itch.io

We can't seem to get a large hobby site that isn't monetized in some way.  It'd be one thing if folks had the time, resources, and space to just put stuff out in the world but not everyone can afford to.  Because of the constraints of the current economic system, folks who don't have some sort of fallback are forced to compete over very little just to get by.  There's nothing stopping some large, already wealthy company from creating or even funding content spammers, whether they use AI or not, to flood the space to eliminate competition from indies.  They could weather the onslaught but small time game creators would have to fold, unable to pay their bills because their products are mostly getting buried under an avalanche of slush.

 I have no problem putting out the casual, lower quality games that I do because I THOUGHT it was no big deal, that this was basically a hobbyist site.  Honestly wondering if I should leave though, if I'm not contributing to the slush flow.

I got the impression this is more of a casual hobby place than a money or fame place.  There should be room enough in the world for both kinds of sites and besides being a niche internet celebrity does not look appealing, not with how they get treated and how they're stalked by drama muckrakers.

What do you consider a game mechanic?

I keep seeing that argument.  Apparently it's ableism to ask people to think for themselves or something, or at least it is according to these folks.  It's always hypothetical too!  They rarely have an example of how someone COULDN'T come up with their own games or do the labor of thought themselves that isn't borderline at best.  It's gap in several arguments, like how we want people with something like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to not suffer from something outside of their control but we also don't want people becoming the citizenry of the space ship on Wall-E.  And all of that is alongside whether or not these generative tools are even good enough to justify throwing away a huge chunk of human endeavor for.

You're forced to ask what it is we really want out of life: perfect convenience at the cost of our agency or agency and striving but also some degree of inequality.

Okay, that's weird.  I edited the post several times and couldn't get it to do the link right.  I think this might be some kind of site issue.

https://verasev.itch.io/death-nova-9000

It's sort of hard to screenshot a document with no art (yet) but here goes... Also, i don't know what you mean by saying the links are screwed up.  They work for me.  Can you be more specific as to what's going wrong with them?

I mean, some of my players are old enough they might be considered terrain... yeah, I'll fix that rule.  Illustrations will come at some point.  Death Nova is very early stages right now.  Hexenkrieg is a little further along but still not finished.  I'd like to add some more sample content to both games.

Hello, I'm Vera/Josh, otherwise known as verasev or Balefully Resplendent online.  I make all kinds of games, mainly focusing on zzt and tabletop games.  I've been playing and creating TTRPGs for about 30 years now.  I has the experience.  I cut my teeth on the D6 System by West End Games and have been homebrewing my own stuff ever since.  I'm a fan of D6, Silent Legions, Shadowrun, and Fantasy AGE.  I'd be interest in collaborating with someone on making games.  My design focus is in dice pool d6 systems.

https://verasev.itch.io/

All of my games have received very little in the way of feedback or criticism.  I hope this will get corrected if I bring attention to it.  I make all sorts of games, with a special focus on tabletop games of various kinds.  Mainly what I'm asking for is criticism of level design for my computer games and criticism of game balance and writing quality for my tabletop games.

Mainly, I want to know if the math checks out on my tabletop games.  It's all very ad hoc right now and I haven't found many playtesters in general.

You can criticize my art if you like, but I'm honestly not that interested.  I have my particular style I like and really have no interest or desire in changing it.

I've released two boardgames within the last few games.  Both are in playtest and both are print and play board games.

Hexenkrieg is a skirmish wargame set on a hex grid battlemap.  You can use your own miniatures or you can use cardboard hex tiles.  Create your own units and armies or use the sample ones included.

Death Nova 9000 is a space battle in much the same vein.  Create your own ships and fleets, in this case.  No samples are included yet as it's in a very early state.  Please check out these games as well as the others on my itch page.

https://verasev.itch.io/hexenkrieg

I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this one.  Will you have a downloadable version at some point?

Listen, if the players don't all kill themselves after playing this game you're doing it wrong.  The whole point is for them to kill themselves.  To confirm the meritocracy the blood has to look like it's on their hands.  Or you could get impatient and enact fascism to kill them and yourself.  Doesn't matter much either way.  The lolcows are all out of milk and there's nothing left but emptiness.

I think you've convinced me.  This was something I had been trying to piece together but the schizoaffective disorder messes with my ability to parse things, sometimes.  Hence why I ask, because I'd rather not be a menace.

Is putting meaning to random garbage "wrong" somehow?  People do that with the events of their lives, most of which have a sense to them but many of which really do not.

Though when it comes to shared arts, such as games, it's the artist or dev's duty to convey their idea or intent.

I think I agree with most of what you said but this makes me hesitate.  What if the intent were something more nebulous?  Like using a game to explore an idea where you have no firm conclusion about the thing yet?  Duty might be the wrong word.  People prefer that intent is conveyed but there is really nothing owed there.  David Lynch does fine despite not quite conveying his intent.  I could see something like that working for a game.

That depends on what the definition of "definition" is.

I am basically taking things I like, often nostalgically, and turning them, a bit at a time, into something that seems better than what I had when I started.  I am corrupting the corpse of the dead god that is the past into something diseased and alive, slowly but surely.  You could frame that as politically reformist but in non-game politics I tend to like more sweeping changes.

I suppose I should try to clarify why I'm asking.  I've seen several commentaries on various platforms about the Stanley Parable, video essays, etc.  The most common interpretation I've seen is that the game was saying there was something wrong, violating, about the act of criticism itself.  A few other things after got me thinking.  In particular, a Bethesda dev's article about Starfield that amounted to "people have no idea what the intent of a creator is or why things are like they are in the created work so (politely) shut up, please."  That made me reflect on the fact that the people interpreting the Stanley Parable were also people making content for money (articles, YouTube video essays, etc).  And then it gets more complicated when you factor in legitimate concerns about parasociality.

I keep seeing people complaining about people thinking too much about art, about it becoming too intellectualized and losing being about feelings.  To what extent is that a legitimate complaint and to what extent is that clever capitalist content creators finding a less suspect way to complain that people are figuring out their tricks?

Always listen to the victims!  No, we're not trying to deliberately subvert #metoo or muddy the waters, that's ridiculous!

You'll never take me alive!

I released a Castlevania fangame in Weave ZZT called Castleweavia.  If you like fairly fast paced topdown action games with semi-text mode graphics, give it a shot.  I also have a few other ZZT/Megazeux variant games as well as several tabletop print and play games.  What I would like is to get some feed back on my projects.  I want to improve, so I need some criticism. Of the tabletop games, I'd recommend Dominus and Bitpunk NEO RPG, as they are probably the most well-developed at the moment (although the latter has unfinished monster statistics.  It does include rules for building your own monsters).

https://verasev.itch.io/castleweavia

This is an amazing use of text-mode graphics! I love everything I've seen so far.

This is a nice little way to kill some time.  Simple but effective mechanics.

Oh, and you can alter the difficulty now

Haha, I knew you'd get around to it.  Thanks for this!

Three zzt variant games, some print and play boardgames, and a tabletop rpg.  This is the latest game: Castleweavia - A Castlevania fan game made in Weave ZZT.

Done.  I hope you like it!

Will do.  Give me a second.

i'm looking forward to your sci-fi tiles.  Keep on trucking!