TOWNSQUEER, a bundle containing games and a zine put together by the folks at gamedev.lgbt, is now available on Itch.io for $20. It made me happy to see this community put together a bundle of wonderful games and immediately picked it up when it went on sale last night. I’ve played a few of the games before so it was nice to support those, as well as have a whole new batch of games to play. I wrote about PARA//LAX before, but I also really enjoyed other games in this bundle like the fmv documentary To All the Rocks That Bear Me, platformer Nice Disc, and the first person interactive fiction Breathe. Not only is it an excellent collection of games but I was impressed with the production of the zine as well. A great amount of effort was put into the layout and it contains a lot of writing from the bundle contributors about game development and other topics. I really can’t recommend the bundle enough. It’s good to support queer art of course, but I also just think it’s a very good deal for the amount of high quality games you’re getting and I think it coming with a few Steam keys is a nice little bonus too. Go check it out! It runs until June 15.
I hope the bundle is very successful and we see more volumes of this, even though the organizers have run into some headaches with Itch. I also hope it inspires other communities to do something similar. I know some Discords have organized bundles before but it feels extra special to me when a community that hosts their own site, whether it’s a mastodon instance like this or a forum, has their own projects like this.
This Sunday morning I am thinking about multimedia cd-roms by musicians in the 90s and thinking: “did they play Myst?” I do not care about if any musician was actually a gamer, but because I am a huge dork I keep thinking about the band Queenscryche, in their stage gear, crowded around a desktop computer and trying to figure out the marker switches on Myst island. Because I have nothing better to do, here are my thoughts on various musicians with computer games and if they’ve played Myst. Many of these games are abandonware and playable on modern Windows thanks to The Collection Chamber.
Peter Gabriel, star of Xplora and Eve: Yes, absolutely. He seemed to be very interested in the cd-rom format since he started a games company that produced his two games as well as Ceremony of Innocence. He also contributed music to URU: Ages Beyond Myst and acted in Myst 4
Laurie Anderson, Puppet Motel: I think it’s likely she tried it for a few minutes to see what it was like since she’s stated she has an interest in new technologies and using them when no one really knows what to do with them. She has also done VR installations when VR was becoming a thing again in the mid 2010’s. But according to this interview last year about Puppet Motel, she doesn’t really enjoy games and winning/losing states so I assume she moved on once she “got it.” People should play Puppet Motel.
Aerosmith, 9: The Last Resort, Revolution X, Quest for Fame: Why did people keep going to Aerosmith to ask them to be in their computer game? Only one of these is an adventure game (produced by Robert Deniro) and they just act in it so they barely qualify for this list, but I think they’re aware of what a cd-rom is and that’s it. They’ve probably played some pinball. This is the most I want to think about Aerosmith.
Dan Ackroyd, The Blues Brothers: We know he actually played The Blues Brothers video games but I do not think he played Myst or else we would have seen some sort of cd-rom. Since John Goodman was in the Blues Brothers in the sequel, this is also where I can say that I do not think John played Pyst.
The Beach Boys, Surf City: Absolutely not. Mike Love cashed the paycheck and that was the end of that. If I had to pick the Beach Boy most likely to have played a computer game, I think it’s Al Jardine.
Earth, Wind, & Fire, Isis: Today I learned they had a computer game! I don’t think it’s likely they played them but now I want to play this.
Herbie Hancock, Virtual Nightclub, Living Jazz: He must have at least tried Myst, right? He seems too curious about technology to not have. Anyway, Herbie Hancock rules.
Devo, Adventures of the Smart Patrol: I think Mark and Gerry at least tried it and saw games as the future of the band. This did not happen since the game wasn’t very good and flopped, but the promotional video has that energy. They poked at smartphone apps a few times so new technology is something they have an interest in but I don’t think they ever dug too deep.
Queensrÿche, Promised Land: As much as I want to imagine the band playing Myst, I do not think they have. However, I am fascinated by the MobyGames credits for this game. The brother of one of them is all over the place on this and all the band members are listed as co-designers of their worlds. I don’t buy it.
