I have seen a comment floating around that "the algorithm" on Next Fest kicks in later this week after it builds out enough datapoints. Right now it's a pretty raw and unfiltered list that eventually shakes out into what people are actually interested in.

Doesn't shock me that such an open platform like Steam is inundated with AI nonsense and Next Fest is a casualty.

Bittersweet. I just came off 10 weeks of parental leave today and while I like what I do, a large part of me just wants to stay at home all the time with these adorable knuckleheads. It's tough balancing out what's important in life (them) vs. what keeps a roof over our heads and I am grateful to have a job that has always understood and respected those priorities.

Otherwise, the mental plate is FULL. Wife's got some major health stuff we're working through, potty training, and an AuDHD diagnosis for one of the kids. Just a lot happening and we need it to quiet down juuuuust a bit.

he never shit his pants once

Are you sure? Does he climb out of that suit every time he needs to go to the bathroom? Is there a Wookiepedia entry on Vader's bathroom habits?

Thank you! Yeah, it's a tough spot right now but I keep reminding myself this is temporary and in the long term, people generally aren't the sociopaths that toddlers can be 😀

Broadly fine, though sometimes it's feeling like the dog in the burning house...

My oldest (4.5) is proving to be extremely difficult right now at daycare with hitting others and they've been sent home twice now for being to disruptive at nap time (like running around and not settling down, keeping everyone up). Even when there's no obvious trigger, just something strikes them the wrong way and it just spirals out of control. It's taking quite the psychic toll on my wife and I right now dealing with what is essentially a "PIP" for our child. Youngest is just getting super cute and more talkative every day (turns 2 on Thursday). And we realized we're like 60d away from #3 being here which has sent us into panic nesting mode.

I think Sniper Dan was sold for me when I'm shooting the door to leave or items in a shopkeepers stall to purchase them. The only way you interact with the world is through this sniper rifle and I found that hilarious.

For how quickly Seance came out after Blue Prince, that's probably hard to say BP influenced it. I loved the Golden Idol games and to me, it feels like that formula but in a fully 3D world you can explore, even down to building up your hypothesis in the same ways (eg: ____ (blue word) was ____ (red word) because of ____ (blue word)).

For Titanium Court, I definitely enjoyed it and wishlisted it, but I would agree that there seems to be a ton of raving about what seems like...not much there? I guess more to the point of not understanding the hype behind it. I liked the style, I chuckled at the jokes, and it seemed interesting so I'll keep an eye on it.

Finished Spider Man 2 early last week. Just as great as the first one. I really like how lived in the characters and the storyline is, so they can do the bigger city-ending type stuff. Now I'm really curious to see when they'll make a third one and whether that will come to the PC eventually too (considering Sony's looking at pivoting away from PC single player).

Started The Seance at Blake Manor and oh man is this thing scratching that Curse of the Golden Idol itch. Still don't feel like I have my head around all the systems but I can feel it sinking its teeth into me.

Played a ton of Steam Demos, most of which I enjoyed....

• Everything is Crab - Vampire Survivors + Evolution/Spore + crabs obviously

• Australia Did It - Little tower defense to protect a train, then more Vampire Survivors-y as the train is in motion

• Titanium Court - Match 3 strategy with a weird quirky vibe to the humor

• Sniper Dan - Use a sniper rifle to solve lots of problems in this hidden object game

• The Eternal Life of Goldman - Gorgeous hand-drawn style to a metroidvania. I tried enough to know I'd like it then set it down.

• Let's Build a Dungeon - Design an MMORPG, manage the studio, hire testers, and get rich.

News outlets should watch. It's their job so that's fine.

Everyone else should find something far more interesting to do instead and avoid the big whining baby. We can catch the lowlights later.

We have a ton of regular staples we'll go to but this is probably our favorite - Instant Pot Chicken Burrito Bowls

Someone made this for us after the birth of our first child and we immediately needed to get the recipe from them! We've had to tinker with how spicy it is so both our kids would eat it but it's great and pretty easy to make. My wife prefers it with tortilla chips to dip in while I'll make mine into taco/burritos with it as the filling.

Finished my time with Clair Obscur and feeling a bit adrift. Such a beautiful game and one I hope I can go back to and experience again some time later (plus I left one achievement behind before quitting).

Jumped in and out of a few things. Currently playing Monster Train 2 some more in preparation for the DLC today and not sure when I'll dive into Spider-Man 2...but that's my next big one on my radar.

My millenial is showing with my username :D

We're at a spot where we've more or less switched off subscriptions with a few exceptions (some of which enable us to not have OTHER subscriptions in the first place). Spotify is in a weird place where our kids have a playlist of music they like and they're more or less the primary user of our Spotify playlist now. I've got all of my music self-hosted and my intention with this latest news is to try and bring the kids' music over too.