#so they can rarely play rimworld

[creaturefeaster]

omg for any of you who follow me who happen to play rimworld also (possibly nobody at all. but still i yell), did you know there's a mod that beautifully incorporates multiplayer??? i tried it out not that long ago and it's so so cool

[dzpenumbra]

7/1/23

I'm happy to be able to visually see myself getting in better shape. I really didn't realize how sedentary I had been. Every summer I have had trails to walk and rivers to comb for stones, and this summer I don't. I rarely leave my apartment at all. I think it's one of the first years I've been like this since I started getting really into hiking.

Now? If I want to go to the National Park near me, it's gonna be a $50 car rental, plus an entry fee to the park. Unless I can find a different place. My #1 top priority "will rent a car for this no matter what" trip is finding a stone beach somewhere. I will legit pull an all nighter (like every night) and just stay up, drive there at... well... around now, around 6 or something, and just spend all day barefoot combing the beach for cool rocks. That is a fucking dream come true.

I wish I had more uses for stones and stuff, like artistic uses. There's always jewelry but tumbling takes so fucking long, and wrapping them is a skill I just haven't really fully grasped. Well... that all comes with practice, doesn't it?

So yeah, not going out has done much more damage to me than just social deprivation, it's actually affecting my physical health. My blood pressure, my cholesterol, my weight. But doing yoga and exercise every day has really been getting me back in shape and I'm really happy for that.

I didn't do a ton today. The usual, really. Yoga, workout, games. Then I did a stream for a few hours. Started with watching skate videos while eating dinner, I like it. It feels less lonely than watching videos alone, even if no one is watching with me.

Some guy came back who... last time I saw him was super fucking rude in my chat. I barely know this guy. He raided my stream right when I was setting up a new Rimworld colony (with like 4 viewers) and I was explaining the whole story so far... like... setting up the plot for the stream. So he raided at the perfect time to get a summary of the plot so far, leading to the beginning of the playthrough. And this motherfucker, as I'm telling the backstory, is spamming @ me in the fucking chat, like 4 or 5 times. And I'm like... "yes, what's up, I'm trying to set up the story." And he goes... "how you been?" I had like 4 or 5 people there from past streams and shit who were there for the Ideology setup and all that, so... there were people invested in the story already... and this dude is spamming chat to ask me how I've been when he doesn't actually care. I was a hair away from banning him, and honestly... I probably should have. I can't remember the last time he was in my chat and actually gave a fuck about what was going on in the stream. He just fucking talks about himself and his stream and the games he plays.

Good lord, I know too many fucking people like that. Is that why they seek out small streamers? So they can just talk about themselves on someone else's stream and just make the entire thing about themselves? Like calling a radio station and just rambling on the phone about yourself until they cut you off? Is that what this is? Ugh.

Well, today, he decided to tell me that he is going hiking tomorrow. And he lost 20 pounds. And he still plays Rocket League. And he snowboards, but doesn't like skateboarding for no reason at all. As my entire stream at that point was watching skate videos and eating. Kinda fuckin weird, in hindsight. It really sucks when it's just you and one or two other people, if they start to dominate and you... you know... lead the stream... because you're the streamer and they're tuning in to watch you... supposedly... then they get pissy. It's fucking weird. It's like... I don't know, I feel like it's kind of a residual habit of people being on social media too much, and seeing a chatroom on Twitch and thinking it's Twitter and they're the star or something. I don't know.

Anyway, he left after like 10 minutes. Right when I transitioned into working on the visualizer. I did that for a few hours, made another cool kaleidoscope-themed one. Total of about 3.5 hour stream. And then I ended stream and played Hades for the rest of the night. And Hades is pretty kick ass, I like it a lot so far.

And that's about all for today, honestly. I want to get outside more, so maybe I can get out for a walk tomorrow if the weather is nice? And I got an email this morning from my landlord saying they're doing an annual event at my building where they do like a parking lot party, and there are games and shit, like axe throwing and shit. That's gonna be pretty sweet. I'm thinking of going. I mean... if it gets weird and awkward or uncomfortable, I can just go back to my apartment, it's right there. It's just been so fucking long since I've done any stuff like this. Like going to a fair, or a farmers market or something. It's been... close to 4 years? I think I went to one social event about a year into the pandemic, my therapist at the time went with me and I brought my dog. It was an art thing, I don't really know how to describe it, like demonstrations and workshops and shit. But that was like... the only thing I've been to since... since rock climbing on my birthday in October of 2019. That's a long fucking time. That's like... a full college degree worth of time.

I don't know why it spooks me. Maybe because I'm in my late 30's and I think the only people my age that might even be there are like... guaranteed to have kids. Maybe it's just because I'm alone. The more I think about it, I don't think it's this "out of practice" excuse my reflexes keep coming up with. I think it's just going to be a naturally awkward situation for me, considering I'm an introvert. I will be a lone person in their late 30's, and I do not typically like approaching people. It's always been awkward for me, no one in my family is remotely like that, and no one in the social circles I grew up in, and my family talked a lot of shit about people like that... extroverts... so... It's not really formed into my natural behavioral patterns at all, and I get a lot of reflexes saying "bad things will happen if you just approach people". Like... okay, maybe an example. If I, as a single childless man in his late 30's, went up and complimented a woman on how well behaved their child was being... my reflexes tell me that's weird and something bad will happen. My logical brain says... "if you said that to your older brother, he'd be really happy someone acknowledged it." My reflex mind goes, "you're going to weird people out". And that inner conflict is very stressful.

But again, as weird as it sounds? If I had cigarettes? I'd be fine. Not even kidding. If I had cigarettes, I'd have a box of 20 tickets out of social situations with no questions asked. Because 90% of people do not want you smoking near them. So... you can just say "I'm going to walk away from you right now without having to explain myself, because I will be smoking this plant, and you don't want me doing that around you. In fact, we have a designated area to do that." Then I can take my overwhelm or whatever and bring it over to a bench and just sit there and stare off at a plant or a wall or something, and take deep breaths and chill a bit. Dude, I am tempted to get a non-nicotine vape just for this purpose. I don't know if there are any actual... healthy vapes. I would just vape weed, but good lord would that make the problem 10,000 times worse. Hmm... I'm going to have to look into this. I was just picturing myself going to a smoking bench and like... chewing in a stick or something. But actually smoking something, even if it isn't nicotine, or even technically smoking... that would not just replace the ritual but make me blend in better.

Fucking crazy how... you just learn really specific ways of living. And then people give you shit and tell you you're unhealthy because of the way you learned how to live, and you want to be smart and live healthier, so you just start stripping "bad habits" completely unaware that it's absolutely a game of Jenga. Sometimes those habits are really important ones, that do much more than just fill a chemical need. Like my old thing with eating ice cream every night. It wasn't so much about the sugar, or the dairy, it was about emotional comfort in a time of grief. It's much easier (for me, at least) to just sweat out physical withdrawals as my body adjusts, than it is to form an entirely new way of grieving. So when you get it in your head that what you're doing is just quitting a chemical dependency, but you are unaware that you are also removing a social anxiety coping tool, a stress regulation tool, a weight management tool, a time/attention regulation tool... it gets fucking messy.

Anyway, point being... I need to get out in the world more. I'm definitely feeling it. First is a walk, I really need to get some sticks to use as stakes for my tomato and beans (my beans are both already over a foot tall). Then trips to the skatepark. Maybe a farmer's market visit on sunday? It's only about 2 blocks away. All working up to the parking lot party thing on the 12th. I can do it. I have been streaming effortlessly, and talking to people completely naturally. I just need to show myself that I can do it, and gradual increments help a lot. Also, AirPods. AirPods help a lot.

Tarot time, it's getting super late again.

Past - Eight of Swords, inverted (Feeling trapped and powerless. Being conditioned and complacent, not being able to see objectively.  But if you can, this is an opportunity to remove yourself from that trap.) Present - Page of Swords (Childlike awe and wonder, epiphany. Encountering wisdom but unable to process it.  Keen intellect, strong will, but lacks context and experience.) Future - Three of Cups, inverted (Celebration, calling in good fortune, joy.  Social gathering, a heartfelt belonging in a community.)

This one starts with inverted Eight of Swords. Eight of Swords represents self-imposed limitations. Meh, maybe that's not the best way of putting it, because The Devil is also about self-imposed traps (though it's much more about indulgence and impulse gratification traps, imo). Eight of Swords feels like the world imposing a trap, but a shift in perspective from the sufferer reveals that it's really just an illusion.

This is connected to Page of Swords in the Present position. Page of Swords is the embodiment of epiphany. The excitement of discovering and revealing the truth.

And this is connected to inverted Three of Cups in the Future position. Three of Cups is about social gatherings with friends.

What does this mean? Hmm... I would see the inverted Eight of Swords being the residual effects of peer pressure and just... shitty social treatment. How it keeps me bound and frozen, feeling like there is danger all around, but I am bound with ribbons and the danger only appears that way. When really, I'm the same person I was before all that, and I can just go and be like I was before. That sorta... trap that was built by others, but I keep myself in it... kinda thing. The inversion I would see as how deep I have fallen into it, how much its interfering with my life. The Page of Swords is the epiphany, the big realization, but also... not really knowing what to do with it. Like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia is kinda where I would see it inverted, this luckily is upright. So... there are still some blemishes with the Page, but the awe and wonder and excitement makes it worth it. Now... what I'm struggling to connect here is... how the Page of Swords connects to inverted Three of Cups. Inverted Three of Cups... I mean, if I take it super literally would be... something preventing me from going to a party. Which is like... I mean, I literally just wrote about that. So... okay. I mean... is this a warning? Like... hmm... gears are turning. So the Eight of Swords says the cause... the Page of Swords shows what I'm doing about it... which is a great realization but not really knowing what to do with it... and the Three of Cups shows the result... that not knowing means I don't go. The doubt, the feeling incapable and "not ready" means I don't go, and I miss out on making connections. Meeting people. I guess I was reading a bit too deep, it seems to make pretty clear sense.

Placeholder card? Five of Cups. Fucking again. I swear, I literally got this last night. And I shuffled the fuck out of the deck, I always do. If anyone wants to do the math on pulling the same card in the same position in a 4 card draw in a 78 card deck... feel free. Five of Cups is grief and suffering. It's not a fun card. It definitely shows the dominant force behind this whole narrative. Loss/grief/suffering caused the Eight of Swords, discovery and analysis of the loss/grief/suffering narrative was the Page, and the continued echoes of the loss/grief/suffering cause the disruption in social gatherings.

So again, the lesson is... take care of the grieving self. Self-care. Be kind and loving to myself. And these traps will start to fall apart on their own - like in yoga when you struggle to get into a pose because you're involuntarily tensing up muscles that are preventing you from getting into it, and then you learn to relax them and it just... happens - and I will start to reintegrate with more ease.

[aeristarry]

So yeah, I've been rimworlding a bit. A little headcanon for the rim races' height.

---

These are all the races mod I have and use:

Human: yer regular good ol' hooman. Ain't nothin' wrong with 'er

Kurin: Basically a shorter human. Haven't play with this race yet but I like having them in my game. Everytime I got a wanderer join it's always Kurin.

Moon Rabbit: Taller than kurin if you count the ear lol. I like their aesthetic and related itemss, but the addiction gets very annoying after a while. Prefer to just keep them as allied.

Ratkin: Can you tell they are my current favorite? Cuz they are. Love me some rats under the mountain.

Ferian: Hadn't played with this one yet. Also very rare in games IME. Last time I try to capture one he bit off my doctor's eye before running away with my best gun, so I probably will just enjoy them from afar for now.

---

I'm not familiar with guns and weapons, and was too tired to find reference, so please put up with my funny-looking weapons. I tried to color it but after laying out all the base color, my motivation just got defenestrated, so edgy brush effect it is.

[za3k]

2020 Videogames

In 2020 I’m newly retired, so I’ve had free time. I think it’s fun to do reviews, so without further ado here’s every video game I played in 2020!

I recommend:

(4/5) Among Us – Very fun. It’s only fun with voice chat with friends, so I’ve only gotten to play once or twice. I’ve been watching it more than playing it. Also free to play for mobile gamers–I’m tired of the “everyone buys a copy” model of group gameplay.

(4/5) Brogue. Brogue is an ascii-art roguelike. It’s great, and it has a nice difficulty ramp. It’s a good “quick break” game. I play it in preference to other roguelikes partly because I haven’t done it to death yet, and partly because I don’t need a numpad?

(4/5) Cook Serve Delicious 3. One of the more fun games I played this year. You get really into it, but I had trouble relaxing and paying attention to the real world when I played too much, haha. I own but haven’t played the first two–I gather this is pretty much just a refinement.

