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Hey everyone! GameClub is back for another round!

If you missed the first one, here's how it works. We vote on a game, and then take about a month to play it. We then come back and have a good ol' chat about what we thought.

For this one, I'll be setting up an (optional) Discord server so we can also chat about the game in a live IM session (as well as a normal post where you can leave more detailed comments and discussions).

For this round, I went with an indie game theme. Some games I've played, some I've been meaning to play, some I'm curious about. All should be interesting to chat about, I hope!

(The games that didn't win last time, and this time, won't be forgotten entirely. They'll appear in future polls). 

Here are your options. Please use the poll below to pick your poison. I'll announce the winner later this week. 

Transistor

Bastion developer Supergiant Games bring us a tactical RPG set in a dazzling, futuristic city. Expect a deep narrative, and a stellar soundtrack.

As for gameplay, you can stop time during the feisty combat sections to queue up different moves and attacks. And it does some clever stuff with player death, to boot. 

Available on PC, Linux, and Mac, plus PS4, and also iOS and even Apple TV.  

The Sexy Brutale

Just released, this murder mystery game mixes up the time-travel hijinks of Majora's Mask, with a sort of reverse-Hitman puzzle solving. 

Your job is to foil a number of carefully choreographed murders - and you can keep rewinding time as you learn new info about your target, and try out different approaches. 

Available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. 

Rain World

A "survival platformer" with stunning graphics and curiously mixed reviews. You need to hunt down prey and avoid predators, among a shifting ecosystem of animals.

Sounds cruel and oppressive from the reviews - which will either make you rub your hands in glee, or cower in fear. 

Available on PC and PS4.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

A game about brothers, in all facets. The story is about siblings, and that's driven by the unique gameplay where you control two brothers at once, using two sides of the same controller.

This wacky control scheme is used for excellent puzzles, and emotional moments. 

Available on PC, PS3 and PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, and even iOS and Android (but please consider a controller!)

A Story About My Uncle

A first-person platforming adventure game with jumping, rope-swinging, and more. It's all about speed and freedom, and has no combat mechanics at all.

As a massive fan of Mirror's Edge, I'm not sure how I've never played this game before...

Available on PC only. 

Go vote!

Comments

Mathew Dyason

I've heard lots of great things about The Sexy Brutale. Am going to play it anyway, but would be great to discuss it too!

Anonymous

I own Transistor and was enjoying it but never finished it for some reason, and Sexy Brutale sounds like something *right* up my alley, so I voted for those two. Also, I like that we can vote for multiple options!

Anonymous

Damn, why'd you have to pick so many awesome alternatives 😉

Anonymous

Huh, I wanted to vote for all games but decided to finally vote on Transistor. Getting to finish the second playthrough of Invisible Inc. so Transistor seems to fit right in.

Anonymous

I had a hard time deciding between The Sexy Brutale (which I have yet to play) and Transistor (which I really liked for its surprising depth and customisability in combat). I went with The Sexy Brutale now, can't think of a more appealing elevator pitch than "Puzzle game in which Majora's Mask meets Hitman".

Lorenzo Hulzebos

Three of the games I have, but only two of them I have played so far (Brothers and A Story About My Uncle). Transistor is the one I haven't gone to town with, mostly because I haven't played Bastion either so far. Ultimately I went with Brothers. In my opinion, it's a better game than ASAMU. ASAMU is definitely not bad, but I wouldn't want to play it again, really. The platforming requires you to be very precise, I died a lot. The story, too, is not very interesting. It's functional, sure, but nothing to really write home about. Contrast that with Brothers, which I could write an essay about if I had the time. Hopefully this time I can actually join the club, as I only have one course this semester. Looking forward to it!

Anonymous

I really enjoyed A Story About My Uncle when I played it, other than the fun gameplay mechanic there isn't a lot to talk about though. Sexy Brutale is very tasty, but good luck trying to do spoiler free coverage of it!

