Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - How To Get In The Games Industry In 2018 - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 176

Episode Date: July 2, 2018

Download Marvel Puzzle Quest for FREE here: https://d3go.com/kindafunnygames and new players will get 3 free Partners in Crime tokens to possibly add Ant-Man, Wasp and more to your roster! We give our best advice on how to get into the games industry. (Released first to http://www.Patreon.com/KindaFunnyGames Supporters on 06.22.17) Times Stamps 00:00:16 - Start 00:04:06 - Just Shapes And Beats 00:09:38 - Octopath Traveler 00:23:05 - Game Maker 00:30:48 - Bloodstained Backer Demo 00:36:42 - Industry Advice 01:01:09 - Mobile Game Or Bullshit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys? Welcome to the first ever episode 176 of the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Geddes. He's joined by one of the coolest dudes in video games. Greg Miller. Where my dogs at? Oh, thank you, cool, Greg. Yeah, that was good. And the Reverend Jared Petty.

Dokey, dokey, good. I had to be here, my friend. How are you doing? Well, right now, I really have to go to the bathroom on and off. My stomach is in turmoil. Is right now an off? It's an off right now. It's really on a minute before and it was really on a minute after.

I know it every now and then that quididte de jettetitit life. Nick. This is a Nick problem. No, I know. It's a keto thing. Nick's in the bathroom all the time and now you're one of them. It's just suddenly just like,

wow, I didn't know that I could give birth to a pasta baby. But I did. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of people in this building right now, including Matt Scarpino.

Yeah. And man, I guess that's it really. That's all you need to know. It's all you need to know about what's happening here. I don't like to talk about my poop. We're not going to talk about it.

It's just very, very upset. Tommy. How are you? I'm fantastic. What is, so now, Of course, Kind of Funny prom as of this recording, two days away.

Two days away. If you're watching this on Kind of Funny Gamescast happens each and every week right here on YouTube. com slash Kind of Funny Games. And if you're watching this there on Friday, no, that's not right. Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games. You get it early on Friday. Then on Monday it goes live on YouTube. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So Patreon people, it's the day before prom. YouTube people, it's two days after prom. Jeff has Kevin about time. Something to do with that. All right. I've known how things go. every week we get together, talk about video games, all the things that we love about them. You can get the show, like I said, early on patreon.com slash kind of funny games.

You can watch it live with us for just $1, or you can pay a little bit extra extra to watch it whenever the hell you want to. Or for free, if you wait until Monday, like a sap. I see a lot of saps out there. I'm not liking it. I'm not liking it one bit. Don't insult the good people. They're doing what they can.

Yeah, but some of them are extra sappy, and I'm not down with them. But it's pretty excited because they're coming here Monday. They're hearing us talk right now about how the Rock showed up on Saturday for prom. You need to stop. I remember it. I remember it. I remember it as clear as day. Here's where I was going with kind of funny prom being imminent.

You've been working. Obviously, you just came into work for the first time in a couple of days. You've been working on all these graphics at home, doing all these different packages, all these stuff. You're wearing the hat right now. The hat usually indicates haircut. It's haircut day. It is haircut day. I didn't know if it was just tired, sleepy.

I mean, it's all that stuff too, but it's prom. Hair cut day. You kind of have a My Little Pony thing going on right now. Like, here for the side of the special. honestly yeah but it's just like this is a disaster you know what I mean it's not a disaster I mean it doesn't look good right now but I mean it's not terrible put the hat back on I wasn't trying to kill you try your hat on it's hot yeah try your hat on it's I don't like that so oh it is more now that there's context that has oh it's very tiny it does not at all fit my

head I mean it's adjustable I don't think it's gonna matter right my head is very enormous so anyway yeah you see him wear a bag over his head today I did he's a goon yeah a big goon I mean again it's just it's gradually growing exercise and narcissism. That's what this is all about. That's our life. That's being internet personality. Yeah, in the end, I devour you all, and then I give birth to spider eggs that are all

shaped like me and take over the internet. Jesus fucking Christ. Thank you. The Aegean producers, Tom Bach and Eric Heights for allowing these shenanigans to happen and spider babies to come out of Jared. I don't know where the fuck we went with that. We had pasta babies. We had spider babies, all kinds of stuff.

Spider baby. So it's been a while since we've really just talked about games we were playing because of all the E3 stuff going on. We did last week. But I know, but then there's a lot more going on now. I'm excited. I've been playing not too much because I was going to say. You've been working on stuff.

I'm so mad because we're getting codes left and right. Oh, yeah, we got that one game we can't talk about. For games that I'm really excited about it. Can't talk about it. It's okay. I don't know what it is. I can't talk about it. I got crash codes for Switch.

And I'm just like, I just want to play it. But I can't. But just shapes and beats is a game that I can't remember if I talked about on games cast. I really don't think you did. You asked people to tell you, right? Yeah. They were telling you? No one told me either way.

You didn't do it. You didn't do it. Well, I'm saying you didn't do it then. Full disclosure, my wife works on the PR side of the game. Just Shapes and Beats is a rhythm game that is kind of a schmup without the shooting. So it's just the Mupp part. There's like crazy shenanigans going around. You just need to avoid the things coming at you.

It's pretty much just shapes and beats. There's a lot of colors involved. So if things are pink, you got to avoid them. Then they're usually you'll see kind of like a, a, uh, a, warning that it's coming because it starts to there's like a gradient of pink coming in and then strong pink attacks come you're this little like blue shape yeah that uh that

you just got to like kind of go around it's a two D plane and um then you just kind of use the analog stick to it sounds like it sounds like Icaruga and the and the undertale battle system I didn't buy it in so but it is it's very much like Ike Ruga and it's all based on music it is hard as

fuck yeah but there is a casual mode and it's similar to Celeste, like they don't make fun of you for turning it on. I've actually had to turn it on for a bunch of different songs and then go back later and try to do it the other way. And there's some that I still can't beat. Wow. I'm only 75% through the story mode. I love the game so much.

The music is super awesome done by a lot of really great people like Dynamo Cannon. We know him. Yeah. Friend of the show. Friend of the show. Great dude. Makes dope music. He rocked the spare bedroom back in the day.

He did. He did back of that. I remember that. But what's really cool about the game is. and something that's unique that I haven't seen done before is there's a world map in the story mode Okay and it it's Mario World ask where you just kind of go through but every once in a while the Rhythm game like the gameplay just starts happening on the world map so you'll be going the music will just start playing and all of a sudden the world map turns into a stage that's awesome yeah so it's like you never quite know exactly what you're about to see and it it switches

it up enough where the story's presented in a really interesting way where like for example you start the game off and you're going on this island and there's the world map and just kind of go dot to dot to dot and the credits are above you and you just see people's names

you make it all the way across then like the island like gets attacked by these bad shapes and bad beats and they started attacking you and the names start freaking out and like becoming thing and you have to dodge the letters as they're flying towards you oh this sounds amazing and I'm like oh that's fucking cool and then you get into it and like it's a really abstract story but it

doesn't matter what are you playing this on switch switch okay yeah yeah and like I said it's hard as fucking nails and I love that okay the checkpoint system is is really forgiving I and I think that they they made some smart calls there because none of the songs are too long but it does kind of teeter on that point of like do I really want to have to play the song for the 10th time ago but with how the checkpoints work it's it's never too bad And there's a multiplayer mode. We did a party mode for this.

Not up yet. Not up yet. Oh, okay. But man, I'm all about this game and I got super stuck in it. Last time I talked about it, which I think was on Games Daily or something. Yeah, I think so. I got so stuck and frustrated. And then it's classic video games where I went back to it like a week later.

