#you're not supporting the devs by buying that game

[calldres]

its a little disheartening to remember how many people in my social circles, and even a lot of online friends talked about how they're never gonna touch an activision blizzard product again once the news about the insane workplace abuse broke out. even to this day they get more lawsuits and more news comes out about the horrific shit that happens in their studios.

and those same people are now talking about how much they're loving diablo 4. i see you

[girlbob-boypants]

Anyway the reason why you shouldn't pre order Veilguard isn't because of some moral protest about the layoffs. It's because deceptive marketing and releasing unfinished products are the current standard in the AAA space and a few pieces of mediocre fashion do NOT warrant spending 60+ usd now for a game that might not even run later.

[violetren]

I have realised the thing that pisses me off the most about people buying Blood Libel: The Transphobia Fund and then being sad or surprised by the backlash for it "because they don't support JKR or the Devs" is that to be an ally the absolute bare fucking minimum you have to do to be an ally to any minority community is not participate in or encourage violence against them.

And these piss stains not only failed to do that, they actively paid more than my weekly grocery budget to fail at that.

[paleopinesofficial]

An important update to our Paleo Pines Community���💙😞

Transcript Below;

Paleo Pines Needs Your Help

A lot of you have been asking what’s next for Paleo Pines and we wanted to provide our community with an update on the challenges we are facing. The sad truth is, the future is uncertain. 

For the better part of this year we’ve been working behind the scenes to create a plan for the next iteration of Paleo Pines, filled with stunning new regions, quirky new NPCs, plenty more adorable dinosaurs, plus eggs, babies and - yes - multiplayer. The job after launch seemed simple - listen to our community, provide a roadmap full of updates and DLC to ensure that our players can continue to enjoy the existing world… and double-down on that enjoyment with the plan for bigger, better, shinier Paleo Pines for you to enjoy with friends and family.

We've been searching high and low for a production partner, one that felt your love and passion to help us bring the next Paleo Pines to life. On several occasions in our journey, we were within a few small steps of the finish line, only to have circumstances beyond our control cause the future to fall through.

This isn't happening just to us. It seems the whole indie game scene is facing a sudden drying up of publishing and investment opportunities. Thanks to the unwavering dedication of our small team and the massive love from all of you, we've been able to support the first year of Paleo Pines on a shoestring budget. 

We’ve managed to keep the lights on… until now. Unless we can find a partner who is keen to see the Paleo Pines universe grow, we won’t be able to keep our team together for much longer. 

So, we’re making our situation public. Here's how you can help:

Do you know a publisher/investor who would be a great partner for Paleo Pines 2? If you're a serious publisher or investor and are interested in seeing a production plan, financial model, game design document and more, please reach out to kevin@italicpig.com. (By the way, Paleo Pines isn’t the only property we’re working on... Our talented team has a diverse collection of small, medium and large scale projects, for PC, console and mobile. If you’re looking for something fun and a little bit different, get in here.)

Can you help in smaller ways? Every little bit helps! Here are a few ways you can directly support the devs:

Have you got our DLC yet? We've just released our very first Halloween DLCs – a great way to support us while getting more gameplay for yourself.

Still playing the demo? Are we on your Wishlist? Please consider buying the full game today, or in the next sale. We promise it'll bring you hours of dino-tastic joy! 

Befriend a Paleo Pines plushie. These adorable creatures aren't just cute, our portion of the sales goes towards development. Our latest, Boo, the albino Styracosaurus, is available now. Our previous plushies helped fund our new Halloween DLCs and free update.

Order Paleo Pines merchandise. We’ve got dozens of fun items celebrating your favourite dinos available in time for gifting this year.

Even if you can't offer financial support, you can still be a hero! Share this post with anyone who might be interested in helping. Wishlist us, buy the game, talk about how it makes you feel, and share share share. The power of community is real, and every share brings us closer to making more Paleo Pines!

The team here can't express enough gratitude to the incredible Paleo Pines community. You've been with us through every step of this amazing journey, from the demo launch to the release last September, and through our adorable plushie collaborations with Makeship. You've become more than players and we couldn't have imagined building this world with a kinder, more supportive group.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us on this roller coaster of a year since launch, and your patience and understanding with our current situation. Hopefully with your help, this won’t be the end of the Paleo Pines adventure.

Lots of love, The Paleo Pines Team

[pizzapranks]

Indiepocalypse is a monthly anthology of indie games curated and delivered straight to you!

Each release features games from 10 developers (including a newly commissioned game!) and a companion zine. Focusing on smaller-scale/no-budget indie games, Indiepocalypse highlights games that are shorter, personal, experimental, and otherwise an alternative to AAA and mainstream indie space.

My goal is the help bring more attention to the indie game scene I love and support them however I can. Did you know that all contributors to Indiepocalypse are paid upon acceptance and are paid royalties? Because they are!

If you're looking to explore the exciting world of underground indie games, Indiepocalypse is a great entry point to this world and it's exciting creators! (also a great way to find creators you may have missed if you already explore said world)

You can buy it or check out the games here!

I also sell Indiepocalypse physically in a cool USB sticks inside cassette cases format! (tower of which is pictured below)

Lastly, (I promise) if you're an indie dev, submissions for Indiepocalypse are always open!

[wolfehorror]

Queer Book Bundle

Hey Tumblr, it's the end of the year, which means me and a couple of my friends are doing a queer indie book bundle. Now more than ever it's important to support independent creators. Many of us in the bundle fall under the trans umbrella, and the bundle is hosted on a cool site called itch.io so your money will be going directly to creators instead of big corporations like the zon.

