#no like really I get paid to dev the main mod

[screret]

you should try Cosmic Frontiers I heard its really cool or something idk

girls i just (like yesterday) discovered tgat modding minecraft is very easy so recommend me modpacks :3

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

Been playing the Official, Canon Kaycee Expansion for Inscryption, here's my thoughts:

SPOILERS

It's still in Beta so we have still not all the content or new lore from it, but the gist of it it's that this is Kaycee, Inscryption's Dev, using her Dev Tools to change the game for a not better specified reason.

From the few Dev Logs we have, we discover that Kaycee, while play testing the game on the Floppy Disk with OLD_DATA in it, finds a "bug" about the Angler finding an OLD_FISH and bringing it to Leshy, and she realizes that the NPCs can now walk (don't have walk animations) and say stuff outside of the script she set up for them.

Other Floppies don't replicate this bug (Not because the characters on those Floppies aren't sentient mind you, the recurring theme in all of Mullins games is that Videogame characters are sentient and Alive, most of them just like the role they play in their game as paid actors and don't complain about it) and, once she get back to the one where the bug happened, she realizes that Leshy had gone 3D and turned the game into Act 1 while she wasn't looking.

Now, the remaining logs are still in beta stage and we don't know what else she found out, she simply started playing the new game, mentioning how only the Woodcarver "Mask" will talk to her about the OLD_DATA, and how the PREVIOUS Dev Head, Kaminski, probably knows more about this if she can find him.

So, here's my theory:

Kaycee sounds like a really dedicated person, and enjoys card games and videogames.

Leshy's Cabin in Act 1 is different from the one in KM. Kaycee specifically modded it to be more challenging, more engaging, and Leshy likes it.

It also has lots of mushrooms where they shouldn't be. Weird, uh? Especially when you remember that the Mycologists aren't part of the normal Inscryption game, but spontaneously exist only to research the Karnoffel Code in this one specific floppy disk, their mechanic impossible to implement in a flesh and blood game.

Leshy will at first react with scorn at Kaycee changing his grand vision (HAVE YOU MESSED UP THE ORDER OF MY MAPS, KAYCEE?"), but will still roll with it, implementing the changes back into his narrative, rolling with it, even enjoying them the more time passes ("TOTEMS? IN A BOSS FIGHT? OOOOOH I LIKE THIS ONE!").

Kaycee removed many of the Exploits that could make Act 1 Trivial. Ouroboros doesn't conserve stats between runs. The Moon gained a new Keyword that makes her immune from poison and stinky, you lack the Squirrel Totem, the Bee Deck, the third candle, the Knife...

Why did she do that? Because, just like Leshy, she likes her games to be a challenge. ACT 2 lacks any sort of stakes, any sort of danger, and Leshy never liked that, he wanted his game to be difficult and engaging, a final battle against the Moon, but only if you were worthy enough to reach it, and I feel Kaycee also wanted that for him.

We don't know how that ended with her burning alive and the game buried in the woods, or where the other Scrybes are during KM, their cards missing, but I can hazard a guess.

In the main game, they mention how this wasn't the first time someone took control of the game. They mention Resetting back to act 2, in Act 1, and specifically say Resetting Again. In Act 4, Grimora mentions how she would have loved to play with Luke, for her to take control AGAIN of the game, so here's my Theory.

Barry sends the Floppy to the US from East Germany and is shot dead by the Soviets. The Floppy is lost alongside other blank floppies, and is sold to GameFuna, who tasks Kaminski and his team to make a game on their recent new IP, Inscryption.

Kaminski and his team creates Inscryption, but notices something in one of the Floppies that doesn't seem to be able to be erased of open, deciding to check if that's Gona be the problem on the copy he has.

He Uses the GameFuna Dev Tool, coming with the Blue Man from Mullins previous game The Hex, the Blue Man mentioned by the Trader in Act 3, and starts fucking around the place.

In Grimora's tomb, the third Skeleton, as of now still unnamed in the beta stages of creation, finds an Old Fish in her well. Grimora uses it alongside the Dev Tools suddenly at her fingertips to take control of the Game from Kaminski.

Kaminski plays Grimora's game, and it's here that the Death Cards are made. You see, Death Cards aren't a Thing in KM, you can't make them, yet Leshy still summons a few of them during his second phase, and how is that happening then? Who made those death cards, if Kaycee never made any?

It was Kaminski that made them while playing Grimora's Game, the Scrybe of the Dead, far more fitting to create death cards than Leshy wouldn't you agree? Especially since all the Death Cards in Act 1 are implied to be of dead people.

Why is Kaycee's card already in the game then by the time KM starts? She is alive to make it isn't she? Well, that's because much like Magnificus Eye can see the future, the game also recognizes when one of its players is about to die.

After all, if you get all of the base death cards as well as the ones you made for the game, the next Death Card you will be offered in Act 1... Is Luke Carder's.

And he's still alive as he plays isn't he?

