Inherit a crumbling English hotel and restore it by day—while battling ghosts by night. With a sardonic cat, a talking power tool, and a twisting supernatural plot, this is a musical mystery unlike any other. Will you be able to hold it together while everything around you falls apart?
I often like to start these posts by explaining a little bit about what the game is that I am writing about. What actually is There Are No Ghosts at the Grand…? It is a British renovation, mystery, drama, comedy, light acid trip of a musical, where you have inherited a hotel in a dying town where there are definitely no ghosts. I don’t know how else to describe it really…
During my time with the demo, it didn’t take long for the dialogue to endear me as our trusty tool gun won me over, guiding us through the quick tutorial of renovating one of the rooms of The Grand. As you are getting close being done, you are whisked away into other segments of gameplay, meeting characters, driving around a strikingly British town, a musical number and an amusing situation, all the while getting to use your renovation tools in so many pleasing and unexpected ways. Some segments gave the cadence of a puzzle game but every solution was very clearly signposted, making the experience feel more akin to a walking sim to me than anything else.
The demo is very on the rails and while there is a whirlwind of mechanics during the short runtime, and I am unsure whether the game will ever open up to give the players more freedom, or whether it is a strictly linear experience. Either way, there are ways to make your own mark on the game, decisions to make and I feel like there is no way you won’t have some amount of fun with it. My PC did struggle a little with running the game smoothly but I am reluctant to talk too much about performance as my set up is ageing and due for some upgrades.
Ultimately, the whole package made me smile throughout, sometimes through the humour and sometimes through the potential of the rest of the game to come. I have no idea whether we will be renovating the whole hotel, the whole town, the proportion of mystery solving to other tasks, the freedom we may or may not be awarded or the impact of our decisions, but I am keen enough to find out. I can’t say I have played another demo like it, fearless in its design and unapologetic about what it is.
Demo Length – <60 mins At a glance + A unique experience + The humour hit for me + Creative use of tools + The town was so distinctly British just from a quick drive through + Quirky characters +/- On the rails +/- It remains to be seen whether the variety adds or detracts from the experience – Puzzle solutions were quest markers with objective telling you exactly what to do
Hi all! Unfortunately this month was a heavy month with the loss of my rabbit, Bonny. Those in the community may have known her singular radar ear and sassy attitude, as she had been with me since long before I started streaming. I have never lived without pets, so the adjustment has been understandably difficult. I miss her so much, her one-of-a-kind and comforting presence, and the support, structure and purpose that she couldn’t even possibly know she gave me.
What is wonderful about video games is that there is something suitable for every different mood, occasion and era. I have played numerous games about grief in the past, and I have those experiences with me through these times when I know I am currently too delicate to actively seek out the theme. Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice and Spiritfarer are two that stand out to me a lot right now. Equally, I have my own personal grief games regularly cropping up in my mind that helped me through previous losses. Games like House Flipper, Powerwash Sim and My Time at Portia.
I have once again escaped into the digital realm for respite as often as I can, but this time, rather than the ‘keeping your hands busy’ kind of games, the gargantuan task of Baldurs Gate 3 is what is getting my by. Don’t get me wrong, there is so much more to dealing with grief than playing video games, and I don’t recommend it as a singular coping mechanism, but I do think if there is any time that you can allow yourself a break, it is during times like these.
So, with the sad news out of the way, onto the round up. This month was lighter on the extra activities, but the extra time at home allowed for some quality demo time, as I am still making my way through those Summer Game Fest demos (and a few others too).
Video Games
Games played
Valheim [playing]: We have done so much in just a month, expanding Ravenhall at the start of the month feels like child’s play comparatively. We upgraded Pigtown, mapped a couple of continents, killed two more bosses and discovered 2 more, tamed some Lox and welcomed a baby (love you Turnip), who grew up and welcomed another baby, trapped some wolves for taming, found a food vendor, built the Forge of Souls, the start of a leisure complex in a new location including a harbour, theatre and fight pit, unlocked iron and most recently entered the Silver Age. We have explored the mountains, gathered lots of things we have no idea what to do with, and have our sights set on building a food hall.
