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Celebrating World Ocean Day playing beloved ocean games!
Watch the live stream on Twitch here:
Read the full live stream transcript here:
Nico [00:00:39] Perfect time to sneeze. [Laughs]
Megha [00:00:42] [Laughs] Was it the perfect time to sneeze? Okay. Okay, I think we are live right—right now. We are live. Awesome! So, welcome everybody to our official first livestream of 2022. This is Chaos Theory's World Ocean Day's livestream. We're going to have a lot of fun today. And also to anyone watching, whoever's joining now, happy World Oceans Day. Ocean Day, sorry. So, today on the 8th of June, we celebrate everything amazing about the ocean and everything that is important about ocean conservation and all those things. My name is Megha; I am the digital marketing assistant here at Chaos Theory. I am joined with Nico and Elric.
Elric [00:01:30] Hello.
Megha [00:01:30] Say hi, guys. Introduce yourselves.
Nico [00:01:33] Hi, I'm Nico King. So I'm one of the directors and co-founders at Chaos Theory Games. I do a lot of our—well, originally did a lot of our game design and art direction and a lot of odd little jobs. These days do a lot of the sort of business development and… Yeah, just filling in the gaps where needed and have a particular passion for ocean conservation and making games that make the world a better place.
Elric [00:02:00] Hi, I'm Elric Milton. I'm a game designer here at Chaos Theory. I get to make lots of cool and fun bits of our games, and I'm super passionate about making games feel and look great.
Megha [00:02:13] Sweet. So, as you've heard from all of us pretty much, we're very passionate about making games that have a positive change, and we're passionate advocates for the ocean. And that's pretty much what we're going to be circling this whole stream around. So we're going to play a lot of ocean-themed games tonight. Of course, credit to all the developers of the games that we're playing, who I will mention as and when we get into each game. And if anyone's watching us—or, sorry, I shouldn't say "if." [Laughs] For anyone watching, if you've got any questions or anything that you want to ask mid-stream, please feel free. We are keeping an eye on the chat and we will be happy to interact. So yeah, can't wait to dive right in.
Nico [00:03:08] Do you want me to boot it up?
Megha [00:03:09] [Laughs]
Nico [00:03:09] Get stuck into it?
Megha [00:03:10] Yep. So, the first game we're playing is an acclaimed exploration sim. It's called Abzû, and it is made by Giant Squid. And the game, as they described, is "An endless dream of diving." And I've seen a couple of the trailer clips for this game. It looks very, very pretty. Have you guys played this game before? Heard of this game?
Nico [00:03:39] I've got it in my Steam library amongst many, many other games and haven't played it before. So, keen to try it. I was always unsure about how it was pronounced. I've always called it "ABIZU," just because I think it sounds a bit more fun.
Megha [00:03:57] I actually don't know if I'm pronouncing it right either. I know there's an accent—
Nico [00:04:01] I think Abzû is pretty good.
Megha [00:04:02] Abzû? Yeah, I think there's an accent on one of the letters. And funnily enough, Abzû is… It means—like, "Ab" is—it's from a really old language, so "Ab" I think means "Water" and "Zu" means "To know," so "Abzû" means "The ocean of wisdom" or "Getting to know water."
Nico [00:04:21] That's deep.
Megha [00:04:22] Yeah. [Laughs] It's a deep game.
Elric [00:04:25] I get it.
Nico [00:04:26] Cool. Shall we get started?
Megha [00:04:29] Yeah. And for the viewers, Nico is going to be playing this game because it's single player and because he's in the middle and he's the boss. So he's starting.
Nico [00:04:36] Okay, we've got inverted look controls. This is going to be fun. [Laughs]
Elric [00:04:43] That's because that's what it's like in the water in real life, right?
Nico [00:04:46] Yeah. Cool. So, yeah, this is the first time that I'm playing this game, but I've seen some videos and it just looks very, very pretty.
Megha [00:04:55] Yeah.
Nico [00:04:57] Oh, cool. Whoa! This is so easy to make swimming look fun and easy. [Laughs]
Megha [00:05:04] And not perilous at all. It just looks so pretty.
Nico [00:05:09] Nice. I've actually seen some tech demos of how they create the fish in this.
Megha [00:05:15] Mhmm.
Nico [00:05:16] Which is really interesting, because we made a different game that had a lot of fish in it and struggled to have the performance of 30 fish on screen. [Laughs]
Megha [00:05:28] Yep.
Nico [00:05:28] And I think there are probably hundreds. Definitely hundreds, maybe thousands of fish on screen at the moment. So I guess it's a bit more technical, but they use a vertex shader. So they're not rigged and they're not animated in the way that I would think was a traditional way. They're using a shader to animate those, which is pretty cool.
Elric [00:05:51] Mm. Looks beautiful as well.
Megha [00:05:53] They're very reactive, I think, as well. That's super cool.
Nico [00:05:57] Wow. Wow.
Elric [00:06:01] Love even just like the simple trail effects. Adds so much to the swimming.
Megha [00:06:06] Is this like a shark thinking man?
Nico [00:06:09] It's from the shark civilization. [Laughs] Ooh, we can interact with it.
Megha [00:06:16] Nice.
Nico [00:06:17] Nice. Oh, hell yeah.
Megha [00:06:19] Oh. Oh, you're meditating.
Nico [00:06:23] It seems like a very meditative game.
Megha [00:06:26] Yeah. I think one of the main things that I can definitely tell is like there's so many points, even as you're playing, where I'm just like, "Oh, you could screenshot that. That could be a wallpaper."
Nico [00:06:35] I mean, pretty much the whole game. [Laughs]
Elric [00:06:36] The whole game. [Laughs]
Megha [00:06:37] The whole game. [Laughs]
Elric [00:06:38] Is just one big wallpaper.
Nico [00:06:39] Yeah. I mean, that would be pretty cool to have a live wallpaper that's this game, and it's kind of just cruising through it.
Megha [00:06:47] What do you think makes games like this so appealing, though? Like, stuff that's under the water? Because I think even—that's why I think Subnautica hit it off with a lot of people; it's just, like, such an appealing underwater game.
Nico [00:06:59] Definitely, I would say that—oh, hell yeah. [Laughs] Sorry, I'm just going to do some back flips while we talk about this. I'd say it's exploring worlds different from our own. I think that's kind of one of the powers of games and just immersive 3D environments is—they're different, there's a bit of mystery about them, and you can explore something that isn't really possible. Like games about space, or other worlds, or magic, or popular—because there's sort of this fantasy of living out this experience in a different place.
Elric [00:07:40] I think a big part of what makes underwater games specifically really appealing is just the sense of a wild, unknown expanse, like endless exploration. Who knows what's down there?
Megha [00:07:53] Yeah.
Nico [00:07:53] I've made a friend.
Elric [00:07:56] I think that sense of discovery as well comes through when you're, like, diving through this giant ocean.
Megha [00:08:02] Oh, yeah.
Nico [00:08:02] Come back.
Megha [00:08:04] I think he's gonna—
Nico [00:08:05] Gonna follow me?
Megha [00:08:06] Yeah.
Nico [00:08:08] Hello friend. Cool. Oh, inverted controls. All right, let's see what we can do here. I assume that our little friend is going to help us with this. I love that there's no UI. Love a game that's just fully connected to the environment.
Elric [00:08:30] I think it's quite a challenge to create a game with no UI, so they've done really good.
Nico [00:08:34] Well, I mean, yeah, they had the popup for the controller, but I'll give them a pass on that one.
Elric [00:08:40] You'll allow it?
Nico [00:08:42] [Laughs] I'll allow it. I think, yeah, with the exploring worlds that are different from our own, I think one of the really cool things about ocean games is that the ocean is so mysterious and is—I mean, it's part of our world, it's part of our Earth, but we don't really get to explore it and it can really be filled with so much mystery. So there's a bit of both, the mystery of the unknown but the reality of "This could actually exist and this could be in the real world." So there's this nice balance between the two of those.
Elric [00:09:19] Yeah, definitely.
Nico [00:09:21] All right. Let's speed this up a little bit.
Elric [00:09:24] I think it also like—yeah, I think you touched on something really cool, that it's not something that you can necessarily see or do every day. And I think there's plenty of people out there who aren't actually able to get in the water and swim around like this. And having it in a game means they can experience that without needing to actually do it.
Megha [00:09:50] Speaking of immersing yourself as well, the lead programmer of this game—I think his name is Brian Balamut? Again, not sure if I'm pronouncing that right, but I'm going to try my best. He actually took a professional course on scuba diving and things like that. And I know something similar is something we did at Chaos Theory when we were making Rainbow Reef and you guys went out and journeyed to the Great Barrier Reef. So what is that like? Like, immersing yourself so much into something that you're making that you—and does that make a difference in how the game turns out at the end?
Nico [00:10:30] Yeah, I think with Rainbow Reef we went to the Great Barrier Reef after finishing the project and it was in between when we worked on that and Bleached Az, which was another ocean conservation game. So I think when you start a game development project, there's so much research, there's so much planning, and you really do kind of get absorbed into the subject matter of whatever you're making a game about. So I think that when we finished that game, we wanted to go and see the real reef because we'd been doing all this research. Wow, this is really cool. We'd been doing all this research and spending all of this time, like, designing fish and figuring out how to create realistic fish movement and things like that. So going to the Great Barrier Reef just seemed like a really good way to kind of close that out and I guess see the reef while it's still there. Like when we were there, all the people that were working in the tourism industry were just saying that it isn't like it used to be. And it's all kind of become a lot more degraded over time. What's this? So yeah, I think there's an interesting push and pull between game development of, we were inspired by ocean conservation and coral reefs starting that project and going into that project. And that very often happens where a project—or you're inspired by something and then you create a project about it, or you want to create a game about it, but then a project can inspire you to do something in the real world. So yeah, I've got a lot of appreciation for—was it Brian?
Megha [00:12:19] Yeah. Yeah.
Nico [00:12:19] The programmer on this for I guess going and becoming a certified scuba diver. And I think it probably reflects well in the project and in the quality of the game.
Elric [00:12:34] For sure.
Megha [00:12:36] Yeah. I think we'll just focus on the actual game for a bit because this is just way too pretty and I was like—too many things were happening. And then as you were talking, I'm just like, "Oh!"
Nico [00:12:45] I think we went into some sort of spirit world.
Elric [00:12:48] Yeah, like a different dimension or something.
Megha [00:12:49] Yeah. Because you were like swimming above the water.
Nico [00:12:52] Yeah.
Megha [00:12:55] And you released all the manta rays.
Nico [00:12:56] That's really cool.
Megha [00:12:57] Yeah.
Nico [00:12:58] That's a cool shot. Oh, is that what I did? Did I release the manta rays?
Megha [00:13:02] Yeah. You took something from inside yourself and you released the manta rays back into the ocean.
Elric [00:13:07] So you're like—
Nico [00:13:07] Come here, friends!
Elric [00:13:09] —Adding directly to the ecosystem.
Nico [00:13:10] I'm just here to make friends. That's cool. So, yeah, I know very little about the game other than it's super pretty and that's why I bought it. But I'm on board for these mechanics of discovery and exploration and sort of unlocking new content and making the world more beautiful.
Megha [00:13:31] Yeah, and it doesn't seem to be an actual narrative or anything that's happening; you're just exploring. It's, like, so raw and real in that way that you're just going. You're just—
Elric [00:13:42] It almost doesn't need it.
Megha [00:13:43] Yeah, really.
Nico [00:13:44] I mean, I think there are definitely different forms of narrative and storytelling. And I think this is probably a good example of environmental storytelling, where you can fill in the gaps. It's like, "What's this hieroglyphic mosaic all about?" Like we saw the shark meditation spot earlier. That was really cool. Like, was it shark people that inhabited the earth? And then we've driven them—or we drove them off the earth and put them under water or something? Who knows? It looks like there's coral here and they're worshipping coral? Let's find out the story together. I really, really like that approach to storytelling where you're not too overt about it and you just let everybody else kind of fill in the gaps and tell their own story, because it can resonate with people on a deeper level and uses people's creativity and imagination. I think it can be super cool.
Elric [00:14:46] And people experience it in really different ways because of that as well.
Nico [00:14:49] Yeah.
Megha [00:14:50] [Gasps] No!
Nico [00:14:52] [Gasps] No! My friend! Oh, come back here—aww.
Megha [00:14:54] Well, there goes your shark people theory. [Laughs]
Elric [00:14:56] Yeah, now we know why we kicked them off the land.
Nico [00:14:59] [Laughs]
Megha [00:15:00] Ate all our friends.
Nico [00:15:01] Yeah. Oh, God. I am really disappointed that our friend got eaten. I hope I'm not next.
Elric [00:15:08] I hope that wasn't your source of oxygen.
Nico [00:15:09] Ooh. All right.
Megha [00:15:12] Where'd he go? He just did a chomp chomp and then left.
Nico [00:15:16] He's up there somewhere.
Megha [00:15:20] Wow.
Elric [00:15:22] Can you, like, breach the surface?
Nico [00:15:25] Aw, let's find out. Full steam!
Megha [00:15:28] Let's go! Oh, nice! [Laughs]
Nico [00:15:31] Oh, that was very anticlimactic.
Elric [00:15:35] I wanted to see him leap out like a dolphin, do a backflip.
Nico [00:15:38] How do I dive? Oh, here we go. All right, nice. Yeah, I was hoping that I was going to dive. I feel like I've seen a clip of some leaping out of the water. So I was prepared for something epic.
Elric [00:15:51] And sorely disappointed?
Nico [00:15:53] Just a little bit.
Megha [00:15:56] [Laughs] You can't be disappointed in a game this pretty, I feel.
Elric [00:15:59] Yeah.
Nico [00:15:59] Yeah. Do you think this was built by people or sharks?
Elric [00:16:02] Sharks.
Megha [00:16:03] Definitely sharks.
Elric [00:16:04] Or shark people.
Nico [00:16:06] Both. It was a collaboration, but we didn't pay the sharks, and they got really angry.
Megha [00:16:11] So they decided to eat all our technology the moment they saw it.
Elric [00:16:18] That's cool. I like the integration of, like, mysterious technology as well. It's kind of beautiful natural world and showing the place of technology in it as well.
Megha [00:16:29] Is this the East Coast current?
Nico [00:16:33] [Laughs] Yes. Whoa!
Megha [00:16:34] Whoa!
Elric [00:16:35] Oh, that's cool. Speed boost.
Nico [00:16:39] Oh, come here. Oh, inverted controls! Oh, here we go. Oh, yeah.
Megha [00:16:44] Oh, oh yeah, you got em. Are they just joining you on your journey now?
Elric [00:16:50] Yeah.
Megha [00:16:50] Just all following you.
