#Game Dev Story
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Well which is it
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I started playing Game Dev Story for some mindless fun after a brain destroying week at work.
And seriously, some of the āBizarreā genre and style combinations Iāve came up this weekend (according to my poor game) Iām foaming at the mouth for someone to make!
I promise, weāve had culture defining mixes that made less sense on paper until some mad lads brought them to life!
My current favorite is āArchitecture RPG.ā
Iām serious.
Thereās a reason the Freemasons were a thing.
Mostly, trying to make things like this:
Centuries before cars, let alone computer engineering, were a thing.
Throw in things like self-healing concreteā¦
youtube
Yes, that is literal alchemy.
Throw in the tiniest bit of magic, and I see a delightful two-party RPG concept.
Basically, your protag is a contract (aka traveling) mason who accidentally unlocks things that shouldnāt have been found.
In order to stop the end of the world, your epic crew must travel the known world to repair lost sacred sites. You need to manage a party of masons and a party of defenders for the travel, finding secrets and power boosts for both elements through research, combat, and plunder.
Tell me that wouldnāt be glorious!!!
#game dev story#video game design#video game idea#ancient architecture rpg#stone masonry#fantasy setting#just#imagine the wealth of ruin designs#that can be recreated before your eyes#Youtube
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Happy one year anniversary to In Stars and Time!
#ISAT#in stars and time#siffrin#loop#I truly mean it when I say that this was the best game I have played since Disco Elysium.#It pulls off some of the best examples of Ludonarritive Harmony in a video game...possibly ever?#Not to mention just...wow. What a great story. What a tale of twists and introspection. What a tale about the need for home and connection#I know many of you have trusted me before with media recommendations. Trust me one more time.#Do you want to experience the torment of being in a timeloop? And *still* have fun and feel like your time is being respected?#PLAY IN STARS AND TIME!#Do you yearn for complex characters and love unravelling mysteries? PLAY IN STARS AND TIME!!!!#Please heed the content warnings; I took them a little too lightly on my playthrough! They are there for a reason! Don't be like me!#This game means a lot to me and so many others. On the small chance the dev sees this (they are on tumblr after all):#Thank you so much for all your hard work in creating this game and seeing the project through.#It has been a year for us fans but many years for you. So thank you!#I hope it has been a joyful year for you! Watching as people descend into shrieks of agony from playing your game.#It's good! It made me vomit blood. I had so much fun! I felt like I was torturing the protagonist when I played it. I loved it! I cried.
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The whole Mooneye team and Kyle Banks were some really busy bees in the last few weeks and worked very hard to get our fluffy friend Chesley ready for his big debut!
So with excitement we are happy to finally be able to say the magic words:
š„³ FAREWELL NORTH IS OUT NOW! š„³
Restore color to the desolate islands of Farewell North, an atmospheric journey where you play as a border collie on an adventure with your human. Explore land and sea, uncover hidden paths and free wildlife to bring color back to her world, while revealing an emotional story about saying farewell. ---
Itās been quite a journey for us too and we are so happy that we can finally share this wonderful project with everybody. We canāt wait to hear from your experiences and thoughts and we really hope youāll enjoy this wholesome, yet emotional adventure with Chesley and Cailey š¾
Ah, and if you played the game, please consider leaving a review on Steam since it supports the game and everybody who worked on it tremendously ā¤ļø
#GOOD BOI GAME IS HERE#indiegame#indiedev#farewell north#gaming#wholesomegame#thank you so much for all the support we received so far ā¤ļø#and a big applause to the dev Kyle Banks for creating such a wonderful and beautiful game#with a story that made me ugly cry even after the 10th playtest run
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i really donāt think itās ātypical dragon age fandom nonsenseā for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing thatās remained constant are nods to our previous choices.
i wasnāt expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i canāt find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldnāt have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? youāre gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldnāt have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? youāre saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.
