Windrose is a lot better, and more original, than I thought it would be.

My girlfriend and I play a lot of survival crafting games. She really likes them, and I get a kick out of building bases.

I count myself among the group of gamers that get a distinct glaze over their eyes whenever I see a listing on steam with the tags:

That’s not to say I think any of these games are “bad.” It’s simply that there are only so many new settings of Romeo and Juliet I can tolerate before I decide I’ve had my fill.

I suppose my weakness, like many another gamer, is pirates… for some reason. Sure you have “Pirates of the Caribbean” which I’ve been told transformed pirates from carnival caricatures to something a little more “savvy.”

There is an allure to pirate games that very few have been able to pull off successfully.

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag came out of nowhere and managed to cement itself in gaming history not through it’s copy-and-pasted combat but through the surprisingly thorough sailing. You board and fight on your ship like you would expect. Your crew sings sea shanties, and it’s overall a great time.

Sea of Thieves is the second game that comes to mind. A fun multiplayer experience focusing on coordination on-ship and treasure hunting off-ship. It’s a game that is exceptionally fun while fresh, but lasts about as long as a home-made baguette.

See my essay on Sea of Thieves Here:

The connection between the two is plainly obvious. You need to have compelling gameplay on boat, and seamless transition off-boat. The two modes of transportation make for compelling contrast. You can emphasize this contrast even more by including a dingy.

I’m here to say that Windrose does a good job of nailing this contrast. The boat combat is lightweight, but fun (sea shanties included). The ground combat is difficult, and extremely frustrating at times but still visceral enough to be compelling. The addition of survival-crafting elements work more as a means to pad the game out, but I tend to appreciate these mechanics when they are done well.

The game has three biomes, and after about 24 hours we’ve just managed to hit the second one at a whopping lvl 8. That progression might be slow for some people, but I never really seem to notice.

I’d like to take a second to talk about systems in survival crafting that I like, because Windrose has almost everything on my wishlist. Namely having all chests act as a single base stockpile when you build or craft so you don’t have to take stuff out manually.

Your ship is summonable by hotkey, and adding teleport markers across the map is easy. It may be a little overpowered to be able to teleport to any location from your ship, but it does cut out much of the tedium. There’s plenty of sailing to be done regardless of how much you want to sail between places you’ve already been to.

So far I have two main gripes with the game:

The first one being the combat poise mechanics which are inconsistent and always tailored against the player. There is no combat turn-taking so if you get swarmed everyone attacks you whenever they feel like. If you swing mid-attack there is no attack cancel, and hitting an enemy during their animation does not stop their attack.

Second, is that the game advertises recruiting followers to your base. You can do that, but the followers are nothing more than upgrades to specific building types. They don’t actually do anything for you other than walk around.

I have been really enjoying Windrose, and if you’re interested its well worth picking up!

Thanks so much for reading!

SEO Garbo:

Windrose game review, Windrose pirate game, pirate survival crafting game, Windrose early access, survival crafting games 2026, best pirate games, Windrose gameplay, ship combat games, Windrose biomes, sailing games, pirate base building, Assassin's Creed Black Flag comparison, Sea of Thieves alternative, indie pirate games, open world pirate game, survival crafting review, Windrose followers, Windrose combat, ship summoning game, teleport markers, pirate adventure games, Windrose tips, Windrose first impressions, naval combat games, sea shanty games, base building games, Windrose progression, Windrose biome guide, Windrose worth it, pirate crafting games

The genre’s unique ability to randomly generate runs gives the games an everlasting gobstopper style gameplay loop that makes their value proposition quite mouthwatering.

Lets take a moment to highlight many of the amazing games in the genre up till now as well as some of the amazing demos that foreshadow things to come!

Action Roguelikes / 2015-likes

This genre to me is characterized by fast paced top-down / 2d side scrolling action prioritizing quick reflexes and good decision making when it comes to choosing new power-ups and weapons. The name of the game is learning how every enemy works to work your way down (or up) and through the bosses you face.

Hades 1 and 2

Hades

Hades 2

Binding of Isaac (Literally whatever version)

The Binding of Isaac (2011)

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Spelunky 1 and 2

Spelunky Classic 2009 (Free)

Spelunky

Spelunky 2

Enter the Gungeon 1 and 2 (Upcoming)

Enter The Gungeon 1

Enter The Gungeon 2

Rogue Legacy 1 and 2

Rogue Legacy

Rogue Legacy 2

Noita

Noita

Nuclear Throne

Nuclear Throne

Risk of Rain 1, 2, and Returns

Risk of Rain

Risk of Rain 2

Risk of Rain Returns

Dead Cells

Dead Cells

Deck Building / Combo Stacking

A genre (somewhat) inspired by the Dominions card game, this shifts the focus to smart combo building. The puzzle is to collect just the right set of cards in order to overpower the system so hard that you win by default.

Slay the Spire 1 and 2

Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire 2

Balatro

Balatro

Monster Train 1 and 2

Monster Train

Monster Train 2

Clover Pit

Clover Pit

Raccoin

Raccoin

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors (Upcoming)

Vampire Crawlers

The Special Ones

I made this a special category because these roguelikes don’t quite fit in with all the others. They obviously have some similarities, but the lineage is less cut and dry.

Streets of Rogue / Streets of Rogue 2

Streets of Rogue

Streets of Rogue 2 (Upcoming)

FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL: Faster Than Light

Darkest Dungeon 1 and 2

Darkest Dungeon

Darkest Dungeon 2

Against The Storm

Against The Storm

Realm of the Mad God (MMO)

Realm of the Mad God Exalt (Free)

Titanium Court (Upcoming)

Genuinely good luck figuring out what this one is about.

Titanium Court

Math Homework!

Now we get into the games that had me fall in love with the genre initially. These games don’t end, are turn based, and look like you’re doing math homework. This made them the perfect option for me to play during school without. Even teachers looking directly at the screen couldn’t tell what was going on.

Also it should be known that despite the math homework joke, in this day and age most of these games have actual art with the option to play on calculator mode.

Plus most of these are free!

Many of them have steam versions as well, but start with the given link. The steam versions are paid, and are usually of similar quality.

Classic Style Roguelikes / Dungeon Crawlers

The second hominid on the Roguelike evolution chart are the Dungeon Crawlers. The original rogue (Mandalore Gaming’s video linked) was a randomly generated dungeon escape game and so too do these bear the marks of their lineage.

Cogmind

Cogmind

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Brogue

Brogue

Open World Sandbox Roguelikes

Caves of Qud

Caves of Qud

Cataclysm DDA

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress Website

Dwarf Fortress (Steam)

Elin

Elin

I hope you found something new to play! Have a good one!

Interested in sharing your game or sponsoring an article?

Reach out to bitsnpixelsnews@gmail.com

Got a game I missed? Reply and tell me! Reader suggestions have made it into past articles.

Leave a comment

Don’t you wish you could sit down and chat with your favorite online characters? Who would you sit down with?

Well in the glorious year of 2010 Telltale Games asked and answered that question.

You may know Telltale from their library of fantastic narrative focused games like The Walking Dead, and The Wolf Among Us.

Telltale blazed the trail for narrative heavy games, and for a short period of time they reaped their reward. The studio reached an unfortunate end in 2018 where the employees were brought into a surprise company-wide meeting where they were told they had 30 minutes to leave the building and not to come back. The studio had closed.

“When he said that we weren’t getting severance, our health insurance was running out two weeks later. Like. Nobody balked because it was just like, ‘Wait? We don’t come back to work? Like. That’s it, right now?”

Paul Mastroianni (Telltale: The Human Stories Behind The Games by Noclip)

Among their amazing catalogue of games is the incredibly unique “Poker Night at the Inventory.” A game in which you sit down with your favorite famous internet characters and gab while playing high stakes poker.

The game originally released back in 2010 and with the current speed of internet culture the “famous” characters featured in the game have all but disappeared from the zeitgeist save for the dark hallways of millennial’s dreams.

The game serves as an amazing time capsule, and frankly the world was a worse place without it. The poker in the game was also very fun, but that’s hardly the most interesting thing about it.

The characters featured are Sam from the Sam and Max detective series of point and click adventure games, Strongbad the comic relief from the early flash animated series Homestar Runner, Heavy from the ever iconic Team Fortress 2, and Tycho who is a character from the Penny Arcade comics.

When the game came out I was 14 and hardly had the context to understand who these characters were except for the Heavy. As time has passed I’ve come to learn about the other characters except for Tycho who seems better off left alone.

A lot of the fun of the game is watching these fictional characters ask each other questions about their lives, and having them recount their stories from their own perspectives. What’s particularly unique to me is the way that “The Inventory” is a place where all their fictional worlds are real. So instead of talking about their lives as actors they each get to candidly talk about their lives as if they live in different parts of the world.

Unfortunately the game was unlisted from digital stores in 2019 shortly after the studios closure along with the second game: Poker Night at the Inventory 2.

Games like these are fraught with intellectual property challenges. Most of the difficulty keeping a game like this in stores is legal negotiation rather than game development. As time goes on finding the rights holders to properties gets tougher and tougher.

See more about that in this video about CD: Project Red and GOG which specializes in revamping old games for sale.

It came as a surprise to me that all the way in 2026 the game was listed under a new developer with a new release date. The developers were a company called Skunkape Games who had performed some sort of benevolent necromancy on Poker Night.

Who is Skunkape Games?

As it turns out Skunkape is a studio founded by former Telltale employees who loved the games they made so much (Sam and Max in particular) that they have been working to buy the rights and continue to maintain the Sam and Max trilogy.

They describe themselves as:

“A handful of early Telltale developers, now the owners and caretakers of the episodic Sam & Max adventure games!”

Skunkape games bluesky description

Apparently they didn’t forget about Poker Night either. Maybe it’s just because it has Sam and Max in it, but either way I couldn’t be happier to see the legacy of these classic games live on.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Skunkape games for your dilligent work.

Interested in sharing your game or sponsoring an article?

Reach out to bitsnpixelsnews@gmail.com

Check it out here:

LMK what you think!

For the unaware, recently Rocket League reached a new all time high player count; passing it’s previous record after going free to play.

This is wild news because as a long time Rocket League fan I’ve watched the game remain mostly static for the majority of its life cycle. It’s kept it’s brand alive by attaching itself to Fortnite, and selling stickers to any major brand willing to toss a few dollars it’s way.

There has been some speculation as to the source of the resurgence, but the elephant in the room is Jynxzi. Jynxzi is one of the biggest online content creators in the world who was previously known for Rainbow Six Siege. Recently for whatever reason he’s been hooked on the long time digital soccer successor.

I do mean for whatever reason because it seems he actually just picked it up.

Thus begging the question:

Is Rocket League Worth Playing in 2026?

The answer is less cut and dry than other games. Depending on your particular background with the game the answer differs.

Usually these types of articles are lead by:

• OOH NEW UPDATE

• COMPLETE GAME OVERHAUL

• Some other third thing

What’s fascinating is that none of these are the case.

Why Should you Listen to Me?

What you might not expect about me is that I’ve been a long time Rocket League player and fan. I found out about the game pre-launch and fell in love at first sight. I played the alpha, beta, and day one.

I kept on playing through the years, hit Grand Champion a few times, and go through phases of playing on and off. It’s one of the few games that has me actively swearing at myself for mistakes.

What is Rocket League

Call it reductionist, but Rocket League (to me) is known for it’s commitment to staying completely unchanged. I do mean completely. Unlike it’s sister game Fortnite, new game modes, stories, and events do not happen. It had some new game modes in the first couple years, and a couple experimental ones after its free to play launch, but those are the exception and remain as non-serious side modes (except for hoops arguably).

See, for example, the first video I ever saw about Rocket League:

As a long time fan I’ve loved watching competitive flourish, but also accepted watching the casual game languish on life support. Rocket League’s commitment to consistency caused it to struggle with player retention, and such was its fate. Unlike it’s competitive peers it would fail to pull in a gen z or alpha audience who it needed to act as life-blood for the games relevance.

Why Now?

At the bottom of a dusty box covered in random hats, cars, and cosmetics is a fantastic game. Rocket League has always been a fantastic game, and the lack of change reinforces the idea that any alteration would have been detrimental.

All Rocket League needed was for someone to pull it out of that old dusty box and brush it off. That’s exactly what Jynxzi did.

Should you Play it?

Have you Played it Before?

What you have to understand is that Rocket League has not and will not change. If you played Rocket League before it is still the same game (the exact same). Maybe a resurgence in players is enough to re-ignite some interest left inside you, but don’t expect anything new.

If the game is totally new to you: you have thousands of hours of gameplay at your fingertips just waiting for your mastery.

Why Rocket League is so Good (and so Hard)?

The thing you have to understand is that Rocket League is what I like to call “The Great Equalizer.” There is not a single other game that plays like it. All of your gaming skills need to be completely retrained from scratch to have a shot of being effective in a game.

Rocket League is the closest to any actual real life sport any e-sport has ever come. Many games are made up of fixed, developer created, interactions and binary states.

Think of games like FIFA. You have the ball or you don’t. You do a trick shot because a developer programmed it into the game, animated it, and wrote a button combo for it. Real soccer is not like that. FIFA is a skill fantasy designed to make you feel good. Rocket league is a real sport which requires thousands of hours of practice to feel better than a toddler. There is no power fantasy here.

You can hear my (mental) scream in this video.

The flip side to this token is that the skill ceiling is massive. Unlike in American Football where the person catching the ball has to be registered with the DMV months in advance, everything in Rocket League is fluid. Even the concept of ball control is nebulous and highly dependent on the skill of the individual players.

Pro players are people who have spent so much time practicing the game that it seems like they control the physics, rather than the other way around. The developers have no say in how good these players can be or what they can do as long as it fits within the walls of the stadium.

Conclusion

It’s worth giving it a few hours if you haven’t already. Perhaps a few new players is a good enough reason to try the game. Though Rocket League’s difficulty is enough to push away a lot of early players, anyone who sticks around is going to find something very addicting that you can put thousands of hours in. Just don’t expect the game to change… at all.

That’s all from me this week. I hope you enjoyed it.

As always if you liked the article make sure you give it a like, share it somewhere, and even subscribe for free if you’re feeling up to it.

Interested in sharing your game or sponsoring an article?

Reach out to bitsnpixelsnews@gmail.com

Pre-Launch Hype

If you follow gaming you will no doubt have heard about the Cyberpunk 2077 disaster. If you haven’t, or you’ve forgotten you can start here.

I’ll set you up.

Imagine you are CD Projekt Red. You’re a small company from Poland who is known for many things. You created the second most popular gaming store that is not Steam: GOG.com. GOG is special because it has no digital security on its games. When you buy a game you own the entire thing. Meaning you can copy the files, give them to someone else, and the program can never be taken away.

You’ve also created a gaming arm which worked it’s way up over many games to creating The Witcher 3, one of the greatest open world games of all time. The Witcher is a sleeper hit. It may not have been the most popular at launch, but it’s sales continued to grow over time buffed by a Netflix series starring Henry Cavil.

Your next game, with the right amount of love, is guaranteed to be a smash hit.

So you put out this trailer on Jan 10th, 2013

People went nuts.

A cyberpunk game based on the TTRPG (Table Top Role Playing Game) Cyberpunk 2020 by Mike Pondsmith

Years pass, Cyberpunk gets closer to release, and you reveal that your lead actor is Keanu Reeves. Keanu also mints his status as the most wholesome celebrity on the internet.

