brodnork

i'm something

  • they/them

Game developer, animator, artist, dumpling eater, bug appreciator, creator of squishy friends.
★★★
Created Frogsong! Working on a secret new game!

finfin come and see him


My website! 🐝
bumblebee.city/
My frog game! 🐸
frogsonggame.com/
support me pls!! 🦑
www.patreon.com/brodnork

As most people reading this probably know, on October 1st, Cohost is shutting down. This website meant a lot to me, as it did for a lot of people. I need to write about it and get my thoughts out.

I won’t lie, I spent a good portion of last night sitting in bed crying. Being an artist on the internet is hard, and it keeps getting harder every month. Doubly so if you’re like me and made the bad choice of trying to make a living off of it. Cohost felt like a bit of a reprieve from that. It was an incredibly special community.

As I wrote before, I’ve been struggling with trying to be less scared of what other people think of me. I’ve been trying to allow myself to be more messy, more visibly queer, more open to being whatever I am. Cohost played a big role in that. It helped me realize I HATED the way I was presenting myself online. Being clean and professional and perfect is so boring. I don’t want to limit my online presence to just being an indie game developer. It’s a big part of who I am, but not the only part. I don’t want to be just one thing. Cohost was a space where I could talk about random things like furry conventions or my favourite games or post a bunch of weird pictures of chevrotains. I didn’t feel the need to uphold some reputation. I could just hang out in a way I didn’t feel comfortable doing on sites like Twitter.

The engagement that came from the site is incredible too. I had a modest amount of engagement on Cohost despite not having much interesting to post - the most interesting thing I’ve been working on over the past year is a game that’s too early to announce. I was so excited to finally have something cool and fun to share by the end of the year, and I’m gutted by the fact that there’s not enough time left in the site for me to share this game with the wonderful community Cohost has. I loved the site, but never got the chance to use it to the fullest. But even still, people seemed SIGNIFICANTLY more interested in anything I had to post there than anywhere else. I posted about me going to the Vancouver Game Garden last month all over Twitter, and one person from my modest following on Twitter showed up to play my demo. 3 people who weren’t even following me on Cohost showed up, and then two more showed up because they saw a post made by one of those first 3 recommending people stop by to play my demo specifically. People love things on Cohost in a way no other social media today has. It fills me with dread knowing I’m going to be going back to sites where most people following me really don’t care all that much about my work.

Still, I have hope a website like Cohost will appear again. Maybe it’s foolish to think that, and maybe people will feel too burned from the death of Cohost to want to use it. But I’ve never seen such an emotional, earnest, and deeply mournful response to the loss of a website before in my life. Cohost was needed by so many people. I believe the Cohost staff aren’t the only ones capable of making such a site.

Cohost showed the path to a better internet. Comment more. Curate your social media feeds more deeply. Step away from websites whenever you want. Engage with your communities. My relationship with social media has improved vastly. I’m not going to have as much fun on Twitter or Bluesky as I did on Cohost, and I think that just means I’m going to use them less. If I see something on Twitter that pisses me off, I’ll simply close the website for the day. I’ve seen many people post that Cohost has led them to do the same. The impact Cohost had on those who loved it is deep and positive and will last for a very long time.

A better internet is possible.

Thank you all for the amazing times.

Goodnight, eggbug. One day we will meet again.



Cania
@Cania

If that doesn't mean anything to you, then imagine writing blog posts in a real nice post editor, then dragging some files around until it's on the internet. This gets around the fact that I hate writing HTML or Markdown, but don't want to run some sort of overwrought Wordpress install on my own server so I can post twice a year about video games or whatever.

In other words, I don't want to think or study harder than necessary!! I just want to write!!

This is all free, requires no technical know-how, and includes multiple screenshots. I'll write a followup post talking about modifying the default theme with your own CSS, but for now this should get folks started.

EDIT Sep 10 2024: HEY now that this is blowing up again, a quick update:

I was wrong when I said this is "all" free. Publii is free, Neocities is free, Cyberduck is free, BUT Neocities won't let you upload files via Cyberduck unless you're paying $5/month.

However, you can still upload files via the Neocities interface for free. It just takes longer and is a little clunky. And you don't have to use Neocities anyway - you can upload this static site anywhere. It's completely portable, which is part of why I like Publii vs. many other solutions.

