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

This week, we're officially beginning our life of crime in UNBEATABLE and bringing back the crew from No Small Games, Emily and Kate! Please check out their work via their website, and their individual channels on Twitch (Emily goes by aspecificegg and Kate is Katerblossom).

In today's episode, in addition to sharing our May indie release highlights, we give a bit of context for UNBEATABLE, sharing more about the game's development and our hopes for what the game will entail. I also provide the challenge activity for this month: combining some personal reflection as well as a way to see what music you're connecting with. Read on to find out more!

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:

Emily:

• Playing Titanium Court and the Fruitbearer demo
• Listening to The Great Divide newest album from Noah Kahan
• Watching/creating: The girlies are building cyber decks! I’ve been really enjoying seeing the content from women who have hopped on the cyber deck movement. Shoutout in particular to creator Ube Boobey who has been documenting her process. Also working on planning my own cyber deck journey.

Kate:

• Playing Blasphemous ​
• Listening to The Wide Open Sky is Running out of Catfish Soundtrack​
• Watching Hacks on HBO!

Jenny:

• I’m reading an isekai fantasy (with a touch of romance) that’s hitting the spot! This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me is a fast and fun first book in a new series for anyone who has ever wanted to actually dive into their favorite fictional world.
• Just got done playing some of the Loftia Beta...and I think this may become my favorite cozy MMO out there.

May Indiescovery

​Wax Heads | May 5​ ​ ​Wax Heads is a cozy-punk narrative sim about working in a struggling record store. Chat to quirky customers with unique tastes, explore a handcrafted record collection, fall in love with bands (and their drama!), or just slack off with your colleagues - whatever gets everyone’s groove back!

​Mixtape | May 7​ ​​ ​On their last night together, three friends embark on one final adventure. Play through a mixtape of memories, set to the soundtrack of a generation.

​Tethergeist | May 7​​ ​​ ​ ​TetherGeist is a challenging precision platformer that rewards practice and perseverance. Guide Mae and her axolotl spirit, Bao, on a wholesome coming-of-age pilgrimage while mastering Astral Projection, a tether that links Mae to her spirit and is the source of her strength.

​Outbound | May 11Steam Demo Available ​ ​Explore a colorful world and build your own cozy home on wheels. Craft workstations, and source energy from the sun, wind, or water. Upgrade and customize your vehicle, grow crops, and live sustainably off-grid with up to 4 players.

​Walk The Frog | May 21​ Steam Demo Available ​​ ​Guide Froggo through a world on sticky notes and relax while solving the puzzle of his journey home to find his best friend Buddy. Meet quirky animal friends, solve satisfying puzzles, help one another and relax in this cozy and heartwarming adventure with an intuitive drag-and-drop puzzle style.

​Letter Lost | May 27​ Steam Demo Available ​ ​You’re the sole employee at the Kharnym Isle post office, stamping, sorting, and delivering mail. But the job hides secrets, and the office itself holds mysteries you must uncover. This will be the only job you’ll ever need to work… unless you can escape.

​Paralives | May 25​​ ​Coming to Early Access ​ ​Paralives is a life simulation game about building homes, lives and bonds. Through both hardship and success, where will your story take you?

​Crashout Crew | May 28​​ ​​ ​ ​Time to clock in at DE NILE SHIPPING, the world’s “most efficient” warehouse! Work together in online co-op with up to 4 players to fulfill orders of increasingly chaotic, physics-based boxes. Time is money, and safety is no concern… just try not to crash out!

Introducing UNBEATABLE
​Is this a love story?

What does it mean to create art in a world that actively works to suppress it? In UNBEATABLE -- a narrative rhythm game -- our protagonist, Beat, and her friends deal with that exact scenario.

In this world, music is illegal -- in fact, some folks don't even really remember what it is -- and the state is actively working to make sure you don't bring it back. Why is it illegal in the first place? And what's in it for the people who are working to keep it that way? The main story takes about 10 hours to complete, and it's divided into six episodes. I would recommend spreading these episodes out over the course of a few days, rather than binging them all, and each episode is approximately 1-2 hours long. Especially in the first few episodes, you may feel confused (the game starts without too much context), and I want to emphasize that this game leans more towards the narrative side than the rhythm elements, although there's also an arcade mode, if you're really digging the rhythm gameplay!

In addition to the narrative that the game presents, UNBEATABLE provides us an opportunity to think about the ways art is used as resistance. What does it look like to create with the goal of challenging power structures or illuminate injustices? Conversely, how can art be used to maintain the status quo? How can art move beyond the realm of symbolism and into the realm of social action? Especially after playing Chicory: A Colorful Tale last month, which explored the more personal and introspective elements around creation and confidence, I'm hoping to play UNBEATABLE through the lens of what it looks like to create art with a specific message, purpose, and audience in mind.
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And for this month's reflection and challenge, here's a (hopefully) fun activity that'll get you thinking about your own connection to music:

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 UNBEATABLE 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 May 30th 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

• Listen: To the Unbeatable OST on Bandcamp! There’s also this one (from their [whitelabel] release:Unbeatable Demo Tapes​
• Read: This extensive interview with the dev team from GameRant. It goes into their musical inspirations, thematic touchpoints, and more. This was done pre-launch, so no major specific spoilers here!
• Watch: FLCL (Fooly Cooly) – an anime that was one of the many touch-points for this game. If you’re wanting some more of the anime inspirations for viewing, also check out serial experiments lain, Kill La Kill, and even Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!
• Play: If you're itching for more intense rhythm game fun, definitely check out Rhythm Doctor or Rift of the Necrodancer. If more emotional, anime inspired narratives are what you're seeking, I can't recommend A Space for the Unbound or Until Then highly enough. Mixtape, which just released, is also a short and beautiful coming-of-age adventure about the emotional power of music. Finally, if you wanna punch fascists, this port of the Lancer TTRPG -- Lancer Tactics -- (which is narratively directed by last month's co-host and friend of the show, Josh Boykin!) has that in spades!

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