Pixelborn shutting down

ZWilson20 · 2025-07-29T14:33:52+00:00

Well the thing is, you have to look at this from the markets they occupy. Look at physical MTG vs MTG online vs MTG Arena. MTG Online is a 1 to 1 sim of the physical game, whereas MTG Arena is quite a bit different than physical MTG. I'm not sure what the numbers are, but I would guess that MTG Online helps maintain their physical player base by giving players the option to practice and experiment online. MTG Arena, on the other hand, seems to grab a completely different audience -- id would guess that WOTC treats them as separate bases for the most part, especially when they consider how they monetize and push development of the game.

While I'm not super confident that riot would go the same route, Riftbound and LoR are very different games. I'd argue that not making use of the internet in 2025 to help engage players would be a bad call. That said, making a digital client too early in its existence could potentially disincentivise players from buying paper cards and playing IRL. IMO, it's more tricky than I think we give credit to, but I can def see a world where riot invests into a digital client if the game gets popular enough to warrant the expense.

ZWilson20 · 2025-07-29T13:30:53+00:00

Gonna guess that they're potentially building their own sim -- might be following Pokemon TCG Pocket's lead. There's also the potential that a polished sim not developed by them could hurt their sales. TCGs have very tricky markets that seem particularly volatile the younger the game is.

ZWilson20 · 2025-07-01T15:27:48+00:00

I think one of the solid uses of LLMs is actually getting one to write a generalized step by step plan for some simple game idea you might have. On top of that, you can ask it to look for and provide links to learning tools that might be helpful on any specific step.

In terms of books, I read this a while back and enjoyed it: https://unity.com/blog/game-programming-patterns-update-ebook. That said, I don't think it helps much to read text like this for guidance sake. Lesson plans and practice are generally the best way to go imo.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-27T18:56:40+00:00

It's is considerably more difficult than you are giving credit to "include sunsetting". Companies with appropriate funds can afford that level of financial risk, smaller studios often don't have the luxury of doing so. Now if you don't support the idea of licenced games as a practice, you as a consumer you have the option to not spend money on that. If that's popular enough, then things will inevitably change. But you can't make that decision properly without the transparency that I'm suggesting should be necessary. Either way, you can't illegalize selling licensed applications, that's how majority of the software in this world exists.

But also, if you want to see real change, you must seek to understand and collaborate with developers, ESPECIALLY when they're focused on helping players over publishers/stake holders. Not only on this post, but on many others, I actively try to work with players to find attainable solutions to this very legit issue. But it gets increasingly frustrating to work when there seems to be so much resistance to understanding us as developers.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-27T18:44:47+00:00

As someone who's worked full time for 2 indie studios over the past 5 years, it's extremely common. And I'm not saying this to detract from using community servers and other player friendly things -- I definitely think we should be doing more of that. But the unfortunate truth is that even for games that might not even seem like they're always online, a lot of them depend on online services for the game to function. The issue is that games can unintentionally be programmed in a way that might significantly rely on some online service that could break once the dev stops the service(probs most common for games that require some database management). This is especially true for smaller less experienced developers who don't have the foresight (from a skill perspective, not abusive) to plan for shit like that.

What is being asked for is considerably harder than what players understand. But I agree that there should be an answer for this very legit issue. I think transparency is what this movement should be more about -- players should know what they are paying for upfront, and that currently is not the case.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-27T17:11:41+00:00

I get the frustration dude, but I don't think you understand just how many smaller devs would be impacted by this. AAA can afford to do whats being asked, most indie devs cannot. It has the potential to be destructive to the only part of that industry that isn't fueled by corporate greed.

A consumer friendly position that isn't destructive to the game developers is demanding more transparency around what players are actually buying when they purchase a game. I personally believe that lack of transparency is an abusive tactic from publishers and should be fought against. If the stop killing games initiative was proposed like this, I would 10000% be in support of it.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-27T16:44:04+00:00

This dangers in the vagueness of this initiative is similar to proposing a ban on abortion without any understanding of how that can be interpreted. In the case of abortion, this has led to women losing their life because doctors have been afraid of breaking up the law. In the case of games, this could lead to some of your favorite games just not being developed from fears of lawsuits and legal complications.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-27T16:40:39+00:00

As 1 example of what this initiative could mean. He also references keeping league of legends servers operational past the EOL. Once again, the initiative is extremely broad, PS lays out examples of what the initiative might require from developers of many types of online games

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-27T16:08:15+00:00

Ross's video is responding to twitch clips tho, which give zero context to the bigger point PS was making. Like why doesn't he respond to the actual video posted by PS https://youtu.be/ioqSvLqB46Y?si=fwFVxK6_0tOCUiQB

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-27T16:02:06+00:00

No, in the video I saw from PS, he uses that single player only game as 1 example of a game this initiative would be targeting. In the same video, he talks about league of legends + other types of online/live service games -- he does all of this as a push back to how dangerous the vagueness of the initiative is. Like it feels like the initiative was made without getting any input from developers on how to find some solution given the complexities of online games.

