BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026Sharing a quick look at the nonbinary character customization in my cozy sci-fi video game. There’s no gender specification, it’s a multi-species extraterrestrial community so everyone’s referred to as they/them. The player character has options for four body […] [Original post on mstdn.games] 001
Reposted by BlueSprucealxd of the Story Seed Library @alxd.writing.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026The 150th illustration in the #storySeedLibrary comes from @the_lemonaut and represents something largely missing in the #solarpunk visual language so far: #openHardware collaboration, both engineering and scientific, on the example of the #openFlexure […] [Original post on writing.exchange] 037
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026And here’s the new trailer for the Early Access release date announcement! www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OqJr7BfIxM #trailers #gaming #games #farmingsim #lifesim 010
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026My game has a release date for Early Access! It’ll go live on Steam on October 28, exactly one month from today. Cave Oasis at Shylake is a gently weird, leftist, nerdy, hopeful, extraterrestrial spin on a cozy farming and small town life sim game. More info on the Steam page, including the […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 131
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026Random thought for higher education researchers: I’d love to see someone make a ranking of schools and training programs based on what percentage of former students end up owning the products of their own labor (participating in worker-owned or hybrid co-ops, comfortably self-employed, etc […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 001
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026I’ve been quiet the last few months, focused on getting my game to the near-complete stage for early access release. It’s very close now! The free demo on Steam has been updated with the latest changes: store.steampowered.com/app/3689220/… These include updated […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 032
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 07/07/2026@sab I came on here looking for info about this too. It's really weirdly written, since it's just a call for donations (which I've also supported in the past). But the opening reads like it's going to be an explanation for something (and there have been some concerning things I'd like to see […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 15/06/2026@Quasit From a quick skim of your past book recs, I see your expansive tastes include murder mysteries? In which case you might enjoy A.E. Marling’s Solarpunk Mysteries, starting with Murder in the Tool Library. They’re all excellent, hopeful, compelling, fun. I see you also like a lot of […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 101
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 06/03/2026Cave Oasis is one of the games featured in the Women's Day Sale right now on Steam! There are also a ton of other great cozy games by women-led studios, including Sally, Ritual of Raven, The Wandering Village, Loddlenaut, etc. My game's free demo […] [Original post on mstdn.games] 001
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 06/03/2026I just saw Becky Chambers' announcement for her new book and release date! It's called As You Wake, Break the Shell, coming in October: www.otherscribbles.com/news/2026/3/… The announcement says it'll be the first of two forthcoming books in a new setting […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 0112
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 24/02/2026It’s Day 2 of Steam Next Fest! And some lovely indie content creators have included my game (Cave Oasis at Shylake) in their recommended games for the fest! Take a look, they’re all fantastic roundups: - Maybe Sarisa: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFnrCv9IMgY - Cozy by Joshy […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 050
Reposted by BlueSpruceFully Automated! Solarpunk RPG @fullyautomatedrpg.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2026Happy Friday the 13th! Here's a gift: Our all new #solarpunk adventure is out now! Politically Reactive is a #ttrpg political thriller set in a post-capitalist future! Investigate a conspiracy amidst a turf war between #demsoc and #ancap leaders in the SF Bay! And as a post-capitalist product […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 033
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 06/02/2026The Cave Oasis demo is now on itch.io! Downloads for Windows, Linux, and macOS. bluespruceinteractive.itch.io/cave-… (It's also on Steam, but I finally made a page on itch.io and uploaded the latest version of the demo there too. Maybe a little backwards but doing my best […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 011
