Rustorio

Wed, Jan 22, 2025 Year 3, Spring 04

Al and Codey interview Jordan, the developer of Rusty's Retirement

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:01:43: What Have We Been Up To
00:17:26: Game News
00:40:24: Rusty’s Retirement Interview
01:22:47: Outro

Rusty’s Retirement on Steam
Rusty’s Retirement Links

Contact

Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Transcript

(0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season.
(0:00:36) Al: My name is Al.
(0:00:38) Codey: and I am Cody.
(0:00:40) Al: And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games.
(0:00:44) Codey: Woo.
(0:00:45) Codey: Whoooo!
(0:00:46) Al: This episode, we have a very exciting thing.
(0:00:49) Al: It’s not often we get an interview, but the first interview of the year this year
(0:00:53) Al: is with the developer of 2024’s The Harvest Season game of the year.
(0:01:01) Al: Rusty Retirement, Jordan, the developer of Rusty Retirement,
(0:01:05) Al: will be joining us later in the episode to talk about the game and many other things.
(0:01:12) Codey: Yeah, we talk, we kind of talk about a couple things.
(0:01:12) Al: So we talk about stuff, it is, it is mentioned, and some super exciting secret stuff.
(0:01:16) Codey: The game is mentioned though.
(0:01:18) Codey: Yeah, it is talked about, which will be revealed in this episode.
(0:01:27) Al: Yeah.
(0:01:31) Al: So if you’re here just to listen to that, you can see the time in the show notes,
(0:01:35) Al: or you can click on the chapter in your podcast episode.
(0:01:38) Al: But please do stay around as we talk about the news for this week.
(0:01:43) Al: And also, Cody, what have you been up to?
(0:01:46) Codey: I have been playing Slay the Spire.
(0:01:52) Codey: I haven’t been playing it nearly as much,
(0:01:54) Codey: but I did finally beat all of the characters
(0:02:00) Codey: and beat like the end game once you–
(0:02:04) Codey: and like got credits.
(0:02:06) Codey: But it doesn’t really ever end, really.
(0:02:08) Codey: You just keep playing.
(0:02:10) Codey: But it’s fun.
(0:02:12) Codey: doing that, doing more PhD studies.
(0:02:16) Codey: It’s like starting to hit me now that like, cause I was talking to my advisor
(0:02:20) Codey: and he was like, yeah, so if you’re going to defend in or graduate in December,
(0:02:24) Codey: you have to defend in October, which means you should have your data done by
(0:02:28) Codey: July. And like, I was just like, Oh, oh gosh, it’s all coming up so fast.
(0:02:35) Codey: So yeah, it’s starting to hit.
(0:02:38) Codey: Um, and also clearly Rusty’s retirement played a hot minute of that by you.
(0:02:38) Al: Fair enough, obviously.
(0:02:44) Al: Nice. I think last episode I talked about playing Legends Arceus for the second time,
(0:02:51) Al: gone through and caught most of the Pokémon, I was nearly done. I have now finished that,
(0:02:56) Al: so that’s that’s done. I’ve got my full Pokémon home decks, got the crown on Pokémon home for
(0:03:03) Al: for that. And then I decided to do go from
(0:03:08) Al: the best Pokemon game to the worst Pokemon game. And I am now playing Brilliant Diamond
(0:03:13) Al: and Shining Pearl again. So it hasn’t, I already, I had a save. I had done a Professor Oak challenge.
(0:03:24) Al: So I still had that. However, I didn’t finish, I didn’t keep everything. So there was a bunch
(0:03:30) Al: of Pokemon I need to catch and breed and stuff, but it wasn’t too hard, except I am now, I
(0:03:36) Al: I now need–
(0:03:38) Al: Well, two Pokémon lines, one of which is just a version exclusive,
(0:03:44) Al: so I’ve been playing through the other game, Pearl, to get that one.
(0:03:47) Al: And I’ve almost got it. I’m almost there.
(0:03:49) Al: The other one I need is Palkia, so I do need to finish Pearl till the end.
(0:03:54) Al: So I do need to play through that game all the way to the end
(0:03:58) Al: and get Palkia and be finished with that.
(0:04:00) Codey: I’m sorry. That sounds awful
(0:04:03) Al: I do– I feel like I don’t know.
(0:04:05) Al: I didn’t, I don’t feel like I hate.
(0:04:08) Al: the games when I was playing them, but maybe that rose tinted glasses.
(0:04:11) Al: Maybe I did when I was playing it, but they are not great.
(0:04:13) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:04:19) Al: I do not miss random encounters in the grass.
(0:04:23) Al: I mean, that in and of itself, like I don’t, I don’t want that to ever come back.
(0:04:28) Al: I know some people like it.
(0:04:29) Al: Whatever.
(0:04:29) Al: I don’t, please don’t, please don’t bring it back, please.
(0:04:35) Al: and obviously just the thing that annoys me.
(0:04:38) Al: most about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is the stickiness. Like if you walk next to a wall
(0:04:48) Al: you slow down. I just hate that so much because it’s like especially if you’re going through a
(0:04:53) Al: cave and it’s like you happen to brush against a rock and suddenly you’re going at snail space.
(0:04:59) Al: It’s just I really hate it. I do hate it so much and I feel like those games could have been a lot
(0:05:05) Al: a lot better if there’s just been like a few decisions made.
(0:05:08) Al: I could have dealt with the fact that it was random encounters in the grass right,
(0:05:12) Al: like I would have preferred if they’d done something like Let’s Go right like I think
(0:05:12) Codey: Yeah.
(0:05:16) Al: Let’s Go is one of my favorite games. So if they’d done something like that I would have
(0:05:21) Al: been much preferred it but I can understand why they would want to do like let’s keep let’s bring
(0:05:26) Al: back the random encounters because that’s what these games were fine but it’s just all the other
(0:05:32) Al: decisions that were made. Yeah, not fun. So
(0:05:34) Codey: Yeah, I think that was like why I didn’t get them because if I wanted to play Diamond or Pearl, I would play it first like they didn’t change enough to me to make it worth it.
(0:05:46) Al: Yeah, are we past the point now where you can just remake a game? Like, red and blue,
(0:06:00) Al: when they were remade into Fire Red and Leaf Cream, I think that needed to happen, right?
(0:06:05) Al: To make those games fun. Because those games were so, like, they were obviously really
(0:06:10) Al: complicated and difficult for what they were at the time, and they were running on like
(0:06:14) Al: of shoes.
(0:06:16) Al: The company nearly folded multiple times before they got those games out.
(0:06:20) Al: And so I think it makes absolute sense to redo those.
(0:06:23) Al: I think HeartGold and SoulSilver, whether you like those games or not, I think did a
(0:06:28) Al: lot to those games and made them better in a lot of ways.
(0:06:33) Al: I personally really like what they did with Oras.
(0:06:36) Al: I liked how they did that in the 3D style.
(0:06:43) Al: And then let’s score, I think is.
(0:06:46) Al: One of their best, I think it’s their best remake full stop.
(0:06:48) Al: I think it’s amazing what they did with it.
(0:06:50) Al: They took what was the original games and made it different.
(0:06:54) Al: I really like that.
(0:06:57) Al: And even if they’d done Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as Platinum,
(0:07:01) Al: I still feel like people would have been like, “But why?”
(0:07:04) Al: Right? Because you can use it.
(0:07:05) Al: Like a DS is not, DS games don’t feel old, like Game Boy games feel old.
(0:07:12) Al: And yeah, some people would prefer to play a Game Boy game
(0:07:16) Al: and remake of a Game Boy game.
(0:07:17) Al: But a lot of people wouldn’t.
(0:07:18) Al: A lot of people would prefer to play a newer game.
(0:07:20) Al: But I feel like if you’re looking for a 2D Pokémon game,
(0:07:24) Al: go play a 2D Pokémon game.
(0:07:26) Al: I don’t think just remaking them as what they are makes sense anymore.
(0:07:30) Codey: Yeah, I agree. I don’t think that that’s exciting enough to merit people dropping down another $60 or $50 or however much these games cost nowadays.
(0:07:44) Al: or 120, if you buy them both, which obviously I would never do. You’d never find me doing that.
(0:07:46) Codey: Yeah. No, of course not. No. Yeah, so I don’t… I think that it does a disservice to them to…
(0:08:00) Codey: Not try and improve the games with the quality of life features that the fandom clearly needs or at the minimum, like have them be like a setting you can toggle or something.
(0:08:14) Codey: So if people want to play the game on hard mode, they can.
(0:08:18) Codey: Yeah.
(0:08:18) Al: Let’s not get into the debate of hard mode.
(0:08:22) Al: Yeah, I think, yeah, I just, it’s not even like Brilliant Diamond and Chime Pearl brought
(0:08:30) Al: it up to the best or the most modern 2D games, right?
(0:08:34) Codey: Mm-hmm
(0:08:34) Al: Like the graphics were better, right?
(0:08:37) Al: In my opinion, I know a lot of people didn’t like how it looked, but that’s fine.
(0:08:40) Al: If you don’t like how it looked, that’s fine, but it is like more modern looking.
(0:08:44) Al: It’s cleaner graphics, et cetera, et cetera, right?
(0:08:48) Al: No, it’s not, it didn’t have as many quality of life improvements as even Gen 5 did, one
(0:08:54) Codey: Mm hmm. Yeah.
(0:08:55) Al: generation later, right?
(0:08:58) Al: And so what are you doing if you’re not even going to improve it in that way, right?
(0:09:04) Al: And that’s ignoring the stuff that they ignored that they had improved in Platinum.
(0:09:09) Al: A Gen 4 game that came out two years later, right?
(0:09:14) Al: Like if you’re going to ignore all of those improvements that you have made over the years
(0:09:19) Al: don’t bother, but anyway, so yeah, I think I enjoyed the Professor Oak challenge because
(0:09:20) Codey: Yeah
(0:09:23) Codey: Hard agree
(0:09:27) Al: it was very different compared to other ones, like having the grand underground, I think,
(0:09:33) Al: was made that more interesting, but anyway, most people don’t care about that sort of
(0:09:40) Al: stuff.
(0:09:41) Al: So yeah, I’ve been playing through that and I’ll get there eventually.
(0:09:44) Al: I’ve taken a break today to do some shiny hunting in Scarlet and Violet.
(0:09:48) Al: But once I’ve done this, once I’ve caught Palkia,
(0:09:52) Al: the only ones I’ll have left to do are, I don’t have a,
(0:09:57) Al: because I’ve been for listeners who are, for new listeners or people who aren’t aware,
(0:10:01) Al: I lost almost all of my Pokemon saves two years ago on my Switch.
(0:10:05) Al: And I’ve recreated most of them now.
(0:10:07) Al: So I have the only one, the only one I say I didn’t lose was my sword,
(0:10:14) Al: Pokemon sword, because that was on a different Switch.
(0:10:16) Al: because I was running two games at the same time.
(0:10:18) Al: And I didn’t really like having to close a game and reopen it.
(0:10:22) Al: So I just had two switches running the two games.
(0:10:25) Al: So because of that, I managed to keep my sword.
(0:10:29) Al: But other than that, I lost everything else.
(0:10:31) Al: So all I’ve got left I don’t have is Let’s Go Pikachu and Shield.
(0:10:39) Al: I think I have everything else because I’ve got Scarlet and Violet.
(0:10:41) Al: I’ve got Legends Arceus.
(0:10:44) Al: I’ve got Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl now.
(0:10:47) Al: and I’ve got Let’s Go Eevee.
(0:10:48) Al: And I’ve obviously got my original sword.
(0:10:50) Al: So I think I’ve just got Let’s Go Pikachu to do and sword.
(0:10:55) Al: And I will probably, I think I’ll probably do with Let’s Go Pikachu
(0:10:58) Al: like I’m doing with Palkia and I’ll just kind of like rush through it
(0:11:01) Al: and get it finished and then do the last couple of Pokémon
(0:11:03) Al: that I need for the crown on Pokémon Home for those games.
(0:11:06) Al: And then I think I will probably at some point,
(0:11:11) Al: certainly not before the next Pokémon games that comes out,
(0:11:14) Al: maybe at the end of the year or something,
(0:11:17) Al: I will probably
(0:11:18) Al: do a Professor Oak Challenge in Shield and get that done that way and finish up that
(0:11:24) Al: dicks like that. Because that’s the only set of games on the Switch that I haven’t done
(0:11:33) Al: a Professor Oak Challenge in because I started it for brilliant time in Shining Pearl. What a game
(0:11:40) Al: to start that on. And then I went back and did Let’s Go Pikachu, but I didn’t go back and do
(0:11:49) Al: Shield. No, I didn’t go back and do Pikachu because I already had a Pikachu save,
(0:11:54) Al: but then I’d lost it, so I did Eevee. Anyway, doesn’t matter. Point is, I suspect by the middle
(0:12:03) Al: of February, I will only have one Pokémon game not finished and that’ll be Shield and
(0:12:12) Al: that’ll be the only Pokédex I don’t have finished on home as well. But I’ll get to that eventually.
