Sure, there are plenty of posts from people who applied to a job and got an offer 30 seconds later. Good for them. But if you're on this sub, you're probably running into more difficulty. I did. Job hunting these days is inherently pretty hard, but there are plenty of things I did wrong during my job hunt that could have saved me time and trouble. I'm a 35 year old in product marketing in the bay area, so this advice may or may not apply to you.
Most of this advice is not new, you may have seen it elsewhere. Well, HEED MY WORDS! You should take that advice.
Here are my don'ts of job hunting:
e: Here's the real #1 piece of advice because someone brought it up in the comments: Don't Not Have A Network. The main reason I had such a hard time was I moved to a new city where I didn't have a professional relationship with ANYONE. I think if you're applying without a friend on the inside, it reduces your odds by 80-90%, based on random factoids we've all seen that say 80% of jobs are never posted publicly.
I went to networking events and coffee meetups and blah blah blah, but COVID put a stop to that before I could make much progress. The biggest piece of advice (by far) is just to have a friend who can get you a job. But if you're reading this, you would have done that already if you could have.
Don't try to get by without doing the standard "best practice" stuff.
I spent a while thinking I could get away without making a customized resume for different jobs. I also thought I would probably have the right keywords naturally, and that I didn't have to worry about that either. WRONG. I wasted many weeks submitting poorly optimized resumes and getting few interviews.
What you should do is have at least one version of your resume customized for each job title you're applying to. That means if you're applying for Sr. Widget Fiddler and Director of Widget Fiddling, you need 2 versions.
Keyword optimize each resume version by copy-pasting 50+ job descriptions for that job's title into a tool like Voyant Tools, which will spit out all the most common words and phrases. Find the most frequent ones that seem important and relevant, and work them into your resume, even if it seems weird to refer to yourself as a "team player" or "entrepreneurial".
Don't be bad at interviewing, not even a little bit bad.
Being a good interviewee is a skill. Most of us aren't born with that skill, and most of us are rusty when it comes time to look for a job. I knew I wasn't great at interviewing, but I really didn't want to go through awkward practice interviews with friends, so I told myself people would understand why I was all nervous, and realize I was still super talented and experienced despite my 'rough edges'. WRONG. I blew it on a lot of interviews before admitting that I had to practice, a lot. I did a bunch of practice interviews, got feedback, and I even talked to an interview coach. The latter was expensive, but I think the dose of outside perspective really helped. YMMV.
I practiced enough that I started getting to final rounds instead of washing out in the first couple rounds. It made a huge difference. Practice.
Don't wing it during the interview.
For 'behavioral' questions (i.e. "tell me about a time when..." questions) everyone says you need to have multiple answers memorized for every major category of question. Ugh! So much work. Greatest weakness. Success story. Failure story. Conflict story. Collaboration story. YAWN. I thought I could come up with good answers on the spot. It's "supposed to be a conversation", right? WRONG. I blew it on a couple interviews before realizing I was coming across as both unprepared AND inexperienced.
Sit down and work out your bullet points for every answer, BEFORE you land an interview. Pain in the butt? Yes. But not as big a pain as getting an interview, blowing it, then ending up doing the work anyway.
Don't apply to old job listings.
If it's still up, they're still hiring, right? WRONG. I have found that job listings are good for about as long as fresh bread. You mostly want to apply the day they're posted, 2-3 days is OK, 5 days is pushing it, beyond that, it's literal trash. I started out applying to anything relevant that was less than a month old, and my app-to-interview yield was around 1%. Started applying to new listings exclusively, and my yield went to more like 3%. YMMV.
Don't apply to listings that aren't on the employer's own site.
It's become disturbingly common for 3rd-party sites to steal and re-post job listings they have nothing to do with. You click on a link on LinkedIn or Indeed, and you end up on Neuvoo or some random BS. Don't submit any of your info on those sites. Very often the jobs are expired already, but these 3rd-party scammers are still re-posting them to steal your info. Even if they're not expired, there's no reason to think they actually send your application to the employer.
If you land somewhere unexpected, go to the employer's actual careers section on their site and find the listing yourself. Otherwise you're just giving your info to someone to sell, and the employer probably never sees it. Please report these listings as you go.
Don't be too picky with job titles.
Unless your resume precisely "fits the profile" employers are looking for, you're going to have to apply a lot. I had to apply a lot. At first, I was exclusively applying to one title, because although I didn't "fit the profile" I didn't want to compromise. I ended up getting a really solid job with a different title, after I loosened my criteria JUST a tad.
Have a serious talk with yourself about how many months you're willing to apply before broadening your search, and don't talk yourself out of good jobs because they have the "wrong" title.
Don't be too loose with companies you apply to.
At a couple points in the process, I ended up with interviews at companies that I seriously didn't want to work for. I was playing the numbers game and I would apply to anything with the right title, even if I hadn't heard of the company. I figured if I got an interview, I would worry about the company later.
Difficulty: If you are on unemployment, this can lead to a sticky situation - if you turn down an offer, you legally can't collect unemployment anymore in many places. It's also pretty hard to justify to yourself turning down ANY interview if you actually need the money.
Have a loose idea of who the company is before applying, to avoid those awkward moments.
Don't stop applying until the ink is dry on your offer letter.
My advice is to apply to every suitable listing as soon as it's posted, which could be as many as 10-30 per day depending on your field and geography. If things are going well, you'll also have interviews going on during any given week, which also put heavy demands on your mental energy and prep time.
It is tempting to stop applying for jobs if you are doing multiple interviews and they seem to be going well. You need the time, and one of them has to work out, right? WRONG. It happened to me multiple times - I'd get further along in an interview process, I'd be focusing on prep, and I'd let my application routine slip. Bad idea. If your application pipeline runs dry, it can be another 2-6 weeks before the interviews start flowing again. ABA - always be applying.
Don't get your hopes up. (maybe the most important tip.)
Your mental resilience to rejection and your self-regard are finite resources. They are resources you need to conserve to maintain your overall mental health and good job-hunting habits. Job hunting can burn through these resources like Joe Exotic through a bag of meth. Don't be like me and get emotionally invested in any given job before you get an offer. Don't start picking out all the stuff you're going to buy with the new salary. Don't start thinking of what doors are going to open up for you with this step in your career. Don't mentally pick out outfits for your new commute. Just don't.
I consider myself a mentally tough person, so I should be able to handle the repeated rejection, right? WRONG. If you allow yourself to start caring about a job before you GET the job, you WILL be crushed to bits. Maybe not the first time, but after the 5th, or the 10th, it becomes hard to take.
To some of the newer job hunters I've seen on this sub: Caring about a job from the day you APPLY? Sheer lunacy. You shouldn't even remember where you applied by the time you go to bed that day.
Keep in mind: It's a numbers game. It's not personal. You WILL get the right job eventually, if you keep going. You have to maintain faith in yourself, but hold no hope for any particular job.
In emotional terms, treat it less like a poker game, (where any hand can be a big deal) more like a slot machine (where you care zero until you finally win). No matter how tough you think you are, take care to maintain your mental state, especially during COVID where so many aspects of life are also wearing down our mental health.
Don't be afraid to be a try-hard.
The role I finally got was based largely on a "take home project" used to demonstrate my working style. It was paid, also really long, the minimum suggested time was 10 hours. Usually I put 70% effort into trial projects, because I don't want to bust my ass for a throwaway, and I don't want to look desperate. My thinking is "Well, we're all professionals, so as long as I mention a few of the right things, they'll know we're on the same level, right?" WRONG.
On this one, I decided to go HAM on the project. All or nothing. I ended up putting over 20 hours into it, (the max time they suggested was 20) and came up with a total overkill amount of material, it was probably 20 pages worth, if not more. To give some idea, I spent like 4 hours just doing addressable market sizing, which everyone including me acknowledges is fairly pointless.
Part of the project was also to see how we communicate about our work - they put me on their company slack, so I logged onto it pretty much every day to update them on my progress. It was firmly in try-hard weirdo territory. But it worked!
So I guess my lesson from this is, if you're going to bother with these projects, be the one who turns in the blue ribbon material.
NB: Be aware of "free work" scams where they try to get you to do the actual job without hiring you for the job. If it's pertinent to the actual job and it's more than an hour or two of work, it should be paid. Unpaid trial projects that don't relate to the actual business are OK, but you'll have to decide for yourself how much time you're willing to put in for free.
Don't assume ***anything*** until it's final.
In 3 instances, I got much further than I expected in a hiring process, and in one I was blindsided by a rejection where I thought I was a shoo-in. #1, they interviewed me for the role (up to the final round) even though the job called for an actual engineer and I have zero engineering experience.
In #2, I blew an interview and got rejected. I knew exactly how I blew it, I got the yips and did poorly. So I sent an email reply explaining what I SHOULD have said, and that I really believed in the company's mission, and that I realize I was a poor interviewee, but I was working on it - they actually gave me another shot and I made it to the final round.
In the last unexpected twist story, they actually scheduled a final interview, then CANCELLED IT. I have been rejected for about a million jobs, but I've never been cancelled on. They said that instead of an interview, they would just review my trial project. I couldn't imagine cancelling an interview with someone you intend to hire, so I assumed this 'review' was just a consolation prize and the job was going to someone else. On the day the cancelled interview was meant to take place, they offered me the job. Huh???? Later that day I rode to heck on a flying pig and bought a snowcone there. But I also got a job.
On the other side of things, I was told directly I was the top candidate for a role, the only one who was really qualified, but because of COVID they were putting the role on hold. OK cool, I figured I was a shoo-in once they actually hired for it. Well, they re-listed the job about 45 days later. They didn't reach out to me. I messaged them. They told me I wasn't even going to get a phone screen for it. WTF? They lied to my face for no reason whatsoever? Yep. They did.
The lesson: Do not assume anything! ANYTHING!

