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the-desolated-quill · 5 years ago

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Sonic Vs Harley: Send In The Hedgehogs - Quill’s Scribbles

Unless you’ve been meditating in the desert for the past couple of weeks, you’ll know that there’s a bloody epidemic going on in the world right now. The coronavirus outbreak has dramatically changed our very way of life for the foreseeable future, and us plebs have been having to get used to all these alien concepts such as social distancing, self isolation, vaccines being good and Gal Gadot murdering John Lennon with a tuneless rendition of ‘Imagine.’ These are scary and uncertain times we live in, and this goes double for the movie industry as productions are halted and/or delayed, and cinemas around the globe are shutting shop. This means that streaming services, initially dismissed by pompous filmmakers like Steven Spielberg as being lesser than cinema, has now become Hollywood’s saving grace. Oh the irony!

But I’m not here to talk about that. Today I’m here to talk about how a blue CGI hedgehog seems to be more profitable than Margot Robbie.

Jokes aside, this is actually a fascinating topic of discussion in my opinion. Both Sonic The Hedgehog and Birds Of Prey (I categorically refuse to type the whole title because I’ve got better shit to be doing other than trying to remember how the fuck you spell ‘fantabulous’) were released within a week of each other just as the coronavirus outbreak was gathering steam, and yet the box office earnings of both films are poles apart. Sonic has now become the highest grossing video game movie of all time and is, at the time I’m typing this, the second highest grossing film of the year, beating even Disney Pixar’s new film Onward if you can believe it, whereas Birds Of Prey... well... it’s not exactly flopped as such. The film’s low budget protected it from that, but it’s hardly what you’d call a success, making just shy of the $200 million it would need to break even. How did this happen? Especially when you consider that public opinion of both films a year ago would have you believe that the opposite would have happened. Everyone was massively excited for Birds Of Prey, especially after the string of successes DC have had with Aquaman, Shazam and most recently Joker, whereas Sonic...

...yeah, lets not talk about that.

Now before we start, let me just make absolutely clear that this is just my opinion. Mu subjective opinion. Normally I’d expect my readers to be smart enough to know this, but I’m talking about a DC movie here and I know from personal experience how ‘passionate’ a certain tin foil hat wearing portion of that fanbase can be sometimes. You may recall back in 2016 I received rape and death threats when I had the gall to say that I didn’t enjoy watching Suicide Squad. You know? That beloved classic that nobody fucking remembers or talks about anymore? Also there was that time when Harley Quinn fans started spreading fake rumours that the Sonic movie was homophobic in the hopes of salvaging Birds Of Prey’s box office earnings. And yes, I know it’s not all DCEU fans that are like this, etc. etc., but considering that it only ever seems to be DC fans that pull shit like this, you’ll forgive me if I’m not exactly in a very generous mood right now. Basically, if you’ve seen Birds Of Prey and liked it, that’s great. More power to you. I’m not even suggesting that Birds Of Prey is a bad movie. I’m just exploring the reasons why I think the film may have underperformed and why, possibly, Sonic The Hedgehog overtook them despite outside circumstances. This is not fact. This is just my opinion. It’s my opinion. An opinion. A subjective opinion. It’s my opinion. Okay? Okay.

Also I should point out that out of the two films, I’ve only seen Sonic, not Birds Of Prey. Believe it or not, this will be relevant later on. Again, this is not about the quality of either film. This is merely my subjective observations regarding their respective marketing and box office performance.

So why, according to the fans and the media, did Birds Of Prey underperform at the box office? There are three popular reasons for this. The first is obviously the coronavirus. Less people willing to leave the house and buy a ticket, therefore less box office earnings. Makes sense, but I don’t think that’s the whole story. Lets not forget, Sonic The Hedgehog came out a week after Birds Of Prey and practically steamrolled over the competition despite coronavirus fears. So I’m not entirely convinced of this. The second reason is that Birds Of Prey only has niche appeal because it’s based on a lesser known comic book property. Again, makes sense, but so was Guardians Of The Galaxy and Deadpool, and they were both hugely successful. Obviously I’m not saying Birds Of Prey needed to be as big as those movies. Even if it just made the same amount of money as Shazam did, it would have been successful, but it didn’t. The third reason is good old fashioned sexism, and yes, I agree that may have been a contributing factor, but I think it’s naive to place all the blame on the anti-SJWs who feel threatened by a gang of women kicking butt. Look at the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters for example. That film received a tirade of misogynistic comments from butthurt fanboys, but it still made roughly the same amount of money at the box office as the original Ghostbusters did. The reason it flopped wasn’t because of the fanboys, but because of Sony spending a stupid amount of money on the thing in the hopes of jumpstarting a shared universe. If Ghostbusters 2016 had the same budget as Birds Of Prey, Sony would be laughing their way to the bank right now.

No I think there’s a little bit more going on here. Lets bring Sonic into the discussion and explore it, shall we?

The most blatantly obvious reason for Sonic’s success and Birds Of Prey’s relative failure is the age rating. Sonic is a PG, family friendly film with a cuddly animal as its main character. The film even stars Jim Carrey being his usual goofy self. Kids love this shit and parents will no doubt be prepared to risk a zombie apocalypse to let their kids see it. Birds Of Prey, on the other hand, is a hard R. Strong bloody violence, sexual references, everyone says ‘fuck’ a lot. No kids allowed. Of course that hasn’t stopped films like Deadpool or Joker being such giant hits, but they didn’t have to contend with a global pandemic. Plus, according to what I’ve heard from certain critics, apparently Birds Of Prey’s R rating doesn’t seem wholly justified. That if you were to cut back on the swearing and the gore, it would make no difference to the film. Now you see this is something I’ve been afraid would happen ever since Deadpool’s surprise success back in 2016. That studios and filmmakers would take the wrong lessons from it and make their films R rated just for the sake of making them R rated. We see this with movie studios all the time. One studio finds success and suddenly everyone tries to copy it without considering why it was successful in the first place. The reason Deadpool as well as other R rated films like Logan and Joker worked is because the films justified their R ratings. You couldn’t have told the same story without that R rating. An R rated Harley Quinn doesn’t seem necessary, especially when you consider that there have been Harley Quinn adaptations before that did just as well without being strictly for adults. Hell, the original Harley Quinn story from the Batman animated series was PG rated. So the inclusion of a R rating feels less like a genuine artistic choice and more like trend chasing. And now that Joker has become the most profitable comic book movie ever made, I fear this is only going to get worse in the future.

Another factor that needs to be considered is audiences’ trust and expectation. Sonic The Hedgehog’s journey to the big screen has in some ways become the classic redemption story. After the initial reveal of Sonic the Manhog, fans were understandably pissed off that a beloved video game icon was given such a grotesque re-imagining for the sake of ‘realism’ (snort). As a result of the backlash, the director Jeff Fowler announced they would revise the design and the film was postponed for three months in order to fix it. The result was a Sonic design much closer to the games and this generated a lot of goodwill from the fans. Subsequent trailers were much better received and there was a lot more positive buzz around the movie. Birds Of Prey on the other hand demonstrated the inverse of this. Everyone was hugely excited, but as we got closer and closer to the date of release, audience anticipation began to wane. The trailers received little fanfare. In fact a lot of people were largely unimpressed by it. Why?