(0:12:16) Al: There’s no rush.
(0:12:17) Codey: So, so I have a question.
(0:12:19) Al: Yes, go for it. Yes, my secret is I don’t work.
(0:12:20) Codey: Do you sleep?
(0:12:23) Codey: I don’t believe you.
(0:12:27) Codey: Oh, that worked.
(0:12:28) Codey: That’s, that’s fair.
(0:12:30) Al: Or if you are my employer, please don’t listen to this. The secret is that obviously the ADHD
(0:12:35) Codey: Yeah.
(0:12:38) Al: allows me to do like a week’s worth in like a day. And then I spend the rest of the time feeling
(0:12:41) Codey: Yep.
(0:12:43) Al: guilty that I’m not doing anything because my brain can’t, but it then distracts me.
(0:12:45) Codey: Yep.
(0:12:47) Codey: Yep, that’s where I am, too.
(0:12:52) Codey: But that is part of working with neurodivergence.
(0:12:59) Codey: So yeah, that’s actually, I’m doing a conference in November, and
(0:12:59) Al: Yeah, weeeeeeee.
(0:13:04) Codey: I’m going to try and have a symposium in that conference for,
(0:13:08) Codey: it’s an entomology conference.
(0:13:10) Codey: I want a symposium specifically on neurodivergence and why, and
(0:13:14) Codey: and how to accommodate for…
(0:13:17) Codey: people that work in your in your area or group or whatever university
(0:13:22) Codey: accommodate for students and faculty that have neurodivergences versus like
(0:13:27) Codey: just trying to make them conform because that is very left hand of left hand right
(0:13:35) Codey: hand of people so that’s what we’ve been up to oh my gosh he doesn’t sleep you
(0:13:38) Al: Oh, oh, wait, no, I’m not finished yet.
(0:13:43) Al: I’ve been playing Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home.
(0:13:45) Codey: guys I don’t believe it
(0:13:47) Al: I’ve not been doing this very much,
(0:13:49) Al: because I’ve just been doing like a day or two every day,
(0:13:54) Al: which only takes like five or 10 minutes.
(0:13:56) Al: But I’m trying to play these games like some people play
(0:13:58) Al: them and just playing a little bit every day.
(0:14:00) Al: And it’s been so much better with the controller support.
(0:14:02) Al: I can actually play it now.
(0:14:04) Codey: But can you save it the right way?
(0:14:06) Codey: Bye.
(0:14:08) Al: It doesn’t seem to work properly in so much as it saves fine,
(0:14:12) Al: and it seems to be saving fine.
(0:14:14) Al: And it seems like it loads when I go on.
(0:14:16) Al: So I’m using it on my iPad, and I play it on my iPad,
(0:14:19) Al: and it all seems to work.
(0:14:20) Al: And I close the app, and I open up, and it all works fine.
(0:14:22) Al: And then I go on to my Mac, and I open it up, and it says,
(0:14:25) Al: oh, you’ve got new data.
(0:14:26) Al: Do you want to download this?
(0:14:27) Al: You go, yes, I’ll take the new data.
(0:14:29) Al: And it shows the right thing on there.
(0:14:31) Al: It says I’m at spring 23, year one,
(0:14:34) Al: and I’ve got this much money, blah, blah, blah.
(0:14:36) Al: And then you click on it, and then you actually
(0:14:38) Al: get the game, and you’re back on spring one,
(0:14:41) Al: and you have nothing.
(0:14:42) Al: And the best thing about it is the save
(0:14:44) Al: is completely mucked up in so much as there are no people.
(0:14:46) Codey: Mm hmm. That sounds lovely, actually.
(0:14:48) Al: People don’t exist in the game.
(0:14:50) Al: There are no NPCs, and there’s nothing you can do.
(0:14:53) Al: You just walk around and do nothing.
(0:14:56) Al: It’s– it’s an autistic paradise.
(0:15:02) Codey: That’s my kind of farming.
(0:15:05) Al: Um.
(0:15:06) Codey: Just give me give me all the tasks to do without the social interaction.
(0:15:14) Al: So yeah, I can still only play on my iPad,
(0:15:17) Al: which I do want the cloud save,
(0:15:19) Al: and that would probably,
(0:15:20) Al: I’d probably play it more if I had the cloud save,
(0:15:22) Al: but the controller support means
(0:15:24) Al: that I’m actually playing it.
(0:15:26) Al: So, yeah.
(0:15:29) Al: So that’s why I’ve been up to,
(0:15:30) Al: I’ve also been thinking about the Switch 2.
(0:15:32) Al: I don’t know if you’ve been thinking
(0:15:33) Al: about the Switch 2 at all.
(0:15:34) Codey: Nope. I don’t play my Switch that often, like at all. I know that I am going to play it.
(0:15:35) Al: No, that’s fine.
(0:15:37) Al: I’m excited for the Switch too.
(0:15:38) Al: Hmm.
(0:15:44) Codey: I’m going to play the Zelda games eventually, right? And then I enjoy having it for if I
(0:15:50) Codey: want to play anything, but Xbox Game Pass has all I really need right now. And no, no,
(0:15:57) Al: did you get did you get us a steam decadent Oh sad come on Jeff by the
(0:16:03) Codey: I did not.
(0:16:04) Codey: I am unloved no we yeah he was like still deciding if he wanted to do it or not he
(0:16:13) Codey: actually did just get a raise so yeah maybe I’ll like walk by his phone and do that whole
(0:16:16) Al: There you go. Perfect.
(0:16:22) Codey: like steam deck like whisper into his phone so that his algorithm will start picking up
(0:16:27) Codey: like ads first yeah.
(0:16:28) Al: or we can get your is is it your neighbor Micah is it Micah can go in when Jeff moves
(0:16:34) Al: in and get Micah to go and talk to him hint are you listening Micah you can we can we
(0:16:35) Codey: Uh-huh does Micah have one I can’t remember I don’t know but yeah no my neighbor I’m wondering
(0:16:46) Al: confusing Micah’s again I have no idea I don’t think that’s relevant to whether or not he
(0:16:50) Codey: if he has a steam deck yeah oh true true true true yeah Micah when we have like a Jeff moved
(0:16:55) Al: can convince Jeff to buy U.S.D.
(0:17:03) Codey: and party.
(0:17:04) Al: Yeah. Yeah, I heard it. I heard it on the podcast.
(0:17:04) Codey: Um, you should be like, man, Cody really like was excited about
(0:17:08) Codey: possibly because Jeff doesn’t, because Jeff does not listen to this.
(0:17:15) Al: I guessed, I guessed.
(0:17:18) Codey: Yeah, for sure.
(0:17:19) Al: All right. Well, I’m excited about the switch too. And I’m sure we’ll have lots to talk about it in
(0:17:23) Al: the future, even though they’ve not really said anything yet. But all right, should we talk about
(0:17:28) Al: the news? First up, we have Rune Factory Guardian.
(0:17:29) Codey: Sure.
(0:17:34) Al: So, first of all, they’ve announced that it’s coming out on the 30th of May.
(0:17:39) Codey: Woo.
(0:17:40) Codey: Something.
(0:17:44) Al: So, there we go. That’s the thing. They’ve given a bunch of information on the new features.
(0:17:52) Al: So, it has a village building thing, which is, I think, quite cool. In the trailer,
(0:17:58) Al: you see them placing buildings and stuff and that.
(0:18:04) Al: That’s cool. I quite like that idea because I get all the previous Rune Factory games have been like,
(0:18:09) Al: “Here is an existing village. Go and interact with it.” Whereas this seems to be like you’re
(0:18:14) Al: building up a village from small as you do the rest of things as well, which is a fun addition.
(0:18:20) Codey: Yeah, I got the vibe that you’re like going through an area that has been like devastated and you’re helping to like rebuild
(0:18:28) Al: Yeah, but that’s cool. Because if the whole point of Rune Factory is, it’s what if farming
(0:18:38) Al: game plus adventure, I feel like adding in Village Building to that is a good logical
(0:18:45) Al: continuation of that.
(0:18:46) Codey: Yeah, going elsewhere, spreading your farming knowledge to the masses.
(0:18:52) Al: The rest of it seems pretty similar to previous Rune Factory games, your combat and stuff
(0:18:59) Al: like that.
(0:19:00) Al: There maybe seem to be a bit more in terms of what’s the word I’m looking for, the movement.
(0:19:06) Al: You seem to be able to glide on wind and stuff like that that I haven’t experienced in the
(0:19:12) Al: previous games, which is a fun addition, making it more Breath of the Wildy, I guess.
(0:19:19) Al: And there’s also 16 romanceables in this game.
(0:19:22) Al: Get your waifu or husbandu.
(0:19:25) Codey: Has a bundle I think it’s Joe
(0:19:31) Codey: Yeah, never played a room factory game so I don’t have much
(0:19:34) Al: Probably never going to.
(0:19:37) Codey: Probs not
(0:19:40) Codey: But I mean it looks the village building aspect I really do like like the idea of
(0:19:47) Codey: going through an area and like helping to rebuild and restore peace and
(0:19:52) Codey: maybe like you can set up farms and then you
(0:19:55) Codey: find someone who can farm it and then you
(0:19:57) Codey: move on. So it’s like you are creating the
(0:19:59) Codey: farms and that kind of stuff and creating the
(0:20:03) Codey: little societies. But then you get to disappear
(0:20:06) Codey: into the ether.
(0:20:07) Al: Is this going to be a, this is going to be the third run factor in a row where I go,
(0:20:10) Al: “Ooh, I could, I could, maybe I’ll like this.”
(0:20:13) Al: And then I play it and go, “Eh, it’s not really for me.”
(0:20:16) Codey: Okay, maybe maybe the village maybe the village thing will be not will will make it change,
(0:20:16) Al: Isn’t it?
(0:20:17) Al: It’s going to, it’s going to happen again, isn’t it?
(0:20:20) Al: Cause I’m getting that feeling.
(0:20:27) Codey: maybe you will enjoy. We’re going to be optimistic here, because you’re going to have to play it. So
(0:20:28) Al: Yeah, no one’s making me.
(0:20:38) Codey: I am promising at this because I make the promises in this hostel.
(0:20:46) Codey: Yeah, if you you can only marry. Yeah.
(0:20:48) Al: What I didn’t notice is there didn’t seem to be anything about whether the romanceables
(0:20:56) Al: are segregated. Oh dear. You know what I mean? Whether you can romance anyone or not. It
(0:21:06) Al: does look like… I’m not seeing anything… I can’t remember five, but before five it
(0:21:09) Codey: What has it been in all the previous games?
(0:21:15) Al: It was definitely only…
(0:21:18) Al: opposite gender. But I can’t remember what five did. However, obviously, that was also an issue
(0:21:24) Al: for Story of Seasons and is no longer an issue for Story of Seasons and it’s the same company.
(0:21:29) Al: So I would hope that now it will allow you to romance any character, but who knows? We’ll see.
(0:21:39) Codey: We live in a society.
(0:21:41) Codey: Thank you.
(0:21:45) Al: It is $60.
(0:21:48) Al: euros or 42 pounds.
(0:21:50) Al: That is pretty cheap here.
(0:21:52) Codey: What why why did you guys like pay a premium to like your government paid a
(0:21:53) Al: I don’t know why it’s cheaper here than not though, I don’t know.
(0:22:02) Codey: premium so they could get it for cheaper.
(0:22:05) Al: The limited edition is $100 or 66 pounds and 66 pence.
(0:22:10) Al: What a weird…
(0:22:11) Codey: What the heck?
(0:22:11) Al: Why is this such a weird number?
(0:22:15) Al: it’s interesting. So the standard way.
(0:22:18) Al: One. So this is for switch physical is
(0:22:18) Codey: Uh huh.
(0:22:21) Al: fifty nine ninety nine dollars forty one sixty six pounds or forty nine ninety nine euros.
(0:22:27) Al: Right. So I would think maybe it was just
(0:22:29) Al: auto-converted if it weren’t for the fact that the euros was a sensible one as well.
(0:22:33) Al: So that’s weird.
(0:22:34) Al: But then you go on to the limited edition one, which is nine ninety nine ninety nine
(0:22:40) Al: dollars sixty six sixty six pounds or eighty three thirty two euros.
(0:22:43) Codey: I mean, is it, do you guys have like a tax or something like a tariff on them that that
(0:22:48) Al: What is with these numbers?
(0:22:51) Al: So confused.
(0:22:56) Al: Yeah, but.
(0:22:58) Codey: would counteract?
(0:23:00) Al: I mean, not if if so, it would be the case on every game, right?
(0:23:06) Codey: Well, but maybe they’re like doing you a solid, like this company is like, we know, we know that
(0:23:09) Al: Well, not rounding up.
(0:23:11) Codey: you have to pay out your nose for shipping. So we’re just going to make the cost cheaper.
(0:23:20) Codey: Yeah, I don’t know. I’m just trying to grasp the straws because that’s a little bizarre.
