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Oli A. White

@childdog.bsky.social

830 followers 550 following 3.7K posts

Author, game dev, narrative designer. NoSleep Podcast editor/contributor. Made The Charnel House Trilogy and Richard & Alice (not solo) + some interactive fiction. I am a fan of some things. Intersex arrow ace IRL, yes we're real. Call me Sheet Ghost.

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Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 9h

If you're the developer of Freedom Planet or Spark the Electric Jester and would be interested in your game being used in a Lets Play that's also secretly an audio drama horror story, please get in touch. Either of these games would be perfect. Thank you. <3

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 12h

Haha, damn, I almost mega fanboyed out for a second, Spark would be my absolute top choice for this alongside Freedom Planet.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 12h

Wait wait wait are you the developer of Spark or just recommending it?

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 15h

I'm looking for something a bit more side-scrolly, Sonic style, but I'm into this to actually buy, play and stream as a game so it's a win regardless.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 15h

Oh this would be bloody perfect

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 15h

You should be allowed to get refunds on games if they add AI slop after you bought them in Early Access.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 16h

Run and gun style indie platformers also work, metal slug style or whatever, but anything cutesy, or touhou style or magical girl etc is ideal. Something that is completely antithetical to an incredibly dark horror story.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 16h

Honestly Freedom Planet 1 or 2 would actually be perfect, even though they don't have co-op, but I don't know the dev of those games, and whether they'd be interested in being involved in a horror project. But if anyone does...!

Also would appreciate a handful of suggestions cos I need more than 1

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 16h

If that's you, please reach out to me. PC or PS5 games work. If you know of any indie games that 100% fit the bill and you know the dev and think they'd be up for it, also let me know. It needs to be structured like Sonic or etc rather than Super Meat Boy, single-screen stuff.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 16h

If the online co-op part is impossible, pass-the-pad could totally work actually. But I'm looking for an indie dev who would be up for their 2D cartoon platformer to be used as significant footage in a Lets Play in a... I guess a horror short film is the best way to describe it?

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 16h

Okay so I have an incredibly strange request that I would love you folks to help me with.

I'm looking for an indie 2D cartoon platformer in the vein of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Freedom Planet etc, but it HAS to have online co-op, and the dev needs to be into the idea of using it in a horror story.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, I'm getting real sick of people prioritizing and praising Content for Content's Sake. You can kinda understand how we've ended up deserving AI slop really. You simply cannot beat bespoke, thoughtfully crafted experiences and I'm baffled that we ever drifted away from that

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

Oh that sounds fun, Neal Stephenson's pretty good in general. It's more the word & sorcery fantasy stuff I struggle with. Sci-fi CAN get like that, but it's a smaller cross section of it I think. Still a genre I struggle with the further away from present day it gets, but I'd like to explore it more

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

Again no shade at all towards people who enjoy this but I absolutely 100% need some real world anchoring in my prose fiction, even in fantasy and sci-fi. Sci-fi's usually a little better for it because it's often necessary, but I struggle so hard with fantasy for the most part.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

Or I can enjoy more fantasy video games because you can either just ignore that aspect and simply enjoy the other areas; the visuals, gameplay etc, but it is so hard for me with prose literature when all I'm faced with is just a barrage of made up information that I have to retain.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah I like both of those too, because both authors were/are excellent at crafting a fantasy world that is designed to be enjoyed by people in the real world. Pratchett in particular, to fully appreciate his fantasy work you need a good grasp of reality, and I think that's perfect.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

The stuff you like tends to be cleverly allegorical and has real world parallels though, I'm not sure I remember you really liking something that falls into the category I'm talking about. For eg The Southern Reach books are an example of it done right.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

And I do think it can be harmful, because then audiences expect this ludicrous amount of Lore and Backstory and Content and just favor volume over quality. I don't care if your RPG has 500 full-length books in it fleshing out the world unless they're actually interesting to read.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah this is partly what I mean too. Like I roll my eyes every time I'm forced to try and parse all this completely fictional stuff that only has gravitas because it's Not Like Our World. I promise there are other, more graceful ways to do it.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

More power to people who do, but 99% of the time I can promise you that you'd probably have more fun with fiction that doesn't require you to absolutely fill your brain to the brim with completely made up information. It just feels so antithetical to the point of fiction to me.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

I think this is why I like fantasy video games, but rarely enjoy the genre otherwise. Especially as someone with cognitive issues, I simply do not want to fill my head with vast amounts of fictional historical info with zero basis in reality or possible real world application outside that one book

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

I've always chalked this down to being an autism thing, but I basically can't stand fiction where I have to learn like an entire world history's worth of completely meaningless lore just to follow it. You can absolutely do this shit without requiring lengthy info dumps, and make it opt-in.

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

My cynical side is thinking; we've seen a huge increase in indie games on Steam, PSN etc thanks to the ease of producing AI slop, is that the case here?

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

It's not you I was thinking of cos I didn't know that, but do you know what else the dev made, maybe under a different studio name? WAS it Boreal Tenebrae?

Oli A. White @childdog.bsky.social · 1d

Who did you play? Please tell me the main baby is you