this "passion tax" appears all over the place & should be talked about more. you see it in book stores and game stores all the time excitement for particular work is constantly weaponized to depress wages & pit workers against each other
Co-founder and Creative Director at summerfallstudios.com. Canadian game dev who escaped the winter and is now living in Melbourne, Australia! He/Him
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this "passion tax" appears all over the place & should be talked about more. you see it in book stores and game stores all the time excitement for particular work is constantly weaponized to depress wages & pit workers against each other
I am back in Edmonton. Finally. Looking forward to the visit, but honestly looking forward to bedtime more. Soooo tired. I almost feel drunk. 🫠
I made it to Vancouver without incident. Didn't really sleep on the flight, as usual, so now I have to hold my bleary eyed ass together somehow for just a few more hours. Man, I hate being this tired. Too exhausted to do anything but sit here with my eyes closed and endure. 😑
I'll note this is the third flight *in a row* which has been a disaster for me. After years and years of consistent good flying karma, suddenly it's all gone. Someone has cursed me. AND I WILL FIND YOU. 😡
After a long day of delay after delay, I have finally made it all the way to... Auckland. 😓 Which is a nice place, don't get me wrong, but was only the first leg of my trip. As it is, they've put me up tonight and I basically have nothing at all to do for 24 hours. 😭
And yet sent colonists there 50 years later, with no agenda? And when Ripley is found, no alarms are triggered internally in the company?
They must keep secrets inside their company too, considering that 59 years later nobody in WY has ever heard of the xenomorph. That they wouldn’t tell Ripley, sure, but you’d think they’d pounce on any info that came up internally.
It’s got some plot annoyances (like having a xenomorph on Earth 2 years before Alien makes *no* sense), but I’m really enjoying Alien: Earth so far. It’s an Alien movie with time to breathe. Considering how much I loathed the prequels (even Romulus was not great), this feels pretty good so far!
We're delaying our v0.4 update by a week - but in exchange, here's a sneak preview of our chunkiest update yet! 🕯️
The other side of that kind of feedback, of course, is that maybe they don't TRUST your ability to make it good but won't simply say so. 😉
"You've used too many proper nouns. It's confusing. Re-write and use 50% fewer proper nouns. But also explain everything in detail. Without spending any additional time talking, because talking is boring."
And then, six months later, the teams slowly realizes they've tweaked the difficulty to provide challenge solely to someone who knows every single thing about the enemy but also doesn't really want to play and longer.
I'm at the point where I'm so grateful when someone gets my references. Like, if I scoff and shout "NOW a warning??!!" and someone, without skipping a beat, looks at me and says "Death Becomes Her!" we will be friends instantly and forever.
I think the thing that's equally hard is "try to remember what was good and fun about this before you got bored testing it". Like, did I *really* need to re-write the DAI prologue 7 times? Or was it hard even for seasoned pros to remember what it was like 200 playthroughs earlier?
Heh. Cue me staring in puzzlement at the folks giving me feedback until, finally, I say "OK, I will try to make it good" ...as if making the bad version of it had been my intent all along until they corrected me.
As my trip overseas draws nearer, and the number of things I absolutely need to do before I leave climbs, my desire to crawl under a rock and do none of them and never leave skyrockets. 😭
obligatory N I C E
When someone says something that's so patently ridiculous, it bypasses your normal "you are wrong" procedure and goes right to "you're clearly up to no good". 😅
Wait... no, what? Has it been two years?! It can't be. 😐
Endless regurgitation of what has already been done, with nothing new ever created or desired. Just an endless supply of the mediocre and familiar, and nothing more challenging than a sit-com. That's what awaits us, I guess.
These are the same people who think the step between a movie comprised of strung-together 10 sec vignettes filled with awkwardly moving people of hyper-realistic yet shifting similarity and a masterpiece is just "a matter of time". Like, it's just around the corner, folks! The creativity unlock!
Had a VO session moved from what, for me, would have been a 2am start to a far more reasonable 7am start... and they're like "would that be okay?" Would that be okay?? I think I've been saved. 😅
Our open beta is live! 😱 For our most dedicated exorcists, you can now check out new content, bugfixes, & changes ahead of public updates. Welcome to the festering underground that is game development. 🔥 Get access to the beta now (& read more) here! store.steampowered.com/news/app/344...
