• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
    1. Humble Choice - February 2020

      February's Humble Choice (the new version of Humble Monthly) is now available, with 12 choices for games again this month: Frostpunk + The Rifts DLC Pathfinder: Kingmaker Book of Demons Cryofall...

      February's Humble Choice (the new version of Humble Monthly) is now available, with 12 choices for games again this month:

      1. Frostpunk + The Rifts DLC
      2. Pathfinder: Kingmaker
      3. Book of Demons
      4. Cryofall
      5. Okami HD
      6. Eliza
      7. Shenzhen I/O
      8. Project Warlock
      9. The Hex
      10. Warstone TD
      11. Underhero
      12. Night Call
      11 votes
    2. Website puzzle that was posted to Tildes?

      A while ago, maybe like a year ago? There was a thread and two websites were linked to that were basically puzzle sites. As in the sites themselves were the puzzle and you had to find clues in the...

      A while ago, maybe like a year ago? There was a thread and two websites were linked to that were basically puzzle sites. As in the sites themselves were the puzzle and you had to find clues in the site to get to the next page. It was very cool but I managed to lose the link and was hoping someone might know what I'm talking about. We ringing any bells?

      10 votes
    3. What are all the different ways in which we can appreciate games?

      I know my question isn't worded great! If anyone has a better edit after reading all of this, let me know! I have a half-formed idea in my head and I want to brainstorm a bit. Here's the idea:...

      I know my question isn't worded great! If anyone has a better edit after reading all of this, let me know!


      I have a half-formed idea in my head and I want to brainstorm a bit.

      Here's the idea: games as a whole have a ton of different aspects/lenses through which we can enjoy and appreciate them, and I want to know what they all are. Here are some examples to show what I mean:

      Aspect Description Examples
      Narrative We can appreciate a game with a good story To the Moon, The Walking Dead
      Exploration We can appreciate a game that lets us explore a digital world The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Minecraft
      Movement We can appreciate a game that lets us move in compelling ways Forza Horizon 3, Mirror's Edge

      I feel like there are dozens of these we could come up with if we get really specific. The diversity of gaming experiences and genres really lends itself to a broad swath of these aspects. After all, the appreciation someone gets from playing something like Katamari Damacy is very different from that which someone gets from, say, ARMA 2.

      I think later it might be interesting to try to apply some sort of analysis or taxonomy to this, but right now I just want to brainstorm. What are all of the different reasons we can like games? Be as specific as you can, try to cover lots of different titles and genres so that all of gaming is represented, and feel free to critique or edit my examples as well (e.g. I think it might be worth breaking up "Narrative" into "Plot" and "Characters", for example).


      Aggregated List So Far

      I'll keep updating this as we go. For entries that didn't follow the table format (which I didn't intend to be prescriptive but it looks like it caught on!), I've tried to incorporate them as best as I can, but if you feel I've misrepresented something let me know! Again, I'm mostly just interested in brainstorming at the moment, and then I think we can have a secondary thread later for analysis/synthesis.

