snack party
winter
About snack party
hi (O:
There are way too many videogames, albums, comics, movies, etc. to experience in one lifetime. The goal of this zine is to recommend titles that I want to share. Just as importantly, I want to praise the authors of said work!
Although this is mostly about my personal recommendations for tiny/indie videogames, I'm hoping to expand this to more media and make it more collaborative! If you're interested in making recommendations or even just adding an essay or art, please see the back of this zine!
This will be a quarterly release. I prefer to break down chunks of time into seasons. Most media outlets will create best-of-year lists, but I'm more comfortable with seasons because they have distinct moods to them.
The "I" here is Daniel P. Lopez, aka quasiotter or oliverblueberry. Although my life has been spent being an artist, I'm enjoying taking a more passive role in creating in order to make space for others to shine. It's extremely rewarding to do what I can to make others happy (as long as it's not at my expense), and thus, I enjoy curating.
Just a note: Most of this is copied-and-pasted from writing I've already done. I want to combine them all into one bigger issue because: a) It's a review of the entire Winter season for me, and b) I'm hoping this will expose games to more people than the original posts.
I hope you'll enjoy these snacks!
CONTENTS
Cover
About
CONTENTS
Representing minorities via It Will Be Hard by Hien Pham*
David Szymanski's DUSK
WINTER
SEASON-AGNOSTIC GAMES
SPRING
BONUS NON-GAME SECTION [comics/music]
HOW TO CONTRIBUTE
THE END
*Content warning: Discussion of sexuality
Representing minorities via
It Will Be Hard
by Hien Pham.
I identify as gray-asexual. Although the meaning of this term varies from person-to-person, it's an adequate term to describe one's interest in sex existing in the space between asexual (a lack of desire for sex) and allosexual (not asexual). It's quite rare to see this represented in media with the spectrum of asexuality being so niche. Fortunately, awareness seems to be growing with the proliferation of "ace pride" popping up around Tumblr, Twitter, and the like (there have even been asexual game jams). Thankfully, we have more and more artists representing us, including the wonderful Hien Pham.
I'm not certain how I became aware of Pham, but I immediately followed him on Twitter. It's just one of those feeds that brightens my day, whether it's the affirming statements, cute illustrations/sketches, or the self-aware introspections. The latter is my favourite because these self-reflections are what I'd often be thinking if I was in his position, and that often makes me laugh in agreement. In other words, his content is relatable, often a rarity for me.
And relatability is the biggest reason I'm grateful for Pham's comic, It Will Be Hard. Not only is one of the main characters gray-asexual, but there are representations of queerness, polyamory, and POC (people of colour). It's quite a powerful feeling to see those four intersections of mine existing in a piece of media.
And that's why stories like this are incredibly important. There are so many people whose identities are not often visible within our culture and that needs to change. It's crucial for minorities of all kinds to share their stories with the world, whether that's talking with friends, making interactive fiction, or even casting people of colour as the main protagonists in blockbuster films. This made me realize that I ought to put my experiences into digestible forms like comics/games because they might reach someone who can relate to them in some way.
I've shared It Will Be Hard with two close friends as an educational tool to provide a perspective on polyamory & gray-asexuality without my personal biases, and that speaks to how powerful Pham's piece is. I also believe that anyone who's open-minded about nontraditional relationships ought to give it a shot as well, especially because it provides insight into the ups-and-downs of this kind of romance that is rarely given attention.
Pham creates other wonderful comics as well, and I'd be remiss to not mention I'm Shirtless In This One, a lovely work about body image, and In Case You Need It Today, a tiny story about hugging.
WINTER
Winter media.
It's generally agreed upon that seasons have their own moods. I thoroughly buy into this because I'm highly sensitive and weather does affect me quite a bit.
The obvious indicator as to whether a game is suitable for Winter is that it takes place in Winter. Yet, there are undefined settings/moods in games/media that I make associations with:
❆ It takes place somewhere cold, rainy, or snowy.
❆ Outerspace is extremely cold, and so games/media that take place in or evoke space fit here.