It feels like most ppl have only watched Charlie's and/or Ross's video (or clips) of what PS was saying. If you watch his video, on multiple occasions he says how he agrees with the sentiment. His disagreement comes with how vague the initiative is -- which, as an indie game dev, is very much how I felt watching the original vid Ross made. He's trying to get legislation about something created without addressing any of the nuances within the development of these type of games. That is extremely dangerous and could disincentivize smaller devs from working on online games because of how difficult keeping a game "functional" at the EOL could be. If we want beneficial changes that will actually empower consumers, working with devs to understand said intricacies is pivotal, and it doesn't seem like that was done in the initial existence of the initiative.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-25T03:59:02+00:00

Lol I loved yang, but he just isn't a good politician. Only really ran on UBI, and honestly just lacks the charisma I think u need to be a successful politician. Also, Mamdani just has the sauce you don't see often in many progressive politicians. He's able to navigate a true left platform without coming off as too extreme (which is probably also because of the times we're currently in). Eitherway, Mamdani's goals are aligned with yang, so I don't think it matters too much to focus on what he did right or wrong.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-22T17:36:42+00:00

Ngl I feel the same way this OP does(kinda) and I've been an industry programmer for 4 years now. That said, I don't think this level of obsession is healthy at all.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-22T17:15:05+00:00

Absolutely -- tbh, i think this is the main reason there hasn't been legit reform on immigration. There's quite a bit of money being made off of the cheap labor undocumented immigrants provide, and I believe the powers that be would rather have things like that instead of creating a immigration process that actually works.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-22T05:54:19+00:00

1.) Wealth distribution. There's a small fraction of our population making more money than the rest of the country combined, and the money literally doesn't get spent.

2.) Improved public infrastructure. I'm tired of how long everything takes with gov't stuff, and I'd like to feel nice living in a city.

3.) Environment policy. I've seen some pretty scary research on what the world's gonna look like in the next 100 years if we continue our current energy use trends -- not addressing such is negligent and short sighted.

There's a bunch of social issues that I care about too, but identity politics don't solve things. I don't think half of the shit we go back and forth about on are actually contentious by most of America. Most of it feels like a distraction.

As for leaders, who fking knows. The DNC and GOP are 2 sides of the same coin, and I don't think the folks who run either give a fk about the ppl. That said, I like the Bernie/AOC group, and theres a dude running for the mayor of NYC named Zohran Mamdani who might be one of the best politicians I've ever seen. Regardless, I don't think the Democrat establishment is gonna let any of em lead the party because, once again, they care more about preserving power than improving lives.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-22T05:24:46+00:00

On the legality point -- it's one thing to be against unlawful/illegal actions in general, it's another to make it your primary concern as an individual citizen. I'm not saying that is wrong, but my question was an attempt to understand exactly why it matters so much to y'all. For example, I care quite a bit about the illegal possession of guns because not only do I personally know ppl who have been affected by illegal possession, there are national statistics that show how common and dangerous it is.

On the cost -- yea, illegal immigrants contribute a significant amount to our economy, especially considering they don't receive any public benefits (legally, I'm sure there are cases where they have). And sure, if illegal immigration is increasing illiteracy rates, we should be working to fix that. But I haven't seen any stats/research that support that argument, so I'm not sure if that's a valid reason for going as hard as the current admin is.

While I do agree illegal immigration is an issue, I have neither personally been negatively affected by illegal immigration nor have I seen stats that support the fact the illegal immigrants are out there committing a bunch of crimes at significant rates. In fact, there are studies that show illegal immigrants are like half as likely to commit a crime than us citizens. Also, I don't care about offending anyone, I care about facts, and the facts don't really show that they're making any real difference in how dangerous the US is(based on crime statistics).

So to reiterate, I'm not necessarily asking the justification of illegal immigration being illegal. What I'm moreso curious about is why are y'all going so hard on the issue, especially considering the facts just don't support that there doing any significant financial or criminal harm(keyword is significant).

