Cheers everyone, it's #SaturdayVoidRec💫 time! And this one is about the French indie darling Absolum by @dotemu.bsky.social. A rogue lite beat'em up that won't allow you to let go of the controller for at least a full day... You've been warned! ⚔️ store.steampowered.com/app/1904480/...

steam is apparently allowing "this game had AI in it that it didn't disclose" as a valid return statement, so if you or anyone you know actually paid $70 for slop, get that money back

NEW: The first two years of Massachusetts' millionaire tax has raised $3 billion more than expected. And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.* Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:

Keep going.

Crash & Burn

I'd like to remind @playgalaxygame.bsky.social @parn3y.bsky.social that I've been playing Galaxy pretty much every day since the first seconds of its existence. If they don't contact @fromthevoid.net when they plan to do loc, I'll take it very personally. New set is sweet btw. Pun intended!

For Arc Raiders to ride the wave of human sociability all the way to the bank, while also being so contemptuous of the thing that makes us social animals in its own workflow demonstrates a lack of artistic integrity that I find impossible to ignore. Our review: https://bit.ly/49bVn01

Try Sam Altman for manslaughter

So, hmm... the great @locdandloaded.net just finished compiling ALL of Hades II's MULTILINGUAL songs. This is an insanely precious resource for anyone interested in lyrics localization. Many thanks to her for this amazing effort 🤍 locdandloaded.net/hades-ii-mul...

𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 is out in Early Access! 🥳 Command & manage your gladiators to conquer the arena in this brutal roguelite strategic turn-based combat game⚔️ Bravely localized into French & Japanese by our brawlers from the Void 🤍 @daedalic.bsky.social store.steampowered.com/app/2507820/...

Need something to let off steam? You can now join TaVRn's Takedown's playtests 💥 Our tavern fighters From the Void worked hard for you to be able to punch enemies, break stuff & create total mayhem in your favorite language 🤍👇 store.steampowered.com/app/3601060/...

Our special correspondent @laurelinewho.com just got back from the #ParisGamesWeek! The Games Made in France booth was full of gems - let's showcase our favorite French discoveries of the week 🎮🧶👇

I'd like to remind @playgalaxygame.bsky.social @parn3y.bsky.social that I've been playing Galaxy pretty much every day since the first seconds of its existence. If they don't contact @fromthevoid.net when they plan to do loc, I'll take it very personally. New set is sweet btw. Pun intended!

Handmaid's Tale didn't butcher its final season quite as bad as Game of Thrones, but Jesus Christ not by that much.

The year is 2025 & I'm listening to a 4-hour video response to a disgraced youtuber's video follow-up to his own older video response to a fraud controversy that happened 2 years ago. The content is contenting.

friend shared this, immediately updated my settings

Are you following the best puppy on Earth on Instagram? www.instagram.com/pomszuki?igs...

At this point, they should pay their AIs with real money so they can buy and play these AI games with their AI friends and let us actually enjoy real pieces of art made by human beings.

Bye-bye!

Doors open if not locked. Use <Right Stick> to look at the door, <Left Stick> to move towards it and <Interact> to open it. If a door is locked, you need a key. Use <Interact> to pick a key up, <Right Stick> to look at the door, <Left Stick> to move towards it and <Interact> to ulock and open it.

Everyone: "Oh, this is gonna be a fun fight!" No one: Absolutely zero persons on Earth: Team Cherry: "What if we removed the floor?"

Use your best judgement

"I finished the coliseum of fools" I keep repeating as I fall asleep with coral visions haunting my dreams

@officialgdc.bsky.social -sponsored pup

Puppy Zuki joins the family 🥰

Let's be clear, what happened to Jimmy Kimmel (and was thankfully rolled back) is not a case of "freedom of speech isn't freedom from consequences." If Disney, Nexstar & Sinclair had cancelled Kimmel over pressure from the public, that would be one thing, but the pressure came from the government.

