11: Sweet Pounding Hammer

What's good, internet?

It is August 19th, 2025, and this is not a buoyant world of bright colors and boss fights.

It's Side Story, a podcast about games and the stories we tell about them, presented by Friends at the Table and supported by our patrons at friendsatthetable.cash.

Joining me today, Janine and Sylvie.

Hello.

Leaks are poisoned to all creation.

Oh boy.

Okay.

What?

What?

Dear stylists, we recently became aware that some unauthorized development materials from our game have been illegally shared on multiple platforms.

These creative works were meant to be revealed at the right time, but instead have been exposed through improper channels.

We understand the frustration this may cause.

Please know that no one values these creative works more than we do.

The theft and illegal distribution of game content is harmful not only to our team, but also to the community that loves and supports this game.

We want to state clearly, any act of obtaining or distributing unreleased content through illegal means harms both the creative team and the player experience.

Those responsible may gain short-term benefit, but they will face the consequences.

We have already launched a full investigation into the matter and will pursue the appropriate legal action.

At this time, we ask for your support.

Please do not share or discuss leaked content.

Leaks are poisoned to all creation.

Oh my god.

Wow.

By refraining, you show respect for the creative process and help build and maintain a healthy gaming community.

Once again, thank you for your understanding, support, and commitment to protecting the integrity of our game.

We believe that our creativity and passion will not be diminished by these leaks.

Let's work together to hammer out these leaks, protect Infinity Nikki, and preserve this beautiful world we've built together.

Infinity Nikki, okay attached uh uh-huh pounding hammer

there are moments when one's hands itch eager to raise a mighty hammer towards a certain target it's like a pink inflatable toy hammer oh yeah sure um does there have stats or anything oh yeah it's a d elegant d fresh

uh sweet s s tier sweets okay okay uh d sexy and a b cool so it's more it's primarily a sweet cool uh it's playful romance the the tags are playful romance i see see.

I see.

No, that sounds good down here.

Sweet pounding hammer as a potential title for the episode.

Got it.

They did.

They did say it.

That's a message that is waiting in the inbox of every player of Infinity Nikki.

What got leaked?

I don't know.

So you're telling me the community, you're the community.

Weren't you harmed by the leaks?

No.

Because

in with, I have.

Okay, listen.

Okay.

I just want to say, one, I have been, I have worked on games that have been leaked, and it sucks.

It sucks.

It fucking sucks.

It sucks to know, like, oh, we were really looking forward to people like seeing this in a good, cool state.

And instead, they just like heard it randomly from some guy.

It sucks.

But

a thing that I have no numbers to back up, but believe wholeheartedly is that no game ever

has had the majority of its player base following it in some sort of social media.

Yeah.

Be that Reddit or Discord or X

or Blue Sky or whatever.

I refuse to believe any game other than a game that maybe has some sort of immediate direct tie-in, like you have to be on Twitter or else you don't get your points.

I don't believe that that the majority of players of any game ever have followed a game's social,

especially, I should say, not just the official account, but like the community,

have been actively engaged in the community outside of maybe their immediate circle of people.

So when you send this email to everyone

with this custom item, I'm fairly sure this is not a recolor.

This is like a new item.

They made this item to celebrate.

They made this item

to celebrate the leaks real.

Feel perhaps a little anticipated.

Uh-huh.

I see.

It kind of feels like you're just telling me to go look at the leaks.

I see.

Which...

For a game that has been having some problems

because of some

lies they told to their players, and then they changed the image after the fact to make it seem like, oh, actually, the wishlist, the Steam wishlist bonus was this other thing.

It wasn't all this other stuff.

Or, you know, started changing the way that the premium currency would drop in the free-to-play game and all of that stuff.

Introduced a new kind of currency that only works on a certain kind of premium gotcha.

Like, you know, has been doing a lot of shit.

And also recently released like a new store area that is maybe a little bit boring and is probably not doing as well as they think it should.

I just think it's interesting that they sent a notice out to everyone saying, don't look at these super naughty leaks about our cool stuff use a pretty hammer you're telling me this could be a false flag leak this could be a

i know i i

i don't know i am just saying it is interesting to send that out with a big inflatable pink hammer that is sweet cool playful and romance

Well,

I did find them posting the, there's an image that they posted coding their message: leaks, comma, are poison to all creation.

Leaks and poison, both in yellow.

They put this on their X account.

It's so it feels like something that gets posted by like a local government thing about, like, hey, don't drink, don't use your tap water right now.

There's a boil water order.

Leaks are poisoned to all creation.

To all creation.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

In like theocratic Flint, Michigan.

Leaks are poison to all creation.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

It feels like a lithograph poster kind of era of public bulletin.

It's like just a big, a big sort of stylized tap or something with like a little guy under it going, oh no.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, but look, I'm on Infinity Nikki leaks right, the Reddit, the subreddit right now.

Look how cool this,

well, not that image.

That's not the preview I'm putting.

That's not it.

This one.

This one.

Sword Rain Knight.

Look how cool this sounds.

Yeah, I I guess.

This just kind of looks like all the other stuff they've been doing at this region.

Okay, well, I don't

keep up.

We're just like watching it.

They keep doing outfits where it's just like, and there's when you wear the whole outfit, there's a photo ability where it makes this one thing happen.

It's like, cool, I don't give a shit.

I don't care.

All right, I have to close Reddit because otherwise I'm going to get distracted by this Final Fantasy 14 patch or whatever, yeah, patch trailer that features the evil child from Final Fantasy XI, who's back in Final Fantasy XIV.

So

I gotta close this tab, otherwise we're not gonna do a podcast.

Shout outs to Eold Narch.

You fucking suck.

Anyway,

hi.

How are you doing outside of Infinity Nikki Hammer updates?

Good.

I'm on my third

little man,

I think.

My third little, my third, my little, you know, my little slime, the little, the pet with the hole in the finger in the picture.

From our last episode when you were,

these are called.

Let me see if I can remember.

Ooh, I don't think I can remember.

Pooney runes.

Poony runes.

You should have gotten two more.

And you've stayed with the little hole ones.

Sylvie, did you hear about this?

Are you up on this?

I'm not up on this.

Janine has gone.

Actually, wait, I met you on the fourth.

Oh, my God.

Did I forget it?

What was the yellow one?

There was like a yellow one that was like a shape or something.

Sometimes they're furniture and sometimes they're.

I got one that was sushi.

and then

you could touch it.

I made a mistake of touching it and now the music is happening.

Sorry about that.

I think I did a yellow one, but I don't remember what it was.

It's like a guy.

I don't know.

I remember thinking it was really ugly.

Wow.

Much is happening right now.

Sylvie, the short version of this is Janine had a virtual pet.

On our last episode, has a virtual pet, has four virtual pets.

At the time, there was only one that was like ugly.

No, no, I don't have the other ones.

I've shot them into space.

Continue.

Okay.

Where you could reach your finger into a hole and touch the slimy body of the virtual pet.

Oh, right.

I saw the thumbnail for that episode and I was like, oh, that'll be interesting whenever I get to that.

