#anyways all the more reason for me to get into gamedev so i can make my OWN indie fire emblem. with gay nonbinary space furries or whatever
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taffywabbit · 1 year ago
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me: i wish someone other than intsys would make a good tactical RPG with Fire Emblem-style gameplay for me to enjoy
studio: look we made a cool new tactical RPG that fans of strategy games like Fire Emblem will enjoy
me: is the gameplay Final Fantasy Tactics or Advance Wars
studio: it's a good tactical RPG ma'am. fans of strategy games like Fire Emblem will enjoy it :)
me: *plays 20 minutes of it*
(it's FF Tactics or Advance Wars)
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crazysodomite · 5 months ago
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i study gamedev and today's lecture was on the origins of the stealth genre... got to nerd out about constantine's mansion 😁 i mostly know abt the series from watching a friend play thru the first game but it was still very heartwarming to see it discussed! i have special permission from my prof to help and edit his presentations for future students (bc im a game history n genre nerd) and given ur the resident tumblr thief expert in my eyes, i wanted to ask what interesting facts should we mention abt the series' mechanics and their influence on the genre? what would a true thief fan like to not be overlooked in the genre wide discussion? sorry if it's a confusing question, i just like hearing people nerd out either way...
also just seeing u mention it in any context makes me very happy inside, brings back good memories :] did you know the stealth genre started with a prototype game about shoplifting? it then got bought by taito and turned into the 1980 lupin iii game!
umm i feel like im too doopid to really do thief and its mechanics justice... i dont think im a thief expert just a thief fan... i haven't played a lot of other stealth games except thief so it's hard for me to judge and compare!
one of my favorite analysis videos on thief from a person who just uploaded this banger and was never seen again...
i think nowadays the 'safe bet' is to not create anything too difficult or challenging for the player, sometimes rudimentary stealth mechanics are included to 'be an option' but stealth as an actual genre is pretty dead right now.
it's hard to imagine a game being created nowadays focused mostly on stealth, with complex mechanics and large sprawling levels without a minimap and objective marker pointing you where to go.
i think a lot of these things can be accessibility features or just things developers include to avoid player frustration. after all someone is probably going to get upset and quit the game if they spend hours walking around the map not understanding where they're supposed to go.
but in the end the levels themselves should be constructed to be able to be navigated without objective markers and minimaps. for example i rarely even look at the included map when im completing a thief level because i just kinda expect to complete the level and figure out what to do simply by exploring, listening to conversations, reading notes, paying attention to the environment, etc. though i do really appreciate being able to see which room i'm currently in on the map like in thief 2...
and i'm not even gonna lie i looked up guides for certain levels in thief because i couldn't figure out what to do, but i would rather have this point of frustration instead of a game i can just turn my brain off and press buttons at random to complete, that doesn't respect my intelligence at all. and thief games are far from perfect, especially since the devs were rushed and the company ended up going bankrupt, that's why its especially sad to not see any real thief successors or even an actual demand for a good stealth gaming experience.
there's a reason the community around thief is still going strong, developing FMs, discussing the game, creating huge campaigns, porting the game mechanics to a newer engine, etc. if the skeleton of thief wasn't good enough to warrant such a long lifespan none of that would happen! thief is so good, despite being a game literally older than me, that people would prefer to play a thief fm instead of whatever 'stealth mechanics' the newest AAA game cooked up. anyways heres my santances i hope you like them.
i would love for mechanics introduced in thief to be built upon with newer technology. for example more robust dynamic light mechanics like those introduced in deadly shadows (not pushed far enough sadly... but the possibilities are so exciting) as well as more robust audio and various other improvements that could be made if there was actual interest in stealth games anymore... i mean hell a lot of people who made FMs for thief went on to make other games (dishonored) but then those games still don't really hit like thief does.
okay im just gonna highlight some points bc i genuinely do not possess the capability to write in english. gets scared
I think an interesting comparison can be made between the light gem from thief and like, the 'detection meter' some games with 'stealth mechanics' have nowadays. What does the light gem do? It shows which light level you're currently in. There is predictability and consistency in how enemies react to you at different light levels. Your Actual Skill matters, not what perks you chose on the progression tree or what 'stealth skill' you used on your character. If you're at the lowest 'hidden' light level you are basically safe from enemies unless they walk into you and you can plan your next movement, if you're in a higher light level you need to pay close attention to enemies to not get spotted. Can you actually play the game without the light gem? I think yes, since your detection is mostly sound-based cues, and the light gem simply gives the player concrete information to play better and get predictable, skill based results. The 'detection meter' is there because most games don't really have light/shadow mechanics or robust stealth-based enemy AI. You need to visually show the player they've been spotted because in most games the sound design is not catered to stealth and you won't hear an enemy seeing you, or the level design is constructed in a way where you will be spotted by someone looking at you from across the map and not understand where that came from, etc. Frankly in most games you're not even put in situations where you can weave your way around enemies, follow them, sneak around them, etc. You can either press a button to knock them out from behind, or you 'discover' a passage that allows you to bypass all enemies since stealthing 'on the ground' is literally not possible because of the AI that like, spots you based on proximity and nothing else. Or there's like, a meter that goes up the longer you stay around the enemy before they spot you, etc.... You don't feel like you make your own stealthy way, using the tools and circumstances you've been given, and instead you just 'discover' the pre-determined 'stealthy way' intended by the devs.
Sound. I probably can't even name a game where sound matters more than in thief. Sound information is as important as visual information in thief. You can tell which specific level of alertness an enemy has simply by their voicelines. Different floor materials make different sound levels (which may not be super realistic, but it's a sacrifice thief makes for the sake of gameplay), different speeds you move at make different levels of sound, your items and arrows make sound, enemies can use sound to alert each other, etc. An enemy doesn't need to see you to be alerted, and you can hear how many enemies are in a room, what direction they are coming from, and if it's safe to come out of a room based on sound proximity. Also you can press your ear against a door to listen. I genuinely can't name another game that utilizes this.
Okay ummm.... Thief mechanics are robust enough to allow for all kinds of different playing styles. You can use your tools or you can not use any of them at all, you can knock everyone out or go completely undetected by anyone, the thief community makes up their own rulesets for playthroughs not intended by the devs at all, but those are still possible and fun to do.
Stop with the 3rd person view camera. More leaning from a corner and listening to your enemies, less 3rd person camera where you can see enemies while being completely safe and undetected. The first person view is extremely important to thief in my opinion, and adds an incredible amount of immersion. Also, thief never fucking takes away control from you to play an animation or a quick time event!!! It's infuriating when games do that !!!
Even dishonored, a game i actually really enjoyed, is still really lacking in stealth. You spend most of your time perched up on weirdly placed objects above your enemies that make it safe for you to basically teleport from place to place while being undetected by enemies. Dishonored has more of a focus on actually engaging and killing enemies, which imo is really unnecessary. I should actively avoid engaging with enemies in any way in a stealth game. In a perfect stealth game, no enemy sees or hears me at all, while i can still weave around them and pick their pockets, complete all my objectives while exploring a wide map that makes sense and is rewarding to explore, and be able to get out unscathed...
here are my new sentences 😁
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fioras-resolve · 1 year ago
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i'm an hour away from San Francisco, and less than a day away from gdc. the stuff is terrifying to me, and i'm almost scared to go. like, i'll be on my own in a massive conference center, potentially interacting with people a lot better than me at this whole gamedev shtick. it's strange, you know? to a lot of people i've met i *am* the intimidating gamedev, but when i'm in the presence of other devs i'm reminded that i'm a socially awkward loser who probably wouldn't fit in with this whole thing anyway. i mean fuck, i'm going to wear the cat ears, in large part because i'm hoping that gives people an easy in for talking with me. but it can just as easily make me look like a weirdo who's not taking this seriously. and i do take it seriously! i take it very seriously. i take it more seriously than anyone else i know, because goddammit games are my life. my truest love. the constant in my life that makes it all worth it.
and i'm scared, you know? i'm scared that despite how mature i feel of late, i'm still a fuckin kid. and like, i know, okay? i know that "realizing you're still a kid is the mature thing," but it's different, okay? this isn't "humbling." for years, since i was in high school, i've been insecure about fitting in with people older than me. with rare exception, i'm the youngest one in any group, because i've always been doing shit that few others can. and like, look, i know it's not the Correct thing to say, i know that saying that i, angie nyx, have special talents that others don't is entering some real shit territory. i am well aware that despite my obstacles i am still in an immense position of privilege for even being able to make games in the first place. but i haven't come this far, in creating, analyzing, and learning about games to be told that i'm just like anyone else. 
