This interview contains heavy swearing.

This interview was recorded on October 26th, 2025 over voice chat using Discord.

Ryal: C’mon Kolton. It’s time. C’mon boy! C’mon.

Kolton: No shit it’s interview time. Is it ready yet?

Becca: I’ve been ready for 5 minutes.

Ryal: (laughs)

Becca: So this interview has been a long time coming since June. Here we are, hello.

Ryal: Hello.

Kolton: Hello.

A brand new brew

Becca: Today we’re talking about Homebrew Tea. It’s been more than a year right? Let’s go back to the origins of the series. Homebrew Tea was originally part of our original slate of pitches for WiiLink Originals in 2024. Do you guys remember where the idea of Homebrew Tea came from?

Ryal: That’s all him.

Kolton: The idea started, actually, as a homebrew developer interview series, and as time went on I realized I could report on homebrew news as well. It was still mainly going to be mainly a developer interview thing. The original script had me interviewing a homebrew developer, but that didn’t make it to the final cut.

Ryal: (laughs) I’m sorry what are you doing? You keep reaching over here [pointing to the edge of the screen].

Kolton: Pistachios.

Ryal: (laughs) I know it’s not related it was just fucking with me.

Becca: We gotta include the pistachios into the final cut.

Ryal: Wait, Kolton can you reach over with your hand there and take a screenshot so we can use it for the article? (laughs)

Becca: (laughs)

Kolton: Yeah hold on.

Becca: Absolute cinema.

Ryal: (laughs) Okay.

Becca: So you said the idea originally came as an interview series. Do you think that aspect is something that you would want do? Or is the current format just better for what you do?

Kolton: Homebrew developer interviews is something I’ve always still wanted to do. It’s just a matter of time and scheduling which… I’ll say no more.

Ryal: (laughs) Yeah.

Becca: Speaking of scheduling, there’s a lot of our shows that we make as they come out, but Homebrew Tea is the only one that has to be made that way, while it’s still relevant. How is an average episode produced?

Kolton: Ryal do you wanna…?

Ryal: Well it’s a two step process. You do the first half, I do the second half. I think it’d make chronological sense if you started.

Kolton: First thing’s first, you need a script. I look through different homebrew Discord servers*, different homebrew news sites and pile up a script to talk about. After the script we film, and after all that’s done I send it to Ryal.

_{*Discord server - A term for communities in Discord. A place for people to discuss one shared topic.}

Ryal: It’s pretty much as simple as it sounds. I take all the things Kolton talks about and I edit it to make it look nice and professional. I uh- I know where this is gonna lead into. (laughs) I assume there’s gonna be a question later on, so I’ll go more into detail about that.

Becca: You’d be right. Nice and professional is a way to put it.

Ryal: (laughs) It’s a count- It’s- (laughs) We all know what’s about to happen, and I don’t know how it’s gonna go.

Becca: 6 minutes in and this is the most fucked up interview we’ve done.

Ryal: (laughs) Yeah.

Kolton: Fuck.

A constant refresh

Becca: For filming, there’s been a bunch of format changes with Homebrew Tea. It was briefly hosted by two people, you’ve introduced and retired some segments, so I was wondering why some of these changes happened.

Kolton: Whenever I tried co-hosting with Autumn, it was fine but admittedly it was something she wasn’t used to doing. And secondly, we did break up for a bit and I did move back home. I guess I should also say we are still together. It was just that in that moment we really needed space. I was living in a very unfamiliar location, I was away from all my friends and family, I lost my mind a bit, so I had to come home. We’re still doing long distance, but we’re still together.

Becca: I do want to make sure, are you okay with releasing that?

Kolton: Yeah. Because some people have asked me “is Autumn doing okay?” And yeah she’s fine.

Ryal: I thought Becca was interrupting like-

Kolton: No she’s fucking dead. (laughs)

Ryal: (laughs)

Kolton: She’s fucking dead and I strangled her. That’s why we’re single host now.

Ryal: Kolton’s been having an affair with me for a very long time, we just decided she had to go. It was the only way we could be free. (laughs)

Becca: (laughs) We strike the entire segment about Kolton’s explanation, we just only include Ryal’s explanation.

