july's blog

ROUTINE (game review)

2026-02-14T00:00:00Z

Let me preface this by saying there will be major spoilers for the game in this post. If you don't want to be spoiled, go play the game first and come back. This is your first warning.

As someone with a huge interest in retro/cassette futurism, I always love seeing how people capture that aesthetic. When a friend told me about ROUTINE, I'd never heard of it and casually added it to my wishlist, thinking, "Oh, another space game." I had no idea how good it actually was.

A month of two later, my partner suggested we watch Markiplier play this new space game. About half an hour into his playthrough, she recommended we play it ourselves (we stream games to each other. It's cute, like when YouTubers say "we last left off..." even though it's just them playing). I immediately bought it on Steam for $22.50 (introductory sale from the $25 retail price), and we started the next day.

Part 1

If you've played Alien: Isolation or SOMA, this game is right up your alley. Though we'd already watched some of Mark's playthrough, I still needed help from my partner since my memory is apparently comparable to a potato chip.

Each of the six chapter displays simply as "Chapter 1," "Chapter 2," etc., followed by the chapter title (simple, but important for later). The first is "Chapter 1: BIRTH."

Watching gameplay doesn't do the creepiness justice. When I say this game's atmosphere is incredible, I'm still understating it. The sound design is amazing as well (Mick Gordon had a hand in it!). After finishing the tutorial (learning to lean, crouch, navigate terminals) and grabbing our CAT gun, or Cosmonaut Assistance Tool, our first task is to fix the "A.S.N." We play as a software engineer sent to the Union Plaza base on the Moon after the A.S.N. activated a security protocol for no apparent reason and shut everything down. Our job is the locate whoever requested our service and shut down the A.S.N.

As we navigate Union Plaza, it's clearly abandoned. No people in sight, belongings scattered everywhere, "trash bags" piled in corners (found out later that they were stuffed with dead bodies). It's looking rough.

Eventually, we reach The Mall and encounter our first Type-05 (T05) robot (shown below). The atmosphere is incredible, again. The T05s sound menacing, and their design is genuinely creepy. After seeing my first T05, the game immediately throws me into a chase. I could've hidden behind a desk, but I didn't know they'd be hostile. I ran past it into the mall only to find two more T05s around corners, scaring the hell out of me.

The next couple of chapters involve lots of running, hiding, and listening for T05s, all still very frightening. You read diary entries and emails on terminals, gathering information about what happened before you arrived, or maybe even while you were in quarantine. You learn there's a "sickness" on the station causing extreme headaches, memory loss, and sleepwalking. Over time, you realize you're experiencing these symptoms too. Were you infected from the start?

Part 2

After running and hiding through the Mall and Living Quarters while experiencing more symptoms, you wake up in the PRISM station, an older facility established about 20 years before Union Plaza. It's clearly nature-focused. There's an apple tree in the main foyer, flower memorabilia everywhere (also important to the story), and tree wood in unusual places.

Reading terminals from the PRISM crew reveals a disturbing pattern. They all talk about a "him" like he's a god. They mention they can't even see "him" with the naked eye. Am I supposed to use my CAT to see him? Fuck that. Did this station go insane? Were they also infected? Will we? These terminals include video files showing "his" existence with giant handprints and footprints, fecal matter on floors and walls, hair growing from ceiling crevices. Very strange. The crew also talks about a "Canal" like it's calling to them. Is this a cult? Is the infection making them think this way?

Navigating through the station, you find the server room. You need to diagnose and restart the server to use an elevator to the Moon's surface. Let me tell you, this room has the most obvious "monster in the vent" vent I've ever seen, but the tension is maxed out. After fixing the server, you're trampled by an unseen force. You rush to the elevator, but pressing the button doesn't work at first. Just as the door starts closing, you hear loud, fast footsteps rushing toward you. But you make it out in time. However, "he" is now on the PRISM station with you.

This section scared me so badly. After exiting from the server room elevator, I ran straight to the save point, pants already shitted. But on my way back, I caught a glimpse of a giant, scrawny man huddled in a corridor. Not know what "he" looked like, I was terrified. As I continued sneaking around PRISM, using my CAT gun (sometimes seemingly uselessly) to track his location, I solved puzzles and learned that "he" is named Entity A.

Entity A apparently decides when to be invisible or visible, which is creepy but sometimes annoying. Still, it added to my fear even in scripted areas where he wasn't supposed to appear. After solving more puzzles and activating the main elevator, you go up to the Moon's surface. As a massive space fan, this was incredible. You could feel the reduced gravity and see Earth at an accurate distance. Just really cool.

