In today's first episode of November, we're diving into the indie game releases we're most excited about AND kicking off our journey in Zanarkand with a little bit of a retrospective: what has the impact of the game been in the industry? And what's it's personal significance to each of us? Also, welcome to Dave -- of Tales From The Backlog -- as our official discussion guest for the next two months!
04:12 Meet Dave of Tales from the Backlog
18:14 2026 Nominations for Geeks & Grounds Titles
22:06 What We're Getting Into
51:58 Indiescovery: Our November Indie Game Release Highlights
01:08:06 This Month's Brew: Introducing Final Fantasy X
Find Tales From the Backlog: https://talesfromthebacklog.fireside.fm/
Find Geeks & Grounds:
https://www.geeksandgrounds.com
We're stuck on the doomed ship Tulpar for the month of October, along with Anya, Swansea, Daisuke, Jimmy, and Curly. Fortunately, Milady Confetti is also here to chat about the game with us, bringing her medical AND media knowledge to the table to really dig into the game's themes! What did we think? It definitely hurt (complimentary).
***Edit: Had to remove the intro/outro music due to platform restrictions, so apologies for the silence on the start and end of this one!
00:00 Welcome To Geeks & Grounds
2:15 The Pastry Case: Meet Confetti, Steam NextFest, and more!
47:08 This Month's Brew: Mouthwashing
2:38:18 Community Discussion Questions
2:57:50 See you in November for Final Fantasy X (Part 01)
Find Geeks & Grounds at: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com
https://bsky.app/profile/geeksandgrounds.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/geeksandgrounds
Find Milady Confetti at:
https://www.youtube.com/c/MiladyConfetti
https://www.instagram.com/miladyconfetti/?hl=en
https://www.twitch.tv/miladyconfetti
https://www.tiktok.com/@miladyconfetti?lang=en
This month we spent our time translating languages to try and connect communities! How did we do? Kate and Emily (No Small Games) return to deep dive the game of the month: Chants of Sennaar!
We also chat about recent game news, like the Six One Indie Showcase, Hades 2 coming soon, and other media we're excited about.
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds
02:48 The Pastry Case: Six One Indie Showcase, Hades 2, and What We're Excited About!
38:19 This Month's Brew: Chants of Sennaar (Non-Spoilers)
01:13:34 This Month's Brew: Chants of Sennaar (Spoilers)
2:29:17 Where to Find No Small Games (Kate + Emily)
02:32:29 October 2025 Brew: Mouthwashing
02:33:33 See you next time!
---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅ Find No Small Games at nosmallgames.com and visit their socials @NoSmallGames on Bluesky and Instagram!✅Play Chants of Sennaar on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1931770/Chants_of_Sennaar/---------------------------------------------------------------
On today's menu, we have Kate and Emily from No Small Games joining the conversation. We'll get to know them and their podcast, talk through some of the latest indie game releases for September, and begin our initial discussion for September's brew: Chants of Sennaar.
Find out more about No Small Games: https://www.nosmallgames.com---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅Play Chants of Sennaar on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1931770/Chants_of_Sennaar/
What is it like to be part of a brand new colony on an unknown planet? We dive into how life worked out in each of our playthroughs of I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, sharing our highlights and critiques of this ambitious narrative RPG!
#indiegame #IWasATeenageExocolonist #gamingpodcast #podcast
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds
03:35 Stuff We're Enjoying
21:31 I Was A Teenage Exocolonist - Non-Spoiler
41:32 I Was A Teenage Exocolonist - Spoiler
01:47:30 Housekeeping + September's Brew: Chants of Sennaar!
✅Share Your Thoughts! Want to share your thoughts on the game we're playing this month? Be sure to email jenny@geeksandgrounds.com OR leave a voicemail at https://telbee.io/channel/eowez0wm6ydpa4gf0amj5a/
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✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com
✅Play I Was A Teenage Exocolonist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1148760/I_Was_a_Teenage_Exocolonist/
Spend your teenage years on an alien planet in this narrative RPG with card-based battles. Explore, grow up, and fall in love. The choices you make and skills you master over ten years will determine the course of your life and the survival of your colony.
Time to test out our new(ish) format where we spend a bit more time talking about upcoming indie games for the month of August, and introducing this month's selection: I Was A Teenage Exocolonist (celebrating it's third anniversary at the end of the month!) #indiegame #IWasATeenageExocolonist #gamingpodcast #podcast 00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds04:00 Q&A w/ Joel26:31 This Week's News: Payment processing problems!38:13 Stuff We're Enjoying56:00 Indiescovery: August 202501:06:50 Introducing I Was A Teenage Exocolonist1:30:00 Housekeeping & See you next time!✅Share Your Thoughts! Want to share your thoughts on the game we're playing this month? Be sure to email jenny@geeksandgrounds.com OR leave a voicemail at https://telbee.io/channel/eowez0wm6ydpa4gf0amj5a/---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ---------------------------------------------------------------✅Play I Was A Teenage Exocolonist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1148760/I_Was_a_Teenage_Exocolonist/Spend your teenage years on an alien planet in this narrative RPG with card-based battles. Explore, grow up, and fall in love. The choices you make and skills you master over ten years will determine the course of your life and the survival of your colony.
In the deepest dive we've done (4 hours?!?) Josh returns to the Geeks & Grounds discussion to dig into Deltarune's Chapter 4! Buckle up folks: there's a LOT to chat about!
1:44 - The Pastry Case: LONESTAR, Open Mike Eagle, Curiosmos, and more!
20:32 - This Month’s Brew: DELTARUNE
24:11 - High Level Thoughts on Chapter 4
35:50 - Deeeeeeep dive on Chapter 4
03:55:41 - Schedule change announcement + See you August 5 to kick off "I Was A Teenage Exocolonist"!---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅Play DELTARUNE on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1671210/DELTARUNE/Dive into the parallel story to UNDERTALE! Fight or spare your way through action-packed battles as you explore a mysterious world alongside an endearing cast of new and familiar characters. Chapters 1-4 will be available on launch, with more planned as free updates!
It's TV Tiiiiiiiiiiiiime! We being the discussion around Deltarune: Chapter 3 -- an episode filled with TV nostalgia, escapism...and more suspicious Ralsei moments? Dive back into this dark world with us!
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✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com
✅Play DELTARUNE on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1671210/DELTARUNE/
Dive into the parallel story to UNDERTALE! Fight or spare your way through action-packed battles as you explore a mysterious world alongside an endearing cast of new and familiar characters. Chapters 1-4 will be available on launch, with more planned as free updates!
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We close out the month with a short and sweet game that was absolutely delightful to play: Serre, A visual novel about a girl and an alien drinking tea and falling in love.See you on July 15th after the break with Deltarune: Chapter 3! WAHOO!---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅Play SERRE on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/35...A visual novel about a girl and an alien drinking tea and falling in love!
Fight facism in Extreme Meatpunks Forever! Today we discuss our third one-shot for the month (Extreme Meatpunks Forever) and discuss demos from Steam NextFest.---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅Play Extreme Meatpunks Forever on Itch.io: https://hthr.itch.io/extreme-meatpunks-foreverA serial visual novel/mech brawler about four gay disasters beating up neonazis in giant robots made of meat. Get ready for the worst road trip of all time.
Our second week of June one-shots for Pride, and we are in total rom-com mode! Butterfly Soup 2 does NOT disappoint, and we can't wait to share why ~
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds!
03:46 The Pastry Case: SGF standouts, Xbox handheld thoughts, and Switch 2 FOMO?
39:31 This Week's Brew: Butterfly Soup 2 (Non-Spoiler)
46:00 This Week's Brew: Butterfly Soup 2 (Deep Dive)
01:22:13 See you next week with Extreme Meatpunks Forever!
---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅Play Butterfly Soup 2 on itch.io: https://brianna-lei.itch.io/butterfly-soup-2
If you want to be a butterfly, you need to be butterfly soup first! We're kicking off our June of one-shots with Butterfly Soup, and what a DELIGHT this game is to talk about!
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds
3:55 The Pastry Case: Reiterating the Summer Showcases, Consume Me, Dropout Live Show, and more!
32:36 This Week's Brew: Butterfly Soup (Non-Spoiler Overview)
41:40 Diya
01:27:42 Noelle
01:33:16 Akarsha
01:46:10 Min
Our final foray around the Obra Dinn reveals the answers to MANY questions we have about what really happened all those years ago. Time to discuss the finale of this mystery, and figure out just what's behind that locked lazarette door...00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds 04:00 The Pastry Case: SGF showcase news, Steam Next Fest approaches, Expedition 33 (we're still obsessed), and more!38:34 The Monthly Brew: Our current thoughts and today's chapters43:10 Chapter 2: A Bitter Cold47:28 Chapter 5: Unholy Captives53:05 Chapter 4: The Calling01:03:28 Chapter 1: Loose Cargo01:08:03 Delivering the Book / Chapter 8: Bargain01:18:31 Overall thoughts on Obra Dinn01:22:55 Let's organize the timeline: our retelling of the Obra Dinn's journey01:27: 19 June's Brews ~ What games are we're percolating over? 01:29:34 Thanks for listening / Housekeeping / See you next time!Leave a voicemail to share your thoughts on the game, and get featured in a future episode!https://telbee.io/channel/eowez0wm6ydpa4gf0amj5a/---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅Play Return of the Obra Dinn on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/653530/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn/In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn't met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea.Early this morning of October 14th, 1807, the Obra Dinn drifted into port at Falmouth with damaged sails and no visible crew. As insurance investigator for the East India Company's London Office, dispatch immediately to Falmouth, find means to board the ship, and prepare an assessment of damages.Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction.
The work of an insurance collector is never done! Today's episode covers Chapters IX (Escape), III (Murder), and VI (Soldiers of the Sea), three of the most intense scenes I think we'll be encountering in this game! You also get a listen at my attempt at pirate accents...I apologize in advance 😆
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds
03:38 The Pastry Case: Expedition 33 (more! more!), Lazarus, The Antidote, and more.
