Like, you are really, you are really solving four or nine.
(1h 8m 54s)
It’s not an existing problem in the worst way possible.
(1h 8m 58s) Al:
Well, and it’s especially funny because I don’t if you know this they have an article on Nintendo.com
(1h 9m 4s)
Where they are sharing for the three different characters that you can add to your game in that way
(1h 9m 11s)
So they’ve just got the screenshots of these are the choices we made
(1h 9m 12s) Greg:
Yeah, what- what- uh.
(1h 9m 15s) Al:
And it’s like you want this feature
(1h 9m 19s)
You guys want this feature and you don’t have it. I don’t I just I’m just I’m not really
(1h 9m 26s)
I don’t think it’s
(1h 9m 28s)
I just suspect is because of the lawyers and they’re worried about that and that’s why they didn’t do it and that just makes the game
(1h 9m 36s) Greg:
It makes the game worse. It does make the game
(1h 9m 40s)
worse unfortunately and
(1h 9m 42s)
It is like like I spent probably 15 minutes making myself and at the end of it. I was like, you know what fine. It will do
(1h 9m 54s)
I I no longer care. I want to just get into
(1h 9m 59s)
Playing this game
(1h 10m 1s) Al:
That’s exactly it. I loaded up this game and I went, “Oh, never have to make a character.”
(1h 10m 7s)
Whereas if they had a way for me to just go, “Yeah, I’ll grab that one.” That looks fun.
(1h 10m 13s)
Let’s throw it in and let’s see how this game works. Half of my time in this game has been trying
(1h 10m 18s)
to figure out what I actually want. I don’t have that imagination, but seeing people online
(1h 10m 26s)
been like oh they created a mr. Bean one I’ll be like yeah sure I’ll throw mr. Bean in this on this
(1h 10m 31s)
island why not that sounds like fun right but I just it’s it’s like when and I know this is
(1h 10m 39s)
probably a me problem but when one of my big hang-ups is when I get given animals in farming
(1h 10m 46s)
games and I have to choose a name for the animal I got to the point where I just called them cow one cow
(1h 10m 53s)
two cow three because I just I don’t have the time and imagination to be naming these animals
(1h 10m 59s)
And you have games like Stardew, which has
(1h 11m 1s)
a random name generator, right? And it can just go here. Here’s one. They could do something like that. For example, where it’s like, make me a random me, right? There are so many more options they could do that doesn’t mean either choosing from a hundred options or choosing from ten options, right? Which is not solving the problem.
(1h 11m 23s)
I think it’s also, I think, because the other big, there’s lots of bizarre decisions, but I think the other…
(1h 11m 31s)
most frustrating thing that people probably have is the sharing of screenshots and videos from this game, which I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to be implemented until I played the game. And what I find really fascinating is that they’ve not stopped you taking screenshots and videos. They’ve just made it more difficult to get them on your computer. They’ve not even made it not possible. They’ve just made it more difficult.
(1h 11m 49s) Greg:
yep yep and more difficult and I get like the idea is like kids won’t be able to figure
(1h 12m 4s)
this out like get get guess again guess again kids have way more time than I do to figure
(1h 12m 5s) Al:
I’m right! Come on! Are you kidding me?
(1h 12m 15s) Greg:
this stuff out, they’re going to figure it out. Yeah.
(1h 12m 16s) Al:
It has SD card, there you go, sorted.
(1h 12m 19s) Greg:
Yeah, it’s like it’s not hard.
(1h 12m 19s) Al:
It’s literally copy to SD card is the option underneath send to mobile phone.
(1h 12m 26s) Greg:
It’s so bizarre and like, let me just let me import somebody else’s creation.
(1h 12m 37s)
I would love to take half of the things that people make and be like, you did such an incredible
(1h 12m 43s)
face painting job and you spent so much time on that. Let me import that.
(1h 12m 49s)
and they’re like, hard pass, absolutely not. And the thing that’s fascinating is they took
(1h 12m 55s)
so many steps forward because you can choose their gender and they included non-binary.
(1h 13m 2s)
You can choose who they are interested in. So you can say what they’re dating profile is.
(1h 13m 8s)
You can have them say, I’m interested in everybody. I’m interested in nobody. I’m interested in
(1h 13m 16s) Al:
You can set them up with existing relationships, which I’m guessing also affects that, right?
(1h 13m 19s) Greg:
you. Yeah.
(1h 13m 24s) Al:
So if you put people in who are siblings, they’re not going to suddenly fall in love,
(1h 13m 25s) Greg:
Right. Right. Right.
(1h 13m 27s) Al:
you know, that sort of stuff. They put in, uh, I don’t know whether this was in previously or not,
(1h 13m 32s)
but like, you know, children and adults are separate and can only fall in love with each other.
(1h 13m 37s)
You know, so it’s like, they’ve added all this ability while also keeping it relatively sane and safe.
(1h 13m 38s) Greg:
right right yep
(1h 13m 43s)
But
(1h 13m 45s)
They also decided to not really put limits on what you can have them say about object or events and so
(1h 13m 50s) Al:
[laughing]
(1h 13m 53s)
Yeah.
(1h 13m 54s) Greg:
You can have children. I have zero children on my
(1h 13m 59s)
Island
(1h 14m)
No, thank you, but I have seen screenshots of people who put in things that are not wholesome and the child is saying they’re not wholesome
(1h 14m 8s)
And like it’s kind of funny, but also not and like if you’re going to put in these weird restrictions then
(1h 14m 16s)
Put in prescriptions like put in the guardrails or just don’t and let let people play the game how they want to
(1h 14m 26s)
play the game and
(1h 14m 28s)
The me creation process is not short
(1h 14m 32s)
like
(1h 14m 33s)
There are, to their credit, so many.
(1h 14m 38s)
Good options. But also, it’s a great character creation with bad graphics, because no matter what, they still look like a me.
(1h 14m 52s)
Unless you get so deep into the face painting where you’re actively altering their face through paint, and at that point you’re looking at hours of work, and I can’t live that life.
(1h 15m 6s)
But there are some, uh, like we go to…
(1h 15m 8s)
some of the things people have done, it’s like, “Oh, okay, like you have time on your hands to do this pixel by pixel.”
