#lots of devs/publishers/release dates
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Obsidian Mansion // Rune Factory 4
#IT'S OCTOBER 👻#rune factory#fune factory 4#rf4#soundtrack#ost#misc series#tomoko morita#oof these tags are going to be a mess#lots of devs/publishers/release dates#neverland#hakama#marvelous#xseed#2012#2013#2014#2019#2020#3DS#nintendo switch
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Well, well, well. Would you look at what the cat dragged in. (it's me, Lou!)
The time is here, and oh man, do I have a lot to say! Ever since this post was posted on my personal tumblr, on the fifth of may, I have been working like a machine on all things OUROBOROS. I had originally planned for this to just be a progress report/ announcement on what I will be working on now that I am free of the shackles of work, but, somehow, I managed to finish all bullet points, and more. So, let's get into it!
First off, the title.
Ouroboros becomes all capitalized OUROBOROS.
Idk. It's neat. Next!
Art. Whew. I didn't think I could draw like this anymore- drawing has been more of a struggle than writing has been, forever, always- it was something I really strived to become good at, for a time. And I gave up. Only to pick it up again when I started ouro, and ever since I released that pressure, something just clicked and I have been churning out art like never before. I don't know if this is a fluke, a stroke of luck or if all that hard work I once did slaving away with menial art practice… but I'm grateful nonetheless. (A note on official RO art: I lost my ipad pencil somewhere on the lawn, lmao. I haven't been able to get a new one yet, so there is a slight delay here.) I am hoping that I get to make some commissions too, in the near future.
Visit the forum to see some works in progress (amongst them, Yor's RO portrait!)
Onto the hellscape that is coding! I have been growing more proficient with CSS and html with the help of the ones that run so that we can walk; I have studied and researched and tested and tinkered until my eyes crossed, finding my way into this medium with the incredible guidance of the giants of whose shoulders I stand on. I will talk about this in detail on a later date.
So I think it's finally time to reveal that yes, I am working on a twine version of ouro. I will develop it in tandem with choicescript; the porting over from one to the other isn't the herculean task I thought it would be.
Why am I doing this? Because I need to have a save system. I am continuing to write the whole alpha draft in choicescript in hopes that CoG will announce the ability to have a native save/checkpoint system, but if that doesn’t happen, I can’t publish this story without one. Unfortunately, I am not willing to code in a savesystem in choicescript myself, because this will be a large game, with far too many variables for that to be sustainable. Trust me, no one is more disappointed by that fact than me. If it comes to the point that twine publishing will be what I do, I will set my sights on writing a smaller game for hosted games.
Now the meatier announcements!
New Socials!
Tumblr: You are looking at it! This is the new, exclusively OUROBOROS blog where I will share all announcements and sneak-peeks, and future updates. I worked together with the dev of the theme and made it oh, so pretty and functional. Please check out their portfolio here, if you are ever in the market for sprucing up your (desktop version) of tumblr. They were a pleasure to work with. Amongst other things, it has a gorgeous header (again, only if you visit on web and not mobile) where I am showcasing fanart and official art. Go check it out! This month, I am showcasing a truly breathtaking art from KAIRELART, and you can find the full art here, or follow the links in the “FEATURED ARTIST” tab in the top bar.
I hope you enjoy this new haven for OUROBOROS! I will be answering questions once a week (saturday) and ramping up as I adapt to this new schedule, more on that further below.
My old tumblr, honeypeabrain, will revert back to being my personal blog. Feel free to keep following me there, but know that it will be inundated with shitposts, crass humor and the occasional poetry dump and personal post. You’ve been warned!
Discord!
By the good graces, this was ROUGH to set up. Working with discord bots is akin to wrangling code, and it was well and truly, a war. But with the help of many, it is finally all done and ready for anyone to join and talk to me and others about OUROBOROS and anything else between heaven and earth.
I will also greatly appreciate if any future bugs and feedback are submitted through here, so I can keep easier track of it. Come join us! (18+ ONLY.)
Patreon & Ko-Fi
Yep! Ko-fi is just a place to toss me a coin if you wish to help me towards the goal of new PC parts to make testing easier, or to just show appreciation for those that have it to spare. Patreon however, already has a multitude of posts and will be a hub for exclusive NSFW sidestories that you get to vote on, loredives and extensive sneak peeks, Q&A’s, polls and weekly dev logs.
Right now, there are only two tiers, but I expect it to grow as my story does. I have many plans, but I am going at a steady pace.
Amongst tiered content, there is a (free) NSFW story with female MC and Idren to read there right now, if you want to check it out! I am mgoing to post it on tumblr and the adult thread here over the weekend.
NOTE: I stupidly didn't realize that patreon had a review process after I pressed launch, which I did just a few minutes ago. Sigh. I am going to post the short on tumblr and the adult forum thread as soon as I get to it.
It is not mandatory by any means, so if you do choose to support me, you have my eternal gratitude as these places will be the sole source of income for me.
Onto writing:
The best news out of this whole bunch is that I have worked so hard on editing and writing, that in the past month I have all but finished a two chapter update! I have a chunk of about 5-6 thousand words left to write, and I am going to buckle down over the weekend to see it through. I wanted to have it done so badly for today, but I lost three days of writing time last week due to still being weighed down with work. I hope it isn’t too disappointing to have to wait until monday for the demo update! I am going to post a link to an as-I-write updated demo on Patreon and Discord, if you want to see the ugly face of raw wip drafts. Otherwise I will post the demo update here on Monday with a comprehensive post!
And now! the biggest news is… from now on, I am writing full time!
This is what I have been tossing and turning about every night ever since Easter. It started as a silly idea while talking to some friends and family about how I was looking for a change in career. And then, little by little, that idea whittled down to a plan, carefully carved by my partner and his whispers of a happy future, a finished dream project, and something to be proud of until the day I wither and die.
Somewhere between then and now, I grasped a tiny sliver of bravery and held on for dear life.
