#OffTheClock

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Welcome to Part 16 of the Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD series! For those who are new, I aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games and to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes! For this episode, I used some of the demos I had grabbed from the Cooking Fest and Cozy Quest Steam Events! I think. I grabbed a bunch during those events, and outside of them, so I don't know anymore…

Today, I played 4 demos for your enjoyment:

Cornucopia® - Early Access Game A nostalgic 2.5D farm sim with 74 exotic crops, loyal pets bred for amazing genetics, and 34+ marriage candidates—from spirited youths to wise elders. Master NPK compost, raise magical kids, conquer dungeons, and delight in whimsical scratch-card arcade fun. Your cozy story starts now!

Hipster Café - Early Access Game Ever wanted to design, build and manage a café on your very own home computer? Really? OK then... welcome to HIPSTER CAFÉ. Make stupid food, serve it on a skateboard, and impress your friends by drawing in your coffee.

Let's Café - Early Access Game Food makes everything better in this cozy café business simulator. Discover recipes and set your menu to rake in those tips and five-star reviews. Solve your fuzzy clientele's problems with the power of good cookin' and earn the favor of satisfied customers.

Spells & Secrets - Available In this rogue-lite adventure, you free the Academy of Greifenstein from magical creatures by using your spells creatively. Explore this modern magical world alone or in local co-op mode with friends and family, customize your character, solve mysteries, and find powerful artifacts.

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.

The verdict? Via the "Layered Compliment Sandwich": Cornucopia®'s art style is ABSOLUETLY adorable! If you've been here a while, you know I LOVE pixel art! AND the tutorial felt like a tutorial. And was, also, a bit of a time waster. And made no sense, since we couldn't see the passage of time. On the way back from the hospital, we are asked to clear the roadblocks. How long were we in the hospital that we needed to clear up growing bushes in the middle of the road on the way back? Why was there a pile of giant rocks in the middle of the road? Why weren't folks in town keeping the roads clear? The tutorial could have, and should have, been done on the farm itself. The best part about it was the dog! And the mailman has a little chick following him around! Hipster Café gets bonus points for being unique. The fact they incorporate promoting your café on social media is brilliant! HOWEVER, it needs to provide more guidance. Figuring out what customers need can not be left to symbols. And, when we click on them to fill their coffee order, what they want needs to appear in the "Coffee Creation" screen. Being expected to remember is an unnecessary addition to the cognitive load. The art style is simplistically cozy. We could also say cozily simplistic. The Research mechanic was a bit overboard. What made me keep playing as long as I did, however, was the obvious jab at capitalism. We are specifically told we were able to get the café started with a trust fund. Brilliant! Let's Café was so damn cute! And, I didn't mention it in the video, it was another of those "make your own recipes" games that had me leaning on Maid Café on Electric Street for ideas. I would never have thought to make the different types of lattes, which lead to the different types of chai, otherwise. Also, their lack of a tutorial and throwing me in was ACTUALLY effective. The initial "here's what's going on" needs a font size increase, though. If I, with my glasses on, had a hard time reading it, I can imagine how others might feel about it. Also, this is a café, why isn't coffee ALWAYS being sold? Other than that, it was a lot of fun! And it looked like I could keep playing the demo; I believe I will! Spells & Secrets' art style was impressive, but the tutorial not only felt like a tutorial, it also wasted my time. And we are in the most irresponsible school ever. Why would you leave a first-year student (I wonder what the inspiration for the game was) to deal with intruders? Why wouldn't a professor, after finding a student, not teleport them to safety? And why would only certain items be able to be lifted with telekinesis? There were entire sections that could have been skipped. One thing I will give it, in regards to the intruders, was finding out I could use telekinesis to hit another enemy with them and kill them both. It was a happy accident. Why wouldn't any of the professors have a griffin's feather? Why would the teachers be perfectly comfortable sending you back into the castle to find the rest of the students? Why don't I have a party of professors going along with me? This game makes no sense. Hades and Harry Potter were combined horribly. Looks good, though. Work was clearly put into that. Overall, I want Cornucopia® and Let's Café, and they are on my wishlist. As a reminder, Cornucopia®, Hipster Café, and Let's Café are all in Early Access while Spells & Secrets is available.