(4/5) Green Hell. Price tag is a bit high for the number of hours I got out of it, but I haven’t finished the story. Great graphics, and the BEST map design I’ve seen in a 3D game in a long time. It feels like a real place, with reasonable geography instead of copy-pasted tiles. I love that as you walk along, you can just spot a cultivated area from the rest of the jungle–it feels more like it’s treating me like an adult than most survival games. Everything still gets highlighted if you can pick it up. I played the survival mode, which was okay but gets old quickly. I started the story mode–I think it would be fine, but it has some LONG unskippable scenes at the start, including a very hand-holdy tutorial, that I think they should have cut. I did start getting into the story and was having fun, but I stopped. I might finish the game some time.

(4/5) Hyperrogue. One of my recent favorites. The dev has made a fair number of highly experimental games, most of which are a total miss with me, but this one is fun. I do wish the early game wasn’t quite as repetitive. Failing another solution, I might actually want this not to be permadeath, or to have a save feature? I bought it on steam to support the dev and get achievements, but it’s also available a version or two behind free, which is how I tried it. Constantly getting updates and new worlds.

(4/5) Minecraft – Compact Claustrophobia modpack. Fun idea, nice variety. After one expansion felt a little samey, and it was hard to start with two people. I’d consider finishing this pack.

(4/5) Overcooked 2. Overcooked 2 is just more levels for Overcooked. The foods in the second game is more fun, and it has better controls and less bugs. If you’re considering playing Overcooked, I recommend just starting with the second game, despite very fun levels in the first. I especially appreciate that the second game didn’t just re-use foods from the first.

(4/5) Please Don’t Press Anything. A unique little game where you try to get all the endings. I had a lot of fun with this one, but it could have used some kind of built-in hints like Reventure. Also, it had a lot of red herrings. Got it for $2, which it was well worth.

(5/5) Reventure. Probably the best game new to me this year. It’s a short game where you try to get each of about 100 endings. The art and writing are cute and funny. The level design is INCREDIBLE. One thing I found interesting is the early prototype–if I had played it, I would NOT have imagined it would someday be any fun at all, let alone as amazing as it is. As a game designer I found that interesting! I did 100% complete this one–there’s a nice in-game hint system, but there were still 1-3 “huh” puzzles, especially in the post-game content, one of which I had to look up. It’s still getting updates so I’m hoping those will be swapped for something else.

(5/5) Rimworld. Dwarf fortress, but with good cute graphics, set in the Firefly universe. Only has 1-10 pawns instead of hundreds of dwarves. Basically Dwarf Fortress but with a good UI. I wish you could do a little more in Rimworld, but it’s a fantastic, relaxing game.

(5/5) Slay the Spire. Probably the game I played most this year. A deckbuilding adventure through a series of RPG fights. A bit luck-based, but relaxing and fun. I like that you can play fast or slow. Very, very well-designed UI–you can really learn how things work. My favorite part is that because it’s singleplayer, it’s really designed to let you build a game-breaking deck. That’s how it should be!

(4/5) Stationeers. I had a lot of fun with this one. It’s similar to Space Engineers but… fun. It has better UI by a mile too, even if it’s not perfect. I lost steam after playing with friends and then going back to being alone, as I often do for base-building games. Looks like you can genuinely make some complicated stuff using simple parts. Mining might not be ideal.

(5/5) Spy Party. One of my favorite games. Very fun, and an incredibly high skill ceiling. There’s finally starting to be enough people to play a game with straners sometimes. Bad support for “hot seat”–I want to play with beginners in person, and it got even harder with the introduction of an ELO equivalent and removing the manual switch to use “beginner” gameplay.

(4/5) Telling Lies. A storytelling game. The core mechanic is that you can use a search engine for any phrase, and it will show the top 5 survellance footage results for that. The game internally has transcripts of every video. I didn’t really finish the game, but I had a lot of fun with it. The game was well-made. I felt the video acting didn’t really add a huge amount, and they could have done a text version, but I understand it wouldn’t have had any popular appeal. The acting was decent. There’s some uncomfortable content, on purpose.

(4/5) Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS). Delightful. Very silly, not what you’d expect from the name. What everyone should have been doing with physics engines since they were invented. Imagine that when a caveman attacks, the club moves on its own and the caveman just gets ragdolled along, glued to it. Also the caveman and club have googley eyes. Don’t try to win or it will stop being fun. Learn how to turn on slo-mo and move the camera.

(4/5) We Were Here Together. Lots of fun. I believe the second game out of three. Still some crashes and UI issues. MUCH better puzzles and the grpahics are gorgeous. They need to fix the crashes or improve the autosave, we ended up replaying a lot of both games from crashes. It’s possible I should be recommending the third game but I haven’t played it yet.

The Rest

(3/5) 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel. More fun that it sounds. If you play to mess around and win by accident, it’s pretty good. Definitely play with a second human player, though.

(1.5/5) 7 billion humans. Better than the original, still not fun. Soulless game about a soulless, beige corporation. Just play Zachtronics instead. If you’re on a phone and want to engage your brain, play Euclidea.

(3/5) A Dark Room. Idle game.

(1/5) Amazing Cultivation Simulator. A big disappointment. Bad english voice acting which can’t be turned off, and a long, unskippable tutorial. I didn’t get to actual gameplay. I like Rimworld and cultivation novels so I had high hopes.

(3/5) ADOM (Steam version) – Fun like the original, which I would give 5/5. Developed some major issues on Linux, but I appreciate that there’s a graphical version available, one of my friends will play it now.

(4/5) agar.io – Good, but used to be better. Too difficult to get into games now. Very fun and addictive gameplay.

(3/5) Amorous – Furry dating sim. All of the hot characters are background art you can’t interact with, and the characters you can actually talk to are a bunch of sulky nerds who for some reason came to a nightclub. I think it was free, though.

(0/5) Apis. Alpha game, AFAIK I was the first player. Pretty much no fun right now (to the point of not really being a game yet), but it could potentially become fun if the author puts in work.

(4/5) Autonauts. I played a ton of Autonauts this year, almost finished it, which is rare for me. My main complaint is that it’s fundamentally supposed to be a game about programming robots, but I can’t actually make them do more than about 3 things, even as a professional programmer. Add more programming! It can be optional, that’s fine. They’re adding some kind of tower defense waves instead, which is bullshit. Not recommended because it’s not for everyone.

(3/5) A-Z Inc. Points for having the guts to have a simple game. At first this looked like just the bones of Swarm Simulator, but the more you look at the UI and the ascension system, the worse it actually is. I would regularly reset because I found out an ascension “perk” actually made me worse off.

(5/5) Beat Saber. Great game, and my favorite way to stay in shape early this year. Oculus VR only, if you have VR you already have this game so no need to recommend. Not QUITE worth getting a VR set just to play it at current prices.

(1/5) Big Tall Small. Good idea, but no fun to play. Needed better controls and level design, maybe some art.

(0.5/5) Blush Blush. Boring.

(3/5) Business Shark. I had too much fun with this simple game. All you do is just eat a bunch of office workers.

(3/5) chess.com. Turns out I like chess while I’m high?

(3/5) Circle Empires Rivals. Decent, more fun than the singleplayer original. It shouldn’t really have been a separate game from Circle Empires, and I’m annoyed I couldn’t get it DRM-free like the original.

(3/5) Cross Virus. By Dan-box. Really interesting puzzle mechanics.

(4/5) Cultist Simulator. Really fun to learn how to play–I love games that drop you in with no explanation. Great art and writing, I wish I could have gotten their tarot deck. Probably the best gameplay “ambience” I’ve seen–getting a card that’s labeled “fleeting sense of radiance” that disappears in 5 seconds? Great. Also the core stats are very well thought out for “feel” and real-life accuracy–dread (depression) conquers fascination (mania), etc. It has a few gameplay gotchas, but they’re not too big–layout issues, inability to go back to skipped text, or to put your game in an unwinnable state early on). Unfortunately it’s a “roguelike”, and it’s much too slow-paced and doesn’t have enough replay value, so it becomes a horrible, un-fun grind when you want to actually win. I probably missed the 100% ending but I won’t be going back to get it. I have no idea who would want to play this repeatedly. I’m looking forward to the next game from the same studio though! I recommend playing a friend’s copy instead of buying.

(2/5) Darkest Dungeon. It was fine but I don’t really remember it.

(2/5) Dicey Dungeons. Okay deck-building roguelike gameplay (with an inventory instead of a deck). Really frustrating, unskippably slow difficulty curve at the start. I played it some more this year and liked it better because I had a savegame. I appreciate having several character classes, but they should unlock every difficulty from the start.

(2/5) Diner Bros. Basically just a worse Overcooked. I didn’t like the controls, and it felt too repetitive with only one diner.

(2/5) Don’t Eat My Mind You Stupid Monster. Okay art and idea, the gameplay wasn’t too fun for me.

(2/5) Don’t Starve – I’ve played Don’t Stave maybe 8 different times, and it’s never really gripped me, I always put it back down. It’s slow, a bit grindy, and there’s no bigger goal–all you can do is live.

(3/5) Don’t Starve Together – Confusingly, Don’t Starve Together can be played alone. It’s Don’t Starve, plus a couple of the expansions. This really could be much more clearly explained.

(1/5) Elemental Abyss – A deck-builder, but this time it’s grid-based tactics. Really not all that fun. Just play Into the Abyss instead or something.

(1/5) Else Heart.Break() – I was excited that this might be a version of “Hack N’ Slash” from doublefine that actually delivered and let you goof around with the world. I gave it up in the first ten minutes, because the writing and characters drove me crazy, without getting to hacking the world.

(2/5) Everything is Garbage. Pretty good for a game jam game. Not a bad use of 10 minutes. I do think it’s probably possible to make the game unwinnable, and the ending is just nothing.

(1/5) Evolve. Idle game, not all that fun. I take issue with the mechanic in Sharks, Kittens, and this where buying your 15th fence takes 10^15 wood for some reason.

(4/5) Exapunks. Zachtronics has really been killing it lately, with Exapunks and Opus Magnum. WONDERFUL art and characters during story portions, and much better writing. The gameplay is a little more varied than in TIS-100 or the little I played of ShenZen I/O. My main complaint about Zachtronics games continues to be, that I don’t want to be given a series of resource-limited puzzles (do X, but without using more than 10 programming instructions). Exapunks is the first game where it becomes harder to do something /at all/, rather than with a particular amount of resources, but it’s still not there for me. Like ShenZen, they really go for a variety of hardware, too. Can’t recommend this because it’s really only for programmers.

(1/5) Exception. Programming game written by some money machine mobile games company. Awful.

(4/5) Factorio. Factorio’s great, but for me it doesn’t have that much replay value, even with mods. I do like their recent updates, which included adding blueprints from the start of the game, improving belt sorting, and adding a research queue. We changed movement speed, made things visually always day, and adding a small number of personal construction robots from the start this run. I’m sure if you’d like factorio you’ve played it already.

(3/5) Fall Guys – I got this because it was decently fun to watch. Unfortunately, it’s slightly less fun to play. Overall, there’s WAY too much matchmaking waiting considering the number of players, and the skill ceiling is very low on most of the games, some of which are essentially luck (I’m looking at you, team games).

(3/5) Forager – Decent game. A little too much guesswork in picking upgrades–was probably a bit more fun on my second play because of that. Overall, nice graphics and a cute map, but the gameplay could use a bit of work.

(3/5) Getting Over It – Funny idea, executed well. Pretty sure my friends and I have only gotten through 10% of the game, and all hit about the same wall (the first tunnel)

(3/5) Guild of Dungeoneering – Pretty decent gameplay. I feel like it’s a bit too hard for me, but that’s fine. Overall I think it could use a little more cute/fun art, I never quite felt that motivated.

(1/5) Hardspace: Shipbreakers. Okay, I seriously didn’t get to play this one, but I had GAMEBREAKING issues with my controller, which is a microsoft X-box controller for PC–THE development controller.

(2/5) Helltaker. All right art, meh gameplay. But eh, it’s free!

(3/5) Hot Lava. Decent gameplay. Somehow felt like the place that made this had sucked the souls out of all the devs first–no one cared about the story or characters. It’s a game where the floor is made out of lava, with a saturday morning cartoon open, so that was a really an issue. Admirable lack of bugs, though. I’m a completionist so I played the first world a lot to get all the medals, and didn’t try the later ones.

(3/5) House Flipper – Weird, but I had fun. I wish the gameplay was a little more unified–it felt like a bunch of glued-together minigames.

(2/5) Hydroneer. Utterly uninspiring. I couldn’t care about making progress at all, looked like a terrible grind to no benefit.