The Residents, Freak Show, Bad Day on the Midway: Yes, but the band were all in costume when they did. From reading the Laurie Anderson video, it sounds like Voyager and Inscape were the ones reaching out to the bands to make something and not the other way, but I do think the fingerprints of The Residents are all over these and their involvement was more than just cashing a paycheck.
Motörhead, Motörhead: This predates Myst and Lemmy absolutely did not play computer games, but lets all imagine him playing Myst anyway. EDIT: I’m wrong about this one. Lemmy did play arcade games. See the comments below.
Prince, Prince Interactive: I have no idea how much he was actually involved with his game but I think it’s very likely he tried Myst. He was too interested in computers and the internet not to have. He was also probably one of the first people ever to have played The Oregon Trail.
David Bowie, Jump: The David Bowie Interactive CD-Rom, Omikron: He was too interested in technology not to have, since he also had his own multimedia cd-rom (that he wasn’t a fan of since it wasn’t ambitious enough) and Omikron. I think Duncan Jones is over answering questions about his dad since he has his own career and art to talk about, but maybe he would still be up for answering “What computer games did you play with your dad?” since I think most folks like to talk about that.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Frankie Goes to Hollywood: They broke up before Myst and I don’t think they were involved with their game either but this Making Of article about the game is good.
Rednex, Inbred with Rednex: Well they know what a computer is because they keep taking down videos on YouTube of people playing their game but I think that’s as far as that goes.
Well that’s all I have to say about all of that. Feel free to comment with your thoughts about other musicians and if they’ve played Myst.
I haven’t done one of these in a while! Here are some books I’ve read so far this year that I enjoyed. I don’t think I have especially wild or interesting taste in books and mostly read science fiction and fantasy, but maybe you’ll discover something new to read at your local library or indie bookstore. Links usually go to Bookshop.org, which directs a little bit of revenue to your local bookstore of choice and not Amazon. Sorry this is so long, I’ll do these on a more quarterly basis in the future. You can always see what else I’ve read on Storygraph.
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett – I had started this one in December of course but didn’t finish it until the beginning of the year. I have to imagine that everyone reading this knows about Discworld and folks know if they like it or not but I’ll be another person recommending it. I keep meaning to read the entire series.
The Skull by Jon Klassen – I’m going to include some kids books in this post as well. I have been a fan of Jon Klassen’s for a while and this is a good one. It’s a bit longer than your typical picture book and has lots of lovely art. It’s also fun reading something to the kids that feels a little darker and creepier but really isn’t actually dark. This one is about a little girl and a talking skull getting in and out of trouble and my kids liked it too.
To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth – The second novella in the Curse Bearer series. Veronica Roth is most known for the Divergent series, which I’ve never read, but I liked the two novellas in this series. They’re pretty dark fantasy stories based on Slavic folklore but set in the modern day and queer. I suspect the Divergent books are maybe not really in my age range but if she writes more in this series I’ll read them.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – Reread this one after I originally read it 20 years ago and I still like it. I think I’ve heard the sequel isn’t great so I probably won’t bother with that one.
A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo – The 6th novella in the Singing Hills cycle about a wandering cleric. I’ve been a fan of all of these and this latest one was great too. The novellas are written so they can be read in any order so you can just grab whatever one you see first at the library.
Doctor Who: Scratchman by Tom Baker and James Goss – Yeah that’s right, a Doctor Who novel. This one is an adaptation of a Doctor Who movie script that Tom Baker wrote in the 70s and never got produced. It’s just a fun Doctor Who story with the 4th Doctor, nothing mind blowing or any weird lore stuff getting made up here. I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Tom Baker and from reading the Storygraph reviews and Doctor Who wiki, he ad-libbed a line or two, continuing the theory that he really just is The Doctor in real life.
Disability Visibility, edited by Alice Wong – This is a collection of essays from folks writing about their experiences being disabled and living in the United States. Can’t recommend this one enough to people (like me) who need to see the world from the perspective of folks living with disabilities.
Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: The Guide to Beat-Em-Ups Volume 1, edited by Kurt Kalata – Do you like games such as Double Dragon and River City Rampage? Good news, this is a book about a ton of those types of games. I got a DRM-free copy of this through an eBook bundle that isn’t available.
She Who Knows by Nnedi Okorafor – Africanfuturist novella coming of age story about a teenage girl. I guess this one is set in a previously established universe but I didn’t know that before reading this and I enjoyed it.
The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older – Basically if Holmes and Watson were lesbians in space solving mysteries. It’s the third novella in the series and my favorite so far. In fact, I want to reread the first two now because while I did like those, I enjoyed this one much more and I don’t know if I was just in a bad mood reading those or what.
John Candy: A Life in Comedy by Paul Myers – Recommended if you’re interested in actor John Candy or SCTV. It dives deeply into that comedy scene and even with it being about an actor that everyone seemed to love working with it still had a lot of interesting things to explore. This was written by the brother of actor Mike Myers, who also wrote a good book about The Kids in the Hall.
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler – Turns out that beloved author Octavia E. Butler was also very good at writing short stories.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon – Novella about mermaid descendants of African slave women. I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Daveed Diggs and music by Clipping and felt that it elevated an already great story.
Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith – Just a really nice slice of life graphic novel about four women that was on the recommendation shelf at my local library.
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers – a novella about a crew in space looking for habitable worlds. I think this is only the second or third thing I’ve read by Becky but I loved it.
Fresh Start by Gale Galligan – Lovely graphic novel for kids about a kid who has moved to a new area and is starting over at a new school. I think a lot of kids (or I did anyway) will relate to being kind of a dork trying to fit in somewhere new. There’s so many great graphic novels for kids being made these days.
The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On by Franny Choi – Poetry collection by an author I’ve been a longtime fan of, with most of the poems being focused on the ends of worlds and apocalypses. I actually did the audiobook for this one and I would recommend it if you’re someone who wants to read more poetry but maybe struggles with how to read them.
Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality by Julia Shaw – Well written and lots of good info. I thought some sections like the history were more interesting than others. It being on the shorter side prevents it from delving deeper into other topics and a lot won’t be new info to bi/pan folks but I think it’s still nice to read and validating
The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie – The second Poirot book. I actually read the first book in the series this year as well and liked it but I think this is when the series starts to figure out the form more and really takes off. We all love a man with a funny mustache who solves mysteries. This one is actually public domain now.
Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems by June Jordan – She’s so good. I don’t think you should really just sit down and read a collection of a poet’s works in the order of release like I did but occasionally reading a poem here in there by someone this good is lovely.
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky – You’d think I would have read this by now given how much I love the film Stalker and wrote a ttrpg inspired by it but no. Of course I loved it! I listened to an audiobook narrated by Robert Forster and he had the perfect voice for this story too.
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa – Saw it in a list of reads a book club in a discord I’m in is doing and holy shit. I feel like I should be over Orwellian novels at this point but this had such a dreamlike logic to it that I found it to be very compelling. Will be thinking about it for a while.
Nobody’s Baby by Olivia Waite – Second book in the Dorothy Gentlemen series, a sci-fi mystery series of novellas. It’s just a nice, breezy mystery about a baby that is suddenly found on a ship and the series does some interesting stuff in its sci-fi setting.
Well, that’s all for this post. I realize that’s a ton of books but when you account for it being half a year of reads and so many of these being novellas, I don’t think it’s as bonkers as it looks. I hope you find something good to read!
I don’t know why but in the last week I’ve seen multiple people treat experimental art like vegetables you must eat before you can engage in discourse or interact with “the fun stuff” and I’m so tired of it. It’s boring and frequently comes from folks who don’t engage with the material anyway and just want to use it as a cudgel to beat on other things. This is mostly a video game blog but this happens with all mediums. It feels like it’s the only purpose this art serves as and it’s depressing not only as a designer who wants people to look at my work and by other folks as well, but they’re depriving themselves of so much joy if they only see it through this lens.