(1h 15m 18s)
Uh, like, yeah.
(1h 15m 18s) Al:
And I love that. I love when people do these things, but what I find funny is the fact that they’ve created the most viral game possible.
(1h 15m 27s)
They’ve created this thing that is like bizarre situation, creation, and works really well on social media, and then made it more difficult to do that, and more difficult for people to want to do that as well.
(1h 15m 40s) Greg:
Yeah, well I feel I
(1h 15m 45s)
Feel like this is one of many games that I call streamer games
(1h 15m 51s)
where this is great for people to stream and
(1h 15m 56s)
Interacting with an audience watching and having the ability to take people from your audience and put them into funny situations and
(1h 16m 3s)
Sharing that with people is a very entertaining way to play that play this game when you’re alone by yourself
(1h 16m 10s)
In your home and you’ve seen the same interaction happened between two different people
(1h 16m 15s)
But it’s pretty much identical to the one that happened yesterday. It’s not as
(1h 16m 21s)
The charm wears off a bit
(1h 16m 24s) Al:
I agree.
(1h 16m 25s) Greg:
And that’s not to say that I am playing the game a lot but unlike a lot of other games
(1h 16m 32s)
I go in for half an hour. I get
(1h 16m 35s)
Half an hour worth of silliness out of it. The silliness wears off is not being interesting anymore
(1h 16m 41s)
I don’t want to wait around for somebody to have a problem
(1h 16m 43s)
I can pick two people up and put them together, but I have no control over what’s going to happen
(1h 16m 48s)
So I can’t even be I can’t even state for a certain that that’s going to create an interesting
(1h 16m 55s)
Interaction or something that I need to deal with I’ve just put two people next to each other and half the time they just start talking and walk away
(1h 17m 3s)
Okay, nothing happened and so
(1h 17m 7s)
There isn’t any incentive to
(1h 17m 10s)
play the game for longer than an hour at best.
(1h 17m 15s) Al:
And that’s my fundamental problem with it because I’ve talked about this in the podcast before.
(1h 17m 19s)
That’s not how I play games, right? Like I don’t do the like sit down for half an hour a day
(1h 17m 26s)
and continue on, right? Like that’s how some games want you to play them. It’s how
(1h 17m 30s)
Animal Crossing wants you to play it. That’s fine. That’s not how my brain works for games.
(1h 17m 35s)
Like I sit down for a couple of hours to play a game. And I will, you know, I will binge that game
(1h 17m 42s)
for a few weeks and then I’m done.
(1h 17m 45s)
I don’t want to do that.
(1h 17m 55s) Greg:
[laughing]
(1h 17m 55s) Al:
Like, even the podcast aside, right?
(1h 17m 58s)
Because like obviously I feel the pressure to cover many games and that’s a thing.
(1h 18m 4s)
But even that aside, that still wouldn’t be how I want to play games.
(1h 18m 8s) Greg:
right. I mean, I will say like I played two hours for the first day and that was just literally
(1h 18m 14s) Al:
Yep, most of it was making bees, probably.
(1h 18m 15s) Greg:
trying to get was making me used to get people in so that something could happen. And now that
(1h 18m 17s) Al:
[laughing]
(1h 18m 21s) Greg:
I have like 13 me’s in there because you’re sort of a hard limited at 15. It says you can
(1h 18m 29s)
get up to 60, but like I think some of them just don’t come to this particular island if you have
(1h 18m 34s)
more. I forget I haven’t hit that limit so I don’t know what the game does.
(1h 18m 38s)
but 13 is already a lot to sort of be like who doesn’t know each other how do I get them to talk and also
(1h 18m 47s)
the game talks about like things will happen while you’re gone no it doesn’t none of these people talk to each other without me there
(1h 18m 54s) Al:
Yeah.
(1h 18m 57s) Greg:
like I have had me on there for a week now who are still strangers with each other and I’m like I guarantee you have walked past each other
(1h 19m 8s)
or 13 times and for a game that’s like things will happen while you’re not here things ain’t happening
(1h 19m 15s)
they don’t talk to each other unless I am there to push them together and only some of the time do I hit the lottery of
(1h 19m 24s)
they will do some sort of little play for me at the other time is like oh they’re just copying each other or mimicking each other pose
(1h 19m 32s)
or they just started singing with each other I’m like great that’s interesting for about two seconds and then
(1h 19m 38s)
they’re not doing anything else nothing nothing meaningful is happening in that interaction even amongst the me’s they’re not improving their friendship
(1h 19m 49s)
they’re not crushing on each other they’re just in each other’s company and nothing meaningful is happening
(1h 19m 56s) Al:
I think that’s the thing is the most fun I’ve had with this game is watching people’s clips from streams online
(1h 20m 3s)
Which is something but it’s not a way to convince people to play your game
(1h 20m 9s)
It’s a way to convince people they want to buy your game. I guess
(1h 20m 13s)
But it’s not really a way to convince people to actually play the game
(1h 20m 17s)
And then you load up the game and you spend and I were trying to create something that’s not even
(1h 20m 23s)
Half as good as stuff you’ve seen online.
(1h 20m 26s)
And then a lot of nothing happens for ages.
(1h 20m 31s) Greg:
- Mm-hmm.
(1h 20m 31s) Al:
It’s a fascinating smoosh of such a flexible, creative me creator.
(1h 20m 43s)
And some interesting things that might happen together with a whole lot of nothing.
(1h 20m 52s) Greg:
and I enjoy playing the game, but I will do this thing where I’m like, okay, well, I’m waiting for a
(1h 20m 57s)
house to be built in Pocopia. I’ll pop into Tomodochi life while that’s happening and spend
(1h 21m 2s)
my hour in there and then I’ll pop back and that’ll be done and then I’ll play that other game.
(1h 21m 7s)
So I’m okay with popping in, but if I wanted to dedicate time to it, there’s a lot of time,
(1h 21m 15s)
like I tried last night, but like I’m just going to sit in this game and wait for something to
(1h 21m 20s)
happened. And there were times when it was like,
(1h 21m 22s)
ten minutes before somebody got some sort of symbol over their head to call my attention.
