Hi Friends!

Awful Summer is over and regular Summer has finally arrived. Unfortunately, it's soon going to make way for grey-season, but what can you do.

Gamedev-News

I worked so much on other RPG over the last Month. I don't really know how it happened, but through a combination of deep boredom and the wish to just make things for it, I've now finished almost the entire basic structure of it. I'm basically at the point where, when I first started planning, I said I would think about when to announce it.

I actually even have most of that ready as well, I just need to wait for Valve to tell me if my Steampage is fine. Not saying that I'll announce the game the moment everything's ready (I want to prepare some stuff ahead), but it's good to just have everything in order.

With all that being said, I am trying to slow down a bit, because my current pace is not sustainable.

Blogpost-Shares

I've seen enough frustrating opinions about AI usage and who should declare what, that I wrote  a Blog about it all:

Everything about and around this topic is frustrating. I hate AI tools and the people who make it. But I also dislike a lot of arguments against it, because they often paint creative work as a chore where you have to "suffer" for a long time, in order to truly reach your potential. It again paints creative work as this magical ability that requires pain to access, when actually what it needs is quiet and an atmosphere that permits mistakes.

Interesting things I played/watched/read

Regarding AI usage, Marina Kittaka wrote a Blog that gestures towards similar things I just mentioned, but how it relates to reading books:

Alexandrah Higgins wrote a retrospective about her 20 years in "Indiegames".

This is a series of posts that deals with different "eras" so to speak and I recommend you read all of them. 

To make sure I don't start working on my videogame after dinner, I started playing Fields of Mistria (farming games are always good time holes) and that game manages to hit all of my general grievances I have with this genre. At no point does it really push back against the player, or force permanent consequences on you. You get a pet and initially you have to choose which one you want, but don't worry you can just magically transform your Dog into a Cat, if you're unhappy!

You don't want everyone you're dating to be angry at you, because you married someone else? Just check the box in the options menu and no one will notice!

I just reached what felt like a narrative climax and that too just resolved itself without any real conflict (at least from what I can tell so far).

It does have nice characters, I like the portrait art and as a thing that prevents me from overworking myself, it does a good job.

But I just wish it had a backbone, truly.

Also, Cozy Game Designers: Have your game's Bachelors date each other, or give players an option to play matchmaker! At least have some of them be exes! It's infuriating how every NPC who is single seems to be hyper-fixated on the player character while there are several other potential matches around them.

If this world forces me into making a farming game, I swear you're all going to suffer.

Anyway, enough ranting. See you in...

October!