Anyway, Kaminski resets the game back to act 2 and then something happens, maybe we'll find out later, and Kaycee becomes the new Dev Head and builds upon the foundations of the game.

Now, here's my final theory.

Act 2 specifies that the game is based around the fact that you, the challenger, are trying to take over a Scrybe.

What if that's the case for the Single Games?

Kaminski is Grimora's Challenger.

Kaycee is Leshy's.

And Luke is P03's.

Magnificus remarks how he never managed to gain control because his Angler, the green slime mage, never managed to find an OLD_FISH for him. That's another reason why when you have visions of him painting in Act 1, he's doing it in the same white void you find him in Act 4. He never could build himself a Tower like his competitors did for themselves. He had to improvise.

But who would be his challenger then? Is it Amanda, who shot Luke Carder and stole the floppy from him? Is it Us, the player at home?

[funkin-news]

ninjamuffin ama summary - 9/28/2021

you know the drill, purple text is me paraphrasing, everything else is direct (or almost direct) quote, FNF-related stuff only

Q: What is one common misconception about FNF or its development that you wanna clear up?

A: im not the sole creator, im not some sole director. Each of the boys have very important roles with the game. This isn't just 1 dude having tunnel vision about a game, its generally all us coming to similar conclusions on where we want to take the game and what we wanna do wit it

Q: why

A: because I love video games and I love newgrounds

Q: Do you or the team plan to go back and make the older weeks higher quality?

A: that will definitely happen. both for general polish, and things leading up into future weeks / story or whatever

Q: Why did everyone think Week 8 was gonna come out on the 22nd?

A: accidental "teases" (Dave's MC-related doodle), madness day, general anxiousness bc the devs haven't been sharing much

Q: What kind of QOL changes are being added in the future?

A: charting editor improvements is one

Q: What is the most insane, most likely impossible to happen person you would like to collaborate with, could be Funkin related, could be just a personal project

A: the girl reading this

Q: Is Cassette Girl week 8?

A: no

Q: Is there concept art for the characters, or did they look the same during development?

A: GF looks exactly the same as the first ever drawing PhantomArcade did. There's a few small lil variations for a good chunk the other MAIN characters, one day u will see all them

R: can you explain the old bf icon? or is it just a dumb placeholder?

A: just a cool ass lil icon evilsk8r did during the game jam weekend

Q: Are you letting yourself getting inspired by more different genres of music for future weeks?

A: i think that more a Q for kawaisprite, but that man loves music, and can and does get inspired by anything he listens to in regards to music

Q: Why has the team been so silent about update progress?

A: They do better working in silence than hyping things up; when Week 6 was teased working on it became really stressful for them. Also, element of surprise

R: but youve been silent abt week7 on desktop for months, half a year. & week 8 is like….. nonexistant

A: week 8 isnt nonexistant, we just absolutely do not want to talk about it whatsoever. i said all the week 7 stuff will come with week 8 update

Q: what do you genuinely think about the people thinking you guys scammed people out of $2 million? just curious is all, i’ve seen lots of people talking about it rn

A: i think people are a bit wary about kickstarter, and makes sense when people's coin is on the line. if u want a breakdown of what we used KS coin so far, we spent maybe 2K of it on some development stuff we needed, most other expenses been paid from our savings / donations, etc.

Q: When does the OST come to the backers?

A: Kickstarter vinyl OSTs still need to be manufactured, which would take at least 6 months because of a global PVC shortage, completely out of our control. what is in our control is that we also still need to finish up and finalize artwork for it, the boys wanna make it all perfect. Same goes for CDs, but those should be done way sooner

Q: You got a date range of when Tshirt / Poster / or Pin surveys will be out by any chance? 👀

A: kickstarter tshirts / poster / pin stuff have been coming along nicely and hopefully those surveys should be coming soon, prob next few weeks

Q: Do you guys think you'll experiment with other artstyles in future weeks?

A: yes, cuz we've already done that (week 6) theres a lot more where that came from

Q: if you could isolate one part of the game and say it’s your favorite what would it be

A: the fact that FNF is our pure creative vision, with absolutely nothing getting in the way of that. Open source free Newgrounds rhythm game with crazy zany kawaisprite music, and stylish and charismatic animation and art style. and game been successful because of all of that.

Q: what do you think about people compiling the full ass game and playing it without paying anything

A: that makes me happy

Q: what do you think of all the mods and stuff people has made about your game

A: mods make me happy

Q: any inspiration from doki doki literature club for the weird stuff in week 6?

A: no, but some of the cool lil programming things DDLC did do interest me

Q: How do we know you're working on the game

A: you don't, and really it doesnt matter all too much. we being productive and things are moving forward, and people not believing that doesnt change that

And now, a speech:

i think trying to focus on keeping hype and keeping game popular can very easily be hollow. We have no worry about trying to keep hype or relevancy or anything like that. If FNF popularity shrunk to 0.1% of it's size, we'd be content, cuz that's still like 1000% more than before

"before" referring to anything we did before FNF.

you can lose success just as easily as you got it, and for FNF, it got successful INCREDIBLEY fast. With that in mind, it's just the nature of things if it all loses relevancy.

