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Skeleton SongsOnly In Silence The Word"The final victory of sci-fi is its final defeat," says AK, gnomically, before we sing the Beverly Hills Cop theme tune and talk about trombones. Join us for a discussion of 'the best fiction novel of the 20th century', A Wizard of Earthsea, and its masterful magic system: from Native American folklore to shamanism, demonic to natural theurgy, and eastern wyrms to western protodragons. Is it written for children or not? What is 'Equilibrium'? Why is 'clot of shadow' so upsetting, and what does it have to do with Cultist Simulator?In memory of Ursula...2024-01-251h 01
Skeleton SongsThe Wood Between the WorldsLord of the Rings + Narnia + Jane Austen = ? A smash-hit 800-page faux-Victorian novel of realist magic and alternate histories, of course! Welcome to the world of Susanna Clarke, whose rules-based, Mametian and very 'English' magic system is one of the best we've had the good fortune to meet. Join us for a discussion of made-up magical scholarship, urban versus natural magic, whether you should consider the Land of Faerie for your next holiday destination, and 'the beauty of grey'. Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Jonathan...2023-12-181h 05
Skeleton SongsThe Kilns of SmorgasbordAuthor. Visionary. Dreamweaver. Plus bellhop. Meet Jack Vance, one of the most inventive fantasy authors we've ever heard of, and probably not a pirate king. What happens when fairies become too lumpen and earthy? Why are Lvl1 wizards in D&D so rubbish? Who is Larkin the Baby-Stealer, and why are you reaching for that kazoo?We talk Cugel the Clever, Vancean magic and why you shouldn't make bread from dogs.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Lyonesse, by Jack Vance- Tales of the Dying...2023-11-241h 02
Skeleton SongsMagic That Hath Ravish'd Me"If magic works, why isn't the President of the United States doing it?"After a 'brief' hiatus, we're back! We pick up where we left off and talk about the magic of Doctor Faustus, whether magic is 'liberation or damnation', and the distinction between ceremonial magic and what specialists term 'Doing A Big Spell'. Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, by, mostly, Christoper Marlowe- Cultist Simulator / BOOK OF HOURS / The Lady Afterwards, by us2023-11-0647 min
Skeleton SongsThis Thing of DarknessWelcome to a new season, all about magic and literature! We talk William Shakespeare's Tempest, from women-wizards from Algiers to royal demonology. Caliban's Moth, Ariel's Lantern and AK nearly dies in a spiegel tent.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- "The Tempest", by William Shakespeare- Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations, by Alexis Kennedy- Daemonologie, by King James I- The Lesser Key of Solomon, anonymousFollow us on Twitter and sign up to the mailing list to make sure you don't miss...2022-04-2746 min
Skeleton SongsA City Is Not A TreeWhat makes games 'savoury'? Why is Twitter such a bad place to get game design advice? And is it ever sensible to push a count off a cliff?This episode, Lottie and Alexis talk art, games and critique, through architect Christopher Alexander to Jack Cohen and Brian Aldiss' fight over speculative xenobiology in Helliconia. Listen to avoid the perils of categorisation, and the pitfalls of diamonds - and hear Alexis fake his own death. Literally.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- The Devil's Elixirs, by E T...2021-12-0334 minSkeleton SongsThe Glittering Lights of Wolfstack DocksHiraeth? Sensucht? Saudade? Listen to Alexis and Lottie cry as we talk nostalgia, sequels and games, from 17th-century Swiss cowbells to sailing away from your loved ones into danger. We talk transmission of experience from one generation to the next, the future of games as gamers get old, and the impossible loss of childhood - and why that's not such a bad thing after all.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Sunless Sea, by Alexis Kennedy and Failbetter Games- The Nature of Order, by Christopher Alexander ...2021-11-1942 minSkeleton SongsNow Draw the Rest of the Owl, Part 2The conclusion of an epic two-parter. Who would win in a fight between TRPGs and CRPGs? What happens if a giant worm swallows a city? Is a dolphin the same as a cat? We attempt to answer these questions with appeals to Simon Baron-Cohen's empathising-systemising theory, work out why TRPGs rely so heavily on rule-sets when lots of people don't follow them anyway, and end up convincing ourselves that Game of Thrones is Love Island for nerds. PROVE US WRONG IF YOU DARE.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:...2021-08-2756 minSkeleton SongsNow Draw the Rest of the Owl, Part 1"I don't want to be Elfstar anymore! I want to be Debbie!"Join us for a romp through tabletop gaming's earliest origins and the effect its had on modern video games. Well, that was the intention. We actually stop around the 1980s with fundamental Christianity and a woman called Janine who is bad at charades. But we talk about the defining characteristic of nerdery, Star Wars vs Star Trek, Boris Johnson and the Devil's testicles in between. Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us2021-07-0853 minSkeleton SongsAn Early Symptom of SchizophreniaReal talk: APOPHENIA. Alexis and Lottie discuss subliminal pattern-seeking from its coinage by a Nazi psychologist to its use by modern indie game developers to cover up the fact we don't have any budget. Wait! We meant to make clever, co-operative immersive experiences. All via werewives, apophanies and Zhou Enlai.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us- Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco- Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon - Ulysses, by James Joyce- A Dark Room, by Doublespeak Games...2021-06-2540 min
