Welcome to Big Game Hunger, a show where me and a guest craft the big next game every episode.We'll be taking three random ingredients and blending them together into one incredible game.I'm Jenna Stieber, and I crave content.
And I'm joined by Lily Alexander.Lily, who are you, and what do you have a hunger for?
Hi Jenna, I am Lily Alexander, as you so well put it.I make video essays on the internet about the tech industry and whatever art I'm digging lately.I will often talk about gender, although I feel like I've just, I've kind of covered that.
You've said everything you gotta say about gender.
Like weirdly, maybe. And it took like a year.Yeah, no, you're right.Yeah.So I'm kind of trying to find my next move now.But anyway, what I crave?Oh, and do I ever crave it?Hunger for?What I hunger for?
What do you have a hunger for?
I want us to bring back Technicolor.I think movies in Technicolor are just the most beautiful things I've ever seen.And even if we can make movies that look like that, it seems like we're choosing not to anymore.
Yeah, I have thoughts, mostly negative about the way movies are color graded and filmed and lit these days.And I appreciate that in a way it's never been easier to make media, but in a way, it's never been easier to make bad media.
That's really it.I mean, it's easy to make something on a low budget, but even things with the budget don't seem like they're interested in using it.
I quite often watch the X-Files because I love the X-Files.And it is remarkable to see the skill with which they are lit and the use of shadows and lighting in it.And it's just like they were cranking these out one a week for months.
And this is the skill that they did it with.Whereas Netflix shows have an endless amount of time, not an endless amount of budget.I don't think they're getting much budget, but it's just like, no, where's the art?That's it.
It's all just, I'm going to do the thing that everyone does.It's just content now.
What a thing for a content creator. Do you say that you're a content creator?I know there's been a kind of a pushback against that term recently.Do you still use it?
Someone asked me this mere minutes ago, and I wasn't sure how to answer.I mean, it's certainly not inaccurate.And I feel like a lot of us complaining about it can be a little self-aggrandizing.I want to accept my position here.
I make videos on YouTube for a living.I think if I'm not super tied to the content of it all in that I think if I was doing this in a different time, I would be like, maybe I would host a radio show or write articles for a newspaper or whatever.
And so the thing of it being internet content for me is pretty incidental.And I think that's what keeps me like, excited about it.
I'm trying not to think about how will the algorithm receive this, you know, which is good because it's impossible to know.
It's impossible.Yeah, you can never guess it.And you'll drive yourself crazy trying.And you'll end up making weird schlock like react videos because those do well in the algorithm.But that is that is capital C content.That's not art.
That's not intellectual.It's not essays, right?That's how I feel.
Sure, yeah, I felt very validated in my choice to do this one.So there is a very prestigious French cinema that reached out to me a year or two ago, asking if they could screen something that they assumed I had created.
And because they were asking me, I also assumed it was something I had created.I made this half hour video about the first basically filmed kiss back in the 1800s, which was incidentally between two ladies.
And they assumed that I was responsible for like, basically restoring it.And so they wanted to use the actual thing and not my thing.But for those couple weeks before I figured it out, man, I was on top of the world.
Oh, that is a shame.Cinema in St.Louis recently did an airing of The Wicker Man, and I had the exact opposite, where I wanted to reach out and be like, I care a lot about this.Can I be involved?But then I was like, no, that's crazy.
There's no, no, no.You know, they're already doing it.They're airing it.If I had come to them and been like, what if I hosted an airing of The Wicker Man?They already knew, though.They knew it was a great movie and that they were going to show it.
For sure.It's totally fine.
Yeah.This is the original Wicker Man from the 70s?
Yes, but it's the most recent.They did a full restoration, like 4K upscaling, really, really intensified the colors of it.Speaking of Technicolor, and it was gorgeous.It was so much juicier and more lush than the previous versions.
They're showing this at my local theater.I saw a trailer for it last night and I'm very intrigued.Does it get the Jenna vouch?
Oh, 100 is genuinely my favorite movie.It's incredible.I highly, highly recommend seeing it on the big screen.
Oh, dude, that's awesome.I've been wanting to dip my toes into horror a little bit.
And my, my partner, my fiance, I should say, wants me to introduce thank you, wants me to introduce them to a single horror movie that I think will be like, that will not scare them off. I haven't seen this one, but I've heard so much about it.
I saw this as a trailer for The Substance, which I'm glad I did not bring them along to.
No.And that is if I wanted to scare someone off a horror movie, I would show them The Substance.Oh, man. I mean, the Wicker Man, the original Wicker Man has often been described as less of a horror and more of a mystery or even a musical.
In fact, that's what the creators argue that it is like a mystery musical, which is very funny to me because I would agree for like 95% of the movie.Oh, I'm so going to this.