Kolton: Yeah. As for segments that has come and gone, such as homebrew game recommendations, there just isn’t enough worth recommending.

Ryal: Although there are some that we have been discussing a little bit.

Kolton: A lot of the games I’ve been recommending, this is gonna sound like I’m being lazy, I just read it off of Wiibrew Wiki*. Maybe we could get some recommendations from the community to talk about. It just kinda felt like filler.

_{*Wiibrew Wiki - Online resource for Wii homebrew information.}

Becca: It makes sense. The Wii’s not super advanced, but it’s not as simple as something like the GBA or NES, or even quirky like the Virtual Boy to give it homebrew games.

Ryal: There’s Virtual Boy homebrew games?

Becca: Many!

Ryal: Really? I had no idea.

Kolton: It’s no Dreamcast* that’s for sure.

_{*Dreamcast - Sega console during the 6th generation. Due to how the console will read any CD as a official game, it has become very popular for homebrew.}

Becca: Okay man.

Ryal: Well it is a Sega console.

Kolton: Dude! Have you seen the amount of homebrew games that are on that console?

Ryal: No because mine is still fucking broken.

Becca: (laughs)

Kolton: Well, boohoo. Fix it.

Ryal: I don’t wanna spend 40 bucks on a laser. No, I’m not getting a stupid GD- well maybe I will I don’t know.

Becca: I didn’t even know you had a Dreamcast. I thought you hated anything Sega related.

Ryal: No I’ve had a Dreamcast since like, 2018, but me being a stupid child, when my disks stopped working, I took apart the laser to see what was wrong, and I think ripping out the wires probably isn’t gonna fix it. And then I threw it away. 7 years ago. I got a sealed copy of Sonic Adventure for it and everything. That has nothing to do with the interview or the show or anything.

Becca: This is all useful insight. There’s been a couple of format changes. Do you foresee more format changes happening in the future?

Kolton: Absolutely, stuff is always changing. There’s already a new segment, which is the Tea Briefing.

Ryal: Oh yeah.

Kolton: If that one leaves too, don’t be surprised. Stuff always comes and goes. I expect Tea Briefing to stick around, just because it lets me talk about smaller things.

Becca: If you introduce a new segment you should call it the Boston Tea Party. It doesn’t need to be related at all.

Ryal: Becca, do you know what the Boston Tea Party was about, because I don’t think you’d be super happy to know.

Becca: Was it bad?

Ryal: It wasn’t good for specific people. It happened during the revolutionary war.

Becca: Wait I thought it was- wait- who did it? I might be thinking of a different demographic.

Ryal: (laughs) I know it’s not your fault, it’s just really funny.

Becca: I’m not American.

Ryal: Yeah no. It was the British, Becca.

Becca: Yeah! So I am right in that. Wait, what am I missing.

Ryal: We did the Boston Tea Party to protest the British. That’s why I was saying not good for you.

Becca: Tha-

Ryal: What are you confused about?

Becca: (laughs) I’m more confused as to why you thought an uh-oh moment. I don’t give a shit about the British in the revolutionary war!

Ryal: Well you called it the Boston Tea Party and I didn’t know if you knew what it actually was.

Becca: You made me think I didn’t know what it was.

Ryal: (laughs) How is that my fault?

And then everybody died

Becca: You were saying a minute ago that when we were talking about editing, there’s a specific part of the show that has a lot of editing.

Ryal: (sighs)

Becca: Particularly the intros.

Ryal: The intros. The intros, the intros, the intros. The weird crazy shit that happens for about a minute before normal stuff happens.

Becca: Yes. I was wondering- well, I’m wondering a lot of things. But how did that come into play? The intros isn’t something you’d immediately associate with homebrew news.

