Month: December 2023

Finding Indie Games

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Since I do a weekly roundup of indie games I get excited about and have seen a couple people express frustration at discovering new stuff, I thought I would list all the ways I hear about new games. In no way is this meant to be the “best way” to find them, it’s just my current process. Hopefully you’ll discover a couple of neat things from it and add it to whatever you do to discover cool games. Please don’t get mad if I left your thing out, this was all off the top of my head and there’s way better uses of everyone’s time that being mad at a blog post. But if you do know of other neat things, please leave them in the comments so I can follow along too!

Every once in a while there’s discourse online about indie games coverage and how there’s not enough people talking about them on sites but there really are a lot of places putting in the work and covering them despite it often meaning that the page gets less views than if they were to talk about the big releases. So if you’re one of those people, actually support the places doing the work! Share their posts when they cover indie games on social media and discord channels and if you can afford to, give them money on ko-fi or patreon. They can’t keep covering these games if their articles and videos just go into a void.

Blogs

Blogs are still alive and well in 2023! Every morning I check my RSS feed reader to see what people have posted in the last day. It beats the hell out of constantly checking social media to make sure nothing has been missed too. I use Inoreader, which is a free online reader that tracks what I’ve read no matter what machine I use.

Bobbins’ Olde Tomb Of Videogames is a weekly indie game roundup with more of a focus on arcade games and remakes of retro stuff but it covers it all really. It’s incredible stuff and is what inspired me to pick up my regular blogging about indie games again after taking a break from it.

Indie Tsushin is a blog focused on indie games from Japan. It regularly posts about games I never heard of and also has a lot of great interviews with game developers. Lots of great videos by them playing these games too!

Podcasts

cover for indie mixtape podcast, showing a rainbow coming out of a mixtape

Indie Mixtape is a podcast where the host Ty and a guest discuss what indie games they’ve played lately. The episodes are about 30-60 minutes long and cover a variety of games. It was originally a part of the site Uppercut, which I dearly miss, but I’m glad that Ty is keeping the podcast going. It’s available wherever you download podcasts.

Party of One is a tabletop rpg podcast where the host Jeff and a guest sit down to play a tabletop rpg in one session. The show dumped Dungeons & Dragons a while ago for much better games and it’s truly the best place to discover indie ttrpgs. I can’t imagine people have time to listen to every episode, but consider looking through previous episodes and checking out the ones where the games sound interesting.

It’s also very likely that there’s a podcast or two for your favorite genre of games. Since I am an adventure game enjoyer, I’ve discovered a lot of great games through the Adventure Games Podcast over the years. The show highlights a lot of great indie point-and-click adventure games and interviews with the people who made them. I don’t really follow strategy games much anymore but Three Moves Ahead is a show that has been covering them regularly for over a decade now.

Social Media

Even after deleting my Twitter account, I still find social media to be a great place to hear about various games. There’s game devs across all the places I use (Mastodon/Bluesky/Instagram/Tumblr/Cohost) so it doesn’t feel like I’m missing anything by not using Twitter anymore. And if a dev is only posting on Twitter/X, which is now a far right hate fest, we’re probably better off not being aware of them anyway. Obviously your mileage may vary on this one since social media is incredibly exhausting and most people probably only have the capacity to be on one or two platforms.

One account I’ve enjoyed following is Indie Games of Cohost, which is an account that regularly posts about recently released indie games and interviews with game devs. I believe you can follow Cohost accounts using a RSS feed reader but I’m not completely sure about that so you’ll have to dig for that answer.

Discord has also been a place where I’ve heard about many games. Obviously it’s not for everyone and it’s barely even for me, but I’m in a few game dev communities for people local to me and this has been the only way I’ve heard about the games being made in my area. There’s plenty of general indie game focused discord channels too.