Slay the Spire and its "family"

https://steam.cryotank.net/wp-content/gallery/slaythespire/Slay-the-Spire-01-HD.png
Slay the Spire (StS) has finally arrived to Android! For two years many of us dreamed for this legendary game to be accessible on their mobile devices, and finally the day has come. No need to talk about how awesome this game is, how it basically started a new genre of card-based dungeon crawlers (UPD: or roguelike deck-builders, if you prefer the term), and even about how well or poor it works on Android hardware in its current state (there will be lots of these posts during the days to come). What I wanted to talk about is the impact this game had on (specifically) mobile industry and how other developers were able to utilize this innovative formula in their own products.
Personally, I am somewhat glad that StS release was delayed that much. This allowed a lot of "clones" to be spawned, many of which I enjoyed playing. Some of them appear to be straight rip-offs, but others introduced many fresh ideas of their own, some even surpassing the predecessor's greatness. What the heck am I talking about and how is this even possible will be revealed to you, should you decide to stay on a bit and read through the article below.

General info

First and foremost, let's clarify the important thing: card based dungeon crawlers are not Collectible Card Games (CCGs). Even though they share the same ideas, and some of them (StS included) even have a feature to permanently improve starting cards, or a mode to play with pre-constructed decks, this is not the case for the genre in general. There is no place for multiplayer and PvP battles here: a turn-down for the most, but an undeniable advantage for the rest - only though-out puzzle-like single-player experience which we can pause at any moment and continue when the time is appropriate. Thus, there will never be troubles with downtime, matchmaking, ratings, overpowered builds and other PvP stuff, as there will never be a satisfaction of crushing your opponents with the power of your mighty intellect... The fun of discovering interesting synergies between various card combinations is still present, though.
With this being said, let's quickly look through the core features of the genre, which will be relevant for almost every game we review below: - we must explore a dungeon, which (usually, but not necessarily) consists of three floors with increasing difficulty; - we have limited control over the order in which to face the challenges; - there is a powerful boss in the end of each floor; - we battle using deck of cards, usually drawing new cards from deck to hand each turn; - there is a limitation on how many cards we can play during our turn; - we start with a weak basic deck, but get new cards as rewards for fighting enemies; - there is a possibility to permanently remove (weak) cards from the deck; - successful gameplay strategies revolve around utilizing the synergies between different cards; - there are several character classes, each with their own cards and tactics; - there are often additional items to acquire in the dungeon, providing bonuses and emphasizing specific types of play;
Before Slay the Spire (StS) came out, there was another card-based dungeon crawler called Dream Quest (DQ), which considered by many to be the first game of the genre (at least the first one to make a significant impact). Not sure if the former drew inspiration from the latter, but certain parallels can easily be drawn: in fact, all of the features mentioned in the list above are valid for DQ the same way as it is for StS. The rich plethora of card based dungeon crawlers (both PC/Console and mobile) originated from some combination of the two.
StS, however, can not be considered a clone of DQ, as it introduced a lot of original ideas and spawned its own line of descendants. It is always interesting to analyze each new title to see which of two games was the biggest inspiration, and to group them accordingly. For me the main criteria lies in the core difference in battle system: - in StS, enemies (usually multiple) show their intentions at the beginning of each turn, so we know what to expect and what to play against; - in DQ, the enemy (usually single) draws and plays cards the same way as we do, often using the same abilities and synergies we ourselves can use.
Introductions aside, let's finally get to the interesting part - the games! (Note: Games are listed in alphabetical order to not give any privileges to one over another. For my personal preferences see the comment section).

Dream Quest clones

Call of Lophis takes us on a grim journey through infested lands full of deadly monsters, dangerous traps, and one of the most ridiculous card art I have ever seen. It's surprising to see how dark fantasy elements combine with the humor and gags this game presents. From the gameplay point of view, there is enough card variety and interesting synergies, but it will take a long time to reach the interesting parts. Really: this game just does not know when to end, forcing new and new dungeon locations onto us with basically the same monsters and same approaches to dealing with them over and over. Its the boss battles which crank the difficulty up to over 9000, and if we don't have the right deck by the time we reach them, there is nothing we can do to pull it off. Plus there is some shady business going on with monetization schemes, where even paid version of the game makes us spend money to unlock additional classes and grind a lot to buy permanent improvements. Only truly dedicated players will be interested in dealing with all this nonsense. [...] UPD: Haven't checked on it for a long time - maybe the situation improved somehow.
Crimson Deep is still in early alpha and was not updated for a long time. But the development hasn't stopped, and there is a new major release approaching in the nearest future. It makes no sense to talk about the game till then: the version in the store is too raw to provide any significant gameplay experience, but it would be interesting to see where it goes in the end.
Dimension of Dream is probably the only game that has the same grid-based dungeon layout as DQ itself. This time with full 3D and a possibility to fight only limited set of enemies before facing the final boss (which allows to moderate difficulty as we go, either defeating tougher enemies with better rewards, or to save HP and fight only the easy ones). This game has one of the most interesting battle systems and 6 truly unique classes with deep complex strategies unlike anything we have ever seen (not only the cards themselves, but the order in which we play them greatly affects the outcome). Unfortunately, the English version was pulled from Google Play, leaving only Chinese version for Asian people to enjoy. UPD: Apparently, the game was re-released under different publisher with the title Dreaming Dimension, so there you have it. [...]
Meteorfall: Journeys offers the streamlined approach to dungeon crawling, where all our decisions boil down to Reigns-like "swipe left / swipe right" operation: picking the path, encounter resolutions, and even battles are simplified to utilize this binary choice mechanic. But don't worry: these specifics do not affect the gameplay, still providing enough strategic depth to appeal even to hardcore players. Add here a neat visual style, lots of character classes and their variations, cool card combos, and you get a true masterpiece, which is Meteorfall. [...]
Night of the Full Moon offers a fresh take on a fairy tale of Red Riding Hood, but adding darker elements to it (including werewolves, zombies, mad scientists and cursed cultists). It demonstrates an amazing production quality with top-tier art, beautiful audio support, and intriguing storytelling. Gameplay wise, we have the closest thing to DQ, safe for the grid-based dungeon maps, which were changed to just picking the encounter out of available three. Some people may argue that the game does not offer enough strategic variety, only suggesting a single best build for each class, but you will still get different runs due to the randomness of card and power-up drops. Another argument of it being too easy is completely nullified on higher difficulty levels. Wish the story would develop in a different direction, though. [...]
Spellsword Cards: Origins provides the gameplay similar to the Night of the Full moon, but focuses more on role-playing character development part. Aside from choosing a class, we also get to pick race with unique traits, and a school of magic, greatly affecting which cards will be available to us during the run. The problem here, though, is that monster encounters do not demonstrate a lot of variety, forcing us to fight the same enemies over and over, and the difficulty is rather high, with starting cards doing almost nothing and enemies quickly run out of hand with their devastating attacks, whereas good cards are hard to come by, and even then you will still be devastated on later stages. [...] UPD: Or maybe I am just bad at this game (welcome to comment section for valid strategy suggestions).

Slay the Spire clones

Blood Card offers a unique possibility to construct the dungeon ourselves, providing a pool of encounters of different types: regular monsters, elite monsters, events and shops. We pick a desired encounter from the pool, deal with it and then move on to the next one. Another interesting feature is that our health is defined by the number of cards in draw pile, which limits our tactical possibilities, but is compensated by the fact that we get multiple copies of cards as rewards for fighting enemies. There are a lot of interesting mechanics related to moving cards between various piles, as well as other neat features (like: the Death inevitably arrives in three turns and starts whacking everyone on the field with increasing persistence), but I'll leave them for you to discover on your own.
Card Crusade seemed like a cool idea of mixing classic "roguelike" dungeon crawling with its "deck-based" counterpart, where we explore the dungeon the same way as we do it in Hack, Angband, Pixel Dungeon and other similar games, but use cards to fight actual enemies. In reality though, this implementation just adds a useless abstraction, as the adventuring does not provide any tactical benefits and is only there to inter-connect battle sequences (heck, even breaking pots and chests does not give us any coin, of which developers themselves warn us at the very beginning!). The cards are not very interesting, with next to none cool synergies, and new classes (which should be unlocked by performing specific actions on previous runs) do not provide any major difference. [...]
Card Quest takes us on an epic journey through fantasy lands, where we will perform great deeds as one of the classic RPG hero classes (fighter, wizard, rogue, ranger), each with their own equipment and fighting disciplines. The interesting part is that the cards we use during runs are defined by said equipment, and if we find some new pieces during our adventure, we get to keep them for further runs. Also worth noting that defense cards are played not during our turn, but during enemy turn, which requires us to plan ahead a bit. This being said, the game is extremely hard - it will take a lot of unsuccessful tries to finally reach the end. But the variety of dungeons and possible builds will keep us occupied for long.
Dungeon Tales for a long time was the closest, yet simplified copy of StS mechanics (up to similar cards and gaming strategies), but without certain elaborate features, like upgrading cards or using potions. The basics are left intact though: we still build our deck along the way and face the powerful boss in the end. There are only two characters available yet, but each has a couple of viable builds, so it can keep us invested for quite some time. [...]
Endless Abyss is a close StS clone with very similar character classes (only two so far) and a lot of cards with exactly the same effects. Graphically the game looks very good, but angry monetization, lots of grinding, and forced ads make it almost impossible to fully enjoy. [...]
Heroes of Abyss is a predecessor to Endless Abyss with basically the same core gameplay, but very simplified dungeon crawling part. There is no floor map with choosing our path, nor there are elaborate adventure events: just a series of battles with the boss in the end. The spoils we get after each battle go into improving our starting deck and unlocking new difficulty modes with higher rewards. What makes the game unusual, is that we chose the preferred build right from the beginning with appropriate set of starting cards, without the need to rely on the randomness of card drops. It may be interesting to unlock and compare all the 6 available builds, but once the task is done, there is almost no reason to play the game further.
Heroes Journey provides a different setting for a change: this time we will play as space explorers, who crash landed on an alien planet. Thus, instead of familiar swords and bows, we will be wielding blasters and energy shields: the rest remains the same, up to the majority of cards straight up copied from StS. Unfortunately, this innovative idea was completely ruined by repetitive grinding and angry monetization, forcing player to make dozens of identical runs with the same small card pool, until something adequate is unlocked. Oh, and the game is long abandoned by the developers.
Pirates Outlaws is an amazing rework of original StS ideas in a pirate setting with some changes to gameplay mechanics, such as introducing persistent charges needed to play certain cards, and different buff/debuff statuses that replace each other. There are also some questionable features, such as ship stamina that deteriorates over the course of the journey and leads to game over if not repaired in time, or a quest system, where quests can not be completed in parallel, but instead picking the new quest resets your progress in the current one. Some may also argue that new classes take long to grind for, or expensive to pay for, but with permanent booster pack this should not be a problem. Anyway, the game is highly recommended for any StS fan. [...]
Rogue Adventure offers a twist to usual mechanic: our hand is limited by 4 cards, but each time we use one of them, a new card is immediately drawn to its place, thus we never run out of cards to play. Non-starting cards are common for all classes, but are grouped by type (or race), giving huge synergies depending on how many similar cards we have. Aside from this, the game offers diverse gameplay by providing a lot of different classes, each with its own unique strategies and dynamics, and some interesting items to work around. The developers constantly provide updates with bug fixes and new content, but be warned that new mechanics may break what you are already accustomed for.
Royal Booty Quest started as a straight rip-off from StS with the same classes and abilities, and even cards having the same names. And absolutely atrocious pixelated visuals, which were not possible to look at without eyes bleeding out. Over time, though, it developed its own unique mechanics and interesting card combinations, but the art style did not get any better. However, if this is not a problem, the game is enjoyable to an extent, but since it was not updated for a long time, I doubt it will keeps anyone's interest for long. [...]
Tavern Rumble adds an unusual strategic element - a 3x3 grid, on each units and enemies are placed. The core gameplay remains the same (we still see what opponents are planning to do each turn and adjust our own strategy accordingly), but the addition of the grid introduces another tactical layer: not only we should maximize the damage output, but also plan the layout for our troops to provide the effective delivery of said output, while at the same time establish enough defense to minimize the damage to ourselves. There are a lot of cards and classes to play around, different play modes and a lot of features that are still being constantly added to the game. Some may argue about simplistic pixel graphics or long repetitive grinding, but it is easy to unlock everything within reasonable amount of time, even without paying. [...]

