Video Gamers Podcast - [Indie TWIG] March Indie Madness News – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are back with Indie TWIG (This Week In Gaming), breaking down the biggest indie gaming stories of the week. From surprise hits to funding issues, we cover what’s shap...ing the world of video games right now and what deserves your attention. Whether it’s bold ideas or breakout success, this episode shows how indie video games continue to expand our love of gaming . Don’t miss this quick hit of everything happening in IndieLand!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:14 gamers podcast. This week in indie gaming, we've got a breakout success story, a surprise major update to a fan favorite roguelike, and somehow two indie developers releasing games with the exact same name, only days apart?
Starting point is 00:01:29 All that and more on this episode. I am your host, Ace, and joining me, he's the man ready to make you an indie game at a low cost of only a hundred thousand dollars it's Josh bro do you know what a steal that is to a hundred grand I'll double your money easy double your money easy listen listen all you got to do is you got to hire a graphic artist a voice actor uh uh you know a storywriter uh technical director
Starting point is 00:01:59 uh a producer uh you're going to need probably four or five uh visual effects artists we're going to need three or four animators easy peasy i know people on five you're telling me is it is a pixel art card-based roguelike. Yeah. And joining us, he's the guy who just wants to play games and avoid the drama. But somehow, he always ends up right in the middle of it anyways. It's Ryan. Why is it always me?
Starting point is 00:02:30 You always just end up kind of being the quiet night. Why is it always me? Well, guys, we haven't done one of these in a while. it's an indie news episode that's actually got news and not just the new release. Indy news. We are going to start off with a familiar topic first just to get this out of the way. I want to give him his flowers when I can. Mr. Sleeping Man officially reached very positive on Steam at 99% with 260 reviews.
Starting point is 00:03:01 Devin! I want to give Dev his flowers. We released a review for Mr. Sleepy Man last week. I hope everyone enjoyed that. I had a good time recording that. But that was, I'm so happy to see he finally got that 200 reviews because he kept pinging his server like, we're almost there. We're almost there.
Starting point is 00:03:19 Everyone go review the game. 99%. And listen, I know there's going to be people. It's not like 5,000 reviews. It's 99%. You can't get 260 people to agree on anything, dude. On anything. No.
Starting point is 00:03:33 And that means that 99% of them agree that Mr. Sleepy Man is awesome, which we love to say. see. Yeah, 99% of people agree it was worth the money. They love what they're playing and they didn't have any kind of complaints. I think the only complaint I ever saw for it was just like, why does it look like this? I was like, you see what it looks like. It's right there.
Starting point is 00:03:55 Do people buy games without watching trailers? Is it just like, I don't know what this game is. Buy, you know? Say less. I'm in sold. Yeah. All right, guys. I want to know.
Starting point is 00:04:07 What do you think it costs to make an interesting? game these days. Well, what kind of any game we're talking about? We're talking about Expedition 33, or are we talking about like a four bit, a four bit? Like, what was that, what was that, what was that tombstone game that we covered last week? Tombwater? Tombwater. That game costs $3.99.
Starting point is 00:04:28 $3.99. Shipping and handling. All right. Expedition 33, much larger budget. Poor, tombwater just catches strays. Poor, tomb water. That's why it might be great, doing nothing at all of being a good indie game.
Starting point is 00:04:44 And Josh is just like, bam, bam, beer. Yeah. It's, I got to, man.
Starting point is 00:04:49 I got to, you know? It took a shot of my eyeballs, so I got to fire back. Well, according to this CEO of a indie company, specifically you would know them for working on a game called Tunic. If you played Tunic,
Starting point is 00:05:02 you've played it. Oh, yeah. You've heard of, you've heard it. I didn't play it. I said, oh, yeah, as if I played it.
Starting point is 00:05:07 No, I know that. You haven't played it. But you've heard. But you've heard of it. Yes. Okay. Well, you know what it is.