15 different authors, 24 eBooks, $24 dollars

A list of all the books included Ice Upon A Pier by LADZ Fealty Of Monsters by LADZ The Cradle Of Eternal Night by LADZ  ROTGUT by HS Wolfe In The Garden Of Echo by HS Wolfe One Saturday Morning by Tyler Battaglia An Encounter Of A Friendly Kind by Elias Strange Unbound by Luna Fiore Unbroken by Luna Fiore Velvet: Seaon One Antlers by Friction Press The King’s Mushroom by Achilles King Vice + Virtue by Magnus Thorne Hawthorne by Sirius The Devil Owns Prime Time by Sirius  To Dance Among Electric Stars by Lysander Arden  Mother Of Pearl by AA Fairview Peaceful In The Dark by AA Fairview House Training by Claude Hamesh Eyetooth by Mara Adler  Unholy Favors by Mars Adler Deck The Holes by Wren V Lothaire  Life Beyond Her Silver Chain by Jem Zero Shacharit by Claude Hamesh Pikuach Nefesh by Claude Hamesh If you're curious about what ITCHIO is, it's basically a site intended for indie game devs to host projects where a larger portion of profits goes directly to the people creating things. It also hosts TTRPGS, ebooks, physical books, and a couple other things. It's an incredibly robust site that values the people uploading projects to it, and one of the few safe places from censorship towards queer adult works and queer erotica. Highly recommend just checking it out in general, because there's a lot of cool shit to be found. If you can't buy the bundle reblogs are greatly appreciated! Hoping to find the freaks that want to read my weird trans books <3

[nadianova]

how much $ did u get from sales from malmaid & other VNs on itch/steam? i wanna upload my VNs on itch/steam but 1. idk how much i wanna price it (like... yeah its free but for the pwyw slot for itch) & 2. (for steam) idk if the 100$ steam price for Uploading is worth it/if ppl will like/buy it (am insecure/nervy #girl :'3) .. i luvv ur work n i love seeing ur works it Makes me v happy thank you!!!!

disclaimer everything here is my opinion and perspective from me in this current moment of my life so just take everything with a grain of salt and preferably look for others perspectives to compare to. ultimately its something everyone kinda have to figure out on their own and do what works for them..

but that being said theresa lot of things to say here so ill just start with like... every dev i see says that if you're gonna sell your game put it on steam. i keep hearing numbers throw around like 90% of sells come from steam and 10% from itch io for devs that sell (commercial projects) on both. you still need following etc to promote the wishlists since that is what boosts your game after the initial release on steam or something like that?

if you have a free game put it on itch io. its free just do it might as well. being shy and insecure about what you make is fine but keep in mind that people arent after some perfect flawless projects and making those is impossible

just make what you can and share it, the right people just need to find them

still itchio is nice that its free but the userbase is also 50% people on their mobile searching for strictly free android games to jerk off or horror game with red background because popular streamer #453425 played it. the site culture is different from steamw which some people treat as if games don't count as real unless they're on steam.

from my perspective paying $100 to put a game on steam is 'cheap'. even if you just consider it an ad fee for however much traffic steam algorithm blesses you with, its kind of a good deal if you think about the unhinged amounts you'd have to pay on twitter or facebook or whatever the hell people use to actually promote the game to same amount of eyes.. if you're doing free games its less of a incentive but if you're trying to do business and make money for rent 100(and whatever fees steam and taxes will eat from your earnings) is a very low price of doing business. i see people complain about steam cuts and steam fees but as someone who used to be an online sexworker there was literally popular sites AND STILL ARE that take like 50% cut directly so steam isn't bad when compared to that (also steam gives you the 100 back after you make 1000, which i reasonable believe i could reach if i put a paid game on steam)

also did you know you can set itch ios marketplace cut to 0% if you want with no repercussions. you can do that if you want. do it.

i think if you have rent to pay you should get into the habit of asking for something. artists love supporting other artists and outside of that the people who have money will gladly support someone whose work they like. there's really no concrete numbers to give for pricing projects. just ask anything. tho know that asking for 1 dollar is pretty much the same as asking for like 5 tho. if people are ready to pay they generally don't care if its in that range so i think everyone's happy if its 5 when payment processors get to swipe a smaller percentage of the fees from the transaction

maybe something like just ask for something nad once you make more projects keep rising it. its better to have an empty patreon with 0 subscribers than no patreon at all. my games used to be 0€ to download and 6.66€ pay what you want and people kept paying that. then i raised the suggestion to 15€ just to try it out and i was surprised to see the amount of donations didn't go down. bonus artbooks are a good incentive. its nice to share something special for those who want to donate and its nice for them to get something out of it since a huge portion of these people might have just given that same donation money expecting nothin in return

its taken a few months but malmaid has now made like 800 dollars on itch io which is like wow holy shit but it kinda stops being as exciting when i think about how it took me 6 months to make it and that would be like one month of rent. still ultimately the fact that its a free game and everyone just decided to donate anyway is kinda absurd and it makes me infinitely grateful

i do know that if i had priced it with a set price the amount would be a lot more (this is even more evident from my 4€ comic projects that i keep putting on sale constantly for even cheaper are still by far the most earning projects I've ever put on itchio) id argue people are more likely to take a project seriously and engage with it if it cost money. free games you can just dl and forget about it if you want.. but having a price next to the download button makes things seem more legitimate because money has worth

i also get pay-per-project patreon money. tho patreon hates that mode and will be deleting in like a year or so instead of having stupid monthly payments. idk what ill do then i might delete patreon at that point will see

but on the matter of if these numbers really are a useful metric to share is debatable. hopeless junction made like $1000(ignoring the vncup 2 award) since i released it year ago and this and malmaid are two of my most popular games like that. i think i made 300-400 during the first few release months back then. I've been posting stuff on itch io for FREE for a decade soon and its an accumulation of all my visibility from over the years. itch io also favorites nsfw games with their tag traffic so its an environment that works for me

if i had started asking for money and packaging my things in a more commercial form i would be making a lot more with it i think and the people who followed me would already be accustomed to that. its just that for now ive valued people being able to play my things for free and my situation has allowed for it

everyone hates marketing but ultimately its about making the thing you made look good and be seen by others. a nice custom theme on an itch io page is more likely to get someone to stay than a game with blank profile no screenshots.

its important to make the thing you made look presentable and that's just finding your own voice by looking at how others do these things

the coolest story in the world isnt gonna sell if it doesn't have a nice cover if nobody knows that story exists.. but if people like the story they're more likely to stick around for future stuff and spread the word.. i think that matters more than what amount of money is being asked for a game as there are popular cheap games just as there are popular expensive games

idk. if theres more specific questsions ask again its a very broad thing

[companionplanting]

This shitty Harry Potter game has been making my blood boil so let me get personal real quick.