Other Games

Of course, my criteria does not work 100% of the time, as some games are way too different from anything else to confidently enroll them into one of the categories. They either demonstrate traits of both, or implement entirely unique mechanics of their own (which I like the most), while still maintaining the basic dungeon crawling ideas (so a lot of the games you might think of will not end up in the list). What I have in mind is the following:
Dungeon Reels removes the cards from card-based dungeon crawler - why bother, right? Instead, it provides some kind of a slot machine, where each turn three rows spin independently to pick available actions based on what slots we have in our reel. Winning battles awards us with new, better slots to add, each with their own specifics and synergies. Enemies also randomize their moves with slots of their own, but the most satisfying mechanic is the possibility to spin a jackpot with three identical slots for some powerful effect. It is interesting to see this concept developed further, but the game has not been updated for a long time.
Iris and the Giant takes us on journey through imaginary world, inspired by Ancient Greek mythology. Each battle takes place on a grid, where various enemies advance in huge numbers. We play a card from our hand, usually dealing damage to nearest enemy, and then everyone who is still standing and can reach us deals damage in return. There are cards that target multiple enemies at once, as well as ways to play more than one card during our turn, so most of the time we will be deciding which card to play at which moment. The deck has limited size, and if it becomes empty we lose, so new cards should be constantly acquired. There are a lot of interesting mechanics to discover, but the game is very hard and luck based, requiring a lot of trial-and-error to finally reach the end. [...]
Phantom Rose Scarlet has the same basic core, but with completely innovative battle system, not seen in any other game. On each turn there are four positions for cards to be played in strict order, where two of them are randomly filled with opponent's cards, and the remaining two are left for us to fill. Instead of drawing the hand, we have our entire deck available right away, but playing cards puts them on a cooldown, which does not reset between battles, so we constantly face the strategic choice of playing our best cards right away or keep them for later. The game is in active development, providing new mechanics and further developing the story, which is quite captivating here. [...]
Void Tyrant is a bit of a stretch, but still a "card based dungeon crawler", in which we basically play BlackJack against our enemies by dealing card with numbers from 1 to 6 one-by-one from our deck until we stand or bust. Whoever has the highest value wins and deals damage to the loser. There are various supporting cards on top of this mechanic, allowing us to either jinx the outcome in our favor, or to perform various other metagame manipulations. The only downside of the game is the lack of content, as it quickly runs out of interesting things, and since it was not updated for a long time, it is unlikely that anything new will be added in the future. [...]

Conclusion

As you see, there is a lot to play besides StS, so even if you are not hyped by its long-awaited Android release, but appreciate a good intellectual dungeon crawler, you will find something to suit your needs. I hope, even with StS release, new games of the genre will continue appearing on mobile phones, and I will gladly review them and add to the list. If you know any hidden gems (or even trash) that was not highlighted in this article, please share the names and/or links in the comments. I am also open to any discussions on the topic, as I am obviously able to talk a lot about my favorite genre.
Good luck to everyone in all your endeavors.
P.S. I am well aware of games like Dungeon Cards, Card Adventure, Dungeon Faster, Meteorfall: Krumitz Tale, Card Thief, Maze Machina, Cube Card, Card Hog, Fisherman, Relics of the Fallen and other "grid-based puzzles", but do not consider them to be a part of the "family".

R/Bujo’s Top Tips on How to Plan When You Have Severe Depression/Impaired Functioning

Hey! So, after the amazing response I got on this post detailing my struggle with planning while severely depressed, I decided to use some extra energy I’ve been having to condense all the answers I got into a master list for easy reference. I was initially just going to make and keep this but then decided that it might be useful to share in case you

didn’t see the initial post and feel this info would help to you, or
did see the post but didn’t have energy or time to read through all the responses.

Feel free to browse the list and see what may work for you if you are in a similar spot.
Things to note:

Some of the advice given here seems to contradict itself (e.g., DO use habit and mood trackers, DON’T use habit and mood trackers) simply because multiple people gave their perspective and some of the things that worked well for some didn’t for others.
I didn’t reference spreads unique to particular people and just focused on the general trends in suggestions – if you want to see descriptions/images of those unique spreads, I’d encourage you to read the original post.
This advice was in the context of my particular situation (which again, you can refer to here) so it might not work for you if you are in a different situation and have different constraints.
Lastly, if you have any ideas that you feel aren’t listed, mention them in the comments. Thank you again for all the support, and enjoy!

WHAT TO FOCUS ON

Prioritize celebrating what you do get done with Done Lists/Tada lists instead of just To Do lists!

Consider ditching traditional habit trackers if you feel they discourage you. If you engage in a positive habit, mark it down! Then you’ll have a total of all the times you did do something instead of a tracker with glaring reminders of when you didn’t.
Aside from habits, write at least one thing you did today, no matter how small (e.g., drank a glass of water)

Track goals in a way that shows what progress you have made even if you didn’t reach the goal

E.g. If your goal was to get to inbox 0, write down the number of emails you did get through even if you didn’t reach 0. Acknowledge progress!

Focus less on productivity or SMART goal setting, and more on taking care of yourself and tasks that contribute to/maintain functioning.

Once you have reached a baseline of functioning again, add goals and tasks outside of this
Have a basic list of tasks you need to do every day that enrich you/are self-care e.g. (medication, hygiene, food and water intake, journaling, fresh air)

Focus on ‘Did I’ goals instead of ‘How Much’ goals (e.g. 'Did I drink water > Did I drink 8 glasses of water?')

The bar for success then becomes when you did something, as opposed to only when you did a certain amount of something.
Can be a good precursor to tracking ‘How Much’ goals once you have reached a point where you are doing the thing consistently.

THE METHOD (SPREADS AND STRUCTURE)

Create simple easy spreads

Low set up time, takes little time to use, and don’t need to be kept up daily
Create/buy stencils of various sized squares, letters or lines that can make the process of setting up a spread easier and faster

Stick to the extreme basics, or the original Ryder Carroll method

Instead of weekly or daily spreads with initial set up, rapid log in your BuJo when you need to (even if that means your entries are scattered across the week or month and don’t have every day accounted for in chronological order)
In this vein, consider avoiding spreads that are dependent on you having accomplished the previous days tasks – this way you can miss days without feeling like that jeopardizes your ability to use the journal.
If relevant, note briefly in your journal skipped days, and why you skipped them.

Use a line a day spread that can give you an overview of your month

one positive line about your day, or
one line about how you were feeling that day

Gamify the structure of you BuJo or self-care tasks
Make it so you earn something if you do your tasks e.g.

in-game ‘points’/XP
a win in a battle/increase in battle statistics
levelling up
real-life rewards

If games are nor your forte, structure it differenlty but implement a reward system to create incentive

create a tree for your habit. Draw it with no leaves. When you do the habit, add a green leaf. If you miss it, add a brown leaf. This way you are incentivized to keep the plant alive and flourishing with more green than brown leaves.
Like with trackers, if you know the brown leaf/green leaf approach might make you fixate on the number of brown leaves (times you didn't do the habit), just focus on adding leaves when you do the habit and when you miss a day or three, don't add anything to the tree. This way the reward is getting to add leaves, and there is no reminder of when you didn't do that habit. Just a beautiful display of when you did!

Use Rolling Weeklies (sometimes called the Alistair Method)

Create an undated master list of tasks to do, keep it in view, and slot them on to do on higher functioning days.

Break down tasks into their smallest manageable increments and tackle those
Instead of ‘do laundry’, break down tasks into:

remove clothes from laundry basket
take clothes to laundry room
put clothes in washing machine and start cycle
remove clothes from washing machine
put clothes in dryehang clothes up to dry
collect dry clothes
fold dry clothes
hang dry clothes

Detach any routines you make from a set time

Focus on establishing the routine before you place it at a specific time or within a specific time frame e.g. do morning routine.
This way you are free to focus on getting into the habit of the routine first without feeling obstructed by having to do it with time in mind. If you do the habit but at varying or inconsistent times, it is then still a success.
Tackle time (when you want it to happen and how long you want it to take) once you have established this.

MENTAL HEALTH RELATED

Track things related to mental health

Start with a few simple basic selfcare things – once the habit is ingrained, add more.
Track mood, symptoms (when they occur, their severity) and try and identify any patters in when and why you may feel how you feel. Also be aware of what coping mechanisms do and don’t work.
If you complete a task while experiencing a symptom, write the symptom on a column on the side of the task – this way you might notice a correlation between a symptom and the tasks you are able to do.
If tracking your mood is too complex (multiple feelings at once) or discouraging (you mark 'sad' every day), stop!

