@gilesgoat@toot.wales cover
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

gilesgoat

@[email protected]

#Goats and #Sheep enthusiast ( #animals in general ) , into #cooking ( and eating ) , #retrocomputing, #SW/ developer digital and analog, #CPP,#ASM,#Z80,#CP/M, lot of time into #computer_graphics,#Vulkan,#DX12,#GL,#VR
.. obsessed about BIG lizards with BIG tails ( side effect of too much Visual Studio )

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eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

indie gamedev is spending 3-5 years working on a game with probably at least a couple other people and then you release it and if youre fairly lucky you gross like 20-80 thousand US dollars which works out to $5000 a person a year before tax. it's a very cool and sustainable industry

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko I don't want to be "the bad owl" BUT "this is well known since quite some time" and unless some sort of "class action" I mean as "we all indie lump together to do something in some way" ( which some tried with partial success ) is not going to change anytime soon. There's ALWAYS A BIG RISK in long term projects and/or big projects with many people, that you are indie or not. That's why many people, unless they got funding in advance, tend to stick to shorter projects it's out of CONT.

eniko , (edited ) to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

im so glad i have a little robot guy who lives in my house and who i can tell to vacuum the floors because the way things are right now those floors would absolutely not get vacuumed at all otherwise

EDIT: the robot is called mittens, btw

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko funny .. I JUST NOW vacuumed a couple of floors, ONLY a couple .. would take too long to vacuum all of them and any robot would NOT stand ANY chance given the way this place is made 😂

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

The problem with outsourcing your chat or forum to third parties is that you don't own them. That is correct

The problem with self hosting those things yourself is that 1. nobody will use them because why aren't you just using this 3rd party app that everyone is already using and 2. have fun doing your own spam control

Seems like a bit of a damned if you do damned if you don't situation if you ask me

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko @akjcv No it doesn't solve any problems, many years ago we did, we had the SW you could have downloaded from our site and we used to have a forum ( that we took down because I could NOT spend 24/24/7/7 dealing with SPAM/hackers/etc. ) . In essence "visibility near 0" as you say "if you don't are/use what all the other people - customers - use you are NO ONE!". And "who owns those apps/media/sites knows it very well" that's why they can play developers "as they like" 😐 The problem CONT.

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko @akjcv CONT. is that many people "follow a lot the hype, are creatures of habit and for whatever reason seems to love some platforms/apps 'too much' " .. I hate it as well, but sometime "it also gives you some protection from a lot of crap" plus it may give you some visibility that you can NOT obtain with your sole means. It's not a perfect world, far from it, but I am not sure if/how we could make it change. I mean technically "yeah I can put my games there instead of here" ... BUT CONT.

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko @akjcv CONT. "Are people going to follow all that ?" .. and if not WHY not ? What can be done ? As I said doing self-host IS DOABLE, you can do it, but then you also need to process orders/returns/support/accounting/PAYMENTS all stuff that takes a CONSIDERABLE burden technically and legally. If giving X% to someone removes me from all that AND guarantees me VISIBILITY that I can't get it's not a too bad deal really.

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko @akjcv "itch.io" is "itch.io" even if I never used it it's a name that even I know 😄 So it's Steam and PSN store or such .. "those are the big names that everyone knows" you can just say "my games are in there" you don't even need to give a link out .. That's the point.

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

fuck it post deleted it's not worth the risk just to vent about the gatekeepers of success in gamedev

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko Well I tell you what .. that DID NOT work for us NOT even in 2010 .. ANY time we were hoping/thinking "this should sell good" .. it was .. "medium/average".. oh well we never had "friends in high places" maybe that's why .. and we never could go to LOT of events as well but just a few ..

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

a pox on whoever came up with the fucking byte order mark

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko It's too late and I am about to go bed .. one day I'll tell you my story with UNICODE and "let's have a bunch of different people using different PCs/OSes/etc. doing some translations" .. I thought "unicode is unicode is a standard no ?" .. erm NO .. maybe unicode is but not the way is saved/handled by Mac, Windwos, Office, OpenOffice, other things .. actually there's UNICODE16 .. UNICODE32 .. and well .. "never the same document twice" .. and yes BOM yes, some put it, some not ..

