That game was very nostalgic and polished, clearly from industry devs who understand how to make addicting gameplay loops with just enough complexity to give variables to keep track of. Chinese Parents, on the other hand, is very rough in its UI design, has a ton of strange additional minigames, extremely goofy looking art, and a biting, cynical edge to it.

Growing Up did dig into some heavier topics, but it was an ultimately lighter experience about revising the experiences of childhood and your teenage years. Chinese Parents is more of a dark comedy where your family borders on abusive at points, but just because of the strict standards of the society they live in and not any real malice. The additional minigames push this, creating a ton of absurd scenarios and challenges you have to juggle and keep track of under pressure of your family, school, and peers. The visual novel elements are toned down and instead there’s more a feel to it, an absurdist game where it genuinely feels unfair without knowledge brought over from previous runs. It also feels intentional, though some rough translation is also part of the friction.

Yeah, give it a shot!

For me personally though, when I get a Jam done on time or not I always keep the result to myself anyway, (either to re-purpose for something else or have as educational reference) because to me, the jamming itself is more important than the jar it’s supposed to go in or even the shelf it’s supposed to sit on next to what everyone else has made.

Aside from the obvious action vs fps, i think the broad approach of extraction shooters paint a heavy contrast with monhun. Sure, in both you get into a session to leave with some kind of loot that will help you be more powerful, but in monhun you have a specific goal in mind, with a clear way of getting it. You don’t want non descriptive better loot to get non descriptive more powerful. You want to fight that monster, kill it, and make that specific weapon or armor, that you know beforehand will change your build in certain ways. Extraction shooters don’t have any of those certainties. You might get something better in a unexpect way, fight a PVE boss that you may not have been prepared for, and whatever you get when extracting will not help you understand and prepare for the next challenge. In one, knowledge is power, in the other, lack of knowledge is the point, and other players possible behaviours add to that.

Also, there is the matter of progress. There is no losing a run in monhun. You may not kill the monster, but there is no huge punishment for failing, and since knowledge is power, now you are more prepared. In a extraction shooter, not only the imprevisibility makes this mindset harder to have, you do lose progress. All of it. It’s the most punishing type of game, which makes it so tense. That makes it a huge positive when you want that tension, and a huge drawback when you just want to play a little. It’s a type of game where you always have to commit.

And I like VPNs, but they do add a no small amount of lag to internet browsing if your internet is not super good

I have not finished it yet but in-game it’ll probably be rotated out for the next season so that’s probably why there’s a web version of it. So far, I think it’s cute. It’s about an angelic being (and by extension their minions) adjusting to human life as an idol because they have to pay for reparations on what happened (destroying a building) during Die In.

It’s bad, and the damage is done even if a few of us can subvert it with VPN’s or fake face-scan metadata.

This time around we are making something with Wareware, a simple and cute app to make little games that play in your browser! These can be simple little scenes or more complex games. If you’ve ever used bitsy, imagine bitsy in 3D, but even simpler. The end result is a scene in which you have a little guy walking around a world of cubes.

To give people some time to prepare, I’m announcing the jam ahead of time. The jam will last two weeks and will kick off on Wednesday, March 25th at 14.00 Amsterdam time. That’s when I’ll announce the theme and requirements. Until then feel free to take some time to play around with Wareware and familiarize yourself with the interface and its capabilities.

Here are the rules:

1. This is not a competition and the only reward is your sense of accomplishment.
2. Use this thread to discuss anything related to the jam and, when you’re ready, to post your submission before the deadline.
3. Do not use generative AI in any capacity.
4. Upon completion of the jam this thread will be locked and I’ll start a new one with a big post to showcase all submissions.

See you all in a week for the theme reveal!

spoiler
It doesn’t mean anything and is just used to sound smart. They could’ve used some of the consultants from The Big Bang Theory, but the MCU uses sciences as a magic macguffin for whatever the plot needs, so it’s very different from what excites me about games that build their lore on science.

Bluesky Social – 18 Mar 26

Silver (@s1lv3r-dr4g0n.itch.io)

Something something, mountain of pure diamond, bird, etc etc.

