#hire dev express developer

[kirby98archiver2024]

Why gaming fans on youtube are always blind when they say things they don't really know about Rare or the current status of those lost prototype games?

As Im unable to join youtube anymore due to Google being a bitch for locking up my account just January this year. I get irritated and annoyed whenever I look up there for any news regarding research or prototype finds but to my disappointment, all I see are blind positive faces commenting their wish that "someday" this or that will get released by a company that nobody seems to understand the true nature of Rare and this is why so many idiots would be this stupid enough to even join Rare themselves when most of these people don't realized Rare's inner dark side that made the company cruel and heartless due to their secretive and greedy nature since the MS buy out!

As my shout out to the viewers who shamefully comment there, they should know better that Rare will NEVER give us those prototypes! because they are careless and greedy, they never fulfill their fans or even their own employees despite the highly positive reputation they gained over the years due to the company's popularity since Donkey Kong Country and Banjo Kazooie was released. Ever since that day, there was toxicity and backlash between developers. Which was why the whole company was made up into separate rooms called "barns" this makes different teams there becoming rather competitive and pushy with their development.

If both teams were equal and cooperative with each other, we could have Dream and 12 Tales released together but nope! a bunch of sissys there behind the other game had to be brain dead about it, their excuse for changing the whole damn thing into a mario 64 ripoff was to push development to speed up for release, not caring to save what they lost but still kept their unreleased cartridges aka prototypes as backups to preserve the past for only themselves and not for the public to see or experience due to Rare being the most selfish and greedy company in the world. As a result from this, they lost many former workers from the 90s after they released Nuts and Bolts, Viva Pinata, while wasting lots of promised work that was proposed to MS who always give them the thumbs down to cancel even more of their work! The Banjo team already explain this that their freedom was ruined by the new Rare under MS's control. the new head of both companies don't even care about reviving their older games.

To add more to the fact about Rare being such a horrible company to work with, back in 1999, there was a undocumented drama between devs during the work on Conker before the transition into a disgusting and unfunny game that jack up the difficulty too hard than what Conker was originally intended to be a very easy game. Both Gregg, the head of Banjo team and Chris the head of Conker team, left Rare and MS due to the same reasons with lack of freedom and toxic workplace. I honestly wouldn't be working with a company like Rare if they are still looking to hire more despite they haven't made or released a single game after they released only Sea of Thieves, Battle Toads, and Rare Replay while the upcoming Perfect Dark and the already released Killer Instinct was actually made by other companies.

I just want to say that I honestly hate it when everybody from various communities had to express their carefree and overly positive comments when it seems the big reality is nearly the impossible to unlikely happen.

As Im extremely desperate for prototype gaming myself, Im already losing hope and patience about it after seeing very little to NOTHING from our current preservationists and I must say their work and effort done so far is quite shitty and pathetic so far. This was due to Forest of Illusion who discontinued their group and this increased fears with other preservationists when they announced their issue had something to do with legal issues but they didn't describe it well enough, likely not to freak out Nintendo fans but they already did when they mentioned the "legal" part was another mistake from Forest's own speech. This caused many preservationists and other small groups refraining from posting prototypes from various Nintendo consoles and handhelds on Hidden Palace. This becomes more obvious when Forest of Illusion quietly returned into posting again there with only Windows PC prototypes from a certain company called Data Design who seem to have recently sold their prototypes after their company went defunct.

This is not surprising or exciting news to me as I already seen another defunct company selling their prototypes to Cake Hoarder and only the crap we get from it are those pointless looking Pickles games! Seriously, preservationists could do better than what they are providing us and I already know 2023 and 2024 hasn't been great years for prototypes lately. all because thanks to Nintendo destroying their loyal communities, collectors becoming greedier and selfish as Super Nes and N64 get older and more expensive nowadays.

The very least you poor fans out there on youtube can do is shut up and stop trusting Rare! because they are not the company they once used to be. Many people left that company since the MS buy out and the toxic nature the company already was over the years. The fans need to wake up and stop supporting them because we should not expect anymore from Rare now it just seems to be another dead in the water game company now.

As for all those prototypes never been saved by the public, Im the only hope you got out there. Soon I will ransack their company's filthy vault of games that should been released many years ago for gaming history's sakes and to revive Nintendo prototype gaming from its eternal graves since all you big wimps from Hidden Palace and other cheapskate groups like Hard4Games and Video Game History Foundation are doing nothing great for me and other Rare fans.

You all disappointed me for what better you could have done in the past to save those lost games and soon I will disappoint all you fellow archivists by making my own preservation bigger and better than yours lmao. it will happen in the near future, trust me idiots.

[bespokesoftwaredevelopment-blog]

Building a Video Chat App with Node.js + Socket.io + WebRTC

Are you willing to create a video chat app for your business objectives? Nowadays, video chatting applications have faced the most substantial breakthroughs in history.

Various applications are now available in the market, such as Zoom, Skype, Meet, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, and many more. The demand for video calling will be more than $50 billion in the nearest future.

Undoubtedly, every aspiring business person is desirous of leveraging on a new business wave: video chatting and conferencing. However, especially for the beginning of an advanced stream on web development, Ficode, the best web development company Birmingham, share with you an essential tutorial on how to build a video chat app using Node.js + Socket.io + WebRTC. Let’s get started!

Why is the video chat application useful?

Video chat applications are everyone’s preference and these apps have gained immense popularity nowadays. Such applications let you bolster relationships with your customers and make the process easier. Therefore, instead of creating an app yourself, it’s imperative to consider hiring Ficode, the best web development company Birmingham. Nowadays, we have clients with various requirements. For example, some of them need a video chat app for remote hiring, and others need to schedule online interviews, get online consultations, and so on. Therefore, to fulfill our every client’s needs, we can build various top-notch video chat apps, which are:

Easy to manage and deploy Ongoing management, Centralised remote deployments, and intuitive interface drive adoption platform while releasing administration time.

Secure, powerful, and more straight forward Ficode can build video chat apps containing powerful features to anchor your app communication platform throughout phone, meetings, rooms, and webinars.

Top Features of the must-have video chat application that Ficode provides

Registration It incorporates extra security value and makes a video chat application more self-oriented and user-friendly. In addition, Ficode helps a user choose between fast manual registration or signing up via social networks.

User profile Once the registration is done, your users obtain an opportunity to personalise their profile by inserting profile pictures, personal details, and network status.

Virtual noise cancellation A video chat app made by Ficode will give you this extraordinary feature of virtual noise cancellation. As remote work has become the new norm, this feature is important while developing a custom video chat app. Our veteran web developers UK can isolate a user’s voice from the background as they are proficient in applying deep learning algorithms.

Recording A top-notch video conferencing app should have a recording option as it helps save the meeting if someone can’t attend the conference.

How to build a video chat app with Node.js + Socket.io + WebRTC?

Pre-project Setup These are what you will require:

Node.JS: Visit the official Node.JS website to download Node.

NPM: This program gets installed on your PC right after installing Node.JS.

Project Establishment

Build an empty directory named video-chat-app.

Unfold your console, move to the brand-new directory, and run npminit.

To initialise your project, provide adequate information.

Within the video-chat-app directory, run npm install express ejs socket.io uuid peer. Once done, it will install the dependency, which we require to create this app.

Again, we will install Nodemon as a dev dependency and run npm install – dev nodemon.

Make a file with the default name of server.js, and this file will keep all our server-side logic.

Start building videos chat apps right away as you have this project setup!

What are the servers required for video calling?

WebRTC

WebRTC is a well-known tech in video chat application making from a technology standpoint. It’s an open-source internet protocol that helps users make videos in real-time using straightforward APIs. The great tech is used to establish and perform a peer-to-peer connection; without the guidance of a top-notch web server from a third party. This is how WebRTC will keep on submitting media content. In brief, WebRTC can effectively be used together with four APIs, which are the following:

RTC DataChannel It offers a peer-to-peer communication network for data generalisation.

MediaStream This one allows chatting between clients using either a video camera or a microphone.

OpenTOK Although it’s not a specific API, an open-source library and PaaS platform can be used to authorise cross-platform video chats.

RTCPeerConnection This API is liable for the protection of video chats, as it authorizes video and audio data transfer with top-notch access control and encryption support.

Where can we use WebRTC technology?

A wide array of fascinating use cases exist for WebRTC. The best utilisations are shown below:

Broadcasting WebRTC can be utilised to distribute single-way media transmissions, for example, speeches, videos, podcasts, and concerts. In addition, users can acquire a real-time solution, such as attendance information, with the help of a solution, PubNub.

Audio Calling The audio and video in WebRTC work seamlessly by using codecs, which are well-known algorithms used to compress and decompress audio and video data. Moreover, Ficode has previous experience integrating audio calling in web and mobile applications. That’s why with the help of WebRTC, our developers can build the best video chat app.

Share screen Sharing screen is another use case of WebRTC technology, which helps you get explicit notions about the work and its outcomes. After Ficode’s involvement in making seamless video chat apps with WebRTC technology for your business, you can see your sales reps grow.

Node.JS

The most significant benefits of choosing Node.Js for real-time video chat application development projects are the following:

A Node.Js framework is renowned for its event-driven competency, making it hassle-free for Ficode’s web developers to track I/O bound tasks. Also, its streams are UNIX-based and that’s why the framework can be read clearly and decode the input from its source and send it back to its original destination.

By selecting Node.JS to create a video chat app, the developers can ensure straightforward data transfer between the server and client. Also, this server can make sure data readability and transferability between the server and client.

Where can we use Node.JS technology?

Following are the leading areas where Node.JS proves itself an ideal tech partner:

Data streaming applications

Single page applications

Data Intensive Real-time Applications (DIRT)

JSON APIs based apps

How does Ficode help create a video chat application?

Video calls are similar to ordinary phone calls, where you can see that person and hear his/her voice. Most video calling apps frequently provide additional features, such as video group calling and video sharing facilities. The best examples of video chat applications are:

Video calling apps: FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, and Whatsapp

Conferencing apps: Skype, Zoom, and Hangouts

Entertaining apps: Rave, Houseparty, and Discord

There might be a situation when you require to combine a video chat into a ready-made application. For instance, telehealth applications can’t work without video chat. If that’s the case, you should contact Ficode’s web developers UK to get instant help. However, the important steps we follow to build a video chat app are the following:

Backend development Various ways are there for backend creation. Ficode can help you construct it without utilising programming to create video chat applications for organisations. Making an impromptu application offers you maximum adaptability, while our SaaS arrangements allow you to take time.

Proper UI/UX design A UI with transparent highlights may match a particular group to build an instant video chatting application. While your app could have an engaging UI, it may need modifications. Ficode helps you keep the UI as clean as possible and accessible too!

Video streaming protocols Sending a live sound or video using the video chat app is comprehensible due to the agreement with WebRTC. Hence, we help build a video streaming protocol to facilitate the app development procedure. Apart from that, a top-notch video chat API is the safest deal for the progression of the video chat application.

Testing stage Ficode’s web developers can ensure that every line of your code fills in. However, bugs can create utter dissatisfaction with individual highlights and sound video desync. That’s why quality confirmation is necessary. Our experienced developers can fix such errors after obtaining the client’s input.

Development team Ficode has a product improvement group and an in-house team of developers who brainstorms and work hard to make the best video chat app.

Conclusion

The web development services of Ficode can help anyone to create a video chat app. Luckily, it’s not that tough nowadays to create your video chat application when you have Ficode as a development partner. To wrap up, Ficode is a leading website development company Birmingham, working on great technologies to build your video chat app. If you want web and mobile development services, contact us on +443337891189 or email us on info@ficode.com to know everything about our web development services and our technical team will get back to you to resolve out your queries. This post originally appeared on the Ficode website, and we republished it with permission from the author. Read the full piece at: https://www.ficode.co.uk/blog/building-a-video-chat-app-with-node-js-socket-io-webrtc

[hiringjournal]

How to Hire Node.js Developer – A Complete Guide

For the development of robust and scalable applications, Nodejs is a powerful platform in the rapidly evolving tech landscape. As the demand and awareness of the application of Nodejs grows, the need to hire Nodejs developer keeps shooting up. With the widening skills gap, it becomes challenging to find a qualified hire which is why we will dive into the hiring nitty gritty to help you navigate the process effectively.

What Does An Informed Hiring Process Look Like

If you are looking to hire Nodejs developers, you must streamline the process with a checklist of these must-follow steps:

State your needs

To lay the groundwork for an effortless and effective hiring process you must first pen down your requirements. This includes the project scope, the technology stack required, and the roles and responsibilities. Outlining these expectations will help you matchmake a qualified candidate for the job and also provide clarity to the applicants as to what is expected of them.

Draft a compelling job description

A job description doesn’t serve as a mere piece of paper. A well-crafted JD is the cornerstone of identifying and attracting the right candidates. Therefore, be sure to clearly outline the required skills, qualifications, experience, and responsibilities. Additionally, highlight your tools and technologies repository along with the company culture, values, mission, and unique benefits to attract top-rated talent.

Screen and shortlist

When you hire Nodejs developer the screening and shortlisting phase consists of conducting initial screening based on a careful evaluation of resume, portfolio, and work samples. You must consider shortlisting candidate profiles that reflect a sound understanding of Node.js frameworks such as Koa, Nest, Express, etc. They must also have a strong foot in the technical aspects with exceptional interpersonal skills. 

Conduct technical assessments

Technical assessments and coding challenges allow you to evaluate a candidate’s suitability for the job in real time. It reflects the real-world scenario by allowing you to test their problem-solving approach along with other vital skills and an understanding of the best practices. HackerRank, LeetCode, and CodeSignal are some of the tools that can assist you in the process.

Evaluate work portfolio and references

A resume can only provide you with so much information. Don’t turn a blind eye to the resume claims as it’s crucial to verify it’s truthfulness. Contacting previous employers, clients, and reviewing their work portfolios can help you gauge valuable insights into their work quality, coding expertise, skill set, reliability, professionalism, commitment, and a holistic overview of their suitability for the role. 

Arrange a thorough interview

Whether you arrange an in-person interview or a remote interview over video conferencing, this is a vital step in the hiring funnel. Prepare a checklist of the questions to ask that will reflect their prowess with Nodejs-specific challenges, performance optimization, and debugging. 

Make a competitive job offer

Nodejs developers have a budding demand in the candidate-driven recruitment market. If you want to stand out from the crowd and be regarded as an employer of choice you must offer a competitive compensation and benefits package. Conduct thorough market research and ensure that you have a fair offer aligned with the industry standards and one that the applicants can’t overlook. 

Onboarding and continuous development

This is the last yet crucial step in hiring Nodejs developers. Lengthy onboarding processes tend to bore and detour the applicants. As a result, keep the process concise and precise along with an HR buddy who is like a mentor throughout the process. Additionally, provides scope for continuous learning and professional advancement of the developers by investing in their skills upgradation. 

Concluding Remarks

Henceforth, the process to hire Nodejs developer requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond technical capabilities. By following the above-stated steps you can be assured of finding a potential fit and scaling your project success to a new horizon.

