#unranked list

[eldritchchelicerae]

why do people run like top 8 decks in unranked lmfao, go play ranked I don't want to play against your spirits deck with my janky werewolf tribal deck

[mabermaple]

Unlike others, I judge a book by it's cover.

By far, the best fanfictions I can recommend! My reading list is semi-unranked :) Those you see in the screenshots are my top favorites.

OVERTIME features clark, martin, bueckers, fudd, jackie young, and more..

I'm a picky reader, so you can trust me on these!!

[kithj]

Announcing the second Queer Vampire IF Jam!

This is a month-long game jam that will run from January 10 - February 20th, 2025. The goal of this jam is to create more interactive fiction games about queer vampires, focusing both on queer relationships and queer experiences as told through a vampiric narrative.

Check out the entries from last year here!

JAM RULES:

Your project must focus on queer characters and vampires. Queer relationships, romantic or platonic, as well as other queer experiences, whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, ace, aro, trans and nonbinary - this is an inclusive jam. 

You can write from a human or vampire perspective (or both!)

This jam will accept any medium, so long as the work is an Interactive Fiction.

This jam will accept adult content as well as games covering heavy & uncomfortable topics, but please be sure to properly list trigger warnings either in-game or on the game page.

Entries that promote any kind of bigotry will not be accepted.

Games should not include any AI generated content.

You can submit as many entries as you'd like.

There is no language requirement; we will accept games in any language.

You are allowed to start working on your project early! That's why I'm announcing it now. This jam is unranked and it's not a contest, this is just for fun.

Submissions open midnight, January 10th EST. They'll close February 20th at 11:59pm EST.

Join the jam here!

hosted by me and @nyehilismwriting

Additional questions we got asked frequently last year, for clarification:

Do Visual Novels count?

Yes!

What is Interactive Fiction?

Personally, I find interactive fiction hard to define, and I’m not interested in policing it, so as long as it’s recognizably interactive fiction - ie, the game has a narrative focus primarily with text, and the player can interact (whether that be with direct choices, clicking through links, or allowing the player to choose how to move around and interact with the world/the game like in bitsy) then it counts. Parsers, visual novels, choose-your-own-adventures are some of the popular examples of IF, but there are plenty that don’t fall within any category. Check out the IF tag on itch.io and you can see just how varied it is.

Does it have to be horror?

No, any genre is accepted!

[diorsluv]

feather , part 14

“ i feel so much lighter, like a feather ”

series m. list previous chapter next chapter

( socialmedia!au )

yourusername

liked by _quinnhughes, rutgermcgroarty, jamie.drysdale, and 58,100 others

yourusername so i went to the mall w eddy and mackie and NO ONE TOLD ME THERES TARGET IN MALLS NOW???

tagged: mackie.samo

view all comments

username87 sweetie there’s always been targets in malls

→ yourusername SINCE WHEN TF

_alexturcotte yooo did you buy the teddy bear??

→ yourusername no ethan said there would be no room for it in the car when we drive home 😔

→ _alexturcotte ah damn i was gonna steal it from you

username35 omg they went into one of the expensive clothes stores

username28 if they wore that and tried to break into my house honestly i’d let them

→ username7 FRRRR

edwards.73 you were skipping through the aisles as soon as we walked into target

→ mackie.samo fr we had to pretend like we didn’t know you

→ yourusername i hate you both

jamie.drysdale you know i can see your credit card history right

→ yourusername UHHHHH MOM SAID NO ONE COULD SEE IT BUT ME

→ jamie.drysdale she lied to you

→ trevorzegras whats she been buying 👀

→ jamie.drysdale a 50 pack of takis, 4 squishmallows and way too many kids toys

→ yourusername I BOUGHT ONE CONTAINER OF SLIME. ONE. jamie.drysdale

lhughes_06 should’ve brought me, i would’ve paid for u

→ yourusername oh it’s okay i’d feel bad 😭

→ colecaufield you are insanely dense lil drizzy

username94 it’s so endearing how they’re having so much fun together

jackhughes maybe i should’ve gone with you

→ yourusername no i would’ve had 10x less fun if you came with

→ jackhughes ok buddy 😐😐

bookerburke_ i’ll take you to every mall with a target in it as soon as you get back

liked by yourusername

yourusername

liked by jackhughes, luca.fantilli, trevorzegras, and 99,837 others

yourusername i’m never playing val with these idiots ever again oh my god like THE LACK OF ASSISTS WAS UNBELIEVABLE

view all comments

markestapa the only reason u could even play valorant was bc i let u use my pc so be quiet

