this week's brew 🎧
​what we discussed in this week's episode!

This week, we're doing our kick-off for Chicory: A Colorful Tale, and introducing the wonderful Josh (of Intelligame). Please check out his work on Twitch (where you'll find links to his website, Discord, and other social channels!)

I remember Josh playing Chicory: A Colorful Tale years ago and immediately knew I wanted to chat with him about this game once we were playing it for Geeks & Grounds!

In today's episode, in addition to sharing our April indie release highlights, we also delve into our creative insecurities and how Chicory: A Colorful Tale encourages confidence and being present through play. Below is a overview of what we discussed, and I hope you enjoy checking out all the additional resources linked as well! And, as you hop into playing Chicory: A Colorful Tale, I hope you take extra time to embrace play and creativity this April!

Listen to the episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts! ​

​The Pastry Case:
​Our grab-bag of media we're engaging with outside of our game of the month.

What we're excited about:

Josh:

• GDC in San Francisco was both great and complicated, but one of the highlights was seeing so many young developers, and such a diverse group of people too!
• Playing Beast Breaker, and Astroprisma​
• Just finished Gideon the Ninth, freakin’ fantastic
• ​Demon Tides soundtrack (just incredible vibes and we love 2Mello) and Carsie Blanton & The Burning Hell’s Everything is Great: amazing folk music that’s so playful and fun and also goddamn is it speaking truth

Jenny:

• Just got back from PAX East! Shoutout to Grave Seasons and Kiln as two of my favorite games, and I gotta also highlight Crystalmancers as one of my fave surprise finds.
• ​Arirang (BTS) is still on repeat. Last episode, I mentioned my first impression being a B/B-. I will (happily) eat my words: I appreciate the layers of this album the more I listen to it.
• ​The Pitt has been such an enjoyable (and engrossing) watch: I’m sad that we’ve reached the finale of Season 2!
• For video essayist fans: I just watched this Deltarune analysis titled Metamodernism, Oscillation, and Deltarune that impeccably captures how I feel about why it works so well tonally and narratively.

April Indiescovery

​Super Alloy Crush | Apr 8 ​Coming to Early Access ​ ​Super Alloy Crush is a fast-paced 2D roguelike brawler inspired by classics like Mega Man X. Play as Kelly and Muu (No.02) to defeat enemies and obtain the ultimate cosmic treasure: Planet AE-38. Alone or with a friend in local co-op, get ready for your biggest challenge yet!

​Dosa Divas | Apr 14 ​Steam Demo Available ​​ ​Battle an evil fast food empire in this spicy narrative turn-based RPG. Two sisters and their upgradable spirit-mech cook delicious meals, fight corpos, build up your reputation with local communities, and reconcile with loved ones.

​Replaced | Apr 14 ​Steam Demo Available ​ ​Expose the sinister secrets of Phoenix Corporation as R.E.A.C.H., an AI trapped in a human body. Set in an alternate 1980s America scarred by nuclear catastrophe, navigate a dark cyberpunk thriller in this narrative-driven 2.5D platformer blending cinematic exploration with fluid, free-flow action.

​Gecko Gods | Apr 16 ​Steam Demo Available ​ ​Explore a forgotten land in Gecko Gods, a puzzle-adventure built for curiosity. Climb walls, solve ancient puzzles and uncover a lost civilisation in a world full of hidden paths, quiet secrets and natural wonder.

​OPUS: Prism Peak | Apr 16​ ​ ​​ ​OPUS: Prism Peak is a narrative adventure where you play as a weary photographer stranded in the Dusklands, traveling with a girl who's lost her memories. Together, you'll uncover the mysteries of this land through your camera and find your way home.

​Smash It Wild | Apr 16​ Steam Demo Available ​ ​Smash it Wild is a tactical turn-based game combining volleyball and dodgeball in a fantasy universe. Upgrade your players and defeat your opponents in an intense roguelike competition!

​Boardlike | Apr 2026 ​Coming to Early Access ​ ​Classic tabletop games meet roguelite elements and card-based combat. Dice rolls, fate cards, deadly encounters, minigames, and countless unknowns await you in this strange adventure.

​Forbidden Solitaire | Apr 2026 ​Steam Demo Available ​ ​Forbidden Solitaire is a card-slashing horror game about unearthing the contents of a cryptic 1995 CD-ROM that should have never existed. From the creators of Ancient Enemy and Home Safety Hotline.

