Blog Roundup (November 16, 2025)

In last week’s post I said it was snowing for the first time this season. Yesterday it reached a high of 65 (C or F, I’ll let you decide). For the first time in a while, my RSS feed reader has actually been cleared out. I like to do these because it just helps make the internet feel a little less small when the general narrative seems to be “the internet is a few social media websites and discsord.” A few websites have been celebrating big anniversaries too and it has been nice to see websites post about how they are 10/20/30 years old. Even this one is already 3 years old, which isn’t much but still feels weird.

Anyway, maybe you’ll feel like adding some of these to your RSS feed reader or start your own website.

Video Games

Gaming Alexandria turned 10! If you have an interest in video game preservation, poke around and check out all the items they’ve uploaded over the years.

There was some annoying discourse kicked off by someone I don’t care for on Bluesky earlier this week about dialogue choices but it did result in Jon Ingold from Inkle, who does know what he’s talking about when it comes to this kind of thing, writing a brief defence of dialogue choices. So I guess it wasn’t a total waste of time.

Possessor(s) (Steam) came out this last week and there have been a few folks writing about their work on the game and celebrating the rest of the team since the studio was also hit with layoffs before the game shipped. They still receive revenue sharing so this isn’t an instance of a studio trying to screw people over. It’s just been an incredibly hard time for everyone in video games. Anyway, I recommend reading Celebrating the Possessor(s) team and Possessors has released!

The very good fan site Final Fantasy VIII is the Best is still going and receiving regular updates. This week was PuPu week so it’s just been posts about that thing.

The Space Quest fansite Roger Wilco’s Virtual Broomcloset turned 30 this month and has been celebrating with updates and posts, including a history of the canceled Space Quest 7 and a 3D platformer reboot that was attempted in the early 00s.

Someone recently asked about how I find out about indie games and aside from spending too much time on social media, I just have a lot of sites in my RSS feed reader. So here’s a random shoutout to various sites I follow and links to posts from them this last week:

So there’s a random handful of sites posting things just this last week about games I never heard of and they’re all covering very different things.

TTRPGs

From the Hart has a post recommending 8 RPGs you could be playing RIGHT NOW

Music

Morning Music is a blog I love that regularly posts what they’re listening to that morning and it’s almost always stuff I never heard of but really like. The most recent post is about Yellow Fang – แค่เพียง.

Dev Logs

I like reading posts about how projects are coming along. Here’s some:

Food

I get excited anytime someone I follow posts a recipe so to encourage that, here’s a recipe for confetti soup.

Tech

Here, have an invoice for an IBM computer from 1994.

Yaffle does a very nice roundup of posts on other websites.

Vintage Computing and Gaming turns 20, which I suppose makes it vintage as well, and reflects on the complicated feelings they now have about new technology.

If you enjoy computer history, may I recommend the Computer Chronicles Revisited Podcast?

That’s it for this week. I hope you found something you enjoyed reading and it inspires you to post on your own website.

Indie Game Roundup (November 14, 2025)

My attempt to post about all the indie games continues. I didn’t play that much these last few days because of school and was also listening to Tim Curry’s memoir, which I enjoyed. He mentions having fun working on Red Alert 3 but nothing about Gabriel Knight or Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster! Unbelievable! Still a very good book though. Video games are good but books? Also good. You’ll see a one or two pop up in today’s post.

If you enjoy today’s post, consider tossing a few dollars to indie game hero Rob, developer of great games like Death Ray Manta and supporter of many indie game devs over the last few decades.

The Games

Rebel Wars (Itch.io) is a new top-down action game for the ZX Spectrum available for pay-what-you-want. If you didn’t know that Itch.io has a very active ZX Spectrum community, then I recommend checking out the tag on Itch.io and seeing all the great games still being made for the computer.

old windows status bar filling up and saying "checking national enquirer..."

Alien Detector (Itch.io) is a parody of those novelty programs you would see being made for Windows during the 90s.

a little sprout like thing jumping

Merp in Merpworld (Itch.io/Steam) is a new 2D platformer by maybell. that is inspired by GBC platformers. I am a giant fan of their previous games like satryn deluxe so I am excited to see them make something in a different genre.