#dragon age#yes iāve seen john eplerās explanation on only wanting to carry forward choices that they could āreally do something with.ā#and i understand what heās saying and iām curious to see how those 3 choices they brought forward will impact the story!!#but iām still disappointed. and i think telling people why they shouldnāt be disappointed is just gonna make them More disappointed.#also donāt really appreciate dev comments like ācareful what you wish for with cameos. it just gives us an excuse to find new and horrific#ways to kill your faves teehee š¤š¤ā like okay???????? what???#alistair came back twice & could be fine both times. loghainās inquisition cameo was so meaningful because who the hell expected to see him#again? leliana can straight up die in origins and yall brought her back anyways. like what are we doing out here.#also when i think of ātypicalā nonsense for this fandom itās people doxxing each other over fictional character opinions. or what#fictional side your fictional inquistor took in the fictional mage-templar war. or just plain old racism.#NOT ādamn itās fucking upsetting that this excited replay iāve been doing of the previous games and all the recommending iāve been doing#for new fans to play the other games before veilguard has turned out to be pretty fucking pointless.ā#might as well tell someone to watch a letās play of trespasser and thatās it.#11/26 in a hater mood so iām turning rbs back on lol. go forth & be petty
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The Free Cheese Episode 511: Return to the Dungeon
This week on The Free Cheese, how many eggs? As we close out the month of June, we discuss our Game of the Year so far and share updates on what weāre looking most forward to playing in the remaining months. We return to some segments from Season 10 with a theme that keeps everything tied to our games for this month.
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#Billy Hatcher and the giant egg#demo disc#game dev story#game of the year#game of the year so far#goty 2023#nba street#theatrhythm final bar line#this or that#trivia dungeon#windjammers 2
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DEMO (prologue) | my substack (for free, non-IF writing), KOFI šš Circus : Eyes of God is a horror interactive fiction story with dark fantastical elements. It is written with an 18+ audience in mind due to heavy themes and topics such as body horror, non consensual use of drugs, swearing, violence, sexual content etc.
The Circus doesnāt come in town often. Never, really. Only when it needs to be fed.
On the outskirts of a decaying town, a mysterious circus arrives overnight. It seductively whispers of never-seen-before acts, and ardently promises healing for those that are desperate enough to bind themselves to the Circus as performers.
That sounds right up your alley, doesnāt it? Well, They know what happened to you as a child, why you keep your face hidden from the world. You remember too, donāt you? The darkness, the shadows, a voice as old as time asking you to follow it, and clawing at your face when you refused.
They think that you have kept your sweet face hidden under those veils for long enough. They will heal you, they will heal your scars. They will let you take the veils off. But They wonāt do it out of the kindness of Their heart, no. You must give Them something in return. They want to knowāwhat are you willing to sacrifice for it, for taking your veils off? For healing? For beauty?
You just need to whisper it, and They will give it to you. They will know. Because the Eyes of God are always watching.
Customizable MC (including name, gender, pronouns, sexuality, physical appearance, personality etc).
Create relationships with one of three eclectic characters : one male, one female, one ā¦ fish? mermaid? siren? oh, come on!
Hone your contortionist skills to perfection. Remember, you have to put on a good show! Otherwise, They will have to pay you a visit.
Lots of uncanny masks and always-smiling faces, too many mirrors, and ā¦ wait, is that guy juggling with an eyeball?
Discover the secret of the Circus and the secret of your childhood incident. Could they be connected?
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THE RINGLEADER ā Pharo's face is the first one you see as you step inside the Circus, lit by bright and colorful lights. He doesn't need all that, though. His skin dark, his teeth sharp ā it's all gleaming on its own, glitching, barely holding Pharo at the seams. He sees all, he knows all. And his smile gets wider and wider with each secret he learns.
THE BURLESQUE DANCER - Odessa's red lips, with a cigarette between them always, ache with demands every time she opens her mouth. Yet no one is able to keep their eyes off of her when she is on stage, moving like water on land and between thin and hanging fabrics. Odessa doesn't seem keen on talking about anything before the Circus, but she will make sure to get you talking about it soon enough.
