#Game Development Challenges

[artofthechristianninja]

Lonely but Driven: Hunter Thornton's Indie Game Development Journey to Build Community

Check out our latest Christian Creator Profile featuring Hunter Thornton of BornAngry Games. Discover his journey as an indie game developer and the challenges he's faced in building a supportive community.

Welcome to the Creator Profile Series, where we highlight incredible individuals who have answered God’s call to reach the world in unique ways. Traditional churches often struggle to connect with niche communities online, especially those who feel isolated or disconnected. God is raising up content creators from all over the world to fill that gap, reaching out to those who have felt alienated…

[codertrend]

Exploring the Impact of a Game Leak: From Half-Life 2 to The Last of Us Part II – A Look at Fan Reactions and Developer Challenges

Uncover the effects of major game leaks on fans and developers, from Half-Life 2 to The Last of Us Part II, in our insightful article. #Leaks #TheLastOfUs #RockstarGames #GTA # GrandTheftAuto #GameLeaks

Introduction: The High-Stakes World of Gaming Leaks In the fast-paced realm of gaming, missing a beat might mean missing big news. And the latest from Rockstar Games is a prime example. The creators of the Grand Theft Auto series have unveiled their latest tour de force: Grand Theft Auto 6. As expected from Rockstar, it’s a marvel of gaming artistry. The Unexpected Reveal The world got its…

[dragonpropaganda]

you should talk about your thoughts on rw fanon (looking with huge eyes)

Oh god, there's a lot of major misconceptions have concreted into fanon, mostly around ancient society and ascension.

First things first! Ascension is not death! They are entirely separate things treated entirely separately by the text of the game. I can see where the interpretation is coming from, but it doesn't really align with how the text treats either subject. Five Pebbles may want to remove the self destruction taboo, but from his reaction to the rot it's clear that he doesn't want to die. Conflation of ascension and death only comes up as an offhand possibility that pebbs makes on iterator 4chan, when he's going into the possibilities of scenarios that even the other sliverists are doubtful of! (let me make clear that I am not a sliverist by any means)

Ascension is more of talked about as a form of transcendence, yeah? A Bell, Eighteen Amber Beads talks about their sitution as being "To have grasped at the boundless infinites of the cosmic void…", not as them seeking an end to life.

The beta dialogue goes into more detail, mentioning the "infinities of time and space" and the "boundless fractal planes of spirit and reality...", though this dialogue was cut and it's hard to tell how much it reflects the concept as in the released game.

As for the cultural misconceptions... there's A Lot to talk about, but the first that comes to mind is the common conflation of the five natural urges and the christian concept of sin.

It is true that the negation of urges is mentioned by moon as an alternative method of ascension, but much of what we know about the culture of the people who the fandom calls the ancients (which makes discussion of the depths a mess but that's something for another post entirely) points towards the urges not being seen as shameful.

Even the first urge does not seem to be particularly scorned! Being a warrior is presented as a cause for bragging in the Shaded Citadel pearl, being comparable with being an artist and a fashion legend. The second urge, also does not seem to be suppressed. Multiple sources attribute some level of honour to parenthood! The aforementioned pearl also mentions Seventeen Axes, Fifteen Spoked Wheel as being a "Mother, Father and Spouse" without any hint of shamefulness. Nineteen Spades, Endless Reflections expresses pride about having progeny, mentioning it alongside their owned land and esteem among their peers.

After some peer review, an esteemed friend has told me to add a section on purposed organisms as well! This is not so much my area, so I might be a bit off on some things.

As moon says, the majority of purposed organisms were tubes in boxes, and that the primal fauna of the world are almost entirely extinct. A lot of the fandom seems to ignore the first part, and i can't say I blame them, but the evolution of the creatures is so much weirder than people think.

Concept art for the creatures has this interesting quality to it, where the organic parts of the creatures have an almost... melty quality to them.

In the concept art, the flesh appears as if it's almost defying the machinery to form an animal shape. It's as if it's conquering its own artificiality the way the foliage grows over the (stone, brick and concrete, not mostly metal as some think!) ruins.