So far FNF doing good through the year, but if it wasn't, it's no real sweat off our back.

Although it's uhhh easy to look at it that way from our perspective. Get back to me and see if my thoughts on this has changed if FNF is forgotten from all memory.

Q: will there be a sequel to the full ass game? Like 'the full a2s game' or something clever like fast & furious movies do

A: friday night funkin: tokyo drift

[funamusea-translations]

About DSP art reposters

Yes I know I talked about this a few times but *sigh*

For starters, DSP main content is free, you can play their games without any cost and they’re an independent artist, so when DSP has paid content DO NOT repost it anywhere. You can potentially harm an independent artist income when you make free public their work. 

If you really want to support DSP as an artist and game dev please don’t do this, just because other people can’t have access to it is not an excuse.

Because of the repost of ci-en content has been going on for a while some people just get to see it without knowing its from ci-en and proceed to repost it again so as a fandom community let’s start being responsible of what we post:

Reposting art is already something you shouldn’t do but anyway

Always post the source. This is not the same as giving credit, we all know this is DSP stuff, fanart or not, but if you don’t know where it comes from it may be paid stuff, so post the source.

Do not post it if you don’t have the source. If you can’t find it it may be for different reasons, because it is deleted or because it’s from ci-en or other paid content. Either way, don’t do it.

The only valid source is DSP own page. Do not use the wikia for images source. The content in DSP social media can be shared without reposting, like retweeting in twitter.

Report the ci-en reposters. This may be hard because most sites don’t care about art thief/reposting unless you're the creator and send an official request to take down the post, but you can talk directly with the person in any case.

Also if we have notice that a tumblr user is reposting ci-en content, either if it’s here or in other social media, we will block them.

Respect DSP work and don’t be an asshole, that’s all, have a nice day.

-Mod Sataneko

[kitten-kokomo]

Another great free art program is Magma! It’s browser-based (pros: can use on devices you don’t own, like library, school, or work computers; cons: requires internet connection), and in addition to pretty much all the main features of other art programs, is also a program designed to draw with other people, which is a good and fun way to practice.

Magma has paid versions, which mostly offer more storage space (cool life hack: you can also create new art spaces for free, and each new one you make comes with its own free storage, so you can get around the limits if you need! I’m pretty sure they also boosted the amount free users get recently, but I’m not sure how big it is cuz I’m still using my art spaces lol), extra layers (in case 60 isn’t enough for you? Which it probably is for most cases, especially if you’re just starting out), and a smattering of other extras I can’t even think of because I’ve never needed them, and I’ve been using magma for a long time.

Tl;dr, magma is super cool, and free, and I just really like magma you guys, I watched the devs AMA on Reddit today and they accidentally leaked their new transform tool update in one of the devs toolbar while they were trying to show us new mod tools, and I think I’m probably one of maybe fifteen people who noticed, and the only one who pointed it out, and I’m still sorta riding that high

Can't afford art school?

After seeing post like this 👇

And this gem 👇

As well as countless of others from the AI generator community. Just talking about how "inaccessible art" is, I decided why not show how wrong these guys are while also helping anyone who actually wants to learn.

Here is the first one ART TEACHERS! There are plenty online and in places like youtube.

📺Here is my list:

Proko (Free, mostly teaches anatomy and how to draw people. But does have art talks and teaches the basics.)

Marc Brunet (Free but he does have other classes for a cheap price. Use to work for Blizzard and teaches you everything)

Aaron Rutten (free, tips about art, talks about art programs and the best products for digital art)

BoroCG (free, teaches a verity of art mediums from 3D modeling to digital painting. As well as some tips that can be used across styles)

Jesse J. Jones (free, talks about animating)

Jesus Conde (free, teaches digital painting and has classes in Spanish)

Mohammed Agbadi (free, he gives some advice in some videos and talks about art)

Ross Draws (free, he does have other classes for a good price. Mostly teaching character designs and simple backgrounds.)

SamDoesArts (free, gives good advice and critiques)

Drawfee Show (free, they do give some good advice and great inspiration)

The Art of Aaron Blaise ( useful tips for digital art and animation. Was an animator for Disney. Mostly nature art)

Bobby Chiu ( useful tips and interviews with artist who are in the industry or making a living as artist)

Sinix Design (has some tips on drawing people)

Winged canvas (art school for free on a verity of mediums)

Bob Ross (just a good time, learn how to paint, as well as how too relax when doing art. "there are no mistakes only happy accidents", this channel also provides tips from another artist)

Scott Christian Sava (Inspiration and provides tips and advice)

Pikat (art advice and critiques)

Drawbox (a suggested cheap online art school, made of a community of artist)

Skillshare (A cheap learning site that has art classes ranging from traditional to digital. As well as Animation and tutorials on art programs. All under one price, in the USA it's around $34 a month)

Human anatomy for artist (not a video or teacher but the site is full of awesome refs to practice and get better at anatomy)

Second part BOOKS, I have collected some books that have helped me and might help others.

