#doing gamedev again feels good

[lambda-core]

I am way too tired/jetlagged to make this post right now, but the reason Armada Starscream is so specifically well done to me actually isn't just the way he's got more depth than just wanting to take over Megatron. It's the way he falls back on this image he has of himself as someone who is solely focused on Megatron. And he is obsessed with Megatron, but the disconnect between Starscream and his image of himself is what gives him actual depth.

The reason this is so cool to me is like, that self-image--that he is single-mindedly obsessed with Megatron and will sacrifice everything else for that goal, no matter who gets hurt--is pretty close to what every other Starscream is. (The selfishness you associate with Starscream is a little more subtle, but it's there in the "no matter who gets hurt" clause imo.)

So if you go into this as a Transformers fan, you're already expecting Starscream to betray Megatron and try to best him and rule the Decepticons. But so does Starscream, even when he's demonstrably proven to both his peers and the audience that he's more than that. It's almost like his past incarnations--or the audience's expectation of him--haunt him. It turns his own internal man-versus-self conflict into this really cool man-versus-narrative conflict.

And what's crazy about this is, through the last moments of this arc, Starscream does grow beyond the narrative we'd expect from other Starscreams! But he never admits that to himself, because it's easier for him to cling to the idea that he's laser-focused on his hatred of Megatron. Every time he helps the minicons--every time he helps the humans--even in his last words, he LIES to himself and everyone around him that everything he did was always about Megatron. Because it's easier to simplify himself than to grasp that he might be a complex character. Because he's a person and he has all the messy conflicts that come with that. He falls back on the same ideas every single other Starscream did, and THAT is his undoing. Not that he is self-centered because he's Starscream. Not that he is obsessed with Megatron because he's Starscream. That he THINKS he is all of those things and he will not LET himself be anything else.

I would argue that that's a bigger theme in Armada, as well. Optimus and Megatron more or less spend their final fight coming to terms with their story roles in Transformers. I really feel like if you sneezed on them, they would realize they do this in every universe and in every timeline. Starscream's is the most interesting example to me, though, because he's such a departure from other versions of Starscream; hell, he acts (and looks, lol) a lot more like some incarnations of Thundercracker. But he's still got classic Starscream in him in this roundabout meta reference. He's like an homage to his namesake. It's so cool! And it works perfectly with the story he's a part of.

[connormoving]

like i wouldnt mind like. Not having new linear games post 5 its judt that sims 4 wasnt even supposed to Be The Sims 4 it was a last minute pivot and the base code is so outdated and was broken On launch so like. i just wish we could have the final actual sims game be like. one that was always intented to be a major sims release AND be intended to be so long term . yk

[bf-rally]

Quick Update!

I added a bunch of emotes to the site. Now when you interact with the bfs there should a little pic of their silly faces with their dialogue!

(gimmicky guys like joey wont have these tho sorry ^^')

[the-chromawheel]

Good morning Sweden, welcome back to another episode of

-//- Groomberg News -//-

In today's session we'll be covering more about our favorite esteemed gamedev groomer! If you're afraid of monsters, be wary! Todays story might make you cry of fear

So Andreas' TikTok account got deleted

(This is a dead link)

This was likely because of his allegations getting very wide coverage as a result of LeonTalksAlot and Sileskios making videos about him

One of which he ironically tried to take down

This is fascinating since his TikTok is definitely the account he relies on censorship the most - As it allows creators to delete comments on their posts entirely, including ones calling them out for grooming He has done this a lot

It appears he got tired of spending 26 hours a day censoring people, searching his name up all across social media and deleting comments to defend himself - So he just deleted his TikTok entirely. Less work to do I guess?

EDIT: (This was already outdated by the time I decided to post it but he revealed on instagram that the reason was because of a false report! my headcanon is that TikTok's algorithm does not like groomers. But it was probably just that people learnt what he did and reported his old videos)

Anyway in the time since my last post, he became moderator of his subreddit (r/cryoffear) and has banned multiple users for mentioning the allegations (me included lmao)

(Previously he would just command his mods on what to do, now he's there directly to ban people himself! Efficient!)

Just hoping he doesn't make some response like "I am sorry to say but I have deleted my TikTok account... The witch hunting has gone too far, the hate is too much for my mental health" He will likely say something like that IF HE DOES talk about it since he loves to play victim

(Now that he HAS made a response, he did take quite an emotional route with his explanation. Poor guy lost the TikTok account he used to manipulate his audience, very sad sad news)

This is painfully ironic as his victims received far worse hate from obsessed Cry of Fear fans for quite literally getting groomed by him. One of his victims abandoned all their accounts and has no publicly known social media presence anymore I guess he almost knows how it feels now

Be sure to tune back to Groomberg News in probably multiple months when I remember this account exists again. I'm afraiding my monster so hard right now

[cbedfordart]

First of all!! Holy guacamole the music for SWC is phenomenal!!! I have some of the songs on my gym playlist they’re perfect for when I workout!!

Secondiy, how long did it take you to make SWC? After playing it I started thinking about making my own game but was curious how the process went for a two person team like yours

