Things I Liked Last Month: December 2024
01 January 2025
Happy New Year! I’ve already written my 2024 year in review, so check that out for some updates about the newsletter and my work in general! Last month, I also wrote a Design Diary Triple Feature, about the 3 games I released across November and December. I’m rounding out the year with some recommendations from this month! Starting with…
The Rascal Radio Hour
I spent this month catching up on Rascal News’ new podcast: The Rascal Radio Hour. Each episode is an in-depth round up of some of Rascal’s biggest recent stories, which has been a great way to digest recent industry news on my way into class this month! Chase, Caelyn, Rowan and Thomas are amazing hosts, making the show super digestible. It’s been amazing to see how much Rascal has grown since they launched, huge props to those guys!
Game Studies Study Buddies
The other podcast I’ve been listening to on my travels has been Game Studies Study Buddies, where hosts Michael Lutz and Cameron Kunzelman discuss a piece of game studies literature each episode. As a game design student, I’m super interested in the theory of the craft, but I find I don’t have time to read full texts if they aren’t directly related to what I’m working on/writing about. It’s been great to have a show like this where I can learn about the core ideas of a text, without having to read the full book myself. My favourite episodes I’ve listened to so far have been Hamlet on the Holodeck (episode 3) and Player vs Monster (episode 68).
Comball
Play it on itch.io (in browser!) here
Comball is a lovely browser game that combines Pool with 2048. The concept is super simple but I’ve spent a couple hours playing it and it’s my new go-to if I just need to kill a few minutes of time. I love the art style and the audio design is super satisfying. It also runs really well on the mobile browser, so you can play it on the go with an internet connection!
Spots
Spots is a very charming push-your-luck game that I got for Christmas this year! Players take turns choosing actions from a central pool, rolling dice that they can place on dog cards to complete them. The game is simple to teach but has a nice amount of strategy for a family game, and variable setups à la Sushi Go Party can keep the game varied for a long, long time. It’s a great family game with adorable art that I’m sure I’ll get a lot of playtime out of!
Links
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Thomas and Quinns discuss 2024 in Review on the Yes Indie’d Podcast
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In response to Quinns Quest’s review of Slugblaster last month, Hendrik ten Napel writes Permission to be Tough on Your Players: In Praise of Bite
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Quinn from 200-Proof Games (not to be confused with Quinns) writes THE 1E MANIFESTO. Get your game out there, even if it’s not finished!
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I was recently reminded of a friend of mine’s blog post so I gave that another read. Gwyllgi’s Setting Elements, Pillars & Aspects is all about introducing Belong Outside Belonging’s Setting Elements into OSR play.
Please check out all these wonderful things! And let me know what you were up to last month in the comments!