We're proud to present the final installment of our over-a-year-long Into the Depths series on Caves of Qud, as well as our last episode with our recently retired Eggplant branding. Caves of Qud is a massive open-world roguelike RPG that has been in development since 2007 and Early Access since 2015, and we give it an appropriately epic sendoff with nearly four hours of deep discussion. Doug and Rob, joined by special guest host Star St. Germain, dive into the game's finale and overarching themes with narrative designer Caelyn Sandel and co-creators Jason Grinblat and Brian Bucklew. Be warned, major spoilers await: We discuss the aftermath of the Tomb of the Eaters, the Moon Stair, the [Redacted], Reclamation, We Are [Redacted], plus other juicy details about how this legendary game finally came to an end… and what's in store for it next. Audio edited by Dylan Shumway. Discussed in this episode: Brian's must-follow bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/unormal.bsky.social Warm static – Official Caves of Qud wiki https://wiki.cavesofqud.com/wiki/Warm_static Independent Games Summit: What Even is 1.0?: Indefinite Early Access and Live Development https://gdcvault.com/play/1035081/Independent-Games-Summit-What-Even End-to-End Procedural Generation in Caves of Qud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV-DZqdKlnE Tile-Based Map Generation using Wave Function Collapse in 'Caves of Qud' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdCgi9E90jw Caves of Qud Discord https://discord.com/invite/cavesofqud Eris – Girsh Illustration https://www.reddit.com/r/cavesofqud/comments/1n449aw/girsh_qas_and_qon/ A Mythopoetic Interface Reading of Caves of Qud (Roguelike Celebration 2025) https://www.youtube.com/live/UQNfH9pKWd4?si=jFy9VTRZzLPJHn4W&t=1091 Sproggiwood https://store.steampowered.com/app/311720/Sproggiwood/ Slav Epic Paintings by Alphonse Mucha https://www.muchafoundation.org/en/gallery/themes/theme/slav-epic https://secretlives.games/ https://bsky.app/profile/secretlivesofgames.bsky.social https://www.youtube.com/eggplantshow http://discord.gg/tslog https://www.patreon.com/tslog (full rebrand still in progress, lol)
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All Systems Brough - Introduction
We're joined by Frank Lantz (Q-UP) and Mare Sheppard + Raigan Burns of Metanet (N++) for the first episode of All Systems Brough, a year-long exploration of the work of Michael Brough. We share our thoughts on why Michael's oeuvre demands a deep dive, add some historical context, and share the plan for the year ahead. We also introduce a (final?) rebrand to the podcast! Next episode: 868-HACK (it's also recommended that you start playing Vesper.5 now to prepare for later) (Tentative) Episode/play order: 868-HACK Vertex Dispenser Zaga-33 Vesper.5 Corrypt Kompendium (plus digital archiving of O) BECOME A GREAT ARTIST IN JUST 10 SECONDS Helix (plus SMESPORT) Imbroglio Cinco Paus P1 Select (plus Quinzena maybe?) & Broughlike Game Jam Games 868-BACK (caveat: still in development) Audio edited by Dylan Shumway Discussed in this episode: Michael Brough's Website https://www.smestorp.com/ Michael O'Blivion's Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@michael_oblivion Flock https://annapurnainteractive.com/en/games/flock Wilmot's Warehouse Boardgame https://www.cmyk.games/products/wilmot Q-UP https://store.steampowered.com/app/3730790/QUP/ Donkeyspace (Frank's Substack) https://franklantz.substack.com/ The Beauty of Games https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262552950/the-beauty-of-games/ Metanet Software https://www.metanetsoftware.com/about-us N++ https://nplusplus.org/ PRACTICE 2015: Mare Sheppard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBCDeMl4VwY FTL https://subsetgames.com/ftl.html Sylvie's Games https://sylvie.website/ A wild start, 41 points with no artifacts! (Cinco Paus LP ep 1) by vivafringe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-8xXBwAdG4 Droqen's website https://www.droqen.com/ Raigan's bluesky (will give away free copies of Cinco Paus on Christmas!) https://bsky.app/profile/raiganburns.bsky.social Q-UP OST https://kariomart.bandcamp.com/album/q-up-ost 868-HACK (Steam) https://store.steampowered.com/app/274700/868HACK/ Vesper.5 https://mightyvision.blogspot.com/2012/08/vesper5.html https://www.youtube.com/@thesecretlivesofgames https://discord.com/invite/tslog https://www.patreon.com/tslog
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149: Making A Meal Of It with Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson (Consume Me)