If you can't afford the $5/month, you can still do this, you just need to upload the files manually. I've also heard good things about hosting at Nearly Free Speech, which is much cheaper, though I've not used it myself.

Anyway, please ask if you have any questions, I'm more than happy to help! And if you do make a site using this, LET ME KNOW i wanna see your cool wabsites thanks


brodnork
@brodnork

Haven't tried this yet but for anyone interested in self-hosting a blog, this might be handy




Posting this much earlier than I anticipated, but at the start of 2024 I decided I would keep track of all the media I engaged with. It's been helpful to remind myself of what I've seen and read and played, and it's motivated me to try engaging with a wider variety of media, especially some more obscure things. I don't think I got as much variety and obscurity as I'd like just yet, but that'll be something to work on for next year.

If anyone's curious about what these next 3 months will bring, I'll be posting the full list at the end of the year on my blog once I have one added to my personal website. Most of these thoughts were written very shortly after I was done with the media, so it's not particularly organized or detailed at times.

Without further ado, let's jump into it!

JANUARY

Carol and the End of the World

Pretty decent show. I felt there was a lot of variety in how much I enjoyed the episodes. Some hit pretty hard, while others honestly kind of bored me. I hope it opens the door for more adult animation that isn't just raunchy comedies.

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials

I haven't stayed caught up with this show in a lot of years, but figured I'd give these specials a shot. Meep felt like a Smiling Friends character to me. Wild Blue Yonder was actually a fantastic spooky Doctor Who episode. Really enjoyed it. The Giggle was weird and the ending felt like they were trying to do something interesting and then a second later completely undermined what they were trying to do.

Every Single Diary of A Wimpy Kid Movie

my sister and I watched all 7 diary of a wimpy kid movies over the course of 4 days. Each one was exponentially worse than the last. There is nothing more to say about this.

Wonka

It was alright, better than I expected. The climax was pretty disappointing though cuz there's so much more potential to the idea of "Willy Wonka pulls a heist" than what happened there.

Downsizing

This is a movie where so much happens and yet nothing happens. I have no idea what this movie is supposed to be. Getting small somehow has absolutely no plot relevance. It sucks so bad. I fucking loved it.

FEBRUARY

Godzilla Minus One

oh my godddd this movie was so good. I'm so thankful I saw it in a theatre cuz the big screen and intense sound definitely made it more impactful. I didn't expect it to captivate me as much as it did.

The Upturned

I started this game nearly 2 years and loved it, but for some reason never got very far. Decided to pick it up again. It's a fantastic, goofy, and seriously tense game. For a game from the creator of Lethal Company, a game that's pretty light in terms of storytelling, I didn't expect the story to go such interesting directions and have surprisingly touching moments. I do kinda love it when a story suddenly jams a bunch of lore into the ending with no build up or time to think about it.

Disillusion ST

While keeping track of media this year, I've decided I want to experience more obscure and independent stuff. I used the itch.io randomizer to download a bunch of interesting things, and started with Disillusion ST. It's sort of that Yume Nikki, LSD Dream Emulator style of games where you're just wandering aimlessly, talking to characters, and seeing things happen. I liked the little guy who digitalized himself.

The Blair Rabbit Project

Yes, Rabbit. Not Witch. I wanted something to watch while painting my nails so I was browsing for random movies on a very legal movie website. I stumbled upon this and couldn't find any information on google other than that it was made 20 years ago but only released in 2021 at a film festival. Obviously I had to watch it. It was... uh... a movie. It had a handful of moments that genuinely made me laugh but they really overdid it with the "making fun of the abundance of screaming in the original" bit. It really didn't need to happen 6 or 7 times.

The Oldest View

Really fascinating little series. While I find the Backrooms to be a pretty played out and overdone concept by this point, Kane Pixel's series continued to bring interesting ideas with quality presentation. When I learned he was working on something new, I was really curious to see what it was about. The Oldest View really goes above and beyond my expectations. It's a masterclass in building dread, and the third episode culminates in a truly nightmarish climax. I'm really curious if there's any connection to the history of the real life mall/sculpture and the themes of the story. I think these three parts plus "The Life of a Giant" are a satisfying little series on their own, but I suspect there'll be more.

Dungeon Meshi

Phenomenal!! It went so far beyond what I expected from it but never strayed from what made it fun in the first place. Read the whole thing in about a month and never wanted it to end. Fantastic character designs and personalities, not even the minor background characters felt generic. Can't wait to watch the anime at some point.