Baldurs Gate 3 [playing]: I have been exploring Act 3 and feel like I have made pretty good progress! Apparently I have put in 50 hours in this save file just this month… I do know I have left the game running a bit a few times but wow. I have explored the suburbs and the Lower City, with a bunch of quests to follow up on and the sewers still to explore. I have finished Astarians questline and think I am going to make special focus to finish character quests next. We aren’t quite level 12 yet but level 11 was nice to unlock the final spell level. I would love to get this finished this month but who knows really, the game just keeps going!
Demos played
This month I played 10 demos, of which I wrote 3 impressions posts.
Starting a thread to highlight some demos!This won’t be all of the demos I play but a curated list of the ones that I enjoy the most or want to shout about.Old and new games, if there’s a demo then it’s fair game!At the start of this thread I have 91 demos on my spreadsheet to play. Lets gooo.
I completely missed the Gamescom opening show as well as the GTA 6 showcase. I will likely watch them sometime soon but I am definitely starting to feel the GTA 6 fomo and it is not even out yet!
New to the Backlog
Game Services
Ps Plus
Big Walk
Two Point Museum
Epic Games
Caravan Sandwitch
Backlog Progress
This month: ❌ Total: 5 of 31 complete ✅ It is crazy to think how many other games I could have completed in nearly 150 hours of BG3. 59 hours of Valheim was also utterly unprecedented.
Noob life
Other media | playing | watching | listening
Tabletop
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion [ongoing]: We graduated from the intro book and have been released into the freedom of decision making. We have done a few more scenarios including 2 bosses, with both butt-clenching and smooth moments allowing us to feel the tension, the heroism and even the narrative satisfaction that we hoped for. We are now level 2 and are slowly kitting ourselves out with my friends helmet (negating crits) coming in clutch more than a few times in one session.
Sky Team [ongoing]: I haven’t talked about Sky Team yet here, but it is not my first time playing. It is a co-op dice rolling strategy game where you attempt to land a plane safely, taking into account all of the variables of the scenareo. It plays very quickly and can get quite stressful, but we played the fourth scenareo and it turned out to be our smoothest flight yet.
DnD [new/ongoing]: We are still in the dungeon and remember when I introduced Ulrich, explaining that he can hopefully make, and take, a hit? Well.. one thing he is definitely good at is exchanging misses with enemies and keeping them busy while we deal with the rest. We made.. friends?.. with a wraith and a guard monster robot guy, and last session we walked into a boss room that looks 100% more deadly than anything we are prepared for (especially without all of our spell slots). I predict TPK next session.
Movies
The Odyssey [cinema]: Horrific, grim, all my favourite things. Appropriately epic, surprisingly resonant. Not knowing the original story was a bonus in the thrilling journey of wondering what was going to happen next, and knowing there would be reading to do after. And read I did. I am so relieved that I’ve now had two movies in a row give me that feeling of awe in a way that I thought I had grown out of. There are nitpicks but I am choosing to ignore them in favour of the immediate enjoyment I had.
Birdbox [netflix]: Birdbox wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. I didn’t know what to expect other than Sandra Bullock in a blindfold. I thought the overarching premise is horrifying and a rich theme to explore, but in the end it did just feel like a B movie to eat popcorn to. It was 100% more fun to watch with a friend and trade theories along the way than it would have been to watch alone.
Podcasts
Critical Role [ongoing]: I have listened to so much of this this month that I have to shout it out here. I have neglected all of my regular listening as my push to finish listening to Campaign 2 has been ongoing. I am currently at episode 117 and it remains good background listening for me. I miss loads of the macro plot but get really engaged in micro moments and particular situations or battles. I don’t imagine that I will get it finished next month either, especially if I take a break to catch up with other pods, but I do feel locked in for now and ready to see the end.
Other hobbies | achievements
Sunflowers: It has been on my bucket list to go to a sunflower field for a while. Last year they didn’t manage to open due to the weather, but this year they had a good yield! Unfortunately it wasn’t the magical experience that I hoped as there were a million children all with no concept of personal space. But it was incredible to be within an ocean of flowers in bloom, some of them over my head in height.
Crochet: I finally finished the bag that I was making! I am super happy with how it turned out. It is not perfect by any means but I managed to work around mistakes and complete my first bigger project to make a functional item.
Next up I would like to make the same bag but smaller, in reverse colours. I also have a smaller project that I am beginning but it is a secret until October.
What’s Next?
