Dave Pickett

I think it is glitching autocorrecting to ‘glorching’

Girl, I am losing my mind

After an episode exploring UFO 50's metanarrative this week, we'll be doing a LIVE finale for the series next week!

Eggplant: The Secret Lives of Games Presents: A Year of UFO 50 Finale Eggstravaganza - LIVE!

09/17 at 5:30pm PST @ twitch.tv/eggplantshow

(And after that, a final dev interview!)

We're down to the last 24 hours for the Kickstarter❗️

At 55% funded, hitting the funding goal seems out of reach, but who knows! 👀

#indiegame #videogames #indiedev #pcgaming #Steam

It’s that time again

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

Hooray!

For all y’all new players on Switch:
We’ve been doing A Year of UFO 50 since the initial launch, a weekly book club podcast, one game/episode per week.

We’re almost at the end, but you should start at the start!

Here’s our intro episode for the series:

eggplant.show/ep-a-year-of...

Q: What gender(s) is/are Donkus's seven spouses? A: A mixture of all possible genders.

Answering some important localization questions for UFO 50.

Donkus surrounded by people of multiple genders

Let's go!!!

Peppy voice "barrel rolls are part of a balanced breakfast"

I beg your pardon. Some of us worked on Bionicle

A witchy cottage with legs next to a raven with highlights in the colors of the bisexual pride flag. This is an official LEGO set.

So glad lego finally made a goth bisexual baba yaga pride set 🩷💜💙

🚨HUGE News🚨

🐸BIG HOPS is a froggy platformer with deep movement, fresh tongue-gameplay, where you use powerful veggies to grow paths forward!

✨Free demo out NOW
🎮Coming to Nintendo Switch 1 & 2 in Q4 2025
💰Our publisher dropped us, so we're KICKSTARTING
(links below)

wife: how was guarding the two paths today, honey?

guard: [looking away] fine

wife: did something happen?

guard: [tearing up] no

wife: would the other guard tell me something happened?

Type: Red Rooms Color: Red Associated Resource: Vexation Average Number of Doors: 3-4 Extra Items?: Seldom Synergies: - Shelter - Tomato Soup - Skilled Players

I really love how #BluePrince makes instruction manuals a valuable in-game resource. And also makes them all unique and fun. The description of Red Rooms is perfect.

As @laurakbuzz.bsky.social has written, you can learn a lot about a game from its butts. In #kerokerocowboy by @metagamemike.bsky.social, you can "eat" enemies but can't swallow them. Accordingly, when viewed from behind, the only cheeks in sight are facial.

It's diegetic indigestion.

Awkward video freeze frame of a cardinal in shadow. There are shapes that kind of look like googly eyes on top of his head

A Muppet Conclave

Opened the NYT app and was delighted to see The Muppets are doing another movie.

an screenshot of a video with the caption: "fixed bug where cat was too round (he is rounder now)" a beautifully very round cat is pictured

being a game dev is knowing sometimes 10/10 is too much but 11/10 is just right

look at him go

A screenshot from Wilmot Works It Out showing the main character Wilmot sat in his living room and on his sofa with his dog. There are a variety of colourful pictures framed and hung on the wall behind him

A screenshot from the videogame Hohokum showing the player character, a colourful snake flying past a bearded old man. The old man is called the Eye Monk and is standing amidst lots of statues of eyes, he is waving at the player.

A screenshot from the videogame Flock showing the player character flying with a large flock of colourful creatures through a forest full of giant mushrooms. There is another player character in the distance with their own flock of strange and wonderful creatures.

A screenshot from the videogame I Am Dead showing a meadow full of colourful flowers, there beehives dotted around the meadow and one of the beehives is being inspected by the beekeeper who is standing holding a honeycomb frame. In the distance an allotment and various old fishing sheds can be seen.

All of our games are on sale as part of Steam's Spring Sale.

Wilmot Works It Out! Flock! Hohokum! Loot Rascals! I Am Dead! Wilmot's Warehouse!

Up to 60% off! Grab yourself a bargain!

store.steampowered.com/developer/ho...

UFO 50 is 20% off for the #SteamSpringSale!

Verified on Deck ✅ and recent winner of the Best Retro and Play with Friends (local multiplayer) DIGY Awards. 🏆

Get it here: store.steampowered.com/app/1147860/...

Eggplant Presents: A Year of UFO 50 - Caramel Caramel

We're joined by Madison Karrh, @animalwell.bsky.social, and
Steve Gillham to discuss game #24 - Caramel Caramel

"Melon got a new camera and is going on a galactic adventure to try it out!"
eggplant.show/ep-a-year-of...

There's a great gdc talk from many years ago about games of skill, games of chance, and games of labor (where it's about time invested not skill or luck).

Which makes me think that maybe this all maps to Power Fantasies, Productivity Fantasies, and maybe Lottery Fantasies.

Alternate, alliterative names for Lottery Fantasies:

- Probability Fantasies
- Providence Fantasies
- Profit Fantasies

A colleague just shared, in response to the complaint that it's incredibly difficult to get work done under conditions of such high uncertainty, that navigating uncertainty IS work. Appreciating that.

Malicious compliance gender patterns ...

May I present some ways that we might ask for our users' sex/gender on our forms in order to comply with new EOs: codepen.io/buttermilkbi...

I’ve actually used books as a perfect metaphor for the type of structural freedom I think games should aspire to. Skipping ahead, re-reading, and flipping to a random page are all valid modes of engagement that support and enrich the intended experience of reading from start to finish

Hey all, we've gotten a *lot* of tips since this post. Keep 'em coming.

The deep-dive investigations we tend to do will often take longer to source, report, corroborate, fact-check and publish, but our reporters are hard at work following up on leads you’ve sent.

Thanks for your trust in us.

🤖
🛩️
🦿🦿

Next do woken and bespoken 👾👻🌈

There’s never a bad day to donate to @archive.org, but today seems like a particularly good day to support their work.