(0:23:20) Al: if amazon has the the limited edition for 80 and the standard for 45 which I think was
(0:23:24) Codey: Seems like a typo.
(0:23:35) Al: the limited edition was more expensive yeah that was like 20 quid more for the limited edition
(0:23:35) Codey: the euro prices.
(0:23:41) Al: and three pounds more for the oh it’s very confusing what is happening here
(0:23:46) Codey: There’s no logic in this place.
(0:23:49) Al: I think these must.
(0:23:50) Al: be auto translated like auto thing made because I can’t even find I can’t even find
(0:23:59) Al: that number anywhere on any shop so I’m just going to ignore it I’m in all right anyway
(0:24:03) Codey: Are they trying to say that this is the devil’s game?
(0:24:11) Al: there’s that you can go pre-order it now if you want to go go go buy the game if you want
(0:24:15) Al: it or if you’re me um next we have harvest hills uh have announced
(0:24:15) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:24:20) Al: they’re out now uh I don’t think we got previous notice of this coming out on this date because
(0:24:26) Al: I didn’t have it down as that so they’ve just it’s out shadow drop they go
(0:24:30) Codey: Yep, that’s the way to do it
(0:24:33) Al: um trying to decide if I wanted to play this game or not uh it looks nice it’s nice graphics
(0:24:41) Al: but oh no they did announce their release date I just missed it they released it on Christmas eve
(0:24:47) Al: I don’t think this had an early access, so this is just…
(0:24:52) Codey: Yeah, no, this one was one that I was interested in because of the beehives looking actually like beehives.
(0:24:58) Al: Oh yes, oh yes. Oh, it’s cheap. Five quid, that’s wild. Okay, okay.
(0:25:00) Codey: And I’m really, yeah, it’s only like $5.
(0:25:07) Codey: Okay, the final the final question, can it be played on Mac? Nope. Sorry, y’all.
(0:25:12) Al: Oh, but it can on Steam Deck. I’d say it’s unknown compatibility on Steam Deck, but
(0:25:17) Codey: Well, I
(0:25:20) Al: I suspect it’ll be fine on Steam Deck, because it has controller support.
(0:25:22) Codey: It does look really cute, cool.
(0:25:24) Al: Interesting. Okay. Yeah. So if you want that game, go play it. Mika.
(0:25:28) Al: Which is mountain have announced that their non early access release is coming on the 22nd
(0:25:35) Al: of January. What I’m a little bit confused by is that they’ve said that the third update is coming
(0:25:44) Al: in the coming weeks. So this seems to be leaving early access without an update.
(0:25:50) Al: Like they’re just going, Oh, it’s not early access anymore. But this is this is they’ve been weird
(0:25:56) Al: about this since the beginning, right? Because I…
(0:25:58) Al: Still don’t understand why they ever put this out in Early Access,
(0:26:01) Al: because it wasn’t Early Access. They just added extra content after the fact.
(0:26:04) Al: And now they’re releasing their non-Early Access version before the final update.
(0:26:10) Codey: I mean, that seems pretty par for the course, given that Coral Island did a lot of the same stuff.
(0:26:11) Al: Weird. Weird. What are they doing over there?
(0:26:19) Al: - Well, yeah, I mean, I feel like “Mika and the Witch’s Mountain” was more complete on
(0:26:23) Codey: Yeah.
(0:26:23) Al: its early access release than “Coral Island” was on its 1.0 release. I don’t know, weird,
(0:26:28) Codey: Yeah, that’s fair.
(0:26:33) Al: confused, whatever. Why they didn’t go, “Oh, this is now out of early access” with their
(0:26:38) Al: second content update, because the third content update is extra stuff that they’d want to
(0:26:44) Al: add but wasn’t originally promised and so why they didn’t go or the second up
(0:26:49) Al: it is the non-early access release okay great fine done but they didn’t do that they’ve gone
(0:26:55) Al: no this random date a few weeks before the final update that doesn’t have an actual update
(0:27:02) Al: that is the non-early access version
(0:27:04) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don’t know is this this is the one where they’re gonna do they’re gonna add dungeons, right?
(0:27:11) Al: yes correct
(0:27:11) Codey: Yeah, cuz it says into the mount gone
(0:27:14) Codey: uh
(0:27:15) Al: Yeah, this is the time if you played the game before and you haven’t played.
(0:27:19) Al: either of the content updates this will be the time to play it because I believe this is the
(0:27:23) Al: final update and yeah it has a lot of extra content whereas the previous ones they were fun
(0:27:30) Al: they do look fun but they were kind of small things it was like here’s a minigame here’s
(0:27:35) Al: an extra collectible whereas this is yeah here are dungeons that you can go into much bigger.
(0:27:40) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, cool
(0:27:42) Al: Galactic getaway they have announced that their early access comes out in March
(0:27:48) Codey: Sorry, I just reread my comment and didn’t even realize it was a pun.
(0:27:53) Al: Yeah
(0:27:55) Al: You
(0:27:57) Codey: So I wrote, how are they getting away with this?
(0:28:01) Codey: And it’s galactic getaway.
(0:28:04) Codey: So what I was referring to, I almost typed it out, but I wanted it to be like a secret.
(0:28:09) Codey: When I look at this like Kickstarter picture that they have, the little robot is clearly
(0:28:18) Codey: WALL-E with like a headset on and the dog looks kind of like Doug from up.
(0:28:18) Al: Okay, bye.
(0:28:27) Codey: And then the spaceship in the back left looks like Stitch’s spaceship from Leelo and Stitch.
(0:28:34) Codey: So they’re just, the getaway part of this is that they’re getting away with not being
(0:28:38) Codey: sued by Disney, I think.
(0:28:38) Al: Right. Okay. So a couple of things. One, I don’t get the spaceship one. It doesn’t look
(0:28:41) Codey: Okay.
(0:28:44) Al: in it. Oh, no, I see. I know. I see. You mean that one. And I feel like I can see what you’re
(0:28:51) Al: getting, what you’re coming, where you’re coming from, but they’re all pretty generic anyway,
(0:28:56) Al: right? Like Eve is a pretty like generic looking robot. Doug is a dog, right? Like there’s only
(0:29:01) Codey: Yeah, this is the we have Eve at home.
(0:29:04) Codey: Uh-huh.
(0:29:07) Al: so many dogs that the.
(0:29:09) Al: And the spaceship is a red spaceship it it doesn’t even.
(0:29:14) Codey: And the watering can has a star on it, like in, uh, I look at, I’m, the more I look someone
(0:29:15) Al: Like it doesn’t even have the exact same design.
(0:29:19) Al: Oh, come on.
(0:29:22) Al: Come on.
(0:29:28) Codey: in the background has buns like in, uh, Star Wars. No, I just, that like the, the picture.
(0:29:34) Al: The robot is your biggest argument, I see why you’re saying that and I understand what you’re coming from, however, it’s a pretty generic looking robot shape, I think, personally.
(0:29:51) Codey: But no, I, I just, I noticed that and I was like, Oh wow.
(0:29:55) Codey: But yeah, I don’t know.
(0:29:57) Codey: I’d like to see, uh, more stuff about this game.
(0:30:00) Codey: I mean, they’ve, they’re going to add, they’re fixing the creatures, the
(0:30:04) Codey: farming, the crafting, the mini games, um, and early access in March, 2025.
(0:30:11) Codey: So, oh, woo.
(0:30:15) Al: Usagi Shima have announced that they have a Chinese New Year update out now with one
(0:30:21) Al: very important thing. Would you like to mention it? Yeah, you can give a costume to your bun
(0:30:22) Codey: Uh, lion… lion dancing.
(0:30:29) Al: to make it look like a… See, I thought these were dragons. I know it says lion, but I feel
(0:30:33) Codey: No, they’re quick. Yeah. Have you ever seen lion dancing? Have you ever seen lion dancing?
(0:30:35) Al: like it’s the Chinese New Year dragon, isn’t it? No, from a traditional saying.
(0:30:43) Codey: I had um, I had a woman. Yeah, no, they’re lions. Um, there were a couple people in my high school
(0:30:45) Al: Those are really, those are meant to be lions. I thought they were dragons. They don’t look
(0:30:53) Al: anything like lions.
(0:30:56) Codey: that uh were lion dancers and so they would do um in all the
(0:31:03) Codey: like assemblies. They’d have a lion dancing part to the assembly. It was really cool.
(0:31:10) Codey: Oh, that’s that was a big jump that I had to make. So you said this is a costume?
(0:31:16) Al: So there’s a costume and there’s a minigame. You maybe have to do the minigame to get the costume,
(0:31:21) Al: I’m not sure. Yeah, you jump over buns, some of which are in the costume.
(0:31:22) Codey: Is the minigame the jumping?
(0:31:29) Codey: Well, I just jumped over a plant and then lost to a mushroom, so.
(0:31:33) Al: Oh, OK, so it’s more than buns that you jump over. Fair enough.
(0:31:36) Codey: But that’s exciting.
(0:31:39) Al: Yeah, if you love this game, it’s another update and with stuff for you to do.
(0:31:40) Codey: I haven’t played this game in a while.
(0:31:45) Codey: And it’s still cute.
(0:31:47) Al: Yes, if you liked the game before, you’ll probably like this update. Let’s be honest.
(0:31:50) Codey: you will continue the
(0:31:52) Codey: liking shall continue.
(0:31:54) Al: Yeah, for sure.
(0:31:56) Al: Chill Town have announced their upcoming updates, 0.9 and 1.0. They’ve given some details on them.
(0:32:04) Al: It’s mostly 0.9, like right at the end of the post to go,
(0:32:10) Al: “Oh, and by the way, there will be festivals. That’s coming in 1.0.”
(0:32:15) Codey: Yep, they talk about how they have sprinting, which I thought folks might like given that,
(0:32:16) Al: But the rest of it seems to be 0.9.
(0:32:28) Codey: you know, the issue was that you had to run across the map, right? That was something
(0:32:32) Codey: folks were complaining about when they played it. So maybe being able to run faster will
(0:32:37) Codey: alleviate some of that. But the more important thing is that they lied to me in that steam
(0:32:45) Codey: that says that there’s a nature exhibit with it that you can fill with insects. But I saw no insects.
(0:32:50) Codey: So that’s all they haven’t. But like, you can’t mention that without showing an insect or two,
(0:32:51) Al: Maybe they’ve just not put any in yet
(0:32:59) Codey: as like an example. They don’t, they, they literally just, they just walk through it’s as
(0:33:02) Al: Don’t think they show anything in that they just it’s like completely empty
(0:33:08) Codey: if an animal crossing or coral island or whatever, like you just walk through the part of the museum
(0:33:13) Codey: in which the insects are supposed to be.
(0:33:15) Codey: I was like waiting, I’m like, is there going to be like a butterfly that lies out?
(0:33:16) Al: Yeah, very weird.
(0:33:27) Codey: Um, yeah, I was, I was really excited to see insects and then there weren’t any, but that’s
(0:33:33) Codey: okay.
(0:33:34) Codey: Something to look forward to.
(0:33:34) Al: Wooo!
(0:33:37) Al: Fields of Mystery app have announced their next update, the second major update coming in March.
(0:33:46) Al: It adds a new villager, some additional dialogue and schedules for the NPCs.
(0:33:54) Al: More unlocks in the mines, which is important. I need to get further down those mines,
(0:34:01) Codey: Yep. Yep.
(0:34:01) Al: Although I need to I need to not play this
(0:34:05) Al: yet. I need to not go into the cut zone. I think I need to wait for more updates,
(0:34:10) Al: otherwise I’ll just end up burning out before the end of it. New areas in the town, additional
(0:34:17) Al: requests, more museum stuff, new festival, just yeah. Oh the farmland expansion is added. Oh yes.
(0:34:27) Al: Gotta get a bigger farm. Do I need a bigger farm? No I do not. Sprinklers! Yes! Finally! Adding
(0:34:30) Codey: But you can.
(0:34:34) Al: sprinklers and an auto petter. This is getting good. This game’s getting good. It was already
(0:34:43) Al: good. It’s getting even better. They’ve also listed a bunch of stuff that’s coming in future
(0:34:48) Al: updates but they just they say in no particular order. Just like here are things that we’re
(0:34:50) Codey: But, but the automation is the most important.
(0:34:53) Al: thinking about. Oh yes. Gotta love it. Also in-game time adjustment options, which is something that
(0:35:03) Al: that always sounds like a good idea.
(0:35:07) Codey: I mean people probably use it because they want to like skip forward to something or
(0:35:12) Codey: other or skip back possibly if they missed a festival or something.
(0:35:16) Al: Yeah. All right. And finally, finally, second, finally, next, next we have
(0:35:24) Codey: But penultimate final.
(0:35:30) Al: just an ultimate. You don’t need to add on the final one to the end.
(0:35:35) Al: Next, we have webfishing have released a plush of their main character, the cat,
(0:35:43) Al: on Makeship. So if you want that, and it’s funded, it’s out.
