Mama Void survived COVID and immediately put Zayne in elf ears and wedding leathers. Meanwhile, Nikki Tea unlocked a floral mini-game addiction that is pure Tetris on caffeine. And Carter? Still vicious in the basement.

It's Zayne's birthday, so of course we had to talk the card and potential lore and OMG IS SOMETHING BAD GOING TO HAPPEN TO HIS PARENTS?! 

Mama had some thoughts on Sylus’s Promise card, and your two chaotic besties have praise, slander, and lore crumbs to unpack.

Love this chaos? Hit subscribe to power our sub sprint and join Memberships for the unhinged after-show, early access, and to keep Carter exactly where he belongs. Super Chats and members keep Illusio funded and the raccoons fed.

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Mama Void Returns From the COVID Dimension!!

• 00:44 - Contagious For Two Weeks & Big Sun Propaganda

• 01:31 - Switching To Zayne's Birthday (Elf Ear Upgrade In Progress)

• 02:37 - Snowdaddy Unlocked: The Fae Deer God

• 06:16 - Playing Doctor Deep Dive & The Parents We'd Die For

• 08:21 - Waiting For The Angst To Hit (4 AM on Discord)

• 08:50 - Corporate Nikki, Blunt Wrappers & “Corpantasy”

• 14:40 - World Building, Candy Store & Hansel and Gretel Moment

• 23:40 - Competency Kink vs Murder Kink

• 26:19 - Myth Wishlist: Grim Reaper, Jekyll & Hyde, Dorian Gray & Poe

• 32:16 - Sylus Promise Card: Mystery Alpha & Vault Heist Chaos

• 40:16 - Nikki's New Addiction: Floral Mini-Game Is Tetris On Coke

• 43:48 - Oh, That’s How the New Anecdotes Work

• 48:13 - Carter Is Being Vicious: 490 Pulls, Hard Pity & Budget Copium

• 56:03 - Video Game Day, Hot Cross Buns & Bakery Plans

• 58:45 - Why We Started Love and Chickspace + Final Height Verdict

• 01:01:09 - Takeover With Our Small Army

–

Music provided by Chillhop Music

Shin-Ski - In Your Arms

https://chll.to/299a28b3

Mama's got the “‘vid,” Nikki's got the solo banner… and the chaos is still fully scheduled.

Game Dev Battle Girlie is holding down the sacred couch solo for a live-recorded Love and Chickspace takeover. No co-host, no filter, just Zaddy, spreadsheets, and industry tea.

Inside this special Nikki Tea solo banner:

• Zayne's Birthday Event live walkthrough: cake prep, Dawnbreaker plushie?!, mini-games, and which shop outfits are actually worth your currency

• Carter in the Basement strategy: why Nikki never pulls in the first 3 days

• Spreadsheets, baby! With a LADS revenue deep dive: why China carried last month, why downloads keep sliding, and is revenue actually down or just moved to web stores + resellers?

• Voice Acting 101: SAG-AFTRA union blocks, solo booth sessions, and freelance life really work (and why your fave can voice three boyfriends in one day)

This is the edited podcast version of the live stream — live chat interaction + Q&A will drop as a separate clip.

Chapters

• 00:00 — Welcome to Nikki's Solo Banner (Mama's sick)

• 01:05 — What's on deck tonight

• 02:12 — Zayne's Birthday Event — Live Walkthrough

• 10:15 — Carter's Casino: Pull Strategy & Precise Wish

• 15:05 — Revenue Deep Dive: Is 2026 Really the Weakest Year?

• 24:08 — Voice Acting Tea: Sessions, Schedules & Freelance Realities

• 32:20 — Member Love, What's Next & Get Well Soon Mama Void

Love the chaos? Keep us unhinged:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts — it pushes the podcast to more Hunters

We miss you, Mama Void!! Get well soon. And to you, my dear raccoons, thank you for holding down this timeline with us.

–

Sources:

Revenue from: https://revenue.ennead.cc/games/love-and-deepspace

–

Music provided by Chillhop Music

Shin-Ski - In Your Arms

https://chll.to/299a28b3

One year. Zero adult supervision. Still no apologies.

It's officially been a year since we lost our jobs and accidentally became podcasters — and somehow, you're still here. Thank you, genuinely. Now let's get unhinged.

This month's live is a full year of chaos, gacha brainrot, and emotional damage packed into one episode. We rank the best and worst banners (there IS a correct answer, and it's not the wedding ones), rage at Carter's recent RNG crimes, debate whether "Romantasy" is a real genre or just marketing hallucination, and Mama Void unveils her custom Fae Caleb while Nikki asks the questions that get us demonetized.

