If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s to never underestimate the amount of time someone will spend on making a shitpost as a videogame and just how absurd the results will be. I love it and I hope people never stop.

Anyway, so by my reckoning this here beast of a Morrowind mod is actually The Elder Scrolls 6 for real and legally Bethesda are obliged to pick back up at 7, unless someone sneaks 7 in before them too. I haven’t checked this with a lawyer but I asked the cat and she said yes, that’s how it works and there is no way she would ever lie to me.

She also told me that we’re in a parallel timeline where Morrowind was the last Elder Scrolls game and every Elder Scrolls since has also been an expansion pack for Morrowind. 20 years of Morrowind after Morrowind.

She tells me a lot of things, my cat. She’s good like that.

I downloaded ‘The Elder Scrolls 6’ but I’m starting to think it might not really be The Elder Scrolls 6 | PC Gamer

Ah, the wait is finally over. The Elder Scrolls 6, here at last, and a full six months before Starfield to boot. All my favorites are here: The Master Chief John 117, An immortal destruction golem pow

www.pcgamer.com

There’s not really a lot to say about R-Type that hasn’t already been covered elsewhere but watching Chinny run through a bunch of the home computer and early console ports and gosh, what a remarkably grand batch of ports they are. (Astoundingly, the exemplary PCEngine version only gets a passing mention and they’re still all grand.)

Obviously, I’ve been around long enough to know that they’re a grand bunch but it’s only seeing them back to back where it’s really sunk in just what a stellar job pretty much everyone did on them. Not one duffer is incredibly rare and precious stuff!

Belated well done and then some to everybody. Good job, all!

Oh, and the obligatory link to Bob Pape’s copious words on their Speccy port which is a lovely read. It’s actually illegal to talk about home ports of R-Type and not pass it on so you know what to do.

I want you to have fun making games you think are good. I want you to have radical pride in your work, even when the ugly systems that shape our lives tell you your stories are worthless. Because that journey is fun as hell. It’s life-changing, in a small way, to share art that you’re proud of, to see it resonate with others..

John Thyer, How To Make Small Good Games

For various reasons, lately I’ve been thinking a fair bit about how much small game advocacy has given way to business advice.

That there is a beautiful, thriving world of small videogames being made is an obviously wonderful thing for me, I’ve been arguing for years now that we live in an absolutely bountiful time for videogames and yet advocacy for bringing more people into games (not the games industry) is increasingly difficult to find and distribute (and to be fair, to justify at times also).

I mean, I understand these are difficult times for a lot of us. Videogames have become a potential route to surviving as other opportunities to make any money become more out of reach. In that context especially, I can understand how we get to where we are.

And, of course, the internet has changed a lot since the last determined go round where we renivented new games but somewhat digital. Time has passed, RSS has been sidelined and so too have blogs. The internet is a crueller place that lots of awful people get to treat as their playground. There’s plenty of reasons the dream of “everyone who wants to make a game should be able to” has become murkier, things less inviting.

2023 is harsh, basically.

ANYWAY! My own personal manifesto would be a whole lot more scattershot than the one John Thyer has constructed. Having been around the block a few times now I’ve had ample time to work out my preferences. None the less, there’s a lot of good stuff in John’s piece – especially if you’re just thinking “maybe I could make a game” for the first time.

That quote I pulled out at the top of this piece though? That’s everything.

Far Away Times: How To Make Good Small Games

farawaytimes.blogspot.com