All posts by Jonathan Hardesty

Writer/Creator/Web Guy for After the Hype. Created an animated fantasy webseries called Flagon. GM for Demon Dayz: An Actual Play Podcast, which you can conveniently find here on athpod.com

Mind the Messy of PsychOdyssey

Here’s a newsflash for you that is probably super obvious: game dev is messy. Like, extremely messy. It’s all chaos all the time and then suddenly WHAM, out comes a game. Even throwing super regimented and organized individuals into the fray doesn’t seem to stem the tide of just pure, unadulterated chaos. I read books like Press Reset and Blood, Sweat, and Pixels and see some of the fallout from all this chaos and I can’t help but wonder…why? Why do people subject themselves to all of this…(please don’t say chaos again…) disarray for some pretty bleep bloops?

Enter PsychOdyssey, the enlightening 32-episode documentary series about Double Fine during the creation of Psychonauts 2. You read that correctly. Thirty-two. Episodes. 2 Player Productions, the documentarians in this venture, followed Tim Schafer et al. around for seven years, recording the ups, downs, and all the diagonals of the video game creation process. And boy are there a lot of diagonals.

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The Week in Review: 3/07/21-3/13/21

Hey guys! Hope your week has been excellent. If you haven’t had a chance to check out our podcast lineup this week, I highly recommend you do so. We’re getting close to the end of the Resident Evil rewatch over on the Binge Buddies feed, and we’ve just started up the Showa Era Godzilla films over at Behind the Hype.

Nice.

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The Week in Review: 2/28/21-3/06/21

Frick. You know what? I forgot to toss out a “Guess the Still” this week. Makes it about the second or third week in a row I’ve forgotten to do that. You know what I haven’t forgotten? All the great content out this week.

Nice.

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The Week in Review: 2/21/21-2/27/21

Kind of got out of the habit of writing these. Shame. SHAME. Anyway, Binge Buddies is in full swing with its “Alice in Zombieland” series. They’re on the third one and having a blast. Brok and pal Charriii5 sit down to talk about the importance of accessibility in gaming, which you need to listen to ASAP. Last week’s Demon Dayz is a good one and full of fun banter. What else is new, am I right? And then things take a dark turn in this week’s Behind the Hype as Bryan and I discuss the dark and twisted Suicide Club from director Sion Sono. Just…yeah. Go watch it and join our discussion.

Before we jump into this week at a glance, I’d like to draw your attention to a few different ways you can engage with us and discuss the episodes below or anything else in pop culture that may interest you.

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The Week in Review: 1/03/21-1/09/21

It’s a new year and things have already gotten off to an unsavory start. There was a coup on the United States Capitol that happened on the 6th and as of me writing this post out we’re still not sure what to expect from the next few days. It’s also been a rather light podcasting and article week here at ATH Network. Damage Boost and Demon Dayz put out new episodes but Binge Buddies (formerly Welcome to You Are Doom) is still on hiatus, as is Behind the Hype.

Before we jump right into this week at a glance, I’d like to draw your attention to a few different ways you can engage with us and discuss the episodes below or anything else in pop culture that may interest you.

ATH NETWORK ON
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And now…let’s see what you may have missed this week.

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The Week in Review: 12/20/20-12/26/20

I hope you’ve had a happy holiday season so far and that the rest of your year features rest, relaxation, and an overwhelming sense of peace and contentment. We produce a lot of content over here at ATH Network and I wanted to start up a little recap post series every weekend to point out the shows and articles you may have missed and put links to them in one convenient place. Let’s get to it, shall we?

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Pandemic Picks: Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms

Hey guys, do you ever feel too flustered, concerned, or worried to do much more than click your mouse or tap on your phone? Does this pandemic have you unable to do much more than simple actions? Well, have I got a video game for you!

It’s called Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms and it’s a Dungeons and Dragons idle clicker game where all you do is click to get gold coins, experience points, and cool unlockable characters. You can engage with this thing as much or as little as you want and the game adjusts to your interest and abilities. Just want to click on baddies and make them burst into violent blood stains on the ground? You’re all set. Want to figure out which battle formation will yield the highest DPS so you can reach level 100 and possibly unlock a golden chest or a special new character? Yeah, the game got you, boo.

Lots of things to click and it’s glorious. Engage…or don’t. It’s fine!

Idle Champions is free-to-play, but the grind is part of the appeal. There are times where I don’t have enough in me to play a super complex RPG or get invested in my tasks in Animal Crossing. There are also times where I simply don’t have a lot of time while, like when I’m waiting for an appointment or I’m in line to get into Trader Joes.

Give it a try, it will help pass the time and will scratch your Dungeons and Dragons itch until you can get back to the table. Ahem, the virtual table. You can find this game on pretty much every platform except for those refrigerator and car operating systems…although that can still happen. Cheers!

Pandemic Picks: Mickey Mouse Shorts

If you’ve followed me for any length of time online you’ve probably come across me throwing shade in Disney’s direction. Up until recently I’ve been pretty vocal in my disapproval of their business practices, and while I still have major problems with them as a company, they’ve won some points with me for their Mickey Mouse shorts.

The Mickey Mouse shorts first premiered on June 28th, 2013 on the Disney Channel and then eventually made their way to the Mickey Mouse YT channel – which is where I found them and immediately fell in love with them. I was taken in by the animation, which was fun and energetic, as well as the super-stylized and colorful backgrounds. I found myself binging through them pretty quickly and even subscribing to the YT Channel so I could catch the latest one when it dropped.

For today’s Pandemic Pick I thought I would make this my recommendation and give you a few of my favorites from this long-running series. Enjoy, and let me know which one is your favorite.

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Hey, Check This Out: From Here to Eternity

I haven’t been all that interested in music exploration for years now, letting that hobby languish in favor of others such as movies, videogames, television, and most recently Dungeons & Dragons. I’m not hip with the latest indie music releases, and I haven’t been to a show at the Echoplex in years. At this point, anything new I come across is strictly accidental. However, I’ve started taking an interest in older music, and I owe that completely to film. Case in point: From Here to Eternity, by Giorgio Moroder.

Came across this album via Gaspar Noé’s 2018 perverted Busby Berkeley fever-dream psychological horror film CLIMAX, which has an amazing soundtrack to go along with its delightfully alarming visuals. One track in particular stood out:

I quite enjoy the likes of Daft Punk, Justice, Ratatat, and The Chemical Brothers and all of my favorites from their works claim Giorgio as an influence, whether they explicitly state that or not. So, I decided to check out this album and start digging into this musical blind spot, and wow was I rewarded for my efforts.

From Here To Eternity came out in 1977, and it’s really cool to be able to connect the dots between the music I enjoy today with its influences. You should really check it out.

Mystery Men (1999)

A LOOK BACK AT A DUMB, IRREVERENT SUPER HERO FILM THAT REMAINS MY FAVORITE.

Man, 1999 was such a vibrant year for film. You had movies like Being John Malkovich, The Matrix, 10 Things I Hate About You, Office Space, American Pie Fight Club, The Mummy, and even Kubrick’s last film Eyes Wide Shut. A veritable cinematic feast, if you will. I can’t think of another time period that such an impact on my taste, humor, and sensibilities.

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