Starting point is 00:05:12 Yeah, yeah. He knows of it. Rebecca Saltzman, CEO of Finji, has pointed out that the indie industry is at a critical survival stage marked by financial difficulties that inhabit investment in smaller projects. Saltzman says expressed that the funding for indie games has decreased, which also affects the creation of titles that could have had significant impact on the gaming sphere. How do you guys feel about that? That there's possibly been like a legendary game that just could not get funding?
Starting point is 00:05:39 I don't buy it. Honestly. Honestly, I'm gonna like that's spicy. Here's the thing. If these companies like, dude, I know this sounds like a dumb thing to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. Do any of you like the three of us, we've been playing games for a long time, if a company came to you and put a game in front of you and said, what do you think about this game? Please test it and give us your thoughts, right? I feel like I would know.
Starting point is 00:06:09 this game has potential or not. And I get that you're usually playing them in like an early, you know, like an alpha or like a pre-beta or something. But it's like, and I don't know if you guys saw the footage of Expedition 33 before it went through its overhaul. Like, did you guys ever see the original footage that they pitched to like a company? I don't think I ever saw it. So it really did. It was pretty fascinating. But you could still tell that there was like something really cool like under the surface there.
Starting point is 00:06:36 But if you were not. consulting with gamers, then I think, number one, you're out of touch and you're dumb and you should absolutely consult with gamers if you're thinking about funding a game, you know, but at the same time, like, I feel like any of us would know, hey, there's something to this game. This game's worth backing. I'm telling you right now, there's probably something here versus like, like, dude, do you know how many, like, how many games have we played where we don't ever talk about them because
Starting point is 00:07:05 the dev gives us a key and we play it for like 15 minutes? and I go, bro, this ain't it. You know what I mean? And we don't want to hurt any devs and we don't talk about them on the show. We don't even really bring them up for the most part. But like we get keys where people say, hey, please try my game.
Starting point is 00:07:19 You know, and then I try it. And then it's like, nope, nope. Like, you ain't getting funding for this. So like, I don't know who's given out the dollars, but if they're given out dollars without like a professional opinion from a gamer, then I feel like you're just risking it, man, at that point. Yeah, I think you're on the right track there. Do you think Indies are in danger in 2026 of like the good Indies are not going to receive their funding?
Starting point is 00:07:47 I know. Like she's implying here. I know that there, we've actually talked to a few developers that have said this, you know. We have some developer friends, you know, that we interact with on like X and social media and stuff like that. And they have said, hey, you know, every time there's a failure in the internet. industry, it makes it harder to get funding and stuff. But at the same time, if you have a game that looks really good, you're going to get funding because there's something there.
Starting point is 00:08:19 And again, we say this too. Like for every AAA title that flops, there's a thousand indies that flop that nobody ever hears about. You know, and yes, but that's also just kind of the nature of the industry at that point. But if you have something good, if you have a good product, people will notice that you have a good product. And that's one reason we do this particular show is to put good indie games in front of people to say, hey, these people are onto something. Pay attention to these games that are coming out. And I feel like, yes, you know, we're not risking $100,000 of our money. No, no, no, because if either one of you had that, you know, let me know. If either one of us has that,
Starting point is 00:09:02 I'm not working anymore. Look at Slay the Spire, too. Very, very simple. premise. I love Slaith Aspire too, but that game just made a gazillion dollars, dude. You know, Expedition 33. Insanely, like, Hades, you know, I mean, there's indie games that come out all the time that are insanely popular. Peak. I mean, I'm not going to say what I think about peak, but Peek made a ton of money. You know what I mean? So, like, at the same time, the indie's should be getting the funding because they're way easier to fund, number one, and the results and the return on if an indie game hits are astronomical, dude. did you guys feel it was kind of weird that she said like games couldn't be funded for 100k to 250k now?