I am not Jewish. This body is not Jewish. Didn't grow up with Judaism, or practicing any of those beliefs.

But for the majority of our life on this Earth, for whatever dumb reason, people believed we were Jewish.

I was beaten to a pulp, made fun of, called names for years on the simple fact that people thought I was Jewish. Teachers would not intercept. No adult would try to stop it.

"They're just expressing their own personal beliefs."

This followed me from when I was about 5 or 6 all the way to my adulthood. I would have everything threatened towards me, people trying to come to my house to hurt me.

Of course over the years they found more reasons to try and hurt me (being queer and disabled for starters). But from the very beginning people hated me because they assumed I was Jewish.

Despite this, I will never fully be able to understand actually living as a Jewish person. I was never Jewish and I don't practice any similar faith.

But when I hear desperate calls for help from actual Jewish people, begging and pleading to not give money to antisemitic bigots who will fund efforts to hurt them, I unfortunately still (on some level, not entirely) understand where they are coming from.

JK Rowling is not the only one you will support if you buy the game. You will support the game devs who share the same exact views.

The only difference between Hogwarts Legacy and donating directly to antisemitic causes is you're getting Nazi Propaganda The Game out of it.

I do not care if this makes you feel bad, because it should.

-🍂 & ☣️

[rivcog]

riVen 1997 / 2024

Fellow explorers, fans of the Fifth Age, here we are in the year 2024. A lot has happened over the course of 27 years. I'm here to focus on one thing. Riven. What's changed? Is it really worth discussing amidst the absolute bloodshed befalling humanity? This is, after all, just a video game. Who gehndamn cares about a little video game in a time of such a crushing and gaping rift between people and state power?

I do. If any of the following apply, please do not read another word.

Have not played 1997 Riven

Have not played 2024 Riven

Played 2024 Riven, and feel it's a solid 10 out of 10

Had any hand in the making of 2024 Riven

If you're still here, I have quite a bit to say on the subject. Please read with a grain of salt, you may or may not find what I have to say valuable or relatable. And that's perfectly ok. Every sentiment laid out is purely my perspective. 100% subjective. I simply have to get this out of my system. I apologize in advance.

1997 was profound for me. Riven is a stroke of art unlike any before and after. I will never forget installing Riven, running the start screen. Calibrating the brightness, testing the sounds. then starting the game. The opening logo, unforgettable. Back in that cave we left Atrus, there he is again… writing. Glad to see me. But something is wrong. The air is thick, his disposition… grave. Rand, you performed so well. This opening was heavy, and awesome. The tone was set. The music, perfect. Just enough information given to still not know really what the hell you're about to do. And then falling into that beautiful, broken Riven screen. Truly a masterful opening.

Navigating Temple Island for the first time. Wow. Mind, instantly blown. Exploring the Gate Room. Watching that thing rotate… oh my goodness. The nuanced movement, with the sound. You could feel that thing's mass. But nothing could truly prepare me for the maglev ride. Taking the maglev from Temple to Jungle for the first time completely shattered my expectations of what a sequel to Myst could be. To anything for that matter. Nothing has impressed me as much ever since. Not from a computer at least. A form of entertainment by way of fiction. It was better than perfect. The detail and nuances expressed and possessed by that single ride is hard to encapsulate in words. It was, at the very least of all things, thrilling.

And then we are arrive at disc 3. Jungle Island. It is immediately apparent you are somewhere interesting as a strange ball in the rock wall captures your attention. You click on it, and it swivels, beautifully… but makes a sound… an interesting sound. It feels important, and you have no idea why. The intrigue is deep. It's a simple device, clearly installed there, by somebody. I wonder who? Why? What's the significance of the sound? What the heck are these symbols all about?

This is just the beginning of 1997 Riven. Before I continue, the following must be stated. To all the devs and artists and creators and participants of Riven 2024, I bow to you, your work is gorgeous. Very pretty. Truly beautiful. You are wonderful, talented, and I'm grateful for you and your work. Deep bow. Please do not read the rest of this. To anybody who has not played or experienced 1997 Riven, especially back in the day on the old 1997 CRT monitor, this writing may not land on you at all. It's ok, it's not for a lot of people, as a matter of fact, I'm writing for probably the enjoyment of 25 others. A niche of a niche fan base. I am going to criticize some aspects of 2024 Riven. If you've never played either version, waste no time, if you've the computing prowess, close this window, open a new one, and buy the Tay out of this game. Experience it. It's very pretty, and probably engaging. If you are a fan of any flavor of 1997 Riven, hopefully you've not hesitated. It you're computer crutched, and unable to support the specs, find a walk through, hopefully a talkless one, and experience it vicariously. Opening the door and walking out into 233rd is worth every Gigabyte and millisecond spent getting there. There's not much to do there, and that's ok, it's gehning gorgeous. It's what every fan's been wanting for 27 years. And it looks spectacular. Thank you, Cyan, or Starry Expanse? At this point whatever. I still hold a hard salute to the Starry team, I miss you. You were doing god's work, truly.

OK, I want to talk to a few primary aspects of 1997 and 2024 Riven. 0 > Friction 1 > Nuance 2 > Point & Click 3 > Cut scenes 4 > Puzzles. I was considering posting this as an article somewhere, but really, why? It belongs here, in this spectacular community of fans. The only place I've really ever connected to people who love Myst and Riven. I've always loved this crowd, still do. Even if tumblr crumbles over night, I'll never forget this group. So let's get started.

0 > Friction

In Riven 97, there is not a whole lot to stop you from exploring large portions of the Fifth Age. Some things require a bit of work, but they pay off well. Garden Island for example feels entirely majestic by the time you arrive. At Temple Island, you can work on the Gate Room if you prefer, you'll need to eventually so why not. But no pressure, if you just want to go for a walk about through Jungle Island's Village, no problem. And with a keen eye, you can even open the wahrk totem's maw to the maglev from Jungle to Garden. Might as well check out Book island while you're at it. Take in the environment, get a taste of what you're dealing with. Let the the islands sail you off to another world.

This is important in capturing the explorer's attention. We are initially rewarded with a lot to see and interact with. We can take in the world quite freely without much friction at all. Incidentally discover a few things along the way, that may have us thinking, ah, perhaps I should look a little more closely at that one thing back there. We become captivated by Riven, before we really even begin cracking any codes.

