Forbin

Absolutely. TBH a lot of people at game jams have no idea what they're doing. If you were prepared to take on making an entire game on your own, then I think you can go in to a game jam with the same goal and any team members you acquire are only going to be a bonus. But don't get discouraged if you don't end up finishing something, that's hard for even experienced developers and people who are used to the short deadline. I think the most valuable experience will be socializing with people during the event and challenging yourself to finish something. The key is coming up with something really low scope. Try to plan out a game that you can complete on Saturday, and that'll leave you till Sunday to deal with the things that went longer than expected and polishing up. Most people at game jams don't "finish" their games. The other major piece of advice when it comes to game jams is to not go in with a new engine/technology. I like that rule, but I think it's a bit misleading. I prefer to say don't go in with new technology and expect it not to dominate your time. If you're going to be using it as a learning experience (which i think is definitely a major part of game jams), then alter your goals and don't aim for a complete game but a better understanding of the engine/tech you're learning. Often you'll come up w/ith something small and fun, but even if it's an unplayable mess it's a really valuable experience.

Are you in a big city? Global Game Jam is later this month and honestly they're one of the best ways to get started. There's nothing like seeing people plow the broken mess that is making a game over the span of a weekend. The most critical thing you do right now IMO is finish something. It's very easy for your dream project to become some white whale you chase for years. If you start off with a silly game jam game, or try cloning a few existing simple arcade games you'll get a lot more comfortable with your tools without constantly over-thinking your design. Good luck.

Paint it back has been dominating my time. It's basically just a Nonogram game like Picross, but it's pretty well made.

Congrats nick sign is up

That's a fair request. What is on the 2014 Nick Breckon project slate?

I'm trying to come up with a nice Congrats Nick sign design. Last epoch I wanted to make a blimp with rotating lights, but that turned out to be hard to make compact. Also, last epoch seemed to be themed around the sky with big build height, and the previous one was built as a simple swamp piece with that biome being introduced. I feel like this epoch it should include stained glass and maybe dyed clay. I was thinking something that you could be see the sunset through from one of the towers in the village.

Ugh, this is such a ridiculous argument. I've seen maybe 4 or 5 endings to the game so far. Based on my own experience, I know that I would have had a dramatically better time with the game if the first ending I chose gave me a bad first impression of the game. Despite how much foresight you think the developers have, I think it's giving them too much credit to think that they've perfectly planned how the game can be perceived based on the thousands of permutations in which a player can go through this game. The endings I've seen aren't to my taste, but based on anecdotes and videos like the Errant Signal one, I can tell there are things in there that I probably would have enjoyed if I discovered them at a decent time. But instead I spent the honeymoon phase with the game playing through the repetitious and boring endings. One's that you could say "i don't get", but honestly it's just not that interesting to me. I feel like i'm watching a Penn & Teller bit. If their humour isn't your style, then maybe the reveal of the trick is interesting to you. Most people are entertained by both. But if the trick isn't new to you, and you don't find the presentation entertaining, then it's just a waste of time. I want to enjoy this game, it's just feeling like a total grind. And if it had a reputation like Paper's Please or Cart Life that would make sense, but that doesn't fit well with how people talk about it.

I "get" that, but it definitely hasn't been interesting or funny, and after seeing enough of the exhibits I'm pretty sure it's not the best way to experience those elements for the first time. IMO an hour is long enough for me to judge that either there's a "wrong" way to play it.

I've been trying to play this over the past couple weeks, and I'm a bit dissapointed. I may play it again later, but at this point I feel like my experience has been ruined by playing things in the "wrong" order.

Nice. Also we've got this thread with over 3 years of robotic nightmares. https://www.idlethumbs.net/forums/topic/6734-the-threat-of-big-dog/

No : (

i got an item for Ragnarok online when crafting my snowglobe badge, and it's retail value is basically non-existant. The odds of getting something I want, in the game I want are incredibly low.

So zombie pigmen are peacefull until attacked. They'll de-agro after time, but not if their chunk isn't loaded. We can go in and coordinate a purge of the angry ones and it'll be back to peace. Also tabacco have you tried using a lead to move animals? I don't find it that much better than using food, but they're pretty good. They're made with slime and string.

This in combination with hiring Kurzweil last year... wtf are they working on? Presumably robots. http://www.technologyreview.com/view/508901/by-hiring-kurzweil-google-just-killed-the-singularity/

Has anybody been playing legion commander? I'm having fun jungling with her.

I'm certainly not an expert yet, but it in the 70 games I've played so far the mid lane has always been the carry. Maybe the meta game gets a bit different at higher levels of play. But the advice was, to make people happy while you're learning let them take the middle. The tutorial specifically guides you on running the mid lane, so people coming out of it think it's the best place for them. It's something you see a lot of early on.

It's true enough for your first hundred games

If you play through the tutorial, you should have enough practice to not feel out of place. Don't over push or you'll get killed which will lose you a lot of gold, and give them a lot of XP and gold. Also don't play mid, that's the lane for the carry and people will get mad if you deny them that opportunity then play ridiculously. Other than that, I haven't found too many people crazy. I just started off saying I was new and they gave me help.

Saw this posted on GiantBomb dota forums

Gah same here. I hope I can still queue for captains draft with groups. I'm level 6 and everything is locked till 13

What level are you?

how were you not dying all the time with the old health/food mechanic? I think the way this system is presented makes it feel more in the way, but it beats having to eat food as the only way to regain life. Also, the food now stacks.

I'm having a hard time remembering what games I played this year. Dota 2 - took up a bunch of my time. I had given it a shot before, and had tried LoL but was frustrated by both games having some implicit meta game that I didn't have the time to figure out. Then one day I just decided not to give a shit, and the new tutorial really helped me get through some of the things I hated in the UI. Also people like Patters and other thumbs helped make it a welcome place to play. Brothers a tale of two sims - I think the reviews of this will be a bit hyperbolic, but it's a solid game and definitely worth the 2-4 hours it took to finish. Don't play it without a controller. Starcraft 2: HotS - I didn't get into SC2 as much this time as I did last time. I feel like the multiplayer community has become too proficient that "standard" conventions involve insane amounts of macro and boring builds. IMO SC2 was better when people were still finding crazy things to do, and even a fresh set of units didn't seem to give the meta game that fresh start. But the single player campaign was solid. The story is pulpy, and bad, and the kind of thing I would have loved as a 14 year old. But it's still fun to play along with. Bit trip Runner 2 - This game is hard, but I don't ever feel like it's ever unfair. The level design will try to subvert your natural instincts, but it expects you to pick up all the gold and won't lay traps that can't be escaped. It's hard to explain the way this game uses rhythm, but you start predicting jumps and dodges ahead of time because they augment the music and you get a feeling about where one should be.

I seem to remember multicraft having the ability to schedule regular jobs, so you might be able to do a regular restart if it's a problem.

Side question. When did Spike rename the VGAs to "VGX"? What does the X stand for? Please tell me it's eXtreme and not eXpo.