Category: Uncategorized Page 35 of 61

Scratching That Itch: The Sword And The Loves

On July 10, 2020

This is the ninth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,175,279.81 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Once more, random numbers have pulled a selection from the bundle for us: The Sword and the Loves, by Mammut RPG. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

A story game to tell stories inspired by Arthurian legends

Prepare for maximum chivalry.

Scratching That Itch: Shrine To Anubis

By waltorious

On July 9, 2020

In Uncategorized

This is the eighth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,175,279.81 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

The next random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is Shrine to Anubis, by Stuart Foley Games. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

A pixel platformer/adventure where you try to find the shrine to Anubis

It just so happens that Anubis is my favorite canine-headed god! Let’s see how fancy this shrine is.

Scratching That Itch: Mobility!

By waltorious

On July 5, 2020

In Uncategorized

This is the seventh entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,175,279.81 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our seventh random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is Mobility! by Auroriax (Tom H.), which cheats a tiny bit by listing itself as “Mobility! Accessible precision platformer” so that it doesn’t need to cover that in the tagline. Instead, its tagline in the bundle reads:

Jump, spin and flip to fix broken spaceships!

That sounds like something I can get behind!

Scratching That Itch: Visigoths Vs. Mall Goths

By waltorious

On July 5, 2020

In Uncategorized

This is the sixth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,175,279.81 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Through the magic of random number generators, I have pulled another item from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. It’s Visigoths vs. Mall Goths, by Lucian Kahn (@oh_theogony). Its tagline in the bundle reads:

There are a lot of bisexuals.

There sure are!

Keeping Score: Celeste

By waltorious

On July 3, 2020

In Uncategorized

This is Keeping Score, a series about games and their soundtracks. This particular post is also the honorary fifth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, because Celeste was added to the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality when I was nearly finished playing it. Don’t worry if you missed the bundle, there are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Longtime readers may remember that I am a fan of Matt Thorson’s games, which I highlighted as part of a post celebrating super-hard platformers way back in 2012. Matt Thorson came to more prominence in 2013 with Towerfall (or rather, the multi-platform reissue Towerfall: Ascension in 2014), but I never played it as I’m not set up for local multiplayer. But Matt Thorson’s next game, developed with a larger team, had me quite excited: Celeste is a return to their earlier style of single-player, highly challenging platformers, but with much higher production values and finesse. Critics heaped it with praise, and I nabbed it soon after release, but as often happens I was distracted by many other games and didn’t get around to playing it until recently.

After I’d played for some time, and conquered all but its toughest challenges, Celeste was added to the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. I’ve been picking things at random from the bundle and writing about them in my Scratching That Itch series, but of course, my choice of Celeste was not random, and indeed was made before the bundle launched. Still, since Celeste is included in that absolutely massive bundle, consider this post — which I was fully intending to write anyway — an honorary entry in the series.

Scratching That Itch: Black Heart

By waltorious

On June 27, 2020

In Uncategorized

This is the fourth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,175,279.81 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Next up in my random perusal of the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is Black Heart, by boyproblems. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

A Carly Rae Jepsen-themed cultist TTRPG one-shot.

And here I was thinking it would be Calexico-themed.

Scratching That Itch: Flufftopia

By waltorious

On June 21, 2020

In Uncategorized

This is the third entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,175,279.81 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

My next random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is Flufftopia, from German developers SmokeSomeFrogs. Its tagline in the bundle reads:

Clicker Game with Story

Very well, SmokeSomeFrogs. I will click on your game and follow its story. Let’s go.

Scratching That Itch: Asteroid Farmer

By waltorious

On June 20, 2020

In Uncategorized

This is the second entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,175,279.81 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our next random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is Asteroid Farmer by Allicorn Games. It’s tagline in the bundle reads:

Dodge big asteroids. Collect and deploy turrets. Scoop up the little bits.

Ah, asteroids. Ever since the classic 1979 arcade game Asteroids, asteroids have been a constant presence in video games. They threaten our space ships or even our planets, we strike back by shooting them or mining them. In reality, space is incredibly empty, even in the middle of an asteroid belt, but in video games asteroids always come in packs, ready to smash into things. But let me ask you this, Allicorn Games: what if we could talk to the asteroids?

Check Out The Humble Fight For Racial Justice Bundle

By waltorious

On June 17, 2020

In Uncategorized

The massive itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality may be over, but if you are looking for a way to support the critical issue of racial justice while also nabbing a bunch of good games, you should check out the Humble Fight For Racial Justice Bundle, which is running this week. 100% of proceeds go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Race Forward, and The Bail Project, with donors deciding how their donation is split.

The minimum donation is $30, pricier than the itch.io Bundle was, but it features a selection of highly regarded games, including several that I’ve written about on this blog. If you are unsure why you might want to play Spelunky (I wrote about the original freeware version, but the spiffy newer version offered here is even better!), FTL (plus follow-up post), The Ball, System Shock, or Broken Age, just click those links to read my thoughts on them. There are many other excellent games in there that I’m planning to eventually play and write about, too. The bundle also features a bunch of comics and books in digital format, most dealing with Black Americans and ways we can help realize racial justice.

If you can’t afford to donate right now, or you’re simply looking for other ways to help, take a look here for some ideas on how to get started.

Scratching That Itch: Time Stone

By waltorious

On June 16, 2020

In Uncategorized

This is the first entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle just finished, raising $8,175,279.81 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions, or in this case, exactly the same size versions.

OK, here we go. With the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality just wrapped up, I — and many others — are now staring at a whopping ~~1704~~ 1741 games and game-related things. Lists and recommendations are popping up everywhere, but looking through the bundle I was intrigued by just how many of the lesser-known entries seemed interesting. So I’ve decided to start selecting things from the bundle at random, trying them out, and writing short posts about them here.

First up is Time Stone, by Scared Square Games, aka Stuart Lilford. Its tagline in the Bundle reads:

Uncover the Professor’s secret and rescue him from the evil clutches of the…

before being cruelly truncated by the character limit. A quick glance at the game page suggests this is referring to the evil clutches of the Warlock. It’s always bad news when a warlock is so evil they are referred to solely as “the Warlock”. But I guess this Professor isn’t going to rescue himself. All right, Scared Square Games, I’m in.