Write Every Day or Bust

It doesn't matter what it is, a chapter, a drabble, a thought or a rant. One post every day or bust.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1126

It is weird to be old enough to see the rise of hidden object games and then see how they have changed over the past 20 years or so. I still remember playing the very first Mystery Case Files. The first game was actually kind of tongue in cheek originally.

The first game was a series of crimes that had a surprise twist once you solved the hidden object scene. It's also very interesting, because those games were timed, you had a certain amount of time to solve it, and making mistakes would reduce your time if I recall correctly. However, this game was very popular, and other hidden object games followed.

But it was Mystery Case Files that set the tone for future hidden object games when they release Ravenhearst in 2006. It was novel, you were exploring an abandoned house in which piles of junk could be a hidden object scene. I think the timer still existed at the time, but you started to see the narrative and the play structure. It is a game structure that would continue for 20 years.

Except, this type of game is kind of dying, not because of the lack of games, but because this genre is very easily abused by those wanting to use AI as a shortcut. And this isn't a surprise, back in the early days of this genre, there were other terribly made games that used real life image assets and simply hide them within a scene. This made the hidden object scenes look overly cluttered, not nice to look at and actually very difficult to find objects in.

It is unfortunate, but the primary mechanic of hidden object games, makes it very easy for people to think they can make a quick buck.

However, the genre itself is not dead, just the specific type of game that was created by the Mystery Case Files series 20 years ago.

There are still really good hidden object games being released, but they're just not the high stakes, point and click puzzle hidden object games I've known for the past 20 years.

In fact, in terms of art style, they're almost more akin to the old Where's Waldo art style. Not that these games are mimicking that art style, but rather the spirit of it. If you're not familiar with Where's Waldo, the thing to note about those books, other than the fact you're supposed to find Waldo, so that they often depict busy scenes full of quirky characters doing quirky things.

Why those books were so popular, wasn't just about finding Waldo, it was a joy as a child to scan through the pages to see all of the mischief these characters tended to get up to. And that seems to be the kind of spirit current hidden object games like Crime O'Clock and more recently Lost and Found seem to be taking on.

I'm almost done playing Lost and Found and am very delighted by it. Though I will admit Lost and Found's play style is very, very different from what I'm used to with hidden object games. Most hidden object games are a lot about accuracy, whereas a game like Lost and Found is more about exploration. This is because clicking on nearly everything in a scene will result in some small animation, sound effect or even something surprising happening.

There's nothing wrong with that, but it is very interesting. I also had bought Nipplets but haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but I imagine it's around the same vein as Lost and Found.

That being said, if you're still interested in playing more old school narrative games, they still exist but I'd recommend anything before 2020, unless it's the True Fear series apparently.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1125

Saturday, was busier than I have had it in quite  while. After over a year of procrastination I finally had to get around to replacing my glasses. Originally, I just wanted the lens replaced, but finding a place that could do that is actually quite difficult. It is… sadly, in the long run, cheaper to get new glasses.

My mother dragged me to the local Costo in an attempt to keep the final cost down, especially since she was aware that my insurance would not cover the full price of said glasses. Since this was a morning run, I had offered to take my mom out for breakfast, which would be my first (and longest) social interaction of the day.

During the glasses buying, a it happened, one of my co-workers was there with her husband as he needed glasses. So we talked, which much to my mom's amusement, devolved into talking about work. I happened to work closely with this coworker and we had an ASAP client through recently. The logistics of which we both knew were going to be a nightmare right before the organizational wide summer holidays.

Speaking of co-workers, one of my many… tasks, to lack a better term to ensure I continue to be a functioning adult is that I make a point every few months to reach out to old co-workers and friends whom I have not talked to in a while. It's weird, scheduling something like this like it's a task to be done, but I am enough of an airhead to not be in contact with people unless I plan it.

And by plan it, I mean, I have to remind myself when was the last time I sent an email and then make a list of everyone I have to email.

My last email wave brought in two conversations, and a promise of ice cream for that Saturday. So after I got home, chilled a bit, and attempted to do some chores, I was off again to get ice cream with an old co-worker who no longer worked with me. However, that did not stop me from grabbing one of my homemade cards and shoving random stationery (aka sticker tapes) into the card.

When she worked with me, at the height of my stationery collection, I would often give her little girl samples of my tapes. Primarily washi, because I thought it was cruel to try to give a child PET tape as they're kind of hard to remove from the backing.  Though this time, I was able to provide at least some PET stickers.

This is because in the years since, image tapes being die-cut has become very popular. To the point where most stationery brands have defaulted to their image tapes being die-cut. So I had some die-cut PET tape that I could give this child as it would be easy peel.