(1h 21m 28s)
And I was like, okay, nothing’s happening. Like they’re walking around and
(1h 21m 30s) Al:
Yeah
(1h 21m 32s)
And half and half the time when something does happen. It’s it’s like I’m hungry
(1h 21m 37s) Greg:
right. You can eat. We have a restaurant.
(1h 21m 37s) Al:
Okay, you can eat you can go eat yourself like why do you need me to shove a biscuit in your face for you to eat?
(1h 21m 45s) Greg:
And the weird thing about having photo realistic
(1h 21m 52s)
food and other things in this not photo realistic world.
(1h 21m 57s)
It is part of the charm of Tomodachi life that I had to remember. Like,
(1h 22m)
oh, right. They just took pictures of food and threw it in this game.
(1h 22m 5s)
And they don’t make any, they didn’t even make a nod towards trying to make it look
(1h 22m 11s)
that they’re actually eating that food. The picture gets smaller than disappears.
(1h 22m 17s)
Fight like that is part of that is part of the charm of the game.
(1h 22m 20s) Al:
There’s a charm to it.
(1h 22m 23s) Greg:
But there’s just the game is really, it is really like half an hour, visit your knees.
(1h 22m 31s)
Just get some basic needs met.
(1h 22m 34s)
Also, you have no idea if you’re actually going to meet their basic needs because they won’t tell you if they like something or not until you’ve given it to them.
(1h 22m 42s)
And of course, if they really don’t like it, it hurts their happiness.
(1h 22m 46s)
And so you lose progress sometimes because you gave them the food that was in the market.
(1h 22m 52s)
And you had to make a choice and you just randomly chose wrong because there’s no rhyme or reason between their likes.
(1h 22m 53s) Al:
[laughing]
(1h 23m 1s) Greg:
Like you can’t find a through line but what they decide they like and what they decide they don’t like.
(1h 23m 6s)
You are just the game you just have to lean into the randomness, which works great if you have an audience watching you.
(1h 23m 17s)
It’s less fun when it’s just you and you’re like, I want something interesting to happen.
(1h 23m 23s)
And I’ve got these two characters together and nothing interesting is happening.
(1h 23m 27s)
Or I have a character that says they have a crush on it on this other character.
(1h 23m 31s)
It says willing to risk it all and I’ll put them together and they are not risking it all.
(1h 23m 37s)
They aren’t even approaching the subject because the game decided that now is not the time to talk.
(1h 23m 37s) Al:
Yeah. Yeah. Do you know, I have two other things to talk about with me creation, because
(1h 23m 48s)
apparently we’ve spent the entire time talking about me creation so far. Um, one, I love
(1h 23m 52s) Greg:
- Yeah.
(1h 23m 54s) Al:
the pronunciation that the guide that you can do. It’s so good because the, you know, the
(1h 23m 56s) Greg:
- Yep. - Yeah, yeah.
(1h 24m 1s) Al:
first name I put in was my wife’s and it was like saying it completely wrong. And I’m like,
(1h 24m 7s)
it took me a little bit of fiddling to figure out what combination of letters and spaces
(1h 24m 7s) Greg:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
(1h 24m 11s) Al:
would actually do it, but I got there. I think that’s excellent. Um, here’s a very unique thing. This is
(1h 24m 19s)
not an issue necessarily with the game, because I don’t think a single person working on the game has
(1h 24m 24s)
even considered this. Um, because I have such a terrible, uh, imagination, I decided to just create
(1h 24m 30s)
my family, right? Me, my wife and our kids. When I came to create my one of my kids,
(1h 24m 37s)
if people don’t know that I don’t know if I’ve talked about this on the podcast before, but one of
(1h 24m 40s)
my kids doesn’t talk. Um, and I got to the point when I had to choose his voice. And I was like,
(1h 24m 47s) Greg:
Ah, yeah.
(1h 24m 50s) Al:
I don’t know what to do here. I was, I was frozen for ages just not knowing how to do this next thing.
(1h 24m 59s)
What I ended up doing was one of the robot voices is very hard to understand.
(1h 25m 7s)
And so I took that and I made it even more hard to understand. So you, it sounds like he’s just,
(1h 25m 14s)
because like he does make noises. He verbalizes. He just doesn’t use words. And so there is
(1h 25m 21s)
something to that. But it, it still felt a little bit weird because it’s like he makes the noises
(1h 25m 27s)
kind of sing song he noises like he doesn’t real life, but then you’ll see on the screen,
(1h 25m 31s)
he’s actually saying words and people are responding to him with words. And so it’s just like,
(1h 25m 32s) Greg:
Right, right
(1h 25m 35s) Al:
this is I know
(1h 25m 37s)
it’s almost no one else in the entire world is going to be in the exact same situation as this.
(1h 25m 42s)
It’s just an interesting thing I experience.
(1h 25m 42s) Greg:
I don’t think that’s true.
(1h 25m 44s)
I think there’s a lot of people who will also run into that.
(1h 25m 50s)
Because I mean, the idea, it’s also interesting because it’s like,
(1h 25m 54s)
there is a necessity that they feel for communication,
(1h 25m 58s)
but it is a random communication.
(1h 26m 2s)
Like, I can’t actually interact with them,
(1h 26m 7s)
unless they create a prompt for me to react to.
(1h 26m 13s)
And they communicate to each other, but that is also not a necessary situation.
(1h 26m 21s)
Because half the time the communication between each other is meaningless.
(1h 26m 26s)
It’s just, it’s a weird, weird game that, that wants it to be played in a very specific way.
(1h 26m 36s)
And it does do the things that Tommy Datchy has always done very well, which is create very specific way.
(1h 26m 42s)
And there are three silly situations where you can put silly characters into those silly situations.
(1h 26m 51s)
The issue that happens with this one is it’s not easy to put those characters into those silly situations.
(1h 26m 58s)
It’s really hard to make a character.
(1h 27m 1s)
Because in improving it, they’ve also made it more difficult.
(1h 27m 5s)
And they took away the ability to import other people in.
(1h 27m 9s)
What would happily say, “Hey, take meat?”