📚Here is my list:

The "how to draw manga" series produced by Graphic-sha. These are for manga artist but they give great advice and information.

"Creating characters with personality" by Tom Bancroft. A great book that can help not just people who draw cartoons but also realistic ones. As it helps you with facial ques and how to make a character interesting.

"Albinus on anatomy" by Robert Beverly Hale and Terence Coyle. Great book to help someone learn basic anatomy.

"Artistic Anatomy" by Dr. Paul Richer and Robert Beverly Hale. A good book if you want to go further in-depth with anatomy.

"Directing the story" by Francis Glebas. A good book if you want to Story board or make comics.

"Animal Anatomy for Artists" by Eliot Goldfinger. A good book for if you want to draw animals or creatures.

"Constructive Anatomy: with almost 500 illustrations" by George B. Bridgman. A great book to help you block out shadows in your figures and see them in a more 3 diamantine way.

"Dynamic Anatomy: Revised and expand" by Burne Hogarth. A book that shows how to block out shapes and easily understand what you are looking out. When it comes to human subjects.

"An Atlas of animal anatomy for artist" by W. Ellenberger and H. Dittrich and H. Baum. This is another good one for people who want to draw animals or creatures.

Etherington Brothers, they make books and have a free blog with art tips.

📝As for Supplies, I recommend starting out cheap, buying Pencils and art paper at dollar tree or 5 below. If you want to go fancy Michaels is always a good place for traditional supplies. They also get in some good sales and discounts. For digital art, I recommend not starting with a screen art drawing tablet as they are usually more expensive.

For the Best art Tablet I recommend either Xp-pen, Bamboo or Huion. Some can range from about 40$ to the thousands.

💻As for art programs here is a list of Free to pay.

Clip Studio paint ( you can choose to pay once or sub and get updates. Galaxy, Windows, macOS, iPad, iPhone, Android, or Chromebook device. )

Procreate ( pay once for $9.99 usd, IPAD & IPHONE ONLY)

Blender (for 3D modules/sculpting, animation and more. Free)

PaintTool SAI (pay but has a 31 day free trail)

Krita (Free)

mypaint (free)

FireAlpaca (free)

Aseprite ($19.99 usd but has a free trail, for pixel art Windows & macOS)

Drawpile (free and for if you want to draw with others)

IbisPaint (free, phone app ONLY)

Medibang (free, IPAD, Android and PC)

NOTE: Some of these can work on almost any computer like Clip and Sai but others will require a bit stronger computer like Blender. Please check their sites for if your computer is compatible.

So do with this information as you will but as you can tell there are ways to learn how to become an artist, without breaking the bank. The only thing that might be stopping YOU from using any of these things, is YOU.

I have made time to learn to draw and many artist have too. Either in-between working two jobs or taking care of your family and a job or regular school and chores. YOU just have to take the time or use some time management, it really doesn't take long to practice for like an hour or less. YOU also don't have to do it every day, just once or three times a week is fine.

Hope this was helpful and have a great day.

"also apologies for any spelling or grammar errors, I have Dyslexia and it makes my brain go XP when it comes to speech or writing"

[azuhrasims]

Do not harass, rush, or threaten content creators, modders, and those patient souls who are out there trying to help you with your game questions.

Here is my controversial additional take. We shouldn't be doing these things to the Sims devs who interact with the community or even the main Sims account like that either.

I had a really sour interaction with a Sims Disord server Mod about this a few months ago. I mentioned that when people complain about unrelated things under a positive post by the main Sims account on Twitter, it has the same energy as a belligerent customer complaining to the fast food cashier about corporate changing the food menu.

I was told something along the line about how complaining about these unrelated things under main account posts is the only way to get these things seen. It's thier main social account, they get paid for this!

No. Just, no. Maybe I'm old, maybe I've worked far too many years in customer service and been on the receiving end of too many of these Karen-trope type of people, but I find that yelling at the cashier about store policy is absolutely useless.

Same for making your complaints about bugs or what not under Sim Gurus unrelated posts. Can you not?!

There are forums for bug reports - which are also super helpful to look into to see if someone else has experienced this bug before you! You can post about your experiences on your own social media, heck even tag the sims main account if it makes you feel like your post will be seen!

I'm not out here asking you to love every aspect of the sims and to only ever be positive. I'm asking you to direct your concerns to the right people in the appropriate situations. I'm asking you not to be rude about it, don't harass people about it, and don't threaten people over it.

[pattern-53-enfield]

Battalion 1944 finally came out on steam

For those of you who remember, Battalion 1944 was announced in 2016 as a Kickstarter campaign for an old-school World War 2 competitive FPS that combined the best traits of Battlefield (destructible environments, large open maps) with the handling of older Call of Duty titles like CoD 3 or World at War. It released to not a lot of fanfare on the 1st of February, and it already has an overall “mixed” review score out of almost four thousand reviews. Not an auspicious start.