19:18 The Monthly Brew: Our current thoughts, today's chapters, and some of the community's discussion
38:13 Chapter 9: Escape
54:00 Chapter 3: Murder
01:08:29 Chapter 6: Soldiers of the Sea01:21:34 Thanks for listening / Housekeeping / See you next time!
Leave a voicemail to share your thoughts on the game, and get featured in a future episode!
https://telbee.io/channel/eowez0wm6ydpa4gf0amj5a/
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✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com
✅Play Return of the Obra Dinn on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/653530/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn/
In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn't met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea.---------------------------------------------------------------
The good ship Obra Dinn has returned...with no surviving passengers. This May, we'll be discussing what happened on this fateful journey in Return of the Obra Dinn!Today's podcast delves into the initial impressions of the game: the first two chapters we got to experience (Chapters 10 and 7), the mechanics, the visuals...and the ways this inspired us to don pirate accents and sing sea shanties!
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds
04:16 The Pastry Case: PAX East, Joel's first DDR experience, Love on the Spectrum, and more!
30:40 The Monthly Brew: Obra Dinn Initial Impressions / Prologue / Non-Spoiler Discussion
01:05:05 Chapter 10: The End
01:20:01 Chapter 7: The Doom
01:26:46 Housekeeping / Thanks for listening!---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅Play Return of the Obra Dinn on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/653530/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn/
In 1802, the merchant ship Obra Dinn set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn't met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea.
Early this morning of October 14th, 1807, the Obra Dinn drifted into port at Falmouth with damaged sails and no visible crew. As insurance investigator for the East India Company's London Office, dispatch immediately to Falmouth, find means to board the ship, and prepare an assessment of damages.
Return of the Obra Dinn is a first-person mystery adventure based on exploration and logical deduction.---------------------------------------------------------------
Are you ready to open the mysterious package? The fateful moment has arrived, and Joel and I have FEELINGS. We deep dive the final part of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage as well as discuss the Polygon layoffs, Clair Obscur, and 1000xRESIST Peabody hype!#geeksandgrounds #gamediscussion #lostrecordsbloomandrage #indiegame #gamepodcast ---------------------------------------------------------------✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com ✅Play Lost Records: Bloom & Rage on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902960/Lost_Records_Bloom__Rage/Embark on a new narrative journey by the creators of Life is Strange. Film your summer of 1995 and create memories of a lifetime with your new friends. 27 years later, confront the dark secrets that made you all promise to never speak again after that fateful summer.
We're back after a BIG reveal and discussing where the girls go from here, as well as our own feelings about the pacing of the game.
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds
03:17 The Pastry Case: Expedition 33, Sinners, and more!
27:26 Tape 01 Recap
31:03 Rage (Part 01): Discussing Tape 2 (until sneaking through the ranch)
01:35:38 Our question to you + see you next week!
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✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com
✅Play Lost Records: Bloom & Rage on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902960/Lost_Records_Bloom__Rage/
Embark on a new narrative journey by the creators of Life is Strange. Film your summer of 1995 and create memories of a lifetime with your new friends. 27 years later, confront the dark secrets that made you all promise to never speak again after that fateful summer.
Things get a little paranormal and a LOT more emotional in the second part of Bloom (Tape 01) in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. We get to know the girls and their friendship even more, as some heavy news makes things a bit more clear by the end of this section.
#lostrecordsbloomandrage #indiegame #gamediscussion #geeksandgrounds
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds
01:39 The Pastry Case: Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-orders, lots of new shows, and more!
36:18 Recap: How're we feeling about Lost Records?
50:58 Bloom (Part 02): Finishing our Tape 01 Discussion
01:47:45 Our question to you + see you next week!
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✅Visit Geeks & Grounds' website for our newsletter sign-up, list of games for 2025, Bluesky link, and more: https://www.geeksandgrounds.com
✅Play Lost Records: Bloom & Rage on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1902960/Lost_Records_Bloom__Rage/
Embark on a new narrative journey by the creators of Life is Strange. Film your summer of 1995 and create memories of a lifetime with your new friends. 27 years later, confront the dark secrets that made you all promise to never speak again after that fateful summer.
We savor some sweet sweet 90s nostalgia and the power of awkward teenage moments in our initial discussion of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage!
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Today's discussion covers from the start of the game until we discover the cabin in the woods.
00:00 Welcome to Geeks & Grounds
02:50 The Pastry Case: The White Lotus S3 Finale, Blue Prince, and more!
31:47 This Month's Brew: Lost Records - Bloom & Rage (Non-Spoiler)
38:24 Tape 1, Part 1 - Bloom (Deep Dive Discussion)
01:42:07 Next Week: Finishing our Tape 1 discussion!
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Want to know more about Geeks & Grounds? Want to check out the playthrough guide? Visit geeksandgrounds.com for more info.
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