Well first we should address the elephant in the room. The fact of the matter is Sonic has a bigger and much more passionate fanbase than Harley does. That’s not to say Harley isn’t a popular character. She is. But I think Warner Bros and DC seriously overestimated how much people wanted to see Harley Quinn get her own movie. She may have been the best thing about Suicide Squad, but considering what a total trainwreck Suicide Squad was, that’s hardly saying much, is it? I mean the villain Sandman was the best thing about Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. That doesn’t mean I want a whole movie based on him. It just means out of all the things I hated about Spider-Man 3, Sandman was the thing I hated least.

And that’s another thing. The fact that Birds Of Prey didn’t try to distance themselves from Suicide Squad I don’t think did them any favours. While Suicide Squad was a commercial success at the time, people haven’t exactly been kind to the film in subsequent years. I mean feel free to read my review of Suicide Squad for an exhaustive list of reasons why the film was less than enjoyable to sit through. One dimensional characters, poor editing, ugly colour palette, casual sexism, David Ayer trying desperately to look cool and edgy, I could go on. So when the first trailers for Birds Of Prey came out and we saw the neon colour scheme and Hot Topic wardrobes make a comeback, I can’t have been the only one who was slightly put off.

Which leads me to the biggest issue of all and that’s the stonking unoriginality of the whole thing. For all their boasting about how feminist and progressive they are, what is it about Birds Of Prey that makes it stand out from other comic book films? Granted Sonic wasn’t wholly original either, but at least they had the novelty of a blue CGI hedgehog to piggyback off of. Birds Of Prey really doesn’t have anything if you think about it. Here’s the impression I got from the trailers. It has the same aesthetics as Suicide Squad, so already I’m getting PTS style flashbacks, and its story doesn’t seem all that intriguing or unique. Think about it. A violent anti-hero has to protect a delinquent child from some sadistic big baddie. How many times have we seen that done in these films? Terminator 2, Deadpool 2, Logan, even Ghost Rider has told this story before. The fact that the characters in question happen to be women doesn’t change a damn thing. They even have Harley Quinn breaking the fourth wall. Like... guys, come on! Surely we can do something more original than this! It feels like the only thing Birds Of Prey has going for it is that its main protagonists are all women. But after the likes of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, that’s no longer a real selling point anymore. You need something else to entice people. Something that Birds Of Prey sorely lacks.

Now I’m sure any Birds Of Prey fans reading this must be getting pissed off at me, so I’d just like to remind everyone yet again that I’m not necessarily saying Birds Of Prey is a bad film. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen it. And that’s kind of my point. A week or so ago, my friend and I knew this was probably going to be our last opportunity to go to the cinema for quite some time, so we knew we had to make our choice of film count. We had a choice between Sonic The Hedgehog and Birds Of Prey, and we ended up going to see Sonic. We don’t regret it. We had a good time watching Sonic. It was a fun movie, well made and surprisingly moving at points. (interesting to note, Sonic also has the main protagonist protecting a child plot, but unlike the films I mentioned, Sonic’s story is told from the perspective of the kid. It’s a little thing, but it’s enough to make the whole thing feel fresh and unique because it’s something not even the games tend to acknowledge. Sonic is a kid and the film plays around with that, which adds to its overall charm). Maybe Birds Of Prey is a better movie than Sonic. I don’t know. But that’s not what this is about. When picking which film we would watch, it was the factors I mentioned before that we considered and I suspect what many other people took into consideration too. Basically we looked at these two films and thought to ourselves which one would we be prepared to go outside and risk our health for in order to see it in a cinema. In the end, Sonic won because, out of the two films, it looked more exciting and more unique than Birds Of Prey, and ultimately we trusted that this film could deliver what it promised. Is that fair? Probably not, but sadly that’s often how these things play out.

Birds Of Prey may have had a good critical reception, but it ultimately shot itself in the foot thanks to some of its creative and marketing decisions. And if studios take anything away from all this, it should be that relying solely on the gender of the main characters as a means to sell something just doesn’t cut it anymore.

#sonic the hedgehog #birds of prey #birds of prey (and the fantabulous emancipation of one harley quinn)#quill's scribbles

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musicalmukebox · 7 years ago

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Let’s Get (Back) Together | l.h. (2B)

Ctto of the gifs!!

AU: Parent Trap Dad!Luke

Summary: A strong love which led to a strong marriage and twin daughters. Yet in the end, it didn’t turn out so well. You strongly refuse to encounter him ever again. But what happens when both of you coincidentally send your twin daughters to the same summer camp in Florida after 10 years?

Word Count: 2.3k

Warnings: slight heated moments and swearing

A/N: Let me just say, I didn’t expect that this series would get so much attention so thank you!! So if you have suggestions or anything else about and for the series, come thru and slide to my ask box. Here’s your side after 10 years, and sorry if the ending is abrupt. Enjoy!

I don’t own Parent Trap and its ideas. It’s only used as inspiration.

1 / 2A / 2B / 2C / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15

Feedback/Questions/Others? Here.

2034, Los Angeles

“Alright, Gina. I’ll be there in 15.” You hung up the phone on your personal assistant, who reminded you that you have an interview and photoshoot with E!News for your film named Take Me or Leave Me. You’ll be interviewed alongside Timothée Chalamet, who played your love interest. Of all the times and days you could have this interview, it had to be at the same day and time when your daughter Stella is about to arrive home in a few minutes.

Great.

Take Me or Leave Me was set in the 1950’s, where there were 2 people named Mercedes and Clark who were in arranged and unhappy marriages. One day, they encountered each other in a diner, where they firstly sulked about how crap life is individually. That was until Mercedes received the wrong order, which so happens to be Clark’s. It instigated them to create conversations when they swapped food. Furthermore, it created a close friendship, which grew something more intimate. But recap, they are married to other people. Was the spark they felt worth to take or just leave it alone?

“We’re home!” You heard your butler, Mark, call out from downstairs of your home. Excited, you ran to the stairs, meeting eye to eye Stella.

“Stella! You’re back!” You called, extending your arms out for an embrace for her.

“Mom!” She shrieked, letting go from her grasp of her luggage, running towards you.

As you two were face to face, you reached out for a warm embrace, ecstatic to finally see each other after a month and a half, which felt longer. As you let go, you were fast enough to observe some minor, physical changes on her.

“You cut your hair!” You traced some strands of her hair.

“Oh yeah, but only a bit! It got really hot there, if that’s okay with you.”

You chuckled. “That’s alright! As long you’re here.” You then raced her hair behind her ear, finding an earring there.

“Ooh, you pierced your ears there too.” You were a bit confused because you remembered that she didn’t want one back in her younger years.

“I was pretty interested with it because it was really cool, and other girls had their ears pierced too. I’m not afraid anymore!” She cheered.

You smiled at her happiness, but then it was interrupted once your phone rang from your pocket. Bringing it out, it was Gina calling. Answering it, “(Y/N), the interviewers are here.”

