WT Lite
Matt Bliss joined Squidge to discuss Powerwash Simulator’s unique charm, the joy of strategising cleaning routes, and the psychological triggers that keep players engaged. Matthew humorously reflects on gameplay challenges and the balance between immersive fun and well-being, while we anticipate future updates for the game
Players
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ℹ️ A Note From The Future
Hi all, Jay here.
It’s currently August 31st, 2024 as I write this. We’ve decided to take bit of a long break after releasing this episode. Essentially, Squidge and I wanted to take a longer summer break. Keep an eye out for part two dropping soon.
— Jay
Content Disclaimer
Squidge wanted to start the episode with a quick disclaimer:
Squidge
Before we dive into the wild ride with Powerwash Simulator featuring Matthew Bliss, let’s take a moment for a quick disclaimer.
You might catch us spouting off some light swears and joking about drug use in this episode. Don’t worry, it’s all part of the gaming banter and absolutely nothing to be taken seriously. We just want to ensure that the listeners are aware that we’re just a bunch of goof-balls having some fun here at the Waffling Taylors.
Anyway, on with the episode
Show Notes
From active time battling to zombie slaying Waffling Taylors covers video games and beyond.
In this first serving of bite-sized banter with the side of gaming goodness we catch up from Matt from the Coffee With A Podcaster Podcast to talk about all things Powerwash Simulator.
We cover everything from punching holes in pinball machines, revenge of the Zeigarnik effect and power washing standing up or sitting down.
So without further ado, sit back, grab some snacks and get ready for this episode entitled "Powerwash Simulator: Chill Grime Busting, No Dilution - Part One."
Take it away guys
Whilst Jay wasn’t available for this episode, Matt Bliss was. You may remember him from such episodes as The Lethality of Tangents parts 1 and two… and if not then don’t worry, as he introduced himself like this:
Matt Bliss
I don’t think I’d like to be known as the Aphrodite WAP guy, or at the very least, it doesn’t say much about me if there’s no context there.
But anyway, I am Matthew Bliss. I have been on a couple of episodes of Waffling Taylors before, and I’m currently a podcast editor. I’m an Australian living in Ireland, and I like video games. Yeah.
It’s a very quick one. But, yeah, more recently, I guess I can say that I’ve got a podcasting podcast on the go at the moment, where previously I would have told you about From My Home to Yours, which is the podcast I was doing with my wife, about our move from Australia to Ireland. Now I’m doing a show about podcasting, but it’s a little bit different. It’s called Coffee With A Podcaster. And it’s intended to hit in the niche because we use buzzwords like niche when we talk about the podcasting industry.
…
But this is – I want this podcast to not be about, hey, this is everything that you need to start your podcast because there is so much stuff out there covering that already. I don’t think we need another Electro-Voice RE20 review or "why the Shure SM7B is bad." What I’d like to do is pose things that I think myself to make you ask yourself a question about podcasting. So it’s kind of for people who are already doing it or keen to think about things that perhaps in podcasting that they weren’t thinking of before. It’s more of a kind of a reflective exercise and a chance for me to have a bit of fun with it. so coffee with a podcaster.
Powerwash Simulator Unveiled
Squidge and Matt wanted to talk about Powerwash Simulator because it’s quite possibly one of the best simulator games of the last five years—especially with all of the other…shall we say, "esoteric" simulators like Goat Simulator and PC Builder Simulator. In fact, Matt even mentions one called Drug Dealer Simulator:
Anyway, so you wake up in a bedroom, you have to go make money and then visit a drug dealer on a park bench to get the drugs that you’re going to sell to make money. And that’s as much as I remembered, because it was just so basic and the mechanics of that were so simple.
It sounds like you’ve got the mindset that you need to create and refine a product that you would be happy selling; whereas I think the majority of simulators these days are, "how can I make quick cash but give this fancy thumbnail with a great name and just sell it based on that alone?" I think that’s all it is with simulators, but not the case here Powerwash Simulator is a very refined product.
Which reminded Squidge of the old flash game called “Pimp Wars”, though he couldn’t remember the name of it.
Those of us who have played it can definitely agree on the main draw of Powerwash Simulator; which, in Matt’s words is:
The allure of the game is largely the, the feeling you get doing the washing. So yeah like it’s kind of a completion of task kind of dopamine hit; when you start cleaning those walls and, you know making, that area look like it was supposed to look instead of with the dirt.
What Drew You To Powerwash Simulator?
Both Squidge and Matt agreed on the allure that the game provides, once you’ve started playing it that is. But why in the heck would anyone ever think of playing a game where you’re… well, just tidying up? It turns out that a global event caused Matt to discover it, Markiplier, Among Us, and Fall Guys. All at the same time:
For me, it was a recommendation, kind of. During the lockdowns and the pandemic in Australia.
…
But it was also the time when Among Us came out and everybody was sequestered at home. So it meant that a bunch of creators were doing these collaborations and mashups and stuff. And that’s how I got onto Markiplier. Funnily enough that bloke who has like 24 million subscribers or whatever. I think I was aware of him, but hadn’t watched any of any of his stuff; and his Among Us streams were very good very.