THE ATTRACTION - Vesper is the newest addition to the Circus, one that has never been seen before. Or you haven't seen anything like it, at least. Vesper is quiet, almost unnervingly so. The tail and gills and twisted arms with sickly green-grey skin are to make a profitable attraction for sure. Just ... don't ever lift up its tank's lid.
ros details.
#interactive fiction#interactive novel#interactive story#interactive game#if game#choose your own adventure#twine game#twine if#twine wip#twine interactive fiction#twine story#horror#horror writing#if wip#dev blog#circus : eyes of god
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Guys I know I havent done comics in like 3 years or something but.
I got the biggest inspiration to draw a Fionna and Cake comic about Simon and the Winter King and uhhh
It's already 24 pages strong.
#cqchat#adventure time#fionna and cake#its gonna be a one off story I promise and its nearly finished but#I didnt expect Fionna and Cake to be the show to get me to do some fancomics again#once I'm finished drawing it I'll start coloring it to post#i love doing my game dev stuff but it was nice to go back to comics for a lil bit
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NEW UPDATE IS OUT!
IāM FREE! FREEEEEE! 32 MOSTLY UNIQUE VARIATIONS OF INTIMATE SCENESĀ DONE!
Clears throat
So, like stated above, the update is out! Iāll leave a list of patch notes, but this is majorly a bigger one for Alzarez and Lance romancers. The Lance extra storyĀ āMovie and DessertāĀ is being released with this update. You will need to replay the game. Iām sorry about that. BUT itās because I added in new variables to the train scene so that stuff said there could possibly be brought up in this new scene! Reactivity, yay!
Along with that, youāll get to read Alvarezās flashback scene which is theĀ actualĀ end of Chapter 4. Along with a lot of little goodies. All in all, there was aboutā¦ 44k-45k words added into this update? 40k of them areĀ entirely optionalĀ andĀ only happen if you choose to hang out with Lance after Alvarezās flashback scene scene.
Not gonna lie, 1 variation in I was confident it would take two weeks. 8 variations in I was a bit tired but still energized to get this scene done.Ā 16 variations in I had to step away for a couple of days to not let my brain melt.Ā By the time I hit mid-twenties in variation for this scene, I was finding myself thinking that it just. wasnāt. worth it.
I have no idea if Iāll make the other intimate scenes this branching. It was honestly aĀ lotĀ of work. Like,Ā a lot, it it was so fatiguing after a while, but I knew I had to get it done. ITās also the reason I paused my patreon this month, because it wouldnāt be fair to charge people for something that theyāre not getting early as promised in the rewards. This took way longer than I thought, so I wanted to just release it to everyone at once.
I do hope you guys enjoy it, and without further ado, here are the patch notes for this update.
Stay Brilliant, -Vi
Patch Notes:
āMovie and DessertāĀ Lance Extra Scene is finished.
Alvarez Flashback scene is finished.
Added a Text Box Investigation Tab in the Stats Screen.
You are now able to toggle between Text Box Investigations and regular choice script gameplay for TBI sequences.
You can now view the Text Box Investigation tutorial at any time via the stats screen.
Removed the Text Box Investigation Tutorial from chapter 4.
Added an option in the beginning of the game to Fade To Black during intimate scenes.
You can now pick asexual and aromantic as separate options, and they are not tied to each other.
Grammar edits and fixes (thank you to all who report them).
š”ļøPatreon | Forum Page | Demo Linkš”ļø
#interactive fiction#the bureau#writing#interactive novel#wip#work in progress#original story#choicescript#carter lance#harper lance#kris alvarez#kristina alvarez#books and reading#reading#interactive games#indie author#indie dev#indie game#cyoa game#cyoa#original game#original character
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THE ENTIRE DRAGON AGE AMA IS A DUMPSTER FIRE
They avoided all the high-rated questions with genuine criticism (not blind hate!) and went for questions that were safer and allowed them more leeway. After that awful IGN article and that treatment of Davrin...God, just put it down. I have no faith that BioWare will be able to continue Dragon Age or Mass Effect with the respect it deserves.