Create a personalized resource on what to do when you feel at your worst (‘When I Feel Like Shit’ list)

Steps to take
Coping mechanisms that work
Self-care you need to keep up on (medication, hygiene, food and water intake)
Bad Thought/Good Thought list (The bad thoughts you are having, and corresponding good thoughts that give a different perspective – consider writing the good thoughts when you are clear headed and feeling good, so that you can reflect on them when you aren’t!)

Track what triggers particularly bad episodes or feelings

This can help you avoid, manage or prepare for the trigger (if it's inevitable)

Create ‘bad day’, ‘okay day’, ‘and ‘good day’ to do lists that correspond with the kind of day you are having

‘Bad day’ – the absolute bare minimum you need to do to take care of yourself
‘Okay day’ – the bare minimum + simple task(s) to get done
‘Good day’ – bare minimum + more tasks that require more energy (might be a good idea to do things that will help you on worse days – meal prep, do biggest cleaning tasks, etc.)

***What would be classified as a bad, okay, and good day is very dependent on your mental health and state of functioning. Some days when I’m really non-functional, a good day is doing the bare minimum. Some days it is just staying alive. So you might categorize this differently than done here!
Forgive yourself for what you don’t or can’t get done – some days are just bad, and that’s okay!
Involve a gratitude practice in your bullet journaling

Doesn't have to be detailed or long - it could be anything from a single word to a couple of sentences. It's a good way of reminding yourself of the bright spots of a particular day.
No standard about what qualifies. If it's that you got through the day, add it!

(Even if you don’t have it) Check ADHD related subs for ideas on how to trick yourself into doing things!

ALTERNATIVES

Focus more on creating a stable routine and less on Bullet journaling and tasks.

Waking up at a specific time
Hygiene (teeth, shower)
Meals
Movement/exercise (even just a walk)
A household chore

Resources and Recommendations

‘Level up your Life’ By Steven Kamb
Zinnia app for creativity and organization
domesticblisters on tiktok gives tips on what to do to keep your life functional cleaning wise
Unf*ck Your Habitat for tips on how to keep your life functional cleaning-wise, with articles on chronic pain, depression, anxiety, and cleaning-related trauma (Content warning for discussion of abuse and trauma)

Famitsu (a popular Japanese video game magazine) has released the results of its Genshin Impact fan survey for its January 2021 issue.

Famitsu Magazine's January 2021 issue had released the results of its Genshin Impact Fan Survey that they run on their 3 platforms: Famitsu website, Famitsu mobile app, and Dengeki Online. The survey ran between Nov. 6 to Nov. 15, 2020. There were (less or more than) 1850 people who responded to the survey.
Survey Demographics: 82% Male, 18% Female. Most responses are in their 20's, followed by 30's and 10's.
Take note that this survey is mostly influenced before the Patch 1.1 update.
Original article here: 『原神』ユーザー1850人が回答したファンアンケートの結果を公開！好きなキャラクターやいちばん苦戦した魔物は？ - ファミ通.com (famitsu.com)
Note: Take note that I use machine translations here, so these translations are kinda bumpy. Feel free to comment if you spot any mistakes or correct some translations.

Who's your favorite character?

There are some who liked them because of their cuteness or coolness, but more than that, they like them because of their strength and utility. There are also people who like them because of their mobile Elemental Skills, which can be useful for exploration.
10.) Jean (85 responses)
9.) Barbara (89 responses)
8.) Noelle (101 responses)
7.) Fischl (107 responses)
6.) Mona (121 responses)
5.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (131 responses)

Her idle animations are so cute! (30's / Male)
She can conveniently change elements and at the top of that, she's cute! (40's / Female)
Excellent elemental skills for both combat and exploration. It's very convenient and can be incorporated into any kind of team formation! (10's / Female)

4.) Qiqi/Nana (139 responses)

I like the feeling of 'breaking the seal' on her compelling voice when I raise her friendship level. (20's / male) (Thanks Tsumaranchan)
I like her cute appearance, her cute personality, Yukari Tamura's pretty voice, and her ability to use both as an attacker and as a healer. All in all, I love it. (30's / female)

3.) Diluc (156 responses)

He's so cool and has a lot of firepower. (30's / female)
I'm attracted to a "dark knight" who protects Mondstadt behind the scenes while running a winery. (10's / male)
His elemental skills are easy to use, and can deal a lot of damage within its reach. (10's / female)

2.) ~~FBI bait~~ ~~Jean bait~~ Klee (207 responses)

She's so powerful you'd want to pursue (her damage) to its limit! (40's / male)
Lolis are the best! (10's / male)
Cute is justice! (20's / male)
Because she's both cute and strong! (20's / male)
I like the piquant character and because she is cute. I thought the "Fleeing Sunlight" would appropriately describe her. (30's / male)

1.) Keqing/Kokusei (238 responses)

Consistent DPS and good for exploration due to her mobility. No other character can replace her. (30's / male)
She's strong; doesn't have any problems dealing in melee or ranged combat. ()20's / male)
She's easy to cause Elemental Reactions and works well with other characters. Also, she's cute! (20's / male)
Because she's my first 5-star I pulled (10's / male)
The fact that I can move in any direction with her Elemental Skill, I can do plunging attacks to the ground. (20's / male)
She's cute and strong! (10's / male)
While her Elemental Skills are useful for exploration, her powerful Charged Attack is really appealing. (10's / male)

Which female character would you like to have as your girlfriend?

Jean, the Acting Grand Master of the Knights of Favonius/the West Wind (Zephyrus), takes the first place. Rather than citing her attractiveness, many people praised her perseverance.
1.) Jean (238 responses)

I like the fact that she is rational and calm. (20's / female)
She seems to care for the family and she would cook for me. (10's / male)
She's sincere and honest. I would like to support on her side. (30's / male)
She usually gives the impression of being serious, but when she "switch off," she seems to be surprisingly soft. (20's / male)

2.) Keqing/Kokusei (224 responses)

I like the fact that she's very serious and works harder than anyone else. (20's / male)
She seems to be able to point out on what's wrong. (30's / male)
I want to see her embarrassed face! (10's / male)
I like her dignified appearance (20's / male)

3.) Barbara (192 responses)

Her looks and personality are just right (20's / male)
She's kind and cute; and can cook too. (20's / male)
She can heal me mentally as well. (20's / male)
White pantyhose/tights are the best! (50's / male)
I want to listen to her singing all the time (30's / male)

4.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (176 responses)
5.) Noelle (157 responses)

Which male character would you like to have as your boyfriend?

Cool, strong, and wealthy, Diluc is an overwhelming favorite! Regardless of gender, many players like him.
1.) Diluc (612 responses)

Tall, rich, strong, and handsome! (30's / male)
After reading the official manga, I found out of his kindness, and I liked him even more! (20's / female)
An ideal hero. I can trust him. (40's / male)
I'd like to shoulder some justice that he bears. (20's / female)

2.) Kaeya/Gaia (173 responses)

I'd like to be his drinking buddy and have a quiet conversation with him. (30's / female)
I'll be having a good time with him. (30's / female)
I would like to talk to him, because he seems to know a lot of things. (10's / male)

3.) Venti (150 responses)

Whenever I feed sad, he'll cheer me up with his songs and ballads. It doesn't matter what troubles I have whenever I see his flippant attitude. (10's / female)
He's cute, it's so unfair. (20's / female)

4.) Xingqiu/Yukuaki (139 responses)
5.) AetheSora/Traveler (Male) (88 responses)

Which characters do you use more often?

While the top three remained the same as in the favorite character ranking (but not in the same slots, sans the other one,) the fourth and fifth places are different.
Ones who made it in are Venti, with his powerful Elemental Burst, and Fischl, with Oz as her excellent support.
1.) Klee (225 responses)
2.) Keqing/Kokusei (217 responses)
3.) Diluc (202 responses)
4.) Venti (147 responses)
5.) Fischl (134 responses)
6.) Lumine/Hotaru/Traveler (Female) (110 responses)
7.) Noelle (107 responses)
8.) Qiqi/Nana (99 responses)
9.) Jean (87 responses)
10.) Razor (86 responses)

What's your favorite weapon type?

1.) Swords (One-handed sword) (692 responses)
2.) Claymores (Two-handed sword) (622 responses)
3.) Catalyst (TL note: Original Japanese word for catalysts are hurting my brain) (277 responses)
4.) Bow (173 responses)
5.) Polearms (86 responses)

Which weapon type do you often use?

1.) Swords (One-handed sword) (699 responses)
2.) Claymores (Two-handed sword) (546 responses)
3.) Catalyst (363 responses)
4.) Bow (222 responses)
5.) Polearms (20 responses)

Tell us which relic set you like the most in terms of design!

Gladiator's Finale, a relic with a gladiator motif, received more responses than second place's responses.
This relic is relatively easy to obtain with its excellent +18% Attack stat two-set effect. It's possible that many players voted not only by its aesthetics, but also the power it gives.
1.) Gladiator's Finale (407 responses)
2.) Berserker (176 responses)
3.) Crimson Witch of Flames (Witch of the Blazing Flames) (175 responses)
4.) Wanderer's Troupe (Wandering Troupe of the Earth) (173 responses)
5.) Maiden Beloved (155 responses)
6.) Bloodstained Chivalry (96 responses)
7.) The Exile (84 responses)
8.) Martial Artist (77 responses)
9.) Retracting Bolide (65 responses)
10.) Noblesse Oblige (56 responses)

Which enemies do you have the hardest time to deal with?