(1/5) io. Tiny game, I got it on Steam, also available on phone. Basically a free web flash game, but for money. Not good enough to pay the $1 I paid. Just a bit of a time-killer.

(3/5) Islanders – All you do is place buildings and get points. Not particularly challenging, but relaxing. Overall I liked it.

(3/5) Jackbox – I played this online with a streamer. Jackbox has always felt a little bit soulless money grab to me, but it’s still all right. I like that I can play without having a copy–we need more games using this purchase model.

(3/5) Life is Feudal – Soul-crushingly depressing and grindy, which I knew going in. I thought it was… okay, but I really want an offline play mode (Yes, I know there’s an unsupported single-player game, but it’s buggier and costs money). UI was pretty buggy, and I think hunting might literally be impossible.

(2/5) Minecraft – Antimatter Chemistry. Not particularly fun.

(3/5) Minecraft – ComputerCraft. I played a pack with just ComputerCraft and really nothing else. Was a little slow, would have been more fun with more of an audience. I love the ComputerCraft mod, I just didn’t have a great experience playing my pack I made.

(3/5) Minecraft – Foolcraft 3. Fun, a bit buggy. Honestly I can’t remember it too well.

(1/5) Minecraft – Manufactio. Looked potentially fun, but huge bugs and performance issues, couldn’t play.

(4/5) Minecraft – Tekkit. Tekkit remains one of my favorite Minecraft modpacks.

(3/5) Minecraft – Valhelsia 2. I remember this being fun, but I can’t remember details as much as I’d like. I think it was mostly based around being the latest version of minecraft?

(4/5) Minecraft – Volcano Block. Interesting, designed around some weird mods I hadn’t used. I could have used more storage management or bulk dirt/blocks early in the game–felt quite cramped. Probably got a third of the way through the pack. I got novelty value out of it, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it if I had ever used the plant mod before–it’s a very fixed, linear progression.

(5/5) Minit. This is a weird, small game. I actually had a lot of fun with it. Then I 100% completed it, which was less fun but I still had a good time overall.

(3/5) Monster Box. By Dan-box. One of two Dan-box games I played a lot of. Just visually appealing, the gameplay isn’t amazing. Also, Dan-box does some great programming–this is a game written in 1990 or so, and it can render hundreds of arrows in the air smoothly in a background tab.

(3/5) Monster Train. A relatively fun deckbuilding card game. It can’t run well on my computer, which is UNACCEPTABLE–this is a card game with 2D graphics. My MICROWAVE should run this shit in 2020. Ignoring that, the gameplay style (summon monsters, MTG style) just isn’t my cup of tea.

(2/5) Moonlighter. Felt like it was missing some inspiration, just didn’t have a sense of “fun”. The art was nice. The credits list is surprisingly long.

(2/5) Muse Dash. All right, a basic rhythm game. Not enough variety to the game play, and everything was based around perfect or near-perfect gameplay, which makes things less fun for me.

(3/5) NES games – various. Dr Mario, Ice Climbers. Basically, I got some Chinese handheld “gameboy” that has all the NES games preloaded on it. Overall it was a great purchase.

(2/5) Noita. “The Powder Game” by Dan-Box, as a procedurally generated platformer with guns. Lets you design your own battle spells. Despite the description, you really still can’t screw around as much as I’d like. I also had major performance issues

(3/5) Observation. I haven’t played this one as much as I’d like, I feel like it may get better. Storytelling, 3D game from the point of view of the AI computer on a space station. I think I might have read a book it’s based on, unfortunately.

(2/5) One Step From Eden. This is a deck-building combat tactics game. I thought it was turn-based, but it’s actually realtime. I think if it was turn-based I would have liked it. The characters were a bit uninspired.

(1/5) Orbt XL. Very dull. I paid $0.50 for it, it was worth that.

(4/5) Opus Magnum. Another great game from Zachtronics, along with Exapunks they’re really ramping up. This is the third execution of the same basic concept. I’d like to see Zachtronics treading new ground more as far as gameplay–that said, it is much improved compared to the first two iterations. The art, writing, and story were stellar on the other hand.

(3/5) Out of Space. Fun idea, you clean a spaceship. It’s never that challenging, and it has mechanics such that it gets easier the more you clean, rather than harder. Good but not enough replay value. Fun with friends the first few times. The controls are a little wonky.

(1/5) Outpost (tower defense game). I hate all tower defense.

(3/5) Overcooked. Overcooked is a ton of fun.

(4/5) Powder Game – Dan-box. I played this in reaction to not liking Noita. It’s fairly old at this point. Just a fun little toy.

(1/5) Prime Mover – Very cool art, the gameplay put me to sleep immediately. A “circuit builder” game but somehow missing any challenge or consistency.

(2/5) Quest for Glory I. Older, from 1989. Didn’t really play this much, I couldn’t get into the writing, and the pseudo-photography art was a little jarring.

(4/5) Raft. I played this in beta for free on itch.io, and had a lot of fun. Not enough changed that it was really worth a replay, but it has improved, and I got to play with a second player. Not a hard game, which I think was a good thing. The late game they’ve expanded, but it doesn’t really add much. The original was fun and so was this.

(3/5) Satisfactory. I honestly don’t know how I like this one–I didn’t get too far into it.

(4/5) Scrap Mechanic. I got this on a recommendation from a player who played in creative. I only tried the survival mode–that mode is not well designed, and their focuses for survival are totally wrong. I like the core game, you can actually build stuff. If I play again, I’ll try the creative mode, I think.

(3.5/5) Shapez.io. A weird, abstracted simplification of Factorio. If I hadn’t played factorio and half a dozen copies, I imagine this would have been fun, but it’s just more of the same. Too much waiting–blueprints are too far into the game, too.

(2.5/5) Simmiland. Okay, but short. Used cards for no reason. For a paid game, I wanted more gameplay out of it?

(0.5/5) Snakeybus. The most disappointing game I remember this year. Someone made “Snake” in 3D. There are a million game modes and worlds to play in. I didn’t find anything I tried much fun.

(1/5) Soda Dungeon. A “mobile” (read: not fun) style idle game. Patterned after money-grab games, although I don’t remember if paid progress was actually an option. I think so.

(4/5) Spelunky. The only procedurally generated platformer I’ve ever seen work. Genuinely very fun.

(4/5) Spelunky 2. Fun, more of an upgrade of new content than a new game. Better multiplayer. My computer can’t run later levels at full speed.

(1/5) Stick Ranger 2. Dan-box. Not much fun.

(3/5) Superliminal. Fun game. A bit short for the pricetag.

(3/5) Tabletop Simulator – Aether’s End: Legacy. Interesting, a “campaign” (series of challenge bosses and pre-written encounters) deckbuilding RPG. I like the whole “campaign RPG boardgame” idea. This would have worked better with paper, there were some rough edges in both the game instructions and the port to Tabletop Simulator.

(4/5) Tabletop Simulator – The Captain is Dead. Very fun. I’d love to play with more than 2 people. Tabletop simulator was so-so for this one.

(2/5) Tabletop Simulator – Tiny Epic Mechs. You give your mech a list of instructions, and it does them in order. Arena fight. Fun, but I think I could whip up something at least as good.

(3/5) The Council. One of the only 3D games I finished. It’s a story game, where you investigate what’s going on and make various choices. It’s set in revolutionary france, at the Secret World Council that determines the fate of the world. It had a weak ending, with less choice elements than the rest of the game so far, which was a weird decision. Also, it has an EXCRUTIATINGLY bad opening scene, which was also weird. The middle 95% of the game I enjoyed, although the ending went on a little long. The level of background knowledge expected of the player swung wildly–they seemed to expect me to know who revolutionary French generals were with no explanation, but not Daedalus and the Minotaur. The acting was generally enjoyable–there’s a lot of lying going on in the game and it’s conveyed well. The pricetag is too high to recommend.

(0/5) The Grandma’s Recipe (Unus Annus). This game is unplayably bad–it’s just a random pixel hunt. Maybe it would be fun if you had watched the video it’s based on.

(3/5) The Room. Pretty fun! I think this is really designed for a touchscreen, but I managed to play it on my PC. Played it stoned, which I think helps with popular puzzle games–it has nice visuals but it’s a little too easy.

(3/5) This Call May Be Recorded. Goofy experimental game.

(4/5) TIS-100. Zachtronics. A programming game. I finally got done with the first set of puzzles and into the second this year. I had fun, definitely not for everyone.

(3/5) Trine. I played this 2-player. I think the difficulty was much better 2-player, but it doesn’t manage 2 players getting separated well. Sadly we skipped the story, which seemed like simple nice low-fantasy. Could have used goofier puzzles, it took itself a little too seriously and the levels were a bit same-y.

(2/5) Unrailed. Co-op railroad building game. It was okay but there wasn’t base-building. Overall not my thing. I’d say I would prefer something like Overcooked if it’s going to be timed? Graphics reminded me of autonauts.

(2/5) Vampire Night Shift. Art game. Gameplay could have used a bit of polish. Short but interesting.

(4/5) Wayward. To date, the best survival crafting system I’ve seen. You can use any pointy object and stick-like object, together with glue or twine, to make an arrow. The UI is not great, and there’s a very counter-intuitive difficulty system. You need to do a little too much tutorial reading, and it could use more goals. Overall very fun. Under constant development, so how it plays a given week is a crapshoot. The steam version finally works for me (last time I played it was worse than the free online alpha, now it’s the same or better). I recomend playing the free online version unless you want to support the author.

(1/5) We Need to Go Deeper. Multiplayer exploration game in a sub, with sidescrolling battle. Somehow incredibly unfun, together with high pricetag. Aesthetics reminded me of Don’t Starve somehow.

(2/5) We Were Here. Okay 2-player puzzle game. Crashed frequently, and there were some “huh” puzzles and UI. Free.

(3/5) Yes, your grace. Gorgeous pixel art graphics. The story is supposed to be very player-dependent, but I started getting the feeling that it wasn’t. I didn’t quite finish the game but I think I was well past halfway. Hard to resume after a save, you forget things. I got the feeling I wouldn’t replay it, which is a shame because it’s fun to see how things go differently in a second play with something like this.

These are not all new to me, and very few came out in 2020. I removed any games I don’t remember and couldn’t google (a fair number, I play a lot of game jam games) as well as any with pornographic content.

2020 Videogames was originally published on Optimal Prime

[corporeal-hell]

I've been a lifelong gamer, and I feel you. I've been massively dissatisfied with the evolution of the gaming industry in the last, maybe 10 years? And it's depressing to watch genuinely passionate game Devs become crushed and regulated under the necessity of maintaining a game's monetisability in the shifting landscape of consumer demands and expectations. Though, I've found solice in some games recently that have really struck me as being fabulous experiences that shine out in these trying times. And in your dejected state I figured you might appreciate some recs.

Screwdrivers:

An early access game about constructing cars from simple and intuitive parts into ridiculously complex and satisfying machines. The game starts you out with very basic pieces and allows you to progress through tech trees for new parts at your own pace, challenging you with different tasks that require different things from you to naturalistically have you understand progressively more and more complex combinations of mechanics. Imagine Besiege but for toy cars and gears work reliably. Lots of soul, amazingly polished for an early access game, and uh, oh yea, it's entirely free. Unbelievable game for literally no money.

Heat Signature:

Take part in a galaxy wide liberation from 4 main factions blah blah blah it's your classic galaxy conquest. The selling point for me is that it's essentially Hotline Miami in space. This is enough of a sell for me, but the gameplay loop is addictive. Accept a job at one of your outposts, fly your pod to the unfortunate targets, dock onto their ship, and rip your way through it's crew using unfathomably cool space tech until you've done what you need to do. Rinse, repeat, and try not to die. If your character does die, it matters not, as there are many mercenaries in space. Plus, there's a beautiful meta progression system that allows new recruits better and better starting equipment in the shops. Gives it a "longform roguelike" (I guess?) kinda feel. You can take control of one of 4 people at a time, each with individual assets and costs. Maybe Jeff doesn't like killing people so I'll take my character Bobby for this assassination mission with his sword that teleports into a targets heart (personal fav item). Maybe I need to steal a piece of tech from a corporation but I can't be seen, heard, and I can't touch a hair on a crewmember's back, let's bring Sally with her cloaking device, ranged key-card copier, and swapper gun that can teleport her to the pilot's chair while making for a very confused captain who's now in the pantry for seemily no reason. If you don't like one of you're replacements, jetteson them into space! And have someone new to send on suicide missions. Very engaging gameplay, an ever expanding number of emergent gameplay opportunities, and enough mission variety that I still haven't found a point at which I'm not stumped by at least one mission on the board.

