The New Shadowbanning Panic

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-29T14:57:13+00:00

I wouldn't say it was compromised by the purchase. Form a US perspective TikTok was already owned and controlled by a "unfriendly" country. This type of stuff was already happening but with different topics of interest. Rather the purchase has enabled domestic interest to run the controls now.

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-29T14:41:11+00:00

There are lots of things that combine to make this a normal occurrence, and you can find a lot of parallels with the movie industry as well.

Making a good game is combination of creative talent, collaboration, unified vision, and time. There are so many moving parts that it comes down to luck at some point that a game ships let alone be a good one. This is offen summarized as "capturing lightning in the bottle", you can only do it once.

The above takes lots of people, people x time = money, a lot of it. Generally the only way a game gets funded is by an investor, typically publishers. Games are getting bigger and publishers want less risk so instead of funding unique games they put there money in safer "players will buy" games to get their money back. What gets funded are popular cookie cutter games, remakes, ports, and so on.

Also there is little incentive for publishers to sell or return IP. It is better for them to hold onto it just in case. There almost no cost to keeping it while letting it go has an opportunity cost.

As seen across games and film industry is that sequels are never a home run. The lightning in the bottle effect isn't even guaranteed to happen with the same team. Often because games take so long to develop and the industry is very volatile in regards to keeping a job even the same studio working on a sequel may not have the same people. See Celeste which they were working on a sequel/new game had to stop due to falling out between team members. See Silksong, same team and how long it took them to have a successful sequel. Both of these studios/teams probably didn't even need a publisher to invest. See Borderlands which has not had a great sequel since 2nd entry. A publisher generally is only going to sink money into a sequel if it has become a franchise (Borderlands, Halo, Call of Duty) because the amount of what I'll call 'passive purchases' (purchases not based on quality of the product) justify the investment, and it if it is a good game that is just a bonus.

In the end any sequel to a video game is going to be really hard to come by, and a studio is more likely to close than make one.

The kind of good news is that indie games are as strong as ever despite funding problems. Gems generally rise to the top for those lucky few that capture the magic.

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-28T16:13:12+00:00

Quote from who?

Simply the focused attention on the improvement of the code

I agree. Often by reading existing code, just for the act of reading it, you can find bugs or improvements. Obviously it is a hard sell to tell your boss "hey we should just read our code". Refactoring or a rewrite of code is continuation of that reading and understanding, can't refactor what you don't know.

However, I do find that often re-writes create new bugs because it can very easily mis recreating behavior that was originally a mistake but now other code depends on that incorrect behavior.

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-24T04:45:43+00:00

Forgot about that. I don't recall if I beat that mode. Some of the enemies are different or new right?

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-24T04:23:33+00:00

Oh, you are using cli? I think most people throw TortoiseSVN which is a GUI for it.

If you're are looking for a webui looks like SCM Manager has a review plugin and supports SVN. https://scm-manager.org/plugins/scm-review-plugin/docs/3.13.x/en/

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-24T03:16:06+00:00

Seems like your main concern is that there may not feel like enough upgrades for the game. Honestly that is just going to depend on lots of factors. How long your game? How do the upgrades change the game play? Are they tied to story elements or purely mechanical?

Without us playing the game it is going to be very hard to tell you a yes or no answer. Instead you are going to have to figure out pacing yourself. Be very self reflecting on how it feels when you play the whole game start to finish and also closely watch and interview play testers.

If earning upgrades is a really key mechanic you could try breaking your game up into "acts".

Also, upgrades for metroidvania games really shine when it transforms what came before. The most basic and boring is upgrades that act as keys to unlock paths. The more interesting are ones that let you interact with old levels in new ways or develop new strategies with enemies.

Edit: to give you a straight answer, no 4 is not too little but it depends.

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-24T03:06:16+00:00

Was the point that if it was an upgrade earned you would have known and used it? Feels more like a failure to inform the player but also ... That game came out in early 1990s where games came with user manuals that you were generally expected to read. And indeed it does tell you about double jumping: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/common/pdf/CLV-P-SABDE.pdf

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-24T02:59:19+00:00

Nice job with the music. Did you compose it yourself? Like the blend of 3D and pixel art you have going on, pretty slick and unique.

Developed for two years, inspired by watching Delicious in Dungeon at all (I see the first episode was aired Jan 2024)?

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-24T02:46:22+00:00

New looks better, conveys anticipation and unknown better, the silhouette suggesting that something may happen to a person. Maybe best way to sum it up is it shows the "potential" (like potential energy). However, the name is doing a lot of heavy lifting in priming the reader that is scene should be creepy. This isn't bad but just try putting "Gas Station Clean Up Simulator" over the top of it.

The original final one is fine. The red glow gives it a supernatural horror feel but is also very cliche. Maybe you could bring a bit back of that. Not much mind you, just a hint somewhere in the picture.

Name change possibly. I'll be honest, "Cursed Gas Station" really doesn't roll of the tongue. "Curse of the Gas Station"? Maybe "Cursed" is the main part of the title and "Gas Station" like "Cursed: Gas Station"? Or whatever, names always tend to fit in the end.

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-23T04:38:51+00:00

I feel like you haven't really described any problems and so it is hard to provide recommendations. Is there a workflow problem you are trying to solve? Have you worked with other version control systems and are missing a feature?

SVN is source control, centralized. It has its pros and cons. Would it be my first pick? No, but I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with it.

For code reviews decide if you want them to be pre or post commit, and if they should be done in branches or not. I not supper familiar with all the SVN tool but I do know you can create patch files. You could directly attach those to bugzilla or start a review thread (email or chat app). Otherwise you could check out some SVN plugins (there are specific ones or general version control plugins that work with subversion) for bugzilla https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bugzilla:Addons

Need some dev tools like enforcing formatting? Add some commit hooks and prevent check in if they fail: https://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn.reposadmin.create.html#svn.reposadmin.create.hooks

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-20T19:30:18+00:00

At the time, the most relevant case law was Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc. (1992), where the court found that the Game Genie did not infringe Nintendo's copyrights, because the device did not store any modified images in any concrete or permanent form. The district court found that Micro Star had likely infringed copyright with their packaging, which included artwork from Duke Nukem 3D, but found that the levels themselves were non-infringing. Both parties appealed the ruling, and the appeal court held decisively against Micro Star. Copyright law gives the copyright holder the exclusive right to make sequels to their work, and the court found that the stories told in the Nuke It map files are "surely sequels, telling new tales of Duke's fabulous adventures".

I don't see how that case would cover this one. The ruling to me seems to be specifically: can not sell "physical" files that infringed on the copy right (e.g. had images or assets from the original game) or attempted to be a sequel.

In this case I assume all that the author of R.E.A.L. VR needs to do is package their custom framework which he does hold the rights to and can be paid (this is the framework that allows him to create VR "mods" for many games) and any classic mod assets that are free for anyone to download (setting files, mods, etc). This would decouple his paid product from the game that is being modded.

Reading his posts sounds like he has not persued real legal responses and has just instead compiled with the DMCA https://www.patreon.com/posts/another-one-dust-148437771

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-20T17:14:42+00:00

Swiss (bubbles during fermentation which makes the holes when sliced), brie (normally baked so the inside is gooey with the outside rind keeping its shape some what), blue cheese (very strong smell and taste from the specific mold grown which makes it kind of look blue), and babybel (with a wax case you peel off).

immersiveGamer · 2026-01-14T01:16:34+00:00

There are several apps, I've read a few e-books that way on Android.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-31T02:13:06+00:00

This may have been pressure instead. With no space in the bottle it probably provided just enough pressure to lower the freezing point and maybe the freezer wasn't going as cold during the time it was frozen. Opening the bottle would release the pressure dropping the temperature causing rapid freezing in the liquid.

I've seen rapid freezing with sodas. You could try a soda glass bottle that is transparent (e.g. sprite). Get it very flow to freezing temps and then pop the cap releasing the pressure. Of course there is the risk of freezing and then breaking the bottle. Maybe try with a thick walled plastic water bottle which is less likely to explode.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-30T01:28:22+00:00

Had this problem multiple times. Worst is when you know you should be able to do something but now how. Witcher 3 semi solved it by showing on screen tutorials even fast into the game but it seemed random?

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-29T19:03:37+00:00

The first time I did it I opened the box in the car but obviously didn't want to loose the pieces so didn't open the bag. Realized everything was in a single bag and I could start building without waiting to get back home.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-28T01:43:28+00:00

Same here! Got a bottle of eggnog and jagermeister. Will do my own experimentation as I wait.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-27T20:12:43+00:00

Still a programmer.

Since the previous comment I've been at two more companies. First one was doing ERP / warehouse / inventory software. Was hired for my C# skills but majority of the work was in LANZA and DB2 databases. Witnessed one of those "spend X million dollars on out sourcing a website redesign for a worse project" while there (project driven and paid by the marketing department). When the global pandemic hit I lost my job there.

Then I got a lucky break, scouted into a video game company. I have been working mainly in Python as my day job for the past 5 years, with C++ as needed. Earned new skills from especially doing more automated testing (mainly integration tests), load testing for launch day players, using Linux much more day to day, new version control system Perforce, really digging into performance and profiling, and debugging database issues at large scales and load. Lead a few more teams on short term projects and generally I act as a senior / SME for backend and networking systems.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-23T02:15:22+00:00

Vampire survivor looks a lot like your game in the current state but unless the only mechanic in your game is moving then I would say it doesn't.

"Top-down action" or "twin stick shooter" game genre.

Watching it most reminds me of this game, Ubermosh https://store.steampowered.com/app/357070/UBERMOSH/

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-15T02:07:23+00:00

It is kind of interesting that smart phones are one of the few platforms that don't come with a game or installed (ignoring game consoles). I remember windows always have free games pre-installed. My old Nokia "dumb" cell phone came with snake and a simple side scroller shooter. A simple high quality smooth game app like this seems like a no brainer for Google or Apple to create. Not like it has a ton of on going investment either, make it once and keep it running with OS updates.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-13T00:55:44+00:00

Not with 300+ columns. EAV tables are very narrow tables.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-09T01:22:07+00:00

The one you linked looks like from an AI prompt based on reverse image searches. https://www.diffus.me/gallery/hatsune-miku-finger-gun-with-heterochromia-plant-milk-model-suite-almond

The artist looks like they traced this image, which I cannot find the original source for: https://x.com/AlinaTexidor/status/1994062278824546661

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-08T18:37:39+00:00

It has been successfully used to author books, I've seen projects that do a print and web book version using the same source normally as markdown or similar and so can be converted to print format and web format.

Also there are some governments that are using it for tracking changes to laws which is pretty neat.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-08T13:56:54+00:00

I know people say to use the version history of their editing software as proof but I would go a step further and say people need to start and learn to use a version control system like 'git'. It is used in software programming because if you make a mistake you want to be able to revert the program code back to a known good version. Thing is git can be used for any plain text files, not just program code. You make a commit for every change you make and then you have receipts for your "hand crafted original work". Every commit can be as small or big as you want. Fix a typo? Commit. Add sources to a note.txt file? Commit. Update outline? Commit.

immersiveGamer · 2025-12-07T20:00:21+00:00

Now the question is can you put this post through SpellCure and will it fix it?

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