Other than the grief I mentioned earlier, I have quite a few things going on, including ADHD titration and a busy calender, that are requiring my attention. I am going to try to use the gaps in the chaos to take some time for myself to escape with games, in whatever form that might take. Cracking on with BG3 and CR c2 are my highest focus at the moment, I would love to be able to write about the end of either or both of these things in the next monthly log, so that I can start looking to what is next! I know better than to plan too far ahead but I am pretty sure some shorter backlog games will be in order.
I may have some time for a project later in the month but I haven’t decided where my focus is going to go just yet, so I am not going to announce anything. I have a few gaming/content related options, but they may end up being trumped by IRL necessities. We will see!
I did not end up listening to The Prestige audiobook like I mentioned last month as got too deep into CR, or seeing Spider-Man as I decided to wait until the schools were back. I am hoping I don’t miss its theatre run!
A unique form of narrative puzzle in an uneasy package.
Am I Nima
Developer: HO! Games
Release Date: 8 October 2026
Am I Nima is a psychological-horror game where you must convince your mom that you really are her daughter. Combine words together in your brain and use them to talk. Get her to trust you.
In the Am I Nima demo, you wake up tied to a chair with a stranger looming over you and no idea what is going on. The lingering discomfort of the unknown and well executed creepiness of the environment and interactions keep you consistantly uneasy through the entire duration, with the mystery unravelling – or deepening? – as you discover new thoughts.
This game feels like a fantastic innovation of Doodle God/Alchemy style games, where you combine elements to create new elements, and combine those with the new and old elements to create more. While those games are all about finding the next thing for discoveries sake, Am I Nima has a narrative reason for doing so. The screen is split and the top right corner is dedicated to Nimas brain. In there, you will receive words. These are thoughts based on the conversation taking place, or findings as you explore the room. Within the brain, you can combine words to create different words. This, in my opinion, is such cool way of delivering a story.
The words that you combine are telling, when you take the time remember that they are thoughts. Combining Nima and Dad results in grief, which must be the feeling that Nima gets when she thinks about her dad. Due to this, I know something happened. I have contextless pieces of information that allow my imagination to fill in the gaps, and the curiosity to fuel my incessant pairing of words. I can continue combining to find more contextless clues, knowing that at least some of the context will be revealed by the rest of the game as we go. It feels like the equivalent of environmental storytelling but baked directly into the gameplay and mechanics. I feel rewarded for being observant, even though it hasn’t really got me anywhere yet.
Then there is the other half of the game. You are conversing with a woman who appears to be your Mom. As she talks, asks you questions and allows you to ask questions, you can reply using the words that you have stored in your brain by dragging them down to the active conversation. I am unsure how far you can go with using any word at any time (I did unlock a lot of words but I only played the demo once so I only got to see what I chose in the first instance), but it certainly feels like you need to be careful with your choices, to get the information that you need without putting yourself in danger.
The demo allowed for a lot of word gathering but I don’t feel like I have a good grasp on how the rest of the game will go/present itself, and how I will get to use the words that I have conjured. But it did feel like a promise of an interesting experience that I would be keen to continue, especially given the intrigue of story hook we are left on.
Demo Length – 40 mins At a glance + Uneasy vibes are on point + Freedom to experiment + Intriguing mystery off the bat + I feel rewarded for finding new words because not only do they present the opportunity to find more words, but they have narrative relevance. +/- I have no idea how linear the game actually is or really the gameplay loop beyond the conversations in the demo.
Run a cozy cat post office. Sort and deliver parcels from the daily boat, organizing everything your way. At night, the moon reveals hidden truths about packages. Clear a strange backlog, help locals, and unlock new abilities and destinations.
I had a weirdly specific revelation with the Cat Mail Co. demo. It turns out that this game is exactly what I wanted Wilmots Warehouse warehouse to be. Empty shelves with parcels of all shapes and sizes and unlimited time to sort them is the personal heaven that I stumbled across when I booted this one up, and spent way more time than necessary optimising, just because it felt nice.
In Cat Mail Co. you are running a post office desk, retrieving parcels from customers, processing them ready to arrive at their destination safely, sorting them exactly how you want to, and retrieving customers parcels from the shelves, which may be simple or trickier depending on how organised you are. Between desk shifts you load and unload the boat, sending the packages on their way and adding more post to your precious piles of cargo. It is a little bit like if laundry was a gameplay loop, and I mean that in the least damning, most soothing sense possible. It is a systematic task that is never really done.
