also this morning i'm thinking about the nuances of the -mania and -philia suffixes. why they seem to be used interchangeably despite their subtly differing definitions. -philia for an obsessive love for or at least infatuation with the activity or thing (often, but not exclusively, expressed through the carnal and erotic), -mania for an obsession with the thrill that interacting with it produces. is it that, say, a pyromaniac and a pyrophiliac would be functionally indistinguishable on a surface-level basis, so there just isn't much point in splitting hairs over the distinction?
The whole Deltarune situation is fascinating because usually what happens with indie game developers is they try to do the Big Passion Project that's been brewing in the back of their brain for the last twenty years as their very first major undertaking – and if they're extremely lucky, they don't burn themselves out in the process! – but Toby Fox didn't do that.
Instead, he deliberately started with a much more modest game that was essentially a scaled down AU version of the Big Passion Project, mostly as a way of teaching himself the ins and outs of game development, with no real expectation of broad appeal, but then that practice project proved to be immensely popular.
So basically what we're seeing now is what happens when an indie dev is able to approach their Big Passion Project – the one that most indie devs burn their brains out trying to tackle solo – with access to a team and a budget, and, um, well
I have to confess that the results are thus far a little concerning!