Ryal: It’s probably one of the greatest stories that could ever be written. (laughs)

Kolton: (laughs)

Ryal: Basically, from what I remember, I’m heavily biased by the way, but the original idea for the first episode was a basic no thrills, stock footage of a tea kettle. Basic stuff. I had something more LGR*-like in mind, with jazz and that kind of thing. We edited the first episode in a single day. It was kind of a slog editing the intro because I thought it was boring, and I didn’t know what direction I wanted to go in. So I had about half of it done, it was just people eating at a café, and the Homebrew Tea logo would show up. And then I distinctly remember thinking “Y’know this intro’s kinda boring. How do we spice it up?”

_{*LGR - YouTube games channel. Short for Lazy Game Reviews.}

Becca: (snorts)

Ryal: And I was like, “what if they just all die?” (laughs)

Becca: (laughs)

Ryal: What if they just all died? I don’t remember if Kolton has hangups about it.

Kolton: No. I really didn’t. I was like, alright.

Ryal: I literally could not think of anything else, so I was like “Okay, so they’re eating at the café, and the whole thing floods and everyone’s screaming and drowning and the Homebrew Tea logo shows up”. (laughs) And that is where that came from.

Becca: Absolute cinema.

Kolton: Why do you keep saying that? Haven’t you said it like every Forming Links?

Ryal: Yeah she’s kind of a basic bitch. (laughs) Don’t include that.

Kolton: No absolutely include that.

Ryal: Me and Kolton spent at least 10 minutes just laughing at the muffled sound effects of everyone screaming. We just played it over and over again. (laughs) Even remembering it now it’s so funny.

Becca: (laughs)

Ryal: I don’t know if it’s because it’s funny because it subverts expectations or if it’s just funny to hear people die horribly. (laughs)

Kolton: Holy shit.

Ryal: It’s not like the first time it happened. Remember for Wii Series V* I had you flipping off the camera and you didn’t know what it was for. (laughs)

_{*Wii Series V - The final part of Ryal’s retrospective on the Wii series, available on YouTube and Wii Room.}

Becca: Oh my god.

Ryal: So that’s where the intros come from.

The Santa saga

Becca: There’s been a couple of intros. I distinctly remember a conversation after the Christmas intro, which I want to say was about a full minute, or even longer, you felt it was too long.

Ryal: Here is where I stand with that intro. It went on a lot longer than it needed to, because I thought I was able to get it done quicker. On the other hand, I do believe it is the greatest thing I have ever made. (laughs) The intros all formed a particular style where I would take stock pictures and have them-

Becca: And just kill them.

Ryal: Yeah. There’s the Dolphin one which- (laughs) had a whole story behind it.

Kolton: Oh my god. Birthing scene. Don’t remind me.

Ryal: We actually talked about this in the SatellaNite* interview we had. When I was finishing the intro, Kolton didn’t know anything about it, because I do that stuff separately from his part.

_{*SatellaNite - A radio show on Satellaview+, a revival service for Satellaview.}

Kolton: I was also in Vegas.

Ryal: Yeah he wasn’t even at home.

Kolton: I was in a fucking airport, and I wasn’t able to see any of it because I was about to get on a plane.

Ryal: I don’t remember if you asked me or if I was asking you, but I was asked about how the video edit was going, so I’m like “yeah, I got the intro finished. It’s gonna be like this crazy lovecraftian short film with dolphin-human hybrids, there’s gonna be like a birthing scene”. There wasn’t really any thought to it, I was just trying to fuck with him. (laughs) I do really like that one, because I just stumbled across it. I was looking for scary dolphin pictures, and I find the video of that guy in the latex mask. I love it because he’s so nonchalant. “Hello! This is this face mask I made. I’m not a creep, or anything like that. This is a totally normal thing that people do.” It was funny to fuck with Kolton for a bit. I weren’t that far off from what I said. Where do you think the tiny evil baby dolphins came from?

Becca: (laughs)

Kolton: Hmm. Never thought about that.