So far, Cat Mail Co. is providing exactly the type of cozy logistics that I love to unwind. I was dissapointed when the demo ended simply because I would have enjoyed another shift, putting my freshly organised shelves to good use. I am curious how added complexity will affect the gameplay, like adding in more destinations and potential restrictions on the packages that are sure to present in the full game. My hope is that it will enhance the experience, ensuring you have to pay a little bit closer attention before things get too samey. Either way, the demo was a pleasure and I would certainly spend some more time manning (catting?) this postal office in the future.
Demo Length – 30 mins At a glance + Cozy as heck + Lo-fi logistics + Feels great in the hands + UI is seamless + The lack of a timer provides a lovely freedom to play how you want to play, whether you would rather be hyper organised or need longer to search through messy piles.
Happy August everyone! As July has come to a close I am taking a moment to reflect on the games – and the other things – that filled up my time and mind during this hot, hot summer month.
Video Games
Games played
Chants of Sennaar [finished]: I love this game. Chants of Sennaar is complete and I enjoyed the entire process – playing a game that felt so especially made for my brain, and recording it too. I didn’t expect to almost shed a tear at the end but it managed to come together nicely. It took a rare spot in my favourite games of all time list, and I am trying to be grateful for the experience rather than sad it is over, because I feel like I could have climbed another 100 levels of that tower if they were available to me.
Valheim [playing]: We spent this month expanding our operations. After successfully setting up a mining production line and securing our pigs with only a minor mishap (the great boar escape of 2026), we have ventured beyond the homely Midsummer and trekked over swamp, ocean and plains to settle into an abandoned village. Upcycling complete in the settlement dubbed Ravenhall, we now are neighbours with some merchants and are in the process of taming some Lox. After mistaking a tar pit for a hot spring, I aquired some new building materials and we have a few leads on what we would like to do next.
Baba is You [playing]: I solved one puzzle this month. I am stuck on around four more. I am very tempted to drop this one as I feel the only way I will progress is with a guide, and that isn’t really the vibe that I wanted for the game. I hoped it would be the type of game that would give me that hit of dopamine upon puzzle revelations, but more often it makes me feel dumb for not understanding why what feels like my perfectly reasonable logic is denied. I will give it one more shot and see how I feel.
Baldur’s Gate 3 [playing]: I have reached Act 3! I have 97 hours on my save file and I have heard that Act 3 is as big as the other two acts combined 😅. This remains probably the biggest game I have ever played. I hit an enjoyment wall near the end of Act 2 but now that is out of the way and I have made it to the outskirts of the city, I am eager to see wat Act 3 is all about. I just need a chunk of time with enough energy to completely immerse into the new, denser area now that I have a clearer understanding of what we are working towards.
Six One Indie Demo Days happened on 31 July and I have yet to have a chance to take a look. Considering I still have so many demos from Summer Game Fest season to check out and beyond, I still have a hard time accepting that I can’t cover everything the way I wish I could.
New to the Backlog
Game Services
Ps Plus
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Steam Giveaway
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
Backlog 2026 Progress
This month: ❌ Total: 5 of 31 complete ✅
Noob life
Other media | playing | watching | listening
Tabletop
Obsession [new]: I haven’t played many 4 player board games but Obsession is the latest. It is complex enough that we had a session specifically for learning the game, and during that session with only 3 playing and one teaching, we only made it half way through the game. You play as a stately family balancing your finances, reputation and staff to be the most enviable in Derbyshire. Unfortunately, I was playing the long game and got absolutely thrashed on points, but I like to think I could have made a comeback… This feels like the perfect game for a summers day, with breaks to step outside for a BBQ and a spot of Pimm’s.
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion [ongoing]: We have reached scenario 5 of Gloomhaven with a success by the absolute skin of our teeth. It was clutch session and I believe it graduates us from the tutorial book of the campaign. I am playing the demolitionist and I named her Atom. I am still finding the game thoroughly enjoyable, deck building has just been introduced, and I really look forward to playing more.
DnD [ongoing]: DnD continues and we are making our way through a dungeon, likely approaching the climax of part 1 of the campaign. We now have a Dwarf Fighter named Ulrich that has joined the crew that we share, giving us a bit of balance to our party with someone who can make, and take, a hit.
