iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 16h

I play too much No Man’s Sky to have any right to complain, unfortunately.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I’d also put Scrubs in there, though it’s more flipped where the plots tend to be very grounded but the characters act like wacky cartoons.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The LA mayor race is so funny because these candidates clearly agree on 99% of issues so their attack ads are all petty gripes like “She missed a town hall three years ago.”

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Reposted by Alex Lemley (Rocketlex)

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It’s that time again! New Meat is just a dollar for one whole week as part of the Steam Autumn Sale! Start off your Halloween season with this unique, horror-comedy roguelike, still 100% positive-rated across all platforms! #indiegame #indiedev store.steampowered.com/app/3458540/...

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Save 80% on New Meat on Steam

New Meat is a fast-paced horror-comedy roguelite about burgers, monsters and dead-end jobs. Survive five days of mayhem on the path to your first paycheck, meet a fun cast of extradimensional horrors,...

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It does speak to why I really appreciate procedural level design. It lets the mechanics speak for themselves and gets the designers out of their own way. The design becomes more about larger philosophies and less about the random intrusive thought of "But what if you had to go ALL the way around?"

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Every handcrafted level seems designed to make you spend as much time in it as possible and traverse as much of its landmass as possible. Every single time. Which is a very "human" way to design a dungeon. You want someone to experience and appreciate your work. I get it. But...

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

With the pre-made levels, you start to notice a lot of trends the randomizer doesn't have. Exits will always be AS FAR from the entrance as possible. You always have to circumnavigate levels in the most time-consuming way possible. Everything important requires finding hidden paths to reach.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

While I've liked what I've played so far, it did make me notice something interesting. The game makes you play through a small handful of pre-fab levels before you unlock Random (procgen) worlds, and the contrast is surprising. Consistently, handcrafted levels are about 300% more annoying.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

So, as part of the Steam Autumn Sale, I randomly picked up a game I'd found myself weirdly interested in trying out lately, Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove. I've always liked Toejam & Earl as an early "nontraditional roguelike" but never tried this one out due to it getting questionable reviews.

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Save 69% on ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! on Steam

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! is a mash-up of the very best features of the classic console games with a ton of fresh improvements! Explore Earth as funky aliens from planet Funkotron trying ...

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And for those wondering, work continues on the game’s next update. It’s been slower-going than I’d like but once it’s done I think you’ll understand why. It’s easily the biggest addition to the game since launch and I don’t want to cut any corners. Expect it by Halloween!

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Oh, and if you’ve already picked up the game, please be sure to leave a review. Just a few more would REALLY boost the game’s visibility!

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

store.steampowered.com

Save 80% on New Meat on Steam

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I feel the same way. It’s actually kind of nice if in future gens I won’t need to have my credit card info sitting on my console to buy things conveniently. But I also can’t hear that a publisher is selling me a credit card reader without remembering that comic.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Next we have Banjo-Tooie. This was a tough one to write about. It's a game I love so much, it's hard for me to articulate why, since its amazing qualities just feel so self-evident. But apparently not everyone feels that way...

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“If I can enjoy playing as my least-favorite character, that means the game is good” absolutely sounds like Miyamoto logic from what I’ve heard about the guy.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Imagine my surprise watching that Ultima Online video and realizing the MMO I’d always wanted MMOs to be had already risen and fallen a half-decade before I ever took a look at the genre. What’s the point of a consequence-free virtual world if it can never pull you out of your comfort zone?

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I played some WoW at launch, but the thing that ultimately killed it for me was that human interaction always felt optional. As an introvert even online, the siren call of grinding a little more to solo everything ultimately proved too strong. It was just Diablo with a side of peoplewatching.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My one (impossible) hope is that, by taking launch WoW in a different direction, they’re going to explore an alternate path where WoW leaned ALL the way into world-PVP and the Alliance-Horde struggle playing out dynamically across the overworld. Yes I just watched that Ultima Online video.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Y'know, it's been a few months since I've done one of these, but since everyone's elaborating on their 9 games and what they meant to them this seems like a good time for another writeup series! Starting off strong we have The Binding of Isaac, the easiest include on the list...for better or worse.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is a fun trend, and more difficult than I thought it would be. Since I'm an indie dev, I specifically listed the games that have most influenced my game design sensibilities, or at least my stylistic and tonal inclinations.

My 9 games are The Binding of Isaac, Banjo-Tooie, Chrono Trigger, Kirby Super Star, Deltarune, Pokemon Gold, Yume 2kki, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and Gex 3

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Batomon Showdown is where incredible things happen.