      Aspect Description Examples
      Narrative We can appreciate a game with a good story To the Moon, The Walking Dead
      Exploration We can appreciate a game that lets us explore a digital world The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Minecraft
      Movement We can appreciate a game that lets us move in compelling ways Forza Horizon 3, Mirror's Edge
      Empathy We can appreciate a game for who / what it positions us as, and the degree to which it gives insight into that position. Benefits for the player range from novel emotional experiences to genuine moments of learning. Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor, The Beginner's Guide
      Escapism Sometimes you simply need a break from real life and to escape into a fantasy world for a bit. Videogames are a highly effective way to do this IMO, since you are actually granted agency as an actor in them, which you don't get in most traditional escapist mediums like novels, movies and shows. Almost every game with a story, to varying degrees
      Catharsis When you manage to deeply emotionally connect with any story (regardless of medium) and it reaches its climax or denouement, it can often help you break through the emotional barriers you have set up over time, which then allows you to safely release your pent up emotions. Surprisingly, I find games to be somewhat less effective at this than novels, but it still happens with them often enough to be a major component of my enjoyment of them. Gris
      Emotional Challenge Sometimes the opposite of catharsis is great too. Getting to experience emotionally challenging things, like a truly mind-bending or depressing story, in the relatively safe environment of a game can be incredibly fulfilling. Although, those sorts of games often require me to be in the right frame of mind to experience, so that I don't have a breakdown afterwards, and as a result I don't seek them out all that often... I can only handle so many existential crises per month. ;) Disco Elysium
      Intellectual Challenge Whether it be from difficult puzzle elements or strategy mechanics, intellectual challenges presented in games can be incredibly gratifying to solve and overcome. Europa Universalis, puzzle games by Zachtronics
      Eureka Moments This goes hand in hand with the above two, but also applies to most games. Those moments when you finally figure something out that you were struggling with beforehand, or a major plot twist is revealed, can be truly glorious in games, and IMO they tend to occur more often in them than most other entertainment mediums. Portal, Portal 2, The Talos Principle, The Witness
      System We can appreciate a game that lets us explore a well crafted system of interacting logical parts. The player can learn the rules of the system by observation and experimentation, and apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to achieve goals. Stephens Sausage Roll, Factorio, The Witness, Antichamber
      Competition We can appreciate a game for fostering a competitive spirit among peers, to test themselves against each other as teams or individuals Dota 2, Rocket League
      Cooperation We can appreciate a game that allows and encourages two or more people to work together towards a common goal A Way Out, ibb and obb, Portal 2
      Audio experience We can appreciate games that use music or sound in interesting or resonant ways Bastion,Metal Gear Solid III
      Visual experience We can appreciate games that use visuals in interesting or resonant ways Tetris Effect,Super Hexagon
      Effort We can appreciate games that adequately convey the effort required for the task happening on-screen Don't Look Back, The Witcher 3, Dishonored
      21 votes
    4. Any tips for painting miniatures?

      My D&D group mostly used Lego for the longest time, but we recently decided to give miniatures a shot because we were adding more people and I only have so many minifigs to share (unless you want...

      My D&D group mostly used Lego for the longest time, but we recently decided to give miniatures a shot because we were adding more people and I only have so many minifigs to share (unless you want Stormtroopers in your fantasy setting, that is!). A few weeks ago we met up to paint our miniatures for our new campaign and I think that was the most relaxing, calming thing I've ever done. We all sat in silence basically, noobing our way through the painting process and we had a lot of fun.

      My character is a sheltered rich southern man who sounds a bit like a mix between Colonel Sanders and Foghorn Leghorn. He's a sorcerer and despite how is mini ended up looking, he does not cast bubblegum -- https://imgur.com/fr4tc6Z

      But anyway, looking at it now there are some obvious spots where I messed up and certainly some things I'd do differently now. But until I'm able to get my hands on another miniature, I was wondering if anyone here had experience with painting miniatures and would be able to share some advice?

      11 votes
    5. "Total" Discord integration for community participation in development

      I've been discovering recently how convenient Discord can make developing with the feedback of your community, or of selected members of your community. This is assuming that you are already...

      I've been discovering recently how convenient Discord can make developing with the feedback of your community, or of selected members of your community.

      This is assuming that you are already talking with your dev team and community on Discord and have a server for that.

      Create your game on the Discord platform (they do the same thing as Steam basically), and integrate an alpha-access store page right into your Discord server as a channel. This store page can be restricted to whomever you want via normal Discord permissions. Binaries can be distributed wonderfully simply this way, becuase if you're talking with the community in Discord already, you can just send them to that store page channel embedded directly in your server where they can simply click "install" to test your most recent binaries.

      The agreement with Discord restricts only a few things that I wasn't interested in anyway: They don't want you to do an exclusive deal with another distribution service (duh), and anywhere you advertise your game you must mention that it's also available on Discord in addition to wherever else you're distributing it. That's pretty much fine with me.

      Anyway, I'm having a lot more fun with this than I had previously trying to distribute pre-release alpha binaries, so I wanted to see what you all thought about it. And what criticisms there are to be had.

      7 votes