Gosh I miss going to the gym ;;! But thank you! In terms of time, we start the project at the end of 2020, but most of the development was between 2022 and the 2024 release. We had full time work still while tinkering away in 2020 - but when we signed with the publisher which allowed us to work on it full time, we were able to expand what the game could be and really focus on it - it would have been a completely different experience had we stayed working with other jobs, that much I'm certain. The process was difficult, and I think especially trying to make something this size our first time around for a commercial project. We did do some game jams in 2021, but that's a different thing all together. They are fun and absolutely worth while to experience a bitesize version of how it feels to finish something, and it may also be a good indicator to see where you might struggle if things become stressful during production (do you try to work till 4 am? Do you avoid the project all together and abandon it? how would you handle people who suddenly can't commit to the project anymore? etc) It's hard work, like, this is the hardest I ever worked on anything in my life - and that's because I really cared about it! But there's so many interconnecting parts, there's so many opportunity for things to break, and when it's all said and done, you have to go through the meat grinder of seeing people struggle with what you've made, dislike parts of it, even if they love it overall that's still hard to see. When your game goes out there, people don't see the developer who's worked 60 work weeks and ate one meal a day in the last three weeks because they didn't have time to eat just to get it done. We are very grateful that people enjoy the game, and I really worry what my mental state would be if the game wasn't received how it has been. Make your own game, but do not make something the size of SWC lol. Not for your first time. And be very realistic about how long it will take, and be extremely realistic about how much work needs to be done. I could write an entire dissertation about what I've learned, what I'd do differently and the whole experience itself - but I can't do that here lol. There are more tools and resources to be able to just get up and make a game - I want you to read this and feel encouraged and feel a fire in your heart burn to make the thing you want to make, but I want you to know it is easy to burn yourself and you must take care of yourself, and you must look out for your health. After the release I was very much thinking "Could I do this again? I don't think I could ever do this again" But there's the drive to want to create and it is hard to extinguish. I hear a few seconds of the Space Channel 5 soundtrack and I'm ready to throw myself to the wolves of gamedev all over again. There are too many worlds in the mind that I must create so that others can occupy them! I must share these worlds, it would be selfish of me not to! So we must be sure to take care of ourselves. If you ever make that game, I wanna see it!!!!

[ganondoodle]

seeing all the crazy stuff people build in totk kinda ... it feels like that is also a factor in why it turned out like this, like the insane things people did in botw and the (i keep saying devs when i actually mean the directors .. producers?) directors saw it and build totk just around letting people do it all 100 times more

to be clear, i think its impressive as hell what some people build (i just saw like .. a movie scene with a functioning mech gozilla and tanks made with totks building stuff ... what the fuck) and those things go pretty viral (understandibly so) but i also gotta question

as creative, free, and impressive as it is ... should that have been the focus in a zelda game? like .. is building mechas and tanks like that something that should be in a zelda game? can it be in there without inevitably sacrificing so much else? theres building games just for that? and if you want to make it zelda themed you can make it a spin off?

like i get it, people did crazy things in botw, they saw what people had fun with and dialed it up to a 1000 in totk, which in itself is not bad, even pretty good if you consider gamedevs and feeback and all that bc in general you should embrace what people had fun with in your game even if it wasnt the intent, given that nintendy listens to feedback (perhaps even a bit too much at times) and creative solutions was a central point to botw design philosophy but

i feel like totk kinda .. missed the balance?

if its really a reason why totk is build around enabling that in a purely player centered toy box kind of way without it actually mattering in the story .. or even themes ... was it worth it? not to sound like an oldschool boomer tm but in a franchise that iconic, lore and story focused, should you really abandon nigh all lore/story cohesion just to give the player a big box of toys in a world where i feel that doesnt ,, really belong? in a direct sequel in the same world with the same characters no less? that point is perhaps the biggest issue with it, bc again lots of games even if somwhat a sequel, had strange new tech or things in the world but in all of those cases it was some alternative universe, millenia after the other game, or on an entire different continent; while totk is supposedly just a few years after botw in the very same hyrule

(still doesnt explain the erasing of all shiekah things and replacing it with sonau- tho suddendly revealing the shiekah had actual rockets, wheels with suspension and grenade-launchers, might have been confusing too- you could have enabled the player creativity with shiekah too imo, and personally i would have found it way more fun ... lil guardian leg crawlies ..)

having thought about it feels rather logical why they did it in alot of ways, but also ... totk is build around it, while its also not build around it at all- its build around the PLAYER, not the world, not the story, not the theme, not the character, but YOU (especialyl those that dont realyl care about anythign story or lore stuff and just want to have fun with the gameplay loop, which isnt wrong, but i question whether thats the right kind if player to center in a zelda game .... also not saying all of those that build these crazy things are like that but- ... i hope you know what i mean)

(i know games are always build around the player, or should be, but .. do you get what i mean????? playing in a world that doesnt make sense anymore bc its all a box of toys yeeted into my face isnt fun to me, bc im here not only for gameplay fun but for the world .. theme .. characters, its something that has to be harmonical as a whole for me and totk just .. isnt)

i say it alot but i do really mean it, its very difficult to get my thoughts and feelings written out and to have them come across correctly

[evilbalwan]

YGO protags relationship between them by me~

Yugi/Judai- Yugi is actually one of few people Judai really respects, and won't go against without a very good reason, Judai kinda wants to act like a protector to which Yugi smiles politely; Yugi doesn't understand why Judai respects him to that point, but he remembers and will use it if the situation calls for it; they actually talk to each other and one day Judai will tell Yugi about the Dark world if only out of shame and wanting to be judged.

Yugi/Yusei - Yugi feels weird about Yusei, because while Judai respects him, Yusei seems to worship him, the chance of genuine connection getting lost somewhere. For Yusei, Yugi will always be ultimately a duel monsters legend and he won't be able to completely shake it off.

Yusei/Judai - they are very good friends! Enough that Yusei will open up about feeling bad about killing murderous robots and much later Judai will tell him about Dark world in details, they mostly spend time hanging out, Yusei likes telling Judai about his hobby even if Judai doesn't get it.

Yuma/Yugi- there is, thank god, no worshipping involved, because while Yuma knows of Dark Magician, he never cared to learn about old duelists, they are very casual with each other, Yuma reminding Yugi of Jounouchi, which makes him easy to hang out with. Neither really talks about their problems, but if they feel down, they will seek each other, the acknowledgement of both Atem and Astral is silent and beside basic info, neither of them finds more.

Yuma/Judai- Yuma finds Yubel much cooler than Judai, sorry, anyway, he can't shake the feeling that Judai would make a very good Barian, so he tries to cheery him up whenever they meet, they exchange their catchphrases and pull of pranks; Judai likes Yuma, he doesn't really remind him of anyone else (even if he is kinda similar to his friends, Yuma ultimately is too different).

Yuma/Yusei: they... Like each other. And that's basically it. Yuma sometimes uses Yusei as his personal tree, but Yusei's issues aren't ones Yuma usually gets caught up with and vice versa. They mostly know of each other and maybe they would be able to go for small talk, but anything more? Meh.

Yuya/Yugi- Yugi feels like an old man around Yuya; as a guy who never liked moving much, entertainment duels as an idea are beyond him and magic tricks were more of Atem's thing than his; Yuya thinks Yugi is cool, but doesn't seek contact with him.