(1h 27m 12s)
Take my meat and put meat into your games, but I have no way of sharing that with you.
(1h 27m 17s)
I can only take pictures of the process that I took to get there.
(1h 27m 21s)
I can’t directly print, and then also I’d have to take pictures of the personality things that I took.
(1h 27m 26s)
I also have to take pictures of my actual birth date and put it out there, and like if you really wanted that in there.
(1h 27m 34s)
There’s just a weird blend of things they thought to print.
(1h 27m 42s)
I’d have to protect people with that ultimately make the game a little bit more frustrating to play.
(1h 27m 49s)
And improving the island, like you can just do whatever.
(1h 27m 54s)
Like you can just draw paths, but then also they’ll be like, “Hey, I want to have a path here and that’s going to cost $20.”
(1h 28m 4s)
I’m like, “Well, why don’t I just go into item island builder and do it for free?”
(1h 28m 10s)
need to let you choose the $20.
(1h 28m 12s)
To increase your happiness. So basically, I’m just giving you $20 to be happy.
(1h 28m 17s) Al:
[laughing]
(1h 28m 19s)
- I’m a grown parent.
(1h 28m 20s)
[laughing]
(1h 28m 20s) Greg:
Right. I mean, it’s weird. And like, the island creator part is really interesting, but it takes
(1h 28m 22s) Al:
Happy birthday.
(1h 28m 30s) Greg:
a very long time to get to all of the options. And then you still have to get all of the options
(1h 28m 38s)
to buy things in the shop.
(1h 28m 41s) Al:
I, yeah, I, I found that really fascinating is like how much you have to unlock and how much
(1h 28m 42s) Greg:
Two weird things that happen there.
(1h 28m 50s) Al:
not necessarily you have to unlock, but how much you just have to hope for is there’s so many
(1h 28m 58s)
different ways that they’re restricting what you can get, right?
(1h 29m 2s)
Because you’ve got money, right?
(1h 29m 3s)
And you have to have the money to do a thing.
(1h 29m 5s)
And then you, there are certain things that you have to unlock by just playing the game
(1h 29m 10s)
eventually the unlock.
(1h 29m 11s)
And then there’s things that you have to just hope are going to show up in the shop at some point.
(1h 29m 16s)
And restricting it in those three different ways is really weird to me.
(1h 29m 21s)
It’s like I get the restriction on one restriction because it’s like we don’t just want you having access to be able to do everything you want all initially right from the get-go, sure, I get that.
(1h 29m 33s)
I get wanting you to like slowly build up the island and being like well you can’t just immediately add 60.
(1h 29m 41s)
You know, me as into the game, sure, fine.
(1h 29m 46s)
But why three different ways of restricting it?
(1h 29m 52s) Greg:
And three of them that are somewhat random, like two of them are like what happened to show up in
(1h 30m)
the shop? What happened to be here? And like to get all of the path options, you have to spend your
(1h 30m 10s)
wishes on it. And like that requires you to increase everybody’s happiness level. But happiness
(1h 30m 15s)
level can suddenly be reduced because you didn’t know that they didn’t
(1h 30m 22s)
like crab. But that’s all the store had in stock today.
(1h 30m 27s) Al:
And it’s also that happened is gets you money as well, right?
(1h 30m 32s)
So the same thing gets you money and unlockables.
(1h 30m 37s)
So it’s like, why are those two different things?
(1h 30m 39s)
Like, it’s restricting in two different ways that happened to be unlocked in the same way.
(1h 30m 45s)
Very weird to me.
(1h 30m 47s) Greg:
Yeah, it’s, I mean, it’s sort of like they help in the fact like if you check in every
(1h 30m 53s)
day, you’ll get, you know, people have thrown money into the wishing well and you get
(1h 30m 57s)
just free money that way.
(1h 30m 58s)
And like I’m at the point now where I have two, I have $2,000 and I just keep getting
(1h 31m 4s)
money because like ultimately, until somebody asks me to renovate their room or asks me
(1h 31m 13s)
to get them a new outfit. I am just not giving them a new outfit.
(1h 31m 17s)
It’s because why bother? I may hurt. I may inadvertently hurt my happiness with you by giving
(1h 31m 26s) Al:
- Yeah.
(1h 31m 27s) Greg:
you the wrong thing, but you didn’t tell me what the right thing was.
(1h 31m 31s) Al:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(1h 31m 32s)
I think that’s the problem is that you end up
(1h 31m 34s)
in a situation they’re with the early game.
(1h 31m 37s)
You have almost nothing that you can do.
(1h 31m 39s)
But then middle game, you have all of the money,
(1h 31m 44s)
but nothing you want to do.
(1h 31m 46s) Greg:
Yeah. Yeah.
(1h 31m 47s) Al:
Which, like that doesn’t encourage you to do more stuff.
(1h 31m 53s) Greg:
Yeah, yeah, it’s
(1h 31m 56s) Al:
I don’t know what this game wants to be.
(1h 31m 58s)
I think is the problem.
(1h 31m 59s)
Because you could say, oh, well, it wants to be
(1h 32m 1s)
the viral internet game.
(1h 32m 3s)
But it doesn’t because it makes that difficult to share.
(1h 32m 7s)
And so, like, if it’s not that then, what is it?
(1h 32m 12s) Greg:
Yeah, I don’t, again, this is the problem with a lot of the games.
(1h 32m 19s)
I don’t know that they had a clear vision for what ultimately they wanted the
(1h 32m 25s)
game to be other than just a silly maker game.
(1h 32m 29s)
And
(1h 32m 31s)
silly maker game is fine if you gave us an easy way to share the silliness.
(1h 32m 36s) Al:
Yeah, that’s the thing.
(1h 32m 38s) Greg:
and you didn’t and also you sort of acknowledge that
(1h 32m 42s)
everybody is going to film it on their phone and put up bad video quality. Anyways, like they just didn’t there’s just a lot of things that I just feel like they did not think and I don’t know why why didn’t why didn’t you think that through like why don’t you let us download me because I’m pretty sure in me to help you you can download me and you can’t here, which I don’t understand why.
