#the news of the pax demo motivated me

[shadycatdraws]

Cooked up an idea for an au where y/n befriends a version of Eclipse that exists as a sentient being within their vr headset

[thedeadthree]

AYRENN (the exile) // BELLONA (m*cu/the sandman)

ELISAVET (vampire the masquerade) // LÍADÁIN (amr)

PETRA (the sandman) // VINDAMEA (tes skyrim)

FALKA (dnd) // LIOSLAITH (dnd)

the dears @shellibisshe, @dihardys, @risingsh0t, @belorage, @florbelles tagged me to make the girls in this cutest picrew! ty so much!

TAGGING: @griffin-wood, @chuckhansen, @queennymeria, @multiverse-of-themind, @yennas, @adelaidedrubman, @arklay, @roberthouses, @marivenah, @aartyom, @celticwoman, @loriane-elmuerto, @blackreaches, @rosebarsoap, @swordcoasts, @leviiackrman, @confidentandgood and you!

[aurimeanswind]

Back Again—Sunday Chats—7/8/18

Welcome Back!

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, and I wanted to open up with a bit of a litany of excuses as to why that is! I know when you’re just on the outside looking in its hard to know exactly why I haven’t been posting these or asking questions, or really anything on Sundays. It’s a combination of things.

First of all, the last two Sundays I have not been home to write up Sunday Chats. Three weeks ago I was in Cuba! Well, technically I was at Key West, the day before I’d go to Cuba, on a cruise ship. Most importantly, the only internet access I had was through the data on my cell phone, and so I couldn’t really post Sunday Chats. In theory, I could solicit questions via my phone, I could write it up offline, and then go on and post it when I’d get home the following Wednesday, but I really didn’t want to because it was honestly a genuine vacation for me. I wanted to kind of check out and try and not be online so much. Of course, I failed a little bit in this regard, I was checking Twitter ravenously any time I had an internet connection, because I have a problem. For the most part, when I was off on my cruise with my mom and my brothers three weeks ago, I was without an internet connection, and it was a little nice, but also a little stressful.

The week before that, it was E3! We were living in the Microsoft/Bethesda press conferences! I was going to write something that day but honestly between the post shows and just consuming E3 I honestly did not have time. I’ve done like, reaction write ups in the past, but I was a bit more down to live in the moment this go around.

Then I was in San Francisco! It was the day after Kinda Funny Prom, which was lovely, we’ll get to that in a bit, but that Sunday I was seeing a movie with Barrett Courtney, my sweet boy, and was just exhausted after KFP and everything then. I had stayed up way too late the night before talking games and eating pizza. I had a great time, but I was still pretty checked out.

The Sunday between those two, I was completely exhausted. Honestly? I’m still exhausted. The best thing, I think, to alleviate my normal “post-con depression” type thing I get after a Kinda Funny Live event and seeing all my friends is taking another, separate vacation just beforehand. I had barely enough time to stay at home and just sit on my couch and play video games before suddenly being whisked off to San Francisco. So getting home, I am just so happy to be home, to be sleeping in my pitch-black room on my comfy foam mattress. To lay on my couch and play whatever video game I want (which mostly has been Tales of Vesperia... again) and just... relax. Ya know what I mean? I just want to relax. I’m a solitary person. I’ve talked many a-time before on here, but I just love to be alone a lot. And I just want to be alone sometimes, especially after several back-to-back socially exhausting experiences.

And that’s a big part about why I’ve been so crappy about doing Sunday Chats consistently. Even before this last month of vacations I’ve been very touch and go about SC. Now that I have fully transitioned into being a full time employee, I work a lot more than my body is used to, even if I am four months into my new role at my job. It’s a lot for me. And I’m barely keeping up with my IP work of being an editor there. And that’s, I think, more important, because I am making decisions and a team is relying on me for that.

I essentially circle around two days off a week, Wednesday and Sunday, and so I work Thursday-Friday-Saturday, plus I have the podcast on Friday nights. Without getting too into the details, Saturdays at my job take quite a toll. Like, a lot on me, so just making it to Sunday, I’ve genuinely forgotten completely about Sunday Chats because I am sleeping in and resting and just trying to get my bearings. I know it’s not much of an excuse, but I’m hoping to turn Sundays into equally as productive days as they are relaxing. It’s just about finding that balance.

As per usual, my trip to San Francisco was motivational in some ways, so I feel inspired to continue to work harder and do more now that I’m home, and hopefully that can last me until PAX West in a couple months.

But that’s generally where the status of Sunday Chats is. As a big update, while not going into effect quite yet (maybe not even for months) but Sunday Chats will soon transition to be a full feature on IrrationalPassions.com. I think it’s a natural transition and it makes sense. It’ll still be available and accessible to all, but I want to play around with some format ideas I have, and I think it makes sense to be there since it is, predominantly, about video games, as it always kind of was. I want to have these heartfelt chats there, because I think as the “editor-in-chief” of the site, it helps build a rapport with the audience of that site which seems to grow every month.

Now that’s all done, let’s get to the editorial!

My Feelings and Emotions in San Francisco

I like this title because it’s just all about the feels. As many frequent Sunday Chats readers would know, depression is just slowly becoming one and the same with me. Like two amorphous blobs just close enough to each other that they become one. Like slime enemies from Dungeons & Dragons that just jell together on spiritual and self-hatred-like level.

So I’ve been through a rough like... 2018 to be honest. And so being in a place where I was just genuinely surrounded by affection and good vibes was really, really moving for me. I put out a twitter thread about the feeling which I think encapsulates most of what I’d want to say, and you can read that here.