→ yourusername yeah and i got you to gold 3

→ markestapa I WAS AT PLAT 2

→ yourusername YOU MADE ME PLAY ON UR UNRANKED ACCOUNT DUMMY

→ markestapa oh um well IT’S NOT RADIANT SOOOO

rutgermcgroarty such a gamer girl

→ yourusername never say that again i’m begging you

username80 i don’t understand anything but yessss!!

→ username47 fr at this point im jus faking it all

dylanduke25 okay well the rest of us were playing on our laptops

→ yourusername marks pc was laggier than ur laptops 🙄🙄

→ markestapa MY LAG WAS SKYROCKETING

trevorzegras play val with me rn i dare you

→ yourusername okay mr “i dropped from gold to bronze”

→ trevorzegras hey don’t expose me like that 😕

username37 what is this gold, bronze, plat speak i don’t get it

_quinnhughes oh so thats what all that yelling was

→ jackhughes i heard her from down the street

→ _quinnhughes “MOVE MOVE MOVE YOU DUMBASSES”

→ yourusername 🙍‍♂️🙍‍♂️🔫🙃

bookerburke_ i’ve never played this game before, only cod and overwatch so i dont get the lingo 😭

→ yourusername oh it’s okay i’ll explain it to you 🤗🤗

→ username82 the “lingo” 😭😭

edwards.73 i didn’t do THAT bad

→ mackie.samo liar i was looking at your screen the whole time

→ lhughes_06 dude you were dead weight

→ yourusername my kda was 5/0/0 and urs was 0/5/0 we are NOT the same ❌

next chapter notes ) i actually have a grudge against all val players and they all frustrate me to no end (I NEVER GET FUCKING ASSISTS) anywayyy i hope u enjoyed this and im getting back on the grind i promise 🤍🤍

tags: @aliaology @hockeyboysarehot @absolutelyhugh3s

[manonamora-if]

Interactive Fiction Showcase 2024

Showcase your Game!

The Interactive Fiction Showcase is a year-long "jam" meant to collect and showcase Interactive Fiction games completed in 2024, and show how diverse the Interactive Fiction scene is! And maybe: build more bridges between the community, help people finding their new favourite game/author...

Whether it is long or short, an easy adventure or a complicated puzzle, a strange experiment, a quick creation, or a years-in-the-making game, come show off what you've made!

Are you more of a player? Then, come check this page regularly for new submissions! Maybe leave a rating or a comment too :)

This is an unranked event.

Rules:

The Showcase is open to IF games in all of its forms: kinetic, choice-based, hyperlinks, parser, visual novels... As long as it is Interactive Fiction (there is interactivity and the focus of the game is on the text), the entry will be accepted.

The Showcase is open to IF games in any language.

Entries must be playable and in its complete form when submitted. Completed games in 2024, whose demo was previously public, are welcome. Games submitted to other events (jams/competitions) are welcome.

Entries can include NSFW content, as long as it is indicated in the submission.

Entries should not include any generated AI content - or it will be removed.

Spam or hateful content will be removed.

Creating Interactive Fiction:

Interactive Fiction is a text-based narrative medium, where players can interact with the story in some fashion (input commands, click a link/button, press key). There are many different ways of creating IF, and many different programs to do so. You can find some mentioned below:

Primarily HyperText/Choice-Based: Twine,  Ink, ChoiceScript, Dendry

Primarily Parser/Input: Inform 6, Inform 7, PunyInform, Adventuron, ADRIFT

Other: Bitsy, Binksi, Ren'Py

and many more can be found listed in the IF Wiki.

If you are looking for other Interactive Fiction Events, discuss general IF, or ask question, you can visit the IntFiction Forum. (we also have monthly IF events over at @neointeractives)

Interactive Fiction Database and Archive:

IFDB

The IFDB, or Interactive Fiction Database, is an IF game information catalogue, creating a historical record of the IF landscape. The database is a community project, updated by its members, by adding titles to the directory, ratings games, writing reviews... If a listing has not yet been created for your game, please consider making one!

