MadJackalope

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Everything posted by MadJackalope

  1. The repetitive nature that was discussed was very similar too. I did acid a fair bit back in the day and there's a similar kind of effect in the psychedelic experience it creates. I'm curious what structure or pattern of the brain causes that effect. The kind of looping in on itself, self-referential, fractal kind of thing. Both in thought and visuals. I also tend to like very meta humor, or storytelling and I've wondered if there's some kind of similarity. Also I play around with neural networks as an artistic medium, and have noticed that there is similar kind of effects in how neural networks generate imagery often, so I, with no real qualifications or knowledge on this, wonderif there is some kind of deeper connection there, as in the creation of imagery with the neural network is making visual a particular pattern of behavior in the training model and that this pattern is also present in our brains, at a much more complex level because our brains have been trained for visual recognition etc through evolution in a similar way. Just a thought. More discussion about dreams in the podcasts! People always say that the most boring story to everyone else, except for the person telling the story, is the story of an acid trip or a dream experience. I personally disagree very strongly with that. I love people telling me their dream stories. I sadly don't remember my dreams much these days.
  2. Man the nightmare discussion was creepy similar to experiences I had growing up. I had them actually quite often though one of the worst I remember was shortly after coming home from a 3 week road trip. I had one this one night that was just a riderless Super Mario World yoshi jumping through the end level goals over and over and over again. Baaaaawhoop BaaaaawhoopBaaaaawhoopBaaaaawhoop Over and overagain, and in the back of my head I felt like Peach was telling me I had to save mario or something, and I was the yoshi? Or something like that. They were very weird, and horrible because I was already technically awake and couldn't get out of them. I'm not neuraltypical but it was kind of a shock to me as an adult when I casually mentioned these dreams and all my friends were like "uhhh... I've never had that happen to me".
  3. Game Jams

    I'm doing a couple different games. Here are two start menus. Hmmm... I can't post any images for some reason. It says I'm not allowed to use the image extension. So here's a link to the twitter post: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/COvK3vYU8AAQx6O.jpg:large and https://pbs.twimg.com/media/COwS851U8AAxYB7.jpg:large
  4. Game Jams

    I'm so pumped for duplicade. I came back to Idle Thumbs forums after being away for a long time just to see who else was doing it. (life stuff happened and also I'm really bad at using forums, and my podcast machine is broken so I haven't been listening to Idle Thumbls lately. I am sorry! ) I did barfcade last year and really enjoyed it. If you live in Austin hit me up. Saturday a bunch of us are meeting IRL to work on our game jam games together. I'm working on like 3 or 4 different games with people. I'm super pumped.
  5. Modern Full Motion Video Games

    Howdy, I'm new around here, been listening to the podcast for awhile but recently figured it would be cool to join in on the forums. So I've been watching a lot of videos for old MS-DOS games. These games were slightly before my time, but just barely. I didn't seriously begin gaming on the PC until 2006 and before that most of my exposure to gaming was through consoles. Anyway one kind of games that I've found really interesting are the FMV games, like 7th Guest, Hot Wheels Stunt Driving, and Ripper. I've heard them talked about on Idle thumbs before but never really seriously thought about them until I watched these video reviews. Of course there's the more traditional FMV games that Idle Thumbs types probably know of, the adventure games ones. And those are really cool, and there's been a modern resurgence in them that I find pretty neato. There's this new [Tex Murphy game on steam] that seems really smart and engaging. That said what I'm most interested in are more like the which uses pre-rendered graphics to make up for the lack of computing power at the time. It seems to me this offers an interesting avenue that has been abandoned in the wake of better and better hardware. But just because we can now fully render 3D doesn't mean that this kind of thing couldn't be used in an interesting way. I wonder what an intense hi-fi render game would look like. Pixar film level, you know what I mean? Ray-casting and all that jazz. I don't personally care too much for graphic wars debates, I much prefer something with a strong aesthetic, but I wonder what could be done with this kind of tech. I was pretty impressed with that Hot Wheels game, I didn't even realize the backgrounds were pre-rendered until the reviewer pointed it out. And maybe it's also just nostalgia but I find the particular look of pre-rendered graphics interesting from an aesthetic perspective (very similar to the way I feel about Claymation). Nintendo actually continues to use some of those methods in their modern games, such as the flat photographs of food in Smash Brothers. (in general the inclusion of photographic elements in games is a funny/weird thing to me I find fascinating). Anyway, thoughts? Do you know of any other cool uses of FMV in modern games? Would you like to see more? What are some cools ways it could be utilized with modern technology that in the past was not possible?
  6. Visual Art!

