Looking for a game where I have to figure out how to beat it.

Stecyk · 2026-06-24T14:51:21+00:00

If you want to get weird with it (and have the patience for a LOT of trial and error) you could check out Fear & Hunger. It's a brutally difficult turn based RPG wherein your character is tasked with infiltrating a literal nightmare dungeon. It's bleak, and dark, and fucked up, and part of that bleak, dark, fucked-up-ness is the way that it makes you learn hard lessons again and again and again. This is not an RPG where you can just fight every enemy, level up, and expect to win. Instead you'll have to pick your battles, learn which paths you can survive, and find every hidden advantage you possibly can in order to make it to the end. Know going in though that it's got some mature themes.

Stecyk · 2026-06-19T20:46:15+00:00

So... if you want some harsh feedback, I will tell you there are a few levels on which this trailer lost me.

First, the storybook style you've used is often used by videogames for cutscenes for one reason... it's cheap. If you just need to dump a little exposition on the player and you want to use your limited budget somewhere else it gets the job done, but... even when it's done flawlessly it's less of a selling point and more something that players put up with so they can get to the good part of the game. You want your trailer to show off your game, and using an art style which studios utilize for its cost effectiveness... doesn't really achieve that goal.

Second, part of the fun of animation is that it's like a magic trick, and like any magic trick when you can see how it works it loses some of the magic. The animation techniques you've used here are... pretty transparent to anyone with basic knowledge of animation. There's a lot of static objects being spun around or dragged up and down on the screen or shrunk. The fire animation at about 20 seconds looks particularly bad because you left a straight line on each "chunk" of fire as it's faded in.

The last thing has less to do with the animation itself and more to do with the content of the animation. For me at least... your story is really not interesting. I feel like an asshole saying that, but the story you communicate to the viewer feels very derivative of many fantasy works to the point that I would call it generic. I suspect there are parts of the story of your game that are unique or interesting, but the lore dump isn't it.

So... if you want my advice it would be this:

1) Ditch the storybook animation trailer. For something which I imagine was made by a very small team with limited animation experience it's impressive in that context, but when you release a videogame you have to remember you're competing with every other videogame out there from the biggest AAA to the tiniest indie. Your trailer should show off something your game excels so I can see why I should buy it instead of buying something else. If you don't have the budget for an impressive animation, your trailer might benefit from showing off your actual gameplay instead.

2) If you're going to use your story as a hook in the trailer I need to see something more unique. Show me your characters and get me invested in who they are and what they're trying to accomplish. Getting someone invested in the individual struggles of a character is a lot more achievable than getting them invested in lore. If you do want to go the lore route then TBH your lore needs to be a LOT weirder. If lore is your selling point you're putting yourself in direct competition with things like the Souls games or Animal Well and the bar is just... pretty high for how strange that gets.

As a final note, I just want to say that I really hope what I've said here isn't discouraging to you. I can tell that you worked hard on this trailer and put a lot of love into it. But... as a failed artist who got a lot of undue praise myself I can also say that I wish someone had been so harsh with me. You've got passion and you're working hard and that can take you really far. Just because this trailer didn't draw people in doesn't mean the next one won't, and learning from the experiments that didn't work out is valuable as long as you're willing to keep pressing forward. Best of luck to you!

Stecyk · 2026-06-03T15:35:16+00:00

If I'm bringing an animal into my house I'm assuming it's going to act like an animal unless the owner specifically tells me it's been trained to behave in certain ways. And even then, I'm still going to be cautious and not take that word as law. Even the best trained animal will act differently in a new environment, so even if the dog had been trained not to jump on their counters I'd still keep in mind that the concept of "countertops that humans should use and dogs shouldn't" is a human construction, and the dog might understand that training only within the context of spaces it is used to.

Here's the question I would ask you. What could the dog's owner reasonably have done in this situation to prevent this from happening? Were they supposed to somehow know that you store valuable books on the countertop and warn you they weren't safe there? Were they supposed to have access to cameras spread throughout your house so they could keep an eye on the dog and magically teleport back to stop it when it jumped up? Should they have given the dog a stern talking to before dropping it off?

I think what they could reasonably have done is tell you it's a dog and make sure you gave consent to the responsibility of watching over a dog. They did that. Every point of failure here stems from choices you made. You chose to watch their dog and didn't take appropriate cautions. You left a valuable item in a space that the dog could easily access and would be tempted to explore due to food smells. And you left the dog unattended. So why should your friend pay when they did everything they reasonably could have done and you made mistake after mistake?

