Ninja Dodo

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Everything posted by Ninja Dodo

  1. Yeah as pointed out on the cast you get a lot more out of having a current PC, and might even have to upgrade it for other purposes anyway. When I do buy a console I tend to buy at most 10 or so games for it (basically all the really special exclusives) so there is no way I'm going to buy multiple versions of hardware just for that... and even if a console is your primary game system it's going to be hard to justify that expense just to have the extra tiny pixels and slightly shinier effects if, as announced, all PS4 games are to remain compatible with both.
  2. Yeah, really not sure how incremental consoles are a thing that I would want. I tend to buy consoles only when the price drops and only if there are some exclusives that I absolutely must play (bought a PS2 when Shadow of the Colossus came out, got a PS3 for Little Big Planet and Red Dead Redemption, got a DS, a Wii and an N64 and that's it). Shelling out for a new piece of hardware every two years just to have more pixels is not appealing to me in any way whatsoever. I don't do that for phones or tablets either and I'm not going to start now. If I'm going to upgrade anything, it's my PC. Regarding revisiting thoughts on older games: There are some things like that here and there. RPS recently did a feature called Games I Was Wrong About (part 1 / part 2) which was quite interesting, Eurogamer tends to have occasional retrospectives and there's EDGE magazine's Time Extend. Most of these are about the lasting impact of a given game but many also look at the changing critical perception over time.
  3. Idle Weekend May 6, 2016: Top This

    I was late to the party with Mass Effect, so for me it was less "neat, free updates" and more "I can't believe they still sell all the essential story DLC full price and there's no complete GOTY-edition". Though, thankfully I also missed out on all the ME3-ending drama... I was very skeptical of the idea of multiplayer and especially of it being required to get a better chance at the good ending(s). Nevertheless I found myself enjoying co-op rather a lot, and even playing it long after finishing the main game. It made me appreciate the combat more in singleplayer too (which can be a lot of fun on the higher difficulties). For the record, the micro-transactions were indeed bullshit, but you could bypass those entirely and unlock stuff by simply playing the game, so unless you absolutely *must have* all weapons and characters it's not really an issue (sort of like AC: Unity). I can't say I agree with Rob that ME3 is an example of ill-judged escalation a la Call of Duty post-"Modern Warfare"... Given the preceding games a final epic confrontation with the Reapers seems pretty inevitable at that point and whatever its flaws I really don't think raising the stakes was one of them. To me ME3 is a bit like The Extended DVD: Return of the King to ME2's Fellowship of the Ring (the one that is the most standalone and cohesive single story)... A few strange bits that don't work, but some of the highest high points of the series, bringing its various arcs to a close, and overall a fitting and spectacular conclusion. While it's not without problems, ME3 (with extended ending + DLC Leviathan, From Ashes and Citadel included) is my favourite game in the series, and personally I would defend it as the best one.
  4. Idle Thumbs 252: Jonathan Bro

    Regarding the reader question about history in games I think the reader, and everyone else, might enjoy History Respawned, a video series analyzing how history is depicted in games with experts in relevant fields: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyx1mPZXobOxCyzO2CwmDZA (covering games like Assassin's Creed, Crusader Kings, Fallout 4, Red Dead Redemption, Shogun, etc)
  5. Oh man, this episode. Imagining you guys' expressions as the events involving the birthday bear unfold was just priceless. Best laugh I've had in a while. Good stuff about the Witness too. Very interesting game. Playing it in a similar way just walking around a bit solving some things, then exploring elsewhere or letting the game be for a while if I get stuck. I think being able to trust that the game is being fair and all the clues are there - which is pretty much Blow's whole design philosophy - really helps here. You're not left wondering if there's an item you forgot to pick up, a dialogue option you missed, or an area you didn't realize you could go, making it impossible to solve with the tools you have, which by contrast is what has me reaching for a walkthrough with adventure games more often than not, on the rare occasions I still play those...
  6. Can Game Mechanics be Ingrained with Culture/Ideology?

    From the original thread: I guess I'll just repost what I wrote in the other thread: @Foggy Cornslakes: That sounds really interesting. Not sure how you would go about reflecting peoples' lived experiences more without going into direct allegory though, like "here is the occupation analog" etc. I guess you could take the whole being in a non-oppressed majority is 'easy-mode' analogy and literally translate that back to games, like you have the same mechanics and tools that can give you an advantage as a player (eg fluency in technology), but your starting point is more or less difficult depending on your chosen character's background, like maybe you CAN acquire those same tools but you have to work twice as hard to get them...
