Aaron Riccio
@illogicaljoker.bsky.social
video game reviews @ slantmagazine.com cryptic crossword solves @ twitch.com/thatcrypticguy
I'm serious about loving cryptics; let me show you why as I stream, discuss, and hopefully solve indie crosswords from: - EJ - Glentopher - CanterburyEgg - Macaroni - Kyle Dolan - Eight - Koha I'll do more if I can! ~9:00 PM Eastern
thatcrypticguy - Twitch
Enthusiast of all things puzzle-y; all-in on cryptic crosswords especially and any wordplay-based puzzle that has a compelling, funny voice. Grew up on Infocom and LucasArts, which probably explains a...
twitch.tv
It's so nice to have transparency, and to see people putting together such great work for what is, essentially, charity and entertainment. I do wonder a lot about scale, though, particularly for cryptic crosswords. Minute Cryptic has, purportedly 48917 members. That, to me, is the pool of solvers.
Matt@wyrd.systems · 19h agoI finally did last year's taxes for @unchcrosswords.com at the weekend. Now that's done I've written a blog post explaining where the money all goes - including the proud announcement that we have £1000 ready to donate to charity! Thanks all ❤️ www.wyrd.systems/posts/unch-m...
A wonderful resource!
Abdul K.@abdvl.bsky.social · yesterdayJust added to my bio, but I'll also mention it here: I recently took on maintaining data.crypticsbyabdul.com / georgeho-continuation.fly.dev, a continuation of GeorgeHo's cryptic clue database, with over 900,000 cryptic clues currently added (roughly 2009-2026). (1)
Twitch does this irritating thing where if a stream is interrupted for any reason, a single session becomes one more streams with the same title. I can download the videos separately after the stream, but how can I most easily recombine them into a single video for archival on YouTube?
Sorry for the radio silence on the Friday Night Frontlog, which did not go according to plan, thanks to: (1) post-birthday food poisoning (2) sick kid I'm going to stream tonight ~9:00 Eastern with Magical Blush, Echo Weaver, Neon Abyss 2 & PAPERHEAD. Then tomorrow night, more cryptic crosswords!
thatcrypticguy - Twitch
Enthusiast of all things puzzle-y; all-in on cryptic crosswords especially and any wordplay-based puzzle that has a compelling, funny voice. Grew up on Infocom and LucasArts, which probably explains a...
twitch.tv
Best mayor by a mile. Instantly clear.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · 3d agoCancelling a subscription shouldn't be this hard. If you can sign up with a click, you must be able to cancel with one. Head to nyc.gov/click-to-cancel to file a complaint against any business that makes it hard to cancel a subscription.
No lie, LUNA ABYSS has the platforming that I wish Destiny 2 had managed, and if the two studios were to collaborate on something, you'd have best-in-class gunplay and terrific traversal. Just putting it out there.
Luna Abyss on Steam
Luna Abyss is a single player story driven action-adventure with fluid platforming and bullet hell combat. Follow the journey of Fawkes, a prisoner of Luna caught between a cryptic prophecy and their ...
store.steampowered.com
Nobody should need to tell someone to "see and decide for yourself" when it comes to art. That should be OBVIOUS. People have forgotten that criticism is for EXTENDING the conversation, not discouraging people to partake in it.
Picture-perfect condemnation of the AAA industry's compulsion to remake perfectly fine games, and way more effective than that grimdark Mario video (because this one's interactive, so you can see how annoying the constant patter is).
