Summary: The Curious Gamer is finally back in action, and today we’re tackling a charming little platformer called Never Alone. This episode asks this question: can video games ever be documents of culture? Most video games considered to represent “good games” tend to be very satisfying on a technical level. The mechanics and design are deep and interesting, the graphics and production values are high and, overall, everything just feels good and polished. But can games go beyond being technically great, and be satisfying on a more human level? Today, I’d like to shine the spotlight on a game that places most of its focus on infusing culture into its design. In this episode, we explore the video game Never Alone, and how it demonstrates video games as a fantastic way to showcase cultural stories, documents, and other artifacts through interactive multimedia. Thanks for sticking with the show, and apologies for the year+ hiatus. Dig deeper into this episode with credits, downloads, and more at the links below! - TWITTER Follow me on Twitter @DevinPolaski and Tweet me your gaming stories and thoughts; I’d love to hear them, and maybe even feature them in an episode! - SUBSCRIBE You can keep up with The Curious Gamer by subscribing to the Podcast on iTunes here, or by following me on SoundCloud here. - DOWNLOAD You can download this full episode as an mp3 here. - MUSIC I composed all of the music in this episode (aside from the clips I used of video games). Much of this music can be downloaded from my music store here. - CREDITS This episode was written, recorded, and produced by me. I do not own the rights to any of the audio clips from games and interviews used in this episode. These audio clips are utilized under the “Fair Use” doctrine, which stipulates that you may use copyrighted material without permission from the creators, provided that it is used for fact-based and research-oriented purposes, which is a format that The Curious Gamer abides by. See below for credits of what audio clips I used, and where they came from: Almost all the footage found in this episode features gameplay and trailer footage from Never Alone, and this was gathered from a press release package available from the game’s official website, which you can visit here: http://neveralonegame.com/ Additional clips of Never Alone were recorded from screen captures of the PS4 version of the game. Other games featured in this episode are detailed below: 0:09 - Gameplay demo footage from Uncharted 4, by Naughty Dog, that was featured at E3, 2015. 0:12 - Trailer footage from Super Mario Maker, by Nintendo. 0:14 - Trailer footage from Star Wars: Battlefront, by EA. 0:16 - Gameplay footage from Portal 2, by Valve. 0:18 - Gameplay footage from Hyrule Warriors, by Nintendo. 0:24 - Gameplay footage from The Stanley Parable, by Galactic Cafe. 0:29 - Trailer footage from Grim Fandango Remastered Edition, by Double Fine. 0:31 - Gameplay footage from Transistor, by Supergiant Games. 0:39 - Gameplay footage from Kentucky Route Zero, by Cardboard Computer. 1:14 - Trailer footage from Super Mario 3D World, by Nintendo. 1:15 - Gameplay footage from Sonic Generations, by Sega. 4:09 - Gameplay footage from Super Mario Galaxy 2, by Nintendo. 4:12 - Gameplay footage from Mega Man Legacy Collection, by Capcom. 4:14 - Gameplay footage from Super Meat Boy, by Team Meat. 5:39 - A video from YouTube originally uploaded by Carter Grebbien, featuring an adorable corgi dog named Meatball. You should honestly just stop everything you’re doing and go watch it right now, and then re-watch variations people have uploaded with music. I can gaurantee it will improve your day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvqzubPZjHE Thanks again for watching. Please share with your fellow gamer and NON-gamer friends alike! Happy listening, and game on.
