Sam, superb video essayist from the channel Afterthoughts, joins Jenna for a one-yearly event: podcasting! Oh and they get the prompts: award-winning, played once annually, weird cart racer They navigate towards ARGs, the once-beloved, now forgotten child of the irl gaming world. But there they find a wealth of inspiration! Map based games! Online and in-person components! Bikes! Liability lawsuits! Watch Sam's incredible video essays on her channel Afterthoughts, or on Twitter...

Chandana Ekanayake, co-founder of Outerloop Games and director of Thirsty Suitors, narrowly avoids making another thirsty property by selecting the Grant Howitt Dagger Dartboard, resulting in the prompts: obnoxious, shower food, survival horror Sud Buds Survival is all about cleaning up your hometown - and your relationships - using the power of water and muck. Explore this soaped-up village, dodge the writhing motions of the Slciks, and keep an eye on your suds and muds meters - you...

Paul Luetkemeyer, the voice of Zelf on Burnt Cook Book Party, joins Jenna to make a: claustraphobic,  based on a 2007 reality tv show, family sim After flirting with a pretty banger idea for a Harry Houdini reincarnation reality TV show, they settle on a cubicle-based work-related multiplayer game where you fight through a series of puzzle rooms, like beloved 1997 cult horror hit Cube! Listen to Paul Luetkemeyer as he plays Zelf the Battle-Chef on Burnt Cook Book Party here. To...

Rob Cocks, Production Lead of Ysbryd Games, brings his indie game expertise and his introversion to the prompts: terrifying, birthday,  breath-of-the-wild alike The result can only be a malware-adjacent once-a-year birthday app that saves you from social interactions! Never will you need to respond to senseless unending well-wishes, now that you have Link and Zelda by your side. This app might track your physical and mental decline, or it might present you with annual existential dread...

Jacob Geller, a writer who happens to be known for his video essays, joins Jenna to craft up a game based on the prompts: sloppy, Ides of March, fortunetelling The resulting game is, as you might expect given the sources, a really thought-provoking interrogation of game structures and player-interaction, while also being a hilarious game where you try to make people stab their boss. So what if their boss is Julius Caesar? This game as it all: Pathos! Intrigue! Intestines! Check out...

Voice actor and game dev Jacob Burgess joins the pod to crack the exceptionally difficult line up of: musical, game within a game, twin stick shooter This off-off-off Broadway production company has suffered from more internal drama than is in the script for Les Rizz! And to make matters worse, a swarm of rats has descended on the premises. But as it turns out, a mass of agile, invested rodents might be just the thing this community theater needs to pull off the big show. Enjoy Jacob...

Jacob Andrews, one of the talented artists of Drawfee, find the route through the prompts: obtuse parasite FPS with the help of Jenna Stoeber, a fellow soup and Dark Souls lover. Inspired by the Loathsome Dung Eater and some relatable soup catastrophes, Dark Soups sees the brew-bearer attempt to defeat monstrous gorge-vessels. But will you free them of their gorgers, or deepen their injestion infestation? See Jacob's work on Drawfee here, catch a livestream of Secret Sleepover...

Giovanni Colantonio, journalist at Digital Trends, is the first participant in the Grant Howitt Dagger Dartboard, where a flip of the coin determines if a prompt is replaced by a newer, weirder prompt from a separate list. They ended up with: wholesome all grapple hooks all the time cooking While making several accidental grapple-based puns, Giovanni and Jenna craft a foraging and cooking game with madcap traversal mechanics, naturally in VR and requiring an intricate and expensive...

Grant Howitt, indie TTRPG creator of games like Honey Heist, joins the show and makes a surreal, pro-drug game using the prompts: ocean exploration last day at camp Lucas-Arts point-n-click. You wake up in a derelict oil rig and have to choose your intoxicant of choice. Where will you fall on the zooted scale, and how will that change your conversation options? And more importantly, how much FUN will you have on the way? Follow Grant's work on Twitter @RowanRookDecard or on his...

Petrana Radulovic, media and fan culture writer, joins Jenna to create an environment that is SO toxic, using the prompts: mom game baby-raising racing So you can tell where on the spreadsheet all of the mom-uncle-aunt games were clustered! They run with the idea of a deeply competitive online horse-rearing game, where you have to find, catch, and breed horses to be the fastest and most beautiful. And not just horses! Pegasus, kelpies, and more. Use your charm and shiny red apples to...

Kelsey Lewin, writer, podcaster, and co-owner of Pink Gorilla Games, joins the show to finally make a game that your aunt is going to love! She and Jenna turn the prompts: aunt games frogs myst-like into a game about kissing frogs to turn them into other animals, and then using those animals to solve PUZZLES. Kyst indulges all the things we liked about Myst: cool photo graphics, loneliness, and puzzles that we were too young to figure out. Pre-order Kelsey Lewin's Animal Crossing...

Allegra Frank, renowned journalist, critic, and oreo connoisseur, joins Jenna to craft an adorable, hard-hitting game with the prompts: squishy werewolves visual novel Eschewing the normal player-romance offerings of visual novels, they craft a game where you matchmake NPCs and solve a dark mystery of your own past, come back to haunt you. Also there are some non-branded Squishmallow integrations that give the game a bit of a texture. A squish texture. Turns out, love was the...

