Games You Played Today: Actress Again: Current Code (Part 1)

Lesbian Action game Mrs. Driller

druaga

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Outer Wilds really is breathtaking, isn’t it? I haven’t read the thread and am not going to for a good long while, but sinking just an hour and a half into this was enough to hook me.

I love that the Ancient Founder Species left a bunch of chat logs that include flirting and excitement and science power-couples who explode stuff with too much energy. Far removed from the ā€œdistant science race that made cool things then died for no reason.ā€

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You’re in for a special trip.

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this is an aside but the one thing i worry about with Outer Wilds is it (like thatgamecompany too actually) came out of the USC Games program in LA that i’ve taught some classes at before and i know they’ll use the artistic/commercial success of that game to promise the sky to their grads when a) it’s kind of a freak happenstance that that game happened and so it’s creating a false expectation for a lot of students and b) that program def has a lot of its own issues, esp in the last few years under a new program director (several years after the Outer Wilds people all graduated).

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that’s not saying anything bad about the game itself though! it looks wonderful. i haven’t played the finished version still (i own too many games!) but i played it for IGF judging/jurying years ago and loved the concept/execution/tone and voted for it the year it won the Grand Prize there.

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To be honest I feel like pretty much every games course does this when their alumni happen upon a hit through fortunate circumstances. Gotta get those students believing if you want them to start paying.

Also agreed, Outer Wilds is a fantastic game which thoroughly deserves its success.

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yeah totally! it’s just maybe almost worse with Outer Wilds though because it’s such a freak success (both critically and commercially). like that is definitely not something that can be replicated, lol.

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I mean, tactical shooters do, for much the same reason

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I totally understand the worry especially because it’s a critical success - that kind of thing is really intoxicating for students who want anything more than simply a job in the industry and I find myself having to balance between trying to put forward the importance of critical theory and analysis of aesthetic in games (as much as I can in a sound design class, anyway) and me or them realizing that very few people in the industry actually care about anyone’s ability to apply any of that to anything

like, do I still put forward the aesthetic analysis/critical theory stuff knowing that the students who care are going to be very disappointed with what happens to that information when they enter the industry? because I sure was! and the stuff I’m teaching isn’t anywhere close to advanced

the last 5 or so years has been me being at 100% anger over me going into the UCSC games master’s program with the promise of the industry being better about, well, everything and realizing that it’s gotten worse in many many ways

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I go back and forth between feeling sad that ucsc didn’t have a game program when I was there, and thinking it was for the best, for me

EDIT, ADDITIONAL: in the painting program, at least, there was no illusions about work in that ā€œfield.ā€ My mentor suggested we learn how to bartend

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i beat boku no natsuyasumi 3 this evening. it really pushed my japanese abilities to the limits, and i know i missed a lot but i’m more than satisfied with the experience i got.

there was a point kinda late in the game where one of the kids i met was willing to lead me to a secret spot – i eventually found myself following her through a sheet of water pouring out of a concrete structure and upon passing through it, i was in this massive storm drain overflow area. the two of us then sat down on a concrete ledge and had a discussion about how it’s hard to let go of pleasant things in the present and move on wholeheartedly to the future.

moments like that (of which there were multiple, like the joy of discovering an underwater cave in the lake that i spent a long time figuring out how to get to, or having the calf that i had been feeding every morning finally have enough strength to leave the corner of the barn and graze out in the field with the other cows – i bumped into her later when going cardboard-sliding down the hill!) touched me in a way that made me feel like it was a game made just for me, and playing it in the midst of a miserable quarantine summer has been just what i needed. it is such a beautiful game, too – i ordered the artbook that has all the background images from both this game and bokura no kazoku. can’t wait to look through it.

furthering my personal attachment, i had my own japanese summer vacation when i was 24, spending two months in the countryside with no real agenda other than to be there. gonna take some time now to reminisce before bed.

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I still remember when my teachers gave us essay after essay about how working commissions and doing commercial art would destroy our souls, and then give us the example of someone making 2x4s out of congealed paint as a viable path for our future.

So your teacher sounds way better than mine.

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yeah for me it was begging for scraps of anything videogame related at UCSD and then realizing that UCSC had a program and going into the master’s program there

it was tough because we had a game dev club at UCSD but I couldn’t stand anyone there because it was all computer science kids who were like ā€œlet’s make an FPS but you’re in outer space this timeā€ and it felt like I was in kindergarten again but with a bunch of grown-ass men

I was doing a lot of lurking on SB1 at the time, so

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All I want in life are for these games to be translated. I played an hour of the first one not being able to read anything but everything from the sound design to the direction (the camera work in the car ride) is so perfect.

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2x4s of congealed paint reminds me of Sterling Ruby. Mild Silent Hill wall texture vibes

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This is so much cooler than than the person I’m talking about. This is like, actually neat.

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My brother went to a film school and something his teachers constantly told the students was to be ready to flip burgers.

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Got some weird game urges this weekend. I’ve been looking into ways to play a few games on modern machines. Peter Jackson’s King Kong, The Great Escape, Blair Witch Volume 1-3, The Chronicles of Riddick Escape From Butcher Bay. Zombie Revenge.

All decent adaptations of film properties. I don’t know what I’ve come down with.

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You’re right. Zombie Revenge is based on the real event when we finally got back at the zombies. Never forget the zombie revenge.

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