In this episode:

• 00:00 — Happy one-year anniversary, baby

• 03:09 — Gym stories gone sideways (form correction is NOT a love language)

• 10:35 — A year of inside jokes: turpentine, jiggle physics, and that poor koala

• 17:16 — Mama Void's Fae Caleb customization deep dive

• 24:21 — The Promise card clothing logistics we simply cannot forgive

• 38:15 — Favorite and least favorite banners (a ranking, and a threat)

• 1:00:48 — Carter's been acting up and we have receipts

• 1:04:24 — Myth events: epic saga or beautiful grind?

• 1:08:13 — Our favorite quotes and recurring bits of year one

• 1:14:25 — National Big Boobs Day and other essential calendar updates

• 1:16:16 — A real thank you, and where we go next

If you've been riding with us through a year of this, you're basically family — the feral raccoon voidling kind. Join our memberships for the After Dark special this Thursday, because the best of us doesn't fit in a clean description.

--

Music provided by Chillhop Music

Shin-Ski - In Your Arms

https://chll.to/299a28b3

This week the girls turned a Martial God into a hair debate, a karaoke brawl, and a seven-hour sob session — sometimes all at once. Mama Void got hard-pitied for the good of the group, Nikki Tea has adopted a six-legged horse named Sleipnir, and Zayne should never be trusted with a Long Island Iced Tea…

Grab your tissues and your wallet: inside we've got the new Suppression combat mechanic broken down, the real reason those outfits are priced to make your brain glitch, and the fourth-myth design pattern that proves Infold planned these boys further out than you think.

Plus — Gamescom survival intel: Infold's hall, the level-60 giveaway rule, and why Nikki keeps telling you to wear good walking shoes.

Timestamps below, friends. For the lore drops that never touch the public feed — the abacus debate, the sacred couch offcuts, the Carter-in-the-Basement support group — join the membership and come unhinge with us on Discord.

📖 Chapters

0:00 — Millennial Mode & 84 Years of Gacha Longevity 

2:38 — The Myth/Wuxia Hair Debate: Every Boy, Ranked 

5:29 — The Fourth Myth Design Pattern: They Planned These Boys Ahead 

9:16 — Karaoke Night with the Boys: Enter Sandman Zayne 

14:49 — Gacha Confessions: Hard Pity, Budget Cuts & Torn Clothing 

17:51 — The 7-Hour Sob Stream: Why This Myth Broke Mama Void at the end

22:11 — The Myth Tier List: Sea God, Netherlord & Silverwing 

25:16 — Sylus Lore: Death Is a Nap, Grandpa Is a GILF 

29:00 — Clothing Logistics: Bathrobes, Capes & the Sleipnir Incident 

45:37 — Outfit Pricing: The Psychology of Your Empty Wallet 

55:20 — Combat 101: Suppression, Visage & Becoming the Martial God 

1:02:54 — Gamescom Intel: Infold, Hall 9 & the Level 60 Rule for their Giveaway 

1:09:08 — Unhinged Sign-Off: A History of Women Who Poison

Music provided by Chillhop Music

Shin-Ski - In Your Arms

https://chll.to/299a28b3

This episode Nikki Tea opens with her question of Caleb’s appeal to the Apple Girlies in context of the Summer Surge event and why Caleb only has 5 Yellow Stellas.. After that, Mama Void breaks down the Martial Ode leak from the Google store and go to actual war over whether Rafayel is a divine general commanding armies or a quiet assassin who works better in the shadows. Somewhere in there we also cover gacha pull chaos, Mama Void's neglected home garden, and a formal ruling on who is banned from the in-game kitchen…(you can guess).Also, super important: are any of the boys left-handed? It’ll make sense…If you are new here: we are two chaotic besties who have been arguing about games for 25+ years and we are absolutely not going to stop. Subscribe or become a Member (#KeepNikki!). You belong here.Chapters0:00 – Cold open: "gate of hell" bit, layoffs, industry chaos 4:51 – Streamelements acquired by Razer — industry talk 10:49 – Caleb's Summer Surge card pull & event breakdown 14:25 – Card analysis: nostalgia, memory-keeping, "bridge over" theme 20:09 – Card art breakdown: outfit/pose, mall-photography bit 29:09 – Gacha pull chaos (Zayne cockblock saga) 30:40 – Event pull rewards & end-date reminder 31:44 – Kitty counter tokens / Meowcos expiration 33:25 – Home check-in: plushies & neglected plants 38:57 – Cooking mechanics & who's banned from the kitchen 41:35 – Rafayel's Martial Ode leak breakdown 51:34 – The debate: general vs. assassin 56:52 – Curveball theory: is MC the "martial ode"? 1:09:14 – Sylus left-handed theory 1:11:11 – Unhinged Sign-offMusic provided by Chillhop MusicShin-Ski - In Your Armshttps://chll.to/299a28b3

Bit of a serious one this week once you get past the Bulgarian Split Squat discussion…Anyway, Nikki, our griseled 20-year gaming industry vet, breaks down what's REALLY happening behind the Love and Deepspace new Caleb card backlash and Valko, and why "Caleb's the scapegoat" is a misread of how live service games actually work. From the Rafayel Google leak to Infold's Infinity Nikki 1.5 disaster (that Infold seems to have learned only a tiny bit from) to the hard revenue numbers (now with pictures!), this is the insider explainer the fandom needed.

Additionally, Nikki slaps on her marketing hat to help #BringBackValko and talk through this critical stretch that any boycott movement is about to face — and how not to have it backfire in the community, which is exactly what some corporations are counting on.

Finally, Mama brings the gentle parenting we all need. Group hug, people.

Timestamps: 

00:00 – Cold open: gym chaos & "quivering thighs" 

06:30 – Setting the vibe: Nikki's got game dev notes and big feelings 

12:00 – The Caleb card drops post-Valko: why the community exploded 

13:30 – Live Service Games 101: what you signed up for 

15:20 – Game dev timelines & why "going gold" doesn't exist anymore 

17:30 – Inside the content pipeline: 9+ months before a card ever ships 

22:30 – The Valko pull, the QA scramble, and how the Rafayel leak really happened 

27:00 – Infinity Nikki case study: Infold's history of dropping the ball 

32:00 – The "cascade of dominoes" 

34:50 – Did the message land? Consumer impact, explained 

36:00 – The actual revenue numbers: LADS' worst month ever 

38:50 – Hashtag walls = message fatigue & the boomerang effect - how to keep the Valko Movement alive

45:00 – Boycott life cycles & vanishing impetus 

47:00 – The fix for boycott fatigue

49:20 – Bad faith actors & why moderators crack down 

51:40 – Protecting your mental health & knowing when to step back 

53:00 – Being an informed consumer: crunch culture, empathy & realistic timelines 

1:06:45 – International Cat Day, "Catleb," and the unhinged sign-off

Music provided by Chillhop MusicShin-Ski - In Your Armshttps://chll.to/299a28b3

We're back! Xavier started it with the red cabbage juice. Zayne finished it by making Mama Void completely fall apart twice in one episode. This is fine. Everything is fine.

THIS WEEK IN THE CHAOS:We review our fabulous bestie, Syer’s, first playthrough of LADS and has officially been dragged into Love and Deepspace; he is now one of us. We walk through his entire first-impression breakdown of the game: the genre-bending madness of a title that is simultaneously an otome, a visual novel, a battle system, AND an idle economy, why the NPCs are not fluffers (this is important), his immediate read on Nero that sent both of us into orbit, and a game dev perspective on the monetization HUD that honestly made Nikki Tea emotional.

THEN: Mama Void has Finished World Underneath Chapter 30 and we are not okay. Xavier's mom's letter is a weapon and we are filing a formal complaint with Carter in the Basement.THEN THEN: we define Healed Masculinity. Formally. With evidence. Zayne and Sylus are Exhibit A and B respectively and we are not taking questions at this time.

AND THEN THEN THEN! The Zayne memory card double feature nobody was prepared for. Framed Dusk gives us Zayne's parents as accidental wingmen, a vintage DSLR, Sunset Town, and the most quietly devastating line about memories versus feelings. Then Your Voice absolutely detonates Mama Void live on mic — she was emotionally recovering and the card did not care. She was not ready. Nikki Tea however has Thoughts about silence, domesticity, and Zayne's hearing loss as intentional storytelling and this conversation goes somewhere genuinely beautiful. Really…

ALSO: We had the manscaping discourse. It happened. Zayne threads. Sylus waxes. We stand by this. Caleb built a laser and that tracks completely….PLUS: The MC face debate — character vs. reader insert — gets a real, thoughtful breakdown including accessibility and voiced dialogue. And we close on National Cheesecake Day because of course we do.

If you are new here: we are two chaotic besties who have been arguing about games for 25 years and we are absolutely not going to stop. Follow! You belong here.⏱️ Chapters00:00 - Cold Open: Xavier and the Red Cabbage Juice Incident02:50 - Sylus's Body Chain and Decorating the Dorito03:50 - Mama Void Has Finished World Underneath Ch. 30 (Emotional Damage)06:00 - Introducing Syer: Our Guest Is One of Us Now08:00 - Syer's First Impressions: This Game Has HOW Many Genres?09:30 - The NPCs Are Not Fluffers (This Is Very Important)14:00 - Syer's Current Progress: No Spoilers, Maximum Suffering16:40 - Zayne's Early Voice and the Slow Burn Character Build18:20 - Defining Healed Masculinity: What It Actually Means20:00 - Sylus and Zayne as the Case Studies (Evidence Presented)22:00 - Syer and Nikki Nerd Out Over the Monetization25:30 - Zayne's New Memory Cards: Your Voice & Framed Dusk28:30 - The Vintage DSLR, Sunset Town, and You're a Classic Honey30:30 - Memories vs. Feelings: The Quiet Line That Ruined Us32:30 - Aesthetics, Social Media, and Permission to Be Cringe33:00 - The Manscaping Discourse39:00 - The Squeaky Toy GPS in Zayne's Car41:00 - Neither Silent Nor a Poem: Mama Void Was NOT Prepared for Your Voice45:00 - Blackout to Back Out: A Formal Review45:30 - Nikki Tea's Read: Silence, Hearing Loss, and Intentional Storytelling49:00 - Zayne's Control and Domestic Intimacy as Character Writing51:00 - The MC Face Debate: Character vs. Reader Insert56:00 - Voiced MC Lines, Accessibility, and the Default Image Problem1:01:38 - Member Thank Yous and Stacey's PR Department Appreciation1:03:00 - Unhinged Sign-Off: World Friendship Day & National Cheesecake Day--Music provided by Chillhop MusicShin-Ski - In Your Armshttps://chll.to/299a28b3

Before Carter had a name, before we had models, and before we fully understood what we were doing with microphones, there was this episode.

This is a replay of the very first Love and Deepspace episode from Love and Chickspace, with a new introduction and outro for the current channel. Inside, Nikki and Mama Void discuss the beach event, character memories, battle optimization, gacha store mechanics, pack-buying strategy, spending decisions, and why we had strong opinions about the Promise rerun.

You’ll also hear the earliest appearance of Carter in the Basement, (the gacha algorithm living rent-free in our heads), the Doc, the Crow, and the Holy Step Bro, Mama’s Starting Affinity Count, Crane Game Origins, and Spreadsheets.If you’re new here, this is a slightly chaotic look at where the channel began. If you’ve been around for a while, tell us what surprised you most about our first episode and which early opinions have aged the best—or the worst :3.

Chapters00:00 Episode Replay Introduction 01:23 Welcome to Love and Deepspace 02:01 The Affinity Count 03:02 The Beach Event and the Bonnets 03:49 Mama Void Reveals Her Bias 05:54 Nikki Tea’s Game Industry Background 09:02 Beach Event Details 11:31 The Promise Rerun Debate 12:26 Beach Event Memories 13:40 Mephisto vs. the Seagulls 14:47 Caleb’s Paraglide 15:25 Rafayel’s Blue Flames 16:06 Zayne’s Angst 16:34 Game Mechanics and Story Progression 19:33 The Unicorn Missions 20:20 Naming the Birds 23:32 Sapphire Voyage Minigame 25:36 More Bonnet Discussion 26:47 How Gacha Stores Work 31:03 The Cost of Fully Ranking Cards 32:32 Mobile Game Development and Player Psychology 34:26 Strategic Spending 37:15 Pack-Purchase Strategy 40:27 Budgeting and Responsible Spending 42:30 The Pulling Experience 45:34 Is the Promise Rerun Worth It? 50:58 Developer Feedback and Price Points 52:53 Bonnets and Community Memes 55:18 Overall Event Thoughts 56:59 Crane Games and Japan 59:16 Rafayel’s Fashion Sense 1:02:18 Replay Outro

This week we accidentally became academics.

THIS WEEK:

Nikki breaks down clickbait as an engineered system—from the Curiosity Gap to the Valence Arousal Dominance Model—and then walks through Renée DiResta's "bespoke realities" theory and why the Love and Deepspace community is quietly fracturing into splintered realities where people genuinely can't agree on what's true.

Professor Void dives into the Wander in Wonder banner and does not let us leave. We are talking Wuxia, Xianxia, and Xuanhuan as distinct Chinese fantasy genres, the historical weight behind all those hot outfits.

Don’t worry, there’s some diphallia in there, too…

CHAPTERS:

00:00 - Cold Open: Binx Demands His Tribute!!

01:03 - Community Corner: 180 Requests & Member Appreciation

07:50 - Upcoming Streams & What You're All Requesting

10:00 - Game Update: Stashing the Scarf (The QoL Win We Needed)

12:00 - Topic 1: Clickbait Is a Weapon — Let's Talk About It

17:00 - Defining Clickbait: Merriam Webster & Facebook Weigh In

19:00 - The Curiosity Gap: Why Your Brain Cannot Resist

20:20 - The Valence Arousal Dominance Model (Clickbait Engineering)

22:20 - Dopamine Loops, Gacha, and the Reward Anticipation Problem

23:40 - The Virality Research: Awe, Anger, and Anxiety Win Every Time

25:00 - How Algorithms Amplify Outrage (Whether You Want It or Not)

28:20 - Bespoke Realities: You and Your Bestie Are Living in Different Worlds

33:50 - Clickbait Conclusions & How to Actually Protect Your Feed

36:00 - Topic 2: Wander in Wonder Banner — A Full Mythology Breakdown

38:00 - Chinese Fantasy 101: Wuxia vs. Xianxia vs. Xuanhuan

41:30 - Xavier's Outfit: The Cloud Collar (Yunjian) & What It Signals

43:50 - Zayne's Outfit: Hanfu, Dragon Embroidery, and the Weight of Jade

46:50 - Rafayel's Outfit: Dunhuang Buddhist Art and the Apsara Aesthetic

50:00 - Sylus's Outfit: Mongolian Ceremonial Aesthetics & Bökh Culture

53:00 - Zayne's Card: Jade Carving, Calligraphy, and Losing Control

58:00 - Rafayel's Lore: The Jiaoren (Chinese Merfolk) — This Changes Everything

1:05:30 - Sylus's Lore: Yao Spirits, the White Snake, and Grassland Romance

1:12:20 - Unhinged Sign-Off: National Baked Bean Month (You Had to Be There)--

Music provided by Chillhop MusicShin-Ski - In Your Armshttps://chll.to/299a28b3

– Additional Sources are available in the YouTube Episode description due to lack of space!

Nikki is 13 days post-surgery, can't wear glasses, and is identifying the boys by their abs alone…which is honestly more functional than Infold's crisis PR strategy right now. This week, we’re actually doing a pretty serious episode and breaking down exactly what crisis PR is, how companies choose between silence, denial, and actually owning their mess, and why Infold's current spiral around Valko is a case study happening in real time. 

Then Nikki puts on her Game-Dev-Battling-the-Man Girlie hat and walks through four specific, measurable ways you can make a company feel your displeasure without quitting the game you love—including the one metric that terrifies them more than a review bomb.

Finally, get some gentle parenting with Mama to soothe your soul.

If you've ever wondered what actually happens inside a company when a fandom ignites, this is the episode.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 — Nikki is gaming sans glasses and identifying men by silhouette alone 

03:39 — Mama Void validates your feelings and offers a cat boy to pet 

09:52 — What even IS crisis PR? (And why legal just took marketing's lunch money) 

11:25 — Marketing vs PR: the distinction that explains everything 

14:41 — The three paths every company faces in a crisis (say nothing, own it, deny it) 

26:00 — The Oscars 2017 envelope disaster: a masterclass in owning it fast 

32:41 — Infold's crisis PR autopsy: what they did right, what they did late, and what's still unfolding 

39:30 — BilliBilliWorld withdrawal, Summer Date cancellation, and the language of escalation 

42:20 — The 54% iOS revenue drop in four days (real numbers, real consequences) 

47:00 — Four ways to hit a company where it actually hurts — without uninstalling 

49:15 — Strategy 1: Stop spending. Keep playing. Watch ARPPU panic. 

52:00 — Strategy 2: Review bombing that sticks (write the essay, not the rage) 

54:30 — Strategy 3: Customer service emails that trigger churn-risk reports 

56:45 — Strategy 4: Refunds framed honestly (and why platform standing risk matters) 

59:00 — What crisis PR ending actually looks like — and why Infold isn't there yet

1:05:00 — The Least Unhinged Sign-Off We’ve Ever Done

–

Music provided by Chillhop Music

Shin-Ski - In Your Arms

https://chll.to/299a28b3