Titanfall 2:

Just play Titanfall 2. I'm not going to tell you about this game, you know what this is. The fandom is alive and well and at peak times you'll rarely queue for more than a few minutes for a match. Brilliant campaign, genre defining movement, probably the last EA game that you can navigate and never see a microtransaction (just ignore the shop tab you literally never need to go in there). Play Titanfall 2.

Some honourable mentions:

FTL: Faster than light (ship fighting roguelike)

Noita (don't even ask me to explain this game)

Overgrowth (3rd person anthropomorphic bunny fighting game, it's better than it sounds)

Rimworld (absolutely brutal colony sim)

Opus Magnum (fascinating alchemy machine making/coding puzzle game)

7 Billion Humans (what if you had to get a room full of people to do a job together doing different things, but they all read the same instructions and follow them to a T)

All and any of these should give you a kick, do let me know what you think.

i wish there were good videogames

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Gamers AU with long distance get together?

Please comment and subscribe! (1 of 4)

AN: It turned out to be a youtube Gamer AU, I hope the prompter doesn’t mind.

Bucky scrolled through the comments on his newest video. Most of them were positive or neutral and he replied to a few of them.  He was always anxious to find a negative one, he worked with a webcam when recording himself playing games and there was always the risk of someone commenting on his appearance, which wasn't what Bucky was worried about. He could deal with people making fun of his hair or his disheveled clothes, unshaven face. No big deal. And the few asshats that find his videos and see it necessary to comment bigoted shit on it when he talks about his LGBTAIQ+ related topics weren't anything new to him either. Block and move on. What he was more worried about was someone noticing.  

He hadn't been using the webcam for long and he was always careful not to show anything, always keeping his shoulder covered, always keeping to the left of the screen. It had helped his channel grow a lot but he didn't want people to know about his missing arm. It was hard enough dealing with it in real life he didn't need to be exposed to hundreds of abelist comments on the internet too.

There were no comments that indicated someone noticed. A few general comments about how people loved his videos even though watching him try to do redstone was cringeworthy. It was nice seeing that people still enjoyed his content even though he made mistakes. He had tried to take everything with humor when his contraption hadn't worked after the third time building it. But that was Minecraft for you, he had made up for it by starting a new creative project for the end of the episode. The blanket he used to cover his shoulders had once again drawn some attention, it had become somewhat of a meme at this point because it had pictures of cats on it. Other than that there was nothing out of the usual in his comment section.

Bucky refreshed the page again and was surprised to see a new comment had already been upvoted several times.  People were commenting on it as well and when Bucky looked at the username he also knew why.

Ironman42 had commented on his video.

Bucky panicked and threw his phone across the couch.

"Fuck."

(More after the break!)

If that was a negative comment his youtube career could be over. The guy had 7 million subscribers which were about 6.99 million more than Bucky had. He didn't have any business commenting on one of Bucky's videos, how did he even know about him?

Not to mention that ever since Bucky saw the man in a PAX East panel live stream he had a tiny crush on him. The way he had swaggered across the stage, blowing kisses to the camera... it should have been obnoxious and arrogant, but it had stirred something in Bucky and maybe he had been a little bit jealous because that was something he could never have.

Bucky had to calm his racing heart for several minutes before he dared to pick up his phone again and actually read the comment.

Hey WinterSoldier,

I see you've got some problems with the falling edge monostable circuit, maybe I can help you with that. Do you mind if I contact you?

-IronMan

PS: You're cute! ;)

Bucky threw his phone away again, got up, walked around his room running his hand through his hair, then picked up his phone and read the message again. It still said the same thing.

PS: You're cute! ;)

Hesitantly Bucky pressed the answer button and typed out his reply.

I have no idea what you're talking about but I'm always willing to learn. Just message me. :)

The video was an episode of his Minecraft Let's play series, it was one of his lesser watched series, Bucky was mostly known for his strategy games Let's plays like Rimworld, Stellaris and now Surviving Mars. He had also tried his hand at more technical games like Factorio but he wasn't good enough to draw an audience with those. Ironman42, or Tony how most people referred to him, however, became big with his Minecraft series, hosting several multiplayer servers and it was every Minecrafters dream to be invited to play with him. An invitation to the server basically meant instant fame in certain circles of the youtube community. Now he mostly played Battle Royale games with his best friend Rhodey also known as Warmachine and more or less dominated the Fortnite and PUBG scene. Unfortunately, those games were too far paced for Bucky to keep up with and so he had never gotten into the hype.

Bucky had little time to think about what that meant for his channel because only seconds after he had pressed sent his phone vibrated again and he had an email on his business address. Something that rarely happened unless some indie game developer found him by accident and gave him a free code to try out their game.

This time Bucky held onto his phone only barely when he saw who the mail was from. Ironman had already messaged him. This was at the same time exciting and extremely terrifying and Bucky needed a moment to calm down again. He went to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water then sat down at this desk and pulled up his emails there. It made him feel a little bit more professional.

The email was long and the nerdiest thing Bucky had read since that one time he had ventured too deep into a comment section under an Oxygen not Included video that discussed the behavior of pressurized gases on a meteorite.

Bucky wasn't a Minecraft crack, he mainly played it casually to build nice things and chat with his viewers. He had no idea about redstone or circuitry when he wanted to automate something he followed tutorials from others. He read the email a couple of times but he had no idea what Ironman was getting at, only after the third time he got through to the end and noticed the sentence at the end.

If this is too much how about we chat in (Discord? Skype?) and I'll show you on a server. Hope this is not too forward.

-Tony

Bucky sat in front of the email for a long time, not sure what to do with it. Was this an invitation to one of Tony's servers? Bucky had no idea what he had done to deserve that, how he had gotten Tony's attention. It was freaking him out and causing his anxiety to sky-rocket so much he thought about taking some of his meds to calm down. He certainly wouldn't be able to record anything in this state so he pushed the foot control further back under his desk and wrapped himself in his blanket to watch calming kitten videos until Steve came back from work and would make him some food. One thing just didn't want to leave his head.

PS: You're cute! ;)

[linuxgamenews]

Ascent of Ashes colony sim and survival game announcement

Ascent of Ashes colony sim game gets a reveal for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thank for the effort and creative minds of developer Vivid Storm Interactive. Working to make its way onto Steam in 2023. Original Creators of RimWorld Mod ‘Combat Extended’ Reveal a New Post-Apocalyptic Colony Sim, Ascent of Ashes. A colony sim and survival game for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Due to release in Early Access on Steam and GOG in late 2023. The game raised more than 42,000EUR in an oversubscribed Kickstarter that closed October 2022. When the Steam page went live on November 9th, 2022, gained more than 1,000 Wishlists in 48 hours. The game is also now in Pre-Alpha development.

Ascent of Ashes - Reveal Trailer

Ascent of Ashes blends dark humor; gritty, stylistic postapocalyptic art. Along with an isometric view unique to the genre. Stranded on a strange planet, the player must lead a team of survivors to build a base. They must also explore a huge procedurally generated world and find the mysteries of the alien planet. The game features high octane real-time-with-pause combat. While offering familiar base building mechanics. This is a “choices matter” style of colony management RimWorld fans will find familiar. Due to almost endless replayability, unique human and alien characters. There are also enemies that can be engaged with in direct combat. Or you can settle with them or totally avoid using stealth. Yet offers a high level of player, gear, and weapon customization.

Key Gameplay Features:

Familiar colony and team management mechanics: Why fix it if it ain’t broke? Players familiar with RimWorld and other games in the genre will feel at home. Ascent of Ashes offers rewarding base building and colonist needs management experience

A dangerous world to explore: Set in a vast, procedurally generated setting, replayability is nearly infinite. Players have access to restored vehicles. So they can quickly get across the broad landscape. Due to either engage in direct combat or outwit and evade enemies using stealth.

A modder’s dream: Vivid Storm Interactive’s team has its roots in mod-making. They have been part of many great modding groups over the years. As a result, the team wants to give back as well. So they are building Ascent of Ashes engine from the ground up to be easily extended. It’s a game developed by modders, for modders.

A unique cast of characters: Aliens, raiders, cultists, mechanoids, and Remnant soldiers. Even alien pets, giant worms, and other human factions. Part of the fun will be finding out who you can meet. As well as interact with on this planet.

Ethics and Smart Enemy AI

Familiar ethical and moral alignment choices: Fans of other deep colony sims will find the freedom of choice and leadership very familiar. The choice to play as a kind leader and care for your survivors vs. a chaotic psycho. This is always an option. And can be changed at any point in the game.

Trope-defying dynamic, enemy AI: It’s not entirely new to have smart enemy AI in real time strategy games. Finding it in the colony sim and survival genre is very rare. While taking on a chaotic band of raiders will play very different from fighting a squad of Remnant soldiers. Cover, suppressive fire, and strategic tactics. Due to the choice between life and death in this brutal, cruel world

Ascent of Ashes colony sim game is due to release in late 2023. Coming to Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Be sure to Wishlist the game on Steam and GOG (when available).

[rimworld-skin-mod-mt]

RimWorld Mods ⋆ RimWorld Base

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 RimWorld is a huge and complex game, and things only start to get even more interesting when you delve into the hundreds of mods available on the Steam Workshop. There are mods that completely transform the gameplay, introduce new ways to experience your colonists' lives, and small mods that make valuable QOL changes. Experienced players might have a mod-list for RimWorld that spirals into the several dozen, but for the purpose of this list, we've selected the ten best RimWorld mods, all available on the Workshop. These mods change up the gameplay completely, but the core brutality of RimWorld still remains. Updated November 30 by Harry Alston, A lot has changed in RimWorld since we last updated this list of the best mods, so we've returned to curate the list for the very best mods available in the game. We're including a couple of new mods, as well as HugsLib, which is the tool we use to run most of these mods simultaneously. HugsLib is right up there with the most subscribed mods in RimWorld history, and that's because it essentially acts as a database that allows for multiple mods to run simultaneously. Many, many mods for RimWorld will require you to have HugsLib installed just to be able to run. Before you head on a mission to download hundreds of mods for the game, make sure to pick up HugsLib before you get started. The platform has been updated for this summer's 1. Factional War is a large mod created by Shadowrabbit that introduces four new raid events, on a scale much larger than any sort of raiding you've seen before in RimWorld. It really makes you feel like you're at the center of a massive war, although you don't have to get involved if you don't want to. Faction Assault causes a massive war to appear on your map, Faction Bombardment cause two factions to fight each other across your map you can swoop in for resources destroyed by their bombs , Faction Contention causes rare resources to spawn the map you can grab these if you dare , and lastly, Faction Defense makes you a target of a huge wave of soldiers. Only to be done when you're prepared to fight. If you play RimWorld for its spiraling organic storytelling, then Personalities is the perfect mod for you. It isn't too intrusive on the gameplay coming with different module levels for you to pick from but adds an extra level of flair to your pawn's characteristics. Different personalities traits between your pawns can interact with each other, meaning your pawns will eventually form friendships or rivalries based on their beliefs. The mod is still a WIP but regularly updated, including tweaks for the upcoming 1. This is the highest-rated mod on the Steam Workshop, and for good reason. It allows the player to fully customize their starting location, colonists, and game scenario. The mod received its last update back in August , although it works for the current 1. EdB Prepare Carefully is a cool mod to experiment with. You can set yourself up for a challenging RimWorld run, or create a set of overpowered colonists that blitz everything and make it easy to build a ridiculous off-world base. The choice is totally up to the player. This is the simplest and yet most powerfully useful mod, maybe on this entire list. That's a bit of an exaggeration. But the DragSelect mod still deserves its place as a simple mod that doesn't impact gameplay but can save you several minutes every play session - want to select multiple boxes in your trade inventory at the same time? Now you can. It's that simple. Nothing massively game-changing here, but we can't ignore its usefulness. This is not the most glamorous mod, but it puts something into the game that RimWorld fans never even knew they wanted: wall-mounted lights. With over , unique visitors to this mod on the Steam Workshop, clearly, the mod is an important one. Other features include the ability to add different colors to the lights, change the values of how much steel is required to build a wall-light, and an outline of the area which the light will make brighter. It's a simple mod that does its job very well. This is not a single mod, but rather a collection of awesome mods that transform the vanilla RimWorld experience, without ever changing the mechanics too much. Vanilla Expanded adds new types of furniture, fresh textures, new colonist roles, and much, much more. If you love the brilliant mechanics of a simulation game , this mod doesn't interfere too much. One of the best things about Vanilla Expanded is that you can chop and change which mods you want to use. Everything can be toggled on or off via the mod menu. Want more interesting farms? How about unique weapons? Then, this mod is the one for you. RimHUD is a useful mod for all those data nerds out there. This expanded hud provides a lot more detail concisely about your colonists. The graph of a colonist's food and recreation levels, for example, is a lot easier to see at a glance, rather than the ordinary static numbers. The mod also places all details about your colonists in one place and can be resized to fit your screen. It's a simple but well-executed mod that makes a big difference to your RimWorld playthrough. For a long time, those wanderers and visitors to your colony just sort of ambled around and did nothing. They might, if you were lucky, have a run-in with some killer critters and drop some meat or loot for you, but that was about it. Hospitality takes those rudimentary mechanics and expands on them — massively. You can build guest rooms, flirt with other factions and build your reputation, or lock guests in a small, dark room until they go mad. The choice is yours. RimWorld's Expanded Prosthetics and Organ Engineering mod lets players get into the nitty-gritty of developing what are essentially super-humans. It all starts with a simple hook hand — pretty cool but not that sophisticated — and can lead to a full exoskeleton suit. This mod adds lots of new functionality for players to experiment with. If your colonists keep seeming to misplace their organs however could that happen? RimWorld's base game has some pretty wild required room sizes. They're absolutely massive, and no good if you're trying to build a compact mountain base in the middle of a boiling hot desert. You need that space for other things. That's where the Realistic Rooms mod comes in. This reduces the required size of bedrooms and also changes some of the modifiers for dirt and filth. It basically makes it easier to create a base that seems a bit more in proportion to the size of your colonists. This mod allows you to play RimWorld with your friends. The mod runs right through Steam so you don't need to do anything complicated to set up a lobby. You can play with as many people as you want, but the mod creator recommends a maximum of eight before things start to get a little wild. The Multiplayer mod completely transforms RimWorld from a largely solo operation into a colony run by several of your friends. Multiplayer was never a key part of RimWorld on release, but it didn't stop it from being one of the highest-rated Steam games of the last decade. If you do want to play with friends, this is the mod to do it. Build impressive bases, work together to create the perfect organ harvesting business, and mess about with your colony pals. Tired of all the weird building restrictions in RimWorld? The Replace Stuff mod sorts it out. You can replace items, place items on top of other items, and generally get creative with your building and decoration. You can upgrade your walls without having to destroy them, and replace furniture with better variations without having to dismantle what's already there. It just streamlines the whole process. Fridges: such a simple concept but something still missing from the base version of RimWorld. RimFridge adds the option to install fridge racks that can be used to store food and keep it from deteriorating. This also cuts down on general RimWorld labor, as you can install a rack in a prisoner's room and the prisoner will just feed themselves with some lovely chilled food. This also means you don't have to create a massive chilled room to have somewhere to keep your food tasty and healthy for longer. Read Next in indie games.