…
The point is: I found him, I started going through his stuff, and you know he was sequestered at home at the same time. And on a recommendation he had started playing Powerwash Simulator, and he had managed to capture in the few episodes that I saw, the the feeling you get when you play Powerwash Simulator. And i’d watched it, and it was just him musing to himself for 30 minutes to 40 minutes, just washing stuff. And I think the reason I started playing it was not because he enjoyed it, but because I saw what he was getting out of it, and I knew that I kind of wanted to get that feeling myself.
Surprising Moments
Since Matt had played Powerwash Simulator for a long time, Squidge wanted to know whether there were any surprises or expected challenges when playing the game over the years.
In terms of weird stuff, really the only thing that you notice that is it’s probably more of a frustration than anything unusual. But it’s a game that is as rewarding as it is unforgiving, mostly because you can have the largest flat area to clean as possible, but it will not give you any help with finding what you need to clean.
So if you haven’t hit that lower threshold that it needs to give you the little ding and if you haven’t cleaned every single aspect and you can’t visibly see what you need to clean, there is a moment where you look at it and you go, “right so which nozzle do I need to effectively hit, every single zone with enough power, and also optimize my time? Because I realise I could just walk away from this game right now,” you won’t because you need to finish it.
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This is the other part where the game is is unforgiving too: is that you can’t move on to some levels without completing others. Like you get you get stars for completing a certain amount of a level, and that will unlock further levels. But it just doesn’t let you move on sometimes if you don’t get that little bit. And sometimes it’s a statue or something, and there’ll be like a little pocket underneath a thing. And they’ve gotten better about that because in some of the the bonus content that they have, you can press a button, and it will like move, the object will move and open or close or something, and you can clean that.
But yeah, so that’s the thing that surprised me that the resilience of the human spirit to find that last 0.005% of dirt that’s not visible.
And speaking of surprising moments, Matt didn’t know about the feature in the menu which allows you to focus on a single item in the cleaning area:
You know when you get, like, the object, and you get, like, how much you’ve cleaned, and how much you’re going to get as a reward? If you click on that what it’ll do is: whatever it is that you haven’t washed, the whole thing will highlight orange, so that when you’re looking around the map if it’s a specific thing—like the later maps are horrendously huge—but like if it’s a specific wall, you’ve got to wash a corner, and and you click it, the whole wall will flash. So you know what area you haven’t done.
What Sets This Apart From Other Simulator Games?
There are tons of other simulator games, so what gives? What’s different about this one?
It’s the way that they’ve created a game on a simple premise that has enough complexity, but it’s not complex enough that it challenges your brain to wrap your head around it. It literally just sits in that spot like a dopamine engine, just for you to get all those satisfying little beeps and boops. And there’s just something about cleaning stuff, at least in-game
…
It’s just the idea that you can go from one state to another. And it could be the graphic design in the game, it could be the the structure of the environments because it’s not hyper realistic, it’s kind of like a 3D cartoon kind of thing; maybe Team Fortress would be the best way to think of. How the environments are built, and how they look. But there’s just something satisfying about it.
And there are other games that have tried. I have tried Lawnmower Simulator, which you think would be kind of the same concept right? Because there’s something gratifying about when you mow the lawn, you have the pattern, and you’ve got a plan; and you might do like vertical rows up and down, up and down, or you might do a circular one if it’s a bit of a bigger garden. But that game just does not hit it.
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I think that’s part of the difference, too. [In Powerwash Simulator] you can wash a bunch of different stuff in, like you can wash subway toilets and then the next thing you’ll be washing is someone’s car. And then you’ll be washing a skate park, you know. Whereas Lawnmower Simulator seemed to entirely be people’s backyards. Like it’s not going to put you in the rolling hills of the Windows XP background or anything. Because that’d be fun.
…
And then there’s the Zeigarnik effect, which is a cognitive bias about leaving things unfinished, and it affecting your sleep. Powerwash Simulator fits right into that because, as you said, three hours later you’re trying to find that last 0.005 you can’t go away until it’s done. I think they get you.
Are you revealing, are you trying to tell everyone that Power Simulator kept you up at night? That’s the vibe I’m getting.
I want to say "no." But I can’t.
External Links of Interest
- Join our Discord server and be part of future episodes
- Our Facebook page
- Us on X
- Support us on Ko-Fi
- mbpod.com — Matt’s Podcast editing services
- Matt’s active podcasts:
- Matthew on X
- Zeigarnik effect
Music
Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.
- Intro music is Massive Scratch - Eight Bit/Chiptune
- Spoiler Break music is Spectrum (Subdiffusion Mix) by Foniqz (BandCamp)
- Pallet Cleanser music is Breath Deep Breath Clear (Wu Chi) by Siobhan Dakay
- Bloom by HoobeZa
- Carefree by HoobeZa
- Chilling by HoobeZa
- Golden by HoobeZa
- Lounge by HoobeZa
- Mellow by HoobeZa
- Glass smash
- Powerwash simulator ding
- Typewriter sound effect
- The More You Know
- Outro Music is Massive Scratch - Eight Bit/Chiptune