I quit my job as a teacher, and instead of accepting a cushy office job, I started behaving as if OUROBOROS and writing was my work (for all the moments I could afford). I have researched and tried different methods from week to week, and although I was still tired from work, I felt like I was onto something that could build into a sustainable future.
I have no doubts that this journey will be bumpy and long, but sometimes all it takes is to take that first step, and do it with determination. It might all crash and burn and fail in a spectacular way, or with a whimper, but then I will know that I have tried. I will know that I gave myself the chance to be who I want to be, work on what means so much to me.
And that’s it. I think the hardest part of formulating this post (I’ve written about 50 versions of it!) is getting to the point; the kernel of what makes it so special to me. So, in my heart of hearts, what I'm trying to tell you is that I'm gonna give it my all- and while I know the road to having a sustainable career in writing is rough and ever winding, I do know for sure that I am ready for a challenge, to pour my heart and soul into it until the day I rush out of the office screaming IT IS DONE. IT IS DOOOOONE!!!
If you decide to join me, I will treasure your company like a lantern in the dark. Hand in lovable hand, let’s fucking go.
#OUROBOROS#ouroboros-if#interactive fiction#hosted games#CYOA#twine#dev log#progress update#honeypeabrain#smacking tags on this post like they're skittles im aiming into a beasts mouth#I DIDN'T REALIZE PATREON WAS GOING TO REVIEW MY PAGE (literally cried about it because I planned everything so meticulously) SOB#anyway :') but a small stepping stone on the long journey ahead#I am going to take the dog for a long walk and then upload the demo/spicy short as I say hello to anyone joining the disc#I hope to see you there :>
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It might still be too early for this kind of question, but what have been your favorite video games you've played in 2022? :3c
Given what the release schedule over the next three months looks like, yeah, it's probably jumping the gun, but what the hell. I'm going to arbitrarily restrict my consideration to games actually published in 2022, or else we'd be here all week, though.
(I make no apologies for the high concentration of sequels on this list. I know what I like!)
Amber City is a spiritual sequel to 2017's Flood of Light, and its gameplay is in much the same vein, being an atmospheric walking sim with light point-and-click puzzle elements. If you enjoyed the idea of The Witness but wish the puzzles didn't hate you personally, this might not be a bad one to check out.
Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince isn't going to break any new ground for those who’ve played its predecessor, though it's somewhat more adventurous in its dungeon design; if you enjoy casual 2D Zelda-likes, you'll probably enjoy this. Fans of 1980s fantasy media may also get a kick out of its pop culture pastiche elements – let’s just say the narrator is definitely taking advantage of the fact that his grandkids have never seen Labyrinth!
COGEN: Sword of Rewind is a Mega Man Zero style hack-and-slash platformer that does one of the first interesting things I've seen in years with the time manipulation formula, essentially merging your "mess with time" gauge with your health bar. The damage-boost routing in the speedrun is something you need to see to believe.
Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils is a retro platformer from the makers of 2020's Zelda-like dating sim Prodigal. Comparisons to Celeste are, perhaps, unwarranted, as the mechanics are very different, but I felt something familiar in the role of momentum in its flow of play. Visually, it's incredibly pink, which is something I always appreciate in a game.
Dungeons of Dreadrock is a short logic puzzler that one could be forgiven for mistaking for an old-school roguelike at first glance. Each level is a set-piece that borrows from the conventions of the grid-based roguelike genre to create situations where only one sequence of actions leads to survival, and challenges the player to find it..
FAR: Changing Tides swaps Lone Sails' landship for, well, an actual ship. The engineering sim gameplay remains largely unchanged in spite of that. Some of its elaborations on the previous game's formula don't work as well as they might have, being challenging more due to the limitations of the physics engine than anything else, but the frustration factor wasn't high enough to ruin my fun.
A Game with a Kitty 1 & Darkside Adventures is me flagrantly breaking my own rules, since everything in this anthology actually came out in 2005–2008 – it's just the anthology itself that's a 2022 release; I'm mostly throwing it in because this list was otherwise light on free-to-play titles. It all held up remarkably well on a replay earlier this year, though.
Gunborg: Dark Matters is a run-and-gun precision platformer that seems to have flown entirely under the radar, having just 11 reviews on Steam at the time of this posting. I'm not sure why – I mean, it's got a great soundtrack, and you play as a woman with a sword the size of a surfboard. What else do you want?
Jack Move is a JRPG-style title that blends self-consciously silly 1980s cyberpunk with contemporary anime aesthetics. I have to confess that I'm cheating a bit by including this one, as it's been out for all of three days at the time of this posting, and is the only game on this list I haven't played; I have, however, followed its development for some time, and I've had a lot of fun with the various demos the dev team has put out over the years, so I'm confident in plugging it here.
Recursive Ruin takes a page from 2019's Manifold Garden and basically asks "what if it was super fucked up?" The recursion here is fractal rather than directional, with progress "inward" eventually leading right back where you started. The story is naturally pretentious as hell; whether that's a criticism is a matter of taste.
RUN: The World In-Between wears it Celeste influence on its sleeve, but really takes more from classic endless runners like Canabalt. The "procedural generation" is just the same dozen or so puzzles for each zone being strung together in various orders, and the story is thinner than the trailer makes it look, but if you're a fan of the "running from left to right set to awesome music" genre, you could do a lot worse.
Submerged: Hidden Depths picks up where 2015's Submerged left off. The gameplay is substantially similar, though with a heavier focus on exploration puzzles and fewer linear set-pieces. Even so, it's not exactly what I'd call challenging – it's better approached as a pretty walking sim with light parkour-puzzler elements.
System Purge is about as basic as it gets for a precision platformer. No fancy moves here: you run; you jump; you get your face melted off by a laser. There's actually quite a bit of blood and gore, which is something I rarely have the stomach for, but the game is short enough that the lurid bits don't overstay their welcome. Fair warning!