Edit - They had an opportunity for genuine discussion with fans who were concerned/unhappy with the way Veilguard was -> people unhappy with the story, the marketing, the lack of 'RP' options in an RPG, etc... Instead they just doubled-down even more, avoiding those critical questions, with no real acknowledgement that fans have very reasonable problems with this game.
Some Highlights & My Initial Ramblings Below:
The Executors
"They attempt to manipulate events in the most subtle way they can manage."
So, very clear that they're not simply observers of what is happening in Thedas: they're manipulators...
"Magical Illuminati Confirmed! Lizard People Did 9:30 Dragon!!!!"
All that complexity of character -> his hatred of Orlais, his experience as a general, his relationship with Cailain, and the influence of Howe...all diminished. Any influence from a shadow cabal is too much influence - all the humanity of Loghain's choices/consequences...God, what a waste.
Not to mention what this does to other events/characters in the series -> they imply they've been intervening as far back as the magisters breaking into the golden city. I do not find this compelling! At all!
2. Solas and the Executors
Oh my god, he sounds like such a fucking Mary-Sue I'm so sick of Solas at this point -> "Actually, I know more about the Executors than anyone alive - not even the rest of the Gods know as much as me."
("I'm also, like, an Ancient Elven God, I'm responsible for the Blight and the Veil, and I kind of locked the Gods away cause they were evil - but, like, I'm really sad about it. Also the Herald of Andraste thinks I'm cute <3")
<- Previous comments: massive oversimplification, obviously
But I miss the days when not everything was about Solas. It removes so much interest and wonder in this world when the fucking egg is behind it all. I loved him as a character in DAI and now I just feel this bone deep tiredness when I see his stupid face.
Don't you dare threaten to bring Gareth David-Lloyd back -> keep him away from this mess!
3. The Fate of the Rest of the Evanuris
Yay. I'm so looking forwards to "The Return of the Elves: Electric Boogaloo 2" - it was done so well the first time!
"It was the elves all along!"
The only character with any potential to be interesting is Andruil*, but how they handled all this lore was done so shallowly and so poorly that I find it hard to give a damn anymore. Not to mention that the game literally mentions Ghilan'nain mourning Andruil - so is this a retcon/redirection/or have you confirmed that one of the most interesting members of the Evanuris' is dead?
*interesting in that she's established in lore to potentially have a tonne of really cool things attached to her (the void armour, the great weapon she has etc...). The rest of the evanuris are nowhere near as well established as she is.
4. Southern Thedas, Sociopolitical Issues, and Future Games
NOW YOU WANT TO INCORPORATE GEO-POLITCAL EXPLORATION?? You avoided any meaningful discussion like the plague in DATV but now you're acknowledging it?? OkaY. okAy.
They couldn't even give us the long-term ramifications of the mage/templar war how the hell am I supposed to believe that they will be able to pull off 'elven gods are real' etc...? For a game series that totes : your choices matter -> they have not proven that they have been able to show that in a meaningful way. They literally cleaned the slate with this game to avoid doing that.
So, what, does that mean that the Veil is never going to come down now? Or are you going to have the entirety of Thedas build themselves up again just to have the Veil fall and send things into chaos once more?
What a fatalistic, miserable outcome for Thedas -> why the fuck would anyone bother to live in Thedas if you're going to keep throwing meteorites at them? By all means, change/conflict has to happen for the series to move forwards...but this is just so miserable at this point.
(The Elder Scrolls, at least, gives people room to breathe between crisis' or sets them up in different areas of the world! Bethesda treats past installments/your decisions with greater respect than DATV does.)
Even, then, if the Veil remains up, that means that the spirits are just trapped in the Fade being miserable for the rest of existence. The entire series has been humanizing spirits, from Justice to Cole, and now they're just throwing in the towel? I guess they can stay in the fade now! Problem solved!
What do you mean the Evanuris are not a threat anymore? IN A PREVIOUS QUESTION YOU LITERALLY SAID SOME ARE STILL POTENTIALLY KICKING AROUND THE BLACK CITY?