IF Archive

The IF Archive is an archive of Interactive Fiction games, and IF-related elements (walkthroughs, interpreters, articles, collections...). The Archive’s mission is to preserve the history and practice of interactive fiction and make it freely available to the public. If you wish to, you can upload a copy of your game to the IFArchive, through the IFDB listing of your game (recommended) or directly to the archive.

The IFDB and IFArchive, as well as the IntFiction Forum and Twine, are managed by the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation. These programs are funded through individual donations.

Visual Novel Database

The VNDB, or Visual Novel Database, is a community project that strives to be a comprehensive database for information about visual novels. The database is updated by its members, by adding titles to the directory, ratings games, writing reviews... If a listing has not yet been created for your visual novel, please consider making one!

[madeline-kahn]

Incomplete and unranked list of albums I enjoyed in 2024

Pictured here:

MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

Megan Thee Stallion - MEGAN

Beyoncé - Cowboy Carter

Sabrina Carpenter - Short n' Sweet

Katie Gavin - What a Relief

Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well

Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me

Orville Peck - Stampede

Lizzy McAlpine - Older

The Beaches - Blame My Ex

Vampire Weekend - Only God Was Above Us

Gold Star - How to Shoot the Moon

Remi Wolf - Big Ideas

Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood

Gracie Abrams - The Secret of Us

Clairo - Charm

Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal

Pom Pom Squad - Mirror Starts Moving Without Me

Kendrick Lamar - GNX

Charli xcx - Brat

The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstacy

Conan Gray - Found Heaven

Griff - Vertigo

God's Mom - As It Was Given

Other albums that I would have done if time had permitted but it didn't:

girl in red - I'm Doing it Again Baby!

Halsey - The Great Impersonator

Bleachers - Bleachers

Suki Waterhouse - Memoir of a Sparklemuffin

SZA - SOS Deluxe: LANA

Debbii Dawson - How To Be Human

Rachel Chinouriri - What A Devastating Turn of Events

Towa Bird - American Hero

FLO - Access All Areas

beabadoobee - This Is How Tomorrow Moves

Megan Moroney - Am I Okay? (I'll Be Fine)

Ariana Grande - eternal sunshine

Carol Ades - Late Start

The Dare - What's Wrong with New York?

Tyla - Tyla+

Del Water Gap - I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet

Maude Latour - Sugar Water

The Marias - Submarine

Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism

Billie Eilish - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Dora Jar - No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire

Sexyy Red - In Sexyy We Trust

Amyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness

Brittany Howard - What Now

Eliza Mclamb - Going Through It

Fontaines DC - Romance

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

Normani - DOPAMINE

Role Model - Kansas Anymore

Soccer Mommy - Evergreen

St. Vincent - All Born Screaming

Tyler the Creator - Chromakopia

Adrianne Lenker - Bright Future

Charley Crockett - $10 Cowboy

Lauren Mayberry - Vicious Creature

Mk.gee - Two Star & The Dream Police

Nemahsis - Verbathim

Reyna Roberts - The Lost Files

ROSE - rosie

Sierra Ferrell - Trail of Flowers

Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disk

Allie X - Girl with No Face

Cheekface - It's Sorted

Maren Morris - Intermission

Father John Misty - Mahashmashana

Lainey Wilson - Whirlwind

[neointeractives]

Smoochie Jam!

A Valentine's Interactive Fiction Jam

For this Valentine's month, you can help make romance happen with a smooch!

The Smoochie Jam is a month-long unranked jam all about kisses, real or imagined, love and romance.  The name and concept of this jam were inspired the original SmoochieComp in 2001, hosted by Emily Short.

Games should be about romance, kissing, or the deliberate subversion thereof. Here is an optional list of story ideas and concepts:

♡ first kiss, last kiss ♡ kissing in the rain ♡ kiss of life (or kiss of death) ♡ sealed with a kiss ♡ kiss with a fist ♡ spaghetti kiss

Constraints and Rules:

Your Entry should relate to romance, love, kisses, or the deliberate subversion thereof.