Taiji is... well, remember when I said Amber City is a good one to check out if you like the idea of the Witness but wish the puzzles didn't hate you? This is one to check out if you do enjoy it when the puzzles hate you. There's a lot here that will be familiar to fans of the latter, though the puzzles are somewhat more varied owing to the fact that colouring grids is a more flexible game mechanic than drawing lines.
Vain Ascendance is a a roguelite precision platformer whose art style and mechanics put me strongly in mind of 2018's Overclocked, though the dev teams are unrelated. When I've plugged this game in the past I've been teased that my obsession with games about red haired women who can air dash is showing, but this I must protest: her hair is purple.
As for unreleased games available in demo or early access versions that I've tried out in 2022, I'll keep it brief, since these aren't proper recs, but you might have a look at any of Dormiveglia, Garbage Girl Louise, Gigasword, Keylocker, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara, Little Witch in the Woods, Rebel Transmute, Rose & Locket, Ruin Valley, Shards of Gravity, Star Hearts: Launch Point, Undergrave, Venus Looks for Jupiter, Vermillion Descent or War Girl.
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GreedFall 2 | Post Nacon Connect Spiders Live
youtube
Some important highlights:
We play as a native person of Tír Fradí, kidnapped and forcibly taken to the mainland continent of Gacane
There will be new factions introduced, as well as places we didn't learn about in the first game
We get party control!! Not turn-based combat, but we get more tactical control over our character and three companions. This was implemented from listening to player feedback from the first game
The world itself will be bigger, and both exploration and narrative are at the forefront of the experience
Early Access is happening! It is really important to the development team so they can gain feedback on how they're doing with a lot of big, new changes
Early Access will ONLY be available on Steam, though the full game will launch on consoles
There will be several phases of EA. The initial EA launch phase will allow access to the entire beginning of the game
Around 1/4 of the game may be available upon EA release
There will be updates at regular intervals, but save files WILL NOT be compatible between updates
This is their current roadmap of EA release
Character, skill set and talents will still be customisable!!
More small quests for each region will be implemented to add depth of gameplay and aid in telling the main story
The dev team REALLY wants valuable and constructive feedback for both story and gameplay elements while they are still in EA
Crafting systems will be included again, but not in EA
The team thinks of the game not as a sequel or prequel but as a new story set within the same world
There will be some (few) characters that we know from the first GreedFall, and perhaps some little clues and easter eggs to other characters we know
A camera mode may (hopefully!) be available in the full game
There is no final release date as of now (March, 2024)
Price at EA will be lower than full release price, but publishers do not have a set price yet
There will be more companion options AND romance options! 😍
There will be further announcements about gameplay coming as EA gets closer
Finally, making a second GreedFall game was easier for the team because of the communication they had with the community! Spiders Games and the devs really love the GreedFall world, and they appreciate how much we love it too ❤️
#greedfall#greedfall 2#greedfall 2: the dying world#spiders games#video games#nacon#i think i got all the main points from the video!#i feel like im gonna need to get a steam account just to play this in EA with everyone#greedfall blogging
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With E3 likely being dead, do you think we'll start to see companies move their announcements and presentations at other events? (Gamescom, PAX, Paris Games Week, etc)
No. This is because E3's importance is no longer the fact it's a lot of companies all gathering in one place anymore. E3's actual importance is the calendar date that it was held - mid June. Even if E3 were to go away permanently, we would likely still see large publisher announcements and press conferences happen during the time E3 used to be held, because game publishers still need to market and announce new games.
In order to generate, maintain, and increase player interest in their upcoming games, publishers need to periodically release new information to the public. The goal of this is to build interest steadily in a new game over time, hitting the maximum marketing push just before release. If we don't release new info often enough, interest falls. If we release too much at once, interest also falls - there's just too much to follow and players get desensitized. We've gotten better results from releasing new bits and pieces periodically - slowly at first, and then increasing the cadence as launch approaches.
You should note that CES is in January, DICE is in February, GDC is in March, E3 is in June, Comic Con is in July, Gamescom and GenCon are August, Tokyo Game Show is in September, Paris Games Week is in November, and the Game Awards are in December. Publishers need a June announcement vehicle. E3 has been the most convenient one so far, but it's the date of the event that's far more important today than its name.
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I haven't seen anyone speculating about this so I wanted to get your thoughts: maybe this is just wishful thinking but what if the McElroys dropped Amnesty merch (the pin and the candle) in October because they’re trying to gauge interest about possibly making an Amnesty graphic novel?? If stolen century/final battle will all be one big boy volume coming out in 2025, they’d have to be starting the development cycle on the next book after that about now
based on the hints they were dropping at the nycc gn panel (nothing major, just jokes about its existence) i think they are probably still working on the next/last(?) balance book right now? obvs i don't know the exact timeline of the dev cycle, but if it has to cover both tsc AND story and song, meaning a bigger book on par with the eleventh hour, at the very least there would be a lot more for carey to draw LOL
i could see the pitch happening simultaneously with the last balance book but i would also think the podcast numbers would be more of a factor for publishers than merch?
genuinely don't want to ruin ur amnesty gn dreams tho LMAO, ur talking to the girl who prays for more balance live shows every time tour dates are released. it just reads to me more october > halloween > spooky monster of the week show....... even if i DO love that pin
#bellafarallones#that said i thnk amnesty is most likely to get a gn if they were going to do another campaign after balance#tightest story for it
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Hey. So I think I figured out my people think nightbringer is coming out in April. That’s what the App Store says
I assume that comes from the devs telling the App Store but idk
Yeah, that's where some people been getting it. Though if you check the app store from google, it just says coming soon instead.
I don't know how the ios app store works, if they need to have a expected day set when publishing a app there. But the fact google app store doesn't even have one, just been making me question things lots.
Which is why I'm just gonna wait for OM! official twitters and sites to give us a release date themselves. Than believe what the app store says.
Especially since they changed the date a few times now there...Like first it was releasing on September. Then April 14. Now April 13...Which is now 16 days away(or 15 if you're a day ahead because time zones and all)...yet we have yet to get any heads up on the game coming out soon from OM! official.