The Harrowing of Hell by Evan Dahm

When I was a kid and was at a heavily Christian summer camp, they told me that the reason Jesus took so long to come back to life was because he was busting his way out of hell. That's such a wild and badass idea that the moment I heard there was a comic about it I had to read it. The art in this is really strong and striking, and I like how heavily they humanized Jesus in this.

Madame Web

This is a movie that exists and people spent money to make. I liked that there were two action scenes back to back set to Toxic by Brittany Spears, and also the Pepsi warehouse that was filled with nothing but explosives for some reason. I think it was a particularly bold choice to have the villain's actor not have a hint of personality, effort, or skill displayed on screen.

Splatoon 3: Side Order

Really cool and really fun! It's my first experience with Splatoon singleplayer, and I really enjoyed it. I don't usually like roguelikes, but I think it worked well for this. Was pleasantly surprised that they somehow made Pearl and Marina even more gay, and also that Acht actually used they/them pronouns???

Escape the Backrooms

One of my friends bought this for the group to play and it's not good at all (none of us expected it to be). Not scary or fun or entertaining or interesting. The most entertaining part was the funny little naked dog man guy. And yet it has 50,000 reviews which means it's sold at least that many copies. This kind of thing makes me wonder if I should just compromise my artistic integrity and spend one month making a shitty horror game to make a living.

MARCH

Pseudoregalia

Neat little 3D platformer metroidvania. The movement in this game feels fantastic, but some of the entrances feel like they're in really weird spots that were difficult to find. I ended up going in circles a lot more than I enjoyed and had multiple sessions where I was just wandering around looking for something I've missed for hours. I can't imagine playing without a map. I do wish there were more boss fights, because I think the two that existed were really fun. The use of vertex jitter in The Underbelly as an artistic choice, when nowhere else in the game had it, was a REALLY cool effect to me.

Dolmistaska

Not done reading this since it's an ongoing webcomic, but at the time of writing I'm fully caught up. Cool, weird webcomic about everything sucking in a huge ass mall. The writing and art style make it feel like it's from 2010 in the best way possible, and if it weren't for the occasional modern slang you totally could have tricked me. Also it referenced one of my favourite tweets of all time hell yeah

Liquid Air by MoxieCat

I don't think what I got out of this album was what was intended. I don't think it's something anybody else would get. I'll probably have to give it another listen. For context, this album was created by my older sibling. I grew up with them, surrounded by the same influences and inspirations. I heard their music skills develop over time. A lot of their work was video game related - whether it be songs for actual games (they wrote the Frogsong soundtrack) or covers/remixes of existing game music. While that influence is definitely present here, this album doesn't feel like video game music. In fact, it feels so distinct from their other work that it couldn't help but make me realize how much has changed over the past few years. It made for a very nostalgic, reflective, and bittersweet listening experience. For anyone else who is not literally me, you should still go listen to it. Very neat and very textural instrumental music. Don't go into it expecting to think about a time that no longer exists, because you are not me.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Not my first time watching, but the first time in MANY years. It really stood out to me this time around how completely absurd it is from the human side of things. I also spent a lot of time appreciating the craft. It's a movie they could never make again - not only because of the way the corporations behind these IPs act in modern times, but because the act of superimposing a 2D animated character into a live action scene simply isn't as technically impressive these days (and they'd NEVER do it the old fashioned way anyways). Fun love letter to classic animation through and through.

Home Defender

shitty third person 3D Home Alone game that also includes audio directly ripped from the movie and also the Grinch, which I don't think is quite legal. Followed Home Alone very closely until suddenly there's a boss fight with a scary ghost girl in the attic. Then that ends and it mostly just goes back to normal Home Alone. Worth every penny.

Balatro

I had no interest in this game, but when an indie game comes out of nowhere and blows up big time, I'll usually take a look just to see what they did. In Balatro's case, what they did was make an absolute banger of a game that is so incredibly satisfying and hypnotic and I had 20 hours of play time in 3 days.

Greener Grass

A weird unsettling comedy about perfection in a bizarre nightmare white suburbia. Despite being such an absurd comedy movie, it surprisingly touched on a lot of themes of conformity, American colonialism, and also I'm pretty dang sure the dog plot was a trans narrative? The whole movie felt like an hour and a half long Adult Swim commercial.