Oceanid (Pure Water Spirit) took the top, beating out Stormterror Dvalin and the Lupus Boreas!
It seems that many players had a hard time to deal with Oceanid with disappearing platforms and monsters of various forms.
1.) Oceanid (Pure Water Spirit) (497 responses)

The disappearing platforms were hard to deal with (40's / male)
Enemies are gradually becoming stronger and more troublesome. (10's / male)
Simple yet fierce. The type of attack, range, and moveset are all far better than most elite monsters. (20's / male)
It's hard to deal with those flying monsters. (40's / male)

2.) Lupus Boreas (King of the North Wind, Dominator of Wolves) (250 responses)

Even if you're getting used to it, if you're not careful, you'll easily lose this fight because of its unpredictable attacks. (40's / male)
Its attacks on its second phase are difficult to avoid (30's / male)

3.) Stormterror Dvalin (231 responses)

Because its ranged attacks are so strong. (10's / male)
I couldn't figure out the gimmick on moving between platforms. (20's / male)
With a limited movement range, the battle's hard. (10's / male)

4.) Ruin Hunter (110 responses)
5.) Cryo Abyss Mage (Magician of the Abyss, Ice) (103 responses)
6.) Stonehide Lawachurl (Rock-Helmeted King Hilichurl) (88 responses)
7.) Geo Hypostasis (Formless Rock) (85 responses)
8.) Fatui Skirmishers (64 responses)
9.) Ruin Guards (59 responses)
10,) Electro Hypostasis (Formless Lightning/Thunder) (52 responses)

How far have you cleared the Spiral Abyss?

When they asked about Spiral Abyss clears, the most common answer was that they had already cleared up to the 3rd Floor.
As it is the end-game content, preparation is required to conquer the Abyss. For this reason, it seems not that many players have taken the challenge seriously yet.

Abyssal Corridor Floors:
- Uncleared 1st Floor : 174 responses
- 1st Floor: 80 responses
- 2nd Floor: 151 responses
- 3rd Floor: 448 responses
- 4th Floor: 274 responses
- 5th Floor: 192 responses
- 6th Floor: 206 responses
- 7th Floor: 91 responses
- 8th Floor: 106 responses
Abyssal Moon Spire Floors:
- 9th Floor: 43 responses
- 10th Floor: 32 responses
- 11th Floor: 25 responses
- 12th Floor: 28 responses

What are some of the dishes in Genshin Impact that you would actually like to try?

There are so many delicious-looking dishes in this game that you can almost drool over them. One of the most popular dish is the Sticky Honey Roast (Honey Sautéed Carrots and Meat,) which can be created with beast meat, carrots, and sugar.
The thick meat of the beast and the generous amount of sweet sauce stimulated the appetite and won the hearts of many players.
1.) Sticky Honey Roast (Honey Sautéed Carrots and Meat): 204 responses
2.) Sweet Madame (Baked Chicken with Sweet Flower): 196 responses
3.) Jade Parcels (Jade Lucky Bag): 159 responses
4.) Mondstadt Hash Brown (Mondo-style hashed potatoes): 155 responses
5.) Adeptus' Temptation (Calypso Orchid/Fairy Slipper): 144 responses

How many characters did you train as your main?

Most of the players answered that they train 4 characters as their main characters.
In this game, there are a lot of materials required for training, and in some cases, you need to use Resin to obtain them, so it takes a lot of time to train them. This result reflects the reality of the scenario.

1: 3%
2: 12%
3: 14%
4: 28%
5: 18%
6: 14%
7: 4%
8: 4%
More than 8: 3%

Do you do Co-op/Multiplayer on a daily basis?

Yes: 31%, No: 69%
What do you think of their survey? Do you agree or not? What do you think of their choices as well?
I left out some questions and results as I'm getting lazy.
Happy Holidays everyone!
EDIT: Formatting and minor edits.
EDIT 2: Edited one of Qiqi's comments with translation provided by Tsumaranchan.

Old Austin Tales: Forgotten Video Arcades of The 1970s & 80s

In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day.
There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters.
But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade.
I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction.
If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student.
But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades.
It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples.
Forgotten Arcade #1
Fun House/Play Time Arcade - 2820 Guadalupe
June 15, 1975

ARCADE ENTHUSIASM
A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.

March 3, 1976

ARCADE ROBBED
A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.

First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years.
Forgotten Arcade #2
Green Goth - 1121 Springdale Road
May 15, 1984

A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.

I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool.
Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4
Games, Etc. - 1302 S. First St
Muther's Arcade - 2532 Guadalupe St
August 23, 1983

Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game
It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe.
AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick."
VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 .
Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants.
WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle.
"After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating.
IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old."
Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped."
TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them.
SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse.
"I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products."
THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked.
Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."

Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with "Dragon's Lair". I lol'd.
Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era. Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade.
We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants.
Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7
Computer Madness - 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Electronic Encounters - 1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall)
The Outer Limits Amusements Center - 1409 W. Oltorf
March 4, 1982

'Quartermania' stalks South Austin
School officials, parents worried about effects of video games
A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest.
So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School.
Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need."
A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced.
The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider.
Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar.
Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."

Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Forgotten Arcade #8
Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway
February 25, 1982

Arcades fighting negative image
Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life.
Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County.
In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk.
In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said.
Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol.
Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner."
While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom.
Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley.
He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.

This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s.
But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were. This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area.
At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh
That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story.
I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated February 11, 1994. Some highlights:

Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m.
Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around."
"I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops.
"I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.

The gameplay looked like this.
Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons" (Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982
Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982
Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984
Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989
Bonus Article #5 and pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade" (truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003

40 Upcoming Indie/AA Games

With so many games releasing nowadays, I think it's easy for the good ones to get lost in the shuffle. I'm going to list 20 highly anticipated Indie/AA games. I'm sure there's many great ones I'll probably miss (like I said, there's so many it's hard to keep track sometimes), so please let me know what other ones I should look out for. I’m going to order them by release date. If the game does not have a tangible release date, I’ll place it in the list based on what I think is more likely to come out first, based on marketing material and release date delays.
1. Cyber Shadow

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: January 26, 2021
Genre: 2D Action Platformer
Multiplayer: None
Description: This game looks like a cyberpunk Ninja Gaiden. It's very fast paced and has some huge enemies to fight. The player character looks to have a very versatile moveset which looks to complement both the platforming and the combat. This is apparently the work of one guy, making it all that much more impressive.

2. TOHU

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: January 28, 2021
Genre: Point & Click Adventure
Multiplayer: None
Description: TOHU has you exploring a variety of fish planets, solving puzzles and unraveling mysteries behind the protagonist’s mechanical alter-ego, Cubus. The musical score is composed by Christopher Larking, the same guy behind Hollow Knight’s soundtrack.

3. Little Nightmares II

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: February 11, 2021
Genre: HorroAtmospheric 3D Platformer
Multiplayer: None
Description: Little Nightmares was a big indie success back in 2017, and the sequel looks to lean heavier into its horror elements. The game will feature two characters this time around - Six and Mono - as they brave the horrors in this larger than life world to discover the dark secrets of The Signal Tower.

4. Taxi Chaos

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: N/A
Release Date: February 23, 2021
Genre: Crazy Taxi-like Arcade Racer
Multiplayer: Unknown
Description: Crazy Taxi hasn’t had a new console/PC entry since 2002 (however there were two for handhelds in the mid to late 2000s and two for mobile phones in the 2010s). Taxi Chaos mirrors the formula of picking up customers and dropping them off in a race against the clock. Sega, the developer behind 1999’s original Crazy Taxi, gave developer Team6 Studios their blessing and are actually set to publish the game in Japan and other Asian regions.

5. Rangok Skies

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: March 1, 2021
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Multiplayer: 2 Player Local Co-op
Description: This is a vertical SHMUP with four different characters, online leaderboards, and large enemy encounters. Characters will have their own unique ships, weapons, bombs, and story endings. A demo for the game was introduced back in September, and the developer has rolled out steady updates detailing the development of the game.

6. It Takes Two

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: March 26, 2021
Genre: Co-op-focused 3D Platformer
Multiplayer: Local & Online Co-op
Description: It Takes Two follows a clashing couple who have been turned into dolls. This is the second game to come from Hazelight Studios, creators of A Way Out. Like that game, this one is built around the co-op experience and is both online and local co-op. If you play online, only the host needs to own a copy of the game.

7. Balan Wonderworld

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: March 26, 2021
Genre: 3D Platformer
Multiplayer: Local Co-op Only
Description: This comes from the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog and Nights into Dreams. It's a 3D platformer with a dreamlike carnival theme. You'll wear a number of different costumes (80+ according to the game description) that grant different abilities. The game also has a Chao Garden-like feature for Sonic Adventure fans. The adorable little creatures in this game are called “Tims.”

8. Garlic

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: March 31, 2021
Genre: 2D Precision Platformer
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: Garlic tells a less than romantic tale of an onion boy climbing the Sacred Tower to seduce the Cyber Goddess. This is a “1 bit platformer” with a monochrome aesthetic and an emphasis on one screen levels with lots of wall jumping and strange but catchy tunes to accompany the action.

9. King’s Bounty II

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: March 2021
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy RPG
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: The original King’s Bounty released all the way back in 1990, which also spawned a board game in 1991. It wouldn’t receive a follow-up until 2008 when King’s Bounty: The Legend released. Four expansions would be released between 2009 and 2014. Progress and features of the game are continually updated on the Steam page of the game.

10. Clive ‘N’ Wrench

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: Spring 2021
Genre: 3D Platformer
Multiplayer: None
Description: This game has been in development for 10 years now and is clearly inspired by Banjo Kazooie. The game follows a tag team duo – a rabbit and a monkey – through 11 different worlds in a collectathon-style platformer. The two characters like act as one unit to perform certain moves, just as it was in Banjo Kazooie.

11. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: Q2 2021
Genre: Zelda-like Top Down Action Adventure
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: After being evicted from his home, Turnip Boy sets out on a quest to topple a corrupt vegetable government. You’ll explore dungeons, solve puzzles, fight enemies and bosses, and find treasure along the way.

12. Knight Squad 2

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: Early 2021
Genre: Arena Fighter
Multiplayer: 8 Player Competitive Local & Online Multiplayer
Description: The original Knight Squad first released in 2014. It was an arena fighter that took heavy inspiration from Bomberman, with eight player battles and a ton of different game modes. Knight Squad 2 will introduce even more game modes, better graphics, and more customization options.

