Fiction Factory Games
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It Is Wednesday: Well, !@#%.
🕑 Added 2024-11-06 17:11:17 +0000 UTCWelcome to my usually-weekly blog about the gaming industry, and...
And, well. fuck.
We have another four years -- minimum, mind you -- of oppression, bigotry, chaos, mayhem, and injustice ahead of us. And in the most extreme cases, it's going to last for generations as the rules get tilted in such a way as to prevent un-tilting them.
Which is exactly the cosmic horror that my new game, The Shadow Over Cyberspace, is railing against. This is the Strange Aeon, in which the sacrifice of scapegoats becomes the justification behind an eternal power grab. In my game, it's Cthulhu who kicks it off... but once Y2K hits, well, he doesn't have to lift a finger. He knows we'll take his ball and run with it.
I honestly have no idea what this means for my wacky little sci-fi horror game. Maybe people won't want to play a grim reminder of their reality. Maybe they'll want to play it as an act of resistance, to make a stand. Maybe nobody will notice or care. Maybe culture warrior types will notice and care and make my life hell. I just don't know.
One thing's clear: as my disability ramps up and my game development ramps down, I'm definitely embracing my role as an outsider artist, a hobbyist who can say what he wants to say, who isn't beholden to publishers or press and doesn't need to make a profit to justify the experiment. I'm isolated, I'm vulnerable, I can't really enact change, but I can make art. I can still make art, so... I'm gonna make art, and see where that gets me. A following, a jail cell, or nothing noteworthy at all? Can't tell yet.
If you want to continue supporting the Patreon past the January 10th release of The Shadow Over Cyberspace, my next game should continue these themes, albeit with a bit less of a blunt force hammer blow. Laugh Track is shaping up to be a personal story about forgiveness and weakness and what it means to be human, with social issues as a backdrop. If you want to support it, stick around. If you don't, or if you just fiscally can't because you have to guard yourself in the years ahead, I completely understand.
I'll keep broadcasting as long as there's someone to hear the message.
(As a side note, my Twitter will probably be shutting down. I don't want that drama in my life or to support the ones who profit from it. But I'm going to wait a few days before making a final decision to avoid anything rash I'll regret.)
Comments
Michael Lau
I hope you do continue. And I'm excited for your next game. Arcade spirits will always be a top favourite for me. I just wish there's a way someday to learn more about Iris, she's my favourite AI
Toni DoVale
Moz Lunsford also shut their Twitter down recently, albeit not completely. They instead deleted all their tweets and info aside from a link telling people where to actually find their stuff. I don't know if that's better or worse than straight account deletion, but hopefully it confuses the hell out of whatever AIs the muskrat tries to train using the platform's data (and convinces a handful more people to get off of Twitter).
Stefan Gagne
Thank you. I hope to continue, but at this point, I can't assume anything about the years ahead. The plan is to continue. The outcome is uncertain.
mkb
you do amazing work