You're just always at half health

May it be music, art, writing, localization or any other creative field: no one wants your AI slop.

Savage Beastfly fucked my day up, but I struggle with bosses that summon adds, that's just my weakness 😅 I do want to push back on "come back later if it's too hard", as that's iffy when I have a bunch of beads in a cocoon too far in the boss arena to recover without retriggering the fight 🤷‍♂️

Repeat after us: 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀. • Nothing is linear • You often get the texts in disarray • Different UIs, menus, dialog styles mean different contexts • Also no one can translate more than 2-3k words a day without sacrificing quality, proofreading & LQA.

I'm playing & loving Silksong, but there's no excuse for a game of this caliber, legacy, hype & passion to have localized versions in such a state. @teamcherry.bsky.social, you worked hard to make the 7-year wait worth it for players. A shame that care doesn't extend to international audiences.

. @teamcherry.bsky.social spent 7 years polishing Silksong to no end, yet so far we learned both the Chinese and French localizations have been botched. Loc is an afterthought even in some of the most lovingly crafted titles. It's so fucking sad. Whole audiences who can't enjoy your labor of love.

The debate about Silksong's Chinese localization has the merit of showing devs and publishers that the quality of your localization 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 to players. Even if we'd have prefered it didn't turn into the witch hunt it seems to have become...

This is what Palworld's Communications Director had to say on the matter. As of the time of posting, they have yet to follow-up on those questions. (Source: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...)

𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐀𝐈, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞. Pocketpair decided to go AI. To no professional's surprise, the result is terrible. English to Vietnamese game localizer Phú Trần made these slides to show how bad it is. How many more fiascos before we can stop this AI nonsense?

I wish more games could be made like Silksong. "It took 7 years because we were having too much fun making it" is such a beautiful thing.

"But I am a hater, and I will not be polite. The machine is disgusting and we should break it." An excellent addition to the article we posted yesterday (fromthevoid.net/blog/ai-in-g...) from @anthonymoser.com. Thank you for not being polite 🤍

The fuck's going on

When someone aks what we think about the use of AI, the first question that comes to mind is always: But why? Why would we, or anyone really, want to use it? Here's @mittovac.bsky.social's piece about this very topic. Please share to anyone who needs to read this ⬇️ fromthevoid.net/blog/ai-in-g...

I live in a world where I have to tell people that maybe letting folks create things is a good thing and just because we can fuck that up doesn't mean we should.

Let's go

Little layout of excerpts from last week at Gamescom 💫 1️⃣ Capcom's epic booth 2️⃣ Ben & Maria, loc managers at @daedalic.bsky.social 🤍 3️⃣ Kill the shadow, an indie game you should wishlist too! 4️⃣ Snapshot of the loc dinner mixer - thank you so much for coming everyone ✨

studios arent turning to AI. Ownership and dipshit leadership are, and are making everyone's jobs harder in the process.

It's funny because all the devs & pubs I heard from at Gamescom had strong anti-AI and "let's take our time" sentiments. Yes, they're all indies. You're only listening to and parroting the side of the industry that's completely lost the plot and will chase infinite growth into a AAAA-sized grave.

"By far the biggest expense when making games is salaries."

The five knights of @igda.org's localization roundtable! ⚔️ One of the greatest pleasures of international gaming events: finally meeting your friends & colleagues 💫 📷 @mittovac.bsky.social, @oreli.bsky.social, Julia Gstoettner, @florianxl8.bsky.social & Alexis Biro 🤍

Since 2023, translators and interpreters have seen work dry up, rates plummet and their jobs reduced to editing AI-generated output. Some are leaving the field, others are considering bankruptcy. All despite any major upgrade in translation quality. This is how AI is killing translation work:

Straight from the horse's mouth

We've run out of slurp juice and all my apes are gone.

Good to see devs supporting the "Don't preorder games" sentiment by throwing active deterrents in 👍