@dryker: Totally. I think Citizen Kane was mind-blowing at the time and effectively defined how narrative movies worked from that point on even if it doesn't feel remarkable now. It's kind of a dumb comparison, but I think of it kind of like The Matrix. It's a little hard to describe how game-changing a silly action movie it was at the time if you weren't there to see it in that context.
And you're absolutely right, Moby Dick totally defined how the modern novel tells a story, though I think it might hold up a bit better. I haven't had the time to read it yet, but it's definitely on my list.
I'm sure most folks here might know this, but it's worth restating how profoundly the dev on this game was appreciative of the exposure Ryan gave him. Major onion alert, but his eulogy for Ryan is absolutely lovely (http://www.vertigogaming.net/blog/?p=2476).
I haven't played either game, but I've watched my wife play both for... many many hours. I love so many things about the new one. The art is spectacular, and it reminds me a bit of the approach Apple took when they redid all of their emoji. Really clean, food-porn type treatment. And the writing is remarkably funny. If you haven't read the food and restaurant info pages, I HIGHLY recommend it. Overall the presentation reminds me a lot of the sort of gleamingly fetishistic tone of Japanese cooking shows.
@efman: Haven't listened yet, but the one most people talk about in general is the LG B6 OLED if he's talking about the most affordable ones in their line. Such a good looking tv.
Great list! While I agree with the comments about how punishing Thumper can get, I really appreciate the latter levels of Thumper because after level 5 or so, it stops introducing mechanics and starts subtly subverting crutches you used to get through earlier levels. Were you holding the thump button? Too bad because you need to change tracks now. Using the straight track to read the course? Now the track twists, turns, and reorients constantly.
It's kind of a strained comparison, but it feels a little like The Witness in a way. It shows you a lot of things from the beginning, and challenges you to explore your assumptions about the way they work.
@ultramagnus: It'd end up being awkward or tacky I think. And given that the "FUCK, RYAN DAVIS" shirt was cancelled mysteriously a long time ago, I imagine there's some private element that would make them a little gun shy about getting in to it too much.
That being said, I think seeing them all together being young, kicking ass and taking names is a nice tribute in itself. I imagine it wasn't easy, but it's a lovely way to see and remember a group of good friends.
So, uh, I got Dan that shirt from a Japanese used clothes store (Word up Osaka WEGO!). I hope it puts you all in as much of a party mood as it does me.
I remember when scripted, produced segments started getting thinner on the site in lieu of unscripted, "impromptu" content, and I remember a sense of frustration at the time because I enjoyed the more time-intensive scripted stuff. I've since come to adore the crazy magic that the GB crew brings to the table in that context day after day and week after week, but I gotta say, this and the Shadow Complex dev video have brought a small touch of structured content back to the site in a way that I'm really enjoying. Kind of a quick look back sort of thing.
I definitely get the feeling that @brad and @jeff have reflected on all the times that they've said something like "I can't wait to read the book on how this happened" and said "Fuck it, we can be making the historical record on some of this inside baseball." Congrats on breaking new ground again you beautiful bastards.
Hearing about all this technical stuff and how difficult it is to do simple things in video games was eye-opening. I hope to see something like this in the future!
I never did think developing games was easy, but I did sort of get frustrated with certain bugs never being solved. 'Like, seriously... are the devs lazy or something?'
But more and more I find myself less frustrated the more I (try to) understand it and think about it. For example, today I've been told by someone that in Destiny, if you select 'Special Weapon Ammo' on your chest piece and 'Sniper Ammo' on your leg armor, you can spawn in the Crucible with double the amount of Sniper shots you should be allowed to. You can select Sniper on the chest piece and leg armor and you'll spawn with 6 rounds. But Special and Sniper and you'll spawn with 12. And only if you're playing a Titan. If you're doing it with a Warlock it apparently doesn't seem to glitch and still give you 6.
Why on earth the game glitches out on certain classes using the exact same specs is super weird. Can you even imagine what someone must start looking for to solve it? All that stuff can get so weirdly complicated. I made an extremely simple mod for XCOM 2 and even that was giving me a headache.
Game developers are crazy. It seems like crazy work to me.
Broadly speaking, it's a valuable life skill to try to better understand the context of why something seems broken or weird than to assume it's because the person who worked on it didn't know or care. There are definitely cases of incompetence in the world, but 9 times out of 10 that's not the case and, you will be a saner, more empathetic, and dare I say it kinder person if you assume that the person did the best they could do with the information and tools that they had at the time.
For my piece, having worked on several national-level websites, I can tell you that 1) I am acutely aware of most of my obvious mistakes and 2) if you knew how many iterations of much worse solutions came before, it'd probably make your head spin. Some days it comes out beautiful, but a lot (maybe most?) days it feels like it's all held together with spit and duct tape.
As a consumer, it's easy to be one of hundreds, thousands, or millions of people who get to touch a system after the fact than to be on the (relatively smaller) team who worked on a problem big enough that no one person could realistically understand the entire thing. Doubly so if you're beholden to outside entities (legal requirements, changes for certification, security requirements, accessibility requirements, etc) that your average consumer neither knows nor cares about. Often times it's because the consumer is thinking about things critically but superficially, and I can say with confidence that I can explain reasons A-Z why that feedback is valid, but not addressable. It's a miracle anything comes out ever.
tumes's comments