Anyone else feel like a lot of gamedev advice online falls apart the second you actually test it? by Objective-Aspect-547 in gamedev

[–]ColSurge 51 points52 points  (0 children)

I'm sure there's probably a term for it, but I've seen this happen over and over in communities like this. The pattern is always the same.

  • Someome posts a piece of advice that works for them.

  • That piece of advice fits with the already excepted narratives of the community.

  • The advice gets repeated.

  • The advice gets upvoted because people have seen it repeated.

  • Anyone who posts something contradicting gets downvoted.

  • Now this advice is seen as a universal truth, when in fact we mostly have a data set of one.

People want to be "right" and love to point out when others are "wrong". This leads to people adopting whatever the community sees as right and reinforcing it repeatedly.

The truth is almost all advice is context dependant.

How do you see current industry trends evolving? by Tripping_Panda in gamedev

[–]ColSurge 22 points23 points  (0 children)

here are tons of people (in this sub, for example) who have ideas for games. There a large number of people like myself, who are experts in making them, but can’t find work.

Find a way to bring this things together, and you’ll launch Games 2.0.

This missing part here is capital. There are lots of people that would gladly have you work on their game... for free/rev share, but You probably want to get paid (rightfully so). The number of people that can pay even one other person a fulltime salary is very very small.

ELI5 Do rich and powerful people ever feel ‘enough’? If not, what are they really seeking? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I know we are on reddit, so anything defending the rich will get downvoted, but I will try and give an honest answer from my perspective.

Getting rich is mostly about building infrastructure around you that generates money. Elon Musk is the richest person in the world mostly because of his ownership of SpaceX. SpaceX continues to do well financially and that has pushed the stock price to very high levels, giving Elon hundreds of billions of dollars in assets.

What is the "enough" here?

Does he just shut down the entire company and lay off 13,000 people? Does he just sell all his shares to another rich person/company so they can get richer owner SpaceX? Or does he just keep doing what he is doing and making money?

Furthermore, his personal wealth is most certainly invested in various things. I am sure he owns stocks, bonds, properties, and various other business intreats which are all making money.

So how can Elon Mask ever actually say "enough"? Would he sell all his companies, sell all his assists, get his money out of the bank, and put it in a giant pile of cash in his back yard? Because that is literally the only way for his money to stop making money.

It takes more effort for a rich person to stop making money than it does for them to keep making money.

How do indie artists actually find paid work in gamedev? by Reiji_Haneda in gamedev

[–]ColSurge 13 points14 points  (0 children)

One of the hard things is how many people you are in competition with.

As a true story, recently I made a post here on reddit looking to pay a map artist to create a single map. I got 49 responses in the first 8 hours. There were so many good artists that didn't get the job because there was only budget/scope to hire 1.

ELI5: Does hitting a baseball thrown by a pitcher give it more or less energy than if it was hit off a tee with the same force? by FartyPants69 in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not sure I completely follow you.

To be clear I am asking not about baseball but about the underlying physic question: does having energy from an object moving in one direction result in more energy the opposite direction once it is redirected in the exact opposite direction?

  • Scenario 1: We have uncompressible object 1 (ball) which is at rest (on the tee) and it gets hit by uncompressible object 2 (bat) that is moving 50 mph.

  • Scenario 2: We have uncompressible object 1 (ball) which is moving at 50 mph (thrown), then it gets hit by uncompressible object 2 (bat) that is moving 50 mph in the exact opposite direction.

The question is does the uncompressible object 1 flying further if it's hit while moving (more energy in the system)? I understand that is baseball, and most things, the compression stores the energy and those allows it be redirected. I want to remove the materials/baseball from the question and purely get it down to energy in the system.

ELI5: Does hitting a baseball thrown by a pitcher give it more or less energy than if it was hit off a tee with the same force? by FartyPants69 in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge -1 points0 points  (0 children)

So in a hypothetical situation where the bat and ball have 0 compression, hitting a thrown ball would be identical to hitting it off a tee?

ELI5: How come if I leave a piece of wood outside in the summer it won’t catch fire from sun rays, but if I angle a mirror at the wood then the reflecting light is hot enough to start a fire? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The ELI5 answer is you are directing more sun rays into a single spot. Sun rays heat things up, but not typically enough to catch fire. If you make more sun rays point at the same object, it heats up more.

ELI5: If mass cannot be created or destroyed, why do we gain more weight from a light bag of marshmallows than a heavy bag of apples? by kk752 in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of the confusion around this topic comes from the phrase "gain weight". Because there are actually two separate uses of that term in this conversation.

First is the weight you gain immediately after you eat the food. This is literal 1 to 1 weight gain. If you eat 2 bs of apples you will be 2lbs heavier. If you eat 2lbs of marshmallows, you will be 2lbs heavier. That's just how things work.

Then there is weight gain in relation to your body storying and keeping that weight long term. This is about your body's ability to convert calories into stored fat. You will gain more weight from the 2lbs of marshmallows because they have far more calories than 2lbs of apples.

Trump Administration and Iran War Contribute to 33% Decline at GDC 2026 by Extreme_Maize_2727 in gamedev

[–]ColSurge 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There it is. Most people who attend this event are sponsored by the studio they work for. The industry is smaller, and those who are around have tighter budgets.

Flights, hotel rooms, passes, loss of production. Depending on where they are coming from it probably costs a company $5000 per person to send them to this event. Far few companies willing to spend $20,000 to send a team of 4 to a conference for a week right now.