The Jam is open to any program/medium, as long as the piece can be considered Interactive Fiction (i.e. the game is interactive, and its focus is on the text).

The Jam is open to any language.

You can submit up to 3 entries!

You should aim for a 15-30min maximum gameplay.

Entries can have NSFW content, as long as you indicate it in your submission.

Entries should not include any generated AI content.

Spam or hateful content will not be accepted.

Join the Neo-Interactive Discord 

[yanyandere]

This feels like such a strange question to ask, but where do you read your yan Manga? I'm kinda new to reading Manga (as in I haven't done it in ages and everything I used to use has long since been obliterated) and I would really like to sink my teeth into some of the stuff you've posted!

not a strange question at all. i almost exclusively use batoto; it’s been the most consistent manga hosting site in the past few years. i read on mobile (iOS) with adblock and have never had an issue with obtrusive ads etc. if you have the means, please also consider supporting artists on places like dlsite, which lets you buy translated manga chapters.

feel free to check out my batoto lists (i update both regularly):

the red flags make him hotter (high-quality yanderes for the discerning trash enthusiast) - curated list of male yandere, ranked in order of quality

all the male yanderes - comprehensive, unranked list of male yandere i’ve found

as for discovering new yandere manga, i recommend following @maleyanderecafe and @ystrike1! they do really great reviews.

there’s a lot out there to discover, so enjoy!!!

[artificial-ascension]

Reading through the wolrds surely most accurate source, Death Note fan wiki, I have accumulated a list of Wammys kid letters that are confirmed in some source to have an individual associated:

A- First successor of L, dead by suicide, mentioned in Death Note: Another Note

B- Beyond Birthday, number two of the first known successors behind A and a main character of Death Note: Another Note

D- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

E- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

F- Appears in the opening of L: Change The World film on a massion for L, dies via helicopter attack*

G- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

H- Sends L an email informing him of F's death in L: Change The World

I- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

J- Appears in the game L: The Prologue To Death Note, the game is unavailable in English so little is know of them, presumably a Wammys kid based on name, a separate J appears in the second episode of Death Note: A New Generation, she is not out right stated to be a Wammys kid, but she is assumed to be

K- Antagonist of L: Change The World book and film

L- If you do not know who L is why are you here, also Linda is a child who appears briefly in the manga and is responsible for the drawings of Near and Mello (I belive that is only presumed but I may be wrong, I can not remember where it was said)

M- Mello, second successor of generation four and a main antagonist of Death Note's main series and Matt, unranked member of generation four appearing as Mello's comrade in both anime amd manga

N- Near, successor of L and number one of generation four, appears in half the places L dose

P- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

Q- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film

R- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead**

T- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead

V- Shown on L's mailing list in L: Change The World film, their letter is greyed out, presumably indicating they are dead

X- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Y- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Z- Alluded to in Death Note: Another Note as helping in a detective war with L

Unused letters- C, O, S, T, U, W***, possibly J as both instances of the usage are for individuals only presumed to be successors

Letters with known duplicates- L and M, J(?)

------

Conclusion:

1. L: Change The World introduced a shit ton of Wammys lore for apparently shits and giggles.

2. Alot less dead Wammys kids than I expected. (Only 9/24, that's only over a third. Maybe 10/24 if you count Watari.)

3. I can understand not finding a U or V, but how the hell were there no genius orphans with S or C names??

4. It is impossible for a Death Note title to not have a : in it.

------

Notes:

I got this information from the fan wiki and my brain. If it is wrong I'd like to know. I'd also love to hear of any more orphans the fan wiki or I missed.

------

*I can verify that that happened. I remember it vividly. Only known Wammys kid to die from a helicopter.

**A greyed name implies death as B's name was also greyed out. However, this also implies L could readily email B whenever he wanted, which is extremely funny.

***W is often totoed as Watari's letter. However, I am not considering him a Wammys kid but this may mean some of the letters shown do not indicate successors but rather other Wammys higher ups.

[now-and-4ever]

I used this tier list maker to rank the moments from Our Life 1.

The reason Reflection is unranked is because the topics in it make me uncomfortable to the point I can't play it. So I can't fairly rank it.

