SecretAsianMan

It might be copying without thinking about it by now, but I imagine it started as a way to keep the player engaged. Mini-games like that are a way of letting the player feel like they did a thing that supposedly requires skill to do in real life without making them actually do it. The alternative I guess would be "Press A to hack" which brings up the question of why even have it at all. Personally, I feel like Fallout 3/NV did the lock picking/hacking minigame the best, even letting you bypass them entirely when you have enough skill points (although I would often do it anyway just because I liked it). But I'm not a dev so what do I know.

Why is the rating system stars and not thumbs? Someone messed up.

All things being equal, I prefer first over third. There are definitely exceptions, platforming being a big one. Cover based shooters I also feel have a valid reason for third person. In general I feel like I have more control and precision in first person, whether or not that's actually the case. Plus I really dislike it when my character takes up enough of the screen that it's actually blocking stuff from my view.

That's mostly how I feel too. I found the bosses to be really easy though. They're incredibly predictable and not very aggressive. Regular enemies pose more of a threat to me. I try to use as many of the weapons as I can because I'm the kind of person who hates to not use things when I have them, but yeah there are way too many and most are not really unique or effective enough to warrant using the majority of the time.

Danielle, PLEASE do Farscape Rewatch. I would love that so very much.

I'm similarly confused by the necessity for parties TO HAVE THE MUSIC TURNED UP SO LOUD THAT THE ONLY WAY I CAN TALK TO ANYONE IS TO YELL AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS. I don't mind music but unless there's a live band performing it's not the reason I'm there.

The collection is complete

Man, that's nothing compared to the ones I get. The worst is when I have two at once that slowly combine into a single, massive hole in my mouth.

I suppose I can see how it would be linear if you immediately progress toward the next area, but the same could be said of Metroid. I'll admit the level design isn't quite on par with Metroid's design. Something about Metroid made you want to explore branches more while Axiom Verge does kind of push you in a direction, but I feel like it's an easy flaw to overcome just by taking some initiative and exploring on your own, which is where the real satisfaction of these games comes in. At least that's how it is for me.

I dunno, it seems about as linear as any other Metroid game I've played (except maybe Fusion). Maybe it's because every time I get a new traversal mechanism, I circle the map for areas to use it in so I'm always everywhere except where I'm supposed to be.

A while ago I posted about a particularly bad day I was having where because of size and scope of the project I'm working on, coupled with the fact that I'm pretty much the only one working on it, I got a negative performance review due to the fact that on paper my "total output" was lower than the rest of my coworkers who are doing smaller scope jobs. I wanted to follow up on that because part of the project is nearing its end and I got some recognition by management for working my butt off all this time. It doesn't erase that past negative but it was nice to get some kudos for a change.

That depends a lot on how you feel about roguelikes. PD is a pretty traditional roguelike. If you're not into those, PD isn't going to change your mind. Maybe give one of the other variants a try. The Skillful one I mentioned before has several difficulty levels and the skills can make you quite a bit more powerful.

The main reason I send in candy is so that I can feel relevant. My personal taste in games doesn't overlap that much with the Thumbs' and they never discuss non-game things that I have any sort of expertise in.

I've run across several modded versions of the Android game Pixel Dungeon on the Play Store and I'm really happy this is a thing. I'm currently playing one called Skillful Pixel Dungeon which adds active and passive skills to each character as well as a skill point system. It also adds some new items. There's also a great one called Shattered Pixel Dungeon which adds an entirely new class of items called artifacts, as well as some tweaks and fixes. But what I'm really loving about all this is that they're not clones or blatant ripoffs, they're full on mods of the original because Pixel Dungeon is free and open source. Each of them adds new stuff while still retaining the same core as PD. It's so amazingly refreshing and wonderful to see this happening on a mobile platform. I'm fed up with the constant trash that's filling up the store as everyone introduces their reskinned variant of the latest popular game. I really hope this idea of modding mobile games spreads but I don't think it will because it's not a profitable business model.

I played this for a few hours now. It's really scratching an itch I've had for a long time, namely a new 2D Metroid game. The visual design is strange and bizarre in ways that work both for and against it. It's sufficiently alien and unique that things are interesting but there's also a ton of visual clutter that sometimes makes it hard for me to tell what's going on. For example, on one of the bosses I still don't know exactly where his weak spot was. All I know is that if I kept shooting him with this weapon it was damaging him on occasion so I kept doing it until he died. I'm not saying I want a big glowing spot telling me to shoot here but it would have been nice if it was a little clearer. And there are a lot of things I think are in the background but they're really in the foreground and vice versa. Everything is really impressive to look at though. For the most part, the gameplay is pretty good. I really wish the Xbox 360 controller had a decent d-pad because double tapping with a stick is a pain. Also there are too many weapons. That wouldn't bother me if most of them didn't feel redundant. I do like the use of the second stick as a weapon selector. Having gameplay slowed down because of menuing is annoying so any attempt to minimize that earns points with me. Despite most of that being complaints, it's a really fun game. It's got pretty much everything I love about Metroid but it also mixes stuff up enough to keep it from being a complete carbon copy. I can't wait to see this at a future Games Done Quick.

PC version is out now. Guess I figured out what I'm doing tonight.

Wooo... wait we're not talking about me are we?

They're different flavors instead of just chocolate. It's supposed to be red bean, apple, green zunda, wasabi, strawberry cheesecake and cayenne pepper. I've never had them myself so I can't personally speak to what they taste like.

I never watched Jem and knew pretty much nothing about it. I thought it was about a super 80s all girl rock band and that's it. I watched the trailer and thought it looked super generic but it didn't bother me until I read Apple Cider's writeup and talked to Teg about it. I had no idea that the cartoon had magic or crazy technology or whatever happens in there. I didn't realize they took what could have been a really interesting premise and made it the most bland thing possible.

The Jr Mints have shipped so hopefully they'll arrive by next week's cast. Everything else should already be there. One clarification on the Kit Kats: they're not normal Kit Kats, it's a variety pack of Japanese ones The idea of a robot fish leading the organic fish to revolt against the humans is basically the plot of an episode of Futurama where Bender thinks he's a penguin.

Amazon's got another free app bundle going. Some of the big names this time around include Five Nights at Freddy's 3, Game of Thrones - A Telltale Games Series (not sure how many episodes this includes), Bloons TD 5, Sorcery 3, and Star Command.

So Harry Shearer, aka the voice of many characters such as Principal Skinner, Kent Brockman, Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Dr. Hibbert, Lenny Leonard, Otto Mann, Rainier Wolfcastle, etc., may be not be on the show anymore. He tweeted this out The 27th and 28th seasons of the show were being held up by a key actor who had not yet signed, and it was reported that Harry Shearer was the one. The reported reason wasn't a pay increase, but the back end and merchandising. From the sound of things, it looks like they might have just decided to drop him altogether. I'd probably be more upset about this if I cared about the show at all in the last decade.

This topic is to help get developers and artists together. This can be either visual or audio. If you're an artist seeking a developer, provide some examples of your work and what types of games you'd like to make. If you're a developer seeking an artist, describe what kind of art you're looking for, possibly a game description or prototype if you have one.

My alma mater is constantly bugging me for donations. Even when I actually do agree to give them something, they try to guilt me into giving more. "Oh, you're going to give us $50? That's nice. But you know what would be really great? $300". This comes from a school that got $20 million from Bill Gates.

Ok I sent out the order. Most of it should arrive this week, one item will probably be next week. There's a lot of stuff this time.