Movies
The Prestige [prime]: I simply don’t know how I got this far in life without seeing this movie. Rivalry, more ‘oh shit’ moments than I can count, low key tragedy, beautiful pacing, twists and turns, irony, lingering on my mind. Just everything that I could want from a movie. I put it off because I wasn’t sold on the concept of rival magicians, but it is so much more than that. I urge you to watch it if you haven’t already and want to be absorbed for an evening. It is one of the good ones.
Books
The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga [audiobook/finished]: I really did not enjoy this book, at all. I wanted to finish it just in case there was some lesson in there that was going to change my life, but so much about it rubbed me so much the wrong way that I would honestly find it hard to recommend to anyone.
Happy by Derren Brown [audiobook/ongoing]: I am only an hour or 2 into this one so far but it feels really promising. I already am onboard with a few of the ideas being talked about, and Derren reading the audiobook himself is the icing on the cake as his voice is so soothing and easy to listen to.
Events
Derren Brown – Only Human: Unfortunately I can’t say the same about this show as I did about the book. It was the first time I have seen Derren live on stage and my expectations were, maybe unfairly, high. He absolutely is the charismatic showman, but the tricks didn’t impress me, the theme didn’t feel cohesive and the squishy, overpriced venue didn’t compliment the experience at all. I went in expecting awe, but left feeling an unprecedented underwhelm.
Other hobbies | achievements
Farne Islands: If you are ever in the North East of England and you love nature, you absolutely must take a trip to The Farne Islands. If it is May-July (nesting season) then a landing trip to Inner Farne is an absolute must. You can see the puffins, guillemots and razorbills up close, and experience the fierce protective dive bombing of the wonderful Arctic Terns. It is a beautiful, special place.
Crochet: My bag is still ongoing.. it is taking a WHILE. But I did reach the colour change and I am hoping to get it finished next month so that I can begin making my smaller bag, so that I can finally start some other projects.
BJJ: I recieved my first stripe on my purple belt!
What’s Next?
I haven’t got anything else cooking currently, content wise, except the shorts series that I mentioned in last months post. I am going to try to prioritise that before I start recording anything else, as well as catching up on some IRL admin that I had been putting off. I wouldn’t expect anything ready to go by the time Chants of Sennaar finishes. However, I do think that my next Let’s Play could be Cocoon, provided that I can get the recording to work from the PlayStation.
Within games, I would love to make some good progress on Baldur’s Gate 3 now that I am in Act 3, which I would also like to balance with playing more demos. I am also going to aim for playing a shorter game each month, this month being Crow Country.
Finally also anticipating 2 cinema trips, for The Odyssey and Spider-Man, and have rented The Prestige audiobook from the library!
Chants of Sennaar is a puzzle game that involves translating languages based on the interactions that you have with the world and the people in it. We play as a wanderer, exploring the tower, ascending our way through a variety of communities.
While the gameplay largely consists of learning the languages, there is also a lot of learning to be done about the way these different people live, interreact and perceive the world. Exploring the environments, taking in both the diegetic landscapes and the art direction itself tells a story beyond words.
From the moment that I played the demo I knew this needed to be a Let’s Play game, as the only thing more fun than solving these puzzles is sharing the thought process that leads us there. Whether you are playing Chants of Sennaar yourself or watching along, I hope your experience with the game is as beautiful as mine was!
I used to write monthly updates about my content and gaming, which I named Patch Notes, on my Buy Me a Coffee page. Creating these posts was always an interesting exercise for me. It encouraged me to be more mindful of my time and my progress, and often surprise myself at how much I did either get done, experience, or sometimes overestimate that I would get done in a month. Sometimes I find that I can blink and months have passed me by and the older that I get, time has become an unfathomable blur. Tangibly gathering what I have been up to helps with combating that feeling and reminding me what I did do in that time.
I have noticed that I really enjoy consuming monthly catch-ups myself, that is another reason that I started my Patch Notes in the first place. More recently, seeing Luna’s Monthly Logs and listening to No Small Games Indie Game Round Ups has stirred something in me that I want to join in too, so it makes sense to bring Patch Notes back, directly to the blog.
Although my streaming/video content is on (if I am honest, a pretty much indefinite) hiatus, I have still been getting up to plenty within the game space lately, and outside of it too. While I used to use these posts to share plans and set goals, the new format is just going to serve as record of the past and present. For now at least.
