Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Monday Mini: Games By Women, 2025 Edition
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome stuff. I
- 0:07Speaker 1: never told your protection of iHeart Radio.
- 0:18Speaker 2: And we are coming to the end of the year
- 0:21Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five. I got it right because I
- 0:23Speaker 2: had to write it down.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Yes, you do what you gotta do.
- 0:27Speaker 2: I gotta do what I gotta do, right, And we
- 0:30Speaker 2: decided to talk about some of the games by women
- 0:33Speaker 2: that's been featured this year. Now, Annie and I will
- 0:38Speaker 2: be doing another episode in which we're going to play
- 0:40Speaker 2: some games. I'm gonna get some recommendations from you and
- 0:43Speaker 2: try these games, and I'm going to give my take
- 0:46Speaker 2: and review on the whether or not I.
- 0:47Speaker 3: Think these games are for me or not for me. Oh,
- 0:51Speaker 3: we already know how that goes. But I'm excited.
- 0:53Speaker 2: But with this year, I thought it would be fun
- 0:56Speaker 2: to talk about a few because I don't think we've
- 0:58Speaker 2: talked about too many women led, women created games this year,
- 1:02Speaker 2: so you know, we need to do that. And as
- 1:05Speaker 2: per usual, the list is pretty extensive, so I'm trying
- 1:08Speaker 2: to narrow down by a lot. I've only picked up
- 1:10Speaker 2: four games, and actually a couple of these games have
- 1:13Speaker 2: not been released yet, but the demos are out and
- 1:15Speaker 2: they're already getting really rave reviews. And I will say
- 1:20Speaker 2: we are actually using partially the list from Women Led
- 1:23Speaker 2: Games Game Awards list. Yeah, that's right, that was just
- 1:28Speaker 2: recently released, so they did this. I think December tenth
- 1:31Speaker 2: was the awards shows about forty five minutes long.
- 1:33Speaker 3: I want to go back and watch all of it.
- 1:35Speaker 2: And just for clarification about this organization, Women Led Games
- 1:39Speaker 2: brings recognition to the hard working women in the games
- 1:42Speaker 2: industry with a showcase every year showing off all the
- 1:44Speaker 2: innovative games coming from women led and majority women's studios.
- 1:48Speaker 2: We aim to highlight all the amazing things women doing
- 1:51Speaker 2: games and support their efforts in order to create a
- 1:54Speaker 2: more equitable games industry. And that is from Womenledgames dot com.
- 1:59Speaker 2: So if you want to go look at their list
- 2:01Speaker 2: as well, because again it is pretty long list and
- 2:03Speaker 2: it has all the good stuff that Annie you would love.
- 2:06Speaker 2: So I didn't bring it out, but there's a lot
- 2:08Speaker 2: of horror games in here that I know I can't do,
- 2:11Speaker 2: and a lot of battle games that also know I
- 2:13Speaker 2: can't do, a lot of RPG games that I know
- 2:16Speaker 2: I can't do.
- 2:17Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, But all those.
- 2:19Speaker 2: Things to say, there are some really fun, interesting games
- 2:23Speaker 2: coming out from their list, and I love seeing big
- 2:28Speaker 2: lists that really highlight.
- 2:31Speaker 3: What they're doing.
- 2:31Speaker 2: And some of these studios are going to be familiar
- 2:34Speaker 2: because we have talked about them or featured of them
- 2:37Speaker 2: or played them before. So we're gonna start off with
- 2:42Speaker 2: Nano Neighbors. And I find this concept really, really, really interesting.
- 2:46Speaker 2: So this is what they say about Nano Neighbors, and
- 2:49Speaker 2: this is from their site, an online idle game that
- 2:52Speaker 2: brings life to the bottom of your screen with friendly
- 2:55Speaker 2: androids called nanos. Customize your nanos, choose their occupation, build
- 3:00Speaker 2: design their perfect home, and invite your friends nano's over
- 3:04Speaker 2: to hang out, join many activities, and interact. So I
- 3:09Speaker 2: know these have been around because my partners be like, yeah,
- 3:11Speaker 2: we played these things, and I'm like, I don't know
- 3:13Speaker 2: what this is because I'm also not constantly online.
