#System Optimization

[fitlifefuel]

How to Free Up Space on Windows 10: A Comprehensive Guide

As your Windows 10 system accumulates more files and applications, it can start to slow down and become less efficient. Freeing up space not only improves your system’s performance but also extends its lifespan. In this guide, we’ll explore various methods to free up space on Windows 10, going beyond the basics to ensure you have a well-optimized system.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Understanding Disk Space Usage

Utilizing Built-in Windows Tools

Disk Cleanup

Storage Sense

Uninstalling Unnecessary Applications

Managing Temporary and Cached Files

Cleaning Up System Files

Windows Update Cleanup

System Restore and Shadow Copies

Using Third-Party Disk Cleaners

Handling Large Files and Folders

Moving Data to External Storage

Using Cloud Storage Solutions

Conclusion

1. Introduction

As modern software and files grow larger, managing disk space effectively becomes crucial. This guide offers practical steps and tips to reclaim disk space on your Windows 10 computer, ensuring it runs smoothly and efficiently.

2. Understanding Disk Space Usage

Before freeing up space, it’s essential to understand how your disk space is being used. Navigate to Settings > System > Storage to view a detailed breakdown. This will help identify which areas need attention.

3. Utilizing Built-in Windows Tools

Disk Cleanup

Windows 10 features a built-in Disk Cleanup tool designed to delete unnecessary files. To access it:

Type “Disk Cleanup” in the search bar and select the app.

Choose the drive you want to clean.

Select the file types to delete (e.g., temporary files, system cache).

Storage Sense

Storage Sense automates disk cleanup. To enable it:

Go to Settings > System > Storage.

Toggle on Storage Sense and configure settings to regularly delete temporary files.

4. Uninstalling Unnecessary Applications

Unused applications take up significant space. To uninstall them:

Go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features.

Review the list and uninstall non-essential programs.

5. Managing Temporary and Cached Files

Temporary files can quickly accumulate and consume disk space. Use Disk Cleanup or third-party tools to regularly clear these files. Browsers also store cached data, which can be cleared from the browser settings.

6. Cleaning Up System Files

Windows Update Cleanup

Old update files can take up substantial space. Disk Cleanup includes an option to remove these:

Open Disk Cleanup and select Clean up system files.

Choose Windows Update Cleanup.

System Restore and Shadow Copies

System Restore points and shadow copies can consume significant disk space. Manage these by:

Typing “System Protection” in the search bar.

Selecting the drive and clicking Configure.

Adjusting the Max Usage slider to limit space usage.

7. Using Third-Party Disk Cleaners

Third-party tools like CCleaner provide more comprehensive cleaning options. They can remove junk files, clean registries, and manage startup programs to free up space.

8. Handling Large Files and Folders

Identifying and managing large files is crucial. Use tools like WinDirStat to find large files and folders. Consider moving non-essential large files to external storage.

9. Moving Data to External Storage

Free up space by moving data such as videos, photos, and documents to external hard drives or USB sticks. Ensure you regularly back up important data to avoid loss.

10. Using Cloud Storage Solutions

Cloud storage services like OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox offer substantial space. Move infrequently accessed files to the cloud to save local disk space.

11. Conclusion

Regular maintenance and mindful storage practices can keep your Windows 10 system running efficiently. Use the tips and tools outlined in this guide to manage and optimize your disk space effectively.

External Authoritative Sources

Microsoft Support: Free up drive space in Windows

CCleaner Official Website

How-To Geek: The Ultimate Guide to Freeing Up Space on Your Windows PC

By following these detailed steps, you can efficiently manage and optimize your disk space on Windows 10, ensuring your system remains fast and reliable.

[snowashl-blog]

Hoyoverse changed the party setup and in my opinion it’s awesome. I actually like it, shame they didn’t put kaveh next to alhaitham 😆

[acquaintsofttech]

5 Important Signs Your Software Application Needs To Scale with Solutions

As the system grows, so do its complexities. With overloads and changing perspectives, there occur many signs your application needs to scale, sometimes immediately. You just need to maintain the system’s efficiency by handling the much-needed scalability aspect. However, knowing the right time to start with system scalability is tedious, especially for newcomers. You must take up this challenge…

[pjconnect]

De la résolution de problèmes, de l'optimisation et de l'amélioration continue | Of Problem resolution, optimization, continuous improvement

Résolution de Problèmes : Une Approche Systématique et HolistiqueOptimisation : Amélioration Proactive pour une Performance SupérieureL’Interaction entre Résolution de Problèmes et OptimisationCompétences et Aptitudes Clés pour la Résolution de Problèmes et l’OptimisationPensée AnalytiqueCréativité dans la Résolution de ProblèmesPensée SystémiqueCulture de DonnéesAdaptabilité et…

[filehulk]

PrivaZer Download - Clean Junk Files & Protect Privacy

PrivaZer is a free tool with an optional premium version that acts as a privacy protector, registry cleaner, and junk file remover for your PC. It helps users safeguard sensitive data by eliminating unwanted traces left behind during regular computer use. PrivaZer goes beyond typical cleaning; it can securely erase data, making it nearly impossible to recover. This feature is especially…

[apicalindustrialsolution]

SCADA Integrators

The Essential Guide to SCADA Integrators: Enhancing Efficiency and Control

In today’s fast-paced industrial landscape, the role of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems is more crucial than ever. These systems allow businesses to monitor, control, and optimize their operations in real time. However, the effectiveness of a SCADA system often hinges on the expertise of SCADA integrators. In this blog, we’ll delve into what SCADA integrators do, why they are important, and how they can help businesses unlock the full potential of their SCADA systems.

What Are SCADA Integrators?