But a big thing is how being in SF has proven to be a huge opportunity for me in the past: a time to “schmooze” as some people say, and talk to people, make connections, market yourself, or just meet as many people as you can and spread “the brand” as much as possible. And honestly, I just wasn’t here for that this year. I’ve gotten to a very, maybe even regressive place in my life, where I’d rather not get out there and try and be at the center of things and meet as many folks as possible. There were certainly several folks I had never met before that I wanted to meet, but for the most part I spent that time focusing on more intimate interactions with specific people.

A lot of this manifested in folks I’ve admired for a great long while, and that’s the fellows at OK Beast. I got to have a real heart to heart with Ian Preschel, someone I just haven’t been as close to for whatever dozen reasons that usually amount to time, and understand him better as a person. I got to have an emotional moment with Moises, someone I admire so goddamn much and for some reason keeps saying I’m the reason he started writing. I got to spitball ideas with Alex Van Aken, my fellow Alex-in-Arms, and share the wonders of running a business Slack with Blessing. They’re people I just genuinely look up to and inspire me legitimately every day, and I’m excited and hopeful to collaborate with them in the future. I have nothing but love for all of them, including Brandon, wherever he is out there.

I got to spend a ton of time with Barrett and Alyssa, my hosts, and Jacob Bryant who was also rooming with me at their place. They’re just family to me. Enough said.

I got to spend a huge chunk of time with Nicole Humphrey and Cameron Abbott, two very special friends to me, and for reasons I’d rather not put on blast here, it was very important to me that this time was worked into my trip, and I’m so glad it was.

Those dense, meaningful interactions are what I live for. It’s literally why I started the show Get Acquainted (new episodes coming soon I promise!) and they were the highlights of the weekend. I won’t list them all here, but suffice to say on a personal level this trip was very important to me, rather than on a “business level” which it has been for me in the past.

Thank you all for being open to wasting your time with me, I’ll be forever grateful.

ONTO GAMES.

What’s On Tap

Hollow Knight

I HAVEN’T TALKED ABOUT THIS GAME ON SUNDAY CHATS AT ALL YET AND IT’S INCREDIBLE OMG.

I love this game.

Final game time was 42h and 7m, and all of it was excellent. Well... Not all of it, there were a couple very frustrating bosses. But most of it was excellent.

One of the best Metroidvanias ever made. Symphony of the Night, Super Metroid, Ori and the Blind Forest, Hollow Knight, and Metroid Prime are the best of the genre full stop. It sits proudly in that number.

Don’t think. Play it.

Unless you really don’t like hard games, because it’s very difficult, but crazy rewarding!

Ys VIII

I just got this pretty recently and am only about four or so hours in, and so far it’s just a wonderful delight.

Compared to the demo I played a great many months ago on PS4, the Switch version does take quite the graphical hit, especially if you have a hangup about anti-aliasing. There are a LOT of jaggies to be seen here

BUT, I think performance wise it’s still very solid. Some hitches here and there, but during combat it’s generally smooth, and that’s what’s most important.

Very good. Recommended.

Captain Spirit

Honestly, there is too much to say here. Don’t hesitate, go play this. I do not care if you’re like Jurge Cruz (social media editor at IP) and are dead inside and don’t like Captain Spirit. It’s free. Go play it.

Nuff. Said.

More thoughts coming soon.

Questions

Remember you can tweet me your questions by looking for my tweet with #SundayChats in it on Sunday afternoons, and you can be a part of this write up! Much love to everyone who always shows up (I’m looking at you Brandon Gann! <3)!

Goddammit Tyler you keep asking me wrestling shit and you know I hate wrestling...

Uhh...

What if I just showed up and was Noctis?

Originally posted by ffxvcaps

A great many things! Event wise, I’m very excited about PAX West. Assuming I can still make it, which I should be able to, it’ll be a blast.

Plus there are new shows and new things coming from IP soon that I am just hyped for.

But let’s be honest with each other? Okay? Let’s all be real here?

Motherfucking Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition.

‘Nuff said.

My favorite Romantic Comedy of All Time just so happens to also be my favorite movie of all time, Silver Linings Playbook.

It is, in my humble opinion, a perfect film. It is the only movie I have watched over 10 times.

It’s very important to me, and while it may seem dumb to many of you, it told me that even fucked up bad people like me can find love in both themselves and others. And I really needed to hear that when that movie found its way to me in 2013.

Good LORD am I the WORST to ask about this. Well, first, Jamie. It was a goddamn pleasure meeting you at prom.

I mean, look at us:

I was very drunk and I’m so sorry.

But on a real level, a few things.

First, I did this horrible thing where I wrote everyday for almost three years straight and that was just a self-made torture and I have to keep myself in shape motivationally speaking or else I’ll have to do that again. And that sounds torturous. But as far as building strong habits I think that did help a lot. I mean, Sunday Chats is a direct by product of that, and I think generally people seem to like SC.

Second, I spend a lot of my brain energy trying not to worry about shit I have zero control over. If I misread a text and think someone hates me for whatever reason, which I do pretty much on a daily basis, I’m either going to text them back and ask, or do nothing, and if I’ve decided to do nothing, then I don’t get to be upset about it. If someone is doing some wack shit, I’m either gonna keep talking to them, or nah. Just do it, and everything else, well there is nothing you can do about it. Usually. But my depressed-adled and crazy-ass garbage brain still spends many an hour worrying about things I have no control over. But I’ll say this, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten better at it. Skill comes with time and age.

Third, I think finding someone on relatively equal footing as you but maybe doing something better or more interesting or just simply different than you can really be motivational. It’s easy to get demotivated by someone else’s success, but words I try and hold onto every goddamn day are “someone else’s success does not equate to your failure”.

I hope that helps!

I have not had a lot this year, unfortunately. Avengers was great? I looooved Ant Man and the Wasp! Adored it. Just saw it yesterday (on Sunday, actually!) and it was phenomenal.

