Talk About Tuesday

 

In Which Too Much Caffeine And Not Enough Gaming
Make Casual A Dull Birb

What a week. I've had too much caffeine in the last couple days - just finished a cup of coffee after seven despite 6pm being my cutoff - made a whole crochet project yesterday, broke a fan on Friday, and had to hold my cat's tiny furry face in one hand to show her the chipmunk she was stalking because she thought it was under the car but it was watching her from the stairs lol.

I also discovered that itch.io is a thing.

Holy crap how did I not know about this? There's so much on here! It's awesome!

I mean, after Kongregate basically stopped adding new games and Deadwhale died, I've been looking around for another game aggregator that wasn't Newgrounds or ArmorGames!

So if y'all want to have me review an RPG, idle game, or something, feel free to leave suggestions! Bear in mind that I have an office-work-ready laptop, not a gaming pc, and that I am an unabashed coward and also kind of an idiot, so anything that requires smart planning, graphics-intensive hardware, or is pants-poopingly intense is not very likely to be featured on le blog. Also I worry that my Niblings might find this blog someday so "adult" games might not be okay either lol.

Yesterday, I made that bag for my dad. No word yet on how he's gonna use it, but he might use it in the camper once the new canvases arrive. He just sent the old ones out today! I'm pretty excited about that - the camper has been quite the saga for him (it's his latest and longest-lasting restoration project and it's looking fantastic), and also, it could be a great space to use as a semi-outdoor office. It does need new sealing around the roof vent, but once that's done and the new canvases arrive, that little popup could be a great spot to hang out.

On Friday, I messed with my window and succeeded in accidentally breaking my window fan's button. It could be used, but it couldn't be controlled properly. My dad came to the rescue by... removing the button altogether. Or at least, the broken plastic outer button. The small rubber inner button is still intact and fully functional. Tomorrow I plan to thoroughly clean said fan so that I can then pop it back into my window and designate a plastic pen or pencil as the button-pusher lol.

As for the chipmunk, I cannot recall if I've already mentioned, but we used to have two chipmunks - a bigger one and a smaller one. I regret to inform you all that Smol Chippy has been killed in action. They were buried with honors somewhere in my mother's garden. Big Chippy has taken to taunting the neighbor's dogs and sitting on my porch while barking loudly. Evie, who we strongly suspect may be hard of hearing if not wholly deaf, doesn't notice this, but boy does she like to see Big Chippy when she can.

So I help.

By holding her in my arms and carefully pointing her face at Big Chippy.

Because otherwise it would seem she can NEVER see him lol!

Usually when she's outside, she tries to scoot under my mother's car because both chipmunks have attempted to use the car as a hideout while the cat is in sight. My mother hates this for obvious reasons. The chipmunk, meanwhile, will literally watch my cat do this while he sits on the deck and judges us all.

So when I see him on the steps and I can snag Evie, I help her get an eyeful lol!

As for this coming week, my plans consist of:

• Paint something for Thursday! If you want to have a say in what, send me a Ko-Fi by Wednesday night saying what category (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Location, Geometric).
• Maybe play and review something for Saturday!
• Crochet more on the Secret Project for Sunday. Maybe even finish making the reinforcements for the mouth?
• Blather more next Tuesday!

Aside from that, I don't have much planned. I think.

Plans have a habit of changing, so keep an eye out!

and Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday - I'm a Winner lol

In Which I Am Very Tired But Very Happy

 It's been quite the week. It's only Tuesday, but it has absolutely been A Week. I spent a lot of last night awake and anxious (don't drink coffee after 9PM guys, it's a trap!), my hormones are out of wack, I can't quite maintain focus for more than 20 minutes at a time, and my innards are wracked with gas (bc I think the mustard mayonnaise might be going by in my Yakisobas...). The world is, once more, falling apart at the seems. Eddie Van Halen has died. Johnny Nash, who sang "I Can See Clearly Now" has died. Half of the US government seems to have COVID-19. There's been at least one other Burder (bird murder) in my backyard perpetrated by our local hawk or falcon...