diabolicalDiabolical Podcast Episode 2: Alexis Kennedy and Lottie BevanIn the latest episode of the diabolical podcast I speak with Sunless Sea and Fallen London developer Alexis Kennedy and his partner and business partner Lottie Bevan. The two co-founded the studio Weather Factory, the developer of Cultist Simulator. In 2019, Kennedy was accused of various improprieties—from infidelity to preying on young women in the video game industry and abusing his power as the head of Failbetter Games.The accusations never made it past Twitter, and the only truly specific allegations had to do with a past relationship that ended badly, but Kennedy was shunned fr...2021-06-231h 46Skeleton SongsThis Episode Is About SexThis episode is about sex and games and the libertine novels of eighteenth-century France. From Talleyrand, the Napoleonic clergyman and diplomat, through to Cindy Crawford, Peter Bradshaw and Amouranth, the Twitch streamer scandal du jour, we talk erotica, porn and those anime sex games you see all the time on Steam. Listen for the power of 'not for me', the uselessness of banning things, and Alexis's really bizarre description of one of Lottie's favourite games.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us- 'The Law...2021-05-2046 minSkeleton Songs500,000 SociopathsJoin Alexis and Lottie for a discussion of antagonists and villains! Via witches, Belgium, Simon Baron-Cohen, a charming Irish vagabond and, of course, Nazism. Alexis talks about how rubbish games are and destroys Lottie's argument; Lottie talks about five-hour Polish art films and producers stopping developers from kicking each other in the nads. Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, by Rebellion- Zero Degrees of Empathy, by Simon Baron-Cohen- Disco Elysium, by ZA/UM - Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L...2021-03-2547 minSkeleton SongsTwisty Little Passages All AlikeWhat's the connection between the Labyrinths of Night and the Bright Ditches? This question and many more we don't really answer in this episode on mazes, labyrinths and game design.Meet labrys, the lesbianic double-headed axe. Leave kittens in mazes and form human chains in swampy MUDs. Learn Alexis Kennedy's First Law of Narrative. Cake. Also, Lottie gets cross about a pretend man 'buggering off with a sex witch and having a baby'. So there's that.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us...2021-03-0541 minSkeleton SongsAre Panthers Chairs?Skeleton Songs season two, baby! This season's all about GAMES, but not as you know 'em. Join Alexis and Lottie as we discuss genre via Aristotle and Wittgenstein, cyberpunk and film noir, the Berlin Interpretation and, er, fish genitalia. Also there is an odd bit about tortoises in the rain but perhaps Alexis's medicine was wearing off then. Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us- Cyberpunk 2077, by CDPR- Skyrim, by Bethesda- Neuromancer, by William Gibson- "Lycidas", by John...2021-01-2842 minSkeleton SongsEndgameRagnarok! Gotterdammerung! Armageddon outta here! In the final episode of season one, we talk eschatology, chocolate, fake news and the bloody gothness of Old Germanic literature. Sexy zombie apocalypses and millennial doomsday cults make an appearance too, because of course they do. And even though we say 'everyone's gonna die' a lot in this episode, we realise it's small acts of everyday niceness that really save us. Nawwww.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us- The Road, by Cormack McCarthy- The Fallout s...2020-11-1138 minSkeleton SongsDIONYSIAN NO PICNICMaenads! Who are they, what do they want, and how do they wear their fox-skins? Kittens! How can they be so cute and so murderous at the same time? Join Alexis and Lottie as they discuss why frenzied Bassarids and Cutie McFloofcat are both the same Gothic trope of violent comeuppance. Via boring werewolves, Nosferatu and beautiful, naughty Clodius, of course. Also, there is a surprise storm half-way through.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us- BOOK OF HOURS, by us- True...2020-10-2833 minSkeleton SongsAn Inheritance of StonesJoin Alexis and Lottie on a deep-dive into WORLDBUILDING. Why it's menacing to be told to start with a timeline, how Twin Peaks' BOB came to be, why you must never call pulled pok 'flesh-spicing', and why the architect of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao probably didn't start with the toilets. Alexis, unsportingly, refuses to get cross.