iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Peak is a good one. I excluded noita because to me it has too much engine building to count, although the world design and ethos of the game is definitely right. The rest o haven’t played but I will trust that they fit

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It’s a board game term: “An engine-building game is a type of game where players start with weak actions and build an efficient system or "machine" to generate more resources, combos, or points over time.” I’d apply it to a lot of modern indies like noita, vampire survivors, hades, etc

if UFO50 is legal, then i suppose we can add - Velgress (2024) - Campanella 2 (2024)

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maybe whatever system erasure is working on next is a spelunky inspired game. i think they'd do a great job at that

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- Probability 0 (2012 i think) - Eldritch (2013) - TowerClimb (2012 i think) - Catacomb Kids (2015) - Downwell (2015) is that it??? surely this is wrong... i can't think of anything else though. noita, dead cells, risk of rain, etc all have too much engine building DNA to count imo

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blood dungeon made me think, how many games are there in the spelunky lineage? to be a spelunky game i feel like the game needs to be a platforming roguelike with no or minimal engine building qualities. i dont think there are many and most are old and somewhat forgotten. i wanna try and list them

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i did like the weird platforming controls. climbing was awkward, but in the same way spelunky's controls feel awkward when you're playing for the first time. letting you "store" your jump to use any time midair after walking off a platform is also weird, but cool.

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Ben Allen @benal.itch.io · 27/07/2026

gave the blood dungeon demo a try. it felt very vampire survivors and not especially platformer. the vampire survivors mechanics are pretty bog standard and they don't interact with the platforming at all (that ive seen in ~1 hour of playing). i guess i was hoping for something a bit more unique

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Oooo I love helix, will have to try this later today!

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Ben Allen @benal.itch.io · 25/07/2026

Made a new free game for the first time in a long while. It's obviously super unfinished but I'm just at the point where I think it's fun to play and want others to try it. Have a go and let me know what you think! #indiegame #gamedev benal.itch.io/ennead

Ben Allen @benal.itch.io · 24/07/2026

good problem to have: i need to work on my game more but im having too much fun just playing it

Knoebel @knoebel.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Reposted by Ben Allen

'Killer Queen Black' got relisted on Steam and it's free store.steampowered.com/app/663670/K...

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Ben Allen @benal.itch.io · 16/07/2026

pikmin 4 is so good. i played it when it came out but my fiance has started playing it too, which is great for me because it means i can finally try the local multiplayer: so fun! is this what it feels like to enjoy rts games?

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Reposted by Ben Allen

Quinns @itsquinns.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

New video! Last month I was invited to Spain's Guadalindie game convention to do a talk of my choice. I ended up giving an angry polemic about how the culture of games is failing designers left and right, because there is no games industry. There's just "play" www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Xm...

youtube.com

Why We're Doing Journalism Differently: The Future isn't Games, it's Play - PMG | Guadalindie 2026

YouTube video by MálagaJam

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Reposted by Ben Allen

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Between this and the national guard in Memphis it’s kind of disturbing me (yes I know I’m a member of the media) the degree to which these killings aren’t really breaking thru rn

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Reposted by Ben Allen

Messhof @messhof.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

95% positive rating for this guy, and it's less than $3 on @steampowered.com right now! store.steampowered.com/app/337350/F...

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Ben Allen @benal.itch.io · 27/06/2026

it's funny, i have felt like ive become such a strategy gamer, but most of my favorite games from the last 10 years are narrative games (deltarune, outer wilds, void stranger, etc). not sure what that says about me.

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Ben Allen @benal.itch.io · 27/06/2026

deltarune chapter 5 very good. sad to not have a date for chapter 6 but i will hope that's because 6 and 7 will be released simultaneously

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Someday someone will remember how to make a Metroid game

Other m takes lots of swings. It misses most of them, but at least it tried! I can feel the human authors of it in a way that is absent from prime 4 (to me). All I want from a game is for it to try something without fear.

In spite of its flaws, I think I like other m more than prime 4 for a single reason: it has a vision and and pursued that vision without fear. Prime 4 feels like a game where every decision was shadowed by fear. It’s a nervous game that takes no swings.

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2. The controls. I don’t mind them. I don’t like them either, but I they were trying new things and I appreciate that. I think they did the best they could with just a wiimote. Would have been cool to have some powerups that increased time slow time on entering first person mode though.

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Things that are fine 1. Adam. I don’t care that Adam’s authority prevents you from using your items. It’s a novel way to restrict samus and it makes sense in the context of the story, even if it’s stupid. I’ll take this over another “and samus explodes and loses everything oh noooo” for the 5th time

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4. Doors being locked to force you down specific paths. This doesn’t stop until post-game, making backtracking impossible. I actually don’t think the level design is that bad in this game. If they just stopped locking doors for no reason it might be pretty fun to just explore.

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3. Sometimes the game forces first person perspective and wants you to look at something specific. The specific something was never obvious and the lighting does not help. This was easily the most frustrating part of replaying the game for me. All tension is lost when the game does this

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Worst parts of other m: 1. Samus’ character. So embarrassingly bad. Written like a 13 year old writes diary entries. Terrible. 2. Why is it so fucking dark I can’t see anything I had to max every lighting option on my tv available to see anything in this game

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My memory of other m was that the story was stupid and samus’ writing and VO embarrassing, but gameplay was peculiar but kind of cool sometimes and with memorable bosses.

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