[obsessioncollector]

haiiiii peyton ^_^ what were your favorite books this year?

Hiiii Lane!! 🤗💝 I hope you're having a lovely holiday or just a lovely day if you're not celebrating! I am so indecisive when it comes to picking faves so enjoy my non-answer 😊 I'm also going to tag you celia @symptomofloves bc you said you want to see my faves! ❤️

I would say the overarching theme of the year has been longing, desire, eroticism, and obsession, in many manifestations. So I'm going to list a cluster of excellent and often insanity-inducing (compliment!) books that fall into that category, in the order of when I read them (so unranked):

Dennis Cooper — George Miles cycle: THE obsessioncollector saga... Definitely not for everyone bc it's very graphic and upsetting, but he captures the desire for understanding and connection so well. I read it at the beginning of the year so it really set the tone for the year to come.

Mary Gaitskill — Bad Behavior: A story collection! She is one of those writers who articulates things I never realized I feel—reading her is such a revelation!

D.H. Lawrence — The Rainbow; Women in Love: Would transitioning have saved her? I'm kidding but truly he captures the experience of being a teen girl and young woman so well. (These two books are a diptych so I get to lump them together.)

Kathy Acker — In Memoriam to Identity: Read this so you can enjoy the sadly defunct @kathyack-blog-blog 😊 Like Mary Gaitskill in that she captures elements of myself I never knew existed.

Angela Carter — Burning Your Boats: The Collected Stories and The Magic Toyshop: Her most famous work is the story collection The Bloody Chamber, so I also recommend starting there if you want something less daunting than the complete stories. I love Angela Carter! I think I reblogged a gifset of her talking about her work being self-indulgent but she is self-indulgent in the same ways as me! Gothic and elegant and she is such a master of the fairytale/folklore retelling, which I think is so often done in boring and predictable ways.

Edmund White — A Boy's Own Story: All bangers from the very first few pages! Such an eloquent examination of a self-conscious adolescent painfully dedicated to trying to understand himself and others. Reminiscient of that Mishima quote about how he thought he was more mature than the other boys but it was just because he thought about himself more bc he was so insecure </3

And then here are a handful of ones that don't fit into that theme but were nonetheless highlights:

Scholastique Mukasonga — Our Lady of the Nile: Celia is also a Mukasonga fan so you know she has to be good! 😊 This is a collection of interlinked short stories, all set at a Rwandan boarding school. Masterfully combines the more mundane tensions of adolescence with the leadup to the genocide.

Maya Binyam — Hangman: A 2023 release! I don't read many recent releases bc I find it difficult to sift through the hype but I'm so glad I read this one. A treasure and also quite distinctive in terms of the style and structure.

Mae M. Ngai — The Chinese Question: This was my only 5 star nonfiction of the year! Ngai is probably better known for her book about undocumented immigrants in US history, but I read this one bc it was available at my library and it's excellent. It focuses on restrictions on Chinese immigration, both in the US and also South Africa and Australia, around the time of the Gold Rush. Ties into contemporary issues, both in terms of immigration (unsurprisingly) but also in terms of questions of diaspora and cultural identity.

Jhumpa Lahiri — Interpreter of Maladies: I should have read this years ago but I think I unconsciously avoid contemporary writers from bourgeois New England backgrounds bc that's literally me 😭😭😭 Pretty much the platonic idea of a story collection though. All the characters seem so fully realized, in such a small amount of time!

Thomas Mann — Death in Venice and Other Tales: Sometimes people talk about reading to see themselves reflected but Mann is a writer to read if you want to see yourself reflected in the most unflattering light possible 😭 Another writer I'd been putting off for way too long.

Isabella Hammad — Enter Ghost: As I said wrt Angela Carter, I can be wary of anything marketed as a retelling or too intertextual/meta bc I think they're often done poorly, but this is an exception! To be clear, it's not a retelling, but it's centered on a British Palestinian theatre actress who impulsively joins a Palestinian production of Hamlet while visiting her sister. Very intriguing examination of the protagonist trying to understand her own Palestinian identity while also negotiating how to present herself to her family + friends and the world and resists simple dichotomies.

