The timing of this episode is one hell of a happy accident. We had no idea our 8 year anniversary would line up with episode 400 back when we decided to switch off our weekly schedule...but here we are: 8 years and 400 episodes later.

Alex had a fun idea this year to celebrate the occasion with the both of us selecting our individual Top 8 episodes of all time. We posted them throughout the last week and a half on our various social mediums and in the end, I think both lists are great representations of what we've tried to accomplish in the years since starting this whole thing. Be sure to go back and check them out if the almighty algorithms hid them from your respective timelines as those episodes are definitely worth a revisit.

As for this episode, being an anniversary 'sode, Alex worked his magic and put together another Best-Of Montage featuring clips from all of the best moments from the past year. Per usual, he killed it. So huge thanks and recognition are in order as those things aren't easy to make and take up a ton of valuable free time.

With all that said, I believe it's customary to say thank you to you, dear listener. We say it a few times in the episode, but without you this show is pretty pointless. Your support is everything and greatly appreciated. In short, you kick ass.

Happy anniversary, ya'll.

-Jr.

I hope you're hungry for some PAX because boy howdy do we have some content for you. Joe is back with us to recap and not only do we have a nearly 2 hour long episode full of game and panel talk, but there's also some photos, plus there was stuff we couldn't fit in the episode that Joe wrote about below. It only took 6 years but I think we're finally learning how to reach peak PAX efficiency.

I'm going to keep this brief as I don't want to take away from Joe's superior words plus all the good things I have to say are in the episode anyway. But I will say that, per usual, PAX was amazing, the people we met were amazing, and the games we played were, for the most part, amazing as well.

Now check out what Joe had to say about a couple of games he got to play: (Note: some of these are brought up in the episode but I couldn't bring myself to hack this to pieces so enjoy it in its entirety.) 

-Jr.

VIDEO GAMES

Shantae and the Seven Sirens

So amazingly enough, it’s been 3 years since the last Shantae game was released.  For those of you who don’t know, the Shantae series has had a tumultuous history, starting with it’s inaugural game being released on the GBC just as the handheld was dying out.  However, the second game in the series got a hold of its roots on the DSi’s downloadable software store, and now the series has a strong reputation as being a quirky and fun platformer.  Shantae and the Seven Sirens was not on my radar at all because I’m old and time passes weirdly, but it’s the 5th overall game in the series and the 2nd in the new HD stylings. Also weirdly enough, despite this game coming out for all major consoles in the spring, it’s already been out on the iOS since Fall of 2019.

I had a great conversation with Christopher Shanley, the Director of Publishing at WayForward.  He shared some of the background considerations when developing the game, including how they merged the animal transformation mechanic from the original two games with the weapon’s system from Pirate’s Curse, and it was a lot of fun!  The game has had a difficulty spike since going into HD, in a very positive and energizing way (the demo gave me infinite health, which I absolutely needed for the challenging boss battle at the end.) Shanley also talked a bit about their history in taking on their own publishing responsibilities, and how empowering it has been for their releases (not just Shantae, but other WayForward games as well like River City Girls.)  

Shovel Knight

The Yacht Club games folks, fresh off of the release of the last game in the core Shovel Knight series (King of Cards), had a surprising showing with two new games in the Shovel Knight series. 

The first one I played is a Shovel Knight puzzle game in the style of Puzzle League games called Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon.  The core mechanic has Shovel Knight wandering around a bunch of falling pieces including enemies, health potions, keys, and treasure chests.  He can attack enemies and set off chains, which is good because fighting them individually will have them hit you back and kill you pretty quickly.  I know this because boy did I die a bunch of times in a row before figuring out that I had health and was being attacked. It seems interesting but outside of aesthetics, it is a very non-Shovel Knight property.  For both of the new games, there is a clear shift from the original design (all of the characters are a little bigger and more detailed.)

The second game was called Shovel Knight Dig, and is extremely similar to Steam World Dig.  If you haven’t played this series before, you play a robot that digs down and collects resources to help aid him in digging even further - it’s weirdly a blast.  SKD follows very similar mechanics, except with the ability to “shovel jump” like in the original game. The feature that really sets it apart is a sense of urgency… after going down just a little bit, there are mechanics such as drills and enemies, that turn it more into a Downwell-style game.  