I think that's the kicker - I mean, replacing your ENTIRE order with something picked seemingly at random, as if surely you'd be fine with that, is one thing... but to then charge you MORE for the honour? Now THAT'S comedy.
Fortunately we love them anyhow. 🥰
It's important to remember they have brains the size of walnuts. 😉 Within a week, they'll be spooning again and it'll be like nothing at all happened. Just keep them apart, for now.
As I recall, it usually took a few days to a week, depending on how long the other cat spent at the vet. The smell needs to recede. Until then, you have to treat it like you're introducing two cats all over again... which can be very confusing for the one coming from the vet, for sure.
Ajax and Helo used to do this, as well. One whiff of vet and suddenly they were the Enemy.😅
I feel like a judge would have sympathy. "Your Honor, he was standing directly behind me on the train, and not only was he eating on public transit he was making both loud crunching and lip-smacking noises. And his nose whistled. I had no choice but to murder him on the spot."
Instant. Death. Especially if he was sitting right behind me. For some reason, it maxes out my misophonia if I can’t see them.
As someone who was rather tepid on yet another Superman/DC reboot: I loved it. Yes, it's a bit silly. Yes, it is earnest and fun and hopeful. I loved Krypto and Luthor/Elon and, best of all, this very *human* Superman at its heart. It's exactly what I needed to see right now. ❤️
We're publishing @charlottereber.com's book on the making of DRAGON AGE II! Based largely on new interviews with writers @davidgaider.bsky.social, @jbhepler.bsky.social, & Lukas Kristjanson, and editor @karinww.bsky.social Now funding on Kickstarter. www.kickstarter.com/projects/gab...
UNLEASH HELL with Malys' first update!🔥 🖤 New content - demons, cards AND allies 🤝 🐛 Bug fixes - no more sneaky tooltips trying to hide from you 👀 🕯️Quality of life changes - everything just feels better. Trust us 🙌 Read more:
Most roles he's in it's just "Tom Cruise as X!" -- but, yeah, every now and again he relaxes and does a turn like, say, in Tropic Thunder and it's annoying because you remember how endearing he actually can be.
I always thought Pattinson was kind of too good for Twilight, but I never suspected he had the depth in him that he's shown the last few years, yeah.
Something about turning on one of his band members who spoke out in favor of Palestine? I can barely remember now.
Right? Restrained, sympathetic... maybe even adorable? How is that the same man?!
Jack Black used to make my eyes twitch... but then he did School of Rock! I sat there afterwards, thinking "do I need to start liking Jack Black now? how can this be?" Then he became popular... and sexy? Alright FINE. And yet now everyone apparently hates him again. I can't keep up.
It's even worse when there's an actor I really dislike... enough to go on my list of "I will probably not see a movie with this actor in it"... and then they go and do something amazing? How can *Will Ferrell* be in Stranger Than Fiction, one of my all time faves? HOW?! It's so wrong.
I'm always nonplussed when an actor who I'd decided didn't have talent suddenly shows it. Like, I always thought Hugh Dancy was a low-budget Hugh Grant... but then he did Hannibal. Same with Taron Egerton, and then boom! Rocket Man. It's like "do I have to re-evaluate my entire opinion of you? ugh"
Yeah, I just got the +/- and it goes up or down by intervals based on vibes
Mine has all these extra functions and I'm like "does ANYONE know how to use these?" I used the 'defrost' function once, and I still had to do it, like, 5 times because just inputting the weight was insufficient. All I want is the ability to input the time in mins/secs and I don't even have THAT.
Good thing you had an AI to help you articulate an actual opinion. Where would you have been, otherwise? So, bravo! 👍
I think, when it comes to villains, having an English villain is simultaneously the "safe" route as well as the generic one. It avoids any unpleasant accusations of racism while taking advantage of the accents lack of specificity to simultaneously be "British but not *specifically* British".
Weirdly, the English accent has reached a point of being "generically foreign" to American audiences. You can have a character from any nation or time period, insert an English accent, and the audience nods along and this is completely normal.
Poppycock! Vampires are repelled according to the reverence with which the silverware was passed down to the next generation and stored in silence. I have this on good authority.
Mom used to say it was on display because it "looked nice", yet I always wondered who was supposed to see this? Again, not once did any of my parent's friends ever go "oh this fine China you have is so lovely!" We won't even talk about the silverware, which was neither used NOR on display.
My parents also had the fine China in a hutch "in case we ever need it for company" ...and yet, not once in the entire 18 years I lived with them did we ever use it. It was there just in case the Prime Minister dropped by, I guess, and too delicate to use otherwise?
An extra layer of madness would be people using CoPilot responding to emails which used CoPilot, where no actual communication has taken place between the people behind the emails and yet neither is actually aware of that fact.
Whoa. Reading accounts from people who started off using AI to help with a few things but have reached the point where they literally feel like they can't write or respond to *anything* without it now, and it's a problem, and... wow. Part of me hopes it's exaggerated, the other part knows it's not.
15 year-old me just started hyperventilating, it's crazy.
A Happy Canada Day to everyone back home! I'm headed back for a wedding at the end of August, which will be nice as I'm feeling a tad homesick. Almost wish I could delay a few weeks, as Canada in Autumn is probably my favourite. 🍁😘
malys rules a lot, it's giving constantine: city of demons so ofc it's right up my alley
Now that Malys is in Early Access we're thinking ahead to 1.0 & we'd like to include our Kickstarter backers in the credits! You can read about how (and the release) here!
You are my people. 🙏
An unfortunate confluence of acronyms. 😅
It is!
So you get a taste of the narrative, but it only develops up to a point - since normally you'd need to get into the subsequent city regions to see more. Right now we're working on the balance and "feel" of the game - and we can use all the help we can get! 🙏❤️
As a note: part of being EA is that this isn't a complete game, yet. It's the first city region only, expanded so players can get a feel of the longer-term deck development and play... though part of that was turning off the setting that prevented exorcisms from repeating in a run (sadly).
Not at the moment, nope.
We maaay have just shadow-dropped Malys into Early Access on Steam, for those of you so inclined. Does it still need work? Well, yes! It's very EA! But if you're willing to try it out and offer feedback, it'll only set you back $10 and we'd super appreciate it. www.pcgamesn.com/malys/out-no...
Eyyyy always willing to help out 😁
Mornin’ from the sob zone, I’m your host, Tears McWeep
I didn't see my name in there. Could I get added?
Compliments to the chef 🫡 @davidgaider.bsky.social
Right? "You're asking me THAT question? In THIS economy??"
In the months I've been without a passport, Mom has fretted about what if "something happened" to her or Dad in the meantime... to which I said "don't die then, Mom". And then we'd laugh. Sorta. So now I get to tell her "hey Mom! It's OK to die!" and I'm sure we'll laugh about it. Kinda.
I was home ALL DAY on the day they supposedly "tried to deliver", and there was absolutely no note left telling me to pick up the parcel at the LPO. Do they have a way for me to complain about that? No. 😡
Equally convincing. 😄
Having been without a passport since late March (because I had to physically send it in for renewal), I finally called the consulate and learned Aus Post had "tried to deliver" and was holding it at a LPO and I had to race to retrieve it before they returned it to sender. That aside, I have it! 😎🎉
You were REALLY mean. 😭
Them: "How are you feeling?" Me: "Everything is awful, but I'm mostly numb to feeling anything at all at this point? Dissociating, mostly." Them: ... Me: "...I meant it's fine. Everything is fine. How are you?"
I had a dream last night where I was really angry at @liamesler.bsky.social, and it's extra annoying that today I a) cannot give him shit for something he did in a dream, and b) cannot remember precisely what he did in the dream that I was so mad about anyhow. Yet I still feel mad, dammit. 😡
All I'll say is that it's quite the choice to dig up a post I made three weeks ago complaining about how interviews I'd given were being spun to make it seem like they were about Veilguard when it wasn't mentioned at all... in order to complain about Veilguard? 😉
I successfully turned it off and it is the most liberating feeling
Yeah, that's the one I encounter most frequently. Every single time I pause, suddenly it pokes its "DO YOU NEED HELP HUH" nose in.