Indiepocalypse

cover of an issue of indiepocalypse with some animals playing a bord game in a forest

I’ve posted about it so many times now but Indiepocalypse has been a great way for me to discover games and developers I would never hear about at bigger games outlets. It’s a monthly compilation zine with 10 games per issue. Even if you cannot afford to buy any issues, the Itch pages for each issue list all the games and link to the developer pages. There is also a podcast called Indiepocalypse Radio where the host talks to different game devs every week.

Itch.io

Obviously an indie games store is going to be a way I hear about new games, but the best way I’ve discovered games through there has actually been by following lots of game devs and then regularly checking the feed. The feed will show me anytime a dev has published a new game, and it also shows me when they rate a game 5 stars or add a game to a collection. I can then check the collection to see what games are similar to it.

Video

Of course there are people on YouTube and Twitch that play indie games. I don’t follow as many as I should but two that I enjoy following are LotusLovesLotus on Twitch and Dirigitive on YouTube. Both are great folks that have introduced me to a lot of cool games and don’t have the stereotypical Twitch streamer energy where they yell a lot, which I am not into.

So that’s everything I do at the moment to discover new games, or at least what I can think of. Let me know of other neat outlets in the comments!

Christmas Music

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One of my favorite Christmas traditions in my adult life has been tuning into Jon Solomon’s 25 hour Christmas music marathon. Jon Solomon, a DJ at WPRB in Princeton, New Jersey hosts a 25 hour every Christmas Eve where he plays a mix of random stuff including a 42 minute version of little drummer boy and 30 minute blocks of x-mas themed Ramones, Misfits, and The Fall parodies. There’s also bands that record songs for the marathon now so it’s not all cursed music. He’s been doing it about 30 years now. Here’s some of the songs from last year but there’s new ones every year

He also has a Hanukkah Show every year. This year it’s tonight on 103.3 fm WPRB from 5-8 pm ET. You can also listen online here.

If you’re looking for more stuff, here’s some of the music I’ve picked up on Bandcamp over the last few years.

Some bands have made songs for the marathon in previous years, this includes this nice song by Outer World called Arc & Bow, which kinda has a slight shoegazey sound to it.

Low’s Christmas album is an all-time classic. It’s a mix of covers and new songs that capture some of the bittersweet feelings that people can have at this time of year.

Anna Burch also has a song about how Christmas can be a weird mixed bag of emotions.

If you’re looking for something lighter, I’m a huge fan of Alpha Chrome Yayo and this album is silly fun.

I’m also a big fan of the game Hypnospace Outlaw so this Christmas song made for the game is an enjoyable listen.

Henning Ohlenbusch, from bands like Gentle Hen and Polaris, has two nice songs for the holiday, Coming Home Alone on Christmas Eve and Here Comes Christmas

And finally, while there is a shorter version on Bandcamp, I must recommend the 42 minute version of Little Drummer Boy by Lindstrom. It’s part of the 25 hour Christmas music marathon so I listen to it every year and has also become an important part of Christmas for me.

Retro Gaming Roundup (Dec. 13, 2023)

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A bunch of various retro gaming related things happened that I thought were worth posting about so instead of creating a dozen posts, here they are.

In addition to announced that Jeff Minter collection last week, Digital Eclipse also added 12 more games to their Atari 50 collection for free. It’s been fantastic seeing the company doing so much fantastic stuff this last year.

The MSX game Illusion City is getting an English translation. It’s still in the testing phase before release but it looks great.

gif of Illusion City showing a top down view of an office and an option menu in english

The Video Game History Foundation released a video yesterday showing the levels that never made it into Sonic 2. They’ve been showing off great stuff every day this month in order to raise funds so if you’re into games preservation, consider supporting them by clicking the donation link in the video.

Footage from the game Habitat has been found! Habitat was an online game created by Lucasfilm Games/Lucasarts in the mid 80s. There really wasn’t much footage or screenshots from it until now. This post goes into detail about how the footage was found but if you want to start watching it, you can do so here. The other parts have also been uploaded to the channel. If you’d like to play the game, it’s actually been relaunched as NeoHabitat and available for free.

