September Off-center 2024
Writing
Indiegames
For supporters my soft thoughts about the trilogy for The Test is available on Ko-fi here! I didn’t expect to write about all three games but I was hooked, and perhaps my experience will spark your curiosity about the trilogy. Signs of the Sojourner will be incoming later this month as a free post for Ko-fi followers, followed by some soft thoughts about In Stars and Time, which we started earlier this year and plan to finish off stream.
Boardgames
Finally had a chance after the move to open up that shipment that came in. Looks like I’ll be reviewing Potion Explosion and The Walking Dead Dice Game soon!
NaNoWriMo
Prep starts later this month, and I’m pumped to start planning out my memoir about my mental health journey in the context of my romantic partnerships. I’ll be incorporating Spirit City: Lofi Sessions to keep some momentum, especially because I like pomodoro method and gamifying things for me will make the writing process easier.
Video
Streaming
I feel like we’re close to getting the credits for Dave the Diver , and with August’s busy coverage of Love, Ghostie, Arco, and Gourdlets behind us I think we can close in on finishing the game on stream. We may need to make a brief return to the Blue Hole once the Balatro and Potion Craft collaborations go live though…
Long Form
I finally finished Thirsty Suitors in August and I have so much to say! This summary and review will be without a camera simply because I really need to focus on the words I’m saying and not worry about what my face is doing this time. This game is a big deal in terms of incorporating cultural and familial trauma into a narrative, and I need to sit and think about how to best share my thoughts on it.
Personal
Currently Playing
August was a month of finishing games, which always feels great. I’ve continued to make some solid progress on finishing Cozy Grove, even when the bears’ stories break my heart. I’ll admit I was surprised that I got the credits to Minami Lane because it felt like one of those games that wouldn’t end. It had a cute and simple wrap up dialogue that I was happy with, though. After finding out about a September update to Loddlenaut I also decided to finally finish it and realized just how much more there was to discover after cleaning up the ocean. I’m excited to share the update on stream later this month, and of course run a giveaway for a Steam key of the game if it just happened to miss your library the first time.
Everyone has been playing Fields of Mistria lately but instead of jumping on that I decided to get back to Wylde Flowers to finish up the year 2 updates. It’s been fun to keep working on relationships and friendships that I didn’t quite get to in year 1. Word on the street is the developer for this game is working on their next project and actively hiring for it so I should be ready for that whenever it drops!
IRL
The move went well, although it meant that we were too exhausted for the camping trip. Despite the cancelled plans, I’m really happy to have had the extra time to appreciate my new office and decorate it how I like. What I’ve realized, however, is that I have a major board game capacity problem… I’ve been reaching out to some organizations in hopes that I can donate several of these so I’m not buried in cardboard.
This is a big reminder to me that Spring Cleaning is a thing that I could do more of, and so that I’m not suddenly anxious about needing to find a home for several items at once. I may also need to revisit what I have tucked away in closet spaces and the garage in the rush to have our new home functional.
Picture of the Month
In our old community I started noticing these fun flowers popping up in the foliage and my phone’s creepy AI observations state that it is in fact a jersey lily. Technology both terrifies and amazes me.
Feel free to reply directly to this email to let me know your thoughts, or perhaps any content that you'd like to see or questions you might have. Otherwise, sending you all my relaxing thoughts for the month and I look forward to writing to you in October!