Crushed it first time. Two questions. Okay, one, when you got stuck, is it pattern-based? Like when you play a level, is it the same every time? Every single time. So it's like an art type of shooter. Yeah. Entirely puzzle-based and you know exactly where things are going and like there's a lot of times

Like this doesn't feel fair at all like they didn't Telegraph it enough, but then it's like once you start to understand the tricks that the game uses and like that the patterns that they have of how they set up the Barrage of insanity you're like all right cool this makes a lot of sense and I I love it so much and it's like one of those a cheap little e-shop game So I definitely recommend giving it a shot if you're into rhythm games at all or if you're into Cuphead style challenge Second question. What is that multiplayer like? I'd love to hear just a brief discretion. The multiplayer is it's there's multiple modes you can do you can do party mode where you can't die and it's just fun music playing and then it's just like a cool thing you're going around and it's actually called party mode. No.

Do they owe us money then? I feel like they should pay something. Yeah. And then there's a multiplayer mode that's like a co-op thing where it's just the single player stages but there's four people and you're just trying to survive together and all of your lives are pooled in one set. So it's like you got to watch out for each other. If one character dies, it's kind of new Super Mario Bros.

ask where you can go save them. Oh, I love that. They'll be dead and flying there, and you just go over to them. And if you stay on them long enough, they'll revive. They come back to life. Okay.

They revive. The controls are super simple for the whole game. It's just analog moving around. And then any of the face buttons does this like dash in any direction that you're holding, that you're invulnerable for like half a second to be able to get through things. and it is so satisfying

once you get like the rhythm down for a song you're just dashing around, dash around, you're like, fuck you, stage and then there's boss bites and they just destroy you and you're like, ah, okay. I deserve that for my switch is sitting 20 feet away I'm running over, I'm downloading this right off the show I absolutely sold. It's so up your alley, it's really good.

Also, I'm totally keeping this hat because it actually fits. Told you it would fit. So yeah, you were correct. I'm right about that. You look great, though. So speaking of rhythm games though, Greg. Yeah.

On the switch. Enough of this baby. rhythm game you've been playing just shapes and beats. Let's talk about the king of the castle, the cream of the cop, the crop. Coming back from the dead, Luminus remaster, out right now on Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox 1, probably

PC, who the hell knows. Luminous is here. It is back. It's all I've ever wanted. You know, I love Luminous, everybody. Jared, you've seen it. It is on PC. You didn't check. You don't know. I did check. Is TurboTax in the way? You know, you got to get your turbotax. No, it's a...

TurboTex is also on PC. Okay, just making a sure. Anyway, you were saying, Jared. You saw my, you got to see my euphoria a few weeks ago. I got to witness the happiest Greg Miller I've ever seen. No hyperbole. I've never seen you happier. Yeah.

It was extraordinary. You really were just on cloud nine. It was also amazing to watch you pick up Luminous for the first time and God knows how long and play for 45 solid minutes. Sure. And a single game. In that endless mode. Yeah.

And I was like, well, okay. Greg Miller is very good at Luminous. Even when he's rusty. I was very impressed. He's like, you want to play with me? it and I was like, no. No, I'm good. No, I don't.

Because my average luminous game, not 45 minutes. Yeah, and that was, you know, out of the blocks. Obviously, this Fortnite business caught me off guard. So I have not. I wanted to have luminous platinum by now. I do not, because I have not. I just haven't had the time to sit down to play

because I'm playing so much Fortnite and we are on the road for you three. Excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse. Plus now it's on Switch, though. So my plan is when I'm on the road next week, be playing that luminous, get it all where I want it, and then come back super sharp, knock out the platinum. That's an excellent. there I want to know what's luminous like with that switch pseudo button Dpad thing I'm not a

hater of the switch non-depad like a lot of people are but again I'm not your I'm an old school gamer mega man all that jazz I have no love for it it's fine it does it does it does it's fine you learn to play in the master system which was kind of even worse yeah that was a really terrible control so I love the master system but that controller yeah when's the last time you played luminous because for me it would have been luminous electronic symphony on Vita was the last time you're a crazy person launch game on people PSP? I got 100% trophies in Luminous Electronic Symphony on Vita, which was a great reinvention of it because you remember they used the back touch for superpower moves, which got you crazy high scores.

Just last night, Greg Miller, I had the opportunity to introduce my wife for the very first time in her life to the delights of Luminous. It was wonderful to watch. Did it connect for her? Oh, yeah, she loved it. I mean, she likes puzzle games, drop games anyway. But she never played Luminous. She never really fooled around with my PSP. That was not something she used much.

Handhold gaming is she understand that it had a UMD slot though you could put any disc you on it It anyone you want to put in yeah watch those movies I had a I had ghost busters on you don't don't forget about it I want it dedicated like desktop UMD player no of course not I want that so bad there is this there is yeah really totally yeah yeah that's right It might have been Japan only but that definitely it definitely makes sense I need to get one of those but yeah she she's kept screaming Tetris every time she's trying to do a Tetris like room move she'd be like Tetris yeah but she quickly there's definitely a different vibe to Luminous. Let me go. Zen Tetris. Wait, are you, is that a pit boy?

Exactly. Let me go to the internet. Where Botstaff wrote in to kind of funny.com slash KFGD with a question that didn't make it to Kind of Funny Games Daily, but pertains to this and says, Angry Greg voice, please. Gregory fucking Miller,

how the fuck do I play Luminous? Okay, Ann, thank you. I picked up the game because you kept raving about it. I love puzzle games. It was intrigued by the 10. Tetris Effect trailer. So I bought Luminous remastered on Switch. However, the tutorial was literally four slides of how to stack and turn blocks. I need more. How do you work up a combo? The basic challenge is 100 levels. I can barely get past level two. I know I can just look up a YouTube

video on this, but I would love you to teach me, O Grand Master Greg. I'm enjoying the music lot so far and I know I can get into this game. Thanks. Much love from your neighbor up north in Vancouver, BC. Botst off. Teach us from your wisdom, Greg. Oh, I want some help because obviously Luminous now is just like breathing to me. It's that, it's just that natural. You know what I mean? Okay, well, I'm not a great Luminous player, but obviously. Just correct me as I go off.

If I go off or I forget something important. Okay. If you've never seen or played Luminous person driving this car and now, we'll call you Anthony. And if you're a woman, we'll call you Rebecca. If Anthony and Rebecca are in the same car right now, both you take your hands off the wheel. I'm going to control it with my mind. Don't do that. I'm just kidding.

I can't. You're dead now. Dead. I just killed you, Anthony, Rebecca. Well, I assume they're on the highway. Maybe on the Autobahn. You're going to get, you're going to get an email. I'm a crying child who's like, my parents are both dead.

And I'll be like, how the fuck did you find the podcast? You know what I mean? Were you in the back seat? He was listening. He was listening to the back seat. He was listening to the back. His parents were killed in the car and this child is right. If your name child is Bobby, I urge you to come to San Francisco with a blade and we will

fight in a knife fight to decide if my blood can bring your parents back from the dead. Did you just offer to... After you stab me with your blade, if you drink three-fourths of my blood. You're going to fight an eight-year-old. Three-olds. What do we do with the last point? That's how you win luminous, folks.

Lillian's right there. You drink Greg Miller's blood. It is a puzzle game that is simple to understand, difficult to master, in which at all points, a lot of people want to think of Tetris, right? Yeah. It's not Tetris.

But at all points, basically a square falls down made up of four separate blocks. So think of a T through a square, four separate blocks. In any game of luminous, there are always two colors. Your goal in the blocks, and then the squares that are coming down, the four blocks making it up can be all one color. They can be three of one color and the other color.

There's color combinations of those two colors. Your goal is to take the squares and drop them into a way that you are then making solid colors out of the four blocks of neighboring blocks to make another square of the same color. Now, I know this is, that sounds basic, sure. Think of it this way, though. If we dropped a square, which is then made up of two columns of the four different blocks, right? If I then brought another square down partially on top of it, like so to, so like imagine one column is going to land on the other column.