MORSE (Steam) is a minimalist strategy game that teaches you morse code. You can even hook up a telegraph key to play it. I need a streamer to play this with a telegraph key, please.

Choose Your Own Adventure books count as games IMO and if you were a fan of the Tex Murphy adventure game series, a new mystery in CYOA format has been released. You can pick it up on Amazon and I THINK on Aaron Conner’s site as well if you want a signed copy of it or any of the other Tex Murphy books.

person hitting someone with a bat

I suppose it might be a little weird to put something published by Devolver here since they’re getting pretty big but Heart Machine is a great developer that has been hit by layoffs right before releasing their latest game Possessor(s) (Steam). I know there was some understandable hesitation from some folks about buying the game but it sounds like people will receive revenue sharing even if they were let go.

After being in development for 7 years, GIGASWORD (Steam) is now available. It’s a metroidvania that leans more into a puzzle focus and has a demo if you want to try it.

a big dragon like thing in the sky

If you enjoy arcade games with trippy visuals (aka Llamasoft fans) then THRASHER (Steam) may be worth a look. It’s from some of the folks that worked on THUMPER and has an optional VR mode.

Gila RPGs has published their free playtest for RAID (Itch.io), which is their take on the OSR style of ttrpg. It mixes sci-fi and fantasy elements into a game about killing gods. It’s only 11 pages long but already looks pretty snazzy.

That’s it for today’s post! If you’ve got something you’ve recently released and it doesn’t use AI, feel free to send me an email or message about it!

Indie Game Roundup (November 11, 2025)

The almost daily indie game roundups continue as I attempt to cover all the games I think are neat. People keep insisting on making games though so the list keeps growing! If you enjoy today’s post, consider buying Geeky Jay a coffee to help cover some bills they recently got.

Today’s Games

a motel at night

TRIPtych (Itch.io) is a short walking sim where you explore various places at night during a road trip and I thought it had nice vibes. I think this game was made for a class? I’m currently making a game for a group project in a class too so I feel compelled to put this one at the top today because it’s a weird way to make games.

two guys in the woods, one is stuck in a tree

Julia Minamata, creator of the wonderful adventure game The Crimson Diamond, just released a fan game for Over the Garden Wall (Itch.io) that reunites creator Patrick McHale, background artist Levon Jihanian, musicians The Blasting Company, and Elijah Wood is back as Wirt. Can something be considered a fan game if the original creator is involved? Anyway, it’s a great, short game.

a robot with a staff overlooking a chasm

Hypogea (Steam) is a 3D platformer where you are a robot that must escape from a giant underground structure. The game itself reminds me a lot of something you would see in the early 00s. Not just the graphics, but just the general feeling of it being something you would see on a CompUSA shelf during that time, which I 100% mean as a compliment. The game itself is a platformer but I really think a lot of adventure gamers would enjoy it too because of the puzzle solving and storytelling being done without words. There’s a demo if you want to give it a try.

Go Kart Island (Steam) is an open world kart racer where you can explore an island and do different types of racing events. The character design in this kinda reminds me of the characters in the old shareware game Wacky Wheels. A demo is available too.

a underground cavern with small monsters and rocks filled with worms

Farewell (Itch.io) is a challenging free platformer where you must dig down through an abandoned mine to cure a plague. You have a limited time because of your torch and must buy powerups or find pickups to extend the life of your torch to get to the end.

Puzzle Depot (Steam/Itch.io) is a sokoban-like set in a post-apocalyptic world and features lots of nice pixel art. The game has a demo if you want to try it out.

Crowdfunding

A few folks are currently doing crowdfunding for their tabletop rpgs. Heart of Glass is a mini-campaign for the synthwave inspired ttrpg Street Wolves. Apocalypse World: Burned Over is the 3rd edition of the incredibly influential post-apocalyptic ttrpg. Both have already hit their goals too and will be happening.

