It’s another roundup of blog posts I enjoyed reading this last week. If you like these posts, consider subscribing to some of these blog through your RSS feed reader (I use Inoreader and think it’s nice) and consider doing your own roundup since Google Search is busted for discovering new things.
I don’t actually like Cory Doctorow, sorry, but I do think people should listen to him when he says you should be using a RSS feed reader. It’s certainly made using the internet a lot more fun for me over the last year.
This blog was pretty quiet this week because it’s been a hell week but things have calmed down now. Oh well, these things happen I guess. How was your week? What have you been playing lately? Let me know in the comments.
The Videotome Jam (Itch.io) has started! Videotome is a series of small IF/VN engines and you can find all four on the jam page.
The Steam Next Fest is also happening right now. I haven’t really dug into the demos yet but there’s a lot of them. Maybe you’ll find something neat.
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Collage Advertisement : Propaganda (Itch.io) is a short, political VN made in the hypercard-inspired tool Decker. Please read the content warning/disclaimer first!
Mourningstar (Itch.io) is a “satanic” “biblepunk” dark science fantasy tabletop rpg about resistance, rebellion, othering, theology, individuality, misfits, colonialism, divine politics, infernal magic, & exploring the stars as swashbuckling devils. The game is inspired by the Forged in the Dark framework. The game was created by super talented game designer and musician Devin Nelson.
Snow Flow
Indie Games+ has a nice review of a new game called Snow Flow. The game is playable for free on Itch.io and the art reminds me a lot of 80s Macintosh games.
Lorenzo Pilia created a manifesto On Small Games (Itch.io).
Johnson. A Plane Man is a game created in Downpour (Link) by Hyphinett. Downpour is a really fun tool for making very small games.
Not new but still cool, Karambola (Steam/Itch.io) is a free point-and-click adventure that reminds me of games like Samorost. There’s an art book for sale (Steam/Itch.io) if you would like to support the dev.
The Ghost and the Golem (Steam) is an interactive historical fantasy story published by Choice of Games about if your magic amulet save your Jewish village from destruction.
It’s not indie but I think it’s really interesting that Backyard Baseball ’97 (Steam) was just rereleased on Steam with compatibility on modern OS and achievements.
NovaMundi (Steam) is an open world tactical game where you must unite the people of nearby towns to fight off Spanish invaders.
The Urge (Itch.io) is a short erotic story created in Twine by Oma Keeling about operating a machine.
That’s it for this week. If you enjoy these, subscribe to the blog through the RSS feed, tell a friend, and check out these games. I’ve also started an irc channel for indie and alt games/gamedev talk at AfterNET at #AltGames. Consider giving it a try! No registration required!
Another collection of blog posts I liked reading this week. If you like these, consider subscribing to the blogs on your RSS feed reader and doing your own roundup posts if you’ve got a site. Google Search is becoming useless now and this is a way people will find new stuff.
Dante talks about Memoriapolis, a city builder I never heard of but sounds really cool and possibly addresses some of the issues I have with the genre?
Speaking of city builders, badger trebuchet diagram no. 17 posted about Sim City 3000 vaporwave.
I just like when people talk about what they’ve been into lately and Meredith Gran, creator of Perfect Tides, wrote one of those.
The Fungus Zone explains how it’s the year of the games anthology. I’m possibly biased because mine is listed there and I’m working on another right now, but I agree.
Chuck Jordan (Curse of Monkey Island, Telltale’s Sam and Max) has a nice post reflecting on being out for 20 years on National Coming Out Day.
Amiga Boing Blog is a nice blog covering Amiga games. Although personally, I think if your game is called Moose Drive then it should be more interesting than a generic racing game.
Not Blog Posts but here’s some other things
I liked this piece on RogerEbert.com about Megalopolish, the Joker sequel, and how more directors should be allowed to make potential misfires.
Aftermath wrote about how forums are alive and well, and lists a ton of active ones. Personally I’m kind of “hmmmm” about their hesitance on listing forums related to sexuality but gun forums are ok I guess? But I appreciate the enthusiasm and do think forums are nice. If you like talking about DOS games, then I recommend DOS Game Club and IntFiction.org isn’t bad for Interactive Fiction discussion. Data preservation issues aside, I personally find forums to be a lot less overwhelming than something like Discord and wish we could see more people using them.
I have fun posting any and all Gobliins 6 related news on here so here’s another update. Gobliins 6 has just launched a Kickstarter to fund development and finish the game. I enjoyed Gobliiins 5, which I had backed on Kickstarter, and this lists quite a few improvements on that. The rewards are pretty interesting too if you’re really into the artist’s work. I don’t recall any roadbumps or big delays with the campaign for 5 so it seems like a pretty safe one to back if you were thinking about it.
Every year I do a handful of indie adventure game recommendations for Halloween, like here, here, and here, and thought it would be time to do a couple more.
I’ve mentioned it a few times but Incubus – A Ghost Hunter’s Tale (Steam) is a fun adventure game if you enjoy ghost hunting and FMV. I’ve always enjoyed the developer’s other games like the Dark Fall series and this is another ghost hunting adventure by them. While I’m not into ghost hunting in real life personally, this feels authentic to what folks in that area do….I think.
