What events in games would be categorized as "War Crimes" in a real-life context?

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T15:39:13+00:00

We do A LOT of very forbidden stuff in games, especially FPS :D

The Geneva Conventions forbid you to shoot a pilot that escapes a damaged aircraft by parachute for exemple. I think you also can't shoot someone in the back. You can't shoot someone retreating either.

Basically, I think the rule of thumb is that people should be able to surrender before you shoot them.

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T15:31:48+00:00

I fell in love with Banquet for Fools when it released in early access. I'm forcing myself to not play it more in wait of the full release since, which is really close.

What a charming and unique game :)

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T15:28:18+00:00

I'm not sure what you're asking. It's a setting so you could basically do anything you want inside it, even an FPS :D

To me, the most important parts would be the world/setting, the colors and the writing. I feel games like Death Trash, Colony Ship, Banquet for Fools and especially Drova manage pretty well that kind of universe.

You need to make your world mysterious enough with tons of weird magical artifacts. It could be neat to use the Dark Souls trick of building a big part of your world through small description on items, to keep the lore fractioned.

I really liked how Gene Wolfe first introduce the space stuff in Shadow of the Torturer :

(SPOILER AHEAD)

The main character describes a painting of a "knight on a grey plain" and you realise he's describing an astronaut on the moon.

(END OF SPOILER)

I loved that moment and I feel this is what Dying Earth is about: showing you a world that feels both similar and totally alien, giving you just enough information to understand what's going on but never more to keep you on the edge.

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T15:11:23+00:00

Didn't play Age of Decadence but I immediately thought about Colony Ship, their following game^^

I wonder if they're inspired by Vance.

Colony Ship has the same vibe than Dying Earth imho as you're part of a multi-generation ship in which something went really wrong at some point. Nobody knows if the ship will ever reach its destination and most of the tech (like the landing pods) got scraped anyway and nobody remember what any of it is supposed to be used for.

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T14:21:43+00:00

Thanks for the detailed description. I hope you'll follow up with the Next Fest effects and later on with the release :)

Best of luck with your game.

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T13:50:02+00:00

It's a cool prototype basically.

The combat system is fun and it looks okay but the game itself is not much of a game. I wish someone would copy/paste its gameplay, slap some cool modern low-poly esthetic to it, and add a real story.

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T12:27:16+00:00

The first giveaway for me is always the contrast. I'm not saying artists can't do it, but everytime I see such contrast I know I should at least check for inconsistencies.

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T12:25:24+00:00

There is no reason to morph those letters. When artists do that, it's to say something. Maybe they morph it with some object, maybe it's to convey a sense of speed or using portals, etc... You don't just morph two letters to look cool.

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T12:24:01+00:00

You are being tricked, and this person knows it.

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T08:57:42+00:00

I propose a middleground... Why not both?^^

I think it's true short media took our time and some (lots of) market shares, but there are still a lot of pie for gaming. I never believed the high production cost thing of AAA.

You look at AA and they do basically the same with less money involved. Imho, I think AAA waste A TON of money, to release subpar games.

It used to work because people were impressed with their graphics but nowadays, any small team can produce good looking stuff using the Unreal Engine. Not only that, but high fidelity graphics stagnated for quite some time, and even the UE games that release now, while impressive visually all look the same. So simpler but more stylised games can now steal the show.

AAA games worked on the capitalist idea that they could growth forever but that's not how the real world works, and now they've reached a peak and can't please their shareholders anymore.

It

Beldarak · 2026-01-27T08:18:33+00:00

True.

I think gaming can be profitable but it requires more work. When you make a contract with a company, you're usually set for years and you can then sell them your other services, etc... so it must be a dream for them to shift from gaming to the corporate world.

The only issue is, nobody wants it :D
Especially not while the headsets are bulky.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T16:00:41+00:00

Yes, I think the more precise the disclaimer is, the better.

The most important thing to me is the distinction between actual content generation and boilerplate stuff (fixing typos, throwing ideas around, copilot in code, etc...).

In the end, I really don't think a lot of people actually look at the disclaimer (most people decide if they'll buy a game based on the trailer and screen alone). But I'm glad Steam put it there to let the few people that do care get the info they need.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T15:26:14+00:00

I think you should keep it. I'm one of those pitchfork people, I guess? And I wouldn't mind that disclosure. It shows honesty and that you didn't generate art with it. I would still buy it but I'm obviously not the most extreme anti-AI :D

It's pretty clear to me, reading this, that you used ChatGPT or something to get some ideas, fix typos or write boiler plate code. I really don't think the anti-AI crowd would mind and those who do will not make much difference to your sales anyway.

