magic_lobster_party

Better than sex

• the most genius comedian of all time

I look forward to that new meme template.

They were one of the loudest proponents of “games as a service” back in the day.

Among the old PS3 conferences there’s this one where Portal 2 is announced for PS3. While everybody else tried to make 3D TV gaming and motion controls the next big thing, Gabe just enters the stage and describes how they believe games as a service is the future.

They were so far ahead. Everybody struggled to figure out what the next big thing is going to be. Valve had already figured it out.

His arguing hasn’t helped him to maintain is image either. It’s hard for me to respect the guy, which makes me less inclined to buy his games.

Jonathan Blow has been more interested in marketing his niche programming language than his games, so maybe that’s why.

Naturally there’s a drop in profit in a year where they don’t release a heavy hitter like Elden Ring. And the numbers don’t include the sales of the expansion.

I’m sure they have their finances under control.

Haven’t properly watched the videos, but I don’t think OOP is that bad. I even think encapsulation is one of the core strengths of OOP.

I’ve worked with systems where no thought was put into encapsulation, and those are often incredibly difficult to work with because everything is heavily interconnected. Can’t make a change in a small thing without risking breaking something else at the other side of the program.

I like to see encapsulation as a workspace. It defines the tools we have direct access to. Changing one thing in a workspace shouldn’t affect anything on the other side of the program. Makes it much easier to collaborate in large teams. Minimizes the risk of interfering each other’s work.

I think applying design patterns blindly without understanding what problems they’re supposed to solve is often more harmful than not using them. It can lead to difficult to manage code bases because the program is over engineered for problems that don’t exist.

My general rule of thumb is to write code that can be easily adapted to unexpected changes in requirements. Avoid writing code that paints yourself into a corner. Simple solutions are often easier to work with than complex solutions. If what you’re doing adds a lot of complexity, take a step back and seek other options. Maybe you’re overlooking an obviously simple solution to the problem?

I think inheritance almost always has this “painting yourself into the corner” tendency. Once the design is set, it’s often difficult to break free from it. Composition along with interfaces is generally the better choice. Often not even interfaces are needed.

This comes with experience. You learn what works, and what doesn’t. Often you do it the hard way.

Databases are tricky. I have no good advice for that.

My guess is that there will be some sections where you play as Link. Kind of like how you play as Zelda in some sections of Spirit Tracks (if I remember correctly).

Sounds more like warframe is using the early access model to me. I think that’s fine. Many great games are in early access that are worth their price even in their unfinished state.

Star Citizen feels different, even though it’s also early access. In part because of the weirdly priced ships. There are ships that cost thousands dollars. Like, what’s the justification for that? Most people spend way less on games for a year, but this game asks this price just to gain access to one asset?

Another part is the ever expanding scope. It feels like they don’t really want to release the game. They’ve found there’s no point in actually finishing the game when they can just keep selling the promise of the definitive space sim game. Keep giving them more money and they will promise more.

He’s specifically talking about the original. Bioshock was unlikely to get made with its budget due to how niche System Shock is. It’s impressive they managed to make Bioshock a big success.

Every time I see some SC news I look up to see if there’s any release date announced for SQ42 yet.

It was originally supposed to release in 2014 and it still doesn’t have a release date!

He’s talking about System Shock, which wasn’t that immensely popular.

I got a Switch. It’s been mostly untouched for years. Most games that aren’t created by Nintendo themselves are available on Steam. I even played Totk on PC using Yuzu.

Only a Sith would deal in absolutes. Same goes in programming. Microservices have their benefits . So do monoliths. Neither is going away in the foreseeable future.

Safest bet is probably to do monoliths first. Use microservices once it makes sense.

Well it works best if the game is actually good.

A game that does seasons very well is Deep Rock Galactic. Each season comes with fresh new content. Old seasons can be revisited if you missed them, so no stress. The new additions to the game are permanent, which adds great variety to the missions. Progress follows between seasons, so no need to create new characters from scratch.

Most importantly: the game is really good as well.

It’s mostly to maintain user engagement. It’s a way to bring players back every now and then.

The game is mainly designed around season play. You’ll miss out on content if you don’t participate in seasons. The game won’t be as enjoyable either, because it’s not designed to be played that way.

I just want a game without the time pressure of seasons. I want to play games in my own pace. It’s hard to maintain an attachment to the character when the character “expires” once the season ends.

I haven’t played D4, so I’m not sure how seasons are implemented in that game, but this was a problem in D3. Once the season ends there’s little reason to continue playing with the character.

Excellent video!

I was probably 3 when I was first exposed to the first Wipeout game, and I have been a fan of it and its music ever since. Petrol from Orbital is a big influence on my childhood.

Then later we got a demo with 2097. I distinctly remember it had Body in Motion by Cold Storage. Probably the best track in the entire series.

And now I learn Cold Storage hated this kind of music when he started with Wipeout.