    Oh thanks! That's very generous of you. If you're not using it, then yah I'd love to try it out.
  7. Visual Art!

    I've never actually used Playmaker though I have heard of it. I thought that it was going to probably be too difficult but after looking it up after you mentioned it, I think I might give it a try.
  8. Visual Art!

    I've been working on a game with a friend. Nothing I can show right now though, still too basic. I've not really been using the forums much because I got in a serious relationship and started a new job. But I just quit that job and may be around here more! Took a start up job and I am using my extra time to do more game stuff. I made this recently! I didn't do the modeling, but I did end up doing the coding which was weird because I don't code. I'm just a designer! But our coder bailed and I was so fired up I decided I would learn Unity to make it work. It's really simple but it's kind of cool being able to make something actually move and stuff without help. I've been thinking about learning modeling for that very reason. I don't want to stretch my skill sets too thin though. But it would be nice to be able not to have to worry about other people modeling for me and stuff.
  9. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    To be fair, disco had a back lash because it was also seen as inspiring classist elitism and glorifying material excess. But that's why people should listen to discopunk.
  10. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    I've been out for a couple of weeks, busy with life and stuff. Just wanted to pop in and say that while I support ethics in video game coverage, and was involved in the dialogue on this stuff earlier in the thread, I think all this gamergate stuff is fucked up, and I don't like it. I know I went back and forth on some issues with some people, still feel uncomfortable with how the indie game scene is organized (and also how the AAA scene etc in general is organized. I guess I'm just uncomfortable with how the relationship between "games as an industry" and "games as an artistic medium"), but the shittiness of the trolls really won't seem to stop. I sort of peaced out around the time the twitter tag began to take off, so I haven't been following the actual "gamersgate" stuff much, but it seems to me that the things I'm personally concerned about and the things that fall under the tag, do not align. Guess I just wanted to go on record about that.
  11. Adulthood, Age, and Modernity

    Well, I mean most geocaching isn't out in the woods. It's around a city park or shopping center, or other public places like that. Also it's not a first date thing, def a second date thing, or third date. But that's just my suggestion. Depends on who you're taking out on a date. Also I'm very bad at jokes. I am unfunny.
  12. Visual Art!

    Yeah I think I remember hearing the Thumbers express a similar idea and it really nailed down the idea for me. It's a really cool look, and serves a similar function. I think in some circles you can probably see it beginning to be overplayed a little but I don't think that's really a bad thing per se. I don't personally do pixel art but I'm still amazed when I see some really well executed sprite work. I did sort of do my first bit of sprite work recently, by necessity due to how low resolution the sprites were. Maybe I'll post that soon. It was for a game jam, which I posted about in another thread too.
  13. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Sorry I've been kind of out of the loop the last couple of weeks. Is gate stuff still going on? Did everything blow over?
  14. Adulthood, Age, and Modernity

    +1 for art galleries. Especially gallery openings because freeeeeeee wine and cheeze. I also recommend geocaching. If the weather's nice it can take you all over the nooks and crannies of a city, keeps you active, and I think it's also a good test to see what kind of person you're dealing with, because geocaching pops up a lot of weird challenges and novel situations. That's really more a "second date" thing to me though. I personally don't like the cinema date thing because you don't get to talk to the person. I think the only reason that used to be a thing is because back in the day that's how teens got alone in the dark to make out or something. A coffee is good because it's quick and you can get in and out in case the date isn't going well. A pub date is nice though. I wish we had more pubs here in America. I hate American bars, they're always so loud and noisy. Pubs are much better for actual conversation. Either play music live music loud, and have the focus be the concert, or keep the fucking volume down so I can drink and talk without going hoarse.
  15. Adulthood, Age, and Modernity

    My gf just got a cat so I am now officially an adult. Yay. I guess I don't have to worry about anything else ever again!
  16. Adulthood, Age, and Modernity

    Dan O'Brien wrote an article awhile back that kind of spoke to that idea, of never really being an "adult" http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-they-never-told-us/ Yeah it's a dumb list article but Dan O'Brien is actually a really good writer who uses the format pretty well. I've been thinking about buying a trailer home or something? Seems better than paying rent. Is that a good/bad idea? I seem to have a much lower barrier to entry for what it means to be an adult. As soon as I can afford to own a pet, I will consider myself decently adultish. Oh yeah, and when I can stop deferring my student loans.
  17. Game Jams

    Also Clone Jam looks cool. I think I might do that.
  18. Game Jams

    Woah! Yay! I came to the Idle Forums to see if anyone else had done barfcade and I'd already played your game even. I liked it a lot. It was pretty fun. It reminded me of Muscle Cat. I made one too with my roommate. It's our first collaboration. http://madjackalope.itch.io/pistolshrimpvsninjashrimpgo
  19. Life

    I think these days it is considered so, which is kind of weird when you go back and read more history and how mainstream a lot of non-capitalist theories were back in the day. There's a podcast I listen to called BackStory which had an episode on fair wage laws recently. It only really deals with American history but it's still interesting to see how a lot of assumptions I've made about the past were wrong, and they always delve into overlooked perspectives like minorities or feminist history when they tackle a subject. They also seem like really nice dudes. Like you know how people say "He's a guy who I'd have a beer with"? Well I wouldn't have a beer with them, but I would say they are the kind of guys who I could imagine being really neato dads. They're very daddish.
  20. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Holy shit is this thing still going on? Dadgumit.
  21. Life

    It's really hard right now. I feel lucky to have this new job though it's still not quite what I want to do. At least it's a start. I'm trying to focus on building my own projects too, because I think ultimately just getting a good job isn't enough. If your work is owned by someone else, you're getting the short end of the stick in some way.
  22. Stick it to the man

    Oh nice. Also weird, that's cool. someone added my comment to the thread. I don't mind the simplification. I think if adventure games are really about story, rather than challenge, that an easy flow to a game is okay. I've actually been thinking about that ever since the end of Broken Age Act 1. I really like games for story. I have trouble completing a lot of games and that's because story is often times the last priority of game companies. I was talking to an alum from my school who writes and he was telling me the budget for writing has gone down in the last couple of years because the industry sees less and less point, financially, in supporting good story. Games are so intrinsically powerful as a medium that there's not much point writing a compelling story if you can just put some simple addictive mechanics in there. So appreciate it when that's the focus of the project.
  23. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    I don't think it's so much mechanistic as it is reflecting the way stuff is argued in a more academic setting. And twitter is a really bad place to discuss anything with nuance so people end up boiling everything to jargon. Of course that's probably giving a lot of benefit of the doubt too, since there is a certain amount of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" going on. It's a lazy distraction and is actually it's own fallacy. The Argument from Fallacy I think the instinct of questioning appeals to authority is healthy, but it's not enough, especially when talking about professionally vetted journalism. That's the same mistake that climate change deniers make when they refuse to believe scientists. I think that's probably in part related to the issue I mentioned earlier, with festivals not dividing up games into enough categories. Certain kinds of games are simply not well suited to festivals, and certain kinds of games. Games are all still kind of lumped into one big bag still, and having specific categories to compete in would allow certain kinds of games that would otherwise get overlooked a chance to shine.
  24. "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

