#621; The Challenging Amusement

Comic Transcripts

[[A woman stands over a man in prone position who holds a video game controller]]

Woman: New game?
Man: Yeah! It’s amazing!
Man: It’s tremendously complex and adaptive. It’s never the same game twice!

Man: As you develop new skills and master new levels, it combines its challenges in wholly unpredictable ways.
Man: It’s really compelling! This is the kind of game you could play for years and it’s always new.

Woman: So as you get better at it, it gets better at challenging you?
Man: Yes! Theoretically there’s no ceiling to how elaborate the series of puzzles could become.
Woman: Sounds fun!
Man: I LOVE THIS GAME

[[ONE WEEK LATER]]
[[The man lies on his side, without the controller]]
Woman: Not playing the new game?
Man: Ehh
Man: It got hard

{{header: level up at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: He came to a level where you just keep dying without any way of predicting why or when or how. The developers call it ‘profound’}}

#621; The Challenging Amusement transcribed by in

[[A woman stands over a man in prone position who holds a video game controller]]

Woman: New game?
Man: Yeah! It’s amazing!
Man: It’s tremendously complex and adaptive. It’s never the same game twice!

[[ONE WEEK LATER]]
[[The man lies on his side, without the controller]]
Woman: Not playing the new game?
Man: Ehh
Man: It got hard

{{header: level up at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: He came to a level where you just keep dying without any way of predicting why or when or how. The developers call it ‘profound’}}

#621; The Challenging Amusement transcribed by in

Bolted! games have been shipping to backers over the last couple of weeks! The non-US orders are (mostly) done and some folks have been reporting receiving them already!

@davidmalki.com My game arrived today!! It looks gorgeous 🙂 Hope you are well 🙂

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— Lar deSouza (@lartist.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 2:52 PM

My US inventory of games is now in-country, but still being staged at the fulfillment centers. It’s being distributed to regional warehouses, so the actual shipping to backers happens more efficiently. I hope the bulk of US shipping will start next week.

These are what the cartons (and games) look like!

bolted! games BOLTED! GAMES (pounding the table) B O L T E D ! G A M E S

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— david malki ! (@davidmalki.com) April 3, 2026 at 10:37 AM

I am also waiting on the bonus cards to be finished printing! I ended up needing many more of those than I had anticipated, so I decided to have the game factory print those too, for perfect matching with the base game cards.

Most people will be receiving two separate mailings: the game itself, and “anything else” (bonus cards and/or add-ons) which will be sent by me personally.

As of today, 86% of backers have completed their surveys so far! That’s pretty good, but it’s not everyone. I know YOU PERSONALLY have already completed YOURS though, so no worries!!

We have now moved OFF of Kickstarter and ONTO BackerKit for any new orders. You can bundle a game with basically anything else I sell on that there website, it’s pretty nuts!