Forgotten Gates v0.2.3 released!
Hark the Herald Angels Sing as performed by Amy Grant
Hi all. Had a good Thanksgiving? Mine was about the usual, a big meal with family, giving piggyback rides and other entertainments to the neices, and fortunately we got in a game (Apples to Apples in this case) with the middle generation. We were joined by my older sister's gentleman caller, a fairly recent development -- this was the first time most of us had met him, myself included, though I'd heard a little before. He seems like a nice enough guy, although he didn't make much of an impression. I'd probably be guilty of the same if I went courting.
I had a little misadventure the day after Thanksgiving that's sort of worth relating: I burned my hand. :P I had some milk that tasted a little off, so I decided to use it up by making chocolate pudding. It went well enough until the end, when I poured the pudding into a big metal bowl and went to put that in the refrigerator. Somehow or other I got a little burn (maybe the bowl had just already heated that much right up to the edges, maybe some of it sloshed up, I can't recall the specifics) and dropped it. The pudding splashed over my right hand, as well as around the kitchen of course. Fortunately I wasn't far from the sink, so I was able to rinse it off pretty quickly. I also had some ice in the freezer, which I usually don't bother with, but I'd made some just in case before the hurricane and it was still in there. Cleaning up the mess while keeping my good hand submerged in ice water was an interesting challenge. X) There doesn't seem to have been any lasting damage, my skin hasn't even peeled off at all.
This month kinda slipped by me in game dev, it feels like. e.ea Thanksgiving had a bit to do with that, of course, as well as the games I've been playing. Nevertheless, I did make some progress, and I managed to finally release a new version of the Legend of Zelda: Forgotten Gates demo! :D New features summary:
My work this month mainly involved finishing up the details for Moblins, interspersed with fixing bugs as they arose. I actually am not wholly satisfied with the battle behavior code for Moblins yet, because they have a reaction in which they go berserk after losing half their health, and it occurred to me it should be delayed if they're in a restricted state (Sleep, Paralyze, etc.). Unfortunately, looking ahead to see whether they'll be that way after the pending battle effects is tricky, especially since the effects may interfere with each other -- for example, one effect might inflict Sleep, then another might knock it off by inflicting some damage. I didn't want to delay the release for edge cases like that, though, so I made that a TODO item. It's something that applies to other monster behaviors too, really, so it's an 'existing problem' in a sense.
We managed to get in another Ninja Burger scenario last Saturday. Our order this time was for Penguin Pete of the Starbound universe, to be delivered to one of the many random planets. Since we didn't have teleporter coordinates or a spaceship of our own, we had to ask the residents of the Outpost with whom we were familiar for assistance. Nuru (the champion hunter plant-girl) agreed to give us a ride on her ship on the condition we help her hunt a megarachnid (a boss monster that only shows up in the Frackin' Universe super-mod). So we did that, dispatching some other beasties along the way. Ricky scavenged a web shooter from the megarachnid's remains, which he graciously gave to Brutus since he already had a hookshot. Then we went to the delivery point and found that Dreadwing the Pirate Penguin was moving to muscle in on Pete's precursor tech scavenging claim, so we had to fight him and his gang off. Heiress actually managed to bribe one of Dreadwing's crew into switching sides. After that, we were finally able to make the delivery.
On Zelda RPG, the cats scene has FINALLY reached a conclusion, more or less. It was paused forever because the player of the fox character disappeared -- that, and progress in Zelda RPG is slow in general. X) After the injured woman was brought back to Gerudo Fortress, the Fear haunting the woman's son was greatly weakened -- but not eliminated entirely, because she fainted just as he ran up to her stretcher and she was hustled away for further treatment. The boy went to curl up in a storeroom, and the cats, knowing the Fear would try to carve a permanent hiding place in the boy's heart, followed after to exterminate the Fear once and for all. There was a bit of a scuffle with the Fear managing to avoid damage for a couple rounds, but in the end Sheikah got a good chomp on it and then Tipper finished it off with her claws.
