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These authors are being accused of breaking China’s pornography law for “producing and distributing obscene material”. Writers who earn a profit could be jailed for more than 10 years.

The law targets “explicit descriptions of gay sex or other sexual perversions”.

Jesus I thought there might have been some bullshit pretense, but apparently it’s just straight-up illegal there.

I have a decent sense of time and an abundance of options to verify it

Not the onion…?

We’ll have to see how Beast of Reincarnation turns out. Gamefreak’s other side games weren’t anything spectacular, except for Smart Ball.

https://youtu.be/H0r-Kap8kWI

Highly recommended. It’s unintrusive and fast, and you only have to check it now and then to switch up your activity. Every time I go for a run or get groceries, I look forward to what I’ve found in game :D

Hello fellow tiny indie enthusiast! Here are a few I hold dear:

Beyond All Reason - FOSS RTS game about robots destroying each other. Pick one of 3 factions and build up your army to crush the opposition. Great for multiplayer co-op or PvP, even has modes to face off against boss factions. Surprisingly robust and balanced.

PictoQuest - Picross is a pretty niche genre, but it’s a very rewarding puzzle system. This title combines the classic puzzles with real-time RPG combat, adding some frantic tension to the puzzle solving.

Smushi Come Home - Crazy cozy platformer about a mushroom dude trying to return to his family. If “Chill Vibes” was a game.

Aquaria - You’ve probably played this one; was a standout indie back in 2008, even getting a crossover in Super Meat Boy. It’s a Metroidvania with fantastic music, unique combat, and a heartfelt story. It perfected leitmotifs years before Undertale.

Miasmata - Survival horror game that focuses on plant sample gathering and cartography. Yes seriously, you literally have to triangulate your position with landmarks to fill out your map! It sounds like work, but it’s actually awesome to experience.

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor - 3D pixel sci-fi urban sim in which you play a street urchin dreaming of a better life. Its depiction of hope amidst abject poverty is heart wrenching, but the game is absolutely brimming with charm.

The Void - Otherworldly resource management sim from the studio behind Pathologic. You’re a soul in purgatory struggling to remain extant amidst a war between two factions. You have to travel between nodes to collect Color, which is the fuel of survival. Monstrous Brothers roam around stealing all of it they can, and helpless Sisters plead you to offer what you can, with the promise they can help you ascend.

Legend of Grimrock - Oldschool dungeoncrawler RPG. Pick a group of four prisoners chained together and traverse the prison dungeon of Grimrock. Classic hack and slash, sword and sorcery; comes with a map editor and has a lot of community maps.

Knytt Underground - Metroidvania minus the combat. It’s all about exploration, platforming, puzzle solving, and glorious aesthetic. You may have heard of Within A Deep Forest from the same dev.

Honorable mention: Dreamfall Chapters - Not as indie as the others, but not nearly as well known as it deserves. Adventure game set between two worlds - a dystopian fascist sci-fi and… a dystopian fascist fantasy. You swap between worlds discovering not only the secrets destroying these places, but also to learn about your own past. Actually the third title in the series, but acts as a standalone.

Haven’t actually played these two but from what I gather, they definitely fit the list!

Prey, System Shock 2, Outer Wilds, and Undertale are fully-realized microcosms where the primary game is unfolding the complex origami of the setting. All of them absolutely beautiful to experience.

Have you played Prey? Only other game to scratch that same itch for me.

Yeah I think it became such a meme partially because the comic itself was out of place in CAD, but mostly for Buckley’s reputation. Plenty of other serial webcomics had similar range of tone and style.

Eh to Netflix’s credit, both their backend and frontend are much better than their competition. Much better ux, and streams much more consistently. We pick up a sub for a month here and there. But AI ads will make me never go back.

Yup. Fan projects and indie games can fill this niche. Pokemon is the most profitable media franchise EVER. They should be innovating and improving, not chasing nostalgia.

Big appreciation for Undertale, which has 3 major endings but hundreds of variations for each. It’s nice to have the game acknowledge what you did and give you resolution.

Cave Story really isn’t a metroidvania. The path splits at points, but there’s very little choice where to explore. It’s just a platformer action shooter.

My favorite metroidvania has to be Aquaria. Vibes of the game are on point. The story is great for a game in that genre, and the traversal and combat are unique and tons of fun. Soundtrack is phenomenal.

Check out Gato Roboto if you want a metroidvania similar to Cave Story!

GPT4o was a little too supportive… I think they took it down already

Chiming in with why I love SV: While the game itself is a new thing (well 9 years old at this point), it really feels like a product of an earlier time. And not just the graphics, music, gameplay, and plot. It lacks all the dark pattern mechanics and monetization that’s nearly inescapable in modern games. It just feels good to play, but always feels good to put down.

I just find the game endlessly charming. Every time I pick it up it reminds me of my childhood playing SNES.

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The team is 22 people… so that’s definitely not AAA

For all its shit with killing fan projects, tournaments, and frivolous lawsuits, this is actually a legitimate case.

I mean this is just Twitter’s old verification system, but now accounts have a lit of verifiers, so it’s not one centralized entity approving, and there’s accountability. I don’t see this as enshittified.