❆ Underwater is cold and blue.
❆ Visuals that are mostly blue, or contain mostly cool colours.
❆ Glowing neon visuals. This reminds me of being inside a car, when it's rainy outside, and the wet windshield blurs the city lights.
❆ Winter music genres: electronic, dark ambient, black metal, post-punk; pretty much anything dark, mechanical, and reverb-heavy.
❆ Of course, there's always things that fall outside of reason, too.
The following pages indicate games/media I recommend because they fit into this category for me.
P.S. I AM NOT SORRY FOR THIS AWFUL DESIGN WORK LOL
>observer_ by Bloober Team
this game is pretty big compared to what i normally include here, but i don't mind. this is one of the most beautiful games i've ever played. surreality is one of the things i love most about games, and to put it into a horror setting is even better. very engaging story. love this one.
0_abyssalSomewhere by nonoise
i really dont want to explain anything about this. but you have to play it. you cannot be the same after you do
EAT GIRL by tesselode
this game came out a few months ago. i immediately fell in love with the name. eat girl. once in awhile, i would think of the name. eat girl. i was pretty broke so i just never purchased it (5$), but i ended up with a decent paycheck recently so i ended up purchasing eat girl.
okay so it's obviously a little odd, but i had no idea it was gonna feel like a horror game to me. eat girl. something about it makes it feel fucked up. eat girl. it's very unsettling even though nothing is explicitly making it so. eat girl. it's just a feeling. eat girl.
the game is pretty challenging., but thankfully it's not too long, but man, some of the levels took many ,many attempts. eat girl. it was pretty taxing to play, in the same way i felt about quake - a tiny insignificant thing in a universe where no-one cares about you. eat girl.
i cannot recommend this game enough. eat girl. it's incredible, elegant, and made me feel like i was travelling through the underworld. eat girl. please. eat girl.
Ellipsis by Salmi Games
This is a Winter game because: The space setting and neon glow.
I’m not nearly done with it, but I wanted to squeeze it here to include it in this Winter zine. It’s excellent so far, and I definitely recommend it. Check out coverage of this game at Electron Dance.
Fugue in Void by Moshe Linke
Being that I’m a big fan of Moshe Linke, I was correct in assuming that it would surpass my expectations. A curious piece so that's exquisitely beautiful that I had a difficult time picking out a single screenshot for this.
Fumiko! by Fumiko Games
thought this felt like a winter game for some reason and i didn't get around to playing it until this winter, and since it has been two years since i bought it, i thought my excitement for it was gonna overrate it for me, but… it's one of my favourite games of all time??
the graphics are gorgeous (the low-poly style meshing with great lighting), the soundtrack is excellent (a lot of it made by the author), the story is cool, and the sense of scale… wow, the sense of scale is brilliant here. the way the game changes with abilities is astounding.
one of the best features is that it's surprisingly intuitive to navigate. it's pretty abstracted and it doesn't hold one's hand, but it's pretty easy to figure out—that's usually my weakness lol. yeah this is an amazing game, please play it
Glorious Trainwrecks Sekret Santa Holidaze 2018 Edition
Annually, we at Glorious Trainwrecks make Secret Santa games for each other — we enter a pool, create a wishlist, and our video game gift-maker creates something according to said list. These are what I managed to play.
As a child I’d play for hours in Nana’s sewing room (for Clyde) by fizzhog
A generative roomscape, please play this multiple times, preferably in a cozy chair with tea and biscuits, feel the soft rooms, this is just so pleasing, please play this, please.
Achromata, for Drambique by rei
A concise exploration of a mechanic. Despite its visual simplicity, I’m really attracted to it, which is why it’s one of the games from this event that I played. Even though I completed it, I went back a couple more times because it’s fun! It reminds of another game, Sym.
Flowerhead (for quasiotter) by danni
This one was made for me. Features I requested: flowers, minimal interaction, wholesome, relaxing, whispering breeze.
Even if this wasn’t for me… I would still be so blown away. I can’t really describe it, but just know that it made me cry. I couldn’t be more honoured.