In Riven 24, the pathway is much more linear. Without any other option, you must manipulate the Gate Room to access the maglev outside the temple. Once you get to Jungle, you cannot just explore the village. You must get to Garden first to take that maglev over to Jungle, whereupon you'll be able to access the Village submarine transit, which takes us behind the drawbridges for open access to the Village for full exploration. But first, your initial visit to Garden requires a trip to Book, and access to Gehn's lab, opening access to Garden and then Jungle's Village.

97 Riven treated it's explorers with more freedom. More trust. In the players and most importantly, itself. It did not guide their actions much. You were presented a world to explore. There are things to do, but they are so embedded in the natural state of the place you could easily miss it, and just explore. You could simply, be there. The friction actually presented in 97 is intense and lies almost entirely in it's 2 overarching puzzles. So much so the game doesn't need to bother with hindering your general pathway from island to island. The fire marble and moiety puzzles are hard enough on their own. They both require serious observation. The moiety observing nature, and Gehn observing mechanical constructs. The friction is thus this way very natural to the world of Riven. Truly masterful. A puzzle doesn't present itself as a puzzle. As a player, you're not even sure what isn't accessible yet (Book Island lab, Tay, 233rd). You enter Riven, see it's scope, and save Garden Island, have free reign to explore at your will. Any obscuring of areas yet to be accessed, leads to the joy felt upon finally seeing them. And I mean full on unknown areas. Even the lab on Book island was obscured until you worked enough to get there to at least see it, let alone access it. And in accessing it, details mattered. The frog/ytram for example, is important for the larger moiety puzzle.

In 97, you are given enough to get sucked in to the environment. You aren't given everything of course. You can't just get into the Village prison. Where any friction lies in your navigation, it was well employed and enticing. Book Island lab is the perfect example. You enter the island, and can see that path up there… there's something important there… but you don't know what yet. You just know you can't wait to see it and explore it. You've already been given enough of the world to see freely, now it's time to work. To get in the lab. To get into the domes. To get into Gallows prison.

24's friction largely lies in navigating to areas and islands. There seems to be an intended route to take in this game. It feels a lot more linear. 24 is a very different game as a result. On Jungle, you aren't allowed access to the meat of the Village. The pathway to exploring the adobe neighborhood is… long. You have to hit Book and Garden first to do it. It's a different style of friction, that 97 simply didn't need. It feels quite literally forced.

An example of navigational friction not all will experience was the collapsed Book / Temple bridge. Particularly during the task of capturing Gehn. I didn't try to touch the panel upon the initial offer from him, as I'm used to doing on the second go. In order to signal Gehn, you must link out to Riven, and back again. In 24, a link to Riven means a link into the lab on Book Island. Without bridge access to big ol Goldie, it's a very long journey back to Temple. The quickest way I found was to link through the Marble Domes, manipulate that thing in the expanse, and then swivel the Gate Room 5 times to get back to the 233rd book. Gosh, how much I missed the bridge in that moment was equal to my radiant respect for 97. It is unnecessary friction to solving a problem and accessing a new area. It didn't feel… rewarding. In felt… punishing.

To crystalize what I'm talking about with navigational friction, here's an example every player will experience: From game start, getting to initial maglev ride to Jungle Island

2024 spin gate room 4x -> unhinge locked exterior gate -> lift gate lever -> spin gate room 2x -> lift gate lever -> spin gate room 2x -> spin gate room yet 2 more times -> open spider room door -> sit in chair -> throw lever -> walk back through great gold dome -> through gate room -> cross bridge -> open temple door -> press maglev button

1997 cross bridge -> open spider chair door -> throw lever -> open spider chair door -> open temple door -> press maglev button

This was a substantial and clearly intentional change to Temple Island. I wonder why? What was the logic that was so pressing that the spider chair had to be moved? It made perfect sense where it was, the man behind the curtain style. It allowed a player to easily explore more than just Temple Island, leave the mysterious Gate Room for later in all of it's magnificent mass. It's an odd change as it presents immediate unnecessary friction, in so much as it may turn some new players away. Let em get sucked into the Jungle a bit and Book too… encouraging deeper exploration into previous areas. Let em work on the Gate room when ready, not force them into it immediately, potentially generating disdain for it. Let them at it at their own pace. The Gate Room is something to love not hate. 97 gave you a lot of Riven immediately. A few areas with friction, but you knew there was something to find, hidden. You knew that from the very cover of the game box itself. That dark beehive tree village definitely was not in the Fifth Age.

97's puzzle friction has deteriorated into more navigational friction, creating a narrower corridor for exploring with keen observation. The path becomes more linear. Puzzle pieces, more obvious. That may be ideal for today's gamers? Better for VR? I really don't know. Just some important notes on friction differences that set 97 and 24 well apart in the vast starry expanse.

1 > Nuance

I wanted to describe some of my 1997 Riven experience earlier to touch on this a bit. Riven hit me hard back then, because of the excruciating detail in the realistic animated movement of things. Don't get me wrong, the water in 2024 is surprisingly awesome. But when something like the Gate Room moves… something is lacking. It doesn't feel real. It's starts pretty good, but stops suddenly. No nuanced settling. The spider chair, same thing. Doors throughout the game are all this way. Everything's kind of quick and without physical nuance. Riven 97's animations are exquisite. Suspension of disbelief, immediately achieved. That kind of animation with sound design, goes millions of miles for the total experience of a digitally rendered setting. Will touch on this a little more in exactly one second.

2 > Point & Click

Player controls and animation nuance are connected subjects. The movement of things includes the player, that is, your perspective. 24 experience forgoes steadiness and stillness in player movement for full 3D navigation. The natural world of Riven is animating all around you. The animation quality of many objects is already not that great in 24. But the scenery is gorgeous. Sit still in 24, and just soak it in. Anywhere on any island, in any book. The scenery is spectacular. No need to animate it by my own movement. It breaks the realistic quality of the scene. It leads to an… unreal sensation. Today's gaming community will largely disagree with me on this, but Riven suffers from full 3D navigation. Without modifying anything else, a point / click interface would vastly improve the actual beauty embedded in 24's Riven. It would be a large step closer to bringing 24 into the realm of a hires remake of 97.

