I’ve gone on holiday for 4 days! I’ve forgotten my mental health meds! This is going to be an interesting time for me and everyone around me. Yaaaaaayyyy

Wow. Evil Dead Trap’s soundtrack is Vaporwave heaven.

I like Dagon, the Stuart Gordon movie. It’s not perfect, and it is occasionally unnecessarily cruel. But overall, it’s one of the very few half-decent *directly* Lovecraftian movies.

So, AI skeptics: do you really believe that it’ll all vanish in a couple of years leaving nary a ripple? You do know there’s space between ‘nothing’ and ‘accurate, generalized AI’, right? I don’t think you have to be a ‘credulous noob’ to think things will change, permanently.

I played Moonring today. For fun. To look at a new dungeon. To feel the new vibes. An hour later I was still playing. This is a good sign.

Favorite quote from today: (Mystery Quest) “I’ve tried nothing and I’m out of ideas!”

It’s so funny. I fell in love with videogames at a time when they were intentionally predatory amusements: arcades were, ironically,the equivalent of F2P. Nickel and diming, addiction-reliant, 100% focused on the coins-per-hour. Buuuuuut…

Longlegs is Osgood Perkins! I did not know and now it’s in my must watch list.

Realms of Antiquity now on GOG! #crpg #retrogames #indiegame

I really am finding it hard to maintain focus on movies made after 1970 these days. Movies after 2000? Forget it! Is this a ‘cherry-picking’ issue, I wonder, or is there something about modern cinematography and editing that my brain just ‘nopes’ out of?

As someone who has done a lot of game writing, I have ‘opinions’ about AI. We’re trying to solve the wrong problem. Nobody complains that NPCs have too little dialogue. They do complain that they *hear* the same inflection of ‘Hello Hero!’ A gazillion times. And thats not a *writing* problem.

I really don’t understand the appeal of cannibinoids. Perhaps it’s my body chemistry or some other element, but as a sleep aid they may make my muscles relax, but my general experience is one of jittery, vibrating tension. Yuck.

This is the look I plan to rock into my sixties. :-)

I’m watching ‘Altitude’ from 2010. I’ve never seen a cast who so sorely need to be eaten by a sky monster.

Okay. I’m not really an artist. But! I’d like to create super rough hand-drawn stuff a la MÖRK Borg. If you had to teach someone to do that in, say, a week, what would you do?

I think that growing up with the original D&D has shaped a lot of my thinking around games and what I want from them. I want: novel imagery, atmosphere, fear of consequence, interesting ways to use/abuse items and rules. I don’t want: social situations, conversations, interpersonal dynamics.

You know what I *hate*? You know, that thing? The one that *really* grinds my proverbial gears? The thing that prods me into near-speechless frenzy of rage and fury? Yeah? Don’t do that. Thanksbye.

After spending the last month getting Moonring to work perfectly on Joystick, I’m rather horrified to find I have to set the correct controller template settings to even get it to work! Is there some way to force Steamdeck builds to use the basic joystick config?

So, #Moonring is coming to Switch. I've been asked if I'd consider 'upgrading' the graphics for this audience. a) What do you think? b) If you're an artist and have seen the game, what would you do? Could end in paid work! youtu.be/KBakwSgyroU?...

Tried engaging with TikTok again and have somehow created a stream consisting of narcissists and nihilism. The two 'n's.

More nice #Moonring coverage: bossrush.net/2023/12/30/b...

Really lovely review of #Moonring. www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Zf... I love when someone 'gets it'.

Today’s wanky thought-bomb: I envy the malleability of other arts: works of the novelist, the director, the music producer. I envy the ease with which their forms can be deconstructed, challenged, ripped and pasted to create ‘art of worth’. We, as game devs, are burdened with being ‘fun’.

The Moonring OST is out! heimatderkatastrophe.bandcamp.com/album/hdk-15...

Hey folks. The new Experimental build of #Moonring is up and I need your help. I can't know if it's ready as a release candidate without more players! Please give it a go. It allows you to continue your save game. If you don't like Steam, download it here: drive.google.com/file/d/1OeVD...