*sigh* i want to have self-respect and self-confidence without being vain, but really sometimes i just wanna tell someone "i know more than you, why are you questioning me?" i'm in a position where i get to talk about games with people in a way where they listen, and i have an obligation to listen to them. and i hate the feeling i get when someone tells me they see me as a standard they need to live up to, because it shows the contradiction of my whole approach to my work. i take this stuff really seriously, i pursue it as a passion like no other, and i hold myself to a high standard, but i also recognize that holding literally anyone else to that standard would be harmful. i've lost friends over this, and only one has come back.
man, i just... i'm pushed all sorts of ways by this. i'm worried that my going to gdc makes me a sellout or an uberdweeb or an ivory tower elitist. but at the same time i'm worried that i'm NOT good enough to even be in this space. i'm choosing to go to this conference because i believe in my craft, because i want to get better, and because gdc talks have been my comfort media for years. there's some part of me, at the core of my being, that thinks this will be a nice and enriching conference where i'll learn a lot and maybe get to network. this is the place i'll go to meet My People. but i'm terrified, you know? i'm scared that all that i've built up is just pretend. i'm even MORE scared that i'll fuck it up somehow by being so autistic. scared that the mask will slip and i'll reveal myself to be a scared cat in a human body. scared that i'll embarrass myself, or make someone uncomfortable. i'm scared that maybe i'm not a real game developer, but someone just cosplaying as one.
man, i just... i wish i could cuddle with someone right now. it's been months since i've seen a partner or even a friend in person. it's been so long since i've had any kind of contact, any kind of warmth or closeness. i wish i was doing that instead of going by myself to a convention full of people i don't know. i'm lonely. i'm scared. the real reason why i wanted a friend to go with me is because that way i wouldn't feel so alone. i'd have someone i could talk to who was right here with me. if things went badly, i'd get support. instead i'm going with my mom, who very openly treats this as a vacation opportunity like any other. she wants to see the sights of san francisco. what i need is someone who i can share a room with and know it's all gonna be okay. god dammit.
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hummingbird-games · 2 years ago
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Dev Diaries
October 1, 2023
My goodness, it's the first devlog post-Crushed release!! How did that happen???
And where the heck has 2023 gone?!?! 🙃
Okay, pausing--for like four seconds--on the sillies, I've got some updates for y'all, so have a seat and get comfy.
Crushed updated build is out!!!
Now with the rest of the partial voice acting!!!
It was a super fun experience with the VA and I giggled a lot to hear the words I wrote spoken into existence. I think the next project I work on with voice work will also be partial. However, I can't imagine doing a whole game with full voice work. I can feel the mental break down from that possibility making its descent....
The postmortem was longer than I anticipated it to be, so it shall be posted separately (and with a read more for your scrolling needs) sometime! I go into (more) details on my inspiration and the process from hesitant idea, to jam entry, to a full-blown game, and all the heartbreak and burnout and catharsis in between!
You can also search 'gamedev rambles' or 'crushed vn' where I've already blabbed about Development Tingz LOL.
2. The HBG Twitter account has been nuked.
Yeah. Apologies if this is how you're finding out about it. I honestly have no idea where my audience is located as y'all are a quiet (but supportive) bunch. But for me as a player, it hurts because many of my peers are only on or are most active on Twitter.
However, me and the bird app have been at odds for a while so I guess it was just a matter of time... 🥲
3. Game Jam Gemini Mode
Alright, time to get serious-serious. (HA!)
While I was Fighting The Good Fight concerning getting Crushed up before the summer ended, I started dropping hints about the next project I wanted to work on with Yuri Jam (and Once Upon A Time jam) coming up.
Well. After giving it some thought, forcing myself to pause long enough to breathe, catching up on personal reading and other things, and again, giving it more thought: nope.
I could ignore this decision which I hate and push on anyway, but the consequences are not ones I want to deal with, nor will I be physically able to handle. (Yes, this is a direct reference to my health lol).
My plan about this time was to start reaching out to people and create a team--given that I banged out a script at lighting speed just so I knew what roles I needed and was prepared. I'm still not sure where that burst of frenzied energy came from, but it's gone now.
And then in between making Crushed live and getting the first voiced update done, I started to feel really weird. Like "Hello, Anxiety My Old Friend" weird. And I kept berating myself for dragging my feet, especially as Yuri Jam (and OUAT) are so 'chill' and 'easy-going' and why was I still freaking out? What was wrong with me???
Anyway, once the last voiced update went live, it hit me how utterly exhausted I was. Still am(?) So it's insane to think I was somehow going to have enough energy to lead a whole ass team to create one more project before the year ends. Even if said project was under 5k words.
Even as I write this saying I'm done, a part of me keeping scheming up ways to make it work.
But I wouldn't be doing it for the right reasons anyway (i.e. feeling like I should participate in more jams because every other developer is and I'm a bad indie dev if I don't, and feeling this desperation to prove I can tell other kinds of stories. ahahahaha)
A L S O I am broke 😂 And money talks louder than anything else!! This was the year--and continues to be the year-- of medical expenses and emergencies so like...gotta recover from that too.
The Knight Dance (my short Yuri idea) shall return, but next year at the earliest. And who knows? It might benefit from me not working on it now. Or that's what I'm telling myself so my brain will chill.
4. Tackling Ko-fi
I keep saying I'm going to start putting content on ko-fi, or posts, or something, and I keep proving to be a liar. That ends soon!
I've been playing around with the idea of adding both content for subs and one-time donators as well as free content, these things all exclusive to ko-fi. So there's an incentive to you guys to visit and an incentive for me to keep up with it.
There's a lot to the world of HSD/Crushed that just didn't make it into the games, and probably won't for a while, and then there are drabbles and longer stories that would be fun to write and share for anyone who's curious.
Okay!!!
In conclusion!!!
Go play Crushed!! Go support some game Kickstarters!! Go support a Pateron/Ko-fi of your fave creator!! Go replay some games!!
And watch this space for the Crushed postmortem and my yearly games & demos wrap up!!
And maaaaaaaybe catch me on the sideblog where I embody the cringe gamer girl I truly am???
~ Gemini
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canmom · 2 years ago
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I'm doing a gamedev course, paid for by Her Majesty's Government, because I guess they think more game developers is more taxes or something. I'll take it lol. Am I going to be come a game developer? Unclear as yet! I'll be as surprised as you. But I need 'money' to 'eat food', I understand, and this is looking like the best bet.
A lot of it is about one big project that I'll be working on over the next ~14 weeks, so I thought maybe people would be interested in what I'm trying to make. Which is THRUST//DOLL, a game about darting and grappling your posthuman shell through hundreds of missiles. You can see some visual inspirations here...
For reasons best known to Past Bryn (ok, it's to learn the tech), I'm trying to do this entire project within Unity's new(ish) Data Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS), which gives you the magic of an Entity Component System, meaning you can shove data in and out of the CPU cache at speeds previously unknown to humanity. DOTS is a paradigm that's supposed to replace the old object-oriented world of GameObjects with something sleek and modern and compiled (using 'Burst', we're still in C# sadly).
So the core idea of ECS is that, instead of storing data on class instances, you put that data in tightly packed arrays of component strcts indexed by the same 'entities', and you iterate over these rapidly with 'systems'. If you've heard of e.g. the Rust game engine Bevy, it's the same idea, just... awkwardly jammed into Unity. (Many other engines are following the same sort of idea).
But... it's had a really rocky history, the API has only just stablised after most of a decade, and half the DOTS-related information you'll find on the internet is plain out of date, and the rest is either a little inscrutable or long video tutorials.
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The first task I've been set by the powers that be at "Mastered" is to make a 'configurator'. The assessment task they had me do to get into the course was also a configurator, I guess someone there really likes configuring things. Anyway, for me that's going to be the character creation screen of THRUST//DOLL, where you swap out bits of your body to get new abilities.
So, have the first of some devlogs where I describe the design decisions I've been making so far. At first all I wanted to do was create a system where there are UI elements that you can click on with a little toggleable circle in the UI that is attached to them. Unity has like three ways of doing everything you can think of, so that involved a lot of digging. Eventually I settled on doing it a fourth way using none of Unity's built-in UI systems, using shader magic.