Rats World (for fotocopiadora) by sylvie & hubol
short version: i loved this so much !!
long version:
i really dislike rpgs. like, a lot. i think so many games add rpg elements and they make me never wanna play them, which is why i stick to tinygames and old games. i’m also not a fan of dungeoncrawlers, anything not realtime, and pretty much everything what this game is lol.
i loved the aesthetics, so i decided to give it a chance, also because i want to play all sekret santa games.
so i started this when i was teaching. well, it was just worktime, i wasn’t playing this while lecturing lol. i can handle non-realtime games in situations where i might be interrupted at anytime, so i decided to just do this.
it was a lot harder than i thought it would be. i honestly felt like quitting a few times.
not sure exactly when it was, but i found a secret and it just clicked for me. i finally found the magic in this game!
i ended up having to let it go for the night, on a thursday. i was looking forward to tuesday until i can play it again.
i didn’t finish on tuesday either, and i enjoyed it even more. same with thursday.
i just finished it today [a sunday] and it feels so good. i can’t believe you got me to like a game in a genre that i really really dislike. now if only you could make strategy games tolerable lol jk
it’s like playing puzzlescript games, they look so cool but i don’t have patience for them, so i need an opportunity to slow down and focus on them.
also because i finished it at home, i was finally able to listen to the music and sounds lol they’re so good
now i’m sad because it’s done):
thank you so much!!❤❤❤
p.s. this is going to be a very fond memory for 2019 for me
[fr0g] clan official server 24/7 zk map (for stranger) by mkapolk
I didn’t know how to strafejump even though I’ve been obsessed with Quakesince Autumn, and this game taught me how to do it! I still can’t figure it out, despite almost completing the game on Nightmare difficulty. [update: I can beat Nightmare difficulty, and strafejumping does help lol]
With this game, all you do is go down! It’s so simple! It can’t be that difficult, right?
Shoutout to snacks.
filequest for mno by… me. lol
I was assigned to make a game for mno, but I was in a creative rut past the deadline. I ended up using my weaknesses to my advantage: just make a treasure hunt inside a bunch of folders instead of trying to learn how to program. lol. I'm pretty satisfied for what it is.
IMSCARED by Ivan Zanotti
The graphics are what drew me into this game, and I hope I can find some more like this. Besides the visuals, IMSCARED is a very clever game, fortunately light on jumpscares. I shall say no more.
Memory of a Broken Dimension by xra
this is the first game i owned on itch four years ago. i briefly played it, then i finally gave it another go.
it's really something else. it's so satisfying to figure out what to do, so i won't explain anything about this.
this is a prototype from 2012, and the final game is supposed to be different, but regardless, it's highly recommended.
MONOCHROMA by Nowhere Studios
in 2016, i download 50 demos on steam, and this was one of them. because i had a mac, it ran terribly. the beginning seemed pretty uninspired (crate-pushing, elevator, switches, etc), but something about it felt compelling.
finally played the game 4 years later. in that time, i've played some remarkable cinematic platformers, so i figured this one wouldn't do so well. and… i thought i was right at first. felt dated and cliche.
the more i progressed, the weirder it became. the puzzles didn't stop being variations of the same stuff, but the environmental storytelling was pretty engaging. i'm not really good at reading into stuff, but this made me feel… well, i won't say because i don't want to spoil anything. lol.
the controls were kinda sketchy and there were some collision issues, but i really enjoyed the journey. i was able to finish it in one sitting (about 3hrs). verygood
MUSCLE WORLD by fotocopiadora
i played this for two nights . the first night started off… i wasn't sure how to feel about it . but it became meditative. it's far from what i expected, and i was surprisingly surprised. i became way too sleepy (it happens) and stopped.
i played the next day, and it felt like an awesome ritual. i beat it shortly after starting, and was sad. i felt like it could be played more.
then i found out it can be played more than once. and i started but haven't done it the second time yet. but i want to before winter over (distant lights in darkness means winter)
Night Drive by flankstaek
This is a Winter game because: It’s dark; hues are cold.