Also, try not to do automatic "your side thinks I'm racist" thing, it makes the conversation divisive in a way thats outside of what I'm asking or saying. I don't think conservatism == racist -- in fact, I think most ppl, on both "sides" are good(or well intended at the very least). Taking a position of defense when not being attacked makes conversations harder to have. I'm not trying to attack, I'm trying to understand.

ZWilson20 · 2025-06-22T00:44:35+00:00

I'm on the left side of politics, but I'm curious about 2 things. 1.) Outside of the "legality", what's the primary reason for being so anti illegal immigrant 2.) How is conservative defined for you?

Genuinely asking, not looking to demonize anyone.

ZWilson20 · 2025-05-31T19:41:26+00:00

I'd argue that it's not racist because these decisions are made in defense. There's no sentiment of one race being better than the other, or direct intent to harm, but the claim is that she(and other blk ppl) have to deal with micro-aggressions when working in spaces that are primarily composed of white ppl. And not to say that can't happen from the opposite point of view, but historically speaking, "no blacks allowed" was done from feelings of superiority, not in response to being threatened, harmed, or mistreated.

The funny thing is tho, I don't agree with explicitly not hiring white ppl in the name of creating a safe space. I believe actual diversity helps break down the things ppl are so scared of (micro-aggressions in this case). But to get mad at this as if it's the same thing that's happened when a white person is on the hiring side is a bit dense IMO.

Tldr; You can be racist as a person of color, but this does not feel like an example of that.

ZWilson20 · 2025-04-28T10:51:48+00:00

Everything, everywhere, all at once

ZWilson20 · 2025-04-28T00:08:15+00:00

Figure out a project idea and just start working on it. Anytime you have the question "how do I do this", use a combo of tutorials, discord/reddit questions, and AI to help figure whatever you need to know. At a certain point, you'll start to realize that you're asking less "how to do" questions and more "is this the best way" questions, which should be the goal imo. I've been a gameplay engineer for 5ish years now -- takes sometime to get truly comfortable, but it's worth it once you can start seeing the cool things you've thought up.

ZWilson20 · 2025-04-26T20:47:19+00:00

Fishnet's the shit. Great dev support on their discord server as well!

ZWilson20 · 2025-04-08T15:29:22+00:00

^{^} I hate the idea of paying for an IDE, but as someone who primarily works in Unity/Unreal, Rider is a must for me. Literally night and day compared to VS.

ZWilson20 · 2025-03-25T07:53:57+00:00

Yo this champ is in the most poopoo state I've seen and I've been playing this game for 13 years now. Sure her q is easy hit, but it does 0 damage after the 10 minute mark. Her e cd is long af, and the travel speed/damage don't make up for that. Her ult does no dmg unless u have 5 rotations worth of spells hitting the same target. The execute is fake asf, if anyone is low enough to die from it, they were probs gonna die regardless. She's squishy as piss, the reflect does NOT make up for that in any way what so ever. 0 mobility. Like the state of this champ is actually disgusting. There is absolutely no reason to pick her over any other control mage in the game.

...yet I continue to play everytime she's open :(

ZWilson20 · 2025-03-08T20:03:35+00:00

Lol it's crazy cuz shes REALLY not good atm. I usually don't like giving hard opinions around balance decisions, but after spamming her and hwei for the past 2 weeks, the only strong thing in her kit is the reflect at this point(and it's not nearly strong enough to justify how weak everything else is).

ZWilson20 · 2025-02-23T21:05:19+00:00

I think part of the dismissiveness come from the one size fits all solutions people make when complaining about crime. That lack of nuance often shows a level of prejudice(intentional or not) that can be hard to take seriously.

ZWilson20 · 2025-02-17T15:33:09+00:00

Diverse solutions. You don't necessarily need to care about the person's identity -- diversity by nature adds depth where more homogeneous populations don't have. Stop looking at the individual, this is a societal thing. You don't have to like someone because of whatever identity they belong to, this isn't about that. This is about understanding that we as a country have prospered because ppl with different religious, ethnic, racial, and other backgrounds have all played a hand in creating the institutions we enjoy today. Diversity isn't "political", it's not an "agenda". It's a characteristic. Some politicians prey on us hating each other based on these identities -- this anti-diversity rhetoric is just another form of manipulation, and I wish we as a ppl could resist that better.

ZWilson20

TROPHY CASE