Indiescovery Episode 15: Goodbye (For Now)

We begin this episode with a little bit of sad news: the Indiescovery podcast is going on hiatus, due to the fact that Rachel and I are both leaving Rock Paper Shotgun for pastures new. However, there's no need to be too downhearted, as your favourite indie-loving trio has every intention of continuing to collaborate on a few silly bits and bobs here and there.

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Onto the episode proper: our first topic is a round-up of our recent experiences as jury members for Indie Cup UK '23, a festival celebrating indie game devs that ran throughout May and June. As jurors for the Critics' Choice award we enthuse over our shared love for the well-deserved winner VIDEOVERSE, before diving into our slightly more divided opinions on the category's other nominees, the highlights of which for us included Phoenix Springs, Full Void, Loco Motive, and No Body. Ultimately though we all agree that it was an incredibly strong showing all around, so our congratulations again to everyone who participated: not just the winners and nominees, but everyone who submitted a game for consideration, and indeed to the organisers! As you may be able to tell, we had a lovely time.

Even though we could probably keep talking about the Indie Cup all day, we next turn our attention to another group who deserve our thanks and recognition: you, our dear listeners. To mark the end of the podcast's first season, we dive back into the mailbag and get very sidetracked while pondering some of your questions, including (but not limited to) the topics of our favourite very short indie games, and the genres we'd love to see enjoy an indie renaissance.

We end, as ever, on our hyperfixations. I've been laid up with a fever and so had the dubious luxury of reading and playing whatever I liked for a few days, during which time Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, and the Animal Crossing: New Horizons manga series all emerged as comforting favourites. Liam puts in a good word for yet another rather sad book (Strong Female Character by Fern Brady) before really ramping up his efforts to make his co-hosts cry by listing off some of his favourite articles Rachel and I have written for RPS, the big loveable dork. He's also put me in a very awkward position by promising links in the show notes, which I can't bring myself do with too much self-congratulatory fanfare, so here you go: three from Rachel, three from myself. Finally, Rachel unintentionally brings the season full-circle by talking about The Traitors Australia, the (you guessed it) Australian version of the social deduction TV show she was hyperfixated on when we recorded our very first episode.

Indiescovery is a podcast from RockPaperShotgun.com. All music is by Dylan Sitts; the songs are Tahoe Trip, Pool Sticker, and Express Check-in. Thanks for listening, and don't be strangers!