Month: April 2025

Thoughts on Detective Boiled-Hard / Case File – Death of the Space Dino Hunter

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Developer: Because Because Games
Publisher: Because Because Games
Year: 2020
Genre: Adventure Game

Detective Boiled-Hard is a traditional point-and-click adventure that came out in 2020 that I was also curious about but didn’t get around to playing until now.

a picture of two men in front of a fake dinosaur and a head on a stool behind a camera

You played as Detective Boiled-Hard and must investigate the death of someone to see what happened. It’s a very breezy adventure game. The puzzles are easy and it took me just under an hour to complete, but I had fun playing it. I had been motivated to play it after playing a lot of Reality-On-the-Norm games lately and this always reminded me of the early 00’s AGS freeware era. That could maybe sound like an insult to some people but I really mean it in the nicest way. I love that everything, including the voices for all the characters, was done by one person.

Since the game itself isn’t difficult, most of the fun comes from all the jokes packed into the game. There’s plenty of dialog choices that are just there for additional jokes and plenty to interact with in the game. It’s just a very light and silly adventure game that I think is worth a look if you want an easier and more relaxing adventure to playing in an evening or have a fondness for that AGS era I mentioned. I also just found out there’s a free mini-case of all new material if you want a demo or played the original game and want more, so I’ll need to check that out next.

Detective Boiled-Hard / Case File – Death of the Space Dino Hunter is available on Steam and Itch.io

Blog Roundup (2025-4-20)

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A collection of blog links? On Easter?? And weed day?? This is a short one since I just did one early this week, but I wanted to get into the groove of doing these on Sunday again. I also like that I can just use these to put random thoughts that don’t deserve their own post like “hey, yesterday’s Doctor Who was really good.” Anyway, read a post on social media first thing this morning that made me grumpy so I feel more motivated to commit to my hiatus from social media during May that I posted about yesterday.

the cover of Star Wars: Behind the magic featuring a reel of film and an x-wing flying in front of it

It’s probably not a surprise that I owned and enjoyed the multimedia cd-rom Star Wars: Behind the Magic. So I really liked this post about it and why it was so interesting.

I loved this post on Brain Baking about how writing about something devotes more attention and reflection on it after you’ve experience it. I think it’s why I like have this site so much.

Aura has some really good and interesting thoughts on immersive sims.

Have some dev logs by folks like LunarLoony making the game Lunar Rocks and Sol making something for the ZX Spectrum.

That’s it for this time! I just want to get more in the habit of doing a post here each day and wanted to mention these posts that I liked.

EDIT: I also wanted to try this Bluesky auto-poster that I tried to use before but didn’t realize that it required a Featured Image for it to post. And buddy, it worked! So now you will have an image in every post whether it really needs one or not. I can just post from here and make everyone see my posts on Bluesky and Mastodon and I don’t even need to look at those places while I’m on my break.

Social Media Break in May?

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After seeing a few other folks take breaks from social media recently, I think I’m going to do one for the month of May. I just think it would be good for me to take a break for a little bit since the world is…..a lot right now. The timing also works out because I’m going to be starting grad school and having less distractions while I get adjusted to being in school again would be good for me. This really just means not using Mastodon, Blue Sky, and Instagram. I’ll still keep using Discord and forums and I’m going to allow myself to cancel this hiatus if there’s any major life events or emergencies that I need to tell about. Mother’s Day is also in May so I’ll probably make a post about that. My blog posts will automatically go to both Mastodon and Bluesky but I won’t be looking at them so please comment directly on the posts if you have any thoughts.

But that’s it. There’s no moral reason for it, I’m just exhausted by it at the moment. That said, I do hate FOMO and encourage everyone to join me for purely selfish reasons.

This does mean that I will be posting on here a lot more often, because I must still post. But I will avoid junking up your RSS feed with more than one post a day.

Like my About page says, I welcome Discord messages and email, and you’re welcome to message me on Signal at mikeklam.87. Yep, even just saying hi is welcome!