And that's it for Part 16! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, the videos are available on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, and Odysee!  Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

The Monday, January 20th, and 673rd, Artist Shout-Out goes to Chyam! Check them out here!

—

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Welcome Gamers! 2:01 - Artist Shout-Out 6:09 - Demos' Intro 9:36 - Cornucopia® - Early Access Game 45:11 - Hipster Café - Early Access Game 1:18:20 - Let's Café - Early Access Game 1:50:49 - Spells & Secrets - Available 2:31:03 - Demos Line Up + Quick Desktop View 2:33:28 - Artist Shout-Out 2:34:38 - Thank You/Links 2:37:04 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 2:37:54 - Up Next/Farewell

—

"Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series YouTube Playlist "Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series Blog Posts

Pilot: CrossCode, Dumpy & Bumpy, Ynglet,��Zero Ranger

Part 2: A Dance of Fire and Ice, 2064: Read Only Memories, Death and Taxes, Underhero

Part 3: TEKKEN 8, Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition, Secrets of Grindea, Forspoken

Part 4: Death’s Hangover, Fae Farm, Fate/Samurai Remnant, Mini Settlers

Part 5: All-Star Fruit Racing, Indivisible, SaGa Emerald Beyond, Visions of Mana

Part 6: Glorious Companions, Tales of Arise, Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge,

Cozy Island

Part 7: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Cursebane, Dex, The Lady Puppet

Part 8: Detroit: Become Human, Little Goody Two Shoes, Luma Island, Tinkerlands

Part 9: Backpack Battles, Glaciered, Ratopia, Slime Rancher

Part 10: Captain Contraption’s Chocolate Factory, Maid Cafe on Electric Street, Neon Noodles, Tiny Glade

Part 11: Critter Café, Grimoire Groves, Pixel Cafe, Wizdom Academy

Part 12: AdventureBarStory, Bone’s Cafe, DELTARUNE, Mudborne

Part 13: Food Truck Simulator, Magical Bakery, Magical Delicacy, Seaside Cafe Rush Hour

Part 14: Chef’s Tail, Espresso Tycoon, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo, Tavern Talk

Part 15: Chicken Journey, FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, Terra Memoria, Until Then

—

MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT - MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized- Rendezvous Point Bookshop- Artist Shout-Outs Criteria - The Titans' Discord- Throne Wishlist- #SubOffTwitch- YouTube- Rumble- Odysee- Twitch - Steam

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on January 21, 2025.

[dhr-ao3]

Parallel

Parallel https://ift.tt/jRWHfLx by offtheclock Who knew forbidden love could smell so intoxicating, look so attractive and act so charming? It was the right kind of wrong and Ravenclaws love being right! Words: 1552, Chapters: 1/20, Language: English Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M Characters: Padma Patil, Original Male Character(s), Parvati Patil, Sue Li (Harry Potter), Terry Boot, Lavender Brown, Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Betty Braithwaite, Original Characters Relationships: Padma Patil/Original Character(s), Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Minor or Background Relationship(s) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Mutual Pining, Age Difference, Older Man/Younger Woman, Angst with a Happy Ending, Flashbacks, Brief mention of supporting character pregnancy, Explicit Language, Eventual Smut, First Time, British English, No Beta We Die Like Lupin and Tonks via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/ijBTsqk May 08, 2023 at 11:36PM

[thedailydeception]

♿ : Has your muse had any injuries in the past?

“Thankfully no.”