[room429]

maybe not uniquely awful, but it goes beyond the norm for this kind of thing.

it wasn’t the result of a chilling effect, or a general (perceived or actual) hostility to feminism among a game’s consumer base, but a loud minority of users demanding a specific (and extremely hard-to-replace) member of the team be fired... and getting exactly what they asked for

there wasn’t even an innocent misstep to justify the firing, like the Closers VA wearing a feminist t-shirt after getting the job; Vellmori did everything she was supposed to by purging every scrap of political expression on her socials when she was hired and that still wasn’t enough

as far as I’m aware, this is the first time an indie dev has straight-up reversed a progressive reputation - all the pickme devs of the 2010s that tried to side with Gamergate either weren’t established yet or were already established as being on that side, but just a month ago PM was one of the main devs you’d see brought up when someone asked for queer or leftist game recommendations

And to that effect... I’m not optimistic about PM reversing course, because I can’t imagine this reaction was unpredictable to the guy who wrote Angela and Ayin and has watched this entire fandom develop accordingly. But you’re right - aside from supporting labor rights and opposing misogyny, the protests ideally will show PM and other companies that they can’t expect to have their cake and eat it too. If people love their games, flood them with support when they apologize for delays, book their fan cafe for months in advance - it’s because of what they do rather than in spite of it.

The project moon controversy is important not because PM actions are uniquely awful in the industry (they are awful, but let's be honest there's a lot of that happening everywhere behind closed doors, and don't get me started on Nintendo design process), but because it's one of the few time as consumers we're in a position to demand changes and corrections.

In a lot of other situation we'd either have too little information, or the organization would be too big and stable to affect, but not here. It's why it's extra important to succeed in convincing PM to fix their mistake, because not only will that make the company better, but it'll make sure other studios KNOW they have to step up their game, making an improvement to the whole industry (mostly the indie scene, but you can walk your way up).

[brightoakgame]

Welcome to Bright Oak!

I just looked up to find that-- despite my diligently playing cat-and-mouse with bots-- Bright Oak now has over 200 300 followers (!!), with the main post at over 100 200 notes! ✨ I’m frankly blown away by the level of kindness and support my little project has met with so far; thank you! 

Given the influx of new friends, this seems like a good time to put together an FAQ / more global update on the state of Bright Oak, overall:

What is Bright Oak? Bright Oak is a heavily character-driven visual novel game with elements of science fiction, and this is the post you’ll want to start with! I plan to keep the pinned post up-to-date throughout development, so if you need the broad strokes of what Bright Oak is about, that’s the place to look for individual character introductions and similar information. 

When will the game be finished? The (free) first act demo will release June 24th, and I aim to release the full finished game before the end of the year. While on the ambitious side, this schedule is by no means unrealistic, given the weight of assets already completed.

Where will the game be released? To begin, Bright Oak will be available on Itch.io as well as on Steam. Other options will be weighed later on, but the current focus is on those two locations.

Is there going to be a Kickstarter? Firstly, thank you so much for asking. Secondly-- no, there will not be a Kickstarter. The decision was made early on to fund this wholly out-of-pocket; as a first-time dev, I felt more comfortable working on a shoestring instead of taking on the risk and stress of a funding campaign (though if you have the means and inclination to support the development of Bright Oak, I do have a Ko-fi account set up)

Will the release be commercial? How much will the finished game cost? Yes, it will be a commercial release, with a free demo. While I have not settled yet on an exact range (I would like it to be something of a sliding scale), I intend to keep the high end under $20. The release will not be serialized, but will include all routes.

What is the overall status on the game? Assets that are currently finished in their entirety include the script (all paths and variations), character art, and the soundtrack. Sprites are colored. The first act is fully coded, with the second act blocked in with basic coding. Backgrounds are about 80% finished.

Who is working on Bright Oak? I am always thrilled by the opportunity to praise the talents I’ve been lucky enough to work with! 

Remnantation was hired as the commissioned artist, and has become beyond that a steadfast, treasured friend. They have been on board with Bright Oak since very nearly the beginning, and at this point I feel they’ve invested as much care and energy into it as I have. Rem’s facility with expressions both broad and subtle, as well as their grasp of naturalistic body language, have brought a life to the characters that simply cannot be overstated. For those interested, Remnantation’s character art can also be seen in @windchimesgames newly-released Emberfate: Tempest of Elements, as well as @foxdriftstudios freshly-funded work in progress, Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin.

John Åhlin is a masterful composer and multi-instrumentalist; I promise the stellar Morricone-influenced Western soundtrack alone will be worth the wait! 

Wudgeous of @herotome​ is an absolute superhero and coding wizard, aiding with everything from sprite layers and small animations, to unswerving support and helping answer all the silly questions I lack the bandwidth to sort out on my own. If you haven’t yet, may I recommend playing the Herotome demo? And if you’ve played it already-- well, nothing will stop you from playing it again, either. ✨

Finally, if there’s anything I missed here, my Ask box is open (past Asks can be found here). Thank you again for your interest and support; I look forward to sharing more of Bright Oak with you in the coming months!

B.

[askagamedev]

What is a "recruiting event" like in your industry?

There's a variety of different kinds of recruiting events. I've never been invited to a digital recruiting event, but the in-person events typically fall under one of two major categories:

Tables at a Show

This is common at larger industry events like GDC, or at tech job fair events at universities. We set up a table or booth on the show floor, hand out branded swag like t-shirts and toys, and talk to the variety of job seekers who come by. The table is staffed primarily by recruiters and HR people who have a list of job descriptions they're looking to fill. These recruiters will have a few representatives from engineering, design, art, production, etc. nearby that they can set up for impromptu interview sessions. The table is often where we get a lot of junior job seeker resumes. The more promising candidates usually get asked back to talk to one of the interviewers and/or invited to a...

Recruiting Party

This is typically an event thrown by the studio at some offsite location (often a bar or restaurant) where there's free food and drinks, party games and prizes, and a number of developers from the recruiting studio on hand. Those invited to these recruiting parties are usually either the top picks of candidates gathered from the table, or "on-the-list" candidates explicitly invited to these events. Explicit invitees to these events are usually referrals from employees. Recruiting parties run the gamut of being strictly-business where it's obvious that the devs in attendance are there for the express purpose of vetting the candidates over a meal, all the way down to drunken affairs where the alcohol flows freely and are the beginning of many convention horror stories.

The purpose of recruiting events is to gather a bunch of candidates as potential employees. We cast a wider net with tables at bigger events, and we hold informal interviews at the recruiting parties to skip the sifting of many candidate resumes. These kind of live events primarily exist to shortcut the normal and lengthy hiring process with face-to-face contact.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[videogamesincolor]

all these racist ass voice actors on twitter (cough laura bailey cough) coming out with hashtag black lives matter, after taking black characters' roles (cough nadine ross cough) + other coloured characters in video games for YEARS and then coming up with bullshit excuses and gaslighting fans when they called her out on it is just lmao.

(Jun 5, 2020 · a year ago)

"Coloured characters"?

I don't even recall Laura Bailey's specific reaction to George Floyd's murder. Searching it brings up the usual resigned, and angry statements about the incident, and how it should never happen again (topped off with a #BlackLivesMatter hashtag).

That said, it's not impossible for Bailey to feel aggrieved about Floyd, but maintain that there isn't an issue with (white actors) voicing Black and non-Black characters in the industry's current state. I think her commentary from 2016 about how she was hired as Nadine still remains relevant (x).

if folks were calling her out in June 2020 about her role as Nadine whilst she was expressing support for BLM, and she responded? I doubt it was going to change her mind. If anything, it simply might've entrenched her complicity.

Five years after the fact, games like Forspoken, and established discontent about Bailey's casting in U4 can only highlight why it was such an issue for people in the first place. It was avoidable, but the Naughty Dog did it anyway b/c it was what they wanted.

(Like, again, when there were Black characters in TLOU2, they hired Black actors.)

A lot of what happened in June 2020 with celebrities (large and small) was an expression of a lot of white guilt with nowhere to go (that or using the moment for media exploitation). The #BLM hashtags in descriptions and twitter usernames, temporary or persisting, are symptoms of that.

The moment in time where fewer than five voice actors vowed not to voice Black or Asian characters (on a show) anymore (1, 2, 3, 4) was, to me, akin to "we're renaming the Aunt Jemima syrup and Uncle Ben's rice".