It was a great outing, it allowed me to vent a bit about work, and it gave me work gossip that I would not have gotten otherwise, which is weird because she doesn't work there anymore, but her job deals with the community. And the community tells her a lot, so it's fun.

But it does mean that by the time Saturday evening rolled around I realized, I just wanted to chill for Sunday. I have done my weekly socialization, let me rest and doing journaling stuff.

And maybe some chores.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1124

At some point about two weeks ago the trailer for the latest Harvest Moon game had dropped into my YouTube feed. It was understandable as to why it had been presented to me, I certainly collect enough farming themed video games as it is, but I have never been a fan of Harvest Moon.

Or rather, never a fan of Nastume's Harvest Moon.

If you're not familiar with the weirdness that is the video game industry, and porting games from one country to another, especially how it was done over two decades ago, you might not know if the drama that is Harvest Moon.

Harvest Moon is a video game, it can be arguably the video game that modern farming games have spawned from. It has been a touchstone of this genre. However, the Harvest Moon of today and the Harvest Moon of my childhood are two different franchises.

When the creators of Harvest Moon wanted to bring the game to the West, they needed to be localized, and they tapped Natsume to localize and distribute it, the latter is important because Natsume was the company who filed the copyright for Harvest Moon, as it does have a different name in Japan. As a result, when the Japanese company who owned the IP decided to change their localizer to Xseed Games, Natsume continued to hold the rights to that copyright.

Now, they didn't own rights to the actual game itself, but the right to have a farming game called Harvest Moon, remained with Natsume, whereas the original series was renamed into Story of Seasons. And that could have been left at that, except that Natsume decided to capitalize on the fact that after 20-some years their name was forever linked to the farming game Harvest Moon.

So they decided to make their own Harvest Moon game, which wouldn’t have been terrible if their first (and later games) weren't terrible. They were dull, unlively, and generally was a step backwards in graphics. It didn't help that drawn art and logo of the games invoked the old Harvest Moon so much that suspicions were abound that it was a cash grab meant to confuse customers. The thing that copyright was supposed to not allow except that Natsume owned the copyright.

But the reason why I mention this, is because they are still making farming games. So are Marvelous, the owners of Story of Seasons. However, Marvelous has been trapped in the cycle of remakes of their old games, probably because the last two-ish new games within that franchise really did not do well.

Which has brought up a really interesting thing that has happened. Between these two companies making lackluster farming games, it had about six years previously opened the door for other developers to make farming games, and players were excited by this. Probably hoping that one of those games would topple the big two giants, especially seeing the success of Stardew Valley.

A farming game that is now over a decade old, and so popular that even some of their mechanics are now part of modern farming games.

And it… sort of happened. Kind of…

The reality is, none of the farming games from newer developers ever got a sequel, but, honestly they don't need one, and should not have one. This is because this genre is now flooded with farming games, and if you've ever played a farming game, those suck up so many hours of gameplay.  So there are only so many of these types of games you can play.

Even if many of them are very good. I try to make a point to play a farming game at least once a year. I played Stardew Valley in 2021 (very late to that game), No Place Like Home in 2022, Harvestella in 2023, Immortal Life in 2024, and technically started Coral Island the end of 2025. I actually have enough time to probably play another farming game in 2026.

And with the exception of Harvestella, they are all games that are well under the 65 CAD cost of a Story of Seasons or Harvest Moon game. More damningly is the fact I really enjoyed the variety these games have given me due to them being made by very different people whose passions about the genre vary in terms of focus.

There are, right now 11 other farming games in my library that I have not touched, which is terrible when you do the mental math of how often I play these types of games. All of those games were certainly cheaper than what playing for a game from one of the two farming game series.

So in short, Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons are not going away. They are the only farming game franchises that will continue to release games as long as it's viable. Story of Seasons has a better chance since they have been doing all those remakes, but reality is, with the price of newer farming games and the variety of those games, their audience is no longer what it used to be.

And if they went away tomorrow, I'd be sad because I grew up with those names, but I don't think I would notice they were actually gone.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1123

For reasons, I had wanted to get a new fountain pen already.

I have two fountain pens, three if you include the very wide nib pen that I have no idea what to do with. And I have two, so I can switch out the colours for the next month without having to clean the nib before I was ready and wait for it to dry. However, it does mean whatever I write for that whole month, even if it's not in my journal, is of that colour.

Which tends to never be black because it's boring.

A fact that is problematic since I have a large bottle of (what I thought was) black ink.

However, I did not want to spend a 100 dollars on a fountain pen, I also didn't want to get the standard Lamy fountain pens which are sold down the street for 40 dollars a pop because I don't like the ink window. Even though the ink window exists to tell you how much ink is left in your pen.