[chrissorensen]

Getting our copy of the @apa_la Off the Clock exhibition catalog with our @wifeduringquarantine Handmaid in it is a nice way to start the week. Honored to be among the 100 winners. Thanks again to APA-LA and judge Rebecca Morse. And the fantastic image across from ours is Balanced Contrast by @kcslagle. Swipe ⬅️ to see the cover of the exhibition catalog. . . #wifeduringquarantine #handmaid #offtheclock #exhibitioncatalogue #iphone https://www.instagram.com/p/CSo7UEfgcGy/?utm_medium=tumblr

[salty-sweet-mischief]

Our husband.

[cdlhunter]

Stay warm! #shutingdown #offtheclock #thankatrucker #driverreferral #bigrig #dailygrind #instawork #cdljobs #joboftheweek #truckdriver #cdl #truckstop #jobs #cdljob @cdlhunter https://www.instagram.com/p/CG81lUtpNmw/?igshid=i8jvg6ykt7rm

[mu-th-ur]

🕰️🎨'Off The Clock Portraits' — A solo presentation of works by @mario__miron under his own recent project called Sweetpea. 'Off The Clock Portraits' also include some dub, techno, jazz and thrash music created by Mario as well as a pdf download to Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism👌⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #mariomiron #offtheclock #portraits #drawing #sweetpea #onlineproject #onlineart #dub #techno #jazz #trash #music #markfisher #capitalism #realism #pdfdownload #webart #nonwhitecube #onlineexhibition #contemporaryart #quarantineart #art #ofluxoplatform⁣ ⁣ @ofluxoplatform https://www.instagram.com/p/CAstF_LlZ3w/?igshid=cj2vlrkw7uvu

[mattattridge-smith]

Pre Christmas week workout 🏋🏼‍♂️ ✔️ Booster 💉 ✔️ Port and cheese night ready 🫕 ✔️ Officially clocking off until after Christmas 🎅🏻 🎄 #thankyouandgoodnight #christmas #christmasiscoming #booster #boosted #offtheclock #clockingoff #completeditmate #gohardorgohome #itsbeginningtolookalotlikechristmas (at Alkrington) https://www.instagram.com/mattattridge17/p/CXlenpyosyZ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[reggiejamz]

SQUAD 💪🏾 Pulled up to the @houstonrockets x 🐺 TONIGHT 🏀 #nba #offtheclock #jamnation #hoodadventures. (at Toyota Center, Rockets Houston) https://www.instagram.com/p/COMkH2bhchx/?igshid=1lr42kgp1w3cg

[monriatitans]

MonriaTitans

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Welcome to Part 15 of the Let's Play Some Demos! | LPSD series! For those who are new, I aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games and to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes! For this episode, I used some of the demos I had grabbed from the Cooking Fest and Cozy Quest Steam Events! I think. I grabbed a bunch during those events, and outside of them, so I don't know anymore…

Today, I, attempted, to play 4 demos for your enjoyment:

Chicken Journey - Available Play as an adorable chicken in this relaxing platformer. Jump, climb and solve puzzles to find the answer to the ULTIMATE question a chicken can ask...

FANTASIAN Neo Dimension - Available Embark on an adventure to discover your memories and save the world from a mechanical infection. Maneuver your skill trajectories during battle, and dive into a new dimension with a unique twist on a classic RPG experience.

Terra Memoria - Available A shortage of magic crystals and the sudden awakening of ancient robots leads six new friends on an incredible investigation across Terra – a cozy and fantastic world that combines 3D and pixel art.

Until Then - Available A fateful meeting sets off a chain reaction, upending Mark's life. People disappear and memories prove unreliable. Uncover a hidden truth with Mark and his friends in this narrative adventure and race to unravel the mystery before it's too late.

All links above are to the games' Steam pages.