Speaking from personal experience, I could not wait for this game to come out.

How it Launched

Early reviews for the game started trickling in, and as the sun rose the red sky revealed itself.

Cyberpunk was… undercooked, and fans were not about to tolerate such a mess from a highly regarded developer such as CD Projekt Red.

Personally I didn’t care much. Sure the game ran awful, and was really buggy, but as we all have learned I love bugs and glitches so I was having a great time.

See my article about breaking games here:

I completed the game and even went back for a second playthrough. My opinion of the game and it’s story was positive, but that’s not without the obvious caveats.

Features were missing, such as the metro, and the game ran extremely poorly.

After the smoke settled CD Projekt emerged from the wreckage committed to changing their game for the better.

Between then and now the game has seen small resurgences of players during key updates, and from the Cyberpunk: Edgrunners Anime which was also great!

Cyberpunk’s State in 2026

Cutting to the chase here: 2026 is absolutely the best year to pick up Cyberpunk.

With the release of the recent 2.3 update Cyberpunk finally has enough features to meet it’s original expectations.

Now you can:

• Ride the metro

• Buy apartments

• Customize your car

• Run the game

• Drive cars (without getting catapulted across the map)

• Engage autopilot

Ray tracing and path tracing greatly improve the games visual quality far beyond what was possible at launch.

Additionally the entire skill tree has been overhauled to make combat strategies more engaging. Personally I’ve been using the crap out of the mantis blades.

The story for the game has not changed much, and that’s largely ok. The original story was solid, and Keanu’s performance is very Keanu.

Phantom Liberty DLC

What I’ve yet to mention is Cyberpunk’s only paid DLC Phantom Liberty.

Phantom Liberty is the game that Cyberpunk wished it could be. The developers have all the experience from fixing the base game, and learning from what worked about their original storytelling.

Not to mention the inclusion of a new celebrity cameo Idris Elba. I love Keanu’s performance in Cyberpunk, don’t get me wrong, but he can be kinda… one note.

Idris Elba brings such depth and complexity to his character that I genuinely haven’t seen in a game before. Its breathtaking.

His character has motivation, regret, sadness, remorse, but also a cold hearted government spy side that he uses to cover up all the other emotions when he needs to.

The DLC is a huge reason to pick up the game on it’s own.

See a snippet (spoilers) from one of my favorite conversations here:

People Watching

I’ve recently discovered a term that speaks to me. A genre for games that I’ve yet to hear until not, but it makes so much sense.

Digital Loitering

It perfectly describes how I play games, and what I love to do in Cyberpunk. I can hardly complete the main story because I get too distracted wandering around, and role playing living in the city. I take public transit, I walk, and I take in the sights and sounds of the different districts.

This effect is helped even more by the recent inclusion of autopilot on cars. I’ll set the destination to the other side of the map and enjoy my digital road trip wallpaper. It’s great.

Essential Mods for Immersion

It wouldn’t be a Cyberpunk review if I wasn’t talking about mods. Mods take the base game from something fun and interesting to next level immersive. Add more clothes, more apartments, more cars, reduce the amount of repeating npc’s and many more.

Some Mods I Recommend

I won’t go into the nitty gritty of how to install or all the little utilities these mods require. I just want to highlight some of my favorite feature mods.

• Auto Loot

  • Looting is cumbersome with the amount of things you need to loot. Trust me.

• Improved Autopilot

  • Better driving AI

• Say Something Dammit

  • Adds more immersive dialogue to V when entering and leaving stores

• Immersive Food Vendors

• Fighting Gangs Allowed

  • Stops cops from attacking you when fighting gang activity

• Map Search

• Metro Guide

• Vendor Search

• Immersive Time-skip

Among many hundreds of others

In Conclusion

Cyberpunk is alum to the prestigious club of most complete and engaging interactive worlds. cough IMMERSIVE cough. I can’t physically beg you to pick up the game, but I can get on my knees and say, “You should give it another shot.”

That’s all from me this week. I hope you enjoyed it.

As always if you liked the article make sure you give it a like, share it somewhere, and even subscribe for free if you’re feeling up to it.

Bits N' Pixels

Gaming news, development, and writing.

By Nick Pasta

Interested in sharing your game or sponsoring an article?

Reach out to bitsnpixelsnews@gmail.com

Introduction

What games do you find yourself just wandering around in for the atmosphere?

I actually do this in games quite a lot. I love to wander around and enjoy the craftsmanship that goes into every little detail of the game.

My playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty has been taking me a long time because I vastly prefer navigating Night City as a pedestrian over participating in the story. I feel bad because the story is very good.

Another game with fantastic attention to detail is the Like a Dragon (Yakuza) series. In the game you can find amazingly detailed food images from every restaurant in the game. What I’m even more interested in is wandering around the fictional Japanese quickie mart Poppo.

So much love and work went in to every single item on the shelves of the store.

My question to you is:

What are you buying?

Best Fictional Brands In Yakuza

Ready Food Items

Snacks

Drinks

Non Alcoholic

Alcohol

Magazines and Ciggies

Conclusion

There you have it. I hope that you’ve enjoyed browsing the aisles of a fictional Japanese store as much as I did. Let me know your favorites in the comments!

Perhaps you gained a new appreciation for all the small details that go into making a game.

Thanks so much for reading and consider subscribing for more gaming articles in the future!

Want to reach out?

Email: bitsnpixelsnews@gmail.com

Hi everyone! Happy New Year!

Thanks again to everyone who subscribed. It means a lot to me, and I thank you all for your support.

Lets get into what 2026 is going to look like in the world of BnP.

I’m really proud of my work keeping up with a consistent schedule for posts in 2025. The payoff from that commitment has been huge.

I just recently passed 1,000 views in one day. I actually managed it a few days in the last month, which is just so cool.

I always have a good time comparing it to my “Status of the Newsletter” from earlier last year.

Here is my post from March 17th:

Its fun to look back at when I was just barely breaking 50 views an article. But I digress.

I talked about a lot in that article.

I analyzed my use of time and where I was seeing the most success per hour worked.

The Substack has by far been my favorite medium of posting simply because the time it takes to go from nothing to something is very manageable for me. I have a hard time committing to large projects on my own because I simply lose interest in projects after about a week or so.

The end of last year I started experimenting with Youtube videos and finding a way to include them in my workflow without spending a ton of time editing them. So far I haven’t found a successful method that I’m happy with.

I have a video in the works that I like the concept of, but tbh I’m struggling with exactly what I thought I would struggle with.

The top priority on my mind right now is trying to figure out how to monetize BnP. Times are tough for me, and finding a job has been even tougher.

I’m currently looking for new opportunities to monetize the newsletter and connect with sponsors. If you know of any brands, indie devs, or PR agencies that would be a good fit for the BnP audience, please let me know! Word-of-mouth recommendations are huge for a creator like me.

For the time being though I think I’m gonna continue with the articles per usual. I’ve been having a good time practicing my writing and trying to get you all the best information about games and other media adjacent topics.

Thank you all again and I hope for the best 2026 possible no matter where you are.

Want to reach out to me?

Email: bitsnpixelsnews@gmail.com

Arc Raiders Group PvP Keeps it Fun

Arc Raiders continues to be consistently captivating especially when playing with friends. I struggle to maintain interest when playing solo, mostly because at this point I’ve finished all of the content until the next wipe. My grind being over means that most of the fun is now coming from PvP with a group.

The group PvP is still very fun I must admit. The combat is so satisfying that just jumping into a round and dying is fun albeit a little frustrating.

Skate Story Early Impressions - It’s Really Good

I’ve been working on getting through my most anticipated game this year Skate Story.

The game is steadily meeting my expectations through it’s use of imagery, metaphor, and poetry. I also couldn’t help but keep myself from breaking out of the games maps and finding certain sequence breaks that could be used in speed-running. Unlike some others being able to find under-baked sections in a game only increases my enjoyment of a game.