And then I haven't gotten to that because I've been a little intimidated.

That's fair.

It's a good episode.

You should go listen to it if you haven't listened to it.

It's a good podcast.

It is.

Today we actually have a different slimy situation to talk about.

We are finally going to talk about the game, Janine, that you and I have been teasing now for episodes.

At least two, maybe three?

I think two or three, which would be a month plus.

We are going to talk about Hyper Griff's game, Papukom,

which you

told me about,

but also I think maybe you saw it from Patrick Klepek's newsletter.

Is that right?

I got it in, I read about it in Patrick's newsletter.

It's called Crossplay, right?

Cross-play, yeah.

Which is, for anyone who doesn't know, a newsletter that is sort of about like the intersection of gaming and family.

So there's kind of a focus on like kids' games, games that are good for like low-stress co-op, I think is actually maybe the better way to frame it.

And, you know, stuff of that nature, anecdotes about

experiences he has with his own kids, etc.

And gaming.

So I heard about it there, and the pitch was pretty appealing, which was like

the pitch was more or less like, you know, it's a co-op game where they don't really want people to have to struggle.

You know, I think that's fucking true.

We beat that game.

There's some struggle to be

challenging, but not like a skill wall kind of situation.

I think

it's hit a point where it's just like you can't progress because

you don't have to skill or whatever.

Yeah.

I've written here that it is a co-op action puzzler that requires clever teamwork and mostly simple color matching combat.

Now, what I'll say,

I just want to say about the thing that you said, a lot of the difficult stuff we did, you don't need to do that to finish the game.

But don't you have to beat the final boss still?

Wasn't the final boss kind of hard?

I guess maybe not.

Maybe there was optional bosses that we did that were kind of hard.

Yeah,

we did all the optional bosses, and those were hard, but you don't have to do those.

There's

little guys to collect, and there are.

Let me set it up a little bit.

Yes, yes, yes.

It is a third-person multiplayer action puzzler, like I said.

You are little guys, little chibi characters.

They're like chibi-ish.

They're like little kids with breaking.

Bobblehead kind of proportions.

Yeah.

Exactly.

They bright colors.

Each of them can change color.

So you might be red, and you can become red and yellow, whereas blue could become like blue and green.

I imagine if you're playing single-player, you would...

I don't think you can play single player.

Yeah, you each have two colors.

I think for four player, you would all have one color of your own.

That's right, though.

I think the four the three or four player mode didn't seem like it was the same mode.

We didn't try that mode, but it was like different menu options.

The main menu had like

two-player as the campaign, and then there was like a three or four-player like party mode or something.

This game takes place in something that reminded me, it reminds me a lot of like the Splatoon world, sort of like post-apocalyptic, bright color earth

with like the remnants of a former human civilization, like an industrial civilization.

And you are going through these kind of levels with a third-person camera with a sort of like a slime blaster, like a Mega Man style blaster on your arm that can produce a blast of whatever color you currently are.

So you kind of have, if you're red, you can go between red and yellow.

So sometimes you're shooting red blasts and sometimes you're shooting yellow blasts.

And then the other player is shooting purple and green, right?

And

the comp, let's just start at the very basic level,

basic idea.

You come to a new little area and some weird slimeoids show up.

Oh, I don't like that.

That sounds like a slur.

That does.

I'm not saying that.

What are they?

They're called.

Are they called Pomus?

They're Pomus, right?

They're Pomus.

They're Pomus.

Because I would say Pomus a lot.

And, okay, there's a red one.

Well, you can't beat a red one with a yellow shot.

You have to become red, right?

And so you become red, and then you shoot the red one, and then that's good.

And then maybe like you go to the you're going to leave the arena and there is a

kind of chest high yellow wall in front of both you and the player who's purple and and

green.

And hey, while you can turn yellow and walk through that wall, your partner can't.

But what you can do is you can turn yellow and then use your little blaster to make an energy wall that your partner can stand on top of.

And then they can like stand on that and you can carry them above the top of the wall.

And then the game is just like layering ideas like that over and over and over again for dozens of levels where you're doing match three puzzles to make platforms.

You are using tools to like pick up and move things around.

You are fighting enemies that need to be like knocked over and then like hit with a color for on their underside.

You are doing like slingshot maneuvers and like portal gun,

you know, swapping, I guess more like the swapper swapping techniques.

Every level is just like filled with some new idea.

There's kind of four or five main tools you get, but then those tools get reused in different ideas over and over again.

Again, in these kind of bright and colorful, you know, sometimes it's like an abandoned amusement park or a logistics facility or a water park.

There's a bunch of weird levels.

And then underlying it all is a very strange lore situation.

I was going to ask, like, if there was a story or if it was just like, you got dropped into this thing.

I can answer that.

Please, Janine.

With a screenshot that I have.

Oh, I'm so energy station number 34.

The explosion of an energy ball at this station caused widespread environmental pollution.

The accident at Energy Station Number 34 made the doctor aware of the unpredictable nature of Prisma energy.

He began to call for further research into Prisma energy and its potential risks.

This was also when the doctor began to part ways with Andrew.

He's like, I want to say, like, the second sticker we got in the whole game or something.

So we were like, who the fuck is Andrew?

And let me tell you, I have a pretty good idea of who Andrew is now.

Oh, I have it.

I have Andrew.

I have Andrew's thing.

Yeah,

let's not spoil Andrew for the listeners.

Yes, that's fine.

Hey, can I just say it's not what you're expecting?

I'm looking at this picture of Andrew, and I don't think anybody's going to be able to guess it.

No, I don't think so either.

No, no, no.

It's wild.

There is something.

I think this game is being like badly slept on, but I also kind of think maybe it's just not its moment because co-op games are doing a different thing right now.

But let's just start by saying like, I think this game is fucking great.

I had so much fun playing it.

I think the

puzzle design is really clever.

It makes you feel really smart when you find stuff.

The collectibles are so well hidden, but like, when I say so well hidden, I don't mean that they are like impossible to find.

I mean, they are exactly the right amount of

hard to find.

They're the exactly right amount of, um, uh, ooh, it feels like there should be something around here.

What's going on?

Yeah, you get that, like, sort of, it's not, it's not as obvious as like in a cartoon, an old cartoon, when a part's gonna move and it, like, it looks a little different because it's on a spell and on the background.

It's not like that, but you can get a sense of like, wait a minute, it's been a little while since we had a collectible and like, what's this little overhang?

Or like, what's this little, what does this box do?

Like, these little, these little moments of like, wait, this looks like something that I can do something with Yeah,

absolutely

and then you get a little sticker that tells you about Andrew that tells you about Andrew or Yolki the yolk guy.

Oh, yeah, yolk.

Yeah, you have to

so there's like alien there's like slime

goodie bot and the goodie bots are helping you build a missile They're helping you build a missile so that you can shoot the pomu

like mothership alien creature thing that's that's hovering above earth and throwing monsters down at it.

It's and also there's snow booze, but I don't really know what they have to do with anything, they just exist.