So I made a noodly looking thing for drawing circles:
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Why shadergraph and not the cool hardcore HLSL text editor way? Because sigh DOTS has a bunch of weird boilerplate I didn't have the energy to figure out. 'Because DOTS has a bunch of weird boilerplate' is gonna be the recurring thing in this story I suspect. Anyway Unity ShaderGraph is almost the same as Blender Material Nodes, except you need to know a little bit about rasterisation. Luckily I made a rasteriser in 2017, so I have a decent understanding of this stuff.
A billboard shader it turns out is hilariously simple. What you basically want to do is have a polygon that matches the rotation of the camera. However, in a shadergraph, Unity will apply the full MVP matrix no matter what. So the solution is that you do is you take the View matrix, which is the camera's transformation, and invert it, and apply that before the MVP matrix with 0 in the w component to make sure any translation still gets applied. As long as the model isn't rotated at all, it all cancels out.
Anyway I figured out how to do overrides with DOTS components, which is neat, so I can feed in numbers into my shader per entity. The next step was to figure out how to create entities and components to display these little circles... which is the subject of devlog #2.
This one's basically a DOTS cheat sheet where I boil down the main things you'd want to know how to do. If you ever felt like trying out Unity DOTS, I really, really hope it will save you some of the misery I've had. There are so many weird gotchas (you fool, you saved a temporary negative entity index!) but the good part is that it really forces you to learn what's going on in this thing.
That is a good part, right?
Anyway here's the milestone I reached today: cubes you can click on at like 200FPS. It will revolutionise gaming, I think.
Yeah so that looks like shit, but the code is cool, and now the code's there I can make something that looks cool instead of bad!
More updates soon, I have to work pretty hard at this thing. Have another concept sketch!
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machinesbleedtoo · 3 years ago
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Capstone project over! Here is what I have planned for Hyaline
My major university assessment - a group software project that was developed over 8 months - is over and done with! Woo! It was a game, I chose to jump in with the gamedev students so I could learn more about the technical side of development to aid me in making Hyaline. We were a group of 8 and had supervisors and everything, so it was an incredibly insightful ordeal when it comes to project management and completion. So, Hyaline’s game - here are 2 things from the start of the year, and 2 things from the distant past.
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And a bad quality 2018 photo of a draft print of Hyaline’s world guide book just as a reminder that progress had actually been made on it before life kicked my ass (this photo is my tether when I feel like I’ve achieved nothing in my projects, really.)
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I’d like to continue on with my now ancient plans for opening a Hyaline themed shop but finances and time are not on my side for that right now.
Read below for information regarding my plans / my degree and how it all fits together.
The largest change is my focus shift from the world guide to the videogame.
The world guide writing is more or less in a second draft state and has been for eons. All that is left is some worldbuilding details about climate and then I need to work on the illustrations. I burn myself out every time when I try to paint complex scenes because I cannot visualize depth (stereoblindness.) I can’t imagine where to place things inside of a perspective grid.
The world guide primarily focuses on the section of rainforest Hyaline’s game is set in. So I’ve decided to build that first because I’ll need to do it anyway, and it means I have references for the illustrations I need to do - that are canon down to every detail!
The game relies on the environment for mechanics - the wildlife and placement of edible plants, of water, etc, is the driving force behind the survival gameplay. I also plan to include story-driven exploration elements which requires the map be finalized too.
I’ll be making the prototype for the mechanics as well to ensure my design decisions aren’t a total disaster so it’s going to be a big undertaking so I’m equal parts nervous and hype. The graphic novel remains the last on the list to complete, which pains me, because it’s my favourite story arc! But it requires the most worldbuilding work and chronologically makes the most sense to release last. Though I do want to make some standalone comics of the characters since discovering sketching scenes with 3D art first. I have been slowly working on redesigning the characters and species to make them fit the world more, too.
I don’t have any deadlines or estimates on when things will be done, life circumstances remain fucky and will probably remain that way until I get any semblance of life and financial stability, after I graduate. Hyaline is a living world, anyway - I’m trying to just enjoy the worldbulding process.
As for my degree -
I’m scheduled to graduate at the end of 2022. Due to a prerequisite and unit availability, I have to do 2 semesters part time. I should still be able to access financial support because this is for a reason outside of my control. If so, thank fuck, because the lower end of the full time study load was really harsh on my disabilities and university has been torture for that.
2 of my 4 units left are 3D modelling electives, because I am so antsy to have time to dedicate to projects again after almost five years of utter hell, and I’d rather have a chill time in my final year. Also I’m not very good at 3D art for games and it’s yet another sneaky way to use my unrelated degree to help me make progress with my projects. Thank you so much to my patrons for the support - the extra money has been a godsend - and to the people who have been patiently following me all these years. I have learned so much, and changed so much, and I can finally see a future that isn’t full of misery and art burnout!
I’ll have a cybersecurity and neuroscience degree by the end of next year, in absence of any more setbacks, and can maybe finally afford to exist as a Sick Person. Here’s hoping.
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hopecountyisforlovers · 4 years ago
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rant under the cut dont read this if you like pokemon swsh or dont want spoilers. or do if you like to start fights i guess fsjdlfjsdkl
saw a few people say it wasnt so bad and this isnt like. coming after them or anything but sword and shield are just so so rushed that its like. more thought was put into the aftergame i.e raising a real competitive team to battle online than like the. real experience of it. the story is SO so linear that it leaves little room for exploration and theres not much to explore anyway. the gen3 games had more content than sword and shield. i played pokemon sapphire for YEARS after i finished it and never picked up swsh ONCE. and dont even get me started on the fucking mess that is the STORY like. oh my god. its so bad. its literally just the story of su/mo but with absolutely everything done completely wrong. leon and the few hot gym leaders are its absolute only saving grace. the game is PUSHOVER easy and thats coming from someone who cheats at hard pokemon games because i LOVE to be overleveled and feel overpowered and sexy and never lose. not once in swsh did i feel like i earned anything it more felt like it was all just being handed to me. the storyline with hop is depressing and honestly ? that problem pervades what little story there is. its depressing. i do not want to think about the ENERGY CRISIS in the middle of my POKEMON GAME i do not want to see a SAD DEAD CORSOLA what is WRONG with you gamefreak. and its depressing on a meta level because its the beginnings of something awful for a franchise ive loved my entire life, that has helped me get through some of the worst times ive ever lived through. it signifies Making Money becoming more important to them than making something thats actually Fun or Better than what theyve Already Made
and i know. i know its not the gamedevs fault they were put under massive strain and forced to work a ridiculous amount. dont come after me with “they did the best they could with the time they had” or some old bullshit like i KNOW that. but the problems with this game are SYSTEMIC
like i always think of that one scene. im pretty sure it was near the end of the game when theyre setting up rose as a villain where youre waiting for leon, a guy known for getting lost and being late, but because he doesnt show up on time hop gets worried for some reason?? and you find out from oleana or w/e that leon is talking to the chairman and its framed like hes ?? in danger ?? and you have to rescue him?? despite him being the undefeated champion of this region for at least ten years and you being Two Children?? so oleana tells you how to get to the place she clearly doesnt want you to be and you have to battle through all the guys and her to get to leon but once youre there he just. LEAVES WITH YOU of his own volition ?? he was literally never in any danger at all ?? so the only reason we did that was to set rose up for his villain reveal quite literally the VERY NEXT DAY ?? if this was a cartoon or a movie or anything else it would be ripped apart for being stupid and contrived and badly written because quite frankly it Is so why are so many people just OKAY with it it drives me absolutely insane. the game holds your hand to a quite frankly ridiculous degree. at no point can you walk more than about two steps without someone showing up to dump exposition on you and give you free revives you dont need because the game is Piss Easy and tell you EXACTLY where to go like these games that have been out since 1999 still thinks youre too stupid to already know how to play them which granted has kind of always been a thing but NEVER to this extent. a catching tutorial is one thing but this is completely and totally Another 
i just. man sword and shield bums me out. the first mainline pokemon games on what some would call a real console since the n64 and all they amount to is boring predictable garbage with half the content cut out and sold to you for 30 extra dollars after the fact. everything in swsh probably could have been done 15 years ago on the Original DS and i really hope they dont continue with this trend. i really want to be excited for a pokemon game again. i dont want to think that like. theyve already made the last good ones theyre ever gonna make.
in the meantime im gonna play fangames and hacks by people who have actually put love and care into what theyre doing
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inflammatoryfandomblog · 4 years ago
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anyways let’s hard pivot into VIDEOGAMES, a subject for which approximately 0% of you followed me for.
anyways one thing i always hate hearing is that “oh a challenge for video games is how to integrate story with gameplay,” which is honestly really baffling for me. that’s like saying “a challenge for novels is how to integrate story with prose” or “a challenge for film is how to integrate story with cinematography.” like... you either write/film/design to your story, or you come up with a story that matches your writing/filmstyle/design!
i’m so tired of hearing about games with a “great story” and how it “succeeded despite the INHERENT CONTRADICTION BETWEEN GAMEPLAY AND TELLING A STORY.” i truly think that if you say something like that you have no place in games commentary or indeed gamedev, but that’s neither here nor there.