[thealogie]

thea please hit us with your top 5 albums of all time ❤️

i shouldn't have said that because it implies i have a top 5. instead i truly have an unranked list of albums that are my "favorite" at various times.

Ok here's my maybe top 10 in no particular order:

-dirty computer. janelle monae.

-blood on the tracks. bob dylan.

-born to run. bruce springsteen.

-wasteland baby. hozier.

-this is all yours. alt j.

-trouble will find me. the national.

-channel orange. frank ocean.

-cowboy carter. beyonce.

-coming home. leon bridges.

-be the cowboy. mitski.

-folklore. taylor swift.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Aquarium Drunkard :: 2024 Year In Review

IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN. The big Aquarium Drunkard year-end list is here, gathering together an unbelievable selection of music both new and old, unranked/unruly. A total mess, as usual — but a beautiful mess! Start scrolling and you're guaranteed to find your new favorite song. Thanks to Justin, Jason and the rest of the expanding crew for getting it out there — it's always a pleasure to contribute some blurbs.

And yeah, AD is in the subscriber zone now. There are certainly plenty of ways to spend your hard-earned cash, but hopefully Aquarium Drunkard makes it worth your while. I'm not bullshitting when I say that it is better than ever — and how many websites can you say that about? Pretty much every day there's something new/interesting/awesome (and it's not going to crash your phone with pop-ups and other nonsense). AND DID YOU KNOW?! In 2025, AD celebrates 20 years of "only the good shit." Hoy smokes. Onwards, upwards.

[boogiewoogieweeb]

11, 16, 65 🪽

hi curry! 🤗🤗🤗 thank you so much for the ask - it's always a pleasure to see you on my dash or in my notifs! (and congrats on FINALLY getting the nedward shirt🥳 i can't think of anyone more deserving after having to endure such long waiting times trials and tribulations!)

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

oh, now this is a difficult one, because how on earth do i link only three??? tell you what; i'll compromise, and we'll do five, okay? okay. and because i know you're a fellow joplittle afficionado, i'm listing five of my faves for our mutual otp (unranked and in no particular order):

To Guide His Banners by mia_ugly

quiet hours by MyresLight (aka the inestimable and my dearly beloved @maedhrus)

the comforts of home by hazelmotes

i've become the person who says darling by vegetas

ringing in your ears by @manicpixiedreamjop (hi gus! plugging your latest fic because i simply can't shut up about it!)

five, as i said; though i have so, so many more i wish i could share. and just so you know, having to choose these five alone was already an unbearably cruel, nigh herculean task 😩

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

a better question would probably be "do you ever stop nurturing fic ideas?" 😂 at any given moment, there are at least ten fic ideas rattling around in the lobster pot i call a brain, most of them half-baked and vaguely formed; some of them with some actual substance and merit to them.

lately, i've been overtaken by a nefarious subset of particularly horny thoughts regarding a certain first lieutenant from a doomed arctic expedition and all the various ways in which his anger and frustration at his captain's questionable leadership might manifest... which i wholeheartedly blame on matthew mcnulty's line delivery of, "you were told not to speculate", along with that delicious little lip-curling sneer he does when he says it.

granted, it's not really sharing an idea so much as it is Thirsting After That Middle-Aged Man™, but i figured if anyone would understand, it would be you, curry ❤️

65. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

as everyone and their mums probably knows by now, i'm currently busy with several wips. but the ones i'm most proud of and probably the most eager to finish are my terror lieuts vampire hunters/dhampir!jops au, and the sequel to two cupped hands; both of which are sitting at about 35% completion rate. unfortunately, i haven't had much motivation to write lately, and so the actual completion of said wips remains a sisyphean task at present. that being said, i'm nothing if not stubborn, so if it takes me ten more years to publish either of those wips, so be it. i know they'll find their audience regardless of how much time passes 😁

aaand that's it! once again, thank you curry for a wonderful set of questions - i had an absolute blast answering them, and i hope you have just as much fun reading my answers! ily!