So that’s been fun.

Note: I haven’t gotten far enough into Skate Story to put out a review. That will definitely come some time in the future, but not right now.

Ball X Pit is on the Docket

The only other game I’ve been playing in my spare time is Ball X Pit. I’m not sure if I want to put out a whole review for the game. The short version is that I’ve been enjoying it, but I’m not sure I like the meta-progression mechanics. Either way it’s a fun pass-time.

PR Outreach Responses

Additionally I’ve had some PR teams reach out to me asking to take a look at their games. I’m very interested in giving these games a shot and will do my best to give them the time they deserve. Unfortunately I’m not made of time or money, so some of these games will slip through the cracks.

Namely:

• Cell To Singularity

• Cult of the Yellow King

• Swarmdustry

If you’re interested in reaching out to me for reviews/sponsorships send me an email at Bitsnpixelsnews@gmail.com

That’s all I’ve got for this week. Thank you so much for reading and consider supporting Bits N Pixels by subscribing for free, or sending me a couple bucks a month.

My unexpected smash hit of the year. The team that brought us The Finals and Star Wars Battlefront II showed up in style with Arc Raiders. The movement is fluid, the sound design is masterful, and the gunplay is magical. Arc Raiders not only knocked my socks off, but it came into my house and destroyed all of my other socks as well.

Arc Raiders on Steam

Shapez 2

One of the first games released this year. Shapez 2 strutted out confidently and nailed the landing. Shapez 2 is the best factory game ever made in my opinion and will be the title I go back to whenever I get the urge to make a maze of conveyor belts.

Shapez 2 on Steam

Lumines Arise

For the uninitiated: Lumines is a puzzle franchise built off of music. Inspired by Tetris, the game has you stacking shapes into squares rather than lines. I was hesitant to give it a shot. Its puzzle looked much harder than Tetris, but I trusted the team behind Tetris Effect to deliver an amazing experience anyway. I was not disappointed.

Lumines Arise on Steam

Dune Awakening

Dune Awakening was one of my most anticipated games to come out this year. I begged and pleaded with the developers for a review copy—with no success. I still bought the game of course, and I was delighted with how “Dune” everything felt. I got to live out my movie fantasy while dodging sandworms and building bases with my friends.

Dune Awakening on Steam

Rift of the Necrodancer

Another game on my “most anticipated” list is Rift of the Necrodancer. I love rhythm games, especially those that don’t heavily feature anime characters. The team that made this started off strong with Crypt of the Necrodancer, then went on to parnter with Nintendo of all companies to make Cadence of Hyrule. This game combines rhythm mechanics and puzzle elements for a very satisfying rhythm pie.

Rift of the Necrodancer on Steam

Split Fiction

If you’re looking for a solid co-op experience to play with someone close, there’s no better option than Split Fiction. The story is not the most original, especially not compared to the studio’s last game It Takes Two. The game makes up for it however, through sheer spectacle. The variety of worlds and gameplay is light enough to chat while enjoying the game, but just challenging enough for the best players to die a few times.

Split Fiction on Steam

The Precinct

While we wait for GTA 6 to release, like trying to catch the end of a rainbow, you should definitely try The Precinct. The Precinct adopts the aesthetic from the original GTA games, with their birds-eye perspective of the world. What sets this game apart is playing as a cop. It still retains the arcade nature of GTA with fun driving and shooting, but with the added bonus of getting to pull people over and give them speeding tickets.

The Precinct on Steam

Skate Story (Honorable Mention)

My honorable mention for this year is Skate Story. I’ve been waiting for ages to get my hands on this grunge skate kaleidoscope. The Demo released about a month ago and I loved every second of it. Skate Story tragically hasn’t come out yet, but I’m sure it will end up on this list when it finally releases.

*Ok so the game came out while editing this article, but I haven’t had time to play it yet so it still gets to be an honorable mention.

Skate Story on Steam

I just put out an article talking about how unique Arc Raiders is, and I stand by that.

See that review here:

I racked up hours in the game like a migrant worker harvesting fruit, and as time went on, we learned some things about the game. Some very fascinating things. We learned that Arc Raiders is very, very easy to break.

I put out an article a while back about how I play games, and how I find glitches.

Check out my Glitch Finding article here:

I can’t personally take credit for finding the original exploit. I saw it in a youtube short. My parents have already disowned me for watching youtube shorts, but it was worth it. The glitch allowed you to get through any locked door in the game.

This is so absurdly broken. If you don’t know, Arc Raiders locks its best loot behind locked doors. The doors require keys which are exceedingly rare and can only be found by looting regular places in game.

No longer. You can stroll up to any door in the game and walk right through it.

I will not be teaching you how to do this. I also HIGHLY recommend not doing it for personal gain. We gain such an unfair advantage over other teams that we absolutely could be banned, assuming we abused it for PvP.

So where does our story start?

Our story starts on a slow day when my brother and I felt like we didn’t have much to accomplish. We strapped on our free kits and set out into the world aimlessly with nothing to lose. My brother had made some progress on breaking through walls, and that’s where we started our experimentation.

Rather than playing the game as intended, we set out meticulously searching every wall and rock for weaknesses. The first thing we found was a wall in Dam Battlegrounds. The unique thing about this wall is that you can fire through the wall from inside, but others can’t hit you back. This would be extremely overpowered if not for the second interesting thing about this wall.

Once you get in you are permanently stuck. It’s almost fitting. You can be in one of the most overpowered spots in the game but remain unable to reap the rewards. Everything you touch turns gold, yet you cannot eat.

Or something like that...

Anyway, many of the spots we checked turned out to be the wrong way on a one-way street, so we stopped bringing gear with us.

Next, we went after the edge of the map.

The edge of the map was surprisingly resilient to us pushing through it. Any attempt to get past it just resulted in us being pushed away. Despite that we still managed to make it a considerable distance away from the boundary by rolling.

Another interesting bug we encountered at the edge of the map is that there are some places where your player becomes invisible. I assume this has to do with detail culling but nonetheless it’s interesting and has some room for abuse given the right spot.

After that we tried out what became my favorite clip. Everybody complains about extract camping. You go through a whole raid just to be killed by some brainless fartwad sitting at extract looking to take advantage of all your hard work.

What we invented is extract heckling. On maps with metro extracts, we figured out how to get past the gates. We can’t shoot through the gates, and neither can other people. That doesn’t stop us from inflicting emotional damage on others passing by.

That’s all I’ve got for this week. I hope you all found this interesting. If you liked this article, go ahead and toss us a free subscription for email notifications of all future posts. If you’d like these posts along with an early ad free version of the YouTube video sign up paid benefits!

Thank you so much!

Arc Raiders glitch exploit broken bug gameplay guide tips extract heckling wall clipping door walk through invisible map edge metro

I’ve played a lot of games.

I’ve also played a lot of games that I would call “social experiments”. Games which aim to mix up the conventional formula of multiplayer competition.

Games like:

One Hour One Life: A game in which your character only lives one hour.

• You are born as the child of another player

• That player raises you

• You go out into the world

• Age

• Share your objectives with the new generation you’ve raised

• Die

All in one hour.

More recently I reviewed a game called Aneurism IV

The game world in Aneurism is a hostile police state riddled with parasites, plague, and rebellion. Your job is simply to survive while working strict jobs.

The fun in these games comes from player interaction informed by the world itself.

Its back and forth role-playing and improv between the players and the game.

Arc Raiders

I bring these up because of a new game I’ve been obsessed with called Arc Raiders.

On the surface Arc Raiders looks nothing like One Hour One Life, or Aneurism IV and that’s because it’s really not.

Its an extraction shooter in the vein of Escape From Tarkov. You load into a map, loot, kill, and survive or die. Should you die you lose everything you brought with you.