I also… due to the incident with one of my fountain pens, didn't want a screw on cap and wanted it to be metal. Seeing as a decent fountain pen was still going to be costly, I did not want a repeat of the cap incident.

In the end, I ended up buying a 30 dollar pen, which is not cheap. That is about 1/4th of my grocery bill, but it is far cheaper than the other good pens. Also, it is metal, has a converter ink cartridge and a lid that snaps on and off.

It also… write really, really well, or at least I assume it is the pen. It could very well be the ink, which turned out to not be black ink. I mean… I knew it was not a pure black ink, it was one of the fancy gradient inks, but I thought it was going to be more black than it turned out to be. There is a purple tint in there, which makes sense since it was named "Catfish Spirit Ink".

Doesn't matter, it will be the pen that will use that ink until the bottle no longer has ink in it. It is going to be my catch all writing pen. The point is, it's a great pen, easy to fill, quick to use and I might get another pen like it for shimmers and glitter inks, because the line is thick enough to catch that sort of thing, and it's at least not costing me an arm and a leg. If the nib clogs up, I am not going to fill too broken up over it.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1122

My mother recently was possessed by the spirit of decluttering and had (apparently) spent three hours in the storage unit decluttering. When my parents' downsized they tried to get rid of as much as possible, but there were things they weren't sure they wanted to part with.

Old VHS tapes with  recorded weddings of cousins, old books, manuals… school year books.

In one of the boxes she had brought up were two thin soft coloured year books from my elementary school days. As I flipped through them curiously, my mother asked me if I remembered any of the teachers while she washed dishes.

I asked her if it terrible to admit that the only one I really remembered was the one she did not like.

"Oh! The asshole," she replied which made my dad laugh, "What was his name?"

"Mr. Fiddle."

Not really his name, but for the purposes of this trip down memory lane, let's call him Mr. Fiddle.

"Oh yes, him," mom huffed, "I had you switch schools for my sanity."

To be clear, it wasn't Mr. Fiddle specifically that made her switch schools. It was the many offenses, big and small that built up into resentment that she never quite let go of. I was a child born just as those with medical needs, special needs, whatever you call it were being allowed into mainstream classrooms. The schoolboard that my elementary school was part of was one of the first to make this change.

My mother had high hopes, and well…

To be fair, I was not an easy child to teach, not in a curriculum that believed if you gave children the building blocks they could figure everything out on their own. The whole word system, the counting by numbers, the posting of cursive writing on the wall was terrible for a child with ADHD that couldn't get a clue.

Not that anyone knew back then about the ADHD.

I think it would have been different if I had been written off as a daydreamer (because I was), but the problem were the people who told mom to not have expect anything of me. Something that she may have accepted in the 90s if child me didn't have the tendency of hyperfixating on any book I was into at the time, resulting in me telling her the whole book back from memory.

My mother believed I was some sort memory genius and blamed the number of times I was put under as to why that memory declined.

As an adult, I'm pretty sure this was some weird by product of the ADHD instead of some hidden intelligence.

But the important thing is, is that I could do that, and did do that. That by the time I got into fourth grade it was no secret among the children who knew me well that there was very little I wouldn't read. I even attempted to read the Bible front and back, not due to any religious reason, just because I could.

So when Mr. Fiddle accused me of being lazy when I started to misspell words directly from the blackboard it began a thing that ended in a change of schools. I was already not a great speller despite my high reading level, so misspelling my own spelling words was not helping in the slightest.

However, seeing as eyeglasses did run in the family, my mother did the very logical thing and got my sight checked.

I was nearsighted.

This was not a great look for Mr. Fiddle, especially since I was already around that time making leaps and bounds with math, not due to him, but because of extra tutoring known as Kumon. In fact the Kumon system worked so well for me that before I even entered into my new school many months later I ended up exceeding my peers. Being able to add very large numbers in your head faster than someone can type on a calculator makes for a very neat party trick.

So it's no surprise that even now my mother bears a grudge against him. She probably bears a grudge against that school in general now that I think about it.

The funny part about that whole interaction though was my mother's surprise that I didn't want to take the school year books with me. But I had told her…

"I have memory of swiss cheese of that time, and the kids I have an inkling of who  they are… I only do because they were assholes."

She laughed at that, because it was also true.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1121

Every once in a while, I have to do things that take me away from the things I want to do… or so I think.

When I had gotten a cleaner to help me not be a hot mess I didn't think about the logistics of having a team of cleaners over during a working day. My place is not that big, and a team of three cleaners would cause me to be very underfoot. To not be underfoot, or awkward, I had let them in and then left.