Thank you! It worked! Oh god that will make my life so much easier now 😅
It's almost like it wants to take over. Everything I write, suddenly it sticks its head in the door "do you want me to re-write that for you?" -- NO! That's why I'm typing it! But it keeps on coming, again and again with no way to turn it off even though they have settings for every other thing. GAH
Google Docs is usually my go-to for document writing, but what is WITH all the AI? It almost unusable now. The Gemini UI barges in and appears wherever I'm going to type, and there are constant "would you like me to write/re-word this for you?" pop ups... why would you DO this to your own product?
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Let me put it another way: what’s considered a meaty point of discussion to a game dev versus a fan is very different and readily apparent. If the point is to engage one in discussion, the mere fact you can find fault in a game won’t be very interesting.
'What have we unleashed' 🫨 How do YOU think our friend @jessecox.bsky.social sounds as Angel? 👀 Jesse recently had an exclusive look at an early build of our unholy roguelite Malys - you can catch the whole VOD (including even more impeccable VO) right now! 🙌 www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuh1...
Clair Obscur not meaty enough? Umm okay, dude.
Their marketing team clearly didn't know what to do with it and possibly even went out of their way to avoid talking about what it actually was. From the trailers I saw, I expected an action/cinematic game like the Avengers. If it had been marketed better, supported more... who knows?
I'm probably reading into it too much, but I felt like the writers really *wanted* to go there but were somehow denied.
You can criticize any game, if you try hard enough. All you need for that is to be either pedantic or a dick. Finding criticisms that are meaty and worth discussing because they exist in the framework of a game that did other things really well is what a game dev will actually be fascinated by.
It's funny because, when you boil it down enough, the use of cards is just a power cooldown mechanic with some added randomization thrown in.
I actually thought the writing was really well done. I'm not sure that tying in a gift-buying mechanic AND making the interactions have actual gameplay effects so they're no longer optional were good ideas... but hence why a dev can discuss this forever.
I'm not generally one to *ever* say "just play X hours of this game/watch X hours of this show and it eventually gets good!" because who has time for that nonsense? But, yes. The improvement from season 1 to 2 to 3 for Wheel of Time is actually substantial. I almost bailed on season 1, myself.
The card mechanics are borderline genius. Every hero plays differently, and makes that hero *feel* like they're supposed to. Spider Man? Zips around the battlefield. Wolverine? Rage and slashing. I love that part so much.
"Clair Obscur is so great, isn't it?" "Yeah, that thing it did with X? Awesome, right?" "Yeah!" (silence ensues) "You want to talk about Midnight Suns?" "Whoaaa, okay... I need to sit down for this."
If you want to get into an animated discussion with a game dev, find a game that does certain things really well and others really poorly. If it's just an awesome game all around, that's a short conversation... but this? You can talk for HOURS. To date, that game is still Marvel's Midnight Suns.
I remember when I nervously asked the cinematic designers to have someone hanging from a cliff while talking to someone above them they were like "oh yeah no problem" but when I asked to have characters exchange objects? Hell no! ...and I realized I know nothing about what's easy and what's not.
Right? A friend said I'm middle aged, but I'm like "living until my 80's seems rather optimistic, don't you think?"
It's weird how, as a kid, I never saw anything really weird about how every Piers Anthony series had the main characters running around naked for significant portions of the books.
Don't sell it to *me*. I don't have a spare $100 million lying around, so it'd just be a nifty conversation piece. 😅
And... what does this space being a bubble have to do with what I said, exactly?
Some of the interviews have been pretty good, actually. But there's an entire industry of websites nowadays which just grab the articles from other sites and then twist & regurgitate them as their own and with their own spin.
And also because they see me talk about "games" or "RPGs" and assume the only thing I could ever talk about, the only reason I'd say these things, was Veilguard. They're pretty single-minded.
Meh. If I was worried about it, I wouldn't have done so many interviews to begin with. It's just interesting to watch unfold in completely unsurprising fashion.