Thrik

What's wrong with wireless?

OK, time for some indietronica. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SUDnlH5iD2g

Quite enjoying this lass. Her thing seems to be R&B/electronica with loads of tribal shit thrown in (perfectly evidenced a few minutes into the second track when it totally shifts direction). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wejwxAhNNRE

OK that settles it, I'm waiting. God damn Rockstar. That video of the kid is sweet yet also slightly unnerving considering... you know... it's Grand Theft Auto. But then I was playing on Duke Nukem 3D at 9 and I more or less turned out fine. Apart from all these tentacles coming out of my face, anyway.

Man, beautiful. (As is this guy's whole album.)

Heh, I just saw someone describe the current version of Godus as like The Simpsons: Tapped Out. I don't know if anyone here has played that game, but it was probably the game that singularly made me absolutely averse to F2P games. Endless tapping and waiting — unless you spend lots of money. I guess the name was meant to be some kind of joke about that, but I didn't expect it to literally be the most borderline maliciously crafted game I've ever played with an apparent sole purpose of extracting money from your wallet. If Godus has gone even slightly in that direction then this game is as good as ruined.

I have to admit that while I've not followed the game's progress too closely since backing it, it's not really going in the direction I was imagining it would. I was expecting something somewhat reminiscent of Black & White, but of course without the animal side of things. I was also expecting the art to look better; while I knew it'd have the style it's got, it doesn't seem realised as well as it could be. In fact, that footage where Molyneux showed the game with that interviewer looked downright rough — the way the terrain just popped up at the edges of the screen as it moved around looked weak. We'll see where it goes, but it seems certain that this is going to be far from the kind of thing I was hoping it might be, as well as from being like Populous (which I'd probably enjoy).

This is such a sweet concept. I hope it can be turned into some kind of actual compelling game as it seems like more of a tech demo. Iit does look like a good little puzzle game in its own right, I guess it'd benefit from further work as it doesn't seem to get much different. The concept is still amazing though, this needs to be in Max Payne 4.

If nothing else, there's always Valium.

What a dirty bastard.

Ah man, old Langdell. He seems like such a quaint, distant memory. I wonder what he's up to now — last I heard, he'd been left tied to a chair in EA's van.

*pisses on Zeusthecat*

Have you asked any of the companies that turned you down for specific feedback on what led to their decision (you should)? Has anything come up that you'd agree with? It's hard to say why you're not having much success, but if you've had that many interviews without any hits then it seems likely that you're doing something wrong. That's not a statement about your skills or even what you're like as a person, but simply how you play the game that is interviews (which like most people I hate, but am pretty good at). What about experience, do you have much? If not, how do you present that so it doesn't sound so bad? (For developers, involvement with personal/community projects is a good asset.)

Looks like I'm getting the next-gen version of Pirate Simulator: Assassin's Creed.

See the 'Life' thread.

It depends, really — but it's certainly not about refusing. At the moment I'm totally hyped and want to buy it, but there's a whole new generation of shit coming. If it takes them until next year to announce it, chances are that by then I'll be totally engrossed with whatever gems the next generation has to offer. Now is an opportune time to pillage my wallet because there's little else I'm interested in buying right now, whereas next year I'll probably be maxing out my money available for gaming on all sorts of stuff every month.

Tangentially related to the bollocks above, someone pointed out earlier that the official gameplay trailers with the woman narrating have been shot on consoles while all the screenshots have been shot on the game running on PCs and/or next-gen consoles. So if anyone's interested in what the difference will be, they're a pretty good benchmark. Aside from the fact that the current-gen versions will likely be running at a lower frame rate and ~720p rather than 1080p, of course. It's easy to make similar comparisons by using the videos and available screenshots.

Sure, but at least they know the sales are coming. Letting people pre-order while the hype train is at full speed seems sensible to me, rather than hooking them again later once people have moved on. While I'm a drop in the ocean, one benefit to announcing a next-gen version right now is that they'd immediately have my commitment to buy. Who's to say that I won't become indifferent some months down the line once I'm preoccupied with — or have spent all my money on — other next-gen games? I dunno, this just seems very badly thought out to me. I'm sat here wanting to hand over money for a product, and the seller won't just come out and confirm that it is or isn't going to be available. If they say it is, I'll preorder. if they say it isn't, I'll buy the current-gen version. As it is, I'm doing neither. And I'm not alone. And sorry Rodi, I misread the intent of your post.

But what does that matter? Those people will be buying it for the current generation either way. All Rockstar is doing is losing out on the extra sales they could be making from those of us waiting for a next-gen/PC version. Maybe some will succumb to temptation and just go ahead and get the current-gen version, but I'm betting that a lot will stick to their guns. I know that I'll be waiting at least several months for an announcement of other versions before I conclude it's not coming and might as well just get the current-gen one — I have plenty of other games to play. The bit that I don't like is that Rockstar is basically trying to pressure people into a choice they might later regret. That is shit.

'Charade' is probably the best way of putting it. We know they're most likely going to release a next-gen and PC version, they know we want a next-gen and PC version. They also know that we know that they're only not announcing it because they don't want to cannibalise current-gen sales. We're in a ridiculous stalemate where everyone knows what the deal is. I know for a fact that people are holding off on buying any version of it because there's no announcement of other versions. I also know for a fact that I and many others would most likely pull the trigger on a next-gen preorder immediately if one were made available, thus Rockstar could be enjoying my money right now. To me it seems like they should just go ahead and announce it, and then let people start pre-ordering rather than sitting on the fence. They'll get some dosh coming in, and we can relax rather than feeling like we're potentially going to be bummed if we buy the current-gen version and then other versions are announced soon afterwards.

What they probably mean is that it's not so much your coding proficiency that's of paramount importance, but the impression of your personality that you give. You want to be exuding total confidence in your ability to tackle or learn to tackle any problem, while also giving off that you're a generally great guy and showing bags of enthusiasm. I know that these are obvious things to mention, but a lot of people (especially developers) don't realise how short of doing this they fall. I've seen some legitimately great developers go through endless interviews because they just don't sell themselves well enough — and even in the technical world of development, this is more often than not all about personality. My last two jobs didn't ask me to do any coding at all prior to an offer. Being able to verbally demonstrate detailed knowledge about technical concepts and getting into small tangents about various technologies did a lot of the work; showing shitloads of sincere enthusiasm and excitement about my trade did the rest. I guess coding tests are inevitable with some jobs, but really they should be to just meet a minimum requirement and show that you can actually cope with straightforward tasks. I don't know about your skills but I'd imagine you're hitting that mark, so it's probably more about the other stuff. Fortunately, changing how others perceive you can be quite easy — after all, they know nothing about you apart from what you say and what your body language is like!

Except loads of people are almost certainly holding out for a possible next-gen or PC version — I know I am. They should just announce the damn things so they can start taking preorders rather than leaving a load of people ordering nothing.

The new Janelle Monae album is proper. That's all I have to say about that.

So, was there any more to this story after the initial furore? I checked out Fish's Twitter account and noticed that he's been posting random Vines during the past week or so. Searching Google just brings up all the stuff from a while ago.