(to be clear i have nothing against narrative-less games, just as i have nothing against narrative-less poetry or narrative-less video. story isn’t the end-all be-all of art (TM))
now i do know why people say stuff like this: when people talk about “gameplay” they mean “combat mechanics,” and i think that if you think “gameplay” means “the different ways you can simulate beating the shit out of people” then maybe saying that there will always be a tension between gameplay and story is accurate.
the fundamental problem with combat mechanics is that there is usually no going after a fail state--you can’t lose an encounter and keep going, because usually that means your character dies, which means you get a game over screen. this is immensely problematic if you want to communicate any sort of narrative, because narratives usually involve agents who fail sometimes--and in a combat system where the only way to fail gameplay-wise is to die, that means your struggles in the game to beat a boss amount to nothing for a character.
the souls’ series (at least in dark souls and demons’s souls) ability to contextualize player death in its narrative is one of the reasons it was so immersive to its players. you dying over and over again to that boss, scouring the world for advantages? that’s exactly what your character is doing in the story--you can’t help but feel a connection there, and people are really driven to know more about the world of these games because of it.
if you can’t do something like that (some other games, like undertale, integrate the ability to reload saves into a superpower the main character has, others, like hades, make you a literal god trying to escape the underworld), this means that gameplay will runs in parallel to the story (and there are other problems with the saturation of violence in video games, such that you have to bend stories around them, hence why so many protagonists are DEEP HARDENED KILLERS WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES--the other avenue is to make an unserious game with more cartoon violence, and those games usually have a better pick of main characters.)
one of my favorite games of all time is pyre (best supergiant game by far), largely because it tolerates fail states and the story keeps on going even if you lose a match. if you play it on a challenging difficulty and don’t reload, you do feel some dips and dives of the story independent of “scripted” plot events. the gameplay also isn’t combat-oriented: it’s more of a sports thing instead.
it’s not hard to fix this problem. it’s not even especially hard to reframe combat mechanics so that the system represents something that isn’t combat (see griftlands and the negotiation decks), reframe them so you don’t have to completely lose and die every time you fail (lots of games do this). and--if you’re feeling really adventurous--it’s not even hard to make a game that doesn’t have combat as its only meaningful mechanic in the first place! it just takes, you know, creativity and effort.
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myfriendpokey · 6 years ago
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Innocence Reserve
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I don't know when I noticed that the culture had been filled with veterans - not necessarily of the military kind, although the word always carries something of that connotation. News stories might mention veteran bankers, veteran lobbyists, there are veteran reporters and veteran bloggers, you can go listen to talks by a veteran game designer. The word "veteran" in this context seems to imply not just experience, or longevity, but a certain kind of experience, a world-weariness. The veteran tag carries the suggestion of having dealt with the uglier parts of an industry, the backroom politicking and desperate fixes that might not ever be officially acknowledged. It made me think of the line used by the film critic Vern as shorthand for all those melodramatic revelations in recent action films, that mutants are real, or vampires are real, or transformers are real and they secretly fight the vampires at night - "your world is just a sugar-coated topping...."
The funny thing about these movies is that the protagonists nearly always end up fighting to leave the topping intact: to make sure the general public remains blissfully ignorant of the real world beneath the surface of the everyday. The protagonist encounters the secret knowledge and then fights to prevent the burden of this knowledge being passed on to others. If the classical action narrative is that of public violence in the service of maintaining private innocence, the postmodern action narrative is that of private violence in the service of maintaining public innocence. As a recent american political candidate (and, yes, veteran) has remarked, he personally carried an assault rifle "over there" so he would not have to carry one "over here".
The anti-veteran is not the rookie, but the civilian - the person who isn't even aware of the continuum of knowledge of which the veteran stands at the top. If the veteran is defined by knowledge and expertise, the civilian must be correspondingly defined by ignorance and ineptitude. They are figures of contempt, pity. But as the veteran is now also defined as an ambivalent attitude to that knowledge and expertise, the civilian becomes an object of yearning, a state of innocence. Old man action movies and dadified videogames tend to involve reluctant but extremely capable professionals who put their skills to use for the purpose of keeping some innocent other out of the cycle of violence that they themselves are trapped in. The value of non-expertise can be accepted and celebrated, but only after the value of expertise can be demonstrated yet again. The civilian here has nothing to do but offer their respect and benediction towards the sacrifice of the veteran: the essential passivity of this role is reflected by the fact it tends to be played by a child.
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I think of this, watching gamedev documentaries, reading postmortems, where the emotional payoff comes frequently in the "cut to child" - where all the tribulations of the developer, the second mortgage, the 80 hour weeks, the ergot poisoning from eating nothing but pot noodles for the past four years, are redeemed when we finally see the finished work played by a smiling and appreciative moppet. And, yes, it is heartwarming - but as filmed, or photographed, there's no room for ambivalence in a child's response. We don’t watch for it – the child is not an individual creature, here, but the stand-in for a general condition of childhood, defined socially in part as “an ability to take pleasure in videogames”. When I last wrote about dad action games I felt they reflected a lack of this ability, a deep exhaustion with the format coupled with an inability to break away from it. The characters are tired of doing this shit, the players are tired of doing this shit, the developers are most certainly tired of doing this shit - but here we go again, with the vague hope that this indefinite, looping deferral of meaning or consequence will basically run itself out. And if not, the unblemished victims of one game can be converted into the haunted, compromised veterans of the inevitable sequel.
What does it mean to reframe public life as a kind of innocence reserve? No longer a place of discussion, argument, violence, history, but a frozen Main Street USA, a vision of the right life accessible to the lucky in brief trips before they go back to the private grind that constitutes their ticket of admission – something that both absolves and basically justifies the horrible conditions around it, and is defended all the more zealously for that reason. Our existing moppet reserves may not be adequate. One of the more jarring political features of recent years is seeing real kids – school shooting survivors, those growing up under climate change – taking up explicitly political positions, as their own experiences diverge ever more wildly from the state of undifferentiated innocence our bold private-industry veterans have supposedly been fighting to protect.  What is the game developer without the player, what is the designer without the end user, what is the policeman without the innocent, what is the soldier without the folks at home?
Well, perhaps automation holds the answer. The task of performing a loveable naivete is increasingly outsourced to artificial intelligence systems anyway, either real or mimed (as with the briefly popular “neural network composes seinfeld script” type comedy format). Robots say the darnedest things, they compose funny pictures, they latch onto words taken out of context and reuse them in humourous ways etcetera. What if a robot learned about Star Wars? What if a robot played Mario 1-1? The possibilities are endless and delightful. The ceremony of innocence can be preserved for another generation – and another generation of “veterans“ will get the satisfaction of simultaneously pitying, celebrating and absolving themselves for the empty work they define themselves around by churning out a public culture of sacrificial kitsch.
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(image sources: Breath Of Fire, Captain Commando, Crime City)
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rpgmgames · 7 years ago
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August’s Featured Game: Shroom Soup
DEVELOPER(S): Shroomy ENGINE: RPGMaker 2000 GENRE: Adventure, RPG, Psychological Horror WARNINGS: listed here (may contain spoilers) SUMMARY: You play as Arnika, a gloomy teenage girl. Perpetually tired, you live off excessive sleep, lime juice, and instant soup. You look into the vortex forming in your cup of said soup, this time mushroom flavour. Next thing you know, you are in an entirely different world where everything, from buildings to people, is being devoured by fungi. It seems like you have no choice but to walk on... Your journey involves exploration, puzzle-solving and battles.
Download the demo here!
Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!
Introduce yourself! Hello! I am Shroomy, and I still haven't figured out which one of my nicknames I should go by, but I use "uboaappears" for art and "toxic shroom swamp" for games. I have a bachelor's degree in biology since two weeks ago and like everything surreal, gory and gay. Nice to meet you. I have been in the community since about 2012, and that might be also when I first wanted to make a game - a Yume Nikki fangame, because YN brought me here. I messed around with the engine for a long time, and certain characters and ideas gradually mutated to whatever this is now.