That’s it for today’s post. Always feel free to let me know through here or email if you’re working on a game and it doesn’t use AI. Also consider adding this blog to your RSS feed reader

Death By Scrolling thoughts

Developer: Terrible Toybox
Publisher: Microprose
Year: 2025
Genre: Arcade
System: Windows

top down view of the grim reaper chasing an adventurer in the snow while they fight monsters

Death by Scrolling is the latest game by Ron Gilbert, who is often known for his games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion but has created many non-adventure games as well. It’s an arcade game with roguelite elements where you are an adventurer walking through a level, killing monsters and grabbing gold, while the screen slowly scrolls behind you so you must keep moving so the wall of fire doesn’t kill you. Occasionally the grim reaper will show up to chase you around until you outrun it. The goal is to get enough gold by completing levels so the ferryman can get you out of purgatory and into the afterlife. The roguelite element is that you’ll find diamonds in levels and these can be used to purchase permanent upgrades.

As of this review I have about 7.5 hours put into the game and have been enjoying my time with it. The gameplay loop really works for me and I think the small amounts of humor sprinkled throughout the game is very pleasant. I’ve also found the pixel art and animations to be very nice.

I’ve been watching this bounce between Mixed and Mostly Positive on Steam and I think part of the issue is that the game is marketed as a roguelike but it’s really an arcade game with some minor roguelite elements. I think it’s a very good arcade game, but aside from buying upgrades, there really isn’t that much roguelite stuff there. I don’t have an issue with that at all, but I suppose if you were buying this game expecting a roguelike then you would be disappointed. I do think the text on the Steam page makes this sound like it’s more of an rpg than it really is.

The other complaint I’ve seen is that the game lacks content, but I disagree with this. The game is $8 and I have arguably “completed” it at 7.5 hours, by getting all the characters to the afterlife. I don’t know, I suppose it’s very subjective but that sounds like a good deal to me. I certainly wouldn’t complain if there was more “stuff” in the game but I don’t feel like it was lacking either. Again, I think this ties in a little with the rpg stuff. I’m also kind of a grump about the roguelike community sometimes and feel like every game is expected to be a game that can be played for an infinite time.

There’s also one or two people that think Ron should just keep making adventure games and to that I say, fuck off. People can do more than one thing in life.

Anyway, I’m not saying it’s a perfect game above all criticism but I think if you go in expecting an arcade game with some very light rpg elements, you’ll have a good time.

Death By Scrolling is available on Steam.

Blog Roundup (November 9, 2025)

It’s currently snowing for the first time this season and I’m very happy about that. I love snow, as long as it’s not happening in March – October, and never complain about getting more.

Here are some blogs posts I’m recently enjoyed reading. Consider subscribing to them or adding them to your RSS feed reader. If you’ve never used a feed reader before, then I think Inoreader is an easy one to start using and is free until you start adding tons of feeds. I also think you should consider making a blog, newsletter, or website if you don’t have one already.

If you enjoy this post, my daughter’s Girl Scout troop is gathering donations for local food banks and any money is appreciated. As you can see if you scroll down, money donations can go a long way for food banks.

Video Games

If you’re new to interactive fiction then you may like this guide explaining the different types that exist.

Speaking of IF, Wraithkal talks about the upcoming competition Spring Thing.

The Imaginary Engine Review discusses Interactive Fiction’s Retrofuturist Roots. They’ve been writing a lot about IF lately and I recommend going through their archives to read more of their writing.

schledorn gives a shoutout to various Game of the Month clubs, including my Adventure Game Club which is doing a salami(?) theme this month.

Aura talks about various indie games entered into the IGF this year.

I’ve mentioned Myst Online billions of times here but I think it’s neat that this MMO that was never commercially successful is still alive and doing tons of community events every month.

I also liked GlitchOut‘s Hot Pig Jump! and How to Run a Successful Games Website Business (or How to Don’t)

Michigan

Yep, here’s some local stuff that might not seem relevant to 99.9% of the people that are going to look at this but I think is still worth a look.

The Ann Arbor District Library has a website reporting on fun local events, music, theatre, etc. and does a nice regular post on recent music releases from local musicians.

I can’t recommend the creating.care newsletter enough. The latest one talks about building housing, social justice issues, and Halloween being extra cool when there’s no copaganda costumes this year.

If you’re a local Linux or Open Source nerd, maybe you’ll like the Michigan!/usr/group virtual meetups. This Tuesday they are having a meetup titled Keeping Your Android Secure and Snappy: Exploring GrapheneOS and LineageOS.

