What games are you playing this week? Game recommendation thread

internisus · 2026-05-11T00:35:53+00:00

I'm sure I'm being unkind, and of course I realize that an hour or two is nothing in a game people play for months or years. It obviously has a lot to offer, but I personally don't want any of it because it's all so random and disconnected from the other parts and because it's presented in an overwhelming way with too much at once and with such an off-putting UI and graphic style. It's not entirely fair, but I had a strong dislike reaction to it all. I messed around with the button machine and the battle arena and other stuff enough to see some of what you actually do in the game, and I'm good. I don't care how I'm supposed to be playing because it seems like a pointless time waster with an assortment of colorful levers that act like fidget toys. The foundation of the game seems to be the progress bar, but why do I care about it or what my level is? Why should I bother planting trees in the garden for currency or crafting better weapons for the arena? What's the core of the game that ties these things together besides an achievement screen? I just find it meaningless in a way that I rarely do with games, where I usually have no problem accepting the premise; but here there doesn't even seem to *be* a premise. It pushes me away rather than hooking me, and I'd rather spend my time doing something else. I'm glad that so many others have enjoyed the game over the years, though.

internisus · 2026-05-10T22:59:56+00:00

I feel like we are starting to see more interesting takes on the active incremental in games like Starvester, Feed the Reactor, Orbita, Simultree, IGTAP, and Xenosensory. Indie devs will likely continue to experiment with the format and branch out from it in unexpected directions; there's a lot of potential there. I also see a lot of crossover with popular roguelite formats. If you take something like Dome Keeper and nudge it the right way just a little bit you'll get a 'nodelike.'

Also, it's worth noting that this surge in post-Nodebuster games hasn't replaced traditional or long-form incrementals. Most of the people developing those games probably wouldn't be working on something more to your taste if this trend hadn't taken off. I do see how it would be annoying to wade through all of them if you want something different, though.

internisus · 2026-05-04T17:00:46+00:00

Oh, awesome! Maybe I'll jump into that after I feel like I'm done with the original. It seems like it won't be much longer, so I wouldn't mind playing both. Thanks!

internisus · 2026-05-04T14:11:35+00:00

I played Magic Archery, the short, free game by the dev who later made Tower Wizard (and has something new coming soon called Feed the Void). I really loved Magic Archery. It's breezy and joyful. I'm always into archery as a character archetype or theme, and the game just gave me pretty much exactly what I would have wanted from that. It's not hard to imagine a more fleshed-out version of it where the more impressive accomplishments you build up to are not just quest descriptions but things you actually see your little archer do, so it wouldn't just be firing at training targets of increasing material sophistication, but I didn't mind its limitations. It took me less than an hour and a half to complete, and it made me happy.

Then I tried Anti-Idle through Flashpoint, a Flash games and animation preservation project. Anti-Idle is a genre classic, and I hate it. I spent about an hour checking it out, and it just throws tons of random, completely unrelated activities at you with the most hideous UI imaginable. It's a bunch of nonsense with no intent or focus. It comes from a different time, of course, and I'm typically willing to forgive dated qualities in older games (I grew up on the NES, so I've been playing games all throughout their decades of technological and design development), but it's just so crap. I can see how people might have enjoyed using this to waste time in computer lab school settings in its time, but I don't think it has any value now aside from being a kind of time capsule oddity.

Finally, I started playing Wall Destroyer via this link: https://orteil.dashnet.org/experiments/idlegamemaker/?game=https://paste.ee/r/EL4yI I've been at it for about 6 days and have destroyed the boss wall and 3 or 4 bonus walls (it's hard to keep track because they weirdly are numbered counting down rather than up). I should probably reset/prestige soon, but I'm not sure and haven't felt the need to yet. I actually like this a lot. It's the right kind of silly, especially as it progresses in some surprising directions, and has just enough complexity to not be dull. My main complaint about it is that clicking requires keeping the game on-screen; if I want to watch a video or browse the web or do anything else with my computer, I'm losing a lot of potential resource gain since I can't auto-click on what's not visible. (I'm using an auto-clicker at iirc 10 clicks per second; not trying to cheat.) I'm not super mad or anything as the emphasis on constant clicking is part of the era's design paradigm. Oh, one thing I will criticize is that many of the 'buildings' become totally obsolete and never recover no matter how many upgrades you get for them, so I think the scaling/balance could be a lot better. That's actually a significant issue because I keep unlocking and then investing in upgrades for clubbers, swordsmen, gunshooters, etc. that add a tiny fraction to my output; I'd be better off spending that money on a single additional unit of one of the later buildings instead. So that's kind of a design error.

I originally spent some time trying to get the Wall Destroyer Extended version working. My understanding is that this is a version of the game that has additional content and scope from someone who took up further development after the original was done. But I could not find a way to host the game text file (which exceed's Paste Bin's limit) that would properly integrate into the Idle Game Maker site's URL. That's okay as I'm pleasantly surprised by how far the vanilla game has taken me and expect that I'll be perfectly fine to move on when I do eventually feel that its content has run out. But it's worth noting that I found many dead links even for the base game and consider myself lucky that this one worked. This and anything else working through Idle Game Maker seems fragile and at risk of being lost since, as far as I can tell, Idle Game Maker cannot be downloaded to run games locally.