I dislike most poetry, but this was a rare good’un. Not gonna say anything else, just play it yourself.
One Fine Day by Wolod
Found this by scrolling through the 'platformer' tag, looking for something else, and it caught my eye. Thought I'd play a level or two but I could not stop until I finished over an hour later.
what an excellently designed game. nice difficulty curve, never unfair, and satisfying to complete. great atmosphere, graphics, and sounds. just overall compelling
Pico-8 Advent Calendar is a collection of 25 games made for the Advent season of 2018! Each by a different author, all wonderful unique experiences. Playing through these was such a joy.
�I don't have the time/space to describe all of the games, so enjoy the thumbnails underneath with the list of names here (chronological order):
Dec. 1: Saint Nick’s Dash Away All by Matt Hughson�Dec. 2: Happy Challah Days! by Dylan Bennett
Dec. 3: Winter Golf by 2DArray
Dec. 4: Merry X-Match by Tero Lindeman and iLKke
Dec. 5: Gim’A’Gift by Eiyeron
Dec. 6: Trails by Matthias
Dec. 7: Not a Creature Was Stirring … by kittenm4ster
Dec. 8: Milt by Egor Dorichev
Dec. 9: Santa Panic by Dan Sanderson and Tim Swast
Dec. 10: Pieces of Cake by Jakub Wasilewski
Dec. 11: Super Snow Shoveler by Sean S. LeBlanc
Dec. 12: Light Climber by Lee Harris
Dec. 13: DECO-RAMA by Qristy and Lia
Dec. 14: Alpine Alpaca by Johan Peitz
Dec. 15: Holiday Pachi-Photo by Enargy
Dec. 16: Stack-O-Presents by Tom Brinton
Dec. 17: There Ain’t No Sanity Clause by Joe
Dec. 18: Sanki by Lazy Devs Academy
Dec. 19: Presents Collector 2 by Bigaston
Dec. 20: WINTERBERRY by Andrew Reist
Dec. 21: Secret Santa by Paul Nicholas
Dec. 22: Presents Dust by Grégory Béal
Dec. 23: Snowball Showdown by bridgs
Dec. 24: Gifts on Venus by Rémy ‘Trasevol_Dog’ Devaux
Dec. 25: Bingle Jells by zep
Pico-8 Advent Calender 2019 by… lots of people lol (im visiting mo
m and dont have time to write everyone's name here)
this is the same thing as the page before this one, just with all new games!! you can play them ALL from the link.
just open up the boxes on the page, and they appear in the toy box.
there are a few of them that i played the longest but i don't want to show any favouritism - i wanna give love to everyone!
it's a really wonderful community project created by many lovely people.
i purposely opened this up on dec. 25 so whenever i play this again, i will associate it with christmas day. after my family dinner i chilled with my mom and played this while she watched a christmas movie. (O:
Rainstorm EP by Jake Grizzly Pierce and Jakey Mumfie
This is a Winter game because: Rain; cold hues.
Being that I spend a lot of time doing teaching prep, I love discovering new instrumental music. Additionally, I give my students plenty of work time in class (because homework is lame), so I’m always happy to discover screensavers/low interactivity games. Rainstorm EP perfectly fits the bill.
However, it’s not just those aspects that make it wonderful. First things first, I’m absolutely enamored by lil’ dioramas. Ever since I’ve seen my grandma’s late terrarium collection, tiny worlds bring me some odd specific joy. This combined with my love for lo-fi renderings almost feels like it was made for me.
Of course, the audio is an important element as well — other than the ambiance, you are able to find cassette tapes to play some excellent tunes! The tracks are so good that I couldn’t help but listen to them all twice in a row, a very rare thing for me to do.
Rememoried by Vladimír Kudělka
This is a Winter game because: Many of the environments take place in space; achromaticism feels cold to me.
For me, the most important aspect of playing videogames is experience a sense of space that’s not possible in real life. Furthermore, surrealistic environments are exactly what I seek out, and this game pushes that heavily.