SCADA integrators are specialists who design, implement, and manage SCADA systems tailored to a company’s specific needs. They play a critical role in ensuring that all components of a SCADA system work harmoniously together. This includes integrating hardware, software, and network elements to create a cohesive system that provides real-time monitoring and control.

Why SCADA Integrators Are Vital

Customization and Optimization: SCADA integrators bring a wealth of expertise in tailoring systems to fit unique operational requirements. They ensure that the SCADA system is not just a generic solution but a customized tool that enhances the specific processes of a business. This includes configuring dashboards, setting up alarms, and optimizing data collection methods.

Seamless Integration: Integrators are adept at bridging various components of a SCADA system. This means connecting sensors, PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), and other field devices with the central SCADA software. Their work ensures that data flows seamlessly from the field to the control room, facilitating accurate and timely decision-making.

Enhanced Security: Security is a major concern for SCADA systems, as they are often linked to critical infrastructure. SCADA integrators implement robust security measures to protect against cyber threats and ensure that sensitive data remains secure. This involves setting up firewalls, encryption protocols, and regular security audits.

Scalability: As businesses grow, their SCADA systems need to evolve. SCADA integrators help in scaling the system by adding new components, expanding data storage, and integrating with other enterprise systems. This scalability ensures that the SCADA system continues to meet the changing needs of the business.

Troubleshooting and Support: Even the most well-designed SCADA systems can encounter issues. SCADA integrators provide ongoing support and troubleshooting services to resolve any problems quickly. Their expertise minimizes downtime and ensures that operations continue smoothly.

Choosing the Right SCADA Integrator

When selecting a SCADA integrator, consider the following factors:

Experience and Expertise: Look for integrators with a proven track record and experience in your industry. Their familiarity with specific applications and standards can significantly impact the success of your SCADA system.

Customization Capabilities: Ensure that the integrator can tailor the system to your specific needs rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution. Customization can lead to better efficiency and effectiveness.

Support Services: Assess the level of ongoing support and maintenance offered. A reliable SCADA integrator should provide comprehensive support to address any issues that arise post-implementation.

Security Measures: Verify that the integrator has a strong focus on security, implementing best practices to safeguard your system against potential threats.

Conclusion

SCADA integrators are indispensable partners in harnessing the full power of SCADA systems. Their expertise in customization, integration, security, scalability, and support ensures that businesses can achieve optimal performance and reliability from their SCADA solutions. By choosing the right SCADA integrator, companies can not only enhance their operational efficiency but also stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market.

If you’re considering upgrading or implementing a SCADA system, investing in a skilled SCADA integrator can make all the difference. With their help, you can unlock new levels of control, insight, and efficiency in your operations.

[independent-fics]

But that envelope entrusted you with the most important obligation of citizenship, and that is to find the truth. It's so important that we dare not give it to one person but to 12 strangers.

Leverage (2008-2012)

1x10 The Juror #6 Job

[kaiserouo]

i just learned that you can just click on a stat to search for related mods instead of having to type the thing manually. after a whole year of playing this game

EDIT: it was actually added in the yareli prime (38.6) update (patch note) so i guess its new-ish

[cognitivejustice]

Climate despair is pervasive, and I understand why. The options seem increasingly narrow: despair or escapism. In the face of once-in-a-lifetime disasters occurring every few years, it feels impossible to consider climate change with anything but a sense of overwhelming doom.

But isn’t this, in itself, absurd? Climate change is symptomatic of human beings’ absurd desire to look away from existential threats and pray at the altar of growth, and in response to its constant reminders that it will not go away, many people have chosen to continue on the same path.

Illustration by Astral-Requin, 2019

Writer Amitav Ghosh argues that we need a “heightened imaginary response to climate change.” He explains this idea via the notion of “probability.” If literature inspires reality as much as reality inspires literature, then literature, to a large extent, can shape what our minds might be able to digest as “probable.” Ghosh argues that by not including the specter of climate change in literature, authors are feeding their readers a comforting illusion that convinces them that their experience of climate change is something outside the norm, something bizarre.

Read the whole thing

[acquaintsofttech]

5 Important Signs Your Software Application Needs To Scale with Solutions

As the system grows, so do its complexities. With overloads and changing perspectives, there occur many signs your application needs to scale, sometimes immediately. You just need to maintain the system's efficiency by handling the much-needed scalability aspect.

However, knowing the right time to start with system scalability is tedious, especially for newcomers. You must take up this challenge to scale regularly to ensure your system's efficiency, performance, and workload management.

Don't worry, we will give you the top 5 telltale signs your application needs to scale; Keep reading the blog further—

At Acquaint Softtech, we provide 360° system scalability solutions for businesses looking forward to excelling in providing fast and responsive digital solutions worldwide!

Let us know!

5 Important Signs Your Application Needs to Scale

System Struggles to Work Under Pressure

One of the major signs your application needs to scale is that the system struggles to perform when data overload comes. If you're frequently facing performance issues under system database loads, resulting in efficient performance, then you must hurry and contact a software engineering professional for help!

In case the system becomes unable to handle the database load, it becomes unable to perform under peak loads. Due to excessive database locking and contention, the server struggles to keep up with read/write operations. These kinds of database bottlenecks interrupt the entire system and finally slow it down.

Performance degradation in any system isn't fruitful for the business at all. Your entire user base can be affected by continued slower system response times and frequent timeouts. Users may also lose trust in your brand and never return to you again!

No one wants this kind of experience with their system project!

What must you do?

Systems with growing user volumes will face potential encounters with certain database bottlenecks. E-commerce platforms are the best examples for such cases. To prevent database delays, inconsistencies, and inaccurate processing, you must adopt high-end scalability solutions for legacy systems.

Implementing auto-scaling will be the best solution to prevent system downtime leading to system failures. Look for the most efficient and reliable cloud providers for this purpose.