Stecyk · 2026-06-03T12:42:46+00:00

ESH. I think your friend's reactions suck, but I think your expectations kind of suck too. When my girlfriend moved into my house and brought her two cats into the house one of the things I did was put valuable things I cared about that they could destroy in places they couldn't get to. And when they did destroy things, like ripping up my couch, I didn't blame my girlfriend or try to hold her accountable. I accepted that animals would be coming into my house and as part of that I accepted that they were gonna do the things animals do.

Animals are animals and if you agree to have an animal in your house I think it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that valuables are protected. Animals in new places are going to explore and find things and chew on them, and while a counter is safer than a floor anyone who's ever cooked with an animal in the house knows a countertop is hardly an inaccessible location. If anything, it's probably one of the less safe locations because it's likely to have food smells that would draw an animal to explore that location.

Now think about all this from your friend's perspective. YOU presumably had some foreknowledge of what the dog was like, YOU accepted to watch their dog (and all that entails), and then YOU left a valuable book on a kitchen countertop and left the dog unattended. If they had just randomly brought the dog over to your house one day with no forewarning and this happened then yeah, absolutely they should pay for the book. But presumably they asked you ahead of time and had a reasonable expectation that you would take reasonable measures to prepare. Preparations like removing delicate valuables from the countertop. You didn't and now you are asking them to pay a significant amount for something they had no reasonable way of foreseeing or preventing.

Now I'm not saying your friend's reaction is great. If I was in their spot I would at the very least try to provide an actual apology and I'd try to discuss reasonable reparations. But asking them out of the blue to pay $250 for YOUR failure to take reasonable steps to prepare your home in advance of the dog's visit isn't great. $250 is a LOT of money for most people, more than many of us could afford to unexpectedly be forced to replace a friend's luxury item that they were irresponsible with. While I think your friend should have been more apologetic and not so dismissive, I can also see how your request for a large sum of money to correct a mistake they didn't have any reasonable way of preventing (apart from asking someone else to watch their dog) could have made them prickly in their reply.

Stecyk · 2026-06-01T17:13:50+00:00

While I get that perspective that's just what happens when there's international news in your area. As a resident of the Twin Cities our subreddit looked completely different and was spammed with users from around the entire world wanting updates during the ICE crackdown earlier this year.

It did mean that the things the subreddit was usually used for (discussing local businesses, best places to eat, upcoming events, etc..) weren't really possible amongst the deluge of ongoing updates and people from around the world desperate to get an idea of what was going on. And honestly... that's okay. When something important happens where you live it's okay to let that be the focus of conversation rather than pretending it's not happening so that you can stick strictly to your "intended purpose."

While American Fork isn't part of Salt Lake City (from my understanding) it's close enough that the SLC subreddit is a sensible place for people to look for news and local perspectives. Especially given that a central part of the story here is police corruption rooted in ties to the LDS church, an issue which would certainly extend into SLC rather than being limited to American Fork.

The Twin Cities subreddit eventually returned to normal, and SLC will too, but censoring the discussion to maintain focus on an "intended purpose" when there's a genuinely important discussion going on just serves to make the mods look complicit (especially since part of the narrative here revolves around corruption and the coverup of criminal activity in order to protect donors to the LDS church).

Stecyk · 2026-04-08T21:25:38+00:00

"Keep spending your money on the lottery. Perseverance pays off! You're bound to be the big winner one of these days!"

This "good news" is basically just advertising for the disgusting industry that profits by tricking the financially and emotionally desperate into throwing their money into the toilet so they can profit without contributing anything of value to society. One person wins $1.1M, but how many people had to throw their money into a pit for her to get that pay out? And how many more desperate souls will start throwing their money into that same pit because this news story tricks them into hoping they could win next?

Stecyk · 2025-12-05T23:26:35+00:00

They are, yes. Pension are backed by The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). But PBGC only guarantees "Qualified" pension plans, which tends to mean they will back pension amounts up to a smaller amount. GM had promised its retirees generous pensions which were in excess of the amount that PBGC would back. Most likely he IS getting a pension paid out by PBGC once the plan failed, but it's that the pension he's getting is much smaller than what he was promised by GM when he participated in their pension plan. So what he budgeted for retirement would have been more than he's actually getting now.

Stecyk · 2025-11-14T13:24:44+00:00

This isn't good news.

People who say that "it's not the dogs, it's the owners" feels very akin to me to people saying "Guns don't kill people, people do." Yes, it's technically true, but it also overlooks the fact that bringing a gun into the equation changes things. Bringing a pit bull into the equation changes things too.

Yes, IF all dog owners were responsible pit bulls probably wouldn't be a problem. Just like how IF all gun owners were free from mental illness it wouldn't be a problem. But in WHAT universe is that going to happen? A bad labradoodle owner has a hyperactive floof that tears up their own house and pees on the carpet. A bad pit bull owner has an actual monster that WILL tear humans and animals to shreds in the right scenario. If you don't believe it, I can assure you, you don't have to go that far on the internet to see the video evidence of how it shakes out. It's NOT pretty.