Weakened, sure, but Solas was 'weak' in DAI. You're giving yourself an out if you decide to go back to the elves again. Please do, I'd love more content on how the elves alone fuck everything up!
5. More Southern Thedas, the Chantry, and Tevinter
Thanks for the confirmation that things in the South are so fucked up that they have to work alongside the 'Slave Capital' of the known world to rebuild!
Slavery was one of the biggest things that caused a rift between the north/south chantry system -> one of the reasons why there were exalted marches -> a uniting belief in the south is that slavery is fucked. They didn't address slavery in DATV - what hopes are there that they will do so effectively in a future game?
Don't tell me that Dorian fixes everything off screen either -> either he solves slavery off-screen or the south is being forced to work the slaver-capitol because their land is nuked and they have no ground to stand on.
I'm so thrilled.
6. Solas and the Idol / The Blight
I will never get over Solas fucking curing the Blight off-screen and no one asking questions/giving a shit. Hello?? The Hero of Ferelden would like a word with you???
So the Blight is calcified in Minrathous, at least, but everywhere further away is still fucked! Once more, the South is doomed to suffer from the long-term effects that regular blights have -> not to mention the red lyrium (which still exists according to the AMA) across the south.
I don't care; it's lame. It's a lame way to conclude the blight and I hate it. This game did not earn 'cure the blight from thedas' at all. You could have had us learn how to soothe a titan and see how that can diminish the blight but you did it this way.
Another 'magical ritual' because Solas has such a good track record with them lmao.
7. The Agents of Fen'Harel / The War with the Qun / The Crows
Turned him against the idea of being a leader???!!
Fen'harel's Call to the Elven People After the events at the Winter Palace, elves left the Inquisition under mysterious circumstances, as did elven servants across Thedas. None could say where they went, but those who believed the Inquisitor's story about Fen'Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf's forces were... and what the ancient elven rebel had planned. This is from the Trespasser Epilogue, Epler!
Your concept art for Joplin literally had him as a leader of a faction of elves. Just be honest that it's a retcon and you changed course - don't try to save face with this reasoning.
About the Antaam: "We needed some big mindless bad guys to fight and so we did this because we didn't want to address the Qunari War/Invasion we set up in Trespasser".
You had to canonize Sten as being alive and Arishok in order for this reasoning to work -> you didn't even come up with an alternative Arishok to take Sten's place.
Yeah, the exchange that set up the Crows we see in the game as "idealists" did not make the game. I can confirm that!
I'm sorry, "Caterina kept Illario in check?" as in, 'kept him an idealist and not the usual Crow'? The woman that beat him with a cane and starved him and his cousin to train them as Crows. Fuck off.
lmao -> tell me you're coming up with this on the spot without telling me that you're coming up with this on the spot.
8. World State Discrepancies - Isabela
Outright ignores the very real criticism about the marketing from this game and World States.
"there are absolutely places where we unintentionally suggested there was a hard canon (...that Isabela is always assumed to have joined Hawke's party.)"
Unintentional?
Excuse me, you have her talk about Merrill and the Kirkwall Crew as family - that was not unintentional in the slightest. Not to mention Sten, Blackwall, Sera, and Cole are canonized as being part of your world state no matter what.
You had a story you wanted to tell - one that only fit a few world states - and you went ahead with it and disregarded those choices. Don't try and lie about this all being a big misunderstanding.
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Edit - They could have taken the opportunity to address the very reasonable criticisms that people had with this game but they cherry-picked questions and avoided/minimized anything remotely critical.
They could have provided us some insight into the game development time but each time they approached the topic they settled for "we're happy with what we delivered and it was well optimized."
They had an opportunity to acknowledge that people were bothered by the handling of the lore/stories (to potentially mention they could course-correct/ rethink their plans) but instead they doubled down on everything that they did and even 'justified' some decisions. They doubled down on the Executors, Solas's changing motivations, the destruction of Southern Thedas, and the elves/Solas being at the heart of everything etc...