[oxygen-not-included-mod-qa]

Oxygen Do Not Included Colony Mod APK Download.

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Oxygen Not Included mods , it turns out, can tell you a lot about the game itself, and how phenomenal it already is. Most of the really good mods out there opt for the "making life better" route, rather than the "tonnes of new features" route like the mods of most other games. It's a testament to the brilliance of Klei and their endlessly enjoyable suffocation simulator. But even so, I rarely play without the below Oxygen Not Included mods. This is a game I come back to time after time, and so I've spent years pouring over what new nuggets of excellence the modding community has brought out. These 12 mods are the very best ONI mods of all , and if you're looking to make your time micromanaging dupes so they don't drown in your water supply even more enjoyable, you've come to the right place! When it comes to the very best Oxygen Not Included mods, there are three names in particular that really keep cropping up. Each has their own collection of modpacks that you can find by following the links of any of their mods below, so I'd advise you check those out too, because they're really quite fantastic. But the entire ONI community has such a wealth of great ideas, well-implemented fixes and tweaks, and just generally brilliant Oxygen Not Included mods. It was tough to narrow it down to just 12, but I think the below mods are really the must-haves. Feel free to click on any of the links below to skip ahead to a particular ONI mod! DGSM is a true must-have ONI mod for those who spend half an hour on the dupe selection screen before starting a new game. Oxygen Not Included's equivalent of the uber-popular Prepare Carefully mod for Rimworld, DGSM allows you to click on a little cog icon next to each dupe's name and customise their attributes, traits, and stress reactions with ease. It also comes with a great selection of customisation options in the Mods menu, including the ability to customise dupes in the same way mid-game when they arrive via the Printing Pod. Another top-tier mod from Ony and the first of hers I ever used , Favorite Resources greatly improves the player's experience with the resources tab in-game by allowing you to mark any material you like, from Algae to Copper Ore to Meal Lice, as favourites. Then you can close the resources tab, and your favourites will appear in a nice condensed list below, giving you all the information you really need with none of the visual clutter of the vanilla resources tab. There is no reason at all not to subscribe to this mod right now. Favorite Buildings is the final Ony mod on this list - I've gotta let the other modders have their chance too, y'know! So instead of having to actually find in the build menu and click on ladders, for instance, you could simply hit "1" or whatever keybind you like, and you'll instantly have a ladder in your hand ready to place. Why, oh why is this not a part of vanilla Oxygen Not Included? If you've ever played Factorio, you'll know just how essential blueprints are for saving time and maintaining your sanity. And seeing as Oxygen Not Included also often requires you to spend lots of time planning and piecing together intricate combinations of structures, it's amazing to me that Klei haven't yet added a similar feature. But Mayall comes to the rescue with this Blueprints mod, which allows you to save a particular area of structures as a blueprint which you can then place wherever else in the world you like, however many times you like. If you get any mod on this entire list, make it GasOverlay. I'm flabbergasted that this mod even needs to exist. When you go into the vanilla ONI gas overlay, everything is broken up into different stages of what the game considers "breathable" or "unbreathable" - except it doesn't differentiate at all between different gases. So you could look at the overlay and see that your base is "very breathable", and not realise that you're looking at heavily Polluted Oxygen rather than clean Oxygen! Swistak's GasOverlay mod solves this problem very neatly by changing the Gas Overlay so it represents each gas type as a different colour, and the stronger the colour, the higher the concentration. It works perfectly, and it's an absolute must-have mod for any serious ONI player in my opinion. Now come on - if you're gonna sit there and tell me that you've never had a Dupe somehow bypass your rows of Sinks or Wash Basins and smear toilet water all over your base, then I'm going to sit here and call you a liar. The right honorable Stephen lends a helping hand in this regard with the Queue for Sinks mod, which, quite simply, forces dupes who need to wash their hands to wait until a Sink or equivalent is free before using it, instead of just going "oh no! There's no Sink free! I'd better call off this whole hygiene endeavour! A real life-saver, this one. Swistak's second mod in this list is another wonderful quality of life mod that allows you to drag around pretty much every element of the UI to wherever you want on the screen independently. Even if all you want to do is condense everything together in their respective corners a little bit more so the whole UI is a little less cluttered, this mod will enable you to do this with ease. If you've ever enabled Sandbox Mode in an ONI world, you may - like me - have been shocked by just how far you can suddenly zoom the camera out. Why on earth can you not do this in a normal game, you ask? Good question, and one that no longer needs an answer, because Bigger Camera Zoom Out allows you to zoom the camera out ludicrously far in a normal game of Oxygen Not Included, so you can take in your Cycle mega-base in a single screen. If you've ever looked about your Oxygen Not Included colony and wished there were a way to just spruce it up a little bit more, than Cairath's also got you covered here! Wallpaper is a lovely and simple mod that allows you to paste wallpaper in the background of tiles, for decorative purposes or whatever other reason you have. The colour of the wallpaper depends on the resource you use to build it, so there's a great variety of colours to choose from - though of course some will be more expensive than others Swistak is back with the ChainedDeconstruction mod, a real time-saver of a mod for the many ONI players who frequently adopt the practice of spamming ladders in rows or columns to allow dupes access to new areas. Not only is this an ungainly sight in your base, it's also very bad for Oxygen Not Included's performance, because it confuses the dupe pathfinding system. ChainedDeconstruction makes all this a lot easier to deal with by making it so that you only need to deconstruct a single piece of the interconnected series of ladders or firepoles or tubes in order to bring the whole lot cascading down at once. Like I said, a colossal time-saver. For such a technical building game, Oxygen Not Included really needs some sort of planning overlay. It doesn't need to be complex - just an overlay where, like in Rimworld, you can drag and draw boxes and lines just to get an idea of what it is you want to make and how. Well, until that happens, Cairath once again provides us with an excellent, fit-for-purpose mod called Plan Buildings Without Materials. It's a compromise between what we have and what we should have, allowing you to place down structures even when you don't have the materials required. So you can place down everything ahead of time, which helps a tonne with planning out your base, no matter how far into the game you are. Finally, we end on an unassuming mod called Custom World Size, which - yup, you guessed it - allows you to customise the width and height of your asteroid. This is something I always loved about others games such as Factorio - typically you've given an endless world, but forcing yourself to work in constraints such as a really long thin world forces you to play differently and make some interesting planning and expansion choices. This mod does exactly the same thing for Oxygen Not Included - and of course if you're not interested in limiting yourself, you can go the other way and create a super-mega-ultra-huge asteroid for yourself! Just make sure your PC can handle it though! Alright, that should be enough Oxygen Not Included mods to be getting on with. You don't want to overload your game with too many mods for fear of incompatibility or performance issues. But the above 12 mods are the best that the community currently has to offer! Let us know in the comments which are your favourites! The best survival games on PC in The best games like Minecraft from the past ten years. Tencent have bought a majority stake in Don't Starve developers Klei Entertainment. The best building games on PC. Two Point Campus review: a relaxed management sim bursting with silliness and seminars. Lonely Mountains: Downhill goes murderously fast but appreciates stopping for a good view. If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings 12 best Oxygen Not Included mods When it comes to the very best Oxygen Not Included mods, there are three names in particular that really keep cropping up. Favorite Resources Author: Ony Steam Workshop Link: Favorite Resources Another top-tier mod from Ony and the first of hers I ever used , Favorite Resources greatly improves the player's experience with the resources tab in-game by allowing you to mark any material you like, from Algae to Copper Ore to Meal Lice, as favourites. Blueprints Author: Mayall Steam Workshop Link: Blueprints If you've ever played Factorio, you'll know just how essential blueprints are for saving time and maintaining your sanity. The best survival games on PC in Promise me that you will never die. Ed Thorn 1 week ago The best games like Minecraft from the past ten years A plethora of games to scratch that same Minecraft itch. Ollie Toms 8 months ago. Tencent have bought a majority stake in Don't Starve developers Klei Entertainment Klei say they'll retain full autonomy. Lauren Morton 1 year ago The best building games on PC Fortify your game library. Nate Crowley 1 year ago Two Point Campus review: a relaxed management sim bursting with silliness and seminars I predict a strong turnout on Open Day. Ed Thorn 22 minutes ago. Lonely Mountains: Downhill goes murderously fast but appreciates stopping for a good view A series of lovely mountain biking adventures. Alice O'Connor an hour ago 7. CJ Wheeler 2 hours ago 3. CJ Wheeler 3 hours ago 4. We've been talking, and we think that you should wear clothes Total coincidence, but we sell some clothes Buy RPS stuff here.

[thethousandscars]

So I know my blogging hasn’t been great this year. It’s been odd, the last few months. Between editing three books and my new job, blogging hasn’t really been on my agenda lately. However, I am pleased to say that with SPFBO5 about to begin, I am returning to the author reviews you know and love! But I’m still going to review video games. It’s the one thing that keeps me from going senile.

Even though my job is video games.

Introduction

This has been a game that’s been a long time coming. I bought this game in 2014, and I decided to hold off on it until things became more…developed. With the game hitting 1.0 officially in December 2018, I felt it was finally time to review it.

As you can tell, I’ve put some serious hours into this game, and I’ve probably seen 10% of the content.

Kenshi feels like a twisted, weird mix of games a child would dream up as the ideal video game. Is it the ideal video game? Lord no, but it does one hell of a good job in many areas.

I am a huge fan of open-ended sandboxes were you can just do what you want, but very few seem to do this right. This was made by a very small development team and I could tell as soon as I bought it that it was a game worth supporting. Even if it didn’t go much further, I could afford to spend 10-15$ on it. I have a lot of respect for anyone who can make a game, particularly in this day and age when there is just so much competition. The indie market is booming and with it a lot of the stigma attached to indie developers is fading, as AAA titles continue to frustrate consumers with their practices. It’s the right time to get into it.

Kenshi’s development was slow at first, and originally I did wonder if it was ever going to reach a stage where I would go into it and play it. Then more and more progress was made…and now it’s just impressive just how much is packed in this game.

