Revisiting Your Games (with Andy Korth)

The episode begins with the hosts introducing themselves and guest Andy Korth, developer of Verdant Skies, and sharing personal updates: Lydia is attending a Blippo Plus press event in Los Angeles, while Steve is going to the Serious Games Conference in Rochester. Andy outlines why he's revisiting Verdant Skies after eight years: it's been a long time since an update, he wants to ensure the game keeps running on future Windows/Linux versions, and he aims to get Steam Deck verified. He describes the game as a life sim in the vein of Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, with a painted art style that stood out at release. The discussion delves into controller support; Andy added it late in original development as 'developer folly,' but now it's essential for Steam Deck and potential console ports. He notes the genre has exploded since 2018, with many new entries iterating on conventions. Andy explains that returning to his old code was straightforward because he was the sole programmer and maintained consistent patterns across 130 UIs. He reflects on the game's completeness, mentioning he added children and quantum teleportation in a past update but now focuses on technical polish rather than new content. The hosts and Andy explore how genre expectations have changed, with modern life sims often including RPG mechanics like skill trees, which Verdant Skies avoided. Andy considers a potential sequel, suggesting it might evolve mechanics, adopt a more 3D art style, or even shift toward a Sims-like genre with agent-based AI. He advises developers that revisiting old projects can be tenable, especially to keep games working for players in the long term. The episode concludes with Andy inviting listeners to test the updated version on Steam and the hosts sharing show links.

As heard by us

A grounded talk about revisiting games and the tradeoffs behind input support.

Andy Korth's talk with Nice Games Club keeps returning to a simple question: when does a game deserve another pass, and what should survive that second round?

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a grounded reset on whether to revisit a game, or leave it alone after the first pass.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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