Heya, friends! An ultra mega wonky rough draft of my idea for the video news clip is up as a free post on the Patreon page. Please check it out and lemme know your thoughts! (On the post or via email reply, either is fine!) Speaking of Patreon, I’m still maintaining my stance on Derelicts and why you may want to cancel your backer subscription to the game.
(I also posted another issue of Churn, my stream of consciousness activity breakdown, and an issue of Clapback, where I lose my shit over odd stuff from publications/developers/creators.)
Creator Stack
Coffee & Code
Unity Launches Native, Cross-Platform Commerce Management for Game Developers Worldwide
Developer Created Audio Editor in Unity to Replace Audacity
Free Smart Asset Management Tool For UE5
Populate Your Unity Game with Absolutely Adorable Customizable Cats
If you want to “create for YouTube Shorts,” fire up the Adobe Premiere mobile app (It’s free, and it’s not half bad?)
“I pulled data on 6,422 pixel art games released over the last 2 years on Steam. Only 5% cleared 500 reviews. Here’s some fun data on the 5%.”
I’ll SHOW YOU NECESSARY
So I was scrolling through a little bit of this Reddit thread, aimed at developers, that asks, “Name an unnecessary feature that you find necessary.” Which is fine, yanno, yay for conversation starters! But OP starts with ‘changing keybinds and controller support.’
CHANGING KEYBINDS ISN’T CONSIDERED NECESSARY?
I flat-out don’t buy games with wonky keybinds: do not limit me to jumping with the space bar—so help me, I will shank you. (I use a Razer Naga, and jump is 1 and will always be 1. Also, 5 will always be inventory, and 8 will always be interact.)
Everyone Loves A Happy Ending! (Mind out of the gutter, plz)
This was a pretty neat read from the creator of Do No Harm, detailing how the game generated almost 500k in gross revenue after a year in development. My favorite part of the story was something I’ve privately championed (or to people who like hearing me rant): devs should put up a demo and work through feedback/fix shit before Next Fest. Indie devs tend to treat Next Fest like the grand climax, like they have fucking rush to the ABSOLUTE FIRST NEXT FEST AFTER THEY MADE A TINY DEMO, but it’s such bad juju. You get one shot at NF! Don’t squander it when the game is a hundred years from release, or it’s empty as shit, or it runs like ass!
Gaming
Curator Updates (Link!)
Additions: —
Updated: Just Us, VEIN, Renown
Gaming-related: I removed our recommendation for Derelicts on the Hashtag Patreon.
This Dragon Survival game looks pretty clunky, but it has some adorable moments. That survival aspect seems tacked on AF.
VEIN entered Early Access—I definitely recommend checking out the demo (or just snagging the game!).
Blind Descent posted a Q&A
Check out the progress of Fargone’s biggest update ever!
Farthest Frontier entered 1.0
Long Drive North pushed their launch back (from today) to November 18th
Progress report from The Infected!
Cool Story, Bro!
If you’ve got some free time, scroll through some of the old posts from the developer of The Apocalypse. They’ve been doing a lot of these, Idk. Like ‘thought exercises’ to push some of the ideas and goals of the game. Not getting too much traction, sadly.
FIGHT ME, PEASENT!
Man, I heard for the loooongest time that Renown was going to be fucking amazing and all this stuff and so wonderful.
Then I tried the Alpha, which was…rough.
It was released to early access and kinda meandered into Mixed status. Not really impressing anyone, but their last dev log was pretty wild? It was long, it meandered through a lot of ways they acknowledged they were failing folks, blah blah —these two spots kinda jumped out at me.
I checked the comments, this kinda sums it up:
Cue funeral dirge, maybe.
To back Hashtag directly: Patreon keeps the lights on. If monthly subs aren’t your thing, consider Ko-Fi for one-offs, a Steam gift card, or share the newsletter link!
Have a Tab
Valnet cuts "entire features team" amid widespread layoffs at TheGamer
The Most Baffling Mysteries and Unexplained Phenomena in America’s Great Outdoors
GOG says their preservation program has been "harder than we thought", thanks to DRM and elusive creators
Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien Face Off in Twisted Survival Thriller Send Help (I actually want to see this!)
Trying to wind down at the end of the day, doing a little lighthearted FB scrolling- NOT DOOM SCROLLING- and ugh, yet another ad for Monster Jam…what in the glorious fuck is this?!
Sparkle Smash, I may see you in 2026!
- Jordan
P.S.: I respond to every email, so lemme know your questions, feedback, criticisms.
