Game recommendation: Sludge Life + a Space Deer strip
Hallå my pals!
Jonas here with another issue of Indie Notebook to get some ideas out of my noggin, and to inspire you to do the same.
I felt like sharing and talking about something I love today and I’ve been really itching to play Sludge Life 2, but it’s only available on Windows right now (I’m a Mac and mainly Switch player). So the next best thing I can do is to think back on why the first game was so flipping good.
Sludge Life- an empty world full of life
I put today’s writing straight on the blog! So head there if you’re ready to be convinced to play one heck of a game.
Mini Notes
📝 Blog post - How to judge a book by its cover
You might have heard the saying “never judge a book by its cover.” And it’s true when it comes to people but not when it comes to books.
I love digging through piles of books in bookshops, the covers are definitely the main reason for that. I’ve been taking that saying about covers too literally my whole life. Book covers are not really art, they’re design. They’re designed to attract the right reader, that’s why it feels so damn good when I find something I like.
📝 Interview - On making A Short Hike
Here the guy who made A Short Hike talks about how he was too embarrassed to watch people play his game when he displayed it in public for the first time. It’s surprising to hear that he was so insecure about it because one of the game’s strongest points is the writing, and that’s the part he was the most insecure about.
I’m also really inspired by how he went about making it, he made the first version of the game in 4 months and released it as Humble Bundle exclusive. It was received very well by the players who got it through there and then he decided to spend some more time to make the game even better and release a more fleshed out version on Steam. That sounds very appealing to me now after having spent 3+ years on Surmount and not being sure if it’s gonna pay off.
Comics
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Take care and have a creative week.
Sludge Life seems quite interesting; I've noted it for when I'm ready for such an experience.
Seeing the space deer's snout pressed into the camera as they take the photo is adorable! The comic prompted a few thoughts from me:
The photos... they can never objectively convey my experience to others, but they bring *me* back to my memories.
I do love to enjoy the current moment as if it's already a memory. I imagine, "this is the kind of thing I look back on positively," and that helps me be present. My last memory like that was last summer, out on a picnic bench with my brother, playing with graphics APIs on a laptop.
I've actually noticed I feel some sort of "hyper nostalgia" where I become very fond of things very quickly, as if they've been there all my life. In the past months I've realized I can close myself off from that if I am unhappy, and it's not as fun to be closed off.
Have a good week!
Thanks for the spoiler warning. I stopped reading immediately and purchased it on sale on the eShop with some of my Gold Points. Not sure when I will get to it; at the moment, I'm slowly playing through Alan Wake (1) on the Switch and Samus Returns on the New 3DS XL (for the 3rd time, 'cause I love Metroid). It's good to have something interesting for a rainy day though.
I'm also somewhat avoiding spoilers for Surmount, btw.
That's a beautiful Space Deer strip :) It's completely aligned with the different ways our brain hemispheres tend to "see" the world, btw - speaking of that Iain McGilchrist book: one is a flat and lifeless but manageable representation of the real thing and the other is the real thing, here and now, in all its depth, context, whole and beauty... Something like that.