Thank you for this! Lots of people online have pushed forward the idea that Google search results are not as useful as before. This was the first article that I’ve read that did a good job of quantifying what that actually means and providing context as to why it is happening.

Thanks for this! I had no idea about the history of the game.

Damn. I had forgotten what actual journalism looks like. There was actual work done here to investigate and acquire facts. I’ve been reading “articles” that are just paraphrased PR statements for so long. This was a breath of fresh air.

Wandersong is a game about happiness that made me really happy while I was playing it. Not all the way through; there are parts that are sad too. But I’m thinking of replaying it because it made me feel really happy when I played it the first time.

I’ve been enjoying my Fairphone 4 a lot since getting it last year. This camera update really improved the experience of taking photos.

Yes! For most genres of games, I’ve noped out of some games but completed others. It wasn’t until you mentioned it that I realized I’ve never completed a Zachtronic game. I absolutely adore what Witness was doing, but I haven’t finished it. I should go back to it.

I read those when I was younger and re-read them recently. They are surprisingly good considering they were written by game developers.

Loved this game! Got completely consumed by it.

If I had been the one to decide what features this sequel should have, I never would have considered including a playable New Jerusalem or having NPC companions or any of the new stuff. And if you had asked me what I thought about those features before the game came out, I would have said it sounds like they don’t understand what people liked about the first game.

But this game surprised me in numerous ways and I honestly loved every hour of my playthrough.

This is fascinating and I would have never heard about it without you. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed this article!

Gonna jump in to agree that Moon+ Reader seems to be the most commonly used. And for good reason: it’s very customizable and it does a great job presenting text in an easy to consume way.

OP, I’m sure you’ve already tried it, but consider giving it another go. You can make it do nearly all the things on your list.

I love seeing recommendations for Wandersong. It’s a completely different type of adventure game with a unique, and lovely, plot.

Great read! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing this interview and article. It was a really interesting read. I feel like I understand a lot more about how the game came to be now that I’ve read it

One game I played a few years ago had a really neat rule that I’ve used in a lot of other games and contexts.

The game came with a 1 minute sand timer that didn’t have to be used to play the game. But the rules said “If any player feels like the turn is taking too long, they can turn over this timer. This is a signal to the current player that they should wrap things up”. I can’t recall which game it was. Codename, I think? I’m sure someone here will let us know.

I’ve used that rule in a lot of different places. If you have a healthy relationship with your co-workers, it makes for a really useful tool for keeping meetings rolling. We occasionally mime turning over the same timer to each other to say “I respect what you’re saying, please continue, but also let’s get this back on track”.

I’ve also ported it to many boardgames. In my circle of players, turning over an imaginary sand timer is a way of politely saying “we like playing with you, but we’re feeling bored so please make a turn”.

Maybe something like that can work for your group? It requires some communication up front to ensure that people know the spirit of what’s being communicated.

Edit: re-reading this, I’m not sure I conveyed what I was suggesting well. Cosmic Encounters has a 1 minute timer you’re supposed to use. I’m suggesting making that timer optional. Let people barter until someone at the table feels like enough time has passed, then flip the timer as a polite way of saying “please wrap it up”.

I thought that too when I saw it. But I believe the Parker solar probe only looks at the sun. That was probably a huge disruption on the surface of the sun, similar to the little spots that are seen before and after, but on a much larger scale.

Could that have been the site of the eruption that caused the plume that the probe flew through?

Thanks for that! I actually had to put the game down for several months because my child had just been born and I couldn’t handle one of the scenes in the game. It was heavily telegraphed, so I had time to stop the game before anything upsetting happened. And when I went back to it months later it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be. But yeah, it’s a game about the death of many family members, told through metaphor and fanatical imagery.

Oh man, I just want to give a shout out to the Splatoon ink mechanic.

The game is a competitive arena shooter. That would be pretty uninteresting, but instead of competing for kills or holding objectives, the teams are competing to cover the largest surface area with ink or paint. That’s pretty neat. But there’s more.

Every player has a special “squid mode” they can use when standing on ink of their colour. When in squid mode players travel much faster, can travel up walls, and are extremely hard to spot, but can not attack or lay new ink.

This makes the laying ink in specific areas valuable, as it makes it faster to get from the spawn point to the front faster and easier. It also rewards holding contiguous trails of ink, or conversely, cutting off your opponent’s ink trails.

I was going to say that Serious Sam isn’t terribly unique. But you’re right about the scale of the battles being far larger than anything else like it. Good call.

There is really something very different about this game. If you point to any individual part of it, there are other games that do that thing. But all together, it’s quite unique. And it’s a pretty fun game.