Yuya/Judai- that's a. Complicated one. They both tried to like each other, but Yuya breathes every mental issue possible inside and acts and no matter what happens, Judai can't really get to him, which is very frustrating. Even if Yuya listens for a moment, he quickly gets possessed by egao again. Having Haou title doesn't help; Yuya is actually genuinely scared of Judai, because talk no jutsu doesn't work, ever, which is a bad sign. He also uses fusion, another bad sign; they're arguing fairly often.

Yuya/Yusei- Yusei doesn't mind people not knowing how Satellite or Neo Domino City work, but he minds other people telling him they know better, which is a situation with Yuya. He likes listening about other Crow and Jack; Yuya wants to get along with Yusei but somehow, he messes up their every single interaction so he stops trying.

Yusaku/Yugi- Yugi can sense right away that Yusaku is hurting very badly, so he tries to befriend him, fortunately he's a gamedev, so they bond over that - Yugi has ideas and Yusaku has to code, it works very well, because this is completely different kind of programming, forcing him to focus and expand his horizon, at some point Yugi gets from him the story about Ai, and in return Yusaku hears something of Atem, but will never find the whole truth. Yugi will just smile when he asks.

Yusaku/Judai- Judai is kind of cool uncle figure for Yusaku, he appears and disappears, brings gifts because he doesn't know what to do, especially that Yusaku is salty Judai has Yubel and his general idea is just to support Yusaku in whatever he's doing, without overstepping.

Yusaku/Yusei- they work well together in like, professionally, though Yusei is more of hardware guy than software, they don't speak to each other often beside their projects, but there is mutual understanding between them; though, sometimes Yusaku really gets feed up with Yusei's attitude, but he won't mention it aloud, ever. Yusei reminds him of Earth, actually.

Yuma/Yuya- Yuma firmly believes in I can fix him with Yuya. Unfortunately, Yuya is Yuya, kattobingu and egao are constantly fighting; they're somehow good friends if they don't mention their beliefs, but they bring up it often... They even started making powerpoints to convince each other. Yuma doesn't believe Yuya that arc v Kaito exists.

Yuma/Yusaku- Yuma sees Yusaku's pain right away but he doesn't really know how to approach it? So he kinda awkwardly hovers over Yusaku, brings him food, offers him talking, asks for duels (unless he notices it's a bad idea with Yusaku) and really tries to be friends without bringing up Astral/Ai although it's very obvious for him; it's not so obvious for Yusaku tho so while he doesn't mind Yuma, he really doesn't understand what's his deal is and wants it to be over

Yuya/Yusaku- so. Another problematic egao case. Yuya believes in dueling and smiles, something that Yusaku lost hope for a long time ago; Yuya still tries, shows him the best duels of his, talks about Pendulum and is very persistent about that he can change dueling for Yusaku if only he let him try; Yusaku wants goddamn vacation

[zombielesbean]

the release of Grey Area was interesting because... well, lemme just lay it out for ya:

literally the morning the game released, my grandma died it wasn't unexpected at all, so it didn't hit me particularly hard, and I am not a person who feels much when anyone dies anyway, but, I was always really close with my grandma, and she always loved and was supportive of my gamedev stuff, so like. you can imagine, that's not the most stable mental platform to be releasing the biggest game project you've ever released on, heh

later the first day of release, our first review rolls in - negative

oof

more reviews are coming in and most are positive, but each negative one - and there were a few - like a knife stabbing me. that's three years of my life out there now! I wasn't prepared for how incredibly vulnerable that would feel - each of my previous game projects had only taken a year or less

on top of this, the bug reports are coming in.. we'd tested this game to hell and back, both ourselves and with outside game testers.. but again. biggest project I've ever made. more stuff got through than I was prepared for

mental health is deteriorating, I'm staying up all night continuing to fix bugs and make small changes to the game

a fairly large streamer plays the game - doesn't like the bosses that much, especially the latter two, admits he was going to send gift copies to random viewers but has now decided he "doesn't want to inflict the game on other people" and doesn't believe the game had playtesters

internal screaming increasing

I'm still working every day and night on this thing, we're getting much more positive feedback than negative but like oh my god is it rough I don't know what to do with all this attention and then we have someone show up in the discord server to essentially debate me about all the choices I made making the game and it gets to where it's just like please leave me alone I'm sorry you didn't like it but other people do and I made it the way I personally wanted because its my project and aaaaaaaaa I'm dying out here

and with all this stress building the thing that did me in was our biggest fan, as in, the most prominent person who was interested in our game, and who had made several useful suggestions about the game I had happily implemented - well, let's just say I fucked up in communication with them and woosh - all that good will out the door

extremely negative review, they don't even talk about the game, they just talk about the miscommunication they had with me

I felt like I was a sitcom character working in a restaurant and I'd tried to please the food critic coming to town and tripped and spilled all the food over them

and that may sound funny but like. it broke me. like. that was it, my stress reached its boiling over point and like. as soon as I saw that review I just. left the house and walked around the neighborhood with my girlfriend. like speedwalking, she could barely keep up with me, and then like. I did not speak or eat or drink for like two entire days. it was. not good

and like at that point I thought the whole thing was ruined and I'd just wasted those three years and I felt like the biggest idiot of all time for fumbling that situation like that

but like. that was the last negative review we ever got, the game has a 9/10 rating as of now and like. that's really really good actually, I have every right to be proud of this project, and I have absolutely loved watching so many people play it and stream it and enjoy it and hearing everyone's thoughts about it

but damn those first few weeks were rough as hell, and I hope it never goes like that again when I release a game, or at least, I will be better prepared, heh

when you put your everything into a project, especially when it's for a long time, the more vulnerable it makes you when you finally release it to the public, I think that's the biggest lesson to learn here for me

[crazysodomite]

i study gamedev and today's lecture was on the origins of the stealth genre... got to nerd out about constantine's mansion 😁 i mostly know abt the series from watching a friend play thru the first game but it was still very heartwarming to see it discussed! i have special permission from my prof to help and edit his presentations for future students (bc im a game history n genre nerd) and given ur the resident tumblr thief expert in my eyes, i wanted to ask what interesting facts should we mention abt the series' mechanics and their influence on the genre? what would a true thief fan like to not be overlooked in the genre wide discussion? sorry if it's a confusing question, i just like hearing people nerd out either way...