After traversing a pathway to the other side of PRISM, you find a science lab area meant to study the aforementioned sickness. You get confirmation that you're infected too. But everything's okay now, right? Entity A is on the other side of the station, you can just relax and figure out what's happening...right?

Here's a gif from my gameplay that answers that question:

Entity A is still here.

This was also my first discovery that the game doesn't pause when you pause. Terrifying.

Listen, I could go on about the rest of the game, but my explanation doesn't do it justice. I highly encourage you to play it and experience it yourself. It's easily one of my favorite horror games and one of my favorite examples of the retro/cassette futurism genre. The ending of the game is abstract and really makes you think and look back at your time during playing.

100 Webmaster Questions

2026-02-16T00:00:00Z

I saw someone posted this questionnaire on their site so I decided to do it myself. The original can be found here.

1. Please introduce yourself.

My name is July, or Stellr on other platforms. I'm a big fan of space, retro/cassette futurism, Dungeons & Dragons, Porter Robinson, and gibbons. I play a lot of video games (especially VR), I like to code sometimes, I listen to lots of music, and I love spending time with my wonderful partner.

2. How long have you been making websites?

I remember making my first website when I was around 8 years old or so (2007), but I didn't get super into it until around 2023.

3. And what got you into the hobby?

I had met someone who had a friend and that friend had their website listed in their Discord bio. Out of curiosity, I checked it out and they had "Yesterwebring" listed in their footer. From there, it was just a rabbit hole of finding cool "old web" sites and so I just decided I wanted to do it myself.

4. What kind of website are you most interested in?

I really like personal websites that aren't too flashy or overcomplicated. While I still believe that anyone should make their website however they want to, very simple sites are the ones that make me want to check them out more.

5. What's your workflow? Do you plan your websites our thoroughly or do you come up with the design as you go along?

I usually just see a design aesthetic, regardless if it's a website or not, and I think "I should try and do something like that." I know that's not very original, but is there really any originality nowadays?

6. Please link your biggest inspirations.

My lovely partner

7. What's your favorite part about making websites?

I think trying to style the site with CSS is kinda fun. Just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.

8. And the thing you struggle with the most?

More recently? Getting 11ty to work for this blog. But overall, probably learning JavaScript.

9. Do you keep the same layout on all of your pages? Or do you use different ones?

I try to keep it consistent on all of my pages.

10. How confident are you with CSS?

I'm a lot more confident about CSS now than I was a year or so ago.

11. Do you know how to correctly use <dl>?

No, but I'll look into it. I think it's a good semantic way of replacing lists? But that's all I know.

12. What is your favorite HTML element?

Either <section> or <footer>.

13. If you're making a new web page from scratch, what is the first thing you do?

Pasting my boilerplate, I guess.

14. Do you know JavaScript?

Not everything, but I've been learning for a while now.

15. How about PHP?

I tried learning PHP a while ago when I made NekoForum (RIP), but it was too much for my small potato chip brain.

16. Does your website have a theme that you stick to?

Anyone who knows me will say no lol. It used to be very terminal-esque (think 1970's kind of tech), but I've grown to enjoy more modern stuff more recently.

17. Are you more focused on content or design?

Definitely design.

18. Do you own a domain name?

Yes, three actually.

19. What do you think of nostalgia-focused or "retro" websites?

Again, I believe people should be allowed to do whatever they want. However, I think it's a little strange for people to say that they "miss" the early 2000s era of the web when they either weren't around back then or they were way too young to understand it.

20. Is your HTML valid? Do you even check?

I don't check on a regular basis, but I did recently and it said it's valid.

21. What is your opinion on buttons and banners?

This implies there's negative connotation to them lol. I love them.

22. What do you think of button walls in particular?

Again, I love them. Do people really have a problem with this?

23. If you started over again, would you make something similar or completely different?

I'd probably make something similar but not the exact same. I'd most likely experiment with the layout, but keep the overall design.

24. Are you envious of other people's websites?

Yes and no. I think some people's websites are very cool, and I'd love to know how they did certain things, but I also don't really put much thought into it.

25. What text editor do you use?

Right now, I use JetBrains WebStorm. But I used to use VSCodium.

26. Why do you use that one?

It saves me a ton of time with its autofill feature when writing CSS or JS.

27. Do you host your image files on your web server, or on another host?

I host my own image files and I firmly believe that you shouldn't host your images on another host simply because of link expiry or potential shut-downs from that host.

28. What's your opinion on the Neocities vs. Nekoweb debate?

Is this still a debate? I don't host my site on those platforms anymore, but I think that debate is ridiculous. Both of them have their own pros and cons.

29. How much server space would you estimate your main website takes up?

It's currently 23.4MB

30. Do you keep local backups of your files?

Always.

