itch.io

Ooh I'm going to have to check this out. Tabletop isn't my main thing but the wyrd name coincidence caught my eye. Beautiful zine design - I haven't read the content yet, but if it's anywhere close to matching the quality of the visual design, I'm sure it will be interesting and educational. Nice work!

I posted this with my rating (5/5) but I don't know if that review actually shows up anywhere public. Posting it here, in case anyone is on the fence about buying it:

Absolutely incredible game.

Don't let the low-fi appearance put you off. Emphasizing this because it's one of the reasons I bought the game and neglected to play it for some time - probably got distracted by something shiny. Here's the thing: no-context screenshots don't do this game justice. Once I started actually playing and experiencing this work of art as a whole, I realized the aesthetic design is genuinely good - beautiful, even, at times - though not by the standards of the dominant imperial culture. This game spits in the face of that culture, narratively as well as visually, and that consistency complements the overall design. Unlike any game from some IP-hoarding AAA dev, this is legit cyberpunk.

The narrative hits so close to home that it's difficult for me to play for long. I actually haven't finished yet, not because it's bad - on the contrary, it depicts harsh realities more convincingly than practically any work of art I have ever experienced. I don't want to spoil the narrative with any details (you really should experience this unique story yourself), but I'll need to mention a couple of things; consider the below to be a sort of content warning. Don't consider this an exhaustive list, but if you are sensitive to topics such as racism, ableism, xenophobia, queerphobia, misogyny, genocide, police brutality, violence against children, or the soul-crushing weight of capitalism, be prepared to see these things depicted or discussed. Maybe don't play it in one sitting.

I want to end by mentioning a small, but concrete impact this game had in my life. Dealing with some bureaucratic means-testing bullshit regarding food benefits, I was getting upset. I snapped at the social worker, but remembering our poor protagonist, stuck in the same web as the rest of us, I immediately apologized, with the acknowledgement that they were probably doing everything they could in the confines of rules they didn't write. More than a game, Neofeud is a unique work of interactive art that chips away at capitalist alienation, inspiring empathy. I consider that an accomplishment.

Thanks, I was looking for something like this! I saw below that you're considering an open-source rewrite. Wanted to let you know that at least one person (me) would appreciate it (and maybe even contribute)!

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback!