Hello and welcome to the minmac show, place about games, friends, getting better, I am

Ben Hansen joined by Jeff Markey of Hava. Hello and the always present Kyle Hilliard. I'm here. I wasn't here last week, so that doesn't make sense. We also have Leo Vader. Thank you. Welcome. How's it feel to be back home, Leo? Oh, so sweet. The air. That's mainly cat fur, I believe. All right. Hey, this is a fun episode of the podcast. I don't care what y'all say. This is a fun one because first half we are going to be

running down the game release calendar for 2021, even a couple times this very weekend. I was having discussions with a couple of hardcore cool gamers and it came up of like, yeah, what is coming out this year? And I think it'd be nice just to kind of walk through. Now that we're in August, things are starting to lock down a little bit just to give you a good idea of how you can map out your gaming calendar. Yes, Leo? I was surprised how many releases I'm looking forward to are still to come. Yeah, because you think of like all the big stuff slipping, but it's like, no, there's still a shocking amount of good stuff here.

And so we're going to be working our way through that. And then back half of the show, we're going to be joined by a dear old friend, Hailey McClain, who somehow has never been on minmax stuff. It feels like a gross oversight, but she was a game of former intern. Then she was a co-host on Leo Vader's old podcast with other folks, a game query. Now she has a new podcast called a game and makeup. So we fund a reconnect a third answer some truly iconic community questions. Some amazing stuff that people submitted over there on Patreon. Okay. So here's the thing.

We want to run down the release calendar for 2021, but nothing's worse. First of all, Jeff, I'm the sound of my voice. Absolutely. You're supposed to say no, no, no. So we don't want to just be like, Hey, here's this date. Here's this date. So we need to gamify it in some way. And if you recall, you're a champion. If you recall this, because we barely did, but last year we played release calendars, six shooter dual, where we each had six shots to fire and to bang on the games that we actually wanted to play. But this year,

we figured, well, we have people watching us live with the backstage past year. If you've got the $10 tier, you can watch us record live every single week with pre and post show content and all that stuff. And we figured, well, let's rope them in in this six shooter duel. And let's let them help determine who effectively gets to play these games.

If you do not claim a game, you're not allowed to touch it. In fact, not allowed to think of it. If you think about this game and your excitement for it and you don't win it,

in this duel murdered Leo, well, murder you, including himself, if he thinks about a game. So we're going to be running down the calendar. And we're going to choose which games we are most excited about, which ones we want to play only one person can take it. So you then have to argue for why you should be the proper person, the prime and proper person to play this game. Yes, Leo, I mean, Kyle question. Yes. I don't remember much from last year.

Yeah, but I do remember that Jeff on one halo is he still retain well, get to that. Yes, I have, I have already prepared my defense for that, sir. Interesting. All right. We'll get to it. We'll get to it. Okay. Only one person can come in. So we'll figure out who wants all this stuff. And then everybody in the backstage pass can help determine who you think deserves these games. Let's start out August, the old doggy day is a summer here. We got August 16th.

August 16th for the first biggie. And look, some might argue, maybe this isn't a biggie, but that's what we're here to talk about road 96 releasing on switch and PC. Leo Vader.

He's shot his shot. Leo, what is this thing again? It's a procedurally generated road trip type of indie game where there's a bunch of different paths you can take and choices you can make in their, their log line kind of is that everyone's road trip will be different.

Yeah, it's a weird year for procedural narrative, you know, like wilderness came out not too long ago. We should talk about it at some point on the show, but it is kind of like procedurally generated story,

kind of like a D&D campaign and I think it'd be a good one to stream. Maybe we can put it in the poll even next week for new show plus or something, but that basic premise of, hey, procedural narrative along a road trip that's exactly your cup of tea.

Yeah, I honestly whenever I read the words procedural generation, it's my interest is peaked about a game. I truly just think it's such an interesting thing to do with games and leads into what I think makes them so special, which is that everyone can have a different experience with the same thing.

And like coming together afterwards and sharing the stories of what you experienced and being like blown away by the completely different thing that happened to somebody else that's just so invigorating to me about games right now.

Yeah, it often gets a bad rap from Kyle, like Kyle, those dastardly people, but it's like Kyle is right when it's bad procedural generation.

I think we have to acknowledge that it's a tough thing to pull off and we shouldn't throw out the entire mechanism with the bathwater just because some people grew it up.

And I think it's, it's a mostly new idea, like a concept. And so of course there's going to be a lot of bad people that can't figure it out at first, but it's getting better and better and more interesting as we go on.

So I'm right there with you, Leo, but I'm not going to try and steal your games. Don't worry.

Unfortunately, folks, the backstage pass just insists that Jeff, I'm get it instead of the same unnecessary. He didn't even fire his shot, but my God.

Is this where backstage pass is going to go? Is this like, no, it's just going to be trolling.

No, this is just this Leo. He's the only one to lay claim on road 96. So congratulations, August 16th. We know where you'll be Leo.

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