When I see something that I haven’t seen done before in film, music, games, and other mediums I become so filled with a love of art that it drives me to seek out more. The first time I heard Wolf Eyes I thought “What is THAT? That’s not very good.” but I kept listening because there was something there that I found compelling. And then I kept coming back to it and every time I understood it a little better and why they were creating art this way. Every time a new batch of games from DOMINO CLUB is released, I see interactive fiction designed in a way I’ve never seen before. I used to be so condescending about LARPs, especially the experimental ones, before I realized that even if something wasn’t for me personally, it was really cool that people were inventing new ways to do storytelling. It’s like when Pere Ubu says they’re like a cup. I love seeing new approaches to things I thought I knew and want to see the cup from every angle.
It reminds me of when I first started crate digging for music, where every discovery made me feel like a kid with a bowl full of candy. I never want that feeling to end and will always be searching for the next thing that gives me that jolt of energy. I cringe sometimes when people use the word “fun” to describe art, since art is not always fun, but I guess I will be a bit cringe and say that it is fun to always be searching for folks taking big swings with their art. It doesn’t always land for me but when it does I feel the need to tell everyone about the brilliant thing I just saw.
If that doesn’t interest someone, that’s fine too. I’m not always in that mood for that either and maybe I just want to watch some old Doctor Who, but I don’t get why someone would pretend to be interested in it only when they can beat on something else and can’t be appreciated as it’s own standalone thing. Just don’t engage with it at all if that’s the case. I mean, I’m not above wanting the numbers and if you want to play through all of my stuff, then go ahead. But there’s no need to bring it up only in the context of some video game discourse.
Anyway, a bunch of critics on Bluesky have said to blog stuff like this out instead of just posting, which is convenient since it’s something I’ve been doing for experimental games for the last few years anyway.
I guess this is currently my passion? Flickgame has been such an easy to use tool for making tiny games that it’s been satisfying making little interactive comics. My newest one, World in Motion, is a little silly. It’s about the summer of 2010 in Ann Arbor, Michigan when I went to Encore Records and a younger, irony-poisoned me bought the 12″ for the New Order song World in Motion, which you can listen to on YouTube while playing. I also recommend eventually listening to the weirder B-Side as well, since the game is about that. For whatever reason a friend and I referenced this song a lot. We were big New Order fans but did not like this song, but were fascinated by how popular of a song it was in their catalog. As an American, a lot of this stuff did not have any context for me either. All I knew was that Lily Allen’s dad is in the music video for some reason and does the voice of a soccer player, who does the rap in the single, in the b-side.
The game is set in Encore Records, as I mentioned above, at their old location. My understanding is that the landlord increased the rent too much and they had to move a few blocks over. It’s still a fine record store but I liked the older and bigger location more, where I could spend even more time digging through records. Does this mean my game is an anti-landlord statement and my most political game yet? Not really, but I do think this made me dislike landlords even more. This all happened right before the pandemic too, so the move happened and then nothing filled that space for a year. So well played to that landlord. Another records store in downtown Ann Arbor, Underground Sounds, has also moved since then because of landlords. There’s probably a larger game or something in my about my evolving relationship with a city but realistically I’m more likely to make 20 or so tiny games about it instead.
I think I also like making incredibly specific games that are only for a handful of people. Not because I think it’s particularly clever or meant to be gatekeeping. I just like making things that I know a couple of friends will hopefully think are fun to play for a minute. Don’t have any clever insights there, I just like making stuff and hyper fixating on very specific things.
I just used the Flickgame tool to make a tiny game about one of my earlier memories and I loved using it. It’s such an easy to use tool for making little comics and interactive stories. I had originally intended to make a game for smilejam but then when I finished making this game I looked at the rules and submissions and realized I didn’t really pay attention to the rules at all, oops. But it inspired me to play with flickgame and lists plenty of other neat little tools I can play with so I’m really glad I saw the jam.
Anyway, here’s The Toilet. I’ll upload it to this site eventually as well. Does it count as a Leisure Suit Larry fangame?
