WISHLIST SKRUB SQUAD

now to make............................................................the rest of the game...

also huge shout out to @eljchan1221.bsky.social who, when I asked "can you copy/paste some files for me" decided to build me an entire Google-Sheets-to-Yarn-file exporter instead. Real Game Designer power move right there

Funny enough getting this organized, directed and implemented was easily the most people who have touched the project and the most effort of anything in the entire game so far (which is so much considering it's just a thing in the lobby) but hey it adds so much so it's fine!!!!!!!

Thanks to the talent of many skilled VAs, writing by @ruariroot.bsky.social and editing by @feytriarch.bsky.social, the #SKRUBSquad lobby now has fun VO and conversations!!

I love it so much!! 🔉

I'll upload a proper video later but for now: fuuuuuck dude this rules!! It's such a grounding thing the game desperately needed

holy shit dude I finally got around to implementing VO in SKRUB Squad this is a video game-ass video game now

Is she............

...y'know...............

your potions professor?

Still trying to figure out how the bots should be like. Maybe they could be more terminator-y, something like this?

✨i'm looking to talk to folks who make/design faces in video games for a story on @mothership.blog! please reach out if you'd like to talk.

email: nicolecarpenterwrites@gmail.com
signal: nicolecarpenter.87

Idk after years of seeing studios dive in, flounder, and die after one game I think the best move is not to try. Make something that doesn't even need money to get across the finish line, or doesn't need to sustain anyone or anything. Start with the knowledge you will fail, because it's often true.

I'm sure foundational concepts like UBI or full economic upheaval would help, but I'm not sure if I'm convinced that's all. I'm not sure if there was a time where games ever was operating in a sustainable way, but especially not this media like this with stupid high HCI and quality demands 🤷‍♀️

And everyone sets out with a good heart to do it sustainably but then inevitably hit the natural pressures of the economy and production that feeds this beast.

Unless you have money to magically keep you afloat without returns for like 5 years while making an incredibly demanding product...well...

In this industry, economy, etc. I don't think there's any way to make games that doesn't involve sacrificing sustainability - there's essentially no room to ever fail at all. At some point you'll make a shit deal, or miss a window, or ship a miss, and then its over for everyone.

The money usually comes from people like publishers who also want some of your money - or if you're lucky from grants who don't expect much - but ultimately your game needs to sell enough to keep everyone afloat, and odds are catastrophically bad you'll make enough to survive game #1.

Whenever you need more resources you have less money.

You need money to even start pre-production. You need money to keep it going. You need money to bring in more people when production ramps up. Once you've shipped you pray to God it lands because you need money yourselves to stay alive. Repeat!

Games are software, interactive media, art, and a product... inclusive of all the difficulties that come with each. At least you don't have to play or bug test a book or movie in the same way, and the bigger the quality/scale/fidelity the greater demand. "A miracle any game gets made" etc.

Discourse hitting on something I've been thinking about tons lately: video games are one of the most expensive and least productive forms of media to make.

I think now I believe that if you want to make and sell games sustainably, the only winning move is not to try and make them in the first place

This is phenomenally awful. Catastrophic.

trust me you dont want this

Came across someone who said their skill is 'vibe coding' - which was funny itself - but also all their posts were troubleshooting setting AI parameters while making something. Like the time you spent troubleshooting this LLM could have been spent just troubleshooting your damn code ffs

It's pretty fun when you get past all this stuff, but even then I'm left getting lost in like three versions of what is functionally the same inventory menus but presented entirely differently across like 3 different NPCs. It's genuinely impressive.

MHR: "Huh? You don't like the incredibly unintuitive camera lock system we designed and taught really poorly? Good news, there's a customization option to make it better! It's right where you'd expect it to be: buried six menus deep in a confused series of UI screens of varying shapes and sizes! 🙌"

MHR: "here's a really complex control scheme we built. We'll show all 15 of the buttons you need to memorize during this one-paragraph tutorial pop up, won't give you time to learn by using the controls youself, and we'll never surface this information again. Now here, go fight something hard!"

MHR: "welcome to the game I know you haven't even played any of the game yet but despite that here's fifteen different types of missions you can select now choose them and have fun :)"

Me: "ok cool but like how do i swing my sword"

Started playing Monster Hunter Rise. Despite years of people telling me the UX is absolute dogshit I admit I was completely unprepared for how bad it actually is. It's so much worse than I imagined it would be.

Bombing!!: A Graffiti Sandbox and Lofty Quest are in this bundle - please pick it up and spread the word to help fight fascism!!

COMPART/OCENPLNT.GIF

They keep changing tactics but keep kidnapping my neighbors. Every time they claim they’re drawing down things get a little worse.

don't mind me, just thinking about how cool it would be to make video games and other art forms outside of the structure of having to worry about creating as a form of financial survival.

Xsolla, by the way. They email me once a year, I don't respond, and then I'm always ~mysteriously~ added to their mailing list afterwards. Very cool business!