It should come as no surprise (considering I'm writing this on an Old Web Revival site) that Hypnospace Outlaw by Tendershoot is on my list of Steam games. Out of all of the ones I've played in my library cleanout recently, this has been one of the most fun and engaging. The developers and artists absolutely NAILED the retro web vibe, from crunchy audio to how people typed and used websites. The story took a turn I wasn't expecting at all, and the puzzles remained engaging throughout the entire game. If you're a fan of puzzles and games that require deep dives and notepads to solve, I highly recommend Hypnospace. As an aside, it also gave me lots of ideas for my own website development!
I was set to play Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora by Glass Bottom Games, but as I go through my library I'm quickly realizing something: I have no interest in games with overly minimalistic character art. It's very difficult for me to connect with a block or a low detail pixel art avatar to the point that I have no desire to play the game. I can see this game being interesting with the puzzle mechanics and interesting way to move around the world, but between the character art and the clunky reload mechanics, my playtime is going to stay at a solid 8 minutes and no more.
The last time I played Outlast by Red Barrels I was in early college. As a game design major with too many games on the backlog for class (which is how my Steam library got to the state it's in now), I would often watch games that seemed interesting or that I just couldn't play in time. I also liked watching people play horror games since, at the time, I couldn't stand any horror media. I had a heavy interest in gore and body horror but couldn't stand watching movies, series, etc. for fear of jumpscares or running into my own triggers. Night Mind was the beginning of the end as far as my horror enjoyment went.
All this to say, Outlast was one of my first horror game experiences that I played through myself and it still holds up. I know the game was initially indie adjacent, but it's interesting to play it in 2025 and see what gives it away. Namely the repetition of model usage and enemy AI behaviors. It was really fun to revisit the world and storytelling of the asylum and the Walrider! I simultaneously felt that this game took a long time but also was very short - I think I finished it in about 4 to 5 hours. I did get frustrated with the "Find two levers, three spark plugs, 2 pipes" mechanic. I know from a design standpoint why they did this, but as a player it got repetitive and boring. Overall, I would still recommend Outlast to any new players!
An aside: The whole time I desparately wanted to play Whistleblower instead so I could see my husband Eddie Gluskin. Miss that man.
I treated myself to Whisper of the House by GD Studio for the holiday season and BOY am I glad that I did! If you enjoyed Unpacking by Witch Beam then you will likely adore Whisper as well. You play as a person new to town who helps others by unpacking their belongings for them. Along the way, you help set up storefronts, discover anomalies, and slowly unravel the story behind the town itself. The game gives you a few homes that you are free to decorate how you wish and isn't stingy about loading you up with the currency to obtain more decorations.
I'm someone who struggles to design anything in games - I'm notoriously horrible at it, even. Valheim house floors end up crooked, my Animal Crossing houses look straight out of serial killer true crime documentaries, and even my Deep Rock Galactic On-Site Refining missions look like a 1 year old got a hold of pipe cleaners.
The lovely thing about Whisper of the House is the different level types. Most of them let you place items wherever you'd like, but they generally have homes that make sense. Other clients know exactly where they want certain items, which is great for the design challenged like me! Once you progress far enough you can take on extra missions that are more freeform, but there's no pressure to do so.
I'm currently 10 hours into the game and I think I'm close to the end of the currently released story. There's still plenty of things to do in game and quite a few secrets I still need to unearth. Overall I recommend this to anyone who's on the fence about it!
Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library! by ArtRising is a game that feels meant for me. All through my schooling I spent (arguably way too much) time in my school and local libraries. I often was there enough that the librarians let me put books back away or find them something specific just to keep me busy. The Dewey Decimal System is my friend, and like other neurodivergent folks, I love to arbitrarily sort.
Pair that with a love for cleaning games like Powerwash Simulator or organization games like Unpacking and you have a recipe for me to be glued to my screen for 8 hours. Librarian is nice in that you can unlock different skills to help you quickly clean up as you progress. I personally felt like these got a bit too overpowered too quickly for my liking - the second "half" of the game ended up feeling rushed. Luckily, you can completely ignore these skills if you want and just do things by hand the old fashioned way. I went the extra mile and alphabetically sorted my books even though there was no acheivement or recognition for it. Old habits die hard. 5/5 stars, recommend for others who are also avoiding cleaning their own homes.
