Max Nichols

In a match-based multiplayer game we'd call this a sudden death mechanic. I haven't head that term used for SP games much but it might be a useful search term for you.

I wonder if they're bringing this guy

bsky.app/profile/maxn...

Yessss were you able to listen? I wasn't sure how many folks I know would end up hearing it, it's been fun to see Post Games subscribers pop out of the woodwork

In that setting people hire Witchers like you or I might hire a plumber: they have professional certification, you have a problem, they have the training and tools to fix it.

Much more than most action-adventures or RPGs: The Witcher 3

Geralt has a job: he is a monster hunter. He has to methodically review what monsters are weak to, and what they do, and prepare potions and elixirs and traps accordingly. (if you're playing on a high enough diff). It feels professional.

I would typically use excel or google sheets for something like this. LLM is unreliable.

If it's not enormous you could just use a free web tool, like:
pinetools.com/sort-list

This looks so fun

I tried to make a grid-based sandcastle sim/tower defense game in college but it was waaay beyond my capabilities back then.

This would make 21-year-old Max’s head explode

Oh man I can't wait to read this one, every time these two are in an interview together it's one of the all-time best, I'm sure this one will be too

I love that

Evidence that the Nier team approached some of this with the same mindset, which is very satisfying for me since I repeatedly come back to that game for examples like this:
bsky.app/profile/kohl...

HAH

This is so fun for me, since I used Nier Automata as a major example of exactly that once: changing the format of the medium to accentuate or direct gameplay
bsky.app/profile/maxn...

Wow, you're a real piece of shit

Astral Chain is probably my second favorite PlatinumGames title. Behind Nier Automata, of course. Just ahead of Vanquish.

I haven't played them all though, never did get into Bayonetta

YouTube video by BossRunner Astral Chain - All Bosses (No Damage, S+ Rank)

For example, it's pretty cool when you ride your demon cop-dog into battle against a cyber centipede in the astral plane while rock music wails, and then it swaps to I guess emo rock when you're about to earn the S-rank
youtu.be/_AueOE4G_cM?...

Oh it's out! I had a lot of fun chatting with Chris on this episode of Post Games. It's a Patreon exclusive one, so most of y'all may not be able to hear it yet, but if Chris ever decides to make it public I'll definitely holler about it here!

www.patreon.com/posts/histor...

Yeah, you gotta do something like “[4th Grade vocabulary word]”

Bonus points if it has no conceivable connection to the content of the game

Though to be fair it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it given a label, hahah

It’s usually categorized as “edutainment” or “simulation”, in my experience.

One of the worst part about chronic, oscillating arthritis pain is that I can never tell the difference between a repetitive motion injury and arthritis.

My wrists & shoulder hurt! Is it because I’ve fucked them up or because my joints are under attack from my immune system? Impossible to say!

Sounds like a great resource! I bet there's a lot of gold in those pages

The doctors say it's terminal

Normally we keep this clothes hamper around the living room specifically to be his bed. It has a 2-foot layer of cushions and pillows inside for him, but sometimes he feels the need to walk on the wild side

A clothes hamper made out of soft coiled rope is upside down on the carpet. On top of the hamper is a car that's all white except for a grey streak on top of his head. He's sleeping sitting up.

Here, have a picture of Alfador sleeping on his clothes-hamper bed that he turned upside down

Ultimately, even if we draw slightly different lines here, I think blaming children who were coerced into signing up for the military with propaganda and lies, is a waste of energy. They should know better! But we certainly aren’t equipping them to know better, as a society

My thread yesterday:

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They signed up to work at the long-range murder factory, murdering people they can’t see in service of the shareholders of the military industrial complex.

Sounds like a pretty immoral thing to have done right out of the gate.

I am down with saying “a poor 20-year-old who joined up so they could go to college, who was told to shoot at a target they can’t see by a superior officer at pain of court marshal, doesn’t bear full responsibility”

But they sure as hell bear SOME

Do we need to extend grace to people pulling triggers on targets they can’t see?

Does “it was an accident” cut it?

Does “we had a real military target next to it” matter, especially when we are the aggressors?

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At a certain point though everyone bears culpability for the triggers they’re pulling, right? The US military has been an aggressive force that kills civilians in the name of extremely questionable missions for longer than any current soldiers have served. Ignorance isn’t much of an excuse.