Anonymous

Transistor is one of my favorite games - it's combat system deserves an episode of GMTK on it's own

Anonymous

Played the first two sections and honestly it's pretty great. I'm sure if it doesn't get picked there will be plenty of volunteers on here to talk about it :)

Anonymous

Wow there are some great options here. I've always felt I should play Transistor so that's where I've gone, but if anyone hasn't played Brothers I would 100% recommend they do so. It's only a few hours long, and it's really well done in both mechanical design and story. One of the few games I insisted my SO play through so they could experience it themselves rather than watching as I played.

Anonymous

Voted for Transistor because I've played Brothers, but I absolutely loved the latter

Anonymous

I had been wanting to play Transistor for a long time, if it finally get elected I will have the motivation that I needed at last. As someone has commented, if you haven't played Brothers i'll recommend that you do so asap. It's control scheme does A LOT about conveying emotions through mechanics and i cannot stress enough the importance of experimenting it for yourself.

Anonymous

I played Transistor way back when it was released and absolutely loved it. It's a great game with lots to elementes open for discuss, but I think that talking and analyzing something freshly baked as The Sexy Brutale is more appealing. The concept is interesting, it's visually engaging and should be a fun ride!

Anonymous

I adore A Story About My Uncle. Just last night I was playing through the opening sections and thinking how it's my favorite game that no one ever talks about. However... it's a very straightforward experience and I have a lot of feelings about Transistor. I don't like that game. I voted for Transistor because I feel like the discussion surrounding it will be much more interesting.

Liam Harvey

Wow, great list. Would love a discussion or video about any one of these to be honest. But I voted for The Sexy Brutale because a) Its style, premise and mechanics look F*CKING RAD. b) Playing Sexy Brutale alongside GameClub will be an honest to god incentive to NOT just play Persona 5 and/or think about Persona 5, all day every day. My alternative vote would probably be for A Story About My Uncle, simply because you mentioned it's heavily inspired by Mirror's Edge and well, yeah, that's enough for me! Absolutely adored Transistor upon release, and Brothers really grabbed me by the balls last year—both great games. But if you were to spin this GameClub into a GMTK episode (like with Psychonauts), I feel like by now we've got a pretty good understanding of why those games are special. The Sexy Brutale, though? That hype train is very, very real. Might be nice for the channel to capitalise on that. Whatever the case, I missed last month's GameClub, so much excite!

Anonymous

I've been curious by Transistor and Brothers. Rain World strikes my fancy, but that's a game I'd have to purchase.

cptnoremac

Definitely Transistor. It won't take you a month to play it. I beat it twice in one weekend. It's so good. I was skeptical to try it when I first heard about it because I don't like tactical games. They somehow got the right combination of action and strategy that even I loved it.

cptnoremac

Brothers is another good one I'd love to see a video about. It made my wife cry. I'd be interested in Uncle too, since I bought it a year ago and would like an excuse to play it. And speaking of great 3D platformers on Steam, I highly recommend Cloudbuilt. Beautiful graphics, rocket-powered parkour in an abstract world in the clouds, with somber moments of reflection between the timed courses. I couldn't put it down.

Anonymous

Voting for Transistor because it'd be the perfect reason for me to finally retake my progress and finish it :V

Cliffie Mathieson

Really hope The Sexy Brutale wins this. That game looks super interesting and I need an excuse to put down Persona 5 and give it a shot!

David Rodríguez Madriñán

Rain world is plain bad. Cruel not in the intended way, but in the I am bread way, mixed with game mechanics that contradict each other, punish exploration and reward grind and fast repetition. I wanted to see everything in the world, but the game wants me to not touch anything and run the same corridor. Awful. I vote for the sexy brutale because transistor is the one I have been waiting to play after bastion... Selfish reasons!

Anonymous

I loved playing Transistor and loved talking about Transistor with people at GDC, it gets my vote as there are so many directions to take the discussion.

Anonymous

I'm voting for Transistor because a lot of the conversation around that game was limited to "Not as good as Bastion". There's a ton that Transistor does that is pretty amazing, and I'd love a deeper discussion of the game's mechanics.

