Pietro Polsinelli 🔜 Becoming Saint Octopus 🐙

Becoming Saint: An Indie Tale of Creation with Pietro Polsinelli 🏰 Join @peterpunk.bsky.social in an interview on the making of Becoming Saint; the roguelike RTS that lets you preach to the medieval masses.

📆Tuesday, September 30

YouTube: www.youtube.com/live/G5zYhdT...

Here is the column I wrote on the theme "What I Would have liked to Know About Germany Earlier," along with the additional reflections I provided at Zeit Magazin's request. -A society governed by regulations, yet lacking individual moral judgement, is more dangerous than one with none at all. -A society that values obedience without questioning authority is destined to become corrupt. -A society that admits to error but refuses to reflect on its origins possesses a mind as stubborn and dull as granite. -Here, at a deserted street, people stop dutifully at a red light. Not a car in sight. This, I once thought, is the mark of a highly evolved society. -At the heart of bureaucracy lies a collective endorsement of power's legitimacy, and therefore, individuals surrender their moral judgement–or perhaps never developed one. They abandon challenge. They relinquish dispute. -When conversation becomes avoidance, when topics must not be mentioned, we are already living under the quiet logic of authoritarianism. -When the majority believe they live in a free society, it is often a sign that the society is not free. Freedom is not a gift; it must be wrestled from the hands of banality and the quiet complicity with power. -When people sense that power is beyond challenge, they redirect their energy into trivial disputes. And those trivialities, collectively, are enough to erode a society's very foundations of justice. -When public events of great consequence–such as the Nord Stream Pipeline bombing–are met with silence from both government and media, the silence itself becomes more terrifying than any atomic bomb. -Facts are acknowledged partially, forgotten deliberately, or swallowed by collective silence. And so we repeat catastrophe–against and again, in cycles. -When the media becomes a servant of public opinion, or avoids conflict to maintain favour with existing powers, it becomes an accomplice to authority. What we call lies are not always distortions of fact.

-Political leaders make decisions steeped in fallacy & failure. This reflects the broader political condition of a society in which most people have surrendered their awareness & even their basic agency–allowing such leaders to enact their mistakes on their behalf -When a society uses linguistic difference or cultural misunderstanding as excuses for exclusion, it has crossed into a more insidious form of racism. This is not a political opinion–it is an attitude, a stain in blood, passed down like genes -Bureaucracy is not merely sluggish. It is a cultural scorn. It rejects the possibility of dialogue. It insists that ignorance, codified into policy, no matter how wrong & inhumane it is, remains the best resistance against social mobility, against moral motion. In such a society, hope is not misplaced. It is extinguished -In the surrounding atmosphere, one sees not culture, but self-congratulation; not art, but insularity & collective reverence for power. What is missing is sincerity–honesty of emotion & of intention. In such an environment, art that grapples with true human feeling or moral reckoning is nearly impossible to produce. -A place that routinely discards self-awareness & erases individual agency is one that lives under iron walls of authoritarianism -I have no family, no fatherland, never known what it is to belong. I belong only to myself. In the best of circumstances, that self should belong to everyone. I still do not know what art is. I only hope that what I make might touch its edges while it seems unrelated to anything. & in truth, in the best of circumstances it is unrelated to me, for the "I" already melts into everything -Those things found in galleries, museums, & collectors' living room–are they art? Who has declared them so? On what basis? Why do I always feel suspicion in their presence? -Works that evade reality, that shy away from argument, from controversy, from debate–be they text, painting, or performance–are worthless.

-I understand now: people crave power and tyranny as they crave sunshine and rain, for the burden of self-awareness feels like pain. at times, even like catastrophe. -Under most circumstances, society selects the most selfish, least idealistic among us to take on the work we call "art" because that choice makes everyone feel safe. Additional reflections -In Berlin, I encounter the ever-present Schweinshaxe and Schnitzel, and I can hardly believe that such a highly developed, industrialised country offers such a monotonous selection of ingredients. Even more baffling is the sudden proliferation of Chinese restaurants–most of them noodle-based, and operating at a culinary level that any Chinese person could easily achieve at home. The variety of food and cooking methods is so limited here that people form all over the world feel compelled to open restaurants: Vietnamese, Thai, Turkish–you name it. -But the truly horrifying part? The sheer number of Chinese restaurants. I can only assume they believe that no matter what ends up on the plate, German customers will come running. In front of some of these establishments, there are even long queues–yet the food they serve bears little resemblance to anything recognisably Chinese. My favourite food in Germany is the bread and sausage–you simply can't find ones with such distinctive character anywhere else. -I'm puzzled by why so many people would willingly cram themselves into a small bar just to have a long conversation. Since I don't speak the language, I can only imagine that the young people coming to Berlin would talk about clubbing. This sort of thing was all the rage in the U.S. back in the '70s and '80s. -The Germans might be the only people who are truly the furthest from a sense of humour. This could be the result of their deep reverence for rationality. Just look at Berlin Airport or the advertisements for Mercedes-Benz cars–you start to feel that their lack of humour has become a kind of immense humour in itself

Ai Weiwei was invited to contribute short reflections on “What I would have liked to know about Germany earlier" for an upcoming issue of Zeit Magazin. His submission was first shortened and edited, then immediately cancelled after a review by the Executive Editor. Ai shared his reflections anyway:

#426 – Edward Gibson: Human Language, Psycholinguistics, Syntax, Grammar & LLMs Lex Fridman Podcast · Episode

An extremely interesting point (within a fascinating interview about LLMs and language studies) is made here about considering LLMs as evidence against Chomsky’s innateness arguments open.spotify.com/episode/0VGH...

