I’m suddenly reminded of an old flash game about this concept, where various religious icons fought each other (and I think maybe they were mostly portrayed somewhat offensively?)

it looks like a car you’d steal in Cyberpunk 2077

Don’t insult Cyberpunk’s car designs like that, man

FWIW, I’ve been following this game since it was revealed over a year ago. They’ve done some pretty significant marketing over that time, with gameplay reveals, soundtrack drops, all the normal marketing things with a ramp up to release.

The person who said it’s like The Witcher 3: 2 is totally right; there are several mechanics that totally feel like the devs (who worked on TW3) wanted to have or expand in TW3 but were likely told no.

For AAA games, discs have just been fancy download codes for the last decade. I don’t understand getting upset is now; if these retailers were going to “honor the people who pay their hard earned money to purchase it,” they should’ve started complaining a long time ago.

It was also never originally about fire safety. It was about making it more difficult to build multi-family homes.

Lawrence Veillier, an early influence on zoning laws in the US, wanted to “do everything possible in our laws to encourage the construction of private dwellings and even two- family dwellinas, because the two-family house is the next least obiectionable type, and penalize so far as we can in our statute, the multiple dwelling of any kind… If we require multiple dwellings to be fireproof, and thus increase the cost of construction: if we require stairs to be fireproofed, even where there are only three families; if we require fire escapes and a host of other things, all dealing with fire protection, we are on safe grounds, because that can be iustified as a leqitimate exercise of the police power… In our laws let most of the fire provisions relate solelv to multiple dwellings, and allow our private houses and two-family houses to be built with no fire protection whatever” (NHA Proceedings 1913, 212)

I wonder if at some point he ever read about how 1 in 7 (or whatever) humans are descended from Ghengis Khan.

I know he says all kinds of wacko stuff about fertility rates and population collapse, but when have his motivations ever been even that bit more complex than wanting to imitate/join the cool/funny thing he found online? I seriously wonder…

The Outer Wilds

All due respect to the other recommendations in this thread (The Witcher 3 is in my top 3 favorite games ever), but I get the sense you’re looking for a similar vibe - that self-paced, quiet, almost lonely exploration where, though you do have a goal, the point of the game is to wander the world and discover things. While most of these recs (and most open world games in general, so it’s understandable) have a strong story focus, The Outer Wilds will give you that quiet, unguided exploration BoTW does so well.

(And I know explicitly turned down souls-likes, but Elden Ring also hits that vibe super well. If you’re really stuck for something to play, it might be worth a try with one of the magic-focused builds that significantly reduce the skill needed)

I wonder if this counts as baiting for the states where it’s illegal

I recently got a Kobo Clara Colour and I’ve been quite pleased so far. It was trivial to upload all my books from Calibre onto it. Not the cheapest, but the resolution is sharp and you can actually turn off the backlight unlike some others.

Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon is like Skyrim but with better combat and dar King Arthur themed.

Potion Craft is a game where you run an alchemist shop, entirely stylized to look like medieval paintings.

Buddy Simulator 1984 is a game about a digital companion that likes you too much.

I could give more, but I never see anyone recommend those, and you have a lot of recommendations in this thread already.

“In a world of black people, be white”

Baptists are Protestant homie

I found one for NieR: Automata at a used bookstore that has maps, a ton of concept art, and a short story.

Race condition

Ahem, don’t you mean AAAA

There are thousands upon thousands of indie games with neither of those mechanics…

Any two party system is the mathematically-inevitable result of first-past-the-post voting, nothing more or less.

I’m not saying it isn’t insanely hard (actually I mentioned that fact twice), I’m just trying to point out that Steam gives developers more tools for visibility than any storefront that exists, with most storefronts giving no tools whatsoever. Any game with no marketing budget selling enough to support a multiple-person development team, when they have to compete directly with AAA games, is impressive for both the developer and the platform.

If you want to advocate for improvements and change, you can’t just ignore the positive things that already exist.

~Also you clearly didn’t read the page about the update visibility rounds, because those have nothing to do with popularity and are completely randomized regarding who among the recently-updated games gets a spot on the front page. In fact, your game gets rotated off that spot once you’ve gotten 1 million impressions.~

1. Blatantly untrue, as update visibility rounds are one of several marketing tools Steam gives you that can put your game on the front page for free, regardless of popularity.

2. Kitfox Games has published a guide (one among many you can find on the internet) on how to successfully market a game with no advertising budget. While their existing audience definitely helped, and as they mention, it takes a significant amount of time and effort, they do not spend actual money on sponsorships or advertising. This would not be a viable strategy on any other storefront, save maybe Epic, though Epic still gives fewer tools than Steam.

Steam has been coasting on the fact that everyone shoots themselves in the foot, sure, but you should look into the unparalleled level of “free” (30% cut) marketing support Steam gives to developers. On no other platform could developers end up with the visibility they achieve on Steam with nothing more than very strategic timing and good social media presence. It’s still insanely hard, but the fact that it’s even possible to compete with zero marketing budget against AAA companies speaks volumes.