“Shit.” You mumbled.

“Are you okay, mom?” Stella asked, worried.

“Alright, I’m really on my way, tell her my apologies and stall a bit for me, Gina?”

“Sure, (Y/N).” Giving your thanks, you hung up the phone. You looked at Stella, looking for an answer.

“I’m okay, love. I just found that I have an interview with E!News for Take Me or Leave Me with your uncle Timmy. Would you like to come?” Stella’s eyes widened.

“Oh yes please!” She chirped.

“Alright! I’ll grab my bag and you freshen up, then we’ll go.”

The ride to the E! Studios was pretty fast. Yet it was delightful to catch up with her since you werent able to talk her as much you wanted to. “One night, there was this one girl who dared me to jump in the cold lake because I lost to her in a game of poker!”

“Poker? Oh my, has grandpa been teaching you behind my back?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” She smirked, earning a laugh from you.

“Well, like mother, like daughter.”

As soon as your chauffeur parked the car, instantly so much paparazzi hovered your path to the studios. You held hands with Stella, hoping she won’t panic.

“(Y/N), are you with Timothée?”

“(Y/N), any other spoilers you can spill for Take Me or Leave Me?”

“(Y/N), does Stella know about her real dad?”

That last question was so harsh on you, like come on, it’s been 10 years?

Old news, dude. Yet, you just shrugged it off.

Finally, you managed to bump your way out of this insensitive crowd, and finally entering one of the studios. Instantly, you see Gina and Timothée, or Timmy, by the hair and makeup station.

“(Y/N)! There you are.” Gina called you out as you walked to her direction, then sitting down at one of the chairs to get your makeup done.

“I’m sorry for the tardiness, just wanted to see this little bub before heading here.” You referred to *Stella*, who sat on the chair beside you.

“Oh, I see. So how was camp, Stella?” Gina asked her politely.

“Really fun! Made new friends, got to dance and learn how to fence too!”

“That’s really cool! Any boys?” She raised her brows cheekily.

“Nah, they’re disgusting, and it was an all-girls camp!” She groaned, earning a laugh from Gina and you.

“Well, you never know. Times are different now.“ Gina stated. This is a topic very dear to her heart, especially when she came out to you as a lesbian 2 years ago, and you remained to have your full support and love for her nonetheless.

Homophobia can fuck off.

You also find Gina more like family than your assistant, and that she bonded with Stella really well, just like sisters. As the makeup artist added lipstick, you were done and ready for the cameras.

“Hey, love.” Your eyes glanced at Timmy, looking good as ever.

“Hey, Tim.” You greeted back, facing him.

“I see that Stella is back.” He pointed out as you glanced at Stella, laughing over something Gina said.

“Yeah, just this morning, thus me being late.” He chuckled, looking down for a bit then looking back up to you.

“Are you going tell her about us?” He asked, curiously. You sighed.

You’ve been non-exclusively dating Timmy for a few months, way before Stella went to camp. No one knows except Gina. Ever since you were started filming, especially those intimate scenes, you felt a spark.

A spark you haven’t felt in 10 years. He felt the same way, so you figured why the hell not?

“I don’t know, Tim. She hasn’t had any other fatherly figure in so long, unless you count my dad. Hell, she doesn’t even know what happened, which is not an easy thing to tell and process.” You worried. He put his hand on top of yours.

“Hey, I can be there if you want. I really like you, (Y/N). I don’t her to be left out.” He gave you a half yet reassuring grin. He has a point. Sighing again,

“Tonight. Come over for dinner.” You invited, wiggling out from his grasp in hopes no one saw that moment.

“Alright.” He accepted.

“Okay, guys! Interview time!” One of the producers to both of you, leading you to the area where you’ll be interviewed.

“Yes, slay that smirk!” The photographer, whose named is Finn, praised as he took numerous shots of you and Timmy.

Since you both served so much intense shots, Timmy changed up things and made a joke, which made you laugh and cringe at the same time. Your facial reaction changed the mood for both of you.

“I love these candid laughs, guys!” Finn complimented. Out of nowhere, Timmy brought out Stella to take pictures with you both, which made the mood livelier.

When the photoshoot reached its end, you were ready to go home and eat, but pretty nervous to tell Stella about you and Tim.

“You are so pretty, mom.” Stella complimented.

“Thank you, bub. Everything was much more lively when your uncle Tim let you join in the pictures.”

“True. He’s an amazing guy, he’s the right guy to play your love interest, like awhile, it felt so real, like you were Mercedes and Clark.” She agreed, even mentioning your and Tim’s character names in the film.

“You think so?”

“I know so.” You gave her a smile. Maybe telling her would be easier.

“Have you not felt anything like that before? Like pure happiness?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you ever felt that with dad?” Her question shook you.

“What’s this question, bub?”

“I don’t know, mom. I mean you’re an amazing and hard-working person, why would a guy like my dad leave you?” You grew anxious at the indirect mention of him.

“Why so curious all of sudden, Stella?”

“You know eventually, you‘re going to have to tell me what happened between you two because it wouldn’t be fair.” She pouted.

“Let’s just say that it didn’t work out because we grew unhappy and held back each other in reaching our goals.” I admitted, hoping she will be satisfied and wouldn’t ask any more questions.

Luckily when she was about to ask again, you arrived home. Thank God. Stepping inside the front door, you were surprised to see Timmy was already there, setting up the table.

“Hey, uncle Tim!” Stella came up to him for an embrace, which he returned.

“Hey, squirt!” He ruffled her hair, making her groan.

“What brings you here?” She questioned.

“Your mom invited me for dinner. I heard there’s pasta and shrimps.”

“Shrimps, ugh. But I can’t wait to eat!” Stella beamed.

“Since when did you hate shrimps, bub?” You asked, confused. This girl love shrimps, especially tempura.

“C-Camp. It was so nasty.” She stutters, trying not to reveal her true identity just yet.

“Well, camp can change one so fast must I say.” As Timmy lets go from her grasp, he approached and hugged you.

“You’re here so quickly.” You pointed out.

“Nothing wrong with that. A gentleman is never late.” He justified, making you roll your eyes.

“Smooth. Kinda.” You joked as he also rolled his eyes, taking a seat in the dining table. As Mark all of you dove in, enjoying every bite. Timmy even brought out some wine for you and him.

“Can I have a sip?” Stella asked as she watched you sipped your wine glass.

“Hmm, no. You’re only 11.” Stella frowned in disappointment.

“Here’s mine.” Timmy encouraged, offered his wine glass to her, letting her sip the delicious wine.

“Timmy, why? She’s only 11!” You scolded.

“When I was around her age, my dad encouraged me to drink wine too because hello, I’m part-French and it’s in our blood, he says. It’s a way to bond with people.” He answers, waiting for a reaction from Stella as she sipped it. Instantly, she spat it out. Probably out of sourness or bitterness.

“I don’t like this! Why do adults drink this?” She blurted, earning a laugh from you and Tim.

“You’ll understand when you’re older.” You responded, stifling in some laughs. Suddenly, you felt a hand on top of yours. You faced Timmy, who gave you that ”you should tell her” look. Lord knows how many times you’ve sighed today.

