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hodgepodgehomonculus hodgepodgehomonculus @lemmy.blahaj.zone

Indie Game Developer working in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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  • I feel like Unity has just cut off the top of their user funnel with this and guaranteed their slow fall into obsolescence. Large companies using Unity won't move away immediately, neither will many indie devs currently working on projects they are too deep into to pivot. But any new game developer will either go to Unreal or Godot if they want something ready made to ship. Companies will see what all the new talent is using, and will slowly start moving away from wanting to use Unity, since their incoming employees have other skills.

    It won't be a fast death. The "leaked" cap at 4% will quiet people down and not make anyone go bankrupt, but I do think they have irreversibly hurt their future with this wild swing.

  • What is your favorite domain name provider, and why?
  • Dnsimple for me. Swapped from GoDaddy like 10 years ago and haven't really felt the need to explore elsewhere, the costs are pretty good and never had any issues.

  • Is there a way for me to upload my rifd Keycard to my smartphone?
  • Just put the card in your wallet and scan it like a metro pass card.

  • Sync for Lemmy (beta) is now live for everyone
  • I'm using Connect on Android and it's been pretty flawless. Until I see a reason to swap, or a less insane paid version I'll just keep using this.

  • Tips for my first game jam?
  • Re-iterating TeaHands and Walops points. I think for me the biggest one is to start small. Like..pick something small, and then go smaller than that. I find that it can be useful to set a bronze/silver/gold endpoint for yourself:

    • Bronze is something you are sure you can complete in the time frame.
    • Silver is where you think you can get to if you really push yourself and nothing bad happens
    • Gold is where you can go if everything goes right all the time.

    This can help with motivation, because "failing" can often make you stop working because you de-motivated yourself, but not quite reaching your furthest estimation is motivation to push yourself.

    Also something to keep in mind is that if you don't make your bronze goal at first, this just means that you have a skill that needs to be improved: scoping. This is something everybody struggles with. I have been a professional gamedev for 10 years and I still scope things to how I think things should go, or I scope time to "feature-complete" (ie it ticks the all the boxes it was supposed to), but not "complete" (there might be bugs, the art doesn't look right/etc..)

    Also, version control is super useful, not just for tracking down bugs as Walop called out, but also for motivation. If you commit at least one thing at the end of everyday, you are basically keeping a journal of your work. This can be useful to look back on and realize even if you feel like you didnt get that much done, you can go back and see "hey I actually did all this stuff over the last week!"

  • If you value privacy, ditch Chrome and switch to Firefox now
  • The containers are useful for having multiple accounts. Eg I have a work tab that has my work Gmail/PayPal/etc accounts logged in, so I can easily switch contexts without closing all my other tabs/windows

  • Reems California 20% worker's resilience charge
  • Because this way it's not considered gratuity, and the owners don't have to actually give all of it to their employees.

  • What is your recommendation for a Split Ergo Keyboard?
  • +1 for the Sofle, I love mine, just built a wireless version so I can take it on the go.

  • How are your games going?
  • This has been happening to me as well, I just ended my dry streak, but I am generally always hovering between like 2000 at a cold streak and 8000 on a good one. I play solo all the time though, so I lost hunters more often.

  • Blood Bond Rework
  • I'm totally fine with it. Crytek has done a good job of releasing constant content to the game without a cost to the users, and for a much longer time than other games. I think the DLCs are sometimes overpriced, but that hasn't stopped me from buying them when I really like them, or buying the mediocre ones in bulk when they go on sale, as I want to support the development how I can.

  • Game crashes on start up
  • This was also happening to me yesterday, I ended up finally booting up Marauders, which was an interesting experience.

    Hunt was back up and running when I tried again today though.

  • Which game would you want to get rebooted?
  • Star Citizen is the freelancer sequel, it's just stuck in development hell

  • Westfield Century 9 Theatre closing

    abc7news.com Cinemark theater closing at SF Westfield after mall's management transfer, company confirms

    Cinemark says that it is closing the theater "following a comprehensive review of local business conditions." Their website confirms there are no movie showings scheduled for Friday or beyond.

    Cinemark theater closing at SF Westfield after mall's management transfer, company confirms

    Pretty sad about this, this has been my go-to theatre for years for anything that I don't plan on seeing in IMAX. They had super comfy seats and the staff there was always really friendly. Plus the BART access was right through the Westfield, with the parking structure across the street so even if it was really rainy it wasn't an issue.

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    Games that have stuck with you?
  • The first time playing Elite with a headset was magical. Looking around my ship and while flying through space (or even just while sitting docked in the stations), and the spatial audio coupled with VR just put shivers down my spine. That engine whine chefs kiss

  • Games that have stuck with you?
  • Seconding Bloodlines, this game has stuck with me since I first played it as a child. I've been eagerly awaiting the sequel, but also dreading that it ends up being awful and ruins any chance of more games.

  • Starfield coming with SSD requirement
  • SSDs have been around for a long time, and have been affordable for quite a while now. While optimization should always be happening on the developer side, its not crazy to start requiring 30+ year old technology to use modern games.

  • I hate battle royale games
  • 600ish hours in Hunt at this point, and while you can give away your position to the idle players, that only matters at the top end of the Matchmaking system where the "bush-wookies" lie. With the self-revive for solos trait that got added, it helped even the playing field a lot. Previously getting hit by a sniper was a game-over for solos while for a duo/trio it was the start of an encounter, with your teammates able to revive you after they kill or chase the sniper off. With self-revive you have a chance of popping up when they aren't watching, or when they are pushing to your body from their perch, and either fighting or retreating.

    Also I wouldn't say the developers have a toxic relationship with the player base at all. They are constantly making fun changes to the game and adding in new features to change things up. They also test out new features during temporary events and see how people like them before implementing the into the game wholesale. And this is done via looking at gameplay statistics, not just listening to the very vocal subset of people who hate any change to the game.

  • Is there any feedback of the current blackout? Feels like everything will be over soon and it's going on like before.
  • I second this, and it has been bugging me since people started talking about the blackout. I think the big issue is that the people organizing the 48hr blackout are the mods. These are the people that have invested the most into reddit, and they dont want to give up that investment into their subreddits. They don't want to leave reddit, and giving people an agreed upon alternative would be permanently fracturing their little fiefdom. They want to make a statement, and then for things to go back to the way they were, hoping that their tiny act of defiance makes a difference. The migration has to be led by users, but the issue of fractured lemmy communities is going to be hard to navigate unless lemmy introduces a way for communities to link together.

  • What are y'all's all time favourite game OSTs?
  • Really anything by Grant Kirkhope, Banjo Kazooie Yooka Laylee, etc, and on the Rare train, Donkey Kong Country 2 had great music.

    Also love the Undertale soundtrack.

  • I guess I should get this started - what is your favorite spell in D&D 5e?
  • Grease has always been a favorite of mine. All the DMs I have played with have taken the components to mean that it is a flammable oil, and I like to use it to create fire traps everywhere to maneuver enemies into.

  • Blahaj Lemmy Users - Downvote question
  • I like the partial weights, it basically means that the whole community has to band together to hide something, which is essentially what they were originally supposed to be used for on reddit.

  • What music do you listen to while working?

    Stemming from late night college days my old standby used to be the TRON Legacy soundtrack, but recently stumbled onto this great Donkey Kong Country 2 Arrangement

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