It felt like an empty gesture. It didn't create visible change for Black and non-Black voice actors in the industry. There are still a lot of white voice actors comfortable with voicing characters of color.

They'll use the "well, they do it too!" argument to defend their choices, ignoring the behind-the-scenes problem that keeps the VA industry so white.

There are lot of agencies upholding the status quo, not interested in trying to support the sentiments that saw non-Black/Asian voice actors withdraw from roles that could've gone to Black and non-Black actors. Just those two fronts alone will create problems for people trying to change the landscape.

It makes those decisions feel arbitrary, if not completely performative (given how long it was before the actors realized "I'm befitting from and participating in a widespread problem"). Because, who beyond the creatives of the show supported their decisions?

(And all the same, why did it take something completely traumatizing like the recorded murder of a man to create even marginal change in people? I mean, I know why, but it's such a fucking depressing state of affairs.)

Developers like NetherRealm Studios, Deck Nine, and DONTNOD Entertainment certainly do their part to hire authentic voices for Black and non-Black characters (all while contradicting those decisions). The defunct Visceral Games (Dead Space) went one step further and often the face models for their non-white characters to voice said characters. The shift towards photorealism in games has certainly aided Black actors and voice actors a great deal as well.

Organizations like Game Devs of Color, Black Game Developers, and PoC In TTRPGs are certainly doing their part to aid underrepresented artists in the industry. It's obvious there are folks trying to change the things. It's not all doom-and-gloom, but there are just too many comfortable with the status quo.

Comfortable enough to attack said organizations for drawing attention to their specific issues, and at the same time, create spaces to solve it (not just talk about it like I do here on this blog).

It just reminds me of what discipleofbastet said back in 2016:

But if the mind set is: “Best person for the job, but white actors have a bias in their favor.” It won’t matter if diverse casts are in vogue. You could have an all black roster of characters, but still keep voice acting as white and biased as it currently is. (x)

Black and non-Black (voice) actors and fans have talked-to-death and resurrected their frustrations about how limited opportunities are in the VA industries for anyone who isn't a white actor with the privilege to become a voice everyone is tired of hearing (ah-la Nolan North, Steve Blum, Laura Bailey, Jen Hale, etc). They've empathized how important writing and directing plays into that as well.

(It what makes Troy Baker (IIRC) joking about it as he receives an award come off tone deaf or insensitive.)

2016 saw plenty of Back and forth about the subject, especially during the peak of the 2016-2017 vg voice actor strike, and during the release of U4ATE.

But just like in 2020, the industry sort've shrugged its shoulders, waited for the fervor to die down, and moved on. Fandom-at-large chose to remain ignorant about why the discussion of Black/Asian actors voicing Black/Asian characters was even an issue.

Pop culture websites keep headlining the idea that, "we're finally having a conversation about race in voice acting", but those most visible in the industry are avoiding or dismissing it.

[@ phillamarr: Anybody trying to create false equivalences about underrepresented minorities (POC, women) voicing majorities (white, males) in animation, keep my name the f--- out ya mouth]

That Phil Lamarr (who was also pretty vocal during the strike) had to preemptively warn people to keep his name out of their mouths when folk complained about Jenny Slate (Big Mouth), Kristen Bell (Central Park), and Alison Brie (Bojack Horseman) withdrawing from their roles, is a problem.

Laura Bailey, however aggrieved she was by Floyd's murder, is part of that issue based on her complicity with the status quo. I don't think her making the same choices as Bell, Slate, or Brie would've made much or a difference, honestly. But I know a lot of people would've appreciated it all the same.

[fictionz]

New Fiction 2022 - March

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "Deuteronomy" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

More repetition of mostly the same rules and laws from Numbers and Leviticus, but now we see just how wrathful God gets about his flock going astray. He knew exactly what would happen and fully expected that the Israelites would gripe and fall in with the false idols of the natives of the promised lands. It’s basically a demonic horror villain promising all the ways he’s going to make you suffer. I just feel bad for Moses, who tried real hard to keep a society of people in good standing with the Lord but they were just not gonna have it.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "Josue" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

I gotta say, I look forward to these shorter books after the long stretches. Josue is believed to have been written by the man himself except for a few final verses added on after his death, an interesting sidenote in this revision. In content, it's mostly another inventory of the people of Israel and Josue's role as executor of God's estate after the Israelites swept through and killed most of the natives. The Old Testament seems to be mostly rules, inventory, and promises of horrible pain and death.

The Fall of Terok Nor by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (2000)

This first part of a trilogy delivered on classic characters in their element, though the authors made some weird choices around characters expressing their attractions and it made some dialogue and behaviors feel out of character.

The War of the Prophets by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (2000)

Then the second part of the trilogy goes off-the-wall ape-shit in its plot. It really is a mind-boggling series of events with some especially gruesome moments of violence. Not bad, per se, but taking the characters out of their element really threw me for a loop. It reminds me of many a middle entry that just isn’t particularly pleasant because bad things are happening to characters I know and it won’t be resolved until the third part.

Inferno by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (2000)

The time travel element hits hard in the ending of this trilogy of novels, and although they get long-winded at times, it’s fun when characters are trying to use technobabble to explain time travel mechanics and paradoxes woven into the many wild layers of shenanigans. But this one ends the horrifying stuff that happens in the previous book and brings everyone back to Deep Space Nine, which I very much appreciated. It’s maybe too neat an ending considering everything they experience, but it’s also where they needed to be since this all takes place in the latter part of the sixth season of the show.

"Giraffes Explained" by Tim Andraka (2022)

Ah, I knew there had to be a logical explanation.

"I have been hired to clean the wizard tower" by tart (2022)

Tough job, but it’s a living.

"白圈 White Ring" by Woshibai & trans. Guandi Wu (2022)

What an immensely confusing experience is childhood.

"Platformer Practice" dev. Itizso (2020)

Love a good girder hop.

Fox's Peter Pan & the Pirates dev. & pub. Tiger Electronics (1990)

I have never completed a LCD handheld game and I don’t know that I’ll ever achieve this again.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles dev. Chris Gray Enterprises & pub. Jaleco (1992)

Nintendo hard still applies to this game from quite late in the life of the NES, but it may be the most mechanically fun of the various games based on Young Indiana Jones. I’m still wondering if this deserves more praise than it seemed to receive in its time.

Instruments of Chaos Starring Young Indiana Jones dev. Brian A. Rice, Waterman Design & pub. Sega (1994)

Whereas this second 2D platformer tried for some technical feats and really just falls flat with its bonkers physics and controls. The very long list of testers guarantees that the issues were noted and this was the best they could do in what I can only assume was a very short development period.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Revolution dev. Riverdeep, Asylum Entertainment  & pub. LucasArts (2007)

I was trying to remember if Flash was still relevant for game development in 2007, and I think it was on its way out then. I still harbor some nostalgia for the vector visuals.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Special Delivery dev. Riverdeep, Asylum Entertainment  & pub. LucasArts (2007)

Someone decided the first game was too easy and cranked up the difficulty of the dexterity challenges, which is an odd choice for slow-paced games based around adequately preparing for long journeys a la The Oregon Trail and answering historical trivia questions.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Hunting for Treasure dev. Riverdeep, Asylum Entertainment  & pub. LucasArts (2008)

While mechanically these simple dialogue and mini game assemblages aren’t very interesting, their edutainment factor is impressive. I really did learn some history each time a character asked me for some obscure detail about war machines or tribal rituals.

Robot Carnival - "Opening" dir. Katsuhiro Otomo & Atsuko Fukushima (1987)

An opening to behold.

Robot Carnival - "Franken's Gears" dir. Koji Morimoto (1987)

Animating any mechanical object must be someone’s special hell.

Robot Carnival - "Star Light Angel" dir. Hiroyuki Kitazume (1987)

Journey with me.

Robot Carnival - "Deprive" dir. Hidetoshi Ōmori (1987)

If you fight and you fight then you will only fight.