31. Do you prefer simple or highly visual websites?

I think you could have a little bit of both.

32. Do you stick to certain colors? Do you do that on purpose, or is it your subconscious?

I used to stick with a certain green color (#73F3BB), but now I'm just using Catppuccin.

33. Have you ever thought about quitting? Why?

Numerous times. It was mostly because of the community behind the indie web and how much drama was going around, but I told myself that I shouldn't get involved nor should I care about it. Other times it was because of other things in my life that was keeping me away from doing this.

34. Do you have many webmaster friends, or is it a solitary hobby?

I don't know if they would consider me a friend, but I do know a lot of other people in the community that are chill.

35. Do people in your real life know about your website?

The only three people I know in real life can see my website listed in my Discord bio, so they definitely know about it.

36. Do you update your website very often? How often is "very often?"

When I feel like pushing an update on my site, I have a bad habit of checking it locally, so all the pushes are back-to-back until it works lol. Besides that, it's pretty rare. Maybe once a month or so.

37. And the overall design, do you change that much? Why or why not?

To be honest, I will probably never be happy with the design I'm working with. But people who know me know that I've been through maybe 5 different designs within the past year.

38. Is your website more you-focused, hobby-focused, or outside world-focused?

Definitely me, but I'd like to post about my hobbies at some point.

39. Do you do web design professionally?

Hell no.

40. If not, would you like to? And if you're comfortable answering, what do you do for work?

No.

41. Do you communicate with people by email very much?

Not really, but my email is open.

Life. Some people reject social media and use websites as a replacement. Do you keep social media outside of your website?

Isn't the indie web a social media in itself? I haven't rejected big social media sites yet, but I don't really get influenced by them like other people do.

43. How about instant messengers? Do you use a mainstream one like Discord or Telegram? Or something like Matrix? Do you avoid them?

I use Discord for the most part, but I am so prepared to jump ship if I have to.

44. Do you listen to music while you work on websites? If so, what kinds of artists?

I usually listen to a YouTube video in the background. But, if I am listening to music, it's most likely Porter Robinson.

45. Do you keep everything you make on one website, or do you have more than one?

For personal stuff, it's on this site. But I have 2 other sites for other stuff.

46. On a similar note, do you keep to one topic on your site, or many?

I'm not sure what this means. Everything on my site is somewhat about me, so ...one?

47. Do you present your real self, or at least try? Or do you construct a persona on purpose?

A little bit of both. I don't like sharing my personal life online very much. But I definitely don't act the same in real life as I do online.

48. Have you ever made a good friend thanks to your website?

No.

49. Are you happy with the way HTML and CSS currently work?

Sure, I don't see anything wrong with it right now.

50. What are practices that you think people should avoid?

To be very honest, I really think people should at least try to make their own website instead of using things like Carrd or Rentry.

51. What about under-utilized practices, or things you think people should do more?

Hosting images on their own web server.

52. Do you use a lot of semantic HTML? Or are you guilty of generic structure?

I mostly use semantic HTML tags, but I have some generic tags here and there.

53. Do you consider different browsers?

I think I've switched like 3 or 4 browsers within the past year.

54. Speaking of, what's your preferred browser?

Right now, I'm using Ungoogled Chromium. I think chromium-based browsers are fine as long as you have a good one that isn't shoving AI down your throat like some of them do.

55. And what OS are you on?

Windows 11.

56. Do you have a strong opinion on that, or do you just happen to use it?

I'd like to switch to Linux one day, I just can't right now with the games and stuff I do.

57. Are your websites mobile-friendly?

I try to make them as mobile-friendly as possible.

58. What are your thoughts on autoplay?

I think it's fine as long as it isn't blasting my eardrums.

59. What are your thoughts on webrings? Are you in any?

I guess I'm technically in a few, I just haven't displayed them on my site. I think they're very cool and a good way to meet cool people.

60. Do you have any web shrines? What do you like to see in that sort of page?

I used to have one for Marble Hornets, but I got rid of that because it was too much for me to maintain. I like seeing shrines that talk about why they like the topic.

61. Are your websites "cliche," in your opinion?

This website? Definitely.

62. What is your ideal website? Are you striving for that, or for something else?

I feel like I answered this earlier. I like simple websites that don't feel like I'm dragging my eyeballs through a bed of nails and I think I'm doing okay on that front so far.

63. Are you an artist? Do you draw or design your own assets?

Definitively speaking, no. But I do photography so that's technically an art form, so yes? I don't know.

64. What are your favorite resource sites?

Layercake has a really good resource website @ https://loveberry.nekoweb.org. 32-Bit Cafe is a great one too.