also just seeing u mention it in any context makes me very happy inside, brings back good memories :] did you know the stealth genre started with a prototype game about shoplifting? it then got bought by taito and turned into the 1980 lupin iii game!

umm i feel like im too doopid to really do thief and its mechanics justice... i dont think im a thief expert just a thief fan... i haven't played a lot of other stealth games except thief so it's hard for me to judge and compare!

one of my favorite analysis videos on thief from a person who just uploaded this banger and was never seen again...

i think nowadays the 'safe bet' is to not create anything too difficult or challenging for the player, sometimes rudimentary stealth mechanics are included to 'be an option' but stealth as an actual genre is pretty dead right now.

it's hard to imagine a game being created nowadays focused mostly on stealth, with complex mechanics and large sprawling levels without a minimap and objective marker pointing you where to go.

i think a lot of these things can be accessibility features or just things developers include to avoid player frustration. after all someone is probably going to get upset and quit the game if they spend hours walking around the map not understanding where they're supposed to go.

but in the end the levels themselves should be constructed to be able to be navigated without objective markers and minimaps. for example i rarely even look at the included map when im completing a thief level because i just kinda expect to complete the level and figure out what to do simply by exploring, listening to conversations, reading notes, paying attention to the environment, etc. though i do really appreciate being able to see which room i'm currently in on the map like in thief 2...

and i'm not even gonna lie i looked up guides for certain levels in thief because i couldn't figure out what to do, but i would rather have this point of frustration instead of a game i can just turn my brain off and press buttons at random to complete, that doesn't respect my intelligence at all. and thief games are far from perfect, especially since the devs were rushed and the company ended up going bankrupt, that's why its especially sad to not see any real thief successors or even an actual demand for a good stealth gaming experience.

there's a reason the community around thief is still going strong, developing FMs, discussing the game, creating huge campaigns, porting the game mechanics to a newer engine, etc. if the skeleton of thief wasn't good enough to warrant such a long lifespan none of that would happen! thief is so good, despite being a game literally older than me, that people would prefer to play a thief fm instead of whatever 'stealth mechanics' the newest AAA game cooked up. anyways heres my santances i hope you like them.

i would love for mechanics introduced in thief to be built upon with newer technology. for example more robust dynamic light mechanics like those introduced in deadly shadows (not pushed far enough sadly... but the possibilities are so exciting) as well as more robust audio and various other improvements that could be made if there was actual interest in stealth games anymore... i mean hell a lot of people who made FMs for thief went on to make other games (dishonored) but then those games still don't really hit like thief does.

okay im just gonna highlight some points bc i genuinely do not possess the capability to write in english. gets scared

I think an interesting comparison can be made between the light gem from thief and like, the 'detection meter' some games with 'stealth mechanics' have nowadays. What does the light gem do? It shows which light level you're currently in. There is predictability and consistency in how enemies react to you at different light levels. Your Actual Skill matters, not what perks you chose on the progression tree or what 'stealth skill' you used on your character. If you're at the lowest 'hidden' light level you are basically safe from enemies unless they walk into you and you can plan your next movement, if you're in a higher light level you need to pay close attention to enemies to not get spotted. Can you actually play the game without the light gem? I think yes, since your detection is mostly sound-based cues, and the light gem simply gives the player concrete information to play better and get predictable, skill based results. The 'detection meter' is there because most games don't really have light/shadow mechanics or robust stealth-based enemy AI. You need to visually show the player they've been spotted because in most games the sound design is not catered to stealth and you won't hear an enemy seeing you, or the level design is constructed in a way where you will be spotted by someone looking at you from across the map and not understand where that came from, etc. Frankly in most games you're not even put in situations where you can weave your way around enemies, follow them, sneak around them, etc. You can either press a button to knock them out from behind, or you 'discover' a passage that allows you to bypass all enemies since stealthing 'on the ground' is literally not possible because of the AI that like, spots you based on proximity and nothing else. Or there's like, a meter that goes up the longer you stay around the enemy before they spot you, etc.... You don't feel like you make your own stealthy way, using the tools and circumstances you've been given, and instead you just 'discover' the pre-determined 'stealthy way' intended by the devs.

Sound. I probably can't even name a game where sound matters more than in thief. Sound information is as important as visual information in thief. You can tell which specific level of alertness an enemy has simply by their voicelines. Different floor materials make different sound levels (which may not be super realistic, but it's a sacrifice thief makes for the sake of gameplay), different speeds you move at make different levels of sound, your items and arrows make sound, enemies can use sound to alert each other, etc. An enemy doesn't need to see you to be alerted, and you can hear how many enemies are in a room, what direction they are coming from, and if it's safe to come out of a room based on sound proximity. Also you can press your ear against a door to listen. I genuinely can't name another game that utilizes this.

Okay ummm.... Thief mechanics are robust enough to allow for all kinds of different playing styles. You can use your tools or you can not use any of them at all, you can knock everyone out or go completely undetected by anyone, the thief community makes up their own rulesets for playthroughs not intended by the devs at all, but those are still possible and fun to do.

Stop with the 3rd person view camera. More leaning from a corner and listening to your enemies, less 3rd person camera where you can see enemies while being completely safe and undetected. The first person view is extremely important to thief in my opinion, and adds an incredible amount of immersion. Also, thief never fucking takes away control from you to play an animation or a quick time event!!! It's infuriating when games do that !!!

Even dishonored, a game i actually really enjoyed, is still really lacking in stealth. You spend most of your time perched up on weirdly placed objects above your enemies that make it safe for you to basically teleport from place to place while being undetected by enemies. Dishonored has more of a focus on actually engaging and killing enemies, which imo is really unnecessary. I should actively avoid engaging with enemies in any way in a stealth game. In a perfect stealth game, no enemy sees or hears me at all, while i can still weave around them and pick their pockets, complete all my objectives while exploring a wide map that makes sense and is rewarding to explore, and be able to get out unscathed...

here are my new sentences 😁

[collapsedsquid]

Been following Star Citizen since the start, I picked up a ticket when it first announced, it was dirt cheap and promised a lifetime subscription, I figured they might regret that later and regardless of how it turned out I knew I wanted to watch the ride. I knew the developer, I had fun with Freelancer. I was in for the space-flight/trading sim of the future.