What's going to happen is the column hitting the other column is going to stop and stay. So you'll have now a four going up. But the one that was coming up here will now slide down. The second column of the on top block will slide down to the bottom ones. thus giving you what would be one, two, three. You'd have three columns on the bottom. I know this is hard not visually. You understand luminous.

I do. Yeah, yeah. It's hard to explain. It's very hard to explain. But basically think of these columns aren't, they aren't, you're not always dropping full squares like Tetris, where you think you're dropping a square and it's going to sit there and you're going to have space underneath. You're always going to have these blocks sliding down.

Yeah, everything is fluid. It's about putting colors next to other colors and it's about watching that line across the screen and timing it. For Botst off, what he's talking about is how do I get my combos up? Because combos are what you need to be raking in to make your score go crazy. There's a line that's constantly coming across the screen and clearing out the squares you've made. What you need to do is drop them in quick enough succession that you're getting multiple squares. So it's going, all right, there's one, two, three, four, five.

And that's giving you the combo then to go. Now, this is a game that's known for and based on its music. When you're dropping these and making squares, you're getting beats, that are being inserted into the song. So some songs are quicker than others, meaning the line comes through quicker, blocks drop faster. Some songs are slower,

the line comes in super slow and the blocks drop super slowly. So you have to be on the fly as the level changes, these 100 skins, as they change and go through, that you're doing it the correct way to not build up

and lose as you would with Tetris of hitting the top of the screen. That is a crash course and luminous. It is an amazing game. It is a fantastic game. Justin Davis of IGN the other day arguing it is the greatest public That's what game of all the time.

Honestly, I've fallen into that camp before, and this is one of the things Justin and I would often talk about and agree on, I do believe. And the fact that I think Tetris is amazing. And I love Tetris. Luminous for some reason clicks with me more. Wow. Yeah.

And I'm not... You're a big Tetris guy. I am a big Tetris fan. That's why I lost my fucking shit in that lead up to E3 when they're like, Miziguchi, the guy who made luminous is now making Tetris effect. Yeah. And it was like, pf. You played Tetris effect, right?

Yeah. What do you think about it? I can't wait. Yeah. I, I, what we got to do is I'm putting, I don't know if you've heard about this too. I'm taking the Pear Schneider, InterSight Championship, and I'm putting it on the line and an invitational at packs. Yeah.

I've already invited anybody who wants to do any of your giant bombs, your katakus, whoever, send me one champion from your squad. I'll put it in this tournament. Whoever can walk away with this thing and keep the rotating trophy going. Yeah. If we walk away with it again, which I guarantee there's no fucking chance we will. But if God somehow lets me win this thing back for us and we bring it back here, the person we have to have a huge grudge match with

is one, Justin Massigil from the PlayStation blog. Justin, when they announced Tetris effect, I flipped the fuck out on. He flipped out on, right? And then somebody linked this up of like, oh, you guys should play each other. And I was like, I'll take this kid down.

And Justin's like, bring it. And I was like, whatever. And then I went over there and he had just finished up. And literally all the Tetris effect to people were like, he's amazing. And I'll like, God damn it. And they were like, no, he's like,

the highest score. Anybody's seen? He went right to expert. and he cleaned it out and I was like, oh, and I talked to him and he was like, yeah, and I was like, it sounds to me like you're to Tetris as I am to Luminous. And he's like, yeah, I'm not that great of luminous, but I love it. Oh, I'm not, I'm not Tetris good as I. He doesn't touch the controller.

He moves the blocks with his mom. But it was, I sat down and I did Tetris effect then. And they were impressed with me as well because I got to the rank that Justin got, but I didn't start an expert. And like, it was that thing of like, I bet he's way better. We need, I want to do best two out of three or not. I want to do three different puzzle games and see how it goes. So we play Luminous, we played Tetris,

and then we have a random one of that. The magical drop three. Puyo Puyo. Or whatever. Yeah, that's a really good point. But I think I might have Jared go find an obscure game. And neither of us have played that we can play. I'll do that.

I'll do that. I'll be that. I've got it already. Tetrous effect, though, was like, it's what I love about Luminous. And just like, for me, and like, it was interesting, you know, the day we got it and we played it here.

It was just fun to sit there and zone out. Not to mention, like, to really bring back memories of, I think when, before streaming existed, I don't know if this is just me, but you'd be playing a game and you'd be like, you'd kind of like interview yourself like as if you were on an ESPN thing. No, that's not a thing. No, that's just pure narcissism. Not narcissism, but like, you're doing a good thing. Like, I always would think about it like after like, like, watching Happy Gilmore and then you're playing something and like the golf voices of like, oh, Greg's mad that he's put that piece there kind of thing.

You're just insane. I'm not live. I'm not live commentating on it. I just assume this is a natural thing everybody did. I wasn't live comments like saying these things but it was playing in my head. No one drinks blood. No one's fighting eight year olds

with a razor and no one does this. But sitting there and talking to Jared while I played it was that and I was like oh yes it's kind of what and I remember playing it when this motherfucker was on PSP dude when I bought my PSP

and I bought Hot Chots Open Tea golf open tea and then I bought Luminous is metal two head on. Didn't do it? You didn't do it? No, no no no I came back with those two games

I this is my reward for graduating college starting my fucking job that didn't pay me anything I wasn't buying million of UMDs, except for Ghostbusters. Sitting there and playing it, like, it, I, me and my ex, we got insanely good at this thing. Because what it was is that we would sit there and put something on TV, like a DVD or whatever, family guy episodes, sit there and play and then it would be like when you die, pass it off.

And eventually it got to the point where it was like, I'd play for an hour and a half, die, pass it off to her and know that for like an hour and 15, I did, I had nothing to do. Because like, we were just like fucking killing Luminum. I'm very rarely in awe watching someone play video game. You really are just that good. And when I went home that night, Jen was out of town. And so I went home and, you know, I opened a beer and had a party on my lap and killed the lights and put it on. And it was another thing of just 50 minutes of this amazing music, these amazing visuals.

Like you have to see it in motion and listen to it and then to really understand what you're getting to. Awesome. But even then it was, this is cool and this is great. But I'm getting distracted by my phone. I'm doing this to everything. The Tetris effect was the opposite. It was all of that without any other thing blocking you. I was in PlayStation VR and it was just like,

PlayStation VR headphones, like the music there, the vision. And it was like, fuck, this is great. That's awesome. Yeah, so I'm super stoked to play some of luminous on the plane and do the same thing. Is the game out? Yeah, out right now. Yeah, you can go get it. Very cool.

Check it out. Now, Jared, you've been playing a bit of that Octopath Traveler Prolog. You got that prolog out right now. You're playing it? No, I'm waiting for a final thing. I want to just go and I know that I can play and go with it. I don't want to do the thing where I play for three hours and then wait. wait a week or two and then do I get

who was I what I'm, no, I'm waiting until I have the full fucking cake and I'm gonna go cake I'm no, no, no, no, and then it turns out inside there was a baby. Wow. Man, you are really bloody minded today. You want to devour children or have them devour you today. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. Look at a hot, like one

of those like old fairy tales, Hansel and Gretel stuff. Right, right. Anyway, Tim, would you be fucked up if I took off my shoe right now my foot was a baby's head. It would be very strange. Yulkejima, I feel like, would be really good stuff. Very total recall. Just lifted up.

