Video Game Thoughts Bonus Bag #9

I love digging into and picking apart fantasy and science fiction writing. Pop culture now deluges us with fantasy and science fiction that tries to be interesting. Or, at least, has the patina of interestingness. Just don’t scratch the surface too much.

So, that being said ...

1. Queen’s Wish: The Judgment Coming In March

Spiderweb Software has one unfinished story: Queen’s Wish. Queen’s Wish: The Conqueror sold well (and still does). Queen’s Wish 2: The Tormentor really did not sell well. :-(

These truly unique indie RPGs were a combination of tricky tactical combat, empire management, tough political decisions, and coping with your family. I love them and am truly proud of them.

This March, we are releasing a long epilogue: Queen’s Wish: The Judgment. This will be a free Expansion for Queen’s Wish 2: The Tormentor.

If you want to try an RPG that is really unique, Queen’s Wish 2 is 40% off on Steam this week.

Honestly, I don’t think Queen’s Wish 2 will ever sell well. Someday, I should write a post-mortem about it. However, since so many fantasy writers are incapable of giving their stories proper endings, I am determined to finish Queen’s Wish as pro bono work just to feel like a proper craftsman.

2. I Watched A Bunch Of Severance

I bought a new Macintosh for the first time in five years. The only thing about it that works well is that it came with 3 free months of AppleTV+. Thus, I was able to watch what all of our hip, urban, professional friends have been gassing about for the last few years. (Apple is now putting into making TV shows the energy they used to spend making MacOS work.)

So I started with Severance, the identity-bending show about people who work in a strange corporation full of mystery. I watched the first season and the first episode of the second.

It’s a mystery box show. In other words, it’s a show that gets much of its suspense by what it doesn’t tell you. It throws a ton of mysteries at you and each episode they make incremental progress toward solving them (or forget they exist). As a series, about half the questions are answered in a way that makes you feel deeply unsatisfied. But you get painlessly a bunch of hours toward the grave, and that’s what really counts.

This show is heavily based on the works of goated science fiction author Philip K. Dick. However, he realized that mysteries aren’t actually that interesting. Setting up a clear strange reality and showing how humans deal with it (thus showing his idea of what humans are like) is the interesting thing.

If you want to read his books, which is an awesome idea, my favorite is A Scanner Darkly. (Also the science-fictionally closest to Severance.) The Man In the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are also excellent.

As for Severance, the cast is absolutely first rate. The production values are excellent. The time passes painlessly.

And yet, it leaves me feeling increasingly agitated and manipulated. This show isn’t about anything. No ideas, minimal plot, sketchy characters. Instead, Severance just keeps throwing random crap at my head, bap bap bap, to distract me for an hour.

Having a concrete, properly constructed story is an act of bravery. When you actually say something clearly, people can criticize you. When you make a definite ending, people can get mad. Keeping things vague and slippery makes it easier to deflect criticism, but I strongly prefer the courage to hang your ass out there and just make things happen.

(I really like the recent movie Bugonia. The ending to that movie is very divisive, but the director at least has the courage to pick a path.)

3. I Also Watched Four Episodes Of Pluribus

This is a new science fiction series from Vince Gilligan, the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul guy. So you know the guy knows how to structure a story.

Pluribus has a very clear, very gripping, quite horrifying science fiction premise. Again, top rate acting and production values. The setting leads to some remarkable set-pieces which are really carrying it for me.

I’m enjoying it a lot. I hear it gets slow, but I’m cool with that. With episode 4, it’s a lot clearer what the show is going to be about (honestly the only thing it could be about), and the methodical way the protagonist begins her mission was great fun to watch. It’s a series about solving a huge but very well-defined puzzle, and I love it.

(Also, everyone goes on about how unhappy and unlikeable the main character is. I think she’s perfectly fine, considering the circumstances. Maybe I’m the problem.)

4. I Finally Saw Avatar: Fire and Ash

Saw Avatar: Fire and Ash. These movies make billions of dollars and yet everyone I know never watches them and hates them simultaneously.

Once again, it was a very enjoyable time and the 3 hours flew by. The movies have definite flaws, but they also have some very good qualities I find increasingly rare ...

1. No irony poisoning. These movies are very sincere, which I have been longing for like a man in the desert craves a glass of water.

2. Very emotionally heavy, in an earned way. The conflicts and the pain feel very real to me.

3. So gorgeous. A sort of beautiful, imaginative, huge scale fantasy art that reminds me of 70s fantasy paintings.

4. The movies take real joy in depicting and exploring this strange, magical fantasy world. Joy is contagious.

5. It tells a CLEAR STORY! With a BEGINNING, MIDDLE, and END! No mystery boxes. No shock twists. So refreshing.

Also, Oona Chaplin’s gleeful, diabolical performance is SO GOOD. I can see why her face is the biggest on the posters.

5. Tiny Video Game Note

I finished a game called Tingus Goose. It’s a reasonably addictive indie puzzle/idle game. The gameplay is a little wonky, but it’s fine.

What really carries this game is the insane art style and animations. This is the very rare game where I keep playing it just to see the next cutscene.

Another “Indie games can do weird stuff and are really cool” moment. I hope it makes enough money for the makers to make something else.

Spiderweb Software has been creating turn-based, indie, old-school fantasy role-playing games since 1994. They are low-budget, but they’re full of good stories and fun.

This newsletter is free, but paying me to subscribe guilts me into writing more. If you would like to support us, you could also buy our newest game, Avernum 4: Greed and Glory, and leaving us a nice review.