But I'm actually pretty upbeat and happy today.

That's pretty much 90% because I have a fantastic partner, but the other 10%? That's because I'm maintaining productivity no matter how distracted I am. Today I did crochet, drew, inked, wrote, sang, did a terrible little dance that scared the cat, prepped spicy noodles for my partner, prepped yakisoba for myself, made several very nice cups of coffee, and yes, missed the call for dinner twice because I was so into what I was reading and writing today.

I also got something in the mail that helps a bit ;)

See, a while back, there was a competition I entered to name some gaming dice for Skullsplitter Dice, and I actually succeeded in naming one of the new sets at the time - Astral Sliver! A lovely name, and lovely color. But get this - since I named them?

They sent me a set!!!

The color is a lovely amethyst with flecks of golden glitter, and it's totally not named Astral Sliver because I made a typo based on the poor colors on my aging monitor. I legit thought these were purple and silver. Instead, the gold is a lovely soft tone, and the sheen on the purple is incredible! They really are lovely dice :D

As for the set itself, the multiple d6's give you a chance to roll up a character sheet, backstab for extra damage, drop rocks or logs on your players, or just have that fun feeling of throwing a handful of dice around nice and quick (as opposed to most sets where you just get the one d6 that you have to reroll multiple times). There's an extra d20 in there, too, for criticals or other decision making rolls (or if one of them starts throwing ones like a total jerk - dice have personalities, yo). So you've got a very full set to begin with - and then there's the goodies!

*these might just be for Namers/Kickstarter backers, though!

In my lil parcel of goodies, I was given a sweet Skullsplitter pin with two hefty prongs on the back and a really nice black finish behind the shiny metal, and a neat green d20 that I'm digging a lot. How on earth did they know green was my favorite color? It's pretty dang cool, I have to admit. I'm not used to seeing dice with a matte finish, either, which makes it extra special and neat! It may be a Fey Lord's Boon d20, and if so, that's quite the gift, so I thank Skullsplitter and Blue Shift Media from the bottom of my dingy little heart (an organ I use so seldom I just forgot how to spell it five or six times) for this sweet, sweet set of dice.

Now I just kinda want to roll up a non-human Bard and play some D&D :P

That'll about do it for me today - I am still working on my Witchtober drawings (though they are hard to get through - inking takes a lot out of me, even as badly as I do it lol), and tomorrow I'll probably actually have a Wednesdaymania entry, so watch out for that!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 312: Chatting About Games

In Which I Discuss My Recent Gaming Habits

I talk a lot about games I'm trying out on here, but sometimes, I'm not venturing out in to the Great Kongregate/Steam Beyond. Sometimes, I'm just bumming around, playing games I've played a thousand times. That's what this week has been like.

I've been mostly sticking with a few oldies-but-goodies, and it feels pretty good to be so utterly familiar with a game that I don't have to worry about any surprises!

I've been fiddling around with PokefarmQ on a daily basis since May of 2018, and it's just as pleasant today as it was then - moreso, even, because now I can do a lot more on the site, since I've been progressing along :) I have a few shiny Pokemon, now, multiple Legendaries, Event Pokemon, and yes, I am loaded with Credits because of the Mass Click Weekends. If you're a fan of Pokemon and you just want to collect thousands of monsters, some of which are original to this site, like the adorable little Ghost-Dragon Gragon, then check it out for yourself (and hit me up - I'm called Tenleybean).

I also have been keeping up with my Pokemon Go addiction, and that's, of course, available for free on the app stores on most mobile phones now. If you're looking for a new Friend on there, hmu at 7089 7612 1171

Speaking of Mobile games, I'm still playing around with Merge Magic, which is still plenty of fun.

Back on PC, I've been playing some more of Coloring Pixels from ToastieLabs on Steam, so if you're looking for some mindless coloring fun, you can check that out!

