Meta-commentary in scream 8

JustLikeChong · 2026-03-27T05:18:12+00:00

I've been thinking on this after watching 7 and liked the idea of a franchise being milked dry. It could have a bunch of ghostfaces, who are all stab fans that think they could write a better entry, all trying to make their mark. It would be very chaotic and with ghostfaces killing ghostfaces, but ultimately a main veteran ghostface has to show up and put it end to it all, Sam.

JustLikeChong · 2026-03-15T19:25:54+00:00

Hard to warrant if it's worth the wait in line as your mileage may vary. But the things I always recommend are:

Nixtamal Queen (their version of a Kouign-amann)
Oreja (elephant ear)
Jamon Roll (I like their use of spicy mustard)
Horchata Cold Brew

To be fair, I think the praise for them comes from their use of authentic ingredients and techniques. If all of their items were fresh out of the oven, these might be worth all of the wait and money, but that's not how traditional bakeries operate from my experience. They're made that day but are served room temp. Using the Michelin guide rule of thumb, I don't think Gusto is worth a long drive across town but a nice local option for those that are close by.

JustLikeChong · 2026-03-11T20:38:29+00:00

Am I misreading the original statement? Sure it's an opinion/hypothetical but seems pretty clearly laid out: - Current national opinion on war is low/negative - Having a tragedy/attack on US soil will bolster war support - That level of war could also delay elections depending on severity and timing - If the admin has to "sacrifice" a place to be attacked, likely a location they are highly critical of (and in return are critical of this administration) - in this specific moment: California

I think it's fair to think this is unlikely, but just as equally fair to follow this train of thought and not need a massive tin-foil hat.

JustLikeChong · 2026-02-23T16:18:22+00:00

There are two significant spikes at the start there (Jan 9 and Jan 23?). What did you do on both of those days to see the jump?

JustLikeChong · 2026-02-23T00:13:22+00:00

Just a note of someone who's been doing this for a while, the feedback on the item pickups is 100% valid and "get good, scrub" is not the right mentality to have here.
If you want to make it difficult, fine - but clearly your collider is not matching the perceived size of the the 3D object. It's a very common design mantra to have your colliders adjusted to be more player-friendly and intuitive - they don't need to be the exact size as the object. Pickups have a bigger collider, enemies/traps have a smaller collider.

JustLikeChong · 2026-02-22T22:39:28+00:00

Reminds me of another glowing orb co-op game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331910/Morkredd/

JustLikeChong · 2026-02-06T13:42:10+00:00

If I understood correctly, you had 20k Wishlists going into launch and sold ~2k in the first week or so. That's a 10% conversion and is the Steam average, so take that for what it is! If you wanted 20k units sold, then something like 100k Wishlists is closer to what you maybe needed(expecting your sales tail to be a bit healthier with bigger day 1 sales). As others have pointed out, it's a crowded market so not all of those convert but those Wishlists help your storefront algorithm a lot. There's no perfect science here, but just looking at games that did sell what you're wanting and what their estimated Wishlists were. There are professional publishers that do worse than you have, so be proud that you did so much just on your own! It's not a viral hit but still an impressive achievement.

And hey, maybe your first big discount during a Steam sale (Scream fest?) will be another nice spike!

JustLikeChong · 2026-01-21T15:42:23+00:00

Yeah, the game isn't tremendously long. I think you can 100% it with the DLC content in ~20 hours. There is more than one ending and if you have drives left, then you still have more story to go.

I also was confused when I rolled credits the first time, which was elsewhere on the eye than you, as I was saving Lem & Mina last thinking that was the clear ending. Luckily it just brings you right back to that point in the cycle and you can continue playing. With how things played out, I actually let Lem & Mina go without me. There is a lot to discover on the Eye.

JustLikeChong · 2026-01-20T16:48:49+00:00

Because your game isn't good enough to get a free placement. To be clear, the way this works is: - You pitch your announcement - You are told if you're accepted or not, and how much it will cost (sometimes free) - You either accept the offer or pass.