The first one is a little tricky because I don’t generally keep track of weeks, never mind months. So this post will likely be longer than average, but I am treating it as a bit of a start marker, then I know exactly where I am starting from next time!
Video Games
Games played
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden [playing] : I can’t say I am loving Banishers, but I am making my way through. The story and hauntings feel interrupted by traversing the sprawling world and repetative combat, rather than complimented by it. I have had to kill off my compulsive exploration in favour of getting through the game as quickly as I can before I lose interest. There have been some lovely plot twist moments, but I am currently not convinced that the narrative is going to make up for the lack of fun that I am having doing everything else. So far I am commited to seeing it through, I believe I am over half way so I should hopefully finish it off next month.
Valheim [playing]: Me and a friend are playing on a passive enemy, no build cost world of Valheim. My prior experience of Valheim was not complimentary, but I was always curious of the fun my friends were having in their shared server. Playing in this way is suiting me a lot better, having creative freedom to dive into stupid projects, while still having elements of progression through exploration, tools and upgrades.
This month we expanded our home base, creating a Central Portal Station to make our future travels easier, and a lovely homely tavern for all of our cooking, brewing and chilling needs.
Baba is You [started/playing]: I bought and started Baba is You on a bit of a whim, I am not sure if it was this month or last but I will include it anyway. It was supposed to serve as the game that you pick up when you have 10 minutes before you need to do something. And I can see it serving that purpose once I stop having this newly developed aversion to my PC. So far it is cool. It is difficult, as promised, and I am going to try to step away when I get stuck rather than jumping immediatly to guides. I currently have 32 dandelions. Wish me luck!
Chants of Sennaar [started/playing]: Gratefully recieved in the Tales from the Backlog Summer Swap. Chants of Sennaar has been at the top of my Wishlist since 2023 when I originally played the demo. I am now 2 hours in and absolutely thriving. I am certain that I would have finished it by now if I hadn’t made the spontaneous decision to record it. This is one of those legendary anticipatory status games, and seemed so made for me that it felt illegal not to share it in some capacity. More on that later.
Demos played
This month I played 8 demos, of which I wrote 4 impressions posts.
All of the content that I have created recently has been on the blog. As well as the demo impressions above, here all of the posts I have published since dusting off my keyboard:
I also have 2 series cooking for YT. A shorts series named Backlog Log, where I do a quick video for every game that I tick off of my Backlog Resolutions 2026 list. And the Chants of Sennaar Let’s Play which will start going out once I have finished the full series! They are in the slow cooker on low, so I wouldn’t expect anything anytime soon.
New to the backlog
I have always been a low budget gamer, mostly due to life circumstances, but recently I have been dabbling in a few purchases!
One of the ways I managed to continue playing games through low budget times were through game services. Ps Plus, Game Pass, Epic Games free games, Prime Games etc. For the monthly logs I will just include any games that I gain access to that I am interested in playing.
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion: My first foray into Gloomhaven. It has been a long time coming. It is probably the most classic board game that I have had the most curiosity about, and I am so impressed! From what I am told, Jaws of the Lion is a much more condensed, accessible campaign compared to the big one, and it feels like the perfect entry point. Mechanics feel intuitive, the system for difficulty scaling is impressive, and I look forward to seeing how it unfolds.
DnD: We have an ongoing campaign where I play a Sun Elf Wizard named Pandora. She is very magically competent, less so with people. Many accidental shenanigans later and we are level 4, divination subclass and I love her very dearly. We also have a Dwarf War Cleric named Hafthor, who finds Pandora as irritating as you would expect from a straight laced veteran, and a Dragonborn Druid named Akra, who turned into a giant badger and castrated a hobgoblin.
Movies
Disclosure Day: Oh no. This was a dissapointment. For the first third I was enjoying it, despite feeling like I was watching two different movies at once. Emily Blunt and Wyatt Russel together were great and I could have watched a movie just about them. But as it progressed, my dissapointment became so strong that I could write a full post in itself. To spare you that, I will just say that it was not for me.
TV/YT
I have picked back up the WoolieVersus Disco Elysium playthrough as some lovely background shenanigans while I crochet. I have been watching the playthrough for years at this point. I am 74 episodes in and it is nice to watch others enjoying the pace at as slow of a pace as I did, giving me a lovely comfort show to watch in the process.
