#videonauts

LONG TIME NO SEE, and welcome back to Fourth Strike Monthly Roundups! A moment of silence for the half a year we've been gone; I (roundup writer) have just been extremely busy irl. But hey! There's now six months of sick tunes to catch up on!

There's a LOT here, and it's Bandcamp Friday (!!), so we've divided the roundup into two parts, and we'll go through these pretty rapid-fire. This is Part 1: MUSIC!

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NEW IN MUSIC:

1. Loads of our musicians have been playing live! All of these gigs are now past, but here's an assortment of shows from the last half year:

keep an eye on these folks! We'll be posting new gigs as people land 'em, including a few in today's roundup below!

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2. @robnotes released their debut EP, How To Feel, along with a videos breaking down its production and lyrics!

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3. @thwackamabob 's band Yuppie Supper put out a track on T4T2! : A Mutual Aid Compilation by Trans People for Trans People! 100% of album proceeds go to The Trevor Project. Check it out below!

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4. Ceri released a music video for her song "Murderer." Watch it now on YouTube:

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5. Nia's done a drum 'n bass mix for the FieldFX shader jam. Mix, tracklist, and song links available on her blog here:

They then came back for a second one, this time with the goal of using as few breakbeats and as many four-on-the-floors as possible👀 Recording and tracklist below!

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6. @thwackamabob and Yuppie Supper are back! This time with the release of their second EP, The Mondegreen. Check it out on bandcamp and streaming! Not really linking to a certain streaming service here anymore, but it's there if you use it:

You can also get YupSup shirts on the bandcamp, now in black AND white:

If you happen to live in Leeds or the surrounding, keep track of upcoming shows at their linktree:

And finally, the band did an interview with Slutsplosion over on YouTube! Watch it here:

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7. @raccoonfink's sorted his project across his various styles into his own label on Ampwall! Check his music out here:

Rick's put his entire electronic back catalog up for PWYW. If you're a fan of techno, electronica, ambient, and/or chiptune, this is the place to be!!

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8. LCS released a new album! Hymns and Deviations is a deliberately nebulous concept album, open to the whims and interpretations of the listener. What will you find within its synthwave electronica?

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9. Seb put out their final uni project! Self-described as "weird plunderphonics-y vaporwave-y nonsense," The Wheeler-Langley Experiment is available now on Bandcamp:

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10. Shmucku put out a "ethereal x dreampop x Silent Hill type beat," available on YouTube under A Liminal Life! 🤩

They've also got a little jam sess up, if you'd like to hear some SICK guitar:

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11. Fans of music about horror games rejoice! Sci-fi's written an entire EP (seven songs!) of music for an experimental enormous game of Mothership that ran for Mothership Month 25. Check it out on Bandcamp:

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12. Resni's released the full soundtrack for Videonauts on Bandcamp! What's Videonauts? Keep scrolling and you'll find more on their indie horror game (sensing a theme, this month) in the Not Music (But Still Cool) section 👾

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13. Amelia released her first big album on Bandcamp! It's called GLAM, it's a concept album about identity, community, and the cycle of mental health recovery, and garages fans might recognize a certain track, formerly about a certain Atlantean....🎸🔱

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15. Julien compiled, mastered, and has a song on Causerie: A Compilation Album Benefitting YRC ATL:

Y'all Rock Camp ATL puts on a summer camp for girls and other trans/gender-expansive kids to learn to play and make music! All artists on the comp are local to Atlanta and past/present counselors and organizers🎸

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16. Skul Girl did a remix of the new Femtanyl. In her words: "It go squeaky glitchy now!!!!"

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17. datasaab put out a song! Available now on YouTube and streaming:

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18. Gabi's got a new single coming out on Tuesday! Presave "When the lights go out (in my eyes)" below:

Faer last track with faer former band Glitt, "Party," also came out recently! Listen to it on YouTube/streaming:

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19. We had our annual Song Jam here at Fourth Strike at the end of 2025! As always, everyone brought out some truly incredible music, and there's another compilation album in the works. More info to come when we've got news!

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20. Speaking of news, we know people are probably curious about what's happening with EXPANSION. While we're not quite ready with a new release date yet, progress is being made, and we're hopeful we'll have more info to share soon!

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And that's everything music from the last six months! If you're looking for new music, or artists to support this Bandcamp Friday, we hope you found something new and exciting here!

This documents the tail-end of Next Fest, as well as my shift to watching new Let's Plays in real time in addition to watching Let's Plays from channel archives. So as you can imagine it doesn't have a ton of me actually playing full games myself!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (watched: PlayFrame): I can’t wait to be the only person in the world without an overwhelmingly strong opinion of this game

Cobalt Core (played): Super fun deckbuilder! I love the way the characters comment on the moves you make.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (watched: Welonz): I stopped watching this one. I actually wasn’t hating it! But every episode was over two hours long and I have other Let’s Plays to watch.

Deep Pixel Melancholy (played demo): Good, but very depressing. I'd need to be in the right headspace to play this one.

The Demons Told Me to Make This Game (played demo): I'm hype to play this one. I would also be hype to Let's Play this one, but I'm not keen to blur out that magic dildo every time it shows up onscreen.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping (watched: Kikoskia): Kiko actually played The Secret Salami first but my love of alphabetization is confusing the whole matter.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami (watched: Kikoskia): Sean Chiplock played that stupid duck??

Everdeep Aurora (watched: Quasimofo): Jacob Geller made a video about this digging shit

Hades II (played): I actually haven’t been playing this nearly enough. I’ve only seen two of the new bosses.

The Inner World (watched: ZenBear): Main character sounds like the cult leader butterfly from Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

The Light at the End of the Ocean (played): A tiny little visual novel but it made me feel feelings.

Metahorror Therapy Session (played demo): Thinking about this one still makes me angry and I feel like the only way to get over it is by playing the full release. But I don't wanna.

Murder at the Ironwood Inn (played demo): I want more detective games to play but this was just kind of a crappy demo

Quantum Witch (played demo): The name alone meant I was inevitably meant to play this one. It's like it was formulated specifically for me.

Ritual of Raven (played demo): Very pretty and cute art, I wish it was something other than a Stardew clone.

The Royal Writ (played demo): Seemed super unique, I'm definitely checking this out when it's out.

Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker (watched: Quasimofo): Those evil versions of the main characters sure would have been interesting if the main characters had any kind of personalities to deconstruct in the first place.

Sorry, We're Open (watched: GSDBoxer): It's fun and bizarre listening to GSD reminisce so fondly about retail while playing this game about evil retail.

Until Then (played): This game is a time loop?!!??

Welcome to Part 2 of our roundup for the back half of 2025!

Today in NOT MUSIC (BUT STILL COOL):

1. @clemkesh featured on the podcast Game Master Monday playing Ball Game, an absurdist horror baseball game (ttrpg). Which, of course, isn't something she or any of us here at Fourth Strike have any experience with.

Check it out on Youtube/streaming:

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2. Resni's game Videonauts is out! If you've read previous roundups, you'll know Videonauts is inspired by classic rpgmaker horror games, and has you escaping a mansion chock-full of dead traps and a collection of bizarre videos. There are tons of secrets to discover and multiple endings to stumble across! Now available on Steam:

and Itch:

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3. @robnotes did videos covering his best and worst albums of the year!

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4. @clemkesh again, this time on the podcast The Heart is a Dungeon as Reve! Check it out below and/or everywhere you get your podcasts:

https://redcircle.com/shows/4a77b44e-52f9-48d0-bb56-d66e8cb64b3b/ep/deee3d24-102b-4345-8cd7-a5a259f4e82d

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5. Sci-fi, Lex, and their local theater are making a comedy radio theater anthology called Bindle Wireless Playhouse! Sci-fi's doing sound design, some of the music, and mixing. Available wherever you get podcasts!

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6. Resni and their partner have another game releasing soon! Crescent Break is an action-roguelike platformer that takes place in a futuristic world. Traverse the peculiar surroundings and collect new weapons, character upgrades, and special items to unlock new areas and secrets. Permadeath, procedurally generated levels, and randomized abilities mean that each run will be unique and interesting! Links and clips below:

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It's BANDCAMP FRIDAY! 🎉 Here's what Fourth Strikers have been up to the last couple months. Where we can, we're putting Bandcamp links up top—if you've got the change and the interest, as always, take a look and consider supporting all our wonderful artists!

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NEW IN MUSIC

1. Gabi and Navi performed in the Seattle Trans and Nonbinary Choral Ensemble's summer concert series, Forever Here, Forever Queer. You can watch back the vod here:

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2. The soundtrack for Resni's last game, Mythic Mire, is out now on Bandcamp!

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3. Ceri's K-Pop inspired, trans, experimental concept album DEADNAMES released in July!! Available on Bandcamp here:

And on streaming (we're linking Spotify):

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4. Gabi's back with a new Girl Ballz ( @girlballz ) track, "World Waking," out on Bandcamp and streaming!

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5. Yuppie Supper ( @thwackamabob ) had some really fantastic shows this summer—playing Brudenell Social Club and opening for Weatherday!—and now they've got a new single, out in a week! It's called "Neocanine," and you can preorder on Bandcamp/ share on Bluesky below:

(Bandcamp orders come with a secret bonus track! 👀)

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6. The lead single off of @robnotes' DEBUT EP is out today!!! It's called "Pure Propaganda," and anyone who's been following our song jams might recognize it—initial reactions include "omggggg these words" "i need to get some rollerblades, grind on a rail, and fall about this" "i just know the ddr routine for this kills" and "please form a pop-punk band rob. please."

The EP itself comes out on the 15th of August! You can find the full tracklist below on Rob's Bluesky:

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7. Gabi's back for a threepeat with upcoming show dates for faer band, Glitt! You can catch them at The Lab @ 1010 on August 14th or opening for TREASVRE at Hidden Hall on the 24th:

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NOT MUSIC (BUT STILL COOL):

1. New game demo from Resni!!! Videonauts, self-described as "like classic rpgmaker horror games... but cartoony animal people," has you escaping a mansion chock-full of dead traps and a collection of bizarre videos. There are tons of secrets to discover and multiple endings to stumble across! Check out the demo/wishlist here:

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2. Bellatrix made a zine about book bans targeting queer literature and communities. You can read it here—feel free to share and distribute to your local! (It's a discord link for now, but we're working on getting something more permanent.)

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