Anonymous

Hey Mark where's OneShot? ;) I actually bounced off of Transistor pretty early so this would be a good incentive to go back and play it. I also never finished playing Brothers. I remember seeing a video of A Story About My Uncle back when it came out and for some reason it didn't grab me. The other two games on the list look/sound very cool. It doesn't look like there's a real loser on the list so I guess I'll vote The Sexy Brutale as I never heard of the game till now and I like the Majora's Mask/Hitman comparison.

Anonymous

The Sexy Brutale wins for me. Transistor is stellar, and I really want to play Brothers and A Story About My Uncle, but The Sexy Brutale looks like it's that has the most interesting mechanics to discuss, as well as not being discussed to death on the internet already (ie. Brothers). Also it's named "The Sexy Brutale", holy hell

Anonymous

Rain World is probably the most interesting game to discuss here, but oh boy do I not want to go back to it. This game makes me feel terribly anxious. Brothers is a great experience for those who've missed it, but I think it's been discussed enough already.

SpeckObst

I've been really curious about The Sexy Brutale after some glowing reviews so this seems like a great opportunity to get into the game. Gets my vote, though I'm fine with everything else, too ;)

Anonymous

Transistor is the only one on Mac, so that gets my vote.

Anonymous

I'd like to check Transistor, even though is not the newest one :)

Anonymous

Hey Mark, will the Discord server be only for Gameclub or do you have plans for a Patreon-Discord sort of deal? Seems like a good opportunity to get more patrons if you ask me ;-)

Anonymous

I've been meaning to try the Transistor, as I believe it's been referenced or mentioned in one of your videos, Mark. Looking forward to participating in this game club!

GameMakersToolkit

I guess it will be up to you guys! We'll see how it goes and if people want to chat about other things, too :)

mcwizardry

Transistor and Sexy Brutale look like interesting games for discussion.

Casey Jones

The Sexy Brutale caught my attention a couple weeks ago when I read a preview article. It sounds like my perfect game, though I wouldn't mind giving Transistor a try.

Anonymous

I'm for Rain World, mostly out of convenience. I got it from the Kickstarter and haven't played it yet. But The Sexy Brutale also looks very interesting and Transistor was bloody amazing. Btw, a while back The Gaming Symposium had a great analysis/discussion about it: <a href="https://youtu.be/9HdM7ZgqNAI" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/9HdM7ZgqNAI</a>

Josh Foreman

Oh, what a difficult choice! Brothers is SUCH a fantastic example of emergent, implicit, and mechanic-expressed storytelling! But I've already played it. A lot of those sound great, but I think I'd like to give Transistor another go. I'm another one who bounced off it pretty quickly and I can't recall why.

Anonymous

Story about my Uncle is 2.50 on steam right now...

Justin Fleming (The Typer)

I can vouch for Transistor and Brothers being really great experiences. I've been curious about Uncle for a while and apparently it's on sale on Stema right now for $2.50. So I'm casting my vote there just because I like trying something new.

Anonymous

I haven't gotten around to Transistor but have it in my library. Would like to play it and if someone wants me to help them out in buying it (should it be our GameClub game of the month) let me know and I'll see what I can contribute

Anonymous

Would love to play transistor sometime but seeing as I'm still plowing through BotW Koroks I'm gonna vote for something that has less mechanical depth and will hopefully be easier to play but still rewarding

Jeff Groves

Transistor is... okay. I prefer their previous game Bastion over it, though. The gameplay isn't quite as good and the story feels senseless. I would much rather play Sexy Brutale, just off Jim Sterling's review of it. We need more Ghost Tricks in our lives.

Anonymous

I vote Factorio for a future edition!

Anonymous

I almost finished Transistor, and have been looking for an excuse to get back to it. Also heard a lot of good things about Brothers, and didn't realize it was available for PS3 (tried the PC version on a Mac with CrossOver and it didn't work).

Anonymous

I know I suggested Brothers: A tale of two sons but I agree with people here that it's been discussed quite a bit, and if people here have already played it, then I'm up for other titles. I'm interested in Rain World but it looks like it'll take around 44 hours to finish from HLTB site. I already have Zelda and Chrono Trigger on my plate so I'm voting for the other 3 (shorter) games. I'm cool with whichever gets more votes!