I do wonder how much this will impact my indie game roundups since I find out so much from Bluesky and mastodon, so again, please feel free to message me or comment on posts with your games or other ones that excite you. I’m looking forward to this and seeing how it goes since I spend way too much time on social media.

Indie Game Roundup (Apr. 18, 2025)

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Oops, was too busy to do one of these last week. Oh well, it’s not like there were a billion cool games that have come out in the last two weeks. If you enjoy the roundup this week, please give a few bucks to Rob. He’s made many things I’ve been a fan of for the last 20 or so years and is just all around a great guy.

I will also do a bit of self promo and point out this nice video essay that someone did about one of my ttrpgs. If you’re curious about the game, please take a free community copy from here.

The Games

The last two weeks have been kind of bananas because a lot of things I’m really into have been released. One of these has been the release of a new batch of Domino Club games on Itch.io. I’ve mentioned here before that I’m a huge Domino Club fan and all the experimental games they release and this is yet another fantastic group of games. Go check them out! They’re free!

a robot going in a floating maze while an eye watches
I, Robot

Another ones of those things I’ve been very excited about is I, Robot (dev site) by Llamasoft. It’s a remake of the classic arcade game and I love everything by Llamasoft so of course I’m going to play that.

a giant finger riding in the back of a truck
Promise Mascot Agency

Promise Mascot Agency (dev site) is the newest game by the developers of Paradise Killer and yet another game I’ve been looking forward to for a while. It’s an open-world adventure game/mascot management sim and has been a total delight to play. The soundtrack by Ryo Koike and Alpha Chrome Yayo has been a highlight for me.

a garden sitting inside of a toy

Tiny Garden (Steam) is a really cute sim game where you grow a garden inside something resembling a Polly Pocket toy.

Erenshor (Steam) is kind of like if you made a game like Everquest into a single player rpg, including the other players being represented as NPCs. I’ve watched the streamer BogusMeatFactory play this quite a bit and it seems really lovely. It even has a demo for you to try.

Do I even need to post about Blue Prince? I think everyone knows about it at this point. I’m on the fence if I will like it or not before I buy it. It sounds like an amazing game that may not for me. I love Myst-likes but don’t always gel with roguelikes. But it sounds great and even the developers of Myst are very into it, so consider checking it out. Feel free to argue with each other in the comments if I will like this or not. I’ll probably break down and buy it anyway.

I don’t know where it really falls on The Indie Scale (who cares, it’s my blog, I’ll do what I want) since it’s an Annapurna published game but Lushfoil Photography Sim (Steam) looks incredible. I’m pretty clueless about photography but this seems like it actually teaches you a little bit about taking photos as you play? At the very least it looks like a nice photography game.

The Electrifying Incident: A Monster Mini-Expedition (Steam) and Lab Rat (Steam) both seem like very solid puzzle games by developers I’m a fan of, and there’s even a Steam bundle that features both games.

She said, “You do plenty by experiencing trans joy” (Itch.io) is a short interactive fiction made in the hypercard-like tool Decker

first person view of someone using an old computer
Spider Land

Spider Land (Steam/Itch.io) is a short interactive fiction about a doomsday prepper and is available for free/pay-what-you-want.

Lunacid – Tears of the Moon (Steam) is a new, free game in the Lunacid series. It is completely bananas that this was made with the same tool that was used to make King’s Field.

isometric view of a pigeon traveling through a neon city
Travel On, Pigeon!

Travel On, Pigeon! (Steam) looks like a really cute rhythm puzzle game.

I haven’t played it but I heard on the great adventure games podcast Quest Quest that Monaco 2 (Steam), which is not an adventure game, is a good time.

Brassheart (Steam/GOG) is a 2D point-and-click adventure in a Steampunk setting.

The Talos Principle: Reawakened (Steam) is a remake of the first game and adds the DLC and some new stuff with some snazzy new graphics. I’ve been a long time Croteam fan so it’s interesting to me darn it.

Frog Bard (Steam/Itch.io) is a short, poetic experience about finding inspiration in the world around you.

