Welcome to Part 2 of our PAX West 2024 coverage! PAX West is one of the biggest gaming conventions in the world, existing as a celebration of gaming and gaming culture and featuring panels, a massive expo-hall, and more. While there, Spencer and Jamie got hands-on demos with more than 40 games (!!!) and recorded interviews with over a dozen game-makers. We've boiled down our experience into the best stuff we saw presented for you in these two hefty podcast episodes.
Similar to how last year’s seminal Toronto-made Venba represented Tamil culture, Rooster is looking to do the same for Chinese culture.
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As I get older and busier with other commitments, I find myself less interested in overly challenging games. Truthfully, I just don’t like the feeling of being “stuck” on — or “stressed” about — something I’m playing.
With that in mind, I love what Toronto-based Sticky Brain is doing with Rooster. As the team told me earlier this year, the point-and-click puzzle adventure game aims to tell an authentic and approachable story about Chinese culture. Rooster follows our titular naughty bird as he’s sent back to ancient China to learn some important lessons.
Rooster uses hand-drawn illustrations and 12 player-friendly mini-games to weave a story inspired by Chinese heritage and traditional Chinese art. This indie labor of love made its debut at GDC 2024, had a great showing in the most recent Wholesome Direct and Future of Games Direct, and is now heading to PAX West to reveal all new levels.
Wholesome Direct feels like a safe space for an entire fringe of the games community and industry that's often been underserved. It gives a platform to underrepresented games, genres, creators, and cultures. This year, for instance, it showcased Niku Games' The Palace on the Hill, a coming-of-age story set in 90s rural India, and Sticky Brain Studios' Rooster, which celebrates ancient Chinese culture. In previous years, the showcase had been giving space to Visai Games' now multi-award winning narrative cooking title Venba as well.
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If you wanted the most bang for your buck in terms of indie game goodness, the Wholesome Direct is on another level. This showcase was jam-packed with over 70 games meant to bring you those warm and cozy vibes. That's a ton of games to keep in mind, let alone remember if you were watching live. If you happened to miss this delightful look at dozens of upcoming indies - plus a few that got surprise releases during the show - I can point out a handful of my favorites that I think you'd enjoy.
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Following strong showings from Day of the Devs and Devolver, Wholesome Direct has now stepped up with its own offering, this one explicitly focused on games at the cosier end of the spectrum. And there was plenty more good stuff to be found - from beautifully animated tales of loss to slice-of-life glimpses into Indian culture, from whimsical cosmic toy boxes to quirky record store management adventures.
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From a cheese-filled decorating simulator for mice to an exploration game where you play as a house on a date (and an impressive number of games with “lands” somewhere in their titles), here are 15 of our favorite games from this year’s Wholesome Direct.
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Rooster is an all-ages point-and-click puzzle adventure game by Sticky Brain Studios, a Toronto-based developer. The game seeks to celebrate Chinese history and culture in a unique way. Showcasing painterly graphics that evoke traditional watercolors and calligraphy, Rooster is a narrative-driven collection of twelve themed minigames.
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Food and cooking mechanics have a long history in video games, evolving from health power-ups to sidequest and mini-games and eventually into a creative pillar holding up entire genres. As we start out our week focusing on cooking games and restaurant simulators, let’s examine some of the most popular themes across the genre and explore what developers can learn and apply to their own delicious side dishes.
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While researching and preparing for this interview, it had already started to become clear to me that the team at Sticky Brain Studios was one that got along quite well, a clarity that could have easily been shattered the moment I jumped on the call with each of them since this came from nothing more than me just catching a vibe.
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With so many amazing announcements and new games to try out, it’s impossible to see everything at GDC. That’s why we were delighted to catch up virtually with Sticky Brain Studios, the dev team behind Rooster, after their game’s debut at the conference.
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ListenIn Ontario’s massive entertainment scene, Sticky Brain Studios is particularly prolific. Founded by Ted Brunt and Sasha Boersma in 2013, the Toronto-based media company has worked on over 70 games and apps for the likes of Canadian broadcasters, non-profits, government agencies and cultural institutions.
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Rooster is a unique, enlightening, single-player interactive experience celebrating Chinese culture and community with some of its best attributes - traditional folklore, art, music, and of course, food. Using an engaging, funny, and beautiful adventure, players join Rooster on an entertaining journey of self-reflection and discovery. The game opens with the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac gathering for their annual Lunar New Year’s Eve party. Rooster’s egregious actions are too much to bear for the other animals. Fed up, Dragon conjures a potion and sends Rooster hurtling back in time to Ancient China – more than enough time for Rooster to learn some lessons and change things for the better before a new year begins.
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Celebrate Chinese folklore and Lunar New Year with the 12 animals of the Zodiac in Sticky Brain Studios’ Rooster, coming to Steam Q1 2025! Play as Rooster, one of the animals of the Zodiac, as Dragon banishes you to Ancient China as a lesson for making Rabbit cry.
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