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

god, you watch ONE video about french onion soup and youtube is like "hey do you want to watch these other 50 french onion soup videos? :D"

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko NO KIDDING, once Ox looked for a video/pic "about that fancy technological Japanese toilet" .. he's been BLASTED FOR MONTHS with emails/YT stuff about "want to see/buy a new toilet ??!" ..

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

Would I rather encounter a man or a bear in the woods? I'm an introvert so I'd rather just stay home

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko I never encountered a bear so far but I DID encounter once some deers ( they do WEIRD noises ! ) and some wild boars, once a man too but wasn't as interesting. I'd rather encounter the bear.

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

maybe i need to make an alt account on some covid safe instance so i can let loose and say what i really want to say about things

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko I was recently travelling to/from UK/Italy so airports/trains/tube .. TONS of people in closed spaces .. I WAS wearing A MASK .. I swear I MAYBE so 3 other people wearing a mask ... what to say / think ?

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko @HauntedOwlbear No to be the bad owl BUT I think the effectiveness of the mask in a closed environment decreases exponentially with time ( not so sure about airplane ventilation ). I think studies say that after 2 hours or so the protection is near 0 😐

nixCraft , to random
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Kid: Dad, is it wrong that I'm 13 and still believe in the Easter bunny?

Dad: Well, son, I'm 39 and still believe that I write high-quality, bug-free software.

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@nixCraft I am 53 and I can say it's over 40 years I am writing SW .. and still "I live with the constant fear that there HAVE to be some bugs I haven't found/seen yet" .. and sadly .. I am often correct .. I can never sleep well knowing that somewhere there's some hidden bug it just did not manifest yet ! Bug-free SW is an ILLUSION !

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

in the games industry you can make a hit like kerbal space program and still have your entire shit shut down and everyone go out of work

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko I keep hearing that "some of the game industry" got the point where "costs ( to make a game ) are so huge that no matter what you never earn enough to make a profit unless you go via a subscription model ?" .. is that true ?

lritter , to random
@lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

0xbadf00dbadc0ffee

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@lritter Fun facts, 0xFEEDC0DE was a "memory fill pattern" used by OS/9 ( Microware ) to fill up memory can't remember when/where.

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

🤔​ i could have a nice cappuccino, that's something i could just go and do

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko

SEE ??!!! This is one of those things YOU CAN NOT DO IN UK ! ... there's NO such thing as NICE "coffee/cappuccino" in UK 😂

eniko , (edited ) to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

why is google sheets telling me my browser isnt allowed when its just firefox? does firefox not work with google sheets anymore?

edit: update firefox and now it works :|

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko Why even ask that ? Isn't anything made by Google already designed to work ONLY with Google Chrome ? ( or soon it will be ) ..

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

looks like the middle segment of the games industry is starting to run out of money, not too long after all the VC funding dried up because of interest rates. those publishers willing to fund stuff are either smaller ones looking at smaller indies (few 100k) or huge games

its sad but unsurprising given how many studios in the industry rely on publisher/VC funding

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/its-been-really-painful-ex-lionhead-devs-explain-why-theyve-announced-and-shelved-a-new-game/

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko I am no expert but "intuition" would say that probably is a situation where "small" costs me "not much" BUT could give me an interesting profit so the risk is "low", "huge" costs me A LOT and the risk is high BUT () profit could be "amazing" if it works. "The middle" risks to be "costs me quite some but the reward could be so and so" so overall "too risky for the reward ?" () this could be failing too that's why it's all going subscription model ?

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

One time on twitter I commented on the dancing robots propaganda video they put out a few years back that I found it creepy and concerning and this one guy who had followed me and been pleasantly interacting with me for a year or two completely blew up at me, ranting how I was a joyless luddite who feared and hated progress and fun and then blocked me

Anyway I just saw a post that they're fitting one of the dancing robots with flamethrowers now

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko pffft .. amateurs .. who needs dancing robots with flamethrowers ? Where's my sexy lizard robot ? Make love don't make war 🥰 😂 😂

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

what if i put an anachronistic neon sign in kitsune tails, but i make it trans flag colored? 🤔

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko They have magic in that world don't they ? There neon explained !

