Dominic Tarason
@dominictarason.com
Veteran freelance games crit & PR. Hyped for indie games & mods. Bylines on RPS, PC Gamer, PCGamesN. Find my work, Steam curation & contact info below - He/Him Find me elsewhere online at dominictarason.com Contact email: jdtarason@gmail.com
Oh nice, the developer of that unofficial (and very good) Rayman remaster is dropping his new game tomorrow. It's basically Rayman. Which, honestly, is a bit of an underserved market.
Connie and the Essence of Chaos on Steam
Connie and the Essence of Chaos is a cute and colorful old school 2D platformer. JUMP and PUNCH your way through 6 different worlds on your quest to defeat the evil overlord Lucilate and free the isla...
store.steampowered.com
Whew... Okay, credit where due, Frebbventure Alliance has a pretty good, even difficulty curve. It just starts out 'moderately challenging' and steadily escalates from there. Several of the Act 3 levels were kicking my arse and Act 4 is kinda scary so far! Enjoying it, but dang, it's got HANDS.
I'm going to take a lesser cynicism here and assume the majority of them are bullshitting. 'We're fully AI-integated!' is catnip for the idiot investor crowd. You want your project funded, you say the magic/stupid words. And if they ask HOW you're integated, you can just say 🤷'Conceptualization!'🤷
Mike Bithell@mikebithell.bsky.social · yesterdayIt’ll be interesting to learn, on the other side of the AI crash, which AAA studios had actually built dependencies on generative AI into their processes, and which were bullshitting.
Every now and then, YouTube reminds me that there's a whole (seemingly young) generation of people who seem TERRIFIED of engaging with any media that could be seen as even vaguely sexual. Whispering warnings to each other 'That's gooner slop, don't touch that' and making videos on why they're pure.
NOT EVERYTHING IS AI SOME THINGS ARE JUST BAD LET THINGS JUST BE BAD I legit would like more poorly written, poorly drawn, poorly whatever pierce of art and less AI. At least they tried.
The other day the algorithm fed me 1 part of a 5 part series of some woman targeting a romantasy writer with “why I think her book series is AI generated” and it was just…vibes. With a caveat that said “just my opinion” Trying to ruin someone’s career over vibes AI has created collective paranoia
Erin Biba@erinbiba.bsky.social · yesterdayThe way that everyone sees fantom AI in original work now is such a fucked up secondary downstream AI nightmare consequence. People can’t critically identify real art any longer and so everything gets accused of not being original. I don’t know how we climb out of this hole.
Headed to bed, but it just occured to me that once @itsthetalia.bsky.social finishes Clown Meat, it will be the *second* indie platformer I own in which all life on earth is threatened by an all-corrupting mass of cosmic clown-flesh. Points (they do nothing!) to anyone who can guess the first.
I've mentioned it more than a few times already, but if you like point and click adventures AT ALL, then you really shouldn't sleep on Endacopia. Genuinely one of the best in years. Old-school (both in style and engine) but new spirit as it was made by by someone who wasn't even alive in the '90s.
Save 10% on Endacopia on Steam
Endacopia is a Point-and-Click Puzzle Adventure that is visually reminiscent of early computer edutainment games... with underlying horrors.
store.steampowered.com
I'm seeing more and more 'I saw someone using AI in my favourite scene so I'm leaving and never even looking back' sentiments going around. That's how the AI fuckers win. If you're immediately tapping out, leaving and letting them just have their fun and build their communities over yours, they win
Oh, that's nice. The original Doom-engine version of Total Chaos is up on GOG, updated to UZDoom. It requires you own Doom 2, which is a bit silly. The engine is fully open-source and I don't think the game contains any Doom assets.
Total Chaos Mod
This mod is so impactful that it has been turned into a standalo
gog.com
Ooooh, I see what you're doing there... Game recognize game. (The game is Doom... in Frebbventure Alliance)
1/3 of the game industry has been laid off. We are offering a helping hand. Grab 100+ games in the Game Industry Hardship Fund on itch.io and help support impacted devs. 🔗 itch.io/b/3802/game-... #gamedev #indiegames #costarica #gameindustry #videogames
Probably the cheapest Witchfire is going to be for a while! The next early access update will be the last, adding the final story threads and finale, but there's a LOT in now. They apparently don't plan on raising the base price, but I'd be surprised to see the same discount on full launch day.
Wario64@wario64.bsky.social · 2d agoSteam weeklong deals buff.ly/hst8d2C
That's what I've got for my new PC! It's very big, very spacious (I put a Warframe collectors statue inside because there was SO much empty case), and surprisingly quiet considering how many open spaces there are. My only concern is dust. There's no filters and lots of empty spaces in the case.
Wario64@wario64.bsky.social · 2d agoCORSAIR Frame 4500X RS-R ARGB Bundle – Includes 3X RS120R ARGB Fans, 1x RS120 ARGB Fan, 1x Nautilus RS 360 ARGB CPU Cooler is $114.47 on Amazon amzn.to/4hLokUP #ad
The PC Gaming cambrian explosion began 13 years ago. Up until July 2013, there were 10-30 releases on Steam every month. Now there are *thousands*, a number that is still growing constantly. And I have dedicated myself to trying to keep track of what's happening, because I am apparently an idiot.