But outside of that I don’t have much. It’s crazy to say that in a year where a new JK Rowling Harry Potter movie is coming out, but Johnny Depp is in that movie and he is fucking human trash and for some reason WB is letting him just waltz around like he hasn’t done horrific things. 

But anyway, I’d very much like to see Fireworks, from the same folks what made Your Name, but the dub wasn’t playing anytime I could see it this past weekend. :(

Maybe if it goes up on streaming soon (which I’m hopeful it will) I can see it.

Outside of that, I got nothing.

As someone who actively dislikes breakfast and most breakfast food, this is tricky for me to answer. I know your whole breakfast fetish Quin, so I won’t shit on you here, but I guess it’d just be a simple bagel (everything bagel. or poppy seed, depending on my mood) or maybe pancakes/waffles.

My thing is waffles/pancakes aren’t breakfast food, they’re anytime food. Or 1am food.

I have traveled a lot yes, but it’s been to a lot of the same places over and over again unfortunately. Not that that’s necessarily bad, but it’s been a lot of SF, Boston, etc, etc. 

Having just gone to Cuba, I finally have a passport! So it’s time.

It’s time Japan. I’m coming to you.

And hopefully Ireland too. But those trips will likely have to wait a bit and be very far from one another.

ISLAND BOY!

Well, that is a nightmare scenario for me, because I’d definitely die very quickly. BUT. If I had to choose.

First up would be Bentley from Sly Cooper, because he is a big needy nerd like me and would want to get the hell out of there ASAP just as much as I do, and he could make like, a series of small helicopters out of coconuts or some shit.

SECONDLY.... Hrmm.... harder choice.

There is a really great joke here about choosing Fi from Skyward Sword because maybe she could just DOUSE our way to a better situation, heaven knows...

But I’m mostly above that.

I’d say Cappy from Mairo Odyssey just because I just looked at my Cappy hat and it’d be fun to just capture turtles and crabs and stuff on the island. Not Bentley, he’d consider that an invasion of privacy.

I don’t know if YOU should get Detroit, but I absolutely love it. I’d say read Logan Wilkinson’s excellent review of the game, available here:

http://irrationalpassions.com/detroit-become-human-review/

He liked one relationship in that game a lot more than I did, but generally we’re on the same page with it. I love the game, and if Heavy Rain did anything for you then I think Detroit is better in just about every way.

I’ll say this: it’s not like 2018 has been BANGERs for me, but after 2017, where two of my new favorite games EVER came out (Breath of the Wild and Persona 5) it’s just so impossible to follow that up. That being said, I’m medium to high excited about MANY games this fall: Spyro, Tomb Raider, Valkyria Chronicles, AC Odyssey, Life is Strange S2, Code Vein, Darksiders 3, and Smash Bros. That’s a whole lot in just three short months to eat up like some yummy yummy candy.

So while I think he first half of 2018 has been pretty great, mostly because of Hollow Knight, but also Ni No Kuni 2, Celeste, Yakuza 6, and Moonlighter, its still been good. It’s been a big one for me to reconnect with my indie darlings. And that’s big for me.

I hope that helps!

Checklist

It’s been a while eh?

Well here are some recs!

“The Short But Chilling ‘Captain Spirit’ Weaponizes Empathy Against You” - Patrick Klepek - Waypoint.

I have barely read this but everything about it jives with me. Another one to check out only after you’ve played Captain Spirit, which I assume all of you are going to do, because it’s free, and because I asked you so nicely to do so.

The Music of Persona 4 Golden - Blessing Adeoye - OKBeast.com

I mean, it’s about arguably the best video game soundtrack of all time, from one of the best music-takers in games, that just so happens to be on my favorite video game of all time. What do you want? Go watch.

OK Beast Podcast Episode 100 - OKBeast.com

I’ve found myself far more into OKBP since they merged OKB and PPR into one show. Here is their 100th episode, where they decided to rank the best 100 video games ever. For some reason.

Like, what if on Ep 400 of IPP we ranked the top 400 video games of all time? Fuck that.

Love those boys.

That’s it. That’s all she wrote. Or rather, that’s all I wrote. Sorry this posted Monday, I hadn’t checked my work schedule for a minute and then I saw at like, 8:30pm I had to open today and that means I have to wake up at 6am and I figured I should be responsible and get a full night’s sleep. Still didn’t fall asleep until about 10:30am, but I wrote some of this last night.

I’m rambling.

I love you all.

Do me a favor though?

Keep it real.

[brainbeaststudios]

#PAXAUS haul! I went down broke as heck running on fumes and motivation to showcase squirrel wars last weekend, and ended up returning with a lot of really neat stuff! My buddy surprised me with the PAX d6, and I got a whole heap of neat indie stuff! @ardentroleplayapp were demoing their AR DnD software @cantripbrand were there and were super nice about my player screen, and my broke ass only being able to afford a couple of cool stickers. Check their clothes out! @tomandjebinspace gave me a demo copy of I Have The Biggest Sword which I can't wait to play. @syrinscape_app gave me a bunch of codes to try out their soundscape which will be coming out for DnD next game. @gameslaboratory dice bag for my new @foambrain metal giant D20. A cool mini from the @reaperminiatures paint and take. @cheinara gave me a set of Breakaway dice, so now I HAVE to find my copy of the prototype rules and playtest the heck out of it, and you should play too! @campaigncoins were there and I was pleasantly surprised at how affordable their GORGEOUS coins are, so I got one of each metal type. @bellumsacrum game from Anthony to review! And some other miscellany that I can't wait to go into more in depth later. Go check all these folks out, they're super cool! https://www.instagram.com/p/B3nXc1XBllq/?igshid=ibjxqib8iky9

[operationrainfall]

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I always tout myself as a fan of indies, which is why every year I attend the SIX AKA Seattle Indies Expo. Not only are they chock full of indies every year, but these are indies from my neighborhood, the PNW. So I’m even more motivated than normal to see what my fellow coffee critics and raincoat fashionistas have to share. This year the SIX had 25 different games, and I had a whole list full that I wanted to demo. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was more packed than I expected, so I was only able to push through crowds to play a handful. Thankfully, the handful I got to play were all very interesting in their own unique ways. Let’s start alphabetically with a descent into madness.