That’s it for this week! Feel free to let me know what you’ve been playing in the comments. I always enjoy getting those. Like and subscribe (add to your RSS feed reader).

Blog Roundup (2025-4-16)

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Well then! It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. I think I said this in the last one because I am currently not doing them on a regular basis, but this is probably missing a ton of stuff and some of these are a little bit older. Although maybe these shorter roundups are better? I’ll probably also have things from the last two weeks popping up in the next roundup. Sorry about that. Second, fuck terfs. Just the worst people.

The links!

Jolt Country is doing great review of older games, like this one on Adventure Construction Set.

A new blog appears! Read schledorn talk about the classic game Descent

Have a graph of all the Myst cards

Renga in Blue covers the obscure Interact computer made in Michigan through the text adventure games The Troll Hole Adventure and The Mysterious Mansion Adventure

Another new blog! This one is by the creator of Narrat and she put together a list of interesting game resources

A remaster of BioMenace has been announced! This post goes into the background on how that happened

Not a blog post but Benj Edwards wrote about the game dev Bill Williams, who made some of the most fascinating Amiga games. Although this article is focused on his non-Amiga game Salmon Run.

Seed of Worlds does better ttrpg blog roundups than I ever could

Michigan Video Game History Link Dump

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I recently came across two things on the Internet Archive that I thought might interest other folks that are local to the area. The first was brought to my attention by streamer BogusMeatFactory. It’s a complete backup of the University of Michigan Atari Archive. Bogus originally sent it to me because it might have contained info on the MUD I keep searching for, HeroMUD. It does not, but it’s still a fascinating snapshot of what the university had for Atari related stuff.

The second thing is an archive of the Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiasts Journal. I’ve only looked at a little bit of it so far but it’s already a fascinating snapshot of a community in a specific region. There’s so many ads for local businesses too. I’m really hoping to come across MUD info in here. This looks like it eventually merged into the Michigan Atari Magazine, which also has at least a partial archive uploaded by Kay Savetz, writer and host of the great Eaten by a Grue podcast.

cover of Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiasts featuring a man and a woman but they have computers for heads

Indie Game Roundup (Apr. 6, 2025)

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Hoo boy, what a week. Well…..here’s some indie games.

Acid Web (Steam) is a twin stick shooter where you control a spider with a skull head on a web and shoot various baddies. I tried the demo and it all felt good to control and I think it’s worth a look if you enjoy these types of games and don’t have a problem with looking at a spider with a skull for a head. The art actually reminded me a bit of early VGA shareware games.

a guy with red hair and a lab coat standing on the roof of a buildilng with a small rocket and telescope

Elroy and the Aliens (Steam) is a new point-and-click adventure where you play as Elroy and Peggie in the search of a long-lost father in an alternate version of the 90s. It looks like a very charming adventure game and there’s even a demo if you want to give it a try. I’m not too familiar with the team other than it has Robert Megone working on it, who has also worked on games like Return to Monkey Island and Thimbleweed Park.

gif of a pinball bouncing in a table and there's roman statues and columns next to the table

Vaporwave Pinball (Steam/Itch.io) is a pinball game where all the tables are set in a vaporwave aesthetic. I had previously played a demo of the game before and had really enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to playing the full release. I’m actually hoping to stream this one soon.

Wednesdays (Steam/Itch.io) is a game about child abuse and trauma. I’m not in the place to play it right now but it was strongly recommended by Taylor McCue, who create He Fucked the Girl Out of Me, a game that I did think was incredible, so I trust that it carefully handles the subject.

A new Indiepocalypse (Itch.io) is available so I am required by law to mention it.

Gold Brick Simulator (Itch.io) is a game released on April Fool’s Day where you get a high score on a global leaderboard by repeatedly clicking on a gold brick. Did I buy this? Yes, of course I did.

isometric view of a fighter in a dungeon casting a spell hitting zombies

I don’t know a whole lot about Tower of Kalemonvo (Steam) tbh but I saw a couple folks praising it and there’s a demo available so if you’re a fan of Diablo 1, consider giving it a look.