I think a lot of folks who follow this site already know this but people still make text adventure games like during the days of Infocom and they’re still very good! In fact, I think many of them are even better than the classics. That’s not to say the classics are bad, they’re very good, I just think many made post-golden age of text adventures are even better. You can download many free ones on IFDB.
Some that are friendly to beginners that I happen to enjoy are Lost Pig, Galatea, Bronze, and The Dreamhold, but there’s a nice list of more interactive fiction on IFDB’s top 100 list if you’re looking for more to play. Not all of these are text adventures but I also love interactive fiction in the form of Twine games and other forms so no complaints there. I think the commercial text adventure Thaumistry is a good intro to text adventures as well.
If you want to download these free games instead of playing them in a browser, you’ll probably need something to run the files. I think Gargoyle is neat but there’s plenty of options. Some games are also easier to play if you map out the rooms. Personally I love writing these down in a notebook but Trizbort is a nice app for mapping rooms on your computer. I use a desktop version for Windows but apparently there’s now a browser version available.
If you want to see what else folks are up to in the scene, I recommend exploring the rest of IFDB and checking on competitions like IF Comp and Spring Thing. IF Comp has been going on since the 90s. While I stopped following that one for a while because they allowed AI stuff, it seems like they’re starting to clamp down on it so that’s nice.
Anyway, if you’ve never played a text adventure before, give it a shot! Maybe you’ll discover a new genre of games you really enjoy.
Go check out your local library! Yes they have lots of great books, but they may offer some of the following: music, movies, video games, board games, graphic novels, digital services for streaming, tools, spaces for your local hobbyist group, a place to chill, and more!
I was looking through the notes app on my mac and just saw this big list of games in one doc. I’m not sure why. Given the amount of student games on here, these may have been notes I took of the indie games conference thing that Lawrence Tech University in Southfield was doing at the time. It was by no means a big event but it’s been 7 years (the notes are from April 21, 2019), so I thought I would dump this all here with any commentary I have, and a games historian can stumble across this in 10 years and pick out the interesting bits. I don’t think this will be of interest to many folks but I think it’s good to have it available anyway. The titles of the games are in bold and my commentary is in unbolded text.
Some of these folks are still making games, some not, and it looks like a few of the students here ended up going into the games industry so that’s lovely to see too. Not going to name them because that feels like doxing to me even if they’re success stories, but I still love to see people doing well.
MageQuit is a multiplayer game where you duel each other as little wizards. A very fun game. I believe at the time this was in Early Access since the release date on Steam is October. I think it did well judging from the number of Steam reviews and it getting releases on consoles. It’s two brothers who make up the studio, I’m not sure if they’re still in Michigan, and at the time of this writing they’re working on a new game, MageQuit Dungeons.
Another cool one. They created a visual novel about dragons called Golden Treasure (Steam/Itch.io) that I would recommend. I think there were attempts to make a follow up to this but judging from the last news posting being in 2023, I don’t think this will happen. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Pretty sure this one was a student game. I know I played it but don’t really remember my feelings on it. But since my memory is a bit crap in general, I don’t think that should reflect on the game. Given that it’s a twin stick shooter and looks nice, I should play it again.
Another student game. The way I remember the game dev program at Lawrence Tech working is that all the students would split off into groups and make games. From looking at the credits for this one, maybe they could do solo projects as well?
Oh hey, this one is still in development! RAD, which changed its name to RAD-venture after Double Fine’s RAD was announced, is a collect-a-thon. I backed the Kickstarter for this….last year? Maybe the year before? It’s one of those games where it will come out eventually but I haven’t followed it closely enough to know when. But the early builds I’ve played, including the ones from this time seven years ago, have all been great. It doesn’t seem like there’s a demo currently available but you can play the student game version here. The student game version was not through Lawrence Tech.
I remember playing this one! This one was a student game that I remember liking. I haven’t heard from Spencer in a while but I know they made a lot of other lovely games and interactive fiction that you should check out on Itch.