Yeah, I think that makes it a great option if you're slowly getting into horror.I think it's a really good place to start.Sick. You said you've been reading a lot of books recently.What are some of the stuff you've been reading?
I have spent the last year or so looking for this novel that does not seem like it's super popular, let alone in Canada.But I picked it up for like seven bucks in a used bookstore in Albany.And it is just maybe the best novel I've ever read.
I'm just adoring it.Really? Yeah, so it's called The Salt Eaters.It's by Toni Cade Bambara, who is a favorite of mine.She didn't write many books.She was mostly a political activist trying to reach people through her art.
And she eventually realized that movies were her preferred way to do that.But she wrote basically one or two novels.This is one of them.It is about... Man, what the hell is it about?
about a Black community in the South in the 70s trying to affect change and having all sorts of different conflicting ideas about doing that, trying to get in touch with their ancestral ways of healing from things.
And the thing that it does is it switches maybe every paragraph between perspectives.So you get the voice of the entire town.Interesting.Yeah.
And it's written in this extremely dense, almost halfway to Ulysses kind of prose that is just really, really fun to read out loud.I was reading some to my partner in the car as we drove home.Yeah.Oh my God, I've been so annoying about it.
I highly recommend this book.
That sounds, I mean, that's a really interesting structure for a novel because I know some people have argued that the singular perspective of a novel in its own way replicates the sort of great man narrative that is so overwhelming in American culture and a lot of Western cultures.
And so the idea of trying to create a collective voice by like alternating each paragraph a different voice is a really interesting way of doing that.How does it communicate who is speaking, or are they all kind of anonymous?
Well, there's not that much dialogue is the thing.It is mostly like, so every chapter is basically a single scene, and then you get to know a little bit about everyone in the room.
And it's essentially just what they're thinking, what their lives have been like to this point, and how that changes, like how they feel about whatever is happening. There's an argument on a bus.That's the chapter I just read.
You understand why everyone is so heated about this and where everyone on the bus is going.There's a handful of lines of dialogue, but it's mostly just about how everyone is processing the moment.
It's very much about trauma and being activated and stuff.It just feels like such a cool way to get into that headspace.
I'm fascinated.I'm gonna have to check this out.I just finished Moby Dick.It's kind of just who I am now as a person is I'm just a person who has read Moby Dick and is gonna bring it up in every possible moment I can until people
are just sick of it and then here we go, this is happening now.But now I'm like, I've got this movie dick sized hole in my heart, which is quite large.
So I'm looking for my next like large time investment of a novel and maybe this one, maybe this one is it.Although you said you had a hard time finding it, is that, am I gonna have to find this like online?
I get the feeling.I mean, it just wasn't in the local bookstores that I go to.But Canada is monopolized by a single bookstore chain that happens to be evil.So I happen to be boycotting.
So I've been going to these really tiny bookstores that just like, wouldn't reasonably carry it, you know, I imagine they'll have it at a Barnes and Noble or, or whatever. Yeah, definitely if you're looking for your next big thing.
I've been reading this for two weeks and I'm 100 pages in.Because I will read like half a chapter at a time.So if you're looking for like something a little more readable, I would look elsewhere.
No, I just got done reading Moby Dick.I don't know if I've mentioned it. I would use so many words to describe Moby Dick.I don't know if like, easy to read would be amongst those descriptions.Sure, sure.
Reading that book is sort of like spending a year on a whaling boat if I had to come up with a metaphor.Brutal. It's so rewarding at the end of it, but it is quite a long journey.
Lily, do you like to play games?Video games, board games, card games?
I do, especially video games.I am a very casual board gamer as well.I'll play whatever's around, you know, but yeah, I would call myself a pretty avid lowercase g gamer.
Okay, and what do you have like a favorite genre or a favorite game?
You know, I was thinking about that this morning.
And I think how it works for me is there are two completely non overlapping kinds of games, which I like, which is the like head empty total flow state fun, like Tetris, or I've been playing a lot of bilateral lately.Oh, yeah.Oh, yeah.
And on the other on the other hand, you got like, I also recently finished like Disco Elysium.I got like Kentucky Route Zero.They're really dense things that aren't even like necessarily enjoyable to play.
But like, man, I think about them for like months afterwards.You know?Yeah.Art games.Art games.Totally.So right now I'm splitting my time between Bellatro on my phone, which, oh, dangerous, and Norco, which is wonderful.
Okay, I've heard really good things about Norco.It was one of those games where it was like it came out and I was like, oh, I should really play that.And then the year switched over and I was like, well, I don't get a backlog.That's not my job.
My job is to play games when they come out.If it slips into the backlog, sometimes it just never happens.Just gone forever.I get that.Yeah, I get you. Yeah.
