#Steam Games

[a-very-mere-mortal]

A Review of In Stars and Time

If you're seeing this, you've probably already played In Stars and Time. I'm not exactly bursting with followers from before I became obsessed with it. But this is still worth making, just in case I can convince one person to pick this game up. So, to give you fair warning, there will be some (hopefully) light spoilers in this. If you want the basics, just skip to the last two paragraphs, but if you want an idea of my emotional impression of the game, try this on for size:

In Stars and Time is an RPG about the power of friendship in which you play as Siffrin, a quiet and introspective rogue out to save the country of Vaguarde from the evil King, who seeks to freeze the world in time. With them are their friends Mirabelle, Odile, Bonnie, and Isabeau, and they all draw strength from the wonderful bonds that their little group has. Arriving in the town of Dormont, you and your friends charge up the House of Change to meet the King, ready to defeat him using the magic of...

Uh oh. Something seems to have gone wrong here. I'm pretty sure that you weren't supposed to die this early. If it was the final battle and this was some kind of grand sacrifice I would get it, but as of right now... let's just try this again.

In Stars and Time is a game about time loops. Specifically, the one that you, Siffrin, are stuck in. It turns out you may have been less prepared to fight the King than you thought. Don't worry though; you have all the time in the world to figure it out, even if it's a little more difficult than it first appeared. Just remember to rely on your helpful guide Loop, who's here to help you make it through the best they can, even if they don't know how or why the loop started in the first place. But as if getting through the House of Change wasn't hard enough, what with its traps, locked doors, and vicious Sadnesses standing in your way, you have to manage your party members too. As it turns out, they aren't looping with you. But don't worry! While you may have felt a little lost at first, eventually you discover the perfect things to do and say to make them like you even more than the first time around. With your bonds stronger than ever and your route through the House perfectly memorized, you charge up to face the King in a heated battle with the fate of Vaguarde on the line! It's difficult, but in the end you triumph over the King and head into the final room of the House to celebrate with your friends- no, your family.

That's odd. You've defeated the King with the best possible ending, but there's still another 3 Acts left in the story. What's going on here?

In Stars and Time is just another trash indie game. I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but it's true; this game should be 10 hours shorter and cut right after you beat the King with your family in tow. It hurts to play because now that things have gone wrong, things seem to have gotten worse in your head, too. Where's the resolution to this story? When does it end? You said all the right things, you made all the right moves, and your family members have never been happier! By any other game's logic, this would be the endpoint. You may have struggled to make it through the time loop, but since you managed to keep your sanity intact and be nice to your friends, you get a gold star and the true ending. For some reason, this game refuses to let you have that success, and I'm infuriated on your behalf. I suppose you'll have to keep looking for a solution somewhere within the House, even though I know you're getting a little sick of it by now. Try not to get too frustrated by all this, okay? It would be quite awful if you did something you'd regret because you were feeling...

Ah. Well.

That changes my opinion of things, I suppose. I have no words that could do justice to what we just experienced. What a finale, eh? Let's try this review one more time, with a more...complete view of things. No more of this "describe what happens in the game step by step" malarkey. Everyone knows that's bad practice anyways.

In Stars and Time is an RPG about memory, communication, and the mortifying ordeal of being known. (It'll make more sense when you play it). With a lovely sound track and both beautiful hand-drawn and pixelated artwork, In Stars and Time manages to convey one the best stories I have ever experienced in the history of gaming. If you're the sort that likes comparisons, I would describe this game as a combination of the the humor and surprising depth of the Stanley Parable, the intense emotional characters and tight writing of Undertale, and the incredible worldbuilding of Harry Potter (without having to suffer through J. K. Rowling). I felt genuinely mystified by the unexplained and had a strong desire to learn more about the world during my unfortunately brief time within it.

3 weeks after completing the game, I'm still stewing in the things I felt and the realizations I came to while playing it. This is one of the few games I can say genuinely changed my life; after playing it I found the strength to reach out and connect to the friends I have in the real world on a level I never thought I'd be able to achieve. I feel a moral obligation to recommend this game; if it can do the same things for you that it did for me, it would be evil of me to deny you them. For the incredibly modest price of 20$, you will experience approximately 20 hours of soul-gripping gameplay that might stick with you for the rest of your life. This is something worth your time.

#isat #logoffspeaks #review #game review #pc games #video games #steam games #gaming #videogame #game recommendations #switch games #in stars and time #it's way easier to write if you pretend to be a different character #if anyone can guess who i'll be shocked

[a-soft-fluffy-nerd]

TL;DR: Steam just made library sharing so much fucking easier and so much fucking better. Instead of login-trading, it's just a simple goddamn invite.

Read this. Really. It's a good read. Because it shows that, full-stop, Valve isn't just doubling down on their stance to make sure that people can and should be able to share their copies of digital goods as easily as they can physical ones, but they're making it better and easier than ever.

