Reyturner

Why should anyone feel bad for Levine? He's spent the last decade making exactly the games he wanted with other people's money. And he still gets to do that. By his own words, Irrational Games is "winding down" specifically so he can keep doing that in the way that pleases him best.

The best part of Half-Life is the chapter "Surface Tension", which I think you're almost at (it's been a while). Maybe use cheats to see it.

Guardians of the Galaxy looks more like Farscape than it doesn't, so I'm fucking in!

We have a LoL thread?

Call the Sun Bros. S&O are designed for it.

I've given up on killing him with his own great sword. Now i'm throwing a +15 Zweihander at him. YOU WILL FALL!!!!!!

Forgiving coop games. The first Video game my wife ever played was Halo ODST and she loved it (once we figured out she needed to invert her controls... maybe it's genetic). Tomb Raider and the Guardian of Light was another big hit.

Have you beat (mother fucking) Knight Artorias?

These last few months have been "The Age of Dark Souls for Some Reason". It's neat. I'm glad too, because I've had it since it was released, but I never really got into it until about 6 weeks ago (due to all the bizarro hype) and now it's basically my favorite video game in the last 10 years.

What do you guys think of this: An Idle Thumbs chat room intended for new players. Like players who can't queue in ranked yet. Not that queuing in ranked should be the goal, just using that threshold as a guideline. Personally, I love dota but I don't get to play a lot. Part of the reason I'm shy about jumping into games with other thumbs is that I don't want to be the dead weight. Playing in a 5 stack with other likeminded, like-skilled players is probably the most fun scenario. It'd be cool to have a way to get that going here, no guild required. I'll bet there is a huge range of skill here, and having a way to find people at about the same level might open things up for some.

"Games Development" is a good title but I think we should all agree that it be pronounced "James D. Velopment". Or not.

If you were going to sum up T-Bone's vibe in one word, it would probably be "savage"... so THAT'S pretty unequivocal. As for Helga, I think it might be the two male characters are being presented as caricatures, absurdly badass, while still ultimately being aspirational while she is just being played up for laughs. I don't think she's intended to represent a confident woman who owns her body, she's intended to be a joke. Without playing the game, I don't know how she's further characterized, but I'm assuming her barks will are in the style of "gross hillbilly idiot".

That Russian fellow in the comments of the guide is being very rude.

Wow, looks like. I guess it has been a while since I last played... They removed it in December. From the dates on the posts I'm seeing it when I was traveling; I missed all the garment rending on reddit. Consensus seems to be that they did it to avoid splitting up the player base further after they introduced Ranked vs. Unranked match making.

I've stripped down to 0 poise (thanks for the Anon cosplay Marvelous Chester) and I'm two handing a +5 Greatsword of Artorias (with a Grass Crest shield for the stamina) w/ the Havel ring and the Armour ring and Inner Power up. I can hit him for 900 but he just keeps tagging me with his back swings. SO FRUSTRATING TT_________TT

I was lucky enough to have gotten sucked into the Painted World with a Fire weapon and Pyromancy, which makes those bloated weirdos a lot easier. You can get through just by running past everything, including the boss (JUST DON'T ATTACK HER!!!). A shield with high stability will make the skeleton wheels a lot easier I've hit a brick wall named Knight Artorias in the DLC, and I'm starting to question the decisions I've made in my life that led me to getting killed by that fucker at least 30 times so far. But I must... finish... Dark Souls......!

Inspired by Dan Carlin's "Death Throws of the Republic", I want to make a competitive game where players take on the role of Roman aristocrats, each with differing strengths in the games various systems, who work together to build and defend the Roman Republic and then fight over it to declare themselves emperor. The players work together to solve problems posed by the game ala Battlestar Gallactica, but when players start feeling like they are strong enough to take on the others, they can turn on each other (the world events would keep happening though). A big part of the the narrative Carlin built was of public officials taking the powers they had been granted by the Senate and corrupting them in innovative ways for their own purposes; because the foundations of government were built on honor and prestige, the system itself was ill equipped to self correct when its leaders became more interested in power and wealth (this is an oversimplification of course, but it makes for a good game... I hope ). These front runners would take a hit in their influence, but eventually their tactics became normalized and became the way of things. This would probably manifest in the game as a Corruption resource, which you can generate with other resources (money, legions, rhetoric), but once you've created it, it increases the base level of Corruption in the game which allows for even more brazen acts of avarice by everyone else. This is most interesting mechanic I want to develop; players balancing their short term goals of growing and defending the Republic and then killing it in pursuit of undercutting people they were working with. Its probably more of a board game, but electronic board games are popular these days. Developing the AI would be the biggest challenge by far.

Also, a great point! Be the doto you want to see in the world!

I generally have good experiences in solo queue as well. Going into normal queue solo is like going to a bar alone; it's fine but you're going to have to break into some established social circles. Solo queue is like a mixer. You're there because you don't have anyone else or you're new to the area but everyone else is in the same boat. everyone is on their better behavior since they want to make a good impression.

The fact that the ideal customer for the F2P model is called a "whale" tells you all you need to know.

Awesome episode Has there been a game where you can indicate your preferred role? Maybe LoL? Just treat it like language pref; the system will do its best and leave the rest up to you when it has matched you up.

I like "Do, don't show" when adaptating the "Show, don't tell" rule to games. I'm a big fan of mechanics evoking a non-explicit narrative. Bad writing and dialogue don't tend to impact my enjoyment of a mechanically good game, and even improve the experience if they're stupid enough. Planescape: Torment might be the only instance of a story pulling me through a bad game. I think you *can* tell good stories with games (and by tell I mean "tell a linear narrative about characters who grow and struggle and change"), but it is much easier to do it in other mediums. If you're setting out to tell a story I don't know that it's worth the trouble to do it with a game.

Ah! Ok then, that's different. If you're thinking about going to school with the intent of getting a job at a studio, BCIT or VFS are excellent schools for CS and Art / Design for Games respectively (you could call VFS "one of the good ones" as far as game design schools go, but certainly not one of the cheap ones). Their mirror universe evil twins are CDI and Art Institute. Don't go to either. They are terrible. There are a couple good "first job" type studios in Vancouver still but a lot of them are on pretty shaky financial grounds (Relic, UFG); you'll probably end up with short term contracts. There's also EA Canada... ugh. They're great to have on a resume, but I doubt you'd want to stay there long term. There are also a lot of smaller studios, but there are so many unemployed / underemployed devs in town that they have their pick of the litter; you'll need a few titles under your belt before they come calling. A lot of people end up going back east, though (and a lot end up coming back too, but with more experience under their belt). If you're going the indie route, I echo the sentiment expressed on the podcast: don't move somewhere expensive just to be a part of the scene (having family in town notwithstanding). Vancouver can't hold a candle to San Fran scene-wise and I'm pretty sure it's MORE expensive here than it is down there.

A amateur dev subforum could be a place to post questions, progress reports, arrange play tests, etc. Just thought it might get crowded if it's mixed in with the rest of the gaming threads.

Vancouver has an absurd cost of living and the local scene is a shadow of its former self. Toronto or Montreal are probably better ideas.