🎲 Issue #19 - The Videos Are Coming Back?

“A compliment sandwich, praise sandwich, or feedback sandwich is a rhetorical technique to deliver criticism in a way that it is accepted by the criticized person. It is named after the metaphor of a sandwich since it has three parts: 1. Praise of the addressee 2. Expressing what the speaker dislikes about the person 3. Further praise of the addressee.” -Wikipedia

Not a compliment, but I am going to GOOD THING BAD THING GOOD THING my morning.

Good thing: free time, always a barrier, has been the main tripping point in my video challenge thing (you can find more on that way down below or just watch the three up so far on Patreon as free posts), but I have been making them and showing up!

Bad thing: Each time I record a video, I’ve been trying to sneak in an extra feature or three to learn my way around Riverside.fm - which failed spectacularly this AM with a 4 minute video that ended up horribly de-synced on both my audio and the screenshare. Good cop/bad cop, I’m not blaming Riverside at the moment, I’m wondering if the shit internet quality at work+leaving the studio up so long (because work) impacted it/fucked it up.

Good thing: I thought the bald head and beard combo would make me look kinda feral (at least until I become UNLAZY and hook an actual webcam/camera up for recording versus the laptop camera) but mostly, I’m kinda getting Yukon Cornelius vibes.

GOG, the DRM-free store best known for keeping old games playable, has been sold by CD Projekt RED, the studio behind Cyberpunk 2077, and the buyer is Michał Kiciński, one of CDPR’s original co-founders. Gameindustry.biz did a great interview about the sale (and taking on Steam) that is 100% worth the read. And, if you’re passionate about classic games, or hate how we shell out fuck tons of money for games we basically “rent,” check out GOG’s Preservation Program.

A friend of mine is involved in the release of Astrobotanica! Now, it’s not my style of game (we’ll argue the survival merits another day) but if you’re someone that’s into games like ALOFT or Under a Rock, you may want to take a peep at their newest trailer?

Snapped a pic of this exchange in the Discord for upcoming (we hope?) title Among the Trolls. From the developer side of the tracks: we can rarely win. Unless you’ve got the body count to juggle all the roles, chances are you’re the developer, the designer, the marketing, community relations, and more. And sometimes it’s a fucking pain in the ass to chase all the platforms! Because for all that this person says “just do a website” - I’ve been there when folks are mad they have to use a website. (Also, updating and upkeep of a website is a bit more friction than posting to a simple social media platform.) And when you’re on Twitter they want you on BlueSkye, or Discord, or NOOooo not Discord I hate Discord. 🤯 It’s hard to win. I agree that I think Steam should be a default location for developers: even if you just repost the same fucking text you posted to Twitter or your backup helper posted to Instagram or WHATEVER. Reduce the friction of extra steps, extra clicks: folks aren’t looking to chase shit all over when culling their wishlists. They’re looking for activity. They see none? You’re gone.
(This, btw, is an issue Hashtag is looking to solve for survival players, so there’s that.)

Simply Hashtag

Steam Curator Updates - Join Us!
This week I added Category 6, Migration, and Alone on the Lost Isle.

Catch up with survival game updates with the Survival Roundup I’ve posted to Reddit. Excuse the terribly fucking bland way I’m introducing this to the newsletter, given that the other content has fancy embeds, but I couldn’t get it to embed and I’m too tired to wrestle with it. Need more convincing? This guy thought it was cool.

The Pocket Ark: : The Offline Survival Database – So, this isn’t game related, but it was one of the first “survival” labeled campaigns to pop up, and I was intrigued. In a nutshell, the idea is that it’s a crowdsourced, locally stored survival database designed to work with zero internet access. Once knowledge is saved to your device, it stays there. (No servers. No cloud dependency. No subscriptions. No signal required.) I’m totally down with this! Save the info! Water purification and sourcing! Food identification, storage, and preparation!
…okay, it just seems weird to assume we aren’t going to have access to things made easier by electricity – like keeping food cold or purifying water – but we can keep our phones charged?

I’m working on this 30 Videos in 30 Days Challenge (incredibly loosely, more to just feel like I have a reason to practice speaking directly to the camera), and videos 1-3 are now live for free on Patreon. Little bit of behind the scenes stuff, some rambling, etc.

Coffee & Code

Comments of the Week!

No specific comments from Hashtag content this week, hope to see some snark and feedback from folks on upcoming content!

I will, however, leave you with this gem. (Again from Above the Trolls, sorry, clearing a backlog of screenshots!)

I suppose if things keep getting miserable (undoubtedly) I could apply to be a Vault Dweller in the Fallout Shelter TV series being made by Amazon? I can’t actually tell if this would be an upgrade or downgrade…

But let’s not end on that note! Here’s a cheerful - and funny - post from a developer on the release of his new Minesweeper Roguelike game.

- Jordan

P.S.: I respond to every email, so lemme know your questions, feedback, criticisms!