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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex)

@rocketlex.bsky.social

190 followers 190 following 1.8K posts

Writer and game designer. Working on all sorts of stuff. Current projects: 🍔New Meat (https://store.steampowered.com/app/3458540/New_Meat/) 🌐Complexity Mode (https://www.alexlemley.com/complexity-mode) Check out all that stuff and more at alexlemley.com

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · Feb 20

🍔IT'S HERE!🍔

New Meat has launched on Steam! It was a long road to get here but it's finally arrived! Come play one of the most unique, story-focused indie roguelites you'll find this year!

Please share!

#Roguelite #Indiegame #Indiedev

store.steampowered.com/app/3458540/...

Save 25% on New Meat on Steam

New Meat is a fast-paced horror-comedy roguelite about burgers, monsters and dead-end jobs. Survive five days of mayhem on the path to your first paycheck, meet a fun cast of extradimensional horrors,...

store.steampowered.com

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 10h

Development of the New Meat Halloween update took a turn tonight where now I’m REALLY excited to finish and release it.

You’re really going to see how modular this game’s design really is. I can just casually transform the game if I want to.

#indiedev

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 1d

“Modern Warfare 8bit Mode”

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 2d

So...yeah! The reviews are right. This is REALLY good!

I don't think I've ever seen a thoroughly mid game get remade in a way that genuinely fixes it quite like this.

They really did make the game they were clearly trying to make before, with a lot of lessons from Super Mario Odyssey added, too.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 2d

"I love your jacket! It immediately reminds me of Michael Jackson!"

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 2d

I really shouldn’t be buying this many video games but also

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 3d

I feel like if you’re going to include people who never buy video games in your “How Many Video Games Do You Buy” survey, you also need to include people who funded the California Fire Relief Bundle and therefore bought 3000 computer games this year.

Kotaku @kotakudotcom.bsky.social · 6d

A third of players don't even buy one new game a year https://kotaku.com/how-many-games-people-buy-each-year-gta-6-madden-2000632641

Most People Barely Buy Two Video Games A Year, New Report Finds

That friend who only buys Call of Duty and Madden is the average gamer

kotaku.com

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 3d

Just heard another “There’s no way to solve indie game discoverability” take on a podcast so legally I need to share this article I wrote again.

I’ll re-iterate this as many times as it takes.

#indiedev #indiegame

We Can Fix Indie Game Discoverability - Complexity Mode — Alex Lemley (dot) com

www.alexlemley.com

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 3d

Why is it that every time I see an article about how something is meticulously designed to brainhack you into subconscious obsession with biochemically-perfect dark patterns it’s always something I got bored of in a couple hours?

Aftermath @aftermath.site · 3d

The Assassin’s Creed series was a canary in the coal mine for our modern, engagement-obsessed world. @ckunzelman.bsky.social explains:

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 3d

Nezuyaki was the first person to ever stream New Meat though this very event last year!

If you’re a small horror #indiedev, sign up for this. She’s really cool!

Nezuyaki 🔜 Debut POSTPONED (TBA) @nezuyaki.bsky.social · 3d

🎃Video Game Submissions Wanted! 🎃
It’s that time of the year, Plaguefest, the 5th annual charity livestreaming event to raise funds for @girlsmakegames.bsky.social !

We’re looking for any #indiedev interested in showcasing their #indiegame live on stream!

🔗: nezuyaki.notion.site/205021b9de66...

Reposted by Alex Lemley (Rocketlex)

Nezuyaki 🔜 Debut POSTPONED (TBA) @nezuyaki.bsky.social · 3d

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 4d

New Meat Update: The Halloween update is now mechanically working. What's left is...

-Spooky Aesthetics
-The Reward You Get for Completing the Halloween Sub-Mission
-Secrets (One big one in particular)
-Playtesting

This is gonna be a good one, folks! I can already tell. #indiedev

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 5d

I think I'm just gonna not put this in the patch notes.

If you somehow notice that slightly fewer pots are spawning in the Halloween build of New Meat don't submit it as a bug.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 5d

With the addendum "I literally only noticed this bug because I was making another random-spawning object and wanted to remember how I'd handled probability resets in previous objects I'd made, only to realize I never set the probability up properly in this one. This is almost entirely pointless."

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 5d

Some bugfixes are so obscure they're hard to even explain. Like "Fixed a bug where an object wouldn't properly reset its spawn probability on despawning which caused it to TECHNICALLY appear more often than it should have, but not in a way you'd really even notice as a player."

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 5d

Working on my own game, I really understand why Nintendo sometimes just says "additional fixes."

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 5d

It’s truly bizarre how cold 70 degrees feels in LA.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 5d

I only play the really good Grinch games.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 6d

I feel like this is more or less equivalent to coming upstairs and seeing your toddler covered in ants.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 6d

Also I don’t know where you’re getting “price insensitive” from. Price wasn’t a part of the survey.

I buy Megabonk and Clover Pit for a combined twenty bucks in a single month. It’s me, the hyper-enthusiast, price insensitive gamer.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 6d

Like, is the number of people buying games decreasing, or is the number of people who can call themselves “video game players” because they bought one video game half a decade ago increasing?

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 6d

I would love to know how this statistic compares to any other year in video game history, because this has some real “How do we get the grandma who’s only played Wii Sports for five years to care about Skyward Sword?” desperation to it.

Kotaku @kotakudotcom.bsky.social · 6d

A third of players don't even buy one new game a year https://kotaku.com/how-many-games-people-buy-each-year-gta-6-madden-2000632641

Most People Barely Buy Two Video Games A Year, New Report Finds

That friend who only buys Call of Duty and Madden is the average gamer

kotaku.com

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Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 7d

So you never feel “out” in Clover Pit until your very last pull, and that’s so much better of a feeling than realizing you’ve lost but still going through the motions of slow-walking into your own Game Over.

A real “the only hit point that matters is your last” mentality. Perfect for roguelikes.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 7d

Like, in Balatro it’s not uncommon to start an ante and immediately realize “I can’t win. I literally don’t have the numbers. I could pull my ideal hand four times in a row and not win.”

But in Clover Pit, there’s always the possibility of the Jackpot and 666 looming over things.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 7d

I think a reason Clover Pit hits so much better for me than Balatro is that there’s so much more variance to a slot pull compared to a poker hand that it means you never feel hopeless or safe. You always feel like luck could save you and you always feel like luck could kill you.

Alex Lemley (Rocketlex) @rocketlex.bsky.social · 7d

So now we have Roblox as Roblox for kids, Fortnite as Roblox for teens, and Dreams as Roblox for adults. Huh.