glassbottommeg

glassbottommeg, 8 months ago to gamedev

PAX turning into a full-on fan convention minus the indie press/business layer makes that less useful for #GameDev promo/pitching, and E3 is dead of course, which means

... god do we really have to do GDC now? Is it really the last one standing, other than Gamescom? That's miserable! AGH!

GDC had even already (quietly) been becoming a press hotspot, so that's only likely to accelerate after this year.

glassbottommeg, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

<looks at documentation on PassKeys>

<laughs in "I'm a developer and even I've bricked entire apps because I lost the associated private key">

glassbottommeg, 9 months ago to random

I'm developing a theory that Microsoft's comical inability to run a digital store or the like is actually the work of insurgents within their ranks, who know how dangerous that would be, and encourage the absolute worst executive to counter it.

"You're right sir, we SHOULD put ads into the OS- hey what if we added a suggested apps thing that randomly told users to install Minecraft? Because you know bitches love Minecraft, boss, amirite?"

glassbottommeg, 11 months ago to gamedev

Currently working on combat, which means iframes and armor and etc, and I keep coming back to:

fighting game fans probably have lots of lore about what "armor" vs "super armor" comes from, but the actual reality is that some #GameDev went "but what if I want this special case to ignore armor frames" and then someone else went "but what if I want this special special case to still have armor against that"

Then someone else came along and went "... so... ok what about a special special special case" and created Hyper Armor, and- they've killed, and they will absolutely kill again, and then we'll have MEGA ARMOR or some shit.

glassbottommeg, 9 months ago to random

This is neat, I feel like Masto turned a corner recently on "being a place to find news and stuff"

Seems like we're getting that thing where news ripples across the network, which was part of why Twitter was useful. Probably crossed some active user threshold necessary for that network effect to kick in or something. Yay!

(though thankfully the effect is less uh, "screaming into the void"-ish here, just folks talking about a thing)

glassbottommeg, 9 months ago to random

I miss when computers did less, but were under your control.

I really don't like this era of unknowable elder magics that unreliably produce wonders, but for which the most reliable support option amounts to hitting it with a stick any time it does something unexpected and praying it doesn't either explode or burn you alive with chromatic breath.

(My PC does nothing when I hit shutdown, then shuts down an hour later, and I've done everything admin'y possible with the next option being to reinstall the OS because <shrug>)

glassbottommeg, 9 months ago to Starfield

Whole lotta folks gonna hit #Starfield now, so my advice echos what you've seen elsewhere:

• Stick to the main plot until the Big Thing happens. The writing is kind of terrible up until that point (and still a bit after, but at least then it has narrative stakes).
• The early game just, kind of sucks. You'll struggle with inventory size, and figuring a bunch of shit out that isn't well explained.
• Contributing to that further is there's a bunch of really shitty side-quests seemingly clustered right at the beginning. There ARE better ones out there though!
• You'll likely like the game more as you get further in, but that took me uh, 20 hours?

(and also, that this is a VERY in-need-of-mods kinda game, so if you wanna wait? Yeah just wait, it'll be a much better experience in a year or two)

glassbottommeg, 9 months ago to random

I keep groaning about stuff that's obviously broken in Starfield, but. Also I'm 24 hours into it and having fun? I dunno.

I think Skyrim was in a better state at launch. This feels a bit, eh, Fallout 3-ish, 4-ish on a good day, in terms of how much mods are gonna need to fix.

It isn't Naked Launch Oblivion or anything at least.

glassbottommeg, 7 months ago to gamedev

When it turns out that the two most important classes you ever took were, in fact, Linear Algebra and Art (for design layout) #GameDev #UE5

<future me, stepping out of the time machine in kid me's HS Programming Class> "Trust me kid, where we're going, we won't even need the keyboard"

glassbottommeg, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to Finance

Not only is the Big Short guy (yes, that guy) betting heavily against the market again, but he's so confident about it that the contract value is 1.6 billion, or seen another way,

fully 93% of his entire investment portfolio.

EDIT: though the source is really fishy.
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/markets/the-big-short-take-2-michael-burrys-1-6-billion-short-bet-against-sp-500-nasdaq-100-11189541.html #Finance #investments #money

glassbottommeg, 11 months ago to random

Friends, I've just had the most marvelous game idea.

(https://botsin.space/@possumeveryhour/110707842582916288)

glassbottommeg, 14 days ago to random

Right, ok, so in the year of our lord 2024, in Windows 10 (or 11 I guess), does anyone know

how the fuck you're supposed to type an emdash or a trademark symbol, without either using the emoji keyboard for a TM, or copy-pasting it in from elsewhere?

alt+ doesn't work anymore, it hasn't for years, aaaaaaaa (also I don't have 10key, who has the desk space for that anymore)

glassbottommeg, 9 months ago to random

It's honestly kinda shocking that there was theoretically a big open world Jedi game and I don't think I heard much of anything about it?

Was it so aggressively mid that it deleted itself from the public consciousness?

glassbottommeg, 10 months ago to gamedev

So um, #GameDev people, pleeeaaase make multiple versions of your trailers. You can use the same meat! Just swap out the bumpers at either end! It isn't bad at all!

Why?

So you don't accidentally end your Steam trailer with "but why buy it here? It's free on Xbox GamePass!". Not even PC GamePass, heh, literally ending on "go buy an Xbox!".

