- obviously there's the fact that her critiques of DE are so unabashedly surface-level that you cannot tell if she's actually played the game or read a plot summary/review of it.
- but there's also the fact that she's proposing a supposed improvement on what DE is with her own prompt, which in-and-of-itself is the lowest form of critique in my eyes–'what if you had an entirely different idea?'
- and then the prompt itself is a doozy:
- she somehow found a way to both critique DE for being unimaginative with its scenario/having a white man protag and propose, in alternative, the absolute whitest possible scenario imaginable
- in the implicit shift from a grimy Eastern Europe to a comfy Western Europe, she's managed to gentrify her scenario proposed in a critique about diversity
- she wants to keep disco elysium's, unexamined by her, 'wonderful writing', while stripping it of all the rawness and deliberate confrontation that is at the heart of it that would conflict with the idyllic nature of her scenario and her stated opposition to griminess
- her idea of a more diverse story, if we're taking it as she's presenting it, is swapping a white guy with a white gal, which, I mean, diversity win, I guess.
- the fact that this is the most generic, safest-possible indie game idea imaginable. I could go on itch.io and find 50 of pretty much that game. this is the idea that like 50% of developers have when they're thinking of a quick point-and-click game for a game jam.
i could go on, but the most scathing possible point I could make to this tweet is that this person is a BAFTA Judge 
I recoiled at the "idea"
Like I really don't want to make anyone who likes the aesthetic feel bad but THAT IS FOR FUCKING BABIES, BE AN ADULT FOR GODS SAKE
I'm not even necessarily against the setting or concept, but this idea is intended for AN ADULT BABY YOU FUCKING BABY. Even if it was done with really tight and evocative art direction or something, putting it alongside DE makes it seem ten times more baby coded, you BABY ADULT go enjoy stuff for babies
EDIT: came back to double dip on my seething; why is it that in a medium typically dominated by media for adult men who are babies, the response is apparently that there aren't enough games for adult women who are babies
I like reading these comments, it seems like we’re finally going to step away from cozy games. I didn’t hate them, but I also didn’t love them because you cannot really make a cozy game that actually deals with the things we’re all dealing with unless your only problems are
“The bullies are hurting my feelings” which yes that can happen, but I think it’s safe to say we’re all dealing with problems way bigger than that and the cat witch ain’t cutting it.
It's the Disney adult effect--I go and see Kung Fu Panda, enjoy it because it's a cute lil movie with a panda and stuff, walk out feeling like I enjoyed a light media snack, and then someone with me goes "now that was a movie, WOW" and it makes me tummy feel bad
I don't hate cute stuff, I don't hate light and sweet entertainment but to act like it's what we need is so infantilizing it drives me nuts
Exactly. Like I don’t really care how good you think your cat witch detective game is, you’re not going to be able to express the anguish and pain people feel daily. It’s just not going to happen. Obviously the opposite is also true and we shouldn’t allow ourselves to wallow in the grim dark future of the 41st millennium forever, but if I’m gonna stare into the abyss I would rather something more real stare back.
Honestly I'm with you.
Even here on HexBear there was a pretty militant contingent of people who thought media needed to become more wholesome and optimistic because darker media was turning us all into cynical psychopaths. Ironically if you disagrees with them, even politely, they'd act like cynical psychopaths towards you.
That's always been my experience, Disney adults are way shittier people than horror movie fans. Don't get me wrong, I've put like 50 hours into Stardew so I like my wholesome feel good media sometimes, but I honestly think engaging with media that grapples with darker shit can actually make you more empathetic and reflective.
I'd say reading 100 Years of Solitude and playing Disco Elysium made me a better person.
Yoooo fellow 100 Years of Solitude enjoyer
What a mood that book put me in while I was reading it, I'd agree it made me feel like I'd grown a little after finishing.
But have you considered how much better it would be if it had been about a Canadian family befriending a talking bear that grants wishes?
You could probably make a good book in the style of 100 Years of Solitude but have it be about a Métis family in western Canada that has a bunch of magical realist experiences, like meeting a talking bear, in the background of like the Pemmican War or something.
I'd like to point out the game Unpacking, which is both cozy and has some heavy moments. It's a game about unpacking stuff from various moments of an unnamed woman's life every time she moves to a new home, from childhood to her middle age.
But a lot of it is inferred. Like at one point her style of clothing is very different. After a certain level there's always a cane and pills you have to unpack.
It's possible to be both comfy and be childish, but I don't see it a lot.