from Polygon. In it, the two hosts, and executives of the titular (fictional) video game company, Griffin McElroy and Nick Robinson, flesh out video game ideas submitted by listeners, before finally choosing a game idea to further flesh out, and, sometimes, pitch to a guest.The duo is also responsible for Car Boys and Touch the Skyrim, while Griffin's associated with other Polygon property Monster Factory and fellow podcasts My Brother, My Brother and Me and The Adventure Zone.
Like several other ongoing Griffin/Nick collaborations at the time, the series abruptly halted after Nick was fired from Polygon following sexual harrassment claims, with no word on whether the show might be continued or the concept revisited with a new co-host in the future. However, the two live-action CoolGames Inc. Animated videos performed by fellow Polygon employees Simone De Rochefort and Patrick Gill did see a Spiritual Successor in the form of their video series Video Game Theatre, while the podcast itself has one in the aptly-named podcast Spiritual Successor.
Tropes associated with this company:
- Author Appeal: Griffin and Nick's games often involve cooking sims, dating sims, horses, and occasionally vore. The last one is probably Played for Laughs.
- Nick frequently mentions Hitman and WarioWare.
- Griffin is a big fan of Burnout: Crash Mode.
- Berserk Button: Griffin has many, including Nick not being familiar with John Candy, Nick not having played The World Ends with You, and CBS's irrational hatred for millenials.
- Bias Steamroller: A Discussed Trope in the episode "Munchlax Analysis", where the duo reads various reviews for the first Pokémon movie that's dismissive of the subject matter or constantly compares them to Studio Ghibli movies and AKIRA.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: "Cook For Cube" has a mechanic named "social permadeath" that threatens to publish a horrifyingly offensive statement (that you personally wrote) on your social media accounts if you fail a level or go more than 24 hours without logging on.
- Blatant Lies: Nick, who is not unboxing his brand-new Nintendo Switch.
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Cargo Ship: The boys created a dating sim where you date all fifty U.S. states.- Downplayed, since you are Puerto Rico.
- Catchphrase: No problem fun.
- The Cameo: As well as the occasional special guest, several workmen can be heard in the background of some episodes. Notable examples include the plumber who buys Nick toilet paper, and the workmen who are looking for treasure hidden in Griffin's home.
- Colon Cancer: Tim McGraw's What If? Trucks: Fates
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Early episodes open with Nick giving a financial report on the game from the previous episode. However, they seem to have dropped this bit.
- Hell Is That Noise: Discussed as a game mechanic when they attach out-of-tune airhorns to Bayonetta.
- Insane Troll Logic: Several of their ideas tend to come out of nowhere, such as Griffin trying to decide how a mini-golf MMO would work, during which Nick decides that they have to put a brand on it, and that brand has to be Mr. Bucket.
- The Juggernaut: Willem Dafoe, according to Episode 12
- Kayfabe: Griffin and Nick are serious businessmen who run a video game development company.
- Malaproper: Griffin has several... interesting turns of phrase.
- My Greatest Failure: Nick obliterated a fly and feels real bad about it.
- Non-Indicative Name: One game ends up being named after Homestuck despite having absolutely nothing to do with it.
- Pun-Based Title: Many of the game suggestions are pre-existing things crossed over with a pun.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Griffin is the more passionate and quick to anger of the two, while Nick is more subdued and passive.
- Shout-Out: Frequently, either as part of their games or just in casual dialogue.
- Sick Episode: There are several episodes where it is explicitly discussed that one of the co-hosts is sick, often leading to absurd tangents about the nature of their ailments and mentions of soup. The inevitable bizarre nature of the game they come up with in these episodes is usually blamed upon the sickness the following week. In Episode 48, the two briefly toy with the idea of making themselves permanently sick for the podcast so they can come up with even more of these ideas.