Quit. There we are. No, Octoth Traveler. I really like it. It feels like a kind of a return to form. It feels very Final Fantasy 6 inspired. It's got that kind of overwrought, overbearing old school RPG vibe that I really enjoy. And something about the artistic aesthetic and the fact that not every line is voice acted,

but just enough of them are that it feels sort of contemporary. And everybody speaks a little too much, but not so much that it drives you crazy. It's not like Golden Sun chatty. Okay. It's more, it's more than old S&S games, but less than really annoying GBA RPGs. Okay. Right there in that sweet spot. It's fun. Every character has unique abilities and they're all useful.

And even the guy that's like, I'm the scholar who that's how I started with, it's like, well, that ability's going to suck. But it's like, no, I can walk around town. Anybody I talk to, I can get extra stuff out of them. But the extra stuff is not just like backstory. Although that's cool, too. It's like, I talked to this guy. He told me a backstory. that revealed a hidden item.

So now, like, somewhere on this map, something I never would have found otherwise, just by being Sherlock Holmes, I find that I get a little stronger. That's really cool. And there's all kinds of needs to. Like, the hunter can, like, build a party of, like, different animals that can take elemental weaknesses in combat

and switch them off, like, summons, almost like their weapons. It's just, it's really thoughtful. Lord, it's beautiful. Here's my question, Jared, yeah. Since this game was previewed, debuted, whatever you want to say,

teased. the trailers and such. I looked at and I said, oh my God, this game looks awesome, looks amazing. I was like, it does look awesome.

It does look amazing. Is it modern enough that someone like me that never connected with 8-bit or 16-bit J-R-PGs is going to get into? You know, I think so. Okay.

I don't think it's purely a nostalgia trip. Okay. I think it's just stream-like. Do you mind turn-based combat? No, not at all. I like turn-based combat. Then you'll be fine.

Okay. Yeah, I don't, it's not tedious. Okay. At least the parts I have played. Again, I'm very early in this enormous game. I haven't played the prolog yet, but from playing the demo a year ago, whenever the fuck it was, the music is so good and it's like orchestrated and it's like an actual orchestra.

It's not like weird MIDI bullshit. And I feel like that does help make you feel more modern. Where it's like visually yet, it looks like an old school game. But like the lighting effects mixed with like the quality of the sound and like the voice acting and stuff, it makes it feel not like a. retro game. It feels like a new game. I concur. And there's a secret from old games that they really smartly stole, which is that old games are very good at presenting a lot of information in a short period of time. And so instead of watching a five-minute cutscene, you watch a 35-second

cutscene with these really beautifully articulated little characters. And there's just enough animation quality and facial expression that the game actually moves in some ways more briskly than a modern game would, even though it seems like it's going to move slower. You expect an old game to be kind of slow and plotty. Octopath Traveler so far doesn't feel that way. Okay. Which character did you play us? I picked the scholar and that's where I started.

And I can't remember. I was talking with somebody about this the other day. I never remember characters in RPGs by their names. Like, that spiky hair guy from Final Fantasy 7, you know, that dude. Boxing Glove Girl. That's how I think of everybody in an RPG. It's like when people talk about people from Game of Thrones.

She's like, yeah, yeah, the Red Lady. Exactly. All right, we know who you're talking about. That's every RPG character. But I'm the scholar. And he's like a detective. That's his power. And it's a really neat one.

But all of them seem to have really intriguing abilities that work well together. I like it. It has a stupid name. Yeah, very stupid name. Stupid name. But whatever. I'm happy they stuck with it. Oh, yeah.

I mean, I wish it was Fall Fantasy 16, but you know what? Yeah. At this point, they're fucking doing it. They know what they're doing with it. It's like, hey, guys, this name's fucking dumb. This game is exactly what you think it is. And you either get that or you don't get it. It seems weird that it's not bravely to fault three.

You know, it's like they're trying to start a different franchise. I'm way too early on to make the call, but it feels more like an old Final Fantasy game than most of the imitations that have been done since. And I kind of wish it had been a mainline Final Fantasy. That would be cool. It really would. And from what I played in it, I absolutely love it. I'm with Greg where I'm like, I can't wait to get into it and just go through. How long is it supposed to be?

It's supposed to be long. It's 80 to 100. Thank God it's on Switch. Yeah. And that's my thing is like I'm in no rush to beat the game. Yeah, like I'm totally down to have this and play it over the next year And again playing as Primrose the dancer or whatever that in the demo was like I love the story I love how it's goofy and silly and it is kind of trite, but in a way that feels

nostalgic, you know, and I'm like I'm ready for this shit man. That's rad And then Jared you also you tell me something about game maker? Oh yeah, so yeah, playing a little so the steam sales going on right now Steam summer sale which means that like almost Everything on Steam is at some kind of discount. So I went and finally grabbed Game Maker Studio 2. I've been using Game Maker since college. Okay. I'm going around back when it was way back in the day,

what is much more primitive than it is now. And I used to fool with that and media other software that was designed around game creation. And I got Game Maker 2 on sale and grabbed it and started porting one of my old Game Maker games into this. And instead of trying to do any kind of like automated transference, I'm just rebuilding the game in Game Maker 2. The languages are fairly similar.

What is Game Maker? Is it exactly what it sounds like? Is it related to RPG Maker? No, not exactly. It's RPG Maker times 100. Game Maker is powerful enough to produce commercial products. So it was RPG Maker. I mean, they made Two the Moon in it.

But Game Maker can make a wide variety of different kinds of games. It has a very friendly, or relatively friendly, learn to make a game interface. Okay. But it also has a very powerful scripting language that you can directly access at any point under the surface to customize just about anything. Is it easy to get into?

No, it is not. But it is easier to get into than most other game-making tools. Toby Fox created Undertale entirely in GameMaker. That's what he used to make it, or almost entirely in Game Maker, if I'm correct there. And other commercial games. Spillenky was originally a Game Maker game.

Okay. And it allows you to imagine things and find a way to execute them. It has remarkable power. for a product in its price range and with its relative accessibility and even though it's not easy to get into there are so many tutorials

out there because it's been around since the 90s and so many demos and such a huge community that there is a solution out there to anything you're trying to do. Somebody's figured it out and so you can go out there and dig up that info when you get stuck

it is a great learning experience and I'm learning again about that generational jump right now I was up until 2 o'clock in the morning last night trying to figure out how to draw a line between two points dynamically because I've forgotten how to do it. Yeah. It's super simple stuff. But I haven't, I had this, this old demo I made in Game Macorn for a game that I think is pretty good. It's a very simple arcade style iPhone game.

Skateboarders from hell. And so I, and so I'm importing it right now. And I'm forgetting how I did some of the tricks. Sure. But rather than look them up in my old game, I'm trying to figure them out again and replicate them in the name. It's been a great. I recommend it for anyone that wants to learn how to make video games and is willing to understand you're going to spend hundreds of hours learning to use it

and every hour you're going to learn how to do something new. That's awesome. I want to make a game someday. If I do, it'll almost certainly be made in Game Maker. That's rad, man. And the last game we got right now is the bloodstained backers demo. That's right. Ritchie will love the night bloodstained.

John Ruffio singing about it. Oh, I'm so excited. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, look, have you all played? any of the bloodstained stuff yet. I haven't played the backer demo or the E3 content, but last year I ran I did the E3 demo and stuff like that.

And we've seen it along the way, obviously. Do you have fun with it? Yeah. No, like, it's, for me, I came to Symphony Night way late. I want to say I didn't play it until it was on PSP and I was working at IGN. Okay. And I was like, holy shit, this is awesome, right? And so to jump into something that is modern, sharp,

and beautiful, but still have that feel to it? Like, you put it so much more eloquently and you're such a bigger expert on it than me, but to jump into it and be like, oh, this is from that guy, but it's here and modern, okay, cool,

I'm in. Like, I'm totally in when it comes. The simplest way I know how to put it was playing this demo, which I first played at E3. Yeah. And that I'm playing through again now

because I'm a backer, which means I have really access to it. La Dida. Yeah, looking forward to my physical Vita copies. Yeah. But it's, I have muscle memory for a game I've never played.

