The bleak and poignant open world sidequest design of Dread Delusion

talking to the "Inquisitor" at the beginning of the game

Dread Delusion (2024) by Lovely Hellplace is a retro-style indie first person RPG about exploring strange floating islands and talking to the NPCs who live there. It takes about 15-20 hours to complete.

inventory screen

Many compare it to The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, with its emphasis on charming low poly 3D world design and worldbuilding. It also shares Morrowind's weightless combat -- but it's not as bad as failed dice rolls to stab a rat. It just treats combat with the contempt it deserves; there's no real benefit to killing stuff, no XP to grind. Pacifist builds are not only viable but very OP. (In the last dungeon, I just ran past everything at 50 MPH.)

So I want to focus on Dread Delusion's great strengths, specifically its world region / quest design. I've tried to write this for a general gamer audience to unpack what the game does. Consider this your last SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to talk about what happens in this game and what you do in it.

Postcards from TikTokland (month 1) + comparing TikTok to Bluesky

So I've now been playing the weird MMO known as TikTok for more than a month, and I thought I should reflect on my time there. 

In contrast to my first week on TikTok where I posted every day, I've now been uploading videos every 2-4 days. Which is much better. I highly recommend not posting every day, everywhere.

I've been making more local Australia / New Zealand game industry event vlogs. Here's a vlog from when I attended Wireframe conference here in Auckland, and here's another vlog (and yet another vlog) from my time at the Freeplay Angles festival in Melbourne. I tried to keep these pretty light and casual since I imagine most people aren't really sure what a game conference is.

I've also been making some more outdoor waterway videos. Here's a progress update on the backyard stream, a comprehensive review of the water fountains at the Auckland Domain Winter Gardens, and a waterfall walking tour. While I realize this could've been a savvy content strategy to try to capitalize on my most popular video, it actually wasn't a conscious strategy, I just like recording water and talking about it.

I'm keynoting Freeplay Angles 2025 in Melbourne, July 31 - August 2... + support the Australian indie game hub Sabby!

In about 2 weeks, I'll be giving a keynote at Freeplay Angles 2025, an indie video game festival in Melbourne, Australia, running from July 31 - August 2, 2025.

I'd give a hint for what my keynote's about, but I'm still in the middle of writing it, so you'll just have to wait in suspense a little while longer. (It'll probably have some sex in it I don't know)... For now, some logistics: I'll be keynoting the first festival day on Thursday, July 31, but there's also two more keynotes + full slates of interesting talks planned for both Friday and Saturday, August 1-2 too. 

Full schedule and tickets are available on the Freeplay website. Ticket prices are on a sliding scale, from $20 AUD for those on a budget, to $150 AUD for those who can afford to pay more to keep it cheaper for everyone else.

Submissions are open for the WIP Night (July 31) to show off your work-in-progress projects for free -- tables, chairs, and power are provided. Submissions are also open for the Night Market (August 2) with free vendor stalls to sell your games, arts, and crafts -- tables, chairs, and power are provided.

new web game: Don't Rank Cuomo

Don't Rank Cuomo is a free short web game about not voting for / not "ranking" Andrew Cuomo, a corrupt disgraced neoliberal New York politician who's unfortunately running for mayor of New York City. (For more info, see the Times Union's June 15th op-ed: "Don't rank Andrew Cuomo.")

I made the game in an afternoon, after getting bombarded again with NYC mayoral race discourse on Bluesky even though I moved away years ago. And when I saw those words "don't rank Cuomo" for maybe the 999th time, the game idea suddenly emerged fully formed in my brain, and so I did one of those praxis solidarity things that people used to tweet about, and did something to show support.

Here's what happens in the game...

SPOILER ALERT: this post will spoil what happens in the game. If you care about that, then play the game first -- you can play it for free in your browser, on mobile / desktop. It'll take 2-4 minutes.