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 04/02/2026I just finished making a new trailer for my game: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG11aquS3CY This one shows more of the game’s main story, with dust storms on the surface of the moon threatening to block the town’s precious sunlight. That means we need to diversify the town's energy tech […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 31/01/2026I’ve released a pretty big update to the demo for my #videogame Cave Oasis at Shylake! It adds main story events that now start from day 1, with dust storms starting to appear on the surface of the moon, that the player will need to help the little cave town prepare to withstand. This includes […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 002
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 12/01/2026Blue Otter made a fantastic overview of the Cave Oasis demo, watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXJFv0kWQJw #indiegame #videogame #cozygame #streamer #letsplay #youtube 021
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 19/12/2025A bunch of wonderful indie gaming streamers/content creators have made some lovely videos of the Cave Oasis demo. These are generally small creators, and they’ve been so supportive and offered tons of great feedback. I should have shared here sooner, please give their videos some love! […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 18/12/2025LadiesGamers wrote up a lovely first impressions article about my game’s demo! ladiesgamers.com/cave-oasis-at-shyl… It's an indie + wholesome games site that I love, started by a couple of older women gamers. I don't think they're on Mastodon, but they're on BlueSky […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 010
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 08/12/2025@TechArtisan Thanks so much for the great feedback! I love the reference to Bayanihan, I want to read more about that. Regarding multiplayer, that isn’t planned for this game, but I’m not ruling it out entirely down the road. There’s still a ton more to implement for the full game first. I’ll […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 07/12/2025I’m completely off of Chrome now! I’ve been using the Vivaldi browser for a while and liking it, finally moved all of my profiles over. None of that agentic stuff for me thank you. An agentic OS or browser sounds like handing over my computer or use of the internet to some intern who’s really […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 06/12/2025I just subscribed to COYOTE Media Collective, 15% off right now! I found them a month or so ago (from another toot :D). It’s a worker-owned media collective (!!) of 11 veteran journalists covering SF Bay Area (w/ strong emphasis on Oakland/East Bay). The site is an alt-weekly style pub of […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 002
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 03/12/2025The free public demo for Cave Oasis at Shylake is now live! “So it’s like stardew but weird?” (from TikTok) Pretty much! Or as I like to put it, “eco-socialist alien Stardew”. Or, with a few more words, it’s a sustainable moon town farm/life sim, with […] [Original post on mstdn.games] 112
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 02/12/2025More on system requirements: you won’t need a fancy gaming PC to play this game. It works reasonably well on: - my 2021 M1 Macbook Air, - my Mom’s circa 2021 non-gaming Dell Windows laptop with built-in Intel graphics, - my 256 GB LCD Steam Deck (there are occasional crashes just when loading […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 02/12/2025I’ve made a Discord server for my game! discord.gg/TnGPeKHWhR Made it for demo players to chat, get help, share feedback, etc but also anyone remotely interested in the game and its broader themes. It’s brand new, hardly anyone there, come join us! The game is Cave Oasis at Shylake, a […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 100
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 24/11/2025I just read this from Wired: "Activists Are Using Fortnite to Fight Back Against ICE" www.wired.com/story/activists-are-u… Focused on the New Save Collective, a group of kind, supportive activist gamers, who've been organizing events to teach […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 022
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2025New #gamedev blog post about crafting and cooking in my game: bluespruceinteractive.com/blog/5-cr… The idea is that almost everything needs to be growable, harvestable, reusable, and compostable, to keep up a self-renewing cycle […] [Original post on mstdn.games] 052
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2025I just read The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente. It was rude, salty. Devastating. I couldn’t put it down. 000
Reposted by BlueSprucealxd of the Story Seed Library @alxd.writing.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2025I have to tell you that I'm very happy seeing such a beautiful mix of recent art at the #storySeedLibrary - works of Taylor Seamount, Exhell, our Mastodon @NIGHTEN and Yuuna Maiko. You can see so many different facets of the #solarpunk movement and […] [Original post on writing.exchange] 024
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 31/07/2025There's an Investigative Journalism Game Jam! Hosted by Floodlight Games and Anima Interactive (Anima recently hosted the solarpunk game jam). You have to apply by tonight in order to participate, because it seems they'll be distributing a package of investigative reports to developers and some […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 012