Jennell Jaquays, most famously know as the designer of the D&D modules Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia as well as her work on computer games like Age of Empires and Quake 2/3, has a GoFundMe to help pay for the medical costs she has while recovering from her illness. Consider supporting it if you can afford to do so.

DemonStar Rerelease

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top down view of a space ship shooting at a giant space ship

The 1997 game DemonStar just got a rerelease on Steam with a bunch of new features. I never played it before but it’s by the same designer as Raptor: Call of the Shadows and I liked that so I guess I should play this too? The reviews so far seem pretty positive. The rerelease was created by the original designer, which is always fun to see. I know that a rerelease of Raptor is being worked on right now by the same person and even has a teaser.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2577180/DemonStar__Original_Missions/

Doctor Who: The Daleks and The Giggle

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My rewatch of Doctor Who continued with The Daleks, the second serial consisting of 7 episodes. I watched the original Black & White version since I generally don’t enjoy colorized things but I’ll probably go back and watch it at some point.

I thought it held up very well! It was fun watching how much they really nailed the Daleks in their first story and how little they’ve changed since then, other than becoming stronger and having better special effects. It fits the story though, they had just barely survived a war and were in the process of rebuilding. The Doctor is still an asshole at this point, with the whole story kicking off basically because he wanted to explore so he deliberately sabotaged the Tardis so they couldn’t leave. I know it’s all intentional and that he eventually becomes good but I was surprised at how quickly Barbara was willing to sacrifice the Thals to leave the planet, oof. At least Ian and Susan knew it was ethically terrible. Not that the Thals are amazing either. They seem like a pretty sexist society but it beats being robot Nazis I suppose. I don’t really think it was intentional though and it’s more from the story just being a product of the 60’s.

Not really many huge complaints about this story. It has some issues with pacing, especially towards the end, but I think it’s a pretty solid one to recommend from the Hartnell era. He still continues to flub his lines since they couldn’t do retakes but he’s fun to watch. Next up for me is Edge of Destruction and if I recall correctly, some of the reconstructions after that? I would like to go through all the stories, even if it means watching animated and fan reconstructions or just listening to the audio since it seems like the audio dramas and new show will occasionally reference them.

Speaking of, I also watched the third and final special for this year, The Giggle. I won’t put any spoilers here so I’ll just say that I thought it was silly fun. I’m not really completely sold on that regeneration scene and twist, but it was a lot of fun seeing an old companion come back, I thought Neil Patrick Harris was very good as the villain, and I absolutely cannot wait to see some stories with 15. I loved what he did in this episode and the trailer for the upcoming Christmas special makes it look like a lot of fun.

Happy 30th Birthday to Doom!

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Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the release of Doom, one of my favorite games. A lot of neat Doom related events happened.

There was a reunion of John Carmack and John Romero where they reflected on the game. You can watch that on Twitch.

John Romero’s megawad SIGIL got a sequel. You can download both for free here but there’s also an option to purchase a version with new music as well.

screenshot of Evilternity 2 of some sort of temple at dusk
Screenshot from Eviternity II of the map Quetzalcoatl by Dragonfly

The megawad Evilternity also got a surprise sequel that contains 36 maps. As the page states, DSDA Doom and GZDoom are both good ways to play these new maps.

If you’re looking for more Doom to play even after all that, there’s the 2023 Cacowards, which highlight great maps and mods that came out this year.

Indie Game Roundup (Dec. 8, 2023)

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Finally, the awards that people have been looking forward, the most interesting indie games releases and news this week, at least to me.