As you waited for Stella to calm down after her terrible encounter with wine, you spoke up.

“Stella, my bub.” You called.

“Yes, mom?” She focused her full attention on you.

“You know that you can tell me anything and that I can tell you anything as well if times are tough, right?”

“Yes, mum. What’s wrong?” She worried, confused with what you’re telling her.

“Nothing. But I want to tell you something.”

“What is it?” You felt Timmy’s hand again on yours. Stella’s eyes saw that too. You prepared yourself for the worst.

“Your uncle Tim and I are dating.”

She was stunned, her jaw dropping a bit. You couldn’t decipher whether it was bad or good. But to your happiness, she smiled.

“That’s great, mom! Both of you make each other so happy, especially during that photoshoot and interview! I’m happy you’re happy.” Yet you were confused at first, especially just a while ago, she was asking all these questions about her dad.

“You’re not mad or anything?”

“Why should I be? I care about you, mom. You deserve only the best.” She looked at Timmy, standing up and giving him a hug.

“Take care of her, ey?” She reminded as he nodded.

“I will.” It was such a great moment, but it was interrupted when Stella saw the time, shocked again. 10 pm.

“What’s wrong, bub?”

“I feel sleepy and exhausted because camp”.

“Oh okay, good night, bub.” You responded, right before you heard her bedroom door closed.

“Well, I think she handled it well.” Timmy speculated.

“She did.” You affirmed, feeling that wave of relief and sipping more wine, only for Timmy to get it from you.

“I believe you have enough wine for tonight.” He implied, putting back the cork inside.

“No, I haven’t.” You tried to get back his wine, but it raised it up higher so you couldn’t reach it.

“We still interviews tomorrow, love.”

“Ugh fine.” You groaned. Timmy laughed as he put the wine back down.

“You’re cute when you’re annoyed, love.” He complimented, pulling your waist closer to him and his lips just inches away.

“I like it when you call me that.” You blushed, wrapping your arms around his neck.

“You want me to say it again?’ He teased, making you nod.

“Love.” He rasped. Your insides were screaming for help, wanting you to do something about it. You can’t just let him go home without a kiss or two.

“Fuck it.” You instantly planted your lips on him. He returned the desire, lifting you up to the counter. Grinding against each other crazily yet much to your dismay, he was the first to let go.

Hmm, grinding against each other. Sounds familiar?

“What the fuck, Tim?” You cussed in disappointed.

“First, language. Your daughter is upstairs and I’m still seeing you tomorrow.”

“You tease! You can’t tell me what to do, you’re not my dad.” You rolled your eyes, pulling him closer to you, your lips in near proximity once more. You have your ways on turning him on.

“But you like it, babygirl.” He winked. As you jumped down the counter and led him to your front door, he kissed you one last time for the night.

“Good night.” He said before walking to his car.

“Good night, Tim.” You waved as he took off out your driveway. Entering your house, feeling giddy, you reflected on how life has been going well so far. Great career, amazing boyfriend, a great daughter. Nothing can change that, right?

Also, wine is flowing along your veins, so you couldn’t be too sure.

Well, just get to bed, self.

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blazehedgehog · 7 years ago

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I know it's not out yet, but when writing your review for Mania do you avoid watching/reading other reviews to keep your opinions fresh or do you do so to try and see what perspectives you have are unique from the crowd? I ask because iirc you mentioned being apprehensive in doing the review for the hottest Sonic title in a while

When I commit to reviewing something I completely block myself off from reading anyone else’s reviews, watching videos about the game, etc. I’ll talk with friends about it, and I’ll watch plenty of preview coverage leading up to release, but once other reviews start hitting and the game gets out there in the public’s hands, I go in to quarantine.

That’s mainly because if I read what someone else thinks, that person’s opinions will contaminate my own. The wording they use, the points they make, I will begin unconsciously parroting someone else’s review instead of voicing what I thought was actually personally important to me. Over the years, I’ve heard other writers say they similarly abstain from reading other reviews for the exact same reason; you will poison yourself with someone else’s ideas. In order to stay fresh and preserve a consistent internal voice for your reviews, you have to isolate yourself.

For certain games, any apprehension I feel can be different. I dragged my feet on the Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric video review because that game made me sad. I knew it was another Sonic 06 level disaster, and I knew my Sonic 06 video was one of the most popular videos on my channel, but something about it felt considerably more… pathetic? It wasn’t a bad game because the people working on it were delusional with their concepts, it was clearly bad for other, much more depressing reasons (and since then, what we’ve found out about the game’s trouble development has validated the feelings I initially had about Rise of Lyric, I think). It was a case where I knew I needed to savage the game because it was clearly trash, but it felt sort of like making fun of a sad clown. Picking the right words for that was incredibly difficult and takes way more energy than you’d think. I still don’t personally think I did a great job with it, but hindsight is always 20/20.

If you meant my Sonic Mania review, that’s mainly because I was worried I’d have a lot of emotional baggage to unpack. The reveal last year generated a lot of conflicting feelings about the game and I expected it to be a very difficult review to write simply because it would require a delicate touch to express my opinions. I wasn’t entirely wrong in that aspect, but the script is more or less done, now (and it’s huge – 1.5x the size of my Rise of Lyric review script). It’s just a matter of actually going through the process of recording VO, capturing video, and assembling it all in to something coherent.

What’s holding back that video review right now is just my living situation. There are seven people, three cats and a dog living in my brother’s house and my bedroom is right next to the noisiest, most heavily-trafficked rooms (the living room, kitchen, and bathroom). It’s hard to concentrate on writing with 11 month old twin boys throwing toys around, babbling nonsense, screeching and crying, on top of parents (and grandparents) constantly talking to them, on top of just normal every day background radiation. Which is to say nothing of being able to record voice over – my sister-in-law works from home most days, which means the boys are here, which means near-constant background noise. That’s just a fact of life with babies like that, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. My sister-in-law works at the church on Wednesdays and Sundays (and leaves the boys at her Mom’s), which means I have roughly two opportunities a week to squeeze in a VO session, but even that’s not guaranteed as there are a lot of times she’ll choose to work from home for the boys sake. I also tend to be a night owl, more comfortable to do the bulk of my work after dark (and, more often than not, after midnight). Unfortunately, evenings are often the noisiest times in this house, and I can’t very well do it after everyone goes to bed or else I’d be the one disturbing the peace. So I’m kind of at a standstill, here.

Then there’s simply the issue of my desktop, which I haven’t touched since writing the blog post about it blowing up. I absolutely can not capture or edit video on this laptop. Despite having a Core i5, 8gb of RAM, and an SSD inside of it, it is uncomfortably sluggish about certain things, likely due to its aged Intel HD onboard graphics (I’ve also suspected maybe the RAM is bad). Just look at the stuttering I get in this recording. Plus, where would I store all the footage I need?

I need that desktop for video production, and as of right now, that desktop is dead. Friends have made several suggestions on what to do about it, and I have replacement hardware on the way (though I’m still not sure if I actually need it), but I just haven’t been in the mood to look at it. I’m in this tiny little room, with this tiny little table, surrounded by so much constant chaos that I can put in earplugs, wear studio earmuff headphones, and still not be able to drown out all the noise. Stress levels are high and troubleshooting my computer just makes them even higher. I just haven’t been able to summon up the effort to deal with it.

As for Sonic Forces, I don’t know if I’ll have too much trouble reviewing that – at least, not on the writing end of things. I think it’s pretty clear I’m already chomping at the bit to talk about that game, but I’m holding back until the it’s actually in my hands and I have personally played the game to completion. Though it’s kind of hard to do that when I won’t have a computer to play it on unless I get in gear and fix my desktop. Ugh.

(I’ve also been falling super behind in answering Tumblr asks; my inbox is stuffed full of dozens of messages I haven’t answered yet because I just haven’t been in the mood. Sorry, folks)

#questions #sonic mania #sonic forces #sonic boom #rise of lyric #sega #sonic team #sonic the hedgehog #Anonymous

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symbianosgames · 7 years ago

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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

There’s a cute bit in the Philip K. Dick story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” where one character warns another about the lurking threat of kipple, all the useless objects that clutter up our lives.

“When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself,” he says. “No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot, like in my apartment...but eventually I'll die or go away, and then the kipple will again take over. It's a universal principle operating throughout the universe; the entire universe is moving toward a final state of total, absolute kippleization.”

Games are full of kipple. Empty cardboard boxes, old crates, coffee mugs, desks piled high with papers you can’t read and manila folders you can never open.

But Arkane’s latest, Prey, does something neat with kipple -- it weaponizes it.

Like most games you might call "immersive sims" (Deus Ex, Thief, BioShock, System Shock), Prey asks players to spend a lot of time rooting around in cabinets, trash cans and other nooks/crannies in search of hidden gems: useful resources buried in the rubbish.

Unlike those other games, Prey makes that rote and repetitive action scary. It introduces an enemy early on called the Mimic, a common but utterly alien creatures that tends to hide by taking the form of a piece of kipple, then leaping out when the player draws close.

While the nuts and bolts of actually fighting Mimics once they’re revealed can be annoying (they’re small and move erratically), their sheer existence make every otherwise innocuous, kipple-strewn corner of Prey’s Talos I space station feel threatening and alive.

And shucks, that space station. Can we just take a minute to appreciate the way Prey handles space, and sets the player up to tell their own stories within it?

The game came out a month ago at this point and I know it may have slipped past a lot of people (there are a lot of games!) but after finishing it, I wanted to quickly call out some of the neat things Prey does that are worth celebrating.

Holistic level design

Prey takes place on Talos I, a fictional space station orbiting Earth’s moon. Once the player moves past the opening scene, pretty much the entire station is accessible, and the player can also get outside and jet around the station’s exterior (though they take damage if they go too far.)

That means pretty much every space in the game is understandable and accessible from multiple perspectives, both internally and externally.

A player can spend five hours moving through the station from the Arboretum to the Hardware Labs, then exit into space through an airlock and retrace their path externally in a few minutes. If they happen to float by a viewport on the way, they might glimpse the aftermath of a particularly frenetic fight they had two hours ago, or spot the open hatch of a maintenance duct they crawled through to circumvent said fight.

This is important because it reinforces the illusion that the player is somewhere else. It makes Talos I feel like a real place, a holistic environment that can be explored, learned, and mastered.

This kind of environmental design isn’t easy -- there’s a reason most games run through a linear series of discrete levels -- but when done right, it helps the player feel embodied in your game.

There are lots of great examples of other games that nail this sort of holistic level design, but I’m just going to take the lazy way out and say it’s like Dark Souls. That game had fantastic, complicated environments that all fit together perfectly, lulling players into feeling that they were exploring a real place. Prey achieves something very similar, with the added benefit of being set on a floating space station that can be circumnavigated from the outside.

Dynamic enemy placement

Also like Dark Souls, the lion’s share of Prey is devoid of friendly life. Thus, the game's interlocking environments are chiefly defined by what enemies you find there and what stuff you can pick up.

The enemies also respawn or repopulate across Talos I in some fashion, ensuring (for better and for worse) that players can never fully relax when backtracking. More importantly, there are moments when the nature and number of enemies spread across the station changes in accordance with the narrative.

That gives players new challenges in known settings, keeping those locations feeling fresh and, more importantly, rewarding players for learning and exploiting the environments of Talos I.

Fluctuating power curves

Prey takes a lot of direct inspiration from games like System Shock, Thief, and Deus Ex, asking players to navigate Talos I while fighting/tricking/sneaking past enemies and collecting items, weapons and upgrades.

Since those resources are placed throughout the station and basically the whole thing is open to players from the jump, there are lots of different paths players can carve through the game -- and lots of ways that progression can be impacted by how threats shift and change.

For example, let me lay out my emotional journey through Prey. After about an hour, I was intrigued and felt pretty safe: I had plenty of healing items, a weapon or two, and (naive) trust that the game’s designers had balanced the difficulty level (Normal) so that I couldn’t totally ruin myself.

This seems fine

Five hours in, I was ruined.

I’d burned through all of my healing items, ammunition, and upgrade tools. All I had left was a wrench and a few EMP grenades, which were useless against the monstrosities that stood between me and everything I needed -- a shotgun, for example, or the fabrication plans for medkits.

I considered restarting the game, but decided to stick with it and sneak past everything in my way. I was terrified. Prey was the worst!

Ten hours in, Prey felt too easy. I’d managed to get both a shotgun and the medkit plans, as well as some schematics for other Useful Things. I was practically bursting with ammo and healing items, and I’d learned the enemies and environments well enough to know no fear.

This is it, I thought. This is the part in every game where you make the jump from underpowered to overpowered. Assuming the endgame was nigh, I caught myself thinking wistfully about how much more immersive and real Talos I had felt when I was inching through it in total abject terror. It would be kind of nice to go back to being underpowered, I thought.

Twenty hours in, I decided it wasn’t actually that nice! I was totally out of healing items (again), out of ammo (again!) and barely surviving as I sprinted across the station, using every trick I knew to try and get away from the enemy.

By this point I’d cleaned out most of Talos I and was having a hard time replenishing my resources and getting from zone to zone, much less accomplishing quest objectives. With no immediate endgame in sight, I thought again about giving up -- or at least reloading an earlier save.

After ~26 hours of play, I finished Prey. I had to make some late-game upgrade choices to counter troublesome enemies, and chase some side objectives that took me through new (resource-rich) areas of the station, but at the end I felt, if not godlike, at least god-ish.

Most games like this take you from the same start to the same end; the player starts at the bottom of a smooth power curve and spends the game climbing to the top. Prey stands out because it affords the player space to slip, fall, and get back up again, only to slip up in a totally new and terrifying way.

I mean space in a literal sense as much as a figurative one. When lead designer Ricardo Bare talked to Gamasutra earlier this year about the team’s approach to level design, he said the goal was to create a kind of “mega-dungeon” in space “with lots of immersive, simulation-based systems.”