Extraction shooters are inherently hostile, and the high cost of raiding makes joining new matches very stressful.

• What do I bring?

• What am I willing to lose?

Arc Raiders, on a surface level, is a sci-fi twist on the slav-core classic.

You loot buildings of varying value, fight drones, other players, and run away from large robots.

The game itself is extremely fun, but… something unexpected happened that I’ve never seen in a game before.

Why solo mode is so friendly

You may have heard about this already, but Arc Raiders players have accidentally split it into two different games. Loading into a raid with a team of two or three results in.. nothing surprising. You loot, you fight… It’s all fantastic, but expected.

However, when you load into a game solo, by yourself, something different happens.

Loading in Solo should be the most stressful version of the game. You vs the world. There is no help, no-one to revive you, no-one to stop the drones and other players from demolishing you.

This is what you’d expect, but you get something different instead.

The players are… friendly. They chat, they work together, and they share loot. The same hostile streets are flipped completely on their heads.

I don’t think the developers planned for this to happen, and yet… it did.

Its like watching life emerge from the perfect conditions spontaneously. Not because it was planned but because this moment is the perfect one for it to exist.

So why do I think spontaneous co-operation emerged?

I believe it has to do with multiple converging systems accidentally rewarding cooperation only in solos.

• The first system is the Arc, the drones.

  • The enemies are balanced in such a way that surviving solo is not impossible, but difficult. Drones such as “Hornets” have weak spots behind them, but will turn to face you when engaging. This creates the perfect opportunity for someone to help you out.

  • Other enemies like leapers, bombardiers, and sentinels have the same mechanics and enough health that they are tough with a group, but hard solo.

• The second system is Proximity Voice chat

  • Being able to communicate directly with strangers allows for more complex communication and co-operation. Communication is inherently co-operative. You don’t need to tell someone you’re going to kill them. Especially when alone and defenseless.

• The third system is the “Free Kit”

  • Unlike Tarkov, Arc allows you, at any time, to go into a raid with random low level gear rather than something you bring. Its low risk, but also low reward. You can do it to get quests done with low stakes, or just reduce the stress of starting a match.

• The fourth system is matchmaking

  • When you load in solo you are only in queue with other solo players. You don’t have to contend with teams who exist in a totally different gameplay environment.

• The fourth system and largely the most impactful is the oppressive atmosphere of the game

  • This is the most aesthetic of what I’m calling “systems” but if you’ll forgive me I believe this is the final piece of the emergent puzzle.

How it emerged

• The reason I believe this has to emerge is because of the games competitive nature. Something had to happen to flip the script. Here’s what I think re-defined the experience on solo:

  • Solo players feel extremely overwhelmed loading into the game alone.

    • Perhaps they need to do a quest, perhaps they just don’t feel comfortable queueing with random people in their squad.

    • They will most likely load in with a free kit, or bad gear given the high risk of going in alone.

  • High chance of failure means players bring in worse gear

    • This dis-incentivizes pvp because of the high cost of a fight, the risk of failure, and the low reward

    • Additionally drones will be attracted to you from the fight so you have to expend more resources defending yourself from the oppressive fight after you’ve engaged in pvp.

      • This is something that is manageable with a team, but costly for a solo.

  • Voice chat allows players to verbally warn and socially condemn player killing

    • The utilitarian nature of the game, especially with quests, leads to players likely not interacting with each other out of shared knowledge of each others situation

  • Players eventually realize that forming parties, even temporarily, makes local interactions easier for the whole.

    • This is because of the intense, stressful atmosphere, as well as the drones ability to call in re-enforcement being a burden on all those in the vicinity

• At this point you have players casually ignoring each other rather than attacking on sight, and helping out in small ways at their own benefit.

  • Since, at this point, pvp is dis-incentives, and co-operation becomes mutually beneficial it becomes the norm.

• Emotionally players feel better giving and receiving help from others

  • Small acts of kindness build connections between players re-enforcing the atmosphere of the game-mode

  • A reinforced atmosphere creates expectations between multiple raids

• And thus your friendly solo mode is born.

That’s not to say that people don’t pvp in solo mode. As word gets around that solo is filled with pacifists, there will be opportunists seeking to take advantage of this situation.

Especially don’t expect people to be friendly on Dam Battlegrounds solo.

On the whole though I think that friendly solo phenomena is unique and worth talking about.

Thank you for reading and I’ll see you in the next one!

Its October spooky time and that means I’m out here looking for spooky games to play. My girlfriend and I looked around the store meticulously for something co-op we haven’t already played.

After much searching we decided on a game called Death in Unison a two player co-op game where communication is key.

I really do mean that. You both are split up into different rooms in a prison facility and your only means of communication is through walkie-talkies.

The game takes a lot of inspiration from other titles like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes or one of my favorites Spaceteam for mobile devices. The former being a bomb defusal game where one person has the bomb and the other person has the manual, and the latter being a spaceship game where everyone has unique spaceship controls but commands are issued randomly to each player.

The common thread in these games is priority management and a lot of screaming, but mostly screaming.

Death in Unison is the horror version of these games, but with some noteable changes that make the experience unique and interesting.

The game asks can you collaborate on frantic tasks, while also being hunted down by the prison’s many supernatural inmates a-la Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Take for example “Chains.” This asshole is deaf and nearly blind, but is hell-bent on murdering anyone his mediocre sensory system can identify. For the player this means: if you hear the sound of chains, for the love of all that is holy turn off the lights.

The issue being that only one of you has a light switch. That’s just one example, and there are plenty of other enemies the game throws at you which you manage all at once while… still trying to do your job. Try explaining over radio how to spell Aruukashki Pravitar while being chased by a murderer.

You may think that’s where the game stops, and if it were any other multiplayer slop game you might be right. Not in this game though.

In-between rounds you get messages on your computer that slowly reveal ways of hacking into the system and learning more about the dark history of the facility. Mind you this is a totally miss-able system, but I’d say a good half of my playtime was spent figuring out some of these passwords. It’s good.

Granted even with all of this info I’m pretty sure I still got the bad ending. It warrants a re-play, but to be honest I’m not sure how replayable the game is. There are a limited number of enemies and I’d say the game lasts about the perfect length.

After all this praise I’d say I only have one problem with the game. The gameplay for both players being extremely intertwined is extremely well implemented. The one place this isn’t good is when your teammate gets killed leaving you alone. Even if you’re playing in immersed mode, meaning we use the in-game walkie-talkies, its quite obvious to tell when your partner is dead.

When you partner is dead you are stranded and practically useless. I can see how the “You don’t know if they’re dead or not” mechanic could be fun and interesting, but in a game like this when your partner dies there is literally nothing to do and the game grinds to a halt.

We ended up just killing ourselves when one of us died so we could start over which ruined the tension if only a little bit.

I think Death in Unison is a fantastic game and provided you have a friend to hop in with you could do a lot worse.

Get Death in Unison on Steam

If you like these articles don’t forget to subscribe for free to get then next one. If you want to support the making of these articles consider signing up for a paid subscription for early access to articles and much more!

Thanks everyone for reading and I’ll see you in the next one!

Today we’ll be talking about a strange obsession of mine for the last month or so. I want you to imagine an MMO game like runescape but all the towns are user generated and the world is fully customizeable.

Those of you who are particularly MMO savvy will think of something like Albion Online. You would be mostly correct as well. Albion online has many of those core aspects, but it lacks truly user generated content.

I’m not hating on Albion Online. I put plenty of time into that game and I enjoyed it for a while. Lately I’ve found something that scratches more of that long-term MMO itch without the restriction of being a deeply entrenched decade old game.

Today’s game is Bitcraft Online.

It touts itself as:

and yeah I’d say that hits the nail on the head. So lets talk about it.

Firstly I’d like to talk about what confused me the most: How is the game an idle-style experience?