Homestar Runner has a long tradition of referencing point-and-click adventure games and one of their recent commercial games (well, 2023), Homestar Runner: Halloween Hide n’ Seek (Steam), continues that tradition. The game features characters dressed as references to a variety of classic adventure games, both recognizable and obscure, and can be played in one sitting. I think this is maybe a rerelease of something they made before but with added voice acting and extra material but I’m not sure. It’s fun!
I am a big fan of Cosmic Void’s adventure games and Devil’s Hideout (Steam) is another solid game by the studio. Like all of their previous games, Devil’s Hideout features great pixel art and music to tell the story of a woman looking for her missing sister.
Excuse Me Sir (Itch.io) is a weird one because it’s just a demo for a game that has since been canceled, but I love how weird it is and I think the demo is self-contained enough that I would still recommend checking it out.
It’s another one of these. Games, they’re pretty neat. I’ve decided I’ll do a separate extra post where I can put all my backlog stuff in there because that list was getting out of control and I can just focus on games from the last week or two here. Plus it’s ok for games that are a couple months old to still be talked about.
Tabletop RPGs
Corpslayers (Itch.io) is a cyberpunkish heist/runner/gig economy simulator game tabletop rpg by Binary Star Games based on the ttrpg Slayers. It is available as PWYW.
Blood Borg (Itch.io) is a gutter punk vampire game by World Champ Game Co. based on the Mork Borg ttrpg. A hardcover version is also available.
Video Games
Lunar Lancer (Itch.io) is a free shmup for the Game Boy to celebrate its 35th anniversary. I assume from the art that it’s inspired by the classic Solar Striker.
Pusherfish (Itch.io) is a nice little browser game where you push blocks to cross gaps but can also change your character size to cross larger gaps or fit in small areas
We have a new batch of Domino Club games! Domino Club is a collective that anonymously develops games together in game jams and released in large batches, each containing an assortment of experimental games. This time it’s the Tongues Jam (Itch.io).
Phoenix Springs (Steam) is a point-and-click adventure that was in development for a while and I’m happy to see it out there! It’s a neo-noir game where you investigate where your missing brother is. I haven’t played it yet but reviews seem to be positive and the art is beautiful.
Pompeii, Bubbleland (Itch.io) is a short surreal poem created for Ludum Dare and inspired by museum tours. I loved it but just a heads up but it has some (intentional) flickering and weird effects that might be hard on the eyes for some folks. Go check out the other games by Sand Gardeners too!
Traveller’s Hymm (Steam) is a free rpg that was just released on Steam. I haven’t played it yet but it sounded pretty cool from Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s post about it.
MonoScale (Itch.io) is a browser game featuring great 1-bit art that reminds me of the Macintosh, and a grappling hook. I’m awful at it but I think it’s a fun game. Everyone likes grappling hooks.
I should have just called these devlogs because that’s what they are. Ah well. It’s been a fairly productive week for me. I’m feeling a little under the weather, although not nearly as bad as I thought this morning when I just drank some coffee and realized my migraine was coming from cutting down on caffeine too quickly. Oops.
If you’ve sent me info about the Cohost spreadsheet or buttons to add to my page, apologies for the delay. Between that and just being really busy, I haven’t had time getting around to it. But that’s something I’m hoping to fix later this week
Work on the adventure game continues. I don’t think I can’t really show anything yet since it’s a contract project, apologies, but I’m happy with how quickly I’m making progress. I think all the backgrounds are 90% done, with some tweaking in the art still to be done, so once I plug them all into Adventure Game Studio and having everything mapped out, I should be able to navigate through the entire game. I know “I just need to build the whole game and it’s done” sounds ridiculous but importing art into AGS isn’t too bad so I’m excited. I was getting kind of tired of doing art, and the room art is the biggest chunk of art required for the game, so I’m excited to get this stuff implemented so it will feel more like a real game.
I believe I have most of the character art done too, so I just need to do the one or two people left, inventory, and GUI and I should be all set there? That’s kinda nice. Obviously there’s still a lot of iterative work to be done, but I have the basic game design and puzzles done too, so I can kinda just have fun writing jokes for the next two months.
Another good thing about this project is that it will help me get a lot better at Adventure Game Studio so I will be able to do more complex things in the future. WilcoWeb has been working on a framework for AGS that will help in creation of doing games inspired by Sierra’s Manhunter franchise, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, so maybe that will be my next project. Then again, I was working on clay games and should work on those more too. Or combine the two. I’m so bad at focusing on one thing at a time.
Listened to a lot of records this week AND went to the Ypsi Freak Fest. I was only able to attend the first day but it was great. Most of the bands I wanted to see were outdoors and it was free. Got to see a few musicians and bands I’ve wanted to see for a while like Dr. Pete Larson and Tyvek, and discovered new bands like Pet Me, Golden Feelings, and Tanager. If you want to discover a ton of bands mostly local to Ann Arbor, you can check out the list here. Apparently there was some discourse on Saturday when a band pulled out at the last second, citing that the word Freak is problematic, protesting an art grant from the city to pay bands and how it’s not DIY, and privately messaging other bands to pull out, and IMO they should touch grass.