Elric [00:16:52] Just getting hyped up each other.
Megha [00:16:54] All riding the wave. I can kind of sort of hear the action music happening in the background. [Laughs] That's when you know stuff's about to go down.
Nico [00:17:12] Dolphins? This game has everything. I can't wait to see a turtle.
Elric [00:17:17] The music's actually really beautiful in this game as well. It does a fantastic job of complementing gameplay. Especially in this instance where it's ramped up because there's obviously action happening.
Megha [00:17:28] Yep. Oh, what are you joining?
Elric [00:17:35] Are those dolphins really small, or just far away?
Nico [00:17:37] [Laughs] Both.
Megha [00:17:38] They're either really small dolphins or we're a really big person.
Nico [00:17:42] I mean, that looks like a sizable dolphin. Yeah, they're just a little bit in the distance, like you can see… Kind of like that. Whoa, there's so much going on. Oh, I'm going in here. Whoa! What up? They're not going to follow me?
Megha [00:18:04] No, they weren't pink in color. Oh!
Nico [00:18:05] Oh, I'm coming for you! I'm coming for you!
Elric [00:18:08] There's the shark. That's why there's no fish in here.
Megha [00:18:11] Scared them all away.
Nico [00:18:18] Oh, we're going to—we're going to breach the surface!
Megha [00:18:23] Let's do it. Let's do it! Aww. [Laughs]
Nico [00:18:23] Aww. [Laughs]
Elric [00:18:23] Aww. [Laughs] Maybe you need to be swimming with fish and get that speed boost to breach and do like…
Megha [00:18:32] Oh, I just saw the shark guy again.
Elric [00:18:35] Is that a shark or a dolphin?
Nico [00:18:37] No, a dolphin.
Megha [00:18:37] Oh. But that does happen in real life as well. Like people will mistake dolphins for sharks and sharks for dolphins. [Laughs] Yeah, you would not want to mistake a shark for a dolphin.
Nico [00:18:50] Nice.
Elric [00:18:53] I'll be very interested to see how the shark plays into the rest of this game, because I know there's a lot of misunderstanding around sharks. Like there's plenty of shark attacks and all that kind of thing, but there's always different opinions about whether or not sharks are naturally aggressive, and I think scientifically they're not.
Megha [00:19:14] Mhmm.
Elric [00:19:15] But yeah, it'd be interesting to see if this game deals with that in any way and, like, tries to unveil that a little bit.
Nico [00:19:26] For sure. Yeah, I think it's interesting. Just games in general kind of have a bit of a responsibility to be representing things in a certain light, or, like, we have the power as game developers to put in whatever perspective we think is true and accurate. And yeah, there is a certain responsibility there to represent sharks fairly. And yeah, I imagine with a game that has this much focus on marine biology that they would have done their homework and wanting to do that in a positive light.
Elric [00:20:03] Mhmm.
Megha [00:20:04] Yeah. They're going to make sure that we like the shark at the end of this, and the shark likes us.
Elric [00:20:10] Yeah, yeah.
Nico [00:20:11] Oh, new friend!
Elric [00:20:13] Oh, hell yeah.
Megha [00:20:13] Nice.
Nico [00:20:21] I'm just going to adjust my mic.
Elric [00:20:24] All right, friend. Let's go. Show me where to go. [Laughs] All right, I'm not used to the inverted controls yet either
Megha [00:20:35] [Laughs] I don't think it meant to go in the sand. You got it. You got this. You can do it. Forward. Yes. [Laughs]
Elric [00:20:45] All right, here you go. [Laughs]
Nico [00:20:47] Thank you.
Elric [00:20:48] Take it from here, thanks.
Nico [00:20:49] Thank you for filling in. Are we going this way? We're going deeper?
Nico [00:20:54] Either that or through that top bit somehow maybe.
Nico [00:20:56] Yeah. Wow, these are little garden eels or something?
Elric [00:20:59] That's cute.
Megha [00:20:59] Yeah.
Nico [00:21:01] Nice. All right. So what does our friend do? Oh, it allows us to break the coral things? There was a coral thing in here, no?
Megha [00:21:14] Oh, I think I saw that before. There was something on the ground where I think you needed the friend buddy to get you through. And it's like—oh yeah, this thing also!
Nico [00:21:25] Maybe?
Megha [00:21:28] Do you have to do it from above?
Nico [00:21:29] I've got a little sonar or something.
Elric [00:21:30] That's cute.
Megha [00:21:31] So it was back next to the shark statue.
Nico [00:21:34] Right.
Megha [00:21:39] And, like, in down there. That cavern thing with the rock.
Nico [00:21:46] Oh, like on the left?
Megha [00:21:47] Yeah, on the left.
Nico [00:21:51] Sorry. Over here?
Megha [00:21:53] Yeah.
Elric [00:21:54] Think so, yeah.
Megha [00:21:54] Yep. Yep. Yep, there we go.
Nico [00:21:58] Oh, nice. I'm glad that you're paying attention.
Megha [00:22:03] [Laughs]
Elric [00:22:04] It was an effective use of the archway. Good level design.
Nico [00:22:10] [Laughs] I mean, I think this game in general has done a really good job of guiding the eye and having a good focal point. And the shark is drawing your attention and getting you to pay attention to different elements.
Elric [00:22:25] Yeah.
Megha [00:22:26] It's just like everything is happening all at once, and you're just like, "Oh, gotta pay attention to everything; otherwise I'll miss it.".
Elric [00:22:31] Yeah.
Megha [00:22:32] And you want to as well. It's not like information overload. You want to pay attention and not miss anything.
Nico [00:22:38] I mean, I think one thing that's really impressive is the wow moments where you come out of one of those little narrow passages and there's just so much in front of you.
Elric [00:22:48] The big reveal.
Nico [00:22:49] And you're just thinking, "There's so much around me, I can't believe this, I don't know what to look at." And I think that's probably directly inspired from Brian scuba diving, because I've heard multiple accounts of scuba diving and yeah, this big school of fish comes and it's just overwhelming and huge and all around you. Oh, did we get an achievement? Oh, nice!
Elric [00:23:13] Jet stream!
Megha [00:23:13] Nice. And we got joined by orcas!
Nico [00:23:16] Whoa! Are those hammerheads?
Megha [00:23:18] Yes…
Elric [00:23:18] No… oh…
Nico [00:23:18] Yeah, they are.
Megha [00:23:18] Yeah, they are!
Elric [00:23:18] Wait, really?
Megha [00:23:18] Yeah.
Nico [00:23:24] Hammerheads are cool.
Elric [00:23:24] Oh, yeah! And swordfish.
Nico [00:23:25] So, yeah, I didn't even see the orcas, wasn't paying attention to them. [Laughs] But the hammerheads, we get shark friends.
Elric [00:23:32] That's awesome.
Nico [00:23:32] We can make amends.
Elric [00:23:34] Friendly shark friends.
Nico [00:23:35] Yeah.
Megha [00:23:37] Oh, is it going to happen this time? Is it going to happen?!
Elric [00:23:40] Absolutely, it's gotta.
Megha [00:23:40] Whoa!
Elric [00:23:40] Ayy, that's all we're looking for.
Megha [00:23:45] Nice. That was satisfying; that was super satisfying.
Nico [00:23:47] Oh no.
Elric [00:23:49] Oh, no.
Nico [00:23:51] Maybe we get to bring it back to life.
Megha [00:23:54] I think we do, yeah.
Elric [00:23:55] This is where the shark comes in. Shark's going to help you depollute this place.
Nico [00:23:58] Yeah.
Megha [00:23:59] Maybe the shark's sad because he doesn't have any other Great Whites. So that's one of the things we've got to do is we got to get all the other Great Whites back in the ocean.
Nico [00:24:08] That would be cool.
Elric [00:24:09] I like that. Yeah.
Nico [00:24:10] I mean, yeah, we could be rebuilding the ecosystem potentially?
Elric [00:24:20] Did the little friend dive out of the water with you? I didn't see him.
Megha [00:24:23] No, I don't think I saw him either.
Elric [00:24:26] He's not equipped for it.
Nico [00:24:27] Came through a little hole. All right, we're going back into the spirit world.
Megha [00:24:30] Let's go!
Elric [00:24:36] What happens if you swim down? Do you go back into the real world?
Nico [00:24:39] Hmm. I can try.
Elric [00:24:44] Yeah. That's another really good reveal.
Megha [00:24:46] Mhmm.
Nico [00:24:47] Nope.
Megha [00:25:00] [Laughs] Didn't go that far.
Elric [00:25:02] Same thing where they're like—They do a really good job of using the art to be like, "Oh, there's this fancy vortex thing down there, what is it?" Yeah, leaving lots of room for the imagination.
Nico [00:25:17] Environmental storytelling.
Megha [00:25:19] Nice.
Nico [00:25:23] All right. Shall we end it here and move on to the next game?
Megha [00:25:27] Yeah, I think we can. Or do you want to do the big reveal and then move on to the next game?
Nico [00:25:31] Ooh, let's see what's on the other side of this.
Elric [00:25:33] That's a good idea.
Megha [00:25:34] Let's see who we're saving now.
Nico [00:25:44] [Howls]
Megha [00:25:44] [Laughs] You should be part of the soundtrack making mechanism for their next game, Nico.
Nico [00:25:47] We made a game once where we did all of the sound effects with our—and music and everything with our own mouth. It was a lot of fun. It was for a game jam. It was called Wizushi, where you're a wizard making sushi. Like, you went to wizard school and you weren't really into it, so you dropped out and became a sushi chef, and you serve magical sushi. But that was a good soundtrack for that.
Elric [00:26:10] That's awesome.
Megha [00:26:11] We saved the orcas.
Nico [00:26:13] Nice.
Elric [00:26:14] Sweet!
Megha [00:26:15] Oh, I can see turtles!
Nico [00:26:16] Orcas are intense. They're so intelligent, so powerful. They're just the ultimate apex predator.
Megha [00:26:22] Mhmm.
Nico [00:26:23] Got really interesting social bonds and social structures as well.
Elric [00:26:29] Whoa. I noticed you were regrowing the coral here as well. That's pretty cool.
Megha [00:26:34] Yeah.
Nico [00:26:34] This giant coral.
Elric [00:26:36] And all the seaweed on the sides, too.
Nico [00:26:40] Oh, is this where we just were?
Megha [00:26:41] Yeah, I think this is the one dead area, and then you went in the portal and then you saved it and then came back out.
Nico [00:26:49] Oh, nice. Is that a lake underwater?
Elric [00:26:51] Maybe it's a bubble.
Nico [00:26:55] [Laughs] All right. Let's leave that mystery for next time.
Elric [00:27:01] We'll let the viewers decide what that was.
Nico [00:27:02] Yeah. Yeah, if you know what that bubble was, let us know in the comments.
Megha [00:27:09] [Laughs] So… That was super pretty.
Elric [00:27:11] Yeah, it was beautiful.
Megha [00:27:12] So I think Abzû's available on Twitch, PlayStation, Xbox, Steam—sorry, I said Twitch in the beginning. We are on Twitch. Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox. So what did you guys think? What are your final thoughts about the game?
Nico [00:27:29] Calming. Peaceful. Just a really—I really enjoy games that deliver a particular experience and do that comprehensively. And I think that it was a really immersive underwater experience that was beautiful and could lead people to fall in love with the beauty of the ocean.
Elric [00:27:51] I couldn't agree more.
Megha [00:27:53] So before we go on to our next game, I—without showing you guys my notes so that you can see the answers—I've got some ocean trivia that we're going to go through while we get the next game set up. So it's not really a competition, but you can make it one.
Nico [00:28:12] It's definitely a competition.
Elric [00:28:14] I'm gonna do fantastically.
Megha [00:28:16] All right, so, we'll start off easy. And it's also not—like, I'll give you clues if you can't really get it but there's—they're not options. So you're just going to have to know this off the top of your head. That's the whole point of this, that you just need to know the ocean.
Elric [00:28:31] Cool.
Megha [00:28:32] So, first question: how much of the Earth's surface is covered in ocean? It's a percentage answer. So if you get close to the percentage, I'll give it to you.
Elric [00:28:42] 100%.
Megha [00:28:43] [Laughs]
Nico [00:28:45] I'd say 70%.
Megha [00:28:47] Okay, yeah. It couldn't be covered in 100% water. [Laughs] Because then it would just be water.
Elric [00:28:52] I mean, if you use your imagination.
Nico [00:28:53] Didn't you realize that?
Megha [00:28:56] [Laughs]
Elric [00:28:56] Are we not swimming right now?
Megha [00:28:56] [Laughs] But yeah, 71% of the Earth's surface is covered in water.
Nico [00:29:02] So close.
Megha [00:29:03] So close, yeah.
Nico [00:29:03] I'm disappointed in myself.
Megha [00:29:04] Oh, no. All right. And in that 71%, how much of all life on earth is aquatic, do you think?
Nico [00:29:14] By mass?
Megha [00:29:17] Yeah, this is also a percentage. This is also a percentage.
Nico [00:29:20] Percentage?
Elric [00:29:21] I feel like it's going to be a lot. Like, most of it.
Nico [00:29:25] 92%.
Megha [00:29:27] All right.
Elric [00:29:27] I'm going to say…
Nico [00:29:29] 100%?
Megha [00:29:29] [Laughs]
Elric [00:29:30] 71%.
Megha [00:29:32] [Laughs] You're going to say 71%?
Elric [00:29:34] Yeah.
Megha [00:29:34] All right, Nico wins again. So according to the USA Science and Engineering Festival, the ocean is home to nearly 95% of all life.
Elric [00:29:42] Wow.
Nico [00:29:43] Ooh, it's close. Just not really… Not really getting it.
Elric [00:29:48] I feel like that makes ocean games that much cooler, because you know there's so much down there that you'd never see up here.
Megha [00:29:54] True. True.
Nico [00:29:55] I've also heard that… What is it? The moon has been explored more than some of the deepest areas of space.
Megha [00:30:03] I think it gets a bit worse than that. Mars has been explored more than we've explored our own ocean. Yeah, that's the reality.
Elric [00:30:09] Yeah, that's amazing.
Megha [00:30:11] Okay, so this is just whoever's going to be quickest because I feel like this should be known.
Elric [00:30:15] We'll see.
Megha [00:30:17] What is… the largest ocean?
Elric [00:30:22] Pacific Ocean?
Megha [00:30:23] Yes! You got it. Got it in there, finally.
Elric [00:30:26] It's the first one I could think of.
Megha [00:30:29] [Laughs]
Nico [00:30:29] [Laughs] Just look out the window like, "What ocean is that? Is that the biggest?"
Elric [00:30:33] [Laughs] What ocean is in the office?
Nico [00:30:34] Yeah.