Yeah. That's what happened. That's cool. I got to the same. second boss and the second boss vastly different than the first boss you play in the original demo, a person just your size with a sword. And it's you in a room with this one person facing off. And I was Alicard.

I was doing moves that I knew how to do from playing another video game 20 years ago. That's so cool. And it was just flowing. And I was like, I have no idea if this game's going to be as great as I'm hoping. But it does testify. That control fidelity testifies to the idea that the people behind. this understand what I want. So this feels more at Mega Man 11 than Mighty Number 9?

By a mile. Buy a mile. Well, what's your stance on, my number 9? Myty number 9 is a game that doesn't need to exist. It was a good idea that did not come together the way they wanted it to, and that was apparent. I'm not sure whether that was some, they put way too much emphasis on speed running. I don't know if that was marketing getting involved or if somebody just lost direction

in the middle. But it's odd because Mighty Number 9 had some input, if I remember right, from NT, who also made Mega Man 9 and 10, which are excellent. And Boston Master's Zero and Circle or Curse of the Moon and all these amazing games. But somewhere in that one, something got lost. Does Bloodstain have a release window yet? The last I heard, it's supposed to be 2018. I don't believe it. I think that's a 2019 game, and I'm basing that on gut.

They have no reason to hurry that I'm aware of. They got way more money they ever expected to get on it. And so why not we can do it right? But what's what I play? Have you played it at all? I have not at all. Are you interested in? No, I didn't like the art style when they first debuted it.

And I was kind of like, my thing is we're at a point now where Metroidvanias are so common. Sure. That I'm like, I don't crave more Castlevania. Yeah. You know? Big fan of the franchise overall. I love the GBA ones and obviously Symphony Night and all that. But this, nothing about this like intrigues me and I just don't like the art style.

Yeah, the art is not my favorite either. I think it's pretty. But I very quickly found myself forgiving that. The part I like about it that distinguishes it and distinguishes symphony in the night from almost every Metroidvania sense is you were literally picking up something new like every 90 seconds. And a lot of Metroidvania is you go find something every 10, 15 minutes and that opens up. you will find a new weird weapon piece of armor, trinket, helmet, spell, special ability constantly in this game. And you're just like, I don't know what this is good for.

And I don't know what happens when I combine it with two other items. And suddenly I'm throwing Hadoquins or something. But God knows, it's weird. I'm going to try it out. That's what I like about. That's what made symphony work. And this has some of that same vibe to it. I'm like, I can summon tentacles from space to kill things now.

That's awesome. You know, it's great. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this episode of Kind of Funny Games cast is brought to you by Marvel Puzzle Quest. Let me about this, Greg. I know you're a big fan of this game.

I was going to say, don't tell me about it. I was playing at the Wasp are coming. Oh, no, is coming to a theater near you very soon. I was going to say, Mvite of the Austin are coming. You know what I mean? There are two of them. And we have a game for your phone on the show today that we've been spending some quality time with lately. The game is Marvel Puzzle Quest and the folks at D3 go are upsizing the fun with numerous

Antmen of the Wasp happenings this month. Is this going to get you back into the game, Greg? Yeah, probably. I mean, that's the thing is like when we did the last activation, I talked about it, right? Where I was like, cool, it's a knockoff puzzle quest. And then I was like, wait, it's D3. Oh, wait, this is puzzle quest? It's just puzzle quest.

Yeah, I need to get back into it. I know a whole bunch of kids got motivated and restarted their alliances. I figure what they call them in the game. But like, you know, your little guilds. We all need to get back into it. Marvel puzzle quest is Marvel's only match three puzzle RPG mobile game experience. And you can download it for free today. In Marvel Puzzle Quest, you can create a custom team from the Marvel universe that features characters like Iron Man, Black Panther, Deadpool, Rogue, Gambit, Luke Cage, so much more.

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and get yourself three free tokens from the Partners in Crime Ball to possibly earn Ant Man Wasp or other great rewards to add your collection. That's D3Go.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Get it free. It's a fun game. Go play it, guys. Let us know in the comments what you think about it. Cool, Greg.

Can I have another water? Thank you. So, topic of the day, guys, comes from Patreon supporter Chris Bowering. Oh. Who supported us to the level to get his topic discussed on the show. Oh. Thanks, Chris. It reads as follows.

Hey, kind of funny team. You guys have talked a few times about how to break into the games industry, but I'd like to add a new perspective. I've worked as a freelance games journalist for smaller websites for about three years now. I've worked tirelessly putting out hundreds of pieces of written and video content from reviews to news, etc. Yet it took two years for me to make my first paycheck and even then I was paid far less than minimum wage. After several years, I felt like I was going nowhere. So I took the advice you guys gave and tried to create original content no one else was making. I write articles about how video games relate to bigger social issues like relationships and mental illness on

quiet stories blog.com. I ran a podcast where I interviewed game developers that other sites seemed to ignore and even launched a Kickstarter for a satirical book about video game characters. None of those endeavors have gotten me anywhere. My question, The question for you is, even if you work hard, even if you do something different, is it impossible to make a name for yourself in the industry without a pre-established audience or a friend or connection that can lend you their audience? Is there any chance for unknown names to be heard? Thanks, Chris Bowering.

There's very little chance for unknown names to be heard without help. The plain factor the matter is that all this work you're doing right now is potentially designed to, one, hone your skills. Thank you, Greg. And two, to catch the attention of someone with the ability to give you a break, somebody with a large megaphone, perhaps an employee at one of the major media outlets like GameSpot or IGN, perhaps an employee of a place like this, perhaps a YouTuber who finds your work and amplifies it, perhaps somebody from a marketing department.

Without someone to amplify your signal, the odds that some algorithm is going to stumble across your work are very, very, very low. You're not trying to have masses of people discover you based on what you're doing right now. You're trying to have that one right people discover you. Right, right, right. Even if you do everything right, and this needs to be said because you don't say it enough, you can fail. Just doing everything right. Luck is also a huge factor in this. And I don't know if that gets said enough. You have to do everything right. But even if you do, there are more people that want it that are good at it than there are jobs. And that's something to remember as well.

Sure. So the headline for this video is how to get into the video game industry in 2018. Okay. So just for context for this conversation. I feel like that. We've talked about this so many times. And yeah, this does add some interesting wrinkles to the whole thing. But I feel like what you're saying is, can I hold it.

Can I hold it? What you're saying is right. The exception being like, yeah, if you do your own thing, you don't need, you can make your own job. You don't need to worry about the other people giving you the chances. However, that means you might not get paid what you feel you deserve based on the work that you're putting in. Oh, yeah. Doing your own work is going to get you notice. Doing your work may become your bread and butter, but without a signal booster that's already established, I think it's almost impossible. Yeah, totally.

I feel like you need to where we're at now is you need to have a YouTube channel. You need to be able to be able to point to things that show that you understand basic stuff at this point. like metadata and branding and if you don't know thumbnails social media and if you don't have your head wrapped around that you are not going to compete with anybody else no matter how well they know you know video games and can write about video games or talk about video games like you need all these extra skills as a base and it doesn't mean oh that means you're going to be able to get a job it just means that's your resume now like that it's the modern day resume for for people going into it and it really it comes down to connections it comes down to being in the right place

at the right time and I feel a lot of people that are in the middle of nowhere, they're not going to have as many opportunities as people that are in San Francisco, as people that are in New York, or Austin, around the other people doing similar stuff. And I don't want people to see a false dichotomy in what we're saying. We're not saying that connections are the only thing and we're not saying that having the resume in the body of work is the only thing. You've got to have them both. When you do meet that gate holder, that gatekeeper, you need to you need to you need to

have the resume ready to show, instead of tell them what you want to do, you can show them what you have done. Likewise, if you make all that stuff, but no one ever sees it has the ability to amplify you, you're probably never going to. Discovery is a problem on the Iowa. Apple has trouble getting people to find games. Switch, Nintendo has trouble pointing people to good products. How much worse than the weird randomness of the internet, which is mostly designed to just keep lifting people up that are already doing well? The internet is not designed to help new talent. See, I disagree with that because I feel like it's easier than ever now. And I know it's easy for me to say this because I've made it through that to the other side.