TTRPGs

Prismatic Wasteland has announced a new blogging topic for everyone to participate in. This time it’s everyone writing their own Hex.

Clayton Notestine does far better ttrpg link roundups than I do in The Explorateur: Issue #13.

Music

No Escape has a ton of music recommendations if you like punk and hardcore.

Dev Logs

Eniko, the developer of Kitune Tails and Midboss, explains the block game they’re working on.

Writing

I’m so excited for Grayson’s new blog I Might As Well Explain the Joke, which goes into tons of detail explaining jokes. The first post is about all the Elvis is Alive jokes we saw everywhere in the late 80s and early 90s.

My friend Shea Socrates wrote a poem. Check out Waspmobile.

Tech

The Works of Egan has a very fun mockup of what Neocities would look like on floppy disk.

Indie Game Roundup (November 8, 2025)

Did you know that about a billion new games come out every day and a lot of them are good? I feel like I cover a lot of games in these things and yet I know I’m leaving out tons of great stuff that is covered elsewhere. I just think that’s neat. The very good website No Escape said it’s not covering AAA games next year and focusing more on indie stuff, so if you would like to see more coverage of indie games, consider supporting their Patreon.

Anyway, here are some games. I have a big backlog of things to post about and more games keep coming out, so expect a few more of these roundups on a more regular basis.

a timer that looks like a planet, and it's changing colors.

Pomo Planet (Itch.io) is just a very cute pomodoro timer for your desktop, available as Pay-What-You-Want.

someone with a rabbit head looking at you at sunset

The Warrens (Steam) is a first-person horror immersive sim where you need to escape a murderous cult of rabbit-headed men. It has a demo too!

Fiction in the Space Between (Itch.io) is a collection of various ttrpg things inspired by Tracy Chapman songs.

view of a pedestal or something, with a large glowing pink circular pattern behind it

Apparatus: Exanimus (Steam) is a first-person adventure horror game about navigating unsettling corridors and features a nice aesthetic inspired by late 90s 3D games.

Dragon Slayers (Itch.io) is a ttrpg by Gila RPGs and does the adventuring and fighting things in a fantasy setting thing, but is based on the Slayers rules so it’s much easier to pick up and play than the big fantasy ttrpg.

Q-UP (Steam) is a game about a coin flipping eSport that I’ve seen a lot of folks praising but don’t know a whole lot about. It’s the year of coin flipping games I guess. I’ve also seen a lot of comparisons to Balatro, a game that maybe isn’t quite for me but I know basically everyone loves. There’s a much better writeup of Q-UP here.

first person view of a room in a home and there's weird symbols in art on the wall. The sky is purpl

It continues to be an amazing year for adventure games. TRACE Definitive Edition (Steam) is a remaster of a first-person escape room adventure game from 2022 where you explore a strange planet. There’s also a demo if you want to give it a try.

There’s actually quite a few remasters and remakes of adventure games this last week. We had the (not indie but including it anyway) Syberia 1 remake (Steam) that just came out and also one for Intrigue At Oakhaven (Steam) from 2006. It’s not a game I ever heard of, but I have a weird fondness for adventure games from this era, when the genre was “dead” (it wasn’t but that’s a whole other topic) and you had a lot of weird low budget adventure games coming out during this time. Intrigue at Oakhaven still looks like a mid 00s adventure game even in the remake so I’m very curious about this. It’s fascinating to get two 00s adventure game remakes in the same week.

isometric view of a purple planet and buildings being built

Generation Exile (Steam) is a turn-based city-builder set on a generation starship, where you must take care of your society in a sustainable way. This just entered Early Access but looks nice and the reviews so far look very positive.

Demos

TÖLT (Itch.io) is an upcoming game by the creator of horror games like The Enigma Machine and ECHOSTASIS with a look inspired by early 3D games. You are a horse. This is an unhinged observation from me but something about it reminds me of Lego Island.

SHRIMP GAME (Steam) is a solo or multiplayer third-person shooter RPG set in an abyssal realm. You pilot a shrimp and fight giant sea monsters.

That’s it for today’s post but I’m still working from my giant list of releases this week so expect more posts over the next few days. As usual, feel free to let me know if you’re working on something as long as it doesn’t use AI. Emails are nice too.