Megha [00:30:35] Yeah. So the Pacific Ocean is the world's largest ocean. It is—roughly half of the world's ocean water comes from the Pacific Ocean.
Nico [00:30:43] Big.
Megha [00:30:44] It is big. Pretty much. And finally, to round out our first round of trivia, which isn't really trivia, it's also kind of like a fun fact. In 1997, the largest ocean sound—water—ocean-recorded thing was made. What was the origin of that sound? And I will give you a bit of a clue. It's also very big with conspiracy theorists about what this sound actually is.
Nico [00:31:14] Are we talking, like, geological or biological?
Megha [00:31:18] Well, the scientists have said that they know what it was, but a lot of conspiracy theorists are saying that it's probably something more creature-based.
Nico [00:31:30] So it is biological? It's like an—it's an animal sound?
Megha [00:31:33] No, it's not. [Laughs]
Nico [00:31:34] It's not?
Elric [00:31:34] But that's what the conspiracy theorists think.
Megha [00:31:36] Yeah, the conspiracy theorists think it's a sound—
Nico [00:31:38] Cthulhu? [Laughs]
Megha [00:31:40] [Laughs] Honestly, yes. A lot of people think that it's Cthulhu. So this sound is actually called the Bloop. You can look it up on YouTube. It's a very creepy sounding sound, especially if you listen to it as—like, speed it up.
Nico [00:31:53] Would it be some sort of like natural gas, like, expanding or exploding or some sort of like…?
Megha [00:32:02] I guess you could say it's kind of close to that. What they figured it actually was, was the sound of an ice quake that was happening far away. And the microphones that they had under the water to—I guess for research and things had picked up the sound. And they had published it and initially were just like—for the longest time, no one knew where that sound came from. No one could figure it out. And then all of a sudden these scientists were like, "It's an ice quake. We know it." But everyone else was just like, "No."
Nico [00:32:30] "It's Cthulhu."
Megha [00:32:30] It's Cthulhu. [Laughs]
Nico [00:32:32] I mean, still, it's not set, right? Like, it still could be Cthulhu.
Megha [00:32:36] Honestly, we'll never know. It was in 1997; who knows what was messing around with the equipment at the time.
Elric [00:32:41] It could be the Loch Ness monster that leaped out of its lake and into the ocean. Who knows?
Megha [00:32:47] [Laughs] Yeah, pretty much. All right, and in saying that final Bloop, I am going to be playing the next game, which is SAMUDRA. So it's an underwater game packed with a lot of dark mysteries, and I'm hoping not, but I think it has a couple of jump scares and I get very jump scared. [Laughs] So, let's hope we'll get through this as quickly and easily as possible. And I don't scream into the mic and scare our listeners and viewers. So SAMUDRA was made by… Khayalan Arts?
Nico [00:33:25] Nailed it.
Megha [00:33:27] It's a tongue twister, you guys; your name is a tongue twister, but I got there eventually. And obviously it's an indie game. It's a puzzle game. So yeah, let's get into it, shall we?
Nico [00:33:38] For sure.
Megha [00:33:43] All right. I think… we're good to go. And are go. Should I—oh, well… let's just… [Laughs]
Nico [00:34:00] Big decisions to be made.
Megha [00:34:01] Big decisions to make. It's just like, should I continue from—?
Nico [00:34:05] I mean, do you want to start again, or do you want to continue from where you're up to? I feel like potentially start?
Megha [00:34:10] Yeah, let's start again. Let's do that.
Nico [00:34:15] Cool. So what do you know about this game?
Megha [00:34:18] I know that it's like a hand-drawn art style kind of thing. Yeah, like it's a puzzle game. Again, it's very pretty. I think a lot of—all of the games we've picked today are very, very pretty games. So… And this one's also more mysterious than I think Abzû is because it's got, like—like I mentioned, it's got like a dark kind of theme to it, like a darker theme than Abzû did. Because it's all about, like, ocean pollution and how that's really affected this world.
Nico [00:34:45] Mm. Yeah, I've seen some screenshots and some videos of it, but, again, haven't played it myself.
Megha [00:34:52] Yeah.
Nico [00:34:53] And I think as evident by the plastic bags and bottles on screen at the moment, it probably has a stronger message than Abzû on the impact that we're having on our climate.
Megha [00:35:06] Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Like you don't even need to play—I mean, obviously everyone should play through the whole game, but honestly, even with just this opening screen, you're just terrified.
Nico [00:35:14] Yeah.
Megha [00:35:14] It's like, that is the reality for a lot of ocean life.
Nico [00:35:20] Yeah. I think it's interesting how they've made the plastic bags. Some of them look like jellyfish, like this one floating in front right there.
Elric [00:35:31] And some of the, like, tangles of plastic bags looks like seahorses as well.
Megha [00:35:36] Oh yeah.
Nico [00:35:36] Yeah, I think that's a real thing that happens where you get these big tentacles of plastic that wash up on beaches that are just kind of terrifying and scary and hard to remove, and they weigh, like, four tons.
Megha [00:35:52] Oh, yeah.
Nico [00:35:52] You have to dig them out and then chop them up into smaller pieces, but… yeah. A bit depressing. [Laughs]
Megha [00:36:01] [Laughs] Yeah.
Elric [00:36:02] Some bamboo in there?
Nico [00:36:04] Hmm.
Megha [00:36:04] I think that's meant to be wire? Like oil rig wires that run under the ocean?
Elric [00:36:12] Oh, like tubing or something. Oh! What was that?
Nico [00:36:15] Cthulhu! The Bloop! Bloop, bloop.
Megha [00:36:16] I've actually heard a lot of similar things that were recorded under the ocean after I watched the initial Bloop video. And it's just a rabbit hole that you go down.
Nico [00:36:34] Did you find that Mermaid People documentary?
Megha [00:36:39] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [Laughs] It was very clearly, very badly CGIed, but I watched it nonetheless to be like, "Did they actually—did they catch a mermaid?"
Nico [00:36:49] [Laughs] Just had to check. Yeah, for sure.
Megha [00:36:52] And then we have our callback to the pandemic: the floating mask.
Elric [00:36:57] When was this game made?
Megha [00:36:59] 2020.
Elric [00:37:00] I think it—
Megha [00:37:01] Came out 2020. Yeah.
Elric [00:37:04] I think it came out 2021?
Megha [00:37:05] 2021, yeah, sorry. I stand corrected. 2021.
Nico [00:37:09] So… Topical.
Megha [00:37:12] Mhmm. Mhmm. Can I has? Can I—I can has. Yes.
Elric [00:37:19] Take it.
Megha [00:37:21] Oh. Oh no. Oh no. No, no. Oh! Did—was I just eaten?
Elric [00:37:28] You were very quickly eaten.
Megha [00:37:30] Oh, spat me out, too. Didn't like me. Didn't like the taste of human. I can—I get that. I wouldn't like the taste of human either.
Elric [00:37:41] Drop in the ocean.
Megha [00:37:42] Oh, wow. Prologues and everything.
Nico [00:37:47] I think it's interesting that this game, I guess, has a similar interaction as Abzû, where, like, walk up to objects and tap on them.
Megha [00:38:01] Oh!
Nico [00:38:04] It's very exploration focused.
Megha [00:38:05] Yeah. Okay, puzzle. Right.
Elric [00:38:10] I think, like, the first thing that stands out to me is… We've been in the ocean for a long time already in the first couple of minutes of this game, and we've seen like one living creature. Everything else is plastic and trash.
Megha [00:38:24] And it tried to eat us.
Elric [00:38:26] It's a very stark contrast.
Nico [00:38:27] It's a lot more realistic than Abzû. [Laughs]
Elric [00:38:30] Yeah.
Nico [00:38:31] Well, not really. At least, not yet. But potentially portraying a future where that could be the case and I'm sure in certain parts of the ocean is the case.
Elric [00:38:43] It's definitely intended as an eye-opener.
Megha [00:38:45] Yeah. For sure. Just, like, look at it. You can't really tell—I don't think—I'm not sure if you guys at home can see it, because lighting and stuff might be—but on this screen, you can clearly see in the background all the junk that's there. Like you can see a fridge. I can see a car.
Elric [00:39:04] It's like a pet cage.
Megha [00:39:06] Yeah.
Elric [00:39:06] An old computer screen.
Megha [00:39:09] It's just the realities of humanity that's sunk to the bottom of the ocean. [Laughs]
Elric [00:39:15] It's quite like a bleak, depressing start to the game.
Nico [00:39:19] I think there's—
Megha [00:39:20] Oh dear lord.
Nico [00:39:20] Yeah. Oh, no.
Megha [00:39:22] Oh, wait, no, hold on, hold on! I'm not ready.
Nico [00:39:25] [Laughs] Oh, boy. You've been squished.
Megha [00:39:26] Oh, I got squished. How do you—what was I meant to do? Where was I meant to go? Okay.
Nico [00:39:34] Run the other way.
Megha [00:39:34] Run the other way. Okay. I ran. I'm running.
Elric [00:39:36] You could dodge, maybe.
Megha [00:39:38] Okay. Nope. I ran. What?
Elric [00:39:41] So you don't want to be there because you'll fall down.
Nico [00:39:43] All right, run at it. Take it on. Head on. This is climate change. Climate change is coming right at you!
Megha [00:39:49] This is Sparta!
Nico [00:39:52] Oh no. All right.
Megha [00:39:52] Oh, I think I'm meant to make it into that—the little cave that's there.
Nico [00:39:57] That's obviously not how you approach climate change.
Megha [00:39:59] Yeah, I don't think we can—
Nico [00:40:01] Gotta be smart about it. Yeah, go! Oh, nice.
Megha [00:40:04] Oh, nice, okay.
Nico [00:40:05] So you've just got to step aside, let climate change blow by. But not really. That is—
Elric [00:40:10] [Laughs] We'll be fine.
Nico [00:40:12] That is not how it should actually happen. That's not climate change. But I think, yeah, the comparison of Abzû kind of showing you the beauty of the ocean and causing people to fall in love with it and simulating it in that way, and then this game portraying it in a very, I don't know, potentially even post-apocalyptic portrayal of, "This is what our oceans could look like.".
Megha [00:40:37] Mhmm.
Nico [00:40:39] Yeah, just a very nice contrast between the two and different game experiences, I guess, approaching similar concepts in very, very different ways. I don't know, do either of you have any thoughts on the different approach of more optimistic or more pessimistic, in the context of a social impact game?
Elric [00:41:04] I think having exposure to both is a good thing. Yeah, I don't think there's—there's definitely no, like, "One is going to be better than the other," or whatever. But yeah, they're both—like, one is to show you, "This is how great it is," and kind of emphasize that and create a sense of appreciation. And then the other is to—yeah, I guess just a cautionary tale.
Megha [00:41:30] Yeah.
Elric [00:41:31] Yeah.
Megha [00:41:32] I think also it depends what is the kind of story that you're trying to tell? What is the kind of experience that you want your players to have? And if it's something like Abzû where you just want them to have this general love for exploration and this sense of wonderment for what the ocean could be like, then, yeah, it's really pretty, and it's got all these really stylistic visuals. And if it's stuff like this where you're like, "Oh no, we need to tell you guys the reality of what this could—this could be your future," then, yeah, this kind of art style works really well.
Elric [00:42:03] Mm.
Nico [00:42:04] Mm.
Elric [00:42:05] And I've been, again, interested to see what the end of this game looks like, because at the beginning, the amount of trash and stuff that's there, it doesn't seem like this is going to be a game that's like, "Hey, let's learn to clean up the ocean and make this crappy place nice again," because it's like, there's just too much there to solve in a game. Or maybe it's like, the end of the game, you build a giant machine to haul it all out, and you do a great job. I don't know.
Megha [00:42:33] Maybe this is that machine. It's a plane. We're going to fly out of here.
Elric [00:42:37] [Laughs]
Nico [00:42:37] Mm.
Megha [00:42:38] Oh, that's a sad—
Elric [00:42:40] Yeah, wow.
Megha [00:42:41] It's a sad graphic. All of the fishies are in cages.
Elric [00:42:45] What are the little circles with X's on them?
Megha [00:42:47] I think that's what we're wearing. I think it's a helmet. Like a scuba helmet.
Nico [00:42:53] Yeah.
Elric [00:42:54] Oh, yeah.
Nico [00:42:55] Potentially. Yeah, I think with the positive or negative portrayal of the oceans—I know in other forms of media, the shock tactics work, or can work in certain contexts. And I'd be really interested if there are any, I guess, more academic studies in how that works in a game format. Because one challenge with games that I know about is it's very difficult to get somebody to sit down and play a game if it doesn't align with their existing beliefs and their existing view of the world. So if people don't care about plastic, then they might not be drawn to this game if they already have that as a fundamental belief. Whereas something like Abzû where it's more about falling in love with a topic, and then potentially around that they can go and learn about what's happening in the oceans and go and dive for themselves. That might be a path to eventually changing their perception on a particular topic. Whereas with a more realistic or pessimistic view like this, that's supposed to portray the potential future that we could be in, that might work really well for people who are already engaged in the subject and want to, I guess, delve deeper and explore what this looks like in an interactive format.
Megha [00:44:24] SAMUDRA.
Nico [00:44:25] It's the title screen.
Megha [00:44:26] Nice.
Elric [00:44:27] It is really beautiful.
Megha [00:44:30] Yeah, I love how it's this painted feel; it reminds me of, like, old Disney movies.
Nico [00:44:38] Yeah. Definitely. Oh, it's Mount Doom.
Megha [00:44:43] It's Mount Doom, and it's underwater, and it's on fire, and everything—all my nightmares have come true. Oh gosh.
Nico [00:44:47] Is the plane going to be at the top of that? The plane that crashed?
Megha [00:44:50] Maybe.
Elric [00:44:51] Could do. Maybe we're about to find out.
Nico [00:44:54] I feel like something bad is about to happen.
Megha [00:44:56] Yeah, I am panicking. I'm just going to—oh, dear. Oh, dear.
Nico [00:45:01] Run.
Megha [00:45:01] Run faster. He's, like, dream running. Like how you run in dreams. It's just that. Oh, come on. You can make it.
Elric [00:45:10] I guess they have done a good job of that part. Like, as though—
Nico [00:45:14] Feeling very dreamlike?
Elric [00:45:15] No, like—
Megha [00:45:16] Oh, hey! I pressed the thing!
Elric [00:45:18] That is kind of how you would run in water, right? Like, slowly and painfully.
Nico [00:45:22] Mm. I mean, that's a good point.
Elric [00:45:25] Well, I suppose you wouldn't really. You'd need to be heavy enough.
Nico [00:45:27] You'd need iron boots.
Elric [00:45:29] Yeah. Or just, like, diving weights or something.