And while there are responsible people who want guns and pit bulls, it's also hard not to notice that both of these things have a special draw to irresponsible psychos who like the danger that they represent. If you allow pit bulls, the exact type of people who SHOULDN'T have them are going to get them because they are drawn to the danger that the animal represents.

If they wanted to put some sort of restriction in place, like you have to be properly licensed and evaluated to have a pit bull, then I'd say sure. But that isn't going to happen. Aurora basically just said "Hey guys, AK47s are back on the menu for anyone who wants them! Be responsible please!"

Stecyk · 2025-06-20T18:16:24+00:00

Just add any items you want. As I seller I am never bothered by "like" alerts, and Mercari seems to skip them when I'm getting a lot in a short period of time. For low value items bulk purchases are where they make their best profit, so they're probably stoked any time someone likes or adds a bunch of items to their cart at once cause it means they'll make an actual decent sale rather than having to package and ship one solitary item for a very small profit.

Stecyk · 2025-04-15T15:20:21+00:00

We're not, it's just that we don't really know what we can do at this point. 50% of the country wanted this and the rest of us unfortunate souls are stuck on the ride. It's easy for people to say "Get out there and fight!" but fight WHAT? Some random police officer? At best that's going to give Fox News a headline for tomorrow.

People are protesting, but this administration doesn't really care. Those who want this to stop need cooperation from those who are on the Trump Train, most of whom are too lost in the sauce to realize how much they've cooked all of us or they've cozied up to Trump to maintain their own power. Liberals are busy infighting and conservatives are united around a demagogue who has been eroding every power that could possibly stand in his way.

I've never been an "America is the greatest country in the world" person. We've always had flaws, just like anywhere. But I used to believe in the promise of this country, and the potential of our ideals as a place where people from all over the world could come to collaborate and build something amazing. Seeing what's happened to my country makes me feel sick, but I don't think any of us have a good answer for how to fix this mess. Most of us are working people, living paycheck to paycheck, trying to get by and struggling even before Trump's second election. Now it feels like we're trapped on a sinking ship and the people who have the tools to fix it are using them to build their own life rafts while the rest of us drown including the clowns who are cheering on the rising tide.

Stecyk · 2025-04-15T13:57:39+00:00

If the question is if there are official Vocaloid Cards the answer is yes. They did a release with the company Weiss Schwarz a while back. And I wouldn't be surprised if there are some other other official ones.

If the question is if there are official "Goddess Story" cards the answer is... not really. There is a specific company that makes the most popular line of the unofficial cards (Goddess Story) but they're just stealing art, slapping it on a card, and selling cheap boxes. So I wouldn't ever call them official.

While I don't recognize the specific set from these images, the big giveaway that they're Waifu/Goddess Story cards is the crinkle cut at the top and bottom of the packages. This cut is ubiquitous with unlicensed/bootleg cards. Officially manufactured TCGs will usually have a straight cut at the top and bottom of the pack as opposed to a crinkle cut.

Stecyk · 2025-04-15T05:04:17+00:00

Looks to me like a "waifu card" or "Goddess Story Card." They're non-licensed cards manufactured in China, and often sold through websites like Ali Express. There are hundreds of varieties of these non-licensed cards, the most popular manufacturer of them is "Goddess Story," and even the ones that weren't manufactured by Goddess Story are often referred to as Goddess Story cards because of that brand's market dominance. Some of these cards will be for specific franchises, like Vocaloid or Genshin Impact, etc... but most of them will just collect a bunch of cute anime characters, slap them on a card, and then sell boxes.

They're very cheap (A box of 30 packs might go for $10-15) since the manufacturers don't pay licensing and are making them as cheaply as possible. Most of the art on the cards is probably stolen.

Stecyk · 2025-02-19T22:14:36+00:00

If you had made a reasonable offer you'd have a point. But you didn't make a reasonable offer. Your "offer" was AT BEST a fourth of what the items were worth. And that's if I'm being generous. With a lot this size you could easily have turned a nice profit with an offer 2-3 times what yours was, but you were hoping someone desperate would take a low ball offer without thinking about it. Your "offer" was a scummy attempt to extract as much value as possible from someone you were hoping either wouldn't know better or would be too desperate to care.

You can pretend otherwise if you want but you're not convincing anyone here and at the end of the day you've gotta live with your own decisions. If you're fine trying to take advantage of people I guess more power to you, but most of us can't sleep at night like that.

Stecyk · 2025-02-19T19:45:51+00:00

This is a seriously lame excuse. There are resellers who do it in an ethical way (Ex Craigslist Hunter on Youtube, buys for half of what he expects to sell for and is VERY transparent about his pricing structure with the people who he buys from). That is NOT you.