I'm also playing some more Idle Pins on Kongregate, because it's still the Valentine's Event somehow and ding dong dangit I want to get 100% of powerups purchased before I soft reset lol.

Finally, in console gaming, I've been blundering around in Hero Mode on Breath of the Wild, because sometimes you just need to ride a horse around a barren landscape while pursued by octopus-urn robots intent on your epic destruction.

What are you guys up to with gaming? Any fun new games you're trying out?

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 228: Incremental Popping 2

I'll be honest, I've never played the first Incremental Popping game from Diamonax on Kongregate, but since I have played other chain reaction games, I basically got to just breeze through the opening.

If you couldn't tell, this is a very, very simple game.
Simple, here, is not a bad thing!

This is a chain reaction based single-button game. That means that you only need one button - your right mouse button, to play this game, and every move makes other things happen.

Colorful, pretty things.

In this case, you lay a starting circle/charge by clicking on a point on the screen. There are colorful balls bouncing around the screen like in a Breakout-style game, and if they bump against the circle, they'll expand into another circle, possibly giving you higher scores. Higher scores give you more money, and if you "pop" all of the balls, the screen refreshes and gives you more balls to pop, leveling you up, somewhat.

The money is useful. I think...

Now, generally, when you are playing one of these incremental games, the gains you make are slight, but noticeable. I... don't really notice much improvement when I'm playing this game. I've leveled up, I've popped lots of balls, and I've paid for a lot of upgrades, but... I'm still not 100% sure what use the Boost function is? I think it speeds up the balls on the screen if you click and hold anywhere after laying your initial charge. Still, it's kinda fun, and I can't bring myself to badmouth a game this neat.

And, of course, there are Achievements!

I haven't played this game too long, so I'm not surprised that I only have one of the Achievements so far, but... no balls at all? That's gonna be hard.

There's also a Statistics screen!

I love knowing what I've done and how much I've done, so I love screens like this. I also like games that forgive you if you botch things early on and allow you to wipe your game data. It allows me to try a game and, if I enjoy playing it, start over fresh so that I can take notes on it while I play start-to-finish for the blog!

Now, you can see that the graphics are ultra-simple. 2D balls bouncing around a 2D plane with a very, very faint grid in the background, plus some text here and there. Mechanically, too, this game is extremely simple - click, wait, maybe click-and-hold for a little extra speed.

The music is where this game shines.

It has a lovely, jazzy score that I enjoyed listening to the entire time I played. I usually mute games because I have a low threshold for music and sound effects, but since this game is 100% lacking in sound effects, the music was able to really shine. I dig it!

You can find this game here on Kongregate, and I strongly recommend giving it a play.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 227: Tap! Dig! My Museum!

I used to want to be a paleontologist. I was little, Jurassic Park had just come out on VHS, I had the flu so I sounded like a Velociraptor when I coughed... good times. Finding Tap! Dig! My Museum! by Oridio on the Google App Store seemed to be just the thing I needed to feed my dino obsession.

And it was!

So, you start out with an empty, run-down museum and a small bag of cash. You take that money and build a display case, then you go dig for dinos! The digging is a lot of fun.

If really simple

Basically, you're taken to a screen and, with a limited number of moves, you dig into the dirt by tapping on a section. Sometimes you'll find money. Sometimes you'll find fossils. You can watch an ad to get more moves, too, but only once per dig. When you run out of moves (or find all available fossils), you get sent back to your museum with your spoils. The first dinosaur I uncovered was a Velociraptor, but after that some of the choices are... weird but awesome. I'm pretty sure I dug up dinos I'd never heard of before - seriously.

And they're fairly accurate representations!

