Is the arse-end of January too late for a 2025 round-up? Perhaps, but nobody has managed to stop me so far.
Read all about the maps, guides, and mischief I've been up to 👇
buymeacoffee.com/westydesign/...
It's full of wonderful old easter eggs, too, if that's your cup of tea:
bsky.app/profile/west...
Key art for This Way Madness Lies
Made my GameFAQs guide writing debut this week with This Way Madness Lies by @zeboydgames.bsky.social!
It's a charming, well-worth-your-time RPG that mixes Sailor Moon and Shakespeare's classics with chuckles and QoL features in equal measure.
Break a leg:
gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/383208-th...
Really enjoyed your talk! Would recommend The Abandoned Planet for puzzles that fit into their surroundings - by the end of the game I'd memorised chunks of an alien language and was using their numbers to both navigate and solve puzzles. Lots of fun 👽
Had such an excellent time! Great games and the loveliest bunch of folks I've had the pleasure of mingling with.
Thanks to everyone who chatted with me - and everyone who'll be subjected to my ramblings tomorrow!
#advx #adventurex
I'm at AdventureX this weekend! Bring on the pointing, clicking, and everything in between 😁 #advx #adventurex
3 hour train journey might be the best time to find out your new phone doesn't have a headphone jack
guess I'll listen to the Coughs, Crying Babies, and Cringeworthy Conversations mega mix 🎼😌
Love a bit of Spargo! Really scratches the Tom Scott itch (which I should probably get looked at by a doctor)
It's a dire watch in most respects anyway but when they're tasked with making video games on The Apprentice...
Screenshot of Map Genie's Hollow Knight Silksong map, featuring pins for fleas, craftmetal, wishes, fast travel spots, hunter's journal entries, and a lot more.
It shouldn't surprise anybody that Silksong is a massive game - if you're hunting for 100% completion or just need help finding those last few fleas, our map's got you covered!
mapgenie.io/hollow-knight-silksong/maps/pharloom/
Not much change there, then. I love that they're always at the top of search results with template pages full of placeholders now, though, it's so cool 💞
Burn so devastating the account was immediately suspended 💥
Sable key art depicting a hoverbike gliding over sand dunes in a colourful environment
Just completed Sable and, wow, what a game 🤩
Occasionally rough around the edges but one of the most enjoyable and confidently stylish open world games I've played in some time. Lovely character writing, too.
Looking forward to seeing what you do next, @shedworksgreg.bsky.social !
A screaming bipedal frog
I must've missed the part where Neo secretly also took the frog pill and looked like this for the rest of the movie
Map Genie screenshot of the work-in-progress Tempest Layer map. A box, filled with pins, has a complicated texture thanks to photoshop shenanigans.
Ha! I'm actively mapping that exact box you're talking about (assuming it's this one* in tempest layer) - would love to know what the hell they were thinking! DK better get to punch the camera man at the end 😂
* If there are any more box levels I will go bananas
doakes looking suspiciously with a drink in hand
now, why were you searching for boobs on sketchfab dot com
Agreed - It's a bit maddening that the maps are designed to show the sublayer on top of them, too. Even if they're "greyed out", it's hard to see much of anything without wrestling with the camera 😵💫
Yeah! It's like the game is moving too quickly in some areas and too slowly in others. Makes me wonder if some scenes were cut 🤔
If you haven't already, try Whispers of a Machine, the developer's other game. Better plot and gameplay, in my humble opinion - hoping for a sequel! 🤞
Always a treat to hear that the hints have been useful 😁 you'll have to let me know what you thought of the game overall once you've had time to digest it!
Kathy Rain 2 - Soothsayer (by @clifftopgames.bsky.social) was released three weeks ago. Our @westydesign.bsky.social took it for a ride, with some mixed outcomes. Read his review here:
www.nicegamehints.com/a/kathy-rain...
Show us your writing process in a gif
I started using this text macro thingamajig called aText to look out for typos and auto-replace 'em with the proper words
Dunno if it's better or worse for my psyche to hear it make a satisfying little noise every time I type "hte" or "taht" - but at least it's auto-corrected 😆
The guilt-tripping crying owl sprite is the cherry on top 😵💫 shame I never got to the part where it taught me to say "cry harder"
Almost like singles instead of albums…
Map Genie's Resident Evil 7 map. https://mapgenie.io/resident-evil-7-biohazard/maps/baker-ranch
The Resident Evil 7 map is now LIVE over at MapGenie!
Revisiting it was such a treat - it really is one of the survival horror GOATs (even if the latter half is as action packed as RE6 without any of that game's fun mechanics)
(rolling around zombies on the floor is peak how do people hate RE6)
I've always thought of it like the speedrunning community - everyone's got a common goal so sharing strategies, writing guides, or jumping into older multiplayer games to boost stuff is all part of the fun 😁
There's some other upsides - making games last longer for teenagers with limited funds, thinking outside the box for the most cheesy way to get otherwise difficult trophies... but it's nice to not NEED to sit down with every game* for god-knows-how-long now.
* f you, Super Meat Boy
Having hooked myself up to that dopamine machine at, like, 13 y/o and retiring from it last year with 177 platinums - mixed feelings 😂
The community aspect is the part I miss most, but it was a good way to see everything games have to offer (and got me on the career path of guide writing fwiw)
MORE easter eggs? If you insist!
- The Avengers (1998 - found a well-dressed John Steed-y type dead in a hedge maze)
- Rick Astley
- Apocalypse Now / Z: Steel Soldiers
- Only Fools and Horses
Plus some smaller nods to Excalibur, Beowulf, Dan Dare, The Quatermass Experiment and Rogue Trooper. Phew!
All in due time (and relative dimensions in space) 😜