What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Shroomy: It's about making a cup of instant soup and accidentally going on a very weird adventure. ...Okay, actually, it's a coming-of-age story with an emphasis on mental health, relationships, and toxic flesh-eating mushrooms. The idea came to me when I made myself an instant soup once. For some reason, I thought it would be cool if there was a portal into another world in the cup. That's how it started. (I was also into drawing mushrooms growing on people at the time, so that naturally made its way into my Awesome Game Idea.)
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How long have you been working on your project? *Shroomy: ...A while. It's enough to say that I graduated from both high school and university with it. But to be honest, I didn't really do much with it until about two years ago. Right now I tend to think of the time before that as trial and error, playing around with ideas and learning to use the engine. I feel a little self-conscious about how long it took me to come up with a coherent story, but that might be a good thing. Since this is quite a personal game, it helped to grow as a person. I think it made for a more interesting and mature work than it would be otherwise.
Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Shroomy: I feel like I take little bits of inspirations from everything. But I'd say Yume Nikki and Re:Kinder were the biggest game influences. Maybe Hello Charlotte, too - the minimalistic world gave me some food for thought :> Design-wise, I think my current (character) style is a lovechild of Danganronpa, Killing Stalking and something else I am not sure about. Maybe just me.
Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Shroomy: I think the biggest challenges for me have always been centered around the lack of free time, the lack of energy or the lack of motivation. Some people manage to juggle life and gamedev, but I get exhausted really easily, so it's hard. This is an ongoing issue. I tend to try and free up a day just for relaxing and creative stuff. I've also started using the Forest app for focusing on things, and sometimes use it for gamedev as well. At the beginning I found it frustrating that my skills (in pixel art, for example) didn't match what I wanted to create. That one was improved by - you guessed it - making a lot of pixel art. Making and scrapping a bunch of tilesets for the game. It's as simple as practice and learning how to get the most out of your art program. (It also helps me to make a detailed sketch of a map before I start working, or at least brainstorm the main elements of it.) Another challenge was the incoherence of the story. Originally I wanted to make something really vague and open to interpretation, but... that actually didn't give me enough material to work with. In the end, I played around with the characters, tried to write them some backstories that no one was going to see, and somehow ended up with an actual plot..? Shocking, I know! And the final thing is putting gameplay into the game. To be honest, the puzzles in the demo were pretty random on my side, I just thought them up on the spot. In subsequent locations I tried to make them relevant to the game's themes and/or hint towards the story.
Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Shroomy: For one thing, the current project has a story and a plan, even if the story is presented in quite an obfuscated way. The original concept was not much more than an idea of a shroomy world. The characters also have a lot more depth and pain to them than they used to. The locations have changed a lot as well, to the point where most of the original ones don't exist anymore.
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What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Shroomy: My team is mostly just me. At the beginning it was a young and naive me, and now we have a slightly older and better-at-art me. After I started my dev blog, I was contacted by Tommuel, who now helps me with sound design and music. And my old friend Robin has made a few NPC sprites for me, and might give a hand with more pixel art in the future. They're not really involved with other aspects of development, but I really appreciate their help anyway! I prefer to keep most of this game to myself - it feels too personal to share, plus I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
What is the best part of developing the game? *Shroomy: I would say it's putting my work out there and sharing it with the world. I'm also really proud of how much I've grown as an artist and writer through developing this. I got attached to this story and this world, with all of its fun, weird and sad details. It's also been really fun, amazing even, to get to know other devs and make friends through being part of this interesting and creative community. I owe some wonderful friendships to it.
Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Shroomy: I definitely play other games for inspiration, it helps me a lot. Though I try not to make things "just like" other games, but make it a transformative learning experience instead.
Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Shroomy: I feel like I have been through stages. At first I was Arnika, then Lina, now I feel like I'm turning into Arthur. I guess I put my traits into all of them. (Does that mean that Bernard is the next stage? I'm /so/ ready to transcend humanity, finally learn how to do maths and become everyone's favourite character.)
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Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Shroomy: I think the biggest mistake I made was jumping straight into making a game without thinking it through or considering the scope. In the end, the lack of planning set me back a lot. Admittedly, I was young and excitable, so I guess it was a learning experience? I didn't really know how to write stories or plan long-term projects, but over time, I somehow built up those skills. I think it's good to have a clear-ish idea of what you want to make before you start, and maybe start with something small. (So basically, do the opposite of what I did.)
Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Shroomy: Aha. Actually, yes. I have accidentally started writing two sequels already. They will be small games focusing on other characters' perspectives (as opposed to Arnika). I'm not actually touching them yet though, only making some notes and writing scripts. Perhaps by the time the first game is released I'll have enough material to comfortably work on them.
What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Shroomy: Fan reaction, I think? To be honest, I'm not really sure. I think I'll just be enjoying the incredible dopamine rush after finally setting this child of mine free to explore the world and infect people's brains with all the shroomy memes it contains. (Also will probably get off the internet for about a week from the anxiety.) Then maybe being free to work on other things, indeed. And posting spoilery concept art >:D
Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Shroomy: I am a little worried about the reception of the game's subject matter. If you looked at the list of warnings, you might have an idea what I mean. Sometimes it feels dangerous to explore certain themes in your stories, because people misinterpret depicting something bad as promoting it, for example. But that's why that list exists. I'm just going to let people know straight away that I explore dark themes in this project and I'm not going to hold back on how I do it. Creativity should flow freely, I think. (I am also a little worried about the ratio of my free time vs. gamedev time and /when/ I will finally be able to release it, but... Thankfully, I'm the one in charge of that.)
Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Shroomy: Take some time to make a plan for your project, start small, fail faster, and aim for something finished before you aim for perfect. Make a system for organising your files. Back up often, and on a different drive/cloud than your game is on, preferably several. Most of all, make something you would love to play! And don't be too hard on yourself.
Question from last month's featured dev @blackcrystalsrpg: What are your game dev pet peeves?? *Shroomy: I dislike the fact that sometimes I want to have made a game more than I want to make a game, but to have made a game you need to go and make the game. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But there's no escape from fate, so... go, go and make that game happen!
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We mods would like to thank Shroomy for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!
Remember to check out Shroom Soup if you haven’t already! See you next month! 
- Mods Gold & Platinum
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tinydevblog · 6 years ago
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its alive
okay so it’s been almost two years since the last update but bear with me
quick timeline of what’s been going on:
health issues got worse (and are still worse)
had to put project on pause between that and Life Things
started having time again to work on project and realized there were a lot of overhauls i wanted to make and my scope was honestly bigger than i had the means to handle right now (between free time and just. health)
started reworking a new game design document with a smaller scope to work on instead
and now i might as well pick this blog back up and keep doing on it what i was planning on doing on it, which is to keep track of all my gamedev stuff!
it’s going to mostly be planning things for a little bit until i get back into coding but i already have the start of some assets and a reasonable amount of planning drafted out and now i need to fill it with a bit more lore and explicit logic and it’ll be ready to Look Like Something
i’ll make sure to tag different types of devwork (lore vs mechanics planning vs asset work vs coding, etc) so people can blacklist any of the ones they’re not interested in
anyway thanks @ everyone who didnt unfollow somehow despite me never posting, im glad (?) i could reward your apparently aptly placed hope
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elriedreamer · 5 years ago
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Read in 2019 Books Part 1
Suddenly decided I'd like to write a little about my Read in 2019 Books list (and practice my crusty English a little. win-win). Overall I'd read 52 books, including 5 graphic novels and shitton of nonfiction. There will be 4 parts.
Ok, let's start.
January to April
January
1. Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman - Good Omens. This was fun, even though I was reluctant to read it, since I had read 2 books by Pratchett about 10 years ago and didn't like them. Dunno. Maybe not my thing, maybe it was not his best works. Speaking of Gaiman, I love Stardust, Ocean in the End of Lane and especially The View from the Cheap Seats - it was amazing reading - but didn't like American Gods and some of short stories. Well, at least this can be easily explained - I'm not into dark edgy stuff, well mostly. Anyway, Good Omens was surprisingly good reading, and I liked TV series too. Though I liked kids' scenes more in book, than in series, but more Aziraphael&Crowley balances it, so can't say adaptation worse than book - both are fun.
