What do we have here?
Nothing much… just a game with significant religious undertones/references about sacrificing cute anthropomorphic animals. From what I’ve heard the dev started with human models, but then thought this might be too… close for comfort.
But if you like Binding of Isaac with some settlement management aspects, you might want to try this game. It’s cute and eldrich. The name of this gem is Cult of the Lamb.

You’ve probably heard about or played a game that has a “wait-to-play” mechanic. If you don’t want to spend money, you’re going to have to be patient.
During the summer Epic Games Store had an offer for a game called Shop Titans. I was curious to see how they implemented the reward since the game itself is free. This game is just a 3D version of Shop Heroes. And before that game, there was Swords & Potions 2 on Kongregate (and I assume there existed Swords & Potions 1 at some time). Fun fact: Swords & Potions 2 seems to be gone from Kongregate now and instead there is a tool kit of the game, which appears to be the entire art and code version of the game. So if you want to make your own copy, it’s easier than ever. And here is a list of attacking your users for their money from every angle:

• time-limited offers. Daily, weakly, monthly deals.

• put a literal casino slot machine into the game somewhere. the bigger it is – the better.

• exclusive pay-to-unlock sections of the game (like shops or crafters), tease the player with their inability to have access to all aspects of the game.

• premium subscription. Always remind the player that they could have more if only they subscribed.

• new skins for anything.

• exclusive skins (see “exclusive pay-to-unlock sections” above).

• loot boxes and keys, obviously.

• multiple currencies and all of them can be converted from premium currency.

I quite enjoyed dying again, and again, and again in Hades. I can definitely see how Hades got a myriad of awards when it got released. The game has a clever approach to the repetitive aspects of the gameplay through its narrative and enough variety in every run to not get boring fast. But there is a limit, and after around 70 runs the narrative will get exhausted and most of the story surrounding Zagreus, Hades and Persephone will be delivered to the player. But you can always just continue to attempt the escapes for the hell of it (or for the Hades of it?).

In today’s falling standard of released games, Supergiant Games continue to deliver well-polished products, my other favourite game of theirs being Transistor (2014).

And your entire social event could have been in, for example, Gather.Town.

As the pandemic continues, it is interesting to observe that more people are finding value in what games have been doing for years – simulating the physical presence.

Last month I got to participate in an event for entrepreneurs where my sole job was to explain to people how to move around and where to go. This made me realise that games nowadays rely to the extreme on tutorials, but imagine how many grandmas could have played World of Knitcraft, if only there was a friendly human to assist them at the start? Alas, to see a life GM nowadays in most MMO’s is a rare sight, indeed.

Something I cooked up for NordicGameTalents.

I will admit that it is nice to crawl from under a rock and participate in a big event (as big as it gets in a little Baltic country). GameWave2021 was an interesting event to participate in and very accommodating for online participation. And I don’t know why I still get surprised, because if any industry should be able to do this it would be game development industry. A bunch of interesting things and unusual opportunities.

Shout out to game jam team Neguli for being super kind and letting me be a digital nuisance for short time. it was fun to doodle!

And now to dust off an old concept, stuff it into TabletopSim and see if it hold any water…