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A jam submission

The Chthulucene CollectorsView project page

A game of making kin with rehomed tech
Submitted by Therapeutic Blasphemy Games (@therablasgames) — 29 days, 10 hours before the deadline
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The Chthulucene Collectors's itch.io page

Anything else you want to tell people about your game?
If you like my game, whether you bought it or used the text-only version, please tell me. Leave comments, rate it, just tell me because hearing what people think of my game is important.

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Comments

Developer (1 edit)

I just realized that the text-only formatting was all messed up and I'm rather embarrassed by that, but I have fixed it with this: there are now two text-only file formats. One is in PDF which looks exactly how I designed the text-only version to look. The other is a text file. Per text file usual, it has no formatting except lines breaks and spaces. It still looks better than the RTF version. 

Apologies again for the sloppy appearance on the RTF version.

(+1)

Haven't done a playthrough (yet). Gut reactions, for now:

  • Downloaded the text-only version first, then decided the content was worth the price,
  • That said, slightly disappointed by the visual design of the full version. Not a flaw on your part: I guess I just had very particular expectations of the layout, based on the themes. (I was hoping for a look that's akin to the Xenofeminism Manifesto or Reza Negarastani's Cyclonopedia.)
  • This is by far the most hopeful and reassuring interpretation of the Cthulhucene premise that I've encountered; I generally associate it with Nick Land style r/acc cynicism.
  • One of the most difficult elements of writing/reading/playing a post-apocalyptic scenario is the idea of population-scale death as a starting point. For what it's worth, this game either seems to sidestep that aspect, or leaves it at the periphery to haunt the small moments/interactions/encounters represented by each of the cards.  
  • In concept, I'm admittedly put off by utopian narratives that draw on a mix of Wall-E scrapyard romanticism and/or neo-luddite back-to-the-land tropes, if only because it's often presented in ways that lack imagination. It ends up feeling like Walden on a folk punk commune. But this game avoids that conceptual trap by emphasizing moments over movements; individual experience over community. And while that might limit its value as a tool for imagining new worlds, it does make the gameplay experience seem more potentially appealing.
  • ... particularly in comparison to similarly themed games that are more influenced by The Quiet Year. Both systems have basic mechanical similarities: prompts tied to randomized card draws; a built-in countdown mechanic. But the narrowing of scope here—from  community to individual, from weeks into hours—makes all the difference. 
Developer

Thank you for such a thoughtful gut reaction. While I don't think the solution to climate catastrophe lies in the individual, I do think that people might understand the way forward through the lens of individuals and moments rather than grand scale. I don't want to lecture in this reply, but I just wanted to thank you. This comment is such a honor to receive.