(0:35:47) Codey: Uh-huh
(0:35:47) Al: Definitely happening. So if you want it, go get it.
(0:35:51) Codey: Yep, it is $29.99 and most importantly that Al did not mention is that it is holding a salmon
(0:36:00) Al: for sure it’s very cute I don’t need
(0:36:01) Codey: That’s the most important part
(0:36:05) Codey: No, but wait, do you what if you don’t get it and then you want it later?
(0:36:10) Al: So Craig, my youngest, is really into Astrobok recently, right?
(0:36:12) Codey: Uh-huh
(0:36:14) Codey: Okay
(0:36:15) Al: Like obsessed with it.
(0:36:17) Al: He’s been playing it a couple of hours most days of the week.
(0:36:17) Codey: You
(0:36:20) Codey: Mm-hmm
(0:36:21) Al: He is, and he’s getting really good at it, right?
(0:36:22) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:36:23) Al: This is his first proper game that he’s played.
(0:36:26) Al: Like he’s done a couple of bits here and there,
(0:36:28) Al: but he’s not really like been playing them properly.
(0:36:31) Al: But this is, he’s like doing most of it.
(0:36:33) Al: There’s a few times where he’s like, can you help me with this?
(0:36:35) Al: Because it’s too difficult, but he’s getting really good at it.
(0:36:38) Al: like from it’s been like three weeks.
(0:36:40) Al: or something and from the start till now he’s improved so much but he’s absolutely obsessed
(0:36:46) Al: with it so much that we we just ordered the astrobot plush and that should be arriving
(0:36:49) Codey: Oh.
(0:36:51) Al: the day this episode comes out so he is very excited about that.
(0:36:54) Codey: So if I hear a squeal from around the world of excitement.
(0:36:59) Codey: Cool.
(0:36:59) Al: Yeah finally we have information on a new Animal Crossing aquarium tour this time in the UK. We’ll
(0:37:07) Al: We’ll come back to that word in a minute.
(0:37:10) Al: I believe they did this in Japan and a few other places.
(0:37:14) Al: I feel like I said about it in Canada and America, maybe as well.
(0:37:18) Al: There’s a few.
(0:37:19) Al: Anyway, it’s coming to the UK as well in collaboration with Sea Life UK.
(0:37:23) Al: Now, I say UK because it is very much a tiny, tiny portion of one part of the UK.
(0:37:32) Al: It’s like four different cities that are like half an hour to travel between each other.
(0:37:40) Al: It is like a pathetically small amount, and you might go, “Oh, well, it’s because it’s
(0:37:45) Al: Sea Life.
(0:37:46) Al: It’s a specific company, and they don’t have any other place.
(0:37:49) Al: They do.
(0:37:50) Al: They have one in Scotland, and they didn’t do it there.
(0:37:52) Codey: Well, yeah, they don’t want to do that, right?
(0:37:53) Al: Thank you very much.”
(0:37:53) Al: Don’t call it a UK tour if it’s just England.
(0:37:57) Al: It’s an England tour, but like saying a US tour, and it’s just New York.
(0:38:02) Codey: Yeah, just New York and Los Angeles.
(0:38:02) Al: Go away.
(0:38:05) Al: It’s a Europe tour, European tour.
(0:38:10) Al: I’m annoyed.
(0:38:10) Codey: Yeah, I guess I don’t really understand like what this is,
(0:38:14) Al: Yeah, I think so, yeah, I believe so.
(0:38:15) Codey: like, will there just be characters around?
(0:38:20) Codey: Around.
(0:38:24) Al: There’s activities as well.
(0:38:25) Al: I think they have the stamp thing that they do in the game, so it says, “Visitors will
(0:38:31) Al: be able to collect character stamps, discover many interesting facts about the inhabitants
(0:38:35) Al: of Sea Life, and meet with Tom Nook and Isabel.
(0:38:38) Al: at the end of the visit fans will be able to purchase.
(0:38:40) Al: Animal Crossing New Horizons merchandise, of course they will, at the Aquarium store.
(0:38:44) Codey: What villager would have to be included in either the merchandise or the stamp thing for you to go?
(0:38:54) Al: or for me to travel all the way down to, I think Manchester is the closest one,
(0:38:59) Al: which would be a, I think it’s a five hour drive for me, which is not insignificant.
(0:39:08) Al: I know it means nothing to Americans who will drive five hours for dinner.
(0:39:16) Al: I don’t think there is someone, I don’t really think so, like,
(0:39:19) Codey: I would think, so if this was in New York or DC, which are like a three to five hour drive from
(0:39:24) Codey: where I am, if Blue Bear was in there, Blue Bear is my favorite.
(0:39:30) Al: Yeah, I just don’t think… I think it would be… I would drive two hours to go to this,
(0:39:37) Al: I think. That’s how far I would drive to get to this. Coincidentally, about the time it
(0:39:41) Al: takes to leave Scotland. I would drive two hours to this. I don’t think there’s anything
(0:39:49) Al: realistically that would make me drive five hours. I don’t think I could do that. That’s
(0:39:56) Al: too far. Especially considering we have an
(0:40:00) Al: aquarium five minutes from us that we have a season pass to. So I would be paying to travel
(0:40:08) Al: five hours to then pay to get into an aquarium when I have a season pass to an aquarium next to
(0:40:14) Al: me. That doesn’t feel the most sensible situation, right? Oh, we do. All right, that is the news.
(0:40:18) Codey: We have an aquarium at home.
(0:40:25) Al: So next we will be going into our interview with Jordan, the developer of
(0:40:30) Al: overseas retirement. We recorded that at a different time. So if it sounds different,
(0:40:36) Al: that’s why. I hope you enjoy the interview.
(0:40:38) Al: Weeee!
(0:40:39) Al: Woo!
(0:40:39) Al: Woo!
(0:40:48) Al: Okay, we are now back with the developer of Rusty’s retirement, which just to remind listeners
(0:40:56) Al: was the winner of the Harvest Seasons Game of the Year last year.
(0:41:01) Al: Hello, welcome to the podcast, what is your name and what are your pronouns?
(0:41:06) Jordan: Hiya. My name is Jordan, he/him. Yeah, I’m the developer of Rusty’s retirement, and also a smaller, lesser-known metroidvania called Hyekuda Robot, which is in the same universe as Rusty, actually, if you didn’t know that. A little bit of lore for you.
(0:41:24) Al: I did not know that and I do like metroidvanias, maybe I’ll look at that at some point.
(0:41:30) Codey: wait it’s a metroid haiku as in haiku the helper of russey
(0:41:35) Jordan: Yep
(0:41:37) Codey: he metroid what okay continue I have questions
(0:41:41) Al: Well, good thing that you have questions because this is an interview, so I guess we’ll start
(0:41:48) Al: off with a couple of easy questions. What is your history with games, just in general?
(0:41:54) Al: What did you play when you were young? How did you get to where you are with games?
(0:41:59) Jordan: Yeah, so I think my sort of gaming journey, let’s say, started when I was little,
(0:42:08) Jordan: and I can’t remember the age exactly, but it was when Game Boy Color came out,
(0:42:13) Jordan: because that was my first console that I ever got. And I just have super fond memories of playing
(0:42:21) Jordan: Pokemon Gold on the Game Boy Color. So yeah, after that, and it was just like all the game.
(0:42:29) Jordan: Boy stuff, Game Boy SP, Game Boy SP Advance, all of those ones. Nintendo DS when it came out,
(0:42:39) Jordan: you know, all that sort of stuff. And then eventually I got like a PlayStation, I think.
(0:42:44) Jordan: So I played like typical PlayStation games like GTA and stuff when I was definitely not age
(0:42:51) Jordan: appropriate to play GTA, but still pretty fun times. So yeah, just sort of a mix, but it definitely
(0:42:59) Jordan: with Game Boy and Game Boy Color.
(0:43:01) Al: Yeah, fair enough. What was your starter in in Pokemon gold?
(0:43:04) Jordan: Oh, I think it was the crocodile looking guy. Yes, that’s the one.
(0:43:09) Al: Totodile. Yeah, good one. Good one. You’re in good company because we are both also Pokemon fans.
(0:43:16) Codey: Mm-hmm
(0:43:16) Al: I’ve been doing a lot of Pokemon recently.
(0:43:20) Jordan: Yeah, I even I even actually bought because they did this remaster edition of like heart
(0:43:25) Jordan: gold or something for like at the time I didn’t have a DS, I think it broke or I was only using
(0:43:33) Jordan: my cousins or something like that. So I literally went out and bought a DS just so I could buy
(0:43:39) Jordan: Pokemon Heart Gold. And that was like the only game I had for it. That was it.
(0:43:44) Al: Yeah, I was actually the same because I dropped out of Pokémon after Gen 2 and came back
(0:43:50) Al: for HeartGold SoulSilver. And I didn’t have a DS either, but my mum had a DS for brain
(0:43:55) Al: training games. And so I was like, “Can I use your DS, please?” I used her DS and played
(0:44:02) Al: HeartGold SoulSilver. I then got my own DSi for when the black and white came out. It
(0:44:08) Al: a good time to jump back in, I think.
(0:44:10) Codey: I think everyone had that like break period where they like played and then they stopped
(0:44:15) Codey: playing and then they jumped back in, or at least I had that, yeah, yeah.
(0:44:18) Jordan: - Yeah, I did as well.
(0:44:20) Jordan: After HeartGold, I think I went and played all the DS,
(0:44:24) Jordan: Pokemon games that released,
(0:44:25) Jordan: like Diamond, Pearl, Sapphire, Ruby, all of those ones.
(0:44:30) Al: Fair enough. Rusty’s retirement is obviously a farming game. What is your history with farming
(0:44:36) Al: games? When did you because obviously there’s got to be a point where you’re like I’m making
(0:44:40) Al: a farming game. So how did you get to that point in enjoying farming games or you know
(0:44:46) Al: cottagecore games in general? Wow, okay interesting.
(0:44:48) Jordan: I’ve never played a farming game, still to this day, other than Rusty’s retirement.
(0:44:58) Codey: - Wild.
(0:45:00) Jordan: So I know they exist, I know how they work, and obviously when I landed on Rusty’s retirement,
(0:45:09) Jordan: well first of all, let me go back a little bit more. So after my first game, which was
(0:45:14) Jordan: haikura robot, the same haikura that appears in Russia’s retirement.
(0:45:19) Jordan: I was kind of stuck with what to do because making a Metroidvania was just a massive undertaking, especially to do it solo.
(0:45:27) Jordan: Like I did all the art, animations, the coding, and there’s just so much content like you need.
(0:45:33) Jordan: There was like 10 or 10 to 15 bosses at the end, you know, it’s just so much work.
(0:45:39) Jordan: Like each boss needs their own unique animations, attack patterns, all this sort of stuff.
(0:45:45) Jordan: And I was like, vowed to myself that I’m never going to
(0:45:48) Jordan: put myself through this again, that I’m going to try and make
(0:45:52) Jordan: something smaller and simpler as my next game. But when I
(0:45:56) Jordan: finished from Metroidvania, that I didn’t know what to do. So I
(0:46:03) Jordan: had this sort of brainwave of, I’m just going to make these
(0:46:07) Jordan: sort of small prototypes, spend about two weeks on an idea
(0:46:11) Jordan: because, you know, I had a bunch of ideas I wanted to try out,
(0:46:15) Jordan: spend about two weeks on each sort of idea.
(0:46:18) Jordan: And just test them just to want to see if I could actually do some of this stuff, you know, like some my technical capability isn’t like fantastic. I’m not like a fantastic coder. So some of this stuff is just simply out of my reach, just from a technical standpoint.
(0:46:34) Al: You’re not making a 3D Zelda game.
(0:46:35) Jordan: And then
(0:46:37) Jordan: Yeah, or like, you know, I love strategy games and forex games as well. So like, but those things are like humongous. I would never be able to do something like that.
(0:46:47) Jordan: And, and yes.
(0:46:48) Jordan: So I just did these prototypes and I made Rusty and funnily, funnily enough.
(0:46:55) Jordan: I actually shelved Rusty for like three months because I made it and most
(0:47:01) Jordan: of the prototypes I made, and then I showed them on Twitter, right?
(0:47:06) Jordan: I showed like, Hey guys, what do you think of this sort of thing?
(0:47:10) Jordan: Just to kind of gauge, you know, interest and stuff like this, because I
(0:47:14) Jordan: didn’t want to make something that, you know, at the end of the day,
(0:47:17) Jordan: nobody wants to play.
(0:47:18) Jordan: I was kind of trying to find this balance of like, okay, I’m going to do these
(0:47:21) Jordan: ideas that I want to make and find out if I want to make them, but then also
(0:47:26) Jordan: show them to people to see if there’s interest because I think if there’s
(0:47:28) Jordan: interest, it also kind of motivates you to make it as well.
(0:47:31) Jordan: You know, so it’s like this balance.
(0:47:34) Jordan: Uh, but for Rusty, I thought, man, this is such a stupid idea.