Elric [00:45:33] I mean, if you were very, very small—like, if this person was tiny, then the viscosity of the water would be enough where you'd be able to, like, run in it and, like, pull yourself through. But something tells me they're not a tiny, tiny person.
Megha [00:45:46] Yep. All right. Okay.
Elric [00:45:47] Is there, like, a dive option? Like, try and, like—
Nico [00:45:52] I believe that there's just an interact button.
Megha [00:45:55] Oh, yes. Okay.
Nico [00:45:56] And then the movement. So similar controls to Abzû.
Elric [00:46:00] Yeah.
Megha [00:46:03] All right. We survived that the second time. Glad we get do-overs.
Nico [00:46:11] Yeah, I think it's good to sort of not punish people.
Megha [00:46:15] Button-mash.
Nico [00:46:19] Although, I mean, depends on the type of experience that you're going for as well. Like Dark Souls is all about punishment.
Megha [00:46:31] [Laughs] Nice. Wow. These really look like jellyfish. And wasn't that a thing as well? It's like, sea turtles eat them because they look like jellyfish, and jellyfish are their favorite snack?
Elric [00:46:42] Mm.
Nico [00:46:43] Mm. Yeah. Which is depressing, and probably one of the reasons why they illustrated them like that. Yeah, turtles are cool. We need more turtles in the world.
Megha [00:46:58] Yeah.
Elric [00:46:58] We need more turtles.
Megha [00:46:59] For sure. Wow. Exposition is exposition. [Laughs] Didn't have to say it any clearer than that. Oh, all the coral are dead! They're all white.
Elric [00:47:17] Mm.
Nico [00:47:17] Not enough light. [Laughs]
Elric [00:47:20] That's why you're down here with the little lantern.
Nico [00:47:22] Yeah. Just heat them up. Kickstart them.
Elric [00:47:26] Yeah.
Megha [00:47:27] Need to give them a jumpstart. [Laughs]
Elric [00:47:29] That's how we solve our coral dying problem. We're just going to send people down with lanterns. It's going to be great.
Nico [00:47:35] Yeah. Coral bleaching—it's kind of interesting—where the skeleton is white and the microorganisms that live within them are what gives it its color. And those microorganisms sort of provide food and photosynthesize for the coral to survive and keep living. So whenever the coral's under stress, it will sort of expel all these little microorganisms that give it life because they want to get everything out of their system so that they can go into damage control mode and try and get through whatever the stress is. So it could be caused by high water temperatures, too much light, too little light—pretty much just any environment that's not ideal for coral, it will expel that and sort of bleach.
Megha [00:48:26] Okay, so octopus playing the guitar is telling us the volcano is bleeding and we gotta—
Nico [00:48:34] Does the octopus have a helmet on?
Elric [00:48:36] Yeah, it does.
Megha [00:48:36] Yeah.
Elric [00:48:37] It's a land octopus.
Nico [00:48:40] Of course.
Elric [00:48:40] Lives with the land sharks.
Megha [00:48:41] He's too cool. He doesn't want to show his face.
Elric [00:48:44] There's also a really angry starfish just below him. Furious.
Megha [00:48:49] Okay. A very confusing conversation just took place. [Laughs]
Nico [00:48:53] They seem like they're in a band. Like, they seem like they've got star power.
Elric [00:48:57] Yeah.
Megha [00:48:58] The starfish is rapping.
Nico [00:49:00] Yeah.
Megha [00:49:01] He's the rapper. Oh. All right.
Elric [00:49:06] That was pretty good.
Nico [00:49:07] Did you understand that?
Megha [00:49:08] Which?
Nico [00:49:08] That conversation?
Megha [00:49:10] I think he said that he wanted to get to the surface because he had the sun and the waves out. And then the octopus just spoke about the lava coming out of the volcano. And then he—so then we again asked, like "Question mark?" And then the octopus had a hammer and then it was thunking the starfish.
Elric [00:49:32] Yeah, it was like, "Smash the volcano."
Megha [00:49:33] Yeah. So I have no idea. Like, yeah, a very confusing—[Laughs]—conversation just occurred.
Elric [00:49:40] Again, I mean, open to interpretation.
Nico [00:49:43] Yeah.
Elric [00:49:43] I think it works.
Nico [00:49:44] Again, I think—yeah, very interesting parallels between Abzû and this game where you can fill in the gaps and use your imagination.
Elric [00:49:53] Yeah. There's that starfish again.
Nico [00:49:55] And, I mean, actually thinking about it now, if both of these games are using this environmental storytelling method, then they're kind of already localized. And with such simple controls, very accessible to a wide audience. So was that a jump scare?
Megha [00:50:14] There's sudden, quick-time actions, and my hand-eye coordination is pitiful.
Elric [00:50:22] I really like that moment just there where you're climbing these like discarded fishing nets. It's like a—yes, you're using it as a useful tool to get around, but it's kind of, like, shoving it in your face even more so. They really want you to see that this trash is everywhere—so everywhere that you're climbing on it.
Megha [00:50:43] Yep.
Elric [00:50:45] So that was pretty cool.
Nico [00:50:49] It's a good level design approach of, "What do I have? What tools are available to me?" And obviously, yeah, in a story about junk and the pollution that's at the bottom of the ocean—whoa, watch out.
Megha [00:51:04] Oh, dear! Ho! Hey, let's calm down, shall we? Oh, no, don't bap me.
Nico [00:51:14] Boop!
Megha [00:51:18] I am horrible at video games, clearly. [Laughs]
Elric [00:51:21] Heaps of shattered coral all over the ground as well.
Megha [00:51:24] Oh, yeah.
Elric [00:51:25] Too many kids wandering around with lanterns, stomping all over them.
Nico [00:51:29] [Laughs] Too many tourists.
Elric [00:51:30] Yeah.
Elric [00:51:33] Even the fish has a mask on it.
Nico [00:51:36] I guess potentially it's about being too toxic?
Elric [00:51:40] Yeah, it's, like, just not livable, even just breathing the water.
Nico [00:51:45] That is grim character design.
Elric [00:51:48] Yes, it is.
Megha [00:51:49] I think we found the airplane. Isn't this the airplane?
Nico [00:51:52] It is an airplane.
Megha [00:51:53] Oh!
Elric [00:51:54] Ugh. There's a jump scare.
Nico [00:51:56] Spooky.
Megha [00:51:57] Spooky. Oh, no. Well, I guess the airplane can't save us.
Elric [00:52:09] Is that a specific type of coral, or is that a giant brain?
Megha [00:52:15] I think it's called the brain coral.
Nico [00:52:17] There is a brain coral, and there's some plate coral. I saw some staghorn coral earlier. But yeah, there are so many different kinds of coral, and not all of them have been cataloged. And there's just very broad names for different kinds of corals because they look kind of like a brain, but then they'll be multiple different species which have kind of evolved into that one shape.
Elric [00:52:47] That's awesome.
Megha [00:52:49] So yeah. So I think we'll stop this here because otherwise I'm just going to get too deep into the lore and the garbage, clearly.
Nico [00:52:58] Or you might have an anxiety attack from all these jump scares.
Megha [00:53:00] Yeah, that too. [Laughs] That might also happen. I still have to host the rest of this livestream. I need to keep my anxiety levels to a minimum. All right, but—if I can figure out how to pause. Is it this button?
Nico [00:53:15] So this one.
Megha [00:53:15] That one?
Nico [00:53:16] Yeah.
Megha [00:53:16] Okay. I don't use Xbox. [Laughs] For people who don't realize, we're using Xbox controllers, and all of the buttons are in places that they're not usually supposed to be when I use my other controllers.
Nico [00:53:31] For Switch?
Megha [00:53:32] Yep. [Laughs]
Nico [00:53:33] Yeah. The transitioning between Switch and Xbox is just a nightmare. “Press A! No, pressed the wrong one.“
Megha [00:53:43] Yep.
Nico [00:53:44] Yeah.
Megha [00:53:45] So anyway, that was SAMUDRA. What did you guys think of the game?
Nico [00:53:50] I definitely want to play the story more, and I feel like that had more of a—maybe a story to tell, or a message that was at the core of it. I think with any sort of social change project, there's different priorities, and you put different emphasis on different goals for the project, and that one felt very, very focused on communicating the issues that we're facing with plastics and pollution. So yeah, I would really like to explore how they deal with that topic a little bit more and what transformation the player goes through while they're playing that game. I thought it was—yeah, it was very accessible and emotion-inducing. Like, it was very—there's a word for emotion-inducing, very…
Megha [00:54:43] Emotional?
Elric [00:54:45] Yeah.
Nico [00:54:46] Evocative, maybe?
Megha [00:54:46] Evocative, yeah?
Elric [00:54:47] I certainly felt compelled to play through the rest of it and see what the end of the game was, both just out of genuine curiosity, but also out of like, "I want to see, what is the solution? This sucks! If this is what we're heading towards, is there anything I can do about it?"
Megha [00:55:04] Yeah, true.
Elric [00:55:05] I wanted to see if they offered a solution for that.
Nico [00:55:06] Yeah.
Elric [00:55:07] Which was a cool motivation to play a really interesting game.
Megha [00:55:12] So for our people at home, this is available on the Switch, PlayStation 4, and Windows on Steam as always.
Nico [00:55:19] And I believe it won some awards last year?
Megha [00:55:23] It did win some awards last year. I…
Nico [00:55:25] I think it was the Games for Change, potentially Asia-Pacific. Maybe it was just featured in Games for Change Asia-Pacific, which we were involved with last year. But that's how I originally know about it. And it won like a social change—Unity Game Social Change Award last year.
Megha [00:55:51] Yeah, something similar.
Elric [00:55:51] That's awesome.
Nico [00:55:51] So definitely receiving recognition for the work that they're doing. And I'm sure that Abzû won heaps of awards when it came out, but that came out quite a while ago, and, yeah, it was a very highly regarded game as well.
Megha [00:56:07] Yeah. But I feel like more than, I think, some of the awards that probably a lot of these games has won, one thing that stood out to me for SAMUDRA is they were working with an environmental organization in Indonesia. And I think part of the profits from the game or what the game makes goes into that environmental organization to help plastic pollution in Indonesia.
Elric [00:56:34] That's great. Yes.
Megha [00:56:35] So I think, yeah.
Elric [00:56:36] Raising awareness and raising money for real practical purposes as well.
Megha [00:56:41] I think they're doing something for it today as well, actually. I saw on their Twitter that anyone who buys the game on Steam today, the full proceeds from that purchase goes into that same…
Nico [00:56:53] Go buy it now. [Laughs]
Megha [00:56:54] Go buy it. Go buy the game, guys. Go help the ocean.
Nico [00:56:58] World Ocean Day, that's what we're doing today as well, raising awareness and having a conversation about our oceans and some of the problems we're facing and what can be done to potentially solve those. So yeah, donating to various charities and just increasing interest in the subject matter so that we can all work together and put this higher on the list of priorities for what we should be working towards.
Megha [00:57:22] For sure. So yeah. So that was SAMUDRA. So I think we're going to get the next game ready. And while that happens, I have some more trivia for you guys. So let's get stuck into it. So I'm going to start off with, again, a quick round of questions. That means whoever answers first gets it. What is the deepest point in the ocean?
Elric [00:57:48] Mariana Trench.
Megha [00:57:49] Yes, Elric gets it.
Nico [00:57:50] I always forget how to pronounce it. I always say Marinara Trench.
Megha [00:57:55] [Laughs] Like the pasta sauce?
Nico [00:57:56] Yeah. If you just say it fast enough, people are like, "Got ya." The Marinara Trench. Yeah, I still don't know what it's actually called. [Laughs]
Elric [00:58:08] Marinara.
Nico [00:58:11] [Laughs] Cool, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Megha [00:58:11] I'm not going to be able to say it as Mariana Trench. [Laughs] Marinara Trench, oh dear. So it's roughly 11 kilometers below sea level. That's the deepest point.
Elric [00:58:21] Huge.
Megha [00:58:23] That's—yeah. And I think—I don't think it's ever been explored, actually. I mean—but then, yeah, as we've heard, it's only 5% of our oceans that have actually been explored and discovered, so… Someone get the—I want to know what's down there, because I think after I watched The Meg, now I'm convinced there's a megalodon down there. [Laughs]
Elric [00:58:41] No, it's definitely not The Meg. It's Cthulhu. We've established this.
Nico [00:58:45] Agreed.
Megha [00:58:47] All right, next. True or false?
Nico [00:58:49] True.
Megha [00:58:51] [Laughs] No.
Megha [00:58:52] All right, fair enough. Well played. This one—you have this one.
Megha [00:58:57] [Laughs] Let me get through it.
Nico [00:58:58] Yeah. Sorry.
Megha [00:59:00] [Laughs] It's all good. The Pacific Ocean is not wider than the moon.
Nico [00:59:05] Mm. Interesting!
Megha [00:59:06] We do know it is the world's largest ocean.
Nico [00:59:08] I'm going to go with false. [Laughs]
Megha [00:59:12] Elric, you want to hop in there? [Laughs]
Elric [00:59:14] Let's mix it up. I'll go with true.
Megha [00:59:17] You should have stuck with false, because—
Elric [00:59:21] Aw shucks.
Megha [00:59:22] It is false. The Pacific Ocean is five times the diameter of the moon.
Nico [00:59:26] Huge.
Megha [00:59:28] It is huge.
Nico [00:59:29] That is one large ocean.
Megha [00:59:31] So it's 12,300 kilometers… I guess roughly, because I'm not sure if they actually measured it.
Nico [00:59:39] Does it take up like half the Earth? Like if you're looking at it from space? I seem to remember that if you look at the globe with the Pacific Ocean in the middle, it's like you just see the islands or the sort of continents around the edge of it.
Nico [00:59:53] Yeah, pretty much.
Nico [00:59:55] It is big.
Megha [00:59:55] It's big. It's "lorge". Oh, gosh. I said, "lorge" on livestream. [Laughs] Anyway, we're moving on.
Nico [01:00:02] Moving on.
Megha [01:00:04] Where are the most volcanoes found? And in which ocean? So it's in an ocean. But where? Which one?
Elric [01:00:12] Pacific Ocean. [Laughs]
Nico [01:00:14] I'd say the Ring of Fire would be like the—
Megha [01:00:16] Yeah.
Nico [01:00:18] I don't know if Indonesia—it's Indian Ocean or Pacific Ocean, but like Indo-Pacific Ocean, if that's an option?
Megha [01:00:25] Uh, no. [Laugh] It is just the Pacific Ocean. I guess it's on the edge where it's just the Pacific Ocean. And yes, you were right. It's the Ring of Fire is why that is, is because lots of volcanoes, as we've seen in SAMUDRA right now, just lots of volcanoes under the water that shouldn't be there. But anyway. [Laughs] And then finally, just for a little fun fact, again, like I rounded out last time's fun fact with the Bloop. What is, according to the National Ocean Service, a surprising thing that is found a lot of dispersed through the ocean?