I also knew Chris Roberts was prone to never finish things, Freelancer was released but not finished. With him running the show and answering to nobody, I knew that could get even worse. I knew that that is part of the ride I was in for, I had to watch this crash. I keep on it on-and-off to watch how it goes.

Star Citizen has been playable for quite a while in some form, even if it has yet to reach "1.0." It's difficult to play though, I couldn't play it when it first released because I didn't have a computer good enough. When I got a new computer, I could play it for a bit but then after a point became unable to play it again because time progressed, it's graphics improved to more than my computer could handle. I haven't tried it on my most recent machine. One of the reasons for that is that I didn't ever find it fun. Flying felt awkward to me and the activities were kinda shit. Possibly because I didn't shell out more cash to Chris Roberts to upgrade from the starter ship to save me from terrible grind.

The real thing Star Citizen has become though is Content. Over the years they have churned out so much video, some of discussions of development, some of it sort of in-universe ads for the ships, some of just sort of in-universe tv shows, a little extended riff they did off of Top Gear that has gone on for a long time now. Can get the sense that people are funding a youtube channel rather than any actual gamedev.

Yeah one of the things that the game has become famous for is selling in-game ships for thousands of dollars. For a game that develops slow-as-hell, can't call it "vaporware" because it is playable, but yeah that is a lot of money. One of the weirdest things about it though is the fan community They have quite a large one that also puts out reams of content, the people who spent tons of money showing off their purchases. The ships look quite nice, quite detailed. Still though, seems a poor purchasing decision. Still wonder how close they were to making those ships NFTs.

So there's this thing that happens with Open-World games. People feel bitter about open-world games. People still buy them though. One of the things you notice in the fan communities before release though is that people read way too much into the developer's press releases. Developer says a few noncommittal words and fans will spin off this whole imaginary thing that they think they will be able to do, man it's gonna be so awesome, the best game ever. Except no, that idea would be infinitely expensive, that's not in the game. In Star Citizen people built massive stories about the ships and how they would fly and interact when they were merely a 2d image and a blurb. Man this is not just an open-world game, this is an MMO. You know that shit has to get balanced and tweaked to hell. The game systems are barely there. You have no reason for believing any of this.

They're pushing for the 1.0 release now. They did a big announcement that it would be "player-centric." When I first heard that I scoffed at that as meaningless buzzwords. It does have a meaning though, it basically means "we're going to have as few NPCs as possible" Yeah this does seem like an attempt to try cut back on the content to get the thing out the door.

As another part of that they had "Squadron 42" the single-player campaign they promised from the get-go. They had a whole extended trailer that showed off the first mission recently. The whole thing was weird. So Star Citizen, the multiplayer game I played, the Chris Roberts game, was a space-sim, another in a classic if out-of-trend genre. As development progressed they started adding guns and FPS elements. What they showed off for that trailer though I think I can describe as "uncharted-a-like." Hoppin into turrets of a big ship for space combat, then running around hiding in the ship to avoid boarders, jumping from space-debris to space-debris. This is a whole other game they are building here man. It's sort of a prologue, I get that, but man what a weird way to start the thing. I guess I'll see how it is when they release it in 5 more years.

[falciesystemessays]

so there's this indie game developer who's been a quiet favorite of mine for the past year. Artless Games. they're a chinese developer who specializes in puzzle games. they have a programming game called A=B about working with an esolang, pretty solid takes on The Witness and Sokoban formulas, and the absolutely ridiculous 14 Minesweeper Variants, which is my comfort game and also getting a sequel soon. this developer is really good at making rock-solid puzzle games with good ideas and great execution. if you are interested in puzzle game design at all, and especially if any of these concepts interest you, i highly recommend you check out their work.

The hitch is, of course, the lack of an artstyle. You could call it minimalist, but the name "Artless Games" shows a full awareness that there's a presentational lack in these games. I kind of admire it, honestly, because these games do stand up without the need for visual flair. And as an indie designer who tends to be pretty limited on assets, I deeply respect a game that shows how you don't need those to make an amazing game.

...But it's not that simple, is it?

A few months ago I went to the yearly Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. I learned a lot there, met a good few people, and started to really rethink how I approach gamedev. The thing to understand about GDC talks is that they are incidentally about making good games. The real focus is on how to be successful in the game industry. This often does mean making better games, but it's just as much about confronting how making a good game isn't always enough.

Enter Lenophie, an aggressively French game designer who gave my most anticipated talk, 'Bunburrows': How to Break Out of the Puzzle Niche. She speaks to the fact that, despite puzzle games being very popular among indie developers, it's a pretty small niche in terms of players. To make a profitable indie puzzle game, you have to appeal outside of that niche to players looking for other things. In Lenophie's words, "We treated being a puzzle game like something we had to compensate for." It means not relying on mechanics alone as a selling point. It means giving your game a unique style, or even a story. And it means swallowing your pride as a puzzle game designer and giving players hints, or even letting them skip puzzles. It's not enough to make a good puzzle game, she says. You have to make a good game with puzzles in it.

I came out of that talk feeling like the future of puzzle games was just laid out before me. And I was excited. I'm still excited! The idea of puzzle games extending past their current niche status is a really cool one, to me. But it puts me in a weird spot thinking about Artless again. On some level, I have a deep respect for a game like 14 Minesweeper Variants, a game with even less interesting visuals than normal Minesweeper, for standing on its own as a puzzle game. It was a game built just for me. I think it's really important that games like this exist, that game developers can make a game with a sharp focus that knows its audience and appeals to it fully. But the reality of gamedev as a business complicates matters. I hope every developer working in the puzzle space finds their answer. I hope I find mine. And I hope you, whatever rising star developer is reading this, find your balance.

[wonfiidoesgamedev]

100 Days of Gamedev (Day 0)

TLDR: starting today ill be spending 15 minutes a day learning gamedevolpment. Ill be journaling my progress on this blog daily for 100 days.

