I started typing up a post of every game I've played this year and then decided it was probably too long, so I'm diving it into two parts. Next part coming, uh... probably before the end of the year. I'm trying to give myself a little more time to finish/start certain games (and also to remember what other things I've played this year), so we'll see how that goes.

In the mean time...

Short or Incomplete Experiences

(in no particular order)



Despite not usually being full games, game jam games still have quite a bit of work put into them. A lot of them have some spark of imagination, an interesting concept, or just a unique feeling that I think makes them worthwhile to experience. Like reading a short story, maybe the idea hasn't been fully explored, but you can often get something valuable out of the experience anyways.

I thought I'd talk a little bit about some experiences that might go overlooked. This is just a short list of free, incomplete or short games and toys (about an hour or less in length) that I've played this year. Many of them may seem rough or unpolished, but I thought they were worth fiddling around with for various reasons.


• Monster of the Weekend
  A little monster raising game jam game. Pretty neat! At first it seemed like I might be missing something, but as you play and try different combinations of food to feed your monster, it opens up the world in different ways. Pretty cool.
• The Riddle of the Temple
  A sort of test made in Decker. Will probably take less than 10 minutes to get through it all, but very enjoyable.
• Silver Thread: Deux
  I thought Silver Thread was pretty good for being the dev's first game. It reminded me a lot of little games I'd download off of tumblr back in the day, where it's maybe not super polished or well designed, but you can tell the dev cared and has some interesting ideas that could be iterated on in future projects.
  Deux, like the first one, is not very long. I don't think the mystery is really that deep or interesting, but it's still decently fun to play though. I like the character interactions, and the art is quite nice.
• Post Memory
  Made for a visual novel jam. Also by the Silver Thread dev. It's about moving to a strange little town and delivering mail. It's also a little rough around the edges, like their other games, but I think this one is my favorite so far. There are certain little "glitches" that I'm fairly certain are there on purpose that unfortunately don't really add much to the experience in its current form, but I think it's neat to find them regardless.
• Carpet Gallery
  A "toy" made for Toy Jam. Not really a "game" but more of an interactive experience. You just wander through uh... hundreds? of rooms filled with "carpets". Kind of an interesting labyrinth to explore. I feel like it would be neat to come back some months later and chart a different path through there.
• Company
  Another Toy Jam toy. Plant flowers. Attract little guys. That's it.
• Tender
  Another game jam game (I play a lot of those evidently). Raising strange and alien plants while following the diary of your botanist parents who have disappeared on this foreign planet... A cute a sweet little story. Neat concept. Maybe about an hour long.
• FISH FEAR ME (demo)
  Despite being on the short/incomplete list, I think I spent about 10 hours playing FISH FEAR ME already. lol
  It's technically still just a demo but I would dare to say there is quite a lot to be done.
  FISH FEAR ME is... it's like... if SNAKE FARM (the developer's previous game) had tank controls--which is to say... chaotic. Haha. (Okay but hear me out though...)
  Like SNAKE FARM, it's a top down roguelike hoard shooter/bullet hell where you can basically control the difficulty of the game by summoning as many or as few enemies as you'd like. The player is encouraged to summon specific fish (increasing in difficulty as the game progresses and you get stronger weapons) to get currency to unlock better skills and equipment.
  I thought maybe I wouldn't like FISH FEAR ME from the outset because... tank controls... but it turns out the first boat you get is just crap and you quickly unlock more interesting and specialized modes of movement. I was hooked...
  Get it? It's a fishing pun...

Anyways, those are my recs to keep you busy while you wait for any games you may be receiving or buying for yourself this holiday period. All of them are free, so you have no excuse to skip out on them!

Heyo!

It's fall! Go jump in a nice crunchy pile of leaves for me!

There aren't any big trees in my neighborhood. ):

I've been on somewhat of a gamedev hiatus--just busy with work and social stuff-- but when I saw Toy Jam, I knew I had to jump into it. It's a jam where the aim is not to make a "game" but a "toy" (distinguished in the jam's statement as something with no win or loss state).

You can go check it out here on my itch. It's for download windows but is also playable in your web browser as long as you have a keyboard or controller!

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It's been a long time since I made something small and fun just because I wanted to. Also the first time I've really completed one of my little toys in Godot engine. I have a few others in the works, but keep putting them down for various reasons. My old code doodling program of choice was Processing (which I've been meaning to get back into, as a matter of fact). I have quite a few little interactive doodles trapped in some old code that I'll maybe port over one day...

I'm hoping to get around to finishing the animations for this little toy some time soon (but I've already spent too much time on it this week). Aside from that, I have a couple other little features in mind that I think would be cute, but I won't mention them here and curse you guys with thoughts of what could've been in the (admittedly likely) case that I don't finish them. >_>;

Anyways, I'll probably see y'all again soon, since I think Finish Your Game Jam is likely ready to jumpscare me around any corner. Maybe I'll make some good progress on Nana Soup (title pending) this year.

Stay fresh!

A lot of things are happening in October! It's a busy busy month. I had kinda been struggling to find something interesting to write about, thinking that I'd try to write at least one blog post a week, and then October hit and now there's too much stuff to talk about. Haha

Shortbox Comics Fair 2024 is here! It's one of my favorite comic events of the year (aside from my beloved SPX), and runs from October 1st-31st. It's a curated event which debuts of over 100 new comics every year. (There are 117 this year! Wow!) It's run by just one person--which is kind of amazing--and is full to the brim with talent.

The comics featured vary in style, genre, and length. There are mysteries, ghost stories, slice of life, romance, trans-humanist stories, 16 page reads, 200 page epics, wordless comics, and much much more! Basically anything you could think of. There's a particular showing of "what if i was a robot and fell in love" and "what if i fell in love with a robot" or "what if a robot fell in love with me" themed stories this year, which I think is interesting.

As usual, there are far more comics that I want to read than I have money to buy. Hopefully, by the end of October, I'll have saved up enough pocket change to return and grab a few more.

Anyways, if you're into comics (or even if you're not) go give it a look! You'll probably find something cool and interesting!

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Also, looking at all of those comics has really excited my comics brain and I almost immediately ran to start writing a short one. So maybe? Expect that? In the future??? Or something... If it doesn't happen in the next year, just give me a nudge.

So yesterday was the annual re-opening of one of my favorite little virtual spooky season traditions:

The Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival!

made and maintained by adamgryu on itch.io

It's a little virtual ghost town where the main attraction is carving pumpkins! As far as I know, you can carve as many as you want and place them around the town and see other people's pumpkins. You can also bump into anyone else currently active on the server as ghosts and play little games together, go on the haunted hay ride, solve the haunted maze, and take pictures!

Me and my friends gathering to take a quick selfie at the top of the tower at the end of the maze during last year's festival. It's honestly a very cute and wholesome little tradition that's pretty near and dear to my heart, and people make some pretty amazing pumpkins!! Anyways, if you're bored and have a few minutes to spare, I'd highly suggest checking it out and maybe even bringing along a couple friends. :)

The pumpkin festival is open until some time in November, so check it out while you can!