No Time To Play
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Weekly Links #241

Hello, everyone! Work on my game continued this week, but slowly and with interruptions. It's coming together, but my heart isn't into it. As for other news, the Interactive Fiction Competition is in full swing, the Roguelike Celebration took place recently, and everyone is waiting for the PROCJAM to start in less than a week. So finding news to write about has been tricky. Doubly so as gaming publications spend most of their time obsessing over the same few mega-popular franchises. Even outlets supposedly focused on indie gaming. I'm looking at you here, Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Did you like the public reaction to your angry rant against ad blockers?

Let's make one thing clear: we all need money, and these days it's harder than ever to earn money online. I could complain about the way two online marketplaces made it impossible for me to keep selling there, and a third isn't sending me the royalties they owe. Or I could write at length about the intersection of late-stage capitalism and reactionary politicians if it wasn't completely off-topic here.

But no matter what you do, don't you dare blame ordinary people. We're not packs of googly eyes to be sold in bulk to advertisers. We're not zombies who shuffle from store to store moaning "gaaames..." Decades of trying to turn us into just that have failed. We're human beings, and we've had enough, as the plunging stock market valuation of tech giants clearly demonstrates. Show some respect, or go bankrupt. It's your choice, and it's as plain as that.


In the way of news, over on Gamasutra there's a long interview with the people who made Fallout, about the various hurdles they had to overcome. One thing I didn't know was how late in development they swapped out GURPS for their own SPECIAL system, now a staple of the franchise. Which in turn was only possible due to how modular the game code was, and also because a team member happened to have a replacement rule system lying around.

Embrace little experiments that go nowhere, and keep them. You'll thank yourself.


That's it for today, sadly, but before you go, let me remind you that as of this autumn you can directly support No Time To Play. Head over to the main website for details. Thank you.