Seeing as it wasn’t too expensive, I bought and downloaded it. First impression was not good, as the launcher took eight minutes to actually launch the game (oh, and make sure it’s closed once you exit the game or else Steam thinks you’re still playing it). Getting into a match, the FPS was teeth-grindingly frustrating for about five minutes before everything started to run smoothly. The CoD 2-3 comparisons are apt when it comes to the graphics, but everything else is wholesale lifted from Counterstrike and newer CoDs, with zero weapons sway and bunnyhopping being the only viable tactics. The maps so far are alternately too large but too small for the gameplay, having every pathway easily buttoned up by riflemen that barely have to aim to be able to hit you and trenches easily locked down by machine guns spraying from around corners with little decrease in accuracy. Not at all what the kickstarter promised.

The main reason I ended up refunding the game, despite enjoying it somewhat, was mostly due to the devs themselves. Taking a stroll through the game’s discussions, I noticed many of the players were kickstarter backers complaining about not receiving keys or any other memorabilia despite paying upwards of a hundred bucks in some cases. The devs were nowhere to be seen, and according to their Kickstarter page the last update was on January 29th, with no interaction with commenters asking questions about not receiving keys. Seeing this, along with the clear downgrade in graphics from the footage used on the Kickstarter trailer (Jim Sterling’s use of the term “bullshot” comes to mind), really has me thinking that this project stopped being a major focus for this team once they made a certain amount of money off of their backers. And seeing as some of the more significant stretch goals were past the 325,000 mark (the campaign raised a total of 317,281 USD), I’m also thinking that they might have pulled a No Man’s Sky and promised more then they could deliver. Either way, to screw over those who paid over 35 bucks by not communicating and silently releasing the game for less than 15 bucks on Early Access is not a good look, along with day one DLC. 

So was it the company having eyes bigger than their stomachs? An actual scam that might just be someone’s Counterstrike mod with a fake trailer? Did the devs owe someone money? Don’t know. But please don’t purchase this without doing some research into the background first. We already have to deal with this crap from big-name publishers. We shouldn’t let indie devs get away with it as well.

[spiralatlas]

Pax 2017 Panels day 1

Today was an unrivaled success. I didn’t break anything.

Western Dating Sims: Beyond Tsunderdome

Are we having fun: Playing games critically

The State of Queer in games

Western Dating Sims: Beyond Tsunderdome

Barbara Kerr https://ms45.itch.io/ Jack Crnjanin Pritika Sachdev Cassiel Kelner localiser, translates from Japanese to English Shakari former insomniac now indie Jess Zammit games critic Queerly represent me

Not a competition between Western and Japanese dating sims, both are good. But there are trends.(The panel talked a bit about Japanese games too anyway)

Main difference: more established genre in Japan, less accepted in the West.

Basic framework: generic main character. Selection of different kinds of love interests, often very tropey. Situations range from mundane to fantastical.

Kenka Bancho Otome  Dating sim where you are crossdressing as your brother at a fighting school and have to beat the boys to get them to respect. (Not available in English but checking the spelling lead me to an anime adaptation on Crunchyroll, no idea if it’s any good)

Often don't have much family, no mention of that background.

Freshman and Sophomore cute have f/f. (Couldn’t find links for these, sadly)

Saying exactly what somebody wants to hear until they kiss you- is that bad?

Everyone showered DAO characters with gifts.

Desire in the west to mirror the complexity of real relationships.

Examples mentioned: Cute Demon Crashers, Lady Killer In A Bind.

Strategic dating is good:

predictable

choose a character you will definitely like

"Game-Like"

clear differentiation between characters

 learn how to interact with people

Kindness Coins: dating sims are safe. I can't be hurt, if I get scared I can shut it down. Safe space. Explore sex, relationships, communication.

Counterpoint: Strategic dating is bad:

predictable

replicates shitty real life behaviour "I was nice to you, you should date me", like blaming FPS for violence

Not much fun for the developer

Complex games justify complex mechanics

Tusks: gay orc dating sim. Can enable NPC autonomy. harder than he expected.

Queer relationships (Queer and gay used as synonyms a lot this panel :/) Producing your own games allows you to reflect yourself Coming Out On Top: straight dev, lots of consultation. A bit tropey in parts but not too bad. Tusks: complex variables & approval w queer orcs Lady Killer In A Bind BDSM safety warnings in loading screens The Crown and The Flame it's good to be the queen. Pixelberry just lets you bang anybody. Kind of have to pay to follow the f/f path fully in some games.

Further recs:

Astoria Fate's Kiss: greek gods and mythological figures. Equal partnership with Hades. Medusa's story is full of queer characters, often you feel like the only queer character in a game, normalises it. Alex is non binary.