Enter the Mega-Dungeon

By way of example he mentioned the studio’s 2002 first-person RPG Arx Fatalis, which took place inside a giant network of caves.

But my dumb stupid brain went somewhere else -- to the sorts of “mega-dungeons” that are popular in some tabletop role-playing game circles, especially in the 20th century.

If you didn't play D&D or whatever in the '90s, know that these were often sprawling, isolated areas with ridiculously complicated layouts (think like, a 12-level underground dungeon surrounded by a network of caves) and, most importantly, threat levels that varied depending on how far players were willing to explore.

That means players could effectively set their own difficulty by choosing how deep to delve. Pair that with the relative freedom tabletop RPGs afford players in choosing how to circumvent challenges, and you get an experience that's often light on narrative (there's something real bad going on in these caves/dungeons/ruins! Check it out!) but well-suited to letting players tell the story they want to tell.

Making games that give players lots of room to tell their own stories is tricky business. I think if you look at Prey, you'll find some good examples of how that can be done well.

Players can go almost anywhere and do almost anything (including finishing the game) relatively early on, but Talos I’s interconnected environments are filled with enemies of varying difficulty, letting players choose how to play and what to risk. The threats in those environments change over time, rewarding players for learning the levels and increasing the odds they’ll go through dramatic shifts in power level as they adapt to new challenges.

Of course, there’s a big downside to all this that you’ve probably already sussed out. Prey gives the player finite resources, but the enemies seem nigh-infinite. You might clear out a section of the station, only to come back hours later and find fresh monstrosities lying in wait for you.

That has a chilling effect on the player’s creativity; after all, why risk experimenting with new weapons and tactics when you know that freezing an enemy with the industrial-strength glue gun and bashing them to death with your wrench will A) be ammo-efficient B) totally work and C) present minimal risk of damage?

70 percent of the time, this works every time

This problem really rears its head in the end-game, when the player is likely to be criss-crossing Talos I and facing new enemies while moving through spaces that have already been picked clean.

Still, it's a minor complication in an otherwise great example of good level design and interesting power/challenge systems. I know a ton of interesting games will come out this year (like every year!) but if you have the means to take a look at Prey, do so!

And if you want a bit more from Ricardo “Mega-Dungeon” Bare, check out this hour-long conversation Gamasutra Editor-In-Chief Kris Graft and Contributing Editor Bryant Francis had with him while streaming Prey on our Twitch channel last month. (I’m not in it, so it should be pretty watchable!)

Alternate blog titles: Beat, Prey, Love; Prey You Catch Me; Let Us Prey; The Prey's The Thing

#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 7 years ago

Link

Games are full of kipple. Empty cardboard boxes, old crates, coffee mugs, desks piled high with papers you can’t read and manila folders you can never open.

But Arkane’s latest, Prey, does something neat with kipple -- it weaponizes it.

And shucks, that space station. Can we just take a minute to appreciate the way Prey handles space, and sets the player up to tell their own stories within it?

Holistic level design

That means pretty much every space in the game is understandable and accessible from multiple perspectives, both internally and externally.

This is important because it reinforces the illusion that the player is somewhere else. It makes Talos I feel like a real place, a holistic environment that can be explored, learned, and mastered.

This kind of environmental design isn’t easy -- there’s a reason most games run through a linear series of discrete levels -- but when done right, it helps the player feel embodied in your game.

Dynamic enemy placement

That gives players new challenges in known settings, keeping those locations feeling fresh and, more importantly, rewarding players for learning and exploiting the environments of Talos I.

Fluctuating power curves

This seems fine

Five hours in, I was ruined.

I considered restarting the game, but decided to stick with it and sneak past everything in my way. I was terrified. Prey was the worst!

Enter the Mega-Dungeon

By way of example he mentioned the studio’s 2002 first-person RPG Arx Fatalis, which took place inside a giant network of caves.

But my dumb stupid brain went somewhere else -- to the sorts of “mega-dungeons” that are popular in some tabletop role-playing game circles, especially in the 20th century.

Making games that give players lots of room to tell their own stories is tricky business. I think if you look at Prey, you'll find some good examples of how that can be done well.

70 percent of the time, this works every time

This problem really rears its head in the end-game, when the player is likely to be criss-crossing Talos I and facing new enemies while moving through spaces that have already been picked clean.

Alternate titles for this blog: Beat, Prey, Love; Prey You Catch Me; Let Us Prey

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 8 years ago

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It doesn't happen the same way to everyone, but at some point every programmer made the conscious decision to learn how to code. For me, it was wanting to build a game with my husband and since he was an established artist, that meant I needed to learn how to code. Making that descision is only the first step, from there you actually have to well, um, learn to do it. This is one of those articles I wish I could give to my younger self to help understand how to get started, what languages are the right ones for the final product, and how to use all that to maybe make a living.

Getting Started

The best way to find your path (no we aren't talking A* pathfinding here), is to dig deep about why you want to get into programming. Was it your passion for gaming, or your love for a mobile or desktop application? Was it a really cool website, or even a really bad website? Maybe you are interested in how to defeat our robot overlords in the nearing dystopian future. Or maybe you just feel like you understand the logic of how something should work, but no one is creating it the way you want. Depending on which one of these you aligned with most, you can visit the idea of being a back-end developer, a front end developer, a machine learning expert, a web developer, a mobile developer, a game developer….well the list goes on.

Once you decide on which type of developer that you want to be, the languages you can learn will reveal themselves. With there being so many languages in programming it is impossible to just learn one and be done. You'll find that you need knowledge of at least three different coding languages, because they all interact with each other some how. Before you can pinpoint the exact languages, you'll also want to decide what platforms you want to support. Each platform will require a different coding language, because well, life is hard that way. If you want to support web, you'll likely go in the direction of HTML5, but there is also JavaScript. For desktop, will you support Mac, because you'll likely learn Objective-C, or Swift. For PC, well you have .Net, Python, C# (that's sharp not hashtag), C++, etc. Having various languages will also be the case for mobile applications. If you want to make things easier on yourself (I said easier, not easy), then the best idea is to decide on a platform and find an engine that will support it as well as other platforms in your field.

In my case, I've traveled the route of game and application developer and I deploy to mobile, desktop and console. While that may sound like a lot of different platforms, there are actually a handful of great engines to choose from, like Unity, Unreal or even a smaller one like Cocos2d-x. Engines will typically allow you to write your code in just one language, then it will compile for your target platforms, doing all the major lifting for you. They also have amazing features built in, so that you do not have to write (for example) your own animation or lighting tools. Along with having the right engine, you'll also want to find a source code editor that works with your engine and that has all the features you need. There is a pretty lengthy list of editors you can find here, but my two favorite have been Visual Studio and Xcode. They both have great intelligent code completion and the (forever useful) syntax highlighting. Again, the ones available to you will depend on the platform you choose.

Tutorials, tutorials, tutorials...

