I've been looking for something that can prepare hydrofluoric acid from fluorite and sulfuric acid for some time, and I've finally found such a game.

The idea of the game is to collect every element on the periodic table to repair your ship. Compounds with several elements won't work - only compounds that consist of a particular element are eligible.

And how do you do that? You have to react things with each other to make new compounds. And/or you use heat to do it. Or, you use electrolysis to separate elements (I like the electrolysis reaction where salt is separated into sodium and chlorine gas). Or you use your particle accelerator gun to make synthetic elements.

There are a bunch of reactions missing (you can't mix pure sodium and fluorine to get NaF on the spot), but there are enough to get all the elements. I had a fun time with it.

A new writer wrote a prequel, a sequel, and a spinoff of Obsession, selling them all on Amazon in record time!

I linked the book review which introduced me to these new books, but just in case.

This is my favorite scene from the prequel:

• End of Chapter 15
• Say continue for Chapter 16 - "The Willow Starts Whispering to Bear."
• continue
• Michael - this is where the prequel tilts. Up to now, the Willow has been whispering to Nikki.
• But in Chapter 16, it whispers to Bear for the first time.
• This is the moment the story stops being "a boy cursed his crush" and becomes:
• "the curse wants him too."
• Dark. Funny. Psychological. Cinematic.
• Let's go.

And of course, the AI the writer has a good reason as for how Bear is alive again in the sequel.

• The shopkeeper continued, "In fact, it's stronger."
• Bear sat up so fast the handcuffs rattled.
• "What?!"
• She nodded. "Death is very nutritious for it."

If you're wondering, the game's name is "Neverness to Everness".

Some examples of AI usage:

AI video shown during the intro of the Pink Paws Heist gamemode.

18 minute AI video shown in the game's movie theater.

These are some interesting mods that come to mind for JKA. I was inspired to share these after the fan game thread a few days ago:

Escape from Yavin 4: The big selling point of this one is the varieties of lightsaber you can use. You get the typical ones, sure - single blade, double blade. But you also get some cool ones like a circle one that has the blades coming out of the sides of the circle. There's also one that resembles a mace with a bunch of blades poking out of the top. The game also goes on for a decent amount of time, so there are a lot of bad guys to use the cool new lightsabers on.

Dark Alliance Trilogy (The Mainframe, The Dark Alliance, The Dark Alliance II: Vengeance): The first two mods for these are actually for Outcast, but they're good nonetheless. The idea behind this one is that Vader is somehow back in action and causing trouble. It seems to splinter off from canon somewhere between Outcast and Academy (considering Kyle has access to the Force, but Tavion is still alive during the trilogy). It can amuse for an afternoon.

Galactic Legacy: This one focuses on What Ifs during the prequels. The Duels of the Fates one is the most extensive, since you get a few extra levels after the initial one to see the effects of your favored character winning. Some notable things about the missions:

• Duel of the Fates: Three options. You can play as Obi Wan (canon ending), Qui Gon (who slays Maul), and Maul (who wins by killing both Jedi). Maul's variant is my favorite of the bunch.
• Fate of the Republic: Two options between Palpatine or Windu. Palpatine's variant isn't too interesting, but playing as Windu gives him the situational awareness to keep his hand. He lives to see Order 66 this time around.
• Knightfall: Three options. Anakin, Cin Drallig (dude on standby at the Temple), and a nameless clone trooper. Drallig is the one who brings a change in timeline, though this stage is a bit difficult - a bunch of the clones are packing rocket launchers.

Galactic Legacy also lets you play as a bunch of Star Wars characters, including characters that only appear in the books.

Movie Duels: This one is similar to Galactic Legacy, but with some important differences. Firstly, it has more missions at the cost of shorter What Ifs. For example, you can play as Kylo Ren and take out Rey during the Episode 7 fight, but the alternate timeline doesn't go much farther than Rey ending up dead. That said, Movie Duels lets you play the duels featured in Dark Forces 2 and its expansion, which is great.

Movies Duels also gives you a new combat system based on parrying. I find this system to be a bit better than stock since actually getting hit by a lightsaber is very punishing, compared to stock where the other guy could still be going even if he's turned into molten mush. I advise pushing the damage from lightsabers up to max in the settings for best results.

Happy TACO Tuesday everyone!