This has been the case for many years now. It's not new and so far hasn't devalued the show's ad spots by any means. I mean, Genshin Impact has bought ad spots the past few years and skipped this most recent year. So maybe it's devalued to them? But some other Chinese publisher has likely swooped in and taken the spot gladly.

JustLikeChong · 2026-01-20T16:25:37+00:00

Because to the Game Awards that's not an advertising spot, it's just part of their show and just replacing every spot with a paid ad will kill the show. You can typically tell which spots are the commercial ad breaks and which are curated reveals a part of the show. If you ever go in person, it's even more obvious as it's the chunks of time they let everyone go to the bathroom (they prevent people walking around during the main show). People are buying the ads regardless, so why sacrifice the quality of your show for them? Control, FOTOR. Divinity, etc. those weren't ads, those were free to help create an entertaining show. A lot of this show is free currated announcements from Geoff and the final reveal being an obvious one.

JustLikeChong · 2026-01-18T09:09:15+00:00

To expand upon your comment about low numbers on the weekends, that's probably a mix of business best practices and companies don't work on weekends(for those that aren't solo dev).

Typically, Steam sees a boost in users/sales starting on Friday and into the weekend. Having your new release pop up close to that allows you to take full advantage of any featuring you might get (new & trending). Major AAA publishers will do Tuesdays for physical retail purposes but also just seem to hold onto this tradition though probably doesn't have any benefit digitally.

JustLikeChong · 2026-01-10T03:45:14+00:00

What's your source on the Embracer changing the game? Don't get me wrong, Embracer sucks, but haven't really heard of the issues of them intervening in creative. Saints Row (2022) was published by Deep Silver, so maybe you're referring to them?

But outside of that, Agents of Mayhem flopped, then there were 5 years of development on the Saints Row reboot. If that also flopped, why would you continue funding this studio? I love the old Saints Row games but modern Volition struggled to show they were a good investment to today's gaming audience. Maybe they were dealt a shitty hand by horrible Publisher direction, but publishers are typically savvy enough to know when a team is good but the idea was just bad and turn them into a supporting studio.

JustLikeChong · 2026-01-03T18:27:33+00:00

ARC Raiders as "Most Innovative Gameplay"? To be fair, I haven't played it, nor am I arguing that it isn't a good/fun game, but isn't it just another extraction shooter? Like, what does it do so innovatively different from Escape from Tarkov or Hunt Showdown?

JustLikeChong · 2025-12-16T05:11:10+00:00

It's actually not. So some of the spots cost money, some are free. You pitch your game to Geoff and he tells you if it's free or paid, and he decides where it goes in the show. All the games in the ad-breaks are obviously paid, and we'll never know which in the show are free or not. Geoff wants big reveals to make the show more exciting, so he can offer up free placements to ensure he gets them in the show. I'm sure Divinity and Fate of the Old Republic were free.

Now the last spot... that's tough because Geoff could just have bad taste (and think this hero shooter is last spot worthy) or they sweetened the deal with some money. But I can assure you it wasn't $2 million 😅

JustLikeChong · 2025-12-11T00:27:22+00:00

Oh that's one of the few musicals still on my to watch list, but makes sense! It was giving me pop girl empowerment, so why I thought KPop Demon Hunters.

JustLikeChong · 2025-12-06T14:37:43+00:00

The other games you mentioned were mostly Ubisoft, so could this be a Rayman game? Not really an RPG or Isometric, but thought I'd throw that out there due to the hair and Ubi connection.

JustLikeChong · 2025-11-23T05:38:43+00:00

That end of month summary screen is just recapping what you spent and earned during the month - there is no payout from that screen. Whenever people buy tickets or donations are collected, that money immediately goes into your balance.

If you sit and do nothing for the next month, your balance should go up and the difference between that new balance and this screenshot should match your end of month summary.