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

"If you make your own engine you'll never ship a game"

I'm here to tell you this is BS. Kitsune Tails uses a custom engine built on a custom framework all made from the ground up by yours truly. Neither of these were even remotely the bottleneck for development duration. Turns out that the thing that takes the most time when you're developing a game is all the stuff that is hyper specific to that game and can't be generalized anyway

Not to mention all the, you know, actual content that sits on top of the engine. I can write a json parser and serializer from the ground up in a day or two, but all the cutscenes I had to script for KT took many weeks

Then there's the fact that if I'd used an out of the box physics solution for Kitsune Tails I'm fairly certain I'd never have been able to nail the game feel it has, which is the most core thing to the whole experience

You don't have to make an engine but quit pretending doing it is the hard part of making a game. It fucking ain't

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko 15 years working on our own engine .. ALL our games shipped with it, engine constantly under improvement. Yes as you said "you do not HAVE to, there are some other solutions" but "that you'll never ship a game" is bullshit I agree ! The fact to have your own thing is "I wan t this NOW, I can code it in" .. "There's a bug" .. "I can look and fix it NOW" .. Funny you mentioned JSON, I went for XML and without knowing I re-invented a sort of SAX parser ( or similar ). Well .. it gets CONT.

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko CONT. a bit "harder" when your engine has to work "the same" across different and diverse HW platforms, ours now support basically "all the main consoles" and deals with DX, OpenGL, OpenGLES and proprietary consoles LIBs you have to be careful that "when you modify something that something must be working the SAME in ALL the other platforms" and that's a bit of pain. Graphics actually is "the simplest" thing to keep constant but "it's the other stuff" that can be quite tricky.

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

making videogames is easy. you just sit down at your computer every day and put in the work on your game as your sanity slowly slips away from you

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko DUDE .. I've been into "industrial crap before" .. now imagine - HAPPENED FOR REAL - sitting down in an office with a project got from an already ANGRY customer 6 months late with an amount of shit ( done by others ) you are supposed to "magically fix". And your BOSS coming every 20 or so mins behind you asking "How's going ? Going ok ? Ok .. good good .. " and giving you a "friendly nervous pat" on your shoulder .. Sanity ? We were all far beyond insanity that point. We did fix it !

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko Also believe it or not, that company at some ( late ) point started to mirror SO well ( and even "beyond" ) a number of Dilbert comic strips .. "all real" ..

eniko , to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

been doing some research on standard keyboard control schemes for 2D platformers today and it seems like there's four broad categories that all use the arrow keys to move: games that use ZXC, games that use ASD, games that use JKL, and games that use the modifier keys

and then there's bloodstained curse of the moon over there with its absolutely absurd "move with WASD, jump with space, attack with mouse" scheme like bro COME ON

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@eniko May I add "OPQAM" from ZX and "QWP" (left/right/jump) if no up/down are required ?

aeva , to random
@aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

A friend of mine introduced me to the terms "waxing optimization" and "waning optimization" this evening. Waxing optimization is when you make something faster by writing more code, and waning optimization is when you make stuff faster by reducing and removing code. I like these terms :)

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@aeva Jeff would NOT approve that 😂 😂 He'd say that yaks have to remain hairy 😂

ajsadauskas , (edited ) to Technology
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.

Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.

There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.

So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?

@technology

gilesgoat ,
@gilesgoat@toot.wales avatar

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

Can I SHOUT LOUD ( to far too many people still covering their ears ! ) TOLD YOU SO ! ACTUALLY IS ALREADY HAPPENING ! .. "Oh it's always going to be on the internet to download when I need it" .. NO IT'S NOT !! How many times YT for whatever reason took down something or forbidden you to see in full or .. What's going to happen ? That when they'll really need money they'll start say PAY OR WE TAKE ALL DOWN .. and content will vanish from YT !

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