Out of boredom and curiosity, I decided to finally try streaming on Twitch and it turns out I actually think it’s really fun? It’s a bit chaotic right now and I don’t have a schedule since I have a baby, so it’s just whenever I have the time and feel like it, but I didn’t realize that I would actually really enjoy having people to talk to while playing games that are sitting in my backlog. I highly doubt it will ever be A Thing where I stream things that are popular or have a fancy setup or anything that will make it feel like a second job, but feel free to follow me. As expected, I’ll mostly just play old stuff and indie games on there.
Uncategorized
Made a Little Game in Downpour
Downpour is a new-ish app for making little games on your phone using photos and text. I have made a literal walking simulator in Downpour where you go on a lunch time walk on a trail with me
https://downpour.games/~Michael3000/a-relaxing-walk
Go check out Downpour for making games. It’s good stuff. Making little things in it has been really fun and is helping me finally break whatever game making rut I’ve been in
Screenshot Saturday Roundup (March 3, 2024)
Squeezing in one more roundup of things I saw on non-twitter places since I’m now self hosting and can actually embed Mastodon links now. I just got excited and wanted to try it for myself. It should make doing these a lot easier too.
Every week there’s a new gif from this game on Masto and Cohost and it still looks great
This looks like a nice little puzzle game that just came out
Waterpark tycoon game! Hell yes, sign me up
Part 1 of a retro looking EGA adventure game was just released for free
Here’s a clip from another EGA looking adventure game.
Good 1-bit racoon from this screenshot on Blue Sky
New FMV Game Zine Now Available
Next month will be ridiculously busy for me so I made a quick little zine about modern games using FMV for the Zine Month alternative jam using Electric Zine Maker. FMV Will Never Die is a free zine on Itch.io covering recent games with FMV. I created it for the Zine Month alternative jam, which I think was ending tomorrow but I guess not, oops. But that’s fine, I doubt I would have finished it if I sat on it for any longer.
I basically have a 40 page version of this sitting on my computer but I keep slacking off on doing a nice cover and formatting so this goofy version is what people will have for now. I had fun finally making something with the Electric Zine Maker though and doing all those bad doodles and I suppose an expanded version of this is something I can look forward to getting out there in another month or two. That will also feature reviews of older games as well as reviews for more modern games and expanded reviews for some of the games in this.
Electric Zine Maker is just a blast to use though. Sometimes it’s nice just to make a thing very quickly and get it on Itch before you get tired of the idea. Highly recommend checking that out.
The Virtual Moose Has Moved
Well, if you’re reading this then it means my site has successfully moved hosts and I’m finally self hosted. I still have to style the site and stuff but everything seems to have copied over and I will be able to do more.
WordPress.com being awful
I was already thinking about moving away from wordpress.com to self hosted because of the limitations of this and the CEO being weird and shitty to trans people, but I guess I have to move a lot faster now that the company wants to sell shit on here to AI companies. Technically there’s an option to opt out and I’ve done that, but I don’t really trust the company. Definitely not deleting the site but there might be some weirdness transferring everything once I figure out how to do that.
Screenshot Saturday (Feb. 26, 2024)
There was a lot of stuff on Cohost/Mastodon/Blue Sky that looked very nice to me with the Screenshot Saturday tag. Let’s take a look!
I’m interested in this solarpunk city builder that I just found out about last Saturday on Mastodon
Even the menus for Kitsune Tails are looking very charming on Blue Sky, Cohost, and Mastodon
I also just learned about Settlemoon on Cohost. I really like the colors it’s using and apparently the game is already out!
I like this game’s aesthetic. You can follow it on Cohost and Mastodon
Axyz looks like a puzzle game I’ll enjoy with its vaporwave aesthetic. I saw this on Blue Sky.
Screenshot Saturday (Feb. 19, 2023)
I got grumpy about it feeling like outlets covering #ScreenshotSaturday are only doing it for X, which is just a dying social media platform for the far right at this point, so here’s some of things that I thought looked pretty neat elsewhere. Some of the posts have multiple images, so click on the links to see more. I only got Blue Sky, Mastodon, and Cohost this week but can check out other places like Tumblr, Instagram, and Threads in future weeks.
Shadow jumping game SCHiM is looking pretty nice over on Cohost
This fan project is looking pretty lovely on Mastodon, with a lengthy post on Cohost explaining development of the game as well.
Oidanoid is looking like a lovely twin stick shooter (Mastodon)
I continue looking forward to The Crimson Diamond, a point-and-click adventure inspired by games like The Colonel’s Bequest. (Mastodon, Blue Sky, Steam)
Frenzy is pitched as a demake of Far Cry from an ecofeminist lens (Mastodon)
I’m a huge fan of Cosmic Void’s games and will be the first in line to buy Devil’s Hideout as well. (Mastodon, Blue Sky, Steam)
Inspector Waffles Early Days is turning out to be a lovely Game Boy inspired adventure game. (more images on Mastodon, Blue Sky, Steam)
I enjoy Taconite’s game jam work so I’m excited to see that they’re making another FPS (Blue Sky)
Tearcell Games has a nice looking Godot tech demo for a rpg (looks much better on Mastodon)
Mushroom Musume is already fantastic and it’s continuing to get updates (look better on Mastodon, Itch.io)
Retrowave ’84 has some nice colors in their FPS (Blue Sky, Steam)
Starting a YouTube Account
So a few days ago I’ve started uploading videos to my YouTube account, partially to share my experiences playing games, partially to spread awareness of indie games I enjoy, and also to document games that don’t have videos, either because they’re lost games or because they’re indie games that are just too obscure.
Since my interest is mostly in adventure games and interactive fiction, I guess my question now is: What is the ideal Let’s Play for an indie game developer’s game? The last thing I want to do is cost a sale of a game I liked because someone just watched my playthrough instead. Commentary or no? Just the first 30 minutes of a game and then I just play the rest offline? Does this differ if the game is free vs being paid? I’m guessing it’s fine to play through an entire thing if it’s a demo or free game. So what I may do is if it’s a new commercial game, I’ll play for 30-60 minutes and then do the rest offline? But I would love to know from game developers what they think in the comments or replies.
DREAMM 3.0 is Looking for Testers
DREAMM, the Lucasfilm Games emulator created by Aaron Giles, is looking for testers for version 3.0. It adds support for the following games:
- PHM Pegasus (1988)
- Battlehawks 1942 (1988)
- Strike Fleet (1989)
- Pipe Dream/Pipe Mania (1989)
- Their Finest Hour: Battle of Britain (1989)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game (1989)
- Night Shift (1990)
- Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (1991)
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game (1992)
- MasterBlazer (1992)
- Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1989)
- Super Star Wars (unreleased prototype) (1989)
- Star Wars Chess (1993)
If you want to check it out, you can download it here.