Not empty handed, I had planned for it. Since it was in the morning it was not that hot yet, and most cafes are open by 10 a.m. So I took myself down to one of the cafes, carrying my Everyday Journal, my tiny RP journal and a small sticker activity.

The café was one of those rare Asian fusion cafes where the milk tea is very strong and the flavours very unique. It was almost empty by the time I got there, there was a group of summer students huddled around a laptop, so staying there wasn't going to be too weird. I ordered a cold milk tea as the weather was already warming up quite a bit despite it being mid-morning, and a savory bun. The bun ended up coming home with me, it was probably better being shoved into a toaster over, but it was tasty.

Overhead the speakers played a music style that was either 90s or early 2000s rather than anything more modern. Every once in a while the speakers would cut out, leaving only the speakers in the back playing before whatever connection that was lost re-established itself.

I don't have data on my phone, which was the other reason why I brought physical things to do, but it was also a reminder that it was something I needed.

The first 30 minutes of my stay was spent doing a small sticker activity, something I kept telling myself I would and then never get around to doing it. By the time the milk tea and activity was done, I was writing an entry in my journal about my café trip. Though it was less about the café trip and more the realization that I wouldn't do anything I wanted to do unless forced out of my home and away from my computer.

And that's the really annoying reality of it, I need to be away from my computer to do certain things undisturbed with my full focus on that thing. This is how I got better at Sudoku, because my medical routine required me to be in my bathroom, away from my computer for 30 minutes at least.

The worst part about this, is that I don't think there is anyway I could artificially make this happen. Both my medical routine and the cleaners are both real reasons to walk away that I cannot ignore. Whereas, there is really no consequences for me to do that sort of thing on my own, except maybe my own inner disappointment.

Which apparently, if I've learnt anything over the years, is not enough to get me to do the thing I want to do.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1120

When my Pilates instructor retired, I felt that I had enough skills and tricks to continue to move and exercise on my own. In reality, I kept doing Pilates more for the fact that I had a guaranteed 30 minutes of exercise every week more than any other reason. ADHD is a bitch and having an instructor is the ultimate body doubling, but it is a cost that I've been very fortunate to afford.

This however left money in my pocket, which I could have saved up for something else, or… I could use it to help myself again in a different way. I've lived in the same location for nearly 20 years (because I am old now), and my home shows the wear and tear of someone who doesn't clean very well.

Or once in a blue moon prior to the whole journaling thing, which was only three years ago.

Coupled by the fact that on-site days were kicking my ass, and I wanted at least one of my weekends completely free, I decided to hire a monthly cleaner. Also, as I've mentioned many times, I hate mopping. Mopping takes so much time, because I shed like my cat, and I have a cat. If I didn't have to do mopping, which was already a once a month affair, I would be very happy.

However, unlike the previous times where I've had help with my place, either paying my old roomie, or a freelance cleaning lady, I got recommended a small cleaning company. They're actually really cool, they're all immigrants from the same country who have banded together to give themselves and others consistent work. And the most interesting thing is that they come in a team of three.

This is important because they have a lot of tricks to get things clean, which also leads to the expectation that they would get everything clean. Even if it was a difficult clean.

To be clear, I was not expecting that. As I've said, I've lived in my home for at least 20 years, from the time I was a university student, which makes the years of less than ideal cleaning even worse. All I really wanted was to not have to do my own cleaning list for one Saturday. Something I should have made clear to the poor cleaners, because after they left, I got a call.

Primarily because of my shower. My shower is poorly made, the divot to drain the water isn't as steep as it should be resulting in a bit of water staying around the edges, which is problematic since the water here is hard. So years and years of limescale had built up despite my best attempts… and apparently theirs.

I did not know people could take razor blades to that scaling to try and descale it, but they did but couldn't get all of it since they would run out of time. So the team lead had to call to explain, while I had to explain that I was a right mess, that shower does not drain properly and I was not expecting miracles.

It is possible over time as long as I keep up my weekly spritz and rinses and if they have time to chip away at it that they'll eventually get it all off, but I don't really care. Frankly the floor feels the smoothest it's been for a long while.

But anyhow, that is apparently how I stressed out the cleaners.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1119

Summer is shaping up to be like last year.

By last year, I mean it was so fucking hot that I purposely missed at least half of the game meet ups last year, and didn't get to go to the creepy night market.

I am currently checking the weather and planning my day like I'm about to do battle. The past Friday, I made the decision to order my groceries delivered so I didn't have to go out. However, there are certain things I need to get that I must do in person. One of which is medical in nature.

