coldbloom

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About coldbloom

  • Rank
    Member

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Not Telling
  • Location
    Utah
  • Interests
    narrative

Converted

  • Occupation
    designer
  1. Uncharted (4 and The Nathan Drake Collection)

    Anyone interested in playing some multiplayer together? I've been into UC multiplayer since 2 but have always had people to play with. This time around I have no one to really count on, so I'm puttin' out the call.
  2. Game Critiques and Mechanics Analysis

    Maybe this is inappropriate/crass, but I run a blog where I try to look at game mechanics and design and then articulate how they affect tone, player sensibilities and reactions. I hang on a player based approach and try to think about what the actual experience of playing a game is like and what specifically contributes to that if I can identify it. It's called explicating game design. It's a personal project, just something to exercise my design muscles: egdblog.tumblr.com
  3. Screenshots. Shots of your screen.

    I know this is ubiquitous across the internet lately, but I got the last of us Remastered on my birthday and have spent about a third of my actual play time just sitting in photo mode. The ability to stop and look at a scene really shows the amount of detail Naughty Dog puts in. Ellie and Joel are really expressive and it's not always made obvious to the player.
  4. Post Your Game for Playtesting and Feedback!

    This is really impressive! The art is clean and your character designs are interesting and memorable. The aesthetic is sound. I have a lot of thoughts about what you’re doing. I hope that’s okay. My criticisms are along the lines of clyde and SuperBiasedMan. I'm into the design mentality you have going here, but narratively I see you could be running into problems. I didn't become disengaged at any point suddenly, but the writing definitely has its weaker moments. You characterize well using art and visual positioning, but the actual content of your writing engages less. It's a little bland at times. The most engaging dialogue came in moments of real specificity, like the fascinating UTBAPH moment, and when I realize there must be some footage on the security tape just by observing it! That's exciting, even for how mundane it is. By contrast the entire Ado interaction feels rote, despite the fact he eventually brings up the Raven, which seems like a pretty significant turn for the conversation. Imagine driving up to a gas station and interacting with an attendant who's never seen you before. Would even an amiable person readily delve into a topic like the Raven casually? Why is he standing alone? The player discovers Ado has insomnia. Perhaps that is why he is willing to have a candid conversation with people he barely knows. Try to evoke that in the writing somewhere! If the player character suspects Ado’s judgement is impacted by drugs, the player needs a good reason to think this too if this is based off of something both the player and the player character observe. Does the way Ado talks about the Raven really suggest marijuana? (also, hallucinating from weed? have you ever smoked pot? this isn't the kind of conclusion an intelligent documentarian draws.) My advice for writing is to shoot for specificity in the “look” mechanic as well as your interactions, and to connect these moments with gameplay for best effect. Try to exercise your ear for dialogue by listening to yourself talk to other people. When I have trouble writing dialogue, I go out and try to strike up conversations with strangers for research. This keeps me from writing characters purely for texture. Everyone needs to be “real” even if the player doesn’t have access to the full rationale behind a character. Do you have a story partner to discuss these things with? I find that can be invaluable for overcoming my weaknesses in writing. One thing about the design: I’m a fan of a time limit on responses, but I think they’re only effective when the choice is a meaningful or difficult one to make. When you’re offering the player flavorfully different responses rather than critically different ones, I think the time limit makes less sense. Or, at least, such a short time limit makes less sense. If you are shooting for consistency, maybe think about variable time limits that match how difficult the given choice is. Sorry to go on. Please discard any (or all) advice you feel misunderstands what you’re doing. Your work is impressive and I’m really interested to see what you do with this.
  5. Life

    I'm sorry to hear that. Sounds like you've really thought through things though. I'm curious how long the relationship was? A year? That sensation you're describing is familiar to me, though. I feel my perception of my relationships (as well as shit in general) changes so much as a year passes on. It is often hard to understand why I thought certain things as early as a year ago. I think relationships change, to me it seems like they have to.
  6. Post Your Game for Playtesting and Feedback!

    Sorry, I'm not able to record myself, but I will say that this is oddly satisfying. It's tapping into the same pleasure I get from something like tiny wings obviously, but the sensation of accelerating combined with the visual of expanding and compressing the accordion gives it another level of satisfaction, like it just feels sound. Also being able to create noise is pleasurable, especially since it's tied to whether you're compressing or decompressing. This is cool.
  7. Gaming News and Reviews Sites

    Ah, sorry to beat a dead horse. I agree with what everyone was saying on that page.
  8. Quitter's Club: Don't be ashamed to quit the game.

    The most interesting "open world" game (not a fan of that distinction, what does it mean?) I've played in years is probably Proteus. that game distills the experience i enjoy at the core of these AAA open world titles.
  9. Gaming News and Reviews Sites

    Since you brought it up, i have to admit Kuchera rubs me the wrong way sometimes, and I can't really put my finger on why. I admire his and Polygon's commitment to bringing marginalized issues like representation and gender discrimination to the forefront, and i think their efforts there are really valuable and make Polygon an important site, but Kuchera's opinion pieces unrelated to that occasionally seem weirdly / needlessly abrasive. I don't really know how to articulate this.
  10. Quitter's Club: Don't be ashamed to quit the game.

    I'm with you. Honestly what I get from all of these games (and what GTA facilitates the best) is a really amazing environment to explore and exist in. I find more and more this is the best kind of experience i can get out of AAA games: a good ambience and atmosphere that i can explore that can feel completely fulfilling outside of the context of the narrative. Yeah. I wanted more of an emphasis on ZombieU's narrative, but I'd go with you and agree that it's honestly more "interesting" than AC or Watch Dogs or FC3/4. seriously, it felt like uncharted design territory at points, even for how rote its aesthetic feels edit: thinking about it, i realized i quit zombieU probably less than halfway through, lol. But honestly i don't think that's an indication of quality. i try not to base my opinion on a game from how compelled i am to consume it.
  11. Gaming News and Reviews Sites

    I check Polygon but I have to say, I'm not part of the audience that really cares for the "culture" section they've started doing Does no one read Gamasutra? I also have to say re reviews, i still really love actionbutton.net for all its gaudiness
  12. New people: Read this, say hi.

    hey, i've been listening for about two years now. i lurk every now and then and figured what the hell.
  13. Quitter's Club: Don't be ashamed to quit the game.

    I find myself constantly quitting ubisoft games lately. I could not bring myself to compete with the mission structure of assassin's creed four and watch dogs really made it hard to feel narratively motivated. I think the only reason I was able to finish far cry 3 was because i pretty much ignored the story once i realized it was pretty much failing itself. I dunno, i just think the design mentality behind Ubisoft studios is not for me. I don't get it. It never clicks. The design never makes sense to me.