(1h 32m 57s) Al:
[laughs] Yeah.
(1h 33m 12s) Greg:
I don’t understand the choice of not being able to download other me’s I do think like being able to have like an animal crossing level creator where you can create shirts and you can create objects and create treasures and you create houses like all of that is great if you’ve got a lot of skill and you really enjoy spending time with up with a painting creator, but I think that’s it.
(1h 33m 42s)
a tiny amount of people that really want to do that and there’s a person that I’m following on one of the socials I don’t remember which one who’s like giving tutorials like I made this here’s how to do it here’s the pieces you put together and I’m like great I haven’t unlocked those pieces because I can only unlock them with wishes and I need wishes to get quirks or items or all of the paths to recreate my island in the way that I want to.
(1h 34m 12s)
or rooms I need to use my wishes to add rooms to the room shop like this it’s there’s so many things that you need to do that you would want to binge the game for hours to try to get them but you’re just not allowed to because.
(1h 34m 30s)
You can sit there for a long time and nothing will happen and when nothing happens you don’t get money you don’t get happiness and you can’t really force the me’s.
(1h 34m 40s)
to give you happiness.
(1h 34m 42s)
Like, there’s only so many times you can give them food before they’re full and then like I don’t want to eat any food.
(1h 34m 48s) Al:
which also isn’t a fun gameplay element either. Like, oh great, I’m going to try and
(1h 34m 54s)
progress this game by doing the exact same thing over and over again, giving them a biscuit,
(1h 34m 59s)
giving them a biscuit. You know, like that’s that, because as you say, you’re not encouraged to try
(1h 35m 4s)
new things just in case. So you’re going to keep giving them the one thing you know they like.
(1h 35m 6s) Greg:
Right, because you can ruin your project. Yeah.
(1h 35m 10s) Al:
It’s, it’s a creativity game that makes it hard to be creative. And it’s a viral internet game
(1h 35m 16s)
that doesn’t want to go viral on that.
(1h 35m 18s)
[laughter]
(1h 35m 19s) Greg:
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a little weird.
(1h 35m 24s)
It’s a little, it’s a little, but again,
(1h 35m 26s)
I honestly, this falls into the new category
(1h 35m 30s)
that I think exists, which is streamer games.
(1h 35m 34s)
This gives streamers something to do
(1h 35m 38s)
within the Nintendo family, family that will keep
(1h 35m 41s)
their audience entertained while they’re working on them.
(1h 35m 46s) Al:
Yeah, but then it would also be better if you could then the streamers could share their creations again, right?
(1h 35m 53s)
We keep getting back into this point of these restrictions make everything about to
(1h 35m 54s) Greg:
Right, right
(1h 35m 59s)
Yeah, yeah, because I would love to take my
(1h 36m 4s)
Streamer that I’m watching and be like let me have your me in my game and then I could also enjoy this
(1h 36m 11s)
Silliness, but I also can’t so unless I’ve watched you create it and then sit down and recreate it at the exact same time and if you’re an artist and you did
(1h 36m 22s)
A whole lot of face paint that I…
(1h 36m 24s)
can’t recreate. Like, it’s just…
(1h 36m 28s)
I sound more negative about the game than I am when I’m playing it.
(1h 36m 33s)
I just have to be like, I think like, this is…
(1h 36m 33s) Al:
Oh, I don’t.
(1h 36m 37s) Greg:
It is a game that you are meant to just pop into, except what the game will show you.
(1h 36m 44s)
Try to put a couple people together to see if you can get a slightly more interesting interaction.
(1h 36m 49s)
But if you can’t, it’s not happening today.
(1h 36m 52s)
close the game down. Come.
(1h 36m 54s)
I’m going to go back tomorrow and right.
(1h 36m 55s) Al:
But this is, but this is, this is where I don’t get like why would I do that myself when I can just go and take talk and see other people who’ve already got those moments.
(1h 37m 4s) Greg:
Yeah.
(1h 37m 5s) Al:
I don’t get why I would put time into this at all.
(1h 37m 9s) Greg:
Yeah. I mean, the one thing that would help with that is if you had a
(1h 37m 14s)
way, you know, if you have knees that you find interesting and you had a way of making
(1h 37m 18s)
good knees or importing them in, which they took away.
(1h 37m 19s) Al:
Yeah
(1h 37m 22s) Greg:
like I sit there and make.
(1h 37m 24s)
I put in a lot of Pokemon gym leaders.
(1h 37m 31s)
But I don’t let them talk about Pokemon.
(1h 37m 34s)
I make them talk about Domus guy, my property.
(1h 37m 36s)
So there’s no Pokemon on my game.
(1h 37m 37s)
They’re all talking about my game.
(1h 37m 39s)
Because I can put in any word that I want.
(1h 37m 39s) Al:
That sounds, yeah, that sounds interesting. I wish I could perhaps get those ones and put them in my
(1h 37m 48s) Greg:
right. Yeah, you can’t. You’re denied. For no, and that’s the thing for no good reason.
(1h 37m 55s)
Like, there isn’t there isn’t a use case that I can think of that. Yeah.
(1h 37m 59s) Al:
And I guess if you if they’ve had previous games where you could share me, I guess the the the law lawyer aspect of it probably doesn’t make any sense.
(1h 38m 8s)
And so then I get into like, yeah, exactly like if that was a thing they were okay with before, why are they now not okay with it? I don’t I don’t get that.
(1h 38m 8s) Greg:
You could you could do it before.
(1h 38m 15s)
Yeah, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
(1h 38m 18s)
And it’s not like the me creator is that it’s got more options, but I don’t think it’s more complicated so I don’t I can’t even imagine that it’s a
(1h 38m 27s)
Get the settings
(1h 38m 30s)
Different or wrong like
(1h 38m 33s)
It all works the same way as animal crossing works
(1h 38m 36s) Al:
Yeah, you just you just you re you re implement it for the new settings, right?