Alright, so over the past week or so ive gotten back into gamedev again, and i really wanna lock into some sort of creative process. Ive decided, at least for the time being, that that is gunna be gamedev!

I messed with Godot a little bit in the past, mostly just following a few short tutorials to make a player run around in a simple 3D environment. Its exciting and approachable to put these together, but im not sure i learned how to do anything on my own...

So starting today ill be committing at least 15 minutes a day for the next 100 days to learning game-development. This is a lower bounds limit that im hoping will still be achievable even on days where im just really not feelin' it and on my good days ill likely spend more time learning and playing around!

Ill be starting with GDquest's Learn 2D Gamedev with Godot 4 course. Ive already finished their "Learn to code from zero" webapp as well as their "your first 3D game" tutorial on Youtube and the way they teach clicked with me. i was able to retain most of the information in these to be able to add, change, and remove parts of the project on my own which is what really solidified that gamedev is the direction i wanna go. It was really fun!

Most of my posts here wont be as long as this one im sure... i intend this blog to be a sort of public diary of my learning process for programming and gamedev in general. By making it public i feel a little more obligated to commit to this whole process even though these posts are primarily for my own future self to reference. If you're interested in this kinda stuff maybe you'll find it interesting!

one of the first things i made last year when i had my first fit of interest in gamedevelopment. I followed along with a short youtube tutorial to make it!

[dedmasya]

HN's lore and fandom are literally broken atm

Every time when something shitty happens with this poor franchise I had the feeling that I should write something about it. And the last AS teaser was like a spit into my face, so here you go. HN has problems, the fandom, the franchise itself. And these problems are huge. We all know that it's a some kind of a milking cow at the moment, it's already a very sad situation. People around me (with whom I hang out and they are/were in HN fandom) liked the way how story went when Nikita was around. It's obvious, that he wasn't involved in modern HN2 and projects that were created after. It may sound stupid to those people, who don't have this feeling, but you just know that he hasn't participated in development. It's like a style, handwriting. You can try to copy it, but it still will be a copy. And his style, his handwriting is nowhere. The last time I felt that HN is HN was when HN2 alpha 2 teasers were seen. I was excited, had high hopes. Felt that special vibe. But later? Nothing. Lore problems. SIGH. Every fucking interpretation of this poor game fails, contradicting each other and original canon. We have the game. The first and original resource of information, everything else should be based on it, not the opposite(!). These books are a cash grab, I have almost all of them, I've read them, but they're a cash grab literally. I can say it as a person who is writing too and who can point out that everyone is freaking OOC in them, including Theodore. And no matter how TB wants to be "an animation studio" or smth, they're GAME PUBLISHERS hiii hellooo hi??? You're supposed to publish games, they spent money on absolutely unnecessary product that can't even give them these money back, as I suppose. You all do know that Ted never freaking ever had a brother. Even the book one had SISTER, but it was just a random fact even and her existence in the lore was... Not important. Lore keeps being overwritten over and over again, it's nowhere HN already. The legacy was destroyed or smth. I won't even say anything about poor HG that had amusing potential! Are u guys really okay with this? Cuz I'm not. It feels at least disrespectful to Nikita, imho. I would be so depressed if my creation was turned into a milking cow for someone else. HN1 had a meaning, morality. It wasn't just a game for fun and giggles, it was a message, it was an art. Like a good movie, like a good book. But a good game. Maybe with bugs, yes. Maybe it wasn't 100% perfect in different aspects, but it had soul. And imho HN could be a russian gamedev savior at some point, cuz russian gamedev is half alive. And old fandom... People who are new to this franchise probably doesn't know a lot of facts, some don't even understand what was HN1 about, even if it's obvious as hell. People are not friendly to each other for some reason, despite they're a part of one community. Stop stabbing the same boat where we all in, you will drown not us, but yourself too. So we should be respectful to each other, we're the one community, no matter if we want it or not. I miss old HN. No fucking mystic, just metaphors and messages. No random flat characters, no 100 boring and unnecessary spin-offs, including a freaking cartoon. And as a conclusion HN = Nikita (and Dynamic Pixels ppl) No Nikita = No HN Text is not systematized as it should, maybe there are even grammar mistakes. But it's an emotional vent.

[gubbles-owo]

okay fuckit, gather 'round: it's gubbles' storytime. girl's band cry hyperfixation be damned, it's bringing up so many Things in my heart. i say i've never performed live onstage, but that's not entirely true. while a far shot from actually taking part in a band and playing a show, allow me to tell you the tale of the closest I ever got to that: a random session at jamspace, pax east, 2016.

.......... senior year of college, i was brought onboard with another group of students who had not only completed a game demo for a class project, but wanted to take it further. a lil VR game, simple in concept and clean in execution, i was invited to do music and audio for it. (i was, of course, the sole game audio/music-focused student on campus, as my school's gamedev program didn't really have a dedicated audio designer track). ultimately it fizzled out and not much came of it, but for a good chunk of time it was everything. our future ambitions, something to carry us forth from graduation on into the industry, to cement our own little foothold in the vast world of game development. we took the train to boston so many times, showed off our game at SO MANY local events, hell i had never known how to navigate a complex subway system, and here we were sifting through every few weeks or so. it was a wild fucking time, and honestly? i wish i could experience it again. something about the weaving of fantastical future prospects with the tangible, corporeal experience of it all. once foreign subway systems, sprawling in a subterranean web of concrete and metal, the sidewalks of city streets lit by the glow of the city, now strangely familiar in such a short span of time... *ahem* right, where was i... right, pax east. our school provided a limited number of booths for teams to show off their projects at pax east, and being one of the big promising projects stirring up on campus, we were granted a spot. (actually i had TWO spots because two separate projects/teams i took part in got accepted, so i had to pull double duty for a lot of it LMFAO). i've been to pax before, but as a fan and attendee, not as a developer. so this was an entirely new experience... ...and that experience was having the booth you sit at all day right next to the massive league of legends (ew) stage!! they blasted music constantly! half of it was just percussion loops from Heavyocity's Damage, and i know because I RECOGNIZED THOSE PERCUSSION SOUNDS and even USED SOME OF THEM IN THE PROJECT I WAS WORKING ON. see, the convention floor is loud. like. incredibly fucking loud. it's one thing if you're walking around as a fan, you've got other talks in siderooms to go to, and you can always step out and get some fresh air if you're feeling overwhelmed. but ya can't do that when you're on shift to demo your game to con attendees for the next several hours, can ya? :3c so yeah, long story short, i got sick. real fuckin sick. i had to YELL over the din of the convention the entire time, and after just one day, i had already lost my voice. and i mean COMPLETELY LOST MY VOICE. i could not speak, only painfully croak. i had to resort to crude hand gestures and typing shit on my phone to communicate. it was rooouughhh. and after bringing this up with my teammates, they agreed to cover my shifts, and let me rest. because the con was so fucking loud, and i was still stuck there sick all day, i informed my team that i would be headed to the jamspace room to pick up earplugs. and by "earplugs" i mean. haha well. lets justr say. a bass guitar. (srry for screenshot but tumblr hated this paragraph for some reason and kept blocking the post):