You may also utilize read replicas for load balancing; this will result in faster user response and prevent negative brand reputation.

Database sharding is yet another way to divide the workload into smaller, independent servers that will take up the task and complete it simultaneously.

Introduction to the caching system will prevent user request and response time by storing the redundant data and not forgetting it. You may opt for Redis or Memcached for this.

Traffic distribution technique must involve CDN and edge caching like advanced solutions.

Load test your system before it's final deployment.

Poor Database Management

Managing data to its peak extent is the utmost necessity of any business aspiring to be a key player. Data management is the milestone for achieving ultimate business success in the digital world. If you're struggling to implement proper database management tactics, you must take some professional help from active software engineering services you know about!

As software gets older, it might struggle to process, manage, organize, and store data as and when needed. Relying on manual tasks is a major issue that businesses often overlook and fail to improve over time. With an increased user base, you must implement an automation-based tech stack to survive in the competitive market. Manual data processing will not only bog down your system time, but also your brand will slowly crawl in the high-speed race to achieve more users!

Not to forget, it will also bring certain data limitations and frequent downtimes, and you will not get more valuable data insights. Ultimately, you won't end up developing a solid plan for your software product development.

What must you do?

You must eliminate all time-consuming tasks, such as manual work, as they may lead to human error. System downtime impacts the overall brand's trust and other business-related operations as well. If the user data growth is impacting the system performance and outpacing its core capabilities, then you must adopt these scalability solutions for legacy systems—

Adopt cost-efficient cold data migration as a storage solution.

Implement automation-based routine database management in its full-fledged form, including workflow automation features. This is necessary to prevent system failures and mitigate compliance risks.

Focus more on strategic database storage and implementation.

Adopt a robust data partitioning technique to handle rapid user growth. Also implement effective data archiving and retrieval strategies and optimized indexing.

Monitor query performance, logs, and transactions, and analyze when to implement more servers, databases, and networks depending upon user demands.

High System Latency & Error Rates

Is your system fast enough to respond within milliseconds?

Does your system page take a long(er) time to load?

Does your page undergo more HTTP 500, 502, or 503 errors?

Significant system delays in data processing, request processing, and content delivery cause data latency. The system with an active and fast API response time will get more chances to drive in more customers. More data latency and timeout errors quickly frustrate the users, leading to churn.

Due to frequent system downtime, events like system crashes also make up the top signs your application needs to scale. For more streamlined services, you must resolve issues related to unexplained system crashes due to peak loads, leading to increased, time-consuming server restarts!

It's necessary to monitor the monitoring tools as well. You must implement intelligent monitoring strategies, even if done manually. Relying on unreliable data monitoring applications may reduce system credibility and revenue generation opportunities, for sure. If the system backend becomes insufficient to handle increased user requests and concurrent users, then optimizing server capacity becomes crucial.

What must you do?

Adopt scalability solutions for legacy systems by integrating modern workload handling techniques.

To avoid system strain and failed transactions, you must rapidly implement microservice system architecture instead of just relying on the legacy system.

Timely scaling out of the database is necessary to avoid the occurrence of database deadlocks, resource exhaustion, and query failures.

Implement robust automation-based database scaling via horizontal and vertical scaling methods, whichever is necessary, and monitor the system performance.

Adopt cloud-based elastic computing techniques to avoid system errors and degraded workflows.

Utilize adequate load balancers and distributed processing queries, circuit breakers, and retry logics.

Outdated System Architecture

Many businesses face difficulties in adding/integrating new features due to outdated and limited monolithic system architecture. With changed market perspectives, you must keep up with the system updates. If you are unable to keep up with the system updates in today's fast-paced market, the situation can drastically change. So, if you see such signs that your application needs to scale, immediately opt for agile methodologies that will work out in your favor.

Leveraging an updated and advanced tech stack via agile software engineering services may help you in such instances. Sticking with an outdated tech stack will lead to compromised system security. Furthermore, your system will fail drastically to meet the industry-relevant security measures. There could be chances of escalated cyber threats, substantial risks of hacking, digital attacks, and data and financial loss.

On the contrary, utilizing a monolithic system architecture limits overall system agility and scalability. This further leads to resource constraints like less server space and storage capacity, ultimately leading to resource exhaustion. Inflexible data systems hamper the business's growth, competitiveness, and innovative aspects. Furthermore, it costs you mountains to maintain such slow, time-consuming architecture.

What must you do?

If your system is poorly optimized, it will surely lead to unnecessary costs without much performance gain. You'll get more cloud service bills and less system efficiency, increased resource allocation, and less/neutralized system performance. A tightly coupled architecture will also not collaborate with new features and functions wisely.

Immediate transition from monolithic to microservice architecture by breaking down the services for enhanced modular scalability.

Implementing serverless computing and the right resources wherever applicable.

Adopting data containerization and CI/CD pipelines for smooth and faster modular deployments.

Incorporate highly advanced system security features that will protect your data and keep your system scalability and performance intact as the demand grows.

Adopting a tech stack that easily detects and debugs the system errors and decreases system dependencies.

Negative User Feedback

Users are the base of every business's ability to run swiftly or collapse. Frequent user complaints and unsatisfied service feedback indicate alarming signs your application needs to scale. Continued user dissatisfaction will lead to higher churn rates for any business, promoting revenue loss. So if your business is facing negative reviews more often or users report laggy system performance, then pay attention.

Getting poor user reviews will impact your business's credibility in many ways. Poor user reviews can negatively impact your business retention rates, negatively impact your global rating, and ultimately harm your brand's reputation.

What must you do?

If you're facing user dissatisfaction with your current system or increased support tickets for your system's performance, then log in to these scalability solutions for software product development—

Implement active system monitoring related to user experience metrics.

