Notices by Nathalie Lawhead (alienmelon) (alienmelon@mastodon.social)

people getting upset at itch.io for “giving into UK censorship laws by hiding developer pages from UK visitors”… very much don’t know how a website works. these laws affect all websites & platforms.
fwiw itch tells you if your page is hidden or not (and what you can do) in the geo restrictions tab. 1/2

we don’t deserve alternatives like itch. we deserve predatory platforms that sell our data to advertisers or use us in training data behind our backs. we deserve algorithms, and secret exploitation that takes advantage of us existing on a platform… all the worst that we’re used to and don’t bat an eye at… why not? 3/4

because as soon as an actual alternative that does none of these things that every other mainstream website does in the dark… as soon as it falls victim to this awful big thing (like payment processors coming down on it) where if it doesn’t comply it will be crushed… we turn on it like it should die. 4/4

i’m just going to boost this again instead of 🤦 at how ignorant people are.
https://voidfox.com/blog/payment_processor_fun_2025_making_your_own_msp/
any website that hosts your games FOR FREE, that doesn’t sell your data, or force exorbitant amounts off ads, is a public service & operates at a loss.
you are hurting the wrong people by setting revenue to them to 0.
1/4

seeing how absolutely gleefully willing people where to turn on itch like it should just die (and still want it dead), based entirely on misinformation or lies, even after everything that site has done… has got me really questioning why at all create to empower others. we turn on our own so fast… 2/4

the “made with the Electric Zine Maker” collection is now at 300 zines!
some of the recent additions feature beautiful art and writing ✨ https://itch.io/c/1041007/made-with-the-electric-zine-maker
go look! support some cool artists 😎

#zine #zines #WebZine #DIY #art #NetArt

there’s another bundle being organized to support Gaza: Games for Palestine Charity 2025
https://itch.io/jam/games-for-palestine-2025
“We're looking for the following for the charity bundle:
* Digital games (finished or jam-style)
* Game assets, tools, tilesets
* Soundtracks, music packs
* Zines, artbooks, short fiction, comics
* Any digital content you own the rights to”
🙏 if you can, please consider joining, and donating your work!!
#GameDev #Charity #game #games #indiedev

this in no way surprises me, and goes as further indication that you need to be super fucking careful around most anyone in the game industry that holds positions of power or influence.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/unity-senior-client-partner-rod-stafford-jailed-for-sexual-offences
shit like this is too normal.

Hey!!~ A Butterfly is 50% off on Steam right now.
meaning you can grab it for a whole 49cents: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3439300/A_Butterfly/
half a dollar for a poetic surrealist experience, with good high quality existential despair vibes.

#GameDev #IndieGame #IndieDev

I've been polishing the level bounds today. i wanted to do that trick where you prevent your PCG system's foliage from "growing" on steep edges, and it was so easy to figure out! so i decided to fill those empty spaces with dandelion seeds... omg isn't it perfect? it looks like these fuzzy spores just kind of gathered at the base of cliffs, and stayed there.
#GameDev #GameArt #IndieDev #IndieGameDev #Procgen

another dramatic one...
(lol i've been sick and am slowly getting my head back into gamedev again... no more life-stuff interruptions nuuugh!)

a few screenshots from recently...
i've been slowly populating the landscape with trees, the shapes of which are roughly based on people. it's effective.
both unsettling and kind of beautiful.
#GameDev #GameArt

i’m only part of the orphan grinding death execution squad because times are tough and i need the income. it’s just a job and shouldn’t reflect on me personally.
my own political views are pretty progressive actually.

@HauntedOwlbear thanks, that’s very validating to hear.
every time it happens it becomes more disillusioning. i’ve heard literally every excuse, accusation, or weird lines of reasoning that they start to loop around. i think it’s the type of thing that if you’ve experienced it, then you see through it… solidarity to you too ❤️🩹

they are the very same people that tortured me with their collective platform, & then go on to continue being awful to others. i will reshare it when people mention how i was treated by them because that never got closure. i’m over all the ways i should be polite because it’s never the “right” time...

😌 sharing this one last time before letting it vanish into the social media void ~ forever ~ 😱

https://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/making-art-matters

i just published...
"Why making art matters: We no longer have a type of industry where we can chase financial success. We can only sustainably fail."
https://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/making-art-matters
about sustainable alternatives to existing in the game industry, and the positive impact of failure.
#GameDev #IndieDev #IndieGameDev #FOSS #Software

i never shared this but i truly believe it… if you grew up in America, and America is the only culture you ever experienced, you are wired for fundamentalism. you grew up hearing that you’re number one, therefore ends justify means. the country has a talent to kill empathy. it’s best expressed in online discourse. /4

it’s no different than these awful takes about “Ukraine refugees are privileged actually” when that conflict started, and then you pit them in your online arguments against other refugees… yet that war is still going on and nothing changed except a new conflict being normalized. 3/4

America always had these problems but there was still a chance that it can turn around. whatever was is gone. it will take more than bickering on social media over what victims are more privileged than others to stop that. online American social justice is almost as guilty at destroying solidarity as the right. 2/4