Starting point is 00:09:44 Like 80 games do not need that much money to be great. I don't think. The problem, I mean, I'm not a business man. What's epic game? Yeah, but it's also. I just feel so high. I mean, dude. Like what is a programmer?
Starting point is 00:09:58 That doesn't seem like a lot to me at all. Programmers? Programmers ain't cheap, dude. So I'm just going to throw out. And a programmer out there can correct me. But I'm going to just. guess that an average starting salary for a programmer that knows what he's doing is probably in the $80 to $100,000 range, right?
Starting point is 00:10:15 That's just honestly, a completely uneducated guess is that, you know, like I said, somebody can set us straight on that if they want. But like it takes two years to develop a game, even if you're doing it quickly. So that programmer at $100,000, that's two years worth of salary. So now you're at $200,000 just to pay that one programmer how to program. how to program this game. Well, yeah, and that's not even counting things like, you know, artwork, licensing.
Starting point is 00:10:42 Dude, don't worry about artwork. Just go pixel graphics, guys. If you just go pixel graphics, you don't have to worry about art at all. My eyes. No, that's not true. My eyes. That's not true, Josh. They have to make a misleading cover.
Starting point is 00:10:56 Josh don't care at all. You get a straight. That's not true at all, though, because they have to make a misleading cover art that looks nothing like that. There you go, yeah. Don't forget the cinematic trailer that has nothing to do with the game. Yeah. Weren't those like the best?
Starting point is 00:11:11 Hold on, Ace. Hold on. Yeah, go ahead. Weren't those like the best the 80s cover arts on the games, 80s and early 90s? Oh, dude. Where it was like this like chick like with big old, an axe or some other dude. And it's like nothing like the game at all.
Starting point is 00:11:26 Looks nothing like that. It looks like pong. Yeah, but it's so, it's so metal looking. They look so cool. I know we talked about this on a, what was it? Best cover arts. Best cover arts. That was a good one.
Starting point is 00:11:37 Yep. Anyways, go ahead, Ace. I was just going to say, I think it's okay for her to be worried about these things. I don't think it's a problem right now. I don't think we're in kind of any kind of indie recession. In fact, I think we're going up. Oh, for sure. I think the people that have to worry are like the really, really small indie devs that are like the solo developer that doesn't maybe have the talent to be a solo developer that probably has a good idea, but doesn't.
Starting point is 00:12:04 know how to execute that idea. That where I like, because I'm going to go back to if you have a good game, a good proof of concept, I think people will get on board with that. But if you don't or you're one of these, you know, devs that just send us a free key and your game's really, really bad. No offense. But it's like, dude, this is a bad game. Like, you're not going to make any money.
Starting point is 00:12:27 Like, do it because you're passionate about it. But if you're trying to turn your passion into a business, that is a completely, different story and a completely different beast altogether. And so if you're trying to make the jump from passion to business, I think you have to have something worthwhile to show to somebody to get them to go, yes, we want to invest in your business at that point. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's just like what we say when people ask about getting into podcasting.
Starting point is 00:12:54 It's like, you have to do it because you have passion for it. For years. Yeah, you've got to. First of all, you have to do it with commitment. Yeah. With commitment. Josh is like, for years. I'm just, it's true.
Starting point is 00:13:05 I've been doing this for so long. It's true. People think that they're going to make it over night. You can't expect to go into it and just millionaire. Yeah. That doesn't happen. Nope. It still hasn't, by the way.
Starting point is 00:13:15 Yeah. If anybody wants to, you know, make that happen. It still hasn't. Patreon links in the episode description. I don't know what you're talking about. I only joined this podcast. Oh, crap. Yeah, you've been here longer than you think, Ryan.
Starting point is 00:13:27 I did the math the other day and I was like, Ryan, is there a long time now. It's been a while. No, I don't think we have anything to worry. about when it comes to the indie scene. I think we're fine. I think we're seeing, you know, an uptick in good indie games. Cost are always going to go up, but, you know, I think we'll be all right. All right. Let's get into a little bit of a feel-good story about a game called Tangy TD or Tangie Tower Defense. Do you guys heard this story before today? This was all over the internet, dude. All over the internet. And you know, all over the internet.