But I've seen it now from so many people, whether it's Andy Cortez or Joey or whoever, who we notice them. You know what I mean? And I are able to bring them into the video game industry. Aaron Porter. Roger Perconi. Exactly. Like, it's not just the names that you hear about all the time. Like, there's so many people, if you doing something and are loud enough about like, hey, I'm doing something cool.

it's going to get noticed. And maybe we don't need it at this time. And like, yeah, we don't have it. I'd love to be able to hire everyone you just said full time. We can't do that right now. Yeah. But it's like when the moment comes where we do need to hire an editor, we do need to hire whatever it is that we do,

it's like we have these people in mind because because of the Facebook group, because of the Reddit, because of people that are active in the community and are doing the thing. And we know that the talent and skills are out there. So when we need them, we can be like, oh, like we did the Mizzou trip. and we're like, we need somebody that knows how to edit. Rogers proven time and time again, he can make a dope-ass edit. Right. And he did.

Yeah. You know, PixelBray. He's been at so many meet and greets shooting all of the, like, behind-the-scenes content, and we needed a shooter. He was our guy. You know who gets a shout-out that we never shout out before, and I don't think we've ever talked about. Jen, I can never pronounce her last name. Druckniak. Is that how you say that?

Jen Druckneyak. The name. I don't know how to say Druckniak. Yeah, okay. I think it is. Jan reached out a long time ago to me and was like, hey, I want to get better. I'm doing vlogs right now on cosplay stuff and I want to turn that into a career of editing and I don't need to be in front of the camera and like, you know, I'd like to work for kind of funny one day,

right? And I watched her stuff as I do for everybody who sends stuff in and probably gave her two lines of feedback back. But they were basically like, we're not hiring now. Your stuff is good. Keep me posted on your career. Right. And like, every six months, seven months, she pops up. And like, hey, here's the update on the channel, what I've been doing, where I'm going. She's getting ready to move to New York now to chase the dream that way. So hopefully work for us one day. But like at Pax East, like, I was like, oh, cool. Like, I'm going to be, she can, she's on the East Coast.

I'm going to be at Pax East. Like, do you want to get a cup of coffee and just talk and catch me up on where she? Like, sure, because she wasn't in Boston and wasn't coming to Pax East again. Because like, you know, you only have so much money or mine sure to go around. So she, you know, had her mom drive her in. And we went and had a cup of coffee and talked to it over. I think I actually inhaled lunch while I talked to her because I was on a break or whatever. But she caught me up.

where she was and I, she impressed me so much that I texted Joey. I was like, where are you? She's like, I'm over here and come over here and meet this girl and just brought her. I'm like, Joey, this is Jen. Like, you know, she's awesome and I think we're end up doing something with her one day. And I wanted you to meet her now. And then I gave her my extra packs badge and she went on the floor and did all. You know what I mean? She was like she wanted to get to cosplay. I was like right now, go to the filthy casual booth. Our shell's there. I just saw her go talk to her. She did introduce herself. Made it looks. You know what I mean? Like that's how this works. And that and I understand for, where's the name on this one?

Oh, Chris, there it is. Like, for Chris trying to do this and stuff, I don't, it's one of those, of course, you never get all the information in the letter, right? I appreciate that Chris is doing what we're saying, right? Of like, he's done all these hundreds of pieces of video content, reviews, news, all that stuff. Several years it's going nowhere,

so, you know, he wanted to get very specific, and he's writing video games that pertains, articles that are about social issues, relationships, mental illness, right? On this blog, he started up. He's got a podcast where he's interviewing developers that get ignored. He's working on the same.

satirical book. That's all great stuff, but it is very niche, you know, as we've talked about, right? Like, there's a reason IGN's not talking to whatever developer you're talking to on this podcast because it isn't click, it isn't not clickworthy. It isn't getting clicks. It isn't, yeah, exactly. And we struggle with that too of how many times we have an indie game that we love that we think's rad, but it's like, fuck, how do we make that sexy for a party mode? How do I make that so it doesn't totally underperform? Not because I'm super worried about the views, but because I want to make sure the game gets out to the right people and how I'm marketing our content the right way to get it to where it needs to be. Yeah, so based on all what you have here, it's like, it sounds like there's a

lot of different things. And my advice, it's not that I think any of those are bad. It's just focus a bit more on one of the things and find the right audience. Talking about all the social issues and stuff, Polygon is your is where you would go. Yeah. And get there. My thing is scheme, get their attention, right? You got to find the right people and systematically take them down. I think for people like us, like if, if you were trying to get, Andy Cortez got my attention because he made fan art that I was like, this is fucking cool. You are talented.

And that's how he got in. And it's like, find your targets and find the best way to get their attention. And for Polygon, it's like think about who would be interested in your articles and send it to them. Don't be pushy. And that's the thing is biggest piece of advice I have is be cool. Do not be pushy.

And networking does not mean just sending a bunch of emails and being like, hey, I want a job. Yeah. That's not networking. Networking is finding common ground and getting in with people. It's going to events and talking to people. That's the biggest thing is that for me of, Jen's story,

the people we talk to, the people we've worked with. It goes so far to meet them in person and have them talk to you and follow up on an email and follow up on something, right? And that's how you get into, cool, I want to pitch Polygon IGN, whatever. I ran into Justin Davis at a GDC party,

which you wanted because he's got kids. But you know what I mean? You're more likely you met somebody else from an IGN at an IGN party And then they introduce you to this that and the other like that's the way to do it once you get these personal connections To be able to work them that way and I know it is expensive and it is scary to say all right cool I'm gonna go to a GDC I'm gonna go to an E3 I'm gonna go to a Pax whatever you need to do to be in the area with those people But that's what you need to do part of what it took for me to get in when I was I literally met in a Kuri restaurant in Japan with American journalists while I was living there who were traveling to

to cover TGS. Yeah. You guys want to have lunch? And they did. And they ended up. Everybody needs to eat. Exactly. And they end up paving away.

Now, I do think the niche work he's doing is important. I actually think that's a really good strategy still. I just think it's a good strategy because when you're doing different work and it's high quality, you can point to that for a gatekeeper and say, this is something I really care about. Nobody's covering. I understand this is an example, one thing I know how to do well. And that means I can do other things for you as well. So you mentioned Polygon.

I agree you should approach them. But I also think that a lot of people. at other outlets wish they were doing other kinds of work sometimes like Greg Express, wishing you could find a sexy way to cover that indie game. And so I do think hitting that stuff you're passionate about is so important. I also think like I want to be very careful how I phrase this. Quit. Huh?

Quit. No. Now I want to get this right because so I have friends named Tim Geddes and Greg Miller. And I have friends named Perr Schneider. And I have friends named Chastity of Sensio at Game. GameSpot. And I have been granted extraordinary opportunities by people who think I'm pretty good at what I do or like me. I'm awkward.

I ramble. I'm weird socially. You steal hats. I steal hats. I don't have a good sense of humor. But there's some things I'm very good at also. And people have seen that and they're willing to overlook the faults. Right now, you have been very generous to me.