This AMA basically confirmed that the only reason they did what they did to the south was for a reset -> It's not a compelling or fulfilling narrative to have everything we've done reset back to ground zero off-screen. BioWare games differentiate themselves from other RPG's by their import system from previous games - it was compelling and exciting! With DATV they set the expectation that BioWare can outright throw out entire games worth of choices/build up, not solely retcon them.
Justifying your choice to water down the lore/world of your story by saying you'll address it in the 'next game' does not instill me with confidence, BioWare! It doesn't explain that lack of it in this game either!
They avoided every question that, rightfully so, pointed out the misleading comments made by devs in the pre-order period of the game:
the fact that there were only 3 imported choices from previous games was leaked by a reviewer -> BioWare was vague from the start about choices
that this game was the most 'romantic' in the series
that world states/ headcanons wouldn't be disrespected
that there are 'lore' reasons for bad darkspawn design
that there are lasting, impactful choices/consequences to be made in this game
that the lore/world was not watered or toned down
that companions are deep and you can disagree with them etc...
BioWare's behavior towards their customers in the lead up period to this games release was downright scummy. I absolutely felt misled after playing the game for myself and recalling what I read in interviews put out. While EA is undoubtedly poison, you can't hold them solely accountable for this.
I feel for the individual developers who worked on this in what was undoubtedly a toxic environment from EA - but I feel that it's pretty clear that BioWare itself has a lot of problems within and in their leadership/executives. Working for EA does not give them an excuse to mislead their customers.
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I already had a very grim outlook on the franchise from the end of DATV but this literally look my interest out the back and sent it to God. What a disaster.
#what a dumpster fire#I thought it would be bad but not this bad#that IGN interview was awful too - how did anyone think it would help their public perception???#the lore and story has absolutely been ruined by the game#epler i will never forgive you for your godawful take on davrin - absolutely gross#does bioware's pr office hate them? is this some internal fuckery?? lmao#I'll have to edit my lore post because this makes everything worse than what I thought it was#its just such a grim way to end the series - with everything blighted and ruined#obviously don't attack devs! I'm not wishing for them to be harassed or anything - bioware as a studio is not in a good place imo#if you like it then I'm glad but this series is going in a direction that has absolutely no appeal to me :/#this game feels like it punishes me for caring about the world they created#edit - my bafflement has died down and I can add some more critical thoughts about what they could have taken this AMA opportunity to do#I've loved this series for around 12-13 years now and its just sad that its ending this way for me :(#datv spoilers#datv critical#dragon age the veilguard#bioware critical#veilguard critical
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Splatoon 3: Side Order is good, but not great. I still highly recommend it, but if you care about the story, you're going to be disappointed. Quick review: spoilers ahead.
Side Order was the devs experimenting with Splatoon's gameplay loop. The campaign is a rogue-like, and it works amazingly well. Super fun, super challenging, building my deck and fighting through challenges with the stakes of resetting really scratched an itch in my brain. They did a great job with it.
Unfortunately, I feel like priority went to game design rather than story. Much of the mysterious artwork we saw in the first teaser trailer was completely unused; turns out, all of that was just concept art that never made it into the final product. Side Order failed to make me care about what was happening. I don't know why the protagonist had to be Agent 8; it could've been anyone else and the story would've worked the same.
Octo Expansion was the absolute peak of meshing story and gameplay. The campaign's hook is insanely strong; we immediately empathize with Agent 8 because we know from previous lore that octolings like her have been trapped underground for all their lives. We care about her fight to the surface because it's a fundamentally ideological fight for freedom. The plot stuff about Tartar and the Thangs is just nice set dressing; 8's fight for freedom is the real story.
There's none of that in Side Order. I don't particularly care about Marina's metaverse, even if it's tied to Octo Expansion's story. I don't know why Acht is there other than backstory stuff. It really feels like 8 is just told to do something and she does it because she's the protagonist; she has zero personal stakes or motivations in the conflict. This is a story blunder the devs did in Splatoon 3's default campaignāāforgetting to give the protagonist a personal reason to fightāāthat I hoped would be fixed here, but alas.
What makes it worse is that the gameplay and story progression are completely out of sync. I beat the entire game on my third run in 4 hours. With each run, you get up to two keys to potentially unlock bits of story. That means you'll get about one piece of the story every two runs. There are twelve pieces of the story; I got the first and then beat the whole damn game. Now I have to go back and grind to see the remaining story when I've already beaten the final boss and resolved the conflict. I missed the entire story because I never had to reset because I blazed through the gameplay! It's just a real shame that I experienced everything without knowing... why it's happening. The final boss had me asking myself what the hell is going on because I don't know the backstory at all.
Again, I still really recommend. The devs did a great job, but Side Order remains in the shadow of Octo Expansion's incredible success. Like the default singleplayer campaign, there's just a lot of lost story potential here that, while not necessary, would have really elevated this DLC into something amazing.
#long#personal#rant#splatoon#side order#it's a shame too because I got SO FUCKING HYPED at the title drop#when I realized that the entire first 30 minutes of the game was JUST THE OPENING TUTORIAL and they hit you with the music#and the ānintendo presentsā and the title drop to a slow mo explosion. I thought āholy shit this is gonna be hugeā#alas it wasn't because it turns out i'm better at roguelikes than the devs anticipated so i beat it in 3 hours lol#octo expansion was a cultural reset. it did something to my brain. the entire rising action part of the story; the reveals the twists the#boss fights the upward climb. it was so incredibly hype and just upped the stakes over and over. nothing's come close
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*sigh* thoughts on Nintendo's botw/totk timeline shenanigans and tomfoolery?
tbh. my maybe-unpopular opinion is that the timeline is only important when a game's place on the timeline seriously informs the way their narrative progresses. the problem is that before botw we almost NEVER got games where it didn't matter. it matters for skyward sword because it's the beginning, and it matters for tp/ww/alttp (and their respective sequels) because the choices the hero of time makes explicitly inform the narrative of those games in one way or another. it matters which timeline we're in for those games because these cycles we're seeing are close enough to oot's cycle that they're still feeling the effects of his choices. botw, however, takes place at minimum 10 thousand years after oot, so its place on the timeline actually functionally means nothing. botw is completely divorced from the hero of time & his story, so what he does is a nonissue in the context of botw link and zelda's story. thus, which timeline botw happens in is a nonissue. honestly I kind of liked the idea that it happened in all of them. i think there's a cool idea of inevitability that can be played with there. but the point is that the timeline exists to enhance and fill in the lore of games that need it, and botw/totk don't really need it because the devs finally realized they could make a game without the hero of time in it.
#i really do have a love-hate relationship with this timeline#because it's FASCINATING lore. genuinely. and i think it carries over the themes of certain games REALLY well#but i also think it's indicative of a trend in loz's writing that has REALLY annoyed me for a long time#which is this intense need to cling to oot#and on a certain level i get it. that was your most successful game probably ever. and it was an AMAZING game.#and i think there's definitely some corporate profit maximization tied up in this too--oot was an insane commercial success therefore you'r#not allowed to make new games we need you to just remake oot forever and ever#and that really annoys me because it makes certain games feel disjointed at best and barely-coherent at worst.#i think the best zelda games on the market are the ones where the devs were allowed to really push what they were working with#oot. majora. botw. hell i'd even put minish cap in there#these are games that don't quite follow what was the standard zelda gameplay at their time of release. they were experimental in some way#whether that be with graphics or puzzle mechanics or open-world or the gameplay premise in its entirety. there's something NEW there#and because the devs of those games were given that level of freedom the gameplay really enforces the narrative. everything feels complete#and designed to work together. as opposed to gameplay that feels disjointed or fights against story beats. you know??#so I think that the willingness to allow botw and totk to exist independently from the timeline is good at the very least from a developmen#standpoint because it implies a willingness to. stop making shitty oot remakes and let developers do something interesting.#and yes i do very much fear that the next 20 years of zelda will be shitty BOTW remakes now#in which botw link appears and undergoes the most insane character assassination youve ever seen in your life#but im trying to be optimistic here. if botw/totk can exist outside the timeline then we may no longer be stuck in the remake death loop#and i'm taking eow as a good sign (so far) that we're out of the death loop!! because that game looks NOTHING like botw or oot.#fingers crossed!!#anyway sorry for the game dev rant but tldr timeline good except when it's bad#asks#zelda analysis
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The Narrativium Update Has Arrived!
