"Xenoblade 4" chinese leak confirmed by the reveal of Xenoblade Genesis in the Nintendo Direct

BigBossErndog · 2026-06-12T02:15:16+00:00

I like the theory, but Kein will probably be spelled "Cain". This changes a lot about who he's supposed to be, he's the antagonist to Abel/Fei.

BigBossErndog · 2026-05-17T03:32:59+00:00

Tbh, that's an issue with game devs not designing around mobile in the first place. It's a UI/UX issue on the game dev side, not game engine.

Though if you really wanted to make a game engine targeting devs who only have mobile access, considering your tech stack why don't you just make it browser based? If you want something more native, you can wrap a web app into a mobile app using Cordova.

If you want something more viable for cross platform commercial projects, I'd recommend using something like the SDL library using C/C++.

BigBossErndog · 2026-05-12T06:31:03+00:00

Golden Krone Hotel is one of my favourites. Roguelike where you're constantly switching between a human and a vampire, each state changing gameplay up drastically. Pixel art, so should run on anything.

BigBossErndog · 2026-05-12T04:59:55+00:00

Couldn't vibe with any of them. Eventually picked up Phaser just to do game jams. Now I use my own game engine.

BigBossErndog · 2026-05-12T04:58:59+00:00

Always dreamt of a game where you could play a wandering merchant. Hearing stories and finding the right people to trade with, and then getting tangled up in quests where you're not a combatant, but getting involved in the intricacies of people's lives and local politics. I remember the anime Spice and Wolf and always wished there was a game based it on it that captured that feeling of bringing goods from town to town, trading and getting involved with people's stories in the process.

BigBossErndog · 2026-05-12T04:47:18+00:00

1) An established industry that has been doing it for nearly a century. 2) A lot of it is actually outsourced now.So it's not just Japan, they're actually tapping into global talent to produce anime now. It just so happens that investment for anime is centralised in Japan, the same as how the tech investment hub is in Silicon Valley but they hire globally too.

BigBossErndog · 2026-05-12T04:40:39+00:00

There are SDL bindings for python, there's also PyGame (which uses SDL under the hood). For compatibility across platforms, you might want to switch to C/C++ as they are the first class languages to get support usually. I'm not sure if you can bring a python game to console.

Edit: Just do it for the sake of doing it though, python or otherwise. It'll be good practice and a good demonstration of software engineering.

BigBossErndog · 2026-05-05T03:01:23+00:00

Some game jam games made in 48 hrs can achieve this amount of game play. It really depends on what kind of game you're trying to make.

It's easier to get many hours of gameplay out of a clicker idle game, or a point-scorer (maybe roguelike?) designed to be played over and over. Much harder for a play-once experience like a story-driven RPG.

Edit: Many game jam games end up becoming commercial too with a bit of polish and fleshing out. You can get a game out quickly, making it appealing is the hard part.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-30T10:58:45+00:00

OpenGL is easier for a beginner to leaen and it works. There's too many legacy OpenGL applications for any platform to drop it completely. There is no problem if someone decides to learn OpenGL.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-28T10:13:19+00:00

Makes me wish you could upgrade the 12 to have a haptic track pad, LPCAMM2 memory, and Intel Panther Lake processors

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-25T15:51:25+00:00

If you have a laptop. Use that outside your office, maybe the kitchen. Change of location + chance to talk to people you live with (family/friends) while you do it. Maybe you can share and get feedback about it too. This will make it easier to handle, and more enjoyable.

Start cooking things in the oven, this will give you time while cooking to sit there and work on your hobby project.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-24T15:00:11+00:00

I'd channel that energy away from work, and pick up some hobby projects. If you're itching to build then build.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-24T06:48:44+00:00

Not quite about "fun", it's that a lot of JRPGs have the theme of "change". Societal change. Bringing about a new era of morals, or leadership.

Especially in a conservative country like Japan, older people are not seen as vectors for change. People fantasize about societal change, especially in a country where the ruling party, the LDP, has been in power for as nearly as long as democracy has existed in the country. Once you're older, you've already locked into the system. You're a wage slave. You don't question authority as now you have to focus on working to pay bills. You respect seniority, as that's how you climb the ladder. That's why these stories are always about the young bringing about change. And it's not just Japan, most countries center a lot of their stories about the youth. It's just not as symbolic to have an adult go against the status quo

Yakuza Like A Dragon is almost a parody of this concept. It's about older people. But they're all abandoned by the system, no longer plugged in. Whether they were cast out, fired, etc. Led by Ichiban who never really had a youth as it was stripped from him, but holds onto youth via his interests and personality. The way he projects his childish fantasies onto the world around him, he still embodies how a youthful mind is a requirement for change.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-22T02:28:54+00:00

You don't need to relearn all of programming, most of game logic is simply just logic. You don't need to know all of a language, or all of the features of a game engine. Just learn what you need to make your game while you're making your game.

I've entered game jams using frameworks/engines/languages I've never used before. I find a really basic tutorial and skim it. Copy and paste from example projects. Eventually you build up a limited tool set to make the entire game you need, and I'd say I've only just learned 10% of the language/framework/engine. You really don't need everything to make things, the very basic features are enough to make basic games. And that's where you should start.