Ryal: Anyways, the Christmas one. I honestly don’t remember where it came from. I wanted to do something big for Christmas, because it’s special, and for some reason I have that compulsion to do a big thing for Christmas, which I think is unrealistic because almost every time I do a Christmas special I’m either late or overstress myself so hard, so I might not do that thing anymore. But what I planned- I don’t remember what the original plan was, It wasn’t too far off from what I had, but the idea came from the intro for November’s episode, which was kind of a disaster. Because I had to finish for Thanksgiving, and I was working on a regular intro for that episode, but I couldn’t finish it, so I instead cobbled together just the beginning and putting the logo over it, so it was just a table with the logo. And I felt really disappointed that it happened, because I had this amazing idea for it (that I might reuse), and I was so disappointed by it that I wanted to make a better intro to outdo it. And I definitely did that, I came up with a whole- I think I wanted to just kill Santa?

Becca: (laughs)

Ryal: I don’t know if I changed that part way through. So I ended up with the whole plot of a government organization keeping Santa locked up in a prison, torturing him with the boring Homebrew Tea intro, just so it connects, and then he escapes and the government goes after him, for some reason that I think I just made up as I went along, and it ended up with this big finale with SWAT cars surrounding Santa’s house- this is a show about Wii homebrew by the way- and Santa gets away at the last minute, and I found this cool text generator site that lets you write text as if it’s been written in snow, so that’s what that was. Kolton was not happy with me.

Kolton: Though in hindsight, it was worth it. That intro was fucking crazy.

Ryal: Are there any other intros that peak your interest? (laughs)

Becca: All of them are unique and insane in their own way, but I think we can call it there for now.

Ryal: (laughs)

A side of coffee

Becca: The regular Homebrew Tea series exists, but there’s also a bonus show, Homebrew Tea Xtras. I don’t exactly how or why it was made originally. Do you remember why?

Ryal: (to Kolton) It was your idea man.

Kolton: Fuck. Um. I don’t know man. Just thought it would be cool I guess.

Ryal: (laughs)

Kolton: I’m being serious. No one asked about it, I kind of just made it a thing. I didn’t tell anyone, it was just “hey, Xtras exists”.

Ryal: I think it was when we were making the second episode, you just told me to say “look out for the bonus episode” in the outro, and I guess that turned into that.

Kolton: There was gonna be a bonus episode. It wasn’t gonna be it’s own separate thing. I will say that, Xtras was not planned as a separate thing, and it is basically is now.

Becca: There isn’t really a set format for Xtras, is there any kind of direction you want to take it?

Kolton: I mainly just want to talk about interesting things about the show’s development, while also being able to talk about other things that I think the Homebrew Tea audience would enjoy watching. One planned Xtras is me trying to fix a broken Wii, and playing a Homebrew Tea episode on it.

Becca: If things go accordingly, the episode should be up by the time we release this.

_{(Editors note: Things did not go accordingly.)}

Ryal: Don’t jinx it.

Kolton: It would literally take one day, I could do it tomorrow.

Becca: Ryal you say don’t jinx it, we said back in March that No More Pineapple News* would come out in mid-June. So I think we’re good.

_{*No More Pineapple News - Series finale for WiiLink Original series Pineapple News.}

Ryal: That’s why I said don’t jinx it. You’re doing it right now.

Becca: We’ll know if it has been jinxed next month.

Kolton: I will say if it doesn’t come out literally tomorrow, it will, like early next month.

Becca: Ryal seems extremely doubtful of the idea, but we’re gonna roll with it.

Ryal: I just did this. (adjusts head to face the camera directly) That’s all I did.

Becca: The evil Ryal stare.

Ryal: Even my family says I have the stare of Jeffery Dahmer when I don’t have any expression. And everyone on Omegle*.

_{*Omegle - Defunct website that let users video call a random stranger. Currently has unofficial continuations.}

Becca: (laughs)

The collapse

Becca: When we launched Homebrew Tea alongside Wii Room, I think all of us were surprised by how large the following became. How did you feel about the reception of it?

Kolton: I absolutely was. I wasn’t expecting the show to get the following that it has. In the past I’d done video related content, and it never really went anywhere. Whereas this has genuinely had a bit of a following, even if it’s a niche following. The fact that it’s gotten more views than my YouTube was pretty cool to see.