Starting point is 00:13:57 As crappy as a place the internet can be And as much as people love fighting and arguing And all of the junk that's on the internet Every now and then the internet comes together And they go, you know, we like seeing people happy occasionally And we like seeing this guy get really happy. This story's awesome, dude. A streamer by the name of cakes worked on a game for four years.
Starting point is 00:14:24 He released it. And of course he live streamed it because he's a streamer, Obviously, why wouldn't he? And he started selling copies instantly. I mean, he was so shocked by it. You could see it in the clip that he was so shocked to see his game succeed. And it just gets better and better for him. He broke down into tears because he had such a great, you know, community backing him.
Starting point is 00:14:46 And clearly they'd watched him work on this game for so long. It's so great to see a payoff like that. I think, like, now he's up to like $245,000 in sales. so he's set. Geez, good for him. Yeah. Heck yeah. Fantastic.
Starting point is 00:15:02 The game is a tower defense roguelike, which people love tower defense games. I like that movie. Yeah, me too. If you've heard of Blunes, Blunes is a very popular tower defense game. It's basically that, but as a rogue like. Yeah, this, I, so I actually, I had seen these headlines, and then just today, I actually watched the videos of the guy, and it's just heartwarming, dude. Number one, he seems like a really genuine guy.
Starting point is 00:15:25 You know, and it, and it does. The first video is, he, he's, him like opening up his steam, which honestly was really cool to see like the back side of the the steams. Yeah. Yeah. This is how developers actually track their sales and income and stuff like that because we don't get a glimpse into that. Um, so that was really cool. And then yeah, the dude had sold, he had sold like 3,300 copies and they were like 10 bucks a piece. And so he made like $31,000 after some cuts. Yeah, it was like $31,000 like that. And his wife is or is there and she's super excited and she's jumping up and down. And he kind of gets a.
Starting point is 00:15:57 emotional for a little bit. And then there's a second video where he is about to click it. And he clicks it. And that's when he sees that the game has made like two, I think it was $260,000. And then he breaks down in tears. Yeah, it's like 240,000 after taxes. Yeah, yeah, the take home or whatever. And then his wife is just ecstatic. And it's like, it's a really good heartwarming moment. And it shows the difference that, you know, people buying these indie games and wish listing these indie games and playing these indie games, it really does matter. You can make an impact on someone's life. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:34 Genuinely. And again. He's probably going to make another game. There's a reason we do this show. You know what I mean? Because we like that passion, man. We want to support that passion. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:46 I think it's important to support passion, especially for good games. And clearly he's just like us. He built a wonderful community of, you know, very positive in people who wanted to see him succeed, which is. It's always great to see to have your community back. You like that. Yeah. All right, we got a few more stories to get to, but it's going to be right after this break.
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Starting point is 00:17:43 denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at Westjet.com slash 30 years. Cheers. All right, we are back. We're talking about a game called Peglin. Have you guys ever heard of Peglin?
Starting point is 00:18:10 I had thought I heard of this game. And then I was like, I didn't think that this was the game. But then it's similar to another game. Like my wife used to play on this like online game thing called like Pogo, where it had like a whole bunch of different types of games. And there was one that was like this one where you had the little, It was like bubble bubble bubble.
Starting point is 00:18:33 Remember bubble bubble with the little dragons? I love bubble bubbles. Yeah, right. Like that's what I thought Peglin was. And then I was like, wait, maybe this isn't it. And then it kind of is like reverse bubble bubble in a way. So Peglin in the ever expanding world of roguelikes is a Plinko roguelike game. Plinko.