Screenwriter, bookwriter, and criticwriter Karen Han has brought her Marvel's-Midnight-Sun and Pokemon-Cafe-Remix related complaints to the prompts:  musical cafe sim character creator They brew a heady mix of adorable Pokemon bakers and super crunchy sim aspects like book-balancing and inventory sim. Every year, the Alcremie Awards pass out stars to the best cafes in the world - and you've set your sight on getting one! Require Pokemon employees, and serve up the best light cafe...

Brent Naylor lucked out with some primo prompts: parasite DnD mystery Then he immediately destroyed the format of this show by perfectly nailing a pitch for a hidden role game where you have to identify the social parasite in a DnD group! Thankfully these fools are pros at bullshitting, and they develop a game where you train yourself to detect AI but figuring out who on a video call isn't a real human. Learn the REAL TRUTH about Andalites at AndaliteTruth.org, listen to Fandalites,...

Illustrator Faith Schaffer brings her Lifetime movie expertise to Big Game Hunger, a Jenny Nicholson fancast! With the prompts: voyeurism holiday dungeon crawler ...she and Jenna make a Lifetime/Hallmark-inspired Christmas game about a big-city video game creator who discovers the true meaning of Christmas Romance back in her hometown, with either the local super-bachelor or her cousin. Play choices don't matter in this cult classic hit, but you'll love its earnest, FMV styling and...

Alex Jaffe, co-host of Insert Credit and 52 Pickup, starts off strong with some word-play options based on the prompts: green shark godzilla-sim (rampage) After some great goofs on what "green" could imply, they settle on an anti-golf, pro-green-space game where you play as a shark terrorizing innocent putters. Swim through intricate mini-golf courses to herd golfers into clumps so you can eat as many at once as you can, and be sure to hit a cool flip in the air for bonus points! Play...

Dr. Moiya McTier, host of Exolore and Pale Blue Pod, joins Jenna to make a 2-player Unraveled-alike game based on the worldbuilding they did on the most recent episode of Exolore. You don't have to listen to that first, but it will help! This craft-based world is entirely self-contained, and features both organic beetles and craft-based automatons. With that core concept, they use the word Anarchy to develop a truly delighful platforming game with collectible stained-glass puzzle pieces,...

Son M. graces Big Game Hunger with their creative direction and reigns us in with her production expertise, with the prompts: Bisexual mario knock-off fishing game Inspired by everyone's favorite bisexual Luigi, we make a Luigi Mansion-Castlevania blend, with strong emphasis on platforming and fishing. And what are you fishing for? Souls, of course! Delicious plump souls! Follow Son M. on Twitter @BogBoogie, on Instagram @theboglands, or visit their website at Perfect Garbage...

Justin Green came here entirely focused on one goal: to make the most scattered and unhinged game premise possible. Thankfully Jenna totally tamed that impulse and they came up with a very normal game about being a good or bad therapist and a pokemon and navigating the American healthcare system and maybe evolving if you are fully cured of your trauma. And all just from the prompts: character creator boofy environment narrative/organizing Wow! Sounds like everyone was super focused...

Clay Murphy, writer on Control and Alan Wake 2, joins Jenna to create a character-driven story about coming to terms with your dreams when your dreams are determined by prophecy., using the prompts: a job that has never been made into a game good time party time! rpg Play as the Chosen One, still trying to make it big in Hollywood and finding that it isn't so easy, even if you are destined to be the greatest actor of all time. You still gotta eat! In the meantime, you work as a...

Thank god Anthony Burch knows things about wrestling and stealth games, or we'd really be out in the weeds on this one. With the prompts: wrestling gnarly stealth game We make a 4-player game that utilizes how absolutely insane and erotic wrestling is in real life. I was able to make one solid wrestling reference, to John Cena's beloved you don't see me meme, but mostly Anthony Burch breaks down the wild incredible tropes and culture of wrestling, and also stealth games! If you're...

Watch out, Spider-man! Voice actor Geoff Moonen joins Jenna to make a Central Park-roaming bird game with incredible transversal mechanics, thanks to the prompts: Owls moody Triple A action-adventure Invasive Species is inspired by famous New York birds like the iconic Flaco, who escaped Central Park Zoo to become a free bird, to Mandarin Patinkin the Hot Duck. This is the new Uncharted game you've been looking for. Also enjoy Jenna learning in real time that Geoff knows an insane...

 Horror artist extraordinaire Eduardo Valdés-Hevia - also known as Valdevia - joins Jenna to make one of the most lucrative game genres: mascot horror! Watch out, Five Nights at Freddy's and Poppy Playtime, we're COMING FOR YOUR CROWN. With the prompts: Vampires vibrant pinball The result? Blacklight Arcade! You're a repair man at Transylgamia, the local movie-monster themed arcade, and you've got to make sure everything's working before you can leave for the night. But who's that...

America's Uncle himself, Brian Miller is here to help Jenna Stoeber make a game based on the prompts: Cake decorating Uncle game Party game The discuss the wonders of 'za and 'zagna (pizza and lasagna), what it takes to be an uncle game, and Chef Boyardee getting Anglicized. How is it we ended up talking about Garfield-related food entries two weeks in a row? Is it the title of the podcast?? Plus we spend a surprising amount of time mourning the loss of the cardboard Walmart retail...