Ignatz

I also like Darktable for photo editing and used Audacity over Adobe Audition even when I had an Adobe sub.

I used to use Adobe applications and have found decent alternatives for Photoshop (GIMP), Illustrator (Inkscape), and Premiere Pro (KdenLive) that run on Ubuntu.

Among those, Kdenlive probably measures up the worst to its Adobe counterpart. I am happy with it as an NLE, but I can't deny that Premiere Pro is quite a bit more useable and powerful. The new interfaces do take some getting used to, but they are all excellent tools in their own rights.

For the Frog, the Bell Tolls

An adventure puzzle/platformer for the Game Boy. The mechanics are fun, and has you transforming between a human, frog, and snake to get through various areas. I'm about an hour in and the puzzles are fairly simple, but the charming writing and art design carry the game for me. I'd recommend it if you're looking for something somewhat casual. I have laughed out loud a few times while playing it.

If you want to check it out, you'll need to run it on an emulator.

• The game is a Japan-only release, but there's an English fan patch you can find on here
• You'll need the base ROM for the game, which you can find here
• Once you download both of those, use this to mash them together and you're good to go.

Wanted to add an addendum to one point:

• Indy studios can be just as bad as major studios. I didn't mean to suggest that a smaller studio is definitely better. Even small studios can be run by people trying to extract as much as possible with little regard for employees. Even small studios run by well-intentioned people can do crummy things just to stay profitable (again, capitalism ruins everything). Ultimately, I think people should look into the studios they support, how they are run, and their philosophies. Maybe that is asking too much, haha.

There are two aspects to this point to address:

• Are games "destroyed"?: There will always be people making cool games in the same way that people will always want to make art. If you look at the releases from the largest studios that get the most public attention, maybe you could chart a downward trajectory in quality with some exceptions. In general capitalism kinda ruins everything, including the arts. When profit incentives are prioritized over all else, it's not great for the outcomes. As the games industry continues to mature, there will continue to be cyclical massive layoffs, less investments in innovation, and more reliable "safe" bets that often results in bland content. Again, even within such a system, independent and smaller developers will always be making good stuff. The more the community embraces and supports independent development, eschewing AAA titles, the better the health of the art from, IMO.

• Are there lots of positive reviews for bad games?: Certainly. I think this is more a symptom of the games industry maturing as a capitalist enterprise than a cause of bad games. Many review sites have a business/engagement model that requires they release reviews as quickly as possible, and so depend on access to advance review copies. Big budget studios aren't going to provide early review copies to sites that might give them bad reviews when there are plenty of sites who basically guarantee that they won't.

• Wikipedia: go to Wiki pages for shows and movies that you do like and go down a rabbit hole. You can branch out quickly by finding links to other work from the same studio, same actors, same director, same writer... There are also sometimes related works linked, or links to works that inspired the movie, and pages on general movements/scenes (ex: french new wave, Dogme 95)
• Metacritic: Good for checking in on new releases, skews towards major releases (has plenty of "indie" coverage, still big budget but stuff that isn't coming to every theater).
• Letterboxd: Follow filmmakers or critics that you like, or just browse the lists they have on there.
• Film Festival Programs: Check out what was accepted at Sundance, Toronto FF, Berlin FF, True/False FF, any other FF you may like. Usually a couple years after festival premier until there is distribution, so you should check older schedules from at least 2 years prior.

This game really stoked my hatred for Rodan.

Thanks, I enjoyed making it. Love me some Godzilla.

Some good ones I haven't seen mentioned:

• Donkey Kong (Game Boy)
• Avenging Spirit (Game Boy)
• Castlevania III (NES)
• Marble Madness (NES)
• On The Ball (SNES)
• Mutant League Hockey (Genesis)

It's pretty misleading to refer to Stalinist Russia as "the reality of socialism." Kinda like calling the US the "reality of democracy." Yes, it is nominally a democracy, yes it is built on democratic principles and has features of a democracy. But democracy is a broad concept and the US's specific version of that is not the end-all-be-all of democratic systems, it is one example. Implying that the worst authoritarian aspects of the USSR are inherent to socialism is ridiculous.

"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it." - George Orwell

https://archive.org/details/scary-maze-gamewinterrowd

I remember playing this back in the day. I just replayed it, and even though I knew exactly where it was going to pop up, it still startled the s*** out of me, lol.