Starting point is 00:18:57 Okay. Not bubble bubble. One's up and the other one's up. Not bubble bubble. Yeah. It is a So we're gambling We're gambling
Starting point is 00:19:05 I'm in I'm in He's in baby Sign me up Let's go Indy game of the year Let's go It was announced
Starting point is 00:19:14 To be getting Its big 2.0 update The game's been out For like two years Now I believe And this new update Will add an act Four and a true final boss
Starting point is 00:19:22 New relics New challenges New music New progression systems Basically It's a whole new game Essentially I'm thinking about
Starting point is 00:19:29 A final boss on Plinko it's like you you do a certain amount of damage based on how much how much day right to get out here but it's great to see you know indie devs come back to their games
Starting point is 00:19:45 and keep adding content for free mind you yeah this could have easily been something they charge for not any devs they don't usually do that guys what if we make a horror based Plinko game right where it's kind of creepy you know kind of like like a coin
Starting point is 00:20:00 pusher game or like a Like a creepy, like, you know, car game in a cabin or something like that. Has anyone done a pinball rogly? That's what I'm saying, dude. This is untapped. What? Bro, I bet we could get $100,000 in funding easy for this. The bad part is you could.
Starting point is 00:20:18 I know, that's what I'm saying. Let's make a scary plinkgo game, guys. Scary Plinko. Yeah. Oh, my God. We'll just call it scary Plinko. No, dude, you got a some catcher than that. Come on.
Starting point is 00:20:30 But yeah, it's cool to see people. come back to this game hopefully do you think it's been too long though it's two years too long to wait for a major update like this I'm gonna be honest Ace I didn't know this game even existed so two years is way too long no I mean
Starting point is 00:20:46 wait like I mean you just added the final boss to your game two years later for a game like this I'm gonna say that's too long because this doesn't look like it was super hard same GTA 6 man like two years is a long time.
Starting point is 00:21:04 You're going to dunk on Peglin? It looks so cute and wholesome. I, that's a couple adjectives I probably wouldn't have used for this, but, you know. You know what, we're moving on from Peglin now. You guys don't get to talk about Peglin anymore. It's too good for you. Fair enough. This next story is also pretty wholesome.
Starting point is 00:21:25 This story's crazy, dude. Yeah. This is kind of crazy as well. two indie devs release their game days apart and just so happened to name their game the exact same name
Starting point is 00:21:38 that name being peace by piece now what what do you think would happen just off the top of your head if two devs did this somebody's getting sued somebody's getting sued
Starting point is 00:21:50 they're fighting to the death I want it all yeah how dare you steal my name I have the copyright yeah what are the odds of this first of all.
Starting point is 00:21:59 That's what I want to know. Like what are the... Two days apart with the exact same game. I mean, it's, it's March right now. We have March Madness going on. Everybody, you know, the last bracket was cracked, uh, I think within the 32 or the 16. But like, it's astronomical for that. I feel like this would be even more.
Starting point is 00:22:20 So like two game developers developing a game that they named the same and launched within two days. Yeah. insane. And insane coincidence. They're very different games. Different. Different.
Starting point is 00:22:33 Different. Very different. With a hundred levels. And then the other one is a cozy repair shop sim. They're completely different games. But apparently, people didn't realize that they were different. And so people were buying one thinking they were getting the other one. And they'd be like, what is this?
Starting point is 00:22:54 Yeah, pretty much. They were just like, uh, what's this? Guys. Hold on. We should make a game called Red Dred Red Red redemption too. Oh, no, we will get sued. See, they have money to see people. See, little Indie Devs.
Starting point is 00:23:08 They have, they actually have Rockstar. That's the difference between a AAA company and an indie developer. Yeah. These two indie devs, instead of going for one another's throats, trying to pull each other's games down, they work together with one another. They said, hey, let's do something cool since we both thought this name was great. and they bundled their games together on Steam for you to buy. Yeah, and they had a good time with it. They said that they were laughing about it.
