Rob, Doug, Andy, and Sarah chat with Gabe Cuzzillo (Ape Out, Despelote) and Bennett Foddy (Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, QWOP) about their (with Maxi Boch) latest game, the multi-IGF-nominated open-world hard-walking manchild simulator Baby Steps. We discuss the game's in-house approach to voice acting, balancing challenge with humor, creating (and hiding) a looping environment, telling an honest story about masculinity, including explicit content without getting banned from Steam, rock curation, secrets, and so much more!

Audio edited by Dylan Shumway

Discussed in this episode:

Baby Steps
https://www.babystepsgame.com/

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111942/

My Summer Car
https://store.steampowered.com/app/516750/My_Summer_Car/

zk map (for stranger)
https://www.glorioustrainwrecks.com/node/11388

La belle noiseuse (1991)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101428/

Kelly Reichardt
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0716980/

Perfect Days (2023)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27503384/

The Taste of Things (2023)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19760052/

NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents Jane Ng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yWIoRuwpm0

DESPELOTE: FIFTH TRAILER (now on nintendo switch)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MXKlgMZ3Jc

The Love That Remains (2025)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33381401/

Solo (Australian ad) 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCkz0JsaU8k

Solo Man ad, Australia 1986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T3RS78Tp58

Solo (Australian ad) 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_1nZZrv8aU

Frog Detective 3
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1171320/Frog_Detective_3_Corruption_at_Cowboy_County/

https://secretlives.games

https://discord.gg/tslog

https://www.patreon.com/tslog

We're joined by droqen (The End of Gameplay, Starseed Pilgrim), Darius Kazemi (Tiny Subversions, Harvard Applied Social Media Lab), and Tara Macalister (mathematician, composer) to discuss Vertex Dispenser, the second game in our year-long exploration of the work of Michael Brough.

Next Month: Kompendium

Audio edited by Dylan Shumway.

Discussed in this episode:

Vertex Dispenser
https://store.steampowered.com/app/102400/Vertex_Dispenser/

Michael Brough's Website
https://www.smestorp.com/

Four color theorem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_color_theorem

Graph coloring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring

Starcraft II
https://starcraft2.blizzard.com/en-us/

Splatoon
https://splatoon.nintendo.com/

Dota 2
https://www.dota2.com/home

Droqen's rare color graph/explanation
https://discord.com/channels/690388280767807518/1442554518092120186/1465039921147412510

lots of michael brough games
https://smestorp.itch.io/lots-of-michael-brough-games

The Sense of Connectedness
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=16151.0

Kompendium
https://mightyvision.blogspot.com/2012/06/kompendium.html

The End of Gameplay
https://droqen.itch.io/the-end-of-gameplay

Utopia Clicker
https://tinysubversions.com/game/utopia/

A Jackpot of Skulls
https://brainfruit.studio/games/jackpot

_update() Jam
https://adamatomic.itch.io/update-jam

https://secretlives.games/

https://discord.gg/tslog

https://www.patreon.com/tslog

https://www.youtube.com/eggplantshow

Nick is joined by guest co-host Chris Plante (Post Games) for a chat with Kimmo Lahtinen (aka gimbll) about his dynamite new twin-stick shooter, Sektori. They discuss the joy of the genre, pursuing excellence in an oversaturated genre, and how personal limitations shape solo development.

Audio edited by Dylan Shumway

Discussed in this episode:

Sektori

https://www.gimblll.com/sektori/

Day Repeat Day

https://www.gimblll.com/dayrepeatday/

Barbearian

https://www.gimblll.com/barbearian/

Drift and Drive

https://www.gimblll.com/driftndrive/

Resogun

https://housemarque.com/games/resogun

Outland

https://housemarque.com/games/outland

Dead Nation

https://housemarque.com/games/dead-nation

Super Stardust Portable

https://housemarque.com/games/ssp

Geometry Wars

https://store.steampowered.com/app/8400/Geometry_Wars_Retro_Evolved/

Rez Infinite

https://www.rezinfinite.com/

Post Games podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/post-games/id1815131711

Besties podcast

https://www.themcelroy.family/podcasts/besties/

Limetown podcast

https://twoupproductions.com/limetown/podcast

Quest Tabletop Game

https://www.adventure.game/

https://secretlives.games

https://discord.gg/tslog

https://www.patreon.com/tslog

We're proud to present the final installment of our over-a-year-long Into the Depths series on Caves of Qud, as well as our last episode with our recently retired Eggplant branding. Caves of Qud is a massive open-world roguelike RPG that has been in development since 2007 and Early Access since 2015, and we give it an appropriately epic sendoff with nearly four hours of deep discussion.

Doug and Rob, joined by special guest host Star St. Germain, dive into the game's finale and overarching themes with narrative designer Caelyn Sandel and co-creators Jason Grinblat and Brian Bucklew. Be warned, major spoilers await: We discuss the aftermath of the Tomb of the Eaters, the Moon Stair, the [Redacted], Reclamation, We Are [Redacted], plus other juicy details about how this legendary game finally came to an end… and what's in store for it next.

Audio edited by Dylan Shumway.

Discussed in this episode:

Brian's must-follow bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/unormal.bsky.social

Warm static – Official Caves of Qud wiki
https://wiki.cavesofqud.com/wiki/Warm_static

Independent Games Summit: What Even is 1.0?: Indefinite Early Access and Live Development
https://gdcvault.com/play/1035081/Independent-Games-Summit-What-Even

End-to-End Procedural Generation in Caves of Qud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV-DZqdKlnE

Tile-Based Map Generation using Wave Function Collapse in 'Caves of Qud'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdCgi9E90jw

Caves of Qud Discord
https://discord.com/invite/cavesofqud

Eris – Girsh Illustration
https://www.reddit.com/r/cavesofqud/comments/1n449aw/girsh_qas_and_qon/

A Mythopoetic Interface Reading of Caves of Qud (Roguelike Celebration 2025)
https://www.youtube.com/live/UQNfH9pKWd4?si=jFy9VTRZzLPJHn4W&t=1091

Sproggiwood
https://store.steampowered.com/app/311720/Sproggiwood/

Slav Epic Paintings by Alphonse Mucha
https://www.muchafoundation.org/en/gallery/themes/theme/slav-epic

https://secretlives.games/

https://bsky.app/profile/secretlivesofgames.bsky.social

https://www.youtube.com/eggplantshow

http://discord.gg/tslog

https://www.patreon.com/tslog

(full rebrand still in progress, lol)

We're joined by Frank Lantz (Q-UP) and Mare Sheppard + Raigan Burns of Metanet (N++) for the first episode of All Systems Brough, a year-long exploration of the work of Michael Brough. We share our thoughts on why Michael's oeuvre demands a deep dive, add some historical context, and share the plan for the year ahead. We also introduce a (final?) rebrand to the podcast!

Next episode: 868-HACK
(it's also recommended that you start playing Vesper.5 now to prepare for later)

(Tentative) Episode/play order:

1. 868-HACK

2. Vertex Dispenser

3. Zaga-33

4. Vesper.5

5. Corrypt

6. Kompendium (plus digital archiving of O)

7. BECOME A GREAT ARTIST IN JUST 10 SECONDS

8. Helix (plus SMESPORT)

9. Imbroglio

10. Cinco Paus

11. P1 Select (plus Quinzena maybe?) & Broughlike Game Jam Games

12. 868-BACK (caveat: still in development)
    
    

Audio edited by Dylan Shumway

Discussed in this episode:

Michael Brough's Website

https://www.smestorp.com/

Michael O'Blivion's Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@michael_oblivion

Flock

https://annapurnainteractive.com/en/games/flock

Wilmot's Warehouse Boardgame

https://www.cmyk.games/products/wilmot

Q-UP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3730790/QUP/

Donkeyspace (Frank's Substack)

https://franklantz.substack.com/

The Beauty of Games

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262552950/the-beauty-of-games/

Metanet Software

https://www.metanetsoftware.com/about-us

N++

https://nplusplus.org/

PRACTICE 2015: Mare Sheppard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBCDeMl4VwY

FTL

https://subsetgames.com/ftl.html

Sylvie's Games

https://sylvie.website/

A wild start, 41 points with no artifacts! (Cinco Paus LP ep 1) by vivafringe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-8xXBwAdG4

Droqen's website

https://www.droqen.com/

Raigan's bluesky (will give away free copies of Cinco Paus on Christmas!)

https://bsky.app/profile/raiganburns.bsky.social

Q-UP OST

https://kariomart.bandcamp.com/album/q-up-ost

868-HACK (Steam)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/274700/868HACK/

Vesper.5

https://mightyvision.blogspot.com/2012/08/vesper5.html

https://www.youtube.com/@thesecretlivesofgames

https://discord.com/invite/tslog

https://www.patreon.com/tslog

Rob, Sarah, and Doug chat with Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson about Consume Me, an award-winning autobiographical resource-management RPG about the pressure cooker of young adulthood. We discuss the game's ten-year development cycle, balancing dynamic difficulty in a game about overachievement, the complex dynamics of mining your own story, and more!

Heads up: This episode includes discussion of disordered eating and religious upbringing.

Audio edited by Dylan Shumway.

Mentioned in this episode:

Consume Me
https://hexecutable.itch.io/consume-me
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/Consume_Me/

Prototyping Personal Experience – Jenny's talk at A MAZE 2017
https://youtu.be/iQ-PaGTr-iI?si=RIAWQMFZfMWCVCsN

Papers Please by Lucas Pope
https://papersplea.se/

Nina Freeman's games on itch.io
https://starmaidgames.itch.io/

Triad by Anna Anthropy
https://w.itch.io/triad

Reigns by Nerial
https://www.reignsgame.com/reigns

Long Live the Queen by Hanako Games
https://hanakogames.itch.io/long-live-the-queen

Perfect Tides by Meredith Gran
https://granulac.itch.io/perfect-tides

Look Back (movie)
https://www.amazon.com/Look-Back-Kiyotaka-Oshiyama/dp/B0DH5DMSRW

Look Back (manga)
https://www.viz.com/look-back

Jenny's TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@q_dork

AP's Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/bad_tetris/

https://eggplant.show/

https://discord.gg/eggplant

https://www.patreon.com/eggplantshow

https://www.youtube.com/eggplantshow