Books
Why Can’t I Just Enjoy Things?: A Comedian’s Guide to Autism by Pierre Novellie [audiobook/finished] : I have become quite partial to non-fiction audiobooks. For context, I am diagnosed ADHD and on a waiting list for an Autism assessment. I was having a particularly strugglesome week and had a browse on my librarys Borrowbox in the self help section. While I often relate to neurodivergant stories, I don’t particularly enjoy learning about the topic and have avoided a deep dive for the longest time. I am so grateful to have stumbled upon this book. I have never ever heard my thought process explained so perfectly, in a way that I wouldn’t have even been put into words myself. I was in the midst of what I can now recognise as an autistic burnout and my new insight on the topic helped me not only name it but accept it and get through it. I highly recommend to anyone who is autistic, suspects they may be, or to anyone who knows anyone that is autistic. So, basically what I am saying is, everyone should give this a read/listen. The relatable commentary and dry humour was exactly the format that I needed to finally pursue the topic.
The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams [paperback/ongoing]: I am 5 chapters in trying to read a chapter a week. Having dabbled in graphic design, both in my game content work and my day job, I have always been hyper aware of the gap in my knowledge of having no formal training. I stumbled upon this book and decided that it will be a nice entry into further studies that I hope to incorporate into my life. What I am loving about this book is how visual it is [insert surprised pikachu]. Each concept has multiple examples, compares and contrasts why one design is instantly more readable/attractive than another, and revisits the same designs in different context as further principles are explained.
Podcasts
I listen to a lot of Podcasts. I am only going to use this section to shout out new ones that I get into in the future, as I do listen to a lot of the same ones. But for the first post I might as well shout out my current regular rotation!
Current regular rotation:
Date with Us: A Dating Sim Podcast
Geeks & Grounds
No Small Games
Nostalgium Arcanum
Play Along Podcast
Tales from the Backlog
Underplayed
Watch Out for Fireballs!
There are more but some I have to dip out on for a while if I haven’t played the games!
New this month:
The Good, the Bad, and the Backlog: Unfortunataly no longer active, I have absolutely powered through the backlog of this show and they kept my spirits up through a tough month! Great fun, great banter between hosts and I am sad to have caught up with the episodes of the games that I have played.
Events
This won’t be a regular section but I have been to a few gaming adjacent events over the last few years and this will be a good space to talk about them!
BAFTA Games in Concert: I saw Disco Elysium and Ori on the line-up and knew immediatly that I had to go to this show. Whilst I was slightly distracted by the conductor being the doppelgänger of one of my training partners, to the point that I wondered how the heck I had missed that he moonlights as an orchestra man, the show was a wonderful environment to just sit back, relax and be absorbed in the sounds.
Slide 6 on the Instagram post shows the most goosebump inducing moment of the night for me and easily my favourite live music moment of my life so far.
I continue to find it jarring and, I hate to admit it but slightly unpleasant, when game music shows interweave gameplay footage and theming with live action footage of musicians. But other than that, it was absolutely worth going to and I hope to see more in the future (GIVE ME SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, PLEASEEEE).
Crochet: I made my first free hand/patternless crochet project, which was a pouch for my crochet hooks. I don’t quite have enough experience to know how to finish that neatly yet but it is fit for purpose! After a few small projects I wanted to try my hand at something bigger, so I am making myself a project bag. This will store my ongoing large projects, the next of which will be a smaller project bag, to store my ongoing smaller projects. It is coming along well!
Cycling: This month I bought a bike that actually fits me, did my first 9 mile bike ride, and my first gym commute (which is the reason I started learning, yay for reaching goals). I am still not great on the roads (or the paths really) but I don’t know how else I am going to learn other than just getting stuck into doing the commute. Considering I couldn’t even ride a bike in March and I am just learning at 32 years old, I am really happy with my progress! I have already seen more bikes I want to purchase…
What’s Next?
As I mentioned up top, I want to steer clear of turning this into a goal setting post, because everything I do now-a-days is subject to change and I am trying to be more flexible with my time. However, I would certainly like my Patch Notes to become a regular thing. I will continue to spruce up the format as I go to keep it as readable and digestible, yet scannable as possible. So if you have enjoyed this, thank you for reading and keep an eye out for a post at the start of each month!