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us- Fallen London and Sunless Sea, by Alexis Kennedy & Failbetter Games- The Silmarillion, by J. R. R. Tolkien...2020-08-1832 minSkeleton SongsTop Hat, Flight Guy & TalesThis week we take a break from literature and talk about the weird stories in our own lives. Join Sheep-Stealer and Big Head as they introduce you to Great Uncle Gilbert, the teenage flying ace and real-life Great Escape artist, and David the contract officer for the Sultan of Oman who brought a wolf to tea. All shot through with poisonous headwear, what Britain wants for Christmas, and gentlemen flying kites.Follow us on Twitter and sign up to the mailing list to make sure you don't miss the next episode! ♥Support the show2020-07-0332 minSkeleton Songs(Un)reliable NarratorsCan you really trust anyone? Join Alexis and Lottie as they roundly conclude that you can't. We talk unreliable narrators via toilets, relevance theory, echoic mentions, the four levels of Star Wars canonicity and Lovecraft being surprisingly confident that his monsters were real.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:Cultist Simulator, by usRimWorld, by Ludeon StudiosPrison Architect, by Introversion SoftwareLolita, by Vladimir NabokovThe Luzhin Defense, by Vladimir NabokovChess Story, by Stefan ZweigAspects of the Novel, by E. M. ForsterThe Turn of the Screw, by Henry JamesAs If: Modern Enchantment...2020-06-1234 minSkeleton SongsWomen, Bloody WomenMadness, blood and ladies! We talk all things bloody, from Freud to Pliny to the Red Grail to Queen Elizabeth the First to murdering an entire hive of bees. The Madonna / whore complex? Check. Horrible Norse mythology about men being scared of ladies, and gods being made out of spit? Check. Etymology that devolves into single entendre riddles about vegetables? We gotchu. Also, Lottie gets increasingly cross.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us- Natural History, by Pliny the Elder + John Healey...2020-05-0133 minSkeleton SongsForbidden KnowledgeJoin Alexis and Lottie for a run-down of forbidden knowledge: the type that's ipso facto dangerous and the type that's dangerous because of what you can do with it. We discover Christopher Marlowe was definitely a spy, nuclear codes are modern occultism and everyone's neighbour Mrs Thrumb writes a very boring diary.We skim past Papist plots, diabolical monkeys, why Lovecraft is like watching a snake getting dressed and conclude that if you can't poke something with an umbrella it's probably bad news.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:2020-03-1833 minSkeleton SongsDoppelgängers, Fetches & KaFrom ancient Egypt to modern web comics, döppelgangers haunt us all. Join Alexis and Lottie as they discuss the ins and outs of these look-alikey ghouls, from Scottish fetches to Capgras syndrome via Dostoyevsky, Silent Hill 2, neuropsychology and scary mirrors. All with a sprinkling of gothic literature.Oh! And if you run into a doppelganger in a graveyard, pray that it's the right time of day.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- BOOK OF HOURS, by us- 'The Screwfly Solution', by James Tiptree Jr.2020-03-0333 minSkeleton SongsThe Terrible Tale of the YalePanthers, dragons, monoceri, yales, wendigos, hell-hounds and pigs! This isn't an occult incantation, this is a half-hour deep-dive into our favourite spooky beasts from medieval bestiaries, epic poems and early 20th century ghost stories.Whether you're into shapeless bear-cubs, dirty bonnacons or being grumpy about Elizabeth I, there's a feast of beasts here for you.Games / books mentioned in this episode:- BOOK OF HOURS, by us- The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser- The Wendigo, by Algernon Blackwood- The Willows, by Algernon Blackwood- The Medieval...2020-02-1331 minSkeleton SongsVampires, As You Don't Know ThemVampires, vampires and more vampires! From the Malay 'polong' and 'pelesit' to the soucouyants and empousai of Cultist Simulator, Alexis talks the history of the vampire myth before Lottie jumps in with a rendition of Carmilla. Then she embarrasses herself by wishing everyone a spooky day.Games / books mentioned in this episode, for your gaming / reading pleasure:- Cultist Simulator, by us- Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice- Carmilla, by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu- The Vampyre; a Tale, by John Polidori- Varney the Vampire, by James...2020-01-2130 min
Lost Levels ClubNow Playing - Spring 2019Mike and Ting talk about what they've been playing. Pre-Chat Avengers: Endgame (2019) RunPee Munich (2005) Hello Kitty Sight Words 12-Book Reading Program IGN podcasts sponsored by Erectile disfunction pill service?? RFC 5322: Internet Message Format Now Playing Baba is You Satisfactory Reveal Trailer E3 2018 (YouTube) Satisfactory Flying Spaghetti Monster Satisfactory: “Joey’s Big Mac” International Finance Centre (Hong Kong) Space Hong Kong and Cthulu’s supercomputer altar Space China Return of the Obra Dinn Papers Please PSA: Return of Obra Dinn. Don't start this game on a Sunday night and other tips Anthem The Death & Rebirth of FINAL...2019-05-131h 21