(0:47:38) Jordan: Nobody’s going to want to play this.
(0:47:40) Jordan: And I just shelved it for like three months.
(0:47:42) Jordan: Uh, but luckily I had commissioned, um, the sprites for.
(0:47:48) Jordan: Rusty and they came through and I was thinking, you know, I should at
(0:47:52) Jordan: least put sprites in the game now that they’ve done, just see what it looks like.
(0:47:56) Jordan: And that’s when I thought, Oh, it was pretty cool.
(0:47:58) Jordan: And I should make this into something.
(0:48:00) Jordan: But before that, I hadn’t played any farming games or anything like that.
(0:48:04) Jordan: But then once I kind of had this rusty idea and I also put it on Twitter
(0:48:09) Jordan: and people really liked it, then I started like, uh, researching more
(0:48:13) Jordan: into farming games and stuff.
(0:48:14) Codey: » Mm-hmm.
(0:48:16) Al: if you still not played any.
(0:48:16) Jordan: But interestingly enough, I…
(0:48:18) Jordan: No, I haven’t, because I was tempted to play Stardew Valley,
(0:48:22) Jordan: but I didn’t want to get too influenced by the decisions that were made in that game.
(0:48:29) Jordan: Like, I researched enough to know what’s the sort of loop, the core gameplay loop,
(0:48:34) Jordan: and understand how that works, but I didn’t want to play it and see exactly how it’s done,
(0:48:39) Jordan: because then I felt like it’s just going to influence my decision too much.
(0:48:43) Jordan: And that kind of happened with my first game that I made, the metroidvainer, like…
(0:48:48) Jordan: And after playing Hollow Knight, it was, wow, like, there’s so much stuff here that is great,
(0:48:55) Jordan: and I just want to add to my game. And then it became a little bit too much like Hollow Knight.
(0:49:01) Jordan: So I wanted to try and move away from that and try and do something that’s a bit more on my own.
(0:49:06) Codey: So what I mean, what was the through line?
(0:49:09) Codey: I guess like were you just kind of throwing things at the wall and making them stick because I’m thinking trying to think of like a
(0:49:15) Codey: if you’re making the comparison to Hollow Knight like trying to make the comparison of like there’s this warrior and
(0:49:23) Codey: And they’re fighting and they save the world or whatever and they just kind of like retire like was that kind
(0:49:28) Jordan: Well, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
(0:49:30) Codey: Because like cuz I I mean I’m watching I have the game up because of course I do and I’m watching haiku
(0:49:36) Codey: Like just he’s just bopping around he’s just helping it out
(0:49:37) Jordan: Yeah, it’s just chillin man. It’s just chillin, but at the end of the game he accomplishes what he needs to do
(0:49:39) Codey: But and then I looked
(0:49:43) Codey: Okay, I mean yeah
(0:49:44) Jordan: So like you know it made it made sense to transition him to like to just retire alongside Rusty
(0:49:51) Codey: That’s such a cute idea I love
(0:49:53) Jordan: And I thought it was I thought it was like because obviously you know when I when I had this idea of like making this
(0:49:59) Jordan: Farming game. It’s like completely different to a Metroidvania where you hack and slash
(0:50:05) Jordan: bosses and enemies and all sorts of stuff.
(0:50:07) Jordan: So I was like, how can I not completely alienate that sort of audience and player base that
(0:50:14) Jordan: have built up over the last two years or three years even.
(0:50:18) Jordan: And, you know, so I was trying to look for like a bridge and I felt like the bridge was
(0:50:24) Jordan: I could at least keep it in the same world because a lot of the story for Haiku is about
(0:50:30) Jordan: how nature always prevails.
(0:50:33) Jordan: So I feel like it somewhat ties in with the farm.
(0:50:37) Jordan: It’s a farming aspect and expanding your farm because on Rusty you have like these sort of debris on older sides and you have to clear the debris and then like there’s farmland underneath so I felt like it somewhat related.
(0:50:52) Codey: So, I mean, I guess you’ve, you’ve already mentioned that you’re not a coder.
(0:50:58) Codey: What is your back?
(0:50:59) Jordan: Well, I am sort of now because I’ve been doing it for five
(0:51:02) Codey: Okay, well before I mean so like what what was the impetus to start developing games like what what was your career before or like, how did you get into this of game development.
(0:51:14) Jordan: Yeah, this is like one of my favorite stories, actually.
(0:51:16) Codey: Oh, cool.
(0:51:18) Jordan: Because I studied architecture, but I didn’t do anything with architecture. In fact, I dropped
(0:51:24) Jordan: out of architecture. And then I went into marketing in like a sort of startup slash
(0:51:31) Jordan: medium sized company, which was going a bit corporate and stuff like this, right.
(0:51:36) Jordan: And I don’t know what happened. But one day, I just had a really, really, really bad day at work,
(0:51:42) Jordan: Which we all do.
(0:51:44) Jordan: And I just went home and I thought, there’s got to be something outside that I can do in my life.
(0:51:50) Jordan: And my father lets a joke that I was like touched by God or something like he’s not religious, but that I was touched by some unknown spirit.
(0:51:58) Jordan: And they guided me to just Google how to make a video game.
(0:52:03) Jordan: And and that was it.
(0:52:05) Jordan: Basically, I just watched one YouTube tutorial and I just didn’t stop since then.
(0:52:12) Jordan: Like, I was just very invested in it.
(0:52:14) Jordan: Like, I think from playing games in my childhood, maybe the architecture sort of just being creative aspect ties in as well.
(0:52:23) Jordan: So I felt like it was just a little fun and it all started from just a bad day at work.
(0:52:28) Jordan: It’s really, really, really weird, really weird to think back.
(0:52:29) Al: That’s a very productive way to, you know, have a bad day at work. I just go in like
(0:52:33) Codey: Sorry, what?
(0:52:38) Al: grump and go play some games instead. Or record a podcast.
(0:52:40) Codey: Well, I wonder if each like career path has a different version of this because in entomology
(0:52:50) Codey: and in the sciences, like in biological sciences in general, we all have the desire to quit
(0:52:55) Codey: and start either a bookshop, a cafe or a bakery.
(0:52:58) Al: Hmm
(0:52:59) Jordan: bakery yes bakery is high on my list
(0:53:00) Codey: So maybe like in, you know, design and tech and marketing, it’s more like.
(0:53:10) Codey: Okay, I’m going to develop stuff now.
(0:53:12) Jordan: I don’t know, Bakery’s still pretty high up on my list.
(0:53:15) Codey: You can still do it.
(0:53:17) Codey: I will leave it to you.
(0:53:19) Jordan: Yeah, it’s like a joke in the startup world that you try and make enough money
(0:53:25) Jordan: so you don’t have to work in tech anymore, so you can just live on a farm.
(0:53:27) Al: Yeah, I know that feeling. Although I’d like to do with working, I think that sounds fun to me.
(0:53:27) Codey: Yeah, yep, yeah, so what, I mean, from that background, what, what about it gave you the idea for this kind of second screen, like aspect of, of Rusty’s retirement, I think I can’t think of anything else that really does this.
(0:53:36) Jordan: I think it’s the desire to create something and do something with your hands yeah.
(0:53:58) Codey: Did you have like something that inspired you to have kind of Rusty on the bottom of your screen as you’re working or what, what was the creation of that?
(0:54:06) Jordan: Yeah, I saw there’s a few games out there that
(0:54:10) Jordan: don’t quite do it the same.
(0:54:12) Jordan: But they have this idea of there’s management on the top.
(0:54:16) Jordan: And then you have at the bottom where stuff is happening.
(0:54:21) Jordan: And I kind of looked at the bottom part
(0:54:24) Jordan: and thought, that’s interesting.
(0:54:26) Jordan: But all this stuff on the top is like,
(0:54:29) Jordan: what if you could put that in the bottom part as well?
(0:54:32) Jordan: So you could actually do just something else.
(0:54:37) Jordan: I don’t know.
(0:54:37) Jordan: It was just like this sort of–
(0:54:39) Jordan: I felt like there’s literally no point of just having
(0:54:42) Jordan: a game at the bottom.
(0:54:44) Jordan: This sounds really harsh.
(0:54:45) Jordan: There’s no point of having a game at the bottom
(0:54:47) Jordan: and then having all this stuff on top.
(0:54:49) Jordan: I felt like the idea was like half there sort of thing.
(0:54:54) Jordan: And I was just thinking, there must
(0:54:56) Jordan: be a way where you can just push all that top stuff
(0:54:59) Jordan: into the bottom part.
(0:55:01) Jordan: And then the game is just exclusively at the bottom.
(0:55:05) Jordan: and then you can just…
(0:55:06) Jordan: do other things at the same time. I mean, like I said, when I made this prototype,
(0:55:12) Jordan: I thought it was such a stupid idea that I just didn’t touch it for like three more months.
(0:55:16) Jordan: And then, I don’t know, I shared it on social media and it turns out that people were actually
(0:55:21) Jordan: quite interested in it. But to me, it’s still still still a weird idea to just come across,
(0:55:29) Jordan: just be like, oh, that’s interesting. I’m going to try that, you know.
(0:55:32) Codey: Yeah, I think that’s it’s it is it’s really innovative, honestly, and like, they’re with for people who are in fields where you’re like science and coding and stuff like that. It’s easy to like you have all these windows to just like have kind of an idle game going on in the background. It’s, it’s one of those things where it’s like, that makes so much sense. Why hasn’t this thing? And I really like, yeah, go for it.
(0:56:00) Jordan: Yeah, I mean, for just for example, in my day to day work,
(0:56:02) Codey: Yeah.
(0:56:04) Jordan: if I write a piece of code, I have to wait for the game engine
(0:56:08) Jordan: to recompile, which usually only takes like, 1015 seconds, but
(0:56:13) Jordan: 1015 seconds in today’s world is so long. So like, I just open my
(0:56:18) Jordan: phone and next thing you know, it’s been five minutes. And it
(0:56:21) Jordan: was it was only I was only supposed to wait like 1015
(0:56:23) Jordan: seconds. So it felt like it was almost combat and that sort of
(0:56:27) Jordan: issue that I had as well.
(0:56:30) Al: So do you, yeah well Cody was telling me the other day that that’s exactly what they do,
(0:56:35) Al: it helps them focus on the things rather than getting pulled into that
(0:56:39) Al: phone hole exactly as you described it. So do you play it while you’re working on
(0:56:46) Al: whatever your future stuff is or even just like updates for Rusties, are you playing it as well?
(0:56:51) Jordan: I do sometimes, but the thing about making your own game is you play it so much that
(0:56:58) Al: Yeah.
(0:57:00) Jordan: you get very tired of it very quickly. So it’s weird because this has happened twice now and
(0:57:06) Jordan: both times. So I think it’s a thing. Like I’m sure like first time when it happened, I was like,
(0:57:11) Jordan: “Am I just weird or is this like a thing?” But I think it’s definitely a thing. Yeah,
(0:57:16) Jordan: you just keep playing it. You know the ins and outs, you know exactly how everything works.
(0:57:20) Jordan: There’s no discovery.
(0:57:22) Jordan: So that sort of initial period of when you’re starting the game and you’re super excited about the game is like so important that you get right, because then after that excitement’s gone, it’s just like a, it’s just like a slog to get it finished, basically.
(0:57:39) Al: Yeah, it’s definitely a thing. It’s an interesting, I think it’s specific to game
(0:57:40) Jordan: So you have to, yeah.
(0:57:44) Al: development though, because I’m a software developer, so I don’t make games, but I make
(0:57:48) Al: other things. And generally, other than obviously my work, which is doing stuff for other people
(0:57:53) Al: that I don’t care about, but like I got into that through making things to solve my problems.
(0:57:58) Al: And so the very fact that I make it is so that I can use it. And so it’s like you don’t end up in
(0:58:03) Al: that situation where you’ve made it and then you’re like, oh, I’m not going to use it. Because
(0:58:06) Al: otherwise you just wouldn’t make it in the first place, right?
(0:58:10) Jordan: Yeah, and it is very satisfying for me, like, software development, or game development,
(0:58:17) Jordan: I think this sort of very quick loop of like, Oh, I had this idea in the morning, and then
(0:58:26) Jordan: by the afternoon, you’ve got it like implemented, that’s like super satisfying, in my opinion.
(0:58:31) Jordan: So like, those smaller goals, like very nice. And I think they help with the day to day,
(0:58:36) Jordan: Like you could wake up in the morning with this idea for an enemy, whip some-
(0:58:40) Jordan: -screwed sprites together and then work on the code and it’s pretty much done by the end of the
(0:58:45) Jordan: day. You just got to polish it up a bit, which is super satisfying to go from like nothing to
(0:58:50) Jordan: something within just one day versus, you know, working at my corporate job where it’s like,
(0:58:56) Jordan: you got to submit tasks. That task has to be estimated and groomed. Then it has to be put
(0:59:01) Jordan: in the sprint and then, you know, it’s like one task now takes four weeks because the sprints are
(0:59:07) Jordan: two weeks and you know all this sort of stuff.