Social Democracy: Petrograd 1917 (Itch.io) is a political simulator playable in the browser and created for Spring Thing 2025 where you play as the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Kadets, or Bolsheviks, and steer the revolution to victory or collapse.

You should actually check out all the Spring Thing 2025 entries for more interactive fiction games.

Turbo Tomato (Itch.io) is a new arcade game for the Amiga. I haven’t played it yet but I get excited about how there are still physical commercial games for the Amiga in 2025 and I have really enjoyed some of the dev’s previous games.

a mechanic talking to two aliens with pig noises who are lounging on a beach in a space station.

After being in development for 13 years, SpaceVenture (Steam/Itch.io) has entered Early Access. It’s a new point-and-click adventure by the creators of the Space Quest series from Sierra. I only played the version released to backers 2 years ago, but my understanding is that while this version still has a few bugs, they’ve been working quickly to get them fixed. There’s probably a whole blog post I could do about the history of this game and how they went so many personal issues while making this game and how unhinged some of the backers have been, but I assume the Space Quest Historian on YouTube has it all covered.

Blood on my Name (Itch.io) is a solo journaling RPG that follows a former assassin on a mission of revenge. by Kienna Shaw and Jason Cutrone.

What is the ‘Secret Technique’ To Creativity in TTRPGs (Itch.io) is a PWYW book about making ttrpgs.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully you found something that’s exciting to you!

Every MMO I’ve Played

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I’ve decided that 2025 is the year of the MMO for me and have already played a few games that are new to me in addition to always being interested in Myst Online. So even though no one has asked for it, here is a list of every MMO I’ve played in my life with a quick comment or two on each. Eventually I’ll do longer writeups on some of these. I guess it’s April Fool’s Day too so I’m unintentionally doing the Ron Gilbert thing of not doing anything silly today on here.

Asheron’s Call 2 – I believe this is my first MMO. My dad and brother were already playing Everquest but for whatever reason this was the one that interested me. It was divisive at the time but since I didn’t have any experience with Asheron’s Call 1, which this is a big departure from, I thought it was great. Unfortunately it didn’t last too long but I’m glad there’s been an effort in recent years by the fan community to bring it back.

RuneScape – My other possibly first MMO, at this point I can’t really remember if this or AC2 came first. I had played this one extremely early on in its life, back when 2D sprites were used for all the characters and managed to pull a few friends into playing it since it was free. It’s so weird seeing how much nicer it looks now even though, yeah, of course they would upgrade the visuals over 20 years.

Shattered Galaxy – This was a weird one. I had discovered the free beta for this during an IGF awards listing, very early on in the life of the IGF. It’s basically a RTS but everyone controls a single unit? I guess kinda like Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor but uhhhhh better. I had fun with it though even though I never completely got it and my brother ended up getting the retail release, but I didn’t play that one.

Star Wars Galaxies – Also a weird one! I went through the arc of thinking it was a disappointment at first, and then realizing how brilliant it was by not allowing everyone to be a jedi and focus on building playing towns and other neat world interaction by the players. I’m sure other games have done this since then but I haven’t seen it. I eventually fell off around the time they released the first expansion.

World of Warcraft – Everyone has played this game. Nothing new to say about it. I had a great time with it and it’s probably my most played game ever and had the unfortunate and unintentional effect of inspiring MMOs after it to copy it in an attempt to replicate its success.

The Secret World – Underrated MMO that I wish I had put more time into. I thought the adventure game puzzles in it were a really neat idea. FUNCOM at the time were The Longest Journey devs to me so this made a lot of sense. I should see if there’s any fan servers for it.

Myst Online – I’ve written and posted about Myst Online many times, even writing about how the community is still active and the game continues to receive updates. It’s free and wonderful, go play it.

Guild Wars – The selling point for this one was of course that there were no monthly fees. Don’t really remember a lot other than I thought it was fun.