Brooktown High cheesy typical highschool game. Can be a boy or girl but have to be m/f. A bit dated, so bad that it's good. PSP game.

Pixelberry Choices: can date m or f, choose stuff about PC.

Dream Daddy is a very straight gay game but fun.

Date or Die.  

A game about dating Japanese warlords that may or may not be Destiny’s Princess

The Arcana

Paris the City of Love

Fire Emblem: Fates

Great Personality

There was a liveplay of part of Dream Daddy. The audience voted overhwhelmingly to talk to Damien first.

Are we having fun: Playing games critically

Rami Ismail: @tha_rami Alayna Cole: @AlynaMCole Dakoda Barker: @JiroJames David Hollingworth: @CPTHollingworth Jess Zammit: zammitjess

Distinction between playing for work and fun?

We do this because we like games, except for the games we do in fact hate.

Rami: Started making games before he started playing, modding code in simple ways in QBASIC (this is also how I got started).

Alayna: Being paid in neocoins to make people's profiles. Didn't realise until after highschool that coding skills could be used to make games.

(And then I stopped keeping track of who said what)

Took a while to realise it could actually be a job.

Having been a critic changes the experience, doesn't make it less fun just different. Same with reading or watching tv when you're a writer.

Yonder the cloud catcher chronicles: playing to review took away from her enjoyment because she had to get a review done quickly when it's supposed to be played in a slow, relaxing way.

As a creator he’s looking for shortcuts and tricks. Walks back and forth to test out where he thinks a loading point is. "Did you see that cool action scene?" vs "Did you see that cool slow zoom??"

Played intro area of Mario Odyssey. This is so good I’m angry, time to pack up the games industry.

"I wish I could do that"

Used to be a rule never to give 10/10. Now they do it if they just really love a game.

Have to put a game down to play the next one, it’s frustrating.

Criticism doesn't have to be finding flaws but can be figuring out how it works. Creator’s job is to trick the player into believing that the world of the game is real and the plot is important.

What does it mean to you to play games critically?

Looking at the game means looking at the creator. What are they trying to do or say? How do they execute it? Even AAA games have a group of humans behind them.

Rami cheerfully ruined games for everyone eg FIFA goalies perform worst at the end to give more last minute wins. Every game with percentages is lying. If you are told it's 50% accuracy people expect not to lose more than one time in a row. Humans think stuff is "fair" when it's in their favour.

"It's a platformer where you shoot things...about love." How is that mechanic making you feel love?

Bad games can be informative. Earth Defense Force. Defending cities from giant ants. "I want ants. 1000!" "That can't work with the frame rate" "AND LASERS."

Every bit of a game is controlled. Someone chose every detail to be the way it is. Ask why it is the way it is.

Good to question the choices people see as default. "Did you notice every character is a white dude?" Things that are considered important vs things that are just made "the default"

Is there a conflict as both critic and developer? Even the positive feedback made him feel bad, he just focused on any negative aspect. Conscious as a reviewer of not attacking the developer themselves. Still write spiteful humourous reviews, but avoid attacking developer, know there are things they can do better.

Giving feedback is hard. Rather than questioning intent, help them achieve their intent better.

By the time you get most negative feedback, you know about the flaws, have heard about it all before. Let people be angry for three weeks, then fix. Half the time they end up fine with it.

People who play a game a lot will say it's too easy, if you listen to them you’ll make a game that puts off new players.

A player might say "this weapon is too strong" but they mean "the boss is too easy" or "you get the weapon too early". Listen, but not too hard.

Multiplayer game, teams supposed to be balanced, but one team kept winning. Turned out one had louder guns, made them more aggressive so they won.  FEEDBACK IS HARD.

Who you are giving the feedback to makes a big difference. A student, a friend, a developer you want to help, asked to write a snarky review.

Games CAN be fun, but expecting them to be JUST that is reductive. Games can let you feel something, find catharsis.

We are affected by everything we engage with.

Games are part of a wider industry. Pays peoples wages, needs to be looked at critically.

Even if it's just fun for you, someone else might have a different experience from the same game. I won't tell you what games are for you and you don’t tell me what games are for me.

If you're at PAX you spent money to be here, you care.

"just" for fun implies “fun” is not a great value.

Knowing his game helped someone in hospital deal with pain.

If you want to be a good game maker, play lots of games and see how they're made. Keeping a journal of every game he plays.

If you are playing a game and feel something, figure out why.

When giving a student a game, give them a challenge like "explain X to me", so they have guidance, a direction to go in.

Thinking critically in a fun way: fun to write reviews when you're angry. Critical isn't negative, just more active.

You can't force players to engage in any specific way, just make the game and let them do their thing.

Some players will get really angry anyway so just make your game.

Hype can work against you as a reviewer, makes it hard to be objective if the game disappointed you. Can also be hard to say you loved a game if everyone else hated it.