Robot Carnival - "Cloud" dir. Manabu Ōhashi (1987)

Continuation is the curse we fail to acknowledge.

The Batman dir. Matt Reeves (2022)

A freak indeed.

Gangubai Kathiawadi dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2022)

Look out for the ones beside you.

Compartment No. 6 dir. Juho Kuosmanen (2021)

The darkness of the everyday makes me more apprehensive than the terrors we avoid.

Umma dir. Iris K. Shim (2022)

A slap in the face of this wayward child.

The Outfit dir. Graham Moore (2022)

A little less polished and this could’ve really hit hard.

X dir. Ti West (2022)

When you’re alone and alone and alone, your world is the only and the others don’t belong.

Sweet Smell of Success dir. Alexander Mackendrick (1957)

There’s no stopping what can’t be stopped.

The Changeling dir. Peter Medak (1980)

A certain kind of horror hero who doesn’t acknowledge the fear.

Re-Animator dir. Brian Yuzna & Stuart Gordon (1985)

This insistence on forever.

Everything Everywhere All At Once dir. Daniels (2022)

The other you pokes you on the shoulder.

La Mujer Murcielago dir. René Cardona (1968)

Yes! The existence of the thing demands its preservation.

The Lost City dir. Aaron Nee & Adam Nee (2022)

It always ends inside the tomb, don’t it?

Infinite Storm dir. Malgorzata Szumowska (2022)

What is the weight of a life to you? Does it ever get too heavy?

Mighty Max (1993-1994)

I always remembered the final episode as a particularly clever way to end a syndicated animated show that would mostly be watched out of order. And considering that this show was made to advertise toys to kids, it’s a surprisingly mature and dark look at the ol’ hero’s journey.

[jelpiparade]

Hey, everybody! It’s wenz-day~

No meme from me today, but just a small update!

So I was suffering from a bit of burnout -- unsurprisingly, because I churned out a demo and a new game in the space of about two weeks -- so I put myself onto a little mini vacation and didn’t allow myself to develop anything new for three days. Wednesday is actually day two so I had to write this post in advance.

Heroine for Hire News:

The preparation for H4H’s Kickstarter has finally finished. I’m terrified but all in all, ready to rumble. I look forward to seeing if I can garner y’alls support for the release of Fai’s route. If you want to keep track of the campaign and be informed when it launches, here’s a link for that.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chouette/heroine-for-hire

Aside from that, there’s not much other news for H4H. Thank you very much to those who purchased the game and downloaded the demo. Your contribution goes to an indie dev who’s working her hardest to bring you guys melanin-infused games to play. :^)

Ocean Pearls News:

Due to aforementioned burnout, I hired some scripters to help put expressions into the finished routes. The first route to be released will be Isven’s route, followed by Lemos’ route. I’ll announce release dates as soon as I am able. :^)

So far, Lemos seems to be the favorite which brings me much joy, hehe.

??? News:

I should mention that one of the reasons I burned out is that I started scripting a third VN. :’D It’s called War of Roses and it’s about a young woman trying to save her family’s flower shop while beating handsome men off of her.

LOL, but it’s a much looser than VN structure. The primary mechanic is a dress up game where you dress the MC to impress, while each love interest has a style they adore. I wanted the MC to be a bit customizable, unlike most of my games so there’s plans for five skin tones (fair, tan, olive, dark, deep) and she is renameable as well. (REALLY rare for my games! Haha.)

Anyway, because of the nature of the game’s mechanics, the choices are floating and pretty much contained to within the chapter. You can romance a guy in one chapter and then flip to someone else in the middle of another without anything hindering you. No guilty tripping at all!

There’s 15 chapters and I’m scripting chapter seven. Not as we speak though because as I said, three day break. A very special friend is drawing the sprites, someone who I’ve worked with and absolutely respect and adore. ^^

I can’t wait to do some reveals on that front! :D Anyway. See ya next week!

[botwstoriesandsuch]

I think the biggest issue that I have with Botw’s writing is that in most every memory(which are basically a part of the main story), almost always focus on Zelda instead of Link. And I wouldn’t have an issue with this if they hadn’t made the fact that Zelda was kind of a b*tch to Link in the beginning a part of her character and in turn I really just don’t like Zelda that much! [1]

(Sorry this has been sitting in my inbox for awhile)

I agree that the main problem with the writing is probably the memories. You’re right that some of the more important parts of Zelda’s character are kept in more obscure diaries, rather than in actual memories. Although, I don’t know if focusing more on Link would actually help, as despite everyone wanting Link to express more emotions, I’m pretty sure that Nintendo is gonna keep him a blank slate (but I hope I’m wrong!)

And yeah, the failure to have Zelda actually apologies to Link is a completely justified complaint, and frankly I think it’s the fault of the memories being crafted with the goal of being watched in any order, rather than a three act structure. Zelda apologizing to Link in a memory would have been confusing to those who haven’t seen the other memories which I think is a big flaw in the system. The memories are made to be self contained, meaning they can’t interact with the other memories that much which pretty much the only exception being either the Yiga Clan one of the Calamities Awakening. Other than that, the memories all tell the same information, with static rather than dynamic characters. 

My personal opinion is that the way all the memory scenes themselves are crafted just fail at being compelling? There’s barely any subtext, and they’re designed to be seen in any order, so, all the information or exposition or character they give is basically the same. (Again, we don’t necessarily see Zelda apologize, since the developers wouldn’t want the player to be confused if they saw one memory before the other) All the memories convey is either broad characterization for the Champions and the dramatic stakes of Zelda trying to unlock her powers. That’s it...and it leaves a lot to be desired. 

Sure we can headcanon all day, but at the end of it the memories were designed too stoically, and independently that they fail to actually contribute to a flowing narrative. I feel like if there were more memories, and more structure to them it might have improved, oop it’s time for hypothetical and tangents about how it could maybe be improved below the cut

I think the whole thing where you are left with a simple photographs, and having to explore and find your way to these areas it really great! It keeps the player moving and adds to the games theme of exploration. But I feel it would have been improved if there was more substance rather than an X marks the spot

Like what if for one memory, you get a picture of a forest, and a stable is in the background. So eventually you find this location, but you’re still not triggering anything. Maybe sometime later, after you finish a Divine Beast or something, you can go to the stable and find an npc, and they talk about how 100 years ago a Champion or Champions were doing something blahblahblah at a certain tree. Maybe you hear a certain detail from their dialogue that triggers something in Link And that would be when you could go to that location and trigger a memory cutscene. 

Granted, this structure is more linear and not as open ended, but I think it’s strengths outweigh its costs considering now that you can add structure to the memories, you can actually craft compelling arcs. Let’s just do Zelda for example. 

Let’s say we have the original 12 memories out in Hyrule and you can go to any of them at any time. But, as you unlock more Divine Beasts, you unlock more opportunities to find even more memory locations. So you start off with the one in Sanidin Park, or maybe the one by the Sacred Grounds, or even the Ancient Columns. From those memories you establish the starting point of Zelda and Link’s relationship. 

Then, later on you might complete a Diving Beast, and that unlocks opportunities to find other memories. Since you’ve unlocked a Divine Beast, you were more likely to have done those other memories, so now you get the chance to delv further into these characters. Maybe now you get a chance to see Zelda and Link growing on each other and bonding, you could see Zelda apologize, you could world build or see more internal struggles. I really liked that memory of Zelda watching Link under the tree and expressing her doubts. You could do more of that stuff but now you can BUILD off of other memories that the player has already seen!! Even further than Zelda and Link, you could further characterize the Champions. Have a little banter with Revali or maybe have him see Link in battle and he could grow respect for him. Or how does Mipha deal with Link being Zelda’s knight? Fuck it, have some internal conflict with all the Champions with each other, then have them grow into a found family dynamic as you unlock more and more Divine Beasts and you unlock more and more memories.

