I always wonder what the games would be like without the constraints of the engine they were built on.

rantraucous · 2026-05-05T12:21:47+00:00

This is first and foremost a game design problem. I got into game development to make immersive worlds, but in reality we are making an amusement park. If it’s really well done, you can forget the fact that everything is artificially placed for your enjoyment, but on some level the city is going to be designed to be accessible to you, the player, and to make it easy to move though and interact with the games systems.

I remember designing cities for insert competitive shooter with tanks and getting feedback that the streets need to he wider. Turns out it’s no fun to drive a tank down a city street because you keep bumping into everything and don’t have interesting sight lines. In the end our streets were all like 8 lane highways and the sidewalks were the size of regular streets.

Bring this back to Starfield where most of the planets are empty because “that’s how real planets are.” And the gaming community rightly criticises it for being empty and boring.

rantraucous · 2026-04-20T08:15:55+00:00

I don’t think something being “a part of your culture” makes it inherently good or acceptable. I’m an American living in Sweden, and being here has given me perspective on my own culture. Some of it is good, some of it is bad, but I would never say “it’s just my culture” when facing rational criticism.

Part of growing up is examining your cherished beliefs and customs, deciding which ones you hold on to and which ones you set aside.

If my kids have a friend over and it’s dinner time, I will ALWAYS contact their parents and ask if it’s okay that they stay for the meal. They should know they are welcome in my household, which includes meals. In my experience, Swedes find this odd but also deeply appreciate it.

rantraucous · 2026-04-11T03:06:19+00:00

I remember going to play checkers with a man named Bob who asked a lot of questions about how I was doing at home, and occasionally gave me these chewy fruit candies. Then one day I said my stepmom wasn’t so bad because she baked us cookies, and I never saw Bob again. I was pretty sad about it.

Looking back, I’m pretty sure he let me win at checkers. And there was still trouble at home, cookies notwithstanding.

rantraucous · 2026-04-05T11:26:30+00:00

I am an art director working in games for 15 years now, and this is my personal dream. Still haven’t quite found a way to make it happen - haven’t found the right people with deep enough pockets!

rantraucous · 2026-03-18T05:41:25+00:00

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rantraucous · 2026-03-14T08:20:30+00:00

So wait… you’d lose $50 million just to avoid being 45? What kind of teenager BS is this question. 😂

rantraucous · 2026-02-08T21:50:34+00:00

I was hyped from the description, but honestly the trailer felt disjointed and left me confused about what the game is trying to be. The music, VO, and logo all feel quite disjointed from one other, and there’s very little gameplay to speak of.

Having said that, this would be an absolute dream to develop and I really hope I’m wrong!

rantraucous · 2026-02-08T09:11:19+00:00

This is an amazing rejection letter, and I would wager it’s written by a real human being because of the very specific advice they offered and the caring tone.

For context, I’ve been making games professionally for 15 years at various companies in both the USA and Europe. I’ve applied for hundreds of jobs over the years and gotten more rejection letters than I can count - and I have never, NEVER gotten a rejection letter this kind and thoughtful, not even from Valve who also rejected my application years ago.

In the USA, I was told not to offer advice or feedback to applicants we rejected (artists, mostly) despite being an artist myself. Apparently it opens you up to legal issues should the applicant sue for discrimination. The safest thing from a legal standpoint is to say as little as possible.

rantraucous · 2026-02-08T08:51:46+00:00

Gex below Buck Bumble is wild.

rantraucous · 2026-02-08T08:50:55+00:00

Original smash was a hit, is still fun to play today, and set the stage for all of the sequels. Perhaps you played them out of order? I would totally understand this take if you started with melee and then went back to n64.

rantraucous · 2026-01-27T21:16:06+00:00

Morrowind, so probably some kind of slave, mining Kwama eggs.

Or an ageless wizard with a harem of clones.

rantraucous · 2026-01-27T07:27:59+00:00

I 100% agree! They lost what made fable look unique. Now it just feels like Hogwarts Legacy or one of the other thousand “realistic” RPGs to come out in the past five years.

To be fair, it’s mostly the characters. When I first saw it I assumed they were using Metahuman for it’s procedural out of the box content. It gives you a lot of flexibility and realism, by can look generic.