Ryal: I distinctly remember a conversation where I said “Kolton, this is the most popular thing we’ve both done”. This is crazy. Because I’ve had my own trouble with YouTube. I will be back, I swear to you. Although I edit for Homebrew Tea so don’t make my promises too seriously.

Kolton: (frozen)

Ryal: I think Kolton had too many pistachios and it’s breaking his Internet.

Kolton: It’s crazy weather right now. It might be fucking up my Internet.

Ryal: You’d think he’d be using dialup considering your whole thing. I don’t know if the Internet originally worked like this, but imagine a can connected to a string.

Kolton: (laughs)

Becca: (laughs) That’s basically what LAN is.

Kolton: I’m getting a phone call. Can’t be by Autumn, she’s at work. Yeah it’s mom.

Becca: This is a disaster.

Kolton: Hey mom.

Kolton’s Mom: (unintelligible)

Kolton: Yeah I’m home.

Becca: (laughs) This is a fucking mess!

Kolton‘s Mom: (unintelligible)

Kolton: Yes, Lilah’s in the bed. Yup. Yeah I had a good day at work.

Becca: That’s cool man.

Kolton: No no, I missed yall too. Alright mama. Alright love you. Love you, bye mom.

Ryal: (sighs)

Kolton: Guest star appearance, Mrs. Ramos.

Becca: Well guys, (laughs) I think that’s a great way to end it.

Kolton: Unless we wanna talk about the shitty first draft of the Homebrew Tea logo. There’s an original draft and it looks like dogshit.

Ryal: It’s not that bad.

Kolton: The text, you literally can’t read it.

Ryal: Okay the text is bad but other than that it’s the same thing.

Kolton: Well it’s a little different.

Ryal: (mockingly) “well it’s a little different” Yeah, the gradients are slightly different. I distinctly remember making fun of the text like, immediately after seeing it.

Kolton: Here you go.

Becca: Huh.

Ryal: Home Bhew.

Becca: (laughs) It looks like Home BMW Tea.

Kolton: No, it does not look good. I do have the timelapse for the logo, that’d be kinda cool to show off.

Ryal: For this?

Kolton: Yeah. I have a timelapse for this stuff. Fuck, I minimized out of Discord.

Becca: I think this is the most swearing we’ve had on an interview.

Kolton: Fuck, shit, bitch, ass, cunt, fuck.

Ryal: Titties.

Kolton: Oh fuck, I already said fuck. Fuck.

Ryal: Testicles.

Kolton: Here’s the kettle video we were gonna use.

Ryal: You could’ve added this to the OST.

Becca: (laughs)

Kolton: Oh yeah. Just as a singular track. I can give yall the original script.

Ryal: This feels like you’re grabbing shit out of your drawer.

Becca: I need you to understand, this will make absolutely no sense reading it.

Ryal: (laughs)

Kolton: Good. I’m glad it doesn’t. Here’s the original script.

