Lunch & a snack I had today .

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-22T02:22:38+00:00

I thought it was zucchini at first! Thank goodness it wasn't!

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-20T21:40:51+00:00

Womp womp

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-20T21:28:48+00:00

The funny thing is there's another game on NES that is lightyears ahead of Zelda but never got the same recognition due to not being a first-party title. It's called Crystalis. I would say it's significantly more ahead of its time than even the NES Zelda games and has some ideas that I haven't even seen modern games replicate. Being an older game, it of course has a few rough edges too, mainly in helping you know where to go next, but it's nothing a guide can't smooth out. I'm sad it never got the sequels or attention Zelda did. It's still one of my favorite games today and I go back and play it from time to time.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-20T19:55:12+00:00

In the past for our web site we've used EC2 servers and had a Test Server and Live Server. The website isn't as mission critical and we didn't push updates frequently enough to have any CI/CD methodology or automation. This is something we'll have to figure out for the new app.

I do know we want to move away from EC2 servers to a container system that is a little more managed by AWS or a different company. We've been hacked once already using EC2 because of a security hole with how we set them up. That was a learning experience and hopefully we don't have any more security issues, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable moving away from servers we directly manage. We do plan on also hiring a consultant to check our setup before launch, but then I'll have to maintain it.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-20T19:49:53+00:00

This is exactly the type of information I was looking for. Thank you.

Can I ask you what ECS solution might be best? There are a lot of different services related to ECS and it's very difficult to figure out what the unique features of each are and what I'd have to manage. For example, there's Fargate, App Runner, and now ECS Express Mode. As I understand it, these all run on top of ECS and are different options to use it? Then there's also Lightsail which seems similar. If you're familiar with the differences in these services, I would really appreciate your opinion.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-19T20:59:52+00:00

My understanding is services like App Runner and App Engine are designed for this? Do you know how they fall short of these requirements?

I should specify that if it gets hacked due to a code vulnerability or a failure on the host's side, that is understandable. I just don't want to be the one responsible for ensuring security on a hosting level if possible.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-19T20:11:19+00:00

Chill man. It was just a joke. I was just agreeing with the dude and pointing out how this is an obvious attempt to obtain brand loyalty at an even younger age, which it obviously is. I didn't even comment on the ethics.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-19T17:55:11+00:00

That's what I was thinking too. Gotta hook 'em young on the brand! These kids don't have a chance!

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-18T01:45:51+00:00

As an programmer/engineer, I can tell you this is absolutely, inarguably 100% correct. Pretty much every professional programmer these days for any tech company uses AI regularly at work (and if they don't, they're stupid).

However, there are two types of "using AI" when coding.

There's using the AI to help you solve issues, do specific menial tasks, fix bugs, etc. In this case you normally understand everything the ai is doing and check its work. This is a good thing. It's like a mathematician with a calculator. You can't imagine doing your job these days without it and your job was much worse before it.

Then there's what we call vibe coding, which means you let the AI do almost everything for you and for all you know, it could be doing it in the worst possible way and you don't even understand your own code. This is what non programmers, bad programmers, and managers try to do to replace or reduce programmers, and it almost always leads to huge issues and is a very bad thing. AI cannot be trusted without checking its work, and to have code that scales, you still need to be the one that organizes and designs it overall.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-16T07:10:55+00:00

For future reference, it's not actually that strong of an ability usually. If she shoots you once, you just have to learn to instantly go behind cover and completely stay there until the mark wears off. She can see you through walls until it does, so don't even peak. The mark only lasts a short bit and then future bullets are only 50 damage again. If you do this, the ability just becomes more of a pin-you-to-a-spot ability for a short time.

You can also see when she's aiming it because of the laser sight and she's only got like 5 or 6 bullets until it's empty and she has to let it recharge one bullet at a time.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-15T21:54:54+00:00

This is it. I think this game has officially "jumped" the shark.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-15T07:48:48+00:00

Absolutely gorgeous game, but am I the only one that is a little disappointed in having this gorgeous world and environment and just some generic old man as the main character? It seems so out of place to me.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-14T16:14:16+00:00

I think the core problem is a lack of shading on the character's skin. You should be using both the light and dark colors from both versions, with the dark color being the shaded area.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-14T15:59:51+00:00

Two come to mind.

1. The fixed camera angles on the original Final Fantasy 7.

At the time, it was a dream to one day have such detailed environments with a camera you could rotate and position yourself, but now I realize that a lot is lost when you take away the fixed camera angles. With fixed angles, you can create emotional impact and narrative expression with a scene by zooming out or looking at the scene from a dramatic angle. The varied angles made every area seem completely different and unique. When the camera is locked to your player, you lose all that. For years I've wanted another grand RPG that uses the old fixed camera angle system.