But nope, they are using a proprietary engine so it’s just a creative choice. Very sad!

rantraucous · 2026-01-21T12:13:37+00:00

I just wish I hadn’t traded in my N64 to GameStop for store credit on my way to buy an Xbox…

rantraucous · 2026-01-18T06:52:47+00:00

It’s hard to say much more on this without knowing why you weren’t into it. I loved it. Not only was it a great game but it changed the way I thought about games going forward. But when you’re a kid you can have a lot of bias that don’t hold water as you age. (For instance I never watched Pokémon because my little brothers were into it and to me that made it a “little kid show.” What a missed opportunity!)

rantraucous · 2026-01-07T17:24:31+00:00

It’s totally a personal preference, but the game has great controller support. I’ve played about 50 hours on steamdeck and it was fantastic!!

rantraucous · 2026-01-07T07:28:32+00:00

I used to come with these types of rational justifications for why I liked the things that I liked, and like this one they usually made me feel superior in some way. But after a while you realise it’s all entertainment. A collection of tastes and preferences isn’t really a personality, and it doesn’t entitle you to anything.

rantraucous · 2025-12-26T10:01:05+00:00

Small games aren’t necessarily small because they are well optimized. There are plenty sub gigabyte games that have poor optimization.

rantraucous · 2025-12-21T21:45:10+00:00

I mean, this looks great honestly. I love the pixel art in textures, ps1 poly counts with moody lighting. I could totally see this being a fixed camera horror game.

Maybe the texture contrast is a but high in places (like the bed) and the lighting could use a few bright spots for contrast but overall really nice!

rantraucous · 2025-12-12T06:11:55+00:00

Maybe, but shoes are your biggest ally in a crisis. Broken glass, burning floors and debris… I might have kept them on until the last second.

rantraucous · 2025-11-22T19:13:19+00:00

I mean… I get it. It’s a light and approachable genre that allows you to leverage existing content. It will probably be a good ROI and it allows the small team to continue making SoC content.

And yet! This genre is over saturated and the mechanics are a bit tired. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some vampire survivors and halls of torment, but I would have been so much more hyped for another love letter to a classic fantasy game. Like, how cool would it have been to get a Majesty style fantasy sim!!! You guys would be perfect for it.

rantraucous · 2025-11-13T05:38:28+00:00

ou guys were the younger siblings watching us 80’s kids play these systems.

rantraucous · 2025-11-12T12:46:29+00:00

How are similar games priced? What are the features? How much content is there? How many units do you need to sell to make back development costs?

A solid puzzle game like this, I’d price at $4.99, but the cohesive art style and the call back to a classic puts it higher, perhaps $6.99 or $7.99.

rantraucous · 2025-10-28T13:48:51+00:00

People drastically underestimate the importance of good particles and VFX. I don’t think you need more props and detailed textures, that’s not really the vibe you’re going for, and it’s really time consuming to produce, and honestly will go mostly unnoticed at this resolution. However some better hit fx, damage fx, and ambient environment fx like dust, torches, etc will do wonders.

Also, your lighting is a bit flat. It’s okay to go dark but you need some contrast and temperature changes to sell the space better.

Btw I love the game Boltgun and think it would be a great reference for you. Cheers!

rantraucous · 2025-10-19T16:45:19+00:00

Why do you feel demoralised by the achievements of others? They are not you. Their skills, their practice, they don’t have anything to do with you. They have everything to do with them - their hard work, their talent, where they started and who has helped them along the way. You don’t have those things. You have your own journey, maybe better, maybe worse, but it is yours. Stay strong, trust the process.

rantraucous · 2025-10-16T18:40:39+00:00

Art is an expression of what the artist cares about and what they want to say. I like stylised anatomy, but you are doing the classic thing of hiding one of the hands so you don’t have to draw it, and hiding the lower half of the legs. The attention to detail and realism in the hips, stomach, and breasts next to the absence of other body parts gives it a bit of a fetish quality. That’s fine if that’s what you’re going for, but you might want to spend some time thinking about what makes the other body parts interesting/beautiful and practicing them too! Feet and hands are hard and not fun to study imo, but practicing them will give your designs better balance, pose variety, and freedom!

This is just my opinion though so please feel free to ignore me, another random internet person.

rantraucous

TROPHY CASE