Hello everyone, Kolton here, and welcome to the first episode of Homebrew Tea. I’ll be “spilling the tea” on the latest Nintendo homebrew news! Whether its about the Wii, DSi, 3DS, Wii U, Switch, I’ll be reporting on it! With that said, you may have noticed some changes with Wii Room since the 1.0 release. Lets check out the new and improved Wii Room! Wii Room News The TV, which used to always display thunderstorms, now shows the weather correctly. You can now start the Internet Channel from rooms. PAL (60hz) no longer crashes, and PAL (50hz) no longer has a pink line. Completely new translations for multiple languages are available, including German, Italian, Castilian, French, and languages that weren’t even on the Wii, such as Brazilian Portuguese! There are plenty of other additions and fixes added as well, which overall make the channel more polished than ever! We hope you enjoy the new and improved Wii Room. Pretendo StreetPass Relay Report If you have Pretendo on your Nintendo 3DS, you may want to check out the new StreetPass feature it adds! If you add a friend using Pretendo, you’ll StreetPass with them OVER THE INTERNET! This opens up many opportunities to StreetPass in the modern era, so in case you are struggling to get some StreetPasses, this will make it a little easier!Wrap Weird Skit (Forecast Channel shows hot weather, I feel hot in my room) (Thinks…) (Idea! Changes location in Forecast Channel to different location for rainy weather) (Starts thunderstorms outside, I make a confused face) szsHaxx Report A new Wii exploit has been released. SzsHaxx exploits a Mario Kart Wii save file from your SD card, and lets you install the Homebrew Channel! Here you can see it in action. (shows exploit) Man, even in 2024, new Wii exploits are coming out. Crazy honestly! Pretendo Interview When did you get into programming? What motivated you to make Pretendo? How did Bandwith, the mascot, come to be? Which system is easier to work on, Wii U or 3DS? What is the next step for Pretendo? Wii Room Anywhere Showcase Wii Room… anywhere?!?!?!?!?! Well, kind of. With this DSiWare application, you can send yourself videos and coupons from the Wii to your DSi or 3DS. So for example, if I click this button right here after watching a video, and then tap this, the Wii will start sending the video over to the DS! Pretty neat huh? Wii Room Anywhere is currently in beta, but you can access it by becoming a tester for WiiLink!Visit www.wiilink24.com for more info on how to become a tester. Homebrew Game Recommendation Sonic Mania has a Wii port? Dang right it does! Using your PC copy of the game’s rdsk file, you can play the game straight from your Wii. This game is one of the best 2D Sonic games, and is a love letter to fans of the franchise, and is a must-have homebrew game for your Wii! Conclusion And that wraps up this episode of Homebrew Tea. More WiiLink Originals will be coming soon to Wii Room, so be on the look out for those shows, alongside this one. Thank you very much for watching, and I’ll catch yall’ later. Seeya!

Becca: How do I make this make sense?

Ryal: Just copy paste the script in there.

Becca: I guess.

Becca: I’m just gonna call it right there. This is- holy shit.

Ryal: Oh yeah, I remember seeing this.

Kolton: Wait, where’s the rest of the script?

Ryal: Oh yeah. Because you improv’d the whole Wii Room Anywhere bit.

Kolton: There’s a whole thing missing.

Ryal: Are you sure? I feel like that’s it. Oh, there’s the Mario Kart Wii thing. “I feel hot in my room”. Actual line from the original Homebrew Tea script. I’m sorry, is the Forecast Channel supposed to detect the temperature in your room?

Kolton: (completely unresponsive)

Becca: (laughs)

Ryal: (laughs) No response?

Kolton: I was supposed to have the window open. And it’s Texas, so typically if it’s hot outside, even if you have the AC going, it can get fucking hot depending on how big the window is.

Ryal: So is this like a silent film? Like the Family Guy Fortnite trailer? (laughs)

Kolton: I guess. It was supposed to be a silent thing. It was supposed to be quirky. I just didn’t put it in.

Ryal: Did you actually film it?

Kolton: Yeah I think I did. I don’t know where the footage is though.

Ryal: Homebrew Tea Xtra: Lost Homebrew Tea footage.

Becca: Lost media!

Kolton: I would have to look on my phone.

Becca: Okay, I think we can call it there. (laughs)

Kolton: Nah, hold on.

Becca: (laughs) I want to fucking end this!

Ryal: (laughs) Have you ever done a Forming Links where we drive you insane by the end of it?

Becca: No! We’ve been doing this interview for 40 minutes!

Ryal: That’s not that long.

Becca: The longest is like, 27 minutes.

Ryal: Well that’s a skill issue right there.

Becca: I don’t have any more topics.

Ryal: Here’s a question for you. What is the meaning of life? While you figure that one out, Kolton’s gonna go find his thing.

Becca: (laughs) Oh my god.

Kolton: Here.

Ryal: That’s not even remotely related. That’s just the WiiLink Orignals thing you did.

Kolton: Anyway, I think this is a good place to end the interview.

Becca: Kill yourself.

New episodes of Homebrew Tea are available to watch every two months on Wii Room. The entire series is also available on Wii Room.

Featuring:

Kolton Ramos (GamerKGR) - @gamerkgr on Discord

Ryal Coulter (Ryaltheamazing) - @ryaltheamazing on YouTube and Twitter