Then I'm curious to see how that's going to interact with the things we get on the ingredient list.So are you ready to go to the ingredient list?I am so ready, Jenna.Let's do it.All right.
In this segment, I pick out three options from my prompt list, an adjective, and a premise, and a type of gameplay based on my 3D20.So let me roll my 3D20 and see what we get. Our first prompt comes from Kaylee Rowena, former guest.Thank you, Kaylee.
And that adjective is epislatory.So something told via letters a la Dracula.The premise, oh, this is interesting.The premise comes from a Patreon subscriber, Alice.Thank you, Alice, for this good prompt and for being a subscriber.
And it is reading of a will.Interesting vibe with epislatory.Yeah. And the type of gameplay also comes from a Patreon subscriber, Reginald Excellent, thank you, an excellent, excellent username.And that is for the playdate.
Are you familiar with the playdate?
I am familiar with the Playdate, and wow, that gives us some real things to work with here.Should we explain what the Playdate is?Or do you think people are familiar?
No, we should explain it because I think it's going to be pretty important for whatever game we make.The Playdate is a tiny, tiny little console.I mean, it's just minute.It's like the size of maybe half the size of your cell phone.
And it has a crank on the side, and the crank is one of the main ways that you engage with the games that are on it.And it also comes out with games, basically when you get a playdate, you get new games unlocked every week or so, you get a new game.
It's just a fun little weird little indie console, pocket-sized, and it looks like candy to me.That's how I feel about the playdate.
I feel like we were really blessed with those first two, just that those seem to work really well together.I feel like I have both involve letters, writing.Yes, text. Yeah, very natural.And you mentioned to me that it doesn't need to be a video game.
I video games are definitely what I know the most about.But I think this would also be interesting as a tabletop role playing game.
A letter based tabletop role playing game that would be fun.Have you ever played any epistolatory based games? Have you ever played like a mail-based game?
To be honest with you, I did not know such a thing existed.Do you do any come to mind?
There's a whole type of game where it is like something you get sent every like week or every month, you'll get sent another letter.And they're not, I would say they're not really games.
They're almost like short stories that you're getting sent based on letters as though somebody somewhere were sending you letters.I've only done it once. And it wasn't great because there was some sort of backup.
And so I got like two letters and then no letters for a few months.And then I got like seven letters at once.I was like, okay, this is a good in concept, but it didn't quite work out.I love the idea of it.
Are you imagining a tabletop RPG where you're like actively writing a will or a letter or something like that?
Man, that's a great question.I think that might be a little, I feel like that would slow down the momentum at a table, you know, if you actually have to like choose your words that carefully, if you have that level of control.
But maybe it's like role for your tone, or you like a bit of a Mad Libs thing. Um, you just you can decide whether to respond in amenable or hostile ways.I actually think a will negotiation is like, that is so good.Like that.
There's so much opportunity for conflict and backstabbing there.Yes.
I love reading, sometimes you can get like books of old authors who write letters to each other, and I love reading those because oftentimes there will be really shocking tonal stuff in it where it's just like, wow, you were really angry this person, but you did still sit down and write them a letter.
Or like, oh wow, this is a really horny letter. The vibes you can get off the letters are really fun.I love the idea of something that maybe it ends with the reading of a will.
And so maybe it's like you're trying to bargain with somebody, like your brothers and sisters or something, or like your parents to like, try to tonally get the right place so that you get the most stuff in the will.Maybe that's grim.
I actually think that's excellent.And I think so.Because I've been thinking maybe you are the attorney and you play through and there are multiple will readings throughout, but I actually love the idea that it is
it could also be a single person has died and the replay factor comes from playing from different perspectives.
You get to play as the ex-wife who argues, I had this home with him for 20 years and we raised our kids together and don't I deserve this and this?Or you could be the new mistress and say, well, he promised me such and such.What I like about that is
it would sort of wash away the idea that any one party is the good guy or righteous.As you sort of work through different characters, just the idea of a will negotiation incentivizes you to be a cruel and conniving person.
And I think anyone could be made worse by it if they don't keep themselves in check.
Yeah, especially if there's quite a lot on the line, money or house or property wise.This is sort of making me think of, have you seen Knives Out?Yes, I have.Love Knives Out.Love Knives Out.
There is sort of the vibe here where it's like you're, I love this phrase that you've come up with, which I don't think is a thing, but will negotiation.This is so funny to me.You're right.
I just love the idea of somebody being like, okay, I'm gonna die soon.Who wants it?Who wants it the most?I love the idea of having to like, send in a letter to be like, I definitely love you the most kind of this is also kind of a King Lear vibe.
is like, I totally, totally love you the most.And I'm going to do the most in your name with your money when you die.Like, I like the idea of having to do stuff like that, even though it is like inherently quite grim.