Retcon the narrative to your heart's content in the latest update to...
Dear Diary, We Created a Plot Hole! is written as a love letter to all the kids-at-heart out there, whoād like to revisit their childhood and reimagine it as one big fantasy adventure.
If you like episodic shows and stories with a deeper overarching narrative, then this story is just for you!
š ćPlay it here!ć š
~ 608,000 total wordcount (including code) ~ 99,000 additional words (including code) ~ New average playthrough of 129,000 words! (up from 115k)
14 New Secrets/Variations to Discover, 25 New Trinkets to collect, 9 New Sidequests, 4 New Achievements!
6 New Character Traits, 12 New Ancestry Passives, 2 New Phobias, 4 New Status Effects!
Revamped Heritage Passives!
Retcon the narrative and your choices with the new Narrativium Points mechanic!
Revamped Health & Intimidation Stats, Traits and EXP System!
Revamped Chapter 1 Twin Fight Scene!
Added new Sleepover Branch!
Updated bestfriend scenes!
Crush sidequests can now be declined!
You can now change what your MC calls certain characters via the diary!
Added more backstory details about MC's dad, and you can now choose his home country if MC is Half-Filipino!
Increased save slots to 20!
New and improved gender and pronoun options!
Updated diary entries!
Updated content warnings to include themes that will appear in future chapters!
Fixed missing background music!
Tons of new choices, edits, adjustments, and additional flavor text/variations/characterization details!
Roselyna is now approximately 20% more huggable!
The Trinkets & Secrets Guide has also been updated!
If you encounter any errors, or have any questions or feedback, feel free to send me an ask. The complete change log for the update is almost 400 lines long, so I hope it was worth the wait! š
#dear diary we created a plot hole#ddwcaph#ddwcaph updates#if#if wip#if game#interactive fiction#interactive novel#interactive story#amare#amare game#amare dev#choicescript#dashingdon
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PSA: if you've ever wanted to play an indie game made with unity, download it before january 1st 2024 or risk losing your chance! (for a list of unity games, i found this. can't say if it's completely comprehensive but it's a start)
if you're a game dev or aspiring game dev, i would check out unreal engine. it's widely documented, pretty easy to jump into, and free until you make over $1 million and then they take 5% above that- so if you made $1,000,001, epic games takes 5 cents. epic is a big corporation so they could pull some bullshit but it's less likely. and they have protection from future bullshittery if you stay with the current or older versions. beyond that, there are a ton of other free game engines out there or engines that are on the cheaper side (game maker for ex, only requires payment on export and is the game engine used for undertale/deltarune). so if you can help it, don't waste your time on unity!
and above all: fuck unity. indie games are so important and don't deserve to be fucked over by corporate greed
#failog#unity#game dev#indie games are the heart and soul of game dev as an art imo (even the bad ones) since they aren't held back by AAA suits#you make what you want to make how you want to make it to tell whatever story you want to tell (or no story who cares)#and unity taking away people's ability to do that is so evil
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Adventures in Clairune is out!
If you want to:
Bully a dragon lord
Flirt with an elf
Trust an assassin
And most importantly romance them!! With perks such as:
he/she/they option for players
6 endings (good and bad for each love interest)
A 1 hour playtime (roughly)
Pretty art style & good music
FREEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
So go play my first vn! (I was inspired by the arcana and y'all might like this too :3)
#otome jam#romance#visual novel#indie otome#indie games#english otome#romance game#dating sim#the arcana#indie#indie dev#indie game dev#medieval#fantasy#yaoi game#queer#nonbinary representation#trans representation#lgbtq#interactive fiction#free game#itch.io#video games#cosy games#cosy fantasy#my first post#my first story#adventures in clairune#otome#otome game
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