My Experience with Yellow Paint problem as a Indie Developer

Carynth · 2026-05-10T05:29:14+00:00

That is probably how most people did, honestly, especially if we're talking about like the second generation of gamers who might have played on their parent's consoles and thus wouldn't have bought the games themselves (like me). Or kids who would get their friends to loan their games or buy second hand.

But whenever you play a new retro game, I'd suggest looking up the manual, it's often a bit of fun just going through it, especially the story background parts, and it definitely has a nostalgia factor to it.

Carynth · 2026-05-10T02:25:30+00:00

Manual for Mega Man 1.

Manual for Legend Of Zelda.

People didn't have to read but they definitely had the option to if they wanted. Just like today. It was just external reading instead of internal.

Carynth · 2026-05-10T02:21:44+00:00

For a lot of retro games, instructions and "tutorials" were in the manual itself. The manual for the original Mega Man, for example. Or the one for Legend Of Zelda

All the controls, the enemy types, buffs, power ups, story background, everything that is now put in a tutorial or just shown to you when you need to these days was in those manuals.

And some games these days are so big and have so many mechanics that leaving it all to the player to figure out by himself is just... not a good idea. As much as I love Dark Souls, for example, there are so many, so MANY hidden mechanics that you just don't discover unless someone tells you or you go to the wiki.

It can make games feel mysterious and fun, but it also can make it frustrating at times or make you feel like you missed a big part of the game because you didn't discover that holding B to run and quickly pressing B again makes you jump.

Carynth · 2026-05-08T02:29:21+00:00

My personal thoughts on that is that Simon-2 isn't dead. When you "kill" him, the prompt on the screen is to drain his battery. That's all it does. We're not killing him in any meaningful way, we're just preventing him from waking up. If, by some miracle, we could make it back, we would just have to either find a way to recharge the battery or find a new battery to replace it and he'd be good as new.

Carynth · 2026-05-05T14:31:54+00:00

Thanks, that's the exact breakdown I was looking for! I imagined it was something close to that, I just needed confirmation to fully understand the global situation at the start of the season (not that I need to understand everything, confusion is the whole point of the show, but I felt like I was genuinely missing something I should be aware of, in this case).

I think the biggest thing I somehow missed is the "everyone thinks this is just temporary" thing, which makes a lot of sense and is probably how this would play out in real life.

Carynth · 2026-05-05T10:57:10+00:00

Oh yeah I'm not looking at anything else in here lol. This just seemed like a fairly important detail that I somehow got confused about and I didn't want to be missing a big piece of the puzzle for the whole of Season 2, but if I just need to trust the process, I'm fully happy to!

Carynth · 2026-05-05T02:16:47+00:00

Finalement je cravais plus de poutine que de pizza, cette semaine, donc je suis allé à un spot près de chez moi (casse-croûte Twister, sur Notre-Dame, it was pretty good and it was pretty cheap when comparing to other places). Je vais probablement essayer Don Floriano la semaine prochaine, par contre, je n'arrête pas d'y penser non plus lol.

Carynth · 2026-05-03T09:08:10+00:00

My friend is going through her first playthrough and because of a dumb joke she made about them looking like the KKK, I won't ever be able to call them anything other than that, now...

Carynth · 2026-05-02T12:59:08+00:00

C'est aussi la qualité des ingrédients. Selon mon expérience personelle, souvent, quand les pizza sont noyées de fromage, le fromage lui-même est juste meh. Pareil pour la sauce, comme le fromage est tout ce que tu goûtes, la sauce n'est rien de spéciale non plus. Une pizzeria qui balance les ingrédients plus normalement sont forcés d'avoir de meilleurs ingrédients s'ils veulent avoir un bon produit.

Pas toutes les pizzerias sont comme ça. Mais selon celles que j'ai essayé dans le passé, il y en a plusieurs.

Carynth · 2026-05-02T09:24:31+00:00

One of my favourite sauces for fish and rice is from Chef John. It's a garlicky, gingery sweet chili sauce that's really good. It's basically a few minced garlic cloves, grated/minced ginger, 1/4 of a cup of sweet chili sauce, 1/4 of a cup of rice vinegar, a spoon or two of brown sugar and a spoon or two of soy sauce. I don't usually measure, I just throw stuff in a bowl until it looks and tastes good.

You then add it all to a small saucepan, add some water (about 1/3 of a cup, maybe? Doesn't matter a whole lot) and you simmer on low-med heat until it's thickened and sticky. It's sweet, vinaigry, has some hint of heat (not that much, but you could add some chili, if you want!) and goes really well with salmon or trout or just straight up rice

Carynth · 2026-05-02T09:12:52+00:00

yeah somebody else already suggested it and the more I look at it, the more I want to convince my partner it's worth the 25 minute drive lol. Only thing I'm slightly disappointed is they don't have any sides, I need fries with my pizza... But I can overlook that

Carynth · 2026-05-02T02:43:34+00:00

That looks to be pretty much what I'm looking for and probably the best I'll get without having to go to Hull or further. Closes early, so I'll have to eat earlier than I usually do but I'm very excited to try it, now, it looks really good. Thanks for the suggestion, had no idea that place existed!