I started this game a couple years ago and was completely blown away. While I did not care for some of the platforming, I had an incredible experience being absorbed into each level. However, sometime within the third act, I managed to become stuck and accidentally reset the entire game instead of the chapter. I decided to finish it another time.
I finally completed it, and realized that I was about 10 minutes short of completing it. lol. However, it was wonderful to go back to these places, especially now that I have a computer capable of running it at a good framerate.
THOTH by Carlsen Games
Minimalism, dark ambient, succinct twin-stick shooter.
Soft Body by Zeke Virant Minimalism, light ambient, twin-stick paint-'em-up.
Two games similar in appearance, yet possess very different tones. THOTH exists in a cold, uncaring universe, whereas Soft Body feels like a geometric bubblebath.
V by Jay X Townsend
A quite brilliant demake of VVVVVV. I absolutely adore games with minimal resolution, so this was a no-brainer.
I found out about Jay’s work because they made The Becoming, one of the strongest Doom WADs I’ve ever played.
SEASON-AGNOSTIC GAMES
Most games don't have connections
to particular seasons.
Here are recommendations
for those games.
ART SQOOL by julian glander
Can a video game make you more creative?
Can Artificial Intelligence replace a human art professor?
Can you draw a horse?
U r a froshmin at 🅐 🅡 🅣 🅢 🅠 🅞 🅞 🅛. Ur assignments are generated & graded by an A.I.
🖌collect cool paintbrushes🖌
🖼make art🖼
✨achieve creative fulfillment✨
i haven’t played this game yet but it looks beautiful and fun and i love the idea ~alexander wurts
You can adjust this however you think it should be <3
The Bookshelf Limbo by Deconstructeam
I have very complex feelings about my dad, and this did nothing to help. I ended up calling him and we had a 24-minute conversation--about 20 minutes longer than usual. I brought this game up, and he digressed (predictably) into superhero comics, and not sure where it went from there. Also discussed politics, masculinity/femininity, family, military, and some other stuff. This empowered me to continue the conversation beyond the usual small talk. I don't think he has the capacity to really have a lengthy conversation about anything, but this was close enough. Thank you!
Dinosaur Party by everythingstaken (Blake Andrews)
This is one of those occasions where I was trying to craft a humourous review/recommendation, imitating the style of the game’s writing. However, I feel that such wouldn’t do Dinosaur Party justice. It’s an epic tale spanning almost fifty chapters, each piece elevating the whole into a masterpiece filled with drama, humour, and beauty. Any more words on the game would spoil it, so please set aside a bit of time to enrich your life.
Dino Run DX by Pixeljam
As much as I admire it, I just never clicked with the humour of Flash games and animations in the early 2000s, so I ignored them in favour of Tony Hawk and WarioWare. Unfortunately, this meant that I missed hundreds of neat browser games, the original Dino Run being one of them.
Dino Run DX is awesome. It’s one of those experiences that feels so good when you’re in a flow zone. As long as you traverse the landscape well, your path to the end of the level feels so smooth (especially if you’re assisted by the brown pterodactyls). Of course, if you bump into an obstacle, your momentum is severely diminished, a fitting punishment.
One of the coolest aspects of this is making your dino cute. Although I prefer the simplicity of normal human head coverings, there are so many options you can choose from. It’s crazy how many references to other games and media there are. I think it’s awesome, but replacing a dino’s head with something incongruous just creeps me out, so I avoid it, lol.
Dungeon by Cactus and Mr. Podunkian
A very tricky, clever platformer. Don’t be afraid to read through the forum posts if you become stuck.
FLATJAM 2018
A flatgame is basically a game you make quickly, usually drawing stuff and adding a character who moves around the scene. It's not imperative to follow those specific rules because it's the spirit of it that counts!
I participated in this last year's FLATJAM 2018. As always, it was filled with wonderful pieces that tend to be wholesome and/or insights into people's lives. Being able to explore these spaces is unlike any other experience I've had with videogames.
