Ben and Trev bring you the first episode of 2026, live from Ben's wonderful side deck. While they enjoy a beverage they muse on some interesting game ideas such as:

1. Handling Brand Recognition for a drink company
2. Dealing with absent forrest neighbours
3. Apply sunscreen to your Gran

As has been tradition for a few years now, Ben and Trevor have trawled the depths of Dark Steam on the Dark Web to find their favourite underground games of the year, including:

a VR improv theatre game involving a plunger;

a game about building your castle on wheels;

a hive-mind bringing in new members;

and more!

Ben and Trevor brewak from tradition this year and record the Christmas episode remotely, due to illness. The Christmas themed games of course include the regular list of characters, such as Santa, Canta and Mr Claus, but also feature such ideas as:

1. Create a safari park, while trying to find the many hidden reindeers
2. Design your own robot Santa
3. Play lots of mini games trying to win the incredible opportunity to meet Santa at the north pole
4. Hold the fort while the other elves hold an intervention for Santa.

Ben and Trevor go back to What 3 Words for some prompts, riffing on ideas such as:

a DNA sequencing house builder;

working behind the counter at a cyberpunk body modification facility;

winning a bodybuilding contest that has been in decline for years;

and more!

Ben had the brilliant idea of hopping on the streamer wagon this week, so Ben and Trev came up with ideas that streamers would hopefully love to play. The games discussed included a bunch of friendslop, but also some banger such as:

• A handyman fixing random things in a haunted mansion
• A geoguesser inspired game where you must navigate your way out of a randomly generated world
• A friendly fishing game with random encounters along the way.

Ben and Trevor riff on some more movies, coming up with ideas such as:

a thriller set in the desert of New Mexico starring Peter Dinklage;

a man thinks he's a cartoon;

discovering the secret behind the new household robot;

and more!

Trev has been playing a lot of Amanda the Adventurer, and even roped Ben into playing. Saying that this episode is a deep dive into an Amanda the Adventurer style creepy media game. Set in the 1980's, Ben and Trev discuss the many ways a text adventure could be a completely immersive experience.

From movies come video games! Ben and Trevor take random movie titles and descriptions and riff on some game ideas such as:

A point and click adventure where you are stuck with a fairly dumb ghost;

A romantic story about becoming an assassin;

A tri-dimensional story told via different mediums;

and more!