Why was it an "attempt" to play? Because Chicken Journey stumped me with a puzzle, and I wasn't going to sit around so I could continue to feel like an idiot. (And the point of these videos is to introduce people to indie games, or AAA games that wow me, so I'll keep grabbing them.) However, I will still be able to render a verdict. With that out the way, on to my observations and opinions, via the "Layered Compliment Sandwich":

Chicken Journey making me feel like an idiot doesn't stop it from being adorable. I was having fun with it, up until that point. I wanted to keep playing, but puzzle games are not for me. So I'm going to geek out over the pixel art. If you've been here a while, you know I LOVE pixel art games! We need more! And this game delivers! The title screen having everything but the title of the game be a pixel art font threw me, though. The lack of consistency I'll remember. Clearly. Playing it was fun! Until I felt like an idiot, but don't let that sway you. The sound design was great, except for one for the dialogue, and the little bit of hide-and-seek was cute! The game has things going for it, but it's not my kind of game. Sadly.

FANTASIAN Neo Dimension: another game whose camera makes me feel sick after a while, but I would have endured it had I not had a timer. And the game had such promise... The design of the game was both pretty and annoying. For the main character, Leo, his body was semi-realistic, then he had a cartoony face. Why? Really? The Death Star had a place to dock, and then the people were cartoony? There were quite a few, "No shit," moments that would have been funny had the voices of the character not been annoying. There was WAY too much talking, which is expected in these kinds of games, so... really nothing to complain about. Much. You may think I don't like the game, but I actually do. The camera constantly swinging around makes it so I can't play it. If I could take the combat and put it into another game, I WOULD! Terra Memoria's use of the combat timeline is unique, while the dialogue has me wanting to skip it. I looked up "constancy", the word that kept being overused to the point where I started groaning, and it means, "the quality of being faithful and dependable." and "the quality of being enduring and unchanging." Oh. Is this game a giant message about apathy (which means "lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.")? We did have a concerning scene regarding books being useless. And ripping pages out of books. It definitely has a message regarding education. Again, we have pixel art and I was pleased, and they did a decent job integrating 3D. I want to keep playing this for the story and the combat system! Until Then was incredibly well-designed and boring. It looked great, but I was happy when the timer went off. For this type of game, it had me doing WAY too much! Why are you having me hold down a button so Max can send a text message? Why did some of the options for said text message not matter when I picked them? I couldn't connect with the characters. Picking how to make the Slides for the school report was the most exciting thing about it. That, and the pixel art. It takes a LOT to make me not like pixel art. There, they were great. Overall, I want Terra Memoria, but not badly enough to snag it myself. It's on my wishlist, for anyone who feels like being generous. As a reminder, Chicken Journey, FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, Terra Memoria, and Until Then are all Available.

And that's it for Part 15! Thank you for reading! If this series of videos is something you're interested in, the videos are available on YouTube, The Titans' Discord, Steam, Rumble, and Odysee!  Don't forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow buttons to know when there's more!

—

The Monday, January 13th, and 670th, Artist Shout-Out goes to Karmen Pantoja! Check them out here!

—

TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Welcome Gamers! 1:50 - Artist Shout-Out 5:26 - Demos' Intro/Video Format 8:36 - Chicken Journey - Available 24:27 - FANTASIAN Neo Dimension - Available 1:00:39 - Terra Memoria - Available 1:30:17 - Until Then - Available 2:06:58 - Quick Critique/Which Game(s) Do I Want? 2:07:53 - Artist Shout-Out 2:08:45 - Thank You/Links 2:11:37 - Rendezvous Point Bookshop 2:12:14 - Up Next/Farewell

—

"Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series YouTube Playlist "Let's Play Some Demos!" Video Series Blog Posts

Pilot: CrossCode, Dumpy & Bumpy, Ynglet, Zero Ranger

Part 2: A Dance of Fire and Ice, 2064: Read Only Memories, Death and Taxes, Underhero

Part 3: TEKKEN 8, Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition, Secrets of Grindea, Forspoken

Part 4: Death’s Hangover, Fae Farm, Fate/Samurai Remnant, Mini Settlers

Part 5: All-Star Fruit Racing, Indivisible, SaGa Emerald Beyond, Visions of Mana

Part 6: Glorious Companions, Tales of Arise, Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge,

