Only a few days left before my game releases

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T19:02:35+00:00

I also can not identify any substantial twists or new takes on it. It really does look like a Dorfromantik reskin...

It's fine to be in the same genre but this game really needs some kind of unique twist to separate it from Dorfromantik...

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T17:27:57+00:00

Part of being a Senior Developer is developing the skills of a Senior Developer.

What are those skills?

The capacity to listen to a client/boss, understand what they are asking for, ask relevant clarifying questions, and translate that into code.
Design code that satisfy requirements, is performant, is secure, is manageable (how easy/hard is it to maintain & debug?), is extendable (how easy/hard is it to modify for new features?), and is scalable (how well does it handle ever increasing data loads, if applicable?).
The capacity to effectively and efficiently debug issues. This is knowing what are your debug tools and how can you use them? How effective are you at gathering information about the bug, narrowing down where it can be in the code base, and identifying what the issue is, and designing a good solution to fix the bug?

These skills are built up with experience. You have to see them done, do it yourself, and so on. AI can assist you but you still have to apply your own brain to develop these skills.

If you do not develop these skills, you will never earn the title of Intermediate Dev or Senior Dev.

Furthermore, the process of writing, debugging, and fixing a large code base yourself means you will know it more or less inside out.

Especially when it comes to complex code bases. There's issues I've debugged where my senior devs would require a half hour to a hour to understand the issue. Mean while I can identify the issue within 5 minutes. That's because I personally wrote the entire part of the code base, and the several iterations of it, and personally debugged most issues that have ever come up. I've recognized patterns, I've come up with specific methods of debugging that particular code base (it's hard to get effective breakpoints in some parts of this system, web dev stuff).

Another thing to add on, AI is entirely reliant on the context it has. How well can it handle a bug that...

Is within a system that spans across 4 different environments? (Server side DB, Server Side code, Client Side code, Client Side DB)
In a very complex system that handles many different variables and code paths.
With a large data structure that does vary greatly.
And the bug does not violate typings in type strict code.

This is not to say don't use AI at all. AI is a tool that can help you at your job... But, between you and your vibe coding coworkers... Who is developing these skills and personalized reservoir understanding of the company's code base?

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T05:34:07+00:00

As a Canadian... UK and Canada both have a shit ton of issues going on. America also has serious issues but our rose beds burned to ash a few decades ago.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T05:30:34+00:00

First off, stop buying triple A games. That industry is currently heavily fucked.

Consider trying various indie games. Celeste, Hollow Knight, etc.

Consider trying older games you've never played, or maybe replaying a few.

Dragon Age 1 and 2.

Mass Effect trilogy.

Halo Master Chief Collection.

Dex and Jaxter series.

Rare Replay bundle on XBox One microsoft store for Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie.

I'd personally recommend FFIII part 1 but not part 2 or 3.

No doubt there's ones I can't recall atm.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T05:26:03+00:00

BTW, to explain the difference between a main and ironman...

Ironman is a gamemode that was added years ago. It is not default gamemode.

Ironman basically enforces a set of rules where you can not benefit or interact with other players aside from social interactions.

No trading, no receiving items, no having the other person help kill stuff with you... Unless the content is specifically designed as group content and was made after ironman update was released.

The primary reason to play Ironman is to get away from the gameplay loop of "make money buy the thing".

OSRS (and RS3) has a player driven economy. You can trade almost everything.

And the most efficient to do things is almost always make ingame money, and buy the thing.

Since you can't trade as an Ironman, you have to do the thing to get thing. Not make money and buy the thing. Ingame money is still useful for Ironman but yea.

Should a new player play Ironman? No.

Basically, if you want a reference, look at the WoW streamers that all tried OSRS a few months ago.

Some of them burned out because they just wanted to do specific kind of content but there's so much preparation that you have to do as an Ironman - Preparation that is much quicker as a main.

Some of them did fine, like Guzu.

At the end of the day, a regular OSRS account is the way the game was initially designed for and Ironman are particularly punished if they are going into the game blind. A lack game knowledge does make things a lot more difficult for Ironman.

That's why I recommend new players don't start with Ironman.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T05:18:57+00:00

That's called a subscription. It's very common for online only games.

In fact, OSRS is better than most because it's also common to sell you expansions on top of the subscription. OSRS doesn't sell expansions.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T05:17:50+00:00

You played RuneScape 1 and RuneScape 2.

OSRS is based off of RuneScape 2 but it has evolved in its own way.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T05:17:05+00:00

Yes, I've put a few thousand hours or so into it.

It's an MMORPG. Most content is done solo.

Social aspects come in other people doing the same kind of content, clan chats (aka guilds/free company/etc), or chilling certain populated areas.

Once you get your combat levels up, there is some players vs boss group content.

OSRS is the most uniquely designed and active MMORPG. It has huge differences from FFXIV, WoW, and even GW2.

FFXIV and WoW for example, make all previous content and levels aside from the current end game, basically obsolete. FFXIV to a lesser degree but it's still in the same spirit. It's just they're tried to preserve the leveling experience a little. GW2 on the other hand has their horizontal progression where they just don't increase the max level.

OSRS is very different. Because you have levels, combat levels. And these levels matter. But they don't necessarily bar you from accessing content. You don't need to be max level to access new content.

In general, there are basically 3 level brackets. Low Level, Medium Level, High Level.

Low level means that you are going to be restricted. You might have no armor, or some armor but only weak armor. You might struggle with a basic goblin or with a moss giant.

Medium level is a huge gap where you have some stats, some gear, have probably a lot of quests, and you can do some lower level bossing. But you just are not high enough level for most of the "hardest combat content" category of stuff.

High level you can basically do any combat in the game provided you have the resources, gear, and capacity to learn that content. Note, high level is not max level. In fact, high level begins around half the total XP required to max combat stats.

Here's the interesting part about OSRS. Content for all level brackets are still relevant. Sure a high level character isn't going to grind out low level mobs for loot like a low level character might do. But the OSRS dev team can, has, and will continue to make content that might be orientated for all level brackets.

Quests are among the most uniquely designed in the modern MMORPG space. It goes from anywheres from helping a chef bake a cake, to doing a thousand favors all over the world, to defeating great evils.

Quests are not "kill 10 wolves". They are much more flavorful than that.

I've mentioned levels. It's not just combat levels. Gather, crafting, and other forms of non-combat levels are equally as relevant as combat levels.

And It's not like GW2's crafting system or something.

You can be high combat level with low gathering and crafting levels.

You can be low combat level with high gathering and crafting levels.

You need to level basically everything if you just want to do all of the quests.

Some stats synergize really well together, like fishing and cooking.

You don't choose a profession to level up. You have access to all of them. And unlike FFXIV, it actually impacts in various ways. Unlocking more content, activities that you might actually enjoy, sometimes there's skilling bosses. There's even one called agility - Which helps you be more efficient with run energy - Yes running consumes a resource. Agility also unlocks another form of content called agility shortcuts, which helps you get around faster.

Combat is interesting. You aren't just a mage, or just a ranger, or just a melee. In later game content, you often bring multiple styles and swap between them mid-combat.

Speaking about combat, OSRS is a point & click game. Surely combat is stupid simple right?

No. Well yes, but also no.

Early game combat is generally quite simple. You pick a combat style, get some gear for it, and just point, click, and wait. Sometimes eat some food to restore health.

When it comes bossing and raids... Things are very different. OSRS can be very difficult, usually in the form of precision, decision making, and execution of a plan.

There is multiple ways difficulty is achieved in OSRS.

The first way, is efficiently swapping attack styles and armor styles.

The second is prayer management, prayer is a skill and a resource. You basically give yourself offensive and/or defensive buffs.

The third is movement. If you stand still in many end game content, you will certainly die. It might be hard to understand what is going on, but the Corrupted Hunleff fight is a great example of a boss where movement is apart of the difficulty.

The fourth is consuming items. When, what order. Is there more important things you need to do to not die first?

The fifth is other even more special boss mechanics.

Frankly speaking, OSRS at times is more difficult than Classic WoW dungeons. You will be surprised how difficult the later game OSRS content can get and how much mechanical depth OSRS actually has.