Prepare your system for potential traffic spikes and forecast every possible necessity with futuristic strategy planning for system scalability.

Take user reviews seriously and work on them to create well-defined plans to ensure customers never experience such a scenario again.

Test and preview your system before its final deployment and fix every potential issue over new feature development and deployment.

It's your time to get the most customizable scalability solutions by Acquaint Softtech!

We have a full-fledged team of skilled software professionals with excellent individual portfolios. Schedule a call with us now to start your software project!

Learn more!

Conclusion

Giving in your best effort for customizable scalability solutions is necessary for every business. If your software is experiencing any of the above-written signs, then you must contact a professional software engineering service provider. They will figure out the potential loopholes in a quicker manner rather than your self-acquisitions.

In business, system scalability is everything that creates or returns fortune. You must be aware of the above-mentioned pointers so that you can adopt stronger scalability strategies in the future. A proactive software product development plan and scalability solutions for legacy systems could be just a small research away from you!

Hope this blog helps you out with your search for knowing the potential signs your application needs to scale and best practices for a scalable system architecture!

FAQs

What are the challenges to system scalability?

There are many challenges to system scalability, including time-consuming and low system performance, monolithic system architecture, system data deadlocks, and not adopting the best practices of scalable system architecture.

Whom should I contact for scalable system product development?

Contacting the right software engineering service provider is very important to get your system to function with the right scalability features. The team of skilled software professionals will easily guide you through the entire cycle of software product development.

[evelili]

imagine you are playing a story-based game w the opportunity to learn more abt charas thru a relationship system (eg visual novels), and your ability to explore every relationship is linked to your success in a different part of the game.

[nordenflycht]

chili plants have almost recovered from the trauma of *checks notes* standing in the gentle breeze on the warm, mildly sunny balcony for two hours. they'd better shape up, because they're getting potted in the big outdoor pots in two weeks. it's resilience or die for these babies.

[dwellsinthebog]

ohhhhh god i want to talk about my arranged marriage abo renkaza in space au wip soooooo bad but if i do all the Motivation will instantly leave me

[sapphic-dice]

Life never stops.

So neither will I.

Even in a world that often seems hopeless.

I’ll continue to look forward and smile.

Because… well… that’s just who and what I am.

Andromeda gave up.

Years ago.

I don’t know if she can ever try living again.

But she dreamed me. A part of her. A version of her.

Fragile and yet unending.

A candle that’ll never burn out.

A girl who will always see the stars, no matter how dark the clouds get.

No matter how much the winds sputter and threaten to extinguish me.

I’m bea.

Im joy.

Im creativity.

Im kindness.

Im worry.

Im whimsy.

Im hope.

Im bea. The current core of Wren. And as much as I fear. I’ll keep us smiling. ^>^

[joyce-stick]

An Essay About Slash Review of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, A Video Game Which is Very Good

(and also: has prompted many quite wrong rather bad takes)

An essay by Audrey of the joystick system

The very bad discourse and drama around The Coffin of Andy and Leyley has served to obscure the simple fact that it is quite a very good video game and this video essay is here to tell you about that.

Video version:

Previous video essay: Lost Judgment's Lost Plot

If you enjoy this essay, please consider following us here or on any other platforms, and/or donating to support future works via our Patreon or Ko-fi.

Patreon • Ko-fi • YouTube • Twitter • Cohost • Tumblr • Bluesky

Transcript:

Hi everyone. So. The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is really, really fucking good.

If you’ve heard of this game, you’ve probably heard of it in the context of memes, screenshots divorced from context, and/or capricious moral outrage. If you’ve not heard of this game, well, you’re hearing of it now! And good thing, too, because much of the coverage and discussion around this game that already exists has… been, let’s just say, not particularly earnest. I hope to remedy that at least somewhat with this video.

If you’ve heard about this game because of discourse, and come here expecting drama and hot takes, then, this may not be your video. Or your YouTube channel, even. Or maybe it is, if you’d like the delicious comments section. If you’re that sort of clicker, though— welcome! I’m Audrey of the joystick system, and this is the place where I (and my headmates) talk honestly about things we care about, and I hope you’ll hear me out a little and maybe consider staying and improving our viewer retention. Thanks, if you do.

So, to writ: My purpose today is to gush. I will be gushing here. For most of it. And as for what I will be gushing about, some of it will be gushing BLOOD, GUTS, AND DELICIOUS DEATH. I am entirely serious. The subject of today’s presentation contains mature content, including copious foul language and themes slash depictions of death, cannibalism, cultism, demon summoning rituals, parricide, dystopian social decay, and heterosexuality. Oh, and also a little bit of incest as a treat, I guess, but the incest is heterosexual, and that’s worse.

[long pause]

Excellent. You’re still here. So. This morbidly beautiful video game may not be for everyone, but that’s good, because it is instead for exactly me! A short plot synopsis of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley might go as follows:

if you're not watching the video listen to this for extra effect

Siblings Andrew and Ashley Graves are forcibly quarantined inside their apartment by the local authorities, with no food and even less hope for rescue. Their parents have abandoned them. Absolutely no one is coming to save them. In order to survive and escape this awful situation, they butcher and consume the fresh flesh of some guy who got himself soul vored by a demon that he summoned without a plan.

This conspicuously carnivorous crime, and their effort to cover their tracks, puts them in a fair bit of a deeper shithole than they are already in. So naturally they keep digging themselves deeper by committing even more crimes, AND in the process, also dig themselves deeper into their toxic codependent sibling relationship, which is going just great, thank you. Sure, Andrew almost killed his sister, but he didn’t, and that’s what matters! And she still loves him, so it’s all good!

This is of course a joke.

First thing I absolutely love about this game is the writing. It’s witty, intelligent, uncompromising, and just generally delicious. It holds nothing back in depicting the toxicity of the two leads and their relationship, resulting in two compelling characters whose flaws and few virtues perfectly complement slash exacerbate one another, resulting in a beautiful train wreck of a relationship dynamic that proves equal parts disturbing, mesmerizing, and hilarious.

The charming darkly comedic bite of the writing style also lends a lot of great character to the setting. This sardonically presented dystopian world is both richly detailed and fleetingly elaborated on, a commendable balance to have achieved, in my opinion. The first chapter of this game is hilarious not just because of the banter between Ashley and Andrew (which is terrific), but because it presents such a sharp satire of current year bullshit.

As just an example, I give you, one of my favorite jokes in the game:

I probably don’t need to explain the thing this is making fun of to you, but I will anyway.

The situation presented in The Coffin of Andy and Leyley’s first episode is very easily readable as an allegory for how disasters that are a direct result of ongoing 2020s late capitalist decay continuously fuck people over. In particular, this scenario feels like a direct commentary on both the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Flint, Michigan water crisis. The former obviously has affected way more people but what both have in common is that they are crises created and exacerbated by malfeasance and/or negligence committed in the name of for-profit interests, and that the “response,” to them, such as there was one, has amounted to dehumanizing and marginalizing the victims while minimizing the issue, forcing the victims out of society’s wider view, and being reticent to punish the individuals responsible. 

Just as the authorities responded to the water crisis and the worst excesses of the pandemic in real life, the authorities in The Coffin of Andy and Leyley impose half-measures designed to further restrict the freedom of the dirty undesirables who bear the worst damages, while merely shielding the upper echelons of society from the disaster rather than actually addressing or attempting to solve the issue. Most of you who lived through 2020 in the United States probably have experienced the frustration of being on the receiving end of this kind of policy.

During the pandemic, the quarantine was supposed to protect us, but for a lot of people it ended up doing quite the opposite. A lot of folks didn’t have any savings, and couldn’t get any since the employment market wasn’t exactly on fire, and our representatives had to be bothered way too much just to put out a pithy economic stimulus just to save face. Not to say that this all has stopped, exactly, as all that’s changed now is that we’re just, living with this situation, but.

It wasn’t literally a cop outside everyone’s door preventing them from going outside to not die, but for a lot of people, it might as well have been that! Never mind those who, y’know, had no inside to retreat to. Or were imprisoned during the pandemic and left even more unprotected! Or thrown out by their landlords! And so on. And, y’know, the big chain grocery stores keep throwing out all the perfectly good unsold food, so they’re already sending this message in all but, well… these exact words.

So, that’s why I think this joke lands. It’s exaggerated, but familiarly rooted, and that’s just good satire! It’s a joke which feels lifted right out of Invader Zim, which, I would put The Coffin of Andy and Leyley right about on the level of as far as both the tone it’s going for and the quality of its execution. Which of course, brings us to the extremes that these circumstances push its characters, and its plot, to.

Okay, so, also like Invader Zim, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is hardly a polemic, nor is it a morality tale. Sure, there’s social commentary in it, but that’s just a nice side thing. It’s not a story about the otherwise innocent victims of an unjust society who are pushed to do terrible things by circumstances outside their control— it is, rather a story of terrible people, who, both because of their character failings, and the desperate situations they find themselves in, find themselves doing even worse things.

Andrew and Ashley commit the cannibalism the first time in large part because they kind of have to do it. No food! Cop outside their door actively deterring them from getting food! Out of options! So they do it. They could probably be excused, if only they were given a fair trial. Which they realize they’re not going to get. So yeah. It’s understandable that they do it. And that they kill this one cop, who very much has it coming.

But they do not have to keep doing it! And gosh grief, do they keep fucking doing it— so many its. They really do not stop digging that hole that they are in. Even the first time that they do the cannibalism, when they kind of really have to do the cannibalism, Ashley is just a little bit more excited about doing the cannibalism than she probably should be.

I love this kind of delicious edgy dark humor. I love stories that go for it, imagine the worst possible people they can, and also try to make that funny. I love this about Invader Zim, that it presents a character who is unquestionably a monster, but also has relatable human desires like wanting to fit in and being concerned about looking weird or abnormal, but has those feelings for very different reasons and acts on them by committing some very despicable crimes. It really gets at a deep-seated darkness that I and a lot of other fucked up traumatized queer people who were little kids when this show aired have, the catharsis of visualizing some of our worst intrusive thoughts while evoking the emotions that pushed us to imagine this kind of fucked up shit.

I’ve loved this kind of thing since we saw Heathers when we were 14. Heathers is an absolutely incredible film that you should check out, by the way, and about which we failed to properly or interestingly articulate our thoughts a few years back. Its lead protagonists, Jason “J.D.” Dean and Veronica Sawyer, are similarly relatable characters who have familiar feeling flaws and emotionally resonant trauma hangups, and also function as very toxic enablers of each other’s worst traits, leading them to work through those feelings by, y’know, murdering their classmates!

Heathers made us realize just how exactly mentally ill of a 14 year old we really were when we were 14, and I love it for that. So. So fucking much.

That was ten years and change ago.

We are still a mentally ill 24 year old.

And Andrew and Ashley Graves, if I had to sum them up, are basically J.D. and Veronica, if they were in their twenties, siblings, and also way, way, way worse.

And I love them.

So, obviously. Ashley and Andrew are hilarious. At least, I find them to be such. They’re terrible, and awful, and amazing, and Ashley is such a girlboss. She is one of the most God Forbid Women Do Anything characters ever.

Anyway! I’ve talked about the cannibalism, and the dystopia, and the characters, and why all of that’s good. I’ve also forgotten to talk about the part where they evade an assassin, and, also a host of other things.

I love that this game has so many fun little optional interactions with NPCs, objects, and items, that you can totally miss. I love how the narration hints at the solutions to puzzles by snarkily referring to things you can interact with as what their purpose is to the characters rather than what they are, this quip about the mop that you clean up a murder scene with, the interactions that Andrew has with these cultists who suck at demon summoning, the excellent in-game art and the brilliant visual duality of Andrew and Ashley’s character designs, this line where Andrew is upset that life is so hard for them as fugitives from the law because they can only find this one shitty motel that takes cash and doesn’t ask them for their ID, and also the music, which is royalty free music made by people unassociated with the developer but is nonetheless perfectly suited for the game.

So much about this game is stuff I find so completely brilliant, and I have so little to criticize, that I think we’d probably be here all day if I kept going. So.

Let’s spend a thousand ish more words talking about the parents.

When The Coffin of Andy and Leyley begins, the protagonists’ parents are absent. You can optionally find two early references to them early on— one, if you interact with the bed in their bedroom, and encounter the shocking revelation that “Your parents have FUCKED on this bed.”

The second, is if you interact with the phone, the game dutifully informs you that,

You’re probably less than five minutes into the game at this point, barely begun solving the first puzzle, which prompted you to “find nutrients to not die.” And of course, this says about all you need to know. These children have been abandoned. But if it needed to be any clearer, the game later delivers unto you a flashback to prior in the story, when Ashley desperately calls Mrs. Graves for help after they leave and go move to a hotel, and later a new house, to which the kids are of course not invited. And this specific scene, specific line, here, fucking hit me:

“And I don’t want to hear these lies about starving anymore.”

Emphasis mine.

Even as Ashley and Andrew escalate the severity of their crimes which gradually come to have less and less to do with their need to survive as the story goes on, I find it very hard to not be on their side at least a little bit, and this is easily the biggest reason why.

I have had this phone call.

Not this exact specific phone call, of course. Obviously, I’ve never been locked up in an apartment with an armed patrol outside my door whose job it was to gaslight me while ensuring that I starved to death. Obviously, my mom has never said those exact words.

But gosh grief and fuck me if it’s never felt like she has. She may as well have fucking told me that, with all the things she told me I was lying about. And who fucking knows, maybe she did say those exact words to us, and we repressed them. I don’t know. I am very not done working through all the bullshit that she gaslit us over.

*sighs, preparing to vent*

I have called our mother and had to beg her to pay for food. I have called her and had to beg to pay for our rent, while our parents were supposed to be supporting us studying abroad. I have called her and begged her to forgive me for daring to use just a few of the thirty dollars our parents used to send us to live with every month back then, to buy a drink or a movie ticket or something. I have had to concede to our parents financially holding us hostage, had to go the last week of the month on a shoestring diet while waiting for them to graciously deposit another thirty dollars into our bank account... so that we could continue eating. I used to relish February, the shortest month, for being the one part of the year in which I had to stretch out that thirty dollars the least. And once, I pleaded with our mother to pay for us to move to another apartment when the landlord suddenly kicked us out of the current one, abruptly and obligatorily switching gears from arguing with her to kissing her ass through our gritted teeth, under threat of our parents cutting off their financial support of us completely, abandoning us in a foreign country where we had no money, no job, and barely spoke the language.

And one day, after I stopped dancing to their tune, they just stopped listening, stopped even pretending to want to help. After nineteen years of escalating emotional and physical abuse and neglect, they abandoned us. And one day, after I spent months working 10 hour days every week Ubering food around for tips, sending my resume, filling applications, making calls, stopping into places to ask for work, all to no avail, for months, and desperately plugging the Patreon page of this very YouTube channel praying that some generous soul with money to burn would solve all our problems. All of this still wasn’t enough, and wasn’t going anywhere, and I’d run out of money and was short on rent on the one sublet room we could get that cost exactly three hundred dollars…

And I called her, and I asked her for help. I really didn’t want to. I wanted to hear nothing of her again. And she said to stop lying. To stop bullshitting her that I couldn’t get enough money, or find a job.

Not too long after, I swore off all contact with her, and eventually also with our father. And every time I have spoken to either of them since, I have made no secret of how I feel. Because if I get nothing out of kissing their ass, why fucking pretend.

My family is not poor. They own their house. They own, and leased out, a second house. Their house is full of fancy IKEA furniture and various other niceties, they’ve renovated the place at least twice, they live in a nice, safe neighborhood, they have an attic and a basement, they at one point paid for multiple plane tickets for us per year while still refusing to let us eat on any more than thirty five dollars, an extra five dollars we also had to beg them for. Our dad has a lucrative tech job. All of this, and they insisted, while refusing to answer questions about their finances in any detail, that they couldn’t afford to help us go to where we wanted to go for college, that they had no place for us in their house, that they couldn’t afford three hundred dollars of rent to help us have a roof over our head for one more month.

So when I read this delightful jaunt of a chapter of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, where Andrew and Ashley break into their parents’ new huge house to steal all their shit, and Ashley says “This is some rich people stuff!” about their fireplace,

And when their mom says, “there’s no room to keep housing you here indefinitely,” and the internal monologue says, “even though it’s way bigger than the old house.” It’s both an entertaining mockery of the attitude of the typical American family, how first you’re your parents’ property for eighteen years and then you’re turned out on your own to face the world without their support, and how the fuck are you supposed to live like that, to figure out how to live your life in the face of that, to meaningfully be a fulfilled person in that situation, especially in a time, when, no, mom, I can’t pay a college tuition on a waitress salary like you did back in the fucking nineties, you c--t,

Even though they have an extra bed in their basement and a perfectly good couch and plenty of space for another bed besides, and a vegetable garden, and a kitchen, and all these other middle-class petty bougie niceties, the Graves mom says, “sorry, we can’t keep helping you,” and. And. I read all this, and I think,

“I understand why Ashley wants to fucking flay these people. I understand why she wants to K1!L them.”

I cannot tell you how much catharsis the ending of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley episode 2 gave me. I cannot convey the weight of my gratitude that someone out there validated my anger and my specific fucked up power fantasy with their art. I didn’t even ask them to. I probably would’ve eventually done it on my own. But I’m so glad that someone did it for me.

If I ever hypothetically meet Nemlei, somehow, and have some cash, I will happily buy them a drink. Hopefully, by paying this excellent game’s ten dollar cover price, I already have!

I know you’re not watching this, but on the off chance this reaches your ears, I just wanna say thanks. For giving me a safe, legal, regret-free, socially acceptable, non-violent outlet for the rage I feel towards my parents.

Well.

Mostly socially acceptable.

Meow.

This game is not finished, as you may have noticed if you’ve gone to check it out on Steam. It ends on an ambiguous and open note, but in my opinion, a perfectly satisfying one. Nemlei could disappear absolutely, never release the proper ending of this game, and never make another game again, and I would not be mad. I've already got more than my money’s worth and then some. So. Yeah. I’m happy. Count me as happy!

I kinda wanna start talking a bit more about the branches of the second episode. I wanna say how it’s a brilliant idea to have two separate story arcs for the two variations of this episode’s ending, and how I hope that that’s executed on as beautifully as the rest of the game already is. I wanna talk about the ways in which Andrew and Ashley’s mom is ambiguously humanized despite being so obviously terrible. I wanna talk about the dialogue Andrew does when his parents offer him a chance to make amends, and he has doubts, if you choose to let him have them, and how I would probably also have doubts in his position, and not be able to follow through without my lovely evil cannibal sister pushing me towards… the thing. I wanna talk about this line, where Ashley talks about why she likes eating people, and how it’s so equal parts poetic and macabre and edgy bullshit and that that’s such a beautifully balanced cocktail of emotion to nail and Nemlei totally fucking nails it

I WANT TO GUSH FOREVER. ABOUT THIS GAME. AND I WANT NO ONE TO STOP ME.

Alas, I will stop myself.

And move on to the elephant in the room!

THE FUCKING.

Mom: “But that-.... That doesn’t make any sense.” Mom: “Why would you not-......” Mom: “Ah, I get it.” Andrew: “..........??” Mom: “You fuck her.” Andrew: “Wha— HUUUUH?!?!!?” Mom: “Oh that is disgusting! Andrew, she’s your sister for god’s sake!” Andrew: “I haven’t done anything!? What the hell, mom!?” Mom: “Then what does she give you that makes it worth all this?” Andrew: “W-well that’s none of your business, is it??” Mom: “I knew something was off… How did I fuck up so bad? I’m the worst mother ever..!” Andrew: “No! I mean yes you are, but I have never—!” Ashley: “I’m baaaa-ack!!!” Andrew: “Now of all times!?” Ashley: “I got the money! Did you miss me, handsome?? Did you? Did you??” Mom: “...........................” Andrew: “(I WANT TO DIE!!!!!!)”

Okay. So. I said I didn’t want to talk about this. But I’m talking about this game. I can’t not talk about it.

Yep, it’s hot takes and drama time!

So, not too long ago, Nemlei deleted their Twitter, their Itch.io, their everything, their entire online presence. The Steam page for The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, which used to list Nemlei as the developer and publisher, now lists “Kit9 Studio.” It is the only game to their name on the platform. A community forum post from said entity known as Kit9 announces that “the developer” (no name given) “has decided to permanently and completely terminate their activities online from here on.”

I don’t know exactly what happened, or why they did this. There’s a lot of people around who sure think they know. But in brief, as neutrally as possible: Nemlei, or someone close to them, was doxxed, or at least sought out as a doxxing target, by one or multiple users of an online forum. Their supposed crime? Making a video game “for degenerates.”

I don’t know who did the doxxing. I don’t know what their motive was, and for my own sanity, I am not going to look. I am choosing not to care. The most important and most obvious fact at hand here is that Nemlei’s creation has been met with controversy amongst social media users, and about one or two hack video game outrage journalists, who seem to have nothing better to do or say. And it seems clear that the doxxing wouldn’t have happened had they not been met with this negative attention. And all because of this.

Not the cannibalism, not the parricide, not the demon sacrifices. No, um, the one implied sex scene.

And it doesn’t even actually happen! It’s just a premonition of a possible future event that Ashley and Andrew supernaturally receive. It’s not particularly graphic, it doesn’t yet go anywhere, and it’s a short scene on an optional route that the game actively forewarns you about. You have to be trying to see it on purpose.

Well, that’s all true. It is indeed a minor and avoidable scene, and the discourse about it has absolutely poisoned the well when it comes to the conversation about the game. But also, “uhh, it’s optional and not a big thing,” is inadequate as a defense. This is still content in the game that Nemlei actively chose to put in the game, and even discounting this, the themes of incest are all over the game. Ashley speaks flirtatiously to Andrew at basically every turn. Even if you avoid this specific scene, the incest themes are not something you’re going to just not notice, if you’re paying attention to the text.

All that being said, it’s not like this content comes as a surprise. The Coffin of Andy and Leyley’s Steam store page accurately represents the product! A brother and sister. Codependency and cannibalism. It’s not as if you don’t know what you’re paying for and choosing to play. You came here for this! Most of the people playing this are here for this! You have to figure that if they are fine with killing and eating people, they’re probably fine with fucking each other, or, eventually possibly eventually going to be, at least.

So you’d think, except that many people seem to unironically believe that the cannibalism is more moral than the incest.

Oh, god, I’m doing this right now, aren’t I.

So, I get it. While I’m pretty skeptical of the notion that cannibalism is not as bad as incest, I do realize that incest is, at the very least, the more taboo of these things, and that a lot of people are more uncomfortable with it than they are with the cannibalism and the murder. To quote the one positive and in-depth review available in any media outlet at the time of this writing, from Destructoid:

“This aspect is undoubtedly the most controversial element about The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, and I understand why. While cannibalism is a taboo subject, it’s present in mainstream games like Fallout as an option for players. Having incestuous themes crosses over into Drakengard territory, and even then, no option allows Caim to reciprocate Furiae’s feelings for him.”

"The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is horrifying and I can’t get enough of it" Andrea Gonzalez, Destructoid, November 12 2023

So, yeah, I. y’know. Get it. I know why. However.

I can point to a lot of things that Andrew and Ashley do wrong in this game. They are, as per the game’s premise, very not okay, not as individuals, and not together. Andrew is way too attached to Ashley, and Ashley is generally an awful person who is way too attached herself, and also, all too quick on the draw to take advantage of Andrew’s attachment to her to make him do what she wants. This is not a healthy relationship. And we’re here for it! It’s compelling!

But, I think it’s worth asking why it’s such a toxic dynamic. Is it because they’re siblings? Well, not really. It’s a dynamic that’s specifically possible with them being siblings, but it’s not because of their sibling connection.

The actual reason why Andrew and Ashley’s relationship turns abusive isn’t because their relationship is abusive by necessity or nature, but because Ashley abuses their relationship. And she is doing this for basically the whole game. Like, it is abusive the whole time. It doesn’t become abusive when their relationship takes its romantic turn. Does it become more abusive? I mean. Maybe. Maybe the romance exacerbates the abuse. I dunno, we’ll have to wait and see what the next episode says.

So, then, why is the notion of them possibly in the future having sex the elephant in the room here, when before that, they do so many objectively worse things that cause much more harm both to themselves and others? Is that really so much more of a bigger deal than the murder and the people eating?

Or. To phrase it Ashley’s way. You played a game about mutilating and eating your parents’ corpses, and getting laid is what you’re freaking out about?

Is the incest really that much more extreme, or are you just more disgusted with it?

And even if you are more disgusted with it. Even if we grant that it is, actually, somehow, more harmful for siblings to have sex with each other, than to do murder and cannibalism. Is this the hill you’re dying on? What you’ve decided is of such utmost importance and injustice that you decide to go harass some random indie dev who just wants to make a silly video game about a couple of siblings eating people?

Does it truly make sense to let your kneejerk moral disgust guide you to the conclusion that the creator of this game deserves to be persecuted for merely writing about and drawing a thing you don’t like?

Well, to answer that, we have to get into the question of whether or not “immoral fiction” is harmful, or “normalizing” things that are wrong. Does fictionally depicting an immoral action actually cause harm?

I could dance around in circles for a little while about the edge cases, and certain writers who are publishing bad or hateful material in bad faith, or fascist propaganda, which is of course always bad, or whatever other example I could use to qualify my point or list out an exception to appease the people who disagree with me, but, I’ll just cut right to the chase, and tell you the answer

No!

The answer is NO!

The thing about taboos is that they don’t make us more safe. They don’t protect us from bad things. All they do is protect people’s comfort by silencing people they don’t want to understand, and enable bad actors by keeping their victims in the dark, and denying them the ability to talk about it.

The only thing we end up doing by censoring stories about these uncomfortable topics, and making it socially unacceptable to talk about them, is make it harder to know. We deny ourselves knowledge. We deny ourselves a conversation about these subjects, we deny ourselves the ability to meaningfully understand them. We deny ourselves power, what little we have, as readers, to understand, and to critique, to reason.

There’s a tumblr post I really like. Well, a number of them, I really like, on this topic, but I’m picking this one, because it’s got a quote I really like. It talks about Lolita. That Lolita. And, now, I’ve never read Lolita, at least not yet. Lolita is a novel about child sexual abuse, told from the perspective of an abuser. It’s an uncomfortable book with an uncomfortable topic, and it’s not wrong to be uncomfortable with it. The author of this post acknowledges that.

But they talk about it. They talk about how it shines a light on its subject matter. The why and the how of abusers and their actions. The ways in which their victims suffer. How it shows all of this in a way that it only could from the perspective it takes. And, I’m just going to quote them. I can’t do anything else. They said it better than I could, right now.

“Embrace disgusting fiction and then fucking talk about why it’s nasty. Now YOU have the power over reality.” - tumblr user legsdemandias

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley has been ridiculed, joked about, hot taked on, made a target, drama-ed over, and so on, but it’s hardly been criticized. No one I’ve seen admitting to not liking it talks critically about why it’s disgusting to them, or tries to understand why it exists, or what it’s for. And this is most people’s reaction to most media that deals seriously with anything taboo. “I don’t get it. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t exist. Get it away from me.”

I’m annoyed that the medium, the art form, of video games, is valued so little by so many that this is the wide reaction when something like this gets popular. That the mainstream games journalism media ridicules it, and the creator gets threatened by an internet mob, and it falls on the weirdos and the freaks and the no-name YouTube uwu girls, to give it the serious consideration and recognition it deserves.

To summarize, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is, in my opinion, a very good video game, and on its behalf, I am mad at video games.

Now, go on. You made it through this video. I told you the plot! You can probably stomach the plot! So go, go. Shoo. Go buy Nemlei a drink. If you want to.

Or, buy us, the joystick system, a drink! You can do that at patreon dot com slash joycestick, or, ko-fi dot com slash joycestick. You can buy us drinks in both of those places.

I’ve been Audrey. Thank you for listening.

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[personostient]

Btw if tumblr really does shit itself, idk where else to post ✌️ I'll take suggestions, let me know where everyone is hanging out. (Except bsky I'm already there)