Unconsoleable

138: It's Not You, It's Us

After 137 wonderful episodes, we bid you, our faithful listeners, the very fondest of farewells. We've arrived at the metaphorical fork in the road, and we don't even care what a dreadful cliché that is. We hope you've had as much fun, learned as much, and generally had as good a time as we have with Unconsoleable. Remember, aloha means goodbye, but it also means hello love: so to you, our listeners, aloha!

137: Doggins 2: First Blood

They make charming games, have an adorable dog, work side by side while staying happily married, and did we mention the cute dog? Who are these fabulous guests? Why, it's Brooke and David Condolora of indie game studio Brain & Brain, of course. We chatted with the dynamic duo about how they got started in games, struck out on their own, and possibly invented the quiet adventure genre in the process. We also dug into a recent op-ed about narrative in games that has been making the rounds lately, and Brooke and David weighed in.

136: Game Training

Practice makes perfect, and massive congratulations are in order for Jessica. Why? You'll find out right at the top of the episode. As is often the case, the App Store is experiencing a bit of a drought right now, but good stuff is coming. In the meantime, we experience the crap and the mediocre stuff and tell you all about it :-) Meanwhile, Facebook continues to believe it'll be a force in games, but we're not so sure, and neither are the devs we spoke to. And in something of a reversal, we have developers being crappy instead of gamers. It might all be ok, though, with a little in-game retail therapy headed our way soon, but could we try not being crappy too? Nintendo, that also means you :-/

135: Hint Whales

His games drive us nuts, but we can't help loving them anyway. So after much trash talk, we welcome puzzle master extraordinaire (and Unconsoleable listener!) Alan Hazelden to the show. Alan tells us a bit about what he did before making devilishly challenging puzzle games, how he goes about designing and testing his games, which developers he looks up to, and even his favorite pizza toppings :-)

134: Whatever Threats are Necessary

Jessica is a big puddle of feels after playing the long-awaited conclusion to our 2016 Game of the Year and is charmed by an as-yet-unreleased charming game from the charming folks at Mighty Games. We conclude that quick-play games might not be as special as the games that truly win our hearts, but are still pretty awesome. Anna is left wanting more after playing a horror-themed puzzle game that has just arrived on iOS from Steam, but the real rage is directed at a mobile-first game that has an awful control scheme, rendering it virtually unplayable. Luckily, a silly but fun game with impeccable controls comes to the rescue! We roll our eyes pretty hard at the best mobile game BAFTA winner, as we do for most winners in the mobile category of various games awards. We wish awards would go more often to games that are truly the best rather than those that are the best known. Meanwhile, should games display the battery indicator? What’s a fun new way to get hints in a new adventure game? How long can we neglect our laundry? And what non-curse words will we lob at our guest next week? Listen now to find out!