If you add structure to what memories can be unlocked, you can add structure to how scenes and characters grow because you’re not limited to having each memory be independent. 

For the love of Hylia you could add anything so long as it isn’t telling the same thing for everyone of the memories, so long as it tells something different than “Zelda is struggling with her powers,” or “This character has a crush on Link.” If you structured the memories system you could actually have compelling growth and change and eVEN STILL KEEP LINK AS A BLANK SLATE NINTENDO! All the original memories do is talk about all the amazing things the Champion’s did. Zelda talking with Link after he killed 3 Lynels. Boy, would have been cool to see that fight and learn about how competent a fighter Link was. Oh, Link and Daruk are good friends? Would have been nice to see them hanging out and establishing what good friends they are rather than just TALKING about how good of friends they are. Even in the DLC, which does have really great cutscenes and diary entries to be fair, they don’t count because that was optional and not something that everyone can experience. How great would it have been to unlock memories that shows (show not tell!) Mipha caring and healing her people, or Revali training in solitude. Then as you play further into the game, you unlock memories of Link fighting along side Mipha, or Revali teaching Link how to shoot in mid air. 

and WHAT IF NINTENDO ACTUALLY HIRED WRITERS, instead of leaving it to their game devs, TO WRITE COMPELLING CUTSCENES WITH IMPROVED DIALOGUE, GENUINE SUBTEXT, AND INTERESTING DYNAMICS

It pains me to no end that the memories in botw are just...there. It could have been so much more. I love this game and I love it’s story despite its flaws and I really hope the sequel doesn’t have linear storytelling, but my god please pLEASE hire writers nintendo.

You can agree or disagree with my proposal all you want but can we all agree that more memories wouldn’t have hurt? Right?

As you can see I have a lot of feelings on this.... :P

[nbhd-daily]

LILY PATTERSON: Where the fuck is Chip Chrome? I noticed you deactivated your Instagram.

JESSE RUTHERFORD: [Laughs] I like that you turned the “who” to “where.”

PATTERSON: Obviously, there’s one glaring reference for an alien rock star alter ego—

RUTHERFORD: Wait, wait, wait, who though?

PATTERSON: … Ziggy Stardust?

RUTHERFORD: I’m just joking.

PATTERSON: [Laughs] Oh my god, I was like, “Did I say that clearly?” But yeah, you’re channeling an icon. Tell me about bringing Chip to life.

RUTHERFORD: I’ve had the idea for Chip for about two and a half years.

PATTERSON: So it’s been baking.

RUTHERFORD: Yeah, I had the name, the whole shit. Obviously, Bowie is a giant reference… Ugh, I hate that word. A giant inspiration. It’s funny; when I was a kid, people would tell me about him, but I wasn’t really interested. I was gravitating toward hip-hop or modern pop. First, I got really into interviews and just watched the man talk. Then the music. I’ve always been an in-between kind of fella. I’m not quite this, I’m not quite that. I’m not super masc, I’m not super feminine … I’m kind of a confused person, to be honest with you. Bowie has helped me route. Like, here you go, this is a blueprint, an architecture. Not to say I sound like him at all.

PATTERSON: You deployed @chipchrome on Instagram, a platform that’s created so much anxiety around being “real,” being consistent, endlessly delivering your personal brand. And now Chip’s off the grid.

RUTHERFORD: I’m trying to figure out myself in all of this. Maybe I’m expected to have already done that, but I haven’t. I feel like I turned into a “thing” on the Internet. When you work on a piece of music for a long time, you post it, and it gets X amount of likes, then you post a picture with your girlfriend and it gets X amount… It’s just a weird, challenging, confusing feeling. I feel like there’s an opportunity to get off the platform, or at least try it this way.

PATTERSON: How many months ago did you debut Chip? August?

RUTHERFORD: Yes. I killed @jesserutherford when I turned 27. Dead at 27.

PATTERSON: A not-so-subtle 27 Club reference.

RUTHERFORD: Exactly. It’s this ridiculous motif. Really, I want to have fun with this stuff, play with it. Like, yo, nobody paints themselves silver, throws on a Spandex suit and a grill. Then, of course, Kanye West comes along…

PATTERSON: [Laughs] Major Basel ‘fit.

RUTHERFORD: Bowie passed and everyone started to think about him again, riff on him. But no one was taking it to the full Ziggy extreme! There’s a Tekashi69 out there but no Ziggy Stardust? C’mon. It feels comfortable for me. I’m having fun.

PATTERSON: Can you describe the physical process to go full Chip? Side note: I saw a picture of that reflective Marine Serre balaclava you scored recently. Insane.

RUTHERFORD: The makeup itself isn’t too long of a process. I’ve always done it myself. Actually, I have a friend of mine who rips at makeup, Sydney, @sydn4sty on Instagram—

PATTERSON: Good friend plug.

RUTHERFORD: She’s bomb. Me and Dev [Devon Carlson, Rutherford’s partner] met her, she was our neighbor at an apartment we lived at a bit ago. She came over, fucked around and helped me with an eye design. For the most part, though, I’ve always done it on my own. We did a tour recently, and I’d usually start an hour before the show, giving myself time to get in the headspace. I could turn into Chip in 25 minutes. It doesn’t take that long.

PATTERSON: What about the suit?

RUTHERFORD: The silver suit is a stupid Spandex suit from the boulevard. I just ended up going into one of those places, figuring out a suit that worked there. Taking measurements and shit, getting the sizing right.

PATTERSON: Love that.

RUTHERFORD: I premiered Chip at a B-level, crusty, Hollywood, kind of spaghetti Western-y place. Which felt right. But as you can see—you referenced the top Dev got for me—there’s so much opportunity for Chip to grow visually. When we [The Neighbourhood] go on tour later this year, I want to develop this. But there’s also something about the campiness, this B-level visual, that I really like. It feels authentic to me.

PATTERSON: All in a time when people are hiring stylists for their hotel-lobby-to-car looks.

RUTHERFORD: [Laughs] Exactly.

PATTERSON: I feel like the DIY, the physical process of putting yourself together imbues a certain energy, a sort of leveling with your audience.

RUTHERFORD: Right. Thanks so much for noticing.

PATTERSON: Is Chip working its way into your solo act? Or do you think you’ll reserve it for The Neighbourhood?

RUTHERFORD: It was gonna be its own thing. I had no intention of bringing Chip into The Neighbourhood. It sounds corny, but the reason I wanted to do Chip for The Neighbourhood is—I don’t know if you’ve heard our song, “Middle of Somewhere.”

PATTERSON: I did. I watched the video.

RUTHERFORD: That song is a special one to me. I wanted to make sure that I could attach something to it that would make people stop, look, and have to listen. We were gonna do a textural video, like B-roll footage, Super 8, nature-y. I wake up in the morning, and I go to the house we’re recording at, in Coldwater Canyon. Before our director Alex got there I was sitting in the house, looking across the canyon over on this hill, and I actually had a vision of the chrome fuckin’ thing on top of the hill. So I showed up the next day in full Chip regalia, and everyone looked at me like, “Oh, no…”

PATTERSON: [Laughs] So that was the first introduction between Chip and The Neighbourhood, when you made it a part of the universe.

RUTHERFORD: It was, yeah. Actually, this producer duo called Take a Daytrip–they did that Sheck Wes song [“Mo Bamba”], “Panini” by Lil Nas X–they’re doing so well. I’ve known them for a long time. They’ve always sent me beat packs and I’ll just go through, pick ten at a time. I thought Chip was going to be leaning more toward my hip-hop shit.

PATTERSON: Yeah, if you’d gone through with Chip as an independent project, how would it sound?

RUTHERFORD: End of 2017, me and my engineer, Danny, were in the studio, going off on Chip. If you ask my friends, they heard about Chip so long ago, they’re like wow, you actually did it! Chip was going to be hip-hop.