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 27/07/2025I wrote a blog post on the economy in my video game: bluespruceinteractive.com/blog/4-vi… It's long. There are a lot of moving parts, and I wanted to explain my interwoven reasoning for all of it. (Don’t we all.) But I think it’s now at least coherent. It explains a lot […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 013
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 23/07/2025@FullyAutomatedRPG Hey thanks, that's great to hear! 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2025@FullyAutomatedRPG @alxd Absolutely, Octavia Butler too! Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents made a big impression on me and I think many others, as well as the rest of her work. 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2025@alxd (Btw, I read your review of KSR’s Ministry for the Future and I agree, but it felt like a deviation from his classic work. Like he was trying hard to write very near term for a broader audience, to convince people that change is possible but will require big radical solutions. So he […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 100
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2025@alxd @mgifford I very much agree with these, and I’d put Kim Stanley Robinson’s work up there too. The Mars Trilogy probably had the greatest impact on the development of my solarpunk thinking, along with Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed and Ruthanna Emrys’ A Half-Built Garden. (Even more than […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 100
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 10/07/2025@fritzoids Woah yeah that is a very long time to wait for a sequel! 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 10/07/2025Ugh, I should never read new series-starting books right after they come out. Now I have to wait however long it takes for the author to write another very good novel so I can read the sequel. The book is Jayán F.R.’s The Wind of Venus: The Aeoliad Part I (www.jayanfr.com/books). I had […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 312
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2025There are several interwoven conflicts that shape the story, but probably the most important one occurs within the main character. It involves a scientific development related to reincarnation, and I struggled to believe that part at first. But like all plot lines, it was a device to facilitate […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2025I just read @sarenaulibarri 's #solarpunk #novel Another Life. I really enjoyed it. Like the best solarpunk stories, it focuses on a close-knit, supportive community, one that is complex and subtly flawed, but deeply hopeful and inspiring. When the story begins, the community is well formed […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 103
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 05/06/2025New #gamedev blog post about setting my eco-socialist alien Stardew-like game in a cave on a moon: bluespruceinteractive.com/blog/3-wh… If it seems like everything’s sky islands these days, this is kind of the inverse of that. I thought a cave setting would make a […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 061
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 04/06/2025Oh wow, I just finished @susankayequinn 's Nothing is Promised series. It was good throughout, but it’s breathtaking at the end. The last book is powerful. And it made me appreciate more fully what she did with the whole series. It’s really one big, sweeping story, over four books (short novels […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 003
Reposted by BlueSprucealxd of the Story Seed Library @alxd.writing.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 01/06/2025Our #storySeedLibrary has just been updated with 12 more #solarpunk panels from none other than #CommandoJugendstil ! storyseedlibrary.org/authors/comman… A wonderful series on different aspects #sustainable #city in our #climate […] [Original post on writing.exchange] 056
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 22/05/2025I wrote a blog post about my approach to game dev and the solarpunk influences behind the video game I’m developing. You can read it here: bluespruceinteractive.com/blog/1-so… It’s fairly broad, I needed to start somewhere. Essentially, I'm a social scientist […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 013
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 07/05/2025Hey this looks cool! There’s a new print and play solo tabletop game for Citizen Sleeper, called Spindlejack, where you play a space courier trying to make your deliveries. Free on itch.io: jump-over-the-age.itch.io/citizen-s…jump-over-the-age.itch.ioCITIZEN SLEEPER: SPINDLEJACK by JUMP OVER THE AGE//A solo-TTRPG about zero-g bike couriers 000
BlueSpruce @bluespruce.mstdn.games.ap.brid.gy · 07/05/2025@disappearinjon Have you read Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries? They're amazing! Also most of them are novellas and they're fast reads. More action than Becky Chambers but just as much feel good, more dry wit than I think anyone else manages. Deeply human. You might also like Ann Leckie's […]mstdn.gamesOriginal post on mstdn.games 100