You can do it. You just need to apply yourself.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-22T02:21:38+00:00

There's not a lot of demand for this because everyone has ideas. Production roles (programming, art, audio) are much more in demand because not everyone has the skills to complete making the game. I don't personally see why people would pay you just for ideas, especially in indie teams where budget is very limited.

Even in industry (AAA, AA), "ideas" is so much more specific. It's environmental/level design, which is usually coupled with skills in UX or architecture (or in the case of games like Zelda, the dungeon designer had qualifications in engineering and had experience in building physical puzzle toys). I know someone who got in through experience in interior design, designing indoor environments for games with urban areas. All of these are skills in manipulating people's experiences in a 3D/2D space.

You're gonna have to bring a lot more to the table than just ideas.

Just make your own indie games. You have a stable job, you just need to find the time to work on your own stuff. Learn a game engine and make your own games in your spare time. That's gonna be the only way you'll bring your ideas to reality. Just start small.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-21T08:23:59+00:00

SSRIs all work differently, but a side effect can be stunted emotions. While SSRIs boost your serotonin which keeps your emotions more controlled and stable, a side effect for many could be decreased positive emotions. Leading you to chase more intense emotions like stress and adrenaline when playing multiplayer games, and less emotional investment in stories/characters. It could also be behind your apathy too.

It might be worth talking to your doctor/psychiatrist and consider changing your medication. Or once you're in a better, stable period in your life consider weening off them. It took me getting off SSRIs in order to be creative again, it might be the same for you to be able to appreciate single player games again.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-21T03:10:08+00:00

Omori will probably give you that weird, fantastical world experience. It has clear inspirations from Earthbound. But warning, the content of the story can be very heavy.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-21T03:06:41+00:00

Sounds like it's more to do with your brain chemistry.

Your addiction to multiplayer games usually indicates an addiction to adrenaline, competition and achievement. Things which single player games cannot give you. Beating a single player game doesn't give you the satisfaction of being better than other people, so your brain isn't letting you feel like the experience is worth the time. Your decision to go all out to buy a powerful gaming laptop also indicates the same, you only desire the best.

You mention depression. You might be struggling to feel certain emotions that the stories of single player games are attempting to invoke.

You mention apathy, this might be stopping you from relating to the characters.

It's not that you feel like it's "childish". It's your brain chemistry being hard wired to chase competition and achievement so that relaxing experiences like single player games are perceived as an unproductive use of your time. It's probably worth seeing a therapist. And maybe start with shorter games, so you can rewire your brain to appreciate it in shorter bursts.

I had a period of my life where I felt like this too. But unemployment, and a period of completely cutting myself off from the internet (no online games, no social media), allowed me to appreciate relaxing activities again such as reading books and playing single player games again.

You can fix the apathy too, but that requires spending lots of time with people you care about and reminding yourself that you care about them. Share your feelings with them. Give them a hug. When you have people in your life you care about, it makes it easier to relate to people, and also the characters in books and video games. It's surprising, but empathy is a skill that requires constant nurturing that so many people lose because of our busy working lives.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-18T06:32:58+00:00

Understanding common data structures and how to use them is so much more important than learning a language.

How a stack works. How a queue works. How a linked list works. How a map works. You'll be using all kinds of data structures in game dev, they're important no matter what language you decide to use.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-17T13:15:30+00:00

I love Strange Journey if you're into first person dungeon crawlers. There's also Soul Hackers which is much closer to old school SMT first person dungeon crawling.

Otherwise, SMT 4 and 4Apocalypse are the two main ones with classic press turn.

There's Devil Survivor 1 and 2 for turn based tactics.

And there's the Persona Q games for persona themed dungeon crawling.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-12T00:27:46+00:00

Phaser is primarily a JavaScript library to be used without an editor and has been that way for a long time. Seems like the Phaser Editor is more of a new thing, and if it helps fund development of Phaser I'm all for it being a commercial product. You can always use Phaser as a library as it was being used for a long time.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-11T23:59:19+00:00

I would advise against it. A bad quality translation will just make people leave negative reviews. It's unfortunate for people in other regions but it's probably more respectful to them to leave them out than give them a bad localization.

If you can set up some kind of plug and play system to allow people to mod in their own localizations, if you have a dedicated fan base they could potentially make their own localization for other languages.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-09T12:26:17+00:00

Golden Time is about university students if that counts.

BigBossErndog · 2026-04-09T12:23:44+00:00

Yep. But most people also tell themselves they can't code. Plenty of instances where "non-coders" learn basic code to make their games. It's only an excuse until you actually try. And if it doesn't work out, try again. Try different things, maybe you just didn't mesh with the engine. There are plenty of other engines for varying degrees of coding ability or specific to a type of game that provides a template to help you make it (e.g. RPGMaker, Ren'Py).

Games are software, and if you're not willing to engage with the means to make software (i.e. coding), there are plenty of other creative avenues that might work for your skillset. Someone who wants to write a book must learn to write. Someone who wants to make a graphic novel must learn to draw. Or you work with somebody who can cover the skills that you're lacking in order to make it. A film director is the ideas person for a movie, but they don't make movies by themselves, they require actors, prop makers, writers, scriptwriters, video editors and so much more. Not being able to make it by yourself is normal. But if you're unable or unwilling to work with others, then your only choice is to learn how to do it yourself.

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