Starting point is 00:23:34 They've been in conversation. This is how, honestly, this is how the world should resolve its differences and just say, hey, dude, what are the chances? Oh, my goodness, ha-ha. Now let's figure out how to make this work for us, which I love. Like, honestly, like, I would say, go support these devs just for the fact that they were able to laugh at this situation. You know, come to a mutual agreement that honestly benefits games.
Starting point is 00:23:56 gamers at the same time because if you buy the package, you get the games for cheaper than you would have if you bought them in. You get a discount and you get two games. Right. Yeah. Pretty good. But yeah, we love to see that. How do you know which one on your desktop? Yeah, that's a good question.
Starting point is 00:24:09 How do you know which ones? Go by a logo. It's just a logo. It's just you let the, you let fate decide. Well, what am I playing today? A cozy repair sim or a platformer? Yeah. But yeah, I love to see indie dev supporting one another.
Starting point is 00:24:23 Like, I've specifically pointed out before, like, on X. A lot of the times we'll see indie devs announce the release of their game. And then we look in the comments and it's just all the devs that we've seen over the years is supporting them, cheering them on. Yeah. And I've always found that really awesome. It is. All right. We do have one release here that is coming out this month that I want to talk about.
Starting point is 00:24:43 It's a little game called Project Songbird. This is a horror game. Very similar. People are calling this the horror life is strange game, which I don't know if you guys have played those games at all. I have not. So I saw this reference and then I went, I don't, I hadn't played Life is strange, so I don't get the reference. Completely fine. I think this game looks decent, though.
Starting point is 00:25:05 I think it looks great, actually. Yeah, no. Yeah, I can tell where it gets its influences from, you know, like PT with the revolving hallways and never ending corridors and things like that. It's got the influences from Alan Wake where the whole point of Allen Wake was he went out to this cabin in the town or whatever to write his novel because he couldn't focus. and she's going out to this cabin to write her music because she can't focus. And it seems like it's going to have a really dark, interesting narrative with music tying into it.
Starting point is 00:25:33 It seems very interesting. And I might actually pick it up on release. Yeah. It takes a good trailer for like a, especially an indie horror game to kind of get my attention. But this one, it had enough going for it that I was like, you know,
Starting point is 00:25:47 this actually looks like it's probably going to be pretty good. Doesn't this release like on the 26th? I'm pretty sure. looking that up. Yeah, March 26th, this will come out. Yeah, so literally the day this episode airs is the day that it is released. Yeah, this game will be available to you. And not only will it be available on PC, it'll be available on PS5 and Xbox.
Starting point is 00:26:07 Good for them. Oh, wow. There's something there. Same day. Yeah. That's cool. That's pretty awesome. If you love horror games, you love first person horror, like, you know, in the style of the newer Resident Evil's, this probably is going to speak to you. It's just scary, though. Oh, it's terrifying. The sound the gun makes is like, crazy, that pop. Yeah. And, uh, all right.
Starting point is 00:26:28 We got one last story. Real quick. This game also looks like it has that kind of slow discovery. Like it doesn't start off as horror. It just kind of devolves. Yeah. Which I'm a fan of as well. Like where it's like, because that would be what you would expect, right? Like what the heck is going on?
Starting point is 00:26:42 And then it's like, oh my gosh. Like it does it. I think it's going to be a good like indie horror game. Like it envelopes you. The horror like you get in their world and then it just like surrounds you And all of a sudden you're like, instead of just, Oh, where, where am I? Oh my God, I know.
Starting point is 00:26:58 Yeah. It's going to have that silent hill effect of where the narrative haunts the story just as much as the monsters, I feel. And that's, that's going to work really well. If it pulls, if they could pull it off. I don't feel like we've had a really great indie horror in a while. So I'd love to see this succeed, you know, outside of, you know, the basic indie horrors, as people called them last time I brought them off. But we're moving on to Josh's face.