- 3:16Speaker 3: I'm online enough, but I.
- 3:18Speaker 2: Find this idea very fascinating and it is interactive.
- 3:22Speaker 3: Any why you giggling? Have you done this?
- 3:25Speaker 2: Uh?
- 3:26Speaker 1: No, there's just a Black Mirror episode about Sorry, scared
- 3:35Speaker 1: of that?
- 3:35Speaker 3: Okay, are you scared of this?
- 3:37Speaker 1: No?
- 3:37Speaker 4: No, no, no, that's just the first thing. I don't
- 3:39Speaker 4: even know if it's quite the same, but it's like
- 3:41Speaker 4: it's like a little world and they do their own
- 3:43Speaker 4: thing while you're away, but then you come back and
- 3:45Speaker 4: you interact and.
- 3:46Speaker 2: Then oh yeah, I guest see, like that's not just
- 3:49Speaker 2: a black beer. I've seen like animations of types of
- 3:52Speaker 2: things like that as well.
- 3:54Speaker 3: But that's fine that that's what you jump to. Okay.
- 3:56Speaker 2: This was created by Studio Dots and Independent Creative Studio,
- 4:00Speaker 2: and a lot of people really love these idle games,
- 4:03Speaker 2: and specifically this one.
- 4:05Speaker 3: It feels like, again, something I would enjoy.
- 4:08Speaker 2: I think it would just have to be about commitment
- 4:10Speaker 2: because I want to keep people alive.
- 4:11Speaker 3: Also interacting. I'm not great at interacting online. I'm not
- 4:14Speaker 3: gonna lie.
- 4:17Speaker 2: The conversation could be a not great at interacting period,
- 4:19Speaker 2: but you know whatever. So this was from a Vice
- 4:22Speaker 2: article about the game. They said, Yeah, using something like
- 4:25Speaker 2: Slack or discord to communicate with friends and coworkers is
- 4:28Speaker 2: nice and all, but don't you wish that sometimes things
- 4:31Speaker 2: could be a little more personable. Nano Neighbors is looking
- 4:34Speaker 2: to fill that void, offering an adorable take on idle
- 4:37Speaker 2: desktop simulators. Imagine the idea of something like Gather, but
- 4:41Speaker 2: with adorable chipby characters instead, communicate with your buddies without
- 4:45Speaker 2: needing to open a new window, play mini games, and
- 4:48Speaker 2: take care of your anime friends. Plus, with Twitch integration,
- 4:52Speaker 2: this may be the best way to let your viewers
- 4:54Speaker 2: interact to hang out with you if you're into that
- 4:56Speaker 2: kind of thing.
- 4:57Speaker 3: So maybe we're gonna, you know, test it out as
- 5:00Speaker 3: a as a s minty thing.
- 5:01Speaker 1: Annie we could, it would be an interesting experiment.
- 5:05Speaker 2: I mean, like, this feels like a throwback into COVID
- 5:09Speaker 2: lockdown days of trying to hang out, and I feel
- 5:12Speaker 2: like that's a cute idea, especially if you're working from
- 5:14Speaker 2: home and you sometimes like a good destruction. Uh huh.
- 5:19Speaker 3: So I don't know. Maybe maybe in the future we
- 5:22Speaker 3: could talk about it.
- 5:22Speaker 2: But I really like this concept of interacting with people
- 5:25Speaker 2: sometimes and playing mini games again, kind of like among us.
- 5:28Speaker 2: But it is idle, so it's not constant and it's
- 5:31Speaker 2: not over the top.
- 5:32Speaker 3: And he's afraid that's gonna take over our career.
- 5:35Speaker 4: Just so y'all know, I've played too many horror games.
