Vlog Ep. 315: The Color Yellow

This episode of #BaduyPride was our geeky way of commemorating the EDSA People Power Anniversary, which is celebrated on the 25th of February every year. But this is still Baduy Pride, so it became an episode all about the color yellow itself and the many roles it plays in pop culture.

So beyond discussing some of the established meanings of the color yellow (both positive and negative), we went on to just go through different comic book characters, movies, TV shows, cartoons, and whatever else one could strongly associate with yellow. We could have covered more on yellow food items maybe, but I think we had enough fun with the pop culture stuff.

While we chose today's topic, we're always open to suggestions! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured as the focus for an episode!

Vlog Ep. 314: Brass: Birmingham

Today's episode of #BaduyPride is about the complex strategy game Brass: Birmingham. This 2-4 player game was created by Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman, and Martin Wallace and published by Roxley Games. Games last at least an hour and it is one of the highest-rated games on BoardGameGeek.

We had heard a lot of good things about this game together with its consistently high BGG ratings. And when we finally got a copy of the game for ourselves, it did make for an interesting play experience. And while we sort of explain most of the rules in this video, the main goal was to just explain enough in order to be able to talk about what we like about the game.

While we chose today's topic, we're always open to suggestions! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured as the focus for an episode!

Vlog Ep. 313: The Jurassic Park Franchise

This episode of #BaduyPride was all about the geekily epic Jurassic Park franchise. Most know it mainly for the movies, but we did our best to cover all forms this franchise has taken starting from the novels and even the few games created based on the stories. It was quite a colorful discussion and there's so much to celebrate about these dinosaurs and the people constantly trying to escape from them.

I think the biggest revelation is just how much we love the original movie over pretty much everything else in the franchise. And that says a lot about the visionary work that crafted that movie experience. And while it feels like a no-brainer that a movie about dinosaurs would be popular, the fact that it was done so well is what has helped it become the juggernaut that it is now. And this is a large part of the reason we love Dinosaur Island so much. 

While we chose today's topic, we're always open to suggestions! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured as the focus for an episode!

Vlog Ep. 312: Dinosaur Island Rawr 'N Write

Today's #BaduyPride featured board game is a clever adaptation of a game we already love. This is Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'N Write, which obviously shares the same DNA (get it?) as much beloved Dinosaur Island. This 1-4 player roll and write game was created by Brian Lewis, David McGregor, and Marissa Misura and published by Pandasaurus Games.

We love the original Dinosaur Island and it kind of amazed us how much of the original game was still present here. There's no denying this is a fun roll and write experience on its own, but the fact that it captures a lot of the same elements of the core game while still embracing the genre it tried to capture here. It's fun how the developers have adapted the game to different play styles, but this is definitely one of our favorite interpretations of the base game concept.

While we chose today's topic, we're always open to suggestions! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured as the focus for an episode!

Vlog Ep. 311: The Legacy of Romeo and Juliet

To continue our pre-Valentine's Day celebration for #BaduyPride, our episode focused on that classic story of tragic young love - Romeo, and Juliet. We've all encountered this story in one form or another whether it's the original stage production or one of the many adaptations that have used the original text or translated the core story into something else entirely. The structure of this story has become intrinsic pretty much to our global culture at this point and there's a lot to celebrate.

I never imagined that we'd end up talking about the works of Shakespeare on the show, but I really enjoyed it. Maybe we should have more discussions of this nature that go beyond "just" analyzing pop culture alone. This doesn't mean we're going to go full-on edutainment or anything like that, but it does add more variety to our live stream discussions. 

While we chose today's topic, we're always open to suggestions! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured as the focus for an episode!

Vlog Ep. 310: Fog of Love

In preparation for Valentine's Day next week, this episode of #BaduyPride was about one of the most "romantic" games in our collection - Fog of Love. This 2-player game was created by Jacob Jaskov with the tagline of being a "Romantic Comedy as a Board Game". And it may live up to that moniker given its clever use of layer game systems to guide the players through the telling of the love story of their characters.

It's not the most brilliant game out there from a pure gaming level, but the way the game translated the push and pull of people figuring out their relationship is where it shines. While the game is very narrative, it still involves a lot of interesting systems that strongly influence your decisions and make it hard to just surrender to the relationship that is forming between you.

While we chose today's topic, we're always open to suggestions! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured as the focus for an episode!

Vlog Ep. 309: The Many Masters of the Universe

This episode of #BaduyPride was all about the many incarnations of the Masters of the Universe line over the years. What started as a clever toy concept with a multi-platform marketing strategy has managed to grow into a whole other media empire on its own. And we did our best to walk through the history of the toys, the cartoons, the comics, and the movies in our own geeky way.

And there was a LOT to cover, admittedly. I figured we could just focus on the cartoons, but that would discount the contributions of everything from the different toylines to the mini-comics that told a completely different story. And people are bound to like different aspects of this franchise, which says a lot about how much effort was put into innovating this franchise to appeal to diverse audiences over the years. 

While we chose today's topic, we're always open to suggestions! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured as the focus for an episode!

Vlog Ep. 308: Escape Simulator

For this week's game-related episode of #BaduyPride, we went digital for a chance to talk about Escape Simulator by Pine Studio. We've already established on the show that we love tabletop escape room experiences like Exit: The Game, Unlock!, and Mystery House, but this time we have a digital effort to provide a digital version of such puzzle games. And given how much time we've lost to this game over the weekend, we couldn't wait to talk about it on the show. 

This first-person puzzle game allows 1 or more players to explore different escape-room style levels and puzzle their way to freedom. Very much like in-person escape rooms, you'll find yourself opening drawings, breaking codes, finding hidden keys, and all that good stuff as part of the experience. But on top of providing a solid game, it also comes with a level creator, which has empowered the community to create even more escape rooms for people to try. So the amount of content you get for buying this game is pretty crazy.

While we chose today's topic, we're always open to suggestions! If you have ideas for future video discussions, feel free to fill out this Google Form and your idea may be featured as the focus for an episode!