So I’m finally done with my video game. What’s next? Should I make another?
I will definitely make a second game. One of my brothers has long been interested in making video games, but never found the motivation to start. So I offered to collaborate with him and show him how to use the game engine. Then I showed him my list of game ideas, and we’re making the very smallest idea on the list.
After that, who knows?
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My game, Moon Garden Optimizer has finally released on Steam!
If you follow my blog, you may be aware that I have already made the game available for free on Itch, and as a Steam demo. The full version has a small price tag, but includes twice as many plants, and additional polish.
Moon Garden Optimizer is a strategy game where you manage a tiny garden to produce oxygen for moon habitats. It has no RNG and supports unlimited undo, much like a puzzle game. It’s mostly low pressure, but quite difficult to optimize. It doesn’t fit into any existing genre.
I play 50+ video games every year, so why not make a list of the best ones? People like listicles, right?
Personally, I don’t have much interest in Game-of-the-Years. Usually, the games at the top of these lists are games I already heard about, because people had been talking about them! So for my list, I’m doing things differently.
The Steam game store has a policy that games with AI-generated content are required to say so. The CEO of Epic Games (which owns a competing game store) recently criticized this policy:
The AI tag is relevant to art exhibits for authorship disclosure, and to digital content licensing marketplaces where buyers need to understand the rights situation. It makes no sense for game stores, where AI will be involved in nearly all future production.
This has been making the rounds as people react to it on social media. I thought I’d offer my two cents, since I just set up a Steam page a few months ago, and had to familiarize myself with the AI disclosure policy at the time.
Hell is Us is a recent action adventure video game, with an emphasis on puzzles and exploration. I really like the game, but this is not a review. See other sites for reviews. I am here to discuss story and themes.
Hell is Us is about war. But it’s not some high fantasy war, disconnected from reality. It’s a flat out genocide.
It takes place in the fictional country of Hadea, geographically isolated from the rest of the world. There are two religious groups, the Paloms and Sabinians. After years of forced resettlement, racist propaganda, a vote for Sabinian indendence, and so much more, the country has erupted into violence. The Sabinian army now is attempting to eradicate the Paloms. Even otherwise sympathetic characters, even young children, often express hatred for the other side, viewing them as less than human.
Paloms and Sabinians have a history that deliberately evokes Catholics and Protestants. But whether intentional or not, there is ~another~ genocide that very strongly comes to mind.
The player character is Rémi, who was born in Hadea but escaped as a small child. He never fights any humans, instead only fighting the demonic invasion that the war seems to have provoked. He is a heroic character, often helping civilians, and even saving lives. But as for the war itself, he mostly gives it the silent protagonist treatment, giving space to the player to have their own emotional reaction.
Moon Garden Optimizer is now listed on Steam. You can still play the game in browser for free on Itch.io, but the Steam version will be paid and have expanded content.
Moon Garden Optimizer is a puzzle strategy game about growing a garden while conserving water. It’s the only strategy game I’ve seen that lets you undo as much as you like. Wishlist on Steam!
Ahem.
So I’d like to discuss the decision to put the game on Steam, and also sell it for money. Selling out, as it were.
Earlier I wrote about Itch.io delisting NSFW content. Here’s some followup discussion.
I’ve been impressed by how quickly gamers mobilized around this. There’s an ongoing campaign to flood the call centers of Visa/Mastercard/Paypal. Financial institutions are now ineffectually trying to deflect blame onto each other. I think there’s a chance to win this particular battle.
The issue seems to have united gamers of all types. Progressives can talk about how this hurts LGBTQ games. Other gamers might be confused by the LGBTQ association, but they’re still vehemently anti-censorship. And look, I’m not complaining.
In the long term, Collective Shout and Project 2025 are targeting all porn as well as LGBTQ content. However, Collective Shout will claim that in this case, they were only trying to take down the very worst stuff, i.e. games with sexual abuse, incest, or pedophilia. From what I’ve seen, opinion is divided on these “abusive” games. Opinion is divided… but there is not much disagreement. Gamers recognize that the “abusive” games themselves are not particularly relevant. Whether you’re in favor or against the presence of “abusive” games, it doesn’t actually matter, because the censorship goes way beyond that.
But my instinct is to defend the “abusive” games. I’d like to elaborate on that, and also explain the LGBTQ associations.