APRIL

Miku Expo 2024

I'm counting this because it was a bunch of music I've never heard before. I don't listen to vocaloid music but figured I had to go at least once in my life for the experience of seeing Hatsune Miku in real life given there was one right there in Vancouver. It was a lot of fun, and the handful of times the illusion worked was really cool! Apparently the set up was different from usual though and didn't look as good as normal. I guess I might have to go again at some point if they bring back the projections so I can actually get the experience I was looking for.

Christmas Present

another poorly made game I saw on Steam. You help Santa deliver presents. I don't even understand how they made the camera so broken. Why is the second city you visit surrounded by a 50 storey featureless wall. What is the lore of Christmas Present?

The People's Joker

I first heard about this movie years ago when it was crowdfunding and seeking creatives to work on it, and then a lot happened in my life and I completely forgot about it until I saw it on the Rio Theatre's calendar. It took my expectations, ripped them apart, and threw them in a vat of acid. Such a weird, cool, wild ride of a movie. Seeing Alec Robbins on the big screen in a real movie theatre next to his lovingly animated wife Betty Boop made my brain turn inside out for a second. I can't wait for Vera Drew's next movie.

Angel's Egg

Not much to say about this other than cool vibes and gorgeous visuals. Definitely can tell Hollow Knight's visuals took some inspiration from this.

Helldivers 2

Not my usual kind of game but it's kinda fun! Not much more to say about it.

MAY

Strange Trails

Listened to this with my dad on the way back from my sudden move out of Vancouver. Neat little horror podcast that slowly captured more of my interest as it started getting weirder. It kinda reminded me of a story idea that I had when I was like 16 but more interesting and done better in almost every way, so it was kinda fun to listen to. Ultimately I found the conclusion a little generic and silly and wished it was more than just a regular old demon.

Unfrosted

Watched this with my family one night while bored. It was alright, had some jokes that actually got a laugh out of me which is more than I expected from a Jerry Seinfeld movie about Pop Tarts.

Voyager-19

Neat little horror game, essentially Iron Lung in space. It had a pretty strong start, making good use of the eeriness of deep space radio sounds. Towards the end it got pretty repetitive... All the weird space blobs looked the same, and the reveal was kind of hinted at way too strongly earlier on. Still, it was neat!

Tires

Some kinda garbage bro-y netflix comedy that had its moments, but I'm probably gonna forget about it in a couple weeks honestly (Editor's note: they did. i barely remember anything about this)

JUNE

The Oldest View - Dispersal

Didn't expect a new entry in the web series so soon. When it showed the main character reaching for the stairs from the end of part 3 I figured it was a recap or something. Really didn't expect what actually happened and I spent the rest of the video confused and unnerved. I think Kane Pixel is onto something really weird and really special here.

I Dont Want to Go to the Dance with You I Just Want to do My Fucking Homework

Funny little visual novel made for a "Worst Visual Novel Ever" game jam. Awesome.

I Saw The TV Glow

I finally got to see this and oh my god. Oh my god. I didn't expect how quickly I'd go from "I don't have a clue what the fuck is happening" to full on sobbing, followed by more tears and horror realizing the context behind everything I was confused about before. This movie was incredible and I can't wait to see it again. God. Fuck. There is still time. (Editors note: oh my god. oh my godddddd . fuck. oh my god.)

Dungeon Meshi anime Season 1

The anime is a lot of fun! It's really cool seeing some of the intense action scenes animated, and the voices they picked for the characters sound great. It was a lot of fun seeing the reactions of those who never read the manga when the Plan was revealed at the end. Really excited for the next season.

Inscryption

oh my god i get it now. I'm impressed at how well people have managed to keep it all under wraps. Really good game, though I think the first act may be the strongest part by far. Can't wait to read the several page ARG lore document. (Editors note: Actually I keep finding myself thinking about Act 3 a lot when I think back to the game. I think each of the acts strengthens each other in important ways.)

Pluto's Island

These next three games I played during my first weird indie game showcase stream. Pluto's Island had a hell of a lot of vibes going on, and really neat visuals. Unfortunately the gameplay was just janky enough for me to not want to finish the first world. I did like how the humans were "Talking Humans" as if there's feral humans in that world.

Let's Go! Baby! Suffocation

I saw the name and knew I had to stream it. I loved the weird aura noises the player could make. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to get the last block so I never saw how it ends, which I'm pretty sure would have SOME explanation as to what was even going on to begin with

John Christian 3.0

Video games are amazing.