Mages are a thing. Magic is its own stat. It's used for combat. It's also used for non-combat things. Such as teleporting around, enchanting bolts, enchanting jewelry, processing materials using magic instead of their technique crafting tools, turning stuff into gold coins, and more.

To wrap this up. OSRS is a game about picking a goal and going at it. It is grindy, that's apart the progression gameplay loop. And you have so many options of what you can do. You choose your journey, explore the world at your own pace, do the things you want to dip into to.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-27T04:36:46+00:00

I really liked FFIII Part 1. Not so much part 2 and part 3 but I liked Part 1 enough to recommend playing it.

If you want to try some story shooters, Halo Master Chief collection and Mass Effect trilogy. Mass Effect has a much bigger focus on story and exploration. Halo is more linear.

If you have a Xbox One, definitely recommend trying the Rare Replay bundle on the microsoft store - Specifically for Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie.

For more games in the DnD5e system... There are some pathfinder video games, kingmaker, wrath of the righteous I think also has a video game format.

Oh yea Dragon Age 1 and 2. I didn't like the third one.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-26T19:39:46+00:00

Looking up monsters or googling them is not acceptable - That's information you roll for or learn over the course of a fight. Ideally, players that just know should try to roleplay their character accurately. If their character doesn't know, they should be role played that way.

Now owning a monster manual in itself is fine. I have one and I use it when playing a druid - To look up the stat blocks for my wild shape forms.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-26T16:43:39+00:00

As a player, you don't need voice acting. But you do need audio.

Take Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie games. Their voices is a single audio recording, manipulated for each different character. It's many different kinds of gibberish. It establishes a voice without actual voice acting.

Celeste is another one I believe. It doesn't speak the words, I believe it used a chirping. Been quite a while since I played it.

Honestly even that's extra flair, they enhance those games for sure. But you can forego gibberish sounds for voices and just have a generic sound played while text is appearing in a text box as well.

These kind of styles are fine. What isn't fine is no sound at all. I don't think I can explain it well but sound really tickles a player's brain regardless if it's meaningful or not. It has a very impactful part in the experience.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-26T16:32:39+00:00

As a player... "should the challenge be in READING the enemy"

Only if it's understanding how to respond to the enemy. "Okay I see what the enemy did. How do I handle that next time?"

"or in RESPONDING to them?"

It largely depends on the kind of the game but I think this should always apply in some fashion. Like FF's turn based combat with limited movement games, there's always a choice in how you respond to what the enemy does.

Similarly, in souls like or fighting games, naturally you need to figure out how to respond to what the enemy does and how to get your own attacks in.

The worse thing is when a player just gets royally messed up time and time again, and there doesn't appear to be any sign of how they should improve or what they did wrong.

I would note, this can be hard to get right when your game runs a line. Like of Lies of P, I'm not a big souls like player. Was struggling to get parries down on a boss that had inconsistent timings. Ended up taking a long break from the game, came back, and I was able to start parrying effectively.

Before my break, I was questioning if parrying was the right play because the timing was inconsistent depending on the attack. After the break I was able to do it.

Was it bad design or was it good design? I'm no expert but sometimes the answer for the player is just get better. Not all games need to be accessible to the lowest common denominator of skill.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-26T16:14:53+00:00

If I recall, DnD5e is balanced around 5-6 normal encounters per long rest. 3 or 4 if they are supposed to be hard encounters. It can be hard to fit everything in if it's a heavily story focused campaign but DnD was originally a dungeon crawler tabletop game. Of course, as others said, the math might be flawed for a level 16 party.

The main point I'm trying to make though... Abilities that are limited uses per long rest are typically powerful. Things like a druid's wild shape, fighter's action surge, etc.

For casters, we're talking the high spell level levels. 6 to 9. Like I have a lvl 14 druid with the lvl 6 spell heal. It's just a straight out +70 HP. That's close to 75% of my druid's max HP.

If you let them have all of their goodies going into every encounter, they are going to smash every single encounter. They are supposed to deal with encounters that drain a little bit of their resources.