(0:59:10) Jordan: So it’s a big change to go from four weeks to like two days or maximum like a week.
(0:59:18) Al: Yeah, that’s the advantage of working on your stuff on your own,
(0:59:22) Al: because I suspect game development and the big companies is much more like the slow process.
(0:59:26) Jordan: Yeah, yeah, true, true. Yeah. True, true. That probably going for the same thing of submitting
(0:59:28) Al: I don’t think anyone on Call of Duty is implementing an enemy in one day.
(0:59:38) Jordan: in a task, waiting for the sprint, et cetera.
(0:59:40) Al: Yeah, yep, yep, yep, definitely. The other thing that I’d been thinking about is, I feel like it’s
(0:59:46) Al: kind of linked to the games that you were talking about was kind of the Wii U in terms of its like
(0:59:55) Al: second screen type thing. I know it’s not exactly the same because that’s, you know, playing a game
(0:59:59) Al: across two screens, but it kind of, it almost feels like the ideas are coming from the same sort of
(1:00:05) Al: Space? Did that factor in at all?
(1:00:08) Jordan: Um, not really because I never owned the Wii U. So I, I, I’m just hearing about, I kind
(1:00:11) Al: Fair enough.
(1:00:16) Jordan: of skipped the whole Wii thing, to be honest. I only played like a friend’s house, the Wii
(1:00:21) Jordan: bowling, and maybe, was it Super Smash, Milly? No, that’s the, yeah, it was the GameCube
(1:00:25) Al: » Melee was the game coupon, I think. Fair enough.
(1:00:28) Jordan: one. Yeah, I can’t remember what, I kind of skipped the whole Wii thing. I don’t know,
(1:00:32) Jordan: it’s just like a phase in my life that just, just never played the Wii.
(1:00:36) Codey: Well, I guess the DS is kind of similar. We’ve got two screens,
(1:00:39) Jordan: Yeah, maybe DS, yeah.
(1:00:41) Codey: like the one that has the screen in the bottom and the screen up top, right?
(1:00:45) Jordan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they had like, with the stylus, stylus, where you could touch
(1:00:47) Al: I guess it’s just all just like different ways of interacting with games here, right?
(1:00:52) Jordan: the thing. Yeah, I mean, I’ve never thought of it, but maybe, maybe somewhere in the back
(1:00:57) Jordan: of my mind, I was thinking of my DS.
(1:01:03) Al: It’s not the same thing because one is two screens and one is half a screen or a quarter
(1:01:08) Al: of a screen or whatever, right?
(1:01:10) Al: It’s not the same thing.
(1:01:12) Al: It just feels like what other ways can we interact with games that isn’t just you have
(1:01:18) Jordan: Yeah, and for Rusty, it was very important for me to make sure that it’s not like something
(1:01:26) Jordan: that needs your constant attention, because otherwise it defeats the purpose of being
(1:01:30) Jordan: on your screen at the same time. Because if you only do that, then you might as well just
(1:01:36) Jordan: have it full screen and you play it like any other game, because that’s the only thing
(1:01:40) Jordan: you’re focusing on. So it was like a balance of making sure that I had like these rules
(1:01:48) Jordan: that everything’s super, super simplified. And there’s only literally like two things
(1:01:52) Jordan: that you can do. You can only plant seeds, or you can build buildings, or you can place
(1:01:57) Jordan: buildings, like that’s it. So everything was like whittled down to that. And the game would
(1:02:05) Jordan: just take care of the rest, like it’s automated, it would, you know, the robots move around
(1:02:08) Jordan: and do all the tasks for you so you don’t have to. So then once you’re done, or like,
(1:02:14) Jordan: you know, you planted your seeds or you’ve built your buildings.
(1:02:18) Jordan: you had no more money, and there’s nothing else for you
(1:02:20) Jordan: to do other than wait, then you go, it kind of pushes you away
(1:02:23) Jordan: from the game and back to whatever you were doing. So the
(1:02:27) Jordan: idea was like, you know, if it’s on the screen, at all times,
(1:02:31) Jordan: then it shouldn’t be too distracting. It should act as
(1:02:34) Jordan: like, for that, that short break that you need that short moment
(1:02:38) Jordan: where you just need a bit of downtime from whatever you’re
(1:02:40) Jordan: doing, you do something, somebody compared it to like pet
(1:02:44) Jordan: and animal like your cat or something, you know, like you’re
(1:02:48) Jordan: on your computer, you’re getting a bit tired, you look at your
(1:02:50) Jordan: pet, you’re like, Oh, give it a few pets and then go back, you
(1:02:52) Codey: I think for me it’s the same as you said where you know you you’re running a task or running
(1:02:53) Jordan: know, they compared it to that. I was like, that’s that’s a
(1:02:56) Jordan: pretty good comparison.
(1:03:03) Codey: a code or something on your computer and then you have this downtime and same I would grab
(1:03:08) Codey: my phone or if like my brain just kind of shuts off from the task I’m doing on my computer
(1:03:13) Codey: excited HD if I’m like oh I need like a break mental break I’d like go walk away from my
(1:03:19) Codey: computer and then suddenly I’m, like, doing all these dishes.
(1:03:22) Codey: And doing, like, all this stuff and I am not doing my work and this is great because it keeps me on the screen versus, like, looking at another screen or walking away from my computer entirely.
(1:03:34) Jordan: Yeah, or like looking at a different tab. Like that’s the
(1:03:37) Jordan: one that gets me as well. It’s like when I’m waiting for
(1:03:41) Jordan: something, I’m like, oh, let me just quickly check Twitter, you
(1:03:44) Jordan: know, nobody ever quickly checks the Twitter. It’s like you check
(1:03:48) Jordan: it and then you’re there for like five minutes, just scrolling
(1:03:50) Jordan: and scrolling and scrolling. So yeah, it was very important to
(1:03:52) Codey: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, success for me at least. Mm hmm. Well, and, and it’s funny for not only
(1:03:53) Jordan: try and keep that sort of balance.
(1:04:01) Jordan: I’m happy to hear that and I think a lot of the reviews say that and it makes me
(1:04:05) Jordan: very happy as well to read those sort of reviews.
(1:04:08) Al: Yeah, well, 10,000 of them.
(1:04:11) Jordan: That, yeah, it’s crazy.
(1:04:15) Codey: from the podcast, but like, I was, um, anytime I zoom with like other students and then I
(1:04:19) Codey: share my screen they’re like what is
(1:04:22) Codey: going on down there and then I explain it and then they’re like oh that’s
(1:04:26) Codey: really cool. So we have definitely the podcast is definitely referred a lot of
(1:04:29) Jordan: So you’re where all my sales come from then, huh?
(1:04:36) Codey: humans yes and then I’ve mentioned it to other grad students that also have
(1:04:42) Codey: difficulty focusing but
(1:04:44) Al: So I’ve what I’ve noticed since in the last few months is there’ve been a lot of games very
(1:04:51) Al: similar to the idea, you know, the second the popping up on the bottom of your screen idea,
(1:04:58) Al: you know, we’ve got this this one coming, which is like a life sim, there’s a cat cafe one,
(1:05:03) Al: there’s a creature collector one. It feels a little bit like you’ve essentially created
(1:05:08) Al: a new genre of games. How does that feel?
(1:05:11) Jordan: It was crazy, right?
(1:05:15) Jordan: Honestly, I don’t know what to think.
(1:05:18) Jordan: Yeah, I don’t know.
(1:05:19) Jordan: It’s cool and all.
(1:05:21) Jordan: And I feel like–
(1:05:23) Jordan: yeah, it’s very cool.
(1:05:24) Jordan: It’s like any indie developer’s dream to–
(1:05:31) Jordan: because there’s that expression, like, what is it?
(1:05:34) Jordan: Imitation is a form of–
(1:05:38) Jordan: I can’t remember, flattery, right?
(1:05:38) Codey: - Flattery, yeah, yeah.
(1:05:39) Al: - It’s inceded, it’s inceded as a form of flat tree,
(1:05:41) Jordan: » Yeah, there you go.
(1:05:43) Jordan: And I completely agree with that sort of expression because it definitely feels like.
(1:05:49) Jordan: And I’m just happy to share all of these games because some of them look great.
(1:05:53) Jordan: Some of them are like fantastic ideas.
(1:05:56) Jordan: And I mean, indie developers are kind of, it’s a tough thing.
(1:06:01) Jordan: It’s not super easy because they’re on like limited budgets and stuff like this.
(1:06:06) Jordan: So I don’t see it as competition.
(1:06:09) Jordan: to see it. It’s more just like we.
(1:06:11) Jordan: Should be teaming together to help improve our chances of success because otherwise you’re trying to compete with big studios that have a lot more resources than you do and it’s impossible.
(1:06:22) Al: And the games cost a lot more, so they’re probably, you know, if you’re buying indie
(1:06:27) Al: games you’re probably buying more games, right, because they generally cost less.
(1:06:32) Jordan: Yeah
(1:06:33) Jordan: but also just
(1:06:35) Jordan: Publishers exist where they like pump a ton of money into these indie games and you know
(1:06:40) Jordan: Like so there’s there’s a lot of layers to this sort of thing and I think
(1:06:45) Jordan: You know, like you shouldn’t view these people as like the enemy is like, oh, they’re copying me. This is my idea
(1:06:49) Jordan: This is only mine, you know, it’s like no lots of people have asked me are there any other games like this?
(1:06:54) Jordan: So I’m gonna do my best to try and show them that there are other games coming
(1:07:00) Jordan: That I like this if you want more
(1:07:02) Jordan: this type of thing so I don’t see any harm in that because you know if those games do well then
(1:07:08) Jordan: more hopefully you know their audience might be looking for similar games which you know
(1:07:13) Jordan: ends up leading to Rusty and it creates kind of like this ecosystem of of just indie games that
(1:07:21) Jordan: are all in a similar style. I don’t see any harm in that like you know if you like that sort of game
(1:07:27) Jordan: you’re probably going to look for more types of those games.
(1:07:32) Codey: Yeah, you basically get to be the Stardew Valley of this type
(1:07:36) Codey: of game now.
(1:07:37) Codey: Like everyone compares everything to Stardew.
(1:07:38) Jordan: Well, I mean, nobody compares Rusty to Stardew as well, you know what I mean? Whatever.
(1:07:43) Codey: It’s different, but I don’t know.
(1:07:46) Codey: I think that they’re different, personally.
(1:07:48) Jordan: I agree, I think they’re different, but it is what it is.
(1:07:52) Codey: A lot more automation.
(1:07:52) Jordan: Yeah, on the surface level I can see how you might make the comparison, but it’s all good.
(1:07:58) Al: We just need to come up with a good name for the genre, I think. I’m currently with Rusty Like,
(1:08:04) Al: but it doesn’t really describe what it is if you don’t know the game.
(1:08:08) Jordan: Yeah, it’s weird like what you call it bottom of your screen games side of your screen games. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue
(1:08:15) Al: No, you could argue it’s an idle game, but it feels so much more than that, right? Because
(1:08:20) Al: idle games are generally like on your phone and it’s something you pop into once every so often,
(1:08:26) Al: in where this is obviously.
(1:08:28) Al: Designed with a much more, not active view of things, but having it there means that
(1:08:34) Al: you’re not having to like, as you say, context switch as much.
(1:08:38) Jordan: - Mm-hmm, yeah.
(1:08:39) Codey: Okay, I just got sucked into the game, but so I guess a very important question for me, because I just unlocked a new farm, which I mean, I’m going to run out of farms here soon. So are there any updates that you have planned or any anything that you’re thinking about doing to expand the game in any way?
(1:09:03) Jordan: Yeah, there are. Sorry if that’s, yeah, not very helpful. I’m just trying to
(1:09:09) Al: - No, that’s fine.
(1:09:11) Jordan: process my thoughts right now. There’s a lot of things, a lot of ideas.
(1:09:17) Jordan: It’s always tricky to say, oh, this is definitely coming, unless it’s
(1:09:27) Jordan: at a stage of development where I’m like, yep, this is definitely in.
(1:09:31) Jordan: at the moment the winter
(1:09:33) Jordan: map was what was in and the new character that came with that, that was like what I was
(1:09:39) Jordan: working out and figuring out if that’s going to fit into the game. Now I’m kind of experimenting
(1:09:46) Jordan: with conveyor belts and sort of underground level which is more of like a factory sort of level.
(1:09:54) Codey: Rustorio.
(1:09:56) Jordan: Basically, but not as complicated because there’s a balance between, you know,
(1:10:03) Jordan: keeping the game simple because Rusty is a dead simple game in terms of like, you know, how to
(1:10:09) Jordan: play, just place buildings, plant crops. So it’s important for me, this is why I don’t like to
(1:10:16) Jordan: promise anything because I’m still, you know, working this out is it’s important that the
(1:10:21) Jordan: conveyor belts don’t become complicated, like in Factorio, you know, like where you have to
(1:10:26) Jordan: split things and you have to, you know, combine different pieces and it’s a.