Anonymous

I'm really hoping for Transistor, I know I have a lot to say about it, and love the art style to death. But, The Sexy Brutale seems really interesting to me, and seems like a good excuse to pick it up.

Sandro Dall'Aglio

For the story you can check this interpretation: <a href="https://melodymeows.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/transistor-part-1-democracys-mediocrity-elitisms-dangers/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://melodymeows.wordpress.com/2014/12/08/transistor-part-1-democracys-mediocrity-elitisms-dangers/</a> The article was twitted by the dev as really impressive.

Anonymous

I've owned Transistor for a while from a sale, but never got around to putting my feet to the pavement on that one. I'd love if that one wins this month!

Anonymous

These all seem like they'd be fun to play, and I'd love to have a venue to discuss them with a like-minded community. I particularly like hearing about The Sexy Brutale and A Story About My Uncle, having not heard of them before. But I already own Transistor, and it'd be great to use this as an excuse to prioritize finishing it. :)

Anonymous

There were bits about Transistor I loved... and then I sort of just stopped playing it and have never really felt the need to go back. The impressive stuff is all in how it gets you to try out it various different weapons - each weapon has a slightly different effect in each slot; dying locks out a weapon for a while; small challenge rooms with set loadouts; and above all (for me anyway), little stories attached to each weapon that unlock as you use them. By the time I left the game, I knew far more about the people behind the weapons than I did about the main plot. I'm not sure I ever really got into the strategy of configuring the "right" weapons properly, but I'm a sucker for a short story. This all gets you focussed on the central mechanics (stopping time, planning moves, etc), rather than just getting distracted by one really good power. Which is great! Combat changes every few encounters as you play with your setup (you need to use each power in each slot to get their full stories), which keeps things relatively fresh. Problems I had were that (1) not every power is good - the challenge of adjusting to an unfamiliar weapon is interesting, the challenge of compensating for a rubbish weapon is not. When you're pushed to use every single weapon, in every single configuration, you don't want to be punished for doing exactly that; and (2) there wasn't enough of a hook to keep me playing - the music and the visuals are nice, but it's very miserly with its story, and the tone is nice but nothing gripping. I suspect if I'd had a more concentrated bout of time to spend on it, I'd have stuck it through happily, but I didn't, so... Would be kinda interesting to play it properly, but, again, have no strong desire to do so. Voting for The Sexy Brutale because it's new (to me, and in general) and has interesting-looking mechanics

Anonymous

I voted for all but Rain World.. (Hope being able to pick more than one was intended)

Anonymous

Played 3/5 of these before (Transistor, Sexy Brutale and Brothers) and I own A Story about My Uncle, so I'll probably play that if one of the others wins. I loved The Sexy Brutale and Brothers, but Transistor's gameplay didn't gel with me. For some reason strategy games have rarely been that engaging, despite loving puzzle games and them having a lot of similarities. I guess the difference is strategy often comes down to working out one solution to all of the puzzles essentially, and then doing it over and over and refining it as more elements are added. If Transistor does win I might give it another go, or just try out Bastion and see if I like that at all; it has been recommended to me a lot.

Anonymous

Voted The Sexy Brutale because I've already been to and seen lots of discussions about Transistor. I feel like it was discussed enough, and I didn't even care too much about the game. I was surprised when I played Bastion after it and felt in love with it.

Anonymous

Nice theme! I've been meaning to play transistor after the great success that was bastion. My vote goes there, but all games seem really cool. Rain World seems particularly interesting as well.

Anonymous

All of these games are good. Rain World can seem a bit of a grind to quite a few people, but I figured a way to tweak it so it doesn't seem like one. If I had to pick one though, Transistor would win.

conzeit

I am at a moment where I'm in love with the world and the ideas but I am stating to feel the weight of the difficulty, I would like to see the game discussed if only because it's tackling something I would love to see more often in games, even if my final opinion is that it's as bad as you say. Please elaborate how you find the specific mechanics of the game create the experience you had, I find it incredibly interesting