I was excited to navigate Riven in full 3D. The effect of this surprised me and highlighted something from the past. The stillness of the frame in 97. And in the clarity of gorgeous hi resolution imagery, I can't think of a better setting to hold the camera steady.

It's a key difference between the two Fives. The nuance of the animated objects and the distraction of navigating a 3D environment. 97 let's you observe everything, every frame. 24 guides your 3D navigation and hopes you don't sit still too long to notice some of the more impatient animations.

3 > Character cut-scenes

The opening of 97 is on par with the opening of a great film. It calmly and swiftly sets the tone, goals, and feel for the rest of the entire experience. It is perfect. Emotional, grave, serious, engaging, intriguing, respectful, and executed just so well. You don't interact with anything, you don't need to. I wonder why this was not done in 24? By comparison, it's disastrous, everything that made the 97 opening is lost. Even Atrus' script is watered down. The tone is much less serious, and much more casual. It's uninteresting. And then to have to navigate in 3D to click on the screen… it just breaks the fabric of the opening in half. In short, 97's opening is dramatic, whereas 24's is operational. It's barely serviceable. It is sterile. They are starkly contrasted. Truly shocking. It's 27 years later, shouldn't this scene be immaculate?

I can't think of one scene in 24 where an animated character is talking to you, and you need to interact with it. With that said, I'm not arguing for fmv, although 97 absolutely executed this with near perfection, I am wondering why couldn't pre-rendered high resolution animated cut scenes been used for these moments? Where the characters look near real, at least as real as the environment around them? A gollydarn pixar animation would do. Really, anything so long as it conveys the nuance of emotions, and does the job well. 97 Riven used real people footage over digital renders. And it looked amazing. Truly a stand out for that sort of thing back in the day. No game did it that good. 24 has done the opposite. Created near photo real environments in realtime 3D, with animated characters that don't look like they belong there. Even the wahrk looks… not nearly as good as 97's wahrk. Again, the excruciating detail in 97's animations is lost in 24. You can feel that with things like creatures, doors, and maglevs. And you can definitely feel that with 24's newest animated objects, the people. The character cut scenes are not even close to comparable. And yet again, here we are, 27 years into the technological future with something that feels less realistic than it's predecessor from the dustbins of scsi drives and crts.

4 > Island/puzzle modifications

2024 Riven is not 1997 Riven. Literally, things have changed so much, it's a different game. Garden/Survey Island for example, has lost a lot of its charm and feels nearly useless. In 97, the magic of this place compounded upon every movement more inward. The firey volcanic, gorgeous elevator used to transport you down not merely to a maglev, but thematically and dramatically aligned and led you down to an underground, underwater throne/observatory. It made sense an elevator like that would take you to you to a place so dark and intriguing. 24's beautiful elevator down simply gets you to another poorly animated maglev ride. The new pathway down to Gehn's underground throne is a sudden, swift and simple cart elevator ride down a shaft. Fairly straight forward, mildly jarring, and not very interesting. There's almost nothing to do up top where the fire marble dome resides. The entire fire marble puzzle has been so seriously simplified, the surveying apparatus to locate fmd's on islands is entirely absent in 24. Apparently this area has become a place where Gehn and his minions kill moiety people by way of wahrk attack. Gehn was a madman in 97 and sacrificed moiety/Rivenese at the Gallows, but if we are to talk character here, Gehn 97 wasn't just a murderous maniac. He was power corrupted. Dominandi inebriated. His sacrifices were public for many reasons. 24 Gehn feels a little more like a shallower bad guy. Now's he's simply murdering everybody. You know, like those nasty shallow one note hollywood villains do. 'He's just so terrible!' I like how Gehn had layers in 97. He still has some now, but you'd be lucky to notice or care for that matter. We get some depth with 233rd's imager, but Garden Island paints him too maniacal. 97 is a patient, largely quiet journey through a gorgeous series of interconnected islands. It was not rushed and felt introspective. Everything in Riven, islands and objects, developed Gehn's character. As a player, you intimately explore this persons art. Disposition, and get a good taste of the symptoms of power. 24 seems more like a place mass murderer Gehn happens to control, and I am supposed to be nervous he's after me too. This approach doesn't work well for me as a 97 fanatic. This Riven rewrite may serve new players well, I hope it does. It makes sense, but I miss the steady, calm, patient, explorative, almost eerie comfort of 97.

Over on Book/Boiler Island, Gehn's lab is no longer very inviting. It feels more like a laboratory with over the top, slightly out of place, scientific instrumentation. A bit cluttered and distracting. What was a book lab in 97, has become a fire marble lab in 24. 97's lab is very much enjoyable to explore and just be in, featuring a gorgeous potbelly oven as the room's centerpiece to boot. In 24, I suppose comfort is not quite the aim. It is, after all, Gehn-the-Terrible's domain, so by the threads of story, it makes sense. But there is something so seriously unappealing about Gehn's lab now. I'm not even sure I can put my finger on it. 97's lab is rewarding. It is gorgeous and elegant. 97 makes sense with Gehn's style (that being the entirety of Riven). A place I wanted to just sit in and think. How one breaks into the lab has dramatically changed as well. I could probably write a lot about the modifications of 24's Book Island, as with Garden, they are changes largely baffling to me and detrimental to the captivating intrigue these places possess in 97.

In 24, the Village in Jungle Island has expanded, and it's wonderful. The moiety stone room remains in tact, surprisingly, and it's beautiful in there. The moiety animal puzzle itself has been completely rebuilt. I prefer the minimal and totally interesting swiveling numbered animal noise balls in walls from 97, but the in your face, unmissable totem-moiety-number, moiety-lens-revealing-animal-symbol thing works fine. Once one finally manages to enter the actual Village, it's wonderful in there. I found myself wanting to explore even more. The water tower worked for the animal puzzle, but part of me was wanting something else. Something cultural up there. Maybe related to Tay. Not sure, maybe present a little friction to access those adobes of highest elevation. Perhaps a more protected area higher up the huts, where a moiety school exists, to counter the d'ni school below. A good place one could spend time learning the moiety numbers et al, after you've already amassed the symbols from totems or balls in walls, you could then finally translate the numerals. It's just so darn cool up there in huts-ville. All in all, very well done additions, without many modifications to the village in 24, except of course the moiety puzzle, as mentioned. Actually another excellent, major modification to 24's Jungle is the submarine dry dock area, accessed near the maglev to Garden Island. I found this to make a lot more sense on the story lines, and was enjoyable to use. The sub's piloting mechanisms were simplified as well, which I thought benefited the Village/Gallows explorations. It was easeful.