Nico [01:01:02] A surprising thing?
Megha [01:01:03] It's a thing.
Elric [01:01:05] A surprising thing. Say like microbeads, like the shampoos and stuff?
Nico [01:01:14] I feel like plastic isn't too surprising.
Elric [01:01:16] No, you're right. It's not.
Nico [01:01:19] Fish.
Megha [01:01:21] [Laughs] No.
Elric [01:01:22] [Laughs] Also not too surprising.
Megha [01:01:23] Not too surprising to find a lot of fish in the water.
Nico [01:01:27] Can we have a hint? Is it—
Megha [01:01:28] It's—
Elric [01:01:28] Hair.
Megha [01:01:30] It—Okay, so—
Nico [01:01:33] My hair. [Laughs]
Elric [01:01:36] [Laughs] Mine specifically.
Megha [01:01:36] In its concentration in the ocean, you might not really see it—
Nico [01:01:40] Ooh, gold.
Megha [01:01:41] Yes.
Nico [01:01:41] Yes! Nice!
Elric [01:01:42] Gold, damn.
Megha [01:01:43] [Laughs] Gold. Did you look at the answers before?
Nico [01:01:46] No. No, I can remember, like, where the most volcanoes in the world are, but I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday. My brain works in an interesting way, and I'm, yeah, interested in oceans and science and stuff like that.
Megha [01:01:59] Yeah. Fair enough. So please don't actually go to the ocean looking for gold. It's not—you can't actually mine the gold that's in the ocean, but there's—
Nico [01:02:07] You can! You can, it's just not economical to do it.
Elric [01:02:11] Swing a pick at the surface of the water, see what happens.
Nico [01:02:14] It's basically suspended, so you just need to, like, filter a whole lot of water. But, like, super energy-intensive and costs so much money. So you can do it and they've done it in labs and stuff, but it's just like—
Megha [01:02:24] Probably not also very eco-friendly to do that.
Nico [01:02:27] Oh, definitely not. Like anything that uses that much energy is just like… no.
Megha [01:02:29] Yeah.
Nico [01:02:31] Until we invent fusion that actually works or something like that.
Megha [01:02:35] So, yeah. So you can go looking for gold in the ocean, but we suggest not. [Laughs] So anyway, that is our round of trivia. So we've got the next game up, and the next game Elric is playing. So he's got his little keypad and mouse because it doesn't work with controllers but that's fine. So it's called Flotsam, it's by Pajama Llama Games, and it is a—for lack of a better term because this is what they refer to it as—is a garbage town builder.
Megha [01:03:08] A garbage town builder.
Elric [01:03:10] This guy looks like you, Nico.
Nico [01:03:12] [Laughs] It is me.
Megha [01:03:13] So, this is one of the games that we're playing that's not underwater. It's actually above the water. Have you guys heard or played this game before?
Elric [01:03:21] Not until today.
Nico [01:03:23] I feel like I have seen it on Steam. I really like city builders, so I think it might have popped up. It might be on my wish list, but I haven't played it. Again, going into all these blind, but yeah.
Elric [01:03:39] Cool. I'm going to just continue from where we were. We're apparently at Waterkerke.
Megha [01:03:45] Day 51!
Nico [01:03:46] Waterkerke-ka-kerke-kerke.
Elric [01:03:47] Day 51.
Nico [01:03:47] Oh, no! These seagulls—they're so cute, but they're in danger.
Elric [01:03:52] They're all in danger.
Megha [01:03:53] I feel like this is an exact mirror of what SAMUDRA is because it's the same ocean plastic pollution, but they've done it in such a cutesy way.
Nico [01:04:02] And you're on top of the water. So there's all that pollution below and you're just like—they could exist in the same shared universe.
Megha [01:04:10] Yeah. Somewhere below you'll see a little lantern going by.
Nico [01:04:12] Yeah, god, and do the fish have little helmets on when you catch them?
Elric [01:04:17] Definitely. I don't know, let's find out. [Laughs]
Megha [01:04:22] Let's go find some fish.
Elric [01:04:24] Let's—all right. I'm going to go to the map.
Nico [01:04:28] So what's the objective of this game? Like what's everybody working towards?
Elric [01:04:33] So the objective seems to be to basically sail around in your little makeshift vessel and find things to grow your vessel and sustain yourself.
Megha [01:04:45] So is the entire town moving around? Oh, yeah! Okay, so that's where the boat is.
Elric [01:04:49] Yeah. So I've got this little—yeah, pretty janky boat—oh, I'm right on top of the fish. Let's hope that it still works. But anyway, so, I'm gonna place a little fishing thing down there. Aw, it doesn't want me to.
Megha [01:05:04] Oh—[Laughs]—it's because you're right on top of it. You can't—
Elric [01:05:07] All right, so I'm gonna move out of the way just a little bit.
Megha [01:05:10] You know there are actually—I think probably in places like Indonesia and Vietnam and stuff, there are like—this is like a reality for a lot of people living there because they just live on top of the water. And they're born there, they live there, they perish there. And that's just it, their whole lives are on top of the water because there's not enough, I guess, land space. So they're just more comfortable living like that.
Nico [01:05:32] I think it's also just way of life. And some people—like, they fish for a living, so they have just taken to the water and build their dwellings there.
Megha [01:05:45] Mhmm.
Nico [01:05:47] But yeah, interesting settlements of people and interesting way of life for sure. I've, yeah, been to Vietnam and saw a few villages that were floating villages, which is really cool, and lots of sort of salvaged plastics and things to build new floating areas.
Megha [01:06:10] Yep. So it's, like, already a reality some—but this is obviously more on a grand scale because you can actually see the remnants of what would have been the town on top of the water underneath it.
Nico [01:06:23] Yeah. Yeah, can we get a shot of any of the buildings that have been submerged?
Elric [01:06:32] Yeah, totally. I don't know how far in I can go, but…
Nico [01:06:35] Is that a skyscraper? Or are they little huts?
Elric [01:06:38] It's like a highrise village house.
Megha [01:06:40] [Laughs] Yeah.
Nico [01:06:42] [Laughs] A seven story cottage.
Elric [01:06:44] Something like that. Oh, no, it is—it's, like, on a highway. So it's got to be apartments.
Nico [01:06:47] Yeah.
Megha [01:06:48] Wow.
Elric [01:06:49] Yeah, this is about as close as I can get.
Megha [01:06:51] It's like you found Atlantis. But Atlantis was everywhere.
Elric [01:06:54] Yeah. Very interesting water recycling system—like, rainwater harvesting system or something like that.
Megha [01:07:03] Well, at least they tried. They can at least say that they tried.
Elric [01:07:06] And massive corals. I guess this is a world where global warming melted all the ice caps and the entire world is covered in ocean now. Something like that.
Megha [01:07:14] Then you would have won that trivia question because it would have been 100%. [Laughs]
Elric [01:07:18] [Laughs] That's why I said it. Not because that's where we are, but that's where we're heading, right?
Megha [01:07:21] Yep. [Laughs]
Elric [01:07:23] Yeah, I don't really know what's happened here, but there was this little unbottler, which I think I can use to take the bottles and plastic off of or out of the fish that I catch, which is pretty depressing, but it seems important. And it said I needed some more energy, so I built a little battery thing here, and I got this random hook, which I'm not really sure.
Megha [01:07:44] I think you're meant to—oh.
Elric [01:07:46] Success.
Megha [01:07:47] Connected.
Elric [01:07:49] Yeah, so now I'm unbottling some fish, which, again, a little bit depressing, but it is what it is.
Megha [01:07:54] But it's--that's what this whole—it's like what you would say a feel-good apocalyptic game. What do you feel about that kind of—like, again, coming back to how SAMUDRA was obviously not like a feel-good game. It was very dark and it was very on your face. And this one's a bit more hinting at the consequences but in a style that—do you think maybe people wouldn't take it as seriously, or does that not matter at all?
Nico [01:08:23] I think it would probably depend a lot on the game and person. Personally, I would like to play a feel-good game about the apocalypse because my preferences.
Megha [01:08:33] Yep.
Nico [01:08:34] But I feel like everybody—or most people are probably similar where things that are uncomfortable, people don't want to do them. But yeah, I haven't seen any particular research on the impact or efficacy of negative sentiment games versus positive sentiment games on actually changing behavior. So would be really interested to see that, and I suspect it's probably—it will impact different people in different ways.
Megha [01:09:01] Yep.
Nico [01:09:02] Definitely one thing with games, and games for social change, is that there is no single audience or single player. Like, everybody's different, everybody's unique, and you really need to—if you're making a game for change, then you really need to understand who is your audience and what context is the game going to be played in. And then you need to do a lot of interviewing and testing and just making sure that different people with different life experiences who are bringing them into this interactive format can get the core message out or change their behavior in a particular way. So it's—yeah, it's definitely a challenge. And I'd say negative view would probably work in certain circumstances and for certain audiences. Positive for other ones.
Megha [01:09:53] Yep.
Nico [01:09:54] Potentially for this more broad audience entertainment focus. I assume that that's what they're going for with this game, where it's a fun game that is designed for everybody to play. And then it's more the theme is focused on environmental cataclysm or like global warming gone to the moon basically.
Megha [01:10:17] Yep. [Laughs]
Nico [01:10:19] For a game like this, I think it's potentially a smart move to go with a positive, feel-good, fun atmosphere, and then just have these themes that are kind of underneath the surface. And the fish unbottling plant or whatever you just built is a really good example of, like—you can draw in an audience that likes city builders, that likes fun games, that just wants to have a bit of fun, and then you can put in all these little aha moments where it's like, "Oh shit. I've gotta unbottle fish. This is kind of a bit messed up."
Megha [01:10:54] Yeah.
Nico [01:10:55] And then if you have enough of those, I think you can have a really profound impact on people's perspective, which can be really good. But yeah, depends on the game and depends on the audience.
Elric [01:11:09] So in case anyone didn't notice just then, all my little workers just went to bed because it's night time and they're sensible people; they get rest when they need to.
Megha [01:11:18] They get rest. They have a work-life balance. They know how it is.
Elric [01:11:21] Yeah. Something I really like about this game is that I noticed while I was playing is it's kind of a positive take, a little bit, on yeah, a post-apocalyptic future where we've neglected the environment, where yeah, it's like a little community of people are making do with what they have, and they're using the resources provided to them by the environment.
Nico [01:11:49] By the ocean. The ocean provides.
Elric [01:11:50] Yeah. And like—
Megha [01:11:52] They're just Bear Grylling…
Elric [01:11:54] Plastics and stuff collected from fish obviously. But yeah, it's cool. I think it's a nice positive take on something that in all the other—well, the previous instance of the game that we looked at was a little bit more doom and gloom. This is a bit more positive, which is pretty cool.
Megha [01:12:13] And city builders in their own way are always super fun to do because you have that freedom to be like, "Oh, I can go in this direction, I'll go in that direction. I'm going to make one long town or I'm going to spread myself out."
Nico [01:12:25] I think on the point of—we were talking about narrative with the previous two games, of that environmental storytelling. And one thing that I've always liked about City Builders is creating your own narrative. And like, you usually start with a very blank slate and you've got a bunch of tools. When I play a city builder, I really like to kind of think about the town and think about people moving around it. Like what sort of town is this? And creating little parks and spaces like, "Oh, that'd be cool and cute for people to go and hang out in," which I think has a nice parallel to the other two games that we've looked at of filling in the gaps and creating your own story. And the setting itself for this game where it's, yeah, post-apocalyptic—like all this pollution lends itself really well to creating these stories and creating these narratives around these people getting by and surviving and rebuilding after this huge world-ending event.
Megha [01:13:28] Mhmm.
Nico [01:13:32] Just looking around for something to hook it to?
Elric [01:13:33] Yeah. [Laughs] I don't even know if I need this battery. I just thought it'd be cool to build one.
Nico [01:13:37] Yeah. Keeping a reserve. Can you hook it to the other battery?
Elric [01:13:44] Oh?
Nico [01:13:44] Yeah. Yeah. You can.
Elric [01:13:45] I can.
Nico [01:13:45] Boom.
Elric [01:13:46] Got to power my battery somehow, right? And then I'll get this one to power this one, and we'll have infinite energy. That's how that works, right?
Megha [01:13:57] Probably. [Laughs] So with games like this as well—like we were talking about city building games and how it helps you control the narrative. Do you think games like this specifically is also teaching people how to be resourceful?
Nico [01:14:11] Whoa, whoa. Hold up.
Megha [01:14:14] Why is his teeth out of his face?
Nico [01:14:16] Aw, he's swimming straight through the island.
Elric [01:14:17] It's like a massive, deformed—
Nico [01:14:18] Whoa.
Megha [01:14:19] Okay, that is terrifying.
Elric [01:14:21] It is.
Nico [01:14:21] But it's kind of cute.
Elric [01:14:22] Almost ate my friend.
Megha [01:14:25] [Laughs] Almost ate your friend.
Nico [01:14:26] The eyes make it so cute. But if it just had, like, evil eyes, it would be terrifying.
Elric [01:14:31] Are they even eyes or is that just a—
Nico [01:14:33] A giant barnacle?
Elric [01:14:34] Oh wait, that's its eye. Oh my god.
Megha [01:14:37] [Laughs] That's its eye. It could just be covered with eyes.
Elric [01:14:37] Now I see it.
Nico [01:14:38] It's friendly. Like, look, nothing with that sort of eye is going to be unfriendly. And enemies don't have those eyes.
Elric [01:14:44] I would have preferred it was a googly eye.
Megha [01:14:46] [Laughs] It had to move every time it moved?
Nico [01:14:52] Sorry for interrupting you. You were talking about narrative?
Megha [01:14:56] Yeah, I was talking about narrative and in relation to that, how games like this also potentially have the ability to teach people how to be resourceful. Like, this could be a reality for people. I don't know how in sound accuracy it would be, but you know, if this was a reality for people, is this teaching people then how to be resourceful when it comes to situations like this or near situations like this?