PATTERSON: Daytrip almost feels more aligned with this glitchy, chromed-out look than The Neighbourhood. I’m thinking of the “Panini” video, Lil Nas X in the space suit.

RUTHERFORD: Hip-hop music has been my programming. It’s been my love. When I was a kid, hearing Eminem, G-Unit for the first time, I was like… Bro, that is it. I don’t know if you know where I’m from, Newbury Park—

PATTERSON: Ventura County, right?

RUTHERFORD: Yeah, yeah. I was kind of the odd one out, in my neighborhood, my area, obsessed with rap. I decided to stick with the guitar, and I fell in love with it, not having to use so many goddamn words. In fact, I don’t want Chip to talk, because Jesse talks enough. It’s all in the song, that’s where I’m gonna leave it. And “Middle of Somewhere” is a good jumping off point. That’s probably the purest sound you’re gonna hear; it’s just me and a guitar. I’ve been really into Dolly Parton lately—

PATTERSON: She’s having a revival moment with us younger gens!

RUTHERFORD: She’s a great reference for what I’m doing, because Dolly will tell you, “Yeah, I don’t give a fuck if you think I’m fake on the outside, because I am! That’s what I wanna look like. And that’s fine, because I know what’s coming out of me is more real than anything. So I don’t have to worry about that.”

PATTERSON: People are gonna assume they know what Chip’s about; i.e. my questions about the Ziggy comparisons or the visual continuity with Daytrip’s sound. But the far-out visual is paired back to a fairly stripped sound.

RUTHERFORD: Exactly. It’s not what people are expecting. Right now, Chip’s dedicated to The Neighbourhood. The project is gonna be called—there might be a change—but right now it’s called Chip Chrome and the Monotones. The boys, the way we all look together… They’re shadows, they’re silhouettes.

PATTERSON: They’ve got the reflective two-piece suits, right?

RUTHERFORD: For the most part, I’m the only one who has to say something to express what we collectively feel. So if I say something they’re not into, they tell me. I mean, there’s two thousand songs the world won’t hear because we all didn’t agree. It’s working, though. When I first showed up as Chip, everyone was like “what the fuck are you doing?” Now that we’ve worked on the context, everyone’s down.

PATTERSON: Final question, easily the lamest. Will Jesse/Chip find their way back to Instagram?

RUTHERFORD: I guess I’ll say I don’t know. I’m only a couple weeks off.

PATTERSON: How’s it feeling?

RUTHERFORD: I mean, you know… I’m going through it a bit.

PATTERSON: It’s a hell of a drug. You ingest it, but it can also completely consume you.

RUTHERFORD: Comparing myself to everything, everyone, everybody I love… You can’t look at humans like that. I don’t want to think about what everyone else is doing. I feel my creativity pumping back up again. I mean, I have the queen of social media sleeping in the bed next to me. And it’s the coolest thing ever, the way Devon does it? That’s the way you gotta do it. Not work for it, but make it work for you. And that’s cool, that’s her thing, it doesn’t have to be my thing. Luckily, if I do want to come back…

PATTERSON: It’s all gonna be there.

RUTHERFORD: The weirdest twist to it all—which I love, which is wonderful—is that I get off of it, and a week later I get an email that Lily from Interview fuckin’ Magazine… I mean, it’s Interview Magazine! If that isn’t a sign to pay attention, then I’m an asshole and I need to recalibrate my vision.

[grimmbrookhq]

CURLY ▶ REGINALD ROSE (IT SPECIALIST FOR GRIMMBROOK U / SPECIAL EFFECTS FOR LOST BOYS MYSTERY INC ● 29 ● DEV PATEL ● OPEN )

Shortly after they got to the United States, Alecia and Emir found out she was pregnant. The couple, having only been married for a few months, weren’t sure they were ready for a baby. They were still adjusting to their new life in the states. Luckily for them, their friends, Saul and Stella Rose, were willing to adopt the baby boy. They named him Reginald. Alecia and Emir said goodbye to their kid as he left to travel the country with his new parents.

Living on the road was all he ever knew. That didn’t stop him from being an avid student. He found his calling working with computers. For his birthdays, he’d ask his parents to sign him up for different computer skills classes. Pretty soon, he was an expert. Stella and Saul recruited him first out of all their kids to work on their magic shows. He was in charge of the special effects. He knew from an early age that what they did wasn’t real, but he had fun doing it because he got to practice his skills.

This passion for computers helped him as the family moved. It gave him a point of connection with people from different states. While he found friends everywhere he went, he was closest to Ruth and Riley. He was a calming a presence among the Rose children, the most levelheaded, but he always got roped into whatever crazy schemes they cooked up.

Reginald was happy when the family finally settled down in Grimmbrook. He was the quietest and most thoughtful out of his siblings. He liked the world experience he got on the move, but he found some peace as they found a steady home. Still, he couldn’t escape the thrill when he and his siblings discovered the house was haunted. He spent so much of his time behind the computer screen that it was exciting to experience it for once. When Riley proposed they investigate it, he was happy to oblige, after he made a pros and cons list.

The little group they formed only grew from there until it became a full-fledged business. Reginald sees it more as a fun pastime to reconnect with their childhood, but with the growing mysteries of the town, his curious nature is making an appearance.

CONNECTIONS ▶

Riley & Ruth Rose: He can’t imagine his life without his siblings. They are bound by their sense of adventure, and interest in the magical, no matter how real or fake it is. He tries his best to keep his siblings grounded and realistic, but he loves them dearly and is always grateful to spend time with them. He was the last to join LBM Inc., but he is just as interested as his other two siblings.

Lily Redstone:  Reggie met her shortly after she moved to town. Knowing how hard it is to meet new people, he invited her out with his siblings and some of their friends: Wendy Miu, Jack and Alice Summer, Poppy Bell. Reggie, Riley and Ruth were always closer to each other but Reggie was the one who made friends and easily connected his siblings with them. He’s maybe developed the slightest crush on the EMT, so he’s especially glad that Lily’s joined their friend group.

Theodore Beck: Theodore attended one of the Rose magic shows when he was a teenager. He found it the perfect place to con people into buying him snacks and merchandise. The fans were lost in the “magic”, so they wouldn’t think twice about whatever story Theodore told them. He was surprised to see Reginald in Grimmbrook, but he knows the shows were make-believe and has been asking the man questions about the techniques they use to make it seem real. Reggie is a bit wary of why he wants to know, but he’s not used to people being interested in the work his family did.

Alana Lopez: LBM Inc. hired her to take photographs of them. They wanted to establish themselves as an official business, so they wanted professional photographs. Afterward, Reginald expressed interest in the photography process. He was interested in angles and lighting, as well as the process behind what makes one camera better than the other. She was happy to give him advice and offered to teach him one day, but he hasn’t taken her up on that offer yet.

Cameron Bernard: The Rabbit Hole was having some technical difficulties with the lights one night, but lucky for Cameron, Reggie was there. He swooped in and helped fix the lights, so everyone had a good rest of the night. Now, Cameron feels indebted to Reginald. It would have looked bad on him and his brother if the lights had gone out, and he would have lost a lot of money. Reggie offered his services free of charge, so to repay him, Cameron is always offering to buy him lunch, coffee, or free drinks at The Rabbit Hole.

[fimblo]

Observations and reflections - DevOpsDays Stockholm 2019

Last time I attended a DevOpsDays conference was in Gothenburg, 2011. At the time I worked as an Operations engineer, and the conference was really inspiring and useful for me for my day-to-day work.

When I heard that DevOpsDays was coming to Stockholm some six months ago, I decided to treat myself with it - with the hope that it would be just as good as last time. I had my doubts - after all, in the eight years since I last attended, I had worked mostly as a manager and toward the end, an Agile Coach.

I needn't have worried.

If you put lots of awesome people in a venue, give them space to talk, feed them and supply them with interesting subject matter in the form of presentations and lightning-talks, the result can't be anything less than motivating.

