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Podcast episodes
This week Seoirse speaks with Martin from Nodrim about his Westmark series. First they chat about Nodrim’s first game Westmark Manor followed by his upcoming game The Foretold: Westmark Legacy. He explains about the card mechanics and why he chose this game to be inspired by Lovecraft. He then talks about what we can expect from the Kickstarter and much more!
In this very special interview Seoirse is joined by none other than the legendary Roberta Williams! Roberta was kind enough to spend 90 minutes with Seoirse as she spoke about exactly how the project started, how she got involved, why they chose VR, what challenges they faced with VR and what the future may hold for both Roberta and Ken Williams. She also spoke about some of the reception the game got and what her definition of an adventure game is. So please enjoy this very special interview with one of the industry greats!
In the first review episode of the year Seoirse is not joined by Tomas or Laura but in their place steps friend of the pod and adventure game enthusiast Kieran who reviewed no less than 5 games! Kieran first reviews two of the most talked about adventure games of the year, Lucy Dreaming and The Excavation of Hobbs Barrow. He then reviews Grandma Badass who gets involved in increasingly absurd situations just to feed her cat. Speaking of cats, Seoirse reviews THE cat game of the year, Stray. Kieran then finishes off by reviewing 2017 time looping murder mystery game The Sexy Brutale and reveals whether Perfect Tides was indeed perfect. All that and much more!
We may be one whole month into 2023 but it’s never too late to look back at the year that was as Seoirse, Tomas and Laura discuss whether in 2022 adventure games were doing their whole dead thing again (Spoiler: They weren’t) or whether this past year was full of a variety of great quality adventure games (Spoiler: It was). Whether it’s the return of old school adventure game developers, animal detective games, normal detective games, horror, first person, third person, puzzle based or story based adventure games there’s something for everyone in this episode. So please join us as we reveal our favourite adventure games of last year and reveal what adventure games we are looking forward to in the first month or two of 2023 alone!
Happy New Year! This is the time of year we make resolutions and look ahead to what this coming year offers. But before we look this month we will look back at one of the most innovative games that was released last year. It is of course Sonority, a puzzle game where your character explores a world of music. Now music puzzles might have been quite difficult in the past (Looking at you Myt) but Hanging Interactive spoek to Seoirse about the pains they went to make this game accessible to everyone including people hard of hearing. They also talk about the world they created and the type of music and puzzles you can expect in this game. All that and much more!
It’s the time for giving and Seoirse met with four people in very giving moods as Tom Hardwidge, Pontus Wittenmark and Daniel and William of Silvernode Studios all joined Seoirse to giveaway copies of their games at this live interview. The giveaways may have ended but there may be two more giveaways at the end of this podcast for two more lucky winners so we’ll see who the most dedicated listeners are! Elsewhere they all speak about launch day nerves, game length versus value and much more in this final interview of the year! Merry Christmas and here’s to more adventuring in the new year!
t’s not often that a developer tries to encourage people to NOT buy their game but that’s exactly what happens in this episode. Well kinda. This month seoirse is joined by Kinglbalde Games as he talks about Do NOT Buy this game. Is this a game? If so should you really buy this game? Well I guess we’ll have to find out what the developer thinks… (Spoiler: Yes you should)
Another month another roundup of the latest adventure games released! This month Seoirse gets into the Christmas spirit as he reviews “Watch Over Christmas”. Meanwhile Laura reviews the sequel to the original Animal detective game as she talks about “Frog detective 3. Finally, Thomas takes us to a fantasy world where a global pandemic could never ever happen in “The Plague Doctor of Wippra and the three hosts reveal whether it was a good idea to go on “The Excavation of Hobs Barrow”. Plus they discuss Monkey Island winning the Golden Joystick award 2022, the sad passing of Leisure Suit Larry voice actor Jan Robson and the continuing saga in Disco Elysium devs versus studio. All that and much more!
It’s Halloween season so you all know what that means.. well candy but also it’s a time for horror so what better time that to speak to Superlumen, developers of Lovecraft inspired game Desolatium. They spoke all about their game, including what makes Lovecraft so great to adapt for games and how they are implementing VR to give a more wholesome horror experience. All that and much more!
Game Reviews
Armaan Sandhu from Frostwood Interactive burst onto the video games scene with Rainswept in 2019. This game was a Twin Peaks inspired detective mystery which has stayed with me ever since it was released. So it’s no surprise that his next game, Forgotten Fields, is one of the most eagerly anticipated adventure games of 2021. Does it live up to the early promise shown in Rainswept? Let’s find out!