Indie Game Roundup (November 7, 2025)

It’s only been a week since I’ve done one of these and there’s already been a billion games that have come out, so I’ll probably do a few of these over the next few days. It’s a bit less overwhelming and one of my kids has their birthday today so I don’t want to spend all day writing one of these.

If you enjoy this post, consider checking out Michael Coorlim’s site (games writer and narrative designer) and buying one of his books, checking out his patreon, or hiring him to work on your game. I liked his book Cold Reboot.

Anyway, here are just some of the games released this week

Oktrollberfest 2025 just wrapped up on Itch. It’s a game jam where people create troll games using ZZT and MegaZeux.

a first person view of five people fighting 4 monsters

Minerva Labyrinth (Steam/Itch.io) is now available! It’s a first-person turn-based dungeon crawler set in the future. Sometimes these are referred to as blobbers. I was a beta tester on it and while I wasn’t very good at finding bugs, it’s a very good game and I recommend it.

first person view of someone holding a gun in an old online game

No Players Online (Steam) got a commercial release! I was a huge fan of this horror adventure about a dead online game when it was just a freeware game so this is probably very good too.

a person talking to a ghost at a table

It’s kind of been a ridiculous year for adventure games. Foolish Mortals (Steam) has been another big release that folks have been waiting for. I think the art looks fantastic and Adventure Game Hotspot gave it a glowing review.

view of an island and being asked where you would like to go next.

Pepper Odyssey (Steam/Itch.io) is the newest game by Wavey Games. I was a big fan of their adventure game Melon Head and this one looks wild too. It’s an rpg where you are a pepper merchant stranded on an island and need to explore and interact with others to find a way off.

And finally there’s Indiepocalypse 70 (Itch.io), an excellent collection of experimental indie games.

That’s it for today because I don’t have time for the whole list but I’ll try to do one every day for a while and hopefully that’s not too much.

Roller Rinks Are the Best

Just got back from the roller rink with one of my kids and wanted to say how nice they are. I used to go to them once or twice a year when I was in elementary school, but didn’t go to them anymore until my oldest started going because her school started having the occasional night at the roller rink. It’s just a blast skating around on a nice surface while music and lights are blasting away. I’m not the most amazing skater and always have to use roller blades because I’m far more comfortable in those, but it’s still fun. The wild thing is that the one I go to with my kids is the one that I went to as a child and still looks how I remembered it, but still being maintained and all that.

My understanding is that they’ve slowly been closing over the last few decades and aren’t really a thing outside of North America but if you do have one near you, consider visiting. Somehow I live somewhere that has three of them within a 15 minute drive of me, which is nice. I’d love to visit more in the Detroit area sometime. I got to do an outdoor one a couple years ago but that’s it.

If I did have a complaint about my local one, it’s that it’s just top 40 music. Although the DJ was different this time and better so hmmmm, maybe that is getting better. I’m assuming that the music is also better on adult-only nights.

If you would like to know more about roller rinks and African-American roller skating culture, I highly recommend the documentary United Skates.

Blog Roundup (November 2, 2025)

I haven’t done one of these in a while! I really need to do non-roundup posts but I like pointing people to other websites that I like since it maybe makes the internet feel a tiny bit less small? Anyway, if you see something you like, consider adding the site to your RSS feed reader.

Technology

Speaking of RSS, this explanation of RSS and recommendations of feed readers is really good if you’re up for reading a longer explanation of them.

If you’re interested in starting your own blog, consider My Cool Blog by The Works of Egan. My Cool Blog is a starter template for setting up simple personal websites and blogs with 11ty.

You could also follow this guide to Create your own free & portable website (for non-techies).

If you are a fan of The Computer Chronicles Revisited, the blog covering the classic tech show The Computer Chronicles, you may have missed that it moved to a new address. You can (and should) follow it here.

Leaded Solder walks us through the process of repairing an Apple III that a mouse peed in.

Games

The Space Quest fansite The Virtual Broomcloset (one of the first video game fansites) just got a massive update to celebrate its 30 anniversary and I’m just digging through the entire site and having a great time

No Escape is planning on focusing more on indie games and not covering AAA games at all in 2026, so give them a follow and/or supporting their patreon.