The past few days have been so humid and hot even in the morning, but there is about to be a small break in the pattern. If all goes well and it actually rains. If I leave my home early to mid-morning, it'll only be mildly hot rather than terribly so. I should, be able to get my needed things before noon when the humidity (and heat) start to crank up.

Also it's supposed to thunderstorm in the afternoon, but that particular prediction has always been unreliable at best.

It's most likely this Sunday I won't go to the game meet up, and instead plan around some at home activity. An act that is odd since I have no journal set ups to do for a long while. Even though I have a lot of crafting I'd like to do…

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1118

Momento is one of those rare games being added to my gaming journal. In part because I finally have time for it (though the entry is not complete), and in part because there is information I like to store. When I play games where there is information I had to figure out (often narrative in nature) I will put it into my journal for safe keeping.

After all, I did the work of figuring it out, I should keep it somewhere instead of forgetting it.

And the funny thing is, I was not expecting to do that for this game. Momento had been advertised as an unpacking game where the momentos you keep determine the life path of your character. It came on the heels of the popularity of Unpacking, and the idea sounded really neat which is why I ended up buying it.

It's at this point, I should say, there are spoilers ahead, because Momento, it turns out is far more narrative heavy than I was expecting even though the narrative is all in the environmental storytelling and the bits and pieces of text found in the game. Also spoilers, because this is something Momento did not advertise about their game.

Because the reality is, the game isn't about your character choosing their future path, but rather it is a game about what happens to loved ones of someone who is chronically ill and what happens when they do pass away.

Sam, your character, has an older brother by the name of Tyler, who has since childhood been chronically ill. To the point where he's been in and out of hospital his whole life. This take a toll on his family, by the time Sam is in their last year of high school, their parents have separated. It was an agreeable separation, but a separation nonetheless.

It's at this point I should point out that this was never a moral failing on the parents' (David and Lily's) part. The reality is, is that separation is more likely to happen when a couple has a high needs child. The two clearly do not hold it against each other… at least, not when Tyler was alive.

And he does end up unfortunately passing away at 29, which, considering the circumstances may have been more than what anyone was expecting. Especially seeing as Tyler had been hospitalized at least a 100 times in one year when he hit his teens.

What ends up happening, is that everyone around him is then left to deal with their grief, which brings an interesting thing about the narrative.

As you play through Sam's various life paths, in the opening scene, which also acts like the opening screen of the game, you'll gain a picture representing that life path. However, that picture doesn't feature Sam, but rather one of Sam's friends or family. And if you complete all of the life paths, Sam will finally, finally, after what is implied to be, many years, will read the letter that Tyler left behind for them.

Tyler who tells Sam, there is nothing that they could have done. It does not matter what they did, or became, it would never stop the separation of their parents, and there was no cure for what Tyler had.

It is then the implication becomes that the life paths we were playing, weren't necessarily Sam's life path, but rather the life path of their friends and family. The things they gone went on to accomplish in spite of their grief when Tyler passed away. Instead, Sam was imagining what would have happened if they took a different path in life.

There is far more to that story and I've already given a lot of spoilers, but the important part of me telling this story is that, this is nothing like what was advertised.

It's still a great game, but I also think how the game was presented doesn't give it the full credit it deserves. What makes this game great is the story, told with belongings and notes to an unseen individual. A story that then you, as the player can put together. Whether or not it is fully canon doesn't matter, it's what you take away from the story it's trying to tell.

And if you do unlock all those life paths Sam dreams up, you'll find out why now they decided to open that letter, which I think was a perfect ending to that game.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1117

When I was growing up, fountain pens were the things associated with high tier managers and gifts given for someone's long tenure at a white collar company. You know… back when companies actually treated their employees well.

My dad had received a gold nib fountain pen as a working anniversary gift once. He never used it and unfortunately left it out in the open where his young daughter (me) got a hold of it and wrecked it.

But the other thing about fountain pens that I had assumed for most of my life was that the ink would be uniformly jet black. The kind of black used to sign important documents and jot down notes.

It's this preconception of fountain pens I had in my youth that makes the reality of fountain pens mildly amusing to me. I've had actually had to explain to my mother in the past when she was thinking about getting me a fountain pen that came with 50 blue ink cartridges that I wouldn't used them. Besides the fact that it was  way too much ink, I already had an ink collection.

That's right, an ink collection, because if you were the type of person who collected nearly every fucking colour of gel pen, you might also be the person who would like a good fountain pen, for no other reason than the fact that fountain ink comes in all sorts of colours and compositions.

The latter may sound weird, but let me explain.

A lot of novelty inks, especially those used by the journaling community for enjoyment tend to not be uniform when set down on paper. Their colours will change as the ink pools in certain areas of a pen stroke creating a sort of gradient effect. It is a very pretty effect, one that I find shows up more starkly when using glass dip pens.