13. Hell Pie

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: Early 2021
Genre: 3D Collectathon Platformer
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: Hell Pie reminds me of Conker’s Bad Fur Day with its cutesy aesthetic contrasted with adult humor and lewd scenes. Hell Pie follows a demon named Nate through both open and linear levels, tethered to a plump angel called Nugget, who can be used as a weapon, a grappling hook, and a guide.

14. Iron Meat

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: “This Winter”
Genre: Run & Gun
Multiplayer: Local Co-op
Description: Iron Meat is a retro inspired grindhouse game made by one guy, Ivan Suvorov. There is a demo on Steam with two of the levels currently, with eight total announced for the full release, and three difficulty settings to choose between.

15. There Is No Light

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: August 2021
Genre: Souls-like Action RPG
Multiplayer: None
Description: The game looks as bleak as the title suggests, with gorgeous pixel art and great enemy design. Big, epic bosses seem to have prominent presence here judging from the trailer, and combat animations look slick and smooth.

16. 30XX

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Roguelike/2D Action Platformer
Multiplayer: Local & Online Co-op
Description: 30XX is the sequel to 2014’s 20XX. This is a Mega Man X inspired roguelike with both local and online co-op. There were eight characters with different abilities to play as in 20XX, and it looks like a similar approach is kept for the sequel. Despite taking place 1000 years after the original, Ace and Nina at least, are still present in 30XX.

17. Scorn

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: First Person ShooteHorror
Multiplayer: None
Description: Inspired by the works of H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński, Scorn is an atmospheric blend of horror and a first person shooter. You play as a skinless humanoid in a nightmarish world. The studio behind the game, Ebb Software, was founded in 2013 and first showed the game off in 2014. The game was announced for a 2021 release date in Microsoft’s Xbox Series X showcase in 2020 and will be coming to PC as well.

18. Windjammers 2

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Indie Sports
Multiplayer: 4 Player Competitive Local & Online Multiplayer
Description: Windjammers is a fast paced blend between pong and frisbee that originally came out in 1994. An updated version of the game was released for Steam and modern consoles with online play, and Windjammers 2 will be a new sequel 27 years after the original release. Players can choose between a multitude of characters with different stats, with a few mini games to boot.

19. Hollow Knight Silksong

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Metroidvania
Multiplayer: None
Description: 2017’s Hollow Knight is one of the biggest indie games of all time, in both its popularity and scale of the game. Silksong was originally just meant to be a DLC for the original game, but the project expanded into a full-scale sequel. The original is probably the single most popular indie Metroidvania out there, so there’s a lot of hype for the sequel.

20. Psychonauts 2

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: 3D Platformer
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: This has been a very long time coming, but with all the gameplay footage and marketing material coming out for the game, it seems Psychonauts 2 will finally release in 2021. The first game released in 2005 – three PlayStations ago – and was a cult classic. The director of the first game, Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango, Brutal Legend, Broken Age, etc.) is also directing the sequel, so there is a lot of hope from the fanbase.

21. Coromon

Picture: Link
Gameplay: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Pokemon-like Turn-Based RPG
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: Coromon dons a similar pixel art aesthetic that defined the fourth and fifth generation Pokemon games. When a Coromon gains experience points, you will be able to distribute the stat points as you see fit. Trainers are customizable, and there are also multiple save slots. There is a demo available on Steam.

22. Solar Ash Kingdom

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: N/A
Release Date: 2021
Genre: 3D Adventure
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: This comes from the same developer as Hyper Light Drifter. Solar Ash Kingdom has a lot of the same stylized aesthetics as Hyper Light Drifter, but this is a fully 3D over the shoulder adventure. You’ll engage with massive enemies, traverse the world at high speeds, and meet many characters throughout the adventure.

23. No Place for Bravery

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Top Down Action Adventure
Multiplayer: None
Description: No Place for Bravery boasts a low fantasy setting with Sekiro-esque combat and stories based on real life. The game follows Thorn, who – with his disabled foster son, Phid – seeks to find answers to his daughter’s disappearance from long ago. There is a demo available on Steam.

24. Bushiden

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Metroidvania
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: Bushiden has you taking control of a cybernectic ninja in a futuristic world, on a quest to find his sister who has vanished. There are a number of unlockable traversal and combat abilities, as well as purchasable upgrades.

25. Hazel Sky

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: 3D Narrative Adventure
Multiplayer: None
Description: This is an adventure following a young engineer on an island in the flying city of Gideon. The game boasts exploration, a heavy story, and the ability to build and repair “incredible flying machines.”

26. Gestalt: Steam & Cinder

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Metroidvania/Action RPG
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: This is a steampunk side scroller with narrative choices and a fast paced combat system. There are side quests, skills to level up, and secrets to uncover. Originally planned for 2020, the developers regularly post tweets on Twitter to keep fans updated with the project.

27. Jack Move

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Turn-Based RPG
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: Set in a cyberfunk universe (real word is getting the post removed by the automoderator), Jack Move follows a hacker who seeks to rescue her father from the evil mega corporation, Monomind. The combat system will allow for a number of customizable options both in and out of combat.

28. Heavenly Bodies

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Co-op Focused Physics-based Adventure
Multiplayer: Local Co-op Only
Description: Heavenly Bodies follows two cosmonauts in the 1970s who must work together through a series of physics-based challenges. While the game is built around the co-op experience, the game can still be played in single player. While this is only local co-op at the moment, the Steam page seems to suggest that the developer is looking into options for online play.

29. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Run & Gun
Multiplayer: Local Co-op Only
Description: This is technically a DLC, but given the wait for it, I think it’s fair to expect a fairly sizeable one. This DLC will introduce a new playable character, Ms. Chalice, who will have a double jump and possibly other differentiating moves. This DLC was originally supposed to release in 2019, but it’s been delayed a number of times. For reference, the original game released in 2017 and took seven years to make (though the two brothers responsible for the game had day jobs and a much smaller team up until 2014).

30. Brave Earth: Prologue

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: “Coming (very) Soon”
Genre: 2D Action Platformer
Multiplayer: None
Description: This comes from Kayin, the creator of I Wanna Be the Guy. This is an NES Castlevania inspired game with three playable characters that have unique paths and differing abilities. The game will also feature cutscenes and over a dozen different levels. The game has been in development for years now and is near completion.

31. Hazelnut Bastille & Dawnthorn

Picture: Link
Trailer: Hazelnut Bastille Link; Dawnthorn Link
Steam Page: Hazelnut Bastille Link; Dawnthorn Link
Release Date: “To Be Announced”
Genre: Zelda-like Top Down Action Adventure
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: Hazelnut Bastille actually has a 2-3 hour demo with a full dungeon included, which I didn't know about until just now as I was making this list! Heavily inspired by top down Zelda games, these games have some really beautiful looking art. Development for Hazelnut Bastille began back in April 2016. Dawnthorn, a prequel to Hazelnut Bastille, will also be releasing around the same time in 2021. Dawnthorn will emulate the look of an NES game, while Hazelnut Bastille will look more like an SNES game.

32. Freedom Planet 2

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: “When It’s Done”
Genre: Sonic-like 2D Platformer
Multiplayer: None
Description: The original Freedom Planet was initially conceived as a Sonic fangame before the the creator, Stephen DiDuro, reconceptualized it as his own IP. The sequel was announced back in 2015, a year after the original’s release, and will introduce new mechanics and make changes based on feedback from the first game.

33. Acid Knife

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: “When It’s Done”
Genre: 2D Action Platformer
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: This game comes from the creators of Crawl and Regular Human Basketball, two highly acclaimed competitive local multiplayer games. Unlike their previous work, this looks to be a campaign/adventure game, but it also has a demonic narrator just like Crawl. They're also making The Drifter right now.

34. Cassette Beasts

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: “Coming Soon”
Genre: Pokemon-like Turn-Based RPG
Multiplayer: Local Co-op Only
Description: From the creators of Lenna's Inception, Bytten Studio, which released on Steam in January of this year – a randomly generated Zelda inspired local co-op action adventure game with two art styles to switch between. The two guys behind the game have also worked on Starbound, Stardew Valley, and Wargroove, so they have quite a pedigree of games. Cassette Beasts in heavily inspired by Pokemon and includes 120 beasts that can be combined for a total of 14,400 fusions.

35. Tale of Ronin

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: 2021
Genre: Turn-Based RPG
Multiplayer: None
Description: Developer Dead Mage has won me over with both Shadow Blade: Reload and Children of Morta. Their new game, Tale of Ronin, focuses on the “human side of the Samurai,” and will feature a dynamic world to explore and allow for you to make story-based choices that impact the storyline.

36. OddBallers

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: Link
Release Date: TBD
Genre: Indie Sports
Multiplayer: 6 Player Local & Online Competitive Multiplayer
Description: This is the spiritual successor to Stikbold. It’s a dodgeball game with wacky antics and multiple game modes. Players can do free for all or team based matches, and if it’s anything like Stikbold, it will also have a two player local co-op campaign with a few boss fights.

37. Spark the Electric Jester 3

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: None
Release Date: Unannounced
Genre: Sonic-like 3D Action Platformer
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: Spark 3 will be the second 3D platformer in the Spark series. It’s no mystery where Spark takes its inspiration, but it does it well and mixes action sequences into the mix while removing a lot of the bloat found in most 3D Sonic games. Spark 2 is well regarded by the Sonic community, and the third game looks to up the ante with even more mechanics, like wall running.

38. Samurai Gunn 2

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: N/A
Release Date: TBD
Genre: Arena Fighter
Multiplayer: 2 Player Local Co-op/4 Player Competitive Local Multiplayer
Description: Samurai Gunn 2 is the sequel to the 2013 PC exclusive. The game is designed by Beau Blyth, the co-creator behind Hyper Light Drifter. The game plays similarly to TowerFall, in that you platform around a fixed screen and try to shoot the other players. The sequel will launch exclusively on Switch first, with a release for other platforms in the future. The story mode will allow for up to two players in local co-op, while the competitive mode will allow up to four.

39. Witchbrook

Picture: Link
Trailer: N/A
Steam Page: N/A
Release Date: Unannounced
Genre: Action RPG
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: This comes from the creators of Wargroove. Witchbrook will allow you to experience high school as a wizard. A website for the game was launched back in September, so it seems progress on the game is coming along. The website seems to suggest you’ll be able to develop relationships based on your choices in the game.