While you build up your collection, guests will arrive at your museum. They drop money, which you can then use to buy upgrades or fund digs. The upgrades come in five varieties - on your main museum, you can upgrade things buy opening new exhibits, or you can expand your museum. This, sadly, can only be done once so far (as of the writing of this blog), but the developers say they're working on new expansions and upgrades, so that's cool. The other three kinds of upgrade are in the yellow museum button. These will let you fit more people in your museum at a given time, hire more diggers (and thus have more moves per dig), or increase the power of your taps during digs. I tried to maximize my museum perks as quickly as possible, which made digging the larger dinos much easier!

I flipping love spinosaurus!!!

I'm a big fan of cute pixel games like this, and this game has everything I like. It's simple and easy to understand and play, it's pretty to look at, and it's got great music. It even has a camera button to let you take quick screen shots! They save as .png files, which means...

Yes.

The museum shots are from my actual in-game museum! That makes it so much easier to talk about on the internet. No complicated multi-button presses on my phone hoping I'm doing it right and missing the good shots! Just... tap! Done. Save it to my Drive!

I hope a lot more games start doing that!

So yeah, Oridio's Tap! Dig! My Museum! is a nifty game that I can't wait to get updates on. Especially since it only took me 5 days to play out the missions...

If you're looking for a cute game with dinosaurs, museums, and a great sense of accomplishment, try it out!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Saturday Casual Gaming 226: Coloring Pixels

Since I started gaming with handhelds back in the 1990s, you can guess that I love me some pixels. I love 8- and 16-bit (and 32-bit!) images. I love the creativity inherent in stacking colored blocks to make things look recognizable or to come up with something brand new! It's always wonderful.

And since I draw and color and paint, you might be able to guess that I love coloring books.

I do not have a ton of space for coloring books, however, so the recent boom in digital coloring books has been a major boon to me! I was bumming around last year on Steam and found this:

From ToastieLabs, this is Coloring Pixels

Coloring Pixels is a really cool free-to-play coloring book you can download from Steam and fill in beautiful pixel art images that range from incredibly simple shapes to incredibly lush scenes. I love the way it looks, the fact that there are occasionally overlays for holidays (there was snow around Christmas, drifting slowly over the screen, and the edges of the screen were, I believe, on fire around Halloween) just makes it more fun!

Now, I'm the kind of coloring person who likes to finish one color before moving on to the next, which works really easily on small images, but when you get here...

Well... once you get into the crazy amount of colors, things go much slower.
Much. Much slower.

But your reward for finishing each image is that wonderful sense of accomplishment from completing a very difficult task! And it really does feel like an accomplishment. You feel like you've done something, and on days when I literally can't will myself out of bed, that can be soothing.

It's not done, yet, but this is a zoomed-in portion of that same image!
Looooook at allllll that deeeeetaaaaaaiiillllll!

Now, the argument can certainly be made that these sorts of things are not, technically, games, but I'm going to count it because it was free, it makes me happy, it requires input, and you are, technically, finishing tasks to get to an end goal. The tasks are just "input all colors in the appropriate locations" and the end goal is just "finish the picture"...

I did mention that it's only kind of a free game. There is DLC. The DLC is really cool, but it also costs money, which means it isn't happening for me. I mean, there are 12 DLC packs (all of which sound fun), and none of them are more than a dollar. The only reason the "Buy All" function on Steam tells you it's over sixteen dollars is the addition of a downloadable copy of the soundtrack. While the music is pretty fun, it's not something I'm dying to download, but I can always appreciate wanting people to pay you for the music.

That wasn't sarcasm. I've played music in a community band before. The number of people who took "community band" to mean "free of charge because we're not famous" was horrific. No, we will not play your wedding for free. The band itself does have financial needs. Like renting practice space and buying water.

What I'm saying here is, I don't think soundtracks should always be free to download. It's cool when a company can afford to do it, but I'm not going to be butthurt when it's under seven bucks.

If they were charging twenty bucks for the soundtrack, then I'd be butthurt.

But yes, the art you're coloring, the colors you use, the soundtrack, the little extras (like the holiday particle effects), and the overall game itself are more than worth your time if you need a moment of zen!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC