Newbiespud's Internet Hermit Hovel

Oh yeah, we're going places

Welcome to the bonus DLC round

Grumpy detective with a vice (smoking) and a fatalistic but unflappable inner monologue (voiced by frequently typecasted gunslinger Matt Mercer)

Constant black rain that just makes everything Worse

Drugs and violence devastating the homeless underclass

Helpful urchins surviving as best they can in the lowest streets

Doing dirty favors for shady dock managers to advance a hidden grey agenda involving getting into a mob boss's inner circle to collect information and evidence

Brass-knuckle brawling, obscenely large revolvers, people being thrown out of plate-glass windows

Driving through busy city intersections loaded with glowing enticements to smooth over the suffering

Stratified decadent high society flush with gambling, dancing, and singing

The city's most popular singer/dancer knows the detective on sight, implying either an at-arms-length relationship or frequent patronization, a symbol of beauty for whom the doom timer is no doubt ticking

Atmosphere of lies and betrayal tragically far past the point of ever being healed in one lifetime

Tense negotiations over a card game with a dangerous mover and shaker

I've been mostly keeping the daily incremental updates on Bsky, but every so once in a while I feel an obligation to post video proof of my work, and thus: The devlog.

Griftlands: Three For All is now at a bare-minimum playable state, not shareable yet and still rough-draft and buggy, but with enough real content that there's a foundation to build upon for the massive, excessively replayable expansion I want it to be.

Not that I'm here to play white knight today and say that your reactions or opinions are wrong. Loyal fan that I am, and as much as I can see how we got to this point with the resources we have, such criticisms are valid and it's worth finding ways to alleviate them.

That said... Maybe I was plenty satisfied because I'm a veteran since the earliest days of open beta, where going along with minimal context clues was just kind of the norm.

Or maybe it's because I'm still shocked that we're doing quests about Stalker at all, the character that was more rumor than confirmed before there was even a "cinematic quest" or a "second dream." And now the character who only speaks in growly half-sentences - now voiced by Gianni Matragrano of all people (not that I don't love him, mind) - is the main character we're hinging all this emotional storytelling on? With his supporting cast, a slow-speaking giant whose main characteristics are "trapped in a water-prison but knows a lot of things"?

I haven't posted about it much here on Tumblr, but for a good chunk of my life - nearly 13 years - I wrote and assembled a screencap webcomic mixing D&D and My Little Pony in the same vein as DM of the Rings or Darths and Droids, which I called Friendships is Dragons.