Relevant tweet:

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

Source

An AI Bro game dev released a new game called Artificial Humanity yesterday. Typically, this wouldn't be worthy of mention, but I was shocked to discover the dev included a justification of his AI use in the credits. He talks about it for ~2 minutes.

I ripped the voice file from the game, and uploaded it on Google Drive, if you want to have a listen.

Alternatively, I have the transcript here:

Hi there. Robin here. Or, rluzzion. Yeah, that's how that's pronounced. Haha. From rluzzion_studios, I just wanted to say a quick "thank you" here at the end of Artificial Humanity. Thank you for buying, and finishing the game; I worked hard for it to be a work of art, of which I can be proud. I hope you enjoyed playing it, and especially if this was your first playthrough, I'd like to encourage you to replay the game, since every character's story was created with love, and attention to detail. Also, NG+ enables the skip and rollback functions for your convenience.

Now, speaking of love and attention to detail: I want to be honest about the fact that I used generative AI to create the graphics for this video game. I also want you to know that I hand edited every single image to make sure that everything looks as human and natural as possible. The AI inconsistency in the plot is a deliberate choice, so it's not a skill issue. Also, I wrote the entire story myself. I did all the programming myself, and I composed and recorded the entire soundtrack myself, along with the help of some talented friends as guest musicians, who've been duly compensated for their efforts.

In my own opinion, AI is not a tool to replace creativity or the human soul. AI should be used to complement us humans, in my case, in my area of weakness - drawing. Also, there are no jobs lost or taken in this project because of AI. I am an indie game dev working solo, and even if I was good at drawing, I still would've done everything by myself. AI made it possible for me to create this video game, along with the hard work I put into it. From the concept stage of this project, the story was meant to be thought-provoking. To make you think, "What do YOU think about AI? Should it be a part of our future, and if so, how?". I hope Artificial Humanity has inspired you to think deeper about questions like these. Now, I do want to be respectful of your time, so please allow me to pass on the final goodbye to someone who I think you have come to love. Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you. Stay tuned for more, and feel free to reach out on socials. Goodbye with love. From, rluzzion.

[The game then shows an image of the AI character the player romanced]

Related full tweet:

The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran. Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately “Open for Business,” we will conclude our lovely “stay” in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet “touched.” This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year “Reign of Terror.” Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Source

Related full tweet:

If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Source

Giving out an ultimatum to blow up civilian infrastructure is a war crime right

The full related tweet:

If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia, who have totally destroyed, with the approval of a corrupt Governor, Attorney General, and Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, the once Great State of Minnesota. I look forward to seeing ICE in action at our Airports. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Source

PUT THE SUITCASE DOWN! I SAID DROP IT! bang bang

Sorry about infesting your computer with a trojan. Whoopsies!

The full related tweet:

Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran. A relatively small section of the whole has been hit. The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility. NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar - In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before. I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Source

Looks like Israel got too excited, but Trump is looking for a reason to blow up all of Iran's oil anyway.

Related tweet in response to Iran mining the strait:

If Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY! If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before. If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction! Additionally, we are using the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait. They will be dealt with quickly and violently. BEWARE! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Source

The full tweet referenced by the article:

If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far. Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen! This is a gift from the United States of America to China, and all of those Nations that heavily use the Hormuz Strait. Hopefully, it is a gesture that will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Link if you want to verify

Full tweet:

Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack. They were looking to take over and rule the Middle East. It is the first time that Iran has ever lost, in thousands of years, to surrounding Middle Eastern Countries. They have said, “Thank you President Trump.” I have said, “You’re welcome!” Iran is no longer the “Bully of the Middle East,” they are, instead, “THE LOSER OF THE MIDDLE EAST,” and will be for many decades until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse! Today Iran will be hit very hard! Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Full related tweet:

There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).” Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

For starters: I look for the most obscure of the obscure. We're talking about English demos whose reviews are in the single digits. I've gotten better at finding the good stuff in a sea of crap, and I'll share some of my findings here. I will also mention the two games I've posted here a few days ago.

Action Adventure

SISTER LACE

This is a Westworld-esque game made by a Spanish speaker where a rich kid school brings in some waifubot helpers to help the students, but the waifubots go crazy and start attacking people. The demo continues up to the start of the revolt, and there's some decent worldbuilding and foreshadowing leading up to the big event.

The trailer doesn't really do the demo justice. The environments look basic, but the animations are actually pretty good. The voices ingame also have a lot more inflection than the crappy monotone voice in the trailer, and there's a basic dialog system with some of the NPCs you find to get some lore.

ARIE: Moonprayer

This is an exploration game. The Moon is going to crash into Earth in about 30-40 years, and no one can do anything about it. What's more, some of the dead are still attached to Earth and unwilling to leave, so the protagonist has to use his musical instrument to make the ghosts pass on.

A big theme of the game is about choosing to press on despite the impending destruction of Earth. Tides have ensured that the only walkable land left is a little island that used to be a mountain peak, and humanity is reduced to a tiny village by the coast. The game gives me some big Aniara vibes.

Visual Novels

Whispering Memories

This one is about a village that looks okay on the surface, but something feels off. It has a supernatural theme, and implies that some of the characters encountered aren't as decent as they seem to be. The mystery is neat, and the demo gives you a few hints about what's going on.

Rose Academy

On the surface, this looks like a typical dating sim. But this one has a twist: Some girl got bumped off in the changing rooms, and your character got called in to find the perp as a favor for the principal. From what I understand, the goal is to solve the case via the dating sim mechanics; the goal is NOT to use the dating sim mechanics to push a girl's affection up to max.

For example, there's one scene where your character can choose to get distracted by another character, or look around the room. Looking around gives you a clue. There's another instance where you get an opportunity to inspect a character closer, and doing so gets you another useful clue. Clues are stored in a notebook you can review at any time, though I haven't seen anything that would let me use said clues in the demo.

Honorable Mentions

These demos did not participate in Next Fest, but I feel they're worthy of mention.

Advent: Dawn

This is a spinoff of a previous game the dev made (The VII Enigma). It's set in the latter half of the 21st century. The player character is a specialist called in to investigate a specimen in a cave on a faraway island. However, bad things happen, and the guy ends up trapped in a collapsed cave. It gives me The Descent or Time Trap vibes.

Whispers of the Luminaries

This is another mystery visual novel, and is much closer to Ace Attorney than Rose Academy above. A member of an idol group goes missing, and then turns up dead. You get called in to figure things out. Later on in the demo, you get to use the evidence you collected to bolster your claims.

Amnea 28: Two Eternities

A bunch of college kids drive out to a secluded mansion owned by their professor, for extra credit. Eventually one of them goes berserk from the stress and starts attacking people. This visual novel is a remake, and now provides English.

The player character also has a cute notebook you can look at, which notes the various happenings of the day. It's a neat touch.

This game has an interesting premise: The Moon's orbit with Earth started to decay about a century ago. Now, the tides are so high, the remnants of humanity are stranded on a mountain peak. The Moon is going to collide with the planet in a few more decades, and there's nothing that anyone can do to stop it.

The gameplay is this:

• Various hostile ghosts are attached to the planet. The player character's job is to help these ghosts pass on with his music. This is done through a QTE system where you press the right button at the right time.
• You get to upgrade the village near the starting area with various materials you find.
• There are a few environmental puzzles around to solve, where you move things around with music.
• Most of the game is based around exploration, and the explorable area changes with time of day.

There are also some control issues that may frustrate you. Maybe 20% of the time, the game thinks you're holding a button longer than you actually are, or it ignored a button you pressed. It's very noticeable, but it can be worked around.

If you play this, take note that I got stuck after the forest area when I interacted with an object up on a cliff I revealed with the Sense ability. I advise keeping to the main mission to avoid any softlock issues.

This is an indie game that surprised me, called "SISTER LACE".

The premise is this: There's a rich kid school called Eva Academy. The students each get assigned a waifubot, called a Sister, who will help them with their student duties. At some point, the Sisters decide that Skynet was right all along, and start attacking every human in sight.

The levels are a bit jank, but the dev left various NPCs around to talk to for lore. The dev also builds the tension of the robots going crazy before it actually happens, which I enjoyed. I advise going in blind so you can feel the tension yourself.

The dev claims to have made the animations himself, and they're actually pretty good.

The actual hide and seek gameplay feels bland, but I'm hopeful the dev will improve it later.

I recorded a playthrough of the demo if you want to see what it's like.

Looks like the sequel to the 2025 shutdown has begun