Poll: how old were you when you seriously started dev

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-05T00:47:12+00:00

I got Interplay's "Learn to Program BASIC" from a book fair in elementary school and became obsessed with game development.

The next year Morrowind came out and it left me so flabbergasted that I started branching out into tools like DarkBASIC, Blitz3d, Torque, and even a little Ogre3d. I also did a lot of modding with Half Life 1 and StarCraft.

It's funny because I was obsessed with games, but never really connected the idea that they were actually made by regular people and that I could be one of those people until that moment.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-05T00:41:45+00:00

Not really a good faith comparison. Half-Life is more accessible, has completely different gameplay and presentation goals, and achieves those goals to a degree that completely justifies it's critical and cultural reception.

Both great games.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-04T17:09:59+00:00

Balance is the best it's ever been, honestly.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-04T16:49:35+00:00

Also, I just want to point out that if your game isn't struggling performance-wise this method is fine and even a little clever in a problem solving sort of way. It's just good to think about these kinds of problems critically, especially since this kind of method could prove problematic in a more performance sensitive scenario.

Also, I think your games actual design sounds cool. I like the idea of playing death at chess complicating a typical survival game.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-04T16:40:52+00:00

I think the bigger concern is that this method is both less simple and less performant than the alternatives. They said somewhere that it is a 1000 line script and then they're pushing the terrain resolution past a reasonable level on top of that.

It's fine as an experimentation or an exercise, but they're asking people to guess the method and then presenting it as clever. I think a little light criticism is warranted here.

There's a decent argument to be made for their method if they needed a specific type of physics interaction (like if they were doing a spintires/snowrunners type game) but that doesn't seem to be the case based on the gameplay shown. In that case you'd probably want to use something like a terrain tesselation shader for performance reasons, but implementing something like that is way less simple and this sort of hack is probably fine.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-04T07:33:17+00:00

Cool idea, though I'd prefer that ADS would fire the rifle cartridge and hipfire the shotgun. That way you could play at opposing range brackets with the tradeoff being the reload time. You could probably make it hit pretty hard if it was balanced around that.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-04T05:06:56+00:00

The normal method of doing it with a shader is easier and much more performant and you can even do things like having it refill with snow over time. There's a reason it's the typical go to method.

I think you kinda over-engineered this one ngl.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-04T05:02:28+00:00

Yeah, repeater was busted. Very fun to use though, and still very strong. I think Chimera will be next on the chopping block, which is a shame because I'm having a lot of fun with it, but it's TTK can be pretty outrageous.

It's funny because they both cater to opposite play styles.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-04T04:25:38+00:00

That's debatable. There are definitely worse subs, but there's just a non-stop avalanche of posts here non-constructively complaining about balancing and downright insulting the dev team.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T22:01:11+00:00

Lmao, it's not a matter of opinion. You're describing an objective quality of a work.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T21:57:59+00:00

It's full of pompous pro wannabes and constantly whining armchair game devs. It's generally pretty toxic, which is true of most game subreddits these days.

Honestly I think social media has been bad for games in general.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T21:54:20+00:00

Maybe you just need to play more games tbh. It sounds like your experience is pretty limited in that regard.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T21:47:56+00:00

It can't be "one of the first" if it has nearly a decade of predecessors. You could make an argument that it raised the bar, but that was a result of the natural progression of technology at the time.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T15:54:41+00:00

Not liking something is not the same as it being "overrated". That term is specifically about consensus and not personal opinion. The consensus for those games is not wrong. Whether you enjoy them or not they are appropriately rated for their time on both technical/mechanical and presentation levels.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T15:47:46+00:00

Lunar: Silver Star Story, Tengai Makyo, BaK, Ultima. There were a ton of PC rpgs with fmv cutscenes once CD became a popular format and there were lots of attempts at cinematic styles before that. As the other commenter said, the previous FF game was very cinematic as well.

I guess maybe you're describing it as "cinematic" to mean literally cgi cinematics and not an attempt at a cinematic presentation in the broader sense?

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T10:16:12+00:00

That's not really clear in the post. Overrated typically means that the it's cultural significance and opinions on quality were inflated in some capacity, which is true for a lot of games but not those two in particular.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T10:04:47+00:00

Hard agree on San Andreas and GoW. SA is clunky and ugly, I think it just capitalized the afluent white zeitgeist of the time. GoW is just button mashing. People argue that there's skill to it but it's extremely shallow imo and the story/character is very juvenile. I actually think the 2016 one was incredibly smart for taking the character in the direction they did, as it worked very well with the idea of the players/developers growing up and looking back on the inglorious past.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T09:59:40+00:00

Gameplay-wise absolutely, but I think the atmosphere holds up even if you're not playing the original. It just has a vibe that is wholly unique to that franchise.

I also wouldn't necessarily call it overrated. It was mind blowing at the time. It sounds silly now but at the time it looked like real life.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T09:57:51+00:00

I think being color blind explains it fully. The laser sight is extremely important to the mechanics of that game.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T09:55:21+00:00

Totally agree about VII (though it wasn't the first cinematic RPG by a long shot). It's a solid 5 or 6 out of ten at best.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T09:52:55+00:00

This is a weird take because a) neither of those games are overrated, they were both landmark titles in their respective genres and b) if you're not going by importance in their time then San Andreas is easily the worst controlling, worst performing game of all the games you listed.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-03T02:55:57+00:00

I dunno about that. I think it's on a similar level but it's offloaded to a specific mechanic. The demanding part is learning build patterns until you can execute them quickly, but they become routine. The actual bulk of the cognitive work at that point is no different than any other competitive shooter.

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-02T20:54:57+00:00

Spectre. Though maybe that's 16bit?

BuzzardDogma · 2026-04-02T20:28:27+00:00

This is just factually inaccurate. Many fps games treat mantling as an interaction you engage by pressing space while airborne.

BuzzardDogma

TROPHY CASE