T w e n t y S i d e d
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Experienced Points: Difficulty is Hard
My latest column looks at difficulty in games by examining the various and wildly divergent entries in the Prince of Persia series.
Also: This weekend is Desert Bus for Hope. Never heard of it? I forgive you. Just read the FAQ.
I’ll be appearing (call in) on the show on Sunday at 4pm EST. We’ll do some sort of interview-type thing. I will try very hard not to ask any members of the LRR cast to marry me, but all bets are off if Paul answers the phone. Just warning you.
Let’s Code
I’ve been corresponding with Michael Goodfellow, a fellow coder who had recently begun a blog detailing a game he’s working on. If you enjoy the coding write-ups that I do around here then do make sure to give this a look. He’s actually working on an MMO. A few people have nudged me to talk about the technology behind Minecraft, but his post explains the core concepts. Pay special attention to the stuff on Octrees. An Octree is just a three-dimensional version of a quadtree, which I wrote about way back in February 2006. (Hey! This site turned 5 years old back in September and I didn’t notice!)
I’m a big fan of “coding in public” like this. When you’re working on a solo project you might have to plow months into your work before you even have something playable enough to show off, and those months of working in the dark can be disheartening. I’ve found writing about my work also helps to to organize it in my mind. And it makes for an entertaining read for everyone else.
Do check out Let’s Code and let him know what you think.
Spoiler Warning S4E2:
Kill Ten Robots
Link (YouTube) |
The re-launch of the show went well. The changes seem to have paid off. We didn’t explode into a viral sensation of instant fame and stardom, but we did see a nice increase in viewership and nobody issued us a cease and desist over Rutskarn’s singing. I don’t know what success feels like, but I’ll bet it’s probably a lot like this.
Project Hex Part 5 – Growing Grass
Last time I created a texture for the world. It was okay.
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The next step is to give this texture a bit more depth and to make it less rigid and mechanical. The first thing I want to do is make the grass edging a little more interesting. I’m going to be basing my efforts on this tutorial. (Halfway down the page.) It shows some grass hanging over onto some dirt. Two things I’m taking away from this:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Project Hex Part 5 – Growing Grass”
Shamus Plays: What Happens in Goldshire…
Part 4 of my journey into the absurd.
Q: Hey Shamus, where the heck is Stolen Pixels?
A: I’ll let Hamlet answer this one for me:
HAMLET: I have of late,â€"but wherefore I know not,â€"lost all my mirth…
I really don’t know what my problem is lately, but I’m not able to write jokes. I’ve got several more weeks of Shamus Plays World of Warcraft written, so we’re good there. But I can’t do anything with my comic. I’m just not feeling it. So, we’re taking a break until I can recover my mirth.
Spoiler Warning 4×1:
Death is Cheap
No more jokes, this is really the start of our Mass Effect 2 series. New format, new editing tools, new video host. Same band of jerks. We’re easing into this slowly.
Since our video is no longer a half hour long, we’ve been able to increase the video quality. Previously we were stuck in 320p, but now the show is available in glorious 720p. Which is a lot more p.
Link (YouTube) |
The changes we’ve made were based on the feedback we got last week. In particular, the leading suggestions were:
- Try to play the newest games to make the show more relevant.
- Try to play older games so as to avoid spoilers.
- More humor.
- Less joking around.
- More off-the-cuff banter.
- Try to prepare our commentary ahead of time.
- Cover more ground in each episode.
- Make the episodes shorter.
- Move to a more popular, established video host.
- Don’t use YouTube.
- Do episodes more quickly to hold interest and get through the game fast.
- Less episodes, so it’s not so hard to keep up.
- Do blind runs of games.
- Know what you’re talking about.
- Less grief and anguish.
- More Rutskarn singing.
Yeah, we’re doomed.
From The Archives:
PC Hardware is Toast
This is why shopping for graphics cards is so stupid and miserable.
Self-Balancing Gameplay
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.
The Brilliance of Mass Effect
What is "Domino Worldbuilding" and how did it help to make Mass Effect one of the most interesting settings in modern RPGs?
Starcraft: Bot Fight
Let's do some scripting to make the Starcraft AI fight itself, and see how smart it is. Or isn't.
Twelve Years
Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.
Civilization VI
I'm a very casual fan of the series, but I gave Civilization VI a look to see what was up with this nuclear war simulator.
The Best of 2018
I called 2018 "The Year of Good News". Here is a list of the games I thought were interesting or worth talking about that year.
The Mistakes DOOM Didn't Make
How did this game avoid all the usual stupidity that ruins remakes of classic titles?
Was it a Hack?
A big chunk of the internet went down in October of 2016. What happened? Was it a hack?
Black Desert Online
This Korean title would be the greatest MMO ever made if not for the horrendous monetization system. And the embarrassing translation. And the terrible progression. And the developer's general apathy towards its western audience.