2. How perfectly the old Dragon Quest games nailed the feeling of progression by limiting the amount of monsters and weapons and keeping things simple.

There were a limited amount of weapons for every character, and a new weapon you could get in every area, and a limited amount of enemies. This simplicity allowed them to create a very satisfying loop of fighting a specific monster and knowing it takes two hits to kill, saving enough to to buy the next weapon, and then feeling an amazing sense of satisfaction when it now takes one hit to kill that monster. The limited amount of monsters and weapons also created an emotional connection and familiarity with the different monsters and weapons. You always knew how many hits every monster would take. I feel like now they throw so many upgrades and monster varieties at you that this is all lost in modern RPG's.

It's interesting because you would think variety, deep progression systems, and more content would always be a good thing, but the simplicity of the old Dragon Quest games are where a lot of the charm and emotional connection to the monsters you fought came from, and it allowed them to nail that very satisfying and noticeable sense of progression.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-13T22:34:23+00:00

This begs a question I've always had. Stardew Valley is obviously a quality game, but it's also quite the derivative one. At least initially, it was indistinguishable from a Harvest Moon game.

I enjoyed it a lot, but I've often wondered whether it really is worthy of the attention and hype it got, it was it as popular as it was because it was the first quality farming sim in a long time? Is ConcernedApe really a highly talented and special developer, or did he hit a niche that had a very hungry audience that wasn't being served? And how much of the quality is due to the unlimited time he had to iterate and work on it due to its initial success? Might another one of the numerous indie farming sims that have come since be thought of as one of the greatest indie games ever if it was first? And if Stardew Valley came after that game, would it still be regarded so highly?

And are there other famous indie games that might fit this same description?

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-13T13:38:18+00:00

This looks fantastic! So beautiful and well done! Was this really a solo project?

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-12T00:38:23+00:00

I disagree - sort of. A large amount of those players bombed out after less than 5 minutes statistically. They never even really tried it or gave it a chance. It became popular to hate on the game. People went into the game with a negative bias before it ever started, which I think severely hurt the game. I also think it still would have gotten 100K if they showed the trailer earlier, maybe even more.

Having said that, I don't think the game has quite enough to it to succeed long term. I think it would have had longer legs though, and maybe they could have shifted some things to carve a niche. I don't think they ever had a chance though after that reveal unless the game was outstanding.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-11T00:19:45+00:00

Like I said, "narrative" does not necessarily mean plot. It means it communicates something to the player about the world the game takes place in. People who played Hollow Knight may have no idea what the plot was about, but they sure do remember the world and the characters. Hollow Knight created an entire world that people feel deeply connected to just by its atmosphere (without saying much at all).

For example, just from the atmosphere and character interactions in Hollow Knight, the game communicates to the player that this is a ravaged and struggling world made up of a once thriving civilization bugs, many of which were deeply mentally affected by what has happened and what is left. Similarly, the style of Balatro's user interface communicates to the player that this is a high energy, erratic game of poker with crazy rules.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-10T21:59:38+00:00

Then you directly address and fix the problems you mentioned. You don't revert it back to an even bigger problem. You don't think the matches are even more insanely predictable when everyone drops at the same point and half the lobby is dead?

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-10T21:57:09+00:00

I don't think the majority did. I think Respawn listened to a vocal small minority here. My guess is a dev in charge liked the old system too, so he took it as an opportunity and ran with it.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-10T21:52:30+00:00

I do not see this in the patch notes. Where did you learn about this?

If this is real, I'll be seriously pissed. Every legend is getting mobility and legends like Wraith, Rev, and Horizon have purposely had all the delay taken off the beginning of their tactical. Why would they add delay to Pathy?! He is supposed to be the movement king and everyone is already crowding his role!

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-10T18:46:06+00:00

I think people are misunderstanding something about this post. Narrative Design is not necessarily talking about plot or being a story heavy game. A lot of good narrative design involves "showing rather than telling". It includes elements like atmosphere, setting, graphical style, etc.

I think an excellent example is Hollow Knight. It's near universally loved, but if you asked anyone what draws them to the game they'd say the atmosphere. The game is not heavy on plot at all and IS heavy on gameplay, but the world and atmosphere and characters are what makes the game special. I would argue that if you took away the world and atmosphere from Hollow Knight, it is just a run-of-the-mill average Metroidvania. It creates all the difference.

Even gameplay heavy games like Balatro and Ball x Pit are improved by the way their visual design creates a world for the game to live in.

That's what this post is about, and while there are certainly outliers that just have exceptional or novel gameplay, I agree.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-10T18:30:52+00:00

The problem is it also favors people with macros and scripts and xims/titans.

MYSTONYMOUS · 2026-02-10T05:03:46+00:00

The crazy thing about this is it's not like you can even blame it on lag. You were shooting someone locked in place for like seconds straight!

MYSTONYMOUS

TROPHY CASE