I liked hearing Brain Baking talking about how Warez was really important to them for games discovery. I had a kinda sorta similar experience so I can’t really get mad when I hear about games piracy, although I imagine no one is pirating my games anyway. But if they did, I would just be kinda amused.

Atari Archive continues doing great work going into the history of all Atari 2600 games so I was excited to see Boxing get covered since I played that one quite a bit.

The 1980s Mac game Continuum is now playable in a browser. There’s also a lot of nice fan levels you can play.

The Golfshrine continues to get updates and new games added to the site. If you have any interest in the history of golf video games, there isn’t a better website. You don’t have to be a fan of real golf either, the creator of Golfshrine certainly isn’t, video game golf is just really interesting to me even as a hater of real golf. They were also on the most recent episode of DOS Game Club to talk about DOS golf games.

Juan just deleted his Mastodon so add his blog to your rss feed reader if you want updates on the DOS games they’re working on.

Music

They Might Be Giants brought back the HyperCard stack they created for their album John Henry, in website form.

Gaming Alexandria goes into the history of a C64 type-in program featuring music by Johnny Ramone.

TTRPGs

Party of One, one of my favorite ttrpg podcasts, just celebrate 10 years. Both an interview show and excellent showcase of indie ttrpgs, the most recent episode is a discussion of the history of the show.

Tot’s Character Compendium is a great blog that reviews the character creation process of various ttrpgs. This week Tatiana covers the game Gravemire.

That’s it for this post! I’ll make more of an attempt to do these more frequently because a lot got left out but hopefully you found something new to follow!

Indie Game Roundup (November 1, 2025)

If you’ve noticed that I’ve been doing these a lot lately, you’re right! It’s less daunting to do a post on a smaller list of games than a big one so I’ve found I’m enjoying these more when I don’t wait so long. I’m also hoping that each game gets more attention too if it’s not part of a giant post.

If you enjoy this post, consider tossing a few dollars to the (very good fmv) Morph Girl creator’s (Itch.io/Steam) GoFundMe for Facial Feminisation Surgery.

Here are The Games

ECTOCOMP (Itch.io) just closed its submission window and now there are plenty of interactive fiction games available for voting on. ECTOCOMP is an interactive fiction competition focused on the month of Halloween and includes Twine games, parser adventures, and more!

a DS showing a stylus and a left window showing a room with minimal lighting and symbols on the right side

Dead Sight (Itch.io) is a short, free horror game that is modeled after DS adventure games. It was created by Siactro, who I am a big fan of because of their Toree platformer games.

top down view of two adventurers walking through a dungeon and blowing up skeletons

Blood & Money (Steam) is a Gauntlet-like that came across my feed from one of those bots that posts every release on Steam. I haven’t heard anything about it but 1. I like Gauntlet and 2. the graphics remind me A LOT of early 90s VGA DOS games so I would really like to know more if anyone has tried it. It sounds like there’s a demo but I haven’t been able to get to it.

person hanging out in a throne room

Streamer and organizer of DOSember emmfoolery has released Emmy, Fool of Fen (Itch.io), a new CGA game for DOS that is available as Pay-What-You-Want. It was created for the DOSember game jam, which still has a month left.

HitoPetto! (Itch.io) is a free ttrpg for two people (but supports more) by Bez where someone must take care of the soul of someone that is trapped in a virtual pet game.

Lil Kobold’s Big Stew (Itch.io) is a new PICO-8 game by Adam Saltsman where you are a little kobold gathering ingredients for a Big Stew.

a silhouette of a man running in front of a hedge maze and it looks like an atari 2600 box

Speaking of PICO-8 games, The Door In The Wall (Itch.io) is an Atari-esque adaptation of the HG Wells short story by the same name. It was created for the Book Club Game Jam and you can check out the other entries here.

Faster, Ace, Kill, Kill! (Itch.io) is a board game where you are a teenage monster on a volleyball team trying to win this year’s tournament for your school. It was made for Folklore Jam 2025, an analogue game jam.

Finally, because I am a big Myst nerd, I need to mention there is a big Humble Bundle of the entire Myst series.

Thank you for reading today’s roundup. Always feel free to reply with what you’re working on or enjoying, or send me an email. Nothing AI generated please! Consider adding this blog to your RSS feed reader too.