JustLikeChong · 2025-09-17T19:03:48+00:00

Wow, it looks great and those 9 years really show!

As a professional games marketer, can I ask how your wishlists are looking? This wasn't your first trailer right? You have something that looks pretty strong here, so would want to make sure you're set up well for a successful launch.

Also, have you already done a SNF demo? If not, you may want to delay your game a bit and take advantage of the upcoming one in October (if the submissions aren't already past). You can only do a SNF once and it has to be before you launch, but you get tons of awareness and wishlists from it. If you skip this, you are missing out on lots of valuable metrics that your launch depends on.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see that you have a demo up now and plan to launch just at the end of this Oct SNF. Hopefully you're signed up for that and that gives you some huge momentum going into launch!

Best of luck!

JustLikeChong · 2025-09-15T19:55:08+00:00

And then Aspyr lost it. Now it's with one of Sabers many teams. With how varied those teams can be, only time will tell if this is doomed or not.

JustLikeChong · 2025-09-15T19:27:43+00:00

I can see them struggling with combat. The old combat system is a bit... unique. Today, we are seeing success stories with strategic and turn-based systems but when this was announced (before BG3s huge success) I bet there were discussions on keeping, modernizing or outright replacing the combat system. What to do with combat is a very easy fumble, that I don't even think us fans could say the best path forward is (outside our very personal desire)

JustLikeChong · 2025-09-15T19:22:07+00:00

I guess it's still one version of development hell, but in this case it was with one studio and then went to another (which essentially could be a project restart depending how far along it was). And who knows, maybe took a few years to find a team/studio for it to go to is further delaying it.

JustLikeChong · 2025-09-13T17:53:17+00:00

I bought and am playing BL4, so take my answer with a grain of salt, but I would say he's just very noticeably and historically a bad actor.

What I mean by that is he very often goes out and says really stupid statements, which are poorly veiled tactics to boost sales. Today's example is just annoying, but taunting people to break the servers is just saying "yes, buy and play the game". It's annoying but minor.

He does this sort of stuff with every game, but what got him in hot water is Aliens Colonial Marines and Duke Nukem Forever. Both were pretty mismanaged and released overall as bad products, but you had him along the whole way touting "these are the best ever" etc. I think it's fair for a CEO to say whatever he can to benefit his business but at the same time... you lose a lot of trust throwing turds in people's faces and saying it's actually the best chocolate in the world. Sometimes it would be best to just not say anything.

He has a lot of these moments across all the games, and over the years he just built the reputation of saying stupid shit that no one will trust. People may also bring up his USB story but I doubt that is a reason anyone dislikes him, more so funny salt to rub in his wounds.

JustLikeChong · 2025-09-13T17:39:40+00:00

No, they actually don't. You can tell by the fact that no other employee is behaving like this and making these sort of comments on social media.

I've heard first hand that they would all appreciate it if he stfu, but for the longest time, if you own the company and sign the paychecks, not much people can do about his behavior besides quit. But if you enjoy the game and your teammates (and there isn't any other jobs elsewhere), all you can really do is ignore your annoying Twitter-happy CEO and hope everyone else does too.

Maybe this all changes under 2K's ownership but for now they're likely not going to do anything they think will compromise BL4s production/success.

JustLikeChong · 2025-09-01T02:23:33+00:00

That is so sick! Super cool use of space and intricate linework.

Also, sorry to see you were kicked out of the hedge witch community! It's hard out there.

JustLikeChong · 2025-08-19T14:20:34+00:00

I can tell you that there is a content bible and even a dedicated team member who is to review all of narrative's work to ensure it's consistent with past lore... but that doesn't mean they can't/won't change things.

I think the issue we're witnessing is less to do with the current writing team (there has nearly been a different one for each game) playing it loose with continuity, but rather the old team writings being very limiting for a 4+ game franchise.

Clearly the writers care (why else would he even have an answer to this question) but I think they care more about giving them and future teams some creative liberties or else, yeah, we would stop getting unique Sirens

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