It is genuinely hard for most people to grasp how poor the past was.

He's too damn pretty.

There's a reason so many kickstarter indies eventually announce they've partnered up with a major publisher. Then we find out later the rights now belong to said major publisher and that's why there'll never be a sequel. That $50k is about getting your foot in the door with *sigh* "real funders."

Short of it is: 1. It promotes the game 2. Because they only receive money if the goal is met + to get the 'funded in 24 hours' badge they set initial goal extremely low 3. Number of pledges shows publishers they're courting that game will be profitable and is worth funding

Oh I've actually seen a dev video on this! It's long but they explain a lot of the logistics and reasons. www.youtube.com/live/7za7uZY...

There was a blog post I read a while back, wish I had a link on hand, but it had mentioned kickstarter funds are usually to show a publisher that there’s an interest so they can actually get funding. While also lamenting how it gives the wrong impression of development costs

There's also the situation where the indie dev is based in a country like Brazil, where $50k goes a long way, and they're actually able to fund much of the game on that little money (with dev members working part time to reduce cost)

Even the big ones that are like, $250k-$4m are usually matched by a publisher already in talks with the developer.

In the Kickstarters that I've worked on, if it was $50k, that money was meant to supplement funding already acquired (either via a publisher, or just from personal savings). There are also scenarios where the funding just goes towards VA or continued development after previous funds are exhausted.

A couple different scenarios: sometimes they find a publisher and the Kickstarter is treated as a way to show interest and coax investment. Sometimes it's meant to fund just a part of the game. Sometimes they really just ask for too little money, and have to figure it out later.

(this is not criticism of any project out there, this is me wondering how the hell people actually fund these games without signing with some awful publisher)

Question out there for gamedev Bluesky How do so many kickstarters for indie games have budgets of like $50k USD when that's only just enough to pay one person for a year? Is everyone out there just working for pennies? And if so (yikes) how does anyone convince other people to work on their game?

Hunk of a Gentleman lad after a swim is... 👀!!

Genuinely. The ACA has issues, but it basically slayed the last great and terrible horror of the premodern era. Our problem is that Republicans want to resurrect them.

Just to be clear I am pro stability cause potable water into domicile, waste out of domicile, power for CPAP/medical and heat is just so fucking mind-blowingly a huge fucking deal. Historical speaking.

comparing the levels of political violence of weimar germany and 2025 america is absolutely absurd, for instance! people loved fascism because it was promising to solve actual existing problems

Because this has become my thing again, something that scholars of the Cambodian genocide point out is that the Khmer Rouge came to power after 30 years of brutal armed conflict in the region. You don't get that out of nowhere.

the years of revolution were proceeded by anarchist terrorist attacks and violence. because the alternative was that bleak

The past was also incredibly ridiculously violent. OAS, The Troubles, The Years of Lead this is just post atomics. I can see a 30 years wars with ar-15s and it is not a good sight.

Zohran is offering something with a similar risk-to-reward benefit of joining a revolution as an early 20th century peasant

yes, which is why idiots yelling about Lenin 100 years after his heyday aren't worth listening to versus Zohran Mamdani bsky.app/profile/publ...

people *without* much to lose often call that cowardice, but it's just self-interest. the very same self-interest that filled the ranks of revolutionary cadres!

the vast majority of the middle and working class, contrary to the decades when revolutions were successful, have something to lose. a lot, actually.

one of the greatest struggles for any left-wing political movement in the modern west (and increasingly beyond) is how much of the sheer abject deprivation, fear, and often fatal dangers that were inextricable to the lives of any but the wealth just...barely exist anymore

Also, this is America, if i wanted a rifle today I could go buy one. If there's a week's warning everyone who needs a gun can have one.

I really don’t want us to do Civil War 2.0, but if it comes to that I expect to have my rifle issued to me at the National Guard armory like a normal person.

"We'll get rid of all the norms and structures we don't like but all the ones we do like will somehow remain sacrosanct."

I think a similar logic subconsciously affects the doomers. E.g. Trump will do heavy-handed military election interference, AND everyone will just accept the results.

the people yearn for precedented times

Court reform will be the most moderate mainstream opinion in 2028

I think we're genuinely flirting with a societal rupture and I'm not sure I want to experience that

Republicans seem to think that the norms created by the social contract are just sort of a immutable laws of nature and that therefore, tearing up the social contract will have no negative consequences for them, and I am, very much not looking forward to that thesis being tested

i think generally its true that societies usually just slip into a morass of enshitification instead of snapping, but they uh do in fact snap

Remember real expansions? Those were fun

Comming out of a buddhist background, I am very annoyed that saint halos/head glows have types that got appropriated by nazis. They really have tried to take all the cool stuff and I hate that this moment means anything I write may have dog whistles I don’t want anything to do with.

The spinning stars behind George Washington’s head are meant to evoke the spinning sonnenrads frequently used similarly in neo-Nazi video edits—and it is being received accordingly by many on the far right.

it's true and they should say it but it's a real bad sign it's winding up in print

Bruh

Lol

Its going so well. Love my completely unplanned shut down strategy that started and ended with "dems will fold" and then having exactly zero back up plans

Rise up, men of the left! The fedora is waiting for you, if you are brave enough to claim it! The trillby! The flat cap! Even the stetson! You are the haberdashers of your own destiny!

We made the frogs gay years ago.

There are so many male headwear choices that have been ruined by Nazis, incels or otherwise shitty guys. We should really start reclaiming them

A 15 YO kid wearing a fedora who is more or less explicitly anti-Nazi, that’s a heartwarming surprise

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

I would honestly pay any amount of money to see him argue this case in front of SCOTUS himself. I genuinely want him to explain, at length in a public forum, what he thinks tariffs are and how they work.

Honestly it gets to a point where they're so committed to the bit I must respect it. It has indeed made her tweeting worse, but she's stuck with it this long. She means it. Gotta respect that.

If you’re going to steal Cato the Elder’s catchphrase, you’ve GOT to commit to using it forever & at every opportunity. To do otherwise would invoke the wrath of Roman gods, and they are cranky.