Mike Lacher@mikelacher.bsky.social · 6d agoi rebooted minesweeper as a AAA shooter. loot boxes coming soon minesweeper.mikelacher.com
Added demos to check out either tonight or tomorrow: - Dupery - Am I Nima - Light of Atlantis - Compress(space) - Croak - DEG - The Button Effect - Trifoil - WORK WORK WORK - Cursed Words - Mr. Sleepy Man - Piece by Piece - RUBATO - Schrodinger's Cat Burglar - The Message from Deep Space
thatcrypticguy - Twitch
Enthusiast of all things puzzle-y; all-in on cryptic crosswords especially and any wordplay-based puzzle that has a compelling, funny voice. Grew up on Infocom and LucasArts, which probably explains a...
twitch.tv
Aaron Riccio@illogicaljoker.bsky.social · 7d agoThe evening times are approximate, based on the kids sleeping. Possible indie games (feel free to recommend more) are: - Twisted Tower - Night Spasm - Horripilant - Mayor May Knott - Aggelos 2 - Tales of Formentera - Fading Echo - Nomori - Kalanoro - Magical Blush
“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books
OK, going live for a very rare day time stream because my office is letting me take the day for my birthday (and this is how I choose to spend it). I'll be cracking open "Rubber Ducky" from Black Letter Labs. Maybe I'll do some Afterbeat. Maybe a cryptic. Anything goes!
thatcrypticguy - Twitch
Enthusiast of all things puzzle-y; all-in on cryptic crosswords especially and any wordplay-based puzzle that has a compelling, funny voice. Grew up on Infocom and LucasArts, which probably explains a...
twitch.tv
Aaron Riccio@illogicaljoker.bsky.social · 7d agoThe evening times are approximate, based on the kids sleeping. Possible indie games (feel free to recommend more) are: - Twisted Tower - Night Spasm - Horripilant - Mayor May Knott - Aggelos 2 - Tales of Formentera - Fading Echo - Nomori - Kalanoro - Magical Blush
Going live now at twitch.tv/thatcrypticguy!
thatcrypticguy - Live on Twitch
NO WRONG ANSWERS #60: (Mostly) Variety Puzzles Only | Streaming cryptic crosswords.
twitch.tv
Aaron Riccio@illogicaljoker.bsky.social · 7d agoSorry about last night; fell asleep putting the kids to bed again. Here's the stream schedule for this week! - Wednesday @ 9:00 PM: Solves/discussions of cryptic crosswords! - Thursday @ 9:00 AM: BIRTHDAY STREAM; Black Letter Lab puzzle box - Friday @ 9:00 PM: Checking out indie games
Here's why I don't have a review of Order of the Sinking Star: Didn't request, as I knew I wouldn't beat it, not just because it's 100+ hours long, but because I couldn't finish the 100 puzzle DEMO. Sokobans are hard! Here's a great review though, written better than I could ever have done:
'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star Is As Complex and Exhausting As It Sounds
Thekla's latest is all over the place
polygon.com
Sorry about last night; fell asleep putting the kids to bed again. Here's the stream schedule for this week! - Wednesday @ 9:00 PM: Solves/discussions of cryptic crosswords! - Thursday @ 9:00 AM: BIRTHDAY STREAM; Black Letter Lab puzzle box - Friday @ 9:00 PM: Checking out indie games
My only complaint with STAR WARS GALACTIC RACER (as with other racing games where you purchase upgrades for your vehicles) is that I'm not sure you can win every race, even on the lowest difficulty. Other speeders are sometimes just faster! (I might also just be a bad racer!)
SILVER PINES would be a hard to recommend even if I hadn't just played a solid metroidvania (Well Dweller) and real survival horror game (Silent Hill: Townfall). I'll update once I clear the final area, but the town is largely empty and boring.
Save 10% on Silver Pines on Steam
Silver Pines is a survival horror metroidvania set in small town America. Fight nightmarish terrors and solve puzzles, while carefully managing your scarce resources as you uncover the mysteries that ...
store.steampowered.com
You remember how Republicans got all hot and bothered when people started calling them "weird"? Time to start calling tech bros and all their vaunted inventions "boring." Take the hype out of it, stop adopting it, and just ignore these sad little men into obscurity.