This didn’t make sense to me in a fully explorable 3d world. Especially since I’ve also been playing Melvor Idle which is just Runescape distilled down into an idle game.

See where I talk about it here:

What separates Bitcraft Online’s idling from other games is twofold.

One: You have to be logged in to idle.

Two: You can only idle for as much stamina as you have.

I have to say, as frustrating as these systems seem on the surface level, I’ve ended up really enjoying the game because of them.

Having to be logged in mimics more traditional gaming instead of something that I can just forget about.

The stamina system is definitely frustrating at first as well, but it provides good motivation to continue upgrading your gear and progressing through the story. These guide you to interacting with other systems either through crafting or through the market which I’ll talk about a little later.

So how does the game work you may ask?

You’re dropped in on a random spot in a random continent in a large world. The current world is made up of 9 continents each with its own server. You can travel freely between them at any point using teleport points (which regenerate passively) or by sailing the distance yourself.

As you might expect the game revolves around training skills and crafting. It really is as simple as clicking on the resource and collecting it. Taking it back to a crafting station and refining it until you reached a finished product.

Each of these actions require a specific amount of effort to complete, excluding gathering, and the amount of effort you can exert in one sitting is based on your tool and the amount of stamina you have.

While working on a task, you don’t have to interact with the game at all until the project is done or you run out of stamina. If you run out of stamina the task can easily be continued once your stamina is recovered.

The game world is made up of distinct biomes which host a large variety of different tier resources. This means that travel is required to gather all the resources you need in your journey for higher level gear, at least… a little later on.

This also leads into towns. You’re gonna need somewhere to put your stuff away, rest, and craft all your future clothes and tools. Fortunately for you the world is filled with player made towns of all shapes and sizes. Towns level up in a similar fashion to the way players do except they take significantly more resources and effort to level.

Often times you’ll see towns list huge crafting jobs they need help working on, or resources they want to buy from you. When it comes to shared crafting jobs these allow you afk xp training with the tradeoff that you don’t receive any of the goods when the job is finished.

Each town is also outfitted with a teleporter and a market (if they’ve made one) where people can put up buy and sell orders on tools, resources, clothing, and other items.

If you need something specific the game has a global market search where you can see what every town in the game is offering. Feel free to seek out the best deal possible… that is… if you’re willing to travel to get it.

On the positive side, I really like the way that the market works and the system for crafting. It’s the perfect combo of afk and active that allows you to have something to do regardless of if its planned or not.

On the negative side, the crafting recipes are overwhelmingly convoluted at first. Rest assured there is a pattern to crafting, and I did eventually figure it out, but it did not stop me from crying a little bit on the inside while learning.

I do highly recommend Bitcraft, but only for a specific kind of person who is looking for a game with an intense grind. The game is also updated extremely frequently which makes it fun to be along for the ride, but some of you may prefer to wait.

Finally Bitcraft is going to launch free to play, but the early access version costs money.

I still recommend giving Bitcraft a shot.

Here: Bitcraft Online

Thank you everyone and I’ll see you in the next one!

Well… kind of.

Take my hand as I transport you back in time three years to when I first saw the trailer for a little game called Skate Story by Sam Eng published by Devolver Digital.

The gritty, VHS-punk visuals captured me immediately. The tortured demon skater made of glass and pain is so evocative; capturing the feeling of skating not just as a sport, or an individual, but as an entire culture.

Skating is a dangerous thrill seeking activity performed by delicate squishy meat people. Society targets skaters as social deviants, but they skate nonetheless. They skate because they love it, because it’s the only thing that allows a disgruntled youth to take their mind off the rapidly deteriorating state of society.

The hypnotizing visuals aren’t the only thing that captured me about this trailer. The teaser music by Blood Cultures is magnetic. A cool, catchy song, about taking your dreams and setting them on fire.

The presentation of Skate Story says more about skating than entire franchises dedicated to skateboarding. Games like the Tony Hawk and Skate series pull their inspiration from the chaotic whimsy of something like Jackass. This is one aspect of skateboarding and the naivety that comes with hormones and an underdeveloped pre frontal cortex, but there is far more of the sport to explore.

The demon in Skate Story is trapped in hell, and the only way from them to escape is seemingly to do the impossible. Swallow the entire moon.

Symbolically we can understand what this means, and I think it’s just so genius. A skater trapped at the lowest of lows using what they know to escape their situation. So they skate. They skate towards an impossible goal as it seems the only tangible way to release them from the shackles of their current existence. Is it even achievable? Does it really matter? It gives the skater hope and so they skate on.

To my delight, out of nowhere, a demo for the game released on Steam. I saw it in an email after work. The demo dropped along with a release date.

I downloaded the demo and played it.

What did I think?

After three years of buildup could the game possibly deliver in a way that felt satisfying?

Absolutely! The demo is what can only be described as “Fucking awesome!”

Pardon my French.

The demo is only the first chapter of the game, but it delivers exactly what I was hoping for. The tone, the vibe, the music, the feeling of skating. I could not have hoped for more, and I can’t recommend the demo enough.

Please go give it a shot.

Link to the Steam page: Skate Story

Thanks for reading!

This week I'm going over idle games, a request from my former roommate who commented on the reader feedback poll. Shoutout Muug.

As always WOW continues to be disqualified since I can’t get myself to sit through the tutorial.

I digress.

Idle Games and Clicker Games

If you're not familiar with what an idle game is:

An idle game plays itself. It's a game whose main motif is not the act of interaction, but the time between interaction. In this article we're going to talk about clicker games and idle games.

So, what’s the difference?

Clicker Games

Clicker games are idle games where the goal is to have a number increasingly go up as high as possible. Generally, this happens through the buying of upgrades which then automate your accumulation of said number. So, let's go ahead and get started.

Cookie Clicker

It would be remiss of me not to mention the progenitor and namesake of the genre, Cookie Clicker. Cookie Clicker tantalizes you on launch with a large appetizing looking cookie. Every time you click on the cookie you gain... one cookie. As you acquire cookies, they can be spent on bribing others to make more cookies for you. You start with your lovely grandma, and the grandmas of others presumably. Your cookie creation rate is measured in cps or cookies per second. The goal is to get your cookies per second up so large that your quantity of cookies outnumbers the number of atoms in the universe.

Despite being the first game in the genre, Cookie Clicker was not above subverting itself. Depending on your actions, you alter the fabric of reality in either good or bad ways. The end result is truly up to you, the cookie collector.

Melvor Idle and Melvor Idle 2

Oftentimes the line between regular games and idle games is blurred. This is especially true for MMO's, where your character tends to perform actions much longer than you yourself are interacting with it.

A fantastic example of this is the game Old School RuneScape. A multitude of activities in Old School RuneScape happen on their own, requiring no user input whatsoever. Certain activities, sand crabs, can happen for up to a half an hour long without requiring user input.

Melvor Idol asks... what if you took all that out? It turns RuneScape entirely into a clicker idle game, and to be honest it's probably one of the best in the entire genre. I've gotten early access to the sequel, Melvor Idol 2, and while I don't think I can talk too much about it, I can say that it pushes the game a long way in terms of quality and polish, and I think that it's really great. You can wishlist it on steam and I’m under the impression that it’s coming out ... soooon.

Faceminer

There's a reputation behind clicker games that they should last forever (most clicker games nowadays actually have an ending I realized when editing this, but I still think this is relevant). Metaphorically, this makes sense. Idle games are inherently capitalistic in their ethos of endless accumulation of wealth. See: Venture Capitalist

Just like in real life it really only stops when you decide it stops… or when you run out of supply. Either way, in clicker games, supply is usually not the issue and so the game tends to go on forever. That's why I appreciate games like Face Miner.

In Face Miner you play as somebody who signed up for a gig website that pays you to train an AI by distinguishing between faces and non faces. There are huge datasets of faces and all you have to do is sort through real ones and not real ones.

