Does this mean in 6 years we’ll get “BelowTheWatermica Dos” by a new studio, and it will be a far better spiritual sequel?

It’s happened only a few times when a publisher cans the developers.

Anytime I see super-smooth transition animations in a demo, or even just gameplay mechanics that seem to work out way too conveniently, it tells me it’s an animated “pre-viz” demo of the game they want to make. That’s kind of the impression I got from Perfect Dark.

Any chance he’s putting the question on social media to convince other stakeholders above him?

It’s possible he was in a board meeting when some novice shareholder suggested “What if you take an exclusivity deal”? And he just didn’t have clear evidence on hand of that being vastly unpopular. Obviously that could be me being overgenerous to him.

I’ve been curious if a government-run dating app could do better - if its goal is to achieve genuine engagement, not cycles of frustration that boost subscription rates.

This is one of many subjects where capitalist concern ruins the product (and that’s not even something I say as often as others on Lenny)

I’ve seen this type of situation before. The basic idea is, the woman has low worldly awareness and isn’t in full control of her actions in that sort of state.

I had a student in my class who was over-dieting get up from her seat, walk towards the window absent mindedly, and fall over.

It’s a small implication but I think the fact that the person in the comic didn’t throw their hands out to stop the fall hinted to the flight attendant there was something very wrong with them beyond the turbulence.

This is something I loved about Hitman. Theres a bit of set dressing appeal around violent infiltration, but by and large, 47 uses social manipulation, knocks out only a few people, and only kills his targets, who are terrible people that make the world worse.

It also has a nice quote in a cutscene. (Paraphrased)

“We don’t take sides. ICA always remains neutral.”
“I hate to break it to you, but neutrality is a side. It’s the side of the status quo.”

Alright, I spent a bit too long on this so I may as well post it somewhere.
Miles is Antisemitic

When all the decisions have to come rapid-pace, I don’t feel like I’m doing anything notable. It feels like mashing out light or strong attacks and maybe some block/dodges.

I’ll admit that there have been some action JRPGs where I just didn’t understand how the mechanics worked together, even after some explanations, because I had to play it out so quickly in combat. Those games ended up having low difficulty so that people that “weren’t getting it” could still see the story.

I’m still okay at Soulslike games where there’s not quite as many meters and illogical systems. And of course I’m okay with turn-based games having those weird systems because I can process things slowly until I get it, and am taking my turns at full speed.

Huh. A bit like how I got myself off of high-sugar drinks; progressively I’ve added more and more water dilution until I was okay with pure water.

I have a little bit of that frustration with people not wanting to subscribe / donate to things, but I think there’s a very reasonable cause for that: Income disparity.

In the end, be it video game design building towards F2P live services or TV being terrible slop, a lot of it boils down to that issue: So much of your audience has so little to give. In a functioning economy, the money would cycle around a little more.

They could pull a Spec Ops: The Line, and use the franchise flag to pull a masterful writing twist that analyzes the original gluttony in a confrontational way.

It’s really sad - back on 9/11, I thought “That’s horrible! What kind of evil country could hate us so much they’d want to attack our civilians!?”

Now, if another 9/11 happens, I may just shrug and think “…Yeah…we’re America. We deserve it.”

Has the potential to be very cool! What might be sad is that many horror games now evoke the trope of “They move when you’re not looking”. Game development takes a long time, so I can guess this was not an obvious trend when you started on it. But there should still be ways to differentiate your work.

Every screenshot posted of this game is peak content.

I’ve wanted to suggest things like this, only frustration I can think of is, could you risk glittering an innocent bystander and having people accuse them of being ICE later.

she

You answered your own question

I couldn’t stand Near A Tomato but have tons of hours in SB. I grant it has nothing amazing in terms of story, but it has enough intricacies of combat to keep it fun, even if none of those mechanics were invented here.

Nier seemed to operate off a single attack button a lot of time, and working off RPG mechanics gave so many opportunities for level disparity that didn’t serve the game at all.

I think the only thing that might get me to go over the $60 line is if a publisher takes a chance on a franchise/concept I’d like to see more of, which these days is rare.

While it is fraud, it’s murky waters when you realize this is what every Kickstarter does. Gamers don’t easily fathom the full sum of what it costs to pay qualified artists for a full development cycle. Kickstarters have only existed to prove to investors that there’s monetary interest in a concept.

The two genders are equal, but still different. There are things to celebrate in each, and also conversations you’d want to hold in private with either group about the best way to look to their future.

I agree that we need men to stop seeing “women’s voices” as an attack though. I think it comes up because young white men see hundreds of support groups and slogans that champion every other minority, and will never once mention them. Even if the argument is they’re not “threatened” in a way they deserve it, and even if members of their demographic basically rule the world, the feeling of exclusion for them as individuals is real.