But you know how Steam allowed you to, with either friends or family, link accounts with another person to be able to establish an ability to share game libraries with one another? The general gist of Steam Family Sharing was that, with a limit of five people plus you (six in total) on a limit of ten computers total could share account access to willingly mix your libraries. You could play theirs. They could play yours.

This was a huge boon. It was meant to emulate sharing a physical copy of a game. A way to allow children to play games their parents or siblings had bought without having to fork over double the cash to buy it a second game. But it had some major limitations and drawbacks, and was archaic to use.

If a person did not share the same computer, you had to manually log into that computer to give it and the accounts on it access. This wouldn't be a problem if both accounts were used on the same computer, but many households (and astronomically more family and friend groups) had multiple computers, all used by different people.

If that computer, at any point, was hard reset to any point before the sharing occurred, you lost access. And had to do the whole process again. This was also an issue with computer transfers. The whole kit and kaboodle needed to be redone on upgrades. On top of that, the old computer is now just dead weight that you may not realize you have to manually revoke access to.

Putting your account information on another person's computer opens up security issues. They could, intentionally or accidentally, land themselves on your account if the login information was stored. Which could easily lead to purchases or bans you did not want to happen.

If anyone was, at any point, playing any game on their own library, you had no access to their games. Even if it was a totally different game, you had to wait your turn as if waiting for their computer to be freed up to sit at. (Admittedly this is kind of like the "mom said it's my turn on the xbox" meme, but hey, kinda archaic.)

You could not choose whose library you accessed a game from. Not at all. It always prioritized the first library it gained access from, DLC access and multiplayer be damned. If another friend you were accepting games from had more DLC? Too bad.

And yet here we are. Steam Families Beta fixes EVERYTHING about the above issues. By just going through Settings > Interface > client Beta Participation and clicking onto Steam Families Beta? You get:

No more login sharing. No more computer links. You can now choose which person's library you borrowed from. And you can play any other game from someone's library, even while they're in-game. It just needs to be a different game than what they're playing.

Pick five people. Invite them to your family. And now everyone has access to everyone's library. My goddamn library went from 150-ish to almost a goddamn thousand in ten minutes of setup.

Account sharing and password sharing are dirty words that "lose" billions of dollars. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Max. They aren't game storefronts, but they still allow you to access massive libraries and scream like you murdered their firstborns for daring to share your password with your mother after you moved out.

Microsoft tried pushing to demonize and undercut used games sales and borrowed copies of physical games. Remember the first attempt to reveal the Xbox One? People forget, but these vultures tried to make an always online console that checked to see if you were the account that owned the game, even if you had a physical disc, and prevent access to the disc's contents if you weren't the original downloader.

Valve walked the fuck up. Valve tapped the mic. And Valve dropped the fucking thing right onto the ground with one feature's revamp.

About the only issues I can see with this are twofold:

If someone sharing your library gets banned from a game's servers... so do you. No one else in the family does, but the both of you do. This is... rather unpleasant, because banhammers can be dropped quite frequently by mistake. I'd urge Valve to rethink this one, but I see the logic: don't cheat and effectively bite the hand feeding you. Still making me side-eye that, though.

If you leave a family you've joined? You have to wait a YEAR to join a new one. It's to prevent people form jumping ship to another group and screwing over who's in the former one in the process, but a YEAR? OUCH.

Problems aside, though... it's probably the biggest fucking power move I have ever seen a media distributor make in the current economic climate. It's the kind of thing that would let so many new games be available in a way that's easier than ever. Just a few clicks to send or accept an invite, and bam. Permanent access to dozens or even hundreds of new games with so much more freedom than earlier drafts of the system.

It's the kind of thing that slaps you in the face with positivity after so many Ls from the games and media industries. And I'm all the fuck for a W like this.

#steam #valve #video games #steam games

[mushramoo]

I WOULD LET THEM SHAKE ME AROUND IN THEIR MAW IF IT MADE THEM HAPPY

#FORBIDDEN DOGGIES #I LOVE YOUUUU #I WOULD DIE TO PET THEM #lethal company #steam games #eyeless dog #steam #indie game #indie games #video games

[zentrie]

Y’all think we gonna get some extra wax for incinerating it?

#sky cotl #sky children of the light #portal #glados #steam games

[destined-productions]

Sound on! Yesterday I posted this and you gave me feedback to improve it. So here is the new improved version!

I am a solo hobby dev from Australia making Mighty Marbles - a physics based marble game where you are the level. There is music in the game too but I turned it off so the SFX was clear!

Yesterday I posed this and got feedback the marble on plastic sounded a bit too much of a thud and the siren for the copter was a bit much so I tried to fix. Did I make it better?

If you want to find out more visit the steam page or web site. As a small indie every wishlist helps me get some visibility on steam!

