Indiescovery Episode 9: Our Steam-y confessions
Steam accounts full of sin
We’re one episode away from being in the double digits, folks! Whoop! But for now, let’s dive into episode nine of Indiescovery. This time we're chatting about our biggest Steam sins. That’s right, we’re revealing it all: shamefully ignored indie gems, outrageous playtimes, and games that we promise we’ll return to one day, honest! We also get into what we’ve been recently playing and then end, as always, with our hyperfixations.
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Kicking off the episode we actually have a special guest (and definitely not one of Liam’s many personas), it’s Father Dringus Godliman! The Father guides the Indiescovery gang to a totally real and not metaphysical confession booth where we can safely reveal our Steam sins. After a quick chat about how many games each of us has on our Steam accounts, and how many of them we’ve actually played, we get into our most-played indies.
Rebecca is up first with Max Gentlemen: Sexy Business!, a fun NSFW dating sim with business sim elements, which also acted as the perfect springboard for a quick chat about NSFW indies in general. Rachel’s top game is the farming timesink Stardew Valley which surprised absolutely no one, and Liam’s is the action roguelike dopamine hitter Vampire Survivors.
The next topic of our sinful purge are indie games we own with shocking low playtime. You know what we mean, those games that we all longingly look at in our Steam libraries and swear that one day we will return to them. Liam admits to the cutesy city builder Outlanders and vibrant dark fantasy FPS Amid Evil. Rebecca’s games are the beasty RPG Disco Elysium (totally understandable, that one) and The Infectious Madness Of Doctor Dekker, a Lovecraftian FMV game. Rachel’s picks were tear-jerker Ori and The Blind Forest and tough-as-nails survival platformer Rain World.
And last, but not least, our most shocking confessions: shameful unplayed indie games that we really should play but have not - the greatest of all sins! We’re surprised the whole booth didn’t burst into flames of retribution. Liam’s are story-rich RPG turned full-blown cult Undertale, cosy management sim Spiritfarer, and Disco Elysium - a game which you've really gotta be in the right mood to play. Undertale makes a second appearance in Rebecca’s picks, alongside the adorable exploration game Haven Park, and her aforementioned match-made-in-heaven game Paradise Killer (which she WILL play one-day folks, promise). Rachel’s pile of shame includes the gothic visual novel The House In Fata Morgana and the turn-based death march Darkest Dungeon.
And thus, the purge is complete. After a fond farewell to Father Dringus Godliman, the squad chats about the games we’ve been playing recently. Rebecca’s been rolling dice in the off-beat RPG Betrayal At Club Low (this month’s RPS Game Club pick), Rachel’s been reading folks’ fortunes in The Cosmic Wheel Of Sisterhood, and Liam has been feeding beavers countless jars of pickled goods in gorgeous city-builder Against The Storm.
It’s hyperfixation time! Rebecca has been playing lots and lots and lots of Honkai: Star Rail, at first for work but now for fun, making her question if it's actually a hyperfixation or a hostage situation. Rachel lists way too many YouTubers who have the best video essays including Mike’s Mic, Sarah Z, NakeyJakey, Jacob Geller, Jenny Nicholson, Super Eye Patch Wolf, and Quinton Reviews (she also missed out ContraPoints, Defunctland, and hbomberguy so here they are retroactively). Rebecca chimes in with the Murder She Wrote videos of PushingUpRoses and Liam suggests Lady Emily’s video on the almost downfall of the band Gorillaz. Liam ends with another devastating book recommendation (one that was recommended to him by fellow RPS Treehouser Ed) called Stoner by John Williams. Liam is really out here trying to make us all cry with sobering, life-changing book choices, huh.
Indiescovery is a podcast by Rock Paper Shotgun. Our theme music is by Dylan Sitts, specifically the songs Tahoe Trip, Pool Sticker, and Express Check-in. You can contact the podcast by chucking an email to podcast@rockpapershotgun.com, or by chatting to like-minded individuals about PC gaming over in our Discord.