BroBots! Another one that wasn’t by student, I remember liking this one quite a bit. It’s kind of a twin-stick shooter co-op game. I think the studio planned on doing more but I don’t believe that happened. I do remember it originally being $2, it’s the only game I’ve bought on GameJolt, but at some point they made it pay-what-you-want for everyone to enjoy.
Oh hey, one I actually remember playing. It’s an arcade space sim that was made by a large-ish team. I still have a little pin from this one. The teams were encouraged to make little things to give away at their table, I assume to give them experience tabling for cons, so I have various stickers and pins from some of these games. Maybe I can update this post later with photos of some of them.
[MEMORY_LEAK]
Had to double check with the dev who was working on this. It’s still alive and in development. It’s a turn based rpg inspired by Paper Mario. All I had in my notes were a twitter link but the dev has moved to Bluesky years ago at this point. No Bluesky account for this game but they do have one for their other game in development, Admit One.
Oh hey, one I really know. Steven co-founded local indie game collective Locally Sourced with me so yes, I know he’s still around making stuff. WaveCrash!! eventually got a release on Steam if you only want to play games on that platform. He’s currently working on a puzzle game.
I don’t know if this one is still being actively developed but if you poke around the page you can see the developer has done a bit and I know he’s very active with local Warhammer and other tabletop communities.
Stardust Hyperdrive
This was a top down arcade game for the Android. It doesn’t seem like it’s available anymore which is too bad because I remember liking it. I never had an Android device so I was always hoping it would get ported to other stuff but I don’t think it did. You can already read more about the game on the dev’s site, where it also lists the soundtrack. I also made a MobyGames page for it.
Hey, I remember this one. It’s a top-down runner-like arcade game where you dodge asteroids and lasers being shot at your ship from the ships chasing you. Josh is still involved with the local game dev scene, I think through IGDA Detroit.
Great game (also on Itch) and it eventually led to other projects like Cellular Harvest. Nate now works at New Blood, where he works on games like Gloomwood. This one wasn’t a student project. The showcase/convention also had commercial games and projects by non-students there.
I’m not actually sure if this one is still in development, doing game dev as a hobby while also being a parent is tricky, but I really liked what is there. He’s also made other games on his solo Itch page.
There was also a System Shock mod at this thing from a non-student. I’m not sure how that happened but I love it. I tracked down the mod and it’s called Lazarus Decλy. My notes had a link to a Facebook page but that’s no longer active.
Student game Misadventure
There’s some others that weren’t in my notes but I found through some digging on Itch. Some more student games at the showcase include:
Misadventure is a short platformer where you are on a pirate ship. I remember it doing some fun physics stuff and the team just being very happy that folks were checking out their game they made.
Isa’s Edda is a 3D platformer I know I did not play, but some of the same folks went on to make a first person adventure game Farewell Call that I remember liking.
Saviour is a cool one where you are navigating a space in pitch black and relying entirely on sound.
Prison of the Damned is a first-person puzzle student game that I remember being at the showcase but did not have time to play.
I do remember really liking Crime and Nunishment, a top-down game where you are a nun shooting at nuns. It had a really cool art style that slightly reminds me of the 90s fps ZPC. I have a sticker from their booth.
Crime and NunishmentAesthetisphereVaporstride
Another pair of projects that I didn’t have in my notes but suddenly remembered were the pair of first-person vaporwave. My memory is that it started as one but then had creative differences and split off into their own projects. So here are A E S T H E T I S P H E R E and Vaporstride for you to play and enjoy.
Anyway, those are my notes. Like I said, this is probably going to be boring to most folks but I wanted to document it anyway. Feel free to correct me if I’m misremembering this stuff or left any games out. These are my memories of a games event from a long time ago. I just thought it might be good to preserve this stuff somewhere. A long time ago I made this Itch collection of local student games and some of them may have been in this showcase as well.
As it says in the header, he turns 2 so there’s no roundups this week (also my midterm fried my brain). In celebration of him and his love of buses, you can help make the world a better place by advocating for mass transit where you live and maybe also pushing a cool toy car off a ramp.