That aside, great festival! It was an incredible experience seeing a band like Tyvek play on a mostly empty street at night to like 20-30 people at most. I don’t go to concerts very often these days because I have 3 kids and don’t want covid, so when I feel safe enough to go it’s an absolute delight and I treasure every minute of live music.
My journey to listen to every record in my collection continues:
The Chameleons: What Does Anything Mean? Basically (1985, YouTube) Great album. I guess they were doing the punctuation in the middle of album titles thing before 00s era bands. Recommended if you like 80s alternative bands like early New Order. Not that they sound exactly like them but I think that’s the closest comparison point I can think of. I feel like Strange Times or Script of the Bridge are considered to be better but this is my favorite one by them. I think I originally picked it up about 10-12 years ago online, probably from Discogs.
Everything but the Girl: Fuse (2023, YouTube) After a 20+ hiatus, EBTG finally released a new album. I always thought it was funny that the band was considered broken up since it’s a married couple that has been living together this whole time. I think this may be their best album? EBTG is weird in that I think they generally get better with every album, which feels pretty rare and it’s incredibly rare for a band that has been around for this long. Tracey Thorn sounds amazing, I love the effects they do in some parts to make her voice sound messed up, the writing is up to the standards of previous albums, and the bloops and beats are better than ever.
The Mountain Goats: The Jordan Lake Sessions: Vol. 1 and 2 (2020, Bandcamp) 4 LPs! Not essential listening I suppose but as a long time fan it’s been very fun hearing live-ish (no audience) versions of the songs with a different lineup of the band than when most of them were first recorded. A lot of the new versions have a jazzier sound, which is a fun take on them.
The Faint: Dance Macabre (2001, YouTube) It’s fine I guess. I loved the album when I first listened to it around 2007 but it actually feels pretty dated to me now and hasn’t aged in a way that I find charming. It doesn’t help that the album feels very front loaded to me with the hits.
The Innocence Mission: See You Tomorrow (2020, Bandcamp) The Innocence Mission is a long running band from the 90s but I believe the core of the group are married couple Don and Karen Peris. They’re kind of indie/alternative folk music I guess? This album feels more stripped down compared to previous albums but I don’t think that’s a problem. Karen’s singing is still lovely and I think the writing is just as good as ever. I’ve bought two physical albums from the band on Bandcamp and both times I got a really nice note from Karen thanking me for buying the album.
Benoît Pioulard: Caverning (2018, Bandcamp) This was a nice little 7″ I got for free because he was giving them away at his show at the Ypsi Freak Fest. I assume he just wanted to be rid of them since he performs under a different name now but it’s really a nice duo of songs. Both are ambient but the b-side is quite a bit noiser. I recommend his current project Golden Feelings if you want more ambient from him.
Pet Me: Abomination (2022, Bandcamp) This was another single that I bought during the Ypsilanti Freak Fest. An interesting thing about this one was that it’s a square? Like the grooves are still a circle but it’s like they didn’t cut off the extra material. I wonder if it’s cheaper that way. The record must be cheaper to produce because getting my record player to play on the grooves was also pretty finnicky. That said, I think this is some very good punk rock. This is a band from Lansing that I wasn’t aware of until the festival but I’ll have to pick up some of their other stuff.
Various Artists: Hohokum soundtrack (2014, Bandcamp) This is the soundtrack to the video game Hohokum. It’s been a while since I played the game. I remember enjoying it quite a bit and think it’s probably something I could revisit with my kids. But even if you have no interest in ever playing the game, it’s a very good collection of songs if you enjoy more uplifting and generally relaxing electronic music. The album compiles various artists on the Ghostly label and serves as a very good snapshot of who was on the label at the time.
Mint Mile: Heartroller (2018, Bandcamp) I’ve reviewed Mint Mile albums a couple times here before. It’s the current project of Silkworm/Bottomless Pit’s Tim Midyett. Before they started releasing full length albums, they did a series of four EPs and this is my favorite one. It’s just a really solid set of 4 whistful rock songs and I think the steel pedal guitar in these songs sounds great.
Because Gobliins 6 search results have somehow become the thing leading most people from Google to here, I feel like I’m required to post the new trailer for the upcoming Gobliins 6.
I think it looks pretty good! I was pleasantly surprised by Gobliiins 5 and this is a return to the characters in Gobliins 2. Since this game only has two goblins, there are now only two I’s in the title. Since I do not speak French, I cannot tell if the appearance of the Prince Buffoon means this is chronologically set in the middle of the franchise. It’s weird to even think about the concept of Gobliiins lore. Anyway, glad he’s still making these. I really should give Gobliiins 4 another shot. I was so put off by the 3D graphics but I heard the puzzles get pretty good in the second half.
The dumping of images I originally posted on the CompStoreVisuals accounts on Twitter and Cohost continues. I’ve been looking through both accounts since the Cohost one is shutting down soon and it looks like even the Twitter account is starting to get screwy, probably from the site decaying. All of these are also on the Mastodon account but I would feel better having them somewhere else too.
