The Blood Zone

writer and academic Alex Ross (@Alexrosswrites) returns for part two of our examination of the indie game world via a few documentaries. this time we cover the post-indie boom, aka the  time of the "indiepocalypse" and beyond from 2015 till today. first we look at the depressing vanity project/indie survival story "Surviving Indie" from late 2016, then we look at a dense but surprisingly quality documentary about the indie game scene in China called "Indie Games In China" aka "Alonewalk" from 2018 and talk about the endlessly complex landscape for game development in China. and then... we do the ill-advised and look at this year's E3 "Wholesome Direct" stream, a subject of much intense discourse.
things referenced in the episode:
"Spinning is winning" a research paper that Alex is a co-author on: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1469540521993931
2017 Failure Workshop at GDC featuring Tim Rogers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H67itWCG1JY
Surviving Indie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7CWZhhBMSo
news article about Ryan Zehm: http://ireader.olivesoftware.com/Olive/iReader/IdahoStatesmanPress/SharedArticle.ashx?document=ISM%5C2016%5C01%5C25&article=Ar00108
Ryan Zehm's sneaking into GDC video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF2NlwJjEm0
Indie Games in China (aka Alonewalk): https://store.steampowered.com/app/825400/Indie_Games_in_China/
EGM article about the state of China's indie game scene: https://egmnow.com/the-closing-walls-around-chinas-independent-game-development-scene/
long video essay by youtuber NeverKnowsBest on the Chinese indie scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VrTZ_UeUxM
Gao Ming's ludum dare page: https://ldjam.com/users/gao-ming/games
2021 E3 Wholesome Direct stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozqhc7YXd3M
article in the verge on "The Rise of Wholesome Games": https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/10/21172972/games-wholesome-themes-uwu-frog-detective-wattam-sokpop-keita-takahashi
People Make Games video on Zach Barth and Minecraft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Nq2vNcpIo
 
as always, you can support this podcast (and me) on patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ellaguro
outro music is "Home" from the FEZ ost by Disasterpeace
intro music (as always) is "Museum Agony" from the Stretch Panic ost by Norio Hanzawa

hey everyone! for the 10th episode i've brought game academic and writer Alex Ross on board for part one of a punishingly long journey relitigating all the ridiculous things of independent game development scenes past via a few documentaries.
the three we talked about today are: the famous commercial for the indie game scene "Indie Game The Movie", the obscure cult recruitment video "Us and the Game Industry", and the goofy 2010 time capsule "Get Bonus: The Movie"
make sure to keep your ears peeled for a bonus mini-essay i wrote for the episode at the end. you can find the text of it here: https://pastebin.com/7nf6Vc5f
stay tuned for a part 2 where we look at a few documentaries that are little bit more recent!
Alex Ross's twitter: https://twitter.com/Alexrosswrites
Indie Game: The Movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_Game:_The_Movie
Indie Game: The Movie Vimeo shorts: https://vimeo.com/indiegame
review on RogerEbert.com about Indie Game: The Movie (i erroneously said it was reviewed by Ebert himself, but it was reviewed by Odie Henderson): https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/indie-game-super-meat-boy-vs-fez
My (archived) Indie Game: The Movie review on the now defunct Midnight Resistance website: https://web.archive.org/web/20120718043913/http://midnightresistance.co.uk/articles/indie-game-movie-review
Soulja Boy provides his thoughts on Braid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSXofLK5hFQ
Us and the Game Industry trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzQgIgTVqfw (you can watch it for free on tubitv.com)
Stephanie Beth (director)'s Gamasutra page: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/StephanieBeth/20130603/193526/Intrinsic_Incentives.php#comment204359
GET BONUS: The Movie (youtube reupload): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT_3pxMQVr0
tim rogers's current youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ActionButtonDotCom
music used:
"Downstream" by Shira Kammen, and "Lullabye Set" by Shira Kammen and Pam Swan, featured in the game Braid (2008)
"Asobi", "The Drifting/I Don't Wanna Be With You" and "Sabaku" by the Zazen Boys, featured on their album "4" and also in GET BONUS

go to 10:24 to skip my long-winded intro
hi folks! it's 2021 now, i guess. and all the time i spent inside with anxiety over the past year has made me far more aware of how much i'm rapidly aging into irrelevance... perfect time for my 33 year old self to get back into the Cinderella story of a bunch of middle aged guys with families who hit the big time from the city of Dayton in my home state of Ohio.... Guided By Voices. specifically i focus on what i consider to be the strangest and most unique album of their catalog, 1993's Vampire on Titus.
i also go over why i fell out with GBV over the years after my intense fandom of them in my late teens, my issues with the GBV fandom (aka cult), and the (many) things i feel like nuGBV has lost compared to the classic 90's lo-fi albums.
here's a list of things referenced in this episode:
Nuggets compilation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuggets:_Original_Artyfacts_from_the_First_Psychedelic_Era,_1965%E2%80%931968
info on Record Clubs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_club
Scat Records: https://realscatrecords.com/
Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/37506059-closer-you-are
Self-inflicted Aural Nostalgia podcast episode on Vampire on Titus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h0QXtssTG0
Penny Fractions newsletter: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/pennyfractions
Future of Music Coalition: https://twitter.com/future_of_music
Liz Pelly: https://lizpelly.com/
AND MY PATREON: http://www.patreon.com/ellaguro
 