Of course, it's hard to really tell how much of this reflects the finalised concept, most of the integration is much smoother in the game, in line with a seamless kind of biomechanical design. There was always an intention of biomechanical strangeness, as shown in this screenshot of the devlog before the term "slugcat" even existed!

That said, the melty nature of the concept art shows a level of wild change inherent the biomechanical nature of the creatures, as if they truly are the result of these "tubes in boxes" almost revolting against their own boxes.

and considering centipedes... some tubes may not have had boxes in the first place!

[old-world-bird]

After almost half a year it is finally moving, breathing, having a stats system, and is looking quite ok!

The Shadow Whisperer demo is out on itch.io

You can download it, you can play in the browser, you can stare for 10 hours straight at Douglas, and then give him your heart, your will, and all the money.

It's still a work in progress, but please feel free to give it a try, leave your feedback, and spread it across the globe - the further development strongly depends on people's interest in the whole thing ✨

[sunwyrms]

May we have more Loopdile please?

(typically i dont do requests, but i suppose i can humor you since you were so polite~)

They do this every morning. Nobody has any idea why. Bonnie is sick of it.

[id in alt]

[goldeaglefire1]

explaining Nubby's Number Factory to anyone in real life would make you sound deranged I think. like one of the most broken and powerful items in the game is this

how the fuck do you explain this to a normal person

[velvetjune]

remedy games are very good and people should play them

[sieglinde-freud]

one time eva told me that inigo was basically just a total drama character and i cant like that kinda hit me like a slap in the face but like in a good way because like. she was right. and that was several months ago but the concept was so good i sometimes just come back to it and now i have a question for the class

no i dont think inigo (or anyone else i excluded) would win but if you have a case for him im open

[padawansuggest]

You know what? Every time I see a cozy gamer on tiktok who’s upset that all cozy games involve farming???? I just get so mad. Not because I don’t think there should be variation, there def should. But. Not all games are meant for you. Maybe actually try looking for the millions of cozy games that don’t involve farming and just. Don’t bother with the ones that do??? Because I PROMISE you they outweigh the farming sims. Leave those ones to those of us that like them. It’s okay if you don’t like them just don’t bother???? Most of these are made by people who love the games they’re making. They like their own games. It’s not some marvel movie that’s supposed to be enjoyed by all, it’s an indie film that’s got its own audience and the actors or director loves it.

Now, you can say ‘I would like it if there was a cozy gamer tiktoker who focused on games without farming’ but even still, you can’t hate on the ones that do??? You have to uplift the ones that don’t. Or become one. Sorry, but not all content is made For You.

And it’s not even an issue where people are getting annoyed and hating on it. You tell me that game is a farming sim with X-storyline (witches, alchemists, islands, magic, whatever, that’s all chill) and I’m instantly adding it to my wishlist. Clearly, it’s something for some of us. Hand me a game with foraging, farming and mining? Yes gimme. (I personally hate fishing in literally all games lmao, I will suffer through it but it’s so boring, but even then???? I ain’t gonna complain lmao.)

What I’m saying is that games are typically a personal love from the creators. The creators usually love them too. Like if you talk to the creator of Stardew he CLEARLY adores the game. Indie gaming artists are passion creators.

So stop shitting on their work just because you dislike the genre. If you’re tired of not having cozy gamer tiktokers who focus on non-farming sims, either put up or shut up. You can’t just change the content of someone else’s work because you hate it enough.

Hate to say it buddy, but you aren’t going to get change by shitting on something you hate. You get change through creation, not complaining about things that aren’t hurting anyone but you just don’t like the content of.

[todays-an-adventure]

Day 34 of 100 days of game design:

So, I have just been going through the documents we have on the game

This includes:

Game Design Doc: This document is the most messy. The information is scattered throughout, so I will rewrite it and store it in multiple documents.

Character intros dialogue writing.

And my personal document on the writing for the Banshee and the Werewolf.

[sophsun1]

🎨 Before and after colouring challenge 🎨

I was tagged by @ajcrowleys tysm for the tag lovely!

I never save my psd's unless it's for a particularly hard scene I've manged to conquer and the psd can be used again in general. These are all coloured from scratch as I gif them. This is a selection of things I happened to gif recently. As you can see it's either a really, badly lit show with no lighting, fighting against red/yellow filters or if you're really lucky, both!

