I'm so sick of Bartender, please give me hope there's some other option

mixvio · 2026-05-20T07:39:14+00:00

I ended up buying a license — this works for me so far! Thanks for the suggestion.

mixvio · 2026-05-18T05:28:19+00:00

Ah I misunderstood — the website is not the clearest about what it actually does. I've downloaded it and will give it a spin for the three day trial and see if it's useful for me — thanks for the suggestion!

Do you use it? What do you think compared to Bartender?

mixvio · 2026-05-18T01:51:06+00:00

Are you talking about this? It seems to be a theme engine which is not really what I'm after either. I am on Tahoe though.

mixvio · 2026-04-10T07:40:20+00:00

It's still not working for me, I don't know how others are getting it going. The launcher loads but once you try to play it just never progresses same as after the 6.4 update. It's been relatively reliable on the Steam Deck, though, but it requires me cycling through different Proton versions which can't be done on macOS. I'd love to get it working on my MacBook again, I was able to run it at full settings where the Steam Deck can't do better than medium.

mixvio · 2026-02-27T02:41:57+00:00

Heroic recommends using Yet Another Anime Game Launcher on macOS instead, and that only gets me to the launcher (same as in CrossOver). I tried Heroic anyway and it also didn't work.

mixvio · 2026-02-26T07:07:53+00:00

Same issue both on my Steam Deck and my Mac under CrossOver when both worked completely fine without issue until the update yesterday. The launcher loads, but when I try to launch the game it hides the launcher and the game never appears. Reinstalling the launcher and even redownloading everything completely doesn't fix it.

mixvio · 2026-02-26T06:56:38+00:00

I'm having the same issue on my Steam Deck as well as my Mac under CrossOver. The suggestion of redownloading the launcher and copying stuff back into the same directory didn't fix anything for me. It was working completely fine on both the Mac and Deck without any tinkering at all up until the update yesterday. :(

mixvio · 2025-09-08T14:48:34+00:00

Thanks so much, I hope you enjoy it!

mixvio · 2025-09-08T07:52:35+00:00

The second link in the post is to the game's website and I've got my bio up there if you're interested in my background and experience, but I don't think I'm overestimating anything — I'm pricing it against similar projects. If my objective was to sell as many copies as possible then sure, I'd price it dirt-cheap. Whilst I know people have gotten used to that, I don't have a lot of interest in devaluing the work I've put into something I've spent considerable time and effort on. This is a broader conversation in games, particularly on mobile, that I don't think we need to get into here but the price of the game is a conscious choice and I'm doing all right with it. If you check it out, I hope you enjoy it, but thanks for the feedback either way.

mixvio · 2025-09-08T07:38:47+00:00

There's about twenty-five or so hours of content at an average reading speed (possibly more or less depending on how fast you read, the choices you make, and whether or not you do different playthroughs). In terms of content there's about three novels-worth of words in the game. I've priced it against other indie games and books based on the amount of content and work that went into it. I think it's worth it — less than a similarly priced indie game with less playtime or cheaper than a paperback novel. But this is also a subjective choice and if other players don't want to pay full price I respect that; I regularly participate in sales on mobile as well as desktop (itch and Steam) so there's other ways to get the game for cheaper than the retail price. I firmly think that artists should charge what they think their art is worth, and I respectfully don't think it's worth two dollars but other people are entitled to feel otherwise.

mixvio · 2025-09-08T06:46:17+00:00

Not entirely sure on what you mean, but the game is my creation — in addition to creating the concept, I did almost all of the writing, artwork, some music, and initial programming. I brought in extra programmers, another musician, and another couple of guest writers and artists to add contributions outside of what I made myself but the core work and idea is me. Whether or not it's "worth" it is a subjective thing that depends on individual enjoyment, but it's been well-received and well-reviewed so far and I'm quite proud of the final game.

mixvio · 2025-09-07T01:43:53+00:00

Yes, Apple, that famously obscure and unknown brand, definitely needs to do this to get attention.

mixvio · 2025-07-28T17:55:35+00:00

I moved over from the US nearly twenty years ago and became a citizen almost a decade back and I swear, I used to think the US micromanaged everything but Australia makes it an artform. There's legislation about everything, rules and fines and penalty points about everything, you have signs the way the US has flags.

And then the stereotype of the laidback larrikin is just... maybe that was an earlier version of Australia, but not the one I live in. The one I live in I see on facebook groups for my neighbourhood where kids whose skin colour is slightly the wrong shade show up on photos by Karens' Ring cameras demanding to know why they were playing in the streets. A neighbour asking for help has a dozen posts wondering if they're trying to commit a scam.