40. Witchfire

Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Steam Page: N/A
Release Date: Unannounced
Genre: First Person Shooter
Multiplayer: None Announced
Description: This comes from the same developer as The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, The Astronauts, but instead of just walking, you'll be walking and shooting demonic creatures. If this game reminds you of Painkiller from 2004, it's because director Adrian Chmielarz actually worked on that game. The game has been worked on for five years now by a team of nine full members and three contributors, so hopefully we'll see it soon.

What are some other upcoming indie/AA games you’re looking forward to?
If you’re looking for more indie games to play, see my post here:

Another 10 Overlooked Single Player Indie Games

Review of installing the Mr. Shades PID on my Gaggia Classic 2019

I just installed a Mr. Shades PID on my new Gaggia Classic and got it running. I’ve seen a couple of reviews like this recently, but when I was trying to figure out what machine (and then what PID) to get, I looked around for reviews and wished there were more. So, I thought I’d post my own.
A similar (slightly more optimistic) post is here: https://www.reddit.com/gaggiaclassic/comments/l8ms5b/my_experience_fitting_mr_shades_pid_to_gaggia/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

TL;DR: Approach this with the right mindset, and you will be happy. Expect a real DIY experience if you get this; do not expect it to be easy. Plan to spend 8–10 hours on it. If you are very efficient, exceptional at reading manuals, and don’t make mistakes, it can be much faster, but unless you have done this before, it will almost certainly longer than the 2–3 hours advertised (probably regardless of which PID kit you buy and from which company).

Pros:

Major kudos to Mr. Shades for making & supporting these kits. I recognize that it would be a pretty tough challenge! Gaggia changes their designs in little ways on a regular basis (e.g. lid structure, wiring colors, etc) and seems to have some inconsistencies in build (e.g. which wire goes in which slot for switches), and this throws off the instructions. It would be impossible for Mr. Shades to stay ahead of that or fully account for it in static instructions, but it seems like he figures things out and provides pretty reliable support for folks to get the kit working.
The support email was very responsive and helpful. I got help on two main things: 1) I wasn’t getting power to the PID device, and 2) the Gaggia lid wasn’t closing after install, due to a change in the lid design between 2018 & 2019 models. They got back to me quickly with a solution to both problems within a few hours, and then explained another couple of questions I had about power connections.
It seems to now be working, and it is a relatively good-looking package. I worried a lot (probably too much) about whether to get this PID or the smaller-enclosure version from Auber. Obviously, I went with this one, but it really doesn’t have wasted space, so it feels like a good sizing.
I feel like I know my Gaggia better now, and it feels more like a tool I really own and can maintain myself, rather than just another piece of technology that is beyond my ability to understand or repair.

Cons:

Despite my feeling of understanding for the Gaggia, my understanding of the PID is still pretty lacking, and that feels a piece of tech that is beyond my ability to fix. If it breaks, I will probably have to replace it or reverse the install completely.
This was a genuinely frustrating experience. Most of the connections in the Gaggia require both finesse and strength to undo. There is very little space to move for many of them, and things are really stuck in place. A long flathead screwdriver is definitely essential for prying apart the power connections. A good magnetic screwdriver is helpful, though I wish I had a stronger magnet in mine.
Honestly, I feel kind of cheated by the marketing of the installation process. The sales page says, “Installation usually takes most people around 2-3hrs and requires only basic tools.” I understand that this metric probably has to be stated in order to compete with Auber, who makes a similar claim but probably doesn’t provide much of a different installation experience. I tracked my time, and it took me a bit over 9 hours. The Reddit post linked about says they had no problems, but it took about 5 hours, and they hadn’t yet gotten the lid to close correctly (dealing with this issue took me over an hour). A YouTube channel I enjoy says that it took them 10 hours. I suspect that to finish this in 2–3 hours, you would have to be very familiar with the process already. Like ... now could probably do it in 3 hours, if I had to.
The support is good, but if the manual were better ... the support maybe wouldn’t be as necessary? I know that making the perfect manual is easier wished for than done, though.
The PID takes a bit of configuration, post-installation. It’s not that bad (much more pleasant than the physical installation process, and better documented), but it adds probably 30–45 minutes of extra time to the overall process, and I didn’t realize that it wouldn’t come pre-configured.
As the install took a lot longer than expected, I ended up wondering whether I should have just gotten a different machine, with a PID pre-installed. A reason I got a Gaggia is that I like the design, and with a PID, it seems to be a machine that is as good as things that cost around $1000. But, the machine is $450, and then (with shipping to the US) this PID is about $175. Not counting the accessories (because those are needed for any machine), that’s a minimum of $625. But then, I spent 9–10 hours installing the PID, and now I’m left uncertain whether it will really operate as expected for the long term, or whether it could somehow malfunction and cause bigger problems. It would certainly be possible to mess up this install partway through – and then be stuck either reversing things or buying a replacement kit to try again. I’m currently very uncertain whether I made the right decision (going with the Gaggia + PID), and I don’t think I’d make the same choice if I were to start from scratch.

More on install time
I am fairly competent at technical things: In the past, I’ve done a bit of soldering for keyboard projects, I’ve done some basic woodworking, I’ve replaced an iPhone battery, and I am intermediate at programming in Python & coding websites with HTML, CSS, and JS frameworks. I’m nothing special, but I can generally follow instructions and figure things out. Then again, a lot of what I do allows me to experiment and Google any problems that arise. This install is a bit of a different beast.
It’s hard to say how much of the difficulty would really be possible to solve in the manual versus how much is innately part of assembling a DIY electronics project. I did skim the contents first to get a sense of how the process was structured, but it is pretty hard for me to fully understand technical things without working along with the process. So, it was partly on me, but I had multiple times where a critical detail was under-emphasized or pointed out too late in the manual.
There are two main reasons the install takes a long time:

As stated above, Mr. Shades does not have a simple task in providing the kit + manual + support, with changes and variability from Gaggia. Added to this, the Gaggia itself just has lots of fiddly bits that are difficult to work with.
The manual is out of date or out of sync in small but meaningful ways. It is quite good in many ways, but this is a complex process, and the instructions leave parts out and gloss over others. Probably over half the time this install took was due to things that I nearly completed, only to have to reverse and redo. Lots of things need to be done in a certain order, and it’s not always clear what that is until you’ve gone (much) too far. For most of them, proper photos and better ordering of instructions probably would have prevented the mistakes. It sounds like they are updating it, but I’m still kind of salty that they sold me a device with an outdated manual.

Tips

Don’t attempt this without the proper tools. It would be very, very difficult to do with something like a bike multitool (I tried this before getting out a full assortment of tools). For me, a flathead screwdriver was essential, even though it’s labeled as optional.
Approach this as the serious project it is. Have patience and take this on as a doable but relatively involved DIY electronics project. Also, set up at a good workspace – try to have good daytime lighting, no distractions, and hopefully good sitting/standing options. I spent a silly amount of time on this at a dining table before moving to my proper desk. Like anything else, a better workspace makes the work better.
A very helpful thing for me was having a couple of rolls of tape: some strong blue painter’s tape to hold things in place while working on them, and some light masking/washi tape to write labels on when having to undo and redo things.
Specific tips that will save you a lot of time:
- The PID enclosure splits apart, which is helpful so it can be assembled over top of the PID even after things are connected. But, the front and back plate were much simpler to accurately screw on after taping the enclosure together on the sides, in alignment. Use tape!
- Make sure to put the cables through not only the grommet but also the enclosure backplate before attaching them to the PID. Otherwise, you will have to undo the connections and string it through. Also make sure you have it facing the right way (with screw countersinks facing outward), or again, you will have to disconnect things and string them through again.
- There is a yellow & green grounding cable, with a fork on one end and loop on the other. Make sure the fork goes inside the Gaggia, and the loop is left to use in the PID enclosure. This is not made clear in the manual, and seems to not matter almost until the very end of the installation process – but then it does.
- Probably, try to read fully through each section before working through them. Read it through and visually plan it out before actually disconnecting or connecting things. I am not very good at this, but I would have tried harder had I realized quite how essential it was. Moving slowly at this process probably saves time in the end.
- It is very tempting to put together the casing before you have done all the steps, but really, don’t do this until you are quite sure that things are working. Stick very closely to the ordering of the manual’s sections, or you will have to backtrack.
- If you are just about to install the device, realize that the manual (as of February 2021) recommends a position for the Brew SSR that will not allow the Gaggia lid to close. If the manual you read says to place the SSR above the power plug, it is outdated – email support for a corrected set of photos.
- When you are installing the thermostat in the boiler, just unscrew and remove the entire steam wand. You don’t even have to unclip this – it will literally come all the way out through the top, and it’s easy to put back in. It will help give you a very necessary extra bit of room to work.

Initial PID experience & current thoughts
Even after the “auto-tune” process and with a warmed-up machine, the display does seem to quickly jump around within maybe +0.5 to +3°C of the target. This probably isn’t such a bad thing, and I suspect it’s just very accurately reporting the temperatures as it is reading & responding to them. As an initial experience, though, it isn’t as smooth or reassuring as I had expected it to be. But, I’m guessing that, once I get used to it, I will appreciate the deep configurability and clarity of the device. It feels like kind of an “expert” tool, rather than a dumbed-down kitchen appliance. That is pretty cool, provided it works in the long run.
Now that I have actually installed this, I am pretty excited about making espresso with it, and I hope that it saves me time on temperature surfing while getting more consistent results. I am quite excited to have more machine capabilities to experiment with! The first 5 or so shots I’ve pulled with it have been consistent and really nice.
Would I recommend it to most people? Not really. Will I be glad I did it, a month or a year from now? I’m pretty optimistic about that. Fingers crossed!

After a year of running a homebrew campaign with no prior experience, here are the lessons I've learned and my advice on how to be a better DM!