But why did 24 have to make accessing the sub dry dock so convoluted? Why couldn't we simply find that little switch to open the Wahrk elevator in the Jungle? Much of the subtlety of 97's Jungle has fallen into the fissure. 97's moiety puzzle is so wonderfully elegant. Minimally integrated into the environment and culture. 24's totem structures all look fantastic and culturally rich. But as a puzzle element, they are not only in plain view, but strongly highlighted. Perhaps the beautiful totem stick people things could be used for something else of importance, culturally. Maybe a cemetery of some sorts for the lives sacrificed? Let's see that spooky girl trip through a cemetery patch in the jungle maybe. Totem stick people, perhaps with flowers adorning a few. Maybe there's a special significance to one in particular. Who knows, all kinds of things could be done with the totems. They look so good, and feel like Rivenese constructs. Excellent. In keeping with 97's ingenuity, I could see the moiety puzzle untouched, and totems added for more depth in new areas. That tree out back… awesome, but as a mere puzzle piece, it feels unimportant. At the end of the day, beautiful assets all over this island and perhaps my favorite island in 24.

Conclusion

I would love to see a high resolution of Riven 1997 with these points addressed. Riven 2024 is wonderful, and I appreciate all the folks involved in it's making. When I initially caught wind of The Starry Expanse project here in tumblr, I was skeptical. I said softly to noone, "No, please don't do this." I thought the nuance and realism of Riven could not be done in realtime 3d. And at the time I think I was right. But as that project continued, one demo after the next, I saw it's progress. And by the time the Jungle Island demo was demonstrated, I was blown away. It looked gorgeous, and felt like Riven 1997. It wasn't complete, but I could see it's potential. It is possible.

The Starry Expanse was the ideal group to get it done. Cyan has already made Riven once, now twice. Cyan has financial constraints. Starry did not. It could have taken as long as it needed. A volunteer project (i think…?) to remake Riven in all of it's original glory. People who had no hand in the original undertaking. Just hard core fans of the work. No better person to hold faith to the original material. It remains a dream. And that's ok. We have Riven 1997. Riven 2024 may be the 1997 for some new gamers. I hope that's true. But for us still taking the bridge from Book to Temple, I'm still looking for Atrus to get me back to the place that I came from.

Riven 2024 is good.

Riven 1997 is god.

Please forgive me, fellow explorers. I apologize for this. And thanks for reading. Take care, my friends.

[vangbelsing]

Ever since Veilguard was announced, there's been an absolute tidal wave of hate ranging from vitriol for the art style, gameplay changes and overall feel/aesthetic of the game, to outright racism, homophobia and transphobia, as well as attacks on the devs and fans trying to enjoy the game. So I want to just put this out there.

It is valid to:

Not enjoy the art style, as no one should dictate what your aesthetic preference is

Prefer the systems/gameplay of previous DA games

Prefer to wait until the game is out before you buy into the hype

Distrust EA/Bioware due to its past and its current actions/situation

Criticize what you dislike about the game in your own posts

Simply decide that this game isn't for you

I encourage you to:

Speak out against the mass layoffs and often inhumane practices by EA and to elevate the voices of those impacted by them

Speak out against and bring attention to the problematic or harmful things EA/Bioware has/will engage(d) in, do, say, etc, willingly or unknowingly, in the future

Criticize EA, Bioware, the devs/team and Dragon Age itself about the things on which they can improve, as it is not too much to ask for someone/something to do better

Spread awareness of what EA/Bioware have done, what they are doing, and what they do in the future. Let people know the history of these companies so they can make informed decisions and to improve the working conditions for the teams at these studios

What you shouldn't do:

Attack or harass people who are excited for and showing support for the game.

Comment under the posts of fans or official trailers/interviews with the sole intention of hating on the game to ruin the excitement or fun for others. If you don't like it, don't interact with it.

Spread misinformation about the game in an attempt to negatively impact it

What is absolutely unacceptable:

Being a hateful fucking bigot

To all the hateful fucking bigots out there:

I keep seeing a repeat of comments like: "this isn't my Dragon Age!" "Dragon Age is too gay!" "Dragon Age has too many black/Asian, literally any person who isn't a cishet white male or a conventionally attractive straight white woman!" And you know what? You're absolutely correct! Dragon Age is gay! Dragon Age is a space where people of all colors, races, cultures, ethnicities, identities, sexualities, orientations, and all walks of life exist, both in world and in its fan base!

And as for this being "not your Dragon Age", again, you are absolutely correct! This isn't your Dragon Age, because Dragon Age isn't for you. It never has been, and it certainly isn't now. The co-creator is a gay man, the devs have always included queer people and poc, and despite its many flaws and the numerous ways in which it has let down the people belonging to those groups, it is still a space for them, which are created in part by people like them.

Dragon Age will always be inclusive, as it has been from the very first game that you love acting like you care about so much. There are gay, lesbian, bi, pan, trans, black, Asian, and all other kinds of people both in and behind these games! If you can't handle that, then fine! We don't want you anyway!

To the people who actually care about this series and who want this game and team to succeed:

I encourage all of you to let your voices be heard by the devs. Tell them exactly how you feel! Let them know what landed, what made you feel seen, what resonates, what you think needs work, where they stepped out of line; all of it! More than anything, there are real people behind this game, and they've poured years of their hearts, souls, time and talent into this piece, and it seems a lot of them genuinely care for their fans and this game and want to deliver the best game they can to us! And those people matter! They deserve a fair chance to see their work pay off without having to be negatively impacted by people who just want to spread hate and see others fail.

