Looks to the Moon

Made this post about 15 minutes after the repair guy who fixed the pump on my dishwasher packed up his tools and left, as the dishwasher was whirring along doing my dishes from that morning.

A browser simulation game about the cats who outlived us.

(Here for the demo? Click here, or read on to learn more)

(Art by @thewisestdino, read on to learn how RubbleRousers supports artists!)

RubbleRousers is an upcoming free browser game (with a free demo out now!) about a clowder of feral cats clawing out survival in the ruins of a city that has fallen under the weight of a zombie apocalypse.  Explore, hunt, and raise the next generation.

My name is Finch, and this is a game I've been working on for close to three years now. Let me give you a run down :3

Why be excited about RubbleRousers? Let me give you a few reasons:

Real cat genetics. I spent a year developing the genetics system of this game, working with domain experts to make things as realistic as I possibly could. Punnett squares, sex-linked traits, they're all there!

Survival Game and Petsite. RubbleRousers isn't just a survival game, and it isn't just a petsite. It's the kind of genre combination I always dreamed about as a warrior cats kid, naming my Lioden lions after my fanclan. Bringing new life into the world is just as much of a part of the game as dying in combat. There's injuries, illnesses, and sudden tragedy, just as there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

A city to reclaim. Every map you explore is procedurally generated based on a custom algorithm. Fight everything from zombie cats to vicious foxes.

Build your colony. Build dens, watchtowers, a nursery, a healer's den, and many more. Grow a base from scraps of moss, twine, and metal.

A story to uncover. A full narrative campaign with a cast of strange characters and a final choice that's yours to make.

Support Artists. One of my main goals when I started this project was to support artists in (and outside of) the warriors art community. I am an abysmal artist myself, but the game is full of beautiful art by many paid and volunteer artists. Every dollar donated either goes to server hosting costs, or directly to artists and graphic designers. As grateful as I am for all my lovely volunteers, I want to make sure everyone gets fairly compensated for their time and effort.

✦ PLAY THE FREE DEMO ✦

Experience a taste of the game, and play around endlessly with the genetics system. Find it all at https://rubblerousers.online/

✦ JOIN THE CLOWDER ✦

Discord: https://discord.gg/htcYPp47kD : Dev updates, genetics talk, post your cats, get beta news first

Tumblr (you're here!) : Larger updates and community announcements

Website: https://memoriainteractive.com/ : Here you can find out how to support RubbleRousers and sign up for the newsletter

Contact: [email protected] or join the server and tag me

My father finds gay men uncomfortable.

He's told me before that it's like a knee-jerk for him. Something he doesn't consciously control. He sees two men behaving romantically, and his body reacts with mild discomfort.

In the 1960s, when he was in high school, most of the boys in his form thought he was gay on the simple fact that he wasn't homophobic. He wouldn't participate in insulting queer people, he didn't care if someone was gay, he wouldn't have a problem hanging out with gay people. So people thought he was gay. That's how prevalent homophobia was in his formative years.

When I was 10, my dad told me very seriously that Holmes and Watson were gay. That it was obvious from the literature and the time period that they were meant to be a gay couple. When I was 14 and I came out to my parents as bi, when my mum was upset my dad ripped into her for it. Told her that she was being stupid, that it was my life to live how I wanted to and that she needed to get over herself.

My dad formed my views on censorship: that being that it was completely ridiculous and thoroughly evil. He didn't believe in censorship of any kind. If I asked him a question about sex, he answered it honestly. When I was 12 and I asked him about homosexuality, still young and uncertain, he told me that there was nothing wrong with it. That it was just how some people were. That there was likely an evolutionary reason for it. And that for some people it was uncomfortable on an instinctual level.

He taught me that just because you're uncomfortable with something, doesn't make it wrong. He also taught me that most people don't understand this.

I see a lot of this on the internet as of the last few years. The anti shipping movement, the terf movement, the anti ace movement. It all stems from discomfort that people have crossed wires into believing means wrong. Really every -ism and -phobia out there stems from this same fundamental aspect of humanity.

"Just pirate it!" Nope! Piracy still helps JK Rowling!

"But I'm autistic and it's my fixation!" I'm also autistic and once upon a time it was also my fixation. I have some advice for that here and over here.

"I like the aesthetic!" Go watch the works of Guillermo del Toro, or go read my post on copying HP's aesthetic.