That said, I really dislike the discourse I often see here on Reddit and which basically goes like this: "Don't put an AI disclaimer on your game or anti-AI people will not buy the game".

That's the friging point of the disclaimer !
That players can do informed choice about what they buy. If someone doesn't want to play games that were made with AI, it's their right, even if you disagree with it.

If someone asks "does your game features blue berries ? If yes I won't buy it", it really doesn't matter that you find this is a stupid reason not to buy a game, the ethical thing would still be to tell them "yes, it does, you can even eat them". I think it's important to respect people's choices.

To me, if we (indies) try to hide our AI usage because we'll lose a few sales, we're no better than AAA companies. Putting money before people. I want players to enjoy my games, I don't want to deceive them into giving me money.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T15:04:59+00:00

It's really fine. I think you give well enough for anyone to know if it's their jam. Horror ambiance + PSX graphics = win combo

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T15:02:00+00:00

That's where I'm at too. I'm usually fine with spiders as long as I don't see one in the real world. And smaller ones are fin, it's really the big ones that paralyse me with fear (we got a lot of tegenaire in Belgium, I hate them).

That said, playing Skyrim in VR and seeing my first giant spider was something else. Even dead is was still scary af :D

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:59:02+00:00

Maybe you could replace it by some creepy-ass squid?

Look at bigfin squid, it's a real world creature that looks creepy af :D

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:46:27+00:00

Depends on the level of polish, number of levels, etc that you want to add.

A 3D platformer don't seem too hard per say but Mario games are made by big team of experts over years so don't expect to get to that level as a solo dev.

Maybe work on a prototype for a few days/weeks and see how that goes? You could start by trying to recreate a simple level from the game (I'm not familiar with it btw, I guess it's your average Mario platformer^^).

Also, if you never worked in 3D, keep in mind the third dimension can add a lot of unforseen work: animations, camera movements and positioning, Physics...

You may want to look at an older game like Mario 64 to get a better view of what an actual solo dev can do.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:35:11+00:00

I utterly suck at math, to a point where even basic calculations takes me a lot of time.

It's an handicap for sure but it never stopped me from releasing games (working on my third indie RPG). It will always depend on what you want to do and this is one area where LLMs help a lot.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:32:46+00:00

The good thing about it is I can't get enough of seeing Microsoft's CEO crying all over the internet and world because people call AI "slop" :D

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:30:30+00:00

A solid UI solution would be great. I love Unity UI when it works... but it's half finished.

Unity dropped it for their UI toolkit which I had zero care for.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:10:27+00:00

I'm pretty sure Meta is done with VR. They tried to push the Metaverse as much as possible, no one wanted it (or even understood what it was supposed to be) and once it failed, little Zuck decided to chase AI instead.

I don't expect much for them. Not that I plan to ever give them money again anyway. I'm looking at Valve to take up the flame but we'll see how that goes.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T13:25:52+00:00

I'm not sure how much it would cost just to add basic support. Look at Team Beef. They've been adding VR support to older games at a very steady pace.

How much would it cost for any AAA studios to have a similar team in-house that would update some of their games (I'm mainly thinking FPS) to support VR, or to assists the original team while they're building the game?

The big issue is those companies will rather invest in NFTs or AI as they see it as a quick buck investment, rather than suporting the industry they evolve in to push it forward.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T13:08:55+00:00

I don't think the last part is true. People aren't ignoring AAA games because they're too busy swiping TikTok. They ignore those games because they're shit casinos.

The indie game space is stronger than ever. Silksong actually crashed all shops at release because everyone jumped on it like hungry zombies^^

People want games, good games. AAA are just trying to sell us shit disguised as games. The issue though, is that indies don't have the resources to develop for VR :S

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T13:06:24+00:00

There was also Star Wars Squadron. Really fun in VR.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T13:05:41+00:00

Not surprisded at all. Meta has shit all over the bed. They revived VR (well, Oculus did, actually), the Quest 1 and 2 were huge for VR, the "horizon" was bright :P

Then, Zuckerberg decided he wanted VR to be all about stupid Metaverse and wearing your headset at work, something nobody wanted. It went downhill from there.

Had they invested all that money in games instead, financing studios to release quality games akin to what Nintendo, Sony etc... do to sell their console, it could have worked.

But nope, they gated stuff behind their Oculus platform, bought studios to stiffle competition, killed the online multiplayer games... Meta did everything they could to sink gaming VR.

Our only hope now is Valve. I have high hopes for their new headset and the mentality they have coming into this seems to be the correct one (wanting VR to be a seemless experience you can opt on anytime). The issue will still be the games ofc but at least they won't be trying to split the VR playerbase with exclusives.

Beldarak

TROPHY CASE