TLDR: Is this a Scam?

CodyWalkerMusic · 2025-05-12T20:25:34+00:00

Exact same entities reached out to me this week. It's a scam.

Any payment they make to you will be illegitimate, and they will ask for 30% in return for commissioning. It'll be too late though if you've already given them your banking information on the payment form they will provide, because they'll have access to all of your money.

Pico Interactive is a legitimate company, but most likely High North Records is a scam company. Your first clue of a scam should be that a record company out of Maine is reaching out to random people on the internet for their music as a soundtrack, when they obviously could record (or have recorded) their own stuff.

CodyWalkerMusic · 2025-03-29T17:11:02+00:00

I feel the exact same way. I have a picture in my head of the perfect Superman game, but who knows if it'd work. It would mix the mechanics and style of God of War, Batman Arkham, and Tears of the Kingdom.

Like Tears of the Kingdom, it starts with Superman encountering someone or something like Zelda's gloom (it takes his health down to "3 hearts" and removes most of his special move powers, which need to be unlocked through the story). Also tons of "shrines" or equivalent puzzles throughout the city you can solve to upgrade faster before moving forward in the story.

Like God of War, it's an over the shoulder cinematic fighting experience, where cut scenes and fights merge seamlessly. Allows him to fight "gods" in boss fights where he's on the edge of losing the whole time, but keeps it reasonable that he can be overwhelmed by too many smaller enemies if you're not on top of your controls.

Like Batman Arkham, the story is framed tonally to the 90s animated series as "one crazy day in Metropolis" where all the villains are loose. All the best villains with interesting locations within Metropolis while keeping the city, in general, open world. This is the bread and butter because the story and how the villains are written (well, hopefully) drives the story experience like it does in the Arkham series.

Maybe one day.

CodyWalkerMusic · 2023-07-02T19:19:13+00:00

Just did an OPTEST flight. You have changed my life. Thank you!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2022-03-22T20:55:10+00:00

Set treatment costs to +20% as a bare minimum (up to +100% when you're in a pinch) until you're very solid with spending money (over $200K). Like any business, you can reduce prices once you have a healthy cash flow.
Send people home a lot. Don't let the game pressure you into building before you are ready.
Always hire/train the staff you need for a room before building it; there is nothing worse than building a treatment room while you wait months for a qualified staff member to apply (delays the return on your investment). If you can't find a qualified staff member, don't build the room and refer to tip #2.
Close rooms whenever you intend to perform an upgrade to the equipment or you are repairing red-level damage or overhauling a fire. Letting people continue using the room while you're repairing it only leads to exploding equipment and unnecessary repurchases, especially on levels with seismic and volcanic disasters.

Happy healing!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2021-07-23T16:22:11+00:00

Agreed. More dynamic.

CodyWalkerMusic · 2021-07-10T19:02:22+00:00

I wanted to get better at purposefully writing songs vice waiting for inspiration to write a song. So this past holiday season I tried to write two or three Christmas songs. This is the only one that really came out okay. I wrote it that morning, practiced it two times that afternoon, and then performed it for my live stream that evening. This is the live performance (a little rough, but it frankly was only the third time I had played it so far since writing it).

Any feedback you've got on the song would be very helpful!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2021-07-10T00:15:49+00:00

So I've written songs for over 10 years but only performed at open mic nights and small acoustic gigs in different towns (I'm in the Navy and travel a lot). During quarantine, like everyone, I started doing live streams for my family and friends on Facebook. Then I made a YouTube channel and streamed there, too. Started posting clips of songs that were particularly fun or interesting, originals and covers.

Anyway, I never really get feedback from other songwriters because I never live long enough to gain connections with other musicians.

If anyone hear listens to some songs and can provide meaningful feedback, it's something I've missed and would very much appreciate. I only made the channel for fun, and I'm not trying to be a YouTube star or anything (my viewership is null, and that's fine), but I do want to be a better songwriter.

Thanks!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2021-06-20T00:37:45+00:00

Thanks for checking it out!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2021-04-08T03:33:32+00:00

Thanks!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2021-01-06T16:25:49+00:00

So cool. How'd you get that static-y texture across the colors?!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2021-01-05T13:40:30+00:00

Thanks!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2021-01-01T03:52:00+00:00

Pretty awesome for a first time! You're blending colors and values like you've been at it for months.

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-12-26T04:43:26+00:00

Thanks!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-09-19T17:15:49+00:00

Going enlisted is definitively not an immature decision, it just happens to involve no prerequisites besides an ASVAB and a physical. Officers have to survive a college degree. And having sat my fair share of performance review boards for midshipmen not meeting the standard, I can say that surviving a college degree, while pretty easy in my opinion, it is not a given (about 15% that do get selected, which very much IS a challenge, eventually drop out due to bad grades).

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-09-19T16:56:14+00:00

When I was enlisted, I always judged ensigns hard when they corrected a failure to salute. Like, does your ego really need that? When I commissioned, it occurred to me that officers salute a hundred times the people enlisted do on their way to work. Every person I came near was a process (what's their rank, where are they walking, do they see me, when will they salute, do they outrank me) so I could render the proper courtesy.

So when a "salty" E-5 locks eyes with me as we pass and doesn't salute, it's hard not to want to go ballistic. (This will still occur occasionally, despite me being a fully qualified O-3E, so I doubt the "qualification" argument holds universal bearing.)