Winning a run of Batomon Showdown with a Danuki that's dealing 26,000 damage per hit, two level 4 monsters, and a backpack with 96 trinkets in it...just to name a few things.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Press-on tattoos are kinda just stickers with extra steps.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It makes it hard to know what fights are worth doing when. Are those Level 19 bandits going to destroy my Level 14 ass or are they just a ton of free XP I should be chasing down? Almost makes me think the game needs some sort of “Party Power” score system. Or I just have a lot more to learn.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

As a new Fire Emblem player, the hardest thing to get my head around in Fortune’s Weave is how misleading levels can be. Equipment and skills seem to matter so much more than raw levels that an enemy 5+ levels above you could well be completely harmless if you’ve been optimizing at all.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Oh, this place is gonna get turned into a CRATER at some point, huh?

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Question for Fire Emblem Fans: Is Fortune's Weave the first game in the series to add sci-fi elements like this? 'Cause I'll be honest, I think it adds a lot to the setting. A sword-and-sorcery fantasy where there are also aliens with laser pistols showing up is such a fun angle.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I spend so much of Fortune's Weave worrying I'm not using my time optimally and then I get to the story battles and I've massively, massively overpowered myself to a hilarious degree. (On Hard no less.) Guess I'm roleplaying Theodora pretty well, at least.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I get that it’s different, it’s just very funny from the perspective of someone new to the series.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

FE Fans before Fortune’s Weave: “Play with permadeath on. It adds so much when you have to live with your mistakes.” FE Fans playing Fortune’s Weave: “What the hell? This game is making me LIVE with my MISTAKES!”

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It makes me think of the postgame they added to the Super Mario RPG remake and how those cutscenes are very, very clearly written by a different team 30 years removed. I’m so curious what how the next Paper Mario is gonna land with people.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Something I think about is how, even if the next Paper Mario game goes back to the classic turn-based gameplay, it’s still likely going to have the modern Origami King-era writing style and sense of humor. I wonder how jarring that contrast would be for people that fell off at Sticker Star.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I still think the tactics feel a little thin. It kind of gives the game away that there's now a mode that reduces the combat down to a tile-less turn-based format and it...feels about the same. But I actually care about stuff surrounding it this time, and that seems to make all the difference.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I picked Theodora's path to start, and I love the way her opening flips the script on what you think is going to be a typical "good princess has her throne usurped by a scheming relative" plotline. Immediately got me invested in her as a character. Also she's basically Ivy from Soul Calibur.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

As I'd hoped, Fortune's Weave is really hooking me in ways Engage didn't. The fact that the story is incredibly weird AND gets going from the jump is helping a lot. The plot honestly feels a lot more Final Fantasy-ish than other Fire Emblems I've seen.

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Reposted by Alex Lemley (Rocketlex)

T. Ashley 🌸 Jenkins @fluttersprite.itch.io · 24/09/2026

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that one should never use extreme temperatures to harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human to be harmed by extreme temperatures

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

“Wow, it’s like the series never left!”

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Turns out I was overthinking why the other Fire Emblem games I've tried didn't work for me. The actual reason is they were FUCKING BORING! This game gets you right into the action from the absolute jump. It's one of the best-paced openings I've seen in a game like this. Like night-and-day.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Okay, I’m in. I’m all-in. THIS is how you open a video game.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

There’s definitely a bad kind of overwhelming where the way things work is genuinely arcane and unsurfaced. But I increasingly don’t trust people to know the difference, or even act like there is a difference.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Something I don’t see interrogated enough when people describe games as “overwhelming” is “Is the information you need to meaningfully engage with these systems ACTUALLY not there or are your eyes glazing because you don’t like learning things?” Because those are two very different issues.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I’m at a point where I’m excited if I hear someone describe a game as “overwhelming” because it means it gets you to the good stuff right away.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Injustice 2’s Multiverse was one of the best single-player modes I’ve ever played in a fighting game. It made by GOTY Top 5! But then Mortal Kombat XI’s Towers were a much, much worse version that leaned all the way in on microtransactions over any kind of fun. So I dunno how to feel about this.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I made New Meat with this exact same philosophy and it went over so poorly that I had to spend another year and thousands of dollars fixing it. Because the gameplay and story only come across when it’s in your hands. Before that, people just see a lack of effort.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is cute and all, but speaking from personal experience, it’s a pretty terrible idea when your game’s first impression actually matters for selling it, which is the case for 99% of indie games.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I was playing Hard Mode with parmadeath off. Honestly, I think I would have just found permadeath more annoying due to have to play even more conservatively than I already was.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

That’s why I wrote that article. I’m trying to undo the damage of all the hopeless and defeated talk around indie games. There are simple and understandable places to start solving this problem. It’s purely a matter of time until someone gets it right. And we need to hold onto that.

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

People read that and the subtext is to give up. Feel hopeless. Don’t bother making art. And that’s something I never want anyone to feel. I think it IS important to frame the conversation around solutions. I think it hurts people every time a prominent voice says “Maybe it’s unsolvable idk!”

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