I don't remember who recommended this game, but FUCK am I glad they did. ENA: Dream BBQ by ENA Team is a free, short, surrealist romp that calls back beautifully to early gaming through its graphics. While the story and dialogue is ridiculous, you're still able to follow the basic story: You are ENA, some type of angel or spirit, who's goal is to find the Boss and "take care of him".
Outside of the amazing art and animation, I am also in love with the music and voiceovers. Characters speak what I believe to be Japanese, Russian, English, Spanish and French. There may be even more but I wasn't keeping count... A character that has a great mix of voiceover and music is the Genie of the first Door: The Bathroom.
Right now the first chapter is available on Steam for free. From a quick glance at the Discussions page, it looks like the developers are going to be releasing the next chapter for payment, which I think the game is well worth. Highly highly highly recommend this game if you can handle some disorienting story and environments.
I think OLDTV by Creability is a game I got through Humble Bundle many years ago in college. We're talking somewhere around 2015. I wish I had good things to say about it since it's likely a student project, but it's one of the few games I've played in recent memory that's actively painful to play.
OLDTV describes itself as "An immersive Soundtrack, favored by beta testers." While it sounds like it would be a cool music video-esque experience, the reality is more mundane. It is a game where you click your left mouse button if a color matches the text of the color (blue text of the word Blue) and right mouse button if it doesn't (purple text of the word Blue). The game has VHS Scan lines, chromatic abberation, flashing highly saturated lights, and pulsing maginfication on every part of the game. While I'm prone to migraines, they're not usually triggered by lights or sounds. OLDTV has proven that it's possible.
I don't even remember what the music sounded like. I suggest avoiding this one.
Thirty Flights of Loving by Blendo Games likely was bundled with OLDTV above. It has a similar "student" game feeling to it, but in a more quirky and artsy way than painful. Besides, any game that manages to be 3D will always have my awe as a developer who just cannot figure it out.
Thirty Flights does a good job of expressing a full story within 20 minutes with no dialogue or dense text providing exposition or narrative. The story is told primarily through the actions of your Player Character and the other spies you interact with. It's a really good example that I would show to new film-makers or game designers to show that you don't need anything fancy to convey a mood or story.
Likely due to its age, there are a few quirks. It automatically opened across both of my screens (which was an easy fix after a web search), the look sensitivity is HIGH, and the movement feels a bit slippery. It may be because I started playing this right after OLDTV, but the lights and colors were a bit bright and saturated for me, but your mileage may vary. Overall its a simple and effective game that I would recommend in certain circumstances.
Particularly astute readers will notice I'm putting this under the "steam library log" tag. The reason is laziness and the fact that it's in the same spirit, I'm playing games in my large library.
I've been hearing about this game since it came out. Well loved in game dev circles and prized as peak indie game making, I was excited to play this! The puzzling is very clever, but I hit my Frustration Wall pretty quickly. Found myself getting rather stuck early on. I could see myself revisiting this when I have more spoons, but for now the first stage was a fun little romp.
I'm already in love with this tool's aesthetic. It hearkens back to my Kidpix days of yore. And, in peak overachiever mode, I can't just doodle around with something to like it. No, I have to MAKE SOMETHING and make it WORTHWHILE. Enter my game design degree and Pippin Barr. The tool proved to be very user friendly. THe lack of complex options make it easy to pick up and work through. I highly recommend skimming through the included images detailing how to fold and make the various shapes before you sit and make your own zine.
Professor (Dr.?) Barr posts Game Ideas in varying degrees of mundanity/ usability on Bsky. I first found his work on Twitter when in game dev school and often sought his words as a jumping off point. And now here I am, creating a game based off of COMPETITIVE PARADOLIEA in 2026 using the Electric Zine Maker. You can download and play "i see the angels" either here on my website (tbd) or on my itch.io page.
BIG FAT COLOR AND SOUND WARNING. This game may also be uncomfortable or unsafe for people actively going through a mental health crisis.
All of this said, I love this game. I love how unapologetic it is, how honest it is about the realities of living with mental illness or a disability. It is painful to play in every way. It's uncomfortable. It doesn't shy away from suicidal ideation, the pain of being propped on a pedestal for being "so strong", or the pain of always trying to be a functioning human being. I will admit I haven't played through all of it, there is so much hidden poetry between levels that you could probably spend hours finding it all. I recommend it for people who have lived experience with mental illness, or as an example to those who don't of what it feels like internally.