[demdozeguys]

Strap in for a long one, because it's time for:

REVIEWING AND RANKING EVERY GAME I GOT FROM THE STEAM SUMMER SALE

ramblings under the cut:

UNRANKED: ULTRA STREET FIGHTER IV

okay look I know I said I'd be ranking all of these but putting a fighting game up against six linear-progression single-player adventure type games feels a bit unfair.

as for whether I liked it: yeah it's alright. it's street fighter, it's fun. only time will tell how much my brother and I will get out of it, but I'm already feeling like I don't like it quite as much as 5. how much of that is due to 4 not having Urien is anyone's guess.

#6: CROW COUNTRY

I'm gonna be honest I didn't fuck with this game nearly as much as I thought I would.

maybe it's because I'm new to the genre. maybe it's because I've been spoiled by autosave. or maybe it's just because I can't aim to save my life. but losing upwards of 20 minutes of progress every time some creature I failed to hit or juke tagged me one too many times got frustrating pretty fast.

I didn't hate my time with Crow Country. the environments are gorgeous, the story kept me intrigued, and filling out my mental list of "oh shit I can go here now"s was still satisfying. if this is your thing don't let me dissuade you, I just wasn't built for it.

#5: KAMIKO

Kamiko is decent fun, but there's not really a whole lot to say about it. It's a short and sweet zelda-esque game where the meat of the playtime comes from trying to go through it as fast as possible, and as you'll see later I happen to enjoy going fast. enjoyable, but not super meaty. if you like routing and time management give it a shot.

#4: PONY ISLAND

Alright, this is where we get into the Good Shit.

Pony Island is a game in which you play a game called Pony Island made by The Devil From The Bible. every few minutes there's some new weird meta setpiece to keep you on your toes, plus the code puzzles and pony sections between are solid fun on their own. it's a great time. and if you're interested, there's a pretty solid reward for getting 100%.

if I had to dock points, it didn't seem to have much in the way of replayability, but that's not a huge dealbreaker. I really need to get my hands on Inscryption now.....

#3: SPOOKY'S JUMPSCARE MANSION REMASTERED

I'm not normally big on horror but Spooky's kept me coming back. despite going into it already knowing what all the specimens did, they managed to keep me on the edge of my seat because you never know when they're going to show up. combine the legitimate building terror with an offbeat and self-aware sense of humor and you have a damn fun package.

it's worth noting that as of writing this, I've only completed the main story. the DLC campaigns probably won't affect the final ranking? but I have a feeling they'll make me appreciate the game more.

#2: PEPPER GRINDER

Pepper Grinder is fucking awesome.

The level design is great, the soundtrack rips, and just moving around with the core gimmick of "what if you could drill and then jump out" is so good. I just really wish there was more of it.

I was able to get all the major in-level collectibles and reach the end in under 3 hours. the bulk of my playtime came from the time trials, which do manage to hit a sweet spot of encouraging you to push yourself without requiring CBT perfection. demolishing the gold medal on the final boss took me well over an hour's worth of attempts and may have been one of the most viscerally satisfying challenges I've ever completed in a game.

Pepper Grinder is really, really cool. But if it had another world's worth of levels it would be even cooler.

#1: CHICORY: A COLORFUL TALE

Man. I fucking love Chicory.

The vibes are immacculate. The story made me really feel for these gay little animals. The soundtrack is delightful (Lena Raine, everybody!). The exploration is rewarding. The painting mechanics made me actively want to go back to areas I'd already been to and recolor them better than I did originally, which is like. not something most games do. You can even draw penises everywhere if you want. There's something for everybody.

I'm having a hard time putting down exactly what made me fall head over heels for this game as much as I did - especially when I wasn't expecting to going into it. Maybe it was just in the right place at the right time. No matter how it cheated the system, Chicory is easily the best game I picked up.

And that's that. this was my first time doing something like this (especially on tumblr) so it felt kinda weird but idk lmk if I planted any seeds in your brain

[newmusickarl]

Albums of the Year 2024: Honourable Mentions

2024 – what a year for music hey?!

We had The Last Dinner Party in Spring, a well-documented BRAT Summer, a Fontaines Fall and, finally, The Cure for the Winter. We also had a couple of big reunions: the Gallagher brothers delighting everyone by reuniting Oasis, nu-metal icons Linkin Park returning with a new vocalist and then, just last month, indie darlings The Maccabees announcing some live shows for 2025. Both the Electronic and Country music genres seemed to have a particularly great year, while artists dissecting toxic relationships also seemed to be a thematic favourite over the last 12 months. We also had plenty of memorable moments and some incredible festival performances but, above all else, we had some bloody great new music.