No one is above criticism, no matter how good their intention of how pure their desires are, so when they misstep, speak out! But while we should be sure to let the devs know how much this game means to us and how much what they do matters, let's also push for the fair treatment of everyone who was unfairly laid off or mistreated by EA/Bioware and who are still fighting for their due compensation for their hard work. Let's advocate for them in the months leading up to DA:TVs launch and the months after. And let the devs know how important it is to have those people's names in the credits!!!

And most importantly... Please be kind to and look out for one another!! There's so much going on in the world right now, and there is so much hatred being spread against minority groups, and we need to be compassionate to each other! Let's allow the game to be a thing that brings us together and gives us something to escape into and enjoy!

In closing:

Hate the game or love it, if you are transphobic, racist, homophobic, antisemitic, misogynistic, or any other kind of prejudiced bigot, THIS GAME IS NO PLACE FOR YOU!! NEVER WAS, NEVER WILL BE!!!!

Thanks for your time! Fuck TERFs and racists and all the other bigots!

[askagamedev]

Is selling DLC for a game still in early access unethical? Because you're selling extra for a incomplete game?

I think it entirely depends on how you view Early Access. The point of Early Access is to get additional funding from interested players to pay for the rest of the game's development. Without enough money earned during Early Access, the "full" game is not going to happen. When I worked on an Early Access game, we didn't earn enough from the players buying in to finance the remainder of development, so the game was delisted and we were all either let go or transferred to other game teams.

As such, I don't think it's unethical. The developers need the money to pay for the rest of the game's development. We are not pretending the game is "complete" and the players/customers know the game won't ever be "complete" if we don't secure enough money somehow. The full scope of the content is known at the time. The risks are known at the time. Players have all of the information they need to make a fully-informed purchasing decision. If you think that the risk of the game not making it is not worth spending for, you can choose not to spend.

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[demento01]

Lamento -BEYOND THE VOID- game, updates, crack, translations + Treasure Disc + OST new download links and torrents 2023

I had to spend a couple of hours going through old posts on web archive and finding a ton of dead torrents to find this so here you go.

Quick Index of what I include here:

Lamento's install DVD ISO.

Update 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, and 2.00 (this last one only in my own uploaded links, dont use with english translation!).

NoDVD crack.

Serial number.

Link to the complete fan translation which also includes an installation guide and a walkthrough.

The fandisc "Lamento Treasure Disc".

Fan translation for the Treasure Disc.

OST: The World Devoid of Emotion and Prelude

Full game (DVD iso, 1.01, 1.02 and 1.03 updates, NoDVD crack and serial), you'll have to install and update yourself:

(found here) serial is on the .txt file

English fan translation (also includes a guide on how to install the game and patch and has a walkthrough etc.)

(OP asks people to not post direct download links nor the game with the fan translation pre-applied and instead link to their post so I did that, but if the link ever dies and the OP doesn't revive it just comment or PM me and I'll edit this post)

My own uploads:

Torrent:

.torrent

hash: 59F204197FBDCB998828D3B25DB253FFD7FA5B1F

made by me and kept online 24/7.

This includes game iso, all updates (including the 2.00 one but only install 1.03 if you're gonna use the English translation) the serial and the NoDVD crack. I also included the "Treasure Disc" fandisc and a fan translation (source) and the OST and Prelude discs in FLAC format

Google Drive:

(password for updates and crack: "lamento" without the quotes. compressed with a password to avoid Drive flagging them as malware and restricting public access)

(also uploaded by me, has the exact same stuff as the torrent but different folder structure)

Game already installed, updated to 1.03 and cracked + translated treasure disc:

(saves you from having to install it yourself, all you'd need to do is paste the english fan translation files, couldn't do it myself because the people who made the translation don't want anyone to distribute the game with the translation pre-applied, also btw for update 1.03 you need to use the patch that doesn't say win10 at the end from the fan translation, I also included the treasure chest fandisc with the translation pre-applied in a separate folder)

If you have any issues check the aarifantasy fan translation post I linked in the fan translation section, they explain everything perfectly on there. Remember you need to set your system locale to japanese for both the game and the fandisc to work! If any of my links or torrents ever die just comment or PM me and I'll get them back up. Please share, you're free to mirror any of my own links anywhere but please don't modify or skip anything!

Also, remember to support the devs of the game! You can buy many of Nitro+CHiRAL titles in English officially through JAST. They don't have this one yet so that's why I'm sharing it here.

[sinistertruth]

WAYS TO POSSIBLY HELP GET ROX OFF OF THE DEV TEAM FOR DANDYS WORLD

1. Stop playing the game

2. Leave the blush crunch studio group ( something I need to do. )

3. Don't post any DW media ( unless you're helping trying to get rox tf out )

4. Don't buy any UGC or ichor, gamepasses, wtv.

" But what if I want to play dandys world !! "

Just play it less and tell others to play less / not play at all.

Someone by the name of katrina-reblogs ( or something of the sorts, not mentioning them incase it annoys them !! ) reblogged mentioning that Qwel and Rox are best friends and Qwel is not believing the allegations ( I think. ). There IS a doc somewhere with all proof of Rox's allegations ( grooming and CP are the allegations I think. ) and also suggested separate art from artist

Which kinda works. But,also, playing the game ESPECIALLY on a premium account will pay qwel who obviously pays rox, which is,why I, recommend not playing the game as it's supporting rox. Which we don't want to happen !

‼️ Please lmk if I said anything wrong in the previous or this post. I will edit it or something to make sure it'd not spreading false info. Also lmk if I need to add links ( explaining rox's allegations, the doc, etc. ) ‼️

GAMES YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT ( on roblox )

Note that these are from my experiences or from others and this isn't forcing you to play them.

1. Regretevator ( ascending on elevators, meeting new npcs and a lot of silly stuff )

2. Pressure ( Apparently similar to doors but on a submarine (?) )

3. Minus Elevation ( Basically DW but the original )

4. Fnaf anime rp ( for u role players. Yes it's fnaf base but Har Har Har Har )

Possibly will add more or you can look to see if anyone added in comments

I'm adding DW tags cause the Fandom needs to hear this.

