It also means more people can play on more hardware, it typically focuses the experience, it makes the interactive elements more visually distinguishable from the background graphics, it’s cheaper/faster to produce so less incentive to bloat with MTX to recoup massive investments, the scope is smaller so can be better aligned with a singular cohesive artistic vision, and the limited graphics encourages stylisation and artistic decisions when ‘photo real’ becomes not an option to target.

Also you don’t need to wait 10+ years for a game, just to receive a bloated mess where you only engage with 20% of the content yet had to wait for 100% of the development time, since at that point the investment demands it has to appeal to every possible consumer, only to still get a buggy unfinished release due to the massive scope. /rant. Anyway, indies are great and i love short games too.

This reminded me of the Jar Jar Binks is a Sith lord theory

Governments told kids they shouldn’t use it. So it naturally became more popular.

If this is about the recent AI demos, I’m not worried at all. Seemed completely artificial, and if anything, patronisingly expressive. I guess you could instruct it to tone it down, but even so, i think you’re either a person that thanks the chatbot, or you’re not (no judgement).

I moved from Google Search to Kagi, and I really like it. It’s a bit expensive though the experience is really nice, and you know where you stand with them as a customer, regarding their priorities/motivations.

I know there’s an overlap, but i wish this article were specifically about mathematicians.

I also want to throw in Ori and the Blind Forest. I don’t know the gender of Ori for sure, but it’s a little animal.

It’s a beautiful game, with great gameplay, animation, music, story, and I think it would be fun to watch someone else play.

Oops, i meant Odyssee. But anyway probably you’re right about all the murdering. I basically forgot about the assassination part of that game and just remembered the dialogue, characters and exploration of the game world.

• Sayonara Wild Hearts
• Celeste
• Sable
• Night in the Woods (female, but also an anthropomorphosised cat. Maybe too boring-adulty conversational for a kid to enjoy watching)
• Assassin’s Creed: Odyssee
• Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
• Gris
• Transistor
• Ori and the Blind Forest

I’m sure the cost to the consumer will remain exactly the same, or somehow increase.

Beat Saber. It’s not my usual type of game/genre, but somehow I just keep coming back to it when i want to chill out.

Maybe also Dead Cells. And again, I actually usually hate rogue-like mechanics.