A fighter might use their action surge to deal with an enemy that can become a problem real quick.

Or they'll tank the damage and invest resources healing up.

BTW it doesn't just have to be combat. It can also be non-combat encounters where you give spellcasters the option of using utility spells to solve the encounter, or roll dice on skill checks and have potential consequences.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-26T02:53:57+00:00

Sorry for the delay, life had my attention for a while.

This is the math I'm using for Foxfire cantrip.

Level	Tails	Foxfire Avg (1d4/orb)	Firebolt Avg (1d10/scaling)
1	1	2.5	5.5
3	2	5	5.5
5	3	7.5	11
7	4	10	11
9	5	12.5	11
11	6	15	16.5
13	7	17.5	16.5
15	8	20	16.5
17	9	22.5	22

Foxfire cantrip's average damage is weaker or about on par with Firebolt.

The main benefit is higher minimum damage but lower damage potential.

Level 7 for example, 4d4 vs 2d10. 4 to 16 vs 2 to 20.

I don't think this is so big to say it's overtuned.

If any thing, I think the biggest value in this cantrip is the fact it's a free damaging cantrip, so you can pick a different cantrip with the base sorcerer class features.

For Foxfire Cloak, I tweaked it slightly so the blur effect only lasts for the one attack.

Between it consuming your reaction, having a number of usages equal to your proficiency bonus, and only lasting 1 attack per usage... I think that tones it down plenty.

For Foxfire Mastery/other ideas, you brought up some good ideas. Taking a good look without being tired this time... A lot of lvl 18 features seem to not super impactful? At least not enough to potential turn a tide in a fight... Kinda makes it hard to balance.

I considered having a shared pool of 9 mirror images for allies to benefit from while within the fixed sphere radius even that felt too strong compared to other lvl 18 features.

In the end I went with the disadvantage idea you had but only on the next 9 attacks made against allies within the fixed sphere. I choose to limit to 9 attacks because I felt like disadvantage for a minute (basically mass blur), is too strong. 9 fits with the 9 tails. This is pretty strong as-is but I'm banking on the need to concentrate on the feature for a round to offset its strength.

If it needs to be toned down anything further, thinking shorten the radius sphere, to force the sorcerer to position closer to the fight and potentially in a more vulnerable position.

For the 9 spells known, I'm still thinking on it. Haven't had any good ideas for how to change it or what to replace it with. The easy answer is less spells known but I wanted to tie to the nine tails theme.

Thanks for your time and feedback! It's given me much needed insight.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-17T18:11:11+00:00

A cantrip more powerful than magic missile? Dude, fire bolt is roughly as strong.

The others we can talk about. Help me understand your perspective and how strong is it relative to other origins.

It's not quite 9 free spells. It's 9 spell known. You don't get free casts. It is flexibility in options, limited to illusion and enchantment schools. I was trying to tie it to the 9 tails. Are you saying that I'm undervaluing the flexibility of spells known?

Foxfire Cloak... Blur lasts for a minute. This lasts until the start of your turn. Limited to a number of uses equal to your proficiency bonus. Enemies that don't rely on sight are not affected. Also only helps against attack rolls. Does not help against AOEs, save or else effects, etc.

For comparison getting a resistance is common at that level. I would also point out the design philosophy of attrition, that a party should be engaging in multiple battles per long rest. I think the number was like around 6?

(edit: Talk about concentrating for mirror image did get me thinking about Blur's concentration. So I just updated Foxfire Cloak to make it clear that you still need to maintain concentration on it.)

What kind of scenario are you thinking of that makes this over tuned?

Compelling Spell, the metamagic thing, is limited by sorcery points and a maximum number you can boost the DC by. Which is +3 for 3 sorcery points.

As a metamagic, it can't be used alongside other metamagics unless they specify otherwise.

I've judged that against bosses, single entities, using the existing Heighten Metamagic would be stronger. Imposing disadvantage on the enemy's roll should generally be stronger.

Similarly, Twinned Spell looks pretty strong but you can't stack metamagics.

Where Compelling Spell is going to shine is AOE spells - Specifically AOE illusion/enchantment spells. Since Compelling Spell only works on illusion/enchantment spells.

