löyly

Obvious genAI just from the fact that in all the real pictures they both look dead inside

Dear Agony Aunt on Steam Congratulations! Your job application was successful. All you have to do now is get through the trial period. Respond to messages using a retro 2006 email client. The replies you send will determine w...

I'm assuming this one counts? Shared with the dev :)
store.steampowered.com/app/1750640/...

The similarity is uncanny😧!
Although some details have been changed, the substantial similarities in the core elements of the work constitute a derivative work based on my original creation. This raises significant concerns about intellectual property infringement.
It also feels AI laundering.

Yeah I'd definitely be upset 😒
...and wow, that's a lot of money. Maybe someone knows a good copyright lawyer (?) that would look at the case? I have no idea unfortunately 😕

Wait WHAT
I first saw this when I was half asleep and it took me a bit to figure out you didn't just share the same image again.
That's... probably just different enough to be legal? I'd still be ashamed to publish it without acknowledging the original.

I don't love the idea of reviews by people who haven't really played the game, but well-meaning individuals aren't the same as bot farms. And as a player I ignore 1 sentence reviews anyway bc only longer genuine reviews tell me if the game might be for me.

guess I should have tagged this #indie, are we ever going to be allowed to edit our posts here

Screenshot of Duskpunk: stats overview that explains the use of growth points, and that "anxious" is a useful trait for the Intuit ability that alerts you of potential consequences.

Screenshot of Duskpunk: a picture of Nasrin, a woman wearing a hijab and the uniform of the factory workers. Nasrin reminds Henry that regular people are strong together. Henry mentions rumours of community projects like field hospitals and community kitchens, and having their own community at the factory. Nasrin replies that the city is different now, and that they must find and support people working together. The game gives the player/MC a new aim to consider: "to investigate communal projects". Nasrin says: "See you on the other side."

Screenshot of Duskpunk: a picture of Markov, a dark-skinned man with curly white hair and a full beard in formerly elegant clothes, from the Revolutionaries faction. Zai and Markov discuss that "prying one bastard off the throne just to pop another on instead" won't be enough and that they also need to do something about "that zoo they call a parliament", consisting of "bankers or aristos or shareholders". The game gives you a new aim to consider: "to dissolve parliament".

Screenshot of Duskpunk: white text on black background quoting Leon Trotsky as saying "Learning not to forget the past in order to foresee the future is our first, our most important task."

Not my usual "cozy" stuff, but this might be as good a time as any to play @jamespatton.bsky.social's Duskpunk.

Resource Library - Ecocity Builders

This might be a good place to start if you haven't seen it?
ecocitybuilders.org/resource-lib...
I've read EcoCities by Register and can recommend it! (I'd recommend buying books through a decent bookstore rather than Google though...)

Not directly a call to action and only minimally interactive, but do you know @pfquarta.bsky.social's (and others') Atuel? It felt like it could have been a prologue to All Will Rise 💙

20 Incredible Innovative Indie Games To Wishlist This Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgaming 2025 everybody! Celebrate with a huge pile of unknown indies to put on your radar

Hooray! The first of the Thanksgaming 2025 posts is up on Kotaku, with an epic TWENTY unknown indies to check out!

I'm going to put up another 20 tomorrow.

Spread it far and wide!

kotaku.com/indie-games-...

But does the game use any PRONOUNS? I heard pronouns are really bad 😱

This reminds me of how I'd do a round and talk to all the NPCs in @seaphoenixgames.bsky.social's Innkeeping games each in-game day to see if they had any new dialogue - and often they did 💚 Such details are among my favourite things.

FWIW I have this weird issue where if I react to one thing then I feel like I should also react to other things and I shouldn't ignore all the important political stuff being discussed on this site, but I also don't have the energy... So I often end up pretending that I didn't see anything

"we will not distribute content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor*"

*except anime girls

When I see the Steam AI disclosure for "placeholder art", what I read is "We thought we could get away with it, but someone found out so now we're pretending it was meant to be replaced"

@onbearfeet.bsky.social I hope you don't mind me tagging you every time I see a bear on here

When I see the Steam AI disclosure for "placeholder art", what I read is "We thought we could get away with it, but someone found out so now we're pretending it was meant to be replaced"

One reason I can think of is that this makes it easier to find out who was responsible for something certain players don't like - say, who "made the game woke" - and personally target them

Absolutely, and I knew that I'd probably be too sensitive for it so I'm not blaming you 😅

Indie game developers have a new sales pitch: being ‘AI free’ “We can produce results that meet our quality standards without its assistance.”

Indie game developers have a new sales pitch: being ‘AI free’

I mean, I just survived @jamespatton.bsky.social's Duskpunk without triggering a relapse of my chronic illness, but it was often too much for me to be enjoyable. Others wanted higher stakes though 🤷
I'd also love to feature the game in my curator "Peaceful Adventures and Stories" if relaxed enough 💚

I hope it doesn't get too tense and stressful though 👶

As much as I love cute harmless fantasy, I also love #indiegames that aren't "just a game"

The more I learn about the behind-the-scenes of indie games, the more I understand that. They are really good at keeping gamers just content enough though, and the community features seem like they *are* good for spreading the word about games.

Just the transphobia alone *should* be against TOS, nevermind that it's not a review of the game

Eww. I just flagged it too. Maybe it'll help more by someone with no stakes, or more people in general.

And now we aren't going to think that's unrealistic 🙃

I... guess? I've seen "if Stardew Valley and Slime Rancher had a mech baby"... I was always put off by Stardew's graphics, and it also doesn't sound very chill with all the stuff you have to get done every day against a timer tbh

Scrap Mechanic looks like you might have some fun with Lightyear Frontier... or be disappointed because I don't think you can create custom machines (I've only played an old demo so far).