Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 10, 2018

Filed under: Diecast 68 comments

 Diecast #234: Titanic Demo, Canvas Bags, Python, C#Previous Post

Next PostDiecast #236: Gris, HotS, Starcraft, Artifact 

For whatever reason, my audio is blown out in this episode. I have no idea why. I checked it on my end before we started recording and the levels looked good. This happened a couple of weeks ago and I’m not sure where this is going wrong. It’s amazing that I’ve made 235 of these silly things and I’m still running into new ways that things can fall apart.

I should add that I have my audio going into my headphones and it sounds just fine. The levels coming from the microphone looked reasonable. But somewhere between the microphone and the final recording is a bit of software that’s decided to “help” me a little too much. I was forcibly updated to a new version of Windows a couple of weeks ago. That update is my first suspect, if only because that’s the only thing to have changed recently. I did find a volume slider set to 100%I seem to recall that the slider in Windows audio settings use the convention that 50% is full volume and everything above that is software boosting. I can’t find any confirmation of this., but that doesn’t explain why the levels were fine last week.

I don’t know how people produce regular video content without losing their minds. I feel like every year adds a few more layers of abstraction between me and the hardware.

My voice really is terrible in this one. Sorry. I’d scrap the whole thing, but this episode is a chat with SoldierHawke and we don’t get those very often.

To compensate for this bad sound, I suggest listening to the show in a noisy old car with blown out speakers while driving very fast on a busy highway with the windows down while a truck shadows your blind spot. That should fully mask the audio problems by hiding it under many other audio problems. Also, the constant danger will probably make the show more exciting. Good luck!

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Hosts: SoldierHawke, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #235: Black Mesa, The Outer Worlds”

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 #234: Titanic Demo, Canvas Bags, Python, C#Previous Post

Next PostDiecast #236: Gris, HotS, Starcraft, Artifact 

68 comments

Three Random Things

By Shamus Posted Sunday Dec 9, 2018

Filed under: Random 96 comments

 The End of Black FridayPrevious Post

Next PostChristmas Elves vs. Fantasy Elves 

Number one: Based on the feedback I got last week regarding my book cover, we decided to take another pass at it. I sort of resent this work. You can fuss over this sort of crap forever. You can dump days of productivity into tweaking font selection, obsessing over text placement, re-wording the blurb, changing image composition, and worrying about a dozen other little details. It’s possible to pour many hours into messing with things that aren’t ever going to impact sales.

How will this look in print? How will it look on an eReader? How will it look as a tiny thumbnail on the Amazon store? Is this font too boring? Is this font too childish? Does the back-of-the-book blurb give enough information to let the reader know what they’re in for? Dies it give too much away? Is it too long?

On the other hand, the cover really is the first thing people see, and it makes sense to put some time into it. Going by the advice some self-publishing authors give, the quality of the cover is more important than the quality of the contents. That’s really cynical and depressing, which means it’s probably true.

If you’re curious, this is where we are now:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Three Random Things”

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 End of Black FridayPrevious Post

Next PostChristmas Elves vs. Fantasy Elves 

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Spider-Man Part 2: Meet Peter Parker

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 6, 2018

Filed under: Retrospectives 76 comments

 Spider-Man Part 1: The Legacy of ComicsPrevious Post

Next PostSpider-Man Part 3: Fisk Fight 

For the record, I played through this game a total of four times back-to-back. I tried every difficulty level, and I’ve tried disabling some of the optional side elements like quicktime events and puzzles. I’ve fully cleared 100% of all objectives, obtained all the trophies, and I’ve spent endless hours swinging through the Manhattan playground that developer Insomniac Games has built for us. I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on the thing both mechanically and narratively, although I can’t claim I know this game as well as I know Batman: Arkham City.

Speaking of Batman: I’m going to spend a few words in this series contrasting Batman: Arkham Sequels and Spider-Man: No Subtitle. I anticipate the knee jerk reaction will be that they’re different games with a different focus and it’s not fair to expect Spider-Man’s game to simply copy Batman’s games. And just to be clear: I totally agree. Just because I compare the two doesn’t mean that I automatically think Batman did it better. On the other hand, it’s obvious Insomniac Games took a lot of cues from Rocksteady’s Batman formula when designing their Spider-Game. As the two standard bearers of the open world superhero brawler I think the occasional comparison is fair, as long as we remember that Batman: Arkham Whatever had six years and four mainline entries to refine the formula, while this is effectively the first outing for Insomniac’s version of Spider-Man.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Spider-Man Part 2: Meet Peter Parker”

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.

 Spider-Man Part 1: The Legacy of ComicsPrevious Post

Next PostSpider-Man Part 3: Fisk Fight 

76 comments

Experienced Points: Has Rendering Technology Stagnated?

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Dec 5, 2018

Filed under: Column 61 comments

 Experienced Points: What Happened to Gaming Hardware?Previous Post

Next PostExperienced Points: Taking Out Bethesda’s Trash Bag 

My column this week has a title that, on further reflection, could have been better chosen. The title asks “Has Rendering Technology Stagnated?”, but really that question was answered last week. This week the question I’m actually answering is, “Does it Matter?”

I mean, I guess the title kinda works if you think of stagnation in terms of “Not producing significantly better images”. Even so, “Has Visual Fidelity Stagnated?” would have been less ambiguous.

Such are the perils of working with a deadline. I’ve been dividing my time between publishing my book and other important workAssuming that playing Prey: Mooncrash counts as work. and I didn’t get working on last week’s column when I should have. When I finally started writing I realized I was juggling two different ideas:

Gaming hardware hasn’t really advanced very much in the last decade. However…
…it doesn’t matter, because it’s hard to make real gains in visual fidelity and gameplay is far more important at this point.