i was sick as fuck, and for sake of my health, should probably not have pushed myself. HOWEVER. i would NOT i repeat *NOT* let this sole opportunity to slip me by... i've always wanted to perform with other musicians, so fuck it, i am doing this. so the next twelve minutes i shuffled my sickly ass alll the way around to the room at the very end of the hall. i had taken note of the open-stage timeslots the day prior. i had one hour to do this shit. one hour to make the dream come true. i cannot describe the nervousness i felt going into that whole thing. i lied to my teammates. i couldn't speak. a dark room with a little clipboard to fill out a timeslot and instrument, and an empty, brightly lit stage on the other side of it. but i shuffled stage right, strapped on this bass, and asked for a pick (because im a fake bassist). and. holy shit.

i had no voice, but with that bass strapped to me? i could make the entire room *shake*. and words cannot describe how utterly fucking powerful that felt.

a few other randos took up the other instruments. i don't remember much about them, only that they intimidated the HELL out of me. i had done like concert band in high school, i've jammed on instruments in my room, but this? this is something entirely different. we played through a couple tracks... they kept suggesting "hey how about x song from y band?" but my stupid-ass doesn't have a degree in classic rock like everyone else apparently does, so i shrugged and said i didn't know how to play it. we finally settled on the one song suggested that i was, at least passingly, familiar with... metallica's enter sandman lmfaO the "passingly" there is very important, because while i know the general flow and structure, i wasn't sure about the specifics. when we got to the first pre-chorus, i notice something had shifted, and i was no longer playing the right notes. i must've either sounded terrible or look visibly confused, because the guitarist to my left turned toward me, angled his fretboard to be clearly in view, and taught me how to play the riff while performing it onstage. and i did it!! i picked it up, just like that!! it was just the earlier bit but transposed up a few steps or smth, but god, just. that little moment right there? that quick moment of guidance mid-performance? holy fuck that is magical. the other awesome moment was somewhere in the bridge, like. okay. i could barely hear myself, as the guitars and vocals and cymbals right behind me were all incredibly loud (they didn't have earplugs btw lol). but i wasn't sure i was like, contributing much to the song? and while i admittedly improvised this bit, for the build up into the final chorus, i stopped playing. i let the guitar and the drums have their space. and slowly, quietly, high up on the fretboard, built back up until WHAM, i come back in full force with the chorus. IT WAS SO COOL. LIKE. the mix sounded so weak and thin without me, and the contrast of making the entire fucking room violently vibrate with the flick of my wrist on the downbeat? holy FUCK. IT'S MAGICAL. MAGIC IS REAL Y'ALL AND IT IS ONSTAGE. anyway yeah, played that song, some members swapped out but no one else was signed up for bass, so i stuck on for a lil longer. another guitarist taught me how to play one of the splatoon themes, and while it was fun, the drummer kept us both going on that one riff for a looot longer than we wanted to lmfao fun fact! none of my team knew i did this!! they probably would've been PISSED had they found out!! actually they stole my con pass on the third morning, which made sense cause they had someone else fill in for me at the booth, but none of it was communicated to me and i was piiiiised. wound up navigating the subway and trains back home, all by myself, for the first time. but YEAH it was AMAZING. it wasn't an established band playing a local show, it was just a bunch of randos fucking around. and god. i... i really want to be part of a band someday. i want to feel this again.

even if just for one show, for one song, for one moment... i need to feel the weight of the room underneath my fingertips.

[ganondoodle]

Oh man I saw your totk issues post and I agree 100%!! Those are all things that have really bothered me about playing totk, and things that made playing it not nearly as fun (the dungeons, the shrines, the building, etc).

Especially the map!! When I tell you I was so disappointed by the maps on totk, I was hoping for something new! It really just feels like a modded botw, not an official sequel.

I was wondering what your thoughts are on the concept of “what if they had sent link to the past instead”? So the surface map would feature huge differences in the land forms and buildings that exist, and we’d get to see more ganon whenever he visits Hyrule, or go out to the desert to see Gerudo town, etc.

If they really wanted no sheika tech, they could also just have it being newly built? And you could introduce the new characters and such, etc etc.

(I also think the past champions are such a missed opportunity? If botw is about grief and loneliness, and finding hope in the hopeless, and Totk is about coming together despite that, it could have been really interesting if Link had gone to the past! They could have used the past setting as an eerie reminder to what Link and Zelda had lost when the Calamity struck!)

THAT BEING SAID: I’m not as familiar with the legend of Zelda lore, and haven’t played totk very much! I wanted to know your thoughts on this because you seem to have a lot of story and game mechanic knowledge that could explain why this could be a bad/good idea!