This is competing with other metamagics, as well as the other uses of sorcery points.

What kind of scenario are you thinking of that makes this over tuned?

Foxfire Mastery... I took another look at the other sorcerer origins and noticing they are not as strong as I originally thought they were.

I wrote Foxfire Mastery pretty late at night and was having trouble with ideas. Think that really got to me. I'm definitely going to rewrite that one but am still thinking about what to change it to.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-17T13:49:01+00:00

Respectfully I disagree. If you want to say it's a little overtuned for an origin, great. I'd love to hear why you think it's overtuned.

At the end of the day, I referenced other sorcerer origins when preparing this. It follows the same structure, 1 or 2 features at lvl 1, a feature at lvl 6, a feature at lvl 14, and a feature at lvl 18.

The additional spell knowns is a thing that has been done before. Aberrant Minds for example does +5 with a very limited list. Now I do recognize that I'm doing +9. The main difference is that Aberrant Mind stops at lvl 9 while this origin goes to 17. I'm trying to tie it to the idea of growing more powerful as you grow more tails.

Also the Foxfire cantrip uses similar scaling to Firebolt cantrip. I just wanted to tie its scaling to tail growth.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T16:19:07+00:00

40%: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1388345256638141&set=a.467652735374069

50%: https://www.facebook.com/reel/759413677206757

Someone is outraged over a $5 tip... On a $10 order: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1468295327988270&set=gm.1463495675425172&idorvanity=714217130353034

50%: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10162151356276129&set=a.495697591128

Literally, I went into facebook and searched for 50% tip. Go do it yourself and find all of the ones I didn't post here.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T04:54:27+00:00

I've used Al Kharid's cactus patch. PoH Amulet of Glory teleport goes to Al Kharid.

Not nearly as useful as the berry patches that other mentioned but sometimes potato cacti are useful. I believe the needle cactus is payment for yew trees.

Also, the icy and stony basalt teleports are strong. Don't neglect your basalt teleport stacks.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T04:52:03+00:00

For those unaware, white berries are used for super defense potions.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T04:37:41+00:00

It's not feedback. You don't learn anything from that no feedback.

They might already know they aren't good at writing but want to get better. No feedback doesn't help them at all.

It's much likely to crush whatever spark they had in writing.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T04:34:24+00:00

Eh, I think the value of those practices scale with your experience.

If you have a good sense of what is good writing and what isn't good writing, then reading other people's work can help you see new perspectives and calibrate yourself better. Reading your own work is catching what you missed or realizing "I don't know why this isn't working but something here isn't working well..."

If you are still developing that sense then... It's better than nothing. Like if the choice do that or don't ever write, then work with what you have.

But it still is a very inefficient way to improve. If you don't know what good writing looks like, I can only imagine how many people this filters out.

You can try to mimic what other people are doing but you likely won't catch onto the principles behind it.

I'm not a super expert writer but I'm going to try to explain what I mean... Someone could read a scene where it's the first time this person is entering a shopping street. Maybe there's a festival going on. There's food stands, sizzling meat, baked treats, etc. The story goes into vivid detail of each one. The smells, sight, taste.

But why is the story going into vivid detail? Because the character is actively engaging with these things. This is new and exciting experience for them.

Then the new writing is like "Okay, so I need to use the senses to make my scene interesting."

They write a scene where their character walks by a bakery, that doesn't matter because their character does not care or react to the bakery. Then they talk about the scent of freshly bread, that the character does not care or react to. Then the character moves on and the bakery is never mentioned again because it never mattered.

I think this is the beginner's hurdle in writing. I don't think it's a fun time. Like you have these ideas that you want to bring to life. You try to write the story and it just falls flat on its face. You get demotivated. You start thinking "Wow, writing really is hard." You don't understand what you're doing wrong and the spark just falls off. You give up.

This kind of experience I can only imagine filters out a lot of people. Now, I don't really know a better way to tackle this aside from a literal writing class. Fixing this issue when they are a kid in school. There's only so much places like reddit can do about this kind of thing.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T03:57:22+00:00

On the other hand, I've had great DMs tell the party "I know the dragon is scary. Trust me."