(1h 38m 39s) Greg:
Yeah
(1h 38m 40s) Al:
Like it’s still just a QR code with data right like you’re gonna have to re implement it anyway because it’s for a different console
(1h 38m 43s) Greg:
Yeah, I don’t
(1h 38m 48s)
And I mean the game does make silly moments and silly things happen. I
(1h 38m 54s)
Am running into the situation where the same silly moments keep happening, but with different ones and I’m like, okay, well
(1h 39m 1s)
This played out exactly the same
(1h 39m 4s) Al:
Yeah, I will say, yeah, most of the, most of the funny moments I’ve seen on TikTok are
(1h 39m 8s)
they’re dating, right? It’s like, I’m professing my love for you. You know, I’m,
(1h 39m 13s)
I’m Galinda and I’m professing my love for alphabet, but for some reason, Michael Jackson and
(1h 39m 17s) Greg:
Yeah. Right. Far different characters. Yeah.
(1h 39m 19s) Al:
Shrek are also there. And it’s like, yeah, that’s funny. And then, but the next time it’s the same
(1h 39m 24s)
thing, but it’s just four different characters. And then, and then the next one, it’s four different
(1h 39m 29s)
characters and I will probably find out funny forever right like
(1h 39m 34s)
different characters professing the love for each other and then being upstaged by someone else completely unrelated. Those are going to be continued to be funny. But again, I don’t want to put in 10 hours of gameplay to get one of those on my own. Why don’t I just go on to talk and see a few of them.
(1h 39m 40s) Greg:
right I can’t yeah and I also I don’t have a good way of sharing that bizarre yeah
(1h 39m 54s) Al:
Yes, well exactly because the easiest way to share it is actually as you’ve pointed out being a streamer because they’re they’re literally just hooking into the H.
(1h 40m 4s)
And automatically everything’s recorded and you know the streamers with lots of listeners are or watchers sorry are they’re clipping this stuff automatically anyway so like they have all that free labor as well.
(1h 40m 15s) Greg:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they have all that stuff. Yeah
(1h 40m 19s)
It’s it’s
(1h 40m 22s)
It’s difficult to know who exactly the audience is for
(1h 40m 28s)
Who this game is the audience?
(1h 40m 28s) Al:
Because if it is just streamers, that’s not a very lucrative business for Nintendo.
(1h 40m 30s) Greg:
Yeah, it’s not a very big
(1h 40m 32s)
Right, yeah, it’s just it’s just weird and like
(1h 40m 37s)
There’s not a lot to do in the game
(1h 40m 40s)
So it’s like I can’t even say like it’s a cozy game
(1h 40m 40s) Al:
No, yeah, we’ve we’ve we’ve talked about all the features
(1h 40m 45s) Greg:
Yeah, like the best you could do is just pick up a me put the mixture in other me hope that something happens
(1h 40m 53s)
Pick up another me somebody might want to play a quiz with you in which case
(1h 40m 59s)
Good luck because it’s like here’s here’s here’s a pixelated
(1h 41m 1s) Al:
[laughing]
(1h 41m 6s) Greg:
Picture and it’s a just a round circle. I’m like, okay
(1h 41m 9s)
Well, the options are a thing and a bowl or a thing and a plate
(1h 41m 12s)
So I have no other contact
(1h 41m 15s)
so I’m just gonna pick the thing on the plate. Nope, it was the thing in the bowl. Okay.
(1h 41m 23s) Al:
Yeah No, but you do you do you just get a different weird treasure because you get a consolation prize
(1h 41m 23s) Greg:
You know, I don’t I don’t get a weird treasure to put in my bag. Yeah, well, yeah, you get a
(1h 41m 33s)
constellation. It was either toilet paper or tissue paper. That’s it. It’s always the same. It’s always toilet
(1h 41m 37s) Al:
Oh, they always I’ve obviously don’t not done enough of them. I didn’t realize they were always that. Okay fair enough that that’s fine. Okay
(1h 41m 43s) Greg:
paper or.
(1h 41m 45s)
I’m like yep that’s all you get that’s all you get and you can go sell them at the
(1h 41m 45s) Al:
I did I did notice that the two that I’ve done. I got the two that I failed. I got time of the paper and I got tissue paper
(1h 41m 51s)
I just didn’t realize that was
(1h 41m 53s)
all you got, because I didn’t do a third one. I didn’t do a third one to get a duplicate.
(1h 41m 59s) Greg:
pot shop for a dollar when most things cost like fifth.
(1h 42m 8s) Al:
Okay. Let’s come to some sort of conclusion. I don’t like this game, but let’s be honest,
(1h 42m 14s)
anyone who listens to this progress probably could have predicted that.
(1h 42m 20s)
Sounds like you are enjoying it.
(1h 42m 23s)
To some degree?
(1h 42m 24s) Greg:
I enjoyed to some degree, but also I fully I sort of had to adopt the mindset of if I don’t touch it for a couple of days
(1h 42m 33s)
That’s fine, I’ll come in spend half an hour during our maybe on lunch like when I don’t really have time to do a big build in
(1h 42m 40s)
Pocopia, or I don’t want to get deep into some other game that I know it’s going to take time. Yeah, I’ll pop in see how everybody’s doing
(1h 42m 49s)
Give them some food maybe buy some new items put a couple people together for half
(1h 42m 54s)
an hour, maybe an hour and then I’m done for the day and I do not have to go back and so in those in that mindset
(1h 43m 2s)
I I am enjoying the game in the mindset of where I have just
(1h 43m 8s)
Had to willingly say I have to give up all control like these two people say that they have crushes on each other
(1h 43m 15s)
No amount of me throwing them together in the same room is progressing that storyline
(1h 43m 21s)
I have to wait for the game to decide that the
(1h 43m 24s)
is the time we’re going to progress that storyline and I have found some sort of piece in being like cool I will just come in it’s like watching a show for 20 minutes that I have a little bit more saying and then I leave and decide okay I’ll come back I’ll come back tomorrow so I’ve been enjoying it but I did have to yeah.
(1h 43m 47s) Al:
It’s like a choose your own adventure.
(1h 43m 50s) Greg:
I’m enjoying it in the fact that I just have to be like I don’t have a lot
(1h 43m 54s)
of control and I can’t play this like I would play any other game. I just
(1h 43m 59s)
have to only play the game exactly how they want me to play it because I have no
(1h 44m 6s)
other options.