I mean I would of expected them to give us a release date by now if it was indeed coming out next month. Most especially with the recent drop of trailers and all...Yet they just keep saying "releasing in 2023" on their site. lol
Perhaps, tomorrow could be the day we see some update finally on a release date. 15 days count down sounds plausible, or 10 days count down...Or it could just be releasing in the fall like it first stated it was gonna be released. We honestly may never know truly until OM! official finally tells us.
As well I still expect them to do some huge release date count down event when the game is finally coming out. But will give a huge heads up before that happens, gotta hype up the fandom more after all. lol
(Also that pre-register campaign thing going on really says a lot to me. On how much time we have until the game releases? If we were tight on time to clear up all the goals, I'm sure they would of told us by now or from the start. Like they usually do with such campaigns they throw for the OM! game.)
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Thess vs Forever Demos
It’s the Steam Next Fest again! It’s throwing me a whole lot of different sorts of things at the moment; last time I went mental over the demos was when I was up to my eyes in DREDGE, so it was giving me a lot of eldritch horror. The last few weeks, though, I’ve been playing Wylde Flowers, so I got cutesy farming sims and, because there are only so many of those, I got puzzle games too. Probably because of my daily dose of A Little To The Left. So here we go!
Venba: I heard about this one from a Guardian article ages ago, so it’s been on my wishlist a long time. It’s a cooking sim sort of thing (so it ended up being suggested to me both because it was on my wishlist and because I’ve been poking at Cook, Serve, Forever a bit lately), and has some story behind it, and there was not enough demo in my demo. I mean, yes, it was enough to let me know that yes, I want it. It was just one of those moments of “Noooooooo I’m not ready for it to be over yet!” So that one hit the top of the wish list pretty quickly.
Street of Secrets: This one’s a hidden object game along the lines of A Building Full Of Cats, from a publisher / dev team that apparently focus mostly on jigsaw puzzle type deals and hentai. Which ... I mean, okay, but give me cute relaxing hidden object games. That went high up on the wishlist pretty fast too.
Viewfinder: This is another “messing with the set dressing” puzzle and walking simulator kind of thing. First person, so I have to be careful with it, but some of the mechanics are really clever. I mean, it’s a “mess with reality a bit so you can proceed” sort of thing, so yeah, clever. Another one that is Much Want.
Word Factori: Not sure what to make of this one. It’s basically this little thing where you can put a whole bunch of letter-generating factories together to make ... well, letters and whole words. It’s cute, but I don’t know if it’s really my kind of Zen.
En Garde!: This one’s ... cute. Interestingly tactical RPG that’s mostly about fencing. Just involves a lot of blocking and stun-locking and gets a bit busy for what I personally can handle. I’d recommend it to others, though. Just I don’t think I’d get on well with it long-term. It’s still on the wishlist, but quite low down; it’d be a game for when I’m having a really good day.
Logic Town: You know those logic puzzles where you get a grid and have to determine who lives where and got what pet or whatever? Well, that’s the mechanic, but with a somewhat different layout. You get clues and use them to determine what belongs with whom, whether by being directly told or by process of elimination. This was another one that I was not ready for it to be over when the demo was done. And it doesn’t even have a solid release date - just “2023″. ...But I want it noooooooow.
Quilts & Cats of Calico: This one stays low down on the list. It’s cute, but complicated. Basically involves putting quilts together with matching of colours and patterns, and getting extra points by attracting cats with specific matches. Adorable, but a little complicated for the Zen kind of thing I’d want it for.
Tales from Candleforth: Another hidden object puzzle game sort of thing, but another one where it needs work before release. I’m fine with having to poke around to find out what you need to do, but one single solitary clue might be nice when you’re dealing with a dismembered doll-baby with flowers growing out of its head and a day / night mechanic that makes some of the flowers bloom and some wilt and at least knowing the objective might have been nice... But it’s only got “coming soon” as a release date so there’s time, I guess.
That’s about all for the moment. I did one for a farming / life sim kind of thing called Wholesome Out and About, but it wasn’t so much a demo of the game as a look at the character customisation process. Which was fun but didn’t tell me much about what the game is actually like. But that one’s TBA and struggling for money to finish up so I guess I get it. So it’ll sit and gather dust at the bottom of my wishlist for awhile, I figure. I still have something called Fall of Porcupine and a first look at House Flipper 2, not to mention a few others that have been sitting in my Demo collection for awhile, but not tonight. It’s late, I’ve had a hard week, and I have shit to do tomorrow, so that’s enough for one day. Besides, I found a whole lot of good ones, and some even come out next month!
...I take my victories where I can find them.
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This is a repost of something i wrote once but edited a bit.
I just wanted to repost something i wrote about the Mick Gordon situation (It's also because of what's happening with Reddit as a whole).
If it feels outdated, it might be because of how long it's been since people talked about it.
I always wondered if with videogames, there's a sort of push against "video game stars".
Specially because videogames are made by teams of various people, but there's usually a director or someone that is seen as the main force, even if he's an "ideas guy".
You can see that specially with indie devs like Toby Fox and Japanese devs as well (Taro, Kojima, Kamiya, ZUN, Nomura, Harada and so on), which i think it's because of videogames' reception as a medium (And all these arguements about games being art or "just mindless toys").
There are also names that people drop out, but mostly to either make fun of or to point out some negative aspects of the industry like David Cage or Randy Pitchford.
id is notorious for this: Not just names like Romero or Carmack, but with the new games, you had Hugo Martin.
I expect Mick Gordon's popularity and following had something to do with this: The "guy" people associate with the games became the music composer and not an actual dev.
This can be farfetched because we're not sure if Hugo Martin was as aggressive and demanding to Mick as Marty Stratton was.
