187: Fear & Hunger (with Adam Bucceri)

Support my work on Patreon- https://patreon.com/realdavejackson Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server- https://discord.gg/kAqSBb6jH2 Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi- https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson Sometimes a game's reputation precedes it in a way that makes you question whether you want to play it at all, and Fear & Hunger (Miro Haverinen, 2018) certainly fits that bill. Punishing difficulty, harsh teaching, extreme content warnings and more put me off from playing the game for a while, but I'm glad to have played it now, and all of that made for a great conversation. Content warnings for Fear & Hunger: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/17804 Guest info: Adam Bucceri (he/him) Check out Adam's games https://boocherry.itch.io/ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Title Card 0:15 Intros 6:03 Our Histories with Fear & Hunger 9:55 Should We Play Fear & Hunger 1 or 2? 11:27 Opening Thoughts About Fear & Hunger 17:24 Content Warnings 26:15 Game Setup and Character Selection 31:15 Difficulty and Learning How to Play 44:55 Player-Hostile Design and Pressures 58:34 Immersive Sim Elements, Experimentation and Emergent Narrative 1:07:47 Combat 1:21:36 Visuals and Sound Design 1:27:20 Closing Thoughts and Recommendations 1:34:20 Adam's Games and Creative Works 1:37:18 SPOILER WALL and Patron Thank-Yous 1:39:18 Spoiler Section- The Girl, Le'garde and Fun Discoveries 2:26:35 Spoiler Section- Endings Music used in the episode is credited to Miro Haverinen. Tracks used: Fear & Hunger, The Four Apostles, Pulse & Anxiety, Ancient City, Tomb of the Gods, Everyday Schoolday Check out Dave's guest appearance on The Pre-Order Bonus about Rain World- https://www.patreon.com/c/preordercast Social Media: BlueSky- https://bsky.app/profile/tftblpod.bsky.social Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/talesfromthebacklog/ Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://linktr.ee/JackAllenCaricatures