Starting point is 00:27:23 favorite genre, his favorite trend in gaming. We're talking about friend slop, which not my, not my term. That's actually what they call it. That's just called friend slop. Josh's favorite devs, the peak devs, had something to say about the creation of friendslop as they plead for indie devs to eschew their traditional development systems that don't work for them and chase that friend slop fad before it's too late. So how do you feel here in that, Josh?
Starting point is 00:27:53 Number one, I love just brutal honesty from people. And so, you know, PR speak really gets on my nerves because it's like, bro, just say what you think. Like, we're all adults, you know. Oh, agro crab absolutely says what they think. And that's honestly, so respect to the peak devs, I just don't like their game. But like, I got nothing against the devs themselves. And they're all filthy rich now. So kudos to them.
Starting point is 00:28:15 But I honestly love just like this just point blank honesty in the industry that says, look, man, if you guys are doing this and somebody wants a paycheck, make a friend slap game. They're easy to program. They're cheap to sell. People buy them because they tell their friends right away and you need other people to play with. You can make a gazillion dollars if it catches on. And most of the foundation is already there and been proven.
Starting point is 00:28:41 So like, why not? Now, I will say this. The problem is that I think that this wave is already kind of cresting a little bit. Because who was that game that we played where you, you had to dig up the graves. Dig, dig, die. Wasn't it dig, dig die? I'm pretty sure.
Starting point is 00:28:57 I think that was the name of it. I thought we weren't going to bring. That was one of those ones where we got a key. It was like, it was a bad game. Yeah. Well, sorry. But as a good example,
Starting point is 00:29:06 like that was somebody trying to make a friend slop game that just did not work. It was like, there's nothing about a million of those. Exactly, Ryan. There's a million of them. So it's like. Peak sold, though. Over 10 million.
Starting point is 00:29:22 Over 10 million. Over 10. million. Good for that. A million. That's so much money. Yeah. That's so much money.
Starting point is 00:29:30 And just think, like you said, just think about the amount of people who just, like, had a friend group, they bought it for themselves. They got all their friends to play it. I mean, we all bought it, even if we don't all know play it. Josh didn't like it, but it was fun. It was a fun friend. I can appreciate why it just wasn't for me. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:45 No, no. And that's fair. That's fair that it's not your style. But like, like, so many people like that, like just group activity. I think as long as you're being innovative with friend slop, it's fine. Like, I think that's perfectly fine. If you just have to catch on, man, that's the thing. Because these games are like eight bucks, dude.
Starting point is 00:30:03 I think that is the most like approachable part of it is that I want to call them throwaway games that's, that kind of comes with like a negative connotation. But I mean, so does friend slop. But it's like this is the game. I didn't name it that you play for four hours on a Friday or Saturday. you laugh, you have a great time, and then you throw it away because it doesn't have any kind of lasting,
Starting point is 00:30:26 staying power to it. But that's not a negative. If I paid $8 for four hours worth of entertainment, I got a smoking deal. You know what I mean? Like, honestly, especially if I'm getting to play with friends at the same time,
Starting point is 00:30:40 like, I get why it works. If you start trying to charge $20, $30, $40 for these kind of games, like, then they're not going to work. Like, just play on simple. It's because these games work because they're cheap. They're at the right price point for what they offer. For a week in a fun and then you just move on to something else and something better slash new.
Starting point is 00:31:00 And what the developers basically said is the financial and mental payoff that resulted in working on a game like this. You know, maybe it's not going to sell as well as Peek did, but it felt good to have that freedom of development and to just make something you enjoy making. Here's the problem. We're getting copycats. And again, like here, the, if they're the biggest issue. you dude is like whereas people are just copying each other somebody come up with a friend slap game that has something new to it and then you know like peak it was the first climbing game it was co-op climbing nobody had done that before you know and then because every single game was lethal company or repo
Starting point is 00:31:36 what's the video one uh content warning you know and then we had headliners and like everybody's doing that lutes do monsters and aliens that kill you and you have to try to take pictures of them and it's like okay, like come up with something new. And then Pete comes out and goes, co-op climbing? And the world went, whiz-a-h. Co-op climbing. Like, yay. I like climbing.
