For the lead up to Best Games Played this year, we’ve created a new, five-part series for the hosts to take the time to really dive deep into the games that meant the most to them this year. Welcome to: the Road to BGP!

This episode, we discuss Alex’s favorite games of the year. He guides us through a journey of meaningful experiences, a variety of rougelites, and the discovery of a new universe.

Games include A Short Hike, Risk of Rain 2, Void Bastards, Anodyne 2, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Outer Wilds, Amid Evil, Metro Exodus, Wilmot’s Warehouse, Bleak Sword, and Tetris Effect.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

On our last regular episode of the year, we spend only 120 seconds on Blizzard’s attempt to bounce back before we switch to updates on PC storefronts, sing a song or two, and take a trip to the outer worlds.

We also discuss game projects currently being worked on by the group, from a hack-and-slashy that’s oh so flashy, a 3D Sinistar revival, and a… professional wrestling visual novel?

Games include The Outer Worlds, MediEvil, and Killer Queen Black.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

We’re joined by Spencer Hays — running business and content over at itch.io — here to talk about the fraught debate about how to pronounce his place of work and the rackets of top level domain registry.

We dive deep on the state of game subscription services, and its direct effect on developer sustainability and mainstream game design. There’s also a whole mess of talk around algorithms and its elimination of outsider art, curation on itch, and what Spencer – a card-carrying member of the Visual Novel Defense Force – has to say about visual novels and visual novel-likes.

Games include Indivisible, Apex Legends, Afterparty, Adventures with Anxiety!, and Life Tastes Like Cardboard.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

It’s a house full of scat as we discuss the fallout from Blizzard’s decision to ban Hearthstone player Blitzchung, Riot’s rocketing release schedule, an alignment chart for game publishers, and the continuous deluge of Apple Arcade releases.

Games include Risk of Rain 2, What the Golf?, Bleak Sword, Card of Darkness, Grindstone, Exit the Gungeon, Legends of Runeterra, Destiny 2, A Short Hike, and Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

This week, we’re rejoined by Jay Tholen, developer on Dropsy the Clown and Hypnospace Outlaw. Since the last time we had him on the show, Hypnospace has been released out into the world, so we talk about the specific memories of the early Net that influenced game, such as the playfulness of the pre-Web 2.0 era.

We also discuss the pros and cons of building Hypnospace within Construct 2, the post-release slump indie devs can find themselves in, and how to create a successful commercial work without sacrificing your artistic intent.

Have a question for the show? Join us on Discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

Back from the dead, we’re joined by Alex “One Organ Down” Damrath, here to talk with us about his erstwhile hospital stay, only to confront the dangers of Glenlivet’s liquor tide pods.

We also discuss that there Joker movie, Nelson’s exquisite experience with Devil’s Hunt, and the release of Borderlands 3 amongst a sea of controversies of its own making.

Games include Wilmot’s Warehouse, Control, Valkyria Chronicles 4, A Hat in Time, Devil’s Hunt, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Apex Legends, Anodyne 2, Borderlands 3, and What the Golf?

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!

We now live in a world where our weeaboo compatriots have thrown themselves at the gates of Area 51, attempting to uncover the facility’s vast secrets.

Meanwhile, we find ourselves in our own government black site as we hunker back down with Control, experiment with the launch lineup of Apple Arcade, and witness the ghostly return of Telltale Games.

Games include Control, Divinity: Original Sin II, GreedFall, Sayonara Wild Hearts, What the Golf?, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Got a question for the show? Join us on Discord or email us at contact@ward-games.com!