A reminder to folks enjoying #Moonring: the lovely folk at RobaRoba have begun offering T-shirts here: robaroba.gg/collections/... More is to come once I can figure out how to get some nice cloth maps printed without taking out a second mortgage... or risking a Kickstarter.

This is getting silly.

These days I have zero interest in trying to please people who don’t really like games. If your idea of a game is something to do to get an automatic reward and serotonin, you’re looking in the wrong places place. I think you *actually* want hard drugs.

I'm trying to do the whole 'get a map printed on black cloth' thing. So far I only seem able to pre-order large quantities up-front, which I pay postage on, and then have to package up and post myself (double-posting costs). Any quality alternatives?

I am officially too old for the presentational style of TikTok. Everything about it just infuriates me and makes me wish for an EMP event.

Had a lovely conversation today with Gamers With Jobs today and was talking about how the limitations of a tool like a Mod Tracker can aid creativity. I forgot to mention #nanoloop. Without that I’d have had a harder time learning to write music for #Moonring.

FYI, @fluttermind.bsky.social, your game MOONRING is being featured on german Game News Magazine @gamestar.bsky.social 🙂. Check in on 10:03. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUG...

Our latest episode features the lovely and amazing Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games discussing what it means to be a developer here in 2023! I also got to talk about my latest obsession - Moonring, an Ultima-like from @fluttermind.bsky.social. www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1304703

I did a Q&A with @fluttermind.bsky.social aka Dene Carter, in this weeks Nerdsletter termnerdy.wordpress.com/2023/10/06/t...

So… I’ve just realized: by Riticello standards I’m a ‘fucking idiot’. Life goal achieved.

#Moonring is out on Steam for $0. Yes. That's right. It is *free*. Like, costs nothing. I made this for the love of old-school RPGs and the #Ultima series. I hope you enjoy the world of Caldera as much as I loved Britannia. store.steampowered.com/app/2373630/...

@alanwithtea.bsky.social Any suggestions of where else I should plonk this? The Roguelike Discord seems… peculiarly unfriendly!

store.steampowered.com/app/2373630/... #Ultima, #retrogames and #RPG fans, #Moonring is finally coming to #Steam for the grand price of... FREE. No tricks, no DLC, just a free game I hope to make even better over time. Please wishlist to let me know you love this genre as much as me!

My final map for my weird neon Ultima-alike, #Moonring. This is what I’m going to get printed onto cloth for fans of the game.

Because it needs to be said again

RT only if you are NOT becoming more conservative as you grow older.

This is why I hate exhaustive world-building. Every gap you fill leaves less room for engagement and interpretation. You create dead fiction rather than a live mystery.

Game Dev folks [and everyone else] go check out and support darkwebSTREAMER: https://www.patreon.com/darkwebSTREAMER Chantal @thoughtrise.bsky.social and team are making something very cool and unique.

The highest praise from VG247. "In my mind, this is what VR is all about." https://www.vg247.com/ps-vr2-games-still-magic

To celebrate this (currently) being a lovely place, consider today another AMA. Go ahead: gimme your beat shot.

There’s pretty much no major property I’d be delighted to work on these days. Remnant from the Ashes is the rare exception. Can’t wait for part 2 this summer.

Working on an Oracle Deck made of myths and legends from around the world These 4 cards are from the Japanese story of Amaterasu

"C-Smash VRS is an absolute must-buy game for anyone armed with a PS5 and PSVR2. It's a brilliant execution of a game that balances fun and challenge while taking full advantage of what makes VR special." 🔥🔥 8,5 / 10 🔥🔥 PSU #PSVR2 https://www.psu.com/reviews/c-smash-vrs-review-psvr2-ps5/

An image to tide ye over while the world shakes and flames. Wook at de widdle whiskers!

Watching the most recent Evil Dead. So far I’m not digging the ‘these people are really nice’ aspect. It’s just too cruel.