toblix

Finished it! A real gem, if you ask me. I always enjoy when I'm told «this is the last save point before the boss,» so I can head back and get all the secret stuff, then head back and destroy the boss with my ridiculously overpowered character. If you go into it, expecting a fun, polished 2D platform-em-up with fast-paced combat, light RPG elements and secrets that you don't have to peruse GameFAQs to find, you'll be satisfied. I almost guarantee it.

I would totally do one of those.

God, there's a lot of compelling stuff in here. Like the giant blacksmith, and all the other characters you find around the world – I feel like the designers very consciously leave as much as possible unexplained, both in the mechanics of the game, and the world itself, and it results in some very frustrating game play at times, but other times it just works and gives the game world this extra layer of creepy, fascinating atmosphere. It may be that I haven't been paying attention, or that all the Lord lore is written in the manual booklet or somehting, but the way I experience it, with little or no back-story tying together the weird characters you meet, it's so engrossing. They avoid being just another game about killing enemies and explaining it with some half-assed story by just not having much of a story, which, combined with the excellent production value and visual design, makes the unexplained and ambiguous that much more interesting.

I haven't read anything on the site (I didn't know they had launched it yet) but I saw the trailers and them were so god damn pretentious I just instantly wrote them off. Maybe it was just some overeager marketing people trying to tap into the Indie Game: The Movie/Kickstarter thing and make it real personal and intimate like, but I just found it terrible and painful to watch.

Yeah, the DFA animation system looks really sweet.

It's definitely not uncanny valley (since they're not anywhere near realistic-looking,) and it's definitely a little bit of change aversion, but mostly it's just that it looks worse than BS1 & BS2. I just looked at the video again, and though the characters themselves don't look as bad as my first impression was, they still don't mesh as well with the background as they did in the first two games. The worst part is the obvious, mediocre 3D skeletal animation they've got going. In the first two games, skilled animators gave everything a smooth, natural feel – here it's someone keyframing and dragging joints around, rotating heads, etc. It just looks cheap.

Yeah. I asked about this in the Kickstarter forum. I see how hand-drawing animation can be time consuming, but I don't get the pixel count argument. Honestly, I wouldn't be so concerned about the way they looked if they were just animated properly, but they aren't, at least not in the video. They just passed 100 000 dollars, which is a quarter of the goal. I haven't paid enough attention to all the various video game kickstarters, but I guess at this point someone could make an educated prognosis. 25 % on the first day seems pretty good, no?

That would be awesome. They made 22 nested minigames, and sell just the outer one. Oh, and for those who haven't read much about this, they'll be selling, for real money, tools that let you chip away faster. The most expensive one is ridiculous.

I don't get it. What, the pixel count is too high?

The way I understand it, they're going to do 22 weird experimental games like this, which will culminate in something magical and extreme.

The thing about the jokes reminded me of this.

Well, making a new game probably cost many times the cost of doing a remaster for iOS. If they could make another full game instead, they probably would. And then they wouldn't need the Kickstarter. Sweet! Yeah, I agree they're pretty bad. I'm just assuming they're there because having hand-drawn animations would explode the budget, and I'm willing to live with them if I have to in order to get another game. Anyway, I'm sure they've been asked about them a thousand times already, so they'll probably talk about it at some point.

What? It's clearly 2D. Are you thinking of the 3D-looking characters?

How?

I was quite disappointed by the cel-shaded characters as well. My guess is they're doing it to cut art costs, and won't be redrawing them in glorious 2D.

Wait, gimme a sec

OH ARE WE SHOUTING NOW?

Hey now, that's no way to discuss something as subjective as the taste of beer. I almost never cook – much respectz to those of you who have the patience and skill to create edible, delicious meals. I can cook (what I think is) a delicious bowl of spaghetti or a delicious pizza, but those are simple dishes and hard to really botch. Also, I find cooking such a hassle I usually just make a sandwich or something.

Just as a precaution, if I meet Sean or whoever in my travels, will I see his name somewhere, or can I only know after I've killed him?

Clicking the left mouse button lights 'em up real good in my opinion.

Accidentally clicking on the video game music thread made me come up with the most brilliant of ideas; instead of directly embedding Youtube, how about putting a little thing that embeds Youtube when you click it? Maybe this could be done when the number of embedde Youtube players exceeds some limit, I don't know. Just an idea; I don't know if it's even doable within the forum framework.

I watched We Need to Talk About Kevin earlier today, and loved much of it. The whole thing just looks magnificent, there are some great scenes there, and Tilda Swinton was just perfect. One of my favourite things about the film was the soundtrack, and this one has been stuck in my head all evening:

Story: I start on a beach, the haunting string music immediately starting to work on my nerves. I've seen the Thumbs guide to DayZ so I know I should look for the nearest shed where I'll find a big gun or something. I crouch and start making my way closer to this farm. As I get closer, I hide in a bush to take in the surroundings. I look to the right; nothing. I look to the left; a zombie is shambling towards me, maybe 15 meters away. Now I'm starting to panic, since I don't know all the keys, and I'm not familiar with the mechanics of how close this zombie can get, and whether I could maybe fight him off with my fists or if I even have fists and then BAM! I'm shot dead. My mind clicked and I went into full Alt+F4 mode and now I'm back here telling you all about it. I'll try again tomorrow maybe.

HAHAHAHA I just played this for one minute and I almost died from fear and shock. Good job, developers!