SIX Game #1 – From Beyond: Prologue Developer – SuckerFree Games

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I should point out right here that the type of games which From Beyond: Prologue are based on are ones I largely have little experience with. Games like Deja Vu, Shadowgate and Uninvited. But I have played more and more VNs and mystery / horror games of late, so I figured I’d trust my gut and take a chance. Which turns out to have been a good choice, since I was really captivated by From Beyond: Prologue. The game takes place in 1910. You play a professor on a expedition in the mountains of Europe, and things quickly go wrong. You are separated from your supplies, wild animals are hunting you, and you have a pounding headache that occasionally sounds like voices talking to you.

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As the demo progressed, things only got stranger and stranger. There was evidence of foul play everywhere, as well as mysterious ruins that somehow beckoned to me. Then I was almost deafened by a shrill screech I thought was the fire alarm in the building I was in, but turns out it was the friendly voice in my character’s head communicating. I got wonderful Alan Moore and H.P. Lovecraft vibes while playing From Beyond: Prologue. I even managed to live for a while before circumstances caught up to my character. It’s a really immersive and plot rich experience, and those are often the games I strive to play. If that all sounds interesting, the best news is that From Beyond: Prologue wasn’t just playable at Seattle Indies Expo, it’s also available to buy right now. Just be ready for a challenging and spine tingling adventure!

SIX Game #2 – Wildfire Developer – Ryan Kubik

Much as I enjoy the occasional puzzle game, I’m far from amazing at them. Which is probably why I failed so often playing Wildfire. The premise is that you need to protect people’s homes from, you guessed it, wildfires, which you do by switching adjacent tiles until you are safe. This is much harder than it sounds, especially since fires will jump to adjacent tiles quickly, and often you can only make certain moves without burning everything to ash.

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Wildfire is pretty much a hardcore, minimalist puzzle game. I was pretty wretched at it, but I did enjoy when I was smart enough to find occasional bouts of success. If you like puzzles and love challenge, then I’d check Wildfire out. If that sounds too tricky though, you might just let Smokey put these fires out.

SIX Game #3 – The Wind and Wilting Blossom Developer – Picklefeet

I’m gonna be completely transparent here, and say that The Wind and Wilting Blossom was one of the games I most anticipated playing at Seattle Indies Expo. I do my research, and the art style and genre both spoke to me. The art style is done as a tribute to Japanese woodblock prints, and it’s quite striking. As for the combat, it takes inspiration from games like FTL, so this is a roguelike with permadeath and meaningful decision making. In a weird way, this almost reminded me of playing The Oregon Trail back in my youth. You never knew what decision was the right one, but you knew someone was getting sick or eaten eventually.

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I thought the combat in The Wind and Wilting Blossom was easy to understand, but also quite challenging. You maneuver about a hex shaped grid and can move and attack in the same turn. Most foes were simple but ruthless, and I eventually lost to a couple of large Oni thugs. If the gashadokuro don’t get you, the Oni will! As for making decisions and progressing outside of combat, your choices would often result in getting new items or being punished for your acts of cruelty. I even found a few new recruits that way, which was nice.

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While the demo I played was relatively simple, I enjoyed what I saw so far of The Wind and Wilting Blossom. If you are also fascinated by this game, you can help it out on Kickstarter right now. It’s aiming for Steam currently, but I’m sure it could also come to consoles with enough support. Plus, if you want to try it yourself, there’s a free alpha demo on the Kickstarter page.

SIX Game #4 – Wintermoor Tactics Club Developer – EVC

Quick fun fact – I had the chance to play Wintermoor Tactics Club at Seattle Indie Expo last year, and opted not to for a stupid reason – because the game features snowball fights. When I heard the premise is that the game plays like the snowball fight from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, I thought that sounded silly. I should have payed more attention, since while snowball fights are a feature in the game, they’re far from the only one.

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Wintermoor Tactics Club is a story about a school where the fate of the universe was decided in a most unconventional way. You’re at a school when students start disappearing, and it’s up to the remaining school clubs to find the truth and put a stop to things. The demo had me playing a group of children that regularly played D&D style games, and I got to play a battle where all my club members were thrown into a tactical RPG setting against goblins and the sort. I quickly understood the combat, and found it satisfying. But of more interest was the plot, and the undertone of sinister mystery at an otherwise upstanding and normal school environment.

Coupled with great art, sound and writing, Wintermoor Tactics Club has the potential to be a great game. It’s slated to release later in 2019 on PC, though I’d love it on consoles as well. Can you survive your time at Wintermoor Academy, or will your exploits be erased? Only you can decide by trying the game yourself!

As always, I had a really fun time trying these diverse titles at Seattle Indies Expo. Sure I wish I had been able to play some more, but that would have involved moving people, and that’s far from the best option in such a laid back and cool environment. Thanks to everybody I met with, and be sure to check all 4 of these indie titles out.

PAX West 2019: Seattle Indies Expo (SIX) I always tout myself as a fan of indies, which is why every year I attend the SIX AKA Seattle Indies Expo.