#video games #gamedev #indie games #indiedev #unity3d #game development #indiegamedev #puzzle #puzzle games #rube goldberg #nintendo switch #steam games #physics #casual gameplay

[volno-pesh]

WHO MADE THOSE

#SPY IN DRESS??????? #GAY POTATO??????? #FUCKING DESPASITO??????????????? #steam #steam games #steam 20th anniversary #portal #portal 2 #half life #half life 2 #team fortress 2 #chell portal #chell #wheatley #wheatley portal 2 #glados #glados portal 2 #tf2 scout #tf2 #scout #headcrab #caroline portal 2 #cave johnson #cave johnson portal #the gman #g man #half life gman #spy tf2 #GLADOS NYAN POTATO????? #edit: credits to Claire Hummel!! those are so lovable!!

[anntova]

me and my best friend🤗

#lethal company #games #lethal company game #lethal company fanart #fanart #game fanart #artists #artists on tumblr #art #digital art #sketch #my art #steam games

[shaddytheguyislazy]

Please go spend the greatest 23 dollars of your life right the fuck now.

Seriously. If you have not played one or both of these, you need to. They are life-changing.

#game #gaming #steam #steam sale #sale #game sale #video game #video game sale #196 #196 refugee #196 migration #r196 #psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #raz #razputin #steam game #steam games #summer #summer sale

[beekeeperspicnic]

🐝 The Beekeeper's Picnic 🐝

Explore a seaside town in the 1920s and solve cosy mysteries as the (retired) Great Detective in this point and click adventure!

Wishlist on Steam | Itch.io Demo | Discord |

The game will be available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

🌸 Features!

Visit and explore a seaside town It's the  day of the village fete, a suspicious new neighbour has taken a lease on  a long-abandoned cottage and something strange is happening down on the  beach...

Interrogate and befriend a cast of eccentric characters

Make deductions and decisions. Puzzles often have multiple solutions, some of which may please your neighbours more than others.  What path will you choose? Who will you enlist  to help you?

Shape one of the most beloved literary partnerships of all time by choosing the form which the relationship between Holmes and Watson will take: are they dear friends, platonic partners, found family or a romantic couple?

Phone for help of you get stuck! Your older brother Mycroft is always ready to act as your consultant, just give him a call at his club if you need a hint. 

The lovely cover artwork is by @gooolabatooo Music by @sandygarnelle

#sherlock holmes #indie games #point and click #mystery games #cosy mystery #steam games #lgbtq games #acd holmes #sir arthur conan doyle #acd johnlock #cottagecore #cottagecore games

[springtsunami]

WHA—

I know steam tags are very inaccurate but this still caught me off guard💀💀

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic #shadow the hedgehog #Sonadow??? #sonadow #sonic x shadow generations #steam #steam games #Sonic games #sonic generations #steam tags #I’m not the biggest Sonadow fan but this caught me so off guard I swear💀

[lingrimmart]

Strudel, a very unusual character from the (not yet released) the Crown of Leaves chapter 3.

Suitable for vegetarians 🔪

#guro warning #art #fantasy #anthro #fruit gore #tasty #the crown of leaves #indie game #steam games

[acornbringer]

I'm very proud to announce the revival of my stylistic horror game, Of Love and Eternity 💀🌹

An entirely new demo is available right now to download on Steam and Itch 🎊

Of Love and Eternity (Steam) Of Love and Eternity (Itch)

Thank you for all the love and support ✨

patreon.com/acornbringer

#horror #horror game #indie horror #indie horror game #indie dev #indie game #indie game dev #unity #unity 3d #made with unity #low poly #3d game #game art #3d #retro style #retro game #game announcement #game release #game demo #steam games

[pixelfireplace]

Purple

#Steam games #Pixel Fireplace #indie games #purple aesthetic #indiedev #gamedev #retro inspired #gaming #video games #pixel art #chillwave #cyberpunk #vaporwave #retrowave #purple #dreamcore #relaxing #fireplace #purple color

[alexis-royce]

My murder mystery game is out on Steam! It's like Clue meets Ace Attorney, if there were creeping monsters hiding in everyone's pockets.

The game is completely free, and won't keep you for longer than 2-3 hours, so it's perfect for a cozy evening in, or a session streaming with friends!

Download it over here!

#steam games #artists on tumblr #watercolor art #indie games #murder mysteries #visual novel #queer #lgbt #trans #dark academia #The Case of the Serialized Killer #running around flailing like Kermit #here we goooo #signal boosts will all be appreciated like a mug of warm cocoa to my weary frame

[moondvncer]

the fact that this was the first ending I got... the fact that I completely forgotten how weak I am to submissive pretty boys literally punched me in the face LOOK AT HIM

#I am not normal about him #like #I hope there are fics already I have to feed my delulu brain #a date with death #gaming #― rea's gaming corner 🎮 #steam #steam games #dating sim #f2p

[youmotherfuckers]

#stardew valley #stardew sebastian #cute #steam games