65. Is there a habit you just can't get away from no matter how hard you try?

Checking my website locally before pushing lol.

66. What's your biggest advice for a new webmaster?

Do whatever you want. Don't add things to your website just because someone else did.

67. Do you keep all your styling in CSS? Or do you hard-code some?

I have a separate stylesheet file, but sometimes I do inline styling for extremely specific things.

68. What do you think of frameset layouts?

I've never heard of that before, but after looking it up I don't see the issue with it? I can change my mind if I'm educated more on it.

69. How about table-based layouts?

I've never seen a website that's table-based, so I can't give an opinion on it.

70. Do you subscribe to the ideas of "one-column," "two-column" and "three-column" layouts? Do you use any of these?

Again, I've never heard of these.

71. Do you spend longer on the HTML or the CSS?

CSS, for sure.

72. Have you ever made a page with no CSS? It's useful for your thoughts.

Is it? I guess my 404 page doesn't have any CSS.

73. Do you ever find yourself making layouts with nothing to put on them? Or do you only make layouts when they need arises?

Only when needed.

74. Would you consider yourself a beginner? Advanced? Somewhere in the middle?

Somewhere in the middle. I'm not an expert on web development, but I've learned a ton over the years.

75. Do you have a habit of looking at the source code of websites you visit?

Only when I'm like "how did they do that?"

76. How did YOU learn how to make websites?

Like I mentioned before, I learned how to make a basic website when I was 8 years old. But when I really got into it in 2023, I was looking at people's source code and deployed the FAFO method.

77. Do you ever force elements to do things they're not supposed to?

My banner and link backgrounds are not real images. They mimic the dithered effect.

78. Thoughts on floating elements?

They're there. I don't know how to answer that lol.

79. When you're sizing stuff, what do you use first?

Mostly rem or em. Then I use vh for mobile.

80. Do you have a favorite font?

I used to love VT323. But I like Doto a lot, recently.

81. Would you run a website with another person? How would that work?

Probably not. I'm not a fan of collaborative projects in the first place, so I think it would just be a lot of miscommunication and uncertainty.

82. Do you surf the Web to find new personal websites very often?

Not really, but if I see that someone has a personal site, I check it out.

83. Do you bookmark other people's websites? How would you feel knowing someone else bookmarked yours?

I don't, but I think it'd be cool to know that someone bookmarked mine.

84. What do you want people to be most impressed with when they see your website?

I don't really care much about what people think of my site. Maybe the stuff I'm interested in?

85. Are you interested in technology outside of websites? Do you collect?

I like photography and cameras. But I don't collect.

86. How often and for how long are you online?

Almost all day every day. It's a problem.

87. When it comes to your website, who is your target audience?

Anyone, really. D&D players and VR players.

88. Have you ever been interested in XHTML?

I don't know too much about it, tbh.

89. Do you program in general? Have you ever written a program for use with or on your website, not counting simple JavaScript?

I've never programmed anything for my own website, but I'm currently learning C# for VRChat/Unity. I'm making a VRChat world for D&D that uses Udon# (VRChat's scripting language based on C#).

90. Speaking of programs that help you make websites, what do you think of static site generators? Have you ever used one?

They're difficult to learn, in my opinion. But I'm using 11ty for this blog.

91. Do you keep a hitcounter? Why or why not?

No, I don't. I don't care much about analytics.

92. Do you frequent forums? Which ones?

(RIP NekoForum, again.) I used to in the late 2000s, and I used to frequent MelonLand. But I don't go on forums much anymore.

93. Do you write your own page content directly into the editor, or do you prepare it elsewhere, like a text document or Word document?

When I'm home, it's directly into the editor. But if I'm at work, I use Affine and just copy-paste when I get home.

94. Do you think your appear cool to others? A more accurate answer now: do other people ever say you're cool?

Again, I don't really care what others think of me. However, there have been people who said I am.

95. Are you embarrassed of your old work? Have you ever deleted everything out of shame?

Yeah, definitely my first website on Neocities. I used a template that looked like ass. And I've deleted everything before, but not out of shame.

96. Would you close down your website if you couldn't update it, or would you leave an archive?

I'd leave an archive, for sure. But I don't think I'd ever close it down, unless I forget about it and don't pay for the domain.

97. Do you reveal a lot about yourself on your website? Or are you more secretive?

I try not to reveal a lot.

98. Are you willing to reveal who your best online friend is, and/or if they have a website?

My best friend is my partner, but she doesn't have a website yet.

99. And do you optimize the images on your website?

I try to use webm when I can.

100. How do you feel after answering 100 questions? ...other than exhausted.

It was nice to reflect on stuff, but yeah ... my fingers hurt.