It totally is.But like, so much chance for humor and deceit.And I just, yeah, I'm gonna say it again.This just feels like a gift.I I do think the deceased, whether they have died yet or not when the game begins, should be a very wealthy person.
Should be a person who's maybe made some enemies in their life, who are maybe re-entering the picture now and trying to cozy up.Trying to be there for the family in this difficult time.
if we are to have multiple people contesting, there should be a couple kids, there should be a spouse and maybe an ex or like a new flame.I think there should be some business partners and then maybe a wild card.I'm not certain.
Who else could we throw in there?Secret child? Secret Child is good.Long Lost Sibling is good.Ooh, I love Long Lost Sibling.
They're the one where like you need to play all the other characters through once to unlock them.And you're just wondering like, is it true?Because maybe this is a person who is extremely charming and convincing, but it seems like it's like nonsense.
I love the idea that there's a mystery in this structure and you play through once and there will be like hints at stuff that you're like well that doesn't that you know that doesn't really make sense but then you play through and you unlock
the secret sister.And you have to be like, oh, okay, it doesn't you know what, there was a part of the family tree that was burned.I guess it could have been burned to hide them, but maybe not.
Oh, that's good.I also like the idea of because of course, you're not just, you know, sending out letters, you're also receiving and I like the idea of doing some forensic work to deduce
people's intentions based on, you know, like, what kind of paper are they using?Does it have some interesting insignia on it that would indicate that they are not where they say they are?
Oh, we could check.Yeah, the postage stamps.So they can be like, I'm here in Chicago, working that internship that you got me and you're like, um, you're in Miami.So Yeah, I love mail-based fraud checking.
Oh, that is damn good.I like the idea.I mean, we won't be able to see these characters, so all we will really have of them, I think, is their handwriting, their prose style, maybe how often they write or who they write to.
There used to be, I think this is a Victorian era, it's less common than I think like the flower language that I think people know of more.
But there was a time in which before postage was quite as machine regulated now, where people would put in stamps like upside down, and that would have a different meaning, or if it was like tilted one way or the other, that would have intentionality so that the letters themselves could be relatively banal.
But then there was like codes hidden in how the stamps were used, or how the outside of the envelope was decorated that kind of hinted at other intentions.We could do a whole game based on that.
Oh, that is so cool.I wonder if there's any way to teach the player how to read those subtleties.
Yeah, yeah.We don't actually have to come up with what those are.But yeah, we could definitely, we'll just say it, we'll do that. Yeah, I think you could.I think you could absolutely because like it's feedback and it's information.
So you can always create a structure where it's like you get a letter and it has an upside down stamp and you're like, oh, OK, I'm going to respond to that with a normal upside stamp because that's how you put stamps on.
And then you get like a letter back that's just like, wow. I can't believe you put a stamp like that."You're like, okay, I misread that.Or maybe you get like a book that's half full of the stamp code, but is not complete or something like that.
I like the idea also of a character being in correspondence, maybe this is scope creeping here, but a character being not only in correspondence with the other people they're sort of trying to win
like favor with, but also like with their attorney who's advising them, you know, do not do not negotiate with this person.He, he snuck out of a business deal five years ago, and he owes me money or yeah, that kind of thing.
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This could be a sort of situation where somebody is on their deathbed, and maybe they're being watched over by somebody who is interested in keeping them from communicating fully.
And so it could be like almost a secret code game, where somebody is trying to communicate, but can't because of this watchful eye.So it could be something like that.
Oh, and then if they do eventually die, that complicates how we interpret the will because it was, you know, signed under pressure under, under influence.Yeah.
So I like the idea that they start, this person starts the game alive making arrangements and then things sort of escalate when they die and then peak when you get the final result.
Okay, so is the reading of the will like the conclusion?Is that like the screen in the game where you discover how well you've done?Like you were 10% duplicitous and 35% earnest and then.Yeah, I like that I think. Yeah.That's excellent.
I'm kind of imagining a situation where you are given a selection of words that are very charged.And you can use those in sort of a almost a Mad Lib kind of situation.What are you picturing for the actual like gameplay with the letters?
That seems like the smoothest way to do it because we don't want people to just have the opportunity to write literally whatever they like.It would be hard to parse. Yeah, yeah.We're not going to bring natural language processing into this thing.
Also, how do you even possibly write for every possible outcome?I think something along the lines of maybe you decide in some way with a binary decision, would you like to respond to this amenably or in a hostile way?
Then based on that, you get slightly different templates. Okay.It's a series of decisions, like, do you want to reveal this information?You can say different things based on what information you have previously gleaned.
I like a general Mad Libs thing, though.So I'm picturing this set in the Victorian era, where there are some real social subtleties and stuff that you or I would probably not be able to get intuitively.Yes.
And so I like the idea that just like choosing the wrong word could actually have disastrous implications for your dude, you know?
Okay, here's a pitch for the structure.Yes.You are meant to play through the game multiple times with multiple different characters.That's what I'm conceiving of.That's sort of what we've been hinting at.
But I like the idea that there's like two children, current spouse, ex spouse, one business partner, and then there's a secret character you can only get when you've played through one time.
And so you're like, all right, I'm just gonna play through as a child, we'll see.And you sort of get you get kind of an idea of some of the interactions.
You're writing to the person with the who's making the will, obviously, most of all, but you're probably sending mail letters to other people, too.
And when you get to the end, probably you did terribly, because you didn't really understand everything that was happening.
But then the more times that you play through, the more access to a complex vocabulary and a better understanding of the world you get.So by the time you're on your fourth run through, you're like, oh, I know all of this.
This kid stole this money from this person, and the ex-wife did a hostile takeover, but he doesn't know about it yet, and that sort of thing.I like the idea that it's like that.It's a quick one through, but you're expected to do it a bunch.
Yeah, yeah, maybe the game like maybe your first run takes like an hour to 90 minutes or something.I love a I love a crisp condensed kind of game like that.I what I what I really like about this idea is that
you on your first run might be given information that you just assume is true because you have no reason not to, only to find that you've been totally screwed in the final will.
And then when you play as the person who gave you that information, you understand that it's a lie and you understand why you told that lie. which is information that will benefit you in every following run, you know?
That is really fun.I love that as a structure.I also love that as we would have to have maybe an order.
Maybe you have to start as one of the children and then you sort of, maybe it is sort of the next run through you have an option of like two characters and like you slowly unlock them.
And then we can control sort of the flow of that narrative a little bit.But that is a really fun thing to be able to do to set people up to fail and then set them up to make someone else fail in the next run.It's really fun.
I think I'm almost imagining like fridge magnets, where you have like a load out, although I you kind of what you described earlier kind of made me think about like,
morality systems in games where it's like, it won't tell you what you're gonna say, but it'll be like, be sarcastic, be earnest, here's your paragon option or whatever.
And you don't know what you're actually gonna say, but you get like the vibe of what you're gonna say.
That seems like a very good way to streamline.And like, because I do think people would be thinking in those terms, they will care less about the exact word they're using and more like, oh, I want to ingratiate myself with this person.
So like be sympathetic.Yeah, I think that's great.
I love the idea of having to choose a drop down menu and select to be sympathetic.There's something inherently funny to me about that. And it would make great use of the Playdate's little crank arm.
That's where that comes in.Yeah.Let's actually talk Playdate for a moment.I think if it is an older setting, so for anyone who doesn't know, the Playdate has a one-bit screen.I think it can display exactly two colors and they are gray and other gray.
So if we're doing a 19th century thing, I think that is well suited.Totally.Maybe I'm reaching here.But I'm thinking about calligraphy, I'm thinking about different ways people type.
And maybe, you know, how you turn the crank could affect your handwriting in some way.So like a really smooth would be like a gracious cursive, where maybe you want to appear frail and unwell, and then you yank it back and forth.
That's so funny, the idea that this crank determines your handwriting, but the idea that that could have an effect on how believable your message is.
If you're like, I've got to pretend like I'm harried and I've just got to dash off a note before I run and save some orphans. Let me just make sure I'm really jittery with it.That's really funny.Man.
The other thing I was going to pitch, but I really like your idea more, but I do have to say this just to exercise it, is the idea that there is a reflex base aspect of this gameplay where you have
to try to get it down the dropdown menu to get the right emotion, where maybe the dropdown menu is scrolling and you've got to scroll the right way.And you have to be like, please, sympathetic, sympathetic, sympathetic.Oh, diabolical.No.No.
Oh, that is really fun.That's really funny, though.
It's a much different game.I like the idea of having to hit a different kind of or a different quality of handwriting with the turn crank.I think that's a really smart.
Sweet.Well, thank you.I think generally in the different playthroughs, how people write and maybe maybe the desk they write at could be an interesting bit of like character color.
You know, just at the sense like maybe someone is working from a typewriter and maybe someone else is like writing by candlelight.You know, I'm just thinking of ways to keep it not just looking at a blank page, essentially.
Yeah, I mean, I think there could be maybe you unlock options where you're like, you can spritz this one with perfume. And then that gives it kind of a different energy, or you get a pressed flower and you can put that in there.Bonuses.
This is, these are multipliers, letter multipliers.
Oh, this is phenomenal.Yeah, if you if you made a really good decision in a previous letter, you get bonus points for it, maybe.So maybe there is some feedback before the will is read.