I don't remember what snow boos are either.

Yeah, uh, this game is so weird because I it is bright and colorful.

It, I think I originally described it as like the best Dreamcast game you don't remember playing because it has that late 90s, early 2000s aesthetic so much.

The kind of super saturated, bright color,

this kind of like optimistic, bubbly vibe.

But there is like a weird sickness at the heart of this fucking game in a weird way.

Everything feels

dark.

In

if it looks like if you like looked behind the corner, you would find out some shit about a secret laboratory.

I mean, you do, you do find out stuff about secret laboratories.

But like, you know, again, you are rescuing these like robots that are like egg yolks inside of little robot bodies.

And then what are they doing for you?

It's like, oh, we're doing the Manhattan Project for you, you know?

It's like, what the fuck are you talking about, dude?

Um, and then even just like the boss, some of the boss fights, because of the way the game works, which is like, again, it's color matching, you are, you are doing match three style

stuff in an action, like kind of an action puzzle, third-person perspective.

The boss fights are like fighting people, fighting these big guys made of balls, like made of different colored balls, you know?

And so you have to match three on them live to beat them.

So if they have like a leg that is like yellow orb, red orb, purple orb, you need to put two extra yellows next to the yellow so that it will pop the bubbles.

And they will like live fall over and start to crawl at you like the Terminator if you blow their legs off.

Yeah, or like you can pop their head off and they kind of struggle to figure out where they're going.

Yes.

Yeah, you can mess up their torsos.

Like it all, it accounts for everything in the animations.

I just want to say like yes, please.

It is match three,

but I tend to think of it more as like a 3D puzzle platformer version of Zuma.

Right.

Sure.

Yeah.

Because it's a little bit more, and sometimes there's just like a Zuma game sometimes in the

Zuma mini-game.

You'll find a puzzle box or a puzzle little location or whatever where that's

where because it's because it's a little bit more about like

how

popping bubbles sort of interacts with stuff and the way that like when you're playing Zuma, popping the bubbles makes it roll back, and if you pop a good sequence of them, it'll roll back even farther.

It's kind of like if you took that concept and then made it a guy who was walking around and coming at you, and you exploded his legs, yeah, and then he falls on the ground and starts crawling at you faster and faster and faster.

Yeah, it's it's like there are moments where I was like, this is gross.

It has that sort of like mecha Goro thing where, like, because it's robots, you can get away with, you know, because the foot clan in the cartoon were made of little robot guys, they could get slashed up by by leonardo's katana like it wasn't a big deal uh and uh it's like that except for popping like bubbles uh

made of them they come down by or the the big bosses come down by being vomited out of a thing oh wonderful

it's gross

in a cutscene that's in a in a rendered cutscene it like feels like it's very

it feels like it's a it's a game cutscene from the Xbox it does feel like it's a game There's something about it that's like just weirdly lo-fi compared to the rest of the world.

Just imagine what else you've just said.

Yes, yes.

I know you would love this game, Sylvie.

I really think

it is Sylvie Core, too.

Yeah, I've been watching, you linked a full walkthrough in our Discord, and I just kind of had that on in the background and tapping between it and when Janine links something.

And I have already sent this game to multiple people I want to play it with, being like, hey, hey, two fingers pointing at each other emojis.

What if we

game arcade with

there's like a little arcade where you can play little mini-games.

And there is one in there called Volleyboink that I think should just be its own game.

I would just play so much volleyboink.

It's very fun.

Yeah.

It's like physics-y volleyball that like you have very minimal control.

Yeah, you get minimal control.

You kind of just make your guys do the one motion they can do.

It's very funny.

You know, like wobble around and respond to their own inertia.

And

you can end up on the completely wrong side of the net.

It's funny.

i also just think that as far as co-op games go you know it is it is

it is i used to have a real hard time playing co-op puzzle games like you know a decade plus ago i remember janine you and i played some of the trine games and i used to just always feel very stupid uh and i'm not you know i think that puzzles are hard and and it's a very common thing inside of puzzle game design to struggle with the um logic of a of a designer sometimes where it's like oh i don't really understand what the puzzle designer had in mind here and so partly this is taste and it's just like oh this is a game that i kind of grokked oh i hate that they took that it i had that in

the same i was writing a thing for my segment later and i had to be like nope it's a different word can't use it you can't use it anymore yeah you know i it it it is it is it is partly that i just understand this intuitively you know like but also i do think that there was this really clever um intentional co-op puzzle design throughout this, where sometimes it's more action-based than it's puzzle-based, in the sense of like, okay, it's very obvious that what has to happen here is you put your shield to the left to protect me from the laser, then it then we get past that laser because we're on a conveyor belt, and then I'll put my shield to the right to protect you from the laser.

And there's a sort of dance-like quality to something like that.

But there are also moments where it's just like, okay, we have to, okay, you take the little like pyramid, the little glowy pyramid thing that we can throw and do a swap with.

And then I'll swap with it when you throw it in the air.

And that'll get me behind the grate.

And all of that stuff always makes you feel, or makes me feel like...

We figured it out.

We did it.

We figured out a thing.

Sometimes you have to feel like you figured out a thing that the designers didn't intend, which is always one of the best feelings in video games.

And then other times you will make a mistake.

Like, there's at least one time where we got one of the collectible stickers that are hidden in the level.

And it tells you what number that sticker is in the level.

So, there might be five, and it'll be like, oh, yeah, this is the fourth one.

And there was one time when it was like, oh, we had one, two, three, and five.

And I was like, shit, but what if I use this cube thing that we can teleport with to trick the game into getting us back to where we were?

Because normally it's quite hard to backtrack in a lot of the levels.

They're designed in such a way where it's kind of a forward-only.

Exactly.

And that feeling is incredible.

It's just, it's just so good.

And I think it's a shame that people aren't.

I haven't seen anybody but Patrick talk about this, this game.

And it's been out now for, I don't know, a few months.

It's been out for

since June.

June 1st, it came out.

And it's doing fine.

Like, it has a couple thousand reviews on Steam and stuff.

But I just think that the world of co-op games is so different in this moment that it's hard for something like this, I think, to stand out, you know?

We're living in Peak's world.

We're living in

the world of.

Sorry,

here's how slept on this game is.

Yeah.

This is the first

game that any of us have been interested in where I've looked at the store page and it hasn't been on Jack's wishlist.

Whoa.

That's how slept on this game is.

Wow, we're telling Jack about it.

We mentioned this game out loud and Jack didn't know what it was on one of the early recordings, which is very rare.

You need to understand that Jack's wishlist is

thousands.

It's absurd.

I don't know what to do with that.

I had multiple conversations.

I thought I was bad at 400.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

Very different.

I barely broke 100.

I think I'm somewhere in.

I think I'm at 153.

I'm at 153.

And some of this stuff I should probably get rid of.

You know?

Yeah.

If I look at the list of when I added some of this stuff, let's see, what's the oldest thing I have on this list?

I probably don't need everyday shooter, the PS3

music shooter game.

Maybe I do.