Starting point is 00:31:58 Yeah. And then you know you had RV there yet where somebody went, what if we just have to drive an RV? And then the world went, like, yeah, we want to drive an RV. So it's like, just try something new. It doesn't always work. Like somebody might have gone,
Starting point is 00:32:13 what if we robbed graves? And then we went, eh, eh. That didn't work, you know, so. And sometimes you go too far and you make a friend slop game about trying to find a bathroom in a haunted house so you don't poop yourself. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, at least give them credit, man. They're going for something. They're really going for it.
Starting point is 00:32:34 And I kind of want, I can't wait to go over that game eventually. And one last final bit of news here. It's basically, might be a nothing burger. It could be something big is big for me. I love this series. a game called One Shot. It's having its nine year anniversary. It is a pillar of indie games and sort of what was built upon later with a cult following.
Starting point is 00:32:55 They have some big news coming out March 27th. Could be a sequel. Could be meaningless merch. God, I hope it's a sequel. Is it going to be two shot? A two shot. Are they going to update the graphics? I, no, Ryan.
Starting point is 00:33:13 Listen. Listen, listen, I was told, I was told we cannot pick on one shot. It is too sacred in the indie world. It's kind of like undertail, right? Like, you know. Will they get us? It will they get us? So just, we'll talk offline, Ryan.
Starting point is 00:33:27 But certain games were not allowed to talk about. We'll talk crap about woodshot when Ace leaves. But yeah, that is all our indie news for the month. You guys excited for anything that I mentioned? Like, are you guys interested in Project Somberg? I am interested. I don't know when I'll play it, but it actually looks like a good
Starting point is 00:33:49 game. I'll, you know what I'm actually going to go wishlist it. Here, I'm wish listing it right now, actually, because I think the game deserves that. I probably won't play it, but you know what? We do do what you can do to help the devs. If you see a game that you think is worthwhile, you can wishlist it very easily. It helps them out a lot. You're not obligated to buy it. Cost you know, but this game, this game looks like it's going to be a good one. So, yeah. I would agree. So, and just for anyone who's curious, the games we mentioned today, we didn't go over any new releases or anything like that,
Starting point is 00:34:20 technically. But we had Tangy Tower Defense, Peglin, piece by piece, and piece by piece. And of course, Project Songbird at the very end there. And of course, one shot, if you haven't played one shot, you probably have no interest, but you should do it anyway. I had to, I'm not getting, Ryan, I had to ask Ace, because Ace was talking about this. And I was like, is this an anime? and then he was like, he was like, bro.
Starting point is 00:34:45 And then I was like, no, I mean, it sounds like an anime. And he was like, oh my gosh, you idiot. And then Ace just shook his head. He was just like, Josh, this is like a pillar of the indie games. Hopefully. Hopefully I will get some supplemental content about one show. I watched the video and then I just shook my head. And then he shook his head and then that was it.
Starting point is 00:35:03 Then we understood that we will never see eye to eye on certain things. But Josh, it's a pillar. What do you mean? It is a pillar. You will not talk down about one shot. This is why I say, Ryan? I was defending it. I said it's a pillar.
Starting point is 00:35:19 That's it. Well, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us five stars. Leave us a review. If you haven't already, if you're on Spotify, leaves a comment. If any of these games look dangerous to you, leave us coming on Spotify. We'd love to know. Or if you just have something funny you want to say, because we might actually read it on the show. Because we've been reading them and giggling to ourselves recently.
Starting point is 00:35:37 We've decided we're probably going to start doing like a funny comment of the week on the show. if somebody gives us a really creative one. So leave us the comments and there's a chance we might include it on an episode here in the future. Yeah, that just might happen. And if you want to go to that extra mile and support us, the way that indie devs also need some support, we could use a little support too. We have a Patreon.
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