But also because, if Bethesda/ZeniMax wanted, they'd tried to downplay Hugo's involvement as well and make id a "team": Something that at first promises to highlight the numerous people that worked in the game, but may result in dehumanizing the studio as this faceless blog that just makes stuff.
Specially because people view game publishers like that; Specially those with controversies and dark history, but people still name some CEO's or anyone as examples.
Because it made me think of movies as a medium: They take a lot of people to make, but there's still a director or producer or someone "in charge".
This is part of Martin Scorsese's complaint in regards to MCU movies: Most of them don't feel "personal" because the "directors" are irrelevant and the "studio" (Or Disney) is the one in charge.
Like a restaurant where there could be "too many cooks" because they are not the ones in charge.
I think Disney Star Wars is more like this: Most movies released with dates too close to each other, barely any planning except for coming up with different endings and choosing one with the best test audience approval, had multiple directors, had actors of both new and past generations disappointed with it and interviews that made it seem like executives and others were blaming each other.
Whereas the 6 other movies had larger gaps between release dates and were mainly George Lucas' project, even if he needed people (Be it actors or his wife) to step in and help him, because of his potential misfires.
We're in an age where pop culture continues to be more special to people, even if they know little of it: It's why it's always worth looking into the history of things and the people behind them.
And speaking of history: I guess it's also worth mentioning what Bethesda did to Prey 2, how id somehow had Tim Willits for that long and how Romero wanted to share unused Doom assets but was told to stop.
I think one main reason why people are sad over Mick Gordon's abuse is because of how Doom and id Software were seen in the industry: They were seen as exceptions and most praise came in the form of "unlike other games/devs" etc.
With r/Doom and Twitter, there can be repetition of information and people missing out on more interesting details or insights.
It's why i also had to keep up with Doomworld threads because older internet forums can have a more helpful format that modern internet sites don't (Partially due to being made with phones in mind and the internet being among "normal people" who don't invest much on some topics as much as nerds did).
One can argue that people are ignoring what Mick said in regards to starting an "harassment campaign", even with the counter arguements of costumers voicing concerns.
But i think it's moreso how the information itself is deliverd and/or reacted to.
I just had something in mind and felt like sharing it, even if i misworded some shit or whatever.
And here's an addition:
I keep saying that a new Doom game should take a while to come out because Doom should not be Call of Duty/Assassin's Creed/Pokemon in terms of releases.
And i kinda think Eternal releasing at least 3/4 years after 2016 might be part of the issue with Mick, since he already had other projects like the new Prey, Wolfenstein 2 and Borderlands 3.
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I read/listened to a lot of cool things in the past year, both published and fanfiction wise and it gets me pumped to do more writing. In 2023, I really wanna work on character development and imagery/description. I haven't done a ton of writing this year for a major reason...
I'm working on a longer Voidstrike fic that currently has no release date as I am only in...chapter 2 lmao. But that's where I'll be working on storytelling and character dev. I would love to write smaller fics to work on imagery in the midst of that project.
Like man I've read some beautiful pieces of writing lately that really makes me wanna up my game. I've grown to fall in love with how well specific words, similes, and metaphors can describe situations, moods, and character development so elegantly and I feel like that's something I wanna get better at. I'm a short story/ficlet writer, so in most of my work, there isn't much time to delve into subjects that may take longer to truly flesh out. In any case, man I am excited to write more even if it is difficult to get stuff down and written.
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Urban strife
URBAN STRIFE FULL
And the rebel Army garrison will keep the world safe from zombies, nomads, criminals, cultists and everyone else who isn’t up to date with the protection money. After the festival we took the time to do. We’ve started 2022 with a lot of feedback from the Prologue Demo and a sharper vision of what the final game will have to be like. A quick peek into the Urban Strife development after the Steam NextFest Prologue demo. The bikers want to spent the last days on Earth swimming in booze, drugs and sin. RSS Urban Strife - Spring 2022 Dev Update. The cultists want everyone to adopt the zombies as the children of God. This was a period of growing urban strife and the idea there was to. You will need to go out and make strong allies and they will give you access to unique materials, weapons and recruitable NPCs. My first jobs were in city planning and urban development in Philadelphia and Newark. If you want a bit of peace and quiet, sitting around smoking “medicinal” plants from your hydroponics room won’t be the enough. And while the residents of Urban will help your ragtag band of rangers in your mission, expect them to give you a less than enthusiastic welcome if the food has run out and the water reserves are dry.
URBAN STRIFE FULL
Your reputation will spread wide and far and follow you on every interaction with the NPCs. Closed Alpha August 2019, Full Release TBA, Platforms: PC Currently in development with a Closed Alpha scheduled for August this year for PC and a free demo. Urban Strife is an old-school TBS, where you lead a team of makeshift, slightly deranged militia in an effort to keep the small community of Urban Shelter. Urban itself will transform under your eyes, for good or for worse. Neil MacGregor of the British Museum explores the life of Londons apprentices and Shakespeares groundlings through a rare woollen. Today they announced that the mystery publisher is none other than MicroProse, a revival of the legendary brand founded last year by one David. Not only you will have a branching dialogue system at your disposal to influence those you meet, but your actions will change the entire face of the game. ' Urban Strife will be published by MicroProse, coming Q3 2021 Back in August, we learned that White Pond Games promising zombie survival RPG Urban Strife had been picked up by an unnamed publisher. But we've also tried to avoid the pitfalls of turn-based combat, especially against large numbers of foes. We created a world that lives and reacts to your story. Urban Strife uses a classic Action Points system (Jagged Alliance 2 style), with consecutive turns & interrupts based on skills.
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Join us for the #NewRelease Tour with #Giveaway
Book Title: Sweet to the Core
Author and Publisher: Amy Aislin
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
Release Date: May 17, 2022
Genre: Contemporary m/m romance
Dev has pined for his cousin's best friend for years, but no matter how hard he wishes, Clark sees him as nothing but a friend. And it's as a friend that Clark comes to him for help.