The Game

This game reminds me a lot like Mount and Blade Warband, another game which I bloody adore. The graphics look like shit, if you want my honest opinion. It looks and feels bloaty, the engine is buggy and badly optimised,  there is no voice acting and no true narrative exists. What’s shocking is virtually none of this matters when it comes to Kenshi. It should be a bad game with how much it crams in, all these different parts somehow working. Parts of the game make me think it’s still an alpha version, and there’s some serious flaws with it but man. . .I love it. It’s an amazing role-playing sandbox.

You are given a massive open-ended map (And I mean it’s huge. 870 square km), full of varied biomes, different factions, and just given a smack on the bum. Go and enjoy. Make your own story. It gives you almost nothing to work with and the beginning is frustrating. It’s also tough. You will die a lot.

To give you an idea just how large the Kenshi map is, here is a slideshow. The first slide shows the Waystation, with The Hub in the distance. Most playthroughs will begin near the Hub, for it is a good starting area in the game.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This gives a good indication just how massive the map is in Kenshi.

  Onto the story element, there is none, or at least no direct narrative. There is a ton of well crafted lore in the game world of course, but nothing for you to follow. You really need to have some level of creative thinking to get the most out of this game. It’s a role playing game at its purest level. You do need to spend a lot of time with this game, it’s certainly not for the faint hearted. You need to have patience in dealing with some semi-broken mechanics, long loading times as the engine chugs on its single-core, and handle a lot of rough elements. What lies under the rough surface is a game of surprising complexity and depth.

I lost my entire party 10 minutes later to a horde of starving bandits.

However the game’s sheer openness in this case is its biggest strength, with a literal torrent of things to do. It might not be pretty to look at but its mechanics are incredible. I don’t understand how this game manages to fit in so many different genres and play-styles at once like some fucked experiment. Some of them don’t work at times, others are buggy, but for a game to do all this at once, and do a decent job overall, is seriously impressive and deserves recognition. Do they work all the time? No.

You can build your own settlements, hire mercenaries, enslave NPCs to do your bidding, form your own company. The learning mechanics are brilliant, with so many ways to train your characters. You have guilds to join, shit to steal, crops to grow. It’s not so much a game but as a world to craft your own experience, with a story development on par with Rimworld. It has an awesome body system as well. You get fucked in a fight? You will limp around until you can fix it. I get my leg cut off…just read the description here:

A character with a wounded leg will limp or crawl and slow the party down, wounded arms means you must use your sword one-handed or not at all. Severe injuries will result in amputees needing robotic limb replacements. Blood loss means you can pass out, and the blood will attract predators. A character’s stats are affected by equipment, encumbrance, blood loss, injuries and starvation.

This game gives zero shits about you, but it is also surprisingly accessible. While the game is perma death, getting into fights is a great way to get stronger. If you get put in jail, you get healed up and fed while you struggle to break out. Everything you do improves your stats in some way, so don’t shy away from tough situations. The games systems are easy to exploit and easy to break, but doing so will make parts of the game lose its aura.

Building a settlement is hard. You get to research all sorts of things with a research bench and the right materials, but the game punishes you when you start setting out on your own. You’ll get attacked by enemies on a bullshit degree, factions will come demanding tax money, bandits will demand food or money to leave you alone, and don’t get me started on the Holy Nation. Fuck those assholes. My current 30 hour play-through is dedicated to a group of plucky souls building an army to destroy them.

There are plenty of factions to play with, all with different styles. The Skeletons don’t need to eat, but can’t heal themselves without expensive Repair Kits and are hated by nearly everyone. The United Cities are a corrupt, slavers paradise. The Sheks are a warrior kingdom who look down on smuggling drugs (But you can make lots of money if you don’t get caught by their smuggling checks), while the Holy Nation are racist fanatics with a powerful belief in religion and purity. Seriously, fuck the Holy Nation.

Oh, and cannibals. There are lots of those.

This is one of the most impressive open worlds I’ve ever seen in a video game. You can play it as an RPG, a city builder, a fighting game and a stealth game, and do a pretty damn good job in all of them. I’ve rarely seen that in gaming.

If it sounds like I’m gushing, I’m not. Kenshi has some pretty glaring flaws, and if you’re one of those guys who want good optimisation and things to look pretty then you’re going to have a brain injury if you play this game. It’s buggy, chugs harder than a train on National Rail, ugly, and lacks a general direction, certainly. Do I wish it wasn’t as unstable at times? Yes. Do I regret my time with Kenshi? Lord no.

Nonetheless, I mean it when I say this is one of those endless experiences that deserves a chance. I can see myself writing a new novel just from my roleplaying experiences in this game. With an extensive modding scene, we might see some really impressive things in the future.

I will caution this: while there is a healthy modding scene, the tools themselves are limited. While this is a shame, you can fix a lot of base problems in Kenshi already through mods, and the game has been successful enough for the devs to make a sequel, with any engine fixes and improvements to be made to the original Kenshi.

  Pros

Huge world crammed full of deep lore and lots of things to do.

A.I is crude, but it does the job fairly well.

Unforgiving learning curve is satisfying to overcome, even if it takes dozens of hours.

Some of the games visuals can look good.

An excellent combat system that syncs well with the training mechanics.

Almost endless gameplay.

Despite the limitations of the modding engine, it has a healthy scene

A varied mix of factions with their own deep lore.

A great choice of weapons.

So many genres!

A large quantity of mods that add even more mechanics, game starts and factions.

The ultimate sandbox game.

Cons

Brutal early game and lack of hand holding will turn many players off.

Frequent long loading times, even with an SSD.

Ugly environments for the most part.

Limited in some ways by the creativity of the player.

No true story or endgame.

Obtuse squad micromanagement at times.

Despite an extensive number of mods, the modding tools are fairly limited.

Unfortunately you cannot conquer towns and claim them for your own. However, there is a mod in progress that adds this feature!

Much of the open world is feature-sparse desert.

Buggy pathfinding at times.

  To close things off, here are some screenshots I took in-game, and a little story to go with it. This is my current play-through, 50 days in (with no fast forward) and 35 hours.

Khronin and Viro, unlikely rivals turned friends, have a new goal. After Viro was attacked by Holy Sentinels and left for dead, Khronin has sworn vengeance against the Holy Nation.

Khronin’s skill in battle and charisma begins to grow the army. This growing force of disgruntled Sheks and bought slaves prepare themselves for their ultimate goal – the destruction of the Holy Nation.

  With a growing host of skilled fighters, Khronin and Viro take their teams out on training missions against the wild.

  Following a brutal battle between slavers, bandits and our protagonists, Khronin finally decides the time is right to begin their campaign. It will begin in the Holy Farms. Too long have these peasants stood against you. No more.

  FINAL SCORE AND CLOSING THOUGHTS: Kenshi is a hard game to give a score. It has flaws, and a lot of them, but there are few games like this on the market. I’d give this game a 8/10 overall, the bugginess and at times annoying loading bringing down its score. 

The game is not for everyone, but I still recommend you all give it a good go. I play Kenshi zoomed in with my characters, making it more like a close-third person RPG than a top-down strategy game. I suggest you try it out that way as well.

My review on Kenshi! #patientgamers #gaming #amwriting #amediting #rpg #Indie #gamedev So I know my blogging hasn't been great this year. It's been odd, the last few months.

[droewyn]

YOI Video Games Headcanon (Partial Cast)

Yuuri:

Yuuri is mainly a console player and enjoys a wide range of game genres including action/adventure, survival horror, platformers, and walking simulators.  He prefers JRPGs over WRPGs, not only because of the comfort of familiar cultural tropes, but also because he finds in-depth stat micromanagement to be stressful.  When he does play Mass Effect or Dark Souls he winds up finding and following a level-up guide for his chosen role so that he doesn’t have to worry about it and can just enjoy the game mechanics and story.  Multiplayer games are where he really shines, though; he both loves and is jaw-droppingly good at them.  Yuuri rarely speaks over chat, and as a result strangers tend to assume that he’s a woman.  He never corrects them, and every time he gets a “fat/ugly/slutty” PM from a dudebro that he’s humiliated it’s like he’s been awarded a gold medal in video games (and then he reports them).  Yurio gets really pissed off on Yuuri’s behalf when he sees that behavior at first, but it’s not long before he’s in on the joke and egging the dudebros on to make them more complacent and easier to take out.  Even without taking advantage of assholes and their assumptions, Yuuri and Yurio are an unstoppable force when they’re on the same team, and there are all kinds of wild conspiracy theories and speculation on gaming forums wondering why they’ve never pursued professional e-sports.  Yuuri plays both cooperatively and competitively with Phichit, although they tend to gravitate toward more lighthearted fare like Splatoon so that it’s more fun for both of them. Victor flat-out refuses to compete against Yuuri because he won’t go easy on him.  Yuuri’s current favorite games are Overwatch, Final Fantasy XV, and Breath of the Wild, the latter of which he finds soothing (and likes to play while curled up in Victor’s lap).

Victor:

Victor likes games, and he can complete most single-player AAA titles on Normal difficulty, but he’ll never be on the level of Yuuri and Yurio and that irks him to no end.  He’s also more of a PC gamer, because his parents never allowed him to own any consoles (games were frivolous and might distract him from skating) but he needed a computer for school (his games collection was hidden more carefully than his porn was).  He prefers story-driven games, particularly if there is a romance, though the contrived press-X-to-sexytimes-if-enough-friendship-points interactions make him vaguely uncomfortable.  His favorite genres are strategy and simulations, mostly because he can pick them up and drop them whenever and doesn’t have to remember controls after being too busy to play for long stretches of time during the competition season.  He’s also recently discovered dating sims, to the horror of literally everyone after he spent a month and a half rhapsodizing about Hatoful Boyfriend and making bird puns.  His current favorite games are Sims 3 (do not get him started on why Sims 4 sucks – actually, best not to bring up Sims at all unless you really want to hear about ten generations of custom-profession skating sims descended from himself and Yuuri thanks to an mpreg mod), Rimworld, Civilization VI, and Long Live the Queen.

Yuri:

Yurio plays shooters. Shooters, and hack-and-slashers, and exploders, and other super badass hardcore games.  As mentioned above, he excels at competitive multiplayer, and Yuuri is his favorite partner. His Steam library is extensive thanks to sales and Humble Bundles, which is the sole reason why he has certain titles in his library.  He certainly didn’t go out of his way to buy To the Moon, nor does he play it at least once a year, and anyone who would dare to suggest that he might have shed actual tears over it is getting his stupid lying ass kicked, katsudon.  Gone Home and Brothers were also totally acquired as part of bundles.  Yurio’s current favorite games (that he’ll admit to) are Hitman, Battlefield 1, Overwatch, and Neko Atsume because fuck you it’s awesome that’s why.

Phichit:

Phichit plays a ton on mobile, naturally, but he’s also the group’s resident Nintendo fanboy. There’s a running bet among his Bangkok rinkmates about exactly how long it’ll take for him to drop his new Switch on the ice and break it (Yuuri just shakes his head at them; in all the years he’s known Phichit, his best friend has never once dropped a piece of technology). In addition to the usual first-party Nintendo classics (Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, Pokémon, Splatoon, etc.), he tends to gravitate toward the colorful and the cheerful, eschewing beige shooters or anything grimdark.  He’s an unabashed Kingdom Hearts fan and will happily discuss the ins and outs of the nonsensical plotlines until everyone’s eyes glaze over.  His current favorite games are Breath of the Wild, Dragon Quest Builders, anything Katamari Damacy-related, and, oddly enough, Nethack (in which he is currently working to ascend his eighth class!).

[humanspacepioneer]

New idea for a neat God game

I call it DWEYW: The God Game No-one Asked for.

The game is chock-full of references to other games or genres, such as Spore and Rimworld. The game itself has a simplistic artsytle, with pawns looking something like this: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0118/5972/products/Wood_Man_Peg_20_2_grande.JPG?v=1478631803. You start off by selecting a planet to host your civilization. You can either randomize or personalize the world using an editor, or chose pre-made worlds such as Earth, along with other places that reference various real-world or fantasy locations (Mars, Westeros, etc). You raise your civilization from stone-age throughout the course of societal evolution all the way up to the “Technological Singularity”. This meaning they become a space-faring civilization with the capability to explore and colonize distant worlds throughout space, each with randomized conditions, wildlife (which also is randomized itself), etc.

But what sets it apart?

Now, this may seem like your average everyday God-game, but while the game lacks in originality, it will certainly make up for in game-play and mechanics. In your society, your will have to deal with all the societal problems we have faced throughout our history. You will need to deal with including but not limited to:

-Materials

-Wealth

-Food/Water

-Diplomacy with other rival nations

-War

-Worldwide war (at the later stages if things really go south, earlier  if everyone is really that bad at being nice or there are too many warmongers)

-Warmongers

-Famine

-Death and Destruction, such as plagues and the such.

