NEWER POSTS

Pseudoku Feedback

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jan 31, 2017

Filed under: Programming 176 comments
Object Oriented Debate Part 3: Damned if you do...Previous Post
Next PostPseudoku: Feedback to the Feedback

Like I said on the podcast last week: I have another a game that’s reasonably close to complete in terms of programming, but in need of more content and polish if I wanted it to see commercial release. I’m not sure what the project needs or if it’s worth spending more time on, so I’m releasing this alpha version in the hopes of getting feedback.

I already had this game in development before the release of Good Robot. But then Good Robot was kind of a disappointment in terms of sales and I started thinking that maybe there were better uses of my time where I could entertain more people with less effort. So I shelved the project.

I rediscovered the project a couple of weeks ago and started thinking that I ought to at least throw it out to the public and see what people thought of it. So that’s what we’re doing.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Pseudoku Feedback”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Object Oriented Debate Part 3: Damned if you do...Previous Post
Next PostPseudoku: Feedback to the Feedback

176 comments

 

Diecast #186: Mailbag!

By Shamus Posted Monday Jan 30, 2017

Filed under: Diecast 125 comments
Diecast #185: Xcom 2, Steep, Overwatch CompetitivePrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #187: Husk, Borderlands, Sims 4



Hosts: Josh, Rutskarn, Shamus, Campster, and Bay.

This is it! We finally get around to answering all those questions you’ve been sending us.

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #186: Mailbag!”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Diecast #185: Xcom 2, Steep, Overwatch CompetitivePrevious Post
Next PostDiecast #187: Husk, Borderlands, Sims 4

125 comments

 

Shamus Plays WoW #15: The Doom of Darkshire

By Shamus Posted Sunday Jan 29, 2017

Filed under: WoW 24 comments
Shamus Plays WoW #14: Thinking Inside the BoxPrevious Post

The town of Lakeshire. As I remember, a lot of quests involve swimming around in the stupid lake and clicking on shit.
The town of Lakeshire. As I remember, a lot of quests involve swimming around in the stupid lake and clicking on shit.

We’re in the town of Lakeshire in the Redridge mountains. Boss has skipped talking to the useless guards, lackeys, and officials around town and gone straight for the top. We’re going to talk to the magistrate and see what this town really needs.

The following text isn't an exaggeration. There really is a line (that never moves) to speak to the magistrate, and the player just ignores them and talks to him directly.
The following text isn't an exaggeration. There really is a line (that never moves) to speak to the magistrate, and the player just ignores them and talks to him directly.

There are a lot of people in line, waiting to see him and complain about the gnolls that are killing and pillaging their farms. This is not to imply that there is a single farm anywhere in the Redridge mountains. But wherever these idiots and their imaginary farms come from, they are pissed off and want to talk to Magistrate Solomon. The wait would take hours.

Norman solves this by just cutting in line and demanding to know what needs done.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Shamus Plays WoW #15: The Doom of Darkshire”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Shamus Plays WoW #14: Thinking Inside the BoxPrevious Post

24 comments

 

Spoiler Warning 7th Anniversary: Dead End Road

By Shamus Posted Friday Jan 27, 2017

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 67 comments
New Year 2017: Tharsis and Monster Loves YouPrevious Post
Next PostUntil Dawn EP19: The Doge of Menace


Link (YouTube)

Seven years of this nonsense! What am I doing with my life?

This episode contains everything you’d expect from a quality Spoiler Warning video: Josh demonstrating pro strategies and techniques that most players never discover, Rutskarn discussing the literary symbolism at play, Chris analyzing the core ludic systems, and me taking the whole thing very seriously and offering nothing but incisive commentary on the game as it unfolds in okay I lied it’s just the four of us dicking around for an hour what did you expect?

This was actually a lot of fun. I haven’t enjoyed recording an episode this much in a long time. Don’t forget that Josh has a Patreon for the show itself to help pay for the equipment and hours he dumps into recording and editing the show.

Thanks for watching.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

New Year 2017: Tharsis and Monster Loves YouPrevious Post
Next PostUntil Dawn EP19: The Doge of Menace

67 comments

 

Game of Thrones Griping: Introduction

By Bob Case Posted Friday Jan 27, 2017

Filed under: Game of Thrones 241 comments
Next PostGame of Thrones Griping 2: Completely Bonkers

This series analyzes the show, but sometimes references the books as well. If you read it, expect spoilers for both.