Clark’s father is on the brink of losing his house and the fastest way to make a quick buck is to win the $10,000 prize in the inaugural Sweet to the Core apple baking contest. Only problem? He's never baked anything that hasn’t come out of a box.
But Dev has. As a baker, he’s Clark’s best chance.
For the first time, Dev has something Clark wants. Only problem? Dev needs the prize for himself. The only thing he wants—besides Clark—is to buy the local lighthouse where he last spent time with his parents before they died.
Working together means opening a lot more than a barrel of apples, though. They may have found the recipe to love.
But will Dev have to give up the only connection he has left to his parents in order to have it? Or will Clark let his father down? They can't both have everything.
Or can they?
Facebook @gaybookpromotions @amy.aislin
Instagram @gaybookpromotions @amyaislin
Twitter @gaybookpromo @amy_aislin
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Not only is Watermelon Sugar Harry Styles’ biggest single to date, the million-selling smash has a Grammy to its name, too. Now, the question is, could it be the first of many?
In a leather suit and feather boa, Styles performed the Fine Line favourite at the Grammys last weekend, going on to thank Sony Music Group CEO Rob Stringer, Full Stop Management’s Jeffrey Azoff, co-writer Kid Harpoon and the rest of his team in his acceptance speech. Blood Orange's Dev Hynes (above, left) and Styles' friend and collaborator Mitch Rowland (right) were part of his band on the night.
The award for Best Pop Solo Performance is Styles’ first Grammy, and there’s a sense that this moment had been coming for the singer, not to mention the ubiquitous Watermelon Sugar.
The track has 1,231,583 sales to date according to the Official Charts Company. A total of 1,104,219,723 Spotify streams and 198 million YouTube views show just how huge it has become. It has streaked ahead of his debut single Sign Of The Times (1,111,176) as his biggest in the UK. Adore You, his third million-seller, isn’t far behind on 1,024,195. Fine Line has moved 410,832 copies.
There’s no doubt that the No.2 album represents a watershed moment for Styles, and Kid Harpoon – Music Week’s Songwriter Of The Year 2020 – said just that in his recent Music Week interview, which told the story of Watermelon Sugar in our Hitmakers feature.
“As much as he’s been part of One Direction, it really feels like he’s shed the, ‘Of One Direction’ thing,” said Tom Hull. “I saw an article someone wrote saying you don’t have to say, ‘Of One Direction’ anymore and that’s a really nice moment, knowing him and what he’s been working towards.”
Hull told us that “big songs” are putting Styles on another level.
“When you come from something so commercially insane, you kind of have to deliver when you go solo, and he wanted to do that on his terms,” said Hull. “There were so many easier routes to get there than the ones he took, working with weird British dudes like me. I’m so buzzing for him. His vision was, ‘Let’s make an album,’ and it really feels like an album. I go back and listen to it and I absolutely love it, but I’m also excited by what’s to come form him. He’s still growing and learning and honing his songwriting skills and being a part of that is really exciting for me.”
Universal Music Publishing Group boss Mike McCormack also stressed the weight of what Styles has achieved with Fine Line.
“Remember, the album was released in 2019, so the fact that Watermelon Sugar was No.1 in the US eight months later is pretty crazy,” he said. “Sony have done an amazing job. And it completely validates Harry’s decision to do it his way. He would have had the pick of any of the biggest songwriters in the world, they would have wanted to be involved in Harry’s album. But he was adamant that they stick to this very small team and Tom is fortunate to be right at the epicentre of that steering the ship with Harry. It’s an incredible success story really. And it’s great that it’s British as well.”
There are no confirmed details of new music from Styles yet, but Hull suggested that ideas are in the pipeline.
“I just know he’s got more to give, which is kind of scary to be honest,” he said. “We’ve been doing bits and bobs, we’ve been sending voice notes and working on bits here and there, just lyrics and bits and bobs. Hopefully there’ll be something [new] at some point, I don’t really know where we are, but we’ve definitely been getting into it, we’ll see.”
Hull also revealed details of some unreleased songs the pair wrote together in Japan during a trip before the Fine Line sessions began.
“Harry was in Japan and he said, ‘Do you want to come out and write?’ and I said, ‘Why don’t I come and I’ll stay in a hotel room near you and we’ll hire a mic and some guitars and I’ll just bring my laptop,’” Hull explained. “It was a vaguely disguised lads’ trip, but we also wrote some really good songs. There’s a couple we’re still in love with. There was one that nearly made it to the record. We have a couple from there that are really special that hopefully will see the light of day at some point.”
Hull said he and Styles are “still obsessed” with the song, though he did not reveal the title.
“It’s the same as the Watermelon thing with this song,” he said. “It’s got… There’s a certain feeling in it, we’re just going to have to chip away at it and hopefully get it.”
Hull emphasised the importance of the closeness between Styles and his small group of collaborators, which includes Tyler Johnson and Mitch Rowland, adding that it led to a unique hitmaking experience.
“It was full of so many emotions of friendship, Harry feels like a brother to me, it feels deeper,” he said. “It feels like family, and the music was almost secondary to just being friends, which created a culture, an ease in the songwriting that you don’t get in a lot of other situations.”
With the BRITs approaching, all eyes are on what Harry Styles does next.