-Racial bias and tension

-Corruption

-Peoples overall happiness

-Government type and how well it functions or if it can even sustain itself.

-Distrust of the people

-Rebellion

-Uprising

-Global Uprising

-Anarchy

-Tyranny (or Democracy, depending on your government type)

-Advancement

-Apocalyptic scenarios and local or even worldwide setbacks, such as economical depression.

-Environmental factors

-ETC

Everything is randomized for replay value. You could have a utopian run, where everyone lives in harmony and you unify your species by year 400. On the contrary, you could have a run where the world turns into a nearly inhospitable, Orwellian landscape where war rages between tyrannical governments for thousands of years and your still in the iron age by year 3900. Asteroids could set your civilization back to the stone age if you don't prepare. Plagues could ravage your civilizations and collapse a highly advanced society because you lacked in medical research. Your decisions directly affect how things can turn out, and everything is in some way preventable. Maybe next time try to plant some crops underground and build bunkers before the next cosmic disaster strikes you?

How does progression work?

Your civilization will progress through stages depending on its technological level. As you research more and more, you advanced along stages and can upgrade or directly replace certain elements, buildings, etc. At the beginning, almost everything will have to be micromanaged. However, as you become more and more advanced, you are rewarded by both power and less tedious workloads. Somethings will still have to be interacted with somewhat, such as war or disasters. That robot was never programmed to kill space parasites from XN-73-KZQ that your colonists brought back. You did quarantine them... right?

How does War and Diplomacy work?

Every nation will usually have city's, towns, or at least buildings. As you destroy more and more of a nations territory, it's Capital City will become more and more vulnerable. If you wish for a military victory, rather than a surrender, you must destroy a nations capital. A nations capital will be the most guarded place in their territory for obvious reasons, so you must plan carefully. There are, however, ways to win a war without even directly destroying a building (such as cyber war, which can destabilize a country). Also, a nation will increase defenses of territory as it becomes more and more alert. What may be a cakewalk in one game, may be a fight through hell in another because the nation you are attacking has been placed on high-alert. Onto Diplomacy. You can give nations weapons, money, territory, etc. You can hold conferences where your decisions and the topics can vary greatly, and your performance predicts the outcome. There are many other diplomatic things and stuff, but the list would be monumental. Along with all this, one leg thing will also be prevalent.

Fear.

Specifically, how afraid other nations are of you. If you are a squishy, snuggally, cutesy-woosty pumpkin nation who would never hurt a fly, then the Tyrannical dictatorship next door would probably jump at the opportunity to gain more land. However, if you are that tyrannical nation (or a bad-ass Democracy with the military might 600 Spartan Empires), and your actions include but are not limited to voluntary civilian manslaughter, discretionary nuclear bombing, etc... you can strike fear into the hearts of weaker nations who might wish to ally you to protect themselves and wont make too much of a fuss when you bomb Treschuland because they said mean things about you. However, war-crimes like these also anger equal and stronger nations, along with somewhat weaker nations that think they are hot shit.

Also, as a quick reminder, other nations can do and use anything that a player nation can. This means they can use nukes, cyber warfare, diplomatic actions, etc and etc and etc.

Space colonization?

Space colonization will work similar to how it works in Spore. If you have every played Spore, you know what I mean. Every planet has everything randomized. From land-masses to hazards to wildlife. Wildlife itself is also randomized using parts that the game will use to create more random stuff, similar to how Starbound does it. Unlike Spore and Starbound, however, the galaxy in this game does not adopt the Mediocrity Principle. Instead, finding intelligent alien life will be an extremely rare occurrence. Intelligent life can be randomized using alien creature parts, but the computer will use mostly intelligent-only alien parts when randomizing the species. The player can research terraforming and creature creation tools, which allows them to plant their own ecosystems. Similar to Spore, they can also use tools that allow them to uplift a certain species of a planet. Alien civilizations will go through the same problems as the player civilization, meaning they can also be easily destroyed. 

What is the ultimate goal of the game?

There isn't, really. However, if you really want an ending, you can reach the center of the galaxy and become enlightened. This grants you infinite power of creation and destruction throughout the galaxy (basically makes all of your stuff have infinite ammo). Now you may be saying “That sounds way to much like spore!” and to that I say:

Yes. Yes it is. But you try coming up with something better.

SPECIAL MODE: Infection

This mode is unlocked after reaching the space era for the first time. Until then, it is hidden from the player.

Spread a zombie virus similar to Infectinator! Spread a virus throughout worlds you create or others create (or use savefile worlds. Be warned- they will use their advanced technology. No harm will actually come to them if you destroy them in infection though! Savefiles will be left untouched.). As you destroy and infect more people, the area will become more and more fortified by police and eventually military personnel! There are 7 stages of destruction:

Civility: Everything as usual. Nothing to see here.

Disturbance: People are confused. Minor police presence.

Unrest: People are starting to get scared. More are starting to get into buildings. Larger police presence, along with some SWAT. Builds start being fortified, albeit minor.

Riot: People have lost their wits. They are either barricaded inside buildings, scavenging, or have taken up refuge in safe-houses. Large SWAT presence and some Military personnel. Buildings start getting more fortified. Safe-houses start 

Anarchy: The location is almost up in flames. Military have drastically increased their presence and have called special forces. Tanks, ATTK Helicopters, and other offensive vehicles begin to roll into the streets. Some buildings become extremely fortified, including artillery.

Aftermath: Military has abandoned the location. The area is largely destroyed, and very few people remain. Area is considered destroyed.

(Extra) Devastation: Very few, if any, buildings are still standing. Area is completely uninhabited by living beings.

As more and more of the world becomes destroyed, other unaffected areas being to buff up as-well, simulating a real worldwide zombie crisis! There are 3 control modes for zombies:

Horde: You mass control zombies. They pile up into a crowd that you direct with your mouse.

Group: You can select a group of zombie to direct, to a limit of 20. The ones unselected do what they want (which is mainly to C O N S U M E).

Spectator: You can simply sit back and watch the chaos. You have the ability to select and control a single zombie to direct, but no more.

Just extra mechanics stuff

Buildings go through stages of destruction, progressively looking more beat-up. Buildings are considered destroyed at <30% of their health. Buildings are reduced to ruble at 0 health points.

When a pawn dies, a small blood splat will emanate from them, and they will fall over. They then sink into the ground and are removed. In infection, they are not removed but instead turn into zombies.

The world does not end as soon as the worlds climate reaches an inhospitable state, but it will eventually.

The destruction states in infection mode are also used in the base game.

There is a sandbox mode where the player can use commands, debug things, and summon most if not all game events objects. It is unlocked after reaching the games end, but requires a new save game. achievements are disabled when Sandbox is active.

Burning fossil fuels, detonating nuclear bombs, and any more things obviously affect the planet. Mid-space stage empires can research environmental shielding technology, which allows habitation of otherwise inhospitable worlds with city's rather than just colony buildings.

[dzpenumbra]

6/10/23

Today hasn't been too bad. It was a very rough start though.

I woke up after 4 hours of sleep and started having an anxiety attack immediately. An intense one, with physical symptoms... which is new in the grand scheme of things. Ever since that doctor's visit, my anxiety chest tightness and chest pain, racing heart, adrenaline feelings... that kinda stuff started coming back. Probably a result of feeling my mortality. It's a very different kind of fear than like... shame.

I've written about that here before - how interesting it is that different types of fear can actually feel different, physically, experientially. Like... the experience of fearing being embarrassed is a very different sensation than fearing being physically injured, to me.

But yeah, it was pretty rough. I guarantee it was a super vivid dream that caused it, though I didn't journal to capture it. I guarantee it was based on the RP streams I've been completely immersed in (read: addicted to). It definitely felt that way. And on days like... the past few days... I seriously spend all my waking hours with a stream in front of me. And I really think it's unhealthy.

I just... don't have an alternate form of social interaction currently. So... given the choice between working while watching a stream (where I can interact in chat) vs... listening to music for 6 hours? Or watching YouTube videos in the background? I mean... If I had people to do that with, I would drop the streams in a heartbeat. I mean that. And that's what frustrates me.

I returned to Twitch as a streamer at the beginning of the pandemic (actually a little before it...) as an attempt to share things I'm passionate about with others. The way I tell stories, the way I narrate video games, shit like that. I felt like I had a gift for it. It was made so blatantly obvious to me by others that what I saw when I played games like Rimworld was so much different from what others saw. My experience was so much more immersive and emotional, romantic and narrative. Very few people that I've ever come across have shared that ability... to connect story points from a randomly generated story game and stitch a narrative together on-the-fly. One that actually makes sense, and has compelling and relatable characters that you actually give a fuck about. Nearly everyone that I watched playing Rimworld was literally calling their colonists "Pawns" and trying to "win". And since my ability to see, experience and share the story I was experiencing was so... natural for me... and so rare... I decided to stream. To share that gift with others, so they could see what I saw.

I remember vividly that I inspired a viewer (two, actually) to buy the game. They were chasing the experience that I presented, and unfortunately were a little disappointed when they realized that... what they were seeking was the drama and everything that I was presenting. It's really hard to explain that to people without offending them. But I think at a subconscious level, they could tell, because both of them would be watching my streams and playing their own colonies at the same time (towards the end).

I guess what I'm saying is... I would feel better about streaming... instead of watching streams... if I could have a little more assurance that people were going to show up. What I'm actively avoiding right now is sitting in front of a computer and just absorbing stuff in the background while working all day. I want something at least with the option of social interaction. And with me streaming, the numbers just haven't been there. So few people, it was usually just me and this teenage kid who keeps coming by for some reason.

I guess it's kinda obvious that my desire to stream is coming back up. The downside every time is... having to "explain" where I've been. Like I fucking abandoned all these people who don't even come by my streams half the time, and who have never subbed in 4 years... XD

Here are my current reservations with streaming: 1). Making noise past midnight. The walls are thin, to the point that I actually feel a bit anxious about the volume of my mechanical keyboard at this hour. I don't want to piss off my neighbors. 2). Background stuff. I would like to either have videos or music playing while I do art streams; I need something when I work, even if I have people to talk to. I feel like that would make the most sense for where I'm at right now. And then I can do gaming streams to just... take breaks. The problem? Again... DMCA. And how to handle that fucking bullshit. Which... honestly? There are two routes... a). learn how to route my audio so that the music plays on my live streams but not on my VoDs... then my VoDs will be awkward as fuck because it'll just be silence for hours at a time with me drawing and occasionally talking or singing along to nothing or b). scrap the VoDs entirely. And honestly? Who the fuck is watching my VoDs, you know?

Those are the big ones. But honestly? It would help me a lot to start being social again. But I fear no one will show up, and I'll just sit here doing my art shit in silence for hours at a time... when I could be watching really funny RP while I work. Having music or YouTube or something to soften the blow of silence would help.

Yeah, I guess I'll look into that tomorrow. It's been on my "Side Quests" list on the whiteboard for a while now. Along with setting up a Tumblr for my main art stuff.

I feel like I've been slipping a lot lately, somehow. Like a lot of stuff has fallen through the cracks. I think it was that rough patch of interrupted sleep, honestly, and this box fan has been an utter lifesaver. I could just barely hear my upstairs neighbor walking around when I had the box fan on today, I think it masks the sound really well and the cool air always helps me sleep. But I think the sleep deprivation really fucked up my life for a while there and I'm still playing catch-up.

Oh shit, so... despite the reasoning behind it being... freaking out about my health... I started a workout program today. That's good! I've been really good about those historically, I started doing them during the pandemic - these 30 day exercise challenge things from Darebee. I'm redoing one that I did last Spring(?) when I was binging out on Elden Ring. I needed to find an exercise routine that I can do in my apartment (so I don't have the excuse of social anxiety) but didn't involve jumping around and shit because... I'm the apartment above someone. This one is "combat-based", so all those kinds of movements that would normally be jumping jacks and burpees and shit are squats and kicks instead.

In the past, the first day of these workouts has completely utterly destroyed me. They do the exercises by Levels 1-3, with each Level being 3-5-7 sets respectively... so you can take the exercise plan and scale it to whatever you can handle. And in the past? I was always Level 1. And when I first started doing them, I even struggled with Level 1 sometimes. Today? I debated doing Level 2. I honestly don't even feel sore. It's weird. Maybe all that yoga is paying off more than I had thought! But Level 1 today means... all-in-all... I did 60 squats, 60 front kicks, 60 strikes, 60 jab + cross combos, and 60 elbow strikes. And that feels like a lot for a first exercise. And I knocked it out pretty easily. So I'm proud of myself for that. I'm trying to attach it to the end of my morning yoga.