Here are some of my observations and reflections - some of them organisational, some of them technical, and the rest perhaps a little random.

The understanding of DevOps culture isn't as pervasive as I thought

After all my years at Spotify, where we built up this devops/agile/trust-based culture over time, it's easy to forget how it was at other workplaces. The wall between developers and operations. The paperwork and risks involved in deployments.

After working at a place where devops was so ingrained in how we worked, it became so easy to take it for granted. The problems some participants brought up in the Open Spaces were nightmarish - and I was surprised over how surprised I was.

It was a humbling experience.

Your "code" in your VCS for a project/epic should (must) be more than just the business logic. Your code needs to include config, tests, deployment logic etc.

This should be obvious, but I guess it isn't in some orgs. If you need to go back in time in your VCS to get a earlier working version of your project, you'll likely want to see how that version of your business logic was brought to life in prod.

DevOps is a culture where everyone works together to deliver and operate a feature for the customer.

… and automate the crap out of everything.

If your Definition of Done doesn't include the code hitting prod, you're misleading yourself.

Also, something something "adoption by at least one user"

If you have a dedicated DevOps team alongside your Ops, Dev and QA teams, you're doing it wrong.

… congrats, you just added another silo in your org.

Overheard: References to "Accelerate" by Nicole Forsgren et al

… awesome book, not surprised it came up here. If you haven't read it and you're an engineer(developer,sysadmin,tester,etc), or you're a manager or agile coach, it's definitely worth the read.

Some participants didn't see the connection between Agile/lean and DevOps

… while for others, of course, it was so obvious that it was difficult to explain, much like a mathematical axiom. Both require concepts such as:

Continuous improvement through reflection, sharing, and experimentation

Relationships based on trust

Feedback culture between individuals and teams

Failing fast.

Two different mindsets in orgs: Role and Mission mindset

Role mindset: I do what my role prescribes. This works (?) in orgs operating in ossified commodities markets, where the org/product/technology doesn't change very often.

Mission mindset: I do what I can to achieve the mission. This mindset works if you're doing something new, experimental, or risky. If you don't know what the market will look like tomorrow. Why limit yourself to a role generated by an organisational system designed (even with the best of intents) to solve yesterday's problems?

Overheard about hypergrowth: Throwing people at a problem only introduces more handovers.

Fun way of expressing the problem. Here are my thoughts on what happened during early Spotify days on the matter:

Growing the engineering org to add capacity often leads to people using recruitment as an excuse to not have to sort and truncate the epic backlog, leading to an org unable or unused to the difficult task of prioritisation and saying no to important initiatives.

Also, hypergrowth will unfortunately lower capacity initially thanks to time spent on recruitment and onboarding. The more you hire during a short period, the deeper and longer the cost in capacity. Also, # of incidents due to lack of tactile knowledge will rise, pulling focus away from new deliveries in favour of stabilising the system.

Was surprised when I found out that a Post-mortem at Google was a document, not a meeting

At Spotify, the term "Post-mortem" refers primarily to a meeting. At Google, it refers to a document. The purpose of the two are the same - to fix the root cause(s) and enable learnings from failures. The main difference IMO seems to be the scope of the post-mortem. At Google, the post-mortem document is written primarily by one person and shared with the whole org and posterity. At Spotify, the result of a post-mortem is a shared understanding among engineers and stakeholders of why and how the system failed. The focus is on raising empathy thereby lowering the threshold for sharing learnings in person.

Even if I knew that Google conducted post-mortems, it had never occurred to me that it could be done differently. How many other assumptions have I made over the years?

Overheard: Can DevOps culture happen in a centralised command-and-control org?

This question was discussed or touched upon multiple times during the two days, and the discussions leaned strongly toward the opinion that the engineers who write, test, deploy and maintain the code are best suited to make the decisions necessary to do their work. If they are given relevant information (business info, purpose of the project, who the end-users are, budget, etc) they will make good decisions.

My own musings on giving people mandate, or empowering people:

What we want to do to enable the above is to remove the obstacles which hinder people's natural propensity to take initiative. If you are discussing 'giving mandate' or 'empowering' your staff, there's already something iffy IMO. Mandate isn't something which is given - it's something humans innately possess. Instead of telling someone they now have mandate, consider how your organisation removes mandate from a person. What control mechanisms do you have in place? Identify these, and for each consider why said mechanism is in place. What problem did they solve? Is the problem still a thing? Is there another way of solving the problem without depriving mandate from your teams?

Also - What is the social cost of failure in your org? How do formal and informal leaders react to failure? People can have all the mandate in the world and still feel disempowered if they are scared of public shaming.

Overheard: "Distributed monolith"

In the attempt to transform a backend from monolith to microservice, there's a risk of ending up with a distributed monolith - where one suffers the disadvantages of both monolith and microservices.

If your microservices operate with knowledge of the internals of other services,

If your microservices know what services exist upstream,

If many microservices share a database (or worse, share tables (or gasp, write to the same tables)

… then you probably operate a Distributed Monolith.

On scary deployments

Fear of failure drives out creativity and smothers innovation. And you're likely to be working in an environment where innovation and creativity is paramount. Fear isn't binary - it's a spectrum with with gradually increasing magnitudes - from slight nervousness all the way up to sheer panic. So you might not be terrified when about to deploy something to prod, but anxious. Or nervous.

But this tension shifts our focus from what we like to do - create, experiment and learn. From the company perspective, the fear of failure in teams leads to deploys once every couple months, during a weekend, in the middle of the night.

So what we want to do is change how we do things to decrease our fear and raise our confidence. Each thing below can help you and your team do this:

Release smaller changes: This will make it easier to review your code and understand it. Also, the potential risk of failure becomes smaller since the release is a small one.

Release often to production: You'll find bugs in your release process much more often if you go from one release a month to multiple a day. And you'll start to trust your process more if you do it often,

Automate your release process to reduce human error.

Use feature flags to apply your changes to a smaller demographic, and to be able to decouple deployment of code from when it impacts the user.

Write tests to verify the knowns.

Ensure that monitoring of the service exists from the get-go to detect early signs of system failure or degradation and to get data for troubleshooting and later, for your blameless post-mortem.

All in all, the conference was fun and inspirational. It felt good to be able to both learn from others and at other times, to share my experience and thoughts with others. 10/10, will definitely do this again :)

[omtecweb]

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[askagamedev]

What is your stance on telling gamers to just "buy something else" if they find a series doesn't enjoy them anymore? Do you think it's a fair thing to say?

While such a statement definitely isn't the most diplomatic means of expressing an opinion, it is a statement that probably describes the best overall course of action for the player who is dissatisfied with the product. Players should give their feedback if they care about the game or franchise, but should also avoid having expectations that the company will act on that feedback. In situations that affect literal millions of players, there are bound to be situations where some players love feature or content X and some can't stand it. No matter what our response to the feedback, somebody is going to feel betrayed and let down.

Beyond this, every project also has constraints on development. We’re limited by the expertise of the developers on the team, the number of available developers in each discipline, the skill of the developers assigned to specific features and content, and so on. We can’t ship a super animation-intensive game if we can’t hire enough qualified animators. We can’t go over budget. We need to earn enough money to be profitable. The unfortunate truth is that what one particular group of gamers asks for might not be feasible within our constraints and circumstances. 

Instead of telling angry disaffected gamers “just buy something else”, I prefer to use the response “I’m sorry what we offer isn’t to your taste. I hope that you enjoy our next offering more”. These two statements are functionally and practically equivalent - we recognize that the game isn’t to the complaining player’s taste, but the phrasing makes the former come across as dismissive and unnecessarily antagonistic when it really doesn’t need to be. I like it when players find games they like. I hope that they’ll like the games I work on, but I recognize that my game can’t make everybody happy all the time. I honestly hope that the angry and dissatisfied players do find something else that they enjoy more. I think there’s more than enough negativity out there already.

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