Useless gaming news & chatter

[schild]

We really need Molyneux, Schafer, and Blow to bring us the ultimate crowd funded, experimental, high art, ground breaking, masterpiece of an adventure/puzzler/hit-a-button-repeatedly game. 

A clicker game would be an improvement for all of them.

But Molyneux already did one.

[Falconeer]

Today Downfall is being re-released and revamped. Here's a trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ycWmGmPpLQ

It's from the author of The Cat Lady. You must pay attention.

[HaemishM]

When did Pretentious B&W Indie Comic Side Scrolling by Hipster Douche become a fucking genre?

[Falconeer]

You don't know what you are talking about.

[HaemishM]

You could very well be right. That's just the first impression I got from that video.

[Falconeer]

Seriously there isn't that much hipsterism or douchebaggery in Remigiusz Michalski that I know of.

[Sky]

Saw ToMe go on Steam sale just now, thinking about picking it up (I know it's free too). But thinking about playing it, I just wanted an android version and saw this:

http://te4.org/blogs/darkgod/2015/01/android/tales-majeyal-android-oh-yes-baby

So nothing soon, but something someday.

[Hutch]

That page is illegible.

[Sky]

Also not news, thought it was last month, it was 13 months ago 

tldr decent roguelike maybe someday releases on android or not

[Yegolev]

When did Pretentious B&W Indie Comic Side Scrolling by Hipster Douche become a fucking genre?

Braid?

[Falconeer]

Call of Cthulhu is being made. Note that the logo/font is the same of the 80's Chaosium books, so if you like me think that that was the best pen and paper RPG ever made, it's enough to hit your with a d6 Sanity loss.

http://callofcthulhu-game.com/

And yet, who is making it? Cyanide.

Fuck.

[jakonovski]

I dunno, Cyanide seems pretty good at cosmic horror in games.

[Falconeer]

Procedural Jonestown Massacre simulator. Well this time with you meddling with the outcome. Voices are from the lady who voiced GLaDOS and the gent who voiced the sniper in Team Fortress 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyiZczAveOs

[HaemishM]

Call of Cthulhu is being made. Note that the logo/font is the same of the 80's Chaosium books, so if you like me think that that was the best pen and paper RPG ever made, it's enough to hit your with a d6 Sanity loss.

YAY!!!!

And yet, who is making it? Cyanide.

Fuck.

You could not have disappointed me more if you had literally shit in my Cheerios.


EDIT:

Procedural Jonestown Massacre simulator. Well this time with you meddling with the outcome. Voices are from the lady who voiced GLaDOS and the gent who voiced the sniper in Team Fortress 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyiZczAveOs

... the fuck?

[MahrinSkel]

Procedural Jonestown Massacre simulator. Well this time with you meddling with the outcome. Voices are from the lady who voiced GLaDOS and the gent who voiced the sniper in Team Fortress 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyiZczAveOs

I don't know if I am fascinated, or horrified.  I don't know if I want to play this, or refer anyone who does for counseling.

--Dave

[Ironwood]

That's a real headscratcher.  With a side dose of WTF.

[Malakili]

It looks like you play a member of some kind of resistance. It's actually kind of an interesting premise. I have no idea how the gameplay will actually be.

[Sky]

[Falconeer]

Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick seem to return to form with the upcoming Thimbleweed Park.

Make sure to watch the trailer, if Maniac Mansion meant anything to you.

https://vimeo.com/157583742

[Yegolev]

I'm done giving any thought to people who made games back when basically anyone without a job or ambition could make one.

[Falconeer]

That's an interesting statement, and one I would be inclined to agree after thinking about it for a few minutes.

But it leads me to a question that I would really like to hear opinions about: would you say that it was easier to make and sell games in 1986 than it is in 2016? I am purposedly leaving out the 30 years in between.

[Fordel]

Absolutely easier to make them.

[Kail]

That's an interesting statement, and one I would be inclined to agree after thinking about it for a few minutes.

But it leads me to a question that I would really like to hear opinions about: would you say that it was easier to make and sell games in 1986 than it is in 2016? I am purposedly leaving out the 30 years in between.

I wasn't old enough to be computer literate in '86, but I get the impression that nowadays it probably has a lower floor but a higher ceiling.  It's easier to make SOMETHING, there are tons of tools and instructional videos and asset libraries and stuff.  But I think we're also way past the point where a handful of guys in a basement over the summer can be said to be leading the way.  I mean, it still happens occasionally (Minecraft to a degree) but the days of something like Space Quest or Ultima being the industry standard are gone.  Nowadays if you're trying to make a living selling zero budget titles you're facing some REALLY steep odds.

edit: to put it another way, in 2046 nobody is going to be making successful seven digit kickstarters on the backs of their 2015 Newgrounds "escape the room" game.

[Falconeer]

That's the thing: much higher ceiling, but much lower floor. How could it be easier to make a game in 1986 when you were supposed to learn completely foreigh languages and hardware, and there were no tutorials and even just selling it was a big mess, as opposed to now that all kind of knowledge travels (for free) at light speed, everything is pretty much just an editor, has a million tutorials either embedded or on youtube and there are a thousand forums to check and confront your ideas or ask for help, let alone places to push or advertise or sell your products?

That's why I am interested in opinions, because that question seems to have an easy answer, but seriously? And I get what you say about the zero budget titles and the steep odds, but wouldn't that be because there is more competition now instead of being harder to make a game?

I would say it is a million times easier to make a game now (lower floor). There is just much more competition (higher ceiling). But in 2016, even more than in 1986, "anyone without a job or ambition can make one".

[Nija]

It's not that it was easier to make them back in '86, it's just that people expected less.

[schild]

http://news.xbox.com/2016/03/07/microsoft-studios-changes-uk-denmark/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

And the crowd doesn't give a shit. Good riddance, Molyneux.

[Kail]

http://news.xbox.com/2016/03/07/microsoft-studios-changes-uk-denmark/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

And the crowd doesn't give a shit. Good riddance, Molyneux.

Molyneux left Microsoft / Lionhead years ago, didn't he?

[Trippy]

Yes, in 2012.

[Sky]

People seem to forget the massive buckets of shit that used to come out in the old days. I knew a guy who knew a guy who definitely was not in a pirating ring and had thousands of disks of C64 games. Maybe a couple dozen worth playing.

It was easier, I was making games in the 80s.

[Bunk]

I was going to be sad about this until I remembered what a shitshow Fable 3 was, and how much worse Legends looked to be.

[Selby]

People seem to forget the massive buckets of shit that used to come out in the old days. I knew a guy who knew a guy who definitely was not in a pirating ring and had thousands of disks of C64 games. Maybe a couple dozen worth playing.

I was there as a player way back when and I agree. Thousands of games, maybe two dozen or so I liked and maybe half a dozen worth remembering fondly.

Games are "easier" to make now solely because the information is easier to get to make one. Making a quality game that leads the way? Not any easier but not exactly that much harder either (hint: it was never easy). Biggest drawback is the amount of graphics people "expect" a game to have.

[Merusk]

The graphics alone are a major cockblock. You are expexcted to achieve a certain level of graphic fidelity that is in excess of the skill level of your average programmer. People spend careers being digital artists, and even then some of them wind-up bad at it.

A 20-something in the garage that is using pirated software* and YouTube is going to have a significant time investment just getting to, "Well that's not garbage" level. Then they get to tackle all the different aspects of coding the program rules. Then Networking. Then mob AI or pathing or collision detection.

Shit's just more complicated than the pixel days.

(Then there's the whole, "Oh you did this with pirated software? Here's your lawsuit, the seizure of your assets and the jail sentence.")

[Yegolev]

Someone making a game in 1986 might be able to program sprites and count hit points, but I'd suggest that it's about as hard now to make the game part well, with the added handicap of everything already being done to death.  So, if you're any good at making the gamey-game bit, you're possibly doing it on board games or card games, or PnP, instead of getting mired in TEH GAEM INDESTRY of 2016.

Related: who cares what Miyamoto thinks now?  Anything interesting since Pikmin?  No, and that's OK.  Go enjoy retirement as a game legend.  Or, in the case of some people, a game footnote.

[Selby]

Related: who cares what Miyamoto thinks now?  Anything interesting since Pikmin?  No, and that's OK.  Go enjoy retirement as a game legend.  Or, in the case of some people, a game footnote.

No idea why some people who did well early on in their careers feel the need to try and be relevant now without any groundbreaking ideas.  I peaked early in my professional career and I'm perfectly ok with that.

[Yegolev]

I assume they want more dollars.  I am sure I'd try to cash in on past glory, if I had any.

Actually, I suppose that's sort of what a resume is.  However, I'm expected to do some new shit instead of retread old shit.