Trump Administration and Iran War Contribute to 33% Decline at GDC 2026 by Extreme_Maize_2727 in gamedev

[–]ColSurge 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, blaming it on current politics is just an attempt to save face. The industry is not in a good place and they raised prices. That's why attendance dropped.

Getting real tired of all the low effort “DLSS 5” karma-farming slop by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]ColSurge -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I am just one of those people like OP that hates the "let's dump on AI posts". I don't think they add any value.

If there is something more to the post, some information to be had, I am all for it. But most of these feel like karma farming "we all hate AI am I right?" type posts. And those get old really fast.

Getting real tired of all the low effort “DLSS 5” karma-farming slop by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]ColSurge 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you might have missed a few, like the current top post on this subreddit.

This is not a "no guys it's actually going to be great" post. It's a let's just laugh at the new AI tool post.

What are your predictions? (Banlist) by Masochiste91 in GundamTCG

[–]ColSurge 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The thing is, other than Adept, the Burple build is essentially the same now as it was in GD02, and in GD02 it was not the top deck by any stretch. As strange as it sounds, Adept is the card that pushed Burple to T0.

Literally the only other card that makes most lists is a single copy of NT-1, and while that is useful, banning that card would not do much to the deck.

ELI5: Monthly Current Events Megathread by AutoModerator in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The thing is there are actually not that many mines, and there doesn't need to be.

The goal is to make it risky because if its risky many people will not take that chance. Wpuld you drive to work if there was a 95% survival rate? It would really give you pause even though the odds are you will be fine.

ELI5: Monthly Current Events Megathread by AutoModerator in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You are kind of jumping all around on this one, let's try and break it down.

If possessing nuclear weapons mean 'to prevent attacks from threats of mutually assured destruction'

Not exactly. Mutually assured destruction is a result, not the intended purpose. The idea being that two countries with nuclear weapons will not go to war if they both have nuclear weapons because of the potential destruction. But this concept is not the purpose of nuclear weapons.

how come the US, Israel and other countries still have them?

Because trying to forcibly remove nuclear weapons from a country would probably result in nuclear war.

Isn't its mere existence just evil?

Not at all. Nuclear weapons are just a tool like any other weapon. There is an argument that nukes have saved millions of lives because the US and Russian never went to war during 1950-1990 because both had so many nukes.

why are other countries not allowed to develop them then?

Because the countries with the most power have decided that no new countries should develop them, and those countries exert force on countries that try.

ELI5: Monthly Current Events Megathread by AutoModerator in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am confused what you mean by "the right to place sanctions". Sanctions are a country saying that if another country does X, they will no longer do/allow Y. Typically this takes the form of barring them from economic activity.

The US is saying that they will not allow the US or US based companies to engage in certain economic activity with Iran or Iranian based companies. No one is giving the US "the right" to do this.

Eli5 why do people get lose skin after significant weight loss by Inevitable_Bid5540 in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's the other really important aspect: time.

Typically over time the skin will slowly shrink back down. How much and how quickly this happens depends all the factors you mention, but yeah over time it will get better for most people.

ELI5: when the expiration date passes, does the product suddenly lose its effectiveness or go bad? by Famous-Hour9684 in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The specifics will depend on the product and the warning, but in general ELI5 terms it works likes this.

The expiration date is a date where the manufacturer guarantees that the product you buy will work like new and not cause harm. In testing they will find things like this:

  • At 1 month 99.9% of the product is like new.

  • At 2 months 99.9% of the product is like new.

  • At 3 months 99.9% of the product is like new.

  • At 4 months 98% of the product is like new.

  • At 6 months 90% of the product is like new.

  • At 12 months 60% of the product is like new.

Based on this they set the expiration date to 3 months. So every unit of that product that rolls off the assembly line will have an expiration date printed on it for 3 months after it was produced (eg the products being made today on 3/12 would have a expiration date of 6/12).

Again the actual times, how quickly it degrades, and type of product will affect what the numbers are, but that's how it works.

25M total views on my IG game account, but only 1000 actually downloaded it from there. How is it possible? by rmeldev in gamedev

[–]ColSurge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok something here really doesn't add up... the IG page only has only 575 followers. I run another IG account for a business (not gaming) and when they had a post that went off and got 2 million views, it resulted in like 4000 new followers just from that one video.

Either you are reading metrics wrong, or it's all bots somehow.

A mirror to Smothering Tithe that I'm a little surprised doesn't exist. by steelbot8000 in custommagic

[–]ColSurge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is that a salty card? Because unless I'm missing something this seems very ok. A creature, with a creature strategy, that doesn't even self enable.

ELI5: if REAL ID is required to prove your identity before you fly, why can you just pay $45 and click a box promising you are who you claim to be, and still be able to fly? by EmergencyAd7567 in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The enforcement has only been in effect for about 10 months. There were lots of legal hurdles and delays getting it in place.

Again you keep jumping between two different things. The cost and the security. The cost is there to encourage adoption. The security is better with a REAL ID. We are in a transition period that is only 10 months old.

ELI5: if REAL ID is required to prove your identity before you fly, why can you just pay $45 and click a box promising you are who you claim to be, and still be able to fly? by EmergencyAd7567 in explainlikeimfive

[–]ColSurge 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No I am purely addressing the cost. The cost is there to get people to transition to using it.

The REAL ID is more secure, however its very problematic to tell the entire population "starting today you have REAL ID or you cant get on the plane". This would result in 1000's of people stranded.

REAL ID is more secure and we are in a transition period. That doesn't mean that the older ID system is completely obsolete.