youmeyou

Splendid.

That top gif gives me Saints Row 4 vibes. It's even all purple and shit!

Civilization maybe? At least until Rome inevitably starts a ground war.

Yeah, I agree with you. I was mostly referring to them engaging in thoughtful discussion on the matter. Can you imagine Maxis making a video about why SimCity pushes such a car-centric, western-centric city model? Every simulation is going to have a political bias based on what it leaves and what it includes. Like I said, the fact that they agree with Pedercini's quote: while at odds with what they have so far done, does lead me to believe they will take his and others' criticism seriously.

It does really seem that they're grounding their simulation in fictional tropes of what a prison is, rather than actual prison research. Which I'm not entirely happy with. But Gormongous has put it much better above. Suffice it to say: It's deeply troubling. When I heard that they didn't even have a clear understanding of UK prisons... It really shifts my understanding of the situation. Previously I had assumed they were going for a less preachy, more "let the player come to her own conclusions" sort of approach; something at odds with Pedercini at the level of methods rather than philosophy (his games usually have a pretty direct message attached). Now I'm not so sure. They are clearly interested in using simulations to better our understanding of the world, but how can we learn from a flawed, fictional understanding? I do think their attitude is great and they have approached the criticism with an impressive amount of respect and attention which is so refreshing and I hope to see more of in the industry. Also an awesome side effect of open game development and early access. There's still plenty of room for them to vastly improve the nature of the simulation. And they already mentioned they had previously been working on some of Pedercini's complaints, parole and recidivism being a huge one.

There's no way that reflects well on them. If they designed a game that plays so much like AC that a previous designer was convinced his animation tools were used as middleware, and didn't even pause to consider the similarities... that's not exactly a good sign regarding the depth of their pre-production and planning.

That's my background too, so it's great to read stuff like this. I'm not exactly sure yet how much I want to get into the nitty gritty of programming, but it does seem a lot more accessible now than it ever was. I love the idea mentioned of prototyping in Twine or Processing. Might be a good way to craft and refine an idea, then pitch it and find someone who's actually proficient at programming to jump on board.

Yeah the above ground sections, especially the downed airplane section, could have used a few more passes of testing. Admittedly, the same gas mask impasses occurred in the first game and kind of made me love it all the more, but I never ran into the same weird wild-goose chases for "Important Items" that I did while playing Last Light.

I watched the documentary Pedercini recommended (House I Live In) and it talks about prison technology conventions among many other subjects. It's a excellent doc that I recommend everyone watch.

Some interesting critical writing on the politics of Prison Architect: http://kotaku.com/what-to-do-with-prison-architect-a-video-game-about-b-1505204131

Ah whoops, my bad for conflating the terms.

The only thing I'd point out is Kickstarting is emphatically not the same thing as investing. It's charity but with an attached promise of some "gift" for donating. A fancier version of when NPR gives you tote bags for donations. Kickstarter gifts are usually products which I think is what leads to the confusion of identity for backers. I agree (if that's what you're saying) that documentary episodes should be open to anyone who wants to watch them. I backed the project but haven't watched a one. I'm sure there's plenty of potential buyers who might get swayed after watching all the behind the scenes stuff that's going into the game. I'm not entirely sure that withholding information is as economically beneficial as everyone sincerely believes it is.

Did Save the Date (http://paperdino.com/save-the-date/) come out in 2013? Because the more I think about it, the more I think it did a better job of making the same point that Stanley Parable was striving to make. Both are excellent but I think I was more swayed by the argument made in StD, perhaps because the ostensible game goal was more clear and the pitfalls more interesting.

I don't really care about the difficulty levels, but I do wish some elements of the game had taken note of the progress made since adventure games went out of fashion. For example: clicking on the same object twice should produce different lines of dialogue or none at all. Repeated audio cues realllly takes me out of the experience and feels avoidable. Which is a shame because the rest presentation really is excellent. Love the voice work and the general aesthetic. Another thing that bothered me was the stilted nature of the dialogue trees. Mass Effect Fallout even Walking Dead all proved that it's way more interesting to be able to choose what you're going to say next while the person is answering the first question. I don't think the same dialogue system that worked for Monkey Island can work here. It makes conversations feel super unnatural. (Maybe monkey island got away with it because it didn't use audio)

Just had a few super laggy games, so it's definitely not perfect. Still played despite the lag so that says something.

hmm. http://savygamer.co.uk/2014/01/14/the-broken-age-embargo-is-a-bit-of-a-joke/

this is sooooo good. netcode seems fairly smooth from about 1.5 hrs of play. matches are an utter joy. you think you've uncovered all the tactics and then a whole new layer is unraveled - this happens repeatedly.

Bjorn I completely agree with your sentiment that there's an unhealthy amount of sexual repression in our culture but I don't think that condones acts of misogyny and gross objectification. By all accounts Katawa Shoujo is an interesting sex-oriented game that is thoughtful in its presentation though I have not played it. But this is an interesting piece on it: http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2013/12/katawa-shoujo-sex-stuff-in-games-and.html Anyway, I don't think one extreme justifies another. I think the way Riddick's female characters were written was disgusting and I think the above image is disgusting. There are ways to enjoy sex and sexual imagery without engaging in stuff like this.

QFT but for everyone regardless of gender.

I really enjoyed this video of Rust but it eradicated any desire I have to actually play it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=I_qTqZaMkn8

Jesus that's the stuff of nightmares.

GTAIV wins for best PSA against drunk driving. Shits hard yo! The Mass Effect drinking scenes may be unrealistic but they usually had the most interesting scenarios. Tended to feel like inspiration drawn from a detective serial. Whether it was getting roofied by the Turian in ME1 to trying to seduce the Asari on the dance floor in ME2 there was always an interesting scenario playing out within the context of the space-bar. So I guess it gets points more for design and plotting than novel mechanics.

I feel like all consoles need to do in response then is have their own sales. Wouldn't that undercut most of the positive momentum of a Steam OS? I mean no one's really excited about using Linux, are they?

Oh so you can't board any of them? I just thought I overkilled it... that is lame. Do you get gold automatically?

FWIW I don't think attention to details from the original film will have any real tangible effect on the quality of the game. Only good design will do that, which is apart from the source material. I mean, Colonial Marines hired actors from Aliens and did all sorts of background research.