#Game Dev Story

[silver-shortage-in-markarth]

Well which is it

[babyspacebatclone]

I started playing Game Dev Story for some mindless fun after a brain destroying week at work.

And seriously, some of the “Bizarre” genre and style combinations I’ve came up this weekend (according to my poor game) I’m foaming at the mouth for someone to make!

I promise, we’ve had culture defining mixes that made less sense on paper until some mad lads brought them to life!

My current favorite is “Architecture RPG.”

I’m serious.

There’s 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 concrete…

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 shouldn’t 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 wouldn’t be glorious!!!

[doodle-girl]

Fuckin nice

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars and Time!

[mooneyestudios]

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:

🥳 FAREWELL NORTH IS OUT NOW! 🥳

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. ---

It’s been quite a journey for us too and we are so happy that we can finally share this wonderful project with everybody. We can’t wait to hear from your experiences and thoughts and we really hope you’ll enjoy this wholesome, yet emotional adventure with Chesley and Cailey 🐾

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 ❤️

[spitedemon]

i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” 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 that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.

i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.

[thefreecheese]

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 we’re 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.

[circuseyesofgod-if]

DEMO (prologue) | my substack (for free, non-IF writing), KOFI 🎈🎠 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 doesn’t 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, doesn’t it? Well, They know what happened to you as a child, why you keep your face hidden from the world. You remember too, don’t 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 won’t do it out of the kindness of Their heart, no. You must give Them something in return. They want to know—what 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 … 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 … 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?

H̸̬̖͔̮̻͉̪̲̾̌̋̽̿̾̿̕͘E̴̯̥͕̓A̸̡̺̳̮̫̬͊̀̉̑́̈ͅL̷̡̡̛̺̄̈́̽̈́̎̀̋ ̶̢͎̪̘̹̱͊̔́͜Ḫ̷̩̼͚̤͂Ḗ̸̙̰̭̲͖̯̪̝̬̯̉̎̈́A̷̖͙͎̘̱̣͇̱̒̄̅̅͘L̸͔̟̮̣͘ ̸̛̫͎͇͚͚̪͇̞̋͌̆͠͝ͅH̴̛͚́̔̀̕Ẹ̶̣͙̪̖̀͆̅̍̉̋͆̃̚͠A̶̱̙̽̂͐͑̑͜L̴̛̖͌̀̆̈́̓̏̉

THE RINGLEADER — 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 — 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.

[loverofpiggies]

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.

[morbethgames]

NEW UPDATE IS OUT!

I’M FREE! FREEEEEE! 32 MOSTLY UNIQUE VARIATIONS OF INTIMATE SCENES DONE!

Clears throat

So, like stated above, the update is out! I’ll leave a list of patch notes, but this is majorly a bigger one for Alzarez and Lance romancers. The Lance extra story “Movie and Dessert” is being released with this update. You will need to replay the game. I’m sorry about that. BUT it’s 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, you’ll get to read Alvarez’s flashback scene which is the actual end of Chapter 4. Along with a lot of little goodies. All in all, there was about… 44k-45k words added into this update? 40k of them are entirely optional and only happen if you choose to hang out with Lance after Alvarez’s 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. 16 variations in I had to step away for a couple of days to not let my brain melt. By the time I hit mid-twenties in variation for this scene, I was finding myself thinking that it just. wasn’t. worth it.

I have no idea if I’ll make the other intimate scenes this branching. It was honestly a lot of work. Like, a lot, it it was so fatiguing after a while, but I knew I had to get it done. IT’s also the reason I paused my patreon this month, because it wouldn’t be fair to charge people for something that they’re 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:

“Movie and Dessert” 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).

🛡️Patreon | Forum Page | Demo Link🛡️

[bixels]

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 campaign––forgetting to give the protagonist a personal reason to fight––that 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.

[blueskittlesart]

*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.

[ddwcaph-game]

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, who’d 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!

🌌 【Play it here!】 🌌

~ 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! 😊

[ebethtumbls]

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

[rexanesolo]

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)

[rosesrotofficial]

Happy Halloween! Are you ready for the Killer Chat! Halloween Special? ;)

HOW DO SERIAL KILLERS SPEND HALLOWEEN?

TOGETHER... OF COURSE.

It's October 31st, 2023. Angel's overworking herself when Ronin knock-knock-knocks his crowbar against her door. V's landed in Japan for a charity event and Misaki is begging him to meet them for real.

Whatever happens... no one's dying tonight. Right?

It's bound to be a special Halloween.

FEATURING...

Two original short stories about the Killer Chat main cast and their Halloween! 

Two beautiful art pieces by Killer Chat's CG artist @munstxr illustrating the story's events... featuring the serial killers in costume! 

MADE BY...

rosesrot - Writer

munstxr - Artist

This book is a DLC of Killer Chat!, a dating sim where you date serial killers on the dark web! 

Download the short stories for free now!