Notices by PsychicParrot (Jeff) 😷 (psychicparrot42@mastodon.gamedev.place)

I've been flip-flopping about having powerups in the main game mode (as opposed to only having them in the faster paced 'arcade' game mode) and I thought I'd settled on them being in both .. and then my son comes along this morning and insists the main game mode shouldn't have powerups because that's not like how Berzerk plays. Now I'm in total crisis! Flip-flop flip-flop flip-flop flippety flipping flippy floppy flipping arrrgggghhhhh! Who's the designer? Me. Not him. But maybe he has a point..

Just FYI: I’m not changing it. The power ups stay in main game mode. This is me close to launch having a wig out about whether or not I’ve made all the right decisions and whether or not the game is good. Happens at the end of every game I make (takes a single comment to get me questioning everything!) but the fact is that I’ve balanced the gameplay, it plays really nicely and I need to leave it the hell alone and stop wiggin! 🤣

@sinbad I never even thought I could do games for a living (I still don't hoho) so just didn't even consider the game company path. I never got further than BASIC when I was young and games I sent off to mags and companies never amounted to anything, then my career advisor at school said 'you can't make games as a job' so that was the end of that, really. Took me a long time to come back around to my fate! What you did (off your own back!).. OGRE.. blows me away whenever I think about it!

@sinbad I coulda just made software instead. I tried it in the late 90s, but it made me go absolutely insane with boredom.

@sinbad And it's the love of making games that keeps us going / tricks us into this path / keeps us imprisoned lol My fate was sealed back when I first played Battlezone in the 80s .. from that moment on, I was *doomed* to make games foreverrrrrr! 🤣

Sometimes (like this morning) I get overwhelmed when I think about how much I have to do to get a game out. I have to remind myself that I'm only one person and that there's only so much I can do in a day/week/month/year.

@sinbad Love it! Looks awesome man!

One of the things I noticed about the end of this talk is that although there should have been a standing ovation at the end of it, you know he just called out 90% of the dickheads in the room and they did not seem very happy about it lol quite a muted response 🤣 https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/113483951392272543

@sinbad Brilliant, mate! Top job on that!

@sinbad I'm being a little bit evil by having collectible pickups (documents) in random places in each room, too, to encourage players to stick around. They're essentially just score bonuses but it's there to manipulate people into moving around the whole screen. The best option is to ignore them and keep running, but again that personality test comes into play whenever you enter a room: Risk it for the points, or be taunted by the game for choosing the easier option? 👹

@sinbad Yeah it's like locking in for a wave shooter. You fight for a guaranteed reward at the end of each room - loot or whatever. You're locked into this faster loop of quick play followed by reward. In Berzerk, the reward for clearing is there, it's extra points, BUT I think the option to run means your personality comes into play over the game flow: Instant reward, revenge on mouthy bots, or no instant reward for a longer game? Makes for a different vibe, for sure.

Had a bit of an epiphany this morning about how Bezerk goads you into working harder. I used to think the game was just about clearing rooms, but it's not. I mean, sure, if you *can* clear the room you'll get more score.. but the taunting from the bots is about making you feel bad if you don't clear the room.. and clearing the room is 10x harder than just wiping out a few bots and getting out of there. It's a brilliant little twist that's leading me to more tweaking of my Berzerkalike.

I don’t know how many people realized this right away or whatever, but I feel like I’ve been missing this really important thing all along.. so yeah, more tweaking for my game this week! It needs just a bit of subtle difficulty tweaking to replicate this better, but I think it’ll make a big difference and present more apparent ‘score paths’ you can take.

@sinbad I just went on there because I haven't been near it for a while.. literally the first things I see are an ad for a misinformation campaign about local energy production (paid for by whatever fascist bastards want to get in power next) followed by one of my contacts sharing a post about what a great thing the orange tosser is for the US and crypto. Obviously, instant unfollow/block on that one.. yeah, this is LinkedIn now, I guess?!

@sinbad Yeaaaahhhh no let's not do that! It's a shitty site with a lot of shitty content and scammy business bros selling snake oil - really not worth the hassle let alone the risk!

It’s been two years now since I made a ridiculously over ambitious 3d game I had no business even attempting. Surely it must be almost time to do that again? 👹

If you're getting into Unreal and want to learn about C++ programming, gamedev.tv have a good bundle running at the moment with 6 of their Unreal C++ courses for US $30

https://www.gamedev.tv/bundles/unreal-blueprints-c-black-friday-2024

#gamedev #UnrealEngine5

Deleted TikTok. All I followed on there are 80s and 90s retro games stuff, but today it decided to absolutely flood my timeline with right wing propaganda videos. Racist, hate-filled shite designed to stir up trouble. Video after video of it. Nope. That’s the end of it for me. If you have kids with phones, don’t let them run that app!!

I just read "Sony 'learned a lot' from Concord failure, will now leverage the strength of 'proven IP'" .. my eyes have rolled out of my head and are rolling away down the street. Yes, stick to what you know. Never do anything new. That's the secret to success. Just ask Ubisoft.

Did some research for the corporate robots in my game.. scrolled through LinkedIn! Found inspiration for a whole bunch of new robot phrases lol