Both games were fun and interesting, but there was an oddness about both of them.  With the slightly different graphics and completely different genres, they both don’t feel like Shovel Knight and really didn’t need to be. I’m curious if the branding is to help tie their way into new styles of games.

Cyberpunk Bartender Action N1RV Ann-A.

Aesthetically this game feels like a mid-90s Sierra sort of pixel number, and play-wise it was incredibly reminiscent of Phoenix Wright games when you’re doing the walking around and gathering evidence parts.  Jayare, Colin, and I all got to play this bartender simulator where you try to make drinks for different people who come in and navigate conversations with them. Mechanically, it was very straight forward: you get to make drinks and react to what people say, but it had the feeling of a game of discovery. 

Radical Rabbit Stew

A combination of action and puzzle game, RRS immediately reminded me of a Genesis game that no one remembers named Wiz and Liz.  W&L was this odd game where you had to catch rabbits and use magic and I was too young to understand the strategy, but there was something undeniably charming about it.  Radical Rabbit Stew brings that charm in spades. You play a cook that uses various cooking implements to knock rabbits (that have taken over his people or something?) into pots and launch them into space.  The plot doesn’t matter. It was cute and fun and I loved it. Check it out in July.

A Duel Hand Disaster: Trackher

The Nintendo Switch has mainstreamed a feeling I’ve had for years.  I’ve always preferred handheld gaming, starting as a 9 year old that saved his meager earnings to buy a Game Gear, and continuing today to where the Nintendo Switch is my go-to platform by leaps and bounds.  It’s not just the portability: limited power platforms leads to people creating unique games that present fascinating challenges. The full name for A Duel Hand Disaster: Trackher includes the tagline “Split Screen Single Player Twin Stick Risk’em Up”.  On the left side of the screen, you’re playing a mostly invincible ship in a Space Invader-style game, while on the right side, you’re flying around the screen with limited ways to protect yourself and trying to gather resources and end the level. Except you get to choose when to end the level, constantly risking a higher score with losing everything. It’s wacky and weird and genuinely impossible to explain in text.  So go look at this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOGwVsSFsbk.  And you still won’t really get it, but it’s already out and if you like arcade score-racing games, you’ll eat this sucker up.

BOARD GAMES

Kroma: Presented by designer Carol Mertz, published by Breaking Games

Kroma is a 2-3 player game developed by Carol Mertz, Kai Karhu, Francesca Carletto-Leon, and Temitope Olujobi.  Jayare and I had the pleasure of learning how to play this from Mertz herself, who has a storied history of game development.  The concept of Kroma is that you play on a triangular lightboard and place down translucent pieces of primary colors pulled randomly from a bag.  On top of those, you can place a second piece to make a new color (because that’s how colors work.) Each player picks a secondary color (orange, purple, or green), and the key is to have either the most pieces or the most connected area of your chosen color by the end of the game.  Mertz taught us the game in less than 30 seconds, and it was one of those games that it was easy to learn but tough to master the strategy of. They’ll be kickstarting the game later this year, and it looks like a game that both kids and adults would have a blast playing. Mertz and her team were all showing a number of games (both electronic and otherwise) at the show, and I’m excited to see what other projects that team is going to churn out.

Cheer Up!: Presented by designer Chris Rio

Okay, so I like to play any board game I can get my hands on at PAX. There are a lot of misses here, but with board games, it’s almost possible to tell how you’re going to feel about it just by looking at it (books, covers, you get it.)  Cheer Up’s booth is heralded by a ridiculous looking cartoon dog that is apparently the dog of the creator, Chris Rio. It’s a party game akin to Cards Against Humanity where you play cards and hope a judge will pick them. Unlike CAH, there is a mechanic with 3 different “categories” of cards, and before the judge picks, a rule gets thrown it to change it around.  The cutesy dog and standard mechanic completely belies what is a somewhat raunchy and hilarious game. The creator, Chris, reflects this as well… he seemed like a very smiley and nice guy who would just slip in some of the funniest filthiest jokes as we were demo-ing. They currently have a kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cheerup/cheer-up-the-big-d-pack-expansion?ref=discovery&term=cheer%20up) for an expansion to the game that runs until April 1 2020, and the core game itself can be picked up in stores.

