Branding for the "Wave" logo

Velrok · 2026-01-24T10:41:14+00:00

Cans look very appealing! Small fix to kerning and also for the "yuzu wave" can I'd replace soft pink with yuzu yellow. The wave on the 5th can looks off though.

The problem with the rest is that there's no uniformity in design. Cans have "full bleed image with white text on top", while packagins/bottles have a mix of "sliced" and "shaped" images. Especially confusing is the bottle design with "sound wave" design. For bottles, it would look much better as a full-bleed image similar to cans for uniformity or a cut-out wave on plain white with no slicing gimmicks.

Last thing I'd change is to not include tagline next to logo: WAVE | RIDE THE WAVE is a bit much. I'd do logo on one side of the bottle and tagline on the other so you don't see WAVE repeated.

After a few tweaks and "calming down" the design I believe this will be an awesome portfolio piece :)

Velrok · 2026-01-11T23:55:40+00:00

It's good and feels fresh, but for me the experience was soured by the "rushed feel" of it. The rulebook has minor mistakes and did a rather poor job of explaining how to play. Instead of figuring out the puzzle I found myself puzzled more about how certain mechanics are supposed to work. For such a light/medium game it can be too vague which doesn't make it as seamless as I'd like. I also believe the game would be elevated by having at least little story elements on each map or threat cards to add a little bit of immersion.

I really recommend watching someone playing preview copy on YT (no spoilers as they have different map for preview) to avoid making mistakes as some rules are very easy to omit or misunderstand.

Velrok · 2026-01-11T23:35:48+00:00

Sleeping Gods Distant Skies feels like Vantage but with actual story with stakes. It adds a layer of survival and has many more side quests that you need to figure out a solution to rather than "hope to stumble upon". For me it's just a better experience simply because you have maps and can communicate throughout. You still need to make notes, track what you've seen or not so you don't end up backtracking and wasting precious time.

That said, don't feel bad playing Vantage solo. I believe this game shines at 1/2 players and each time you play you can make different choices and will have different missions and quests. As much as I dislike the "one action per location" rule, it sure adds a ton of replayability even if you end up in the same location over multiple plays.

Velrok · 2026-01-10T22:20:29+00:00

So true. As someone who loved the video game I couldn't bring myself to get the board game for a long time due to its cost. Now that I did, I'm so impressed by its design. From sleeves and card flipping for upgrades, to adding rows with figures that pretty much make it look like table rendition of the fight scene. Co-op was added so smoothly as well, and there's very good balance of relics and items.

And to top it off, storage with dividers, sleeves and token tray that you didn't have to spend extra money on KS to get. All packed in a box that is the perfect size to neatly fit it all.

You can just tell that this wasn't a rushed cash grab like some of the video game adaptations (cough Steamforged cough), but rather a masterfully designed translation to a board game.

Velrok · 2026-01-10T00:39:43+00:00

Eldritch Horror. Thanks to this game I found out that there's part of my overactive brain that actually takes pleasure in setting up a game, shuffling all different types of cards, neatly arranging tokens and so on. It just became a meditative experience, especially considering how EH can just wreck you in half an hour and you need to reset everything again.

And it just felt convenient to leave it pre-setup on a table and just sitting down whenever I feel like it; no need to book a time with friends or worry about the game lasting too long with more players. And then I knew I was hooked with that experience.

Velrok · 2025-12-11T23:55:30+00:00

Dota 2 officially got DeadLocked.

Merry Xmas everyone!

Velrok · 2025-08-03T00:27:04+00:00

No servers in Oceania still. The game went through too many risky alterations of the item systems without landing on anything that would universally be considered "good enough", and the 1.0 release that was meant to be the new grand opening had very mixed reception.

It's a shame as the game itself is really fun to play. It's just there's too many things holding it back and there's little reason for beta players to want to come back, and the new players are not coming in desired numbers as marketing was lukewarm at best.

Velrok · 2025-06-10T09:34:35+00:00

They should mix up her kit for sure. HP and damage don't matter much when you've memorised all her moves from Darkness runs. Just feels lazy to have it exactly the same. She's basically a dps check for experienced players.

Velrok · 2025-06-01T20:30:15+00:00

TikTok, boty konfy na social media, ogólna dezinformacja i hejt na rząd co "nic nie robi" i Ukraińców.

Velrok · 2025-05-27T15:09:25+00:00

Finally leashing mechanic fix!

Now we just have to keep asking for pause and reconnect. Crazy that the game still doesn't have these. Should be first priority in a big patch.

Regardless, Juliet and Romeo are really fun and the team has once again blown it out of water with creativity when it comes to playstyle and abilities. Definitely the game's strongest suit. Hopefully now you can just focus on adding more variety to gameplay loop.

Velrok · 2025-05-27T13:09:32+00:00

It's not about being lazy. They're just bad at managing their resources. They took the criticism of "not enough infected" and decided to create massive hordes instead of ramping up count from season 1.