2. Robert Sapolsky - Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping. Whew. Russian title's WAY shorted than this. I think I already said somewhere here how I love Sapolsky, he's my fav professor and all. Watched his course Human Behaviour Biology on YouTube (thanks to Vert Dider it's translated to Russian), and then I just had to read his books. And if you want deeper understanding how this fucking stress thing works, than you should read this book. It's a little depressing - to know how badly stress affects us, but also has one chapter in the end with advice how to try to reduce it. And. Important thing when it comes to this type if nonfiction. I've only had biology lessons in school, my profession is very far from it, but it wasn't too hard to understrand even more complicated chapters.
3. Tana French - The Secret Place. Yup, why don't we start from the 5th book in series? The order is not so important in here though. I think I've seen @rivervixens rec on this book here on Tumblr. And I'm so glad for that. Tana French's writing is amazing. I've read her other books (about that later), but this one remains my favourite. Also I recommended it to my dad and he liked it very much too.
4. Tana French - In the Woods. This one I liked less - mostly because main character was annoying. I still liked the writing, so didn't stop on this, even if took a pause.
February
5. Emily X.R. Pan - The Astonishing Color of After. This one doesn't have Russian translation, so English it was. Another fav of the year. This story is about dealing with the loss of parent, so it is emotionally heavy. And at first I was sceptical about magical realism here. But in the end it wrapped up nicely. Bonus points: large part of the book takes place in Taipei, and maybe you don't know but there was long period in my life when I was super into everything Taiwanese: music, movies, tv series... So. Good read, can't recommend it enough.
6. Jason Schreier - Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made. Another nonfiction with longass title. Super different theme. I like to play video games. Back in childhood we had Dendy, 3-DO and then PC - with DOS OS, Win 3.1 and forth and forth. I tried almost all genres back then I think, aside from mmo. But in the end I love only very specific one: single player RPG where you can create your own MC and have some kind of band of opinionated misfits. The last one I played was Dragon Age: Inquisition, which had astonishing scenery, some good story ideas (and some halfassed and some really terrible), 50 shades of bald/undercut instead of variety of hairstyles for your character, and fucking male animation for female MC. So, I had questions. And I've got some answers in this book. And better understanding of gamedev industry, since the book tells us about 10 most popular games from the last few years. If you are interested in video games and want some light nonfiction reading - this book is for you.
March
7. Theodora Goss - In the Forest of Forgetting. This is magical realism short stories and also the reason why so few read books in February. The writing is good, so it wasn't a problem. The problem was, probably, that I rarely like short stories (exceptions are Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint and In the Field Marshal's Shadow by Brian McClellan). Why do I stubbornly read them, I have no idea. If you know really good fantasy/steam-punk/mythopoetic/magical realism short stories, please recommend them to me.
8. Arsinoe de Blassenville - Victory at Ostagar. Okay this is actually a Dragon Age fic. Extra Super Long fic. Like 6 normal books long. For some reason it was on goodreads, so I added it here. This is not the best DA fanfic I'd read, not in my favs, MC feels like Mary Sue, I find some plot points weird and some characterization not on point, also didn't like the ending (not liking the ending is totally my problem, 'cause I find endings where everyone is paired up and with kids exceptionally annoying)... But it was interesting to read headcanon so vastly different from mine while not totally gruesome, which happens in this fandom frequently from what I've seen. And, you know it's still better than official DA books. Also, it won't be mentioned in this list, but I've read much better DA longfic in summer, and if you want a rec just ask.
9. Madeline Miller - Circe. Full disclosure: I'm not so much into Greek Mythology - I was in school, but not now. But I like when myth or legend or fairytale is told from different perspective, and this book was all over the goodreads recs, so. And it totally delivered. Thank you, goodreads, your recs are much better than livelib's.
April
10. Tana French - The Likeness. Back to Tana French, yay! Just you know, Russian title is changed and not for good. To something like Can the Dead be Back? Yep, in Russian it sounds just as awkward. Why must you do that, publishers? Whyyyy?! Anyway. Liked this one better than In the Woods, and don't find MC annoying, even if I didn't always understand her. Ah! I watched 3 eps (out of 8) of TV adaptation, which is based on the first 2 books. It has some good points, but overall the decision to merge two books in one timeline is making it messy.
11. Tana French - Faithful Place. Was good too.
12. T. Kingfisher - Clockwork Boys. Look at this. This is rare steam-punk jem. My favourite trope - band of misfits goes on quest full of dangers. In this case - unwillingly. They are very different people: a paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar. The writing is brilliant! Dialogues are full of sarcasm and puns! It has some deep emotional stuff, it's full of action, despite it's size. And a pity - it is not translated, and it's a bit difficult to read such an intense writing. But still, I plan to read the second book this year.
13. Megan Miranda - All the Missing Girls. Ugh. Dunno how to tell about this one. The book was interesting to read, but it's full of liars. Seriously. From what I remember now, the only decent person was MC's fiancee, who seems like a good guy and totally didn't deserve how she treated him. And I'm usually on the girl's side. Maybe it's trope subversion. And MC's friends and their so-called friendship? Some unhealthy shit there. My main problem with this was probably the unsatisfactory ending. Can’t say anything more without spoilers, sorry.
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loftyloftyloftyloftylofty · 8 years ago
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Hello! Sorry if you've covered this a lot, I was just wondering - do you have any guides you'd recommend to a beginner in pixel art? Also, any guides on getting into game development? (mainly the programming side of it) Again, sorry if you've covered it and/or these asks sound demanding.
Hmmn, I can help a little bit! Buckle up.
The guide that I think is the most useful is not actually a guide for pixel art. It talks about using colors and using light sources.
There are a lot of different styles of pixel art, and I think that most of the time it is safe to say that a pixel art style is defined by its rules. Rules create consistency. Consistency creates immersive work.
We can use Starbound’s pixel art style as a simple example of how to create art that has rules. Starbound’s wiki actually has a guide set up to help people create their own assets, but it misses a few important details.
Some (but not all) of the rules that many starbound pixel art pieces use:
1. Most of the objects in starbound are drawn so that you can see the front corner of an object. Here’s an example:
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The back half of an object rotated this way usually takes up about 25% of the width of the object. If you look at the other tables, chairs,and props in the game, you’ll see that most of them follow the 25% corner rule.
2. Most of the objects in starbound use a 4-tone palette. The 4 shades of brown used for the wood of this object are the same shades of brown that they use for most other wooden things. The four shades of yellow come from their brass palette. Consistency with colors can be very helpful if you use it correctly.
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3. Starbound’s light source is always top-right. Every piece of art in the game is shaded as though there was a single white light to the top-right of the art.
So with all of this in mind, if we take a look at my art for Cat Story, we’ll see a few differences from Starbound’s style.
Using Cat Story’s art style, most objects are drawn with a camera angle directly from the front. The 25% corner rule does not exist in Cat Story. 
The light source in Cat Story is usually from the top-left... even if there are lights in the room. 
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Most of the time, I use colors from the 6bit RGB palette.
Some styles of pixel art don’t need to limit which colors are used. My style uses these colors as a general guideline, but sometimes I lighten or darken colors from this palette to give myself a few extra colors to work with, like the background wallpaper in the room above.
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This color palette has a lot more color saturation than the palettes used in Starbound’s art, which is why it doesn’t really mesh that great when you recolor your Starbound character using this palette. 
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Looks weird and out of place, right?
If you adjust the color levels in the image by a tiny amount, it becomes very very easy to see just how much more saturated Cat Story’s colors actually are!
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What happens when we put art from Starbound into a screenshot from Cat Story? Well, it looks very out of place, because it follows different rules for color, size, shape, and shading.
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Sometimes, rules get more abstract. Cat Story also uses rules for color heat. Thinking about colors relative to their distance from white or black, with white being the hottest color and black being the coolest color offers some insight into interesting color relationships.
Remember that 6bit RGB palette? This is what it looks like when you take the color away and only look at the heat:
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Color heat is a tool that you can use to direct the viewer’s eye to important pieces of your art. 
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I try to make the character one of the brightest objects on the screen so that they are easy to see for the player. 
The next brightest things are usually terrain that you can walk on or objects that you can interact with.
The darkest objects are background props.
Obviously, sometimes it’s appropriate to make exceptions to make a piece of art look more interesting! I have many brightly lit windows in the underground city maps in Cat Story - but I try to keep them small and unobtrusive when I can.
It also helps a lot if you make your enemies easy to see.
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Rules and color choice are only the beginning of defining an art style with pixel art. 