I also started with reassessing my diet. I... haven't made a ton of progress, to be honest. My therapist was harping on portion control. And I guess I could tone that down. But I legit woke up starving this morning, and that does fuck with my sleep quite often. In fact, I might get a small trail mix snack right now just to have something in my stomach to delay that hunger.

I'm struggling with the diet shit because... most of the things they recommend for healthier eating? I already eat... I don't think potatoes or onions are bad... avocados are always stocked in my house as a go-to snack or meal accompaniment. Beans usually play a role, but I could put more of a focus on those... I only eat chicken, as far as meat goes, and really not that much or that often. It's usually only there to kinda... bulk up meals, if that makes sense? Like in a quesadilla or in rice, to just add... more? I don't know how to put it. I'm basically vegetarian besides that. Even the sausage I have in my freezer that I never eat is chicken sausage. I don't eat fish... which is the one thing all the reading I did was pushing. So that kinda puts a wrench in the works.. So basically... I guess what I'm gonna do right off the bat is... cut down on butter a bit. Switch the whole milk to something less. Maybe tone it down with sour cream? But I really don't use that much... And... the ice cream has been put on hold. Besides that? I have no idea what changes to make.

But I found a list of Low-Cholesterol Recipes which had some stuff that looked good, so I'm gonna try to take this as an opportunity to try new cooking experiments. Then I'll actually look forward to it.

I can't figure out what to make of eggs though. Some of what I read said they were good, some said they were bad, some said they make no difference. Ugh. Either way, I did my "fancy Ramen" tonight as a break from the pasta, and just put 2 eggs in it instead of 3 or 4. It's pretty light for a full meal... but yeah. That's the best I can do for now. The resource my therapist gave me for fitness and dieting (specialized for nerds, which made me go "fuck yeah" =D ) is... a bit more expensive than I think I can budget right now? Unfortunately. But I'm gonna keep it in mind.

I'm trying to keep my motivation going, and use this news as an opportunity to make good changes to my life that I've wanted for a while. I just have this weird reflex that doesn't want to. Like I'm fighting myself. Like... I want to be active. I want to exercise. Not exercising is really weird for me, in the grand scale of my life. I have always been active. But man, being in the city? Where going outside feels... unsafe, to me? When I don't have a car? I have to put a lot of extra effort into making that push out the door worth it.

I guess you don't really know what you've got until it's gone, and I was insanely lucky to have such amazing nature trails so easily available to me for so long.

Alright, I think that's pretty much it for today. I just did yoga, exercised, ate food, watched streams and drew a fuck ton of tiny circles. XD I'll share the piece with you guys once it gets further along... assuming I even can... it's not even half done and it's already 2 fucking gigs!

Oh, I guess one last thing. I had this thought last night... I think it was last night. I think what's fucking me up and making me so anxious is... Most of my life I have been brought to the doctors with the expectation that something bad is wrong with me. And every time (for the most part) it was nothing. Tests were negative, I was surprisingly healthy, despite not taking good care of myself. Now? I go in for a routine physical and they find unhealthy stuff. It's poetic, I guess. But I think that's why it's hitting harder. Because it's like... the first time I let my guard down... XD Also... I keep thinking of one of my teachers/mentors in college... the one that had Asperger's, whose way of viewing the world really changed the way I view art... just... in general. I've been thinking of him lately. He died of... I think an aneurism? He was plowing the driveway at his girlfriend's (my advisor) house and... he was just gone. And yeah... that's been on my mind. That hit close to home, he was like.. my favorite teacher in college, one who a lot of people would shit on for being weird and different. And hearing "high blood pressure" and "high cholesterol", even though they might just be slightly elevated? When you've seen how out-of-nowhere it can just... blink you out of existence? It's kinda lurking in the shadows around me. I can't see (feel) it directly, but I can sense that being a factor in how surreally intense my anxiety has been lately. Just felt that was worth mentioning for self-reference, it seems much more important and relevant than I've been consciously processing.

Tarot time.

Past - VIII: Strength (Overcoming fear, mastery of emotions through equilibrium and inner strength.) Present - Seven of Pentacles, inverted (A pause to evaluate the fruit of your effort.  Reflection on accomplishments made thus far.) Future - Nine of Wands, inverted (The Wounded Warrior.  Defense, guarding yourself. Suspicion, self-protection.  Need rest and recovery.)

Alrighty. We got a new one here, the Seven of Pentacles. I think I can kinda intuitively get the gist of this one, but lets dive in.

The thread starts with a card that I like a lot, one I strive for a lot in my life, but one that's always wavering for me. Strength. The lion-tamer. The state of finding a balance with your inner beast, an equilibrium between conscious and subconscious, logic and emotion. The source of this thread is that state.

What it leads to is... inverted Seven of Pentacles... which is an image of a woman presenting bread that she baked, representing an appreciation of and reflection on the culmination of past labors. This is either something in dysfunction, or is something that is presenting itself to me but I am not engaging with it.

And that leads to... a card that shows up a lot for me, both upright and inverted. The Nine of Wands. The Wounded Warrior. And I read an inverted Nine of Wands to be... stuck in bitterness, defense and suspicion. A very... the-bad-sides-of-Dr. House kinda symbol, for me.

So... my process of overcoming fear and seeking balance with my emotions... has been leading to me struggling to... or neglecting... celebrating my accomplishments. And the result of this... is that I end up trapped in a place of injury, a place of weakness and never-ending recovery. And that weakness and vulnerability... leads to suspicion, and distrust, and constantly being guarded. ANXIETY. So... ironically... my work towards mastering my emotions... has somehow resulted in me being their slave. My attempt to coexist with the inner lion, has me living with The Sahara's Finest prowling around my loft apartment every day. And the big component that is making that so? My inability (or refusal...) to recognize how much I've overcome. How much I've done. How much I've accomplished. How strong I am. How capable I am.

Yep. This one resonates with me a lot. Self-esteem, confidence, is such a huge piece to life. I really need to work on it more. So... my plan to set up streaming stuff tomorrow? That should help. The two biggest things that have helped me cultivate confidence the past several years have been streaming and snowskating/skateboarding. If I can get those balanced into my life? I think it would do a lot of good.

[linuxgamenews]

Minicology a whimsical adventure seeks funding for Linux

Minicology sandbox RPG game seeks funding for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Which is the uniquely creative work of developer Isaac Denner. Which is now kicking off its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. Take to the stars in Minicology. This is a new sandbox game where you travel through a procedurally generated universe of tiny planets. So you can build bases, defend against invasions, terraform worlds, and engineer solutions to tests. Due to things like farming and mining. Minicology pushes you to have creative solutions to everything. Right from farming to fighting enemies. Coming together in a similar but unique singleplayer game. According to the campaigns FAQ, Linux and Mac support are coming:

One of my first goals as we move into alpha is also to get it running on Mac / Linux. I, unfortunately, haven't had a surplus of testers on these platforms. So alpha players on these platforms will be among the first (and might have a few days delay before the alpha is playable vs. PC players.)

Apparently, the Minicology alpha is due in December 2022. To get access, you will have to pledge $30 USD. But at least Linux support is in the mix, somewhere. Since this should spell out day one support for the Q2 2023 release. The game is also being published by Crytivo. While offering a blend of Terraria and RimWorld, both of which have native support. So I'm interested to see how Minicology will stack up to these other sandbox games.

Minicology — Kickstarter Trailer

The Minicology’s event system should keep you on your toes. Due to each planet type have unique simulated weather and event rotations. Since events shift with the seasons, a planet might not be the same the next time you visit. Jungle planets feature dangerous acid rains, while deserts have blinding sandstorms. These certainly leave you fumbling to see. On top of that, certain rare materials will only be available during these dangerous events. Make sure you’re prepared. As you roam, be careful that you don’t disturb the dangerous predators of the Minicology mini-verse. Well, you’ll probably want to - they’ve got some of the best loot in the galaxy. Combat is also not restricted to weapons. So that players can create weather, automate turrets, and harness the chemistry of gasses. Things like methane, hydrogen, or radon to inflict damage on bosses. Or just morph the world around you.

Other Features:

Sandbox style building and terraforming mechanics. Make your planet your way!

Survive by hunting, farming, or a mix of the two. Just don't hunt a species into extinction.

Your actions have outcomes: animals can be driven to extinction. Minicology players can also create brutal weather conditions

Automate your base: pipe items from chests into furnaces, construct gas pipelines, and irrigate your farms.

Dozens of unique events, ranging from meteor showers to invasions

6 Challenging boss battles, with more to come!

Collect and farm over 20 animals and dozens of plants

Craft accessories, armors, and weapons to flesh out your build

Don't want the stress of survival? Play peaceful and skip the boss-battles, or create a godmode world and try out new ecosystem builds!

Don't lose track of the time! Immersive day/night cycle and seasonal rotation, with unique events tied to each!

Minicology sandbox RPG game's Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is live. Due to offer Linux, Mac, and Windows PC support. You can jump into the alpha at the $30 pledge tier. Plus you can jump into the alpha at the $30 pledge tier. Plus you can Wishlist the game on Steam.

[linuxgamenews]

Stardeus crowdfunding hits goal in less than a week

Stardeus colony management game funded in just 6 days for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to all of the backers behind developer Neon Bedlam. Plus the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is still going strong. It took just 6 days for Stardeus to reach the stars and hit its £12,000 ($16,578 USD) Kickstarter funding goal. Now it’s taking off through its gameplay focussed stretch goals. Already passing the Economy and Trade goal. Which lets you trade goods with independent merchants through in-game currency. Stardeus’s Kickstarter campaign launched on Monday, August 16th. As a result, instantly grabbed the attention of the colony management sim community. Content creators among the likes of Cringer, 2DKiri, and Splattercat. All of whom sing the game's praises. Often referring to Stardeus as RimWorld in space.

Stardeus Kickstarter Trailer

Stardeus takes inspiration from titles like RimWorld, Factorio, Dwarf Fortress, Oxygen Not Included, and FTL. Due to deliver the depth of a colony management sim rarely seen among the stars. While you play as an immortal AI. One who also has an army of robots and drones at their disposal. Like all colony sim games, how you play Stardeus is entirely up to you. Since you can grow a human colony on your ship. You can also start a robot uprising. Players can even choose to turn all your crew into human batteries. All due to satisfy your greed for electricity. The stars really are the limit when it comes to the open ended gameplay of Stardeus. Embedded in every mode and base you build is the focus on AI storytelling. This off the cuff approach to story telling will make every situation on a ship unique. All due to the player's own personal experience. This storytelling can result in eye watering comedic moments. Thanks to the interaction of crew members to face palming fires. Which in turn destroy half your space empire. Nothing in Stardeus is a scripted story, it’s your story and your rules. A playable Stardeus demo is available on Steam and itch.io. Offering a time capped 2 hours playtime. Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign backers can get access to the alpha. This offers around 15 hours of progress gameplay. However, there is no time lock on the alpha access, so players can build until their hearts are content. Available for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC.

[linuxgamenews]

Stardeus colony sim launches on Kickstarter

Stardeus sci-fi colony management seeks funding on Kickstarter for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the efforts of solo developer, Kodo Linija. The crowdfunding campaign is currently live with a Demo. The sci-fi colony sim Stardeus has launched its Kickstarter campaign. Due to raise £12,000 ($16,578 USD) by September 15th, 2021. Offering up two Stretch Goals, £14,000 Economic Trade then at £17,000 Factions and Diplomacy. Stardeus takes inspiration from titles like RimWorld, Factorio, Dwarf Fortress, Oxygen Not Included, and FTL. Due to deliver the depth of a colony management sim rarely seen among the stars. Just imagine if all these titles played out on a face hugger infested spaceship.

Stardeus Kickstarter trailer:

In Stardeus, you play as an immortal AI. One who aalso has an army of robots and drones at their disposal. Like all colony sim games, how you play Stardeus is entirely up to you. So yes you can grow a human colony on your ship, sure. Maybe start a robot uprising, why not. You can even choose to turn all your crew into human batteries. You know, so you can satisfy your greed for electricity. The stars really are the limit when it comes to the open ended gameplay of Stardeus. Embedded in every mode and base you build is the focus on AI storytelling. This off the cuff approach to the story will make every position on a ship unique to the player's own personal experience. This story can result in eye watering comedic moments. So right from the interaction of crew members to face palming fires. Which also destroy half your space empire. Nothing in Stardeus is a scripted story, it’s your story and your rules. Sound inventive, check out the Stardeus on both Steam and Itch.io. This also includes the games support for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. The Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for Stardeus is live now. A playable demo offers up to 2 hours of gameplay. There is instant alpha access available to backers. So this build will offer around 15 hours of gameplay. However, there is no time lock on the alpha access. So players can build until their hearts are content. The best part, it's all available for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC from day one.