Here are the following games/participants:
Accountant the Game by alanjpan
crab & fish by natix
Dream Street by Olivia Haines
Görli by lazerwalker
Interactive Meadow 64 by Ellen Cunningham
lonely planet by spacepuppy
memory of camping by onion
Burg by Nick Burnham
Queer Noise by maizedw
Watching Friends by dreampath
Note: the background image is a montage of bits I plucked out of the games!
The Good Time Garden by Coal Supper
this game is absolutely gorgeous. it's a masterpiece in animation. it's very playful and bizarre at the same time. i feel that the videogame landscape can use a lot more of stuff like this.
How To Throw An Amazing Party by Ludipe
A cute lil' print-out pen-and-paper puzzle zine.
This is important to me because it's what made me realize I can start making my zines easily. I make monthly zines like this, the biggest benefit being that anyone can just print one out and they have it. No worries about the cost of sending out many copies. I'd love to see others do this too, and Nathalie Lawhead is developing a zine maker now!
KittySylvie in HolidLand by sylvie
another really cute platformer/metroidvania by sylvie. her games are so reliably wonderful and cute. the only downside is that the bosses, especially the last one, have a difficulty spike. other than that it's bang-on.
i just bought a book '250 indie games you must play' that was published in 2011. i missed that era (i didn't really play games until 2015) but i feel that this would have fit in so well (her other platformers too). i'm being nostalgic about something i didn't experience
Low rez point and click adventure by dancar
a short and not-yet-completed adventure game. i love low poly, i love low-rez, and i love simple puzzles, so i loved this!
Mountain Town by CæsarCub
warning this is very very nsfw lol it's a visual novel with sex scenes
i'm not usually into erotic stuff but the thing is there needs to be more media with bigger men being portrayed as confident sexual beings, not just comedic foils or someone to poke fun of. this game features exclusively bigger men as being sexy and that's amazing!!
the plots are basically porn in VN form, which is fine! however, what stands apart are the the illustrations! they are so cute and i wanna hug every single boy here!
Pedestrians by flan
Built for CosmoD’s City Jam, this is… well, I really can’t describe it without ruining it.
Pet the Pup at the Party by Will Herring
It’s been on my list for awhile, being that this game is about the best people on earth, introverts. I decided to go for it once I saw that it was being run at AGDQ. It does what it says on the tin, which means it’s a perfect game.
Princess Remedy in a Heap of Trouble by Ludosity
I would easily recommend this to EVERYONE. I'm saying this as someone who despises JRPGs. I've tried several of them, and have only completed Terry Cavanagh's Hero's Quest (it's less than ten minutes). That being said, I haven't tried that really popular one yet...
It's the perfect length, it's packed with silly dialogue, and most of all, there's a whale with wheels—my the species of one of my fursonae! I would kiss this game if I could
4.99usd
ps i got this for free during a sale and its not free anymore but theres another one princess remedy in a world of hurt i haven't played it yet bc i dont have a window computer at my momhouse lol
The Raccoon Who Lost Their Shape by Cat Night
omgggg this was easily one of the funniest games i've ever played. beautiful artwork !! and the summoning song/animation is brill. love love loved it ahhhhhh
Rex: Another Island by shysaursoft
“Open world” is typically a phrase that turns me off. I have neither time nor patience for games of these sort, especially knowing that many are padded with inconsequential content.
Yet I felt that this concept greatly benefited Rex: Another Island. I find that shorter nonlinear games work well because they don’t overwhelm with possibilities. I appreciate being given choice within a certain limit that respects the player’s time. Succinctness is vastly underrated.
Everything about this game is brilliant: the sprawling world design, the detailed artwork, the satisfying controls, and the top-notch soundtrack. shysaursoft put together one incredible package that I cannot think of a single thing that could improve it.
I'm gutted that I cannot experience this for the first time again. The next best I can do is play their other games or even replay it in a year or so...