The Lake Hylia scene has progressed a tiny bit too. The Malice growth on the whale which Aubrey selected to poke at retracted its eyeball in response. Aubrey decided to swim up to another growth and take a more aggressive stab at that, then go back to the surface for air. Meanwhile, Irina fortunately ended up inside the Water Temple where there's trapped air, and apparently a bunch of Zora. :o
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighters analysis (part 1):
I'm actually a little low on new games completed recently, due mainly to deciding to replay Terraria (since it's finally been declared essentially complete content-wise) and also the Starbound super-mod-collection Frackin' Universe. So instead of reviewing a full game, here's something I've been meaning to do for a while now: my analysis of the DLC fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in relation to my silly four-elements styles! :D As a quick reminder, here are the summaries of the styles:
Piranha plant:
This one's quite an oddball, which makes me immediately lean toward calling it air-style. It has unusual special moves with a lot of nuance to how they're used, particularly in regard to timing. Its regular moves have a certain deliberateness to them, a delay and then a snappy execution, similar to Wario or Greninja. That makes it tough to use this fighter with fire-style intent, and to a degree water-style as well. You could do earth-style decently well as it does hit fairly hard, but the hitboxes for most of its moves aren't large enough or long-lasting enough to really satisfy earth-stylists, and the fact that its side-special doesn't knock enemies back AT ALL goes against earth-style. So, yeah, pretty much air-style.
Joker:
No, not the Batman villain -- this is the main protagonist of the game Persona 5. Joker is a swift glass cannon type of character, often compared with Sheik. As you might expect, this makes him ideal for fire-style play, and a decent water-style fighter as well, especially with his lanky frame allowing far-reaching whiff punishments. However, the precision required to land his hits (especially against small opponents) and the unusual mechanic of his limited-time super-mode gives him a dash of air-style flavor as well. I find him difficult to use effectively myself.
Hero:
By "Hero", they mean "The hero of the Dragon Quest series," who apparently has no canon name. And the different skins are actually the heroes of several different games in the series, although they all have the same moveset of course. I would call Hero primarily but not too heavily earth-style; like Link, he has good-but-not-best reach and strength with his sword, a shield giving him extra defensive options, and an array of specials for engaging at mid-to-long range. He also has a definite air-style quirk with his down-special, which brings up a menu of four skills selected randomly from a large pool. You really don't have time to read them and select the best option if your enemy is anywhere near you (and some of the skills are only useful if the enemy is nearby), but a dedicated air-stylist would enjoy occasionally rolling the dice on a blind usage in the middle of a fracas whether it's a wise move or not. X)
Banjo & Kazooie:
It's hard to pin Banjo (I'll refer to the fighter that way even though they're technically two characters) down for a particular style; he's a well-rounded fighter like Mario, though perhaps a bit on the heavier end. His specials are quirky, though, putting a thumb on the air-style scale. The limited-use side-special in particular has the interesting property that it counts as invincibility, which can be used in some not-so-obvious ways -- for example, it instantly ends the Pac-Man ghosts trophy summon if you hit one of them with it. And of course, the fact that he has a third jump (albeit a small one) as opposed to most fighters' two is another little tick in the air-style column.
Terry:
A guest character from another fighting game (what I call "traditional arcade fighters", in the vein of Street Fighter II). Terry's mostly a close-range brawler, although he does have a missile option (albeit one that only moves along the ground), and his ability to step back while still facing his opponent is an extra whiff-luring option that meshes well with water-style play. I'd say he's mostly balanced between fire- and water-style, with an extra dose of fire-style if you're one of those players who is familiar enough with him from his games of origin or driven enough by winning to memorize, practice, and execute the optional command inputs that make his specials a little stronger. Of course, you could argue that there are more air-style-oriented players who do that sort of thing for the fun of it, too.
Byleth:
Preeeeetty strongly earth-style here. Byleth has huge reach with their weapons, often with a sweeping area, and they hit pretty hard too. They're about controlling space and punishing the opponent for getting too close, especially with their super-armored down-special.
That's half of the DLC fighters, I think I'll leave it at that for now. Hopefully I'll finish it next month even if I also have some actual game reviews to do.
Click to viewHi all. Had a good Thanksgiving? Mine was about the usual, a big meal with family, giving piggyback rides and other entertainments to the neices, and fortunately we got in a game (Apples to Apples in this case) with the middle generation. We were joined by my older sister's gentleman caller, a fairly recent development -- this was the first time most of us had met him, myself included, though I'd heard a little before. He seems like a nice enough guy, although he didn't make much of an impression. I'd probably be guilty of the same if I went courting.
I had a little misadventure the day after Thanksgiving that's sort of worth relating: I burned my hand. :P I had some milk that tasted a little off, so I decided to use it up by making chocolate pudding. It went well enough until the end, when I poured the pudding into a big metal bowl and went to put that in the refrigerator. Somehow or other I got a little burn (maybe the bowl had just already heated that much right up to the edges, maybe some of it sloshed up, I can't recall the specifics) and dropped it. The pudding splashed over my right hand, as well as around the kitchen of course. Fortunately I wasn't far from the sink, so I was able to rinse it off pretty quickly. I also had some ice in the freezer, which I usually don't bother with, but I'd made