Okay, you are obviously it is subjective, you know, whether a given thing is like, because, you know, maybe you want to piss someone off, maybe.So I don't know how we would dole out points based on good performance.But I do like the idea of
some progression in that way.It could be, I think, a seal could communicate some things.The different stamps are really interesting.Oh, that's another great use of the crank.You rotate it, you know, the stamp.Yes.
Yes.See, it's not a gimmick.It's important to the gameplay, this crank is.
Do you own a Playdate, by the way?I've wanted one since it.No way.
Lily, I'm 100% with you.I've wanted it since they've dropped it.But every time I go to the website, it's like, yep, back order it for three months.And I'm like, I want it now.And I'm too much of a baby to wait even a single month for it.
Maybe this time, maybe this time, maybe for our game, you know, I imagine it'll be their big, killer app.I think it is actually currently for sale in their store without any backorder.
Just so you know, I haven't been able to justify the purchase because it's in diabolical American dollars, but Word to the wise.
I want it.Every time I go to a PAX and they have a booth, I'm just like, do you have them?Sell it to me now.And they're like, back order it.Get it.We'll get it in one month.And I'm like, I can't.I can't wait a single month.
So instead, I've waited multiple years, which is just crazy.It's a crazy way of doing it.But maybe for Christmas.Maybe I'll get it as a Christmas gift for myself.That's a lovely idea.
Yeah, I've wanted it since I lived in my last apartment over three years ago.Like, I caught wind early, you know.And it seems like a lot of the games that I was going to sign up for are out now.You know, like the... What's the Obra Dinn guy's name?
His game for it is out.Lucas Pope, I think?Yeah.Lucas Pope.His game is like a bit of a deduction-y game as well.Of course it is.Of course it is.
Yeah, right.This will make us better at making a playdate game once we actually... have a playdate and can use it regularly.That'll really change the competency of our brainstorming.
Look, so if you want this to happen, the Kickstarter is live now.Our goal is currently $400 so we can buy two playdates.
That's step one.We'll do another Kickstarter in four to six years when we're actually ready to game dev.Oh, man.Yeah, somebody get us playdates.We're good for it.Please.We're sweet and we're cute.Please give us playdates.
Yeah.Just a little podcast voice in your phone.Yeah.Never done anything wrong.This game, what else do you think we should figure out here?
I think one thing that I think would be cool, I'm thinking again about like specific stuff we can have in the game that's letter based.
There should be a moment where you look at a letter and it seems like there's another letter underneath and you can like hold it up and see that somebody wrote on top of this another letter and that should be like a moment that you can use like reading the palimpsest of it to see what else they've been writing.
I think that's a cool thing we could do.
That's excellent. Oh, that reminds me of in North by Northwest, which, as you know, I was watching yesterday.There is a moment where the very secretive woman writes something on a notepad, then she tears the piece away.
And a beautiful gentleman, Cary Grant, comes and he looks at the indents left in the paper underneath, and he learns the info that way.Working with the physical thing of paper is a really cool idea.I wonder if there's anything else we could do there.
I mean, I wonder if there's a... Okay, this is silly.If you're writing to the soon-to-be-deceased while he is still alive, I'm saying he, it doesn't need to be he.Maybe because they are being observed, you have some sort of encode
coded message or invisible ink message that only they will know how to read.
Invisible ink is really fun.A fun concept that we can deploy however we want because it's a fictional game.All right.Yeah, I love secret codes like that.Maybe you get one.
Maybe that's something like you get in maybe the first run through, you get one that has a secret code on it, but you don't totally know how to unlock it.
So it's like one of those things where it's like, you could potentially in your first run through, if you know it's there, do that.But you won't know until you get through later run throughs that that is even a thing that you can do.Yeah.
Oh, this is cool.I love the idea that the mystery would take a couple run throughs.Like maybe once you uncover it, it says like, tell Eve to look under the floorboards in the shed, or whatever.
And then you need to, you know, tell Eve and get make sure she's being honest with you and such. I've been watching Twin Peaks.The OG, OG Twin Peaks?Yeah, for the first, the OG.I'm on season two now.This is actually also for a podcast.
My friend and I are doing a Twin Peaks pod, which has been an utter blast.And yeah, that is just a great mystery unraveling in dozens of steps.
Yeah, I quite like detective and mystery stories that do that and Twin Peaks is such a great example.
What is the name of this Twin Peaks podcast?
So the name of the Twin Peaks podcast is TSTV, which does not specifically refer to Twin Peaks because we want to you know, leave ourselves open to do future shows.TSTV stands for transsexual television.
This was this was my brilliant friend Sadie's idea.She is the co host.Yeah, she's been my my guide through the wild world.The show's not actually been announced yet.So maybe this is the first people will be hearing of it.
Okay, so there will not be a link for it.But keep an ear open.