"Why is the soul they claim treated as a request instead of a right?" is a line so perfect I was sure it had to be quoting someone, or paraphrasing. A search around and... I think it just might be a Chiitan original. God damn.
Chiitan🌈ちぃたん☆@chiitan.love · 3d agoLove has never needed permission from labels 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 My emptiness of gender lets me see that clearly. Anxiety tightens around transgender lives right now. Why must their chosen bonds still pass through someone else’s gate? Why is the soul they claim treated as a request instead of a right?
Having had a chance to ruminate on it for a while, I think Encadopia might have the best implementation I've seen of a Gaster-like (for want of a better term) character I've seen to date. And that's all I'll say here because obviously to say more than that is OBVIOUS SPOILERS if you know Gaster.
Save 10% on Endacopia on Steam
Endacopia is a Point-and-Click Puzzle Adventure that is visually reminiscent of early computer edutainment games... with underlying horrors.
store.steampowered.com
The PC Gaming cambrian explosion began 13 years ago. Up until July 2013, there were 10-30 releases on Steam every month. Now there are *thousands*, a number that is still growing constantly. And I have dedicated myself to trying to keep track of what's happening, because I am apparently an idiot.
Just to be clear on this article, the position I took isn't "developers need to be more brave" but "funding needs to be more brave". Developers make all the cool stuff, just because they want to - the funding side hits it with market research and fear and growth targets and shareholders.
GamesRadar+@gamesradarplus.bsky.social · 2w agoWe need games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Balatro, and Peak as a cure for the "fear" in the industry, say experts www.gamesradar.com/games/we-nee...
I swear, sometimes I'm almost a parody of myself. Got a huge backlog of expensive AAA games and must-play RPGs here... But I'm spending my weekend on a quirky solo-dev indie platformer with a total of one user-review on Steam.
Oh dang, Frebbventure Alliance just dropped. Sequel to one of my favourite oddball hidden gems. The original Frebbventure (store.steampowered.com/app/2004670/...) is WILD. So many genres mashed into one, but with Sonic at heart. Which means it starts with goofs and critters but eventually goes DBZ.
Frebbventure Alliance on Steam
Y2K mascot attitude strikes back with a vengeance in this sincerely ridiculous and relentlessly intense Sakurai-inspired action platformer! With revolutionarily seamless movement and combat design, 9 ...
store.steampowered.com
Also the first game is 85% off right now! If you can stand a bit of jank and some Programmer Music (the dev is a surprisingly good artist, but not much of a composer), you should pick it up. It's surprisingly story-heavy so probably best to play it before diving into the sequel.
Save 85% on Frebbventure on Steam
In a world gone wild, there's only one animal man enough to put his foot down!Join Frebb's small clique of reluctant "friends" as they rumble, tumble, and action-platform their way through t...
store.steampowered.com
Huh. This is completely new to me. And sounds cool! That's exactly the kind of game I'm hyped to see translated.
SnowyAria (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧🏳️⚧️@snowyaria.goodorevengreat.games · 4d agoMan-eating angels wander the ruined streets of Tokyo. Haruaki searches for the human-turned-angel that he used to love. What will he do when he finds her? Innocent Tears is now here in English! Hacking - @yuvi.app Translation - @snowyaria.goodorevengreat.games Images - @nichetopic.bsky.social
A *second* major expansion. On top of the two regular ones in the season pass. Is this one going to be bigger than SRW 30 when they're done?
RPG Site@rpgsite.net · 4d agoSuper Robot Wars Y will have the Version 1.4.0 update on August 4 and the Anniversary Expansion Pack on August 5 as its last additional content: https://www.rpgsite.net/news/21021-super-robot-wars-y-anniversary-expansion-pack-releases-on-august-5-after-version-140-update-on-august-4
Behold! A lovingly slapped-together Steam news post for your eyeballs to read! (features some new concept art for the Convergence, you might actually want to check it out). store.steampowered.com/news/app/167... #Gamedev #FPS
Relentless Frontier - Relentless Frontier Devlog - Summer 2026 - Steam News
CONVERGENCE
store.steampowered.com
Oh dang, Frebbventure Alliance just dropped. Sequel to one of my favourite oddball hidden gems. The original Frebbventure (store.steampowered.com/app/2004670/...) is WILD. So many genres mashed into one, but with Sonic at heart. Which means it starts with goofs and critters but eventually goes DBZ.
Frebbventure Alliance on Steam
Y2K mascot attitude strikes back with a vengeance in this sincerely ridiculous and relentlessly intense Sakurai-inspired action platformer! With revolutionarily seamless movement and combat design, 9 ...
store.steampowered.com
Oh heck yeah. Advent Neon (great high-speed platformer that feels almost entirely different from Sonic) is getting a second loop with new story. My favourite kind of update.
Advent NEON - 🚨🚨OUT NOW!!🚨🚨@adventneon.bsky.social · 4d ago🚨 #AdventNEON CONTENT UPDATE COMING SOON!🚨 And yep! It's THAT update. Coming out in October, tear through altered levels as fast as you can, or else Neopolis explodes! No pressure. Only one question remains: What happened to Neon...? #indiegame