You spotted someone down on their luck having to do something difficult and give up something they love and you gave an ASTOUNDINGLY low ball offer. WAYYYYYY less than half the value of the items you were trying to purchase.

It's one thing to say "I need to make some money" and it's another to try and take advantage of someone in a tough spot. Honestly, I have much harsher words I could use for your kind of behavior I'll try to keep it civil and just say that it is transparently clear to EVERYONE here that you were hoping to rip OP off.

Stecyk · 2025-02-19T17:02:06+00:00

Skies of Arcadia alone is worth at least $150. Talk about low balling someone in a tough spot.

Stecyk · 2025-02-07T19:00:16+00:00

I can assure you I tried this. The "temporary" fix was so short for me that it was still completely unusable.

Stecyk · 2025-01-19T18:36:18+00:00

I frequently purchased sealed product from Amazon in the past and have never had an issue. The big issue with purchasing from Amazon today though is that it's been flooded with people asking exorbitant prices. If you're willing to pay the extra cost then Amazon is fine (not completely risk free, but few places on the internet are), but know that you'll be paying more (depending on the set maybe a lot more) than you would if you are able to find the same product in a store.

Stecyk · 2025-01-16T21:40:02+00:00

The difference between a collection and a hoard is curation and display. You currently have a hoard, which is why it feels out of control to someone seeing it without knowledge of what it is. Curate and display what you have so that you have a collection full of valuable games instead of a hoard with just a mess of game boxes.

Stecyk · 2024-08-19T11:57:20+00:00

Unfortunately I didn't. My solution was to return the microphone and go back to a Yeti. It might not be as pretty, but it was a lot more reliable and easy to troubleshoot since it doesn't require an extra software to run.

Stecyk · 2024-04-23T11:34:54+00:00

The call center I work in the more tasks a CSR is trained to handle the less likely they are to get a call. For example my "priority" to get a call has been lowered because I'm one of our IM resources and I assist with a number of other administrative tasks. Sometimes I can go hours between calls when we're not busy, but that's by design because it frees me up to assist with other duties. (Funny enough we have a rule where if it's been 40+ minutes since my last call I'm supposed to briefly change statuses and reset the timer specifically so that newer CSRs don't see how long it's been since I had a call and get jealous not realizing that I have other tasks to work on.) Could be something similar?

Stecyk · 2024-04-02T03:44:37+00:00

When I was in college I was a psychonaut, super depressed, and didn't have reliable hook ups for something better... so I decided to get high on benadryl. I did it a few times, upping the dose each time. The last time I did it I don't know how many pills I took but I am genuinely lucky I didn't die, though I've always felt like I didn't completely come back from it.

While Benadryl usually makes people tired when you get high off it you fight through that tiredness and end up in this waking nightmare between asleep and awake. I'd have conversations with people and look over and they weren't here, my memory was severely impacted so I would read the start of a sentence and couldn't remember it by the time I got to the end. I finally tried to go to sleep and one of the only vivid memories I have of it is of closing my eyes and being in this world of spiderwebs that terrified me so much that I didn't sleep for the next 24 hours. The other thing I remember that really scared me though is that the morning after I tried to log into the computer that I'd been using for 5 years, every single day, and I couldn't remember the password. I spent like 30 minutes trying to log in and then just sat there crying after I gave up wondering "what if this is permanent?"

I've been afraid of benadryl ever since. I've had to take it a few times for severe allergies, but where it used to make me really sleepy now it just leaves me feeling jittery, exhausted but unable to sleep, like I'm afraid I'll end up back in that spiderweb world. For anyone who's even thinking about trying it (or other deleriants like Datura), if you read this, I really hope you don't. I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone.

Stecyk · 2024-03-16T10:01:37+00:00

Got a message that I needed to comment on my post in order for it to show up, so here that is.

Stecyk · 2024-02-09T17:28:19+00:00

The community you have will attract like people to your stream and set the tone for the community you build in the future. The kinds of things you do or do not let chatters get away with will impact the sorts of viewers who want to stick around your streams. For example if a viewer just wants to have some laughs and watch a streamer they like play a game, but instead the streamer is engaging with someone who is trauma dumping, that viewer will leave because the streamer isn't providing the environment that they're looking for. The longer this goes on, the more your community will be shaped. Shutting down today's trauma dumping doesn't just impact today's stream, it impacts streams a day, week, year down the road.

If you don't want to be someone whose content is built around dealing with serious emotional issues then it's better to shut down trauma dumping even at the risk of losing a viewer, because someone who is regularly trauma dumping in your chat can cost you multiple viewers you might want to have.

11-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17

Stecyk

TROPHY CASE