(1h 44m 8s) Al:
So, so the real question is, how do you recommend this to me?
(1h 44m 12s)
I don’t know what I’m expecting here.
(1h 44m 19s) Greg:
There are a subsection of people who enjoy playing.
(1h 44m 24s)
There’s a lot of mobile gamers who feel that way.
(1h 44m 33s) Al:
But that’s, well, that’s the thing. That’s what I was talking about. That’s why I think this game would work better on a phone, but the problem is it’s not.
(1h 44m 34s) Greg:
Yeah.
(1h 44m 39s) Al:
So I don’t think you’re getting the mobile gamers in there anyway.
(1h 44m 39s) Greg:
It was on the phone.
(1h 44m 42s)
Yeah, I mean, I think for a handheld travel, like if you are taking your switch to like school or work or something where you just want to have something
(1h 44m 54s)
to keep you entertained for a little bit of time, this is a game that will keep you entertained for a little bit of time.
(1h 45m)
It’s not deep by any means.
(1h 45m 3s)
You aren’t going to make, you aren’t going to have a lot of choices to make other than designing your island.
(1h 45m 9s)
If you are really, really creative and you like having a blank, just a blank canvas to play in, including people’s faces and you feel like, yeah, I just like making
(1h 45m 21s)
Interesting faces, and I don’t really care what happens.
(1h 45m 25s)
This is the game for you.
(1h 45m 27s)
But again, we’re sort of drawing these weird,
(1h 45m 31s)
they’re like these weird, desperate circles,
(1h 45m 35s)
that it’s hard to say exactly who the audience
(1h 45m 41s)
they intended it to be for.
(1h 45m 44s)
I’m in there, but only because I’m just like, yeah, it’s fine.
(1h 45m 49s)
It’s fine and it provides me enough
(1h 45m 51s)
silliness in the 20 minutes that I’m going in.
(1h 45m 54s)
I’m not going to interact with it, but I think it’s worth it.
(1h 45m 57s)
Do I think it was worth the price?
(1h 45m 59s)
Heck no.
(1h 46m) Al:
[laughing]
(1h 46m 1s) Greg:
No, it was not worth that price.
(1h 46m 4s) Al:
- Yeah, I’m off to sell this game tomorrow.
(1h 46m 5s)
[laughing]
(1h 46m 6s) Greg:
Yeah, it’s, I mean, again, it’s part of, it’s, you know, this is what game costs now and it’s hard.
(1h 46m 15s) Al:
It’s
(1h 46m 15s) Greg:
We’re in that tough thing where it’s like we’ve paid less for games that have more.
(1h 46m 20s) Al:
That’s I think that I think that’s the thing I’m not against paying lots of money for a game if I
(1h 46m 20s) Greg:
And.
(1h 46m 24s)
Right. Right.
(1h 46m 26s) Al:
Love it and if I get a lot of it like
(1h 46m 30s)
Poco Pia I have had
(1h 46m 32s)
So much fun with so many hours in and I may never touch the game if they never bring out DLC
(1h 46m 38s)
I mean I never touch the game again, but I feel like I got so much my money’s worth
(1h 46m 44s) Greg:
And it’s hard because like this is like people will say that this is the price of games, and that is true
(1h 46m 50s)
but it’s also
(1h 46m 52s)
difficult to
(1h 46m 56s)
Accept that this is the price of games and
(1h 47m)
not get a
(1h 47m 3s)
The same amount of game play out of the game
(1h 47m 8s)
Like we are in that sort of interesting
(1h 47m 11s)
situation of all games are getting.
(1h 47m 14s)
And you’re cost analysis, your cost analysis is becoming much more a part of the equation that it ever has in the past.
(1h 47m 28s)
Like, yeah, there’s 20,000 games, but we’re at the point where there’s 20,000 games that all cost $60.
(1h 47m 36s)
And we don’t have that money anymore.
(1h 47m 39s)
And so, like we said earlier, I think games really need to
(1h 47m 44s)
state exactly what they are upfront, so that people don’t feel like I spent a lot of money on
(1h 47m 52s)
nothing game, and your marketing made me feel like I was getting much more of a game than I got.
(1h 47m 58s)
Like, it’s getting harder to justify in a world of so many games that really give you so little or put in weird
(1h 48m 12s)
weird restrictions that you–
(1h 48m 14s)
feel hamstrung from enjoying the game that you want. Like, it’s hard to say, like, it’s hard for me to say, like, “Oh, I can figure out how I would get you to get more enjoyment out of this game.”
(1h 48m 26s)
Because there’s really nothing I can do. I can’t give you means that I think would be fun.
(1h 48m 29s) Al:
Yeah.
(1h 48m 31s) Greg:
I can’t even promise that if I gave you the means that I think you’re fun, that they would do interesting– anything interesting in the game.
(1h 48m 39s) Al:
Yeah, there’s no guarantee that if you do A, B, and C, that D will happen.
(1h 48m 39s) Greg:
No. Right.
(1h 48m 44s)
It’s, there’s no guarantee that A and B will even exist.
(1h 48m 48s) Al:
Yeah. Well, yeah, that too. It’s such a fascinating game. We can probably talk about it for hours,
(1h 48m 53s) Greg:
Yeah
(1h 48m 53s) Al:
but also we’d probably just be repeating ourselves again and again and again.
(1h 48m 55s) Greg:
Yeah, mm-hmm
(1h 49m) Al:
Yeah. I’m going to enjoy watching on TikTok and I’ll continue to do that. And that’s
(1h 49m 5s) Greg:
Yeah. Yeah.
(1h 49m 7s) Al:
That’s why I would recommend.
(1h 49m 10s)
Sure, I guess if you’re the sort of person that loves, if half of your time playing Cyberpunk 2077 was creating your character, then this is the game for you.
(1h 49m 22s)
But I also don’t know like how big that audience is, and I certainly don’t know how big the audience is in people who listen to this podcast, but I don’t know, maybe.
Outro
(1h 49m 39s) Al:
For joining me to talk about this fascinating game.
(1h 49m 42s) Greg:
[laughs]
(1h 49m 43s)
It’s a weird little game.