[offgridthegame]

Sorting out motivational issues

Hello!  It’s Pontus here this time. You've already read about us recently making a trip to USA for GDC and PAX, and about the push for new content and polish we did before that.  As things go, that kind of quick development tends to mean lots of new stuff is added at the last minute, and sometimes maybe not tested in every possible situation.  Or there's a good chance there are some odd bugs and things that only appear after a while, or in very specific conditions.  Things that in the long term would get noticed, added to our bug list, and eventually fixed... but in a 4-week rush, things sometimes go less than perfectly and some features might end up being a bit buggy.

In multiple ways, sometimes.

Most of my sprint was spent on fixing biggest issues we found in our PAX build, and most of that didn't end being much to talk about.  But one of the bugs ended being a bit more interesting to figure out, and while I'd usually prefer talking about design, I though some insight on this side of game development could still have some value.  So, this is going to be more or less accurate story of our guards not behaving as intended, as I saw the issue through bug reports on our Jira board, and watching people play the game & testing things myself afterwards trying to figure out what exactly was going wrong.  And also a nice example of how the most obvious explanation often isn't quite true!

There's something wrong with our guards

So, the first thing I heard was one of the other team members saying our guards were sinking to the floor, in t-pose (which is basically a clean starting pose used for character animation, standing with your arms at 90 degree angle to your sides). Not what you'd want to see in the game, but my immediate guess was that there's just a missing animation file somewhere, which would be easy enough to open the animation tree, figure out what's missing, drop the file in, and it's fine.

The second problem, which was noticed during PAX, was that sometimes the guards just seemed to stare straight at the player, but not actually react in any way. Of course there's a distance check for how far away they can see you, and also the lights and shadows affect the player visibility, so it's not so easy to say for sure. But it seemed like they should have spotted the player.

So we did what you do when demoing a game at events, not being able to open Unity and debugger... we watched people playing it and noticed some things.

The guards seemed to work fine, until they went for a coffee break. When they did, they sometimes seemed to continue drinking coffee, either just spending the rest of their working day hanging around the vending machines sipping coffee, or sometimes taking their coffee with them, going to patrol but constantly stopping to sip a bit more from their cups. (Actually, that sounds pretty realistic! :D  Sadly it didn't look great, and wasn't the behavior we wanted from them. And they didn't bother to chase the player any more, which is less than optimal for a stealth game).

So, more info added to to Jira bug reports, and since we had just added the animations and related AI actions for the guards to do the coffee breaks (rather than just standing next to the vending machine for a bit to "take a break", something missing in the animation tree and probably in the AI action seemed a pretty likely explanation).  Now I just had to survive people running into same issues over and over again until the PAX weekend was over and I was back at my desk with Unity again.  Always great to see your work being broken again and again without being able to do anything about it!  :D

Debugging and fixing the bug

The first thing I did was open a scene with few guards and a vending machine in it, and just let the game run with error log open to see if I could observe the same issues, and if there were any useful errors.

After half a day, I hadn't seen the "t-pose through floor" issue, but I definitely did notice the guards gave up their work day around the first coffee break.  Sadly no useful errors appeared, and even with our AI tools open everything seemed fine, the guards took a break, and returned to patrol (based on what AI was doing), yet on-screen they stayed drinking coffee instead.

So, maybe we were right about animation issues. Time to open the Animator window.

(not the exact Animator setup I was facing, this screenshot is from earlier in sprint so it's missing some gestures we added later)

The states seemed OK, we were triggering a "gesture" with a number code to tell which gesture to play. It would then play one of the states, check for when the animation has completed, and then tell our animation controller script it's done. There are some issues with that, which I'll get into a bit later, but at least that should work for the guards to complete the gesture and get back to patrol. So I needed some other explanation.

...Half a day more of staring at the guards walking around the level, with various logs and inspector windows open, trying to see what could be wrong.  And then I noticed it.  The AI takes breaks when it runs out of "motivation."  Motivation in this case is pretty much just a number we track, decreasing it a bit for every boring task they do, and then when it reaches 0, we tell the AI it wants to take a break, which will then restore the motivation.  But for some reason it wasn't being restored. The guards would go for the coffee break, but somehow the coffee wasn't refreshing them at all, so they kept drinking more, and more, and more!

It turns out the gesture system was telling the animation system that it was done playing the gesture, but nothing was informing the rest of the AI that it's fine, you've completed your gesture action. So, with a few more lines of code the guards were now returning to patrol after few sips of coffee to refresh themselves.

Kind of.  They were indeed returning to patrol, but would still sometimes keep staring at the player in front of them like you were invisible. Or happily drink their coffee as if they were thinking that the odd guy running around the office building in the middle of the night was someone else's problem during their coffee break. And that's where the aforementioned problem with the gesture animation setup comes to play. The characters would start the gesture, then go through the animations, and then tell the AI to complete the action and start doing something else.  But what if the player walk past the guard while he is in middle of the gesture?  We needed to add a way to break them away at any point if the AI tells there's something more important to do:

Slight pain to set up, but basically, every single animation state needs to have two exit transitions, one for when the animation completes normally, and other that can be triggered by the AI and set up to immediately interrupt everything and exit the gestures tree.

This seemed to work:  I ran around the guards, interrupting them in different ways and at different times during their breaks, and they now reacted immediately, dropped their coffee cups, and started chasing me.  Bug fixed!

...or more debugging and fixing more bugs.

While doing some final testing to confirm the bug was now gone, I somehow got the guards even more confused.  Now they were correctly reacting to me and starting the chase, but then sometimes just ended up stopping in middle of everything, with their AI not able to figure out what to do.