Yes, indeed. I wonder how the suspicious person near the dying person factors into this.
Because of course, they're in a very favorable position as far as having physical access to all this person's belongings and having cared for them in their ill health is kind of how I'm imagining this.
I would love it if there was some sort of critical failure that you can do where they just take everything and run.Maybe if you overplay your hand and threaten her, she just gets freaked out and leaves.
Because this is, in my mind, a social sim about the delicate social rules of Victorian wherever. You know, you can't bluff too hard.
You can't be like, I'm going to blackmail you.I think you're poisoning my father.So I'm going to blackmail you.You can't do that.You just have to be like, wow, Papash certainly has weakened at a greater extent than even the doctors expected he would.
What if she catches on to you?Some poison has slipped into your envelope? I mean, that is a way that poison is mailed, you know.
She sends you a stationary set.What you don't realize is that the glue on the envelopes is poisonous.
And the first time you try to send a letter with it, you're just you're out of there.That was a plot point in Seinfeld, wasn't it?
Seinfeld, yeah.It surely was.It surely was.Another standard of a mystery novel is finding the typewriter that a note was written on because the typewriter has a messed up T or something like that, like it doesn't cross all the way.
So you could do something where it's like, oh, wow, both of the children are using typewriters with the same fault.They're colluding together to a greater extent than we thought they were.Yes.
That'd be fun. Oh, that is excellent.I also like the idea of characters maybe having tells that they are lying or just other ways to, you know, sort of deduce.I feel like this is now just like as complicated as the real world.
I keep like adding this like, oh, and you can deduce with this and this and this and this.But man, there's just this thing has legs.What can I say?Maybe it's a trilogy. Whoa!
Okay, so the first game is the patriarch, the second game is the matriarch, and the third game is a surprise death.It's just like the whole family dying out.
Every time I listen to the show, I get a little sad that I can't play the game.With this one, because we've forged it together, I feel like that pain is going to be even greater.
Acute, more acute than normal.
I think I need to check out a couple of these Phoenix Wright type games, a little more reasoning and suspicion type games to scratch that itch.Do you have any that you especially enjoy?
Oh, I mean Return of the Obra Dinn.I cannot recommend enough.Superb game.You played Curse of the Golden Idol?
I have, yeah.I quite liked Golden Idol.
Yeah.Cool game.The next one, they're doing a sequel and it should be, I think, coming out in like a month or two.I think it's coming out before the end of the year.Wow.
That's sort of the vibe I'm imagining where it's like not fully animated, but there will be like still scenes of you like looking down at a desk.And maybe you can like rifle through drawers and rifle through all of your stationary equipment.
And that's like a main way.I'm really conceptualizing this as a very physical game, really obsessed with like the materials and the the quills or the fancy pins that you use or your typewriter or whatever that is.
I like that a lot.I think that's really fun.And I mean, it doesn't, they don't only need to be for like directly relevant to the mystery.
It could also just be nice to like, write with a fancy quill with this lady and write with a with like a simple pen for this lady.Yeah, you know, I would love to think a little more about these characters.Maybe flesh these guys out slightly.
Who's our starter?Who's our starter character? I think it should be one of the children.So my instinct is that the children will know the least about like the family drama and mysteries.
So I'm picturing a daughter and a son, maybe one of them has gone abroad for work and has not really, like been close to the family in some years.And then I think maybe the other let's say the daughter
just has a strained relationship with the patriarch.And so maybe that's a simple enough way to introduce people to these gaming your position and slightly pushing on certain things.So maybe she doesn't like the line of business that he's in.
Maybe he's doing some sort of slightly evil, if not illegal business.Okay. I picture her as a young student, maybe at some prestigious university, but the family maybe feels like she is ungrateful.
Because it's their money that's paying for university.She's turned her back on them because they're some sort of, I mean, my instinct is that they're some sort of robber baron.Maybe they're a railroad company family.Totally.
And she's like, I like that, but I don't like how you're running the business.
So maybe that's why part of the reason she's coming back for this will reading is she's like, I could finally take over and like, turn this into a decent company that's not extracting too much value from its labor.That's really good.
And then she's like, she is like estranged from everyone.So like the first run through that first hour is going to be
borderline tutorial-esque where it's just like you're learning who all these people are, how they're connected, what has been happening even these last few years while you've been gone.
At the end, you probably don't do that well.You don't get nothing because these are people who very much care about appearances, but maybe you get your tuition covered.
That's pretty good, actually.I would have loved that.Oh, yes.That feels like a really good angle on it.What? is her writing style.She a typewriter?She a modern lady?She do it all by hand?She cares about the craft?
Where where are we at with her style wise?
