this week's brew 🎧
​what we played this week and indies to keep an eye on

I've returned from a quick work trip (visiting the beautiful Olso and Copenhagen!) and am beyond excited to share this week's episode with you all!
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Kate and Emily -- co-founders of No Small Games -- are folks I've been wanting to collaborate with for a while. They also have a podcast where they cover both individual indie games in deep dive episodes as well as through curated round-ups each month! So, it's only fitting that we kick off some time with them by talking through some of our most anticipated indies for the month of September.
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​Listen to the episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts!

✨ September Indie Games Highlighted ✨

​Silksong | Sept 04​ Metroidvania 2D Discover a vast, haunted kingdom in Hollow Knight: Silksong! Explore, fight and survive as you ascend to the peak of a land ruled by silk and song. ​(PC, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation)

​Henry Halfhead | Sept 16​ Sandbox Comedy Story-Rich Meet Henry, merely half a head, yet with the peculiar ability to become any object within their reach! ​(PC, PS5, Switch)

​Wander Stars | Sept 19​ Turn-based RPG Anime Roguelite Use the power of words in turn-based battles and choose to befriend or defeat your opponents in this episodic, anime-inspired adventure. ​(PC, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S)

​B​aby Steps | Sept 23​ Walking Sim Comedy Exploration Play as Nate, an unemployed failson with nothing going for him, until one day he discovers a power he never knew he had… putting one foot in front of the other. ​(PC, PS5)

​CloverPit | Sept 26​ Roguelite Horror Slot Machine A demonic lovechild of Balatro and Buckshot roulette: pay off your debt by winning slots. ​(PC)

​Consume Me | Sept 25​ Life Sim Dark Comedy Story Rich Being a teenager sucks! So, the devs made a game all about it. ​(PC, Mac)

next week's brew ☕
​what we're playing for the month of September

The second half of our discussion was to prime ourselves for the deep dive into this month's brew: Chants of Sennaar. I chose this game because of it's short(ish) runtime, striking art style, and unique puzzles that'll have us thinking about language, meaning, and communication.
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The deep dive podcast releases on September 23rd ~ and we'll have our community hangout to discuss it together in-person on September 27th. Find all the details and schedule for this month in the playthrough guide:

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Reflection

Share your response by writing back to this message, submit a voice recording to be included in next week's episode, share in the community Discord, or simply ponder as you play. Of course, if you have other thoughts on the game you'd like to share not related to the question, please do so!

• How critical is shared language for impactful communication?

Pour Over

Supplementary books, articles, games, and resources to expand on what we're playing this month ~

• Godspell (Original Broadway Cast) -- Most notably, the first song that represented the philosophies and chaos of the myth of Babel.
• ​The House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski) because the game is about the ways we communicate, this book instantly came to mind with it's layered layers of horror and unique format.
• ​Tower of Babylon (Ted Chiang) is a short story about a man recruited to climb the tower and of the civilizations he finds there.
• ​Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope) and The Talos Principle (Croteam) were both significant game inspirations.
• And, of course, a wiki article that dives into the actual mythology and tales surrounding the Tower of Babel

the pastry case 🥐
​our grab-bag of topics related to the industry and other media we're into right now.

Jenny -

• Play: Ambrosia Sky (PAX Demo), Arcane Eats (PAX Demo), Sacrifire (PAX Demo)
• Read: The Gate of the Feral Gods (Matt Dinniman)

Emily -

• Play: Herdling​
• Listen: RoguePod LiteCast, Date with Us: A Dating Sim Podcast​
• Read: Algospeak by Adam Aleksic

Kate -

• Play: Flowers and Favors, Woodo (Demo)
• Watch: Women Wearing Shoulder Pads​
• Listen: (Singles) Year Of The Optimist (Beach Bunny), Subway (Chappell Roan), (Album) Straight Line Was a Lie (The Beths)
• Read: The Twentieth Century (Howard Zinn)

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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Thanks for joining our digital café this week -- talk soon!

Jenny