Emoji give us an extra avenue of encoding emotion into our text, something that is usually difficult. So I think everyone should be using them 🤓

This dev has a really interesting perspective. Should be a very cool experience.

Talos Principle 2 is just… wow. It’s been years since I played the first game and it’s remarkable how fast the sequel was able to get me back in the space of “I’m here to solve puzzles and argue philosophy…”. Everything I loved about Talos Principle has been polished or expanded, and the way the writers somehow managed to get me to accept that we need to solve a bunch of puzzles to advance the plot - AGAIN - is impressive.

I’m so happy the game is this good.

Mindustry

Thinking through how to transition from my bus to a modular design feels like it’s leveled up my Factorio-fu by an order of magnitude lol. I realized that I don’t need to start with full block design as long as I can work towards getting everything on trains. That’s gotten me moving again and I’m well on my way to the first off planet resources now. What a great game.

Sounds like you’re doing it right! A good corp can help; I think it’s most important to get into something fun ASAP so you don’t think the whole game is just grinding missions or whatever. When I started I fell in with a small gang of wormhole explorers and eventually joined the big Reddit corp. Good times.

Cocoon - Big puzzle game fan but this one has me underwhelmed so far. It feels disappointingly linear, and I haven’t needed to think very hard to solve anything yet. The design and atmosphere is fantastic, but I hope it gets a little more confident in its mechanics soon (just 2hrs in).

Curse of the Golden Idol - Played the first DLC. Great stuff, still has all the weirdo charm of the main game with some new logic puzzles to figure out. I thought the last chapter here felt a little too straightforward to solve for how complex it seemed at first glance, but overall it was a good expansion. On to the next one!

Factorio - 70 hours into Space Exploration and currently trying to plan a transition of my base from a main bus design to city blocks. I started SE immediately after my first vanilla Factorio victory, so it’s been a bit of an uphill climb but very fun. I really enjoy reaching a new science tier and then pausing for a while as I automate and upgrade everything that I unlocked. No rush in space!

http://mynoise.net

Amazing library of customizable ambient noises and soundscapes, pretty much all recorded and developed by one guy. I think “Rain on a Tent” is the best rain track available on the internet.