Nico [01:15:22] Yeah, I think that the point I was talking about earlier around, "What's the objective of the game?" definitely applies to this one as well, where depending on what the objective for the game is—like if it's to—and the priority of that objective. So if they want to make people more resourceful and they've put all of this sort of resource gathering and building mechanics in there, then it might be that—I feel like for this particular game, the importance on change and getting people to take that experience back to the real world isn't super high, but I think it is still a potential impact. And again, it depends on the player, depends on the context of where it is being played. But I think that repeated exposure to these concepts around, "Aw, you're using these various materials to build X, Y and Z, so you're reusing plastic or you're reusing wood rather than throwing it out. So you're taking garbage and turning it into something else." I think that the exposure to that idea can rub off on you, can rub off on your life. And then when you go to throw out a piece of plastic in the real world, you start associating plastic in the game with plastic in the real world. And then those habits that you formed in the game apply to your real world interactions and you're thinking, "Should I throw out this piece of plastic? Or is there potentially something that I could do with it or make with it?" And especially if you're salvaging it from the oceans, like just that idea of, "Plastic is coming out of the oceans. I'm taking it out of the oceans." And I think also making the trash desirable to have—so in this game, it's a resource. You want to have all this rubbish, you want to have all of these resources.
Elric [01:17:22] Giving it a use.
Nico [01:17:22] And you're trying to hoard it. And then that just fundamentally shifts your thinking around plastic, as long as you can make that association in between the game and the real world. And I think that comes down to the way that it's presented and named and just, yeah, making sure that that connection is very, very clear between game world and real world. And potentially where a game like this has been set in a realistic environment where it's feasible that this could be our future, I think that is definitely an impact that they can have with it.
Elric [01:18:04] Sorry, I'm just noticing I can, like, increase the stats on my characters.
Nico [01:18:07] Oh yeah.
Elric [01:18:09] But I've only got a limited amount, just bumping stuff up.
Nico [01:18:13] Are you going to do some role-playing? Who's this character? And they're good at crafting?
Elric [01:18:18] I am enjoying watching this person just absolutely go ham on the bike, powering this electric desalinator.
Megha [01:18:25] His calves must be ripped at this point.
Elric [01:18:27] Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Nico [01:18:28] Is that bike powering a furnace?
Elric [01:18:31] Yes.
Megha [01:18:32] Electric desalinator.
Nico [01:18:34] Yeah, but there's a fire going on there.
Elric [01:18:37] Yeah, that's how fast they're pedaling.
Nico [01:18:39] Yeah.
Megha [01:18:39] So it's taking water from the ocean and it's steaming it, and the steam is getting made into clean water.
Elric [01:18:47] At a really fast rate because this person is absolutely pumping it. They also have a pot for a hat, which I thought was pretty cool. Let's try and find our other people. What's this person doing? This person's—
Megha [01:19:03] Oh, that's another desalinator.
Elric [01:19:03] Also working a desalinator. [Laughs] A different one.
Megha [01:19:05] Everyone just needs the clean water. Everyone just wants clean water.
Nico [01:19:08] Does that one get run on wood and the other one's run on electricity or something?
Elric [01:19:11] It kind of looks like it, doesn't it?
Nico [01:19:13] Yeah. Doesn't look like there's any—
Elric [01:19:16] Yes, firewood. That one takes firewood. Whereas this one just takes…
Megha [01:19:23] Efficiency. [Laughs]
Elric [01:19:24] Mad calves. [Laughs]
Megha [01:19:25] Mad calves. [Laughs]
Elric [01:19:26] Yeah. And then this person is making the boat run or something. Maybe that's the idling. Probably do something like that. Anyway, I found this—what was it? A…
Megha [01:19:40] Remnants of a town.
Elric [01:19:41] Intact book shop.
Megha [01:19:42] Book shop!
Nico [01:19:42] Whoa.
Elric [01:19:44] Which, yeah, I tried to salvage, but no one—
Nico [01:19:45] The whale! God, this whale loves swimming through islands.
Elric [01:19:49] Yeah.
Megha [01:19:51] He's just like, "You guys had your moment. It's my time now.".
Elric [01:19:54] Yeah.
Megha [01:19:54] "This is all water.".
Elric [01:19:55] But yeah, I'm loving how these—I'm assuming these are procedural landscapes or something, but they kind of blend in with the rest of the landscape really nicely. Like, you know, the roads come in and out of the water and go into the rest of the environment. Yeah. It is really beautiful, as well, just—I don't know, there's a certain beauty to seeing everything in ruins. And I guess that's another contrast to the previous game is, like, this shows us beautiful ruins and the other game showed us really ugly, miserable ruins.
Megha [01:20:29] Yep.
Nico [01:20:30] Mm. And I think, yeah, again, who's the audience that it's going to be speaking to? And, yeah, going for that mass market, more visually appealing look to a game potentially just appeals to different people. And I think there's probably no right or wrong approach with any of these. It's just really—like, we need to be making games, we need to be making film, we need to be writing articles, we need to just be making a lot of content about the problems that we're facing in the world and potential solutions. So if—yeah, if we've got some that are a bit more gloomy and have a stronger message to them, and we get some that are beautiful and inspiring, other ones that are like fun and quirky, I think that's just creating more opportunities for people to discover these games and these concepts and ask themselves questions about like, "How do I feel about this? What do I actually want to do about it?"
Elric [01:21:32] Yep.
Megha [01:21:33] So it also brings me to an overall or overarching question as well. It's that—and the topic for all of this is inherently subjected to games and making games that have this effect, that can have this effect that people can play. So in that sense, I guess my question would be, are games the way forward to try to bring these kind of conversations out to a wider audience, just because of the kind of engagement and the kind of immersion that you have when playing a game?
Elric [01:22:07] It's definitely a—like, it's one approach. I don't think it's the only viable approach. Yeah. And I think there's definitely a space there for it as well. Like, people don't just—people play games for entertainment, but they—it's also just a really good learning tool and a really good way to deliver certain messages, much the same as film and television. Just in a more interactive way. And in some regards more effective because of that, because it's interactive. You know, like, "Show, don't tell," and then, "Do, don't show," and games is the "Do" part of that.
Nico [01:22:47] Yeah. Yeah, I would definitely say that games can be really effective, but they're part of a broader ecosystem, and, yeah, there is definitely no silver bullet. And I think just everybody—or everybody who can needs to be doing whatever's in their skill set, whatever is in their power to be agents for change. So like, us as game developers, we want to be creating games about this subject matter because we want people to see it, we want people to interact with it, we want people to take something away from that. For people who are novel writers, write novels; for people who are filmmakers, create film; if you're a researcher or scientists, do science.
Megha [01:23:39] [Laughs] Do science.
Nico [01:23:40] I think doing science is a critical component of this. And just if everybody is contributing in the way that they can to this broader discussion—and I think that's what's going to really change the world. Like, as long as there is enough—maybe a little bit optimistic here, but as long as there is enough public pressure and sentiment around, like, "We want change," and people are willing to spend more on products that are better for the environment, we're more willing to go to our politicians and say, "We want action on these particular issues…" And that's why I think that—where I think games and other media play a really important role is in having a discussion about changing the thought process, making people better informed so that they can engage with each other on a deeper level around these issues. And like, that's how change really happens. It's by the spread of ideas within society. So if we can change the entire world's perception around an issue, then there will be a greater tendency towards action.
Megha [01:25:06] Nice. I think that—
Elric [01:25:09] Well said.
Megha [01:25:09] Yeah. That sums it all up really, really well.
Nico [01:25:12] So just change everybody's mind in the entire world.
Megha [01:25:14] Just change everyone's mind. [Laughs]
Nico [01:25:15] I mean, yeah, as I said, a little bit optimistic. That's the objective. [Laughs] But the actual way to do that, and where I think games fit in, is games are a particular way that we can target a particular audience, and it's not going to be enough on its own. So, yeah, movies, TV, articles, books—just create what you can.
Megha [01:25:38] Create what you can and change the world.
Nico [01:25:39] Do it for the kids.
Elric [01:25:41] Just do it.
Nico [01:25:41] Yeah.
Megha [01:25:43] And also, Elric, a thing that I just noticed: there's a top bar for your engine thing, and I think you ran out. That's why you couldn't move. [Laughs]
Elric [01:25:50] Probably because I told my people to stop generating power. I wanted them to inspect that intact book shop, but they just weren't doing it, so I was just telling them to stop doing stuff. That was probably my fault. Oops.
Megha [01:26:03] It's all good.
Elric [01:26:03] All good. Where was it? The desalinator? No. Was it this thing? It's run out of power. There's no power linked to the townheart. I like that name. Townheart.
Megha [01:26:18] Townheart.
Nico [01:26:20] It reminds me a little bit of Frostpunk with the generator. Have either of you played it?
Elric [01:26:29] No, I've seen some—
Nico [01:26:29] I'm seeing some blank stares. All right, all right. I was expecting more of a result from that.
Elric [01:26:35] I've seen bits and pieces of that.
Nico [01:26:37] It's like—yeah, they've got, like, a steam generator at the center, and it's like a radial city builder. It's a really good game. It's about a post-apocalyptic world, but it's a snowball Earth, so it's, "Everything's frozen," rather than, "Everything's flooded." And it is—deals with very, I guess, serious or complex subjects like, I don't know, fascism or, "Do you cannibalize your dead in order to feed those that are the living?" And it just gives you a very strong emotional response or puts you in a position where you're just really choosing between two decisions that suck. And you're like, "What would I do in this situation? I would go to cannibalism because I want somebody to survive." Not saying—I didn't make that decision. That wasn't me!
Megha [01:27:37] [Laughs] Clip that! Somebody clip that: "I would go to cannibalism."
Nico [01:27:40] But yeah, it is just a very interesting tool for exploring our own decision making process. And it's similar to This War of Mine. Both of those games can very highly recommend, but playing those games, you just make these decisions that you really feel shit about, and I don't know, it gives you a greater understanding or perspective of, like, "Other people have been put in this situation before." And yeah, I don't know, helps to build empathy with others.
Megha [01:28:13] Nice. All right, well, I think, Elric, are you happy with where we are in this? [Laughs] And are you happy with where your town is?
Elric [01:28:24] Yep. Nobody ask me what I'm doing, but it's cool. Things are moving along. We've got some electricity running to our townheart, and yeah, we're generating fuel now, so we're all good.
Megha [01:28:34] Awesome. All right. Well, that was—that is Flotsam. This is available on Steam, Kartridge, GOG, Itch.io, and the Humble store. And, yeah, what did you guys think of it? After all that, Elric, what did you think? Because you were—I think you were focusing properly.
Elric [01:28:51] Yeah, I was super into it. Yeah, really enjoy it. I think seeing it from the start would have made for a more well-rounded experience. But yeah, I really like it. I really like the concept. City builders are awesome, and yeah, city builders on water, even more awesome. [Laughs] Yeah. And really appreciated all the conservation messages involved in that as well. Like even just things as simple as like let's take the plastic off the fish and then let's use the plastic as well. Like what you're saying around, yeah, taking something that sucks and finding a good use for it rather than just putting it into the ocean. Yeah. I think they've used the same message multiple ways to great effect. Yeah. Really cool.
Nico [01:29:43] Yeah. Well said. Yeah, I think the—essentially the same thing. I was a little bit afraid that the fun, pretty portrayal of a post-apocalyptic future might have meant that it didn't have the opportunity to be as effective, but yeah, the fish unbottling plant and just those little game design elements, definitely just seeing those, picking up on those, made me think that there is so much potential in those more entertainment-focused games, for sure.
Megha [01:30:20] Yeah. For sure.
Elric [01:30:20] Another thing I also really enjoyed is just seeing the person just pedal like crazy to generate or to desalinate your water.
Megha [01:30:30] Calf game needed to be strong for that one. [Laughs]
Elric [01:30:32] Yeah.
Nico [01:30:32] Yeah.
Elric [01:30:33] But yeah, just showing that you don't have to rely on the grid and unclean energy to do everything. Like, there's some stuff that you can just do manually and that's okay.
Megha [01:30:45] Yeah.
Elric [01:30:46] Especially in a post-apocalyptic context.
Megha [01:30:50] [Laughs] For sure. So yeah, that was our last ocean conservation or ocean-themed game around conservation and conservation-like topics for tonight. What did you guys think of everything we've played so far? Is there something that you know that you're going to go back after this and maybe play through the whole thing, or is that just all of them potentially?
Nico [01:31:14] I think Flotsam is very much the sort of game that I like to play for fun.
Elric [01:31:18] Seemed right up your alley.
Nico [01:31:19] So definitely, I mean, I'm probably the target audience for that one. It's definitely on my list and Abzû, I really like and might go back to play again. I'll see how I go.
Megha [01:31:36] Yeah.
Elric [01:31:37] Yeah. I feel like—
Nico [01:31:39] Actually the inverted controls were not working for me. I'm sure there's an option to change that.
Elric [01:31:46] [Laughs] Maybe a toggle or something.
Nico [01:31:47] But yeah, I think that just made me feel uncoordinated swimming around. I'm sure if it was the way that worked for me, it'd be very flowy and just feel very empowering and go anywhere and do anything. But yeah, I just felt like I was trying to swim like me actually trying to swim—
Megha [01:32:07] Trying to swim. [Laughs] So accurate.
Nico [01:32:08] Which is just like floundering around like, "Oh god!"
Elric [01:32:12] Yeah. For me, I think mainly Abzû is the one that I'd be most keen to play. I think the other two games probably had more interesting mechanics, but I just really like exploration and that sense of discovery, and I feel like we discovered and saw heaps of really cool things happen and lots of cool interactions when you're swimming along and you get speed boosts and can do dives and stuff like that. That's all really, really awesome. And I feel like we have surely just seen the tip of the iceberg, pun intended. And yeah, I want to see more of that.
Megha [01:32:42] Sweet. I think I would actually—even considering how anxiety inducing it is, I would say I would want to finish SAMUDRA. Because I—from the trailers, I know that there's a lot of like proper intense puzzles, and I love puzzles. Like jump scares aside, I will sit through because at least it's not an actual horror game. But yeah, I think I would want to see—like, play that through to the end, see how it go, see if there's, like, what happens at the end, see if there is like a silver lining somewhere in that game that you're meant to get to.
Elric [01:33:13] Well, let me know, because I want to know.
Megha [01:33:15] Yeah. [Laughs] If I ever manage to finish it, I will let you know.
Nico [01:33:17] I mean, maybe we can all go and play these games, and then next year we can do, like, a pre-show and discuss, "What did we take away from these games?"
Megha [01:33:26] [Laughs] What did we take away?
Elric [01:33:28] Nice.
Megha [01:33:30] All right.
Nico [01:33:30] Thank you.
Megha [01:33:33] Pass these on. Your controllers. So yeah.
Nico [01:33:37] What are we in for, Megha?
Megha [01:33:39] So, like I said, that was our last ocean conservation-themed game, so I thought to round out our stream for tonight, we're just going to play a really fun PvP style crab game. It's called Fight Crab.
Elric [01:33:53] Love it.
Nico [01:33:54] I do like crabs. Crabs are cool.
Megha [01:33:58] Crabs are awesome.