At this point you have the type of project that you want to work on, the engine that will support this, and you've decided on a language and code editor, but what next? Well, now is the time to start learning how to use all of these tools! There are some incredibly useful resources out there to learning the fundamentals of programming, as well as diving deeper in to the languages and tools. From my experience, it is best to buy a book or two and read through some of the tutorials to understand what is going on in each line of code. The next best step (or an alternate first step) is to take an online course. It doesn’t have to be an expensive course at your local University or college, but maybe simply a course from Lynda.com, Udemy or Codecademy. These are all websites full of different courses, lead by different instructors that have been in their respective fields, so you will learn a lot and by the end of the course you have a project that you've worked through line by line.

After understanding the fundamentals of the coding language and the engine, but you still run into errors or get stumped on how to do something, then the next best place is reading through the specific documentation relating to your engine or targeted operating system. The documents are out there to help you and it took several people tons of effort to write it, so please at least skim through it. After that, if you are still stumped, then there are so many forums full of willing people that are ready to help you out. The primary forum, and almost everyone's go to is StackOverflow.com. This site has been around for a long time, so a big chunk of questions that can be asked, have been asked on there. If not on Stackoverflow, then it's possible your engine has a forum with active members and experienced moderators. Taking the effort to write a detailed post goes a long way with people that are active on the forums, so don’t just ask for some one to write your code for you. You will get stumped and you will need help, because, as I said before, this is not an easy field you chose.

Write Something, Deploy It

Now that you feel like you have a basic understanding, you can start writing that program that caught your interest in the field to way back at the beginning of all this. Just kidding! Start with a much, mush smaller subtask or version of that big project that you envisioned from the beginning. If you wanted to make a game, well then make a Arkanoid clone. The point being, you do not want to overwhelm yourself, that will only lead to defeat.

Your first program isn't going to be amazing, or original... it is going to be basic and most likely a clone or something already published. Creating this first project will give you the understanding you need to make the bigger program that you aspired to do in the first place. But go through all the motions with this first one, delpoy it to the platform that you chose, make friends and family test it for bugs and quality, and finally publish it and make it public. All of this will give you the experiences you need to do it better next time when you want to launch something original.

Take small steps and create something that you are proud to put your name to and even more importantly, something that you can show at your interview. Which brings me to the next point of finding a job in the field, after all you want to make a living right?

The Job Prep

The whole job search charade is such a grueling process, and finding the right company to interview at is a process in it's own. There are (once again) several online resources to search for a job, and with this being such a large industry you will likely find several places to interview with. Start with searching sites like Monster, Indeed, Hired, and even Stackoverflow. If that doesn't work out, try joining a local group of other developers like yourself through a site like Meetup.com and search their bulletin board. While doing all of this it is also important to continue working on your portfolio.

Keeping all these small projects to yourself will not be of any use, so create a website that show cases each one and most importantly get on LinkedIn. Do not underestimate the value of LinkedIn, as head hunters are constantly scouring it for talent. Now that you've also gained more experience with these small projects, try to make time to create a Stackoverflow account and start gaining reputation points there by answering the noob questions that get posted all day, every day.

Like I mentioned, the job search is a grueling process and preparing for the interview is just as important as learning the language. The interview will be a three, five or even eight hour long day at your prospective company. They will put you through the ringer. You will code on a whiteboard, complete coding tests, and just talk experiences. Start taking online coding interview test (Codility is a good resource for this), and make sure you have a basic understanding of the concepts, and know the lingo. You'll go through this process a few times, but you will eventually find a company that fits you and one where you fit in to it's culture.

Good luck!

After all is said and done, you may find that this wasn't what you wanted after all….or you might just absolutely love it, like I do. If the latter is the case, then keep at it and you will find the right position at the right company. The best advice I can offer is that coding/programming/software engineering it isn't easy; but if you love a challenge, you read this whole article and are still in the game, well, then maybe it is the right path for you. Either way, good luck in your newly found hobby! May it consume your time and leave you broke, fat, hairy and living in your parent's dark basement, like most people envision us.

Happy coding!

#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

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[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.

This week's highlights include animators on Mass Effect: Andromeda's animation complaints, Remedy's very silly Hoodiegate, and lots, lots more - enjoy!

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

The Art of Fiction #6: Greg Kasavin (Sean Vanaman / Campo Santo Quarterly) "I met Greg Kasavin in the winter of 2010 over enchiladas at a Mexican restaurant in San Rafael, on my lunch break from Telltale Games. Greg had just quit his job as a producer at 2K Games to join his former Electronic Arts coworkers at Supergiant —then a handful of unknown developers in a suburban home in San Jose — as a writer on the 16-bit throwback action RPG Bastion."

Animators Roundtable: The Mass Effect: Andromeda pile-on (Various / AnimState / Gamasutra) "With so much attention being paid in the last week to the animation issues seen in the previews leading up to Bioware's next big release, Mass Effect: Andromeda, we thought it would be interesting to get a few experienced animators together to discuss the challenges animators face when dealing with these types of projects."

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - An Open World Adventure (Game Maker's Toolkit / YouTube) "So, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an open world game. In this video, I look at how Nintendo used and ignored different bits of open world design to make a game that's all about exploration and adventure."

How the Risky 'Horizon Zero Dawn' Transformed the Studio Behind 'Killzone' (Keith Andrew / Glixel) "After all these years of giving us great-looking games about shooting at space-Nazis, Guerrilla showed us what it was truly capable of: a hugely ambitious open-world role playing game that was not only critically lauded, but sold over 2.6 million copies in its first two weeks and provoked comparisons with greats like The Witcher 3."

From Indie to Fable & Back Again: 30 Years of "Wisdom" (Dene Carter / GDC/ YouTube) "In this GDC 2017 talk, industry veteran Dene Carter discusses his overarching lessons learned from 30 years of experience making games at all scales, and how these experiences can help indie developers aiming to create high quality games while staying sane."

BritSoft Focus: All 4 Games (Julian Benson / Kotaku UK) "Our BritSoft Focus series tends to look at UK developers, but every now and then we’ll also be shining the spotlight on UK publishers - particularly the unusual ones, as we did with PQube back in February. Channel 4 is one of these. Not because it’s a small outfit: Channel 4 is a giant public-service broadcasting company, mainly-funded by advertising but ultimately owned by the UK taxpayer."

How Breath of the Wild Fixes Zelda's Item Problem (Turbo Button / YouTube) "The Legend of Zelda is one of my favourite series, but despite the amazing heights it reaches, it's always had a problem of items being far too specific and rigid. Let's take a look at just how Breath of the Wild fixes that problem, and how it makes interactions in this huge world feel so much more natural."

Morphblade And Imbroglio: Making A Game To Test A Critique (Tom Francis / Pentedact) "I released Morphblade last week, which is a game I made in direct response to Michael Brough’s Imbroglio. They’re both games where you move around a grid of different tile types, and the one you’re standing on determines what you can do there. [SIMON'S NOTE: an interesting way to respond to a game - with another game!]"

Arcade to eSports: How Your Competitive Game Influences Player Culture and Values (Tom Cannon / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC talk, EVO cofounder Tom Cannon examines how the format of the arcade influenced the competitive culture of fighting game players, and why this culture endures today."