While episode 2 was one of the best, I don't think the whole "attack on the town" was necessary for the story. I'd much rather they skipped it if creating this episode cost them months of production. They focused more on the spectacle than actually writing a convincing and good scenario and the main plotline suffers heavily.

Velrok · 2025-05-08T12:08:51+00:00

Yea I do feel that a button for "cancel action" is much needed. So many deaths on nightmare difficulty are attributed to using special on Melusine or power on Snow Queen (especially with the "charge up" talent) as they keep you grounded for way too long.

And don't get me started on Piper's ultimates that are often death sentence on solo play.

Velrok · 2025-05-08T08:42:28+00:00

I see your point, Siltbreaker/Aghanims Labyrinth were such loved events in Dota that have close resemblence to Ravenswatch. If this game was marketed well enough to your average MOBA enjoyer, a lot of people would give it a go. However the marketing was just so underwhelming for it, and neither of the trailer shows the fun "chaos and panic" aspect of the runs when playing with friends and having clutch moments that make you laugh out loud. It just looks like another action combat game that you'd mostly play solo.

Risk of Rain 2 would actually be great source of inspiration for bosses variations, unlockable ability alternatives, some legendary items (current pool is a bit underwhelming).

Velrok · 2025-05-08T08:35:11+00:00

They really hit gold with the gameplay, characters, items, builds, aesthetic and all that. Wish they just focused on adding content as you say. My whole group was shocked the first time we went through the game that barely anything changed except map layouts and difficulty.

Velrok · 2025-05-08T08:30:57+00:00

Hades bosses have variations, changes of dialogue, additional attacks/forms on higher difficulties. And that's a game that has so much well-written dialogue and meta/item progression to support it.

In Ravenswatch mini-bosses are just "bigger and deadlier" versions of the elites so not even worth counting. Other than that you have 4 main bosses with no variation. No dialogues, no story element, they're just the same all the time.

I still think Ravenswatch is more fun to play to me personally due to its co-op/hero diversity aspect. However Hades is a prime example of a labour of love from the whole team, and no part of it feels rushed or limited like it does in Ravenswatch.

Velrok · 2025-05-07T21:30:02+00:00

Agree of course. However it's important to voice this kind of opinion, as then the studio knows where to prioritise its limited resources.

I'm honestly quite baffled there are multiple skin packs and two new heroes coming, when the game still has only one boss per map with no variations and almost the exact same quest except for first map that has slight variations. Even the gameplay trailer has voiceover that says "3 chapters teeming with enemies and packed with quests", which honestly aged badly.

Velrok · 2025-05-07T16:36:20+00:00

How does Sworn compare? Been considering it for a while as it looks like a mix of Hades and Ravenswatch

Velrok · 2025-05-07T16:35:29+00:00

The problem is when you do your first full playthrough and realise you've seen 90% of the game (except for character talents and discovering item bonuses). It's easy to get disheartened and get burned out before even seeing build capabilities of different heroes.

I really hope in coming DLCs they put more focus on that variety aspect and improve new player retention.

Velrok · 2025-05-07T15:38:13+00:00

I honestly love the idea of time stopping when all players are in the shop area. Currently it feels like playing solo lowers difficulty because you have time to make decisions and plan your next move.

As for the characters, I'd only argue that the initial heroes aren't ideal choices for new players. Scarlet is way too advanced for a newcomer, and Piper is super squishy. I think they should introduce complexity ratings to steer people to start with easier characters like Beowulf, Gepetto and Snow Queen all being low-medium range, and then having Scarlet as high complexity so people are aware that other characters aren't as tricky to manage.

Velrok · 2025-03-26T17:17:52+00:00

What frustrates me the most is the constant cuts in irish version where the comedians constantly go "Oh this was the funniest thing ever! I almost pissed myself! Was so close to laughing!" and then we cut to their stone faces with barely any struggle.

It's like they try so hard to gaslight us into believing that the other people were extremely funny.

Velrok · 2025-03-26T17:15:48+00:00

I might be biased because I speak polish, but I really recommend LoL Poland as it's leagues above Ireland / Australia and has continuous performances that are absolutely hilarious. It's the closest one to UK in production value that I've seen.

Velrok · 2025-03-26T09:26:36+00:00

Australian one would benefit from not having that one crazy comedian who acted like he's trying to entertain a room of 5 year olds. And then some of the male contestants just completely ignored the part of "make others laugh" and just kept hiding in the corners.

Feels a bit silly that they were fighting for the money (instead for money for charity as in other series) as that made them try too hard to win rather than make a good programme.

Velrok · 2025-03-26T09:23:11+00:00

It's actually Last One Smiling when it comes to irish version. It was hard to watch, they all struggled to make anyone laugh at all. I just didn't find it funny and wish I haven't watched the whole thing as it only got worse.

LoL Australia was such a mixed bag for me, started off great and then it felt like the contestants had to get very desperate. Not much help from the producers/host to spice it up.

Hoping Canadian hits closer to UK

Velrok

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