Indie

The Kid Is At It Again

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The last time I visited The Bastion it was back in January. It caught my eye on Steam Deck today, and I had plenty of time to kill during lunch. I collected a couple of shards before heading back to work, and completed a few of the proving grounds when I got home.

I think I completed three or four different proving grounds.., it feels like four, my thumb was endlessly spamming the B button on my controller until I was rewarded with prizes. Only three more proving grounds to clear, and a handful of vigils. Made note of that for my future self to finish it, as I’ll probably veer off in a different direction tomorrow.

Scratched The Surface… Twice

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My trip to the surface didn’t last too long, but I’m back on the dungeon crawl with a blade this time, and new powers never before used. I made it out one last time tonight before inevitably being sent back, but if I can do it twice in one evening I can surely do it again next time.

Suddenly Haven Moon

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Once upon a time, a slightly younger Overlord purchased an indie game called Haven Moon but didn’t get very far due to ping-ponging between different game universes. You are MYSTeriously teleported to a Moon containing four islands, and you have to figure out how to teleport between them with the equipment located on each island. So far I’ve managed to find four out of the 10 achievements/trophies in the game, which are also a mystery (you can’t see what they are until you solve them).

For being a one guy dev team it has nice visuals, though mouse movement looks a little strange when playing at a higher refresh rate. It isn’t too jarring, but next time I play I’ll have to see if there’s a cfg or ini that I can tweak to make it friendlier on my monitor. The visuals hold up pretty well in 4K, and the soundtrack is as relaxing as the game itself. I wasn’t feeling too good when I got off work today, and wanted to play something a bit more on the peaceful side. I’m not sure when I’ll come back to this one, but I did leave a note for future me so that I hopefully won’t be too confused.

Now For Something Completely Different

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Hey look! A game that isn’t Horizon Zero Dawn! Decided to give my Steam Deck some love while doing an SFM render. I got 100% in Hollow Grove and Thornfelt Swamp, now I’m uncovering new ground in Black Root Burrows, or I was just starting to… but it’s getting late for me. My iced tea is ready for tomorrow, a nice Watermelon Oolong with enough caffeine and flavor to wake me up tomorrow.

Speaking of work, a co-worker of mine has been delving more into Linux lately, and he’s actually been taking a liking to it! Although I’ve had to help him with a few things. On Saturday he was complaining to me about how much gaming sucks under Linux still, and it turned out he never even enabled Proton, the compatibility layer for playing Windows games and a large chunk of why the Steam Deck is able to rival so many other handhelds. I’m sure he’ll give me an update the next time I see him. 🙂 It’s nice seeing more people tinkering with Linux, and I own a good portion of that to the Steam Deck! Now gamers will slowly learn Arch commands! :v

A Walk Through Nibel

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My desktop has been rendering the last chunk of animation for the Skyrim video, so I’ve been making some more progress in Ori and the Blind Forest on Steam Deck. It’s actually kinda funny to think that last night I was playing a Playstation game, and now I’ve shifted over to an XBox game, and I don’t even need to own both consoles! 😛 I mostly ventured through Black Root Burrows., and doing what you would typically do in a metroidvania and circle back to older areas after learning new abilities. Mostly finding life and ability cells, and opening up sealed off areas. Fun stuff.

Was actually having a conversation about this at work the other day with another co-worker bud. One of her fave genres is metroidvania, we actually talk about Bloodstained Ritual of the Night on a few occasions, and I’ve also shared other ones with her like the Shantae series and recently Dust. She plays on Playstation, though we do like to dish out on games in general, among other subjects. It’s nice having a few work friends to help the day feel less hellish.

Another Scorcher

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Another warm summer like day means another day on my Steam Deck! Something about playing Hades in the hot heat seems immersive enough. Still haven’t been able to get past the Champions of Elysium, but I am getting stronger and making the place look a little lived in, even gave Cerberus the best bed a good boi could deserve. I’ve been seeing more people play this, probably to prepare for Hades 2. It’s been tempting to buy, but my current collection makes me slap myself on the wrist at the thought of doing so. I at least need to finish the first one first! 😛

Besides… it’ll give the game some time to mature in Early Access while I go about climbing Mt. Backlog.

Where’d The Weekend Go?

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This weekend feels like it left before it truly started. I mostly spent it feeling tired and unwell, but at least there was plenty of Steam Deck to help while waiting for the pain to go away. I decided to continue my replay of Blade Kitten on Steam Deck while I rendered something on Desktop.One of these days I’ll get back to Act 2 and actually finish the game.

Sadly my desktop didn’t get much love for gaming, oh well… Maybe tomorrow night after another animation sesh. 🙂

The Dust Finally Settles

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Another evening, another game conquered. I finally made it to the end of Dust: An Elysian Tail. Still have some missing achievements, but I’ll save that for another day. The ending was bittersweet, not only for the ending itself, but knowing I finally reached the end with no further story to continue. I’m glad I savored this one over the years, this was easily one of my fave Metroidvanias to have played.

May-troidvania!

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I think we’re finally getting our summer weather! We almost hit 30 C today. It gave me an excuse to dust out my desktop, it’s been in a dire need of a cleaning. Also got a little sun and Steam Deck time in, played some Gal Guardians and made it through an area that could have drawn inspiration from Little Shop of Horrors, or even have added to it. I had to make my way through a garden that has become most evil, some of the plants try to eat you, and they drink only the freshest blood from sprinklers, or you if you’re not careful.

I did end up having to take a break when I got to the boss battle, kept getting endlessly skull fucked by a Venus Fly Trap and its friends. The game was generous enough to give me some hints after dying one too many times.

Last weekend I installed Decky, a plugin manager for use in Game Mode on the Steam Deck. It’s pretty handy! I’ve already installed Decky Recorder and a few other oddball things. Up at the top is an additional HUD I added called MangoPeel. If you’ve used MangoHud under Linux you probably already know what it is, but it’s a very versatile overlay that allows you to not only view your framerate, but other system statistics as well. Quite handy for watching how much resources are needed for certain games, and how much battery it’s drawing.

It’s supposed to be another hot summer like day tomorrow. Might have to fondle my Deck some more. 🙂

Into The Fire

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After work today I decided to unwind with just me, a controller and a TV – where I would go on to die a couple hundred times and STILL somehow move the plot of Ori and the Blind Forest. Making my way through Mt. Horu, which has taken much patience and even more teeth gritting. It was either going to be this or Horizon Zero Dawn, but I figured I’m getting closer to the end and wanted to push things in the right direction, enough to give myself another break from it. 😛