The Elder Scrolls Online – Meh. I plan to give it another shot someday but it felt like it had missed what people enjoy about those games. But what do I know, it’s still going strong.

Guild Wars 2 – Same as the first game. Had a lot of fun playing it but couldn’t tell you a single thing about it.

Eve Online – Just did the trial for this one. I respect the game but I’ll never be able to get into it.

Warhammer Online – Played my brother’s account a bit for this one and thinking it was pretty neat. IIRC the appeal of this was that it was basically a spiritual sequel to Dark Age of Camelot, with a focus on pvp. It still wasn’t the hit it needed to be and shut down after a few years.

Defiance – The gimmick for this was that there was a tv show happening at the same time and they were supposed to intersect at some points. I never watched it but I probably should since I’m a Farscape fan, even though I’m guessing it’s a pretty mid show if no one is talking about it today. The show got 3 seasons though! I remember the game itself being perfectly ok but not too memorable. I think it was on a Steam sale and I knew it had no monthly fee so I picked it up. I didn’t know it had only shut down a few years ago and probably should have revisited it.

EDIT: A week or so after making this post, a revival of it launched! I’m going to pretend I manifested this.

WAKFU – Steam says I’ve played WAKFU in 2015 for a few hours. I have no memory of this.

Asheron’s Call 1 – Played this one for the first time this year and I’m having a great time. There’s plenty of fan servers too. I even wrote a guide if you want to play the game.

Book of Travels – A very underrated game. I’m sad that it hasn’t done as well as expected so it won’t be receiving too many updates in the future, but I think it’s still very much worth checking out. It’s a very relaxed MMO focused on story and light on combat, featuring what I think is great world building. Kinda controls like a point-and-click adventure too.

Sky: Children of Light – By the creators of Journey and really feels like if you took the mechanics of that game and expanded it to a MMO. It’s free to play and I enjoy playing it with my kids occasionally.

Here’s some other games that kinda don’t count as MMORPGs but also kinda sorta do?

Path of Exile – Played it during the beta and had enough fun with Diablo: The MMO but it never really stuck with me.

Age of Empires Online – Weird game! This was launched at the same time as their Microsoft Flight Simulator reboot that was retooled to be more casual too, so everyone was grumpy that Microsoft was bringing everything back as a casual game. I remember it not really coming together mechanically? I guess the fan community has kept this one alive on fan server.

Marvel Heroes – Basically just Diablo with Marvel characters. I thought it was a big hit but I think there was some drama behind it being shut down too?

Kind Words – Was incredibly skeptical of this one when it came out but it was pleasant enough. Shockingly didn’t come across any trolling in it despite it being a huge hit.

Kind Words 2 – What you would expect a sequel to be. More and bigger. I like it more since there’s plenty of side activities you can do and I basically just avoid the letter writing at this point since I’m not really in the mood to try to help people with their problems online. I’m not qualified for it! But the side stuff where people recommend video games, music, and what not are fun. It seems like it’s done alright but definitely not as well as the first game. I’m assuming it’s from the game just costing more, from it having a lot more stuff.

Sea of Thieves – Really enjoyed this one until a friend and I hit a bug that completely made it impossible for us to do more quests and Microsoft put it no effort to fix it. I might reinstall it to see if it’s magically fixed but that sure killed the motivation to play it.

Some that I have in my Steam backlog are:

WEBFISHING – Everyone has played this by now. Seems great. I’ll play it sometime with friends when I need to chill.

Meadow – By the devs of Book of Travels. Seems like it’s part of their Shelter series.

Fallout 76 – Don’t know how I’ll feel about it given my feelings about ESO and how Bethesda writes Fallout but sure, I’ll give it a shot.

Some modern ones I really want to check out are:

ATLYSS – This one is kinda known as the furry mmorpg. I heard great things about it!

Animyst – Don’t know a whole lot about it other than it looks weird and it’s free. It has been around since 2018.

Project: Gorgon – Looks like it’s doing the modern day version of Everquest thing. Seems nice enough