I've taken the step of backing another space sandbox--it seems I just can't help myself--but from the first I saw of the project I've had reservations. I can't properly judge until release, and can't even give preliminary feedback until I play it, which won't happen for a good month, but I wanted to talk about why I feel immediately cautious about their pitch.

I find myself disturbed, sometimes, by things that I write; not necessarily disturbed by the fact that I write them, just kind of... unsettled. I have been working off and on at a little wiki (now private) that contains details about my Demonsword Project stuff, and as part of that, I have been writing about the martial arts of that world, which are broken down into disciplines themed on the elements. It's a little complicated, but basically, every element broken down into two contrasting principles, each of which is a complementary discipline.

This is on my mind, as I've been trying to finish and wrap up my essay on Starbound, complete with an egregiously long preface and a full (in principle) alternate/sequel design. One of those prefaces goes on for a bit about the mechanical premise of Starbound, and how the game doesn't effectively resonate with it. However, this is actually reasonably common, and I think it bears some amount of discussion.

I had a scare where I thought my site may have been compromised. I no longer believe this, but I am migrating my site to a new installation anyway. As a result, things will be a bit less polished than usual for a while.

Midair is a new game in the general vein of the Tribes series (of which I have spoken before); in summary, it is a team-oriented, round-based shooter focusing on the Capture the Flag game mode in a futurist setting involving jetpacks and high explosives.

I could rant. The tl;dr is the new Hanzo ability is awful in two specific ways that both come down to consistency. Please pardon any vitriol I might spill, I have a bit of a condition.

For whatever reason--depression, a lack of discipline--I never manage to write down the stories that circulate in my mind. This is a synopsis of some I've had over the last few years.

This entry contains a spoiler discussion for 2017's "Star Wars Ep. VIII: The Last Jedi".

In an August 2017 podcast, NPC Cast discussed what Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) might teach tabletop game masters and people who were making role-playing games in general. At the time I started to write this essay, which got set aside and forgotten, the summary of which is this: in a round-based game where you are more likely to fail than succeed, players are constantly making their own objectives.

This is a brief review of the reMarkable Tablet, which I ordered as a Kickstarter project. It is, for those not aware, a touchscreen e-ink tablet (10.25" screen) with a stylus, so you can write on it like paper.