(Plus, your discussions are always super interesting to read, as is your custom totk lore, so I’d love to know what you think🩷)

I’m sorry if you’ve already answered an ask like this! If that’s the case, feel free to point that out and I’ll go through your ask tag if you have one:) I hope you have a great day!⭐️

Hi!

im glad you enjoy my rants, i often feel like im being overly mean but tbh were else could i just rant as much as my heart desires without getting spammed by annoying people (certainly not on twitter lol)

i have talked alot, and i mean ALOT, about totk and my issues with it, both lore and gameplay wise, i dont claim to be an expert on any, though i am an old zelda fan and aspiring gamedev, i really only talk about what i feel about it, what i think about it, and by all means im biased as hell xD

if you dont know yet, the "ganondoodles rants" tag is where all my rants go, so if you are interested in reading more on my totk thoughts thats the way to search (given tumblrs search in blog works ..)

and to answers your question, i have touched on it briefly, sending link back in time before the shiekah tech existed would have been an easy way to excuse how they jsut got .. rid of it, bc they didnt, it literally didnt exist yet- and for reusing the map- though that argument falls a little flat bc ... they coud have already done that in present totk, like i brought up in one of said rants, things like flooding gerudo desert, collapsing death mountain, drying out zoras domain etc, and changing the location of the main populations would have already done alot without having to redo the map in its entirety;

the little changes to map itself really wouldnt that big of a deal if they didnt also send you to the EXACT same locations AND repeat the SAME LOCATIONS AGAIN but in the underground, like thats a fact i have talked about multiple times bc its so illogical in every way, anywhere theres a settlement on the surface theres a bigger mine below, its so stupid, the shrines conenct to a lightroot, the same, again, you dont need to explore bc theres nothing TO explore (its also extra weird bc theres one below taburasa (tarrey town) which .... link literally build with dumsda (hudson) a few years ago .. unless that got retconned too idk wth do i know anymore honestly- AND it makes the sonau extra weird bc why the hell do they have a bigass mine under every settlement ESPECIALLY UNDER GERUDO TOWN like, that just adds to my suspicions towards them)

anyway, link to the past was the point and yes, it could have solved a few issues (mainly shiekah tech and the whole "story" taking place AGAIN in the past completely disconnected from you the player) i personally am not so much a fan of it, but that mostly comes down to me just not liking time travel, i dont like going back in time, i want to play and do things in the here and now, i want to repair the damages of the calamity, find out its origins, maybe fix that too, i love to learn about past stuff too, but that more in text, no literal flashback (unless done well), i want to connect to the past but it also holds alot of mystery that maybe shouldnt be touched upon, some mysteries and unkowns are much more interesting when left as such, i want to THINK about things and come to conclusions that are logical and makes sense in hindsight even if it wasnt clear at the start, i dont want information and what to think about it told to my face over and over like im stupid

after botw i really didnt care much about the past, maybe about the acient hero who alot of people specualted to be of gerudo origin due to its red hair- which also got a monkeys paw curled bc in totk they do sth with but its so stupid and insulting that i do not accept it as canon, say what they want, there are no dog people anywhere in the past nor present botw/totk wtf is that i hate it- and its not even .. why is that the reward for that, it has literally NOTHING TO DO WITH TOTK ITSELF I COULD YELLLL AAAARGH

main point is that really, i wanted to explore the past .. in the present, i hoped to find broken old shiekah structures, old labs and maybe some left over damage and records from when the old king persecuted the shiekah for their tech, i wanted to know where the ancient energy the shiekah used was coming from, what the boss arena in the middle of hyrule castle really was- so many things just discarded and acted like they never happened or mattered; i dont want to travel into the past, i want to discover whats left of it, piece it together, discover dark secrets you can ask no one about bc all that knew about it are long gone- thats what intrigued me about botw, it felt like there was so much left to discover only for totk to throw it all away and just do its own thing .. but not commit to that hard enough either so its neither its own thing nor a sequel-

.. that wasnt really what you wanted to know was it? xD sorry i tend to ramble on if someone seems to give me permission to

to sum it up, i think it COULD work, sending link to the past instead, if done well, but so could canon totk have been, it could have been done well but wasnt for reasons i dont know and tbh even fear bc i worry its sets a dark future ahead of zelda; i personalyl am just not a fan of time travel so i dont have that much to say to it :O

[echo-heo]

Hey! I saw your post abt “involve me in your projects”. I really want to learn gamedev, and I’m specifically stuck with no clue how to learn music. I don’t know everything else, but I know how to learn it. Music though, I have no clue where to start. Any advice?

oubhhh i feel like its really hard for me to give an advice on things that ive been doing for years (specifically for music i have compositions from when i was like 8) because I. forgot what I was like before I was me today. I learned a lot of things over the years and I still do, but I would not have any idea where to start if i had to start all over again.

i learned how melodies work, then harmony (learning to play guitar & basic jazz stuff rly helped cause i wasn't thinking in terms of chords before) then more practically how to use instruments so things sound more complete etc. those r all smth u can work on but im not sure if i can give u a specific advice because I don't remember the day i decided to make music for the first time

If i had to make a guess as to what might be a good advice, id say start by making songs with three elements: the melody, the chords and the bassline.

you're gonna learn how to string together chords (you dont need to learn music theory beyond how to like read chords.) prooobably by picking songs you like and analyzing chords used by it youre gonna notice patterns and youre gonna kinda start to understand that certain chords in certain situations have specific vibes to em.

you're gonna learn how to write melodies (sometimes its just. as simple as just making up a tune. humming it out loud and writing it down. when i make music what i often do is just. imagine a song, and then make it real. really effective strategy cause it comes planned out somewhat!!! more people should do this) and youre gonna learn how to put chords under it so the chords flow nicely but also so that they support the melody nicely.

the bass is something i realized wayyyy too late is kinda. essential. its the BASE of everything. makes things sound full. (its cause i used to get piano lessons so i didnt know it was that necessary) The bass should, broadly speaking, point out the root notes of the chords. (however! learn when inversions are super useful) Sometimes it's useful to start with bassline and then putting chords on top than doing the reverse.

Ofc if you want like an actual audio file. theres a whole separate collection of skills you might want to have. instrumentation and mixing are something i struggled A LOT. but its really important if you want something to sound a certain way. i know some people are REALLY perverts with the way they mix things and GOD does it show!

Also depends on the style honestly? that you wanna aim for. Like with some styles the harmony is way less important and whats more important is a sense of rhythm, which is ALSO a whole nother thing i had to learn. Theres so much to learn!! but its fun

Honestly? Start from *somewhere* and you'll find yourself *anywhere*