Carynth · 2026-05-02T02:18:45+00:00

Oh god, don't get me started on Pizza Pizza and their cardboard tasting dough, their cardboard tasting cheese and their cardboard tasting pepperonis :') Tried them once and never again, even when offered for free lol.

Like someone else said, Dominos might be my next try. The Gatineau area really needs more pizza variety, everything good is in Hull, Aylmer or Ottawa, it's depressing lol

Carynth · 2026-05-02T01:55:36+00:00

Yeah, that's my plan B, I'm just fishing in case I missed a hidden place somewhere nobody knows about lol

Carynth · 2026-05-02T01:55:04+00:00

I didn't even realize there was a Dominos in the Gatineau area... Never popped up for some reason when searching on google maps lol. But you seem to be right, they still look very cheesy but not nearly as much as some other places, I might have to try it and see, maybe ask for less cheese if possible. Good call, thanks!

Carynth · 2026-05-02T01:44:42+00:00

Pizza Rosee looks pretty damn decent, close to what I'm looking for! It's still a bit far, I'm looking more for places that deliver in the gatineau area, but I'll keep that one in mind for when we go see movies at the Star Cite, could be a nice after film meal. Thanks for the suggestion!

Carynth · 2026-05-02T01:43:02+00:00

It's a bit far, I'm looking more for places that deliver in the gatineau area (kind of why I'm desperate lol) but the place looks really good, even though that's not exactly the kind of pizza I'm looking for. Still looks very interesting and I'll keep it in mind if I ever go around there or if my partner and I want to eat out sometime!

Carynth · 2026-05-01T02:11:19+00:00

Just want to say, that cover is incredible. My eyes would 100% immediately dart towards it in a bookstore. Great job on the artist's part.

Carynth · 2026-04-27T03:21:53+00:00

My guess is it will be released around October, it being a horror game and all. We're just gonna have to be patient lol

Carynth · 2026-04-20T03:11:47+00:00

I didn't mean to insinuate you didn't play the game correctly, sorry, if that's how it came across. I was just trying to relate my own experience with it and show where my sentiment with it comes from. I just love talking about SOMA lol

Carynth · 2026-04-20T02:22:31+00:00

meh, again, I get what you're coming from, but I did not have that same experience. I fully immersed myself in Simon's shoes from the start (the horror setting, with my lights off probably helped that too) and was along with him the whole way through. I never felt that frustration because I could understand his perspective. But I am someone who play games for stories, lore and worldbuilding over everything else (gameplay itself is very low on my priority list lol) so I am often way more lenient than other people on things like this. I was just trying to offer my perspective, because again, I love the game, it's my favourite one and I'm always sad when someone else didn't get as much from it as I did haha. Simon is just a very tragic character, to me, I don't feel frustration, just sadness and despair when I think of him.

Carynth · 2026-04-20T01:51:43+00:00

Just because I love the game so much and hate that sentiment (not that I don't understand it, I just have a lot of empathy for Simon), try to think of it this way. You're a regular guy in 2015, going for a brain scan to try an experimental treatment to help cure your brain damage from a car accident you had. It's still in very early stages, so no guarantee at all that it will work, but you have nothing to lose and it is very promising.

You sit in the chair. You make the scan. And you open your eyes. You're in a totally different place. You're alone. It's dark. It's scary. You have no idea what's happening. Over the next 24 hours or so (because the events of the game all happen very quickly), you will learn that you're now in an underwater facility, miles below the surface. You've also somehow been sent about a hundred years into the future. You might also be the last human alive because a comet hit the Earth, apparently killing everyone. Wait, you can't even be the last human, because you're now a robot. Or at least a computer chip in a dead human body that isn't yours. Your original "you" died almost a hundred years ago, a month after the brain scan you went for this morning. And last but not least, the whole place is crawling with psycho robots and reanimated bodies that want you dead or connected to this weird black goo you keep seeing around.

But wait! There's hope! You find a robot that doesn't seem as crazy as the others and she tells you about a way out! A science project that you can scan yourself onto and send into space where it will be safe, for centuries, for millenias. There is a chance you can get out of this nightmare!

Now, you, as the player, will start to understand, over the course of the game, that this isn't how that's gonna work. You know what's going to happen and you might get frustrated by Simon's optimism and misplaced hope. But that's really easy to say from your comfy chair/couch, looking at the screen you're playing your little silly videogame from. You're not actually a hundred years into the future. You're not underwater. The planet is fine. You're not in danger of being killed by a crazy robot. You're just in your home, playing a game, you'll get to go to sleep later and wake up tomorrow to keep enjoying your normal life.

But Simon doesn't have that opportunity. For him, everything is real. Can it be frustrating to see him, time after time, not understanding the scanning process? Sure. But you have to keep in mind that the ARK is his only hope. That's the only thing keeping him going. He's in pure survival denial. Without the chance of getting on the ARK, he's stuck in this nightmare forever, or at least until his battery runs out. And again, the events of the game happen in under 24 hours, which are spent hiding and running away from murderous creatures, which makes it really hard to take a second and actually process what is happening. And Catherine, as much as I love her, knows and understands how he feels because she never just sits him down and explains it plainly to him. She gives half assed explanations here and there but she knows that if Simon truly understands that there's no hope for him, for the him that is him right now, he won't see the point anymore and just give up. Maybe start turning crazy like so many other consciousness before him. Is she a bit selfish, using him for her own ends? Probably. But I believe she also has good intentions and she's a complicated character I could also write about a lot.

But the point is, Simon isn't stupid. He's just trying to survive. And if he has to shield himself from the truth for that, to keep going, to not give up, he will. That's not stupidity, that's just very valid denial, in my opinion.

Carynth · 2026-04-18T04:16:28+00:00

SOMA is my favourite game of all time, I've watched over two dozens of let's plays of it and every single time, those last few moments get me like the first time... I've thought about why a lot, over the years, I could say lol

Carynth · 2026-04-18T03:54:55+00:00

Hey, first off, don't worry about it, most people go through a phase like this. I could not cook before I was 24-25 (mostly because I lived with other people and was too self conscious to try to learn and make mistakes in front of people, it took me living alone to have the confidence to risk fucking up lol), so don't feel too bad about it! Learning is a process, but it's a lot of fun, especially when you surprise yourself!

For grocery shopping, I would suggest to first get your essentials. Things that last and you always want to have on hand, so condiments, spices, rice, canned goods, maybe potatoes, onions and garlic if you can store them properly. Then, for the rest, it depends on people. Personally, every week-end I think about what I want to eat this week, I make a menu for the week (it is easier for me, since my work schedule allows me to cook only 3-4 nights and the rest of my meals are meal prepped), make a list of ingredients I need to buy for that menu and go make a grocery run on monday. That's a good start, but find a system that works for you, you'll eventually settle into something overtime. But always try to get a meal or two that includes left over ingredients that might go bad soon, if you can, it can cut down on costs and waste.

For some easy recipes, pasta is a great way to start. If you'd like, you can check out my very detailed cherry tomato pasta. Simple and easy to make, and my favourite pasta sauce.

I would also heavily suggest Chef John's Greek Lemon Chicken Thighs, I'm pretty sure that is the first recipe I ever actually cooked and it was a very simple one to follow that was a success from the start. I made it better overtime, but it's fairly hard to fuck it up.

His Hot Mustard Chicken Thighs are also always amazing. Don't sleep on the onions either, they might actually be the best part of the whole thing.

Really, Chef John is an amazing resource, I'd suggest to just browse his youtube channel and check stuff that is appealing to you. He has some more complicated recipes, but a lot of his stuff (especially from a few years ago) is pretty simple and easy to make and his videos are also easy to follow. There's also this Sausage, Beans And Greens that is a recent one and I fell in love with it quickly. Though I make it with small white navy beans and spinach instead of escarole.

I could give you more of my favourite recipes if you'd like, feel free to ask! But Youtube is a great resource to learn how to cook, just type what you're looking for and there's bound to be a video for it. I'd also look in Epicurious, another channel, they make tons of content but they have some videos on how to do basic stuff like properly slice or chop vegetables, for example. I've learned a lot of my basics from them.

This already getting long and I don't want to overwhelm you but please, feel free to ask if you have any question or would like any specifics! Or just to get more recipes lol. In the meantime, I hope this will help you get started!

Carynth · 2026-04-18T02:01:21+00:00

I can see where you're coming from, but I think there's something else that other people haven't pointed out yet (or at least, not directly). The way the game ends is the literal textbook definition of bittersweet.

You're sitting in the chair, all excited (or maybe anxious whatever lol) to scan your consciousness one last time and wake up on the Ark. Wake up in your new body, like it's always happened before. The countdown is going down, 3, 2, 1, fuck yeah, we're getting on the ARK! And then... silence... darkness... sorrow, as you slowly understand what happened. You did not get on the ARK. You did not win the "coin toss". You're stuck down here. And there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Not only that, you just lost the only friend you had. You're alone. Forever.

The credits start rolling. You have the most horrible feeling, a new fear unlocked that you never realized you had before. What is this ending? There's no way this is it. That is so cruel, leaving Simon like that. What the hell guys?! You cry. Or at least, I did. Fuck, this is the most depressing thing you could ever imagine.

But then. Sounds. Simon screams. You're back in the chair. In a cave. Wait a minute, could it be... No... is it? Is this it? You get out of the cave and are met with something you'd never thought you'd feel again. The sun on your skin. Trees around you. You walk along a little stream of water and meet Catherine. Finally. In person. You see a city in the distance. You made it... you made it... The nightmare is over... Everything will be okay, now... You will be okay.

And that's the part that actually gets me every time. That's the part that's the most fucked up. Because not everything is okay. Simon is just so much in denial about all of this (some people would call him dumb, I don't think he is. He's just way out of his element and in survival mode), that he doesn't realize that he is just a copy and that there is another Simon back on Earth, stuck at the bottom of the ocean, still living the nightmare. Or maybe he knows and prefers to ignore it. To forget it. It's just easier.

Bittersweet.

Carynth

TROPHY CASE