Damiano Gerli

I guess Ukie needed legal threats since, when I asked them, they told me the same ol story "we did our due diligence before acting on the takedowns". Pff.

My article is finally outdated!

Now that is some good news

If you wanna be radicalized against GenAI, try running an online business while these thieving shitbricks try to scrape your site at all hours of the day, creating a looping, endless DDoS.

Fuck generative "AI." It's all slop built on wholesale theft.

Nooooo don't make me hungry

Reading stuff like this I’m always amazed at how many colleagues seem to genuinely hate their work. Historians tell me how great it is that AI can read, compile and summarize their sources. Reading sources is half the fun, it’s why I became a historian!

Plan 9 from Outer Space - best worst tie-in game - The Genesis Temple In 1992 Gremlin Interactive developed an adventure based on the worst movie of all time, Plan 9 from Outer Space. What happened?

I remember boxes also came with the movie on VHS, that's what happens when you basically have a public domain movie. I wrote about the game a while ago (not particularly interesting but there's some stuff about its development) genesistemple.com/plan-9-from-...

It's kinda amazing how uninteresting this game is considering the soruce material

Did you sneak behind them and start singing at the top of your voice WEEEEEEEE AREEEEEEE CHARLIEEEE KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

I mean it is honestly amazing that these people have in their CV "killed off several websites and ruined people's jobs and careers" and hiring managers are like WHY DO I HAVE THE WEIRDEST BONER RIGHT NOW??

Kinda telling that I'm familiar with several of the names of people affiliated with Clickout Media in this article and, especially, with the fact that these people already didn't care about journalism back when it was still "kinda functional".

Wonderful piece. As someone who in 2023 worked with Needler on what was - still - an average gaming website, I could already tell he would be a great asset to the Clickout Media empire.

Gamecube controller airbrushed very badly

Every time I stumble upon this Transformers Gamecube controller, I 100% believe it's one of those "gulf war" relics.

Of course I will be playing this game during the week (and probably the next) since this is a kids game featuring death and sickness and has scarred many young Wii owners.
www.twitch.tv/thegenesiste...

I thought calling him Infant Moses though, Baby might not sound too well

Yes! I was thinking you could hit the main character directly, but I thought maybe it would work better if those animals attacked him from afar with a weird backwards kick???

Article about 13 people being reported for selling pirated Ps1 games

Back in January of 1999, Italy was experiencing the first arrests for selling pirated Ps1 games. Back then, pirated PlayStation games could be found everywhere on the streets.
It was kind of a different vibe from the good ol' days of 1984 when everyone sold pirated games with no issues.

I got a great story about the world being flooded and one single man being tasked with saving two beings of each species.
I also envisage a game where you jump around, collecting animals while lifting them over your head.
Ah, a man can dream.

Sure, even though "narrative" is an even broader term and with thousands of years of human stories, telling something "innovative" isn't really even relevant at this point

Sure, but you'd still have to make it VERY popular, otherwise I can tell you many other games that made it before but nobody cared.

Jay was talking about "being the first at doing something", none of the games you mentioned came first at doing it, they were hugely popular so people wanted to jump on bandwagons. It would be like saying "Dark Souls invented soulslikes", no it didn't, it simply popularized a thing.

Ask Chatgpt
(kidding)
I have had ideas, especially narrative ones, that I've been working on for decades at this point but I am very bad at learning how to program decently

Sure, but often the translation of the concept seems to strictly adhere to previous genres/gameplay mechanics and that's where I often lose interest with a lot of modern games

I wouldn't call any of these games innovative, they were ideas that were made into a more cohesive genre (I'd argue especially that "walking sims" aren't innovative and the term was even perceived as offensive for devs, see The Graveyard)

I'm still pretty sure that finding something new in '26 is almost impossible. But the main issue is finding an audience and sticking with it. Most small indie devs don't seem (or want) to think that far ahead. I'd argue it's the most essential step, unless you're making a game just for you.

In 2026 can you really be the first at doing a thing?
Unless that thing is very much hard to understand and/or market

non sono giornalisti professionisti, sono presi dalla strada

Article about 13 people being reported for selling pirated Ps1 games

Back in January of 1999, Italy was experiencing the first arrests for selling pirated Ps1 games. Back then, pirated PlayStation games could be found everywhere on the streets.
It was kind of a different vibe from the good ol' days of 1984 when everyone sold pirated games with no issues.

Don't make me cry remembering HIMEM.SYS
(as in real cry of terror)

I'd also support not hiding stuff behind very low fences or weak pathetic doors