    Geeze that corvette analogy is annoying. Why can't we have corvettes and camrys? Also did you know that the 2013 camry has a better 0-60 time than those old "muscle cars" from the 60s? I saw that in an article comparing older and modern tech. I think that's pretty interesting. But yeah, I don't see why we can't have a plurality. I kind of worry that pluralism is dying in America. People have been talking about how the internet as the effect of creating echo chambers that reinforce cultural stratification. On one hand I think that self grouping is inevitable with humans, that's how culture is defined, but I value the ability to transcend multiple spheres of culture and I think that's decreasing. Did you read my second point? I don't believe the video and it's completely irrelevant to what I'm talking about. This shitstorm has brought a lot of this stuff into the mainstream but these are complaints that have been discussed in the indie community for years. I wasn't listing complaints brought against the IGF by gamergate guys, I was listing complaints brought against the IGF by IGF judges, and people who have a long and respected role in the community. Secondly your SWAT analogy is teeerrrrrrbble. It's a completely circular argument because by saying "people sending SWAT to harass people" you're talking about tippers who call SWAT in on people who have not done anything wrong. Your wording assumes innocence. If you wanted to make your analogy actually work you'd say "Like people who call SWAT teams on people they find suspicious due to their worldviews, and who may or may not be innocent". That's at least more analogous to the situation here. I would hope that if I SWAT team guy was rushing into a house, he would only do so because he believe that there is a real reason for doing so. I would like people armed with lethal force to make their decisions based upon the best intel and evidence available.(though considering the way SWAT teams have been going the last 20 years, I don't think that's generally what's on their mind). Analyzing people's motives when they give you information is useful, in determining the likelihood of their honesty, but the information I brought up is predates this whole fiasco and is not relevant to it, except as it applies to this general discussion on "Ethics and Journalistic Integrity" as it applies to the indie scene. Motive is relevant in so far as it helps you vett sources (huh, ironic since the whole journalism thing has been about the necessity of disclosure so that we can vet sources according to their motives?) but if a Neo-Nazi tells you that humans evolved from apes, because he's trying to use that as a justification for the Holocaust, that doesn't mean you dismiss evolution (and that's actually how a lot of people dismiss evolution. They point to eugenics and say "see! these guys!") And once again, I'm not even arguing that position, because I don't believe the whole racketeering charges. The issues with the IGF are things that have been brought up for years, and while they may be getting press now they've been well established issues in the community. I completely agree. People should be skeptical and take into account why these questions are being asked and these issues are being pushed. I'm trying to take that into account. I don't think a few our skepticism invalidates the debates that long predate this fiasco. It's a huuuuuge source of funding. I mean arguably it's why indie games finally came into the limelight in the last 5 years, because they stopped being freeware titles uploaded to IndieDB and started being much more substantial commercial ventures. Also, if the system isn't work it ought to be improved right? Also I honestly don't believe the workload is really as bad as people put it out to be. Yes, they are volunteers, and I'm not entirely sure how many games they're assigned to judge, but this post from 2010 lists says 15. Let's say they played each game for only 30 minutes, that would only be 30 hours worth of work, divided over a 6 week period. That's 5 hours a week. Compare this to the average SXSW volunteer who works like 60 hours, in a single week, also without pay. That's normal for these kinds of festivals and conventions. People do them because they want to. And I highly doubt they're assigned 30 games, though I can't find any actual numbers from my cursory search. I also had another thought. I think Blambo was right, we should focus on doing some constructive. I want to focus on common ground and build up from there. So how can the indie scene improve itself? I mean as far as IGF problems go I had already talked about the problem of there being an over reliance on too few fests. So I sort of feel like maybe people should start more? I don't think I have enough swing to really start a fest, but maybe that's something I should consider building towards. I have a professional friend who did a small hip-hop fest here in Austin, it's the first of it's kind. It seems like a lot of work, but maybe that would be a good example to to try and model off of. Also another idea. Maybe the problem is there just isn't enough categories? I mean there's a huge difference between playing a 30 hours adventure game, and playing a quick fast arcade game. Film festivals divide things up by genre, length, budget, etc. IGF kind of just sticks them all in a pile. Is it really fair to compare a game like Nidhogg to a game like Gone Home? Or an interactive fiction Twine game to a multiplayer game like Monaco? It's actually kind of odd that there isn't greater division between things. Maybe that's because games are still rapidly evolving and that certainly is an issue that needs to be taken into account. But some kind basic system would help I think.