leefi - Tumblr blog

[leefi]

need to switch to this fully remote role quickly so i can leave this state of psychosis

there is nothing more agonizing than an inappropriate unreciprocated crush. i feel like i need to be euthanized

[leefi]

would you a marry a swiftie with the same politics as you or a fascist with the same taste in art as you

this website has elevated suicide bait to an immaculate artform perfected like no other culture in history

[leefi]

almost just said “thank you babygirl” to a coworker

[leefi]

[leefi]

What's your take on game directors who also work as writers or designers on the project? Is it better to keep it church and state? Or does it depend on team size? For example, in a narrative-heavy project, it seems to make sense to me that direction should come from the writers' room. But there's also some good arguments on the side of the camp who believes the director should not be the one doing any "doing" in any discipline. What would you advise, from your experience? Thank you!

Unsurprisingly, I am in favor of directors doing some in-engine work on their projects. Confirmation bias is heavily at work here because I've done direct implementation on all of the games I've directed.

On F:NV I wrote* Arcade, Hanlon, Joshua Graham, and other characters in our editor. I also implemented and tuned all of the weapons and mods (and other system design things like perks and recipes) in the GECK.

On Pillars of Eternity, I wrote Pallegina and a few minor characters in OEI Tools. I did direct in (Unity) editor implementation and tuning of many spells and items (though Tim Cain implemented much of the code that I used). I also did some encounter work in editor.

On Deadfire, I wrote Pallegina, Eothas, and a few other convos in OEI Tools. I did less in-engine system work because I had a small team of system designers and I had more director responsibilities, but I did do some tweaking and tuning in the game data editor (GDE) of OEI Tools.

On Pentiment I wrote around 1/4 to 1/3 of the dialogue in OEI Tools and set up all of our dialogue checks in the GDE. I mostly stayed out of Unity because Matthew Loyola and Alec Frey handled most of the design tasks there. On Pentiment I did a far greater percentage of content work than I normally would, but it was also a team of 13 people with only 3 writers (including me) at any given time.

Here's what I think the "pros" are: you have a better understanding of the pipelines people are using, you are doing work under (mostly) the same conditions as the people you are leading. You are directly touching the data that is going into the game and it makes you acutely aware of what's involved in doing that (at least in part).

The cons are the obvious ones: your main job is leading people and if your nose is buried in the weeds, that can be difficult to do. Also when it comes time to cut content, you might get precious about the work you've done vs. the work other people have done.

In my experience, the important thing is to not overcommit. Do a little work, sure, but err on the side of a light load. It's not practical for you to even have a quarter of the content workload as someone working on the staff.

*Minor note but when I say, "wrote" that also includes any related scripting done within dialogue for checks, setting global variables, etc. All Obsidian narrative designers are expected to do the scripting for their dialogues, though the interface in OEI Tools makes that generally pretty painless.

[leefi]

just got everything i ever wanted. now what

[leefi]

Revue Starlight

[leefi]

fireflies lighting up a rural Pennsylvania field at dusk

[leefi]

“Touch me while your bros play grand theft auto” the tortured poet screams

[leefi]

in Disco Elysium I was expecting there to be some kind of “addiction mechanic” that would add a long-term downside to taking drugs, and was surprised not only by the absence of any such mechanic but also that the benefits of drugs greatly outweighed the cost. anyways fast forward to the late game and I was downing three bottles of pyrholidon and smoking an entire pack of cigarettes before attempting any check, and it was only then I realized there was in fact an addiction mechanic

[leefi]

Chloe White: Cuckoo Settles Down (2006)

[leefi]

the usual day-of-exam junna beating up adam smith because i hate economics

[leefi]

Bianco Hills Secret ‘Super Mario Sunshine’ Gamecube

[leefi]

unbelievable that its 4/20 and absolutely nobody has put the objectively best rage comic on my dash yet. i have to do everything around here

[leefi]

fell for the oldest trick in the book

[leefi]

I love Outer Wilds so much. I will never get over it.