Over the last few years more and more games have been dealing with mental health as a primary focus. We had Rainswept, Life is Strange, Sea of Solitute and many others. There is even a mental resources pack for gamers called Checkpoint. The latest game to tackle mental health is Into a Dream, the first game from Filipe F. Thomaz, who quit his day job in order to concentrate fully on making this game. It was a brave choice so let’s see if it was worth it.
Revolution Software may be best known for their Broken Sword series but before Broken Sword, Revolution released Beneath A Steel Sky (now available for free on GOG). This game would prove to be immensely popular and since then fans have been clamouring for a sequel. Now, 26 years later, a sequel has finally been released. So is this a welcome return to Union City? Or would we have been better off staying in the Gap? Let’s find out!
There aren’t many games set in Ireland. So it was a joy when I discovered Marcella Moon: Secret on the Hill. Add to the fact that that this game is a Nancy Drew inspired mystery where you also learn about Irish culture and mythology and I was hooked. So is this a secret worth investigating or is it better left unresolved? Let’s find out!
As anyone who listens to the podcast knows, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars was my first adventure game and remains my favourite game of all time. Everything from the story, the characters, the writing, the puzzles and the graphics have left a lasting impression unlike any other game I have ever played. Clearly I’m not the only one who still has an affection for that game as last year Madit Entertainment announced their first game, The Hand of Glory, was to be inspired by Broken Sword. On June 9th 2020 the first part of the game was finally released. Is this game a glorious release? Let’s find out!
As the famous saying goes, you wait ages for a really good cyberpunk adventure game to come along and then two come along at once (or something along those lines). A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to review the fantastic Cloudpunk and now I have the opportunity to review the other highly anticipated cyberpunk game, Virtuaverse. If you are on the lookout for a retro game that feels like the adventure games of the good old days then read on!
It’s not often that a game begins with a disclaimer that warns of the dark themes the game you’re about to play is addressing. The Summit of the Wolf, developed by Storycentric Worlds and published by Unimatrix Productions, is one of those games. The content warning was for strong references to child sexual and emotional abuse, and depictions of suicide. This makes it clear that The Summit of the Wolf is not gonna be a light experience, and sets the tone for the entire game.
We have been blessed with a number of cyberpunk adventure games in the past. We had the excellent Blade Runner set in the same universe as the film (which was also re-released on GOG thanks to SCUMMVM late last year). A few years ago we also had Technobabylon from Wadjet Eye. And more recently we also had NeoFeud which was included in the top 25 cyberpunk games of all time. But while all three games were very well received one thing that would have added to those games is fly around those worlds in hover cars. Ionlands look to change that with their new game Cloudpunk which aims to literally and metaphorically take the genre to a whole new level.
That Full Motion Video (FMV) games can be hit and miss is something I explained in my review of She Sees Red in February of this year. This particular adventure game sub-genre has a ton of potential. That game, to me, was proof that developers were taking it seriously again, and not using it as an excuse to show some female flesh (I’m looking at you, Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties), or use a famous actor to trick people into buying your product (that’s you, Tender Loving Care). With The Complex, Wales Interactive gives us a brand new entry into the FMV genre; one that is eerily current too, for the COVID-19 society that we’re in right now.
Full review here.
Demon hunting is usually a profession left for the first-person shooters or hack-and-slashers. Who didn’t like a nice game of Doom, or went mental on those pesky demons in Diablo or Silent Hill? But the point and click adventure game genre is surprisingly light on this subject. Granted, Monkey Island’s LeChuck is all kinds of evil, and recently Unavowed and Mage’s Initiation dabbled with demons, but it’s not as common as you would think. Developer Ars Goetia decided to change that, and they came out with The Blind Prophet (published by Ars Goetia, Plug In Digital and Maple Whispering Limited), in which you play a very specific hunter of demons
Full review here.
In this first written interview Victor from Croquetasesina Studios tells Seoirse about his upcoming game set in the French revolution, “The Adventures of The Black Hawk”.
This month Rose makes kinda sorta debut as she and Seoirse review Pentiment, the only game Microsoft released in 2022! But first Tomas joins the team to see if Keoken Studios can deliver us The Moon. And finally, also making her debut, Amy aka SummerB, the betatester extraordinaire who ha helped many adventure game developers with their adventure games goes down a Colossal Cave. Was this game worth the 30 year wait for the return of Ken and Roberta Williams. Find out in this episode!