JULY

Bionicle: Mask of Light

i decided to rewatch this since I hadn't seen it since I was a kid. It's uh... certainly a movie. It was fun though even though it kind of sucked completely.

OneShot

Finally played this game. It did some really neat meta things, and Niko was a great character. I'll be honest though, it didn't really hit me as much as a lot of people have said it did for them. I think part of it might have been partially due to streaming it, and its not a game that's really good for streaming due to a lot of the wilder meta elements. It was actually kind of a pain in the ass to stream? I think it brought my enjoyment down quite a bit.

Barry

I had heard of this show and knew it was an intense drama, but what I didn't expect was it was also a comedy? This show does an incredible job of managing to be ridiculously funny and absolutely heartbreaking at the same time. I was speechless throughout the final two episodes. Incredible work. NoHo Hank is the best

Girls Who Are Wizards

Another incredible Vylet Pony album. After the heavier albums of Paradise Valley and Carousel, it was nice to have a lighter and more fun album. Of course, it wouldn't be a Vylet Pony album without having a ton of earnesty and honest emotion. No empty entertainment allowed

Isop0dyssey

Weird little fish racing game where you play as a parasitic isopod in a weird capitalist hellscape nightmare fish world. I discovered that you can get out of the car just before crashing which was great, and being able to walk around and talk to the other isopods was such a weird discovery. Apparently you're supposed to figure that out sooner but I felt like I had stumbled upon a big secret. Good time!

Where Have All The Globbletops Gone?

Little Dr Seuss inspired game where you look for strange, eerie creatures, with EXTREMELY vague hints of some deeper lore. Love when those hints are super vague its genuinely great sometimes.

The Good Place

God damn. Watched this show again after first watching it like 4 years ago, and im still surprised at how good of a show it is. Starts off as a fun comedy with an interesting enough premise, and slowly becomes a deeply emotional philosophical journey discussing all sorts of difficult moral scenarios humanity faces. Love this show.

Deadpool and Wolverine

oh motherfucker of course they made it a part of the MCU

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (manga)

Finally finished reading this manga! Incredible worldbuilding and excellent vibes. It took me a really long time to read through it so admittedly some of the story is a little lost on me, but its fascinating how much more expansive the world of the manga is than the movie, and how the God Warrior was very undercooked in the movie, and the manga shows what happens when it has enough time to form.

AUGUST

Snake Farm

Fun roguelike about buying snakes and then killing snakes and then buying more snakes. This is one I can see myself returning to many times when looking for something quick to play. The difficulty is fun and interesting - it's not particularly difficult, but one wrong move at the start of a day and your whole run is over.

Girls Last Tour

What a sad, short, and sweet little anime. Sad that I finished it cuz I really grew to love the characters. Really amazing setpieces too. The final episode made me cry pretty hard right near the beginning. This show did a great job of getting me attached to the characters impressively fast. Its so sad that there's only 12 episodes!! I might have to read the manga eventually.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

another rewatch, but i havent seen this in years. Such a good, wonderfully charming movie. Wes Anderson's weird directing, and fast paced, deadpan dialogue works so well with the completely absurd scenarios of this movie. Actually yknow what I guess thats true about all of Anderson's movies.

Alien: Romulus

Yeah it was alright! Nothing spectacular but actually wasnt a bad movie. There was a reference or two that felt bad and stilted but such is the curse of franchises I suppose. At the very least I'm a big fan of clunky grimy industrial sci fi. The water scene was great. But also the deepfaked android was shit and garbage.

Longlegs

I had a lot of fun with this one. Twisted detective horror movie with a lot of bizarre concepts thrown into the mix. The twist didn't surprise me a lot, but that didn't make the story any less tense. Nic Cage's performance was, as always, show stealing. He puts 200% effort into every role he does, even the ones where he shouldn't, so when he's casted with that in mind it's always fantastic. I really liked how in at least a couple scenes there was a subtle thing you could see in the background but it was never directly called attention to.

Space Adventure Laika

An interactive text adventure I came across that kind of broke me. It was absolutely heart wrenching. It's about Laika from Laika's perspective, so uh, huge content warning for really bad shit happening to a dog if you're curious about reading it.




So far nothing in September! Just been playing old favourites like Splatoon 3. Again, there'll be a complete list at the end of the year. Thanks for reading!