I mean, what would a late 19th century modern young woman write with?I kind of see her as working with like a fountain pen.Okay, stylish.Yeah, yeah, I'm picturing her like, all like, high femme white lace kind of, but also a serious person.
I mean, you know, like she could she could work with a typewriter, but I think she wants to be a little more emotionally expressive than that.
Yeah, I think all of her stationery should be like, Italian branded since since she's over on the continent doing doing her schooling there.So it's all like, very, very fine crisp stuff.
And it's like, where do you think you got the money to afford that fine, fine, creamy Italian parchment? It was from the family.You turned your back on us.Oh, that's so good.Yes, absolutely.
This is gonna turn into that scene in American Psycho where they're all comparing business cards.It's just like, you're just you've written this letter on the back of a brown paper bag that you got your greasy lunch in.
I can't believe you would disrespect me like this.Like that's what I'm picturing this devolving into.
Oh, that is the highest thing I can aspire to.That is that is wonderful.
Yeah, it's gonna be is it gonna be satire, though, like that scene is, or is it gonna be really earnest?
I'm thinking of it as like, definitely, it is funny how sensitive these people are.But it is also, I would say not a straight comedy.Like, I'm thinking of it a little succession-y, you know?Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. No, I'm with you.I was like, there's something secession-y about this.
Something successive, yeah, totally.
The successive excessive, yeah.I think that's a good cornerstone.I think this definitely has like black comedy vibes because it is inherently tragic what is happening, but everybody's going to be such an asshole.
They're going to think it's going to be really funny.Lily, what do you think we should name this? Can I put out something you said earlier that I still really love, which is will negotiation?
Yeah, I just totally assumed that was real.But what a sad world we would be living in if it was.
You said it with such authority.I was convinced for a while it was.I guess I'm not positive that it's not really a thing.It's just I've never heard it put so bald-facedly.Totally.
It being a game with these somewhat dramatic, self-serious characters, I think something very poetic and even like a little saccharin would be good, you know, to convey the tone.
I think the first thing that comes to mind is like, yours and grief, you know, like some sort of... Oh, that's really good.Thank you.
Having the sign off, having a letter sign off be the title of it is really, really good.Is there like, maybe like my condolences?There has to be some sort of phrase like that, right?What do people, how do people say they're sorry?
How do people say they're sorry?Big question.It could just even be like yours truly.
Oh, yeah.It's pretty good.It is, you know, about deception.I think that has that has depth to it.Okay.A spitball condolences for cash.
That's really funny though.The idea that you're trading in your condolences for a cash payout.It is kind of what the game is about.I like what you said about the earnestness or the sort of deceptive angle of yours truly.
Because it really is like, yours truly, wink. Yeah, I don't know that we're going to find a better one than that.
I love yours truly.I'm very happy with that, if you are.Absolutely.Lily, do you have anything you'd like to plug?Sure.So I make video essays.They're usually about half an hour to an hour long.My latest one came out pretty recently.
It's a big, juicy one about this multimillionaire who, yeah, would like to live forever by basically subordinating all of his, you know, thoughts and emotions to the wills of a mysterious algorithm.
This is a real guy who is basically doing like the saddest way possible to start like a smoothie mix empire.That video is called Project Blueprint and the Horror of Eternal Life.Yeah, so I would love if people check that out.
I will include a link in the show notes so you can check it out and enjoy it.It's grim. Yes, indeed.Big Game Hunger is a part of the multitude collective of podcasts created and hosted by me, Jenna Steber.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and also spread the word so other people can enjoy it as well.You can visit my merch store at bit.ly slash Jenna merch, all lowercase.
And to support the show directly, you can subscribe at patreon.com slash the Jenna.Every month, subscribers can submit prompts that get added to the ingredient list, like two of today's prompts.
Thank you, Alice and Reginald, for your excellent prompts. Help guide the podcast and our brainstorming at patreon.com slash thejenna.Lily, what's one word, adjective, gameplay type, premise, etc that you would like to add to the ingredient list?
You know, I was thinking about this, and I think if it's not in there, I would love to do photography.
Ooh, I love photography games.Are you thinking premise, type of gameplay, or adjective?I could really fit on almost any.
Yeah, I was struggling with that.I think type of gameplay, like a Pokemon Snap alike, or whatever it wants to be.I would love more of these games to exist.
Me, too.I love photography games.I love Pokemon Snap.I'm so glad that we got another Pokemon Snap in my adulthood that I could play through.Oh, yeah.That's a good suggestion.I look forward to making it.
A photography game that has some sort of weird adjective to it, because I feel like that's going to have a really interesting effect on that prompt.Oh, yeah.Thank you for joining me, Lily.Thank you.It has been a pleasure.
Thank you for listening to Big Game Hunger.And don't forget to wishlist yours truly on Steam.Release date TBD.
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