I have the support of well over a thousand people on Patreon. And to make ends meet, I do freelance work and have not actually full-timing into the creative endeavors that I like to be doing right now. That's not a complaint. That is a fact of my life at this particular day. You all are financially generous. Patreon is financially generous. My freelance work combines and I kind of right now get by. But I'm not nearly as financially successful as it would take for me to be stable and work only on the projects through Hot Billup and a jump that I'd like to and try start the new things and put the money behind the things I'd like to do. I don't have it right now and I have every advantage in the world. I know the right people. I have a lot of experience and even in that situation I'm not where I'd like to be. So I'm not trying to say oh, I empathize or sympathize. I'm saying that it's really difficult.

And I do identify with keeping at it and keeping trying. And you guys who stepped away from a sure thing years ago to form this, I think you understand exactly where this young man's coming from. And there's a lot to be said for that. That's not awful what I just said and self-pitying because that was not my attention. You don't like yourself enough. You should like yourself more. You're a great dude.

You got a good sense of human. I understand. No, what I mean is I'm worried that I was rambling. It's hard to make a little. To make a living even if you are, I think that I'm not going to work anywhere better than here ever. And it's so hard to do. Yeah. I just feel like going back to your time about the internet, I feel like it makes it easier because when you're on the right side of things, there's a pay it forward mentality.

And there's like an appreciation for the people that did give you the opportunities. And I feel like as long as you kind of cultivate that type of audience, it's like you're going to continue. and then the talent is going to find you, and then you're going to be like, all right, I'm giving this person a shot. And you just kind of keep going forward. And like what you're saying, like we're able to give you the shots as we can.

Exactly. But that's also not going to be good enough for people. People do not deserve to get paid to talk about video games. Yes, that's what I'm trying to convey. It's like that I was worried I sound self-pity. No, no. But what I'm saying is, no, I am paid for more than any human beings should ever be paid to talk about video games.

It's amazing. I live an incredible life. And so do we all. And I do think we're good at what we do. I bet Chris is good at what he does. But there are a lot of people that want to do this in very few jobs. I feel a good way to get people's attention is to make content about their content. And it's like that earlier I was talking about fan art.

It doesn't need to be just that. Do a response video to an article you sell. Right. Like if you find the niche that you're in, you're like, you know what? Kotaku's voice feels like my voice. Find an article and then make a video response to it and like have a counterpart. point or agree and explain why you agree and add something to it and like then tweet at those people and be like hey look like here's what I had to say about this and it's like maybe they won't look at it

but maybe they will and all it takes is one person to give you the shot and then you're at a party and then that person introduces you to everyone else and then all of a sudden you do have all these friends yeah it's weird when it happens it happens quick it's strange and the gatekeepers that created my career just like there was nobody and then suddenly there was everybody and it's amazing There's so many examples of people in our community. Yusuf, McGweed over at Ubisoft now. Wasn't it? Ubisoft two years ago.

He was just working out. I met him. He was working out a lot. I met him at the, well, he's been to a bunch of events, but I really got to talk to him at the IGN 20th anniversary party that they threw. That was like pretty much they were kind of funny live a couple years ago. And it's just like, that's a perfect example. It's just go to events that you know people are going to be at and then be cool to them.

Talk to them. Be pleasant and don't feel like you're trying to network. Like don't ever come off like you're asking someone for a job. The best way to get a job from somebody you're trying to get a job from is to just be their friend. And then be their friend and be talented and then it'll come up naturally. Like the moment that you're just like, hey, like one day I'm going to work for you, you're not going to work for us. But it was nice walking over to, I don't know, I remember Greg writing to me one day. It's like, one day you'll make content for me.

And that was nice. And it meant a lot because I did. did want to work here. I'm happier now that I've been in a decade doing what I'm doing here. And so much of it has to do with finally finding myself at a place where I'm doing what I want most of the time. But I think about when I first got to IGN in a very different role than what I ended up doing, I did just walk over one day and say, can I be on my own one day? Yeah, sure. You're the guy who dumped chips on, you know, and it worked out really well. That kind of straightforwardness is appropriate once a person understands something about the caliber of your ability.

When there's a relationship that's been established. Exactly. Yeah. And I didn't try to like ingratiate myself to you, but I also was open about what I wanted once we knew each other. Yeah, exactly. The Timmy is scheming shit too. It's like look at it like being games media isn't the only option too. The games industry is huge and whether it's PR or making games themselves or any type of marketing.

It's like think about what your skill set is and what you're interested in. doing and then find the group that does that. And it's like that goes beyond just, um, the things that you think about. But like PR, for example, like Activision, you don't need to get a job at Activision to do PR for Activision games. There's Edelman and like all these different triple point. There's so many places that are working on. PR companies that it's like you can kind of like find a back door in kind of.

And then all of a sudden you're at events talking about Activision games. Yeah. Uh, for a company that people probably aren't looking for because they immediately just think of the big names. Yeah. And then once you're at the parties and stuff, then you can network and then you get to meet people and find something else that you're trying to do. Yeah, I don't know. I think, yeah, networking and being in person is the biggest thing.

That seems to be what for Chris is missing. We're extrapolating from this, obviously, right? Of like, yeah, to what you're talking about, there's no algorithm that's going to go out and find. I was just reading it, but QuietStoriesblog.com, right? Like, how are people going to know to go find that stuff? And so, and like, yeah, if you're working with smaller developers on your own podcast, Podcast, it's the same thing. Like, collaboration is the biggest part of all of this, is how we grow when we go and collaborate with people who are in our same wheelhouse and do things that we want to do.

So hopefully, you get their audience to come over and continue on the trend. And find where there's a need for something. You were talking about this earlier about, like, there's sites that wish they were doing things, but aren't. I remember when we were at IGN, like, when Minecraft was blowing up. All right. If you had a focus on Minecraft and you had a pitch and you went and some emailed pair and we're like, hey, like, I want to be your Minecraft guy. and here's what I'm gonna do, you would have been hired. Like, immediately.

Every meeting was how do we solve Minecraft? How do we own Minecraft? I feel like those are the type of things that, you know, you can do. Like, you can just kind of think and be like, all right, this site seems like it would like this content. I'm going to pitch them on that because I can do it. What is this site doing that, or what are they not doing that I could fill for them? The amount of E3 work I got just this year out of being JRP guy. Yep.

Or weird NIS America guy or following bloodstained. Like that niche stuff does help because sometimes people say like, Oh, wait, we probably ought to cover that. And then you're there. And that's helpful. And I talk about this a lot. A great way to meet people. And I realize it was my pathway in, so I always default to this.

But the thing about guide writing is it's inherently interactive. You have to work with an editor. You just have to write a guide in a wiki format. And that means you get to know the editor. That is a great way to get to know people at some of the larger outlets. Yeah. It is hard, long work that doesn't pay by the hour. particularly well when you consider how much time it takes right a guide, but it is a great way to build

experience and it is a great way to know people inside. And that counts for so much. So I hope we haven't misconveyed. It is not, there's another Superman. I love it. I thought you're pointing to that S. No, I'm killing this S. No, I'm killing this S. I just do, I was like, well, yes, that is another S-U sketch. I got a other piece of it. I just doodle a while, listen. It helps me. Yes, look, man, I'll look at your stuff. I can't wait to see it. And I hope that just us here talking about it right now, draw some people to it.

You mean talking about quiet story blog.com? Yeah, because this sounds like it's right up my alley. Absolutely. I care about the things that you're caring about here. But I don't, there is no magic. Just keep doing the smartest things you know how. And keep understanding that somebody will have to open the door. And we can do our best and fail.

That happens too. I hate saying that. But it is just true. My closing words would just be cool to people and don't be weird. And that is online and in person. And I feel like we're saying, oh, you need to be in the same room with people. There's so many, so many people because of the Facebook group, because of Twitter conversations I have, whatever. But I'm like, I know these people and they are cool.