You’ll be pleased to know that while this blog took a backseat to some other hobbies and ventures in 2024, my listening habits certainly didn’t slow down. My Apple Music Replay tells me I’ve listened to 587 albums from 983 different artists, 4,758 songs and a whopping 35,886 minutes of music. Just like previous years, I’ve whittled this mass of new music down to my favourite Albums, EPs and Songs of the Year – starting as always with the albums.

From my own (more accurate) tally that I keep every year, I’ve actually listened to 220 Albums in 2024, with that 220 then broken down into my Top 50 Albums of the Year, my 50 unranked honourable mentions and then sadly 120 albums that didn’t make the final cut. As ever, the top albums come from a multitude of genres: pop, rock, indie, hip-hop, R&B, country, electronica, shoegaze, punk, post-punk - it’s all here! So, although there is a good chance you won’t enjoy everything on this list, hopefully there is at least something for everyone.

For those who are following my annual countdown for the first time, I have a basic criterion that has treated me well over the last decade when collating my final Album of the Year list. Generally, I’ve favoured the records that:

Had the biggest impact on me

Was a landmark culturally or within the wider music world

Showed ambition or had something unique to offer

I played the most during the year

Ultimately produced my favourite front-to-back listening experience

So, before the Top 50 countdown officially begins with the albums that finished 50-41, I wanted to just shout out the albums that I thoroughly enjoyed this year but ultimately just missed out on the Top 50 spots. This includes some fantastic debuts (Been Stellar, Dolores Forever, Fat Dog, Sprints), some surprise returns to form (The Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, The Libertines), some late career highlights (Gruff Rhys, Maxïmo Park, James, Los Campesinos!) and plenty of the year’s biggest and most acclaimed projects (Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kamasi Washington, Waxahatchee).

So, officially kicking off year-end season, here are my 50 Honourable Mentions for 2024 in alphabetical order (by artist):

Arab Strap - I'm totally fine with it 👍 don't give a fuck anymore 👍

Been Stellar - Scream From New York, NY

Beyoncé – COWBOY CARTER

Bill Ryder Jones - Iechyd Da

Billie Eilish – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT

Bring Me The Horizon - POST HUMAN: NeX GEn

Caribou – Honey

Cassandra Jenkins - My Light, My Destroyer

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To, She Reaches Out To She

Daudi Matsiko - The King of Misery

DEADLETTER - Hysterical Strength

Dolores Forever - It's Nothing

Du Blonde - Sniff More Gritty

Fat Dog - WOOF.

Fazerdaze - Soft Power

Four Tet - Three

Geographer - A Mirror Brightly

Goat Girl - Below The Waste

Green Day - Saviors

Gruff Rhys - Sadness Sets Me Free

Hovvdy – Hovvdy

The Howl & The Hum - Same Mistake Twice

Ibibio Sound Machine - Pull The Rope

IDLES - TANGK

Jack White - No Name

James - Yummy

John Grant - The Art of the Lie

Kamasi Washington - Fearless Movement

The Libertines - All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade

Lime Garden - One More Thing

Los Campesinos! - All Hell

Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me

Maxïmo Park - Stream of Life

MGMT - Loss of Life

MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

Mount Eerie - Night Palace

NewDad - MADRA

nothing,nowhere - Dark Magic / Hell or Highwater / Miserymaker

Orlando Weeks - LOJA 

Rahim Redcar - HOPECORE

Remi Wolf - Big Ideas

Schoolboy Q - Blue Lips

Sega Bodega - Dennis

Sick Love – Champagne

The Smashing Pumpkins - Aghori Mhori Mei

The Smile – Cutouts

Sprints – Letter to Self

Tycho - Infinite Health

Vince Staples - Dark Times

Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood

So that’s what didn’t quite make it!

Now, join me throughout December as I reveal my Top 50 Albums of the Year, My Favourite EPs of the Year, My Favourite Live Shows of 2024 and My Top 100 Songs of 2024 Playlist.