Becoming Saint FAQs on Steam: store.steampowered.com/news/app/264...

@firesquid.games #indiegames

Future? No Thanks! on Steam Future? No Thanks! is a narrative-driven, open-world adventure set in an ecosocialist utopia. You're old, bitter, and scheduled for euthanasia. Enjoy your last day in a future that works for everyone ...

New @molleindustria.org game alert! store.steampowered.com/app/3861870/...

Hope this helps! @firesquid.games

SPOILER: How to get more food production?

Distributing land to people and peasants will definitely increase your food production. Also, letting merchants do their redistribution work.

SPOILER: "Death down the ravine" achievement. How do you get this ending??

Try changing your politics frequently...

How to win the game?

In order to “win” the game you need to control at least 13 cardinals and the town of Rome, in no particular order. Here by winning it is intended miniming the time between your death and becoming a saint, which in this case would mean becoming saint while still alive 😝

Where is the politics’ bless, curse, and trance effect evaluation?

When you are selecting units for a march there is a hint’s section, that if you close it it remains closed. Click on the bottom left to reopen it, also notice that the information on bless, curse, & trance effects is always visible.

How to preview the consequences of choices?

What a choice does is revealed completely once you replay a game. For every choice that you have taken previously, a large tooltip appears on the choices showing its effect; it is meant as a progressive discovery of content.

How to see complete infos of the current set of units, yours and the towns’?

Just open the full unit info panel, you can do that in Piazza, when selecting units for the march, and also from the map, just click on the unit icon, and before marching. Notice that you can navigate the full roster.

What does “critical” mean for a unit?

“Critical” refers to "making a critical attack", if unit A is critical vs unit B, once per battle, A will attempt a "critical attack" against B (if they are fighting), which, if successful, will completely disband unit B.

Where is the confrontation’s tutorial?

The game has a tutorial, you can open it from the "help" panel in the bottom right, you can open it also by using "ESC" or by clicking the "?" in the bottom right.

About elevation and ranged units (2/2)

They try to attack someone all the time; the only moment they don't attack or move is when there is no one in range and no path to reach an enemy. Notice that if you select a ranged unit, its range will be shown on the grid.

About elevation and ranged units (1/2)

Having units on elevation always gives an advantage, both in attack and in defence. Ranged units attack in two ways: if the enemy is far, they throw at it; if the enemy is in contact, they attack as all other units do.

How not to die when losing confrontations?

You can lose a confrontation and not lose the game if:
Your charisma is above zero, and
You did not bring all your units with you to the confrontation.

If you notice during a “battle” that you are losing it, you can always run away:

How does levelling up work?

Units that are followers of yours and have "survived" the last battle will level up every 3 towns conquered. So level up will happen when controlling 3 towns, 6, 9, 12 etc. .
Units level up after you get to make your speech in the Piazza:

Steam Community :: Guide :: 5 Tips To Start Playing Becoming Saint This guide gives you advice on starting your first Becoming Saint's game!...

Tips for winning confrontations:
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/...

Why are battles called confrontations?

In Becoming Saint, in order to convert a town, you have a brawl with the inhabitants: it is not a “battle” in the sense that it is a setting where both sides are trying to convince and convert the others (lowering energy faith or courage): no one gets killed

How to equip pet's skin?

Go to the start scene, Settings -> There is a dedicated panel on the right with a checkbox.

About your own name and it being forced to be unique

Our idea is that each name results in a saint, saved in your list. And each saint should have a unique name, so if you want to reuse it, it should be "Peter", then "Peter II", "Peter III". If you select "clear all history" they will be deleted.

How does save work?

The game saves state after each finished confrontation, when it shows you the resulting map. For example, if you conquered 3 towns, and quit the game, you will have a "continue" button from the start scene.

What does hard mode do?

In hard mode:
1. Starting food and charisma are lower.
2. Food production is lower.
3. Bless and curse effects in battle are reduced.

What does easy mode do?

Easy is easier: if you play in easy mode:
1. You get more food and charisma at the start,
2. You get a little advantage at each attack and parry.

Save 10% on Becoming Saint on Steam Choose your doctrine and preach across medieval Italy in this real-time strategy roguelike. Gather your diverse cast of followers, venture out to convince and convert new believers, conquer towns, and...

(By the way Here is the link to the release, in 13 languages 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇮🇹 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇯🇵 🇨🇳 🇮🇩 🇻🇳 🇰🇷 🇷🇺 🇺🇦 on Win 🪟 Mac 🍏Linux 🐧 SteamDeck 🚂, mouse 🐭, keyboard ⌨️ or controller 🎮 😇 store.steampowered.com/app/2643010/...)

A Steam post on Becoming Saint discussions about "Clarification about leveling up and ranged units"

Becoming Saint is on Steam, and we got a lot of very nice feedback and questions about gameplay details: I collected some FAQs and will answer them in this thread 😇

"Funny" that the EU is more and more a major international actor in going against the EU founding principles.

Most of the internet used to be like this. This is actually the default, it took companies enclosing the internet and adding weird, soul-killing incentives to make people behave the way they do now. In a way, there is truly nothing special about Wikipedia except that it survived longer.

So Codenames (and thus CGE) has blocked me, a Trans developer and designer, because I had the nerves to send them the two replies you find below. Judge for yourself if these are worth a ban.

This is their way of dealing with empathy and care in this ongoing conversation.