In addition, depending on the ink type, inks might dry to a different colour, or might even have a slight tint of another colour depending on the pigment, sheen and other additions that could make an ink shiny or glittery. The latter is something I haven't fully used. I've been meaning to ink my very broad nib pen to play with it, but haven't gotten around to it.

But the fact that the fountain pen community is often as interested in differently coloured inks is amusing to me. Especially when I too also pick out a strangely composed ink for my monthly themes.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1116

Despite the fact Canada Day this year in the middle of the week, I couldn't be bothered to take additional time off to make up for the weirdness. I generally don't take time off during the summer unless I have to because it is too hot to do anything.

It is the kind of heat where constant movement longer than five minutes will make me unreasonably sweat, and I have to remember to bring water upstairs for the cat.

Unfortunately, unless it really rains, the kind of long steady rain complete with thunder and lightning, it is unlikely to get any cooler (or less humid). Not really a surprise all things consider, but I am hoping it'll cool down at least a bit during the weekend.

Otherwise, I am certainly not going to go out. It's bad enough that I need to break out the personal fan for tonight, otherwise someone (me) is not sleeping.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1115

When it comes to game demos, I more often play demos of games I have not wishlisted, rather than games that I have. Most of the time, when I wishlist a game, I know what to expect.

Exceptions to this is when I'm not sure how a game would really play for me. Simulation games and puzzle games tend to fall under this category. It's very easy for a simulation game to become tedious, either because the controls do not work well or it's too realistic. There is also the possible problem of having no motivation to play the game whatsoever, so it's good to know that out of the gate.

Puzzle games, are a different problem, because as I mentioned, I am not that bright. I've certainly become better at puzzle games since it's something I play a lot of, but sometimes my logic and someone else's logic are two different things.

So when Rivage's demo dropped, I had to ensure I wasn't going to bite off more than I could chew if I bought this game once it releases.

The concept of Rivage is fascinating, you play as Miranda who is part of a team sent to study a new world as humanity is require to live expand beyond the solar system they call home. More importantly though, the game has a time loop mechanic.

Miranda finds herself alone, without her crewmates and must find out what has happened. The station is low on power, meaning every time you open a door, activate a device, the power gets a bit lower, until the power goes out. Furthermore, everything runs on real time, time is flowing which means there are certain events that are happening within a chronological order. This forces the player to make careful choices, and to be observant on what is happening around them.

The game has a pretty robust notation system in the form of a visual overlay as Miranda has some sort of augmentative chip in her head. However there are two problems, the first is that the user interface system probably could do with a better tutorial. It took a bit of experimenting (and checking the settings) for me to figure out how to use the system. In addition, some of the images could be expanded a bit more for better readability. I actually ended up using pen and paper as it was just easier for me in the long run.

Otherwise, I think this is something that, while challenging, isn't hugely above my skill level. The story seems interesting, and I'll hold my judgement on the characters for now since all I played was a demo.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1114

The second most common type of game that ended up on my feed were all the diorama/decorating/organizing games. I didn't mention this in the last post, because honestly I did it to myself.

Whereas getting specifically detective themed games was noteworthy, the amount of games where the mechanic is to arrange or decorate a space is not surprising. Houseflipper is one of my most played games since starting my Steam account. I have in the past year bought Make a Room, Hozy and Momento. The latter of which, I am currently playing through now that the Steam Next Fest is done.

So it's not a surprise that a lot of these games end up on my feed.

Though some are more memorable than others.

The most memorable demos are the ones that are technically decorating/arranging games but are also pretending to be other crafting games, and there were several this year. It's like every developer who has a crafting hobby has decided they wanted to share it with the world.

Charming Hill is a game where you 'paint sceneries' and by that I mean you put together a pretty picture from objects the game gives you. What makes this game very charming (no pun intended) is that every time you put in an object, the game sketches it in and colours it. As if you were painting, the feel of it is very good, and yet the painting is also alive, as its animated. I look forward to messing around in this game.

Block Block Block is a diorama building game. This means that there are levels to the game, as there are different dioramas for you to put together. What makes it unique is that in the diorama mode, you're carving each item and then setting it into the scene. The little wood shavings are still left behind, in which you can then vacuum up.  It is very adorable, and you do get a free style mode to decorate anyway you want as well.

Another diorama building game by the way is Book Nook, which I technically played in a different game demo fest prior to the Steam Next Fest. If you're familiar with the wooden dioramas that have become very popular, this game mimics that feel. I don't know if you can decorate things as you wish later on, but I thought it was worth a mention because it's fascinating to me how there are a number of crafting games like this coming out.