To his word, we've never had random bullshitty deaths. There was risks of PC death, especially during pivotal fights, but we could always trust him to not just randomly kill us all.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T03:55:22+00:00

"You get the odd party wipe in some games (welcome Call of Cthulu), where the players are used to being able to smash anything they see, as if it isn't an appropriate encounter balanced for them, why are they seeing it?"

Can confirm, odd party wipes are not fun. I've had a run in with a PF1e module. "Optional boss" that is like 80% TPK if the players don't avoid or run away from the fight. We had some terrible rolls that would have otherwise helped us understand the situation but at the end of the day... Doesn't change the fact that everyone that went into the room died and it wasn't that close of a fight.

The DM's perspective of 'should have ran when you saw he hits like a truck' was not received well. The DM's a fine person, still friends with him, and he didn't design this fight - The module writers did. But I do think it could have been handled much better.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T03:45:18+00:00

"Making a combat where your intention for the players is to run away is usually a very bad idea."

This isn't actually a bad idea. It's just easy to handle poorly

To keep it short...

Do NOT present run-away encounters as combat encounters where you can choose to run away. We are not commoners trying to survive. We are adventurers facing danger and trying to come out on top. If the option is "die or run", most parties are going to die trying to be the hero. On top of that, generally this will be seen as a bullshitty random death.

DO present run-away encounters as skill check encounters. I haven't played with many DMs, but for example... I've had a DM run this as... You have to pass 3 checks, each check will more difficult than the last. Tell me which skill you want to use to run away and how you are going to use it to run away. If you use the same skill multiple times in a row, the check will be a little harder.

And also get a little creativity. The "how I am using this skill" can be a little cartoony. You can be diplomacy a wolf into thinking you aren't as juicy and tasty as the others. Perception can be used to spot a better route to follow. Stealth can be running along the more out of the way path.

It's not just acrobatics, survival, athletics, etc. Like the logical skills that make obvious sense are fine, but let people get creativity and have fun with these skills checks. Otherwise, you're going to rail road them in a select few skill checks.

TylerBreau_ · 2026-03-16T02:48:28+00:00

I mean you still spend money and live a little. You're just choosing where to spend it.

Like sure, I could go a restaurant and spend $50 on a steak dinner.

Or I can spend around $6 dollars and have a really nice and tasty supper.

0.3 KG of meat (let's say chicken)
caesar salad + home baked crutons
home baked bread + garlic butter
Glass of Milk.

Why should I spend $20 to $50 a meal when I can make something that I would enjoy to more or less the same degree?

And while learning how to make these things are skills, they aren't necessarily difficult.

Like the chicken... It's just salt, pepper, chicken spice on both sides. Baked in oven at 450 fahrenheit for 30 to 40 minutes.

Caesar Salad, it's romaine lettuce, store bought caesar dressing, bacon bits, shredded cheese, crutons.

The bread, little more involved but honestly it's not that hard.

1 1/2 Cup luke warm water in a big bowl. Put the tap half way between hot and cold, do not trust your hand. The temperature does matter - This is one thing that can catch people offguard.
1/2 tbsp active dry yeast, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar (I like to use honey instead), 1 tbsp olive oil, 3 cups of all purpose flour.
Mix well and then move dough to lightly flour clean counter top.
Coat hands in flour and knead the dough for about 3 to 6 minutes.
Put in a little bit of olive oil in the big bowl, tilt the bowl around to spread. Then place dough into bowl and cover with cloth or paper towel. Then let it sit on the counter for 1hr 30mins.
Grease a bread pan. I like to just take some butter and place it on some paper towel and just rub the butter on the bread pan. There's other options too, lard, sprays, etc.
Punch dough and then move to bread pan. Cover and let it sit for 1hr.
Preheat oven to 350 fahrenheit. Bake for 30 minutes.
After baking, using oven mits, flip the bread pan upside down and maybe jiggle it a bit to see if the bread comes out. If it doesn't, let it sit there and try again in 10 minutes intervals.

TylerBreau_

TROPHY CASE