(1:10:33) Jordan: You know, it’s a lot of brain power and a lot of work to get a good factory running in Factorio,
(1:10:38) Jordan: so I don’t want it. I don’t want that, you know, so it’s like it’s very much in the experimentation
(1:10:45) Jordan: phase and it could just be completely scrapped because as much as I try and fit, you know,
(1:10:50) Jordan: it could be this cube that I’m trying to fit into like a circular hole or something, you know,
(1:10:55) Jordan: so I don’t want to do stuff like that. So yeah, I’m experimenting with that at a moment,
(1:11:00) Jordan: but that’s not promising action.
(1:11:03) Jordan: And then– but there are definitely things that are coming,
(1:11:04) Al: I constantly help people.
(1:11:05) Al: Don’t promise things.
(1:11:07) Al: Never promise things.
(1:11:07) Codey: and I constantly promise things on Al’s behalf.
(1:11:11) Al: Yeah, you do.
(1:11:15) Jordan: which I can’t talk about too much,
(1:11:18) Jordan: because they’re actually under NDA,
(1:11:21) Jordan: but doing some crossovers with other games.
(1:11:21) Al: Ooh, well, that’s exciting.
(1:11:25) Codey: Mm-hmm. Oh, exciting.
(1:11:28) Jordan: So there will be new maps, and hopefully these crossovers
(1:11:34) Jordan: the characters from those games.
(1:11:36) Jordan: So all of Rusty’s characters get swapped out.
(1:11:38) Jordan: So it would be kind of like, I don’t know,
(1:11:40) Jordan: let’s just pick a random game, just a random, random game.
(1:11:45) Jordan: But let’s just say Pokemon.
(1:11:46) Codey: Mario. Oh, no, Pokemon’s great.
(1:11:47) Jordan: It’s never– it’s never– or Mario.
(1:11:48) Jordan: Mario Pokemon, it’s never going to happen.
(1:11:51) Jordan: But imagine that sort of scenario.
(1:11:54) Jordan: Rusty becomes Mario.
(1:11:55) Jordan: Haiku’s Luigi.
(1:11:56) Jordan: You have Peach on the farm, all this sort of stuff.
(1:12:00) Jordan: So that’s the kind of vibe.
(1:12:01) Jordan: And then hopefully, bye.
(1:12:04) Jordan: I would like to add sort of like a interesting game mechanic or challenge to the map.
(1:12:09) Jordan: So it feels like it’s a little bit of a different play through versus just the skin.
(1:12:14) Jordan: So then like, you know, players who have already played through the majority of the game can still have fun with the new map.
(1:12:21) Jordan: And it’s not just a skin that there’ll be at least some sort of challenge or something that’s different on the map.
(1:12:28) Codey: I mean, I’m doing the flower meadow map right now and I really like it.
(1:12:31) Codey: Cause you don’t even have to have wells because there’s just the, the little
(1:12:36) Codey: stream going through everything that your water bots can take.
(1:12:40) Jordan: Yeah, that one’s my favorite.
(1:12:40) Codey: So even that, yeah, even that level of just environmental, like using
(1:12:46) Codey: the environment, um, is really neat.
(1:12:49) Jordan: Yeah, so hopefully we weren’t trying to just just more of those and then like I said, this underground level is really, really, really tempting because essentially basically doubles the whole game like it would be a fully fledged like second game essentially just underground.
(1:13:01) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(1:13:09) Codey: I feel like you’d have to have like light down there too. There’s like another element of
(1:13:15) Codey: making sure that there’s lights on the plants that need like sunlight for growth.
(1:13:21) Jordan: Yeah, well, little wives, the little bees that fly around are not bees, they’re actually bulbs,
(1:13:25) Codey: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, okay.
(1:13:29) Jordan: because the game is supposed to be already underground, sort of thing, because that’s,
(1:13:33) Jordan: if you play Haiku, then you’ll see that everything’s underground, sort of thing.
(1:13:37) Jordan: But like, you know, it’s a loose connection, loose bit of lore.
(1:13:41) Jordan: People just think they’re bees. And I had actually called them bulblets.
(1:13:41) Codey: - Mm-hmm.
(1:13:47) Codey: I do remember that, yeah.
(1:13:49) Jordan: But they just caught so much computer.
(1:13:51) Jordan: I just ended up in the most recent patch the winter update, I just reverted everything to bees, so it makes me a bit sad, but sometimes you just gotta let go of these things.
(1:14:02) Al: we’re still going to keep it. The bees are bulbs, even if they’re called bees, they’re bulbs.
(1:14:02) Codey: Ma’am.
(1:14:05) Jordan: Yeah, they’re like little light bulbs with wings.
(1:14:08) Al: I love it.
(1:14:09) Codey: It’s really cute.
(1:14:12) Codey: Yeah.
(1:14:14) Al: Just a quick question on the farm maps. Were you aware that that’s something that Stardew does?
(1:14:14) Codey: I don’t know.
(1:14:19) Al: Because I feel like that’s one of the things that I love most about Stardew, because you can come in,
(1:14:24) Al: have a new save, and be like a completely different game because of those changes.
(1:14:30) Jordan: Yeah, yeah, I was aware. That’s that’s part of like the research
(1:14:30) Al: You were right. That’s fine.
(1:14:32) Al: Yeah, no, that’s fine. It’s just because I don’t see any other games doing it, like no other farming game does that thing and it’s a thing that I love so much and I don’t know why other games don’t do it.
(1:14:33) Jordan: that I did without actually playing the game. Really? Well, I
(1:14:46) Jordan: was, you know, planning on doing it. And I was like, okay, I’m
(1:14:50) Jordan: gonna just make one small map and see how it feels. And I made
(1:14:54) Jordan: the, the one with all the rivers. And as soon as I made that, I
(1:14:56) Codey: Mm-hmm
(1:14:58) Jordan: I was just like, “This is–”
(1:15:00) Jordan: “This is amazing, this is– I gotta– I gotta– I gotta do more of this,” you know?
(1:15:00) Codey: Yeah
(1:15:04) Jordan: Like, the– the river one is– is my absolute favorite, especially because it’s–
(1:15:08) Jordan: it becomes more of like a puzzle piece where you have to fit the buildings in between the nooks and crannies of the rivers and stuff.
(1:15:14) Jordan: And, yeah, I– I just love that one.
(1:15:16) Codey: Yeah, it’s definitely what I’m finding right now.
(1:15:19) Codey: It’s like, oh, I want to build the specific–
(1:15:22) Codey: like a four by four crop field, but this area
(1:15:26) Codey: isn’t big enough for that.
(1:15:27) Codey: So it makes you change things and use things differently.
(1:15:31) Codey: And it is really fun.
(1:15:34) Codey: Does it randomize each time or is it the same?
(1:15:36) Jordan: It doesn’t. It doesn’t. It’s the same, but it’s one of those things where I look back on it,
(1:15:43) Jordan: and I wish that it would be randomized. But when you’re like, I had like a very
(1:15:50) Jordan: specific deadline that I wanted to hit for this game. And these sort of things, they just take
(1:15:57) Jordan: so much time to make sure that they’re correct, they’re not buggy, they save, you know, like,
(1:16:02) Jordan: there’s all sorts of stuff that can go wrong, so it’s much easier to kind of…
(1:16:06) Jordan: do something that’s fixed and then potentially later go back and make it randomized, which I would still like to do, but I don’t know if it’s high on my list.
(1:16:18) Jordan: Another thing would be an endless mode as well, I think would be pretty cool, so you can just keep going as long as you want.
(1:16:25) Jordan: I think that would be quite interesting, see how far people can get until the game breaks.
(1:16:26) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(1:16:32) Jordan: Well, I think that’s yeah, that’d be pretty cool.
(1:16:33) Codey: Really stress test it for you.
(1:16:36) Jordan: But yeah, like these things, they can come later or they can
(1:16:41) Jordan: always come later. But we’ll see.
(1:16:43) Al: For sure, for sure. Our last question I feel like you’ve already answered because it was going to be
(1:16:48) Al: about is there anything secret and I feel like your point about the possible crossovers coming
(1:16:54) Al: is it probably answers that but I have one other question I want to ask that. I’ve not played the
(1:17:00) Al: game a huge amount because I’ve told the listeners before I work on a client machine so I can’t
(1:17:06) Al: install the game on it but what I’ve done in the last week or so is I’ve been putting it on my
(1:17:13) Al: and just having that sitting next to my computer. So my question is are we going to get full screen
(1:17:15) Jordan: Oh, OK.
(1:17:20) Al: mode anytime?
(1:17:22) Jordan: Oh, man, that’s such a great question because I recently
(1:17:27) Jordan: bought a Steam Deck so I could look into making a full screen
(1:17:28) Al: Oh. Nice, nice. I mean, it works reasonably well. Yeah, it works reasonably well. It’s
(1:17:31) Jordan: mode.
(1:17:34) Codey: It’s like you’re, you might be invested in this.
(1:17:39) Al: just everything’s slightly too small. And so it’s like a little bit difficult to tap
(1:17:42) Al: on the right thing. But, and obviously then. Yeah. Yeah.
(1:17:46) Jordan: Yeah, but I mean, I would just implement full controller support if that’s the case, you
(1:17:52) Jordan: know, that’s the reason why I got it because I’ve made my previous game, I ported it to
(1:17:57) Jordan: the switch myself as well. And the sort of development and testing on the switches is
(1:18:04) Jordan: way too convoluted for my liking. So I was like, I’ll just get a steam deck, it’s super
(1:18:10) Jordan: easy to update to build on Steam, and then it just downloads straight onto my onto a
(1:18:16) Jordan: steam deck, basically, especially because I have like these developer builds and stuff
(1:18:19) Jordan: like that. And I can just play it. So I was like, and it also has touchscreen. And Nintendo
(1:18:26) Jordan: is a bit weird. They don’t only want to rely on touchscreen probably because you can dock
(1:18:30) Jordan: it and then you can’t touch the screen anymore. So I mean, it makes sense. But with steam
(1:18:36) Jordan: deck, they don’t have to worry about stuff like that. So I thought, I’m gonna buy myself
(1:18:39) Jordan: steam deck. I’m gonna test out the idea. Like I said, I can’t promise anything. I’ve got
(1:18:44) Jordan: test it first.
(1:18:46) Jordan: My only concern with these sort of consoles is that there is a lot of downtime, so I
(1:18:50) Jordan: don’t know if maybe you can tell me if I should speed up the gameplay a little bit
(1:18:55) Jordan: more for those Steam decks or if I should lower how long it takes for a crop to grow
(1:19:00) Jordan: and these sort of things, because the other option
(1:19:02) Al: - Yeah, I mean, I think I’ve only done a few days now,
(1:19:04) Al: but I feel like it’s been working pretty well
(1:19:06) Al: in terms of things.
(1:19:08) Al: Like I don’t, I have it plugged in, obviously,
(1:19:12) Al: which is obviously,
(1:19:13) Al: I’m gonna destroy the battery doing this.
(1:19:14) Al: However, I’m enjoying it.
(1:19:17) Al: That’s the main thing.
(1:19:18) Al: And I feel like the screen is staying on
(1:19:21) Al: kind of like long enough that they finish doing everything
(1:19:24) Al: and then I can go and do some more again.
(1:19:25) Al: So it doesn’t feel like it’s too slow
(1:19:28) Al: for what it’s trying to do.
(1:19:30) Al: it feels right.
(1:19:32) Al: I’ve not slowed it down because I definitely don’t want that.
(1:19:37) Jordan: Okay, because the other option is offline progression.
(1:19:41) Jordan: So then it becomes a bit more like your mobile games
(1:19:44) Jordan: that you were talking about earlier.
(1:19:47) Jordan: And that, I’m not so sure.
(1:19:48) Al: Yeah, I think in an ideal world, that would be really nice, but it also feels incredibly
(1:19:53) Al: complex and any time you spend on that obviously takes away from other things that you would
(1:20:02) Jordan: Yeah, but if I do do it, then I could
(1:20:04) Jordan: reuse it for Switch and other consoles and stuff like that.
(1:20:06) Al: Fair and mobile.
(1:20:07) Jordan: So it’s not like–
(1:20:09) Jordan: yeah, it’s a balance.
(1:20:09) Al: What I really want is an iPad version, but that is a whole other kettle of fish.
(1:20:14) Jordan: I mean, yeah, I would love if you could put it
(1:20:21) Jordan: on an iPad or a tablet or a phone,
(1:20:23) Jordan: and it also has the split screen functionality on your phone
(1:20:26) Jordan: while you’re browsing TikTok or Instagram or something.
(1:20:30) Jordan: That would be amazing, but I just don’t.
(1:20:32) Jordan: I don’t think I can do that.
(1:20:34) Jordan: Especially considering that I made it in Unity game engine and there’s like a whole SDK for Android that you need to work around, wrap the game around.
(1:20:44) Jordan: Yeah, it seems it’s just way out of my skill set, to be honest.