Wigglypaint
This delightful tool made in Decker, a Hypercard-inspired designer, lets you create drawings that remind me of the squigglevision in shows like Home Movies and Dr. Katz. I absolutely cannot draw but it’s so much for anyway that I don’t care.

my attempt at drawing Jim Walls, the designer of the Police Quest series

Indiepocalypse 47
A new Indiepocalypse is out, which means I am required by law to post about it. This issue is another great collection of games and I recommend the one commissioned for the issue, Touhou Lonely Lovely Bonfire by Lily Valeen, the designer of BOSSGAME.

Rosewater
Technically it came out last week but I forgot to post about it. A new trailer for Rosewater is out. It’s a western point-and-click adventure game coming out next year that I’ve been waiting for since last year and I think it looks great

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story
Digital Eclipse announced that the next game in their retrospective series will be focused on Jeff Minter and his games. I was a massive fan of their Karateka one and I love Jeff Minter games so this will probably end up being my 2024 game of the year. I absolutely cannot wait.

The University of Michigan/Eastern Michigan University Student Game Showcase
This is a bit more local but every semester the students in the game development programs at both schools do a showcase of their games. Yesterday was their latest and there’s another great batch of games to play so go check them out.

Adventure Games for Winter

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I was going to write a post recommending adventure games to play during winter but it looks like the Adventure Games Podcast has done a series of episodes doing just that and doing a much better job than I ever could have. I highly recommend the series, which is still going on, that recommends games based on regions. I’ll link to each episode below. Each page has a link to the podcast audio but also lists all the games mentioned and links to their pages.

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part One – Arctic and Alaska

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part Two – Canada

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part Three – Scandinavia & Nordic Countries

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part Four – Eastern Europe

Winter Odyssey: Journeys Through the Cold Part Five – USA

There’s only a couple of games I’d like to add to this list. It’s possible they’ll come up on the podcast too since the series isn’t done yet but I think they’re worth a mention.

Heroine’s Quest is an adventure rpg inspired by the Quest for Glory series and my favorite of all the ones that have come out since that series ended. Like Quest for Glory, you choose between one of three classes, with each class giving you different solutions to puzzles. The game also adds some survival mechanics since you are in a snowy climate, but these can be turned off with the difficulty slider. It’s a really nice game and best of all, it’s free. I’m glad that the Steam page basically has tip jar DLC though because it’s a really impressive and long game and I felt like I should give them some money while playing it.

Watch Over Christmas is a nice one to check out if you’re looking for something with a Christmas theme. It’s just a solid adventure game that’s family friendly and never felt too frustrating since it had some nice features like hotspot highlighting and the puzzles weren’t too difficult.

The Puzzle Agent series is a great one to check out if you’re looking for something focused entirely on puzzles, without the exploration elements. The games feature fantastic artwork by Graham Annable and a wide variety of puzzles that always felt fair to me. It’s unfortunate there aren’t more games in the series but at least Graham is still creating a lot of great art on social media and through his shop.

If you have a friend to play adventure games with, the We Were Here series is a nice choice. You and a friend must talk through walkie talkies as you work together to explore a frozen castle and solve puzzles. The first game is free and short so it’s a nice way to try this style of game out before buying more.

Excited About Doctor Who Again

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I just watched the new Doctor Who specials and I’m sorry but this is a Doctor Who blog now. I fell off during the Capaldi years, not because I thought the show got bad or anything but life stuff just got in the way and I never really made the time to get back to it. Then I heard Chibnall was taking over and I’m sure the 13th Doctor is great, because everyone that has played the Doctor has been very good and just has to deal with various quality levels of scripts, but I never enjoyed Chibnall’s writing and the idea of him running the show sounded rough.

Anyway, people were saying nice things on the internet about the new specials so I decided to watch them and they’re really good! I was a little pessimistic that I would since I thought the last year of specials in Tennant’s run was rough (except Waters of Mars, which I loved). I also felt like bringing him back right before a new Doctor would make it tougher on the new guy, which I guess is still possible but at least I feel better about Russell T. Davies as a showrunner again. There isn’t much I actually have to say about the episodes without spoiling anything. They’re just really solid hour long episodes and it was nice seeing people return. I forgot how queer the show was while RTD was showrunner so that’s also been very nice. Unfortunately it feels even more necessary now than it did during his original run. It’s also wild that the show has an actual budget now. I’ll have to go back to watch all the episodes from New Who that I missed before.