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May I present to you the accursed yttd AU: ShinAlice gamers AU. Starring game dev Shin and streamer Alice. Warning: I know nothing about the game industry or how games are made.
a popular indy game was published by beloved developer Sou Hiyori
in actuality it was a two man project where Shin did most of the work, while Sou provided art and music
Because Shin didn't like the spotlight (read: was coerced and gaslit by his only friend) he agreed to have his own name left entirely out of the project
(Sou is still a massive asshole, and Shin is still terrified of losing the one person who cares about him)
The game is a smash hit that cultivates its own rabid fanbase, and talks of a sequel are soon in the works
Alice Yabusame is a popular streamer, well loved for his overblown reactions, eye searing aesthetic, and nonsensical tangents he'll go off on when trying to predict the path of a game's story (he's never correct)
(yes he absolutely calls people by their full usernames every time, numbers and all)
Reko Yabusame is a talented musician, dipping into creating game soundtracks as a way of creating common ground between herself and her brother (who she'd been estranged from until recently)
Nao is also around being great somewhere and will probably smooch Reko at some point
both Nao and Reko had been commissioned by Sou to work on the original game (without Shin's knowledge) and although they were paid they received no credit in the final product
they are understandably pissed
Alice off-handedly and casually complains about the game and all the trouble it's been causing his sister while he's streaming, and mentions that she declined to work on the sequel
he unintentionally causes fandom war between his most loyal fans and those extremely passionate about Sou's game
lots of shady shit about Sou and all the game's funding starts to come to light, none of which did Shin know about previously
Sou ignores all of Shin's messages asking about the situation
one day out of the blue Sou announces that the sequel has been cancelled (once again without saying anything to Shin beforehand) and then just falls off the face of the earth
Shin is in full panic mode. He doesn't know how to deal with this kind of stuff, he's just a programmer. This game was his passion, but he doesn't have the funding or assets anymore. After the success of the first game Sou had convinced Shin to quit his job and was offering steady pay for work on the sequel, and Sou completely stopped paying after the announcement.
Shin gets a shitty convenience store job just to make rent, messaging Sou every day in hopes of response
he only gets one reply back: the password to Sou's social media accounts
Sou, now Shin, mysteriously reappears and promises the game's release. He doesn't need anyone's help. He can do this all on his own THANK YOU VERY MUCH. He doesn't need the riffraff in his inbox, scrambling for blood and trying to drag his creation through the mud.
I don't have much else in the way of plot, besides petty fandom beef wars on twitter between Shin and Alice
Shin invading Alice's chat to heckle him on stream
Shin trying to figure out how to talk to people and trying to write put possible ways a conversation could go, and wouldn't it be so much easier if there were dialog options and- oh fuck he was accidentally writing a script for an Alice Yabusame dating sim. Burn it.
Alice finding a few really short unknown games Shin made before Sou, not knowing who made them, and playing them on stream. He fucking loves them
one of those creepy rpf communities starts building up around them, but in the lens of the AU it gets to be cute because these aren't ACTUALLY real people
That's all I got. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, please share thoughts. I wrote this on my phone at work so please ignore any grammar fuckery or the million times I've edited to make it readable.
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2020 October Update
So... we've launched. And our launch was... actually kind of... bad...
This is a dev blog, so I'll speak on it. But before that, we do have the game's steam page up. If you're anticipating the PC release, please do visit the steam page and add it to your wish list. It would help us a lot.
VISIT STEAM LINK
...
So what didn't go so well?
1. We launched in Nintendo's Americas and Europe territory. If you've been following the release, you'd know that America got the game first. We didn't move to launch in Europe at all since I thought the EFIGS languages (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish) were pre-requisites for Europe. By the time I learned that this wasn't necessarily the case, and attempted to course correct, the damage was done. We had half the allotment of keys to do outreach, and maybe some European outlets that would've covered us, did not.
2. When the game launched, rather than a victory lap, what we experienced was more of a public lashing. We did get some reviews that praised the game highly, but just as many reviews lampooned the game for its high difficulty or other failings. I've since released two patches (or 3, depending on how you count it) to address the difficulty. A lot of overnighters. If you recall in the last blog post, I thought it'd be a good start if we got 20 or so reviews on Open Critic. But we've only 8 as of this writing, and the aggregate score isn't so hot. So that's a fail by my metric.
3. A publisher reached out to us because they were interested in physically printing the game! Yay! But... to advance our talks, they wanted to see the game's sales numbers to ensure that there's a good chance their investment could be recouped. And unfortunately, the game's sales numbers are pretty low. They backed out :(
Some hard lessons were learned. The biggest lesson for me concerns how well we playtested the game. Looking at the original playtester list, it's a short list. You may recall from a previous blog post that our ability to test was severely hampered by technical limitations. Add to that, a lot of people on this list are objectively really achieved players. We're talking power ranked in Smash Bros, regular tournament goers, and people who've played and bested every Souls game. And as the maker of the game, I am most blind to the game's challenges.
Now, I'm definitely more of the opinion that you prioritize PC development first. I still have some reservations about some stages of PC development. But if you do PC/Steam first, you have the great benefit of being able to do Early Access, which gives you access to a greater testing pool. I now view it as an invaluable part of the equation. If we had been able to do Early Access for 1 or 2 months before release, we probably could have ironed out most of the game's difficulty and balance problems. Hard lessons, indeed.
There were a lot of other notable events that occurred over the past 2 months - the travails of press outreach, realizing my own limits as a developer, feeling defeated and getting back up again, etc. There's too much stuff to chronicle or go into detail. But it wasn't all bad.
Some good things did happen...
We got a publisher to publish for Japan! It came as a huge relief, because clearly, we don't know what the heck we're doing.
The publisher has been an invaluable source of information and feedback. They've recommended some changes to the game to improve user experience. Some of these changes I was hesitant to do at first because they concerned systems I thought integral to the identity of the game. But after trying it, I have to admit, they're good changes.
So a Japanese version of the game was moving ahead. And it looked like that'd be it. I wasn't planning to move forward with any other language translations due to the game's low sales and our funds being depleted.
But, I was approached by a translator who urged me to move ahead with translations. He told me he was willing to work for only a small price initially and then be paid the rest after from a percentage of the game's sales until the cost of the translation was paid in full.
I was surprised translators were willing to work under such a model since it's entirely likely the game's current low sales trajectory would continue and they wouldn't earn back the full cost of translation. But I was also flattered they were willing to take a risk with me. After that, I approached some others with the same hypothetical deal, and long story short, we're now moving forward with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian translations. As for why these languages in particular, they were languages for whom I had contacts (because they reached out to me at some point in the past). And also because they were deemed more likely to be profitable based on their home country's gaming market/buying habits. I'd be personally happy to have my native language be represented, but it's not expected to be a profitable territory. But if the game does better in the future, it may justify the costs of translation. There could be a chance!
The plan right now is to get the game supporting these first round of languages and then to patch that into the Switch version as well as launch the PC version with these languages - all in December. A lot of things need to align for this to occur, so a delay isn't out of the question. It'll be busy... I'll update the blog again in latter half of December, probably near the game's PC launch date... OR to announce a delay. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Fan Support
While the past two months have been grueling, one good thing remains constant - fan art! Thank you everyone who submitted. It means a lot to me and the team!
Big thanks to Pimez who's taken on watching over the reddit community as moderator. He also combs the other communities and makes sure I see every new art piece. Despite juggling his own life and all these tasks, he still found some time to draw.
Pimez's piece reminds us that just because the new game's out doesn't mean we can't still celebrate the original flash game. The jail dog is a dog found only in jail and only in the flash game. I imagine Gail is just tossing a stick, and they're playing fetch.
A new artist to this scene æv draws both the Phoenix logo AND a super cute picture of Gail playing the flute. So precious, you want to pinch her cheek. Even the Sand Drake is enthralled!
Another new artist, beet4ppy arrives on the scene with two pictures! One features a no-nonsense battle-hardened Gail looking stoic and tough! Kinda reminds me of Vinland Saga actually. The other, a more cheerful group composition - I must say I'm a big fan of Fran's classic anime-style eye!
A returning artist, Cody G, returns with a picture depicting the tribulations of cooking. Gotta love Gail's frantic expression! I've heard the complaints, which is why we've added an option to slow the cooking mini-game down. An improved button font is also on the way.
Gamesing with two undertale x phoenotopia crossovers. Thomas being a robot builder makes sense taking a role similar to Alphys. But why is Alex dressed like a clown? Perhaps there is a hidden meaning here...
A new artist, Warotar, draws both a pooki wearing Gail's clothes and Gail wearing pooki clothes. Awww. The pooki is a bit scary - it kinda reminds me of a tragic event in a certain anime. But the Gail is adorable!
POL#5655 submitted this one to KM's discord which made its way to me. Here, a stylized Gail appears unnerved by the dark red eyes stalking her in the background. Are they bats or something more sinister?
A new artist, MilesCPW, arrives on the scene with three rare well-vectorized arts! Love it! One scene depicts Gail balancing a bomb on her head - that's a speedrunning trick I only learned about recently after someone emailed me a video O_O
The other drawing gives us new insight into Katash - he could actually look cute if he wasn't trying to kill you.
And the bees... Okay, this one got a chuckle from me :D
A returning artist roccy_chair draws this heart-warming scene from the beginning of the new game. Aww. Mika doesn't get much screen time for story reasons, so it's nice to see her represented.
UnrealWorld_32 returns with another drawing of Gail in Panselo, this time capturing a more idyllic time. I like the tranquil nature of this piece. And Gail does in fact play the guitar, denoted by the guitar in her room.
Returning artist shafiyahh draws a nice portrait of Prince Leo - looking regal and princely. I like the storybook art style of this piece. It made me immediately think of "the Little Prince" - one of my favorite books actually!
Negativus Core returns with a beautiful group composition of Gail and the gang - flying from a Switch shaped window - totally sensible considering the game is only Switch right now. As usual, I'm impressed by Negativus Core's use of challenging angles to frame a more dynamic shot of the characters. Great job!
And it wasn't only artists bearing the banner. I'd like to give a big shoutout to everyone in all the game's little communities (from the reddit to the discords to this tumblr). I've seen this community help newcomers with gameplay and walkthrough advice, discussions, updating the wiki, and so on. It does bring a smile to my face. Thank you everyone!
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Your answer about cut content reminded me of one of the early Star Wars games (sorry, can't remember the title). Evidently Obsidian cut a lot of content that was later added back by modders. Are you familiar with this? How was this possible?
You're talking about Knights of the Old Republic 2. KOTOR 2 had a troubled development cycle. The publisher, LucasArts, had a pretty aggressive release schedule planned for the KOTOR games which basically made it untenable for the original KOTOR dev Bioware to handle making the sequel within the time frame LucasArts wanted. Bioware's leadership suggested offering the title to Obsidian due to their good working relations on past titles. LucasArts signed Obsidian to build KOTOR 2.
LucasArts originally gave Obsidian 14-16 months after the launch of KOTOR 1 to finish KOTOR 2, which should have put them with a tentative release date of early 2005. Obsidian went into development being extremely ambitious with their planning for the game's scope... overly ambitious, the leaders would later admit in interviews. This caused them to run aground when LucasArts moved the ship date up from 2005 to the end of 2004 - they were already significantly behind schedule due to their overly ambitious project scope; losing several months of development time they were counting on was not something they predicted.
When the new ship date came down, Obsidian had to make a bunch of very hard decisions in order to ship something. The partially-built endgame content was locked off from the game but left on the disc. This is, in large part, because leaving unused assets on disc usually ensures more stability than it risks by removing those assets in case any of them are behind-the-scenes dependencies for other assets or game features. It's also because it takes a lot less effort to just lock those assets off than it does to make sure they've been fully removed from the disc. Obsidian basically crunched themselves into goo in order to cobble together a whole new, different, simplified ending and ship the game on time.
Those incomplete assets, however, were still locked away on the disc when the game shipped. Time passed and game modders figured out how the game worked. They later discovered those assets in the game files and figured out how to extract them and make them work with the game. They were collectively able to put in the dev time needed to bring that alternate ending content to a playable state. It was actually pretty common in the old days to leave cut (but inert) content on disc for stability reasons. Data miners and modders sometimes found the files, but that content is mostly harmless since it's inaccessible most of the time. That content got cut for a reason - usually because we needed to find room in the schedule to do something higher priority. At the end of the day, we only have a finite amount of dev time to work on the project, so it's important to finish the highest priority tasks first.
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