(1:20:48) Codey: And we’re trying to get people off of social media, so that’s fine.
(1:20:52) Al: - All right. Well, I think that’s all of our questions. One last thing is, is there anything
(1:21:00) Al: that you want to tell the listeners about or talk about that we haven’t brought up?
(1:21:04) Jordan: - I don’t know, but then maybe if you’re thinking
(1:21:09) Jordan: of starting game development and making games,
(1:21:12) Jordan: it’s as simple as just going to Google
(1:21:16) Jordan: and typing in how to make a video game,
(1:21:18) Jordan: try out a few tutorials, that’s how I got started,
(1:21:22) Jordan: and then see if it’s for you.
(1:21:24) Jordan: And if I can do it, I feel like, you know,
(1:21:28) Jordan: a lot of other people can do it as well.
(1:21:30) Al: Fair enough. What a great way to end. Thank you so much for joining us to talk about your game.
(1:21:38) Al: Obviously, we’ll have links to the game on Steam and stuff like that in our show notes.
(1:21:44) Al: Is there anywhere in particular that you want people to go to find you?
(1:21:48) Jordan: I’m on Twitter and Instagram mainly, so if you want to reach out and chat, I’m usually pretty open to talking to people.
(1:22:00) Jordan: I try to reply to comments and messages as best as I can, so yeah.
(1:22:04) Codey: - What’s the usernames for that?
(1:22:06) Jordan: Mr. Morris Games, normally you can just type in “Rusty’s Retirement” and that’s why I put my name as the profile anyway, so you should be able to just find it by searching for “Rusty’s Retirement”.
(1:22:18) Codey: That’s why you’re Mr. Rusty.
(1:22:20) Jordan: Exactly. But thank you so much for having me. It’s been great talking.
(1:22:24) Al: Awesome. No, thank you. You’re the first.
(1:22:27) Al: You’re the first winner of our Game of the Year who actually responded to me.
(1:22:32) Jordan: I’m honored to receive such an award.
(1:22:36) Al: A prestigious award.
(1:22:45) Theme Tune: you
(1:22:48) Al: Well, I enjoyed that interview. Thank you, Cody, for joining me for that.
(1:22:52) Codey: Yeah, it was really fun.
(1:22:53) Al: Sorry, it sounded like there was more coming there.
(1:22:56) Codey: Oh, no, it was it was really, really fun to talk to to Jordan and kind of understand,
(1:22:56) Al: Just the intonation there. Is it really fun?
(1:23:03) Codey: like, the thinking behind how this game came to be.
(1:23:09) Codey: I still can’t believe that he said that thing.
(1:23:12) Al: Have you forgotten already what it was?
(1:23:16) Codey: No, I’m just trying to like make that joke of like.
(1:23:21) Al: Like we’ve recorded this before, we recorded the interview.
(1:23:22) Codey: I actually, my brain was like, they’re gonna hear this before they hear the interview, but that is not how that works.
(1:23:24) Al: Shocking developments in Rusty’s internet.
(1:23:32) Codey: Because I was like, I’ll say that, and then they’ll be like, what was it? I have to listen.
(1:23:42) Al: The episode!
(1:23:51) Al: Fantastic.
(1:23:52) Al: Yeah, I have been thinking, I’m not going to try and pontificate at this point as to
(1:23:58) Al: what games it is that he can’t tell us about, because I think that would be mean to do so,
(1:24:02) Al: but I have spent the last four days thinking about what games it could be that would be
(1:24:07) Al: big enough to give him an NDA, but not big enough that it’s obviously not going to be
(1:24:11) Al: the massive games.
(1:24:12) Al: I’m not going to use any names of games because I think that’s unnecessary, but I
(1:24:14) Codey: I don’t know if it has to be a big game for an NDA.
(1:24:29) Al: just feel like a game built by one individual is not going to be giving out NDAs for things
(1:24:37) Al: like that.
(1:24:37) Codey: uh stardew valley oh okay I i would think that that would be a thing no no I don’t think it
(1:24:38) Al: Yeah, I don’t think he would. It’s a lot of work for one person.
(1:24:42) Al: I also don’t think it will be Stardew Valley, because I don’t think they would have an
(1:24:53) Al: appropriate character that would be Rusty. No. Because the character that would be Rusty
(1:24:55) Codey: linus who’s trying to retire
(1:25:00) Al: is your player character, and the whole point of Stardew is you’re making your own character,
(1:25:05) Al: and so any character they put into that would break an illusion for most people.
(1:25:10) Codey: Yeah, you’re right. What if you could bring your character into Rusty’s retirement?
(1:25:12) Al: Anyway, that would be way too much work than is worth it. But we still see. Cody, where
(1:25:21) Codey: Fair I
(1:25:23) Al: can people find you on the internet? Not on TikTok. Sorry. Too soon? OK, so you don’t
(1:25:28) Codey: Know I thought the great thing is I’ve never I’ve never been on tick-tock. So that is perfectly fine. Yeah
(1:25:34) Al: care. Fine. We’re recording this on the last day before the ban, but it’s still not sure
(1:25:37) Codey: Has that officially happened oh
(1:25:39) Codey: - Oh.
(1:25:41) Codey: Yeah, okay.
(1:25:42) Al: whether it’s actually going to happen.
(1:25:46) Codey: Well, I guess this was technically
(1:25:49) Codey: me being a prophesier since it hasn’t actually happened yet.
(1:25:52) Codey: But if Elon Musk buys TikTok, the world is doomed.
(1:25:55) Codey: ‘Cause that is something people think might happen.
(1:25:58) Codey: And I would hate that.
(1:26:01) Codey: But I am not on TikTok.
(1:26:03) Codey: That is not where people can find me.
(1:26:04) Codey: People can find me on the other hellhole Instagram.
(1:26:10) Al: Yeah, that went really great over the last week, didn’t it?
(1:26:11) Codey: - It’s, it’s so hard to like be on platforms these days
(1:26:18) Codey: because just by using it,
(1:26:20) Codey: you’re like aligning yourself with awful opinions.
(1:26:26) Codey: Yeah.
(1:26:27) Codey: So anyway, but I am on Instagram
(1:26:30) Codey: @hikingbeagle, beagle, and blue sky,
(1:26:34) Codey: which has not really thrown up any red flags yet.
(1:26:38) Codey: I’m on that, but it’s just my name.
(1:26:38) Al: Yeah, lots of investors of it are crypto bros, so I suspect something will happen sometimes to go badly wrong for it, but yeah, they haven’t actively done anything that has been a massive problem. I’m just expecting it to happen at some point.
(1:26:54) Codey: and it has my favorite, not accessibility,
(1:26:59) Codey: but like a setting that you can turn on,
(1:27:00) Codey: which is that it won’t let you post an image
(1:27:03) Codey: until you’ve added an alt text,
(1:27:04) Al: that is absolutely accessibility feature. Yeah. Yeah. I think that is good. Because I have that
(1:27:05) Codey: which I am in love with because I would post something
(1:27:10) Codey: and just completely forget,
(1:27:12) Codey: and then you can’t add it secondarily.
(1:27:14) Codey: So I was like, no, make me do this.
(1:27:20) Al: turned on as well, I think. On one hand, I really wish that was default, because it would make
(1:27:27) Al: everybody do it. But on the other hand, I know that lots of people would end up putting in useless
(1:27:31) Al: alt text and so it would make the feature less useful.
(1:27:34) Al: But yeah, complicated. Just do alt text on your images. It’s not hard. Just do a very
(1:27:44) Al: quick sentence as to what the image is and it will help people with limited vision. Please
(1:27:50) Al: and thank you. Or people who, this is the other reason why I love alt text, people who don’t get
(1:27:55) Al: the joke, right? If you’re looking at an image and you’re like, I don’t understand what this has
(1:27:56) Codey: That’s true.
(1:28:00) Al: got to do with the tweet, you click on the alt text and people explain the joke for you. Fantastic.
(1:28:06) Al: Some people are absolutely fantastic about alt text as well. They’ll put in a huge explanation.
(1:28:11) Al: You’re like, I love you. Thank you so much.
(1:28:11) Codey: I posted a picture today of this pseudo scorpion that I just found in a trap that like made me so happy and I was explaining, I was typing in the alt text and I saw that I could put 1500 words to the alt text.
(1:28:29) Al: Words, not even characters.
(1:28:30) Codey: Oh, it might be characters, it’s probably characters actually. You’re right, but that’s so many, like, I’m gonna write a whole essay with characters.
(1:28:32) Al: I think I think that’s probably characters.
(1:28:35) Al: That’s still a lot. Yeah, that’s good.
(1:28:43) Al: Yeah. All right. I think we’re… Oh no, I’ve not talked about whether you can find me in the podcast.
(1:28:50) Al: Goodness me, I’m tired.
(1:28:52) Al: If you want to find me on the internet, you can find me. Search for me, I don’t care.
(1:28:56) Codey: That’s not a lie, or that, sorry, that is a lie.
(1:28:58) Al: Interesting on the internet. No, it’s not. This podcast is the thing I do that’s interesting.
(1:29:06) Al: There’s nothing else I do. If you listen to this podcast, you’ve found it. Congratulations.
(1:29:07) Codey: If you, if you and I were not on the internet at all, we wouldn’t meet each other.
(1:29:14) Al: Right, okay, okay, okay, but yeah, okay, fine. If you’re in the Slack,
(1:29:14) Codey: We wouldn’t be friends.
(1:29:18) Al: then you’ll find I might do some interesting stuff in there. Happy?
(1:29:21) Codey: That’s true.
(1:29:22) Codey: some pretty hilarious stuff in the slack.
(1:29:23) Al: No. Thank you so much. I do like to think so.
(1:29:28) Al: Funny. If you want to follow the podcast, we’re on Tumblr and most of the other social
(1:29:35) Al: networks, even the hellscape still. Go to our website, harvestseason.club. There you can send
(1:29:41) Al: us feedback. That stuff I do read. I will definitely read your feedback sent from the website. You can
(1:29:46) Al: also find links to everything about the podcast, including our link to our Patreon. That’s the most
(1:29:51) Al: important place. Go to Patreon. Support the podcast if you are able to. I really appreciate it.
(1:29:52) Codey: Mmhmm.
(1:29:57) Codey: Mmhmm.
(1:29:57) Al: If you’re not able to support
(1:29:58) Al: it monetarily, you can still go on Patreon and get like notifications for it. If you want,
(1:30:02) Al: that’s also a possibility. You can be like a free supporter just to show support for the
(1:30:03) Codey: Mmhmm.
(1:30:06) Al: podcast, even if you can’t pay. But if you do pay, you can get access to our Slack,
(1:30:12) Al: our aforementioned Slack, on which hilarious things sometimes happen. Are you going to post
(1:30:15) Al: the picture of the pseudo-scarping on there? I don’t know. Do you think it… Oh, is that…
(1:30:17) Codey: Gasp Yeah…
(1:30:19) Codey: Should I do like a content warning?
(1:30:23) Codey: I’m trying to think who…
(1:30:25) Codey: I mean, do you think it’s scary?
(1:30:28) Al: I don’t have any sort of phobia that would lead to that. But it’s not spider-shaped. So I feel
(1:30:34) Al: like it wouldn’t be an issue. You know, you need to stick it in a thread if you’re going
(1:30:36) Codey: uh only look at this image if you’ve listened oh yeah no yeah i’m saying only look at this image
(1:30:42) Al: to do that, right? Don’t just post the image. You know, making sure. Just making sure.
(1:30:47) Codey: if you listen to the what is this january 21st episode no i’m just gonna i’m just gonna do it
(1:30:51) Al: You could also schedule a post. You know, you can schedule a post on Slack.
(1:30:58) Al: » This is all getting cut anyway.
(1:30:58) Codey: because then whoever whoever uh reacts to it is a liar
(1:31:06) Al: You can also get access to our bonus podcast episodes as well,
(1:31:10) Al: of which we have some coming soon.
(1:31:13) Al: We have the most recent one is our,
(1:31:17) Al: what we’re most excited for coming this year,
(1:31:19) Al: that’s not farming games and we’ll have other things coming soon.
(1:31:22) Al: I think that’s everything, goodness, I need to go to bed.
(1:31:25) Al: Thank you, Cody, again for joining me.
(1:31:26) Codey: Thank you for listening to my rant-ing.
(1:31:29) Al: » Thank you listeners for listening and until next time, have a good harvest.
(1:31:32) Codey: Have a good harvest.
(1:31:34) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our
(1:31:36) Codey: We’re the best at that.
(1:31:44) Theme Tune: pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:31:48) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:31:53) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed
(1:31:59) Theme Tune: in this episode.
(1:32:08) Codey: Yeah, I was really happy because I was I came to that the game of the year podcast and I was
(1:32:16) Codey: like, Oh, I’m gonna really break the like minds by recommending this game and then someone else
(1:32:21) Codey: recommended it first. Yes. Yeah.
(1:32:25) Jordan: Amazing.