a big part of the complexity in programming (especially game programming) comes from balancing flexibility with speed (both implementation and performance). At some point, decisions are made weighing out risks, priorities and plans that will solidify a part of the code base in favor of speed (or some other factor) at the cost of flexibility.

this happens all the time

A lot of the reasons a solo dev or modder seems like they can progress so fast changing things is they aren’t facing a lot of the same factors and they aren’t needing to go through any rigorous testing.

At some point in the process, there’s too much risk and and overhead involved to make any change. This is totally normal from triple A down to game jams.

And, you can’t ignore that some of these things come down to game design. A change like you’re suggesting, just adding a light, can negatively affect the balance of things even if it seems like it wouldn’t.

6 months doesn’t sound unrealistic for re-doing a menu system. Designing, reworking art, re-programming workflows and then testing everything can take several months. Even just the logistics of releasing it after it’s done, that alone can take a month.

Yes, it is possible to setup everything in a very generic way that is data-driven, but that also is a lot of work that has to be prioritized with the scope of the project and the team members available.

supposed to be basic launch features

isn’t this very subjective and dependent on the game and scale of success?

not if you had one of those setups where you can burn right from a source CD to multiple target blanks

MOBAs were cool at the time of warcraft 3. Let’s move on.

What kind of statement is this? MOBAs are still insanely popular. And “move on”? as if there’s no reason to iterate or improve on a genre?

I don’t even play MOBAs but I’ve heard this same sentiment on arena shooters and it makes as much sense there as it does here.

The problem isn’t that no one is making good games, it’s just that the mobile market is dominated by too many large companies intent on keeping it the way it is and enough of the consumers are ok with that.

I always felt like dodging projectiles and not needing to worry about vertical aiming was the best part of doom.

It also translates to controllers well too vs the hit scan skills required with modern fpses along with the ability to aim on the vertical axis

I know this is gonna sound annoying but I just use vim for stuff like this. Even notepad++ has a macro thing too, right? My coworkers keep saying how much of a productivity boost it is but all I see it do is mess up stuff like this that only takes a few seconds in vim to setup and I know it’ll be correct every time

I suspect it was my age when I first played it but when I play it now I don’t feel the camera pain. I know that’s the biggest complaint but what exactly is the pain? is it hard to articulate exactly other than it feels like a lack of control?

this is a great post. I do think the outer wilds description is a smidge spoilery. I know, people figure that out pretty quickly but it’s still a neat experience if going in blind

excellent, just what I’m looking for 👍

I was considering getting Unpacking but then saw it was on mobile for the same price and am unsure whether it’d be better on my phone or on Steam deck

GTA games are expensive to make. All that multiplayer bullshit subsidies the single player campaign. I was pretty satisfied with GTA 5 and GTA 4 and didn’t touch the multiplayer. is it a big deal if they continue that pattern?

I just tried this out a little bit ago. I couldn’t get the Linux version working but I downloaded the windows version, added it to steam, set the proton version to the newest one (.8 I think? it had an 8 in it) and it worked pretty well

haven’t tried changing any settings but beat the first mission without any issues 👍

edit:

actually, check out the steps in the last comment here https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/perfect_dark/issues/83

isn’t it “good” by the measure of it being your favorite?

Fast food can be delicious and filling, but it’s not good food.

this is a completely different argument. Fast food is “good by any measure” because it’s good by the measure of delicious and of filling. It doesn’t make sense to complement something and then say it’s not good in any aspect.

what does this even mean? “sure they’re fun” and also “not particularly good by any measure” are conflicting statements

I work from home and after the shift to remote work it didn’t take long for me to pretty much stop using my gaming pc because at the end of a work day I kinda want to be out of my computer room.

Most of the time I’m using it on the couch or lounging around the house. I have brought it on planes (flown like 14 times so far this year) and it’s not that bad but I guess that may vary from person to person.

It’s not for everyone but it fits my needs pretty perfectly.