  7. That's fair and like I said everyone has their own lines (Danielle seemed to come down pretty firmly on "I can no longer support this person at all")... What seems reasonable or debatable to one person may totally cross a line for another, but this also ties into just not knowing stuff and then saying things that if you did have that perspective you would realize were incredibly insensitive or even damaging. I think people get crucified for saying the wrong thing a little too easily sometimes. When the immediate reaction is to dismiss a person they don't really get a chance to learn and maybe change their mind. What I took from Rob's argument was not that you shouldn't have heroes that you admire but that you shouldn't expect them to be perfect (for you) in every way. Appreciate what you appreciate about them and disagree with what you disagree with.
  8. By the way, watching the Star Wars Episode One making of video Danielle mentioned... There definitely are a lot of fun awkward moments and now ominous lines. It's kind of interesting though contrasting that with a more technical behind the scenes like Cinefex (very much worth a read if you're into that sort of thing) as they really did do a lot groundbreaking work on those movies. It's easy to roll your eyes at Lucas complaining that the new Star Wars is too retro and everything should be new (paraphrasing), but without Lucas' crazy and sometimes silly ideas there wouldn't be a visual effects industry. He created ILM. George Lucas is to modern VFX as Walt Disney is to animation. I guess this kind of weirdly connects to the you can dislike or disagree with some things a person has done while still appreciating their other accomplishments.
  9. @Foggy Cornslakes: That sounds really interesting. Not sure how you would go about reflecting peoples' lived experiences more without going into direct allegory though, like "here is the occupation analog" etc. I guess you could take the whole being in a non-oppressed majority is 'easy-mode' analogy and literally translate that back to games, like you have the same mechanics and tools that can give you an advantage as a player (eg fluency in technology), but your starting point is more or less difficult depending on your chosen character's background, like maybe you CAN acquire those same tools but you have to work twice as hard to get them... Regarding the discussion about problematic heroes in this episode, I really disagree with the premise that if a person you respect holds a view you disagree with, even strongly, it becomes impossible to respect or appreciate anything that person does or stands for. If we discarded everything by everyone who had ever said or done a shitty thing we would have to pretty much bin 90% of human achievement. It's possible to recognize something or someone has problems without dismissing it or them entirely. [edit: I think maybe Rob was onto something with the idea that we shouldn't look for idols to worship unconditionally...] Everyone has their own lines of course, but there would be a lot less conflict in the world if we could manage to say "hey I really don't agree with you on this one thing, but we agree on this other stuff, so let's focus on that" a little more often. The assumption that one's own world view is correct and someone who disagrees is a bad person until they apologize and adopt your view is kind of a dangerous road to go down anyway. Plus, when people do say ignorant insensitive things, it's often because they literally *don't know* and it would be more constructive to educate than to ostracize them.
  10. I'll see your vintage expression reference and raise you a video of Glen Keane emoting as he's drawing for Tangled.
  11. Cool to hear you guys discuss animation some more. Glad I could help with the email and links. By the way, if you're curious about animation, or perhaps even want to learn how to animate, I recommend any of the podcasts (and other sites and books) on this list: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-drawing-and-animation/
  12. I don't disagree... I'm not saying knowing anything at all is a problem (although as described going in cold can be great) but it's more about the genuinely surprising things, as you put it. And yeah, basic details like casting choices (unless particularly revealing because of a surprise returning character or something) are to be expected, so I do think beyond that point the onus is on the reader, not the writer, to maintain their own media blackout if that's what they want. Mark real spoilers with a warning, but if you're going to discuss a thing, actually discuss the thing. Ok so, specific example, in How To Train Your Dragon 2:
  13. I agree with this. You can only experience something for the first time once and it's not cool to take that away from people unannounced. Knowing things in advance completely changes that experience. Some of my favourite film experiences have been when I knew almost nothing going in, just a poster and a vague recommendation, or maybe a brief snippet of a scene, without having been ruined by overly expository trailers and assorted online discussion (for example I saw Children of Men, knowing nothing about it and was duly impressed... more recently, saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 and was able to enjoy some interesting surprises because I had not seen any trailers). It's a good practice to give spoiler warnings as a general rule, even where they might be reasonably expected. There should certainly be room to discuss story at length so long as those that wish to avoid this have a fair chance of not stumbling on it accidentally... Of course, if you read or listen through a detailed plot discussion of a thing you haven't seen or played you have only yourself to blame.
  14. I figured I'd post here so others could chime in, and because of all the links, but I will do that.
  15. About facial animation and who is responsible: Usually with mocap or performance capture there is still a lot of clean up and refinement done by animators after the fact. Sometimes you only keep elements of the original performance, either to make it more stylized or pushed, and to make actions flow together smoothly. See the Andy Serkis VS animators debate if curious (in particular the comment by Randall William Cook). In games facial animation is sometimes still done by hand even on realistic otherwise mocapped characters. Apparently the Witcher 3 facial animation was all keyframed. Naughty Dog as well always done their facial animation by hand, even on Uncharted or Last of Us, giving it that extra flair and character. Don't know if this is still the case for Uncharted 4. One disadvantage of performance capture that no one ever seems to talk about is its inherent linearity. It's great for cutscenes, but interactively speaking it's not very flexible... whereas if you construct a facial performance from individual expressions and procedural elements (like look-at) you can react dynamically to what the player is doing to some extent, more so than with a couple of alternate branching takes. Then again as , it's going to be easier to make even captured facial expression more adaptable and interactive. Personally I'd love to see a Phoenix Wright-like detective game that's not just branching cutscenes like LA Noire, but characters actually reacting *in real-time* to player action and dialogue... like maybe as you're going down a particular line of questioning you could read from a witness' body language that this isn't working (eg them getting visibly annoyed, or stressed to the point of clamming up) so you back off and try a different angle... while their gaze direction (what they look at and how long) provides hints as to what they're focused on or concerned about, even as you walk around the scene. Body language and facial expression as gameplay feedback are a largely unexplored goldmine for game design, if you ask me.
  16. @Valorian: Yeah definitely. If Witcher was all grim all the time it wouldn't work as well as it does. Having that levity makes the darker moments hit that much harder. Works the other way too: a largely cheerful game can really catch you off guard by touching on more serious things. I still remember being really impressed by Milla's hidden memory in Psychonauts. That's fair: It's a choice. Their priorities are what they are and previously I would've said you have one or the other, something small and focused with a lot of character (Gothic) or something big but perhaps a little shallow (Elder Scrolls), but, it being unusually outstanding aside, Witcher 3 sort of demonstrates you can have both... although it could be argued the difference is less in scale but in the more emergent nature of Elder Scrolls' mechanics. Maybe I'm reading too much into a couple of games with a certain style and tone, but I do feel that having that historical context informs the creative process in a fundamental way and any work cannot help but be influenced by the culture that produces it. To give a somewhat unrelated example, I am curious what a World War 2 game made by Dutch or French developers would look like, instead of the Allied perspective perhaps a game about living under the occupation, surviving the Dutch "hunger winter", or fighting in the resistance (not The Saboteur, but something closer to the actual experience)... I don't subscribe to the notion that you can only write what you personally know - that's what research is for - but it does add something when you have that background, directly or indirectly.
  17. @Badfinger: Fair point. I'll grant you my sample size is limited, and Fable doesn't fit the pattern. Besides Witcher the main other game I'd put into that more grounded category is Piranha Bytes' Gothic, which is a German game. For all its rough edges it really nails the world and characters. Gothic 2 as well, mostly. The story in 2 is nonsense, but it still captures that particular atmosphere. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what the difference is. Like you can describe parts of it and it won't sound that different, but it's in the way it all hangs together (which is where my theory of understanding history comes from, but I could be wrong)... It's just something about how the world is constructed, with a certain eye for how things work, functional buildings and all, how people inhabit a world and go about their day, how people react. No one goes all "Hail! Well met, good sir. I have a quest!" on you. One of the first bits of dialogue in Gothic is when you arrive at the Old Camp in the prison colony. The guard outside asks if you're going to be causing trouble. One of the options is to be a smart ass and say: "Sure, I'm going to take on the whole camp". The guard responds: "You're a funny guy. I don't like funny guys". He then proceeds to beat you up and steal what few items you've collected so far. "Thanks for the ore, I'll drink to you!" he says while you are left lying in the mud. People in Gothic are assholes. Contrast this with , which is just... eh. There's nothing there. And that's an improvement over Morrowind which didn't even try to have dialogue; it just printed encyclopaedia entries. The less said about Oblivion, the better. Skyrim feels like a Nordic-themed RPG land for the player to raid some dungeons and kill some bandits in, where Gothic feels like: well, this is roughly what you would get if some mages bungled a magical barrier around a medieval prison colony and the inmates killed all the guards and took over, then separated into competing camps... oh and also there's a slumbering ancient evil that's making people crazy. And orcs. Dragon Age: Origins, I haven't played it but my impression from trailers and such, "new shit" notwithstanding, was always that it was a painfully generic high-fantasy world with maybe some interesting quest construction (the origin stories thing sounded neat), but just no personality at all... Though I get the sense from critics individual characters were well-developed, perhaps more so in the sequels. That's certainly something Bioware excels at, and after getting hooked on Mass Effect I've been half-tempted to give Dragon Age a shot despite my misgivings. As for older Bioware titles, tinkering with numbers is the thing I least enjoy about RPGs so I don't think those games are for me. As far as I'm concerned, adventuring is not about doing math.
  18. Interesting. I think the gruff voice acting works for the character (tried the Polish VO once but being used to the English voices didn't care for it), but it's definitely true that on top of its more grounded historical core the game is not shy about referencing modern pop culture (a fighter named Durden, the Tailor, springs to mind, or the fact that there's a full on several-lines-long Pulp Fiction quote in the incidental dialogue at one point). I wonder, if I wanted to recalibrate my view of non-contemporary American fantasy, other than Martin, any ones you would recommend? (Glen Cook, I guess?) I do rather enjoy modern American fantasy. I really like Buffy The Vampire Slayer to name one, and in games Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines... I uh, can't think of any non-vampire examples off the top of my head. I guess maybe Sandman counts as semi-American in its setting and influences, though Neil Gaiman (the writer) is a Brit. But I guess my original point was that when you grow up surrounded by history (which is true pretty much anywhere in Europe) I think you get a different sense of it, as a part of your own culture. Take most any major European city, and modern glass and concrete stand side by side with Renaissance, Medieval and even Roman or sometimes Greek architecture (though the latter two are typically just ruins). Whereas in the USA if something is from two hundred years ago that's considered old. Meanwhile Europe has got nothing on a place like Egypt, where even in Cleopatra's day the pyramids were ancient. To some extent, when it's not right there, history and myth are all just stories.
  19. Post Your Game for Playtesting and Feedback!

    Haven't posted here often, especially of late (most of my post count is from the ancient forum), but I figured I'd post this thing I made: It's called Guppy and it's a 2D watercolour fish simulation. Windows: http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v27_1_win.zip Linux: http://www.ninjadodo.net/temp/guppy/guppy_v27_1_ubuntu.zip HTML5: http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/guppy/13182/ Recently added a Mac & iOS version as well. There's a devlog on TIGSource if anyone's curious.
  20. By the way, sorry if I'm a bit overly declarative with my thoughts on American vs European fantasy and The Witcher. I tend to think anything on forums should be read as in "in my opinion" but maybe it doesn't come across that way. Curious what you guys think. Maybe I am alone in preferring the more grounded, less D&D, variety of fantasy... [edit: I should add perhaps that while my feelings on Bethesda RPGs are generally mixed I am a big fan of Mass Effect... I haven't actually played Dragon Age but from trailers and assorted marketing the world never struck me as convincing.]
  21. Well, we already have the Game Developers Choice Awards voted on by peers so I'm fine with Keighley's Game Awards being chosen by critics.
  22. Great start to the new cast! Regarding The Game Awards, Geoff Keighley always struck me as a more sincere guy than people give him credit for... Yeah, it's easy to point at that stupid Doritos photo, but he's also the guy Bioware against Fox News morons on TV (that whole half-naked blue alien sex non-scandal) and he did those (quite good) The Final Hours of ... behind the scenes feature ebook/articles for Portal 2, Mass Effect 3, Half Life 2 and other games. The Spike Awards were pretty terrible, but their new Game Awards incarnation, while undeniably commercial, seems on balance a sincere celebration of games. And yes, a well-deserved win for Witcher 3. Completely agree with what you guys said about the world and tone of the Witcher. For all its fantastical trappings there is a realness to the world and characters of that game that I haven't seen in a fantasy RPG since Gothic. And no, internet, it's not that it has Dark & MatureTM sex and violence. It's that people talk and react like people instead of Renaissance fair extras. "An open world designed for grownups" rather than a theme park, as you put it. There's something about the world-building in most other RPGs that just always rings hollow. Sometimes it feels to me like, with the notable exception of Game of Thrones, American writers (at least in games*) don't understand the difference between Dungeons & Dragons and *actual history*, and the only castles they've seen are in Disneyland... cause don't get me wrong, I love Disney, but a good source for historical authenticity it is not. The argument comes up a lot that if you have ANY fantasy elements nothing should be real or grounded, which besides being nonsense, is emblematic of this lack of understanding of history, myth and storytelling. Fantasy works when it is built on something solid. The Witcher 3 is soaking in history and folklore in a way that, say, Skyrim or Dragon Age can't even dream of. That and it's a fascinating game at a design level as well, just the whole way the quests are constructed and intertwined... it's impressive. I really hope Bethesda and Bioware are paying attention because they are getting schooled right now. CD Projekt has clearly learned from them, so they should probably do likewise if they want to keep up. It's also kind of hilarious that the Witcher series went from tacky pin-up cards and "I'd like to get to know you better" in Witcher 1 to arguably outdoing Bioware on romance sub-plots in Witcher 3. It's really quite elegantly done. I haven't seen a lot of writing about the design side of Witcher 3 though, other than this. * I freely admit that my exposure to American fantasy is mostly through games and film so I might be totally off the mark when it comes to the written word.
  23. Designer Notes 2: Rob Pardo - Part 2

    I don't play WoW or follow e-sports, but this was really interesting. Looking forward to future episodes! Though now I kinda want to make a case for Shadow of the Colossus on behalf of the unnamed aspiring designer who preferred it to Zelda. (around 1:06) It felt like you were both implying the strength of the game was only aesthetic, which I really don't agree with. Maybe the unnamed designer did not articulate this well (and maybe I won't) but I feel like there is very much a case to be made for Colossus as a strong game mechanically. I haven't played enough Zelda (some Ocarina and a bunch of Phantom Hourglass) to make an educated direct comparison - though I'm sure you could make an argument for Zelda having nicer moment-to-moment game feel - but Colossus achieves things with its mechanics that no other game I have seen or played comes close to matching. Plenty of games have had large boss creatures but they either turn them into bullet sponges that you have to strafe around and target from afar, spam with melee attacks, and/or find the patterns and timing for... OR they are big linear Quick Time Events with near-zero interactivity. The player's interaction with the Colossi is analog and dynamic in a way that other games don't even attempt. This intricate interaction with living breathing creatures easily dwarfs any boss battle I have fought before or since. There is no aspect of the mechanics (except perhaps for the optional time trials) that does not suit the atmosphere evoked by the aesthetic of the game. On a macro level: the contrast of inactivity during your search with the spectacular action of the boss battles... on a micro level: the tactile interaction with your horse Agro (spurring him onwards) cementing your connection and the way he has a mind of his own rather than operating as a lifeless vehicle, your desperately clinging to the fur of these giants as they try to shake you off, the sense of weight behind every action... It does what it sets out to do exceedingly well. To suggest that the triumphs of Shadow of the Colossus are merely aesthetic is, I think, to misunderstand the connection between movement and interaction. Though maybe I'm reading too much between the lines of the interview and that's not what you were saying. Anyway, keep up the great work! A fine addition to the idle network of casting.
  24. On Avengers: As someone who was not previously familiar with or interested in the characters, I watched The Avengers on the strength of Whedon's earlier work and enjoying *some* superhero films, but really did not get it. I mean I could follow it, but it just seemed like a string of somewhat contrived fan-service, like they didn't take the time to earn the story arc. The only part I thought was actively good was the introduction of Scarlet Johansson with its nice build up and shades of Buffy-esque badassery. Could be it's just that I really didn't care about the characters going in, but I don't know that I agree it works as a standalone thing, sans character history. Specifically one moment that felt like it wasn't earned was when Banner says something like "You want to know my secret? I'm always angry" then transforms on cue. So I guess you can control your temper perfectly now all of a sudden. OK whatever. Disbelief unsuspended.
  25. GameMaker Tutorials

    This article has some useful info about porting projects from GM7 or 8, also things to keep in mind when following older tutorials using Studio: http://help.yoyogames.com/entries/24909988-Porting-GM7-And-GM8-Games-To-GameMaker-Studio Also the YoYo tech blog is good for keeping up to date with the latest changes: http://www.yoyogames.com/tech_blog Spelunky source is a good reference to look at: http://spelunkyworld.com/original.html As is the Grandma platformer engine: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=5790.0