Tagging if you'd like to take part @freckleslikestars @cinematicnomad @nick-nellson

@ncutisgatwas @psychicpinenut @providnce @carricfisher @skulandcrossbones

[rebelontherocks]

With all the relevant criticisms irt Larian's treatment of Wyll, I still won't leave people off the hook for completely ignoring him, though. He is a very interesting character, with a fascinating story. 'He's too good' so are Halsin and Karlach, and that doesn't seem to stop anyone from engaging with them. Halsin as a non-origin character has way less content than Wyll, and it's not as if his personality particularly evolves or if he has a very nuanced arc. Karlach may have more content than Wyll but has a very flat arc, with no development, so the most interesting outcome for her narratively is dying, but people hate engaging with that, because they're allergic to experiencing any emotions that aren't puppies and doggies positive. So, people aren't even getting the most out of her story, and she's still a fan favorite. Much in the way I know I'm not getting the most out of Wyll's story and he's still my favorite.

You have no excuses, saying 'he has less content' is no excuse because you love characters with equal amounts of content that are just as 'good' with no problem.

[caffeineandink]

Tag Game: Unusual Association

Thank you for the tag, @tildeathiwillwrite!

Rules: pick an OC and describe what you associate with them in each category

I'll be using Wheezer from The Foundations of Despair for this, as they are my current favorite OC to write

Seasoning: Oregano

Weather: Tornado (central theme of the book, but also their main personality)

Color: black or gold. Their outfit is all black, and they can tend to be a pessimist, but they have a gold heart (and gold eyes)

Sky: when it's sunny, but you can see a bad storm brewing on the horizon (kind of like how the sky turns yellow before/after a bad storm)

Magic power: illusions. They are very good at this

Plant: an oleander. Deceptively deadly

Weapons: they have a large scythe, but since that's a canon part of the book, I'll say an elegant sword

Social Media: Reddit

Candy: dark chocolate with sea salt

Methods of long distance travel: boats, so they can sulk while staring at the dark ocean

Fear: fear of death, coincidentally. They love too much for a reaper/fallen angel

Art style: Romanticism (essentially a movement in art that showed more emotions)

Stationary: black leather-bound journal with coffee stains

Celestial Body: Neptune

I would like to tag @write-on-world @the-ellia-west @abbyzwrites and open tag!

**Edited to fix errors**

[compromised-emotionally]

ah I can't believe ao3 is still down, I had the final chapter of a 50k four part challengers fic to read and I'm dying here.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Small Tears of the Kingdom changes that could have done a lot

(at least according to me, the one singular flawed person writing this post)

In my desperate attempt to close off the Tears of the Kingdom season on my side of the internet (failing so far), I wanted to join the proposals of a couple of small restructurations/rewrites I've seen on my dashboard. These wouldn't change much of the game, but enough to boisten some of the themes and make the experience both more open and more streamlined. They try to ignore a lot of my own biases towards what I would have loved to see explored within the game and focus on what already exists (I said try). These changes are not only story-driven but also focus on quest design and narrative reward logic, which puzzled me even more than the story itself.

It's obviously not the end all be all of everything, there's a ton of small things that aren't fully adressed, etc.

Here are the 3 main tenants of this proposal:

We know about Fake Zelda by the end of the tutorial section. We see glimpses of her all the way, even though Rauru doesn't seem to be aware she's here, and most of our obstacles come from us trying to reach and save her. Then, by the end, she tries to kill us in the Temple of Time, and we realize she's fake and a lure (it could be a small mini boss, nothing too severe; just something to prove we understand combat). It could also be an earlier occasion to have Ganondorf shit-talk us using his creepy voice through her body, that could build up a better sense of rivalry going forward and make the betrayal of him using her body sting much more than it does in the current version.

Ganondorf, using Fake Zelda, tries to antagonizes each region of Hyrule towards their princess --and, the very important part, it works. The kingdom is splintering apart as he plans his return and his invasion. The goal in each region is not to vaguely solve the weird local problem, but, using the regional hero that knows and trusts Link, to prove that whatever is happening isn't Zelda's fault. This allows to build some sense of tension and stakes, makes us deeply empathize with an overwhelmed Zelda trying to step up as a leader in the aftermath of the Calamity and isn't here to defend herself (and then when we learn where she is and what she did it hurts so much more). The camp where Purah is could also double-down as the beating heart of Hyrule trying to reconnect with the suspicious regions suffering the turmoil isolated from each other.