That was odd, as based on the logs, the guard was happily chasing the player, waiting for the chance to fire his taser (probably with a grin on his face even though our characters in general don't have mouths!).  He lost the sight of the player, so he made an estimate where the player might be, but couldn't find anything.  And then it all goes wrong.  At that point, the guards should go into search mode, where they select a bunch of search points from the level around them, then jog to each of those locations looking for the player, and after doing this for a while decide the player must have disappeared and return to normal patrol.  But sometimes the guards would just completely give up instead - the AI not being able to come up with any sensible plan left the character frozen in place.

So I spent another hour running around the level, trying to get the guard to see me, and then trying to escape him in different ways and in different places, looking for some kind of pattern at least.  Let's just say it's not easy - the guards are pretty good at catching you.  Eventually, I noticed that this only happened sometimes (but not always) when I was running up the stairs from our test scene lobby. To be fair, that's just about the only way I could actually escape from the guards in that level, so it took a while before I even started considering that the stairs might have something to do with it.  And of course, verifying that as the reason was even harder, since now it wasn't enough to get the guards to see me and then escape, but I also had to make that happen so I'd escape exactly at right time while running in the stairs, with enough distance between me and the guard.

Indeed, that ended up being the very specific situation which was triggering the AI confusion.  I probably would have never even ran into it if I hadn't spent that much time testing for the animation/AI/coffee break issue in the same level.  After some nosing around in our code, I found an old hack we had put in place earlier to prevent the guards from using stairs (we had some issues with bit too steep incline on some stairs earlier, but the limitation should have been removed already).  I found a line of code that was pretty much saying “if your target is more than 2 meters above or below you, you can't go there.”  And, annoyingly, it was doing it bit too late to really work nicely to start with, so the AI had already set the target and planned for it, and then that line was just saying that the plan can't be done. Not that the AI would have any other plan to work with, so all it could do was throw its hands up in the air (metaphorically, although I'd really like to actually add an animation for that in the game!) and give up.

Done!

So, after few days, and staring through tons of code, and carefully observing the Animator trees, and our AI inspector, and tracking values in the code, what we thought was one bug somewhere messing up the guards and making them not see the player (and maybe play wrong animations) it actually ended being a bunch of separate issues that all just happened to surface at the same time, plus one more which I only found because of all the testing I had to do to figure out the others.

As for the "Sinking into floor in T-pose" bug I started with?  I was never able to replicate it.  Not a single time during all this, even though I even had a screenshot as evidence.  Maybe it was some even more odd glitch, or maybe it was fixed as a side-effect of something else I did, I have no idea.  But I haven't heard any complaints about that happening from the rest of the team either, so I decided to just mark that bug as "fixed" in Jira as well. :D

Also, after getting annoyed about trying to get spotted and escape a very specific situation again and again, while also trying to monitor logs and other stuff, I ended making good use of our Lua apps system, and made one that turns the player invisible. That took about 10 minutes to do, so at least our apps system is showing some great potential here.  I don't see this one being an actual feature in the game for obvious reasons, but it is great tool for testing the levels and debugging AI!

That's it for now, maybe I'll get to talk about more design-y stuff next time!

Pontus

If you haven’t already - be sure to wishlist Off Grid on Steam - each wishlist makes a big difference to us, and we really appreciate your support!

[no-zaku-boy]

Good things because times is tough.

Returning to the wastes next week. I’ve been struggling with a prolonged low lately and finding it hard to feel much about anything, certainly nothing terribly positive, so I’m hoping that long drive alone into the dust and back out again will help me gain some peace and that being amongst a bunch of (mostly) strangers who are all incredibly welcoming and just plain cool will do me good the way it did last year. I haven’t touched any costumes at all and will probably go in looking pretty shabby, nothing like what I wanted to try to pull together, but that’s alright, there will be a next time, and no one’s judging anyway. I do need to find/make some stuff to barter; I guess since I’m driving this time, I can mix up some boozy treats for trade or to give away. Part of me is still questioning if this is a smart thing to take on, especially in my air conditioning-less car, but hey, I’ve done a lot of not smart things and have some good stories because of it, so let’s roll.

This weekend has either a birthday party and a chance to socialize or a lot of video games in store. Not entirely sure which way it will go, but either will be fun. Oh, and a counter protest against white supremacy to attend. Good weekend ahead.

NOLA trip, Austin’s postponed PRIDE festival, and Oni-Con are all in October, whoooo!

DA @ TRF camping trip in early November! Getting into armour in a tent and trudging around outside all day would definitely give me a better perspective on dat Warden life, but idk if I’m about it and will probably try to put together Morrigan or Sera for comfort’s sake. Whatever I end up wearing, it’ll be cool to connect with other fans and cosplayers who are somewhat local.

I’ve decided that, after Wasteland (and any necessary recovery since I’m sure it’ll take a bit out of me), I want to start devoting time to volunteer work. I try to donate to the causes I care about when I can, but that hasn’t been totally feasible recently, and I’d like to be doing something. When my hours are back down to part time again, I’ll look into volunteering more, too. I’m actually really looking forward to it.

I know it’s a ways away, but I’m SUPER STOKED for PAX South for some reason! I know I have at least one con and one cosplay event before that to prep for, but I can’t stop thinking about the costumes I want to make and getting to demo games with friends and stuff, aaaahhhh~

I’ve somehow managed to keep my weight hovering around the same spot, give or take a couple pounds, despite not going to the gym in forever and eating like shit. Whoo? Idk, I’m glad I haven’t gained a ton in my laziness, but I’ll have to start working out again regularly, probably starting tomorrow.

My Spanish has been slowly improving. Granted, it’s mostly related to the passport application process, but it’s something, damn it. I’m getting way more confident in my ability to help our Spanish-speaking customers and can at least do one useful thing (give and understand directions to a location), so that’s pretty neat and is something I hope to keep building on. I’ve been intending to learn Spanish for so damn long; it’s good to finally be motivated to do it for real real. On top of that, it’s got me brushing up my super rusty French with daily practice through reading the news and working on vocabulary, and I intend to throw Japanese back into the mix asap. P cool.

