Craigp

Craigp, 25 days ago (edited 24 days ago) to random

Treating myself to an awful game.

I want you to understand how awful this game is:

If you don't turn vsync on, you can't move. Framerates over 60fps cause the inputs to glitch out.

That's right, "hold RIGHT control to run" is not the worst thing about these controls.

Update: This thread GOES PLACES. 🧵

Craigp, 3 months ago to random

Now thinking about confined interior spaces. Like, say, uh, ON A BOAT. I'd like to have players walk around as people as well as just drive the boats.

The physicality of these spaces is important. So the question is: how does the player navigate them?

Obviously they walk around like in any other game.

But games do not have confined spaces. If you see a confined space in a game, it's usually some kind of canned animation of moving through it.

Normal camera choices are a bit iffy here.

Craigp, 2 months ago to random

Boston.

Craigp, 7 months ago to random

Not the river

Craigp, 1 month ago to random

Thinking about settings which would facilitate a game about recruiting, training, and combining monsters.

One of the key elements to consider in these games is the "cockfighting" element.

Forcing animals to fight other animals is... pretty grim. And if it turns out those animals are sentient, that's slavery.

Obviously you can simply ignore these thoughts. Pokemon does.

But even though you can ignore them, I can't. It's impossible for me to enjoy making a world where the player does that.

Craigp, 1 month ago to random

Decided to play indie games today.

Craigp, 5 months ago to random

I'm far enough along with this basic space ship building prototype that I'm running into The Problem All Space Ship Construction Games Have:

Slowing down.

All our modern vehicles are about going forward, because everything on earth slows down unless you keep pushing it. Plus, wheels can stop and go backwards as well as forwards.

But for space ships, if anything slowing down is more critical than speeding up.

If you want to land or park, you're going to have to, you know. Stop.

Craigp, 10 months ago to random

Hmm, I'm really in the mood to listen to some high, sweet voices in kinda folksy songs without actual words. Like the ICO soundtrack. But I don't know if there's a term for the genre.

"Sopranofolk"?

Craigp, 5 months ago to random

One of the reasons I have no interest in Star Citizen is because in the rare instances it works, it's just a bunch of assholes sabotaging each other 24/7.

It's only fun when it works so badly nobody can murder you.

I have literally zero interest in any game where banditry is even theoretically possible.

... Well, I also don't like fighting in general, even pve. It's so boring.

But if it's pvp, it's boring AND annoying.

Craigp, 1 month ago to random

Ugh, I thought of a terrible video game idea. Now to polish it up and convince myself not to make a prototype.

Craigp, 5 months ago to random

Thinking about small space ship interiors. By 'small' I mean 'apartment size', or maybe a bit bigger. Big enough that it can be used as a play space.

There's a reason only a few games do buildable space ship interiors, and those few games are all "2m block" interiors.

Because there's no reason to be more interesting or elegant since there's nothing significant to do in them.

I think if we have more to do, we can also have more interesting constructions.

Craigp, 2 months ago to random

I'm going to need to do this myself, I think. There's a bunch of assumptions built into the built-in foot IK stuff and they do not tell you what those assumptions are.

I think this has to do with the way the default mannequin has a separate root bone for IK stuff, but Unreal refuses to import skeletons with multiple root bones, so what the fuck do they want me to do?

image/png

Craigp, 9 months ago to random

Ya know, I was just thinking about MMORPGs that rely on player content.

They almost always seem to fail, right? And that's because you created a knife edge: too few players and there's not enough content, too many players and there's not enough resources.

I'd argue no even moderately successful MMORPG has relied on player created content, because the only MMO-games I've seen that have done it are... not what I would call RPGs.

EVE Online is an RPG according to itself, but not to me.

Craigp, 4 months ago to random

Thinking about the scanning gameplay in my game design.

It's absolutely core to about half of the kinds of play in the game, so it needs to be fairly interesting. But I'm not aware of any game that's actually made scanning interesting, just a few that have made it vaguely OK.

So let's talk about scanning!

Or mute me for an hour. It's one of those threads.