"SAN FRANCISCO HEAVY' by zka
you half to play it now
sub-Q is an interactive fiction magazine (wow, what? neat) and this is their jam .
there's abuncha really cool stories but im too lazy to show more than four lol but try playing them all? the're all really short trust me . i might submit some day lol
Alone in the Woods by Helene Vitting
im usually happy boy but oh jeez this was a sad tale but in a good affirming way 'i have feelings' lol
domvs by litrouke
ok i love creepy stories a lot so im biased but also the format? would give it 400 kisses. dang impressive
He sold the Sun by Bricabrac
short and intense wow this is scary not horror scary but money scary
Still Life by Dawn
a novel use of IF to make a stilllife but theres nothing to see only to imagine. looking at stuff without looking at sounds weird but it works here
Symbiotic Fursuit by colin spacetwinks
a surreal tale about a living fursuit. it's pretty intense and captivating. it goes to emotional places i wouldn't have expected in such a story? the style is a bit too purple to my taste and a lot of the conversations could use more vulnerability to make it easier to read.
Twine Walker by RockhopperGames
first-person interactive fiction lol it's so silly! this format is pretty clunky and that's where the charm is! i think there are ways to make it work but at the same time it's funny as it is. oh yeah, i do enjoy the writing itself too! some furry/furry-adjacent stuff is fun heck yeah
Untitled by Brian S. Chung
This game is so short and incredible that I’m not going to write anything more about it.
it's a player level that comes with the original game. i have a strong memory of playing vvvvvv in my childhood bed a couple years ago and since i already beat it i decided to start doing the player levels and since i loved/was scared of jonathan whiting's knossus i thought heck i'll play this lol
You Are A Wizard by Heather Robertson
I played this and started The Yielded Piece of Little Ground (a tabletop Role-Playing Game) on the same day because you play as gay wizards in both of them. However, since the latter takes place over a period of time, I won't be writing about it in this issue.
I did, however, complete You Are A Wizard. It's a succinct journey that caused me unbridled joy. It's funny, clever, and left me in tears. It's not too often that a game makes me do that, so take that as a high recommendation.
Bonus non-game section
RAD COMIC BOOKS
The Book of Boy Trouble, Volumes 1 & 2 Edited by Robert Kirby and David Kelly
Although I am gray-asexual, I still quite enjoy reading erotic stories. Not everything in here is sexualized, though, as the variety of writers bring their disparate perspectives onto what gay life is/can be.
The Book of Leviathan by Peter Blegvard
I randomly chose this from my library's shelf, and I was pleasantly surprised by this bizarre strip.
Unlikely by Jeffrey Brown
Just like his other book I read, Clumsy, it's such a lovely slice of life that reveals the little details of a relationship.
Architecture of an Atom by Juliacks (background image)
Holy cow, this is one of the best books I’ve ever laid my eyes upon. It’s a formally intense manifestation of a byzantine story. I cannot begin to explain how overwhelmed I was with this work. It’s one of those pieces that is simultaneously inspiring and intimidating. It’s a true work of beauty, and I cannot thank Juliacks enough for gifting this masterpiece to the world.
free bandcamp albums
sleeplessness by sea oleena: melancholy ghostmusic
Pattern is Movement (s/t): polygonal bubblebath
2019 by Erica Eso: squishy electropop
Ultra Gown by Zefs Chasing Cara: byzantine twinklerock
How to contribute
What
Do you have any games, books, etc. you'd like to recommend? Do you have a comic that you'd like to share? Do you have an essay on the virtues of becoming an expert on sea cucumbers? If so, you're invited to contribute!
Although the main intent of this zine is to provide recommendations, I'm happy to include other material as well. I'd rather take a laissez-faire approach to this, although I will never accept bigotry or hate in any form. I want this zine to be positive and inclusive.
How
This zine is done in Google Slides. If you're not familiar: it's an online slide creator (like PowerPoint). It's really easy to add images and format pages to your liking, and you can even create vector graphics and such. There are many tutorials on how to use it, such as this.
If you want to contribute to this, e-mail me at oliverblueberry@gmail.com. I'll be able to send you a link to be able to edit the document.
THE END
Thanks for reading! I really appreciate any support you give to people who make cool stuff. Please take a look at these games/media, and if you can afford it, give them a tip!
Feel free to contact me:
oliverblueberry@gmail.com
@oliverblueberry
Love you.
Daniel P. Lopez
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