So I thought I could split the one column into two. That worked out in the sense that it gave me more breathing room this week, but I really should have finished writing both of them before publishing the first.

If this was just a blog post then it wouldn’t be a problem. I could push the articles off for a week and put up some goofy filler post in the interim. That’s fine when you’re publishing stuff to your own site, but it’s not really acceptable when you’re being paid to do a job. The folks at the Escapist are lovely people and very easy to work with, but this isn’t their hobby. They’re trying to run a business, and the last thing anyone needs is an unreliable contributor.

To be clear, nobody really complained about the column. This isn’t a situation where I turned in work that disappointed someone. Rather this is a case where I realize I could have made a much better pair of articles if I’d had another week.

The solution here is for me to knuckle down and build up some lead time. This is the same advice I keep giving to publishers: Don’t try to finish everything in crunch mode. Take your time. Put in half the hours over twice as many days and you’ll get a better product for the same work.

Anyway.

Now that I just spent 300 words telling you it’s not very good, please do be sure to read the column.

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.

 Experienced Points: What Happened to Gaming Hardware?Previous Post

Next PostExperienced Points: Taking Out Bethesda’s Trash Bag 

61 comments

Andromeda Part 8: The Nexus

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 4, 2018

Filed under: Mass Effect 107 comments

 Andromeda Part 7: A Little Less ConversationPrevious Post

Next PostAndromeda Part 9: The Squad 

While talking with Director Tann, he gives you a task: Go out and fix the golden worlds to make them habitable. I guess he’s read the script and knows that you’ll discover that the alien structures are climate-control devices that will make this possible. The more reasonable thing a person would do in this situation is suggest looking for some new worlds. He ought to ask you to go out into uncharted space and see if you can find anything livable.

You can call him out on this by pointing out that making planets habitable is impossible, and he responds by saying a “true” Pathfinder would enjoy the challenge. Given what he knowsHe doesn’t even know about the alien tower on Habitat 7., this is not a rational point of view for him to adopt.

Worse, this takes away Ryder’s agency within the story. She’s the main character and yet she’s just following orders from other characters. (Who are, incidentally, all proven failures.) We just went through that ridiculous train-wreck of a scene on Habitat 7 to put Sara in charge, and now the writer is going to keep having other characters make decisions for her.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Andromeda Part 8: The Nexus”

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.

 Andromeda Part 7: A Little Less ConversationPrevious Post

Next PostAndromeda Part 9: The Squad 

107 comments

Diecast #234: Titanic Demo, Canvas Bags, Python, C#

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 3, 2018

Filed under: Diecast 60 comments

 Diecast #233: Mooncrash, Wreck-it-Ralph, ParadoxPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #235: Black Mesa, The Outer Worlds 

I don’t know why, but I really enjoyed making this episode. If you usually give the podcast a miss but you’re curious about it, then this is a good one to start with.

I think we’re going to have SoldierHawk on next week. If you have any questions for either of us, the show email is in the header image.

Direct download (MP3)
Direct download (ogg Vorbis)
Podcast RSS feed.

Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #234: Titanic Demo, Canvas Bags, Python, C#”

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 #233: Mooncrash, Wreck-it-Ralph, ParadoxPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #235: Black Mesa, The Outer Worlds 

60 comments

The Other Kind of Life: Pre-Release Hype!

By Shamus Posted Sunday Dec 2, 2018

Filed under: Projects 110 comments

 Welcome to SteamworksPrevious Post

Next PostThe Other Kind of Life - Book Launch 

The image at the top of this post is the planned jacket for my upcoming novel. That’s the back cover on the left, followed by the spine and the front cover. The back is still a work in progress and there’s a lot of text to add, but you get the idea. My wife finished formatting the book a couple of days ago. The only tasks left are finishing the cover and getting the print version ready. Yesterday I realized that we were nearly ready to launch the book and I’ve done nothing to market it. I haven’t even been talking about it here on the blog.

So it would be a huge help for me if everyone was willing to pretend I’ve just spent the last 3-6 months building up curiosity and engagement through previews, teasers, interviews, and giveaways. If you could act like you’re all buzzing with excitement and waiting for the release date announcement, that would really be nice.

The book takes place in a fictional city. It’s cyberpunk, but I left out a lot of the “punk” and replaced it with… sci-fi… murder mystery… kinda. Look, it’s complicated and genre boundaries are confusing to me.

Most cyberpunky stories take place in quasi-Tokyo, Neo York, PseudoLondon, or Los Angelish. I decided I wanted a bit of a different setting, so I went for a mashup of São Paulo, Monte Carlo, and Rio de Janeiro, with maybe a dash of Hong Kong. Basically, this city is not the center of the global culture or technology.

I stray pretty far from the usual formula of razer girlz, mohawks, cyber-prosthesis, mind-jacking, and casual murder. I realize that that’s the cyberpunk recipe and that it makes for a very cool world with a lot of texture. But we’ve been exploring that future dystopia for a long time. I don’t think it works as a projection of current trends here in 2018 as well as it did in 1984. Instead I tried to bring in some recent ideas about machine learning and make different projections with regards to surveillance and crime.

I’m not suggesting I’ve re-invented cyberpunk, or that the traditionalist works are somehow flawed. I just think that there’s room for a different take on the genre.

The back-of-the-book blurb:

Fresh out of jail, Max is forced to solve an impossible crime to save his life. Along the way he teams up with Jennifer Five, a robotic companion who has her own reasons for wanting the crime solved. They need to work together while staying one step ahead of the corporations, gangsters, and crooked cops that are hunting them across the city.

Anyway, just remember: If anyone asks, you’ve been hyped about this for months and you’ve already pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition with Horse Armor. Thanks!

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.

 Welcome to SteamworksPrevious Post

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