Things’ll work out, one way or another. Keep on moving.

[symbianosgames]

Videogame libraries can fill the shelves of actual archives with rows of colorful spines; they’re so voluminous it’s easy to forget that videogames have touched on only a fraction of possible subjects--at least, beyond the usually soporific genre of “edutainment.” Shakespeare is one of them.

The Bard’s plays have been subject to many interpretations over the centuries, from postmodernist regietheatre, to TV shows, to Hollywood and Japanese cinema. Like great opera, Shakespeare’s plays are a rich field to explore, begging for reinterpretations that salvage their timeless aspects and foreground what is most appealing about them.

Elsinore, whose elevator pitch is “Groundhog Day meets Shakespeare,” looks set to take up the challenge with a time-looping isometric RPG take on Hamlet. You play as Ophelia. Less passive than Shakespeare imagined her, she responds to her nightmares by trying to alter the fates of her family and kingdom, and make one of the marquee Shakespearean tragedies less, well, tragic. In an added twist, Ophelia is caught in a time loop that forces her to relive the four days of the play’s plot over and over again.

I was able to play a demo at PAX East this year and came away impressed with its layered interpretation of the story. There are conversations you can have, but the core of the game is played out in real time, with the denizens of the titular castle going about their day, undertaking the events that Hamlet is world famous for. Ophelia can explore the grounds, following certain characters and overhearing their conversations or spying on their actions.

It does feel a bit incongruous for there to be certain, clearly secret conversations going on between two characters you’re standing next to who chatter away as if you’re not there. This was explained to me as an expression of Ophelia’s social status, and the fact that she would be deemed unthreatening and uninteresting. It’s an interesting take, one I rather like, but it could stand to be more effectively communicated by the game.

Even so, I was quite charmed. Ophelia works like a detective here, gathering clues and figuring out who to talk to in order to save the day.

There’s value in literary adaptations that go in completely different directions with their source material. Videogames have the virtue of enlisting the player as a co-author, however. To some, a quest to spare Hamlet’s characters from death and despair may be to miss the point, but the nature of a game so copiously and carefully written as this is to allow the nature of a videogame to prise open different themes and motivations. It also allows us to play with that classic storytelling convention from spec fic about how changing the past can lead to unpredictable (and not necessarily better) futures. The demo I played was quite long, and I had to move on before I could get further, so I couldn’t really assess the impact of Ophelia’s actions but I was told that tragedy remains a theme of the game.

It seems likely that Ophelia, rather than crafting a ‘happily ever after’ for everyone, is more in the business of choosing who lives and who dies--and dealing with the consequences. It’s rather in keeping with the overall theme, I think.

Adapting classic source material can be an easy way to find inspiration, but it’s worth remembering a few key things. First, one should have a good sense of why a particular piece of material should be adapted by you specifically; what do you bring that others haven’t? Secondly, understand what an adaptation can do and view that as your creative mandate. An adaptation of a work can 1) bring certain themes into the foreground to be explored more fully, 2) be more relatable to modern and/or more diverse audiences, and 3) do something dramatic that would, for one reason or another, have been impossible for the source material’s creator; this could be anything from special effects to altering some aspect of the narrative.

I think back to opera a lot; as a genre it thrives on adaptation. Though originalist stagings of opera can be found worldwide, just as many are updates that--while maintaining the original libretti and score--change their context through stage settings and costumery. One recent Met staging of Giulio Cesare, an 18th Century Handel opera about Julius Caesar’s storied romantic adventures in Egypt, updated it by turning into something more suited to Handel’s time and casting Caesar as a British general in India. The staging fused Bollywood dance to the orchestral strains that accompanied certain scenes. And it worked a treat.

For opera, where changing the score or libretti would be considered an unforgivable sin, the magic of interpretation lies entirely in the colors adorning the stage--and it does a lot to change or surface the meaning of events on stage, which can combine beautifully with the unique touch every performer and orchestral conductor gives their performance. It’s what can make two different performances of the same opera completely unique experiences.

What does this look like in videogames? Elsinore gives us some powerful hints for sure. There are some clever re-imaginings taking place as well--such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern being itinerant women, or certain characters being related to Mediterranean and Near Eastern merchants. And unlike most educational games, it might actually be interesting to young people who are developing a taste for RPGs, providing an infinitely better way than Cliff Notes to engage with the Bard in a more compelling way.

Personally, though, I’m pulling for these folks to make a sequel about Macbeth.

[operationrainfall]

I’ll admit that I decided to demo REZ PLZ for two reasons – the title and the art. The former is a casualty of being an English major, I get drawn in easily by quirky wordplay, and had to know what REZ PLZ meant. I quickly learned it stood for “resurrection please”, which only made me fonder of the game. As for the art, it’s very colorful and detailed pixel art, and that sort of thing always draws me like a moth to flame. But you’re probably not reading this piece to understand my motivations, you probably want to know how REZ PLZ plays. I’ll get to that shortly, but first humor me as I spend a little time talking about the game and its developers.

REZ PLZ is developed by Long Neck Games and set to be published by Graffiti Games. Though I’m familiar with the latter, I hadn’t heard of Long Neck Games before. Turns out, they’re a team of brothers, which is kind of funny given the premise of the game. You play a couple of brothers, Arcan and Zeph, two pretty untalented wizards in training. The have pretty incompetent skills, and have only mastered one scroll, a simple yet effective resurrection spell. That skill is the cornerstone of the entire game, since often you’ll have to sacrifice one brother to progress. But worry not, a quick resurrection and you’re off to the races again!