The narrative of Face Miner is about what happens as your operation expands from a home grown business to a fully-fledged corporate operation.

Your computer becomes a compound, you reroute rivers for cooling and pay off environmental tax credits for the rise in global temperature you yourself caused.

It takes on this idea of something that continues to grow without stopping and treats it more like what it is, a cancer. Then at the end it asks you that question, what if you stopped? How could you go back? If you're looking for a short clicker game, I definitely recommend Face Miner. It's really good and the aesthetic is awesome.

Idle Colony

Another clicker game I found myself really enjoying was a game called Idle Colony. The draw for idle games can come from many things. For some people it's about variety of gameplay. For other people it's about prestige and what you can get the longer you play. I am drawn to interesting concepts and unique visuals. Idle Colony ticked those boxes for me.

In Idle Colony your job is to run a small colony of fruit farmers that toss fruit into a big wok. When two of the same fruits end up in the wok they combine and become a bigger fruit. Your goal is to get the highest tier fruit possible. The upgrades in the game are unique, the art style is fun, and watching the fruits evolve over the course of the game is extremely satisfying.

Idle Games

If I may, I'd like to separate idle games from clicker games because I do feel that they are different in experience. I tend to think of idle games more as a simulation that you watch for fun as opposed to a clicker game where you're just trying to make a number go up. That's why I'd really like to separate the two into different lists.

I’ve loved idle games for as long as I can remember. I’d classify an idle game as a program where you set up initial conditions for a simulation and watch the resulting complexity unfold. I would call them simulation games, but that genre has become more about cars and construction. You can interact with the simulation sometimes as it runs, but most of the time you just enjoy watching it play out.

The first game on this list I want to mention is the oldest one by far.

Progress Quest

Progress Quest is a really old satire game about EverQuest that seems to question that line between MMO and Idle game I mentioned earlier. In progress quest you make an RPG character similar to any other MMO then hit start. The rest of the experience happens on its own.

Progress quest uses the aesthetic of a windows 95 installer begging the question if tasks you perform in Everquest, MMO’s or games at large, is any more than just watching loading bars go up.

As the game runs, your character does quests on their own, defeats monsters on their own and chooses their own upgrades. Outside of the obvious satire, I think the game does have its own staying power just in the fact that you accrue progress over time and the timeline of events indicates a narrative about the digital person running on your machine.

World Box

Another category of idle games that I really like are world simulation / god games. There aren't very many of these because I imagine they're very hard to make. The number one world simulation game out there is Dwarf Fortress, but let's be real, I'm not going to recommend that. And you can't even really watch the world simulation happen without wanting to read through days of Excel text. In lieu of that, I would recommend something called Worldbox.

World Box is a simulation idle style game where you generate a world and watch little things happen. You can watch civilizations run, you can have creatures evolve over time. You can watch great heroes create great weapons, and then when they die, those weapons get passed down. It's a very complicated system and it's a lot of fun to watch.

Final thoughts

I wanted to end this article with a statement on my thoughts of the genre. As interesting as these kinds of games are, I do feel like they've also been a problem. For example, management games like the old Lemonade Stand have had to compete with idle or clicker up games because they both satisfy the same kind of economic fantasy fulfillment. As a result, clicker games have almost completely absorbed management games like that. Secondly, the idle/world simulation game has had to compete heavily with clicker games as well which makes them harder to find. That’s not to say there aren’t great games being made in each genre, but I do wish there was a clearer distinction between the two.

Overall, though, I really like these genres and these games, and I think that the world of gaming benefits from having games where you can just sit down and watch progress happen, regardless of your flavor. I can't tell you how many hours I've left my computer running to see what happens on a game where basically nothing happens.

SEO Stuff

best idle games, top clicker games, best incremental games, idle games 2025, clicker games PC, idle RPG, Cookie Clicker, Melvor Idle, AdVenture Capitalist, WorldBox, AFK Journey, game recommendations

Why aren’t more people playing Realm of the Mad God.

Please.

This might just be a way to yell at my friends for not giving the game a shot, but I don’t really care.

Realm of the Mad God

Realm of the Mad God is the most unique MMO I’ve ever played. There is nothing else like it and I can’t wait to share with all of you why you should play it.

ROTMG is a roguelike co-operative bullet hell mmorpg.

What does that mean?

That means that ROTMG is a game about dodging bullets in a world filled with other people, and when you die you start all over.

There are 18 classes to play and *most* of them are really fun. My personal favorites are Summoner and Trickster.

Core Mechanics

It sound extremely punishing, and to be honest it is.

The extreme punishment is balanced out with the most lenient escape mechanic in any game. Whenever you tap the R button you immediately teleport to safety. No delay…

*Poof* gone.

So you get to live but you forfeit your loot.

This makes ROTMG one large game of chicken. Will you leave for safety or indulge your hubris for the reward?

The rewards are not to be ignored either. Due to the games extreme punishment each item is a significant upgrade. There are only 14 tiers of weapon upgrade available so sticking around for a loot drop is highly worth it.

On top of that there are ultra rare items which drop from the resplendent white bag. The most coveted drop in the whole game. Seeing the glorious white pixelated bag on the ground can only be compared to finding a hundred dollar bill on the ground. It really does feel that good.

Bits N' Pixels

Gaming news, development, and writing.

By Nick Pasta

Co-Op Mechanics and Meta-Progression

The other really engaging aspect of Realm’s gameplay is the way that co-op works. The social system as well as many of the other systems have had total reworks since the original days of 2011.

If you join a party when your friend finds a dungeon you can simply teleport to them to join. Organizing parties has never been easier.

Over the years ROTMG has taken steps to make dying feel easier. I think these changes are necessary to reward players who put in the time.

Most recently they added account levels which permanently buff your starting gear level on every character reducing the grind.

End-Game

So what’s the end-game?

8 out of 8 and Exalts

The end game revolves around getting 8/8 on a character and completing exalt dungeons as well as hunting for shiny items.

When playing ROTMG you get to max level in about 5 minutes at level 20. Beyond that you have to drink stat pop upgrades to boost your characters individual stats. You have 8 stats to max and each max stat gets you closer to 8/8 maxed.

Once you’re 8/8 you can complete the hardest dungeons in the game for permanent stat upgrades for that class and when you start completing on other classes you get permanent stat and loot boosts for every character on your account.

Shiny Hunting

Shiny hunting is also a huge part of the game right now. It’s just like Pokémon where the shiny version of an item is extremely rare. You’re gonna have to do a lot of grinding to get one. You’d better not die with it. My brother and I are run organizers on the Shiny Hunting discord group and we have a blast hunting for shinies with them.

Conclusion

If you want to give the game a shot with me download it and send “Shocks” (case sensitive) a friend request!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/200210/Realm_of_the_Mad_God_Exalt/

Oh yeah the game’s servers suck dookie but work well enough to play once you get over the hassle. Sorry about that in advance.

Thanks for reading. Subscribe for free to support my work!

Bits N' Pixels

Gaming news, development, and writing.

By Nick Pasta

SEO Garbonzo

ROTMG review 2025 Realm of the Mad God is ROTMG worth playing ROTMG beginner guide permadeath MMO roguelike MMO co-op bullet hell games ROTMG new player experience Realm of the Mad God permadeath explained ROTMG best class for beginners how to start ROTMG ROTMG tips and tricks what is 8/8 in ROTMG ROTMG exalt dungeons ROTMG shiny hunting is ROTMG pay to win why is ROTMG so hard free to play bullet hell pixel art MMO ROTMG white bag Oryx the Mad God

I love 2025.

That’s a lie. However the one saving grace is that there are a ton of super cool city builders coming out both this year and the next.

Lets talk about them.