This game is different than what I expected, but I could've expected it by literally reading the Itch page haha. I've been going into all of these as blind as I can. I generally prefer to do that with media these days so that I can get the full experience of it without any preconcieved expectations - either from the trailers or well meaning friends. All that said, here's what I thought.
Meatpunks is a mix of a visual novel and point and click pong game flavored as combat. I'll admit that this was a game that I ended up disliking for a myriad of reasons, but I can applaud it for being something that is published and that obviously had love behind it. Its strengths lie in its worldbuilding and quick connections between the player and the characters. I get the feeling that to get a full grip on the relationships you'd have to play the game a few times, but I was able to get a good jist overall with just one playthrough. So, you know, if you're not looking to sink a lot of time into something. Extra goodie points for the neat implementation of ASCII in the backgrounds.
The game can be completed in under an hour, especially given that you can skip the combat portions if they're too difficult or long for you. If you like the mecha genre or are interested in very grass roots indie queer stories, Extreme Meatpunks Forever may be for you.
It feels like it's been a while since I've posted here, but according to my last post it's only been a month 0.0
I've been doing a lot of reading and avoiding a big knitting project (thanks imposter syndrome) recently! My physical database of books is getting an update today on my most recent reads and the quotes from them. Of special note is "We Both Laughed in Pleasure" by Lou Sullivan. His story has been living in my ribcage ever since I read it - it's one of the most powerful books I've read since "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. I've also been watching a few shows - mainly Gachiakuta and Heated Rivalry.
I'd like to follow the footsteps of Erin Tierney and start an Unbundled series of blog posts going over the massive amount of games and resources I have purchased on itch.io thanks to charity bundles. I recently backed the No ICE in Minnesota bundle and now have an additional 1,439 items in my digital library. This doesn't include all of the games I'm working through for my Steam Playthrough blogs, either...
Speaking of, I've been fully bitten by the Minecraft bug again. I've been playing on a Homestead server with a handful of complete strangers. While it's been lovely and fun, I also realize sinking hours into a server that will inevitably be abandoned at some point is not a way I want to overall use my time. But, as the above mentioned imposter syndrome goes, it's an easy way to avoid the difficult things in my project list. Sometime soon I'll update this post to have some of the fun screenshots I've gotten of this server.
I'm sure it's happened to you as well, dear reader. There's some game on the tip of your tongue, you played it as a child and now all you can remember is the strange frog cursor that it used. A song plays in your head but you can't remember the lyrics. Maybe you're able to forget about it and be okay with never finding the media. Or maybe you're like me and you spend hours of your life obsessively searching for those memories.
This post is going to be one of the rare "live" posts on this page that will continually update. There will be things that I have found as well as mysteries that elude me. At some point, these may also live in my memoir once I get to the relevant points in my life to store them there.
The Sci-Fi Story
I remembered reading a story in college where a group of humans have moved to a different planet and lived in a dome. There were aliens that were so unfathomable that whenever the humans tried to look at them, their brains couldn't comprehend the aliens. The humans ended up putting a baby outside the dome so that the aliens would take the baby and hopefully it would be able to understand them.
After two years of active searching (and more of the story being stuck in my head), I found the original. The story is Ambassador to Verdammt by Colin Kapp, published in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact in April 1967. As far as I can tell, this was the only publishing of the story itself.
Black and White DeviantART Comics
When I was young I used to love reading these very long (setup like web toons now, one huge image) comics where this artist would illustrate their characters singing to each other. I couldn't remember any of the details about the artist. In trying to find the comics, I kept coming across Glee comics that were similar, but I remembered the originals being about original characters.
I ended up going on a multi hour deep dive into comic artists with similar styles who were still on dA, and looked at who they were following. That lead me to a name I recognized - pocketpicasso. This artist seems to have moved on from their internet work days, and now is doing work on the newest Toy Story Movie. All of the original comics are now deleted and very difficult to find proof of, but one instance lives on in this 15 year old YouTube video.Thanks, ProfessorTophat!
CD ROM Train Game
Tentatively still unsolved. I remember a CD ROM game from my childhood in the early 2000s where you would ride on a train through a forest. I can't remember if there were dinosaurs or animals along the trail. I have a distinct memory of parts of it being 3D models, and I feel like the lead up to getting on the train was too but I'm not sure. I have one game that may be a fit, but it doesn't feel perfect.