EDIT : This might not work,,rox might still stay on the dev team. And that might mean we should let DW go

[thefirstknife]

D3 anon here! I was back around for both D1 and D2 launches, but wasn't really in the community so I didn't see people complaining about D2 resetting stuff. I honestly liked it, myself. I suspect my lack of issue with re-earning or even just starting everything fresh no old stuff comes from playing a wide variety of games including sequels that start you back at nothing and from replaying games from scratch over and over. I enjoy re-grinding for things as long as the gameplay is fun and am quite used to games starting you at 0 again, so it wasn't a shock or a huge negative for me. That probably colors my views on the negatives not being such a negative thing--people who don't play games like that probably have much less tolerance for those aspects. Good point about the hitboxes, though. It could be gotten around in PvP by making you have a PvP "avatar" of sorts that basically forces everyone into one shape (though allows you the perks of all your gear and such, and I imagine you'd be able to customize it to some degree since cosmetics are such a big deal to many players--actually, scratch that, realized they'd just turn it into microtransaction hell of "buy these unique cosmetics for your PvP avatar" on top of the existing Eververse stuff), but that doesn't help with the PvE balancing aspects.

Oh yeah, it definitely makes a lot of sense if you weren't around in the community and also if you're used to restarting!

The community was... fairly bad. Worse in D2 because a lot of people felt incredibly betrayed. In their eyes, a perfectly good game (D1) ceased support and they had to abandon all of their stuff to come to D2 with big promises and then it was nothing. Or rather, it takes a few years to build the content up for games like this.

It's one of the more baffling reasons when people treat Destiny this way because they essentially want the game to have a release cycle of a live service, but the content of a singleplayer RPG.

I was only vaguely aware of the community during D2 vanilla; I was mostly exposed to people bitching. Me and my friends had fun because we were very casual so everything in the game was super new and exciting (and we just played strikes and nightfalls lol), but I would always see complete meltdowns on youtube. And a lot of the complaints were warranted of course, but I always felt like people were exaggerating as if the game killed their dog.

But yeah, for a lot of people the most common complaints aren't really negatives. It would be interesting to see what the game could be like if people were willing to either wait years for expansions or if they were willing to start from scratch every few years. Maybe in a world where devs had the time and space to actually do this properly.

[boss-poss]

My take on the whole HD2 psn account scandal is that it sucks and it should have been expected but I really want to highlight just how far under the bus sony is throwing the devs with this:

-Announcement came out yesterday, meaning that the brunt of the (assuredly) expected blowback occurs over a weekend when most of the players don't have anything better to do and the news has reached most of them. Arrowhead takes the heat and eventually anger simmers down when monday rolls around and people get back to work and such. No skin off sony's back.

-Arrowhead community managers are already known to be blunt and dismissive compared to other games making them, and arrowhead by extension, seem the easy target as they deal with complaints. AH says they're already chasing sony about related issues but the chance of the big S giving anything more than an empty promise (if even that) is remote.

-HD2 has a large community, and as with any game playerbase, it's filled with reactionary idiots and trolls. The principle of the thing (giving sony your leash), not to mention the hassle or regional issues that could come with creating a psn account, is enough to whip people into a frenzy. There was no way this was expected to go over well.

-The requirement for a psn account was always noted but was waived for a couple of months, more than enough time for people to get invested and buy premium currency, not to mention the game becoming a landmark title among a sea of trash. That's more than enough time to forget a stipulation like that. Can't have people refunding to show their displeasure!

-A warbond was announced right before the psn mandate so whether that was to try and cushion the blow or just unfortunate timing or a mandate from higher up it makes AH look like they prioritize selling you stuff over player enjoyment, adding fuel to the fire.

-A lack of polish in certain areas of the game and rampant balance issues that cause players and the devs to butt heads have been ongoing issues since launch. Clearly, AH is having a time keeping their vision and player enjoyment balanced which has already created a fairly deep divide. The psn requirement is pretty much taking a hammer to a widening crack and will (whether intentionally or not) bring more heat towards the developers.

-PSN is famously bad at security and ultimately pointless off of their consoles, with numerous huge data breaches and accounts offering little more to players than a way for you to give your information so sony can sell it. That seems to me to be the main motive here, alongside cementing the notion of HD2 as a playstation exclusive (sorry xbox players but I don't think you'll be getting this game anytime soon). A live service game that isn't squeezing every last penny out of its players at every opportunity is ultimately financially inefficient and I'm sure some sony people are kept up at night by that fact.

-The biggest fuck you I've seen though is that the game is sold on steam in countries sony doesn't support, meaning that you could have bought and played the game already and then now be barred from playing it a few months later (can't have those pesky, preemptive refunds). Also, VPNs are against sony terms of service, so yeah... any burner accounts could get you banned and be a huge hassle.

I can't conclusively say that sony set up arrowhead as the patsy while they try to collect all that sweet, succulent, valuable, personal data but I don't believe this was an accident either. Corporations are far from stupid and fortunately for them and unfortunately for consumers, a significant portion of us are pretty easy to lead by the nose to certain conclusions. They know this and many facets of business work along those lines. Outrage is profitable and brings attention, if you're not the one in the direct line of fire.

I feel bad for the devs and I doubt much will come of this besides a temporary drop in players and maybe some sort of optional linking concession if things get dire enough, but I doubt the game will fail. Arrowhead aren't the devil but they did sign on his dotted line and sometimes the cost of success is getting told you'll bending over and taking it for someone else. Seems to be the case here to me at least.

[unclerippuascension]

hi just saying this bc im starting to see a few posts in the tag talking about it, but if you are thinking about or telling people to pirate pizza tower because of what mcpig said five fucking years ago and the two ~problematique~ enemies in the game, you're a scumbag, full stop. like mcpig isn't the only one getting money from this game, you guys know that right? the other devs and the composers (one of which is apparently black and non-binary!) also get part of the profit. this isn't like pirating old games that companies no longer support and aren't making money off of anymore, you're taking money away from a game that's barely a year old made by people who most CERTAINLY deserve to get paid for their efforts over the course of half a decade. i don't care if you think mcpig is an awful meanie raycist or whatever, just don't let some stupid moral crusade screw over people who don't deserve it.

if you wanna play the game, then just buy it; and if you're really that against the idea of giving mcpig money, then don't buy the game and play sugary spire or something. the answer to this kind of video game discourse isn't always piracy, believe it or not.

Try to start some clown-ass debate in the replies or reblogs and I will block you on fucking sight.