Some people prefer super low resolution artwork ( @thewakingcloak ), and others prefer comparatively massive canvases ( @shmoopdev ) . 
Some people use 3D models to give themselves a better frame of reference for their pixel art. ( http://oddtales.net/ )
Some people use dithering ( @lazymoth - check out their creepycastle project ) to shade and create gradients, other ( @virgovsthezodiac ) people ( @ramheadedgirl ) prefer ( @preecedev ) flat  ( @artificerdev ) shading styles.
Anyway I’ve spent an hour or two longer than I expected on this reply, so let’s move on to the other half of your question.
How do you get into game programming?
It depends on what language you want to program in. Personally, my hammer of choice for game development is C++.
There are a lot of different places to start if you’re brand new, but no matter what programming language you want to use, you need to know some programming basics.
This is the resource that was most useful for me to begin programming games in C++. Shoutouts to Lazyfoo!
Websites like stackexchange / stackoverflow also help a lot when learning basics of programming. 
What are some things that are important to know if you want to program your own games?
Learn how to do things using timers. If you attempt to do huge amounts of stuff all at the same time, it is often more complicated than simply doing a little bit of work once per frame. Breaking up your workload with timers often helps performance, too.
Start with a small project, like clicking on a colored dot for points. I thought a platformer would be easy and I’m here 3 years later still trying to finish what I started. Do not attempt to build some enormous MMO as your first project, that is a bad idea; speaking from experience here.
Learn to keep your code clean. Comment everything even if it’s obvious what it does, because 5 weeks from now it won’t be obvious anymore.
Learn the difference between public and private variables/functions and use them appropriately so you don’t trip yourself later on accident. That’s the reason those safeguards exist - to help you not accidentally use the wrong tools.
You are going to need to be able to understand math relationships. The computer will do the heavy lifting for you, but you need to understand the formulas and why they work. Basic things like moving from point A to point B, which looks like this:
new_position = old_position + normal( destination - old_position ) * movement_speed
 Thankfully, most of these math relationships are very easy to use once you understand them. Now is a good time to brush up on your trig.
If you’re going into gamedev in C++, learning how pointers and references work is non-negotiable.
Some other notes: 
A lot of helpful code libraries are out there on the internet that are designed specifically for making games. Most of these helpful libraries are free for you to do anything you want with them. SDL2 is my weapon of choice, but there are many other options available that might be better for what you want to do.
Sometimes it is appropriate to use tools like GameMaker or RPG Maker to make a game. Sometimes it isn’t. It is useful to know how to use these tools, and it is also useful to know how to get your hands dirty and do it yourself.
Lots of games have basic programming included! You can learn a lot about how programming basics work from reverse engineering objects in Garry’s mod, SecondLife, Starbound, and plenty of other places.
There are hotwings on my desk that need my attention.Hopefully this is more helpful than “Practice a lot and also google some stuff”
Cheers,Lofty
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playgamestime · 8 years ago
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Review: Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Game Boy Color)
INITIAL THOUGHTS
What is it?
A classic iconic Nintendo platformer that demonstrates why the the Game Boy was a portable dream machine. 
Super Mario Bros Deluxe on Game Boy Color was a long overdue revisit. 
I remember this game because I didn’t get a Game Boy until very late compared to the rest of my friends and I was full of desire to be fully immersed in games vicariously through other people. 
As I kid I traveled quite a bit. So what would happen while I was traveling with my family is the following... Somehow on a plane I would find the one adult closest to me who had a Game Boy and make these really sad puppy dog eyes. The saddest I could possibly make. I didn’t even do it on purpose. It was genuine.  And you know what happened? Just about every single time, the person playing (almost always an adult male) would ask if I wanted to play and they let me play! I know this sounds strange but at the time it seemed like for some reason it gave them a kick to see me happy playing games on this rectangular portable system. 
Looking back I wonder if maybe that happiness was based on a kind of cultural tradition like passing on a torch. Think about how childhood stories remain within the world of children when kids are constantly growing up? Someone has to be around to pass certain things on the next batch of kids. I like to imagine that the game boy created a similar function between adults, mostly strangers (yes I know my parents taught me never to speak to strangers) and their attempt of passing a sacred upper middle class childhood rite of passage on to me. 
Shame I didn’t get one until the 8th grade. 
Anyway, Super Mario Bros was by far the most common game I encountered when in flight, which makes sense because it was one of the best selling games of all time. 
When it comes to Super Mario Bros Deluxe, I remember it having an extra special mystique because it was originally only released in Japan since Nintendo deemed it too hard for American audiences. 
On to the actual game itself... 
Super Mario Bros Deluxe is a beautiful game. There is nothing random about it. Everything has an intent, a meaning, a function, a purpose that reinforces fun. 
I took out some headphones and plugged it into my old Game Boy Color system and was amazed to realize that playing the game at times feels like you are playing a musical instrument. Your movement through worlds is a remix with each level being a track waiting for your inputs in for the form of how you move. Forward, backward, jumps, deaths, every note your movement makes always lands on beat. Even when you are waiting to start the game, the beep that alerts you is more like a siren’s invitation challenging you to play. 
The other thing that I appreciated in revisiting this game after so many years is how all actions are tied to a meaning. I mean I said that before but I’ll get into detail now. Anything you destroy has a meaning. Random blocks add up to points. Coins you collect add up. Enemies you hit add up. Everything in here that you are allowed to interact with adds up in some way. This allows the player to infuse the game with themselves. This character really is an extension of you which in turn helps it have amazing responsiveness and game feel. 
Now all games have compromises and flaws right? The only one I feel like commenting on is the use of sound during some of the puzzle maze elements. In terms of accessibility, this is where Super Mario Bros Deluxe hurts. See sound is such an integral part of this game that if you were to play it on silent... in theory there are some levels that you would never be able to beat because you just don’t get the cue to let you know when you are heading in the right or wrong direction. There could be a visual cue that I just missed and I don’t know about it. If there is then let me know. 
Another downside to this game is that initially it felt incredibly lonely compared to the many games out today that have so many social features. Though Super Mario Bros Deluxe does have some local multi-player features, I don’t know where I can find someone with a cord. I don’t know where my own cord is. I am even shocked I was able to find my old Game By Color and that it still works! I quickly got over that intense loneliness after the first world and... I think the reason why is because this game is excellent at creating gates of flow that you can slide in and out of in short ways. Like you don’t realize you are in flow until you get out of it. Its very easy to lose track of time playing this game. 
One of the things I appreciate about this game is that it gives you just what you need to know in order to get to the next level. Everything is built around need to know information in the sense of... based on the technological limits of the the hardware, how much information needs to be on a screen in order for a player to know what to do next? Super Mario Bros Deluxe mastered this by mastering and understanding the constraints both of the technology and the world they created for players to explore.
I admit though I could be totally bias because I already loved this game as a childhood favorite. 
Why I play it?
I’m exploring old game mechanics. In Super Mario Bros Deluxe, and almost really all the Mario games, just walking and running around in the environment feels fun before you even encounter complex difficulty. This is an important lesson that I hope to remember in my future gamedev dabbles. 
Is it kid friendly?
Hmmm... Yes and no. On the surface if you don’t read anything into it its a pretty damn safe game. A kid can’t get into too much trouble. As an adult I will say that freudian points of view and a brief trip to the gutter might have projected more sexual innuendo than what is actually there. I actually wrote quite a lot about this but I will not be including it in this post. If you see it, you see it. As a kid it flew over my head but as an adult I totally see it so pick and choose your battles if you are debating whether or not this is a good video game. If you see it, psssh... your kid probably will too. 
Final thoughts:
Super Mario Bros Deluxe is a game that has aged gracefully and can teach everyone a thing or two about basic fun and user responsiveness. If you have a game boy, go ahead, dust that bad boy off, pick an empty slot or the slot with the least progress, and start the journey all over again. If you have never played this game, think about how much video games have changed since this has come out. Were you even born yet? 
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masterzii · 7 years ago
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GameDev
I periodically get emails from indie devs who are just getting started. They're looking for advice. Sometimes, their questions are so relevant to the kinds of things that I'm currently thinking about that I end up typing way too much in response to them. Seems like a waste of typing for just one person's benefit. I post what I typed here, hoping that it will benefit multiple people.
In this case, the person was looking for advice based on specific games that weren't total failures, but didn't sell as well as they were hoping. They were thinking about giving up, getting a job, etc.