It should come as no surprise (considering I'm writing this on an Old Web Revival site) that Hypnospace Outlaw by Tendershoot is on my list of Steam games. Out of all of the ones I've played in my library cleanout recently, this has been one of the most fun and engaging. The developers and artists absolutely NAILED the retro web vibe, from crunchy audio to how people typed and used websites. The story took a turn I wasn't expecting at all, and the puzzles remained engaging throughout the entire game. If you're a fan of puzzles and games that require deep dives and notepads to solve, I highly recommend Hypnospace. As an aside, it also gave me lots of ideas for my own website development!
I was set to play Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora by Glass Bottom Games, but as I go through my library I'm quickly realizing something: I have no interest in games with overly minimalistic character art. It's very difficult for me to connect with a block or a low detail pixel art avatar to the point that I have no desire to play the game. I can see this game being interesting with the puzzle mechanics and interesting way to move around the world, but between the character art and the clunky reload mechanics, my playtime is going to stay at a solid 8 minutes and no more.
The last time I played Outlast by Red Barrels I was in early college. As a game design major with too many games on the backlog for class (which is how my Steam library got to the state it's in now), I would often watch games that seemed interesting or that I just couldn't play in time. I also liked watching people play horror games since, at the time, I couldn't stand any horror media. I had a heavy interest in gore and body horror but couldn't stand watching movies, series, etc. for fear of jumpscares or running into my own triggers. Night Mind was the beginning of the end as far as my horror enjoyment went.
All this to say, Outlast was one of my first horror game experiences that I played through myself and it still holds up. I know the game was initially indie adjacent, but it's interesting to play it in 2025 and see what gives it away. Namely the repetition of model usage and enemy AI behaviors. It was really fun to revisit the world and storytelling of the asylum and the Walrider! I simultaneously felt that this game took a long time but also was very short - I think I finished it in about 4 to 5 hours. I did get frustrated with the "Find two levers, three spark plugs, 2 pipes" mechanic. I know from a design standpoint why they did this, but as a player it got repetitive and boring. Overall, I would still recommend Outlast to any new players!
An aside: The whole time I desparately wanted to play Whistleblower instead so I could see my husband Eddie Gluskin. Miss that man.
I treated myself to Whisper of the House by GD Studio for the holiday season and BOY am I glad that I did! If you enjoyed Unpacking by Witch Beam then you will likely adore Whisper as well. You play as a person new to town who helps others by unpacking their belongings for them. Along the way, you help set up storefronts, discover anomalies, and slowly unravel the story behind the town itself. The game gives you a few homes that you are free to decorate how you wish and isn't stingy about loading you up with the currency to obtain more decorations.
I'm someone who struggles to design anything in games - I'm notoriously horrible at it, even. Valheim house floors end up crooked, my Animal Crossing houses look straight out of serial killer true crime documentaries, and even my Deep Rock Galactic On-Site Refining missions look like a 1 year old got a hold of pipe cleaners.
The lovely thing about Whisper of the House is the different level types. Most of them let you place items wherever you'd like, but they generally have homes that make sense. Other clients know exactly where they want certain items, which is great for the design challenged like me! Once you progress far enough you can take on extra missions that are more freeform, but there's no pressure to do so.
I'm currently 10 hours into the game and I think I'm close to the end of the currently released story. There's still plenty of things to do in game and quite a few secrets I still need to unearth. Overall I recommend this to anyone who's on the fence about it!
I've been suspecting an autism diagnosis for myself for a while now, but especially in the past year. Even further in the past few months following the research I've been doing. At this point I don't think I want to pursue a diagnosis for a few reasons. It's even more complicated by the fact that CPTSD can cause brain development differences that often present very similarly to autism - Am I autistic or do I just heavily relate because my brain is built to cope and process life and the world in a similar way?
Either way, keeping this in mind has been really helpful for understanding myself and finding more resources to support myself and understand the world and others. I'm not "taking" any resources from diagnosed Autistic folks and I'm not taking up spaces in their communities. It just....helps to see everything written out and filling the holes in my own behavior and neurology. Helps to know I'm not alone.
I found a neat floating village not too far from my little beach shack. I'm trying to find a cute Villager retexture but I haven't had much luck with getting any of them to work. You'd think there would be more out there, but NOPE!!!