If that sounds delightfully twisted, then you probably have siblings of your own. As a single child, I probably missed some of the nuance of brotherly bonds, but as someone with a dark sense of humor, I really enjoyed this premise. What’s great about REZ PLZ is that it’s a platformer with puzzle elements, and not the other way around. I’m usually horrible at complex puzzle games, but I excel at platforming. You can tell the brother who programmed the game knows his way around the platformer genre, since it feels tight and satisfying. I never died cause of bad controls, always cause of my own impatience or incompetence. I found the gameplay worked very, very well, and I was eager to play as much as possible. I got to actually play the demo with the other brother, also a Joshua, and he’s the mind behind the art direction. I truly was impressed by that as well. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that without the art direction luring me in, there’s a chance I might not have demoed REZ PLZ, which would have been a mistake on my part. But best of all, the game is playable either single player or local co-op.

As you progress through the game, you will learn new spells to help you get around, but the concept of murdering one brother to progress will be a recurring one. I was very pleasantly surprised by REZ PLZ, and am looking forward to the final build. It’s slated to release on Steam, Xbox and Nintendo Switch next year, and I personally cannot wait. To get an even better impression of the style of the game, just check out this trailer.

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PAX West 2019: REZ PLZ I'll admit that I decided to demo REZ PLZ for two reasons - the title and the art.

[symbianosgames]

Videogame libraries can fill the shelves of actual archives with rows of colorful spines; they’re so voluminous it’s easy to forget that videogames have touched on only a fraction of possible subjects--at least, beyond the usually soporific genre of “edutainment.” Shakespeare is one of them.

The Bard’s plays have been subject to many interpretations over the centuries, from postmodernist regietheatre, to TV shows, to Hollywood and Japanese cinema. Like great opera, Shakespeare’s plays are a rich field to explore, begging for reinterpretations that salvage their timeless aspects and foreground what is most appealing about them.

Elsinore, whose elevator pitch is “Groundhog Day meets Shakespeare,” looks set to take up the challenge with a time-looping isometric RPG take on Hamlet. You play as Ophelia. Less passive than Shakespeare imagined her, she responds to her nightmares by trying to alter the fates of her family and kingdom, and make one of the marquee Shakespearean tragedies less, well, tragic. In an added twist, Ophelia is caught in a time loop that forces her to relive the four days of the play’s plot over and over again.

I was able to play a demo at PAX East this year and came away impressed with its layered interpretation of the story. There are conversations you can have, but the core of the game is played out in real time, with the denizens of the titular castle going about their day, undertaking the events that Hamlet is world famous for. Ophelia can explore the grounds, following certain characters and overhearing their conversations or spying on their actions.

It does feel a bit incongruous for there to be certain, clearly secret conversations going on between two characters you’re standing next to who chatter away as if you’re not there. This was explained to me as an expression of Ophelia’s social status, and the fact that she would be deemed unthreatening and uninteresting. It’s an interesting take, one I rather like, but it could stand to be more effectively communicated by the game.

Even so, I was quite charmed. Ophelia works like a detective here, gathering clues and figuring out who to talk to in order to save the day.

There’s value in literary adaptations that go in completely different directions with their source material. Videogames have the virtue of enlisting the player as a co-author, however. To some, a quest to spare Hamlet’s characters from death and despair may be to miss the point, but the nature of a game so copiously and carefully written as this is to allow the nature of a videogame to prise open different themes and motivations. It also allows us to play with that classic storytelling convention from spec fic about how changing the past can lead to unpredictable (and not necessarily better) futures. The demo I played was quite long, and I had to move on before I could get further, so I couldn’t really assess the impact of Ophelia’s actions but I was told that tragedy remains a theme of the game.

It seems likely that Ophelia, rather than crafting a ‘happily ever after’ for everyone, is more in the business of choosing who lives and who dies--and dealing with the consequences. It’s rather in keeping with the overall theme, I think.

Adapting classic source material can be an easy way to find inspiration, but it’s worth remembering a few key things. First, one should have a good sense of why a particular piece of material should be adapted by you specifically; what do you bring that others haven’t? Secondly, understand what an adaptation can do and view that as your creative mandate. An adaptation of a work can 1) bring certain themes into the foreground to be explored more fully, 2) be more relatable to modern and/or more diverse audiences, and 3) do something dramatic that would, for one reason or another, have been impossible for the source material’s creator; this could be anything from special effects to altering some aspect of the narrative.

I think back to opera a lot; as a genre it thrives on adaptation. Though originalist stagings of opera can be found worldwide, just as many are updates that--while maintaining the original libretti and score--change their context through stage settings and costumery. One recent Met staging of Giulio Cesare, an 18th Century Handel opera about Julius Caesar’s storied romantic adventures in Egypt, updated it by turning into something more suited to Handel’s time and casting Caesar as a British general in India. The staging fused Bollywood dance to the orchestral strains that accompanied certain scenes. And it worked a treat.

For opera, where changing the score or libretti would be considered an unforgivable sin, the magic of interpretation lies entirely in the colors adorning the stage--and it does a lot to change or surface the meaning of events on stage, which can combine beautifully with the unique touch every performer and orchestral conductor gives their performance. It’s what can make two different performances of the same opera completely unique experiences.

What does this look like in videogames? Elsinore gives us some powerful hints for sure. There are some clever re-imaginings taking place as well--such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern being itinerant women, or certain characters being related to Mediterranean and Near Eastern merchants. And unlike most educational games, it might actually be interesting to young people who are developing a taste for RPGs, providing an infinitely better way than Cliff Notes to engage with the Bard in a more compelling way.

Personally, though, I’m pulling for these folks to make a sequel about Macbeth.