And probably the best crafting game is the one that takes it a step further. Cutout Village has you exploring a world where everything is made out of paper. The two friends have arrived to an abandoned town and have decided to revive it by building new buildings… out of paper of course. It's very cute, and all the mechanics mimic as if you were putting together an actual paper craft item. What makes it really neat though is for every new item you make, you unlock a PDF version of that item. This means, if you have a printer, paper, pair of scissors and glue, you can make your own real life cutout village.

Unfortunately I'm well aware that most people don't own a printer anymore, but I appreciate the fact that someone has given the audience the ability to make a real life paper village if they feel like doing so.

I look forward to all these games, for no other reason than it is a bit of a twist on the decorating/diorama game. Also, I just really like these types of games.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1113

The Steam Next Fest has come and gone, and unlike last year, I tried really, really hard to get through all the game demos that interested me before they expired. This did generally mean that I had to sometimes bow out of a demo before finishing it, or even be more harsh on how long I would put up with a demo before I decided it wasn't worth playing.

This had been… somewhat made easier this year due to the number of puzzle games that been announced. For reasons unknown there are a large number of detective games within the puzzle/logic genre that are using a gathering the clues and then fill in the blank system. This may have to do with the popularity of Murdle, certainly the game Case Solved: The London Files, seem to be borrowing heavily from that game mechanic.

Another possibility is the game The Roottrees are Dead, a game that I know I have wishlisted, but can't remember if I  bought yet. It certainly uses the game mechanic of uncovering clues, which then are used on your corkboard to then fill in the blanks to solve the mystery. This game released last year and was very, very popular.

Certainly games like The Detective's Apprentice and Death at Fleming Manor are using that particular mechanic. Both games are really good, though I had decided to not wishlist Death at Fleming Manor as I suspected some of the leaps in logic was not my cup of tea.  Unfortunately, my ability to follow logic hit a wall in that demo.

That being said, the other two detective games I ended up wishlisting are a bit more (or a lot more) removed from that game mechanic that makes me think possibly a game jam around mystery must have happened at some point? I don't pay attention to game jams, but it's always notable when certain mechanics or themes keep popping up.

The Granny Detective Society also uses the hint gathering and fill in the blanks mechanic, but they also do something interesting. In this game, you're a nosy granny who likes to people watch, but you can watch the scene several times, backwards and forwards. With the rewind/forward track on the scene denoting the time of day everything happened. This results in an interesting gameplay as you watch and rewatch the scene trying to keep track of everyone. If you're really careful, you might catch something odd.

Meanwhile, the other detective game uses a completely different mechanic . It's using the card system (think Cultist Simulator) to solve a missing person mystery that turns into something much, much larger. This is not only a game about logic, but about methodical trial and error as you try to uncover as much information as possible. There is a bit of an issue where you can't move groups of cards as you organize everything, and I suspect paper and pen still might be required to keep yourself from being overwhelmed, but the concept is so interesting that I had to keep an eye on it.

These are not the only detective games that showed up, but they were the ones that interested me the most. If last year was the year of the claw/arcade machine games, this year is the year of detective games apparently.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1112

I was probably around 9 or 10 when I saw the box for The 7th Guest, a point and click adventure game that was released in 1993. Like most computer games of that era, it was in a very large box with neat cover art and a back that had screen shots of the game.

It was also, a game that was very much not for children. Keeping in mind that video game ratings are far stricter on paper than movie ratings, it was rated M, which is very impressive for a point and click adventure game. Granted, modern point and click adventure games violence tends to be more off screen than it is on screen.

So, despite the fact that I thought, as a child, that the game sounded really fascinating, I was not allowed to have it. Not only was there no guarantee that the family computer could even run it at the time, but there was a warning that it was for adults only on the box.

As an aside, this may seem kind of extreme for a computer game, but this was also the era of games where live action acting was used instead of animation. In part because animation was not yet detailed enough for what the game wanted, and it's a cheaper form of production. But it did mean that any murder or death would be seen as a live action clip.

And there is a lot of murder and death in The 7th Guest. In this game, you play the unknown protagonist who finds themselves in a rundown manor that belonged to an eccentric toymaker. There you experience a party with six guests and you put together what happened to all of them as you solve the puzzles in the manor. Spoiler alert, two-thirds of them are horrible people and there will be murder.

Earlier in June, the remake of The 7th Guest was released on Steam, which I was really thrilled about even if I have to temper my expectations. For those not familiar with videogames, a remake is different from a remaster. Remaster videogames are games that have been re-coded to work on modern systems. They might have some quality of life improvements to them, but they relatively stay true to the original game.