So if I do see them in real life eventually, we already are like, oh, hey, you're. Whoever you are from the Facebook group. And I know your name. I know your opinions on stuff. And like we already have that kind of relationship because of the magic of the internet. And then once you have that relationship, it's one step closer to being like,

hey, I'm good at this. Do you know somebody that can help me? Jix Jr. is a great example, right? Like the way that he has found, found ways to kind of get into our lives. Yeah. You know? And like, understand us.

And he was on Gamescast. And like, yeah, he paid to be there. But guess what? Totally worth it because now every time GameSpot or IGN has a position open I haven't been able to get him a job yet but I'm always, he's like,

can I use a recommendation? Like, yes, you're awesome. I can say that you're good at Tommel games, editing videos, doing all this stuff and mean it. So one day that'll work. But again, that goes back to it. It's like there's no guarantees even when you do have people pulling strings for you.

Also, if you have an Instagram, don't take too many pictures of yourself. Oh, I disagree with that. That's popular on Instagram. That's what people want. No, I think narcissism comes off wrong when you're trying to. No, that's what kids are. You don't understand the kids.

You understand kids anymore. And don't stream Fortnite. Everybody else is already doing it. Any closing words for that, Greg? I mean, it's what we're saying. You got to, I mean, I think nowadays it's so much harder and there's so many more barriers to entry that, like, I think test your metal and see if you're actually going to be part of this.

So if you're like, well, I'm not just going to go to a GDC, E3 packs, whatever, and hope I meet people. and like then it's not going to happen. Like you have to like that's where we're at is that you have to make this thing happen for yourself where you go out and you won't give up because I think that's the, those are the people who succeed are the ones who are like, I'm not letting this dream go. Like this is going to,

I'm going to make this thing happen, which is what I did in a very different time when it was not easier, but there were fewer barriers to entries, which I know sucks that I got in and now it's so tough to get in on the other way. Yeah, I like what you just said that. Persistence doesn't mean you'll succeed. Yeah.

But persistence is the only way you'll succeed. Exactly. Exactly. Right. And so if you get to that point where like, That's a bridge too far. I'm an introvert. I would never go to, oh, okay, I don't know how to help you.

You can only be taken so far. And I want to say this too, because we've been very, but it is worth it. This is the greatest job I can imagine. It's fantastic. My life is a series of adventures and blessings surrounded by some of the most amazing people. I've ever had the opportunity to meet on the planet Earth that make up the creators and media personalities around this industry. This is worth loving and worth wanting.

And I look down on no one who looks at this and says, yeah, that's what I want. You should, life is short. Go for what you care about. Sorry, that was a little ranty. I liked it. Jared, you had an idea to close out this show. A new segment that we are calling Jared's game. Mobile game?

Mobile game or bullshit. That's right. It's mobile game or bullshit. Is it a mobile game or bullshit? Jared's going to read some stuff and we'll figure out if it's a real game or not. Jared, Patty. Okay, here's how it works. Ladies and gentlemen, I have here, we're going to do this every week if this works out,

a list of five mobile game names. Or are they? Dun-tun-ta! Are these the names? Cool Greg likes this. A real mobile games. Or are they made up? Now, for the record, as this is the first time we've ever played,

game. Yes. They can all be bullshit. They can all be real. This isn't one a week. Any mix. Any possible mix of these five.

Tim will compete with Greg to see who is the very first weekly mobile gamer bullshit champion. Okay. Some weeks are going to have themes, I think. Okay. But this week we're just kind of, you know, getting our toes a little wet. Might have a little theme song.

I think it may be getting Andy to make some custom mograph. You know, stuff like that. Greg, are you our scorekeeper? I think better when I can see So I'm gonna write it out I say that we go through We each say if it's real or not And you don't tell us the answers

Until all five or done Yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah Alright, we're gonna do it that way That's how you wanna do it You think you don't want to go one by one? No no I like it at the end Yeah one giant photo

builds up that There we go Tension Okay so we're gonna We didn't have a pre-mash coin flip To see who goes first So I'm gonna pick Greg Because I like him more than two

Thank you So here we go Greg. Did you celebrate that cool, Greg? He's your brother. All right, hold on. First game. You ready?

Yep. Boost Arena. Boost. Is Boost Arena? Mobile game? Or bullshit? Boost Arena is 100% a mobile game. Greg Miller says mobile game.

Tim Gettys. My thing is, Boost Arena sounds like Jared Petty trying to make up for mobile game. game name. So I'm going to say bullshit. There we go! He's calling it! That's number one. So, once again, audience, Greg Miller. Mobile game. Tim Gettys. Bullshit.

Number two. I like this game. Jam and spoon. Tim Gettys. Shit. Mobile game. Jam and spoon. Mobile game. Mobile game. Says Tim Getties. I am saying jam and spoon.

He's bullshit. There we go. Reversal of Fortune. I love it. There can only be one. Number three. Greg Miller. Yeah.

Card Quest. I'm going to say Card Quest is a mobile game. Mobile game, says Greg Miller. Tim Gettys? I'm going to say mobile game. Mobile game. No. Cool, Greg.

What do you say? I'm in with Tim. Okay. You're Tim with all these. You guys are in alliance here. Everyone agrees. Card Quest. A mobile game.

Tim Gettys. Pixel Stars. Oh, Jesus. Bullshit. Tim Gettys. This is both. Greg Miller. Pixel Stars is 100% of mobile game.

There we go. I love how divergey guys are on these. It's great. Last one. Greg Miller. Yeah. Mobile game or bullshit. The Temple of Elemental Evil.

I am going to say the temple of elemental evil is bullshit. I'm going mobile game. I'm going, that's too specific. Mobile game. It sounds too much like something Jared Petty was saying. I don't do right though. The temple of temperamental evil. Elemental evil.

The temple of temperamental evil. So let's start from the top. Boost. Boost Arena. Boost. A arena. Absolutely a mobile game. Absolutely a mobile game.

Yeah. Bing, Ming, Ming, Ming, Ming. As a matter of fact, a new mobile game just out today. Oh, wow. Okay. As are, by the way, all the real mobile games and those games that came out today. Oh, smart. It's my way to do it.

Touch Arcade. Now, we have to agree to never cheat. Of course. Okay. Jam and Spoon. And Spoon. Is a German house band. Dallet.

It's not a mobile game. It's the name of a German house band. Jam and Spoon. All right. Two for two. We'll call that one BS. Card Quest. Both of you.

I'm saying mobile. Said Card Quest, a mobile game from the creators of games such as Card Quest. Card Quest is a mobile game. Yay. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. I got my point. Pixel Stars. Once again, Touch Arcade out today.

Pixel Stars. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. You said bullshit. Looks like Cool games for it. Guys, I don't want to alarm you. I might have a perfect game. All right?

The Temple of Elemental Evil is a real video game. But not for mobile popcorn. Published by Atari, the Temple of Elemental Evil based on the classical Dungeons

and Dragons tabletop module. One of the best D&D games ever. Damn. Very buggy. Five for five. Five for five. Greg Miller, here he comes.

Sorry, Tim. Sorry about that. Sometimes people want to forget who the true champion is. Who is the kind of funny world champion, Tim? No one forgot to you. Who is it? It's you. It's Greg.

What's my name? Greg Miller. Say it all. Yeah. Once again, proving that I'm the best that Nick Scarpino sucks. True. Perfect game. Jared Petty.

They call you the human computer quite often. And you came in here thinking you could Bobby Fisher me, but I showed your CPU. Fuck you, you know. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been the kind of funny games cast each every week we get together. Talk about video games, all the things we love about them. Thank you to all of the Patreon supporters making this show happen. And until next week, I love you. Can I do it?

Can I get two perfect games in a row? Well, I'll find out next week, won't we, everybody? I enjoyed that. That was fun. That was great. Did it again next week? Yes, let's definitely do that.