Nico [01:33:59] So what's the game about? Just—
Megha [01:34:03] Yeah, you just—yeah—
Nico [01:34:04] Fighting as crabs?
Megha [01:34:06] Honestly, I have not played this game. When we were trialing it just to see what it's like, I couldn't even figure out much of the controls. I think I have the—okay.
Nico [01:34:17] Are we doing versus?
Megha [01:34:17] I—Yes.
Nico [01:34:18] It's on. This has a campaign? Oh, that is a big sword for a crab. Offline, yeah, for sure.
Megha [01:34:27] Okay. Well…
Nico [01:34:30] Technical difficulties.
Megha [01:34:34] [Laughs] Okay, rules. How do I make this—?
Nico [01:34:36] I feel like potentially tap on rules? Ooh, one on one. Let's go with that, because there's three of us.
Megha [01:34:44] Time limit disabled? Let's—okay. No. How do I go back?
Nico [01:34:50] Just keep pressing.
Megha [01:34:52] Okay. So let's do 2 minutes.
Nico [01:34:54] Yeah.
Megha [01:34:55] Hyper mode. Sure.
Nico [01:34:57] Yeah. Hell yeah.
Elric [01:34:57] Definitely.
Megha [01:34:59] One round battle? Yep. All right, I—okay. So who's player two?
Nico [01:35:06] Me.
Megha [01:35:07] Okay, so I think we're just going to have to use these two controllers, sorry Elric. [Laughs]
Elric [01:35:11] It's cool. It's cool, I'll jump in the next one.
Nico [01:35:12] Can we get a third player in?
Megha [01:35:16] Can we?
Nico [01:35:18] I think let's start with two.
Megha [01:35:19] Yep. Okay.
Nico [01:35:21] All right. Oh, there's a coconut crab?
Megha [01:35:23] Oh.
Elric [01:35:24] You've got to be the coconut crab.
Megha [01:35:26] Was—isn't there like—that's also a bit of a conspiracy theory that the coconut crabs ate Amelia Earhart when her plane crashed on that island? [Laughs]
Nico [01:35:36] What are you talking about that this isn't about ocean sustainability? Look at all these crabs. They're cool! Oh, there's a lobster? Oh, boy.
Megha [01:35:45] Oh, I want to be a mud crab. Yes.
Nico [01:35:48] Does that have nunchucks?
Megha [01:35:51] Yeah. Nunchaku.
Nico [01:35:52] This game is awesome. All right. Mitten crab? Oh, my God. There's so many cool crabs.
Megha [01:35:58] Where is sword? Let's just go classic sword.
Nico [01:36:01] I'm going to go for a lobster.
Elric [01:36:04] He got a baton. [Laughs]
Nico [01:36:06] Yeah.
Megha [01:36:06] I'm going to go for sword and katana because those are the tattoos on my wrists. It's like a sword on one side and a katana on the other.
Nico [01:36:16] All right. [Laughs] Do you know if the gun actually fires? Oh, my God.
Megha [01:36:20] How are you going to aim it with your claws, your crab claws?
Elric [01:36:26] Haven't you seen those videos of crabs with—
Megha [01:36:29] They're holding the knives? Yeah. [Laughs]
Elric [01:36:32] Holding knives? Very threatening.
Megha [01:36:32] Revenge of the crab. [Laughs]
Nico [01:36:36] Where's the katana?
Megha [01:36:38] Nico, don't copy me.
Nico [01:36:40] Oh, do you have a katana? Oh, right, right. Well, I've got a ninja star and a fan.
Megha [01:36:44] Nice.
Nico [01:36:45] And I want to change my color to—I guess pink would work. Yeah.
Megha [01:36:53] Oh, I can change my color, too. Okay. Let's see. Do they have something pink? They don't…
Nico [01:36:58] Yeah, you can…
Megha [01:37:00] Okay. This is the most pinkish looking one, so let's just go for that.
Nico [01:37:03] I'll go for red. All right, let's do it.
Megha [01:37:05] How do we start?
Nico [01:37:06] Start.
Megha [01:37:07] Oh, right.
Nico [01:37:10] And then press A.
Megha [01:37:11] Right. Oh, no.
Nico [01:37:15] Or start.
Megha [01:37:15] Oh, there we go. Okay. Where do you want to—? Let's—let's—
Nico [01:37:19] Surely under the ocean.
Megha [01:37:21] Under the ocean? Yeah. Okay, so… Is this under the ocean?
Elric [01:37:27] Or you can do the beachside one.
Megha [01:37:30] Oh yeah, wait, this is underwater! Okay. Found an underwater one. Nice. I am going to be really—oh, wait.
Nico [01:37:40] Oh, boy. Are those—? Oh!
Megha [01:37:42] Oh, I just threw—I threw my things!
Elric [01:37:45] You better go get it.
Megha [01:37:46] Oh, I got it. How do I move?
Nico [01:37:48] I don't know.
Elric [01:37:51] Triggers, maybe?
Nico [01:37:52] All right. The triggers are to attack.
Megha [01:37:56] Oh, I can see you. Okay. I'm slowly making my way.
Nico [01:38:00] How do I…?
Elric [01:38:00] RB! RB!
Megha [01:38:01] Okay. We can do this. We can figure this—
Nico [01:38:04] Oh, wow. Here we go. All right. Oh, it's on. It's on.
Elric [01:38:08] RB!
Nico [01:38:08] All right.
Elric [01:38:10] Eat that fish!
Nico [01:38:11] Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh.
Megha [01:38:11] Hey!
Nico [01:38:13] Slamdown! Oh, boy.
Megha [01:38:16] [Laughs] How do I turn around, dammit?
Nico [01:38:19] Oh, no. You're flipping me. Oh, no!
Megha [01:38:21] Yeah, I got you. I got you now. Ha! Okay. You got to get away from behind me. Come on.
Elric [01:38:27] Oh, that's epic.
Nico [01:38:29] Let me—I'll back off. Oh, God. I keep on forgetting the deep, deep—oh, no! Oi, oi! None of that. Oh, can I grapple? Oh, did I just take your arm off? Oh, that's hectic.
Elric [01:38:41] Brutal.
Megha [01:38:42] Did you? Did you actually? Which arm?
Elric [01:38:45] It's all right, it'll grow back. Don't worry about it.
Nico [01:38:47] Oh.
Megha [01:38:47] Come on!
Nico [01:38:48] Is this like Super Smash Bros controls? Where, like—
Megha [01:38:53] Oh, no. Get up, get up, get up, get up.
Elric [01:38:55] Yeah, looks like it. It's just a percentage.
Nico [01:38:56] Yeah. Oh, no. Have I dropped my fan?
Elric [01:39:00] Both have a prompt for hyper.
Nico [01:39:01] What, how? How do I hyper?
Elric [01:39:03] I don't know.
Megha [01:39:04] I won!
Nico [01:39:05] How did I lose?! How did I lose?
Megha [01:39:06] Yes! I'm officially good at gaming. Okay.
Nico [01:39:10] No, I'd like—you can continue. You played very well.
Megha [01:39:15] [Laughs] Did I? I don't know.
Nico [01:39:17] God, the weapons in this are great. I want to know if the gun works though.
Elric [01:39:23] The carrier crab, that looks creepy. Let's do that.
Nico [01:39:27] Clay—do the claymore.
Elric [01:39:30] No, I'm gonna go halberd.
Nico [01:39:30] Yeah?
Megha [01:39:31] Oh, shoot! Okay. Sorry. I don't know what I just did. Oh, I keep pressing B instead of A!
Nico [01:39:41] Damn, Switch player.
Megha [01:39:43] [Laughs] I swear. Okay, there we go. I'm going to be a coconut crab. I'm going to be the thing that ate Amelia Earhart. Honestly, let me know if this is all in my head, but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that she was eaten by coconut crabs. Because they're huge! And her plane crashed on an island where it was, like, the native species, and apparently later they just found a bunch of coconut crabs and skulls, but at the time they didn't have the technology to check whether it was her or not. So—
Nico [01:40:16] So it's a mystery. Maybe it was the kraken. Maybe it was an ice quake. Who knows?
Elric [01:40:22] I'm ready.
Megha [01:40:23] [Laughs] It was an ice quake.
Elric [01:40:24] How do I hit—What do I hit for ready?
Nico [01:40:26] Start.
Elric [01:40:28] Makes sense.
Megha [01:40:29] Oh, I'm holding two katanas. Okay.
Nico [01:40:30] Yeah, dual-wielding katanas. Nice.
Megha [01:40:32] Let's do it.
Nico [01:40:33] [Laughs] Have you got two halberds?
Elric [01:40:36] No, I just got one.
Nico [01:40:38] Oh, is it a dual-wield weapon?
Elric [01:40:38] Yeah.
Megha [01:40:39] Okay.
Elric [01:40:39] There was an option to ride a seal which was pretty exciting.
Megha [01:40:41] How do I run again?
Nico [01:40:42] Did you just drop it?
Elric [01:40:43] How do I pick it up again?
Nico [01:40:44] I have no idea.
Megha [01:40:45] Oh, I think it's either L1 or R1.
Nico [01:40:49] So, these are what you use to fight.
Megha [01:40:51] I'm coming.
Nico [01:40:51] These control either arm. And then—
Elric [01:40:55] I'm just gonna button-mash for a while. Oh, I got a fish!
Nico [01:40:59] And then this—
Megha [01:40:59] Come back here.
Nico [01:41:00] This will control your movement.
Elric [01:41:03] Oh, I somehow got your katana.
Megha [01:41:05] Did you?
Elric [01:41:05] Okay, which one controls my movement?
Nico [01:41:06] This one.
Elric [01:41:07] Oh, okay.
Nico [01:41:07] And then—but like swing with the joysticks and then—but you, like, charge up and attack with your—with these triggers.
Megha [01:41:18] I could have used these instructions when we were playing. [Laughs]
Nico [01:41:21] Yeah, well I was versing you, I'm not going to give you hints.
Megha [01:41:24] The heck?
Nico [01:41:25] I mean, just… figure it out. What's with the fish? Are they there for distraction?
Elric [01:41:31] I'm doing a hyper thing.
Nico [01:41:31] Yeah. How do you—what's the button for hyper?
Elric [01:41:33] It's the hyper button. It's on the screen.
Megha [01:41:35] Where? Oh!
Elric [01:41:36] It's obviously the hyper button.
Elric [01:41:39] This one? Whoa. Dragon Ball Z: Crabs.
Megha [01:41:43] I kamehameha'd him.
Elric [01:41:44] Whoa, what was that?
Megha [01:41:46] Oh, shoot.
Elric [01:41:47] Oh, I threw my thing!
Megha [01:41:48] I threw my thing too!
Nico [01:41:49] Oh, you can pick up a fish!
Elric [01:41:51] Yeah, I saw that. They, like, carry you around.
Megha [01:41:53] Oh, come on. Right side up. Come on, get up.
Nico [01:41:56] Oh, go for the grapple.
Elric [01:42:00] Stab, stab.
Megha [01:42:00] Get off me! You're going down. You're going down! Are you? Are you actually going down? I don't know if I'm doing anything. Come on, I got it.
Elric [01:42:12] I'm definitely grabbing you.
Nico [01:42:13] Yeah, I thought the percentage was there.
Megha [01:42:15] Come on.
Nico [01:42:16] Go.
Elric [01:42:16] Grab, grab, grab. Smash. Smash and grab.
Nico [01:42:19] Crab smash.
Megha [01:42:20] Come on! LB. I did. LB.
Elric [01:42:23] Because the epic music and everything.
Megha [01:42:26] I'm just like—oh, hey, wait, hold on!
Nico [01:42:30] I'm pretty sure this is how crabs actually—
Megha [01:42:32] Fight?
Nico [01:42:33] Assert dominance in the wild.
Megha [01:42:36] They just claw at each other.
Elric [01:42:37] I got two fish!
Nico [01:42:38] Yeah.
Elric [01:42:38] I got a fish in each hand!
Nico [01:42:39] See? This is—
Elric [01:42:40] Unstoppable!
Nico [01:42:42] Yeah, it's part of the actual mating ritual of the coconut crab.
Megha [01:42:47] I'm killing it! How am I so good at this? [Laughs]
Nico [01:42:49] I don't know, I call hacks?
Megha [01:42:51] I am not doing—everyone can see I'm using the same controller as everyone else. [Laughs]
Elric [01:42:58] It's the katanas; they're too OP.
Megha [01:42:59] All right, Elric. You v Nico. Let's go.
Elric [01:43:01] I'll use the good controller.
Megha [01:43:03] [Laughs] The hacked controller.
Nico [01:43:05] All right. Elbow crab. Oh, there's a—reach, hell yeah.
Elric [01:43:11] Butterfly sword?
Nico [01:43:12] Turning, speed, acceleration. All right, I'm going for that.
Elric [01:43:13] I'm just going to let go of whatever I have anyway, so I'm just not going to pick a weapon. All right, I'm ready.
Megha [01:43:21] Are you riding a seal?
Elric [01:43:22] I am.
Megha [01:43:23] Wow.
Elric [01:43:24] Seal with a knife. All right, I'm ready. Done.
Nico [01:43:28] I'm going to go for dual daggers on the fast crab. All right, here we go.
Elric [01:43:35] So how do you, like, not let go of your weapon?
Megha [01:43:39] Don't press any of those buttons.
Elric [01:43:41] The triggers?
Megha [01:43:42] The letters? Don't press any of those.
Elric [01:43:43] Right, right.
Megha [01:43:44] Just move and—
Nico [01:43:46] Are you riding a seal?
Elric [01:43:47] I am riding a seal.
Nico [01:43:49] What?!
Elric [01:43:49] Come at me.
Nico [01:43:50] I call hacks. This controller is too good. Do you wanna start the game? Yeah. Hell, yeah. So I've picked the fastest crab and I've got the daggers.
Elric [01:43:59] Well, I've got a seal, so I think I'll be a little faster than you. I'm just putting it out there.
Megha [01:44:04] Whoa! [Laughs] Faster, but no control whatsoever.
Elric [01:44:09] I don't need control when I'm fast.
Nico [01:44:12] Oh, come—[Laughs]—what?! I cannot believe that you got a seal. Oh, come here. Come here. Come at me, bro!
Megha [01:44:22] [Laughs] Elric's whole strat is to just get at you from above.
Elric [01:44:24] [Laughs] How do I even hit you?
Nico [01:44:25] I don't know, but, like, I feel like I'm doing well, right?
Megha [01:44:28] No, I think you're getting beat.
Nico [01:44:31] No! But like, how?!
Megha [01:44:32] Because the seal is hitting you.
Nico [01:44:34] No! But, like, I'm hitting the seal.
Elric [01:44:37] I'm also, like, facing the wrong way. I don't know how to turn around.