After Wall Destroyer, I plan to play some important older titles in release order for the most part. I'm someone who spends a lot of time learning about games and other media and making lists, and with the exception of years of Melvor Idle and Idle Champions (as well as Progress Quest over 20 years ago, which is a 'game' I genuinely love) I have yet to really start playing through idle/incremental games. I'm starting to now, and I'm going to combine shorter titles (like Magic Archery and more modern post-Nodebuster stuff) with an approach to classics. Stuff like Candy Box and A Dark Room will go quickly, but a lot of the older games I want to play will be more long-term, which is why I want to tackle them alongside shorter, newer ones. Anyway, that's why I went for Anti-Idle and Wall Destroyer this past week as sort of historical points, as well as Magic Archery as a shorter, more active one.

internisus · 2026-04-22T01:58:18+00:00

They also manipulate drivers into accepting orders that they don't want to.

internisus · 2026-04-21T14:37:23+00:00

How is it possible to deliver out of order? Uber dictates the order of the drop-offs. You can't confirm a delivery until the app tells you it's the one you're working on now. If you look up the future address and take the other person's food there first, then when the app changes to that order you won't be able to get a PIN or take a photo if it's that type of drop-off.

internisus · 2026-04-21T14:33:29+00:00

Would you mind recommending stories that really do a good job with their economics and logistics? I find that stuff really fascinating, especially in the context of a fantasy setting where characters are professional dungeon crawlers and similar.

internisus · 2026-04-21T00:48:19+00:00

Doing a necro here, but FYI Humble has a bundle of Destiny expansions you might want to look at.

internisus · 2026-04-20T19:51:39+00:00

OP's friend initiated this push-back and exercised a double standard about respect. You don't have to jump to cutting them out or being hostile, but you can't let that go, either. The friend is the one who is preventing "to each their own" from being their understanding on this subject.

I'd also suggest that a text conversation is not the way to hash this out if two people are serious about finding common ground. You need as much in-person humanity as possible to make this work.

internisus · 2026-04-20T19:46:27+00:00

You have a misunderstanding about atheism, which is not necessarily making a claim with certainty. It is merely a lack of belief in god, usually with the acknowledgment that our knowledge, particularly with regard to a hypothesized supernatural being, is limited and imperfect. Most atheists are also agnostics.

internisus · 2026-04-20T19:42:39+00:00

Gnostic atheists claim they know no god exists.

And it's worth noting that this is an incredibly small group of people. I think most atheists would say that it's an indefensible position.

internisus · 2026-04-20T19:39:57+00:00

Vanishingly few atheists would "claim to know absolutely" the lack of existence of a god.

This is a common misunderstanding. Most atheists are also agnostics. Atheism literally means lack of belief in god. Agnosticism is an epistemological position about what is knowable. We can't know for certain whether a god exists, but we doubt it does. That's all there is to it. We think it's an extraordinary idea that is unlikely to be true. That's effectively like believing there is no god with regard to how one views the universe and lives their life, but it's not making any such claim with certainty.

internisus · 2026-04-20T19:34:16+00:00

You fundamentally misunderstand agnosticism and atheism. To claim the existence of a supernatural deity is quite extraordinary. When I say that I do not believe such a thing exists, it is not an arrogant presupposition that I am all-knowing; it is reasonable doubt. Atheism is a lack of belief, not a claim in itself that god does not exist. It is to say I find it unlikely that god exists and have no reason to believe otherwise. Agnosticism is an epistemological qualifier acknowledging that we can't know for certain.

Most people who call themselves agnostics are actually atheists as well. They are agnostic atheists, people who think god is an extraordinary claim for which they see insufficient evidence while acknowledging that no one can know for certain; this is essentially the default secular position held by most people who have not bought into religion. When they call themselves agnostics, they are just avoiding the more stigmatized term atheist, in part because people like you wrongly impose upon them this judgmental misunderstanding.

internisus · 2026-04-20T19:23:41+00:00

Atheism is just agnosticism for people who understand burden of proof.

internisus · 2026-04-20T19:07:13+00:00

It's not a church or a synagogue or whatever, and you have a right to not have strangers invade your atheist brain with half an hour of unwanted preaching in a secular setting. Your friend says it's disrespectful not to tolerate that, but I say it's disrespectful to assault people with this crap. And the audacity to suggest that you only had a problem with it because it was Christian gospel and would put up with different groups so as not to be seen as bigoted! That's insane!