(1h 49m 45s) Al:
Is there anything you would like to share slash plug with the audience?
(1h 49m 49s) Greg:
I mean, listen to my other two podcasts.
(1h 49m 51s)
Very random encounters, which is an actual play podcast
(1h 49m 54s)
where we play pen and paper RPGs.
(1h 49m 56s)
If you wanna hear me talk this level about board games
(1h 50m)
or tabletop games, listen to my other podcasts.
(1h 50m 2s)
Game mechanics where we go into this depth
(1h 50m 4s)
about the board game industry.
(1h 50m 7s)
You could also just find my games that I design
(1h 50m 10s)
and make role playing games.
(1h 50m 12s)
Other men dot games, and hopefully in July,
(1h 50m 16s)
my next game, Domeskyye Tamers,
(1h 50m 17s)
which is a Pokemon style game, will be in physical production.
(1h 50m 22s)
But FYI, I am also affected by the global craziness.
(1h 50m 26s) Al:
the global everything
(1h 50m 26s) Greg:
So, the global everything.
(1h 50m 29s)
And you can easily find me on blue sky.
(1h 50m 31s)
Blue sky is probably the best way to find me.
(1h 50m 35s)
You can find me there at Lysander03.
(1h 50m 42s)
I have links to it from all my other stuff.
(1h 50m 43s)
So, you can find me on Instagram.
(1h 50m 47s) Al:
All right, well, you can find the podcast on Tumblr and blue sky at ths pod you can send us feedback from our website harvenseason.club
(1h 50m 57s)
Tell us what the weirdest
(1h 51m)
Tom about your life clip you’ve seen is because I’m not assuming anyone’s actually playing it
(1h 51m 6s) Greg:
[laughing]
(1h 51m 6s) Al:
So tell me whether weird is clip you’ve seen on social media
(1h 51m 7s) Greg:
Just us, just us too.
(1h 51m 11s) Al:
Because I love I love hearing about the weirdness of them, but yeah, that’s that’s about it
(1h 51m 17s)
Also on our website find links to everything to do with the podcast including our patreon patreon.com/thspod where you can
(1h 51m 24s)
get access to our slack and
(1h 51m 27s)
Mock me which is what has seems to be half of the slack is
(1h 51m 31s)
And also access to our bonus episodes of the podcast
(1h 51m 34s)
I just remembered that me and Kevin recorded one last week and I forgot to edit it
(1h 51m 39s)
So hopefully that will be out this week
(1h 51m 42s)
The problem with the bonus episodes is because they’re not like regular every week
(1h 51m 46s) Greg:
Right. Yeah.
(1h 51m 47s) Al:
This I don’t have them in my to do list in the same way
(1h 51m 50s)
Like I have I have a template for my for the podcast episodes that I import
(1h 51m 57s)
I have a task in the episodes to import for the next episode
(1h 52m 2s) Greg:
Yeah
(1h 52m 2s) Al:
So it’s like there’s always a
(1h 52m 5s)
Project going for the current episode on the next episode
(1h 52m 6s) Greg:
Yeah
(1h 52m 9s) Al:
But the problem is because they’re not on a regular cadence the bonus episodes don’t get that so if I forget to put it in the to do list
(1h 52m 14s) Greg:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that’s the reason why we didn’t do it bonus podcast for game mechanics for our
(1h 52m 15s) Al:
What is going?
(1h 52m 20s) Greg:
patrons. I’m like, uh, who’s editing it? Because we have an editor like we pay an editor. I’m like,
(1h 52m 22s) Al:
Yeah
(1h 52m 26s) Greg:
we’re going to pay more money. Or are you going to take this job up? And we’re like, nope, we don’t want to do
(1h 52m 27s) Al:
Yeah
(1h 52m 31s) Greg:
either of those. So we’re not doing another podcast. Uh, don’t bonus episodes for game mechanics.
(1h 52m 35s) Al:
I’m jealous of the podcast that you just like an extra little segment at the end because
(1h 52m 37s) Greg:
We win a different–
(1h 52m 43s) Al:
it’s just like then it’s just tacked on and you can’t really forget about that but people
(1h 52m 48s)
like the bonus ones apparently. I suggested putting on the next bonus thing at the end of
(1h 52m 52s)
the episode and they were like, no, no, keep them separate. So, okay. Thank you.
(1h 52m 57s) Greg:
I guess
(1h 52m 58s) Al:
Yep. I think that’s everything. Thank you again for joining me, Greg.
(1h 53m 2s) Greg:
Thank you for having me
(1h 53m 2s) Al:
Thank you listeners for listening and until next
(1h 53m 5s)
time have a good harvest.
(1h 53m 7s) Greg:
Yeah
(1h 53m 8s) Theme Tune:
The Harvest Season is created by Alan McHenry, with support from our patrons, including our
(1h 53m 17s)
pro-farmers, Kevin, Stuart, and Alisa.
(1h 53m 21s)
Our art is done by Micah the Brave and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1h 53m 25s)
Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed
(1h 53m 31s)
in this episode.
(1h 53m 41s) Greg:
get all the wheat or whatever fantasy wheat is in the game that you’re playing, won’t.
(1h 53m 46s) Al:
What would be the equivalent in Tomodachi?
(1h 53m 50s) Greg:
Whatever dumb thing happens in their, in that supermarket, like I got Maple on a stick, which
(1h 53m 56s)
I’m like, is that like, just Maple syrup on the end of a stick?
(1h 54m 2s)
Like, what is this?
(1h 54m 4s) Al:
just a stick just dipped into a jar of maple syrup.
(1h 54m 5s) Greg:
Yeah, it’s just a stick, just dipped in Maple syrup, but I’m like, I guess.
(1h 54m 10s) Al:
It’s like a dog treat.
(1h 54m 11s)
It’s like, I went in one day and it was just five different fruit.
(1h 54m 12s) Greg:
Yeah, but I’ll give it to you, I guess.
(1h 54m 16s)
Don’t eat the stick, well you ate the stick, so.
(1h 54m 20s)
Oh, yeah, yeah, guess it’s fruit day here on the island.
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