- 5:39Speaker 3: It's this is this is the problem here.
- 5:43Speaker 2: She's taking something so and putting the horror com Just kidding,
- 5:47Speaker 2: but no, I think it's an interesting idea. So another
- 5:49Speaker 2: one is witch Bakery, and again this one is not
- 5:52Speaker 2: yet released. But everything about this feels like a me game,
- 5:57Speaker 2: you know what I mean, because you know I love
- 5:59Speaker 2: a good bakery kind of similation. So this from steampower
- 6:02Speaker 2: dot com. They write, this is a descriptor. The Witch's
- 6:05Speaker 2: Bakery is a cozy adventure at RPG about a joyful
- 6:09Speaker 2: witch who opens her bakery in modern Paris. She has
- 6:12Speaker 2: one special power she can see into people's hearts and
- 6:14Speaker 2: heal emotions through magic. Ah, that's so cute and the
- 6:21Speaker 2: artwork is really cute and pretty. So it's created by
- 6:24Speaker 2: Sunny Lab and they describe their game like this. The
- 6:27Speaker 2: Witch's Bakery is a two D adventure puzzle game where
- 6:30Speaker 2: you play as a joyful witch who opens a bakery
- 6:32Speaker 2: in modern Paris. She has a special power she can
- 6:34Speaker 2: heal emotions with her bread, so healing with magic pastries
- 6:39Speaker 2: during the day, exploring Paris with our friends in the evening,
- 6:43Speaker 2: and improving her skills in the night. It kind of
- 6:45Speaker 2: sounds like something I would love to be fair, unless
- 6:49Speaker 2: something bad happens when they're not healed, and that might
- 6:52Speaker 2: be a problem for me. I can't handle those emotions, y'all.
- 6:57Speaker 2: But everything else seems super cute. Again, it's not been
- 7:00Speaker 2: released that yet, it's coming out in Tween twenty six,
- 7:03Speaker 2: but there is demos, and I do want to play
- 7:04Speaker 2: these demos eventually, so I think I'm going to try
- 7:08Speaker 2: to do this in the next couple of weeks and
- 7:09Speaker 2: I'll come back, but I really want to come back
- 7:11Speaker 2: and visit when they are released.
- 7:14Speaker 3: A lot of them are.
- 7:15Speaker 2: Coming through Steam, but I think Seam just has a
- 7:18Speaker 2: whole lot more availability with their new system, so it
- 7:22Speaker 2: might just be like it's offered here and here and here.
- 7:24Speaker 3: So and then.
- 7:25Speaker 2: I thought I would bring up a mobile game as well.
- 7:27Speaker 2: This was not from that list, and I think it's
- 7:29Speaker 2: been around for a minute, but I didn't know about
- 7:32Speaker 2: this one. And it's called A Normal Lost Phone. So
- 7:36Speaker 2: this is what's written in the Google app in the
- 7:38Speaker 2: play Store, they write this A Normal Lost Phone is
- 7:42Speaker 2: a game about exploring the intimacy of an unknown person
- 7:45Speaker 2: whose phone was found by the player. The game takes
- 7:48Speaker 2: shape of a narrative investigation. You have to search the
- 7:51Speaker 2: phone's text, message, pictures, and applications in order to learn
- 7:54Speaker 2: about its former owner.
- 7:56Speaker 3: Through the phone.
- 7:57Speaker 2: You uncover Sam's life, friends, family, and relationships until the
- 8:00Speaker 2: evening when they turn eighteen and mysteriously disappear. So I
- 8:05Speaker 2: find that that is fascinating. I do like a good
- 8:07Speaker 2: puzzle game. So it was created by women led studio
- 8:10Speaker 2: plug In Digital, who did the game Strange Horticulture, which
- 8:13Speaker 2: I do love.
- 8:14Speaker 3: I just could not read the text.
- 8:16Speaker 2: Really well, but I need to go back to it
- 8:18Speaker 2: because it's a beautiful fun game. I'm also like a
- 8:21Speaker 2: puzzle game as well, but I find like this kind
- 8:24Speaker 2: of mystery.
- 8:27Speaker 3: Enticing.
- 8:28Speaker 2: And this is from the side of a normal loostphone
- 8:31Speaker 2: dot com if they say these are the features an
- 8:34Speaker 2: immersive and intuitive way of introducing the narratives through a
- 8:37Speaker 2: fake smartphone interface. A game that bridges the gap between
- 8:41Speaker 2: reality and fiction by letting players act as themselves. The
- 8:44Speaker 2: game asks a simple question, if you close the app
- 8:47Speaker 2: but still think about the game, have you truly stopped playing?
- 8:52Speaker 2: A relatable story that helps build empathy with the characters,
- 8:55Speaker 2: allowing to explore difficult topics.
- 8:57Speaker 3: Oh, it's going to have you feeling emotions. Annie, mm hmm.
- 9:02Speaker 1: You know I like that.
- 9:03Speaker 4: You know there's a game I played once because I
- 9:06Speaker 4: feel like it was a game that once you get done,
- 9:09Speaker 4: you're like, oh, I know it. But it sounds kind
- 9:11Speaker 4: of similar to this where you it's called Her and
- 9:14Speaker 4: they have a second game that has just come out
- 9:16Speaker 4: that I have but I haven't played yet, But it's
- 9:18Speaker 4: like you're a detective trying to solve a case and
- 9:21Speaker 4: you have all of the evidence, but you have to
- 9:24Speaker 4: be able to know the right search terms and.
- 9:29Speaker 1: Like talk.
- 9:30Speaker 4: You talk to people and you try to figure out like, Okay,
- 9:32Speaker 4: what should I be looking into and if you get
- 9:34Speaker 4: all of that, and you could guess what happened in
- 9:36Speaker 4: this missing person case, and it was very rewarding. But
- 9:40Speaker 4: it kind of sounds similar. I think this one is
- 9:42Speaker 4: probably a more emotional. The story as opposed to this
- 9:46Speaker 4: one was like you're a detective trying to solve right case.
- 9:49Speaker 2: You're doing a job as where this is a little
- 9:51Speaker 2: bit of an emotional attachment.
- 9:54Speaker 3: Well we need to try this game.
- 9:55Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I'm happy into it.
- 9:58Speaker 3: I don't even to tet. And then there's another one.
- 10:11Speaker 2: It's called a Dodo Ducky, which I confuse for a
- 10:14Speaker 2: Dodo duck, which apparently is a nightlight. You need a
- 10:17Speaker 2: duck light light yeah, because I was trying to find it.
- 10:19Speaker 2: I was like, wait, why is it giving me a
- 10:21Speaker 2: night light? It was a really cute nightlight. Just saying
- 10:23Speaker 2: none of these are sponsors, by the way, but it's
- 10:25Speaker 2: a game that is a duck walking simulator and apparently
- 10:29Speaker 2: has mister Capibera and his magic hat.
- 10:33Speaker 3: That's what I wrote in the discussion.
- 10:34Speaker 2: And it goes back and forth from two D and
- 10:36Speaker 2: three D, so it toggles back and forth. Mean another face,
- 10:39Speaker 2: why not.
- 10:39Speaker 3: What faces the story? And I really which is.
- 10:44Speaker 1: A little video to be honest, No, it's nothing.
- 10:47Speaker 4: It's just like a really difficult thing in horror games
- 10:50Speaker 4: when that happens.
- 10:51Speaker 3: Really, so I probably would struggle.
- 10:53Speaker 4: Because it's like two D is you press straight right,
- 10:57Speaker 4: and then you press right, and then you press straight,
- 10:59Speaker 4: keep going right.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Three D is you go just press except for where
- 11:03Speaker 1: you're okay.
- 11:04Speaker 4: So in a horror game they like to use that
- 11:06Speaker 4: for like all of a sudden, something's chasing you and.
- 11:10Speaker 1: You can't get a whole thing has changed.
- 11:12Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that does seem frustrating.
- 11:14Speaker 1: That probably would have already scary.
- 11:17Speaker 3: This is a horror game, though you don't think the
- 11:21Speaker 3: ducks simulator.
- 11:22Speaker 1: Listen I've been around the box metha, we don't know.
- 11:27Speaker 2: Maybe I don't think so. This is from the Nerdy
- 11:31Speaker 2: Type dot Com. They write this Dodo Ducky is a
- 11:35Speaker 2: perspective shifting platform in development by born Monkey. You're essentially
- 11:39Speaker 2: getting two games in one with the necessity to switch
- 11:41Speaker 2: between two D and three D to navigate the platforms
- 11:44Speaker 2: and work through the puzzles that get in your way.
- 11:46Speaker 2: It's heaps of fun and packed with features. So again,
- 11:49Speaker 2: it's created by born Monkey, which is also an independent studio,
- 11:52Speaker 2: which you know, we love that around here. We want
- 11:55Speaker 2: to keep highlighting especially women led and women centered studios.
- 11:59Speaker 2: So I because duct simulator games are interesting anyway, so
- 12:06Speaker 2: this seems like it could be interesting. Again, this is
- 12:08Speaker 2: also one that has not been released yet and it
- 12:10Speaker 2: just says Q one twenty six, so we're not sure
- 12:12Speaker 2: when they do have again demos and they say, like
- 12:15Speaker 2: the writer from the Nerdy Type dot Com was like, no,
- 12:17Speaker 2: you need to go and check this demo out. You
- 12:19Speaker 2: need to try it out. It does say you can't
- 12:23Speaker 2: just download it. You have to go through a special
- 12:26Speaker 2: site to download it. So that's something to note. But
- 12:30Speaker 2: several of the games that the women led games featured
- 12:33Speaker 2: or awarded seems to also need have not maybe met
- 12:37Speaker 2: all of the Kickstarter I'm not really sure. So you
- 12:40Speaker 2: can go and look and check those out and see
- 12:41Speaker 2: if any of those that you want to see come
- 12:43Speaker 2: for fruition quickly. So in donating to these games, the
- 12:47Speaker 2: Kickstarter has been in a phenomenal way in getting independent
- 12:51Speaker 2: studios and independent games released. That probably should be an episode,
- 12:54Speaker 2: because I have a filling Kickstarter. It's really something that
- 12:57Speaker 2: has helped a lot of marginalized creators where corporations have not. Yeah,
- 13:04Speaker 2: just an idea, but anyway back to this, but I
- 13:06Speaker 2: think this is some of just four of these games
- 13:09Speaker 2: that I find fascinating and I do want to check
- 13:11Speaker 2: out again. We haven't talked as much about games this year.
- 13:16Speaker 2: I don't think I'm still playing things still me too.
- 13:20Speaker 1: I talked about Silent Hill f a lot.
- 13:21Speaker 3: Yeah you did.
- 13:22Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, cozy games, we haven't talked as much. I'll
- 13:26Speaker 2: say it that way because the Solid Hill is not cozy.
- 13:29Speaker 2: You can't make me think otherwise we'll fight about it.
- 13:31Speaker 1: Oh, I wouldn't try. In fact, you know, Dark Soulsian.
- 13:35Speaker 4: Dark Soulsian is like a type of game where it's
- 13:38Speaker 4: miserable and you die all the time, and it kept
- 13:40Speaker 4: getting compared to a Dark Soulsian game, and they the
- 13:44Speaker 4: creators were saying, no, no, no, no, it's not And
- 13:47Speaker 4: when I was playing it and not the two mine horn,
- 13:50Speaker 4: but I'm pretty good. Yeah, really, I was dying a lot,
- 13:53Speaker 4: and there was a point where I thought I might
- 13:55Speaker 4: be able to beat this game, and I eventually did.
- 13:59Speaker 4: But the boy actress, the main voice actress, did a
- 14:02Speaker 4: live stream where she was playing it, and she started
- 14:04Speaker 4: crying because she couldn't get past it, and so the
- 14:08Speaker 4: creator she thought she's going to get in trouble. But
- 14:10Speaker 4: the creators created a new mode called Casual for people
- 14:18Speaker 4: like if you don't want to I don't want to
- 14:20Speaker 4: die misery because yeah, then yeah, they have a I
- 14:26Speaker 4: don't have any.
- 14:26Speaker 1: Problem with it.
- 14:27Speaker 3: Really, y'all have a heart. Get it together. Oh oh
- 14:32Speaker 3: my goodness. Yeah, no, I think that's we all know.
- 14:35Speaker 2: That's not my alley because I will throw things eventually.
- 14:38Speaker 2: I think I don't throw tantrums often, but I feel like.
- 14:41Speaker 3: This is where I would. Uh. I think I said that.
- 14:44Speaker 2: My partner's sister actually played in boxing and loved it
- 14:47Speaker 2: and finished it very quickly.
- 14:48Speaker 3: I still haven't technically finished it.
- 14:49Speaker 2: My partner has to, which you know, is one of
- 14:52Speaker 2: the big games created by women as well.
- 14:54Speaker 3: I love games like that, so more of those.
- 14:56Speaker 2: I didn't mention briefly at one point that there was
- 14:59Speaker 2: a video that I had seen on social media TikTok
- 15:02Speaker 2: that talking about how because corporations have realized that that
- 15:06Speaker 2: is become a money maker, that they're just kind of
- 15:08Speaker 2: slopping things together and saying, oh, look, cozing games. And
- 15:12Speaker 2: a lot of women, especially women who are professionals and
- 15:15Speaker 2: know what they're doing, have really come to the point
- 15:17Speaker 2: of they stop insulting our intelligence and telling us this
- 15:21Speaker 2: is a good game just because you're trying to hop
- 15:23Speaker 2: in on something that was a beautiful thing to see
- 15:26Speaker 2: as it grows into the world for women in gaming,
- 15:30Speaker 2: that is nice to have a game that's about empathy
- 15:33Speaker 2: and that's about like growth, and that's about like.
- 15:35Speaker 3: Puzzling and all these things like.
- 15:38Speaker 2: Having corporations trying to come in and make money off
- 15:41Speaker 2: of things that are so poorly done. So we want
- 15:44Speaker 2: to keep focusing on these independent studios and these kickstarter
- 15:48Speaker 2: type of games because we want the good stuff.
- 15:51Speaker 4: Yes, yes, and thank you to all the listeners who
- 15:54Speaker 4: have sent in suggestions. I've said it before, I'm extremely
- 15:58Speaker 4: behind on the listener mail, so if I haven't responded
- 16:01Speaker 4: to you, we have got them, and please keep those
- 16:05Speaker 4: coming because we've gotten some really great suggestions.
- 16:10Speaker 2: If you have games like where maybe eventually maybe we'll
- 16:14Speaker 2: try to do a sminthy or offshoot of our own
- 16:17Speaker 2: Twitch title or something and then try to play some games.
- 16:20Speaker 2: I don't know what does the future hole dannysnine.
- 16:29Speaker 4: It is in your hands. Well, thank you so much
- 16:33Speaker 4: for listening. If you would like to contact us, you can.
- 16:36Speaker 4: You can email us at Hello at stuff onever Told
- 16:38Speaker 4: You dot com. You can find us on Blue Scott
- 16:40Speaker 4: Mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at Stuff
- 16:42Speaker 4: We've Never Told You. We're also on YouTube. We have
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- 16:47Speaker 4: you can get where you get your books.
- 16:48Speaker 1: Thanks.
- 16:48Speaker 4: It's always to hear a super due Christina excus my
- 16:51Speaker 4: Er contribute, Joey, thank you and thanks to you for listening.
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