A remake however, is taking the original game, and remaking it completely for a modern audience. This means any number of things could change, and if you're not familiar with the original, you may not realize what has changed. But, I was thinking at least the primary part of the storyline would remain the same.

Interestingly enough, I probably didn't temper my expectations enough, because I actually expected to not finish the game. Older point and click adventure games tend to be more complex, often requiring the player to keep physical notes. Not just because programming at the time didn't allow for an in-game journal, but just because the puzzles were harder.

By the time I was done the game, I had realized that I played it without having to look up any solutions. Certainly there were points where I had to stop and think, but the puzzles weren't punishingly hard. I just may have taken longer than I should have, to figure it out.

That being said, while the game mechanic does give hints to how to solve the puzzle, if you're new to puzzle games like these ones, or had only played hidden object puzzle games, these puzzles might get a bit frustrating.  That's because none of the puzzles come with instructions, so what the solve state is, is also something for you to figure out.

But if you're really into these types of games, it should be solvable without any hints, in theory.

I really enjoyed the game, and I really appreciated the call back in terms of style the game took on. The developers made the design choice to keep the live action cut scenes. So like the original game, all the characters you see moving about are live actors, only much better actors and with better costuming. I'd be really interested in hearing what those younger than me thought of that design choice, because it was clearly call back to the original.

What the game doesn't have however, is the same amount of violence. Granted, this game would still earn it's mature game rating with casual murder with both guns and knives, alcoholism and implied child murder. However, I found out, after finishing the game and deciding to do research that the original had other types of death including strangulation, drowning and acid to the face.

Apparently the other guests were far more murderous in the original. I'm not sure why the deaths were toned out, if this was an issue of making those cut scenes possible, or an issue of who the developer thought the demographic was for the game.

There's nothing wrong with that in the grand scheme of things, but I do find that interesting.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1111

The week my parents were away, the lid to one of my fountain pens broke. In part because it got knocked to the floor, but upon seeing where it cracked, I suspected there was stress on the plastic where the gold band is every time the lid was screwed on and off the pen. I'm trying to remember now to hold it by the gold band when I cap and uncap it.

Since the pen was expensive, it was just the lid and I wasn't planning on getting another pen until next year I went (at my mom's suggest via text) to the dollar store for super glue. Fortunately, the dollar store is just across the street.

Even more fortunately is that I often forget that there is a dollar store, and so never go into it normally. Otherwise the amount of junk food and other questionable purchases would have severely increased by now.

For example, I was browsing the crafting aisle, thinking the super glue would be there and my eye caught a roll of washi tape. Normally, I don't buy washi tape from local craft stores because I have very particular tastes in the tape design. However, I noticed the tape looked an awful lot like a washi I had seen online. In fact the design and silver gliding could have easily cause a person to mistaken it for a BGM brand tape.

Except, it was a dollar store brand tape complete with the obvious price take of a 1.50.

And while not a dollar, since nothing has been just a dollar in a dollar shop in ages, it is very cheap for something that looks like a BGM tape. So, I bought it, because it was a 1.50. Was delighted to find out it also had tape backing like a lot of my branded tapes, and honestly the quality is quite good. Cutting them out and pasting them onto a page didn't make it look too obvious.

Now, I don't know what I'll do with feather themed washi tape, but I'm sure I'll do something with it…

It was after all… only a 1.50.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 1110

A few years ago my mom gave me a new hair brush that she got off of Temu. Primarily because it was easier to remove the hair from it, and brushed very well. Considering my previous brush was over a decade old and not cleaned well, it was about time I got a new one anyways.

However, the brush has become a problem. Not because it is a Temu brush, but because I began to grow out my hair. I've been cutting back on the number of hair cuts in the past year because I've wanted my hair to grow longer. Not for any particular style reason, more for practical management reasons.

My hair is a bit wavy with a top layer that is a bit curly, and when it's to my chin it will flip outwards like a flapper hair style, which is cute to some people and annoying to me. My mom and I discovered after not going to the hair dresser's for a while that if allowed to grow it stopped doing that.

Mom thinks it has to do with the weight of my hair.

My former Pilates instructor thinks that cutting my hair to the chin was cutting it in the middle of a curl.

Both are possible, so I decided to grow it out since I seem to be a bit better at managing it than when I was younger. Except… I forgot that my hair is also quite thick, I normally get it thinned out on top of getting it cut shorter.

The Temu brush's bristles are a bit on the soft side, which was fine when my hair was short, but not when it's to my shoulder at full thickness. Fortunately I found an old narrow brush with more ridge bristles, but I am going to need another brush… and probably some more hair clips, I'm not sure where my second one went to.