The Dragon's Tears questline is overhauled, and that can happen in two simultaneous ways. Some of these memories remain Zelda's, but now only some of them, perhaps those who are connected to Zelda's decision to become a dragon without ever spilling it out (and could even focus more on her insecurities as a young ruler and her relationship to her ancestors), remain sprinkled into the land to reward those who want to understand more about her motivations. But now, each of the secret stones collected along the way also function as tears, and instead of being treated to another delicious serving or The Imprisoning War? The Demon King??? we get to discover a little bit more of the mystery. The way it could work is quite simple: the Sage introduces us briefly to their own perspective into the war outside of a voiced cutscene to give the writing more flexibility regarding what the player already did to avoid repetition ( :) :) ), and then plays a pre-determined cutscene in a linear fashion, which is one of Rauru's memories embedded within the secret stone and tells the story of the fall of his kingdom to Ganondorf. (also bonus: now Zelda's tears don't embody the entire kingdom anymore, which was very strange and never sat right with me)

So what we did is to separate the different stories while intertwining them: Zelda's struggles and sacrifice on one hand, Rauru's regrets and bitterness on the other (lololol sorry), and Ganondorf's attempt to break the kingdom apart --which would feed into both Zelda's anxieties and Rauru's long winded defeat. The bonus to this approach would also be to question Hyrule's legitimacy: the various races would then need to decide, after having actively questioned the young princess, that they actually still believe in Hyrule and a future they all get to live in together.

This would also give a little bit more teeth to Ganondorf's motivation, his deep envy for the power of Hyrule and the fact that his own people chose it over him, let alone everyone else. As for the Link's motivation, trying to have everyone see that Zelda is worth it and stop that evil force from shattering her image while also acknowledging the faults of the past could make the player invested in wanting to bring Zelda back down after everything she went through and all the sacrifices she made to prove herself a worthy ruler (Rauru's forcefulness in assimilating the realm under his banner even though he meant well being his actual character flaw that Mineru could eventually acknowledge, to give her something to do instead of... feeling bad for no clear reason!! Also just *give emotional weight* to that time she holds Rauru's hand again when she swears fealty to Link, this was so simple and obvious how was it not given the time it needed for us to care about what was lost!!! aaa)

Yes, it's still about the power of love and sacrifice over ruthless domination, but now characters have a little bit more agency and we feel a little less like they have a zonai knife under their throats the entire time forcing them to always be happy and enthusiastic about swearing fealty to the immortal kingdom. They find out about the past but get to redefine their future instead of falling over themselves in worship; literally using pieces and bits of the past in the form of zonai tech to rebuild their own kingdom and their future dreams. Together they are stronger; but because they all chose to believe in that mantra instead of having it being imposed by long dead kings and faceless ancestors expecting them to die for a war that shouldn't concern them.

(Also, obviously, the gerudo region has to reckon with the Demon King being particularly angry at them for betraying him, and them deciding to reject his rule a second time and embrace their own path, because in the original TotK Ganondorf being gerudo could be removed entirely without any consequence, which is pretty sad since it's basically an enormous part of what makes him compelling as a villain for a lot of people and keeps him from being a completely generic Nintendo stock villain!!)

And honestly? Beyond a couple of dialogue changes and slightly different setups and reasonings for Link to do certain things, especially in the various regional quests? Most of everything else could stay roughly the same. The bones are here! They're just arranged in a really weird way.

(except for Ganondorf surviving as a big bad dragon in the end through the sacrifice of his mind to immortality because that's just much more interesting than turning him into a supernova --but that's really a bonus honestly)

[chronically-ill-psionipath]

OOC:

I REALLY wanna try this out :D It’s all ocs… but the “challenge” is to guess who is the woman.🧍 I see it all over YT. This is totally not an excuse to post my ocs/j

I want other ppl to hop on to this thing too with their own ocs

this is just for fun XD