Set a Watch: Presented by designer Todd Walsh

Early on, as Kevin and I sat down with Todd Walsh to learn how to play Set a Watch, I was looking at the ability cards of my Witch and noticed they had the same art at the top.  He was teaching us the game and also playtesting his prototype of an expansion (coming to Kickstarter later this year), but I was curious if there would be different art for each.  Walsh indicated that it was an intentional design choice to help prevent the “quarterbacking” that is often common in co-operative games like this. This would be the start of my favorite creator conversation of the entire convention. Walsh, a self-proclaimed D&D enthusiast, has created a game with such careful consideration, that it’s hard to find faults that aren’t clearly designed to make the game fair, challenging, and fun.  The concept of the game is that you are a classic D&D quartet that must defend against an onslaught of monsters. Unfortunately, only three of you can tackle the challenges, as your 4th member each round stokes the fire and brings on resources to help you tackle the challenges ahead and recover spent energy. Though the mechanics can be a little challenging, it has been so much fun to play, and chatting with Walsh to see the insights of a developer.  

Colorful: Presented by designer Jordan Draper

Every year since I’ve gone to PAX, my favorite game to bring home is the one I can bust out anywhere and catch people’s attention and interest.  One year it was Visitor, another it was Illimat, but this year, it was Colorful. We talked about Jordan Draper after last year’s PAX (I played Tokyo Coin Laundry with Alex and we had a very unexpected good time.)  Colorful is an adaption by Draper of a Japanese game where you have a hand of 15 colors and try to match with other people you’re playing with based on constantly more challenging categories. If the category is “Smell”, someone can only say a single word (for example, “Citrus”) and everyone will play a color face down. As Draper describes it, it’s a co-op game where you all win by matching, but the moment you lose, it becomes a competition to have the most cards in the majority.  It’s light, fun, easy to teach, and every single one of the 20 people I’ve shown it to since PAX has loved it.  

Also KEVIN, firefighters are red and only a sociopath would play the color yellow damn it. -Joe

We're back this week with an extra long episode packed with guests. Two guests to be specific....but that's like 200% more than normal so yeah, jam packed.

Next weekend is going to be a busy one as Alex and I are going to be attending two different conventions in two different states 1,000 miles apart...at the same time?!? Well, technically at the same time...just not together. While myself and the usual suspects head up to Boston for PAX East, Alex and his lovely lady are going to be flying out to Chicago for C2E2. Exciting, right?? Twice the opportunity to catch terrifying viruses! And also meet amazing people, play amazing games, and spend amazing amounts of cash. It's gonna be a good time.

Until then, we thought it would be fun to hype up the shows and talk with a couple people that you'd be able to meet if you happen to be in attendance. First up is the owner of Blipsounds: Ryan Stunkel! After successful outings at previous PAX shows, most recently PAX South in January, Ryan is going to be bringing his panel "Sound Design Live: Watch Us Recreate Video Game Sounds" to PAX East to give attendees the scoop on creating and replicating sounds from popular video games. Ryan is going to be bringing years of sound design experience to Boston so if you're at PAX East on Saturday you have an amazing opportunity to check out his panel.

Following our chat with Ryan, we had the absolute pleasure of talking with artist and colorist Addison Duke! A Chicago based artist, Addison's work can be seen in a multitude of comic books including Curse Words, Hack/Slash, and Barbarella/Dejah Thoris to name a few. He's going to be tabling in Artist's Alley at the upcoming C2E2 show so we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get the inside info on his background, experiences, and what we can expect to see at one of the most talked about conventions in the country.

We can't thank Ryan and Addison enough for giving us time to talk with them, especially with two major shows just around the corner. We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it. If you're going to be at PAX or C2E2 be sure to travel safe and pack plenty of hand sanitizer. And say hi to Ryan and Addison; they're great people who make great things.

Enjoy!

-Jr.

"The StarWell Foundation" is an audio drama set in a city of Super Heroes. Through the Foundation, children make requests to meet famous athletes, movie stars, or even their favorite heroes. But the kids have started to request something new: they want to meet their favorite villains and it's up to the newly promoted intern Meredith Dare to make their dreams come true.

This is Episode 2 of the pilot season.

Right now this completes the short story arc for Meredith Dare and StarWell. I hope you enjoyed it and if you did let us know.

I’ll be trying to push the season to spread the word, get more listens and eventually gauge interest on making more.

This story was inspired by “The Villain Wrangler”, a tumblr thread with many, many contributors.

Thanks to all our voice actors that lent me their time and voices, Bob for walking me through the set up and lending his expertise, Jayare for saying yes to this idea and thanks to you our listeners that keep coming back even though we deviated from our usual format.

This episode features the voice acting talents of:
Kae Giroux
Brett Kelley
Kristen Blakely Chesler
Michelle Arslan
Steph MacGillivary
Babs Daniels
Mike Davis
Sarah Gherri
Joe Van Allen
Colin Vigneault
Ed Gogulski
Milta Vargas
Alex Squiers

Music clips by Kevin Mason

Additional music and sound effects from:
Freesound.org
BBC Sound Effects bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk
Incompetech.com

"Take a Chance" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

-Alex.

We're back this week with a brief intermission between episodes of the pilot season of The StarWell Foundation to bring you almost two full hours of something you've all been desperately waiting for:

Star Wars opinions!

And who better to join us in the festivities than our main man Colin? Seeing as it's been a minute since he was last on (a minute = about a year in this case) we thought a relaxing night talking Star Wars with pals would be the perfect way to get him back into the swing of things.

Of course, it probably goes without saying that this episode contains some beefy SPOILERS so for those who aren't up to speed on pretty much all of the Star Wars films, you might want to get that taken care of beforehand.

We hope you enjoy our ramblings and be sure to let us know if you agree/disagree/think we're buffoons in the comments. We'll be back in a couple of weeks with the 2nd episode of The StarWell Foundation pilot!

Enjoy!

-Jr.

"The StarWell Foundation" is an audio drama set in a city of Super Heroes. Through the Foundation, children make requests to meet famous athletes, movie stars, or even their favorite heroes. But the kids have started to request something new: they want to meet their favorite villains and it's up to the newly promoted intern Meredith Dare to make their dreams come true.  

This is episode 1 of the pilot season.

Our friend and frequent guest host Colin planted the idea in my head a few years ago to produce a radio play and I’ve held onto the idea ever since. It wasn’t until I happened upon this gem of the internet on tumblr titled “The Villain Wrangler” that inspired me to interpret my own world around that terrific and devious concept. Regular OMV listeners know I’ve always been a sucker for a good villain story.

As of right now there will be 2 episodes featuring Meredith Dare and the StarWell Foundation. If all goes well there’s a chance we’ll make more, so please like, share, subscribe and comment.

This episode features the voice acting talents of:
Kae Giroux
Bob Savage
Sarah Gherri
Mike Davis
Joe Van Allen
Steph MacGillivary
Colin Vigneault
Michelle Arslan
Babs Daniels
Kristen Blakely Chesler
Colin Allen
Alex Squiers

Featuring Music clips by Kevin Mason.

Additional sound effects and other music from:
Freesound.org
BBC Sound Effects        http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk
Incompetech.com  -- "Carefree" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

-Alex.

Our guest this week is Derek Rosengrant and he is very good at what he does.

What he does can be seen here. For those too lazy to click the link or if you're reading this somewhere other than our website (www.omvpodcast.com), you're missing out on some of the most insane replica weaponry and costume design you'll ever see. And at only 26(!) years old, for Derek the term "sky is the limit" seems like a real understatement.