Finished Well Dweller. It's a good, heavily atmospheric game; it's closer to Little Nightmares than Hollow Knight in terms of monstrous creatures, and they're a joy to slay. Progression is odd, though: you never really get tankier, and there's only one trinket to upgrade for more damage.
On a scale of 1 to grump, how bad am I, walking to school edition. Got angry at: - woman smoking her cigarette as she slow walked in front of our stroller and past a bunch of middle schoolers - school bus parked so that it blocked the crosswalk ramp for strollers - man on e-scooter running a red
OK, end-of-year catch-up is here. I've been keeping ahead of the frontlog on my weekly streams, but help me figure out what I've missed! On my list: - Crushed in Time - CICADAMATA" - The Mermaid Mask - The Incident at Galley House - The Message from Deep Space - Schrodinger's Cat Burglar
Look, I don't want to be that old guy, and I'm all for having public concerts and events like Dom Dolla BUT if the area does not have the infrastructure for that traffic, then the city must have some sort of congestion pricing to discourage rideshares from clogging the roads.
WARNING! WARNING! A STEAM SALE APPROACHES! Rather than spam up all of your timelines with a gigantic recommendation thread that makes Bluesky's UI creak, I've basically got free reign to spam up Steam Hype instead! I'll be doing a sales recommendations article every day! You can find them all here:
Steam Autumn Sale - Find Some of the Best Deals & Tips to Get the Most for Your Money
Site-wide discounts until October 8th
steamhype.com
Game impressions for those who don't care to sit through a rambling VOD! I only got to play Well Dweller for a bit before my kiddo woke up, but it's a gorgeous, albeit familiar, hybrid of Ori and Hollow Knight. Using the matchstick to springboard is interesting, but it's slow; not sold on it yet.
Save 15% on Well Dweller on Steam
Well Dweller is a dark fairy-tale metroidvania, full of charming characters living in a wretched kingdom. Play as Glimmer - a tiny bird armed with a matchstick - who must burn the wicked queen to save...
store.steampowered.com
Aaron Riccio@illogicaljoker.bsky.social · 2w agoJust a quick heads-up that because of birthdays, I'll be streaming cryptics on Wednesday, September 30, and games on Friday, October 2, both starting around 9:00 PM Eastern. For cryptics, doing a @joeadultman.bsky.social catch-up. For games, likely: - Well Dweller - Retrospace - Isle of Reveries
I don't think I have ever backed a successful Kickstarter campaign, so while I know it has been genuinely useful to some, I think it's time to start calling this shit what it is: legalized gambling.
Rock Paper Shotgun@rockpapershotgun.bsky.social · 2w agoColourful JRPG Armed Fantasia has been cancelled, four years after a successful Kickstarter campaign descended into delays and lawsuits. https://bit.ly/4ykV7FU
Racing is a game of margins, and STAR STARS: GALACTIC RACER is always pushing things to the limit. Read @illogicaljoker.bsky.social's review.
'Star Wars: Galactic Racer' Review: The G-Force Is Strong
'Star Wars: Galactic Racer' reaches new heights for the entire racing genre while also serving up a fairly good 'Star Wars' yarn.
slantmagazine.com
Star Wars: Galactic Racer isn't just a great Star Wars game, but it's also my new favorite racer. That it does this in spite of (or because of) its roguelike campaign is something every other racing game ought to take note of. It's a trap--adios free time!--but you'll be having too much fun to care.
'Star Wars: Galactic Racer' Review:
'Star Wars: Galactic Racer' reaches new heights for the entire racing genre while also serving up a fairly good 'Star Wars' yarn.
slantmagazine.com
What a beautiful presentation! The only thing that would make this better is if there were enough subscribers (and time for the editors) to justify making this monthly!
@gnomoncryptics.bsky.social · 2w agoGnomon issue #9 is out to subscribers now! With puzzles from @viresh.bsky.social , @henriwords.com , @juffowup.bsky.social , and Bob Stigger! Go check it out!