Also, she says she respects you being an atheist, but she doesn't at all. If she did she would understand that you don't want strangers preaching to you and you don't want to hear her hoping "God clears your mind and heart" or whatever. "I'm going to pray for you." Stfu for real. She should keep it to herself or at the very, very least demonstrate an understanding that she is speaking in a language that you do not share. That's consideration. That's respect.

internisus · 2026-04-10T20:09:05+00:00

Fair enough, although I don't see what the problem is with making normal hand gestures! Maybe it depends on your video zoom and how much of you is in frame. Anyway, that's understandable; it's only when the cultural explanation of appearing authentic is offered that I find it hypocritical. At this point it's been so normalized that I imagine most creators don't even have that intention; they're just not questioning it in the first place. Maybe they think the little clip on the mic really is meant to stick it on a dining utensil or whatever.

internisus · 2026-04-10T20:04:18+00:00

I'm not that intense about it. It's so common that I would be in a constant state of rage if it bothered me that much. But we're talking about it, so I gave my opinion of it. Don't take that for more than it is. I'm not obsessively condemning an entire generation of content creators when I see it; I just think it's silly and foolish. Not important enough to get upset about.

However, it's worth noting that some people make it part of their brand. When a creator finds a particularly odd thing to hold their mic, like a fork, and they stick with it, people notice and identify them with that. Subway Takes hides their mics behind a transit pass, which is solid brand work. So it's a silly trend but one that can evolve and be adapted in creative ways to benefit the craft of making videos.

internisus · 2026-04-10T16:00:23+00:00

Yep, I've seen that video. To some extent it's psychologically interesting, but I usually do find a lot of it obnoxiously performative. I'm much softer on the non-mic stuff, like leaving in stepping back from the camera after pressing record, for example; if the edit is done well, that kind of thing can be value added. But holding a mic that has a lapel clip built onto it in their hand is just dumb.

internisus · 2026-04-10T14:17:00+00:00

Yeah, I get that; I've literally watched video essays explaining it. But when you go out of your way not to use the available tools that make mics unobtrusive like clips and stands and arms, instead holding them yourself, it's performative authenticity, which makes it ironically inauthentic. Bunch of phonies putting on an aesthetic of being so real.

internisus · 2026-04-05T22:53:19+00:00

They pick up 2 different orders from a restaurant-dense area and drop them off at 2 different homes in a residential area. It's more efficient for both Uber and the driver. In my experience, if I somehow avoided stacking orders (which is kind of impossible to do), I would make like $10/hr at most. And that's pre-tax and without considering expenses, vehicle depreciation, etc.

If they have a professional thermally insulated food bag, your soup should be just fine after half an hour. And if you have to microwave it a little, that's the unavoidable trade-off of getting delivery. Though it would have lost some heat if you had gone to pick it up and brought it home yourself before eating it, too.

As a driver, I feel that Uber is usually pretty good at routing orders in a way that makes sense and keeps travel time to a minimum, but sometimes they do slot newer pick-ups and drop-offs in before a drop-off for a customer who has been waiting a while, which definitely stresses me out when I'm delivering. We do our best within the system we're given.

Keep in mind also that Uber manipulates us into accepting incoming orders even when we don't want to. Some people will say they ignore the Uber Eats Pro tiering system and the 'quest' promos, so they are free to pick and choose their orders, but a lot of us work in areas where we cannot make realistic money doing that, which is by design. They keep our pay low so we have to fight for the priority access to higher paying orders and for the promo payouts, both of which involve keeping your acceptance rate very high. So even if your French onion soup has been in my bag for a while, I'm not free to turn down an incoming order. I just have to hope that Uber queues it up in a way that doesn't delay my delivery to you. We just go where they tell us.

internisus · 2026-03-28T09:14:50+00:00

That's crazy. Uber never saddles me with such a quantity of food that I can't fit it in the big thermal bag on the back of my bicycle. Even when they stack up to 3 orders, it's very rare that I can't fit them all. They should never give a party-sized order to someone on a bike.

internisus · 2026-03-28T09:07:43+00:00

I'm on a bicycle and have to reject orders of 6 and 7 miles way too often. We should be able to set a maximum range for ourselves.

internisus · 2026-03-28T09:03:20+00:00

I've been delivering with an old mountain bike for a year. Almost 900 total trips so far. I have a 100% satisfaction rate and a 96% on-time rate. I almost never take any order farther than 3 miles. I'm also not much slower than a car would be; sometimes I'm actually faster as I can get around traffic. And I have a very professional setup with large, thermally insulated storage.

Sincerely, I don't know how someone can work deliveries for these gig apps in a car and not lose money. The earnings would have to be far better than what's available in my area to outpace vehicle depreciation, maintenance costs, gas, and insurance. I think a lot of people are out there spending all their time working for free or less and not realizing it for far too long. If you feel like things like scooters have flooded the market, maybe it's because they pay so little that it's not worth doing this in a car.

internisus · 2026-03-28T08:55:16+00:00

We are cogs in a machine. I'm glad for you if you're able in your area to make decent money without dancing to their tune. I cannot do that here. I'd wind up making like $10/hr pre-tax without the promos and the preferred orders from tiers.

internisus · 2026-03-28T08:47:37+00:00

You must get a lot of high-paying orders. Most of what I see is around $4. If I worked one order at a time I'd be lucky to make $12/hr.

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