Nico [01:44:39] Yeah. Can you take that?
Elric [01:44:42] How are you attacking me? What button attacks?
Nico [01:44:44] No, it's—I explained this to you. You—
Megha [01:44:49] Just L1, R1.
Nico [01:44:51] You use the—oh my god. We're just going around in circles.
Elric [01:44:52] Sorry, I'm coming back.
Nico [01:44:53] Yeah. You use your, like—the joysticks to swing your arms.
Elric [01:45:01] I'm holding the knife backwards like a dumbass.
Nico [01:45:02] Yeah, like an idiot. You—[Laughs]—come here! Yeah!
Elric [01:45:08] I've only got 1% on you, what am I doing?
Nico [01:45:10] Yeah. [Laughs]
Megha [01:45:10] I just saw someone—
Nico [01:45:12] Aw, bring it. Oh, come on. How do I hyper? Hyper!
Elric [01:45:15] No, it's me. I'm hyper.
Nico [01:45:16] What?! How do you have hyper? How do I not have hyper?
Elric [01:45:20] It's because I've got a seal. I'm twice as good.
Nico [01:45:22] I don't know.
Elric [01:45:22] Twice the sea creatures.
Nico [01:45:23] What do I have to do? What do I need to do to…?
Megha [01:45:27] Be better at the game? [Laughs]
Nico [01:45:29] Oh, here we go. Come on, I've done heaps of damage! He's on 100.
Elric [01:45:35] Yeah. Counts down, don't you know?
Megha [01:45:40] Proper fight scene music is going on right now. Someone in the chat said Stabby Crabby and I genuinely laughed.
Elric [01:45:47] Stabby Crabby. That's right.
Megha [01:45:48] Stabby Crabby.
Nico [01:45:49] All right. Oh, no. All right. Whoa. Whoa.
Elric [01:45:54] I keep getting stuck on this piece of coral. [Laughs]
Nico [01:45:56] Yeah. How do I get up on top of it?
Megha [01:45:58] Also, I apologize for ignoring chat. [Laughs] All of our ocean conservation talk, just got too into it.
Nico [01:46:05] Oh, I won! Yes!
Megha [01:46:06] Oh, he won!
Nico [01:46:06] So this controller is also just as good as that controller.
Elric [01:46:11] I'm just cursed. Cool. That was awesome. Sweet.
Nico [01:46:16] Were there any…?
Megha [01:46:17] Was there a prize in this? [Laughs]
Nico [01:46:20] [Laughs]
Megha [01:46:20] Was there a prize?
Nico [01:46:21] Did I win? [Laughs]
Megha [01:46:24] I feel like I won because I won twice.
Elric [01:46:26] You did win twice.
Nico [01:46:26] Yes.
Megha [01:46:27] I did win twice.
Elric [01:46:28] One against each of us.
Megha [01:46:29] Oh, yeah! Okay. It's got to be winner's circle. Okay, so whoever wins this apparently gets something.
Nico [01:46:35] I mean, you already beat me.
Elric [01:46:37] [Laughs]
Megha [01:46:37] It's okay.
Nico [01:46:39] But…
Megha [01:46:40] All right.
Nico [01:46:41] I feel like I need some more ridiculous weapons. The seal was good.
Megha [01:46:46] Yeah, the seal was pretty sweet.
Nico [01:46:47] But I'm gonna do—
Elric [01:46:47] I felt like I could move around pretty easily with the seal.
Nico [01:46:50] I'm gonna go dual flails.
Megha [01:46:51] I'm gonna go for a calappa.
Nico [01:46:51] Oh, actually, I don't—nah.
Elric [01:46:54] You can't wield the seal and a big weapon.
Nico [01:47:00] Or maybe I should go for the one that's got the long arms.
Megha [01:47:05] I want to see how well—
Nico [01:47:06] Hell, yeah.
Megha [01:47:08] What is this? Jet. Okay.
Elric [01:47:10] I think, like, some sort of ranged weapon will go well with the seal. Too hard to hit anything from the seal because it was too high up.
Nico [01:47:17] Yeah?
Megha [01:47:18] Oh, let's go for this. All right.
Elric [01:47:20] I mean, that's what I'm putting it down to, anyways.
Megha [01:47:21] Sweet.
Elric [01:47:21] Definitely not just me being crap.
Nico [01:47:24] Well, I'm going for long arms and nunchucks. Oh, what? You're copying me!
Megha [01:47:30] [Laughs] I'm not copying—I'm not using nunchuks. I'm using a three-section staff. Oh, shoot, okay, yeah. Let's do this, winner's circle.
Nico [01:47:41] All right. Oh, hell yeah.
Elric [01:47:43] That elbow crab looks badass.
Megha [01:47:43] Am I moving? I am moving.
Elric [01:47:46] I think you hit yourself then maybe.
Megha [01:47:48] Let's go!
Nico [01:47:50] Oh, boy. Whoa.
Megha [01:47:53] Come back here. Oh, I threw my thing already.
Nico [01:47:57] Oh, huge hits. Oh, boy. These are too unwieldy. Oh, boy.
Megha [01:48:03] Come on. Come on.
Nico [01:48:05] All right, I need to back up. God, you're a bit tanky.
Elric [01:48:12] You almost tipped her over.
Megha [01:48:15] [Laughs] I'm just like—all right, let's go. Come on.
Nico [01:48:19] God, you're really—are you—?
Megha [01:48:22] I'm button-mashing. Honestly, there's no strat to my game.
Nico [01:48:25] Nah, I'm—strategy is everything! Go for the technical play! See, that's why I'm still holding my weapon, and you're not.
Megha [01:48:33] I think you're holding both of our weapons.
Nico [01:48:35] I think it's just caught up in the nunchucks. Argh! A little, like, cross hit. How are you still beating me?
Elric [01:48:42] Oh, she got her weapon back.
Megha [01:48:43] Oh, did I? I can't see anything, to be honest.
Elric [01:48:46] Yeah, you do. You're holding it in both hands.
Nico [01:48:47] All right. Wha—? How do I turn the camera? Argh! Oh, go, son!
Elric [01:48:53] Getting wrecked, Nico.
Megha [01:48:55] Was that your arm? Oh, that was your arm. Where are you? All right. There you are.
Nico [01:49:00] I don't know.
Megha [01:49:01] Come back here!
Nico [01:49:02] My character is all arms.
Elric [01:49:04] No, it's elbows.
Nico [01:49:06] No…
Elric [01:49:07] You're an elbow crab.
Nico [01:49:07] Yeah, but, like, it's just…
Megha [01:49:11] Come on, son.
Nico [01:49:12] Oh, my God. Go!
Megha [01:49:14] Yes!
Nico [01:49:15] Yeah. All right. Mistakes were made with the long arms and the nunchucks… where I can't, like—I can't hit anything that's, like, right next to me, because—
Elric [01:49:28] You've got too much range.
Nico [01:49:28] I just, like, hug you and, like, hit myself.
Elric [01:49:32] Oh, hyper, hyper! Go, go, go. You only got 9 seconds.
Nico [01:49:34] All right. Slam down.
Megha [01:49:36] Come on.
Nico [01:49:37] All right.
Megha [01:49:40] Ahh! [Laughs]
Nico [01:49:42] Aww yeah. I can see why I lost that one. Yeah.
Megha [01:49:46] Nice.
Nico [01:49:47] Winner. All right.
Elric [01:49:50] Well done.
Megha [01:49:50] One of the few PvP games I'm actually good at. I think I suck at most PvP games otherwise. I don't know if you guys have ever seen me play Smash Bros with everybody else in the office, but I'm somewhere off in the corner falling off without anyone touching me at all.
Elric [01:50:05] Yeah.
Megha [01:50:07] I'm that bad.
Nico [01:50:07] I've seen it.
Megha [01:50:08] [Laughs] Yeah.
Elric [01:50:08] I'm pretty sure that's how you're supposed to play.
Nico [01:50:11] Yeah, for sure.
Megha [01:50:14] All right.
Nico [01:50:15] Shall we call it there? Are there any other trivia things, or…?
Megha [01:50:20] I have more trivia questions.
Nico [01:50:22] Questions from the chat?
Megha [01:50:24] Do we have any questions from the chat? No. The chat does not want to interact with us, but that's fine. I have a couple of trivia questions while we—to round out this whole experience that is today.
Nico [01:50:41] Sweet.
Elric [01:50:41] Let's do it.
Megha [01:50:42] Okay, so let's go.
Elric [01:50:45] I'm going to win all of these ones. Just so you know. Prepare yourself.
Nico [01:50:49] I love trivia so much.
Megha [01:50:53] Okay. I thought I had more trivia questions. [Laughs]
Nico [01:50:57] Freestyle.
Elric [01:50:58] Make one up.
Nico [01:50:58] Freestyle.
Megha [01:50:59] Just make one up?
Elric [01:51:00] [Laughs] Yeah.
Nico [01:51:00] What's the smallest ocean in the world?
Megha [01:51:02] All right. What is the—how many oceans do we have on earth?
Nico [01:51:10] It's the seven seas? I'm going to go with seven?
Megha [01:51:13] But is it a sea or an ocean? So how many oceans do we have?
Elric [01:51:16] What's the difference between a sea and an ocean?
Nico [01:51:19] Big.
Megha [01:51:19] Big. [Laughs]
Elric [01:51:19] [Laughs] Big.
Megha [01:51:19] Big.
Nico [01:51:22] Cool.
Megha [01:51:23] Big is the difference between the sea and the ocean.
Elric [01:51:27] I have learned something today.
Nico [01:51:29] All right, I have an actual piece of trivia.
Megha [01:51:30] All right, let's go from this.
Nico [01:51:36] When clownfish pair up, does the dominant one become a male or a female?
Megha [01:51:46] They can change genders?
Elric [01:51:48] Yeah, I wasn't aware that was a thing.
Megha [01:51:50] The dominant one becomes female, because…
Nico [01:51:54] Because girl power.
Megha [01:51:55] Exactly.
Nico [01:51:57] Yeah, so when they're born, they're all males, and in the wild, they eventually pair up, and whichever one's the more dominant will grow larger and become a female, and the other one will stay a male.
Megha [01:52:12] I think this has put a whole new perspective on the events that happened at the beginning of Finding Nemo for me.
Nico [01:52:18] Someone's actually pointed that out, that like in reality, Marlin would become the female, and then Nemo would be her, like, husband clownfish. Which is a bit fucked up. [Laughs]
Megha [01:52:30] Yeah. Wow.
Elric [01:52:33] Something similar with seahorses, just like… asexually reproduce?
Nico [01:52:38] Yeah. I think we've got to—do you just wanna pass me the remote? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, seahorses, they—the males hold—get pregnant.
Megha [01:52:54] They hold all the babies.
Nico [01:52:54] Hold on to it. Yeah. Interesting stuff.
Elric [01:52:57] Sea creatures are wild.
Nico [01:52:58] Yeah. [Laughs]
Elric [01:52:59] It's the key takeaway from today.
Nico [01:53:01] The whole wild ocean out there. But, yeah, I think that's, again, like, circling back to what we were saying, it's this alien world that is kind of filled with mysteries and anything could happen, and it's, yeah, it's more interesting hearing about the fact rather than trying to make up all this fiction.
Elric [01:53:20] Yeah.
Megha [01:53:21] Yep.
Nico [01:53:21] And they're—like, it's a place that you can actually explore.
Megha [01:53:25] Yeah. Lots of cool stuff to be explored, technically, if only 5% has been, and we only know about 5% of all of that life underwater.
Elric [01:53:33] Yeah. It's incredible.
Megha [01:53:34] Be so cool. What's down there?
Nico [01:53:35] Yeah, for sure.
Elric [01:53:38] And a lot to draw from for games as well. Like, I feel like there's heaps of inspiration. Endless inspiration.
Nico [01:53:44] Yeah. Yeah. I'd say if there's any one takeaway from tonight, it's if you have a creative power or if you have some sort of ability, go out and create something about the oceans and do what you love and learn about what the oceans have to offer and all the interesting parts about it, and if you find something that you're passionate about, go and do that and share that with people around you.
Megha [01:54:08] Go for it. Yes.
Elric [01:54:10] For sure.
Megha [01:54:11] And yeah, so with that, we are at the end of our livestream. Did you guys have fun?
Elric [01:54:15] Very much so.
Nico [01:54:17] Absolutely hated it.
Megha [01:54:18] [Laughs] Oh no.
Nico [01:54:19] Miserable the whole time. No, I very much enjoyed it. And I think that there are—yeah, I was surprised by the different ways that the different games appeal to or fit into the "Games for change" or "Games for good" framework where they were all approaching it from very, very different perspectives and targeting very different audiences but all equally as valid. And yeah, it was just really interesting to see such diversity in the types of games that we were exploring. And I mean, I love trivia, but for some reason that's what my brain remembers. It's—yeah, it's not what I did a week ago.
Megha [01:55:04] It's trivia.
Nico [01:55:05] Yeah, it's trivia.
Elric [01:55:06] I'm terrible at trivia. So I was really happy that I got Mariana Trench. Marinara Trench.
Nico [01:55:11] Marinara Trench.
Megha [01:55:11] [Laughs] Marinara Trench.
Nico [01:55:11] Marinara Trench, of course.
Megha [01:55:12] So what do you think—because Nico probably knew most of these answers for trivia, but, Elric, if there was a piece of trivia information you found out today, what do you think—aside from Marinara Trench? Because I feel like no one's going to be able to forget that.
Elric [01:55:25] I think just the sheer size of the ocean, like the fact that the Pacific Ocean is, like—was it five times wider than the moon?—is insane. Like, that's—yeah. Incomprehendible. Uncomprehendible? Yeah. So just the sheer scale of it is amazing. And I'm really glad that we have what we have, and I hope we make steps to preserve it.
Megha [01:55:51] Nice. Yep. And, yeah, if you guys want to learn more about ocean conservation and what this day and event means in general, please go visit worldoceanday.org, and you can find out places that you can donate to. You can find out places that you can learn a lot of resources from, a lot of information from that super cool website. Learn. Keep learning things. And if you don't already, follow us on all of our socials. So you can follow us here on Twitch; we will hopefully be doing a lot more livestreams to come, with a lot more variety of serious games and just ones for fun like Fight Crab. And yeah, follow us on all our other socials. We've got Twitter, Instagram now as well. And we will—thank you for joining us, whoever did join us, and happy World Ocean Day again. Ocean, dammit. There's technically multiple, so World Oceans Day makes sense.
Elric [01:56:48] Let's appreciate all of them equally.
Megha [01:56:50] Yes, all of the oceans.
Nico [01:56:52] Thank you, bye!
Elric [01:56:52] Bye!
Megha [01:56:53] Bye!
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