It also got me to start rewatching the original series again starting with An Unearthly Child. I’ve seen all of the stories for the first 3 Doctors that weren’t thrown out, along with a bunch of other ones for each of the other Doctors, but it seems like a fun excuse to watch them all again anyway, watch the animated reconstructions, and listen to the Big Finish audio dramas I have along the way. I didn’t know Unearthly Child wasn’t available because of some weird licensing stuff with the son of the writer, who owns the rights. Luckily I own the dvd of it but it sucks this is even a thing. I think the story holds up alright though. I remembered Hartnell’s Doctor being kind of an ass but not this bad. But it does help setup the growth that he eventually goes through. It’s funny to me that the first episode is so iconic and the next story introduces the Daleks but the rest of the story is basically just about some cave men. Probably makes sense to not introduce aliens in the very first story though. The soundtrack is still great too!

A few days ago I also picked up the Doctor Who Humble Bundle that’s ending in a day because of all the Big Finish stuff it has. I don’t have too much interest in the comics since the ones I read before from this line weren’t too memorable to me, but I want to play the tabletop rpg at the time. My Doctor Who ttrpg hot take is that none of the players should be the Doctor and if anything that should be the GM, or maybe a GM-less game. I’m assuming that someone has made a Doctor Who-like game on Itch.io at some point. Although I do like that the book makes it clear that you can in fact play the game without having anyone as the Doctor and basically do your own weird little Doctor Who spinoff.

My other gripe about the ttrpg is that the 8th Doctor book doesn’t mention the Big Finish audio dramas at all! I’m sure it’s for legal reasons and they didn’t get the license to but man, they’re so good. Same goes with the 6th Doctor, where he also gets to have his own character arc and growth and wear a blue suit sometimes. It just feels like, what’s the point of putting out an 8th Doctor book that only references the movie and a short regeneration special?

Oh well, I’ll make sure I keep posting about video games stuff too. Just having fun being really into a tv show again.

Retro Gaming Roundup (Dec. 4, 2023)

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A surprising amount of retro stuff happened this week that I found exciting. The biggest thing happening now is that the Video Game History Foundation has been highlighting some of the important things they’ve done for the first 25 days in December to help raise funds to keep going. You can check the calendar out here. Obviously my favorite bit is the Making of Riven documentary getting a remaster.

Desert Bus, a game famous for intentionally being the most boring game ever made, just got a port to the Playdate.

title screen of soul crystal, showing a hand reaching through an open door

A German text adventure from 1992 for the Commodore 64, Soul Crystal, just got an English translation. I’m not familiar with the game but it’s apparently pretty good and I think the art and music are fantastic from the extremely quick peek I took at it.

A bunch of SSI games are coming soon to GOG and Steam. I never heard of any of these games but a lot of strategy game folks seem to be excited about them so I guess that means it’s worth a look

A remaster of Beyond Good and Evil is coming out in 2024. Still a great game so I’m looking forward to that. Never got really excited about anything I saw from the sequel in development and still no updates on that so…..oh well.

A remaster of Turok 3 just came out. I never actually played this one but grew up playing Turok 1, 2, and Rage Wars on the N64 so it’s interesting to me. Nightdive did a nice job with the remasters for 1 and 2 and my understanding is that this is the last good Turok game so I’ll probably play this at some point.

A Boy and His Blob for the NES and Game Boy just got a rerelease. I could never get into these game and strongly preferred the one for the Wii but you know what? Games I don’t like should get rereleases and remasters too.

Finally, enjoy this demo written for DOS. Realistically you probably won’t install and run that so here’s a YouTube video of it as well.