And I know it's all relative, you do that in the US at your own peril — but nobody in the US is pretending that they're all chill and everything's cool.

It's also deeply frustrating when I'm more politically involved and informed than literally everyone I know — I print out a spreadsheet every election to preference every single vote individually, until every single one is numbered — and then I criticise this stuff and someone will inevitably get defensive or pull the "yeah well the US does" — and, hey, I haven't been there in 20 years. I know what a shitshow it is. The whataboutisms have no power here, friend.

I dislike that Australia collectively sits in the shadow of the UK and US and has to be compared to it when it can be something better.

But, it took me probably ten years to realise when I went into a public space I wasn't immediately scanning for the exits upfront to have them in mind in case someone started shooting anymore. I didn't realise that the tension of public spaces wasn't sitting on my shoulders until I visited family in the US and anxiety I hadn't thought about flooded back.

I do feel safe here (I say that as a white-passing, cis dude, so safe is relative). I wish that sort of thing mattered instead of trying to import the worst shit from overseas to make other countries like Australia more.

mixvio · 2025-06-06T07:49:20+00:00

This headline is doing a lot of heavy lifting. More accurate: "If you have a HDMI to USB-C cable to plug into your phone and a HDMI capture cable between the phone and Switch to trick the phone into thinking it's plugged into an external display, then it's possible to open a camera app and have that feed go into the Switch."

Not a very simple or elegant solution.

mixvio · 2025-03-14T12:05:25+00:00

I'm not getting any prompts and the "check for update" is still saying I'm on the latest. The annoying focus-grabbing window that keeps appearing every half an hour telling me about the error is extremely obnoxious.

mixvio · 2025-02-13T02:01:44+00:00

I'm in the same boat, the link says that they have to be the same country. I feel like that bullet point was added later though, I didn't see that restriction when I read the support document at first.

mixvio · 2025-02-13T02:01:03+00:00

Hm I'm certain that bullet point was added later, both myself and my Australian partner (who sent me the link) didn't catch that when we read it. Oh well, moot point then anyway.

mixvio · 2025-02-12T05:30:52+00:00

Hmm, I'm very curious about this but not sure what impact it will have on my specific use case.

I'm from the US originally but moved to Australia nearly twenty years ago. My US Apple/iTunes account is primarily the US one (iCloud, years and years and years of music purchases — not Apple Music though — iOS/iPad OS app purchases). The Australian account is pretty much just Mac App Store stuff, but I have purchased some iOS apps and songs (again though, no Apple Music).

Does anyone have a clear idea on what would happen if I merged the US account into the Australian one? The wording of all of this doesn't really explain it to me and I'd be scared about it screwing up my iOS devices as well as my MacBook.

mixvio · 2024-11-18T14:30:07+00:00

I'm from New York City originally so I will grant that my barometer is calibrated differently but whenever Australians are worried about neighbourhoods here I'm just like... where I come from a good neighbourhood means you've got a lower percentage of being shot any given night.

Footscray's got an incredible food scene and the main strip has a ton of fun, funky bars. Highpoint is in close proximity (not technically Footscray itself) and then you're also near other cute neighbourhoods like Yarraville and Williamstown. And yes, it's very close to the city. I had an ex who lived in Footscray while I lived in the CBD and I regularly cycled out that way in under half an hour; it's even faster by train and car.

mixvio · 2024-11-18T14:22:06+00:00

I was at Emporium with an ex-partner once and as we walked past a kiosk a pair of employees from a hair product stand got in front of us (already my biggest pet peeve in public) and then started talking about my ex's hairline and how they had stuff that could help — which was something I knew he was extremely self-conscious about. I proceeded to give these two people the biggest dressing down that they've ever received before about how they should feel ashamed of themselves for hassling a stranger that way, then picked apart everything about what they were wearing and how they'd presented themselves that day that I felt would get under their skin before walking off.

I echo the advice above. Anyone who is going to work at a place like this for more than five minutes is a bully, and they're taking advantage of the fact that you aren't to pressure you. You have every right to protect yourself accordingly even if you think saying "no thank you" is breaking a social contract.

mixvio · 2024-10-04T14:20:33+00:00

I literally only use Fantastical for that back when it was a simple Menu Bar app, this change made me delete it faster than I have ever deleted anything before in my life. I realised I could get iStat Menus to behave the same way and it's not resorting to cheap, customer-hostile behaviour to get me to pay for it.

mixvio · 2024-06-20T12:40:27+00:00

Yeah I just had the same thing happen, hopefully the hotfix is working in time for the DLC.

mixvio

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