That game's pretty good.

That game's pretty good.

Yeah, shout outs.

Anyway,

yeah, I feel like there's something happening.

You know, I love the

what is often referred to as

Friend Slop.

I like those games a lot.

It is humorously called that.

It was humorously called that to begin with.

I know.

I don't know that most people mean it in a serious way.

I know.

It's just not what's not what slop is.

That's the thing.

You're taking bile out of slop.

Oh, wow.

You're taking the bile out of slop.

Yeah.

It should be so you're reverse grokking slop slop should feel derogatory it should feel well but anything that's derogatory will in will eventually be reclaimed you know like

unfortunately and i don't i don't mean that's always a good thing for it to happen but like you know uh if they're out here reclaiming the s-word

you know that's right i'm half slop on my dad's side right yeah you're allowed uh i'm allowed to say slop

that is the but you know what I mean.

That style of game.

You know, Content Warning and Peace

and Repo and these games that are that are really built for emergent storytelling and

kind of systems driven co-op play.

Not that this game doesn't have systems, but it's a very structured, linear game about beating levels and getting all of the collectibles and you know, completing boss fights.

And it's just like it's one of these moments where you can kind of feel the sort of cultural paradigm not aligning with something that has nothing to do with whether or not the game is good yeah you know um i think if this game had come out five years ago when there was a sort of dearth of of co-op options it probably would have done extremely well you know especially because it's so light and airy and like It's easy to just jump in and play two levels or three levels or play for 45 minutes or something and actually make some progress, which is just, you know,

that particular need has been met now by this other type of game in such a way that, like, I don't know, it's just funny to, it's a, it's a great illustration of the fact that, like, success does not simply, you know, relate to merit or like quality.

You can make a really good thing and it might not hit.

Is that true?

No, no.

Yeah.

It's also like,

it's also interesting to think about, like,

so, you know, we've, we've talked about how there's sort of like a Dreamcasty, xboxy like y2k era of of colorful

you know fun game that feels a little bit strange um you know games don't often feel a little bit strange anymore so it's nice when they do yeah um

but there's so there's part of me that's like if this game had been published by Nintendo and it was a Switch exclusive for two years,

people would be losing their mind.

100%.

I mean, again, like, it does feel like Splatoon in that way in certain places.

And it feels like

Astro's Playhouse in certain areas.

Astrobot Playhouse in certain places.

Yeah.

Playground?

How many are there?

Astro's Playground, Astro's...

Playroom.

Playroom.

Astro Playroom.

Oh, my God.

Playroom was the first one.

And now there's Astrobot Rescue Mission.

Is that right?

No, that was the first one.

Astrobot's Rescue Mission was the VR one, PSVR one.

Then there was Astro's Playroom.

And now

there's

another one.

What's the newest one called?

I just called Astrobot.

I have

a fortunate amount of contempt for the robot.

I do too.

I think we actually talked about this probably

on an episode we didn't...

Well, like a segment we ended up cutting from

the very first episode of this show.

Jack, Janine, and I talked a bunch of shit about video games and like the Keely's and some other stuff.

And part of what we talked about was frustration with Astrobot.

But this is like,

playing this game was sort of a relief to me because it like reminded me that I didn't hate like cute things and joy and this style of

game.

It really is the like branding stuff around Astrobot that that makes me frustrated, you know?

So

anyway, I think people should be playing Papua Com.

I think that it's deeply slept on.

At some point, if you do end up playing some of it, Sylvie, I would love to

maybe do a stream of whatever the three or four player versions.

Oh, my God.

I have no idea

what those are, and I bet they're fun.

There's like a 90% chance that before the end of this recording, it's in my Steam library.

You were right.

It's very targeted.

It is, 100%.

It's also, we should say, it's also like cheap.

It's like,

yeah, it's, um

I forget.

There's like there's like weird names.

There's like budget premium and whatever the fuck the bracket names for prices.

I don't fucking know.

But you know, it's yeah, it's

it's pretty fucking affordable, even if it's not on sale.

So.

Yeah.

All right.

That's Papua Com.

We finally have to talk about it.

I think everyone should go check it out and should find out what the mystery of Andrew is.

Oh, also the clothing is great.

Yeah.

I just want to say really great outfits, sick outfits.

You you can look really cool um a very small thing that i love that i want to shout out is like i said it's it's red and yellow and then purple and green but every level that changes yeah so it's like oh it's not red it's pink and it's not yellow it's orange or it's peach and or

it's not green it's teal exactly yeah

which is really fun i think that there's like some fun now i actually suspect that that might be an accessibility nightmare to some degree um i don't think that this is a game that does a lot with, you know, when I think about accessibility,

sorry, I had this playing on in the background.

I don't remember the exact puzzle I talked about before of like you need to lift somebody with your shield.

I just watched these players just absolutely fail it and they both just jump right into the acid pit together.

It was very funny.

Anyway,

yeah, I think about best practices with color accessibility

in games often being about producing, reproducing information, not just with color, but also with like shape, you know?

Like, oh, this is green, but it's also triangles, or this is red, but it's also, you know, A.

And none of that is in this game at all.

So I do think that that's a problem, but

there's a degree to like, you know, I should say, I don't remember if there is a colorblind mode, but because it's a co-op game, that's already going to kind of be tricky.

Because if your partner is saying, like, it's purple, do purple.

It's like, well,

you know, there's already going to be like limited,

you know, you can tell the difference between A and B and C and D, but like sometimes being like, well, this is red versus green or whatever is harder.

There is a colorblind like mode, or there are some sorts of, sort of, some sort of assists that you can turn on, though I'm not sure what those assists are off the top of my head.

I should check into it, and I'll link to whatever is available in the description so that people can check it out for themselves and see if it's a good fit for them.

All right, let's take a quick break and then we come back.

Sylvia, I got to hear about what's going on in New Boston.

Oh,

don't you worry.

I got you covered.

All right, we will be right back.

Huh?

What's that noise?

I'm in.

Hello, to all the cyber listeners out there.

I've hacked the airwaves to let you know the situation in Neo New Boston.

It's just New Boston.

It's just New Boston.

I typed Neo first and then I went.

It's new, isn't it?

It's New Boston.

That's not as good.

Listen,

they have a very ambitious post-release content roadmap.

Maybe I can petition for them to change it to Neo Boston somewhere.

There's a little option in the settings.

Literally.

You know, maybe just give me the Neo New toggle in the settings.

It's like how Kairosoft games let you toggle between yen and dollars.

Just let me talk

between new and Neo.

That's right.

We are, of course, talking about Cyber Knights Flashpoint, the latest game from the Trese Brothers.

It is a, I've written here, maximalist cyberpunk turn-based tactics game where your crew of augmented mercenaries run missions and heists in dystopian Boston.

I guess dystopian new Boston.

There we go.

If you've never heard of the Trusse brothers,

you are missing a very interesting branch of

a kind of extension of a style of game that I think is not as popular as it once was.

They've been making them now for over a decade.

They started out making games on Android and mobile phones.

They found success on both Android and iOS eventually.

They started making games for the PC a few years ago.

And the one that kind of hit for them big on PC was Star Traders Frontiers, which is like a space trading sim

that had like elements of like Crusader Kings and also Darkest Dungeon.

Really big systems-driven kind of procedural storytelling, lots of layered systems, lots of complexity,

lots of like moving pieces that create the sort of emergent narratives that Lord knows I love.

I think Jack and I streamed some Star Traders Frontiers once, and maybe Rob and I did for Waypoint at one point.

That's the very short version.

The type of games that they build, like, really draw on a history of strategy games from PC, going back to

a range of them from kind of space trading games like Elite or

Star Control

to

kind of tile-by-tile dungeon crawls.

They have a series of games that are very 40k inspired called like Templar Battle Force or whatever, kind of a space marine.

And then even Star Traders itself, like I said, it's very Star Command, but it also has elements of

kind of space exploration games.

It has elements of classic kind of economics trading type stuff.

But also, that game ends up having lots of like

Dune and 40k in it, also, where there's like noble houses and dueling dukes and

space emperors and spice and chaos and shit like that,

you know, all throughout it.

And now they've made their first 3D game, Cyber Knights Flashpoint, which is a sequel to, for them, a long-running cyberpunk series called Cyber Knights.

Yeah, the first one came out on Android phones.

It's, you know, this was, yeah.

I played the first one of these,

Cyber Knights, on Android, on,

God, what was it called?

The Android emulator back in the day?

BlueStacks?

Is that what it was called?

Oh, sure.

Yeah, there's BlueStacks, yeah.

Yeah,

like 15 years ago is when I first played this thing.

And so for me, I was like,

okay, they're making that, but like they're making it look like an XCON.

They're making it in 3D.

They're making it with a home base.

They're doing all the stuff that I think is super exciting about that genre.

And I guess I'll say right now, partly the reason they were able to do that is they partnered with a, they were co-developed with a studio called NIX Games, which is a support studio that has worked with Paradox.

It's worked with Supermassive and War Gaming and some other stuff.

I think they were founded in Ukraine and now have studios all over the place.

But classic, like a situation where a small studio works with a support studio and a publisher to try to make a bigger, more ambitious thing.

But I've only played very.

I've played like the first three hours of it.

I'm curious, Sylvie, how much of this have you played?

How is it going?

What's your Treasury brothers experience before this?

Is this your first journey into there?

I've seen a lot of them, yeah.

I had seen some of Star Trek's.

Okay.

and like i did a little i like i looked at that a little bit just to like

um

get a little more background for myself on them and this game feels like kind of an evolution of that but this is my first real um

like serious time playing one of their games i'm about i'm just under 40 hours in i would say um i it is definitely one of those games that i will just like lose a lot of time to um

and it feels like i should be deeper in but i'm like i'm still in like my first era like Like, there's this whole era system, and I'm like, still in my first, like, major event.

Wait, what's the era system?

Is it like the, does the world change?

Do the tech change?

What's the vibe?

The big one right now for me is that there is a new mega corp coming to

the new Boston zone, the NBZ.

Okay.

Listen, they will abbreviate it to that, and

your brain will be trained to go.

Oh, yeah, New Boston Zone.

Of course, New Boston zone.

That's like the big thing that's

defining a lot of the missions you get, basically, is

there's a mix of proc gen and scripted stuff.

And

a lot of this does seem to be affecting the scripted, like the pre-scripted, but like

the linear, like the main campaign.

Yeah, yeah.

I think that the main campaign stuff can happen in different orders.

I think that the starting one might always be this, like, there's a new German conglomerate coming to the NBZ,

and like, you, here's a mission so you can get like a contact with them so you can start doing work and stuff like that.

Because you were playing as a group of mercenaries and sort of shadow runner, soccer.

I was going to say, some sort of people who run in the shadows.

I see.

I can give like a high level.

Let me give a high level.

Let me see.

There are many weeds to get lost in, and they're all very enticing.

So it is a heist team management game, like I said, set in far future New Boston, 2231.

That's main...

It's main flow is basically XCOM in a lot of ways.

It is

on the ground doing squad-based tactics, and then you go back to a base where you manage other things, sort of bigger picture stuff.

Weirdly actually really makes me think of some of the

Forged in the Dark games we've played on Friends of the Table because you're managing your heat level based on how loud you go during a mission.

Interesting.

What happens if you get too much heat?

It gets way harder.

Headhunters will be sent after you.

Oh, I forgot to write down the name.

I might boot up my game right now just to check.

I have a headhunter on me because

on a mission...

It got crashed by Bravestar, the private police, basically.

Right, not Lone Star from Shadowrun, but Brave Star.

Very different.

Very Very different.

There's no horse.

There's no elves in it.

So it's very different.

There is a lot of like,

oh, because I'm familiar with the genre, it's like that's that with the serial numbers filed off, which in a way very cyber.

I'm happy with.

Yeah, it is.

Yeah, 100%.

I should say, like, everything you're describing so far is like a dream game for me.

So I'm very excited to finally have the time to play this game.

I think you'd love it.

I really think you would love it.

But like, so a mission uh went bad on like a it was a rescue mission um

actually i should start this from the top to tell you how i got into this rescue mission because i wrote it down please because it's interesting please um

you have a whole squad of um

of your your heist team and that can grow and you can recruit new people there's a bunch of different classes um

the the protagonist gets a unique one um it's the cyber knight the titular cyber knight that can do things that like the other classes can't and everyone can multi-class

But that's that's kind of beside the point.

Every member of your team, though, will have different connections and stuff like that.

With NPCs in the world, with NPCs, with corporations, with

histories, right?

They have like, oh, I used to work for this company, and then

I quit, or then I got fired.

There's like a, when you start the game, you are given,

and I think, because they're on like number 20 something or ninth or nearing 20 something with the no, yeah, number 25 for their

post-release updates, I think.

Which is weird.

This game, it's one point.

It's not an early access.

It's not early access.

It is technically out of early access, but sometimes it feels like some stuff is still early access.

This is like one of their big

like tenets.

They have this kind of they're they have

Here's how they describe it.

So there's two people andrew and corey trouser uh uh and they say we make games that are regularly updated with long lifespans no exploit uh no no exploitative monetization or dark patterns personal involvement in player communities like that's what they do that's their that's their kind of claim to fame

And so their previous games, you know, I just went to look what was the last time that Cyber Knights was updated, the Android game that I mentioned from 15 years ago or whatever.

March.

It was updated in March.

They keep their stuff running and they do content updates all the time, even to stuff that has been, you know, Star Traders was getting updated

last year or whatever on Steam.

So like Star Traders Frontiers, the one that

made their name kind of on PC.

So, you know, yeah, July 21st was their 371st update for Star Traders.

Frontiers.

They added new contact types, new contact simulation for actions towards friends, and fixed bugs around cloaked components.

So they're like still making, they really do the thing with these games.

So that makes sense, Sylvie.

It's really cool.

And then sometimes it also feels a little weird because

there will be tech tree stuff where it's like.

For hackers, there's like one about when drones attack you, but drones aren't in the game yet.

So like it doesn't really matter.

Like I'm like, okay, so I don't need to take that.

Right.

Because like they're still implementing companion classes, I think, is

the way they've put it.

Right, right.

But yeah, so like I've linked, I've added, just sent an image of this.

Is my Cyber Knights

character sheet, which you sort of answer these questions.

Oh, I love it.

I picked this, the sort of highlight.

Can you go over this?

Can you tell us about your Cyber Knight?

Yeah, so my Cyber Knight is code name Astral, which is what, once you get your code name, that's what everyone calls you.

So her first name is Maya, and

her last name's cut off in this screenshot, so I don't remember what it is.

Sorry, I'm not a very good boss.

I'm very impersonal with these people.

So are you, Maya?

Wait, who are you playing as?

Are you not playing as actual?

I think that I am playing as the two characters I tend to play the most as are

the Cyber Knight, who is your de facto protagonist, and then you also have a handler for the team who's a non-combat character, does all of these stuff, affects

contacts, which is like a very Crusader crusader king star traders thing is managing your web of contacts um and will also manage like your heat level basically everything that it that um

that leads into and comes out of missions sort of is affected by your face's stats um so there's things like what jobs you can get how much you're getting paid yeah how much heat you get stuff like that yeah and you like you can use different tokens to like get better rewards or like negotiate better um

it i think it some stats affect like how many favors you can get because that's a instead of getting paid, you can opt to take a favor from a person.

And

that is very forged in the dark.

That is very, what thing do you want from this mission?

Yeah.

And so like

so it kind of alternates between those two when you're picking dialogue options and stuff.

And sometimes you'll get a pick a dialogue option for another character that is part of your team and in a situation they're in.

But typically speaking, I would say like 70% of the time you're playing as your Cyber Knight, and then the other 20 in dialogue at the very least, you are playing as your face.

But the character creation, basically, you're given four options for like a couple of different things.

You're given a backstory.

I picked Betrayed Detective, an ex-Bravestar detective who refused to back down on a corr corruption scheme investigation.

I was Serpico, basically.

You know,

a raid went bad.

I got shot, but I left the force after that.

You know, stuff like that.

I really wanted to lean into noir with this character when I made it, because I was like, I have to be, like, they all sort of do.

There's like an X, like, you leave a, it's all, it's basically all like, which faction did you leave before

I see you started?

You could be a brave star.

You could be from one of the megacorps or like a PM3C or something.

There's a.

Right.

Okay.

There's like.

And does that then give you...

oh, I see, it says faction insider due to your connections in history, you're capable of executing legwork, which is all bright green inside bravestar territory without undue attention.

So it's like because you have those connections, you can still go there and hang out, basically.

Yeah, you, or um, when you do you have to go to the cop bar, yeah, exactly.

I got contacts still,

um, but then also the there's a district captain who hates me because uh, he's probably the one who got me shot.

Um, oh, you have like a protection.

Oh, I see enemy Enemy has an enemy.

Pat Bryn, district captain contact.

You believe that Pat Bryn was the one who had you ambushed to hide corruption within the force.

Games are good.

And all of your characters have stuff like this.

So, like, if you click on my war machine, Vigil,

she

used to be part of Werner Brown, the...

One.

I know what you're doing with that name.

Yeah, I know what you're doing with that name.

She used to be, used to be a bodyguard for them, but like I can't remember the specifics, something went bad and she like one refuses to work on missions that are coming from them now.

So that she won't be in your team if like you cannot select her.

And then also she's like hunted by them or like

that could come knocking basically down the road if your heat gets too high, I assume, or like it'll affect what or which or what headhunters or which headhunters get sent after you.

Gotcha, I think.

I've been managing my heat fairly well, so I haven't.

I just got a headhunter put on me.

But the other thing.

Because the mission went bad.

A mission went bad.

And the mission was,

if you look down a little further,

my cool hacker, Overlord.

Dade.

Dade.

Sorry, Overlord.

Sorry, Overlord.

Sorry, Dade.

I meant Overlord.

So I...

go with the just random names because I want to see what the names are like in the game because I find that fun, you know?

But when I got Dade as the name for my hacker, I was like, oh, it's gonna take every bone in my body to not name this guy zero.

Cool.

I managed to resist it.

But

there was an I got a conversation.

There's like a timeline always going in this, very similar to XCOM.

If you're familiar with that, you know the sort of like passage of time thing when you're doing scans, things like that.

This is where legwork comes into play.

It's basically you send someone off on a mission.

I think of it as Final Fantasy Fantasy Tactics Advanced style, where you can get the individual missions and send them off, and certain people have a better chance of doing it.

But I got a conversation with Overlord, and he was like, hey,

so I have a brother who was trying, he's trying to take care of my mom, and in doing so, signed up to go on a Chemco barge to pay for new lungs she needed.

Chemco, one of the mega corps, presumably?

I believe that it is a chemco.

They sound like they do good stuff.

I think it is specific.

I don't know if it's like chemotherapy, right?

They take care of people.

Right?

Yeah, yeah, totally.

I think what the chemco barges are, because there's like a like my understanding of it is sort of a radioactive, like, underbelly sewer system thing going on, and I think it's to do with that.

I actually, there's like a big in-game encyclopedia, and I remember looking to be like, what is chemco?

And I couldn't really find it.

So I'm kind of making my own inferences here.

I basically was like, in my head, it's like oil rig meets like

whatever they had Robert Pattinson doing in Mickey 17.

But it's bad, and you're like locked into a contract with these megacorps.

Very,

you know, very standard sort of cyberpunk stuff.

But his brother Kyle

got locked into this contract contract and tried to escape after getting paid for it because you get paid up front because because the they say the like survival rate is like 1% or something.

Like it's

really low.

And so he's locked up waiting to be executed and we had to go rescue him in this like two-part mission.

And it went well on the first part.

And then the second part,

something came up, and I don't know if this is because I didn't get the legwork to like prepare properly or what, but because

coming from a Bravestar contact.

And in the mid, right when we get down there, she's like, hey, in two terms, a Bravestar strike team is going to show up.

I didn't know about this.

And so at this point, the missions are like top-down X-Com style tactics stuff, but that lean towards stealth.

Is that right?

Basically, the way...

So when I first got it, I expected it to be a little invisible ink.

Because you are right.

It does lean towards stealth.

But

something that I saw pretty early on in Steam comments and stuff was people being like,

don't go into a mission expecting to do 100% stealth you will get caught at some point things will get loud at some point and I like that I think that's the fun of a heist game is

yeah seeing how far you can get now the factor yeah

yes the the Dia Lacina role of

the a stealth game is only as good as the moment that you you kind of have to deal with losing stealth you know things go bad yeah um and all of a sudden I find myself in a firefight with

two hackers who are not great at shooting because I've rescued Kyle by this point.

Who is now on my team and has the nickname Anemone, which I love.

That's fun.

But

we're like, there's five of us.

Usually you only go on a mission with four, so at least I had an extra gun.

But like, two of us are melee-focused.

Because I'm doing a melee build for my Cyber Knight, and I brought my War Machine, who's also got, like, she's got.

War Machine class is

less self-explanatory than Hacker, obviously.

It's you're very much the like

Molly from Neuromancer.

Oh, from Norman, yeah, Molly Millions, sure.

So, like, with all sorts of cyberware, right?

I see.

Yeah, you're the augmented class.

That's the word I was searching for.

Very, very, like, um, you get, like, lasers and claws and stuff.

It's neat, but it also is like, oh, I should have given you a better machine gun.

And, like,

Overwatch is a skill in this game.

It is not a given that your characters are going to be able to do Overwatch.

That's why I will multi-class some people into Soldier or Sniper, because Sniper has a single shot Overwatch, and Soldier just has basic Overwatch.

And so, like, it basically just becomes this mad dash to an exit.

And during this.

Because the Bravestar are coming in.

Because the Bravestar are coming in.

And during this, I get on the radio, I get a dialogue with this guy who's like, surrender now,

and we'll let your team out and all this stuff.

And identify yourself.

And I think I just said, my name is Chumbo, which is their version of the, you know, you got to have the Cyberpunk, bro.

God, what's the Cyberpunk 2077 one?

Choom.

Right.

Yeah.

Choom.

Choom or Chummer.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, so I do that, and like he gets really mad.

He's like, I'm going to find your quantum fingerprint.

And there's a really good moment where I'm like, to my face, is that real?

And she's like, no, that's total bullshit.

But this, like, lieutenant within Bravestar now has like a grudge against my team.

And has it most recent, the most recent development I've had is him hiring headhunters to come after me.

This headhunter named Matcha, and I'm really excited to see what their deal is.

Great name.

But yeah, that is kind of the flow of the game is you get these, there's, there's,

missions will either be pure combat stealth mixed with combat or hacking those are kind of the three main ways they're split um and like hacking optional is usually something you'll see on the mixed stealth combat ones um

is that a different like layer of game yeah

it's it's like very

classic tabletop Cyberpunk 2020 or Shadowrun thing of like, and then your hacker is playing an entirely different game than everybody else.

Yeah, no, like literally.

It is very, it's not, it doesn't play the same way, but it has the same sort of economy of action points that I would, like, the harebrain scheme Shadowrun games do.

Yes, totally.

Where like it's like you get, you have more actions while hacking, but it's like, there's like a conversion between like your

out of your in-person.

Your flesh body and your

matrix.

I see.

Yeah.

Yes.

How does this feel compared to those games?

Because I, there's one of those games that I really love, uh, one of them I like quite a bit.

Yeah, Dragonfall.

Dragonfall is fantastic.

Um, Hong Kong is pretty good.

I didn't finish Hong Kong, I feel bad about that to this day.

Uh, and then the first one returns, it's just kind of like, yeah, they're finding their legs a little bit.

It felt like a perfect concept, yeah, and then they knocked it out of the park.

Shadowrun Dragonfall is incredible, it's an all-timer, but like the thing that that game is not doing is procedural, systems-driven simulation stuff, you know?

So there are...

I don't think it's like

because this is procedural, it's obviously not identical to that.

I think that there are moments that emulate the sort of feeling of having a companion, talking to a companion in Dragonfall and them being like, hey, there's one specifically with

your mage in that game where he's like, my nephew has fallen in with the like

pro-human like supremacists and we need to get him out yeah um the the the mission i got to rescue the overlord's brother remind reminded me of that basically is like there is those moments where it feels like you're given a chance to go on a mission and build more loyalty with

your um party members but it I don't know how bespoke a lot of that is.

Well, and then like, the thing I think about it that's so fascinating is like the other, so something like the extremely

linear and scripted Shadowrun games from Harebrained are on one side of this kind of spectrum, then like XCOM and XCOM 2 are on the other side, which have some scripted content around, you know, they have a campaign, they have stories, they even have a handful of NPCs back at base and enemy NPCs, especially in Ore of the Chosen.

But none of your characters are people.

You know what I mean?

Like, you don't, you, you bring, it's only what you can bring to them.

None of them used to be part of the cops, and now they have beef with the cops.

You know, none of them have that's just not a game that tries to do any of the social simulation stuff at all.

So, this feels like it's trying to be, you know, instead of it being a spectrum from one to two, that there's a sort of like triangle shape, and here is this other thing that's sort of close to both of them, but also really doing something that neither of them does.

It feels it really does feel like they have added the um

Crusader Kings or Star Traders, like grand strategy,

like

interpersonal stuff into this, like the way that

you have to manage relationships in Crusader Kings, and like you have to

things like that, because you're managing contacts, those are the people who give you missions.

But also, yeah, there is a lot more character given to the people in your squad.

They will become friends with each other.

I was like, can they get beef with each other?

I haven't had anyone start beefing yet, but

I just hit double digits with the amount of characters I have.

So I'm expecting it at some point, if I'm being real.

That's a lot of characters, though.

It is, but when someone gets hurt, they're out of action for a while.

Interesting.

And you have to manage both their physical and mental health.

You have to detox them in the synth, like de-stressing thing.

There's like this is...

Yeah, that is XCOM to me, actually.

That is, you need the deep braster, you need the deep, or darkest dungeon.

Sorry, I have to send you to the monastery, to, you know, or to the brothel, one or the other.

Yeah, you need to relax, man.

You're about your

discontent is about to hit 100% and then lower your loyalty.

I counted outside of the standard time management and HP and health management stuff, there are like six distinct meters you've got to manage

at any given time.

Well, that reminds me of a different tactics game, actually, which was Troubleshooter.

Troubleshooter is

thank you.

Yes, this is really troubleshooter-y to me.

Troubleshooter, for people who don't know, is also one of these squad-based tactics games, but sort of more like

superhero-y, I guess, is how I'd describe the characters.

They all have like different powers and stuff.

Another game also that has a lot of different things.

It has a real shonen vibe to it, you know?

Yeah.

That game is also one that has had a ton of post-release

updates and continued support from the developer.

I think they are working on a sequel now, but

also extremely maximalist, I think.

Extremely what if there were 30 different meters for each character and everyone had different tags and different six different ways to do damage over time and you know all sorts of stuff like that.

Yeah,

they're companion pieces, I would say.

these two games there's a lot of there's a lot of troubleshooter in here um now that you mention that um cool

i need to play this this is uh you know in a real way i think if you had gone back to 2010 2011 i would have described wanting to play exactly this game and i say that because i did and it was on the android emulator playing their version of this game on android so uh i really need to find the time to play it i've been moving and uh maybe this will be my after post my post-move treat for myself, you know?

I'm excited to swap run stories with you.

I cannot wait.

Hear about it.

Do you have any other final thoughts on Cyber Knights?

No, I'm curious to see where it goes from here.

Like I said,

I'm 40 hours in, but I also still feel like I've only really dipped my toe in.

I'm curious.