Craigp, 4 months ago to random

I'm tempted to try Cyberpunk 2077 again now that it's gotten so much press for the expansions and patches being "not shit", but the thought of paying them another thirty bucks for the opportunity to give them a second chance makes me ill.

I deeply despise CD Projekt Red, deeply despised the time I spent with 2077, and thought the writing was the worst shit I'd seen since Bioshock: Infinite Nonsense.

But I love the idea of the game, and I don't think there's indie alternatives.

Craigp, 3 months ago to random

Been thinking about cargo hauling, and breaking it out of the single-player mold it's been squatting in for decades.

Let's talk! By which I mean I'm about to do a long-ass thread.

I'm gonna try out making the rest of the thread "quiet public" so it doesn't bother you too much.

Craigp, 1 month ago to random

Genres reach their calcified endpoint, when what used to be a powerful symbol to use in a story is now just set dressing to be used in formula.

Sci fi and fantasy both reached this point long ago.

For example, the concept of 'monsters' in a fantasy game, or even the concept of 'races'. These are things which we simply mimic year after year because we are expected to.

The structure of our stories wraps around them and we're supposed to feel moved when they come up.

Craigp, 11 months ago to random

Played a lot more Shadows of Doubt.

In general, the game is extremely unique and compelling. Which is my favorite kind of game.

It's also very janky, which is my favorite kind of game.

There's a curious lack of top-end on it. That is, the core loop is fine but it doesn't GO any where.

Not sure what possible solution there could be aside from create whole new districts with completely different setups that you slowly earn the right to visit. Which would be expensive.

Craigp, 3 months ago to random

One of the worst things about Unreal is when you forget how to do something quite basic.

Like, uh, how do I make this thing a physics object? It has a collider, it has physics and collision enabled, it has gravity enabled, but it does not fall.

There's no errors or warnings, it just... doesn't work.

Sigh.

Craigp, 11 months ago to random

Decided to give Baldur's Gate 3 another shot. It's hampered by a completely unsuitable system and being bad.

I expect I'll just make all the characters, because from what I remember, every single NPC was unbearable. And, to be honest, the writing was so plodding and awful I wouldn't be going back if A) people hadn't told me it gets better and B) it looks SO FUCKIN' SHINY.

Literally the only thing saving this game from the trash bin is the head sculpter. I can't imagine they got paid enough.

Craigp, 4 months ago to random

While the info systems I've come up with have promising play once you're on the trail of something, the weak point seems to be getting on the trail.

Creating a flow is important. What do you look forward to doing today? What do you want to do next? What pulls you?

Craigp, 1 month ago to random

I have a sneaking suspicion a much weaker narrative will work fine in nearly any game.

There are a ton of reasons to play through a game. Our obsession with movies split into three minutes chunks and distributed throughout is just one approach and, I would argue, a pretty crap one.

Smaller, looser narratives would probably work just as well, and other options probably would work even better.

Just look at gacha games.

We can deweaponize that stuff. Beat our swords into plowshares.

Craigp, 4 months ago to random

Idle thoughts on food in video games, especially MMOs.

Most MMOs have some concept of food, but because filling a hunger and thirst meter is boring as hell, nobody ends up caring about what they're eating at all.

Many games therefore go with a boost system, such as eating such-and-such gives you +10 defense.

But this is usually tiered, and most players are endgame, so you end up with a few foods that are worth eating and 99 foods nobody ever sees or uses.

Craigp, 6 months ago to random

One of the things I think about a lot when it comes to construction games is the role of automation.

How automation works in a construction game defines a lot about the high-end play of the game. Let's talk about it!

Or not, mute me for an hour if you hate the idea.

Craigp, 26 days ago (edited 26 days ago) to random

Noodling at a cyberpunk TTRPG system just because I don't like how the existing ones handle things.

The three common approaches are

1. Augmenting your body makes you less human

2. Oh, did we say "cyberpunk" we meant "cybermilitaryindustrialfanboy"

3. We adapted popular TTRPG system and changed some words to "cyber".

I don't like any of those.

What I like is the meat of having a ton of options to juggle and slot in, while also being punk-ish.

"Punk" doesn't mean "streamlined", FFS.