I'm fine with #GamePass. I like it! But, also- hahahaha.

glassbottommeg, 7 months ago to gamedev

Man I'm so fuckin happy with how the dodges turned out. Took a ton of fighting (you have to set Flying state to get actually fast movement and that's a whole thing), but absolutely worth it.

Lil bird does a good dodge now! #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday

Bird with a sword circling an opponent doing side dodges

glassbottommeg, 11 months ago to random

Game development is just a pile of increasingly cruel exceptions to the rules you set out at the start.

Ancient me: "things should point where they're moving"

Old me: "things should also be able to move via animation, and have that movement count toward the point-where-moving, but only AFTER animation finishes, so we end up pointed in the right direction"

Current me: "actually things should also be able to, optionally, be told to face in the opposite direction of where they're moving. Or in fact any other radial offset."

glassbottommeg, 1 year ago to fediverse

I hear a lot about reconnecting with old communities after moving over to #Mastodon but less about this being a huge moment for new communities to be formed

which is to say,

RISE UP, my fellow "eating a whole handful of cheese out the bag of shredded cheese while standing in the kitchen leaning over your nachos", our time is nigh!

glassbottommeg, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

As a general rule, I hate the idea of "Favorites", because it tends to downplay the new in favor of the familiar,

but fine, @antonhand asked, so here, Personal Top 25, in no particular order. Maybe some surprises? Maybe not? Heh.

EDIT: Also, the choice of Morrowind isn't meaningless, but that isn't thumbing my nose at Skyrim. I have played SO MUCH Skyrim (Legacy of the Dragonborn was incredible). I just think Morrowind was the last TES game that was truly great in and of itself.

glassbottommeg, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to gamedev

Thinking about experience/advice in #gamedev for whatever reason, and realizing that:

being energetically (but not asshole'y) wrong has been fantastic for my career/education

You need to be wrong in a kind, well-meaning, more than willing to backtrack, kind of way. Not jerk-wrong, you give ground instantly. But. Being shown how I am wrong almost always encodes a stronger memory than just getting something right the first time, and I end up learning more about the system and whatever surrounds it in the process, because the way in which I'm wrong will necessarily exist in a context.

This generalizes to "try things and embrace failure", but I think a lot of folks miss or intentionally avoid the fact that to engage with that thinking means: being wrong, frequently, in public, in full view of your peers. Your face will have enough egg to be an omelette. But if everybody's smiling? Good natured wrongness? It's fine!

EDIT: this advice does NOT generalize, tho, that's how we get "can I ask an offensive question"

glassbottommeg, 8 months ago to random

Really not liking how "protect the children" has been hijacked to push all kinds of fascist proposals lately, none of which having anything actually to do with, uh. Protecting kids? Quite the opposite, on average?

I understand linguistic drift is a thing and that the wider populace is brick stupid but— for fuck's sake.

It isn't even new. They've been deploying this ever since they used it to go after the gays, and our culture was turned into a smoking crater for a few decades. But it keeps working.

glassbottommeg, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to baking

Any #baking folks in the house?

I have Wilton's "Candy Decorating Pens". The kind you have to warm in hot water, ie. actual candy.

Site doesn't list specific best-buy dates, but implies "candy" products are best-buy 18 months from date.

That seem/sound reasonable? The pens haven't bulged or anything, they're still sealed (they're the kind you gotta clip the tip off).

Guessing they're fine? 18 months would have been end of this June, so like, well within a reasonable window if I'm speculating right.

Wanna draw art on girlfriend's birthday cookie cake, but it would be a party foul to give the girlfriend food poisoning on birthday, heh.

EDIT: They contain vegetable oil, milk solids, whey powder. So yeah, not just sugar. Sugar's the first ingredient tho, heh.

glassbottommeg, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to random

At what point does tech admit that their UX has gone around the bend and we need to bring back buttons and back away from "discoverable" UI? Surely this decade?

The current UI flow for accessing your Google Photos albums via Telegram:

• press the attach image button
  -- NOT attach files. Attach files presents a Photos shortcut but will attach the image as a file not an image.
• Now tap the 3 dots in the upper right that silently changed their function between UI panels
  -- NOT internal storage, that won't show albums
  -- NOT any other button, again, won't reach albums

This is because Google changed how Android file access works btw, it's a poorly thought out "data security" thing, which is why older/open-source apps don't do it (yet).

I've literally seen less-involved ritual magic than this.

glassbottommeg, 8 months ago to random

I like this new post Twitter social web where my corner of things is giggling constantly over Shromp and

absolutely nobody else has any fucking clue what we're on about

Everybody talking about radically different things and having no idea what the one popular thing is is good, actually

glassbottommeg, 1 month ago to random

New #automotive paranoia:

We had a car drive itself into a tree. On its own. It isn't even an electric. Though I guess it wanted to be?

The fucking starter shorted out somehow, and the STARTER DROVE THE ENTIRE ENGINE. DESPITE THE PARKING BRAKE BEING ON.

I've never even heard of this failure mode. WTF.

glassbottommeg, 4 months ago to random

Hrm. Another question for #Hugo (or #Jekyll really) users:

So you add a new News post. You go to upload. Uh. What files do you ACTUALLY upload?

In principle the answer is "well the new ones silly", but when your static site includes say, a Tag and a search system, how on earth do you know which changed and select only them?

Lately I just FTP up the whole folder, overwriting everything, and I feel like an idiot 😭 (or am I valid? maybe?)