A while ago, I wrote short things on an assortment of things that caught my attention, in some vague attempt to be like a “proper” news site. I don’t remember why I stopped doing that, but I feel that I should do it more often to fill in the blank space between me taking weeks to play and write about things.

One thing I want to point eyes toward is TOWNSQUEER a zine that’s properly debuting with a game bundle on the 29th. The zine was organized by members of the gamedev.lgbt Mastodon group. While some of the things in the bundle can already be played, the goal of the bundle is to provide support to its contributors, who may have otherwise not gotten the same kind of support the bundle may provide. Plus, you’ll be getting an overall zine from everyone, and in an internet atmosphere where the written word is increasingly getting downplayed, wouldn’t it be nice to try a zine?

One thing from the bundle I tried was BREATHE, a short game by PRINCESS INTERNET CAFe. It’s a cozy bitsy game where you’re foraging for mushrooms. As you collect mushrooms, your character muses on the past and the world around them. It’s a game that highlights the contemplative and personal aspects that goes into doing hobbies.

It’s delightful, but I couldn’t help but feel sad. Besides the haunting reminders of the conditions of our world, it just reminded me that I live in an urban hell, and if I didn’t, I just don’t have the mobility I used to have. I’d love to just go around picking up stuff like mushrooms.

On a happier note, I tried out Sokofox, by Easy Peazy Games. It’s as the title indicates: you are a cute little fox doing some sokobond action. And playing it reminded me, “oh yeah, I’m garbage at sokobond games.” But if you’re into this kind of puzzle stuff, Sokofox is just for you; I certainly think it’s nice enough as a complete fool at block-pushing puzzles.

For another bundle aimed at supporting queer creators, the Power of Pride bundle is set to launch at the start of June. The bundle’s meant to be a continuation of the Queer Games Bundle. With a $60 and a pay-what-you-want edition, the bundle has almost 400 things consisting of games, books, resources, etc.

For transparency, I’m part of this bundle. In the end though, I’m just one part of a sea of people trying to survive in this world. Hey, remember Our Wonderland? That’s going to be there, and hey, it’s getting remastered graphics soon. Remember Syrup 2 from the set of Steam Next Fest games I played a while back? That’s also going to be there and it’s a game continually updating. Frequent blog topic Damien Crawford is also included in the bundle with their latest game and a short book about RPG design. Taylor McCue, one of the founders of Queer Games Bundle and developer of He Fucked the Girl Out of Me, is also present, along with Ana Valens, an ASMR artist who’s noteworthy for being a big voice in fighting against payment processors punishing NSFW content.

That’s just a few of the participants I know off the top of my head, but there’s a bunch of things I want to dig into. In particular, I’m really curious about wareware by riprip; I can technically use it already, but throwing some money to support the development of a new game engine’s a good thing to do.

While this bundle’s more substantial, it’d be cool to support both this and the TOWNSQUEER bundle. As BáiYù, the Power of Pride Bundle Coordinator puts it:

“Combined with the rise in global fascism, layoffs across multiple industries, and theft of labor by Large Language Models (popularly known as ‘Generative AI’), just the simple act of survival has become an accomplishment in and of itself… All of our struggles are connected.”

In some big news that’s impossible to ignore, Mina the Hollower is coming out on the 28th. Mina the Hollower is the next big thing from Yacht Club Games, finally providing a clean break away from Shovel Knight (not counting Mechanical Head Studios’ Cyber Shadow, which they published).

Coming off the back of a successful Kickstarter, Mina the Hollower portrays the adventure of the titular hero going on a journey to save a cursed island in an adventure building off the sensibilities of Gameboy Zelda games and Castlevania. Boasting 20+ hours, Mina the Hollower is an ambitious follow-up that can make or break Yacht Club Games.

For a quick aside, people generally put too much weight on Shovel Knight as a Kickstarter game. The developers were pretty open about how the Kickstarter money didn’t fully support them. I remember reading Blood, Sweat and Pixels and the story of Shovel Knight was upfront that the developers were toeing poverty. The Shovel Knight kickstarter didn’t fund Shovel Knight and its expansions, it BARELY funded Shovel Knight, and the profits from Shovel Knight was what funded the expansions.

It’s no surprise that the Kickstarter stretch goals for Mina the Hollower was smaller, but far saner. I really feel that a lot of Kickstarter failures were people chasing after the same dream Shovel Knight presented, completely missing the reality of what happened with that game.

But well, hoping the best for all the developers involved in this post!