The games in question are here:
Pillar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z7AAJbMFeU)
The Path of Motus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXEjMuZmVww)
It's a little weird to make a public example out of someone, but it's hard to understand what I wrote without this context. And furthermore, I think this particular designer is doing something pretty cool, and above-and-beyond what I usually see from first-time designers that email me. So I feel okay elevating the profile if this work while also dissecting it at the same time.
To summarize the question with condensed quote:
I've come to the conclusion that maybe my games just aren't appealing to the mass amount of gamers. Both titles are really strange conceptually... but then I see your games do very well and I feel that debunks my theory as your games also stand out conceptually. I also feel I've made a mistake in taking too long on my games. Perhaps I need to churn out games faster and work on building up more of a following. I'd appreciate hearing any thoughts or advice you have. What do you think helped your games have financial success?
Here's what I wrote in response:
Well, Step #1 is email me so that I watch your Pillar trailer and have my mind kinda blown by the vibe that it's giving me. :-)
Really complicated and haunting feeling. Reminds me of the feeling that I got years ago from "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream."
Next step is read this Reddit post of mine:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/7wnud8/note_i_didnt_make_any_money_until_game_14_if/
And gird your loins to keep failing and not give up yet.
That said, when I look at these games, I'm not at all shocked that they're not selling well. I can't put my finger on it.... but there's something about the presentation that feels a tad amateurish. I think part of it may be that you're overshooting your abilities in terms of content creation/animation/etc. You're trying for a "pro" polished look, but falling short. I mean, these games don't look as put-together as Braid, for example, but they're clearly shooting for something like that. Whereas, The Castle Doctrine achieves a cohesive "nu low-fi" look, and no one would try to compare the look to Braid.
I'm too close to One Hour One Life to judge it properly (I absolutely LOVE the way that it looks), but I think that other people describe it's look as "charming". Somehow, these simple cartoons "work" and are seen as cute. Again, the low aim disarms people a bit. It's not pixel art.... but it's like the hand-drawn equivalent of that. Doodles. My first non-pixel-art game in like a decade, but I somehow hit a different kind of sweet spot.
So that's the look component of it. The Pillar look is actually the better of the two. The only thing that feels slightly off on that one is the walking animations, but it almost works anyway.
Next: WTF are we doing in these games?
Weird new games need to be CRYSTAL CLEAR about how they are innovative. The trailers need to get people's gears turning, and make them understand exactly why they've never played a game like this before.
Take a look at the The Castle Doctrine trailer or the One Hour One Life trailer. After watching those, you really have a deep understanding of how these games work (the trailer is almost like a tutorial), and you can clearly see why there has never been a game like this before.
And that may be another canary in the coal mine moment for you. Even if your trailer did explain it better, would the core "what people are doing in the game" part be mind-blowing enough to even be included in the trailer?
"A game where you build security systems and then try to break through security systems designed by other people"
"A game where you're born as a helpless baby to another player as your mother, and you live an entire life in one hour"
Pretty much everyone I've ever told those elevator pitches to (even non-gamers) was instantly intrigued.
I often wait until I have that kind of idea before making my next game. A "Holy crap!" idea. An idea that is so obvious and perfect that I rush too Google, hoping that no one else has thought of it yet. An idea that will make everyone else say, "Why didn't I think of that?"
In the case of The Castle Doctrine, I had at least 5 designer friends of mine sheepishly admitted to me that they had been working on exactly the same game. So I was right to be nervous about someone else doing it first. Then I saw the movie The Purge. A lot of people were thinking along the same lines around that time....
And if you have that kind of idea, it's easier to communicate that in the trailer and get people really excited about it.
Finally: Value proposition
When people decide to plunk money down for a game, they are generally doing one of two things:
They are so overwhelmed by the emotions stirred up by the very idea of your game that it's an impulse buy. Games with extremely evocative visual styles can often pull this off. The Last Night is a great forthcoming example of this. It will make enough people scream HERE DAMMIT TAKE MY MONEY that it will sell well no matter what. Hyper Light Drifter is another. These are first-week games. These games are like Levitron Tops. The idea of a floating top on your coffee table is enough.
They conduct a careful research project about your game, and the math works out to them. This is a deep game that they could get into for a long time and reap many weeks/months/years of enjoyment out of. They kick the tires, pinch the fabric between their fingers, heft the thing in their hands.... yes, this is gonna be worth $20. These games are like backpacks. You spend some time finding just the right one. You're going to be wearing it on your back for a while. (Monkey-on-my-back metaphor is not lost on me here.)
Single-player games usually have to rely on #1 to sell well. There are a few exceptions---usually some kind of endless building games where what the player does is up to them (Stardew Valley, Factorio, Subnautica), or steep-curve rogue-likes (Spelunky, Nuclear Throne). Emergence and long-term replayability is key, either way.
Sadly, as a result, I think single-player games are kindof a dying breed in the modern ecosystem. We're not going to see many Braid or Fez type success stories these days. And the few that do succeed will do so on raw emotion alone (pure #1). But the road is currently littered with big-budget single-player indie failures that totally would have been successful five years ago. Also, we must keep in mind that even Braid- or Gone Home-level success is small potatoes next to Stardew Valley or Factorio.
Thus, I'm skeptical of the indie apocalypse. People are just generally playing different types of indie games now than they were before. The old guard is experiencing system-shock when their short, consumable, single-player games aren't selling like they used to, and first-time indie devs are experiencing the same thing for the same reasons (because first games are almost always short, consumable, single-player games). But indie games are making way more money now than they ever have made.
So, if you're making this kind of game.... you REALLY better be sure that you're punching #1 square in its impulse-buying heart. If your game's initial impression gives people pause, it's already over.
But it's much more viable to target #2.
Many people played The Castle Doctrine every day for 11 months straight. Many people have played One Hour One Life 900 hours over the past seven months. Can your game do that? If so, then it can fit into the #2 ecosystem.
These games are NOT first-week games. These are the types of games that have their biggest week a year after launch, when people collectively realize just how deep the value proposition of the game really is.
Multiplayer is the easiest way forward. But there are also single-player paths here, as mentioned above. But my first "hit" game (14 games in, Sleep is Death) just happened to be a multiplayer game....
Even so, you still have to have a tiny bit of #1 in there to get people intrigued enough in the first place that they conduct the research project and find the value proposition. But it doesn't have to punch them in the heart. It can also tickle their brain conceptually. If they walk away from the trailer musing about the game, that's the seed that will grown into a research project where they will eventually decide to buy it.
But most importantly, you're only two games in. You have a lot of learning to do, and you will keep getting better and better at designing and making and selling games. Go back and look at my second game, and imagine if I had given up there.
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cereszal · 7 years ago
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Artist blog activated
So I’ve decided to change this account (again) into a more personal page where I will upload my artworks, WIP, and so on here. I will also write reflections on how I develop my workflow, what I’ve learnt and so on.
I’ve been using Tumblr for a long time now. Initially, it was a nonsense blog full of reposts, memes and other random stuff (you know, the usual tumblr). I’ve put that all behind me now and have been changing it recently into a project we’ve been working on, a personal one turning into a company. I know people hardly read texts posts on Tumblr, but I am not only writing this for the Tumblr audience.
We’re Supervixi Automata - consisting of two unicorns, me and my husband. We have been developing games since we’ve got together and we might be posting stuff that we’ve done. But for now, we’re at a too early stage to post anything. Meanwhile, I will post my stuff as of now. Making this blog slightly more personal, towards the things that I’ve done.
There are many reasons why we chose to use Tumblr as our blog. Despite more images postings here. I did consider Wordpress but there is a community here and I like the idea of this. I’m also following a few gamedev blogs here which makes it easy to curate all the good gamedev stuff. And if any normal Tumblr comes across my art and our works and likes it then it would be awesome.
For now, I don’t expect anything. Except to create. So I’ll write here what I’m working on, my process, my learning experience and my WIPs. I suppose you can get all these content from anywhere else, but you might also get some unique stuff here and stick around anyway for hopefully, you will like what you see and want to see more.
That being said, I will start posting stuff here and configuring my blog as to reach out to more people and stuff. I’ll also link this to my personal twitter account as these are the two places I find a community which I like.
https://twitter.com/cereszal
I’m also trying out Instagram. Posted a few stuff there already.
https://www.instagram.com/cereszal/
So let’s see how this goes.
Update: I totally forgot to add the link to my artstation
https://cereszal.artstation.com/
I’ve also opened an account in Sketchfab but haven’t got anything up yet. Will add a link here once that is done.
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