Derek got his start working on the special effects team of a few films you may have heard of (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron man 2, Iron man 3, and Robocop to name a few) and since then he's split off from his former employers at Legacy Effects and has started his own business alongside his partner Eric Newgard: Aurum Effects.

This week, Derek gave us the inside scoop on how Aurum came to fruition, his experiences working in the movie industry, and what it's like to work side by side with one of the most legendary video game studios on the planet. Check out their website here and keep Aurum on your radar. From the sound of things it seems like Derek and crew have big plans for the future.

Enjoy!

-Jr.

The vendor hall of ConnectiCon is easily one of the most unique halls in all the conventions we attend. Being a show that doesn't quite fit into any single genre, it attracts vendors that don't quite fit into any single genre. Example: Rich Longmore and his art over at BogelBear Illustration.

Rich is a freelance artist who, as he so beautifully put it, has been drawing monsters since he could hold a pencil. With roots deep-seated in the D&D and cryptozoology scenes, Rich creates amazing pieces of work that somehow manage to be beautiful, mildly terrifying, and strangely informative all at the same time.

This week, we had the opportunity to speak with Rich in person and get the inside-info on how BogelBear came to be, Rich's experiences in freelance work, and how valuable it can be to have daughters with expansive knowledge of Pokemon.

Enjoy!

-Jr.

If you go to the Vixens En Garde website and check out the "About" tab you'll see the following headline:

"Swordswomen swashbuckling our way through Shakespeare."

If you're not already intrigued about this episode then I'm not sure what else we can do for you because it's going to be hard to beat that. Hopefully we have your attention because we have an insanely fun episode for you all this week featuring Lisa Kopitsky!

When she isn't on stage performing as Athena Albrecht, Lisa acts as the creative director of Vixens En Garde which means in addition to the swordfighting and Shakespeare she also plans out the Vixen's season, decides which cast members perform at which shows, and most recently she has taken over writing new scripts and material for future shows.

In short: shes a swordswoman who swashbuckles her way through Shakespeare while also doing an insane amount of planning and writing so the swashbuckling can continue. Sounds rad, right? Have a listen and you'll get to hear all about it.

If you think Vixens En Garde is something you might be interested in, be sure to visit their website (linked above) and check out their schedule. With any luck they'll be performing your favorite Shakespeare play at a show near you!

Enjoy!

-Jr.

By: Joe

Title: Mars Power Industries
Developer: 7A Games
Released: 11/15/2019
Price: $3.99

After watching a quick trailer, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with Mars Power Industries… it had a charming aesthetic (vibes of Advance Wars and tower defense games) and an engaging soundtrack. The first moments of the game, however, throw you into an immersive non-tutorial for what is definitely a puzzle game.

I love a game without an explicit tutorial. The way to learn what works and doesn’t in this game is to try, fail, and try again (I’m reminded of Baba Is You released earlier this year). Your only controls are to move a cursor and place a finite number of towers that have different functions, with the goal of providing power to the locations provided on a map. It would be easy to get quickly frustrated figuring out the rules, except the levels are built to incrementally add in details, and much like Baba, backing out is as easy as pressing the back button however many times you need. After completing the first 10 levels, you have a fairly good idea of what works, and the building blocks of what you’ll need to know to tackle the rest of the worlds. There are new pieces (that you have to place in a certain order) and new obstacles (that can either be modified or worked around depending on how you play), but the mechanics are easy to take on once you get past the first few stages, and you’ll be throwing together power plant systems before you know it.

The trial and error part of the game is part of the fun. It’s not just the tutorial that lacks words… story elements are provided with subtlety and nuance. It’s meant to be experienced rather than over explained. The actual setting of the game (you’re on Mars and you need to provide power to buildings) isn’t important, but it adds a lot of charm to the graphical representation of what is otherwise a straightforward puzzle game. This game is all about mood: a straightforward, relaxing puzzle game that provides a perfect break from Pokémon Sword.

I really enjoyed my time with Mars Power Industries… it’s challenging without being overbearing, and charming without being trite or forgettable. Each puzzle only takes a few minutes to solve, and you’ll find yourself breaking and going back frequently.