Underneath my yellow skin

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit demo, A Quick Look (part two)

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I want to talk more about the Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit (Spry Fox) demo for several reasons. Here is the post I wrote yesterday about it in which I talked about the basic mechanics of the first game. I had to do it because the second game uses much of the same mechanics, has the same aesthetics, and (so far) has the same story beats.

Here’s one thing, though, that the first game had that this game so far does not. I mentioned that one of the biggest hooks of the first game was that it ran in real time (sort of). The story events often spanned several real-life days, which meant you could not do a whole event/quest in one day. Not even if you played for several hours on end. If you had to wait a day or two for something to happen, you had to wait an actual day or two.

There were seasons that lasted two months each with a transition month in between each season (I’m doing this by memory and may be off a bit). There are resources that only showed up in certain seasons, which was an interesting call. I’m talking bugs and trees, and maybe flowers? I don’t remmeber if those rotated as well.

It was an interesting decision, and the devs did it in part because they wanted players to be thoughtful about the amount of time they played the game a day. The counter to that was they had rotating side quests plus a bunch of other things you could always be doing (such as resource gathering) so you could spend more time in the game a day than they wanted. Also, with all the side quests, you could spend all your spare time in that game.

I had mixed feelings about that philosophy. In the beginning of the game, the grind was excruciating and real. There’s a fine line between asking your players to be patient and just wasting their time. In the start of this game, I feel it’s slightly on the latter side. However, there was enough that engaged me so I kept playing.  I will admit I looked a few things up to see if I could hurry things up, but the inevitable response was to just wait.

I can’t remember what the ingredient/resource it was that I couldn’t find, but I found myself getting more and more impatient. Every day, I would log on and check to see if the resource was there. Every day, it was not. I don’t remember how much time it took to get that one resource, but I did manage to get it at some point. I think it was within a week.

I was frustrated by the grind and how slow everything was going. And yet. There was something about the game that kept me coming back. It was the bears, for sure. I really liked several of them and learning their stories. Their lives were often tragic, but there was a lot of heart on display, too. I could relate to something with almost all of them, and there were none of them that I wanted to throw into the ocean.

I liked doing favors for them and making hteir last journey as panless and peaceful as possible. I didn’t always like them, but I was willing to be their listening ear.

In addition, there was something comforting about doing my routines every day. Check all my resources. Talk to all the bears who had open quests. Go to Mr. Kit’s store–by the way. I love Mr. Kit. He’s a big fox, and he runs the stare. I really want to know his story, but he is tight-lipped in the first game. I believe I asked him a few questions about himself, but he deflected them. For someone whom I talked to every day, I knew very little about him.

He was so useful, too. He sold different hairstyles, and I loved switching them up on the regular. He also sold clothing, and I bought every single one. There were unique outfits, some of them season-themed, and I always liked switching them up on the regular.

Mr. Kit also sold storage space, and it got really pricy the more you bought. Of course it did. Once you got a taste of it, you get hooked and need more. He was the only vendor who sold storage in the game, so of course I was going to keep paying him for it.

One of my negatives of the first game–wait. I’m here to talk about the demo of the sequel, not the first game.

The quests go by so much more quickly in the sequel, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I know that it’s probably because of the criticism the devs received for the glacial (and steep) beginning part of the first game, but I also think it’s because it was initially a mobile game. There were no microtransactions in the game, and it was free to play.

I’m assuming there will be a price on it when it comes to Steam, and I am more than fine with it. The original, which came out on my birthday in 2021, was $14.99. That turned out to be a steal–I would happily have paid twice that price by the time I was done with the game. Yes, I know that is a fallacy because would I have paid $30 up front? I would have hesitated. Mightily.

Then again, I took a big chance on Wylde Flowers (Studio Drydock), which was $25 and had an art style I didn’t love. Why do I always think it was thirty bucks? I don’t know. But I went back to read what I wrote about it, and I said that after playing the game, I would have payed fifty bucks for it because it was so crammed with content. Much like I felt about Cozy Grove.

I’m not sure I like how easily the tasks are accomplished in the sequel, though. Just to reiterate. Part of the charm in the first game was having to wait hours/days in real time to finish tasks/quests/story beats. I was hoping that since the game was coming back to Steam, maybe they would rejigger the tasks/quests. I realize that’s really hard to do, thouggh, so I can understand why they wouldn’t want to do that.

That’s all for today. I think I have one more post in me so I’ll be back at it tomorrow.

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit demo: A Quick Look

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Let’s talk more about the demos I’ve played recently. Yesterday, I started talking about the Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit (Spry Fox) demo, which is the sequel to Cozy Grove. As I mentioned, it’s one of my top five non-From games of all time. I think I’d put it at three or four. (Behind Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall) and Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games) definitely. I’m not sure if I’d put it before or after Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! (Vertigo Gaming. They are essentially tied.)

The art design is not my cuppa, but it grew on me. I liked the environments for the most part and the bears–it’s just the humans that turned me off, actually. It’s a bit too cutesy for me, but I can get past that because the game is so engaging.

As I said, one of the key hooks in the first game is that it ran in real time (sort of), and you could only do a set parts of the storyline quests per day. There were always side quests you could do at any time (and they rotated, so I got pretty tired of finding six cogs buried in the leaves (made-up example, but indictative of the side quests) for one of the bears every two weeks or so).

This was one of the games that saved me after my medical crisis. I was sad that I had broken my streak of days playing the game when I had was in the hospital for two weeks, but then I picked it up again once I was able to play games again.

When I was in the hospital, one of the physical therapists told me that one way to do rehab was to play video games. My brother laughed and said that I could probably handle that. The PT said that she and her son played an hour of Breath of the Wild (Zelda) every night together.

On the fourth or fifth day I was home , I fired up Dark Souls III (FromSoft). At that time, it was my favorite game of all time. I was still wobbly, so I didn’t do any fighting. Instead, I ran around Firelike Shrine, which is the hub world in this game. It’s a reimagining of Firelinke Shrine from the OG Dark Souls, and it’s fucking gorgeous. The first time I walked into it, I had tears in my eyes. It was a sight to behold, and it warmed my heart.

The first time back after doing a respawn in real life, I had tears once again. I could not believe I was alive and running around in my favorite video game in my beloved big hat (Sage’s Big Hat). I was so overcome with emotions and grateful to be alive.


Continue Reading

A quick look at some indie games

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I cannot believe it’s June already. How the hell did this year go by so quickly? In part it’s because it’s been mostly winterlike that it doesn’t feel as if time has advanced. or rather, we were stuck in one day for months. *Stridently ignoring world around me*

Summer Game Fest was on Friday, and there were some decent games. Nothing for me, though, as the ones I was most interested in were first-person. which I can’t play because I get nauseous. I also watched the XBox Direct yesterday. It was really good for the first half (if you care about the big games), but then it draaaaaagged in the second half. Plus, ending on COD was so ugh. Didn’t they learned from last year that the people who like that game doesn’t watch the show and vice-versa?

The big show was solid if you like Triple A games. I’m not a huge fan, but Geoff kept things moving. Hm. I’m trying to remember any game that really hit me hard. I’m looking at a list of the trailers, and there really wasn’t much for me. There was one game that intrigued me and it had the prologue on Steam. It’s called 1666 Amesterdam (Panache Digital Games), and it looked to be about witches in Amsterdam. I will admit that having black cats in it sold me on it, and I eagerly downloaded the prologue.

I will say, that the twenty minutes (slight exaggeration) of installing the sliders was not a good start. The graphics were rough, and I’m not someone who cares much about that sort of thing. When I’m looking at/playing an indie game, I’m very forgiving of flaws. I know it’s a small team of, say, under twenty people. So, yeah, it’s not going to look like a Triple A game.

The man who founded this studio was the creator of the original Assassin’s Creed. Even though I don’t vibe with those games, I have to show respect to the man who came up with the idea. Or not. But my point is that he’s a luminary in the industry. The tralier for his new game was interesting, even though the graphics were, ah, janky, at best. Plus, as I mentioned, black cats.

This game was coded for me. Witches, magic, and black cats? Hell to the fucking yes! I was interested in all those things, and once the shaders did their things, and I was finally in the game, I was eager to see what was going on. I did not love the graphics as I mentioned, but I was willing to overlook it. For now.

The controls were shonky and just did not feel good. Also, the game starts with you as the female protag walking around. Slowly. You can use your magicks to do wondrous things like light torches. I mean, really? And from what I remembered, it was very slow going. Meaning, it wasn’t just light up the torches simultaneously. You had to hold down the LT to ignite your wand or whatever and then use RT to actually light. I’m not sure those are the actual  controls, but they were something similar. And it was so awkward.


Continue Reading

Sex and dating, dating and sex, part eight

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I’ve decided that I want to do ten posts about this topic, so three to go. Why? Because. This is one way my neurodivergent brain works, by the way. It insists on making patterns when there aren’t any. I know that’s normal to some extent with everyone, but my brain does it to a bothersome degree. I know it’s going to happen at some point, but I’m powerless to stop it. It’s easier to go with it and let it wear itself out–or not. Some of my obsessions continue whereas others are left in the dust.

One thing I’m working on is being not ashamed about the weird way my brain works. Look. I know I’m a freak. I’ve known it since I was a kid, even if I could not articulate it. It’s interesting. There is someone in the Discord I’m in who is clearly neurodivergent and not at all interested in masking. Yes, it’s a ‘he’, which is significant. He has upset/offended several people in the Discord, including me because of the way he’s phrased things.

He likes to state his opinion as if it’s fact, and many of them are inflammatory. I’m not against it, but I also think that you should have some care as to the feelings of other people. It’s hard for me to say because I’m too much to the other side. As an AFAB, I was taught to always care about other people’s feelings first. That’s not good, either, but I do think there needs to be a balance.

It’s frustrating because this person, let’s call him Jack, makes me want to defend him on some occasions, not because I necessarily agree with his viewpoint, but because I don’t like groupthink. All groups have it, and this is not the worst at it, by far, but there is a slight stifling that goes on that I do not approve of.

There are times when I eye a conversation and decide not to wade into it. Sometimes, it’s because I’m not up for an argument, and sometimes, it’s because I know that my opinion is so out there, it’s not going to be welcomed. Therefore, I’m self-censoring, which is not ideal. It’s what I do much of the time, though.

I do envy Jack for not giving a shit about how he says things, but I also think he needs to think a bit. He tries to defend himself by saying it’s how he and his friends talk. Well, we’re not his friends. Also, that’s a bad excuse for being a jackhole. Even if it’s not deliberate, it’s still off-putting.

I don’t know where I draw the line between being yourself and being a jerk, but he goes well past that line. Also, again, it’s dudes who are allowed to be their authentic selves while women and AFAB people are more penalized for not fitting in.

In Jack’s case, it’s also because he’s mostly online and on the younger side. And he hangs out with people just like him (I’m guessing the predominance of them are guys, too). It’s easy to think if everyone around you thinks the way you do, everyone in general does as well.

People have been very impatient and brusque with him. Neurotypicals, I mean. Or more specificially, people who are not autistic (since autism and ADHD are different things). I can often see what Jack is trying to say, but do I want to defend him? Sometimes. Othertimes, he makes me angry, too. Especially when he talks as if he’s the authority on America (he’s not from this country and doesn’t live in it).


Continue Reading

Dating, sex, and tech, part seven

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Apparently, I have more to say about dating, sex, and tech. Techs in the city? Text in the city? Oh, wait. It’s Sex AND the City. Whatever. I never watched the showl/movie?/whatever, anyway. This is my post from yesterday in which I talk about what I thought was going to happen in my life versus what I really wanted to happen in my life.

Today, I had my Taiji Zoom class. It’s in the basement of a church that is like a concrete bunker. My teacher uses a headset so we online can hear her. Without fail, at some point, the connection goes out. We may be able to see her, but we can’t hear her. Or vice-versa. This is usually when she switches from using her headset to not using it, which she does after ne do meditation. She takes off the headset during meditation, which makes sense. For whatever reason, when plugging the headset back in, it totally disconnects her from the internet.

Sometimes, it’s because she accidentally hits a button on her headset. Other times, who knows? Tech is going to tech.

I will say on my end, I had a few months of frustration with my audio when attending the Zoom classes. It was after a Zoom update, of course. I fucking hate updates because for every positive update, there’s two to three unintended negative consequences. Also, I really don’t need updates every month. Maybe keep it to once a quarter.

Of course I want my computer to run as smoothly as possible, but I hate it when the negatives outweighs the positives. And it’s often the case of , “How the fuck do I return this to the way it was? Fuck if I know!”

By the way, I’m playing a game called, Birdigo, by John August and Corey Martin. They say it’s inspired by Wordle and Balatro; it’s simple and addictive. However, it would not accept the word ‘fuck’, which made me lift an eyebrow. Really? ‘Fuck’ isn’t in the dictionary? I was very disappointed by that.

Anyway, back to my computer issues. Suddenly, after a Zoom update, my audio did not work in Zoom. It worked just fine the week before. I fiddled with my settings, and they said that they could hear me, but I was extremely quiet.

The next week, I realized that I was somehow had two Zooms open. One was the app and one was the in-browser Normally, I used the in-browser, but it didn’t automatically come up like it used to. Now, it was the app that came up, but I didn’t use the app. Therefore, there was no audio through the app. The audio would only come through the browser.

This took two sessions to figure out. I checked it after class, and it was correct. I had no idea why the app was opening since I did not use the app and did not want to use the app. I only used the browser, but Zoom didn’t like that. It wanted me to use the app, probably so it could get my details.


Continue Reading

Dating and tech, part six

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Just when I thought I would have a tech issue-free day….I will say it was not anything big, nor, sadly was it unexpected. It was just my internet deciding to go out for a minute. For no reason. It does this once every few weeks. Sometimes, it’s the internet actually going out for a minute. Other times, it’s just my computer decided not to be connected. The latter is infinitely more frustrating and annoying because if my connection is good, then I should be able to internet.

Fortunately, it usually clears up in a few minutes, and today was no exception.

Let’s talk more about dating! As I have talked about in past, the one thing I appreciate the older I get is that I have a firmer idea of what is acceptable in a partner and what isn’t. It’s interesting to me how different it is for me than it is for most normies.

When I was a kid, I thought I’d grow up, gett married, and have children. Happily ever after and the rest of our lives, etc. To death do us part and all that jazz. It didn’t fill me with joy, but I was indoctrinated brought up to believe that it was the only path for a young woman. It wasn’t even implicit–my mother flat out said that the job of a woman was to have children. When I told her I didn’t want them, she said it didn’t matter what I wanted–it was my duty. She straight up said it!

I was twenty-two when I realized that I didn’t want them. So hard. Like, it was the thing I wanted least in the world. Me dying twice and coming back? Preferable to having children. Of course, I did come back, so that makes me biased, but still. It was such a relief to realize I didn’t actually have to have children, no matter how much my mother pressured me to do so.

Here’s my post from yesterday in which I talked more about my tech issues than anything else. Look. I live online. If I can’t access my computer, it’s a big deal. Yes, I’m very lucky that I have a laptop and a desktop so I can go to one if the other isn’t working, but I prefer doing some stuff on my desktop and some stuff on my laptop, so I highly prefer both to be working.

Around the same time I realized I did not want children, I also discovered that I was sexually attracted to women. And now, to people of any or no gender. Gender doesn’t matter. We like to say race is a construct, and so is gender. That’s not what this post is about, though, so I’ll move past that with dificulty.

Let’s talk about now. I am tired. I’m tired of the hatred of my LGBTQ+ kinfolk, and I just don’t have the will to deal with it any longer. Which means–no cishetdudes for me. It’s too much like all the isms 101, and I don’t have the patience for that. I mean, I never have, but it’s really gone now.


Continue Reading

More about dating…and tech issues, part five

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Day three? Four? Something like that of tech issues. This time, it’s completely self-inflicted, which doesn’t make it any less frustrating. In fact, it’s more frustrating because why the hell did I do that? If only I hadn’t done that! Here’s what happened.

A couple days ago, I accidentally kicked my PC tower. Hard. It was fine, but I had to make sure all the cables were plugged in firmly. They seemed to be, and all was well. Today, suddenly, my PC stopped working. Just out of the blue. I immediately deduced that it had something to do with the accidental kick I had given the PC tower a few days ago.

I checked cables. All seemed fine. I checked the power strip. Also seemed fine. I unplugged it and replugged it in, and then I turned it off and on again. It was all fine. It was late at night (for normies), so I didn’t want to call my brother. I knew that he went to bed by eleven/midnight, and I didn’t know how long it would take me to fix the issue. Though I had a hunch that he would know what it was.

I did some more hunting around to see what I might have missed. I finally realized that I was looking at the wrong cord when I was checking out the  power cord. The actual power cord had come unplugged on the PC tower side, so I plugged it back in. Did that take care of the problem? Yes! My computer booted up, and it was fine. Except.

Why wasn’t my second monitor working? I futzed with the settings, but my computer said that the second monitor was not available. What the hell? I was mad at myself for kicking my PC,  even though it was an accident.

I checked the cable on the back of my second monitor, and the other end was unplugged. I knew it had to go into my PC tower, but I had no idea where. By the shape of the cable, I only seemed to have one option. I plugged it in, but it wasn’t the one. I Googled it, and it said not to plug into the HDMI at the top of the PC tower, but to use the port that was lower. I could not see another HDMI port, but I knew there had to be one.

I got onto the ground with my phone (as my flashlight), and I found the right HDMI port. Finally! Everything was back to the way it should be. Except. About five minutes later, several YouTube videos started playing at the same time. I had about a hundred tabs open in roughly thirty different bunches. I had to quickly go through them to find the ones that were playing. Of course, it was nearly the last bunch that was the culprit, so I got rid of almost all my YouTube tabs. It doesn’t bother me because I’m sure I’ll have a hundred open again in no time flat.


Continue Reading

Sexy times (or not), part four

Posted on by • 0 Comments

I’m back to talk more about sex, baby. Let’s talk about you and me. Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be. Is that the lyrics? It’s close enough. I don’t feel like Googling it. I like the song, though, and I may include it as the video below. I loved that Salt-N-Pepa were so frank and open about sex in 1991. And from a female point of view in rap. I have to give them props for being pioneers, and I’m so happy that they made the Hall of Fame.

You know what? They have a song I like even better than Let’s Talk About Sex. It’s not Shoop, though that’s a great song, too. Nor Whatta Man ft. En Vogue (also a terrific song). It’s None of Your Business, and I found a video of them doing it live on the Jon Stewart (!) show. I love that they’re telling off everyone who scolds women (and, yes, specifically women) for having casual sex and those who are harsh on sex workers.

I love that they are sex-positive and very unapologetic about it (at least in their music). There were very few female rappers and DJs at that time (and still, sadly). Their songs are catchy, and their hit with En Vogue is truly something special. I loved seeing that many badass (and hot) women strutting their stuff.

Here is my post from yesterday in which I wandered all over the place talking about whatever came to mind as it pertained to sex or technology.

Here is something about sex that I don’t get–why I’m supposed to feel guilty about enjoying it. I grew up in a very restrictive, shaming, fundamental Evangelical household that made it seem like having sex outside marriage was a Mortal Sin tthat would cast my soul into Hell for all eternity. Especially for women. That’s a very important part of the shaming process. Making sure the woman feels like she’s total trash if she has sex.

Only before marriage, mind. Once he puts a ring on it, then the heavens part, angels come down to sing Hallelujah, and then you get immediately pregnant. That’s the only reason to have sex in the eyes of the devout.

I was fed that bullshit all my childhood. When I was dating in my late teens/early twenties, I had what I bagan to call everything-but–meaning anything that fell technically short of actual penis in vagina. This was a known thing In fact, I didn’t do this, but it became a well-known Christian thing for girls to have anal sex as a way to avoid giving up their vaginal virginity. Which, I mean….

Side note: virginity is not a real thing, anyway. It’s just a thin piece of skin that not every AFAB person even has, and there are so many ways for it to break. In addition, it’s such an antiquated way of looking at sex–and so sexist. So many young women thinking they were ruined or broken just because that little piece of skin was no longer there.


Continue Reading

Sexy times in my future? (Part three)

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Sex. Dating. I have more thoughts on this, but before I get there, I want to touch a bit more on technology and when it doesn’t work. Facebook rolled out the encryption in chat thing, and because I cleared my cache, it now won’t recognize me in one specific chat–the only one I use on a regular basis. (With my bestie, K.) I did what I could to try to access the almost year’s worth of messages I can’t get, including ones from this week, but in the end, I gave up.

I followed all the tutorials telling me how to get it. I finally was able to use the code to get into the chat, and a portion of the messages were still missing. That’s when I realized that it wsas Meta being Meta (ughhhhhhhh), so I mentally  shrugged and moved on. I was still irritated, mind, but what could I do about it?

Back to dating. Here’s my post from yesterday in which I talk about dating–and technology.

I am flummoxed when it comes to dating because gender is such an anathema to me. Being queer, many of the hetero norms just don’t matter to me. I mean, they probably wouldn’t even if I were straight, but they’re truly meaningless. When you have two people (or more) of the same gender (or different varying genders), the old rules for hets don’t make any sense. In fact, when you look at the norms through queer lenses, so many of them fall by the wayside.

As a girl/woman, I heard the following: “Don’t ask a boy out. Let him do the asking.” “Let the guy pay.” “Don’t ever beat a guy in–” well, anything, really. So many of the rules for women were to make yourself as small as possible and not take up any noticeable room. Cater to the guy’s needs/desires/sensibilities, and don’t you dare have any needs of your own.

Don’t be high maintenance. Don’t be needy. Don’t eat anything too _________ fill in the blank with anything but salad. Oh, and don’t offer to pay. Apparently, that’s emasculating.

It all boiled down to, “Be a living, breathing doll who has no opinions of her own.”

Even if I could do all that (and I couldn’t), why the fuck would I want to? I read The Rules when it came out because I wanted a laugh. Instead, I was horrified by how antiquated the advice was (and it was a runaway best seller), and the last sentence sent a chill down my spine. It was something like, “And the rules don’t end once you get married because you have to put in the work to keep the man who’s biggest benefit is that he’s breathing.” That’s paraphrased, yes, but it was that sentiment.

I remember thinking, “Oh, great. I never get a breather?”

By the way, when the next edition or the sequel came out, there was a note stating that one of the authors got a divorce. That made me laugh uproariously as I admired her chutpah.


Continue Reading

Let’s talk (more) about sex, baby! (Part two)

Posted on by • 0 Comments

Let’s talk more about dating in the Year of Everything Sucks, 2026. I’m only being slightly facetious, but, let’s just say that I’m about getting some because the world is on fire and we make not make it to 2030. If the world is going to end, I would like to at least get laid one more time on so I can go out with a smile on my face.

Side note: I just did spent an hour having to deal with a frustrating issue of my own making (tech issue). It’s something that I had a hard time  finding an answer to, even though  I didn’t think it would be that difficult. It was a pretty straightforward mess (again, of my own making), and I could not imagine that I was the only person to have issues with it.

Here’s the thing about tech issues, though. If you know what the problem is and have a shrewd idea of how to go about solving it, finding the particular solution is easy. The problem I had should have been easy to find a solution to because I could describe it succinctly. I even had an idea of what I had to do to fix it, but I could not find the specific way of doing so.

I even called my brother (apologizing because it was late for him), but he was going to bed so he did not have access to his computer. He told me what I needed to find (which was what I thought I needed to do, just not sure where to find it specifically).

In the end, I was able to clear up the mistake (I think), but then had to do something completely different to get back to what I had originally. That took me over an hour total, and it was so frustrating. Tech is great! Until it’s not.

Actually, this all started because I was trying to log into OKCupid (which is relevant to today’s post). I could not get in, so I cleared the cache in order to see if that was the problem. No, it wasn’t. That led to my bad choice that led to me wasting an hour of my life looking for a solution.

Ahem. I found out that if you don’t use your profile in OKCupid in two years, they get rid of it. That’s why I could not sign in. I started signing up for another profile, but then I just got tired. That’s how I often get when it comes to things like that. I am super low-energy, especially when it comes to doing things I consider distasteful. Making a dating profile falls under that category.

Anyway! Back to my sleeping hapbits. I do not like cuddling as I sleep, and I’m very self-conscious about how loudly I snore. I finished the last post by talking about that very topic, so let’s keep going.


Continue Reading