Woof, a little bit of Hashtag housekeeping! DON’T SKIP THIS PART, THOUGH.
Last week I included a link for a free month on the Hashtag Patreon! Many of you joined the page, but it looks like you forgot to actually redeem the link. (Many of the accounts were newly made, so it’s an honest mistake!) It looks like a few freebies remain, so here’s the link again - be sure to snag one if your attempt last week failed. 🤪
Huge thanks to Xaendreth and RobDunf for the Patreon boosts! IF you are a Discord Nitro member and IF you are in the Hashtag Discord and IF your boosts are unused (or maybe given to a server drowning in boosts)
…I’m always thankful for boosts to our Discord!
A lot of neat shit is locked behind boosts.
This issue - and maybe the next few issues, depends on how many it takes me to finesse the idea(s) - will look a little different. During over a years worth of newsletters (totes counting in the year and change using ConvertKit for newsletter emails), I’ve attempted to make note of the types of links/content folks enjoy, click on, and engage.
One part of the change had me shift the game links over to the /SurvivalGame subreddit as a post, then link back here. I like it. It’s tidy, it’s easily shared. It’s not spammy.
(The TLDR on links in newsletters is that more links + less clicks makes email providers wonder if I’m filled with SPAM. Bad spam, not can spam.)
Also, brief sidebar because I’m pretty sure I fucked up last weeks newsletter and never changed the link text for the previous Reddit posted Survival Roundup. Out of efficiency mixed with laziness, I tend to ‘duplicate’ previous editions of the newsletter and then cut and cull them down to whatever organization or content I need. So I left the line linking the previous roundup and didn’t update the link.
Here’s the REAL roundup from last week, sorry sorry sorry.
I also plan to thin the links within the newsletter down slightly, while adding in a couple more written opinion/feedback/thought pieces. These won’t be the length of full articles - I can, actually, shut myself up when I focus -but I do like including these little chunks here: your email replies offer great feedback and can sometimes change my plan when it comes to creating a bigger piece of content.
FINALLY.
Each week, after completing my CIRCUIT O’DOOM, I’m legit left with dozens and dozens of links that don’t make it into Discord, newsletter, smoke signal, article, conversation, exotic dance, or elsewhere. And many of these links have great shit! (I mean, I personally curate them out of thousands of slop crap links and really that’s a giant service in itself.)
This content will now find a home on the supporter Patreon, where I can ramble on about dozens of things without flooding an email or triggering a link meltdown. This actually makes shit very tidy!
I collect from all sources. Curate and cull. Dispense (articles, Discord, newsletter, etc.) And then Overflow the remnants.
(This is alongside any other Hashtag generated content.)
*clap* Housekeeping done!
Noteworthy:
Sales -
Fanatical: Currently running their Lunar Sale, there’s a shit ton of great stuff on sale. I wanna point out that Jurassic World Evolution 2 - and all DLC - are on DEEP discount. I know JWE3 is out. I didn’t bother right now because: not Deck verified, still buggy, higher price/smaller discounts than JW2.
(I also saw Survival: Fountain of Youth for sub $10, The Alters for $19, and more.)
Steam: Check my Curator page under the Discounts tab for sales. Among the Steam sales, I did spy DayZ at 50% off, Survive the Nights at 80% off, and HumanitZ at 40% off.
News -
Catch up on the latest survival game updates in February 10th’s Survival Roundup.
It’s on Reddit: simple, public, and low-friction to share. 😘
Discord Drama
It’s actually drama about Discord THE COMPANY and not drama from a specific Discord. (How would we choose?) I’m still working on a small written piece for the site, so for now I’ll just post the announcement I made to the Hashtag Discord yesterday.
——-
ICYMI: straight from Discord’s latest announcement:
Beginning with a phased global rollout to new and existing users in early March, users may be required to engage in an age-verification process to change certain settings or access sensitive content. This includes age-restricted channels, servers, or commands and select message requests.
TL;DR: Discord is rolling out Teen-by-Default settings globally.
(This is the same Discord that was breached in October last year, though at this point, “another breach” barely qualifies as news when everyone from social platforms to credit bureaus keeps getting popped).
They say they’ll be using a handful of safeguards for age verification (more details at the link ), but I’ve got some questions and curiosities around how this is going to land in practice! (Also, I don’t think striding towards an age-restricted internet is the best thing.)
Savannah Badalich, Discord’s global head of product policy, said in an interview with The Verge, “ Discord is also rolling out an age inference model that analyzes metadata like the types of games a user plays, their activity on Discord, and behavioral signals like signs of working hours or the amount of time they spend on Discord.
“If we have a high confidence that they are an adult, they will not have to go through the other age verification flows,” Badalich says.
She goes on to explain that the addition of age assurance will mainly impact adult content: “A majority of people on Discord are not necessarily looking at explicit or graphic content. When we say that, we’re really talking about things that are truly adult content [and] age inappropriate for a teen. So, the way that it will work is a majority of people are not going to see a change in their experience.”
How will this impact gamers, developers, and creators that rely on Discord for community building and engagement or as a creative tool?
Shhh
Pretend you see a well written thought in this space.
Normally there WOULD be a well written thought in this space (or a thought, certainly) but given that the Discord blurb + the intro were roughly 230929323 words, I cut a smidgen from this part. It will appear later as a short article.
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Create & Code
Directly from my Reddit post: “Early Access developers can now list their "planned" 1.0 release date, which sounds wonderful and also incredibly useful as another goalpost/date with which to hang themselves when it comes to their community. (Joking, mostly.)”
"We're not going to topple Steam" – Epic Games Store head Steve Allison heralds the path of co-existence.
“After more than a year of work, I finally received the first physical test copy of my Godot book.”
If you’re working on a game, Steam posted a small FAQ about the upcoming new hardware.
Tool Talk: PureRef 2.1 Stable is now available, PCG has officially reached Production-Ready status in UE 5.7
Under the Rooftop
Under the Rooftop (let’s call it UtR,for short) is, to quote their Kickstarter page, “A survival crafting game where you descend floor by floor — from fragile rooftops to the depths below.”
I dunno, fam, are we getting The Day Before vibes from this project? The current KS campaign is progressing well and just shy of $42k of their $50k goal. This is, however, their second attempt - at least on KS - to fund the title. Their last campaign (Oct 2025) was canceled early by the creator after making less than $5k of their $200,000 goal.
They have no linked Discord server, which I find odd in a time when community can literally make or break a project. They do have footholds in many of the other popular platforms (like BlueSky, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) - though I call them footholds deliberately, as many of the accounts have less than a dozen posts, if that. Plus the background they supply on KS is …sparse to say the least.
What does that even mean?
So, yea. My spidey sense is twigged.
Any interest in my retooling this into a bigger dive via an article? Lemme know!
Random things this week
Staying Up Late Might Be Damaging Your Heart, According to New Research (Outside)
We're opening up freelance opportunities at Rogue (Rogue)
Are VPNs legal? (Engadget)
Fanatical has a huge tract of ElfQuest content on sale! (Fanatical)
(Yes I AM that kinda nerd.)
Nothing like tweaking and twerking things! Till next time. 👋🏻
Jordan
Survive, Thrive, Game On!
P.S. I read and respond to every email, so send questions, feedback, or criticisms my way. And a big thank-you to our Patreon subscribers ❤️