Hi guys. This subreddit has helped me out a lot, so I wanted to share what I’ve learned the last year after DMing about 20-30 sessions total. When I first started, I’d never even played a game of D&D before. I decided to DM out of the gate because I knew it was the only way I’d ever get some of my friends to give the game a shot. Something went right, because we’ve been playing about twice a month since!
First, I wanted to share three re-occurring issues that kept gumming up my performance as a DM. I worked hard to fix these problems, and I think through a lot of trial-and-error, I found what works really well for me.
1) Ineffective Dungeon Maps
After several disappointments, I came to the conclusion that large dungeon maps were like pacing quicksand for my party. I would give them an awesome, fully drawn-out dungeon map like THIS and they went from playing DND to playing a “don’t step on the lava” 5 feet at a time slog fest, complete with gamer-inspired “must clear all the fog of war!” tendencies.

My solution was to stop providing these maps. Instead of dungeon maps, I have started using a method known as point crawls. Point crawls are an abstracted way of organizing dungeons that provides the players with descriptions of key points, and ways forward depending on what they discover via perception/investigation. Traversal between these points is narrated briefly.
I find that this theatre of the mind works INFINITELY better for exploration in 5E, though I still use smaller Battle Maps like this for actual encounters. Because they’re cool, and because combat mechanics really need them.

2) Unorganized Notes
Not being able to find information on the fly was a huge reoccurring problem. Cycling through different apps/pages/tabs to find a name, room description, or monster ability would often just straight up kill the tension at the table and make everything last longer than it should have.

For organizing my notes, I eventually settled on just two programs: Miro and OneNote. Point Crawl style dungeons fit like a glove into Miro. Here’s an example of how I laid out my most recent session. Each node can be clicked and opened up to show a room description like this. Next to the rooms, I put monster stat blocks. The entire session is framed inside the dark blue square, and the next session will begin next to it, sharing the node where they left off.
Non-dungeon sessions work just fine as well, but you have to, of course, be more open to things going a bit off the rails. But IMO, you should always have a general idea of what your party wants to do, and can plan accordingly. I try to structure the narrative so that they have X rationale options to choose from instead of infinite choices to achieve a goal.
Miro's structure is not only great for opening things in a flash, the "node to node" way of structuring the story really just caused the flow of our table to improve dramatically.
I use OneNote to keep useful d100 charts, as well as notes about my world’s history or quests/story hooks that I’ve yet to use. I can also pop it open to jot down any important things I need to remember from the session.

3) Music Organization
I'm big on music/ambience, but I was spending an exorbitant amount of time finding the “right music” for a session, and then having trouble playing it exactly when I need it at the table.

I still have issues with this, but it’s improving. I have a folder of hundreds of files that I have labeled with tags like this and this, that I am able to search for using Windows Explorer. That helps a lot in finding music I want to use for the game, which I then copy-paste onto my desktop. Ideally, Miro would let you link mp3 files! Maybe someday.

Those three things were my big improvements, but here’s some various random tidbits and advice!

I have made a lot of mistakes with mechanic rulings, as have my players. Not once has it been a problem or affected our table's fun! When we do find a mistake, we figure it out and adjust moving forward, but never recon.
I fudged rolls a lot at the beginning, because I wasn’t confident that my encounters were fair. As I’ve gotten more confident, I’ve felt better about sticking to the rolls I make. I still sometimes tweak health on the fly, but for dramatic/pacing purposes, not balance. I used to think that fudging rolls was totally fine, but a year in, I really do think that should be used as sparingly as possible.
CR Ratings are pretty awful, and you really do need to run a few scenarios in your head when you plan encounters. How rested up your characters are also has a HUGE affect on the outcome of a battle -- if they have all their skills, a Deadly CR Rating drops down in difficulty significantly.
Music/Ambient tracks are THE move to up your game’s tension and immersion. If I have a single piece of advice besides “use Point Crawls”, it’s “use music!”
Keep track of the time of day somewhere in your notes. I ALWAYS forget, between sessions, what time of day it was.
Limit your players’ ability to take Long Rests. Once I stopped letting them nuke every encounter and forced them to conserve resources, battle became so much more fun for all of us.
Consider giving your classes who only refresh on long rests some sort of homebrew consumable item that lets them refresh something on a short rest. My cleric has a “votive candle” with X charges that allows him to restore his spell slots on a short rest by using his Hit Dice, for example.
Make long-distance travel at low levels an adventure in and of itself. Using Point Crawls, you can approach it very much like an outdoor dungeon. When they are a higher level and have the means to bypass travel on foot, it’ll feel so much more rewarding.
I originally was very generous with low-powered Magic Items, but I’ve reeled back a bit. Not because it’s unbalanced, but because they now have an inventory of quirky stuff so large that it’s impossible for them to use what they have effectively. Less is more?
Providing Ability/Spell cards for your players can be a huge help if they are also new to the game. We started using cards for items as well, which gives them a physical reminder that they have those items. So often, they were forgetting stuff when it was just scribbled down on a line in an inventory sheet.
"Quantum Ogre" game design can be helpful for saving time, and perfectly valid, but make sure that it makes sense. A player would probably expect that a "high climb up and over a mountain" has more environment hazards than combat encounters, while a "shortcut through the mountain" would be shorter but filled with more dangerous foes. If you put the ogre wherever they end up going, (even if you re-flavor it), that will subvert expectations in a not good way.
Enforcing RAW action economy for drawing/sheathing weapons, IMO, helps with combat depth. So do a lot of the other forgettable mechanics, like auto-critting on incapacitated players, stabilization requiring a Medicine DC check, and cover rules.
I used to think encounters should ONLY be used to push forward the narrative, and that random encounters were an absolute waste of time. Well, I've changed my mind a bit. A random encounter CAN help the narrative, by importing to the players that an area is dangerous and inhabited by many different creatures. Even a minor encounter can help build the world in some small way. Furthermore, it will help to widdle down the players so that they aren't 100% Nuking Machines when the important encounters come.

I hope this wasn't overly presumptuous! I know I'm still a beginner in a sea of pros with decades under their belt, but I hope this can help someone just starting out! Thanks for reading!

A Comprehensive Guide to Breach Protocol Datamining (Code Sequence Mini-Game): Cyberpunk 2077

good slot machine apps video

Contact the casino slot machine company, tell them you’ve found a bug, and make a contract for a reward if you show them and are proven correct. Some slots companies will dismiss you as a quack, but believe it or not, lots of them will give you an audience, especially if they suspect there’s a bug in their slot machine software. Why Play Our Free Slot Machine Games? Playing free online slots at SlotoZilla is the best way to experience casino gaming . We sort slot games by theme, type, and features, so whether you are a first-timer or a seasoned enthusiast, you can easily navigate through the site and pick out your preferred titles. In truth, real money slot machine apps possess many advantages over their casino counterparts. Take a look at just a few reasons why you might choose them. Convenience. This is the most obvious reason you would choose a slots app over an actual slot machine. With the slots app, you can take it with you wherever you go. Free Slot Apps – List of best free Slot Machine Apps. By Doug Holmes. mobile slots mobile app slot games. At Let’s Play Slots we know all too well that the thrill of playing online slots lies in the chance of winning real money. So, you’ll be thrilled to hear that if you are reading this article, you’ll also be able to play our The Planet of the Apes slot machine is inspired by the all-time favorite movie, but it doesn’t matter if you’ve watched it or not. This slot game is made by NetEnt and is a must-try for all of those who like unique slots. It features a double reel structure. Each of them has 5 reels and 3 rows of unique symbols and bonus features. Five Slot Machine Tips. Finding the best slots to play is a combination of luck, patience, and a good knowledge of all the most effective casino slot machine secrets. In this part of my guide on how to pick a winning slot machine, we go through the five most essential slots tips every player should use. Born To Be Rich provides you with a truly authentic slot-machine experience. Fully Game Center compatible, this is the most addictive and most realistic slot you will ever play outside of a casino. Enjoy full HD graphics and over 50 specially composed musical scores as you play the only slot simulator that has games of up to 100 lines. Bonus spins Good Slot Machine Apps on Starburst or Berryburst Max are subject to change & must be used within 3 days from activation. Bonus spins Good Slot Machine Apps are activated after wagering a min. of £5. The welcome bonus and Good Slot Machine Apps spins must be wagered 35x times before the bonus or any winnings can be withdrawn. Max Good Slot Machine Apps, poker titan download, gambling review report july 2001, blackjack black ops 3 wiki. 100%-Gamble Responsibly BeGambleAware.org. August 18, 2019-775. Read our full review-Visit casino 0. Bonus. every Monday Wager: 60x Min deposit: $50 Code: MON50. Free Spins. $10 No Deposit Bonus. 9 Over 80 slot machines to choose from Apps usually offer a good variety of games, and the graphics and gameplay are now remarkably similar on smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. Even if

good slot machine apps top

Attacking a Slot Machine's RNG - YouTube

G2E 2015 Videos are at:http://www.digdia.com/slots/index_g2e_15.shtmlLightning Link, by Aristocrat, appears to be a game that is popular in Australia (home o... Slot machine video from casino expert Steve Bourie that teaches you the insider secrets to winning at slot machines and how a slot machine really works. Also... Click on the link below to learn the most valuable skill in Internet Marketing! http://bit.ly/2D2WflGHey in the video I want to talk about how to trick a slo... Slot machines installed with non-complex RNGs can be beaten by high-tech devices and prediction algorithms. Slots lv Bonus Codes: https://geni.us/f3uBY7Slots lv Written Review: https://geni.us/aAjM4 Best Slot Sites & Apps Bovada Casino Review: https://geni.us/EGUei... So, if what the slot machine mech... Have you seen this? Wins money?... LINK: https://swiy.io/1Bwd I'm told it's a way to actually win money but I don't know. So, if what the slot machine mech... Welcome to my channel "TheBigPayback - Slot Machine Videos" where I showcase daily slot videos from all of your favorite slot manufacturers including AGS, Ainsworth, Aristocrat, Aruze, Bally ... Become lucky at slot machines in the casino with my luck affirmation audio and video hypnosis. (Details Below) An affirmation can work as it has the ability ... 10 Secrets Casinos Don't Want You to Know. Subscribe for more amazing videos! http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-Richest Casinos are multi-million dollar business... Please Subscribe if you've enjoyed any of my Slot-Play / Live Play videos so you can be informed whenever I upload a new slot Jackpot Win or loss. You can ea...

Best Casino Apps (2021) - Top Real Money Games on Mobile

good slot machine apps

good slot machine apps - win

Good Slot Machine app that doesn't require in-app purchases?