PAX East 2014: Feeling young again with Shovel Knight

ore often than not, we see independent developers task themselves towards producing games that do nothing more than romanticize games of the past; only a handful of them introduce ideas that stand them tall above the rose-tinted masses one-dimensional nostalgia.

Therefore, it's quite a feat when you see something like Yacht Club Game's Shovel Knight excel by doing the exact opposite. The Blue Digger’s adventure passionately celebrates the giant melting pot of NES tributes that it is and manages to conjure the perfect storm of design that's fun for veterans and new comers alike in the process.

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PAX East 2014 - Play Play Special: Nuclear Throne

pon my travels through the Indie Mega Booth, I met up with one of my favorite people, Rami Ismail of Vlambeer, so I could check out Nuclear Throne. After some talking, he helped inspire an incredible idea, “Shit, we should totally do a PLAY PLAY of this!” and as it was declared, so shall it be.

I enlisted the assistance of that GWA thug-ass thug Ballsrog, and we gots to playing some Nuclear Throne for y’all; oh, and Rami made sure to hook us up with a ton of codes for the game to give away!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

PAX East 2014: The Best of the Indie mega booth!

ndie Mega Booth is always a delight when it makes an appearance, and now that it’s branched out to the likes of GDC and Indiecade, the roster of games in the showcase is able to stretch into territory of epic proportions both in size and diversity. On top of that, this has had to have been the best showing the booth has ever done so far; meaning I had a heavy heart over deciding which games made the cut for the best of show but the deed is done, so without further adieu—here’s the cream of the crop for Indie Mega Booth at PAX east 2014!

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PPR Presents Play Play: Mirrormoon EP

ooming with Rob Rich for this year's PAX East has led to many conversations and even more debates, which have been great; but there was one that just couldn’t be dropped—how inaccessible Mirrormoon EP is, and Rob jumped to the call. I want to make it clear that I really enjoyed the concept and atmosphere of Mirrormoon purely out of an aesthetic view, but I feel like the structure of the game borders over cryptic and gets straight esoteric with some of the objectives and the complete lack of direction.

So in short, this impromptu Play Play is Rob jumping at the opportunity to remind me that I’m wrong while subtly implying that I’m an idiot in the process, and we all win.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Press Pause Radio at GDC 14!

hat happens when you get two indie developers, an mobile games journalist, and an asshole like George in a room together in front of a microphone? You get 2014 Game Developer Conference podcast special! Complete with angry Atari talk, narrative talk, Goat simulator, Crypt of the Necrodancer, and video game toothbrushes, and more! Join us as we actually look forward to Virtual Reality in this episode among other things.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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GDC 14: Nintendo's quest for indies is paying off

he pace is slow and the swagger barely exists. The last day for GDC is starting to wear on the best of us, but it’s been an incredible ride nonetheless. This show in particular showcased incredible ideas and potential to gaming in some sweet directions.

Another testament to this, of course, were games supported by the efforts of Nintendo and their web frame/Unity efforts to make the eShop a friendlier place to distribute their games on for indies. Two games hitting Nintendo’s underdog console as exclusives particularly stood out, and hopefully will set a trend for their peers to follow suit when it comes to what the Wii U can do.

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GDC 14: The best of the IGF Pavilion

’m mere hours away from one of the biggest events in GDC, The Independent Game Festival awards—the real action of IGF however, is happening right now at the IGF pavilion on the show floor. Soaking in all of the noise and lights that surrounded me, my stroll through the area proved to be a fruitful one, the games I sampled here are some of the most impressive I’ve played at the show so far.

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GDC 14: A Wild Indie Mega Booth Appears

alking through the West Hall at the Moscone, I was delightfully surprised to see one of my favorite exhibits appear at GDC; that’s right, the Indie Mega Booth. I settled myself in, and took it upon myself to get familiar with all the games showcased; here are the games that I believe will make 2014 the best year in video games yet.

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