While filling in my local map, I started getting followed by this little guy. I fed him a lot of Rotten Flesh to tame him, but then I had to run away from a bunch of mobs and lost him ૮(˶╥︿╥)ა
Between the chests in the beach house and another chest I found in a shipwreck, my character's outfit surely is....something. Maybe I'll update this post with a little sketch. Pictured is me wearing red crocs, a witch hat, leather top, and backpack over a generic emo skin.
I'm not sure howwwww dedicated to this I will be BUT! I've been playing Minecraft recently for the first time in my adult life, and I think journaling about it in shortform will help keep me dedicated to it. I remember on Tumblr following a few in character Skyrim Journal blogs and reaaaaally loving them.
I've started a solo Survival server using the Homestead Modpack ! I dabbled around in a public server but have...complicated feelings about them. I really like the idea of playing with others, but have found Minecraft servers to not be really welcoming? Watching things like Ish's Minecraft Civilization video set my expectations way too high! Haha
Anyways, I loaded into a pretty sight! It didn't take much exploring before I found...
A little beach shack! This place didn't have a bed, but having somewhere I could immediately call a base was awesome. There's also a little working radio in here which is cool! It's surrounded by flamingos and crabs, and a little ways off is a guide post pointing to a few different locations of interest... I definitely want to explore.
My overall goal is to make a nice backpack and take off adventuring in the world, exploring the different biomes and cool things that the game has populated. Depending on how it's generated, I may use my map as a jumping off point for my own personal worldbuilding project I've been chipping away at.
Here's a view of a pretty lavender forest close to my house!
I'm glad that this modpack has built in quests for most of the big mods like brewing, homesteading, etc. Overall I find even vanilla Minecraft overwhelming, so adding so many other things can be hard for me! I'm enjoying exploring the new content through the guided quests. I wish I could find a cute Villager retexture trhough CurseForge though....like animals or fantasy people? That would be really cool.
The draft for this post has been sitting on my Tumblr since August. Considering Cyberpunk 2077 chewed me up and still hasn't spat me out yet, I figured it could be time to go ahead and finish up my next installment of my Steam Library Log!
I'm also learning that I personally don't enjoy this specific style of pixel art for games. Simplistic, tall avatars with no linework are difficult for me to connect to on a character level. Overall this seems like it's a fun game, I'm just not the target audience.
Another game from my childhood! I had a fun time revisiting Impossible Creatures by Relic Entertainment. I spent a lot of time as a child just smashing the different creatures together to make cool monsters. I don't particularly remember playing the actual Real Time Strategy part of the game. As an adult, I bet I could get prety good at this! However...
Cyberpunk struck right as I was within the second level of Impossible Creatures. A few weeks later, I came up from the neon induced haze to try and get further in Impossible Creatures - only to find that I had completely forgotten all of the buttons to do even the most basic tasks. I'm learning as I age that if I pick up a game after an extended absence and the story and controls aren't intutive, I'm usually going to shelve it. Here's looking at you, FF7 Remaster. Impossible Creatures was still a fun romp, and I could see myself revisiting it in the future.
Bear and Breakfast by Gummy Cat is absolutely adorable. I'm a big fan of the art style for the entire game, down to the UI choices. Cozy game fans will likely have a wonderful time with this! However, the more cozy games I play on this journey, the more I'm realizing a few things.
A lot of modern cozy games run much slower than I'd like. To be fair, Harvest Moon is also a bit slow to pick up. I'm spoiled on current releases like Stardew Valley and Sunhaven - there is just something about the pacing of the character growth that scratches the itch of feeling like you're making good progress without rushing you. Bear and Breakfast and Moonstone Island don't quite get there. I'm also finding that I want to play cozy games on a handheld device far more than sitting at my computer. I'd rather be curled up next to friends and partners, a hot cup of coffee near by, swaddled in a blanket. My inability to is more of a commentary on my financial status of not owning a Switch or Steam Deck rather than a point towards or against the game itself. I believe it was Jesse Schell who described how different games should be developed for different "places" of play, such as the hearth, outdoors, the living room, etc.
This post has been many months in the making and is considerably less thought out than my others. I find myself rapidly losing spoons as I type, so apologies if this doesn't make much sense! I'm not sure if my next Steam Library post will be about Cyberpunk 2077 or another cluster of randomly picked games...stay tuned.
