I am back to riding solo on this one and it really made me appreciate how much easier it is to do video features when you have someone to play off of. Everything Patrick and Alex did during their solo time is a lot more impressive now.

Nice video as always! I was going to ask about whether you thought the story built around the gameplay or the gameplay was just a means to tell the story, but you kinda covered not knowing that near the end before I got a chance. Have you thought any more about that? Even though I don't know much about game development, it seems to me that you would always start with what kind of gameplay you want in your design first. The story weaves into the gameplay so tightly and the story itself, it seems like it could have been just some idea someone had about "what if the clones mattered". Do you think that this story that really deserves some deep thought about it, could have just arisen as a side effect of the gameplay?

@descends: I actually looked at Facepalm's website and they actually have a short blog post about designing the story around the mechanics. It looks like the mechanics came first, but they definitely put a lot of effort into blending the two elements.

Man the Swapper was a heck of a game, from the look to the mechanics and especially to the story as you covered.

Probably one of the more subtly enjoyable female (?) protagonists I'v ever played.

@slag: Actually almost all of the characters in the game seem to be female until the very end. Though it seems like the main protagonist is more in the Samus vein. She might as well be genderless until the very end.