Rob, Sarah, and Doug chat with Jenny Jiao Hsia and AP Thomson about Consume Me, an award-winning autobiographical resource-management RPG about the pressure cooker of young adulthood. We discuss the game's ten-year development cycle, balancing dynamic difficulty in a game about overachievement, the complex dynamics of mining your own story, and more! Heads up: This episode includes discussion of disordered eating and religious upbringing. Audio edited by Dylan Shumway. Mentioned in this episode: Consume Me https://hexecutable.itch.io/consume-me https://store.steampowered.com/app/2359120/Consume_Me/ Prototyping Personal Experience – Jenny's talk at A MAZE 2017 https://youtu.be/iQ-PaGTr-iI?si=RIAWQMFZfMWCVCsN Papers Please by Lucas Pope https://papersplea.se/ Nina Freeman's games on itch.io https://starmaidgames.itch.io/ Triad by Anna Anthropy https://w.itch.io/triad Reigns by Nerial https://www.reignsgame.com/reigns Long Live the Queen by Hanako Games https://hanakogames.itch.io/long-live-the-queen Perfect Tides by Meredith Gran https://granulac.itch.io/perfect-tides Look Back (movie) https://www.amazon.com/Look-Back-Kiyotaka-Oshiyama/dp/B0DH5DMSRW Look Back (manga) https://www.viz.com/look-back Jenny's TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@q_dork AP's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bad_tetris/ https://eggplant.show/ https://discord.gg/eggplant https://www.patreon.com/eggplantshow https://www.youtube.com/eggplantshow
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148: Carving Out Some Time with Adam Robinson-Yu (Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival)
Laura, Rob, and Sarah chat with Adam Robinson-Yu about The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival, a communal and virtual festival experience hosted every ~October for the last six years. We discuss the logistics of running a seasonal multiplayer game, encouraging emergent interactions through limited tools, highlighting pumpkin artistry, expressing embodiment in digital space, building secrets over time, and more! NOTE: If you want to avoid spoilers of this year's additions to the game, skip the section from 1:12:40 to 1:22:00! Audio edited by Dylan Shumway Discussed in this episode: Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival https://adamgryu.itch.io/pumpkin-carver Laura E. Hall's 31 Days of Halloween newsletter https://buttondown.com/31daysofhalloween Adam's Itch https://adamgryu.itch.io/ Adam's Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/adamgryu.bsky.social https://eggplant.show/ https://discord.gg/eggplant https://www.patreon.com/eggplantshow https://www.youtube.com/eggplantshow
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147: Digging Deep with The Roottrees are Dead
Laura chats with Jeremy Johnston and Robin Ward about The Roottrees are Dead, their genealogy, murder-mystery, "static deduction" game. We discuss the development process of taking a jam prototype to full release, developing hints and systems that lead players to satisfying discoveries, and the taxonomy of games like The Roottrees are Dead and The Return of the Obra Dinn. Spoilers abound, so consider playing the game first before tuning in. Audio edited by Dylan Shumway Discussed in this episode: The Roottrees are Dead (Steam) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2754380/The_Roottrees_are_Dead/ The Roottrees are Dead (itch.io – Global Game Jam entry) https://jjohnstongames.itch.io/the-roottrees-are-dead Return of the Obra Dinn https://store.steampowered.com/app/653530/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn/ Outer Wilds https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/ Her Story https://store.steampowered.com/app/368370/Her_Story/ Family https://owlskip-games.itch.io/family Type Help https://william-rous.itch.io/type-help The Rise of the Golden Idol https://store.steampowered.com/app/2716400/The_Rise_of_the_Golden_Idol/ Blue Prince https://store.steampowered.com/app/1569580/Blue_Prince/ Severance https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx White Lotus https://www.max.com/shows/white-lotus/14f9834d-bc23-41a8-ab61-5c8abdbea505 Righteous Gemstones https://www.max.com/shows/righteous-gemstones/c3bd0a34-c4ce-4ca5-bd6c-820df7340671 Announcement: Eggplant Plays De Mol (2025 Season) https://eggplant.show/announcing-eggplant-plays-de-mol-2025-season The Genius (Korean Game Show) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Genius_(TV_series) Robin Ward's blog (links to socials included) https://eviltrout.com/ The Roottrees are Dead Discord server https://discord.com/invite/Z6Y5sE9Dgt https://eggplant.show/ https://discord.gg/eggplant https://www.patreon.com/eggplantshow
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