Looking at my list, I have houses to do, more stuff in the sky to make vertical movement interesting, a bunch of specialized locations for points of interest. It’s a lot and feels like I’m not making a lot of progress.

About Digital ID, some people defend it by saying “Oh, but I have nothing to hide!”, but don’t stop to think that it’s an invasion of privacy. If you have nothing to hide IRL, why do you get mad when someone keeps asking you personal questions for no reason? Don’t you have nothing to hide? So why want some privacy instead of running your mouth about everything you do in your private life to everyone?

I don’t exactly remember what in Hydrophobia: Prophecy set me off, but minutes into the game there’s a bunch of lore and all I remember from that part is “This makes no fucking sense whatsoever!”

I don’t expect perfection either, I fully understand bending concepts and facts to make things make fit better in-universe. But sometimes writers decide that a concept that people are trying to work towards and is very difficult in our current timeline, is entirely 100% the hardest thing ever in existence for a humanity 700+ years in the future.

Like desalination of water is a difficult and complex thing and not just an easy fix to water problems. But if you’re 700 years into the future you can’t convince me “desalination is really difficult for us humans that have now spanned across multiple planets.” just say the damn machine is broken and requires parts you don’t have the machines to produce or something, I dunno.

It’s not important, and I know the whole suspension of disbelief but I just struggle with it in those scenarios.

All happening while we learn that the rich and powerful have been sex trafficking minors with impunity and will continue to do so with no accountability.

But of course we have* to put our IDs online so the government and Palantir can know exactly what we’re looking at at all times.

*you do not have to, resist however possible. VPNs are your friend

So, tomorrow, or maybe today if for you is 17 of march, brazil is rolling out digital ID for absolutely everything saying its to “protect children”. And well, you’ll need to use your ID or face to do anything but see porn, because they didn’t block those sites.

And welp, I think i’ll start to use forums more to post stuff and talk about my interests. Wait, can I even post something that looks like a rant?

done:

There is some good tension and the game can be a lot of different things. A lot hinges on the unknowns in a situation – scouting out a spot, paying attention to sounds or other indicators of potential threats, all that is kind of amplified by having no automatic respawns. At the same time, being able to be revived as many times as a teammate can get to you adds a lot.

I earlier said that these games sound good “on paper” but I think it’s absolutely true that the game can provide these experiences. Still, it doesn’t click for me. In general I like the uncertainty of the unknown, tension, and risk, but I don’t think I like it in this multiplayer environment. That said, I haven’t tried Marathon yet, but the price tag is a bit high for something I feel pretty confident I won’t click with.

(And if it isn’t clear, I’m not trying to bag on anyone for enjoying these games or to imply that they’re objectively bad in some way; I’m just trying to articulate my personal relationship to them - I like hearing about folks’ good experiences in the genre too).

You can actually do all of the above without having to kill or even find a single player.

Found a YT channel with some very easily digestible tutorials on drawing with basic shapes and as someone who has seriously attempted to learn how to draw for the past 20 years, these are the most actionable things I’ve seen yet.

And more interestingly, this wizard tower.

There is some good tension and the game can be a lot of different things. A lot hinges on the unknowns in a situation – scouting out a spot, paying attention to sounds or other indicators of potential threats, all that is kind of amplified by having no automatic respawns. At the same time, being able to be revived as many times as a teammate can get to you adds a lot.

Then there’s the whole element of the escape. Since extraction points are limited and take time to activate, there’s one last chance for tension before you do or don’t manage to get out. I think that’s part and parcel with the idea – rounds aren’t too long, but a lot can take place in between beginning and ending, and there’s a structural arc between beginning and ending, with improvisation in the middle. That’s a fun way for a multiplayer kind of thing to have.

Other times, I try something for a bit, and see if it lands with me.

But I am not sure if things like Magical Diary: Wizarding School counted? Or if it’s more like a weird stat raiser, like older dating simulators.

https://www.twitch.tv/defiines

You can get both the new issue and the last one together. Perfect for retro gaming fans. Check it out here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darrenhupke/pixels-and-polygons-quarterly-2026-q2?ref=b1tioe

It will end up on my main site and shop later, but the initial support helps! www.pixelsandpolygons.net