The Short Game

This week on The Short Game, we're toodling around bicycle Valhalla in Wheel World, the open-world cycling game from the developers of Nidhogg. Laura and Shane explore beautiful Italian landscapes, customize bikes, and discuss why this might be the most relaxing racing game we've played. This episode was recorded way back in the summer during our long hiatus. Hopefully you'll feel it holds up!

In this episode of The Short Game, Nate, Laura, and Shane dive into BALL x PIT, a roguelite block breaker published by Devolver Digital. Recorded a couple of months ago, the episode comes out in time for the release of a free DLC adding new content to the game. The discussion covers the game's unique blend of ball-firing mechanics, character abilities, and city-building elements. Does BALL x PIT respect your time? Maybe, maybe not, but it's a good time either way.

A voice is saying your name. A WWII-era machine, long hidden in a church basement, whirs to life. Through a crackling speaker, a man asks you to find a stolen book. He only knows the title. Time is running out. Inkle has made a Database Thriller. An Interface Game. Or are we just calling these SamBarlow-likes? And it's a taut 4 hours, and just $7, which is also five bucks.

This week we are talking about Absolum, a roguelike beat 'em up from Streets of Rage 4 developers Guard Crush Games and publisher Dotemu. This was one of those games that would probably have been near the top of our 2025 GOTY list if we'd managed to all play and discuss it before the end of the year. It combines the incredible beat 'em up mechanics from Streets of Rage 4 with Hades-style progression mechanics. It really kicks ass. There's also one of our classic slightly too long digressions about the Steam Deck and Linux about 33 minutes in. Sorry, and you're welcome.

We're continuing to shake the cobwebs out of the podcast, and this week we're bringing you our coverage of IFComp 2025. Normally we cover the whole competition with multiple episodes as its running, but this year we didn't quite manage that. We couldn't escape 2025 without talking about the comp some though. In this "lost" episode (recorded in late October 2025) we discuss some of the games we had time to check out this year, including a few of the top winners. We'll be releasing a patron exclusive "what's making us happy" episode next week (join us on Patreon!) followed by an episode on Absolum. See you in 2026!

It's been a weird year, but we're ready to round up the best Short Games of 2025! We're also awarding our other highly prized honors like Dirtbag of the Year and Most "Little Guy who Goes Around." This might be the last episode of 2025, but it's also the first episode of The Short Game Season 2. We figured 444 episodes was enough for Season 1, and we are changing up our format slightly. We're looking forward to a great new year!

After a somewhat unplanned summer break, the Short Game crew is returning to talk about the fourth chapter of Deltarune!

The Steam Deck is the number one console(ish) platform for playing ILLEGAL GAMES that Nintendo doesn’t want you to play! This week we’re talking about games that STEAL intellectual property from the RICH FAT CATS at Nintendo and their cronies and remix it into FREE GAMES for the PEOPLE.

Toby Fox is back, and it’s TV TIME! Previously: Episode 320 – Chapter 1Episode 324 – Chapter 2Episode 65 – UndertaleEpisode 66 – Undertale Spoilers

From the depths of Steam and YouTube comes ENA, a strange polygonal girl in a surreal hypercapitalist dreamscape. Your hosts were left wondering what the hell this was all about, and why is it so incredibly beautifully animated?

Indie game royalty Blendo aka Brendan Chung, creator of Thirty Flights of Loving and Quadrilateral Cowboy among others has come out of his cicada-like 7 year dev cycle with another instant classic. Skin Deep is an immersive sim about popping the detachable heads off of space pirates and flushing them down space toilets in order to save a bunch of talking space cats. It’s an easily the funniest and probably one of the best immersive sims ever made.

A video game memoir by Ecuadorian indie developers Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena, and published by Panic, Despelote takes you back to a childhood in 2001 Ecuador, and the magical grip soccer held over the entire country during the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup. This is something we have never seen in video games before.

We’re talking about Many Nights a Whisper, a short, meditative archery (kinda!) game from Red Strings Club developer Deconstructeam and Selkie Harbour. The Dreamer has prepared their entire life for one impossible shot that will define a generation. Hear the wishes of your people, and prepare for your one chance to make them come true in this interactive essay on the flight of wishes and the pressure of expectations. In “What’s Making Us Happy”, Nate is playing the classic Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Raygan recommends an app. An app! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Mario:_The_Thousand-Year_Door https://www.suppermariobroth.com https://reederapp.com/

We spent this week playing a bit more of Inkle’s follow up to Overboard!, and made some shocking discoveries!

This week, Laura and Nate dive into Trash the Planet, a free, browser-based resource-management game that subverts clicker mechanics to serve its narrative. You play as a group of raccoons who start out collecting trash and, through a rapid evolution of society, end up ruling the planet—manipulating the stock market with absolutely no consequences. Stick around for the return of What’s Making Us Happy This Week.

Shane and Nate were buzzing about FlyKnight, a $5 indie dungeon crawler that surprised us with its humor and depth. In this episode, we break down what makes this tiny first-person RPG so fun, from its retro aesthetic and first person Souls-like combat to its great co-op potential. Should you bug your buddies to play it? Let’s find out!

Expelled! is the latest game from all-star narrative design studio Inkle. It’s a follow up to our 2021 Game of the Year winner Overboard!, and it builds on that game’s strengths in every conceivable area. A School Prefect has been pushed out of a window, and everyone says YOU did it! Now you have one day to clear your name. Can you uncover the culprit — or find someone else to take the fall?

Steam Next Fest just concluded and the Short Game team searched through the mountain of demos to discuss some of the most exciting games with short game energy coming out this year. 00:00 Intro 04:09 WYRMHALL: Brush and Banter 09:12 Wheel World 18:19 Despelote 25:08 Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 33:33 Haste: Broken Worlds 39:50 Is This Seat Taken? 46:54 Art of Reflection 51:01 Bambas! 52:56 Run TavernQuest 54:45 Nitro Express 58:06 Lightning Round and Outro

All four co-hosts are present and accounted for as we talk about ultra-short platformer, Sheepy: A Short Adventure. It’s right there in the name! Sheepy is a FREE game on Steam and itch.io, and it’ll take you about an hour. It’s surprisingly polished for a free release, with charming animations and very good music, plus some incomprehensible lore! We also go into some tech tips for those playing on Steam Deck, since the game is completely playable but technically “unsupported”.

Rats with Knives! It’s time to finally talk about Fight’N Rage! This has been on the back burner for a while; it was first suggested to us nearly 4 years ago as a modern, mechanically interesting beat ’em up in the vein of Streets of Rage 4. “Easy to play, hard to master” is a bit of a cliche, but it feels very apt here. Fight’N Rage channels the golden age of arcade brawlers with deep, satisfying combos, chunky pixel art cheesecake, and a branching structure that gives you lots of options. It pays homage to classics like Final Fight while advancing the genre in interesting and distinct ways.