Jar Time w/ Jeff: Veronica Jars - 04/23/2014

jars

Surprise!

Jar jammin

I just finished watching all of Veronica Mars and the movie. This title make me want to go watch that show again.

Huge puns.

Oh shit, I didn't consciously think about it, but it's been like half a year since we had one of these.

Jeff's bedroom is the only constant in the world

You're a good man Jeffrey Brown

Cool, lets break out the jar and blow off the dust, as we do.

Oh goody, I was wondering when we'd get another one of these. Will have to watch tomorrow, gotta go to sleep.

@kylealanr: I met Jason Dohring on opening night of the movie. Very nice dude. Also Vmars is generally underrated.

JAR WARS

One could almost call Jeff a crazy person for basically talking to himself into a screen like this... but god dammit if it's not entertaining!!!

HELL YEAH SONNNNN

Thanks Jeff! I love to jar

Pretty brave to show your jars on the internet.

You don't wanna know what I keep in my jars.

Gone Home is going to fuck things up for the industry, it's just a walking simulator, like World of Warcraft!

That Veronica Mars movie was great. If you're a fan of the show, go watch it immediately.

@jackhole: I'd like to add to this by saying if you are not a fan of the show, you probably won't be interested.

Jars are back and in full force!

-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!

Thanks for the awesome answer to my question, Jeff! Your deep, detailed knowledge of all things video games really is extraordinary.

The Jar.

Jarshmallows?

It must be starting to get hard to come up with jar based puns by now

Wondering where Jeff is excited to be going.

It's a jarring experience, I'm sure

Dooooog city at the end there.

I'm totally the opposite of what Jeff said about what he wants out of games coming forward. I hate this direction of big companies going away and smaller stuff taking over. For me personally the big games provide fun, and smaller ones are all about having a message or some nonsense. That's all fine and good, but I don't care about that and it's not why I come to games.

Nice surprise ! Thanks Jeff.

Myst was everywhere in the early 90s. G'damn everywhere.

Only a very small subset of indie games "are all about having a message", really. I'm guessing you're thinking about games like Gone Home when saying that, or Depression Quest etc.? But there's also Bastion, Fez and similar indie games, and those are the vast majority. Those games might have a story, but they're not "all about having a message".

You're crazy, sir. The weird pre-rendered first person adventure games were some of the best, for all their FMV cheesiness and ill-fitting puzzles. Admittedly, that's my own specific nostalgia talking, but I've decided to be right about this, and so it shall be. :P

@sammo21: Jar Jar Drinks!

I always love these, Jeff is a smart duder.

@kishinfoulux: Most fun I've had gaming recently has been with FTL, you checked that out?

Really enjoyed the video, interesting questions/answers.

I hereby request that Jeff don a blonde wig and proceed under the alter-ego of "Veronica Jars".

Always time for some Jar talking Jeff.

Has kinda hoping Jeff would talk about employment/what they plan to do with the smaller team, feel like premium content is getting smaller and smaller, which is understandable seeing there is really only 3 and a half guys (excluding the Least coast crew.

Great talk nonetheless!

Red Dead Resemblance. It resembles Redemption but it's got DAT NEXT GEN FEEL!

Plenty of "big games" "have a message" too. Look at anything from Ubisoft. Not all of them do, but neither do all "smaller" ones.

On another note: Jar You Afraid of the Dark?

E3 HYPE TRAINNNNNNNNNNNN

Video games are indeed at their most interesting time. Really stoked for E3.

This will take the place of the two Mixlr's I'm missing today because of the 3 day work week for GiantRobot!

Wooooo Miss Mars!!!!!! Or Jars!!!!!!! Jarmellows

i was just wondering when the next jar time was gonna happen....yay

All these videos and he gives us the best jar video title yet.

I would argue against Bastion and Fez being examples of the majority of what indie games are or are trending toward. A lot of indie games right now are built around a singular "insert term here" - could be small narrative, message, mechanic, etc - that is the crux of what the game has to offer. Games of this nature are being held up more highly within the "indie" community than games that offer broader appeal or game play options - like Path of Exile or Shadowrun Returns.

Granted that each person's perspective will differ on this but I would think it's not so difficult to see the viewpoint where the most vocal within the indie community are looking for a way to define themselves. They're leaning toward games that are different than bigger budget games as a platform for defining what "being indie" actually means. Unfortunately, that usually means talking more about games that do one thing (not always well) above all other parts of a game - which I personally dislike because it's often a way of ignoring or under stating a game's shortcomings (like Gone Home's game play - or wait, it doesn't have any).

TBH, smaller companies just turn into bigger companies at some point. I think, right now, is just a transitional period from a lot of overgrown middle tier developers failing to become large enough or adapt, breaking up into a sea of smaller companies, and eventually new middle tier companies will build themselves back up. Something like Devolver Digital is a good example of a company that will become a middle tier publisher and by proxy drag up some development studios to that level or attract new ones to form under it. Big companies aren't going anywhere and if they do, like a Hydra, new ones will replace them. Also as an example, Double Fine is effectively a middle tier publisher and developer - they're doing just fine (maybe even doubly so).

tl;dr - indies are not the second coming and Phil Fish is not Jesus as much as Max Temkin may want him to be.

it somehow really made me laugh that the way Jeff says "Myst" sounds like "Mist" which is "Crap" in german ... in that context the first part of the video is really funny :)

Best title for one of these videos yet!