A peaceful cleaning and organizing game where you explore different locations, collect trash, clean stains, and arrange items to turn mess into perfection.
In Tidy Up we are a cleaner hired to clean, tidy and square up some absolutely filthy spaces. The demo consists of two levels, a coffee shop and a garage. It is short and sweet and gave me the quick hit of dopamine that I long for when I play these types of games. In fact, the speed at which I could complete the tasks got rid of that feeling of ‘why am I doing this when I could be cleaning my real house’ that I sometimes get from playing cleaning games. It feels less of a simulator and more of a ‘jump in and out when you need a break’ type of experience, as opposed to Powerwash Simulator where some of the levels took so long that I was questioning my sanity about why I could not stop.
If it wasn’t obvious, I am partial to a compulsive cleaning game or two, and I found that this one hit the spot. It reminds me of my favourite part of House Flipper 2 – the beginning phase where you first walk into a disaster zone, wondering where the heck you are going to begin. You pick a task and soon enough, you have a fresh clean space and a job well done. Perhaps listening to a podcast or decluttering your own brain as you go.
I mentioned Powerwash Simulator, and that is because Tidy Up occupies a similar brain space, without actually feeling similar to play. I find the variety of tasks here in the Tidy Up demo almost more satisfying, likely because of the faster pace that I mentioned.
The game offers variable ‘difficulty options’, as in, you can customise how terrible of a state you want the environment to be in when you walk through the door. While this is nice to have, I do fear it could take away the potential for environmental storytelling that a game like this has (I’m looking at you Crime Scene Cleaner). That doesn’t have to be a negative, but it is something to be aware of, possibly expecting more of an arcade experience than a narrative. Having said that, a fun feature of the Tidy Up experience is straightening up the furniture, restocking areas and putting objects back where they belong. These little touches could be used in clever ways should the developers choose to!
I really feel like Tidy Up has a lot of potential. The length of the full game will depend entirely on the amount of maps available, and while I was praising the snappiness of the levels so far, I think the loop is fun enough to expand. I want office buildings, mansions, schools, hospitals, prisons, supermarkets, warehouses. One of every type of big building that exists, and plenty of smaller ones too.
Demo Length – 20 mins At a glance + Snappy levels provide less worrying about whether I am wasting time doing virtual chores and more satisfaction from completing the jobs and seeing immediate results. + Dopamine babyyyyy. + A nice variety of tasks including bog standard cleaning, but also tidying up objects and restocking shelves. + UI/UX meant I always knew what I needed to do. + Lofi mess to chill to. +/- The ability to customise the mess is a nice feature. There is just something about it that makes me unsure, like I would rather have the intended experience first. +/- I wouldn’t be expecting a huge game. It does have the potential for expanding scope but that doesn’t guarantee anything.
Step aside logic puzzles, there is a new contender in town.
Desktop Explorer
Developer: Recurring Dream
Release Date: 17 Jul 2026
Rummage through the abandoned profiles of an old PC to unravel an inherited mystery. What secrets hide in this eerie adventure of cryptic games and outdated software? Who was using this computer? And what happened to them?
Desktop Explorer is what I want to call an OS exploration game, but not like any other I have played. The entire premise of the demo revolves around solving the puzzles on the system, incrementally unlocking new folders and using the files within to solve the next puzzle. They are presented to you through a light horror adventure, laterally unravelling the presumably real life mystery of your uncles amnesia/history/life.
The immersive nature of the OS threw me at first, as puzzle solutions can and will be found throughout the functions of the programmes themselves. Every solution had me feeling like a tech genius, despite – or should I say, especially because of – the brain scratching moments that had me starting at the screen, browsing back and forth wondering what on earth I was supposed to do. The information is there for those lightbulb moments and I feel that is all that you should know going into this game.
After seeking out logic puzzles for the last while, Desktop Explorer is an absolute breath of fresh air and I can’t say I have played anything else like it. I was thoroughly invested in this demo both mechanically and narratively and I highly recommend checking it out for yourself.
Demo Length – ~1 hour At a glance + Excellent puzzles + Diagetic puzzles + Diagetic hints + Immersive + Engaging story +/- Doesn’t feel hand holdy +/- Disturbing enough. Not too scary (yet)
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