all songs used in this episode are by Guided By Voices:
"Club Molluska" from Same Place The Fly Got Smashed
"Dusted" from the Fast Japanese Spin Cycle EP
"Motor Away" from the Crying Your Knife Away live album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSJfeNKLbx0
"No. 2 in the Model Home Series" from Vampire on Titus
"Donkey School" from Vampire on Titus
"Wondering Boy Poet" from Vampire on Titus
"'Wished I Was A Giant'" from Vampire on Titus
Tim Heidecker on GBV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfG8nEhNMhk
"The Best of Jill Hives" from Earthquake Glue
"Expecting Brainchild", "Superior Sector Janitor X", "Dusted", "Marchers in Orange", "Sot", "World of Fun", "Jar of Cardinals" "E-5", "Gleemer (The Deeds of Fertile Jim)", "What About It", and "Non-Absorbing" from Vampire on Titus
"Don't Stop Now" from King Shit & The Golden Boys
"Superior Sector Janitor X" (again)
"The Old Grunt" from Mag Earwhig!
"The Weeping Boogeyman" from Universal Truths and Cycles
"Ambergris" from Same Place the Fly Got Smashed
"Pendulum" from Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

it's a video...grames episode! in this long-awaited new episode, i briefly talk about cool oddball that very much bear the mark of their creators: the colorful and goofy Super Bogus World (which has a recently released sequel) and the very unsettling Pagan: Autogeny.
then i spend the meat of the episode unpacking a recent obsession of mine: the Trackmania series (with focus on the recent Trackmania 2020 free to play game) with returning guest, writer and phd student Ian Williams. we ask the tough questions: what is so unusually good about Trackmania compared to other racing games? why does its company (Nadeo) seem to keep fucking something that works so well up? what is quintessentially European about Trackmania? what is our platonic ideal Trackmania track? and other such questions.
Ian's 2014 article about the Trackmania series (with an interview of director Florent Castelnerac) in Paste Magazine is here: https://www.pastemagazine.com/games/inside-trackmania-talking-with-nadeos-florent-cast/   Ross's Game Dungeon's video about TrackMania² Canyon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulp99wSUNgk  you can find Trackmania Nations Forever for free on Steam and Trackmania 2020 for free on the Epic Games Store (with an Ubisoft Uplay account)
hubol's website (where you can download Super Bogus World 1): http://www.hubolhubolhubol.com/
you can download (& donate) to Super Bogus World 2 here: https://hubol.itch.io/super-bogus-world-2
you can follow hubol on twitter here: https://twitter.com/hubol
you can find Pagan: Autogeny here: https://oleandergarden.itch.io/pagan3
youtuber Painticus's review of the Pagan trilogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv1y6xt8qAE
you can follow Oleander Garden on twitter here: https://twitter.com/void_hyacinth
you can follow Ian on twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/Brock_Toon
Ian's tabletop RPG ACTION MOVIE WORLD: First Blood is available here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/157229/ACTION-MOVIE-WORLD-First-Blood
youtuber Writing About Games's video "Trackmania Deserves to Be Far Bigger Than It Is": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FxRM9YLaaU

greetings and apologies for the time between episodes! the music industry (among with many other creative industries) facing a severe downturn because of the recent pandemic and the general deluge of traumatic news has made me reflect more on smaller, more understated artistic triumphs as an antidote.
so this episode i escape the present by talking about some timeless music from the recent past: the unassuming yet grandiose singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia, and particularly her (in my opinion) best albums The Blackened Air and Run To Ruin.
 
things discussed in the podcast:
Chris Dahlen's Pitchfork review of The Blackened Air: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5713-the-blackened-air/ and Run To Ruin: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5712-run-to-ruin/
John Peel archive video on Nina Nastasia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWNjoa4nLYo
Electrical Audio "Crap/Not Crap" thread on Nina Nastasia: https://www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=663
Nina Nastasia's music on the dreaded Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1llUGXhBESnmaCxpBV4zwe
recent track featuring Nina Nastasia: https://danielknox.bandcamp.com/track/the-poisoner-feat-nina-nastasia
Phosphorescent "Been So Long" cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZrcNZBKnic
 
music included in this episode:
"Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn and John (2006)
by Nina Nastasia:
"Oblivion" and "Roadkill" from Dogs (2000) 
"This Is What It Is", "Rosemary", and "Been So Long" from The Blackened Air (2002)
"Superstar", "We Never Talked", "I Say That I Will Go", "You Her and Me", and "On Teasing" from Run To Ruin (2003)
"Our Day Trip" from On Leaving (2006)
"Outlaster" from Outlaster (2010)
 
title music as always is "Museum of Agony" from the PS2 game Stretch Panic by Norio Hanzawa