Introducing Chicory: A Colorful Tale
​You don't have to be perfect.

Never meet your heroes? But, in Chicory: A Colorful Tale, we play as a pup who works with our hero! The game takes place in a world where wielders-- with their magical paintbrush -- paint and influence the colors and visual style of the land for everyone else. And as the janitor for the current wielder, Chicory, everything's hunky-dory: we're working with our favorite wielder of all time, after all!

But, things aren't all they seem. As we're going about our daily clean, the colors leave the world, and we find Chicory's brush, discarded. The story takes us on a journey to help Chicory out and fill color back in for everyone. Along the way, we're going to learn more about what it means to get to know your heroes as fallible beings...and what can happen when you take on a role that ends up feeling too big for you. How do you build confidence? How do you continue to find joy in creation? And how do you pass on this joy -- and not those insecurities -- to future generations?

Chicory: A Colorful Tale invites you to be present as you play. You'll explore the world--Zelda-style-- while also taking time to color in everything: the sky, houses, outfits, flowers, and more! There's an interesting tension between the push to complete the story as well as the desire to stop and smell color the roses, and I invite you to reflect on how it feels! My recommendation? Do take time from the game to stop and play! Enjoy the avenues for creativity that Chicory: A Colorful Tale provides for you. The time you spend with it won't be wasted.

This game takes about 10-13 hours to complete, if you focus on the story, but I would absolutely build in a few extra hours for those artistic pit stops on the way. And while coloring, I encourage you to also reflect on our main question for this month:

As always, feel free to write your response down -- whether for yourself, in Discord, or send my way -- and as you play, take time to see if this response evolves.

I also encourage you to take a look at the supplementary resources below! I've got some suggestions for additional ways you can embrace fun with creativity this month, if you'd like, and there are also some incredible book and video recommendations from community members in the Discord that I've highlighted as well.

If you find more you'd like to share, or want to join the conversation about the game, please feel free to hop into the Discord: we've got a thread dedicated to Chicory where you can share your thoughts!
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Finally, save the date: we'll have our community hangout (in Discord) to discuss our thoughts on this game on April 25th at 3 pm PT!

Pour Over ☕

Here's a list to get you going with additional resources to expand your experience with Chicory: A Colorful Tale

• Activity: Grab a pen, pencil, crayons, any writing or drawing utensil, and then try doodling something on paper! Stuck? Try drawing your favorite food! If you’d like, please consider sharing it with someone else (a friend, family member, or even in the Discord!) Don't feel excited by visual art? Try playing in any other art form (write a haiku, come up with a fun rhythm, wiggle your body!)
• Activity: Go on a color walk and focus on the present as you explore the world around you. What’s a color walk? Decide on a color and then on your walk, see how many times you can find that color while wandering. If you’d like, you can use your phone to take pictures of what you find to create a tangible record of your color walk.
• Listen: Lena Raine has worked absolute magic with this OST. Have a listen (maybe even while doing a creative task 👀)
• Read: Want to invite more play into your life? I’ve found The Artist’s Way to be a neat template to follow to help reconnect with my own sense of self. While it’s technically a ‘12 week challenge,’ I’ve found just as much fulfillment in drawing inspo as needed (for example, instead of doing written daily pages, I'll be doing doodle daily pages this month!)
• Read: Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, recommended by pixelatedsoul in Discord, and I immediately picked up a copy as well! If you wanted proof that art (and exploring your artistic side) is good for you in a variety of ways, this book is all about that!
• Read: Art & Fear, recommended by Shalune in Discord, who describes the book as an exploration of the psychological and emotional experience of being an artist. I'll be reading this one next!
• Read: Check out the Kickstarter page for a bevvy of incredible dev interviews and updates sharing behind the scenes of the game’s development.
• Watch: I Drew Everyday for Six Months and All I Got Was An Existential Crisis, recommended by Katie in Discord! This is a fun watch (don't let the existential crisis scare you!) and describe what I discuss with Josh about the mental gap of art (and skill) and the need for friction while simultaneously trying to not let it demotivate me.

Stay in the loop -- listen to the weekly podcast on Spotify and Apple, hang with the community in Discord, and find us on Instagram!

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Take care, and talk soon!

🌻 Jenny