Yeah, that's the other thing about their games is they're real.

You see someone who has played them for 400,000, 500, 1,000 hours, and they'll be like you know well this sucks and then they and at 800 hours they go i get it now it's the best game ever and i'm like i think he maybe got it at 400 and then at 1200 hour right yeah exactly yes um yeah so i'm excited to finally get to it they that they've got like four more classes planned out and they've already got 11.

that's the thing that's tough is like well should i start now or should i wait until all the classes are in well you can respec pretty easily for the most part but yeah and i guess that's the thing is like it's a sort of campaign that will just keep going, right?

It's sort of,

I guess the other games to compare to this that have come out in the last few years are things like,

what was it called?

Warband.

Is that the name of that game?

Nope, not Mountain Blade War, not Mountain Blade Warband.

I mean, also maybe Mountain Blade Warband with the

kind of mercenary unit management.

Do you know the one I'm talking about?

Is it the one that has like the cloak pin as its logo?

That sounds right.

No, that's that's um

is that uh banner brothers though?

I guess that's also one of the

battle brothers not that.

Well, well, well, if it isn't the banner brothers,

oh my god, what is the one I'm thinking of?

War Tales?

War Tales.

Thank you.

Wartales.

Yes, Wartales is absolutely the one.

I have tried to play Wartales like four times and each time I put

two hours in and go this is really cool.

I can't wait until I can really give it the time it needs and then I don't find it.

But yeah, that game also continually getting updated with new contracts, The Fief, coming soon.

Fife?

Fife.

Like a Fiefdom?

A Fiefdom.

Fiefdom, Fifdem.

That's what I'm saying.

Fife.

Fiefdom.

Fifdom?

Daniel.

You hardly know him.

Yeah.

All right.

On that note, I think we're going to end a little early today.

I mean, I guess we've been our hour minimum that I try to aim for with the show.

I have to get back to unpacking my apartment and get back to preparing to do another podcast today.

On this day, I should probably just be unpacking my apartment.

I just have to edit the Code Tour 2 Let's Play, which, I guess, by the way, I've been doing a Code Tour 2 Let's Play for a more civilized age.

I guess it's possible that you don't know about that.

So, let me shout that out.

You can find that on the AMCA YouTube.

And speaking of YouTube,

anyone know what Keith's been putting up on.

Actually, wait, first of all, feel better, Keith.

Keith is sick right now.

everyone send send love up to keith everyone just go and tell keith feel better and that you you love keith go tell keith your credit card number go tell keith your credit card number that'll make him feel better that's the one thing that i know makes sick keiths feel better is the the yeah credit card numbers of strangers

I think most recently though actually was a stream that you were part of Sylvie that went up on the YouTube yeah youtube.com slash friends at the table you want to talk about that yeah Jack and I have been playing through and are almost done the anthology of the killer games by the Academites, which are extremely fun, really funny, and like the type of like clever writing that makes me like jealous when I'm reading it.

It's really good.

I'm crazy about those games now.

And then, yeah, also

some thief streams went up recently, too, that Jack has been doing, which are a fun time.

Thiefdom?

Thiefdom?

Keith?

Kifery?

Kyfery.

Jay Carberry.

Thanks for editing.

Kyth

Carberry.

Anyway, yeah, go watch those.

YouTube.com/slash friends at the table.

We do streaming over at twitch.tv slash friends at the table.

I don't know that we have any upcoming streams scheduled, though we do have to get Jack back to the

Dreamcast streams.

I think there's a couple more games to go there, including mine.

So we need to do that very soon.

Has been streaming, though, over on their partner's channel cat bam kapow they've been doing like a summer of of streams doing various things like blueprints yep and oh my god what was that other thing Wilmot works it out

yeah yeah or Golden Idol 2 maybe and some other grab bag of stuff I think they're gonna cook soon I think that the they've been cooking the whole time

damn you fucking got it look at that

I support my friends definitely go check those out for people who don't know KB, very good cook.

KB is the only person who can get me to eat lentils.

Wow.

No one else in the world will ever do it.

I am pretty much with you, I think.

I would let someone else try, you know, but I wouldn't.

Wow.

Strong.

It's our thing, you know.

I just have to preserve it.

Okay.

Yeah, okay.

You know what?

Fair enough.

We got Media Club Plus.

Oh, yeah.

Oh,

it's dropped.

The new Media Club Plus season has begun.

Yeah.

Next week after this drops, we should be having our Unbreakable episode.

But yeah, we've begun our M-Night Shyamalan sort of...

I think

if we stay on schedule, like release schedule,

fingers crossed, it should be about six months of M-Night movies.

We're not watching everything.

We are watching most of them.

No, Avatar Last Airbender, right?

No, I think that was one where I really put my foot down where I was like, I do not want to watch Avatar the Last Airbender.

Well, because it's not his story, right?

Like, that's the whole point.

Also, I don't want to waste my time.

I think that's more of a we will be watching After Earth, and I want to be on that one.

You will get you there.

Don't you worry.

Okay,

good.

Right now, you've done Six Sense.

You're doing The Unbreakable.

You're doing most of those early big ones like Signs, Village, Lady in the Water happening.

Signs is the next one we're going to be recording.

Yes.

Stay tuned for I have takes.

Good.

I'm glad.

I am the signs hater.

Sounds good.

I'm shaking your hand.

Thank you.

Good.

I can't wait.

However, I am the Sixth Sense enjoyer, and your episode on the Sixth Sense was incredible.

Yeah.

Really great conversation.

For people who are friends of the table fans, but who are not,

you know, anime fans who skipped Hunter Hunter.

Actually, for anybody who listens to this who isn't a big anime person, but skipped Hunter Hunter's season on Media Club Plus, go listen to this excellent season on M.

Night Shyamalan.

Also, if you are a friend of the table person and you're like, what would it be like if Art and Keith argued about film?

It's time, baby.

It's happening.

They're not arguing, but you know, they have different experiences and different feelings.

And it's fun to hear them chat about film.

I've already gotten to hear, you know,

Art had not been on any of the Media Club Plus yet.

I know, Janine, you also have not been on Media Club Plus yet, and I think you're going to guest on at least one of these coming up.

So that's exciting for me.

If the check clears.

Oh, I see.

Yeah, we're in negotiations still.

Oh, she's really hard to voice.

I hope it works out.

I hope that your agents get to, you know, chop it up and come to an equitable decision.

Our lawyers are talking.

Your lawyers are talking.

Your people are, yeah, okay.

My people are talking to your people.

Yeah, I'll do it for exposure.

I need to read people telling me I'm smart about,

let's see here.

Right, exposure to praise, right?

To praise, that's right.

Yeah, that's what it is.

I need to be exposed to praise, and that'll get me there.

All right, I think that that's going to do it for us.

Anything else, Janine?

Any other updates from the World of Infinity Nikki?

Any other hammers you need to talk about?

Are leaks still poisoned?

Leaks are poison to all creation.

Damn.

Damn.

Go look at our leaks.

Subtext.

With that said, to be continued.