*Cinematic woosh noise* *Screen wipe*

Beyond Astra

Genre: Sci-fi, City Building, 4X Strategy

Space Civilization + Stellaris. Looks pretty cool if you ask me.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2669060/Beyond_Astra/

Ant Colony: Wild Forest

Genre: Simulation

I love ants. I love god-games. I am the lord of the ants.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1238190/Ant_Colony_Wild_Forest/

Crown of Greed

Genre: RPG, City Builder

Majesty is a super cool game where you play the town builder for an RPG society. Only issue is that it was developed in like 1956 or something. That’s why we have Crown of Greed. Guess what! It’s very good.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1697870/Crown_of_Greed/

Whiskerwood

Genre: Fantasy, Simulation

Mouse + Anno + Factorio + Timberwood. Sounds pretty mice….

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2489330/Whiskerwood/

Metropolis 1998

Genre: City Builder

A loving homage to classic SimCity games, Metropolis 1998 promises nostalgia and innovation. The demo is available now, and the full release is slated for 2025—ideal for those craving retro city management. (Thank you Chat-GPT)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998/

Generation Exile

Genre: Narrative, City Builder

“Oh no! Our space colony was a bad idea,” simulator. Kinda like Civilization.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2963240/Generation_Exile/

Bits N' Pixels

Gaming news, development, and writing.

By Nick Pasta

Nova Roma

Genre: Chill, City Builder

Cute bold art style combined with economic simulation. Sounds like I could waste some time playing this game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2426530/Nova_Roma/

Fantasy World Manager

Genre: Open World, Management

I have no idea what this game is, but I can’t lie that I’m a sucker for some spreadsheets. Looks like I could get a PHD in it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3447280/Fantasy_World_Manager/

Anno 117: Pax Romana

Genre: Economic City Builder

The Anno series returns, this time in Roman times. Known for its intricate economic systems, Anno 117: Pax Romana is set to launch November 13th at a premium price, but fans can expect quality regardless. (ChatGPT again)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3274580/Anno_117_Pax_Romana/

Super Fantasy Kingdom

Genre: Tower Defense, Roguelike, City Builder

Super Fantasy Kingdom fuses tower defense mechanics with city building and roguelike elements. A demo is currently available, making it a great way to pass the time and enjoy casual gameplay. (Google Gemini)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2289750/Super_Fantasy_Kingdom/

Town to City

Genre: Chill, City Building, Supply Chain

Town to City combines Cities Skylines style building mechanics with Anno economic management. The demo for this game has captured audiences the world over. (Me trying to sound like ChatGPT)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3115220/Town_to_City/

Sintopia

Genre: God Game, Economy Management

Inspired by Black & White, Cinetopia is about managing both the city and its people, who control themselves. With elements borrowed from Anno and a focus on both town management and economy, it’s a standout for fans of god games. A demo is available for those eager to try it out. (Now you guess)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2213700/Sintopia/

Endless Legend 2

Genre: Asymmetrical Strategy

I love this series. Not for it’s replayability, but for it’s attempt at making something interesting. It’s like Civilization but with extremely asymmetric gameplay. Each faction plays almost completely differently, and the challenge of the game is navigating a world with diverging goals. This is my most anticipated game by far.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3407390/ENDLESS_Legend_2/

Closing Thoughts

That’s all I’ve got for this article. I hope you have some new city-builders and strategy games on your Wishlist. Thank you so much for reading. Support me by subscribing for free and telling me how cute my dog is. Thanks so much.

Bits N' Pixels

Gaming news, development, and writing.

By Nick Pasta

So, you want to make a game?

So, you want to make a game? That’s a great idea! Games are fantastic ways to beef up your logic, programming, design, and many other artistic and technical skills. Additionally, making a game is extremely rewarding!

Nothing comes close to the feeling of starting with nothing and watching what you build function in real time. Having someone else put their hands on your creation, watching them interact with it, and feeling their emotional response is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Making games is also a great way to learn to work collaboratively with other people including friends. The process is much more fun with other involved peers who all have the same drive and passion that you do.

So how do you do it? How do you make a game? That’s what we are going to talk about today!

What do I make?

What do I want to make? If you’re reading this, chances are you don’t have the capacity to make much. Even if you can it doesn’t mean you should.

In this guide I want you to pick a simple game/thing that already exists and copy that.

Like... literally one thing from it. Copy it exactly.

Mario: Make a character that runs and jumps.

Breakout: Make a paddle and a bouncing ball.

Vampire Survivors: A moving character and enemies that get close.

We want to build a skeleton that rescues us from an empty canvas.

How do I make it?

Literally choose whatever you want. I suggest making a physical version before you step into an engine.

I mean literally make it out of index cards, post-it notes, and whatever else you can find. Miro is another great tool for this. Fail faster is the name of the game, and the more you can play the game without putting in a ton of effort the better it will be.

What engine?

I literally don’t care. Use Construct 3, Twine, Unity, Unreal Engine, Game Maker, RPG Maker, Godot, or anything else you can find that feels up your alley. I highly recommend Construct or Game Maker to start, but literally just pick one.

Congrats... you now have a game. How do we make it your game?

Ideation

Ideation is the process of coming up with as many ideas as possible in a short time without a filter. Pull out some post-it notes, set a timer for two minutes, grab some friends, and write out as many ideas as possible until the timer runs out. The goal is to expand on the game you’ve already created in a meaningful, fun, or creative way.

Importantly don’t just focus on ideas from the gaming space. Media grows by incorporating concepts from books, movies, and the real world.

After you finish ideating you go into editing mode. What can you actually accomplish? What theme do you want? Go with the simplest options of course, but any change is a step at making the game your own. Everything is a Remix.

Implementation

At this point you should have a good idea of how to put together basic elements into whatever tool you’re using. If you haven’t already created your skeleton in a basic engine you should focus on doing that.

Now is the time to follow your own path and implement the ideas you have curated for your new experience. This will take time, and is going to be more difficult given you have now entered uncharted territory.

You also now reach the most difficult part of game development: not knowing if what you’re making makes sense and is fun.

Your goal now is to get your game to a playable state as soon as possible, even if it’s missing features, so that other people can try it.

Watch them closely and don’t help them out. Ask them what they are thinking and compare that to what you had hoped for.

Do they like something unexpected?

Does something not make sense?

Are things too hard, or too easy?

After a playtest its your turn to choose to improve, fix, or pivot your experience in a way that is unique to you. The thing you start with may not always be what you end up with.

How do I know when I’m done?

When there’s nothing left. After you’ve implemented your change and it feels like it works its time to finish and polish. Add an ending, add a main menu, and that’s it. Post it to Itch.io and call it a day!

Project Done?

That’s the beauty of the artistic process. Just because I’ve told you to stop here... doesn’t mean you have to. By all means learn to add art, sound, animations, effects, and whatever else you can imagine.

It’s important to remember that each of these is it’s own goal though. Don’t stack your plate too heavily, and keep working.

Since this is your first project you will probably reach a point in which your design no longer fits new elements in your game easily. It’s fine to call it there and work on “Your Game 2.” Or start the process over!

Closing

Congratulations on making your game! I hope you had a great time making it, and you learned a lot along the way.

While working on this article I worked on my own game following my own instructions.

You can play it online here

Please share your projects with me here! I’d love to see what you all are working on!

Why not give you a step-by-step?

Not providing a step by step tutorial on “how to create x game,” was intentional.

There are three main problems with game design:

1. Problem Solving

2. Scope

3. Art

I believe that following a make x game tutorial prevents training all of these skills. Color by numbers tutorials provide no problem solving, a fixed scope, and pre-made art.

I believe in utilizing tutorials for specific mechanics. These help you learn to solve a technical problem without hand-holding you through the rest of the process. Follow art tutorials, follow guides about scope. These give you building blocks while allowing you to practice your own creative process. Skills which you WILL utilize later.

Therefore I believe in starting with your own ideas, and following more specific tutorials like: how to make x mechanic.