Balance frustration with a sense of achievement. Frustration is a tool, as is a grind. The “random” drops aren’t entirely random: if you haven't gotten anything good in a while it'll give you something nice, and if you get a good drop too early it gets held back. Testing, see how people feel. If people aren't complaining you're doing something wrong. If everyone complains about all classes it's balanced.

Nanojam 3.0: Wacky Live Game Design

Jason Imms, Rami Ismail, Paul Verhoeven, Leonie Yue, Maize Wallin, Lucy Morris

So a little before this started my body went NOPE NOPE NAP TIME, and while I did manage to drag myself in near the end I wasn’t up to taking notes. I had a great time though, it was hilarious. The panel got given silly ideas for games and brainstormed them together, while an artist drew illustrations.

The State of Queer in games

Ashton McAllen @acegiak Saf Davidson @wanderlustin Charlie Francis kennedy @CharliethGfish Alayna Cole @alynamcole queerly represent me Jess Zammit @zammitjess David Hollingworth @cpthollingworth

What have the panelists played in 2017 that was really good queer rep:

Horizon Zero Dawn subtle, sidequests, feels very natural

Tacoma lesbian couple part of the main cast. Very cute, positive and real.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mystery has cute background f/f couple.

Life is Strange Before the Storm isn't very gay yet but is going to be.

Mighty Games added queer couple to the background of Charming Rooms, support for marriage equality in update in Shooty Skies. Good place to work, big "Vote Yes" sign on the window.

Dream Daddy: lets you choose your previous partner and how child was born, cool as an adopted person. (Also makes it easier to play trans character)

Pyre: choose pronouns

Lady Killer In A Bind lets you skip sex scenes, has an option in the menu you can change at any time. 

Night in the Woods. Background m/m couple.

Little moments that people enjoyed:

Heartstruck app dating sim (you ate the daughter of a president) LI actually SAYS she is bi. (not sure if the same as Lovestruck?)

Hacknet Labyrinths: Incidental queer content is good, rather than PLOT TWIST THEY'RE TRANS.

Criminal Case Pacific Bay: Background f/f in a hidden object game.

Recs from audience:

Overwatch made Tracer a lesbian, but only in extended content. In that case not so bad because of the nature of the game. All back stories are extended content (compare to harry Potter). She has a line in the game where she mentions her girlfriend.

Tides of Torment Numenara: 2 body types and 3 pronouns.

Stumbling blocks and salt:

Mass Effect Andromeda: had trans character tell you her deadname. At least they fixed it.

Where are the explicitly ace and bi characters??

Lost phone turns out to be owned by trans woman, feels really vouyeuristic, inspiration porn. No agency or voice.

Why isn't there more incidental queerness??? So easy!!

Don't rec stuff to us JUST because it's queer if it's not something we'd enjoy. 

Only representation is aliens and robots.

Even in most games with incidental queerness it's a tiny drop in a sea of heteronormativity.

South Park lets you pick your gender etc and you get attacked for whatever it is. The fact it happens to cis people won't make it less awful for trans characters. Game designers need to talk to people with diverse POVs and have diverse teams.

Why not 3 body types, or sliders? Saints Row is the bar.

Encountered none as a reviewer of AAA games over 2017 (was playing as a dude in Mass Effect Andromeda and got bored before encountering any queer content)

Can make Shelob a sexy woman but not add queerness to Tolkein??

Annoyed that it's SO notable that a character has a gender neutral pronoun option.

As a trans person I am escaping my shitty life as a trans person, I don't need that in a game.

List of demands:

Gender neutral pronoun options if there’s a gender/pronoun choice. Charlie will help you.

Bisexual anything.

Asexual humans.

Robots having sex.

Incidental queers.

Explicitly non binary characters, not necessarily androgynous.

[camtosh]

My Take of E3 2017 (very long post)

I’m not exactly a writer so this post won’t be perfect, full of mistakes and whatever but I have proof read it so hopefully it wont be too bad. I’ve also put a recap at the bottom of the post incase you don’t want to read it all.

EA

Starts off with typical EA yearly releases, Madden, Need for Speed, FIFA and NBA, nothing to be excited about. Showed a new co-op game called A Way Out which looks really cool, a split screen game this generation was badly needing and I’m glad someone took a risk to make one. Teaser trailer for Anthem, which we will get to later, and DLC for Battlefield. Finished with Battlefront 2 gameplay, although I was disappointed to not have Galactic Conquest we did get Skirmish and new class system which is more like the old Battlefront games. Amazing looking game and something to look forward too!