Cozy Island

Part 7: The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Cursebane, Dex, The Lady Puppet

Part 8: Detroit: Become Human, Little Goody Two Shoes, Luma Island, Tinkerlands

Part 9: Backpack Battles, Glaciered, Ratopia, Slime Rancher

Part 10: Captain Contraption’s Chocolate Factory, Maid Cafe on Electric Street, Neon Noodles, Tiny Glade

Part 11: Critter Café, Grimoire Groves, Pixel Cafe, Wizdom Academy

Part 12: AdventureBarStory, Bone’s Cafe, DELTARUNE, Mudborne

Part 13: Food Truck Simulator, Magical Bakery, Magical Delicacy, Seaside Cafe Rush Hour

Part 14: Chef's Tail, Espresso Tycoon, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo, Tavern Talk

—

MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT - MonriaTitans | WGS Summarized - Rendezvous Point Bookshop - Artist Shout-Outs Criteria - The Titans' Discord - Throne Wishlist - #SubOffTwitch - YouTube - Rumble - Odysee - Twitch - Steam

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Originally published to https://opinionsandtruth.wordpress.com on January 15, 2025.

[sojc123]

Poem of the day: "Field Poem" by Gary Soto. Note: This piece simply take the reader from one portion of the real to another. #poemoftheday #garysoto #poem #poetry #poetrygram #mundane #poetryisnotdead #poetrycommunity #family #work #offwork #poems #field #offtheclock #poetrynerd #poetrylives. (at Huntsville, Alabama) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNS1VSsF6HZ/?igshid=1io1mlr62r1ql

[thedailydeception]

ツ : Does your muse prefer lots of friends, or just a few close ones?

“I don’t have many to begin with, but probably a few close ones.”

[chillmodenate]

Nuff said... 🏴‍☠️🏈❤️💪🏾🦩 the homie @simren.maknojia showed out with the boy yesterday!! 🙏🏾🙌🏾💪🏾🔥💎💯 #buccaneers #tampabaybuccaneers #superbowl #thehostswiththemost #workflow #offtheclock #loopholes #weready #bucsvschiefs #letsgetit #superbowlweekend (at Steve Clark YMCA) https://www.instagram.com/p/CK9L10aLqSS/?igshid=frydamidmdw8

[thedailydeception]

“That’s good to hear :> Would you like to come over here? I can brew some tea-”

Deedee put his phone down mid-thought to see what flavors he had; green, black, chamomile... He remembered Minim likes fruity teas, and decided on peach tea. He filled his electric kettle with water and flicked it on--if she was almost done with work, he may as well get the tea ready for his arrival. 

“-and we can decide where to go from there if that’s alright? Hope to see you soon.”

(thedailydeception) Minim's phone buzzed with a text from a recently-added number. "Hello, Minim :> I hope you're doing well today. I'm texting you to ask, when and where did you want to meet up?"

Minim, who was currently kicking his feet back and forth at his work chair while staring bored mu at the screen, perked up in surprise at the phone and immediately snatched it. Notifications were always good to her, and sure enough she gasped in delight at seeing the number.

“hi double d! i’m doing a-ok! slow day at work rn, almost over with,” he texted before giving a thoughtful hum. “i’m fine with getting together once i’m off if you are! ヽ( ´ ∇ ｀ )ノ maybe it could be at my place or yours? or maybe where we’re going to treat yourselves to? i’m flexible! what works best for you?”

[strungupphantom]

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[stormysparks]

Love when co-workers surprise me at the show💛 #gay #dragqueen #stormysparks #friendship #Sundayfunday #Wichita #Kansas #clubboomerang #fierce #fish #rpdr #dragrace #gayboy #blondehair #teamvdk #madeyalook #bombshell #instafamous #modelstatus #makeup #girlpower #instagay #followme #blam #gottablast #offtheclock #werkflow