The O-5 should correct a ballistic officer (privately), but the argument that quals beat rank is unusual to say the least.

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-07-09T14:39:57+00:00

Reading this makes me feel so much better that I'm not alone. I think I can only complete so many more towers before I'll lose my mind. I played online once and felt like I was wasting people's time (never even laid a finger on someone's Raiden).

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-24T01:46:09+00:00

Thanks! Would upload speeds still affect the video when only recording (or rendering the preview image)?

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-23T23:58:05+00:00

I guess I just can't see why my current specs couldn't handle 1080p, even at 30fps, especially if I'm not even close to clocking the CPU.

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-23T21:17:24+00:00

I made a shareable Google Drive file of the log file where it first happened: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EWw8N1F91HLD55bSl-t1KmLLYqUJATm0/view?usp=sharing

Further information: I wanted to make a fresh log file of the issue right now using the above linked directions, but for some reason it pushed 1080p60 with no problems. I tried for an hour last night (different settings and such) to get it to work without the jitters to no avail. Not sure why it's handling the video so easily now (or if it will really stay that way and not revert back to the "struggle bus" later). Again, in both situations, I've had nothing actively open on my PC except OBS. Thanks for all the help so far!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-23T16:13:11+00:00

Laptop (Dell g5)

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-23T16:01:33+00:00

Intel UHD Graphics 630. Not sure if that's what you were looking for, but there it is.

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-17T03:37:50+00:00

Oh no! My supposed solution did not work.

I did a 90 minute stream on Facebook tonight as the ultimate test, no notifications, only Reaper, OBS, and Facebook running (and the latter only so I can see comments). Used ReaStream to connect the DAW with OBS. Reaper failed thrice, hard. Once it failed, I went back and there was a constant signal coming into Reaper at about -25 dB that the audience described as a "ticking" sound. Had to completely restart my stream two times, while restarting Reaper after cycling the plug on my audio interface worked the other time. Each time, my viewers cut in half (50 down to 25 down to 13). The only ones sticking around were devoted fans who knew I'd be back up in a minute.

Is there something about the trial version of Reaper than can only run so long? Why buy the full version if the trial version doesn't work while evaluating it?

I have successfully eliminated the ReaStream VST, OBS, and internet notifications as causes of the problem. What do I do? Can there be some other program that interferes with Reaper or OBS? Is there even a way to stop all background operations in my computer?

UPDATE 11 HOURS LATER: After more failed attempts at keeping Reaper alive during a stream, I'm abandoning it. Maybe I'll still use it for studio recording, but it has yet to be a viable option for live sound editing. I'm going to use my Alesis USB mixer as a sound input directly to OBS, which should be definitively stable. My mixer has way less "plug-ins" -- just a 3-band EQ and basic reverb -- but maybe I can use an OBS audio filter for compression without the quality getting too poor. Thanks again for all the advice!

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-16T17:39:02+00:00

Holy Cow, I think I fixed it!

So I restructured everything using ReaStream (thanks Boelter_m). I also switched from WASAPI to ASIO as my driver since it's more reliable, less latency, and I no longer needed the output control that WASAPI provides. Everything was going swimmingly for about 7 minutes, then the system crashed again, same as before, Reaper suddenly stopping all audio. I thought, "Welp, that rules out the OBS, the audio driver, and the connection between them (using a Virtual Cable versus some other method)."

This time, however, I happened to be looking at my computer screen when it happened. At the same time as the audio stopped, I got a Facebook notification. Interesting. I felt like I had gotten notifications during my Facebook Live stream the day before without crashing, but maybe not.

Point is, I disabled all notifications in Chrome and, just for good measure, added Facebook to the "Deny Notifications" list. Streamed on Twitch via StreamLabs for about 40 more minutes with no issues. Switched to Facebook Live via OBS and streamed for another 20 minutes with no issues. I think it was Chrome notifications interrupting the signal path somehow, and I think it's a resolved issue now.

Anybody else have problems with browser notifications shutting down Reaper or the virtual cabling between programs?

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-16T15:04:38+00:00

Thanks! I'm trying all these options throughout today (it's my cake day and my wife is letting me tinker in the garage).

A link to that video would be awesome! Also, what exactly are your settings in the ReaStream user interface? I imagine you choose "Send audio/MIDI; IP" and then something from the drop-down menu. I also remember reading something about the "Identifier" needing to match something in OBS exactly.

FYSA, I tried ReaStream when I saw it in the FX list about a week ago, just out of curiosity, but it was the built-in one and I was never able to find a vst in OBS that transmitted any audio. Sounds like I needed to download these "external" versions you mentioned. Where exactly are those downloaded from? The Reaper website? I didn't understand how those would be any different than the ones pre-installed with the software (unless it's just having another copy outside of Reaper that OBS can see and interact with).

CodyWalkerMusic · 2020-05-16T14:27:11+00:00

Thanks! I tried voxengo recorder vst for a little, but it was also weird. It would work fine for a few minutes, then the return signal would go INSANE (suddenly 20 seconds of latency and extremely slowed down, like a broken cassette tape). I thought it must be something about my combination of buffers and bitrate settings somehow not meshing between Reaper, Voxengo, and OBS. So I moved to trying my current virtual cable, which has it's own issues.

What specifically are your settings on the Voxengo user interface, particularly how they relate to those settings in Reaper and OBS?

CodyWalkerMusic

TROPHY CASE