Microsoft (xbox)

Xbox One X (not exactly the best name but who really cares, the same was said when the One was released) announced at £450/$499 which I think is a reasonable price and will be buying one for that sweet true 4k graphics! Forza 7 shown and a Porsche appears on stage and no-one is surprised/seemed to care, myself included. New Assassins Creed is shown and is set in Egypt which I think is a fantastic setting and is hopefully a breath of fresh air since they took a year extra for more development time. Gameplay of a really interesting game is displayed for us to find out its a new Metro game, I haven’t played any of them before but that trailer made me want to check them out. Battlegrounds coming to the xbox, feel like this is a big deal but as I haven’t played it on the PC I don’t know why. State of Decay 2 made me remember that I no longer care for zombie games. The Darwin Project starts off with ESports commentary to let us know that they want this game to be an ESport (I don’t see that happening). 2D DBZ game announced and looks great but not something I want to pick up. The annual indie game montage showed some promising games that will probably end up being free in the games with gold program. Sea of Thieves gameplay really surprised me, something that I think I would love to play with some friends. Crackdown 3 announces Terry Crews is a part of the game which is basically an instant sell because who the fuck doesn’t love Terry Crews?! Super Lucky’s Tale is announced which looks like a children’s platformer, got to target that demographic I guess. Shadow of War gameplay is given to us and it looks really good, nemesis system is awesome and they made the game better by adding a strategic approach to attacking strongholds which I think is really cool. Now we are shown gameplay for Anthem. What is this fucking game? Did the devs just pick and choose things from every game and just throw it in their own? Titanfall/Destiny vibes too it, fly like Iron Man in an exo suit that reminds me of Fallout power armour and the game looks like it has the same setting as Evolve/Horizon. That being said it’s probably the most exciting looking game of the whole show and I want it now because I fucking love loot shooters. Finally end the show with the news that Xbox Original games will be coming to the backwards compatibility program which is cool I guess but I think I only ever played Halo on it 😂 I’m probably biased towards Xbox but I do think that they put on the best show this year.

Bethesda

Why even bother with a conference if you are just going to have a pre rendered video introduce everything? They showed VR for games that have been out for ages and DLC for Dishonoured 2. Paid mods are back, I’m sure that will go down well. A couple of sequels,The Evil Within 2 and Wolfenstein 2 announced which almost saved the terrible conference. Wolfenstein 2 looking the better of the two and seem like it has a compelling story. They close their show by letting us know that Quake still exists. Terrible showing from such a good company, shame.

Ubisoft

No Aisha Tyler!?! well ok. The first 15 mins of the show is all about Mario and Rabbids for the Switch, seems a bit boring to me but its Mario so it well sell millions. More Assassins Creed stuff that didn’t feel like they showed anything different from the Microsoft show. The Crew 2 and Skull and Bones are announced which look cool I guess. Even more South Park trailers, I honestly thought it was out already. A new IP called Starlink is announced and looks like a skylanders/amiibo thing. Gameplay trailer for Farcry 5 looked really good, 10/10 for the dog that brings you guns. They finished by announcing Beyond Good and Evil 2 which I’m guessing is a big deal, I never played the PS2 game but that trailer looked fun. Kinda boring show all round for Ubisoft, they spent a lot of time not very exciting games.

Sony

What the fuck Sony? You usually put on the best E3 show and you didn’t seem to care that much this year. They opened with the final trailer for the Crash Bandicoot remake which made me very nostalgic but not really hyped for a game I’ll probably get. I said before that I’m bored of zombie games but I think Day’s Gone looks like it can give them one last chance. Monster Hunter Wold was shown and that got me happy, I’ve always wanted to play them on console rather than a handheld. Shadow of the Colossus remaster is shown and I personally think looks incredible, 100% something I want to pick up. Gameplay trailer for COD: WW2 which to me just felt like a bunch of planes falling out of the sky and not much else, looks pretty though. DLC for Horizon was announced which I might get because that game is amazing! More trailers for God of War 4 and Destiny 2, the latter of which still has year long timed exclusives which is just ridiculous. Something about a new Gran Turismo game but I didn’t really pay attention because I haven’t played a racing game for a long time. They closed with some Spiderman gameplay which looks awesome! There was loads of cool things shown but the presentation of it felt really strange, like there was no-one to hype everything up.

Nintendo

Nintendo always do good at E3, they don’t need to have a huge conference to put on a fun show. Xenoblade 2 trailer shown and Metroid Prime 4 announced which is cool! Kirby and Yoshi games for the Switch which is increasing the likelihood of me buying a Switch. They very lowkey announce a main Pokemon game like its nothing, fucking what?! ok 100% buying a Switch now. Super Mario Odyssey is given loads of time to show off gameplay and I think it looks brilliant! Nintendo are boosting the need for a Switch in their show and its worked for me at least!

Too Long; Didn’t Read?

So pros and cons of this years show? Aka TL;DR

Cons- Well I think there is maybe one game that I’m desperate to know more about, Bethesdas full show, there was too much VR. There were more boring shows compared to ones that were really gripping and there were very little AAA new IP’s.

Pros- Star Wars looks amazing, the Xbox One X release was very exciting. Sea of Thieves looks like it has potential, Anthem looks so promising, Shadow of War looks like a good sequel and they were not all remasters! And there was Loads of content for the Switch including a main Pokemon game!

I enjoyed this year but my wallet has not.