7 works of interactive fiction that every developer should study (Stefanie Fogel / Gamasutra) "[Interactive fiction] is enjoying a bit of a resurgence today thanks to studios like Failbetter Games and Inkle. With that in mind, here are seven IF games that can still teach developers of any genre a lesson or two about narrative and design."

How escape rooms became the future of advertising (Bryan Bishop / The Verge) "The SXSW conference has a history of being home to some of the most elaborate marketing events imaginable. Whether it’s a chance to stay over at the Bates Motel, visit the restaurant from Breaking Bad, or see Kanye and Jay Z perform, it’s as much a part of the show as technology talks and movies. But this year, a new style of tie-in swept the festival: the escape room."

Traversal and the Problem With Walking Simulators (Thomas Grip / Frictional Games Blog) "To keep the player focused on the game's world is crucial to every game creator. During times of traversal this is even more important, at the same time as it's harder to achieve. So how do you keep your game interesting and avoid turning it into a walking simulator? [SIMON'S NOTE: Thomas is the designer of Amnesia and SOMA, which makes this particularly interesting.]"

When pigs flew: The strange history of Capcom's Big Bang Bar (Brian Crecente / Polygon) "I was working on a story about buying refurbed game machines and he was my source. After working through the particulars, Tuckey interrupted my wrap-up by asking if I wanted to hear a real story. The tale he told, heard from the friend of a collector, was about a fabled pinball machine, a dream machine that was never manufactured, its design thought lost forever."

Hoodiegate: What goes into making the yearly Remedy hoodie (Thomas Puha / Remedy / YouTube) "In 2016 Remedy embarked on a mission to create the ultimate hoodie in its 20 year history. Huge amount of research was poured into the project with several beta tests done in the wild. We documented all of this for you to see... [SIMON'S NOTE: this was from the end of last year, but only just saw it, and it's very cute/silly.]"

The Xbox One is struggling because video game exclusives still matter (Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge) "Perhaps the most revealing example of the power of exclusives is Microsoft’s Xbox One, the console that’s struggled to find its niche with first-party games. While Sony has recently offered a variety of games in a short window of time, and Nintendo has, well, Zelda, Microsoft hasn’t quite found its footing."

Chasing the First Arcade Easter Egg (Ed Fries) "It all started with a soon to be released project I am working on called “Fixing Gran Trak 10” about the first car racing arcade video game from 1974. I had completed the electrical repairs and was trying to interview as many people as possible who were involved with making the game. One of the interviews was with Ron Milner. Ron’s an interesting guy. He was an engineer and inventor at Atari’s secret think tank in the mountains – Cyan Engineering from 1973 to 1985."

Why Opening Loot Boxes Feels Like Christmas, According To Game Devs (Cecilia D'Anastasio / Kotaku) "Opening Overwatch loot boxes or Halo 5 REQ packs adds a special drama to a gaming session. The crate shakes. A jingle chimes. Lights peek out from the cracks. It swells with potential. Game developers make subtle design decisions that stoke the hope that keeps players opening mystery boxes, crates and packs. And not just on the stats side of things—just as important are the cosmetics of the experience."

Nioh: Talking with Samurai (Fumihiko Yasuda / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Koei Tecmo Games' Fumihiko Yasuda explains how and why the samurai-themed action game was released into a brief early access period, and goes through the key lessons learned from that exercise, the applications of collected data, the reception of the open communication with their fans, and implementation of the feedback gathered."

The Game Beat Weekly: Game reviewers face their own "crunch time" (Kyle Orland / Tinyletter) ""Eating a big steak dinner is great. Being forced to eat 30 steak dinners in the span of a week approaches torture." This is the best analogy I've heard for describing the "hardship" of reviewing an epic-length game on a tight embargo deadline (I think Ben Kuchera was the one to first mention this great saying to me, and it's definitely stuck). [SIMON'S NOTE: Kyle's newsletter hasn't published much of late but is def. worth subscribing to!]"

Hajime Tabata Reflects on the Transformation of Versus XIII to Final Fantasy XV (Jeremy Parish / USGamer) "Now that the dust has settled on Final Fantasy XV and its strong global sales appears to justify hopes for future chapters in the long-running RPG franchise rather than toll its death knell, producer Hajime Tabata can afford to look back and wax philosophical on the project."

A Brief History of Walking Simulators (Sidcourse / YouTube) "In this episode of the Sidcourse, we take a look at first person adventure games. Or as they're more commonly known; walking simulators. Walking simulators weren't as loved by the mainstream audience outside of the critics in the beginning. Over time, things have changed and as indie developers grow this genre of games, we can see them blurring the line between mechanics and narrative."

Interview with Matt Lees at GDC (Jessica Fisher / Gameosity) "During my visit to the Game Developers Confrence (GDC) I had a chance to sit down with Matt Lees of the popular board game site, Shut Up & Sit Down. We got to chatting about the conference, the board game industry, bears, and SU&SD’s Kickstarter for their Monikers expansion."

The Obsessive World of 'Zelda' Timeline Fanatics (Luke Winkie / Glixel) "One of Legend of Zelda superfan Michael Damiani's favorite discoveries is inside Hyrule Castle in the acclaimed 2002 GameCube title, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. If you skip down the stairs below the altar that holds the Master Sword, you'll find several stained glass windows peering into a lonely, waterlogged basement."

'Fallout: New Vegas' Writer Chris Avellone: "Fantasy is Not My Happy Place" (Miguel Lopez / Glixel) "Chris Avellone's credits read like a recitation of the computer RPG canon: Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale. But talking to him, you get the feeling that the veteran writer and designer has only recently begun to reap the benefits of his profile."

My Mains: Ryu (Patrick Miller / Medium) "Hey, it’s Patrick. I’m trying out a short blog series about character design in competitive video games! Simple format — five things I like about a character, and one thing I’d like to fix. Check it out and let me know if it’s a thing you’d want to read more of! Also see: Pharah, Chipp, Thresh, and Athena. [SIMON'S NOTE: Patrick is an ex-Game Developer magazine EIC and fighting game scene guy who's now at Riot, and writes smart stuff!]"

The Video Game That Claims Everything Is Connected (Ian Bogost / The Atlantic) "I am Rocky Mountain elk. I somersault forward through the grass, toward a tower of some sort. Now I am that: Industrial Smoke Stack. I press another button and move a cursor to become Giant Sequoia. I zoom out again, and I am Rock Planet, small and gray. Soon I am Sun, and then I am Lenticular Galaxy. Things seem a little too ordinary, so I pull up a menu and transform my galaxy into a Woolly Mammoth. With another button I multiply them. I am mammoths, in the vacuum of space."

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[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to [email protected]. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.

This week's highlights include animators on Mass Effect: Andromeda's animation complaints, Remedy's very silly Hoodiegate, and lots, lots more - enjoy!

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.

This week's highlights include animators on Mass Effect: Andromeda's animation complaints, Remedy's very silly Hoodiegate, and lots, lots more - enjoy!

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend.

This week's highlights include animators on Mass Effect: Andromeda's animation complaints, Remedy's very silly Hoodiegate, and lots, lots more - enjoy!

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes