itch.io

My thoughts: https://kdgreenparty.substack.com/p/horses

My random thoughts, having just completed it.

This isn’t about sex, or violence. It is about the mindset that dehumanises people. That others them, so they can be killed and exploited. and, further (to my mind), about how that is done to other species, and nature. It’s about oppression and resistance to it. It’s a world taken to the extremes of fascism, racism, speciesism, capitalism, settler colonialism. How evil gets justified and institutionalised. Life becomes product.

As such, I took it as criticism of all the evils of the worst governments. I think of Israel, and how their media, press and government continually refer to Palestinians as “animals”, and have for the 75 years they have been stealing their land for a Western colony, and committing genocide. As the US did with native Americans, and Australia with Aboriginal Australians. As the British did again and again. As Europe did. All of which support, arm and defend Israel’s genocide today, whilst persecuting those who oppose genocide. No wonder US companies won’t publish this.

It is an obscene farm run by the pervert Donald Trump. His friends (perverted priests and vets) might as well be Epstein and Prince Andrew.

It reminds me of many other things. The horror of The Tank / La Cisterna (terrific Italian novel by Nicola Lombardi), crossed with Animal Farm.

The graphics for the countryside are beautiful, often photo-realistic mono that brings to mind the game Betrayer. The figures less so (why are their forearms and legs apparently burnt and scarred?)

It’s the kind of game that should be made, which makes it all the more pronounced that Steam and Epic won’t publish it. Both US outfits which allow endless violence and exploitation in games, but will not allow sex or a naked human body! That’s American perspectives for ya, priorities twisted to fuck.

I think I’ll stop buying games directly on Steam, as I stopped buying on GOG when they refused to publish Devotion (an excellent horror game, by the way, and worth buying direct from the Red Candle site). I’ll just buy keys from Humble and Fanatical, which means I still get GOG and Steam games, but without any money (or less money) going to GOG and Steam.

Worth experiencing, for sure. And it’s worth supporting the developers who tried to do something innovative, resisting authoritarianism in an increasingly authoritarian world.

And as to the “controversy”? The only controversy is that it’s about evil which is in charge of many countries at the moment. Resisting oppressive governments and cultures is difficult.

As an aside, I tried it in Linux first. It ran fine, except none of the FMVs work – just blank space. I had to boot into Windows (something I do once every six months, and detest!) to play it properly. I also wish it allowed arrow-key controls: some of us find WASD really awkward and never use it as a control scheme if we can help it.

Maybe. I have thousands of things from bundles, so only downloaded that one at some point last year, though the link worked from the bundle fine at that point.

Gotcha! I understand now. Many thanks!

I used to own this from a bundle, I think, but it isn't showing up any more. Did it get removed when it was updated? Just curious. Thanks.

I own "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature" from the Indie bundle for Palestinian Aid, but when I click on it to download it now it says "This project is not available for download

This game is not published and can not be downloaded. If you think this is a mistake, please get in touch with support.".

Have you removed it from accounts that own it? Thanks.

Ah! Many thanks. :-)

Wonderful atmosphere and esoteric world building.

I enjoyed this, though I seemed to get to an end where the screen was silent and the same pattern repeating, so I clicked the mouse and it quit. But someone else mentioned credits and a list of songs, so did something come after that? Is there a list of songs anywhere? Thanks for a great atmosphere!

Ominous, creepy, a view into depraved minds. After a while I got stuck, but it's totally believable.

A pleasant bit of whimsy. :-)

Nicely done with excellent sound and timing. Doesn't overstay its welcome.

I confirm, it works perfectly on Linux Mint Cinnamon. :-)

I will, I hope! All my PCs have Linux on and RS1 works perfectly in Mint, so fingers crossed for RS2. :-)

Just bought, looking forward to it! As you know, I've been playing the first game since 2015 ... :-)

A fun experience, thanks!

Yep, it was the first door! Your approach sounds interesting, but maybe some hint to the player that they will die if they respond? Even after dying I had no idea that was the cause! Is there some in-game reason that could be worked out, as to why answering a radio immediately kills you? You could then give a hint at that after death. Just thinking of how you can make sure players don't give up at that point. :-) It's a really ominous-seeming scenario, so it would be good to make sure they experience the full thing. Good luck!

A fun story if you like Pandorum and Event Horizon. Doesn't take too long to play. The walking (and running) speed can be quite slow if you have to backtrack, or when running from something. The game is very dark, even with boosted brightness, but that adds to the atmosphere I guess. It reminded me of the atmosphere I created in my Lost Solace books: dark, empty, ominous spaceships, and strange threats. So a thumbs up there!

A good idea and great atmosphere, but I didn't get far because of the deaths without any warning at the start. I'd be reading a message and it would suddenly say MIA and I'd have to start again. That's really frustrating! Either give a warning, or a chance to survive, or at least a clue what to do after the first death. Still, there is a lot of potential here. :-)

(This one didn't work in Linux, just as a point for Linux users.)

A fun experience that doesn't overstay its welcome. Works perfectly in Linux.

I enjoyed the game, but would have preferred a more straightforward presentation: because it was often confusing, the end result for me was being pulled out of immersion, not feeling I was the game character, just someone playing a game. Still, great atmosphere in many sections. Also: works perfectly in Linux. :-)

Short and sweet, doesn't overstay its welcome. Works perfectly on Linux. Thanks!

Never mind - the door I went to wasn't meant to open (though the character would have known that!) PS Runs perfectly in Linux.

For some reason E (interact) does nothing for me, so I can't pick up the keys or open the door. Not sure if anyone else has had this problem?

Well it's a lot of fun, and I'm impressed with what you created! :-)

Very nicely done. I was a big fan of Exolon on the Spectrum, and Raffaele Cecco's games. The remixed title screen music was so good I listened to it twice.

This is a great homage. There are some changes from the original game, none of which are negative but it is worth being aware of them.

- Unlimited lives (meaning I could complete the game in one sitting - great!)

- Destroying radar towers doesn't stop the missiles (but missiles can now be shot).

- A more generous zone for stopping the wave of aliens.

- Unlimited bullets, and bullets can be used instead of missiles to destroy things.

Really enjoyable blast from the past. Thank you!

(I played it on Linux Mint, it worked perfectly via wine.)

Really nicely done and nostalgic (I mainly know Ghosts & Goblins from the C64 version). It's difficult, though. I played for an hour and still didn't get off the first level. It makes me wish there was an easy option for people with limited time! Exolon Redux on Itch gave us unlimited lives so I could play through the whole game and see everything - an easy option for G&G would be great. Still, I recommend this for a bit of fun. (I played it on Linux Mint, worked perfectly via wine.)

Support never replied to my emails about this, so there's probably nothing you can do. I mean, you could contact support but my experience would suggest it is a waste of time. :-(

And neither of those show up as the Ukraine bundle (which I also own) for me, they only indicate the World Land Trust Bundle. Whereas other games do include the Ukraine one. And some include all bundles. The bundle-checking-and-displaying subsystem seems to have errors in it, leading to omissions that don't follow a pattern I can identify.

"What I published isn't mine anymore, so I won't destroy it, but I can certainly stop selling it."

Yep, that's how I expect things to be! As an author I can cease selling my books, but anyone who has already bought a copy can keep it forever (print or ebook).

Maybe it wasn't working when I tried it? I can't retest now, since once I did the workaround to download, things show up fine for me. Did you ever download it?
Try the URL in a private browser session - that should lead to a 404, suggesting it only works for us because we already downloaded it.

I've almost finished now. I'd say about half of those in my list are irretrievable - not showing up at all, or leading to 404 pages. But the other half worked via this method. Thanks!

Ah, I spoke too soon!

I just tried the first one on my list, and it appears in one bundle page (but with no download button, and only a link to a 404 page), but it doesn't appear in the other page for the same bundle when I search for it.

So I guess that creator found a way to properly delete the items.

It will be interesting to see what proportion of missing items can be downloaded using the method below. :-)

Hi Quinn K,

Thanks for that - it worked! What's interesting is that I hadn't seen the download button because every bundle has two pages on Itch, but only one of them lets you sort the games A-Z, so that is the one I always used (partly because I wanted to add all the games to a collection "Not Yet Played", and because there is no automated way to do it, I had to do each one manually - requiring multiple days, and therefore noting what letter of the alphabet I was up to). So it turns out you only see a download option if you use the other bundle page, that doesn't have sorting options. Here's a screenshot of each:

A good example of how the Itch interface is often very confusing! Having two different pages for each bundle instead of one, for example.

I did ask Itch Support about this twice. Presumably they could have given the same answer as you, but they never replied to those emails (or any others I sent in the last few years) which is a shame, as I feel more of an affiliation to Itch than to GOG or Steam.

Thanks for taking the time to explain this, I'll have a look at your pdf and the other things I couldn't access in bundles. :-) Hopefully this post will be useful to anyone else with this issue.

Best wishes, Karl

Thanks for replying - I hope I didn't seem too negative! I'd just like more people to be able to play it. :-) I recorded the sessions since I'm an author, and a few of the things we made up may well find their way as altered scenes in future short stories. :-)

Ah, I rememebr Garuda, very colourful. :-) Nobara is new to me, I'll have a look, thanks.

Thanks - I definitely don't want a refund (I wanted to support these amazing bundles, and 99% of them are fine). :-) It's just something Itch and maybe the people who set up the bundles should be aware of, that some creators add items but then delete them afterwards, leaving broken links.

Which distro do you use? I tried a few in a VM and settled on Mint, but had used Zorin for a while. I love the choice. Elementary OS tempted me as well. :-)

Who am I? I ask myself that a lot. A cat-owned reclusive author probably sums me up. Oh, and a game player. I started with an Atari 2600, then Atari 600XL, C64, Amiga 500, Amiga 1200, then a 486. Various PCs with Windows, now moved on to Linux (Mint Cinnamon) for my new PC. Though I still play C64, Amiga and Spectrum games. :-) I recently redid my website to focus just on my books: https://karldrinkwater.uk/

I'm best known for space opera - my Lost Solace books (long-awaited book three out this month!). Oh, and all my books are reduced to 0.99 this week only as my summer sale. https://books2read.com/ap/xr55B8/Karl-Drinkwater

One day I'd like to investigate game jams or ways to licence people to create stuff based on my Lost Solace books.

You don't have to be gay to play and enjoy games with gay characters, protagonists or plotlines. I'm not a psychic space marine but I enjoy System Shock 2. I am not a blob of mucus but I had fun in World of Goo.  I play games for fun, stories, new experiences. If I had to play myself all the time (like in real life) I'd soon get bored. My stats are rubbish, and I'd be playing a game where I spend most of my time staring at a screen. :-)