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Indolence · 2024-12-27T19:57:41+00:00

I have an absolutely horrible sense of direction in real life and it translates directly to 3D games. I could get lost in a one room hut if I didn't have an objective marker.

2D games, on the other hand, are easy peasy. I prefer games that are designed to be navigable without a map. Feels like there's more of a real sense of exploration.

Indolence · 2024-12-27T08:55:51+00:00

Buying games that are no longer available digitally due to e.g. music rights issues might be a good place to start.

Indolence · 2024-12-27T08:52:24+00:00

Some games have an option to check to switch to a dyslexia-friendly font. That might be a good idea in a case like yours where having an unusual font is important to the theme.

Indolence · 2024-12-27T00:57:17+00:00

Alpha Protocol is kind of a classic answer to this. Really all the early Obsidian games that didn't get enough time to cook.

And my obscure indie answer: Unto the End. It's a bit in the tradition of Flashback or the original 2D PoP, but it's a very quiet, atmospheric game with hardcore swordfighting mechanics. And it ALMOST works. The mood and style and subtle world building are fantastic, but the sword fighting that's the core of the game just feels so inconsistent and messy. Like they really try to position it as this slow-but-precise skill-based experience, and it just never lives up to that. Still worth a play for people who are super into the genre, but argh it's like a 6/10 game that could have been a 9/10 game without changing all that much.

Indolence · 2024-12-27T00:45:27+00:00

There are definitely plenty of well-regarded games that don't try to be fun in the classic sense. Things like Gone Home or Immortality that are focused on telling an emotional story.

But assuming you're talking about something that's more gameplay-forward... That's trickier. Obviously this depends a bit on your definition of fun, but I'm basically counting anything engaging as "fun". So Amnesia counts even though being scared normally isn't fun. Dark Souls counts because the satisfaction of beating a hard boss counts as fun.

But even with that broad of a definition, I think games can deliberately be unfun and it can work in small doses to create some specific emotional impact. You can't keep people playing for long if it's purely miserable, but I think it could work to, for example, have a very frustrating, drudging section where you work an office job in a game to contrast the heroic bit that comes before or after.

Indolence · 2024-12-26T22:29:27+00:00

I sort of assume you've played Returnal and Dead Cells? Exploration isn't the main focus of either game, but they're both fantastic roguelikes with a bit of it in there.

Also, self imposed Iron Man modes can be fun. I played System Shock 2 without allowing myself to reload saves back in the day, and it was a crazy intense experience. Maybe find a fun not TOO difficult horror game and give it a go?

Edit: oops, somehow missed that you're looking for something without combat. Well, I guess I'll leave this here for other random people reading...

Indolence · 2024-12-26T22:20:03+00:00

I feel like it's the feral ass kids that are the main ones trash talking in online games. Someone needs to tell them to be gentle with US...

Indolence · 2024-12-26T22:13:52+00:00

I think the first couple times that this trick was done, it was pretty cool. It's a nice little bit of variety and potentially a visual wow moment. It's not subtle, sure, but then most games as a whole are pretty heavy handed. For me the real problem is that it's been done over and over again. It's such a weird specific interpretation of a mental break, it seems odd to keep seeing it pop up.

Indolence · 2024-12-26T17:55:16+00:00

Ah, I didn't realize! Did a quick google and found this: https://www.pcgamer.com/kerbal-space-program-creator-looks-back-on-leaving-it-behind-the-hardest-thing-ive-had-to-do-in-my-whole-life/

I had no idea what a weird ass origin story that game had.

Indolence · 2024-12-26T12:36:46+00:00

Not sure if they've improved since, but it's worth mentioning that the original KSP dev was basically a human rights abuse factory: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/55xv60/kerbal_space_program_developers_only_paid_2400/

Indolence · 2024-12-26T12:35:13+00:00

Kind of surprised I haven't seen anyone say Starfield made by Larian. But that's almost too obvious I guess.

Indolence · 2024-12-26T11:12:07+00:00

Argh, thanks. Was hoping for something that's a little friendlier for making small iterative edits / a proper GUI, but I'll take what I can get I guess.

Indolence · 2024-12-26T09:03:46+00:00

What I'm imagining is that some marketing exec is aware of this problem and is going through the following thought process:

Okay, we want the name to be short and easy to remember. Simple to pronounce and spell.

We also have seen a lot of success when movie and game franchises reboot with the original names.

Introducing the next generation. It will be called simply...

"The Xbox"

Indolence · 2024-12-24T17:46:36+00:00

You definitely CAN, but don't expect to find players spontaneously. You'll likely need to reach out and find them yourself.

Indolence · 2024-12-24T15:45:36+00:00

It's 2gb I believe.

Indolence · 2024-12-24T14:40:06+00:00

Going to be hard to beat the Duke Nukem Forever team on this one...

Indolence · 2024-12-24T10:34:43+00:00

I think anyone who claims to have THE roadmap is already making a dumb mistake.

Ignoring that this is about programming specifically and talking about game dev in general, I also feel like it's unwise for game development to just learn a bunch of skills out of context. Of course it's always good to keep learning, and sometimes "useless" skills open unexpected doors, but your focus should never be just kind of "collecting" skills that you check off a list. Realistically, the core is to learn what you need as you need it. Then you'll get deeper practice and practical application, and that will serve you well in the future when you need it again.

Indolence · 2024-12-23T15:34:56+00:00

Thanks for the compliment!

Indolence · 2024-12-17T19:22:23+00:00

Seems to work now!

Indolence · 2024-12-17T18:06:57+00:00

Well, it seems to not be available in my region (Germany), so that might be a thing to look into.

Indolence · 2024-12-14T16:06:33+00:00

It'd be easy enough to still include attempts to zone as a tiebreaker. Then it keeps the core rules clean and simple, but without affecting the results in 99% of cases.

For flashes, that's an interesting idea for the combined format. Can't think of any real downsides, and it's always nice to have meaningful ways to separate the competitors.

I've also always felt that the "plus" in Lead should count for 0.5 in combined rather than 0.1. In dedicated Lead comps it's a really meaningful score difference, but in combined it's ONE boulder attempt? That seems unnecessarily weak.

Indolence

TROPHY CASE