A few people have sent along concerns about the YourCity 3D app, since it looks so much like my old procedural city project. Some people are worried that perhaps I’ve been ripped off.
Not to worry. The app does seem to be using my code, but it doesn’t matter because I gave the code away. Free to all, no restrictions. I haven’t had any contact with the person developing YourCity 3D, but I’m happy to see my code being used.
Thanks for the concern. Everything’s cool.
Link (YouTube) |
The OK GO video I talked about is called WTF?, and it’s probably the simplest video they’ve ever done. Compare it to Needing, Getting, which required some construction acoustics R&D, a massive musical course, hundreds of musical instruments, a specially modified car, and for lead singer Damian Kulash to take a stunt driving course.
I just thought that was interesting.
To everyone celebrating Thanksgiving: I hope you’re having a fun day with great food. I just had ice cream cake so I’m pretty happy right now.
The next episode will complete our run of Mass Effect 3. Then we’ll be announcing the next season.
Link (YouTube) |
This problem has sort of crept up on developers. In the 1990’s, shooters didn’t have much in the way of story. Basically, “Bad guys over there, go shoot them until the world is saved.” At the time everyone complained that this was kind of hollow.
There weren’t plot points, character development, or worldbuilding. There was shooting, and – later on – shooting bigger guys with bigger guns. You know. MOAR DAKKA, basically.
So then developers began injecting stories into games. Once every hour or so the characters would stop what they were doing to give some context to what was going on.
Then the stories grew. We had multi-threaded plots, character arcs, plot twists, lore, and rising action. Sure, lots of it was pretty sophomoric, but… baby steps, right? As games became more about story, the story and gameplay became more at odds. The gameplay has to stop for the cutscenes and the story has to stop once the gameplay starts. It’s like pausing a movie, playing an hour of a game, then pausing the game and watching another five minutes of movie. We’re watching a badly paced movie, and to get to the next scene we have to play a bland game.
I don’t see this as a Mass Effect problem, or a BioWare problem. This is a problem for anyone making story-driven action games. This problem culminates at the end, where the developer has to decide if they want to give you a big long combat finale at the expense of the story’s pacing, or if they want to go into full-on movie mode and make you stop playing your game.
I tried to think of games that did this finale really well. I came up with two. Now it’s your turn. You think up two games that successfully unified the story and gameplay crescendos at the end. I’ll wait…
Okay, so here are the games I thought of: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect 3 EP39: MOAR DAKKA!”
Since people keeping asking about this, I suppose I’d better say something. YES, the blog is all Mass Effect all the time. This isn’t because I’m obsessed with Mass Effect, or because that’s all I want to talk about. It’s because the Mass Effect vids are already done. The Mass Effect videos aren’t preventing you from getting prose from me, they’re filling what would otherwise be a BLANK SPACE.
I’m really busy lately. I’ve got personal-life stuff going on right now that’s eating some time, plus a book I’m trying to finish, plus a bit of coding, plus some other obligations.
(The book is stalled. Not because I’m unhappy with the book, but because my brain switching to PROGRAMMING MODE! I seriously can’t write fiction right now, and so I’m noodling with code because that’s all my brain wants to do. I’m 85% of the way done with this book. It’s terrible. And no, the code’s not anything worth turning into blog posts.)
I totally understand if you’re sick of hearing about Mass Effect and you’re hoping I’ll make some other content. I’m sick of the series and I’m eager to put the thing behind me and move on. Spoiler Warning costs me only a couple of hours a week to record, and the Mass Effect 1 videos were completed years ago. I’m just putting this stuff up for those who want it.
Having said that, I do try to make the visit worth your while. Even if you don’t watch the video, I try to make the blog post itself worth a read, and if I can I make it able to stand on its own.
The run of Mass Effect 3 should finish up this week. Once that’s over we’ll announce the next series.
If you’re looking for something to read, can I suggest Krellen’s XCOM game? It stars some people from this very site.
In short: The Mass Effect will continue until morale improves.
Link (YouTube) |
Thanks so much to Glitch, who apparently forgot that Sunday night was Spoiler Warning night and sent Josh all the Steam messages while we were recording, because he wanted to play a videogame. WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR VIDEOGAMES BECAUSE WE’RE BUSY WITH MASS EFFECT 3!
Also note at 19:10 – the elusive left-handed salute!
Link (YouTube) |
Note the longer load times and frame skipping we have going on now that Randy is our player. I do wonder what sort of magical herculean CPU Josh has under his desk. You can see Randy’s machine struggled to keep up with Mass Effect here. The CPU load of capturing full-frame video to disk AND capturing video, reducing, and streaming it to Livestream is a considerable challenge, and this is on top of running a videogame. Josh’s computer does this week after week without skipping any frames.
Hey everyone! We’re hanging out and Josh is playing some kinda strategy game. You can watch the stream live.
I was trying to make fun of how Silent Hill had lost its way but I ended up making fun of fighting games. Whatever.
Here is how I'd conquer the game-publishing business. (Hint: NOT by copying EA, 2K, Activision, Take-Two, or Ubisoft.)
How does image compression work, and why does it create those ugly spots all over some videos and not others?
What is this silly word, why did some people get so irritated by it, and why did it fall out of use?
A wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
Here is a 13 part series where I talk about programming games, programming languages, and programming problems.
Finally, the age-old debate has been settled.
Computers keep getting more powerful. So why do the population caps for massively multiplayer games stay about the same?
Small changes to the animations can have a huge impact on how the audience interprets a scene.
There are two major schools of thought about how you should write software. Here's what they are and why people argue about it.
T w e n t y S i d e d