Greetings, Twenty-Sidians!Twenty-Sidites? Twenty-Siderians? I’m Bob, also known as MrBtongue, and I’m the blog’s newest shiny object. You may know me from such Youtube smash hits as MrBtongue complains about the Mass Effect 3 ending, MrBtongue complains about EA, and MrBtongue complains about Bethesda.

Today I’m here to complain about Game of Thrones. I’ve complained about Game of Thrones beforeHere’s the video., but that was a broader criticism of the spirit of the show. In this series I’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty. In fact, the way I pitched this to Shamus was that I planned to do for Game of Thrones something like what he did for the Skyrim Thieves’ Guild questline.

It’s the sort of thing I hadn’t entirely realized there was an audience for â€" but if Shamus’ own reader polls are any indicationThis one indicates an encouraging appetite for “bloviating on a game for months.”, there is, and I now see an opportunity to pick every nit the show has to offer for a crowd that will cheer me on the whole way, or hopefully at least not throw virtual tomatoes at me.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Game of Thrones Griping: Introduction”

 

Bob Case MrBtongue is the Pele of complaining about videogames and will soon be the Garrincha of complaining about TV shows. You can find his Youtube channel at youtube.com/user/MrBtongue.

Next PostGame of Thrones Griping 2: Completely Bonkers

241 comments

 

New Year 2017: Tharsis and Monster Loves You

By Shamus Posted Thursday Jan 26, 2017

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 39 comments
New Year 2017 Livestream Part 2: HitmanPrevious Post
Next PostSpoiler Warning 7th Anniversary: Dead End Road


Link (YouTube)

This is the final segment of the show we did for new year. Tharsis bugs me in the same way that Xcom-2Or X-Com 2, or Xcom 2-, or XCOM2, or whatever the stupid name is that I’m sick of looking up every time I have to type it. does. A game with this much deliberately random noise in the outcomes is completely uninteresting to me. “Oh. A low number. I lose. Oh! A HIGH number! Lucky me. I get to not lose this turn.” Random number generators are not interesting adversaries. Losing to them is annoying, and winning feels meaningless. Yuck.

Up tomorrow: The 7th anniversary of the show. I can’t tell you what game we’re playing, but I can promise it will focus on us driving into poles over and over again.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

New Year 2017 Livestream Part 2: HitmanPrevious Post
Next PostSpoiler Warning 7th Anniversary: Dead End Road

39 comments

 

Arkham City Part 1: Gameplay First

By Shamus Posted Thursday Jan 26, 2017

Filed under: Batman 132 comments
The Elephant in the RoomPrevious Post
Next PostArkham City Part 2: The Dark Fight Returns

Batman: Arkham City is an interesting contrast to the last two games we’ve talked about:

1) Mass Effect: Details / worldbuilding firstAt least in the first game. The fact that this focus changed is one of the things that makes the series so controversial and fascinating..

2) Final Fantasy X: Characters / emotions first.

3) Batman: Arkham City: Gameplay first.

I don’t want to be overly reductive here. I’m not implying that the Mass Effect teams didn’t care about gameplay, or that the story in Arkham City wasn’t important to anyoneAt least, I HOPE someone cares about the story, since I’m going to spend several entries on it.. But there is a clear mechanical focus about Batman. To me it looks like Mass Effect (especially the first one) was written like this:

“I’ve come up with this world and I want to tell a story about it. What gameplay would work best?”

While Arkham was written more like:

“I want to make a Batman game about brawling, stealth, and puzzle solving. What story would work best for that?”

The Arkham games are designed with a particular rhythm of changing gameplay modes in mind, and a story is stretched to fit over this framework. If that means adding in the occasional supervillain boss fight with no relevance to the main story, then so be it. Both are completely valid ways of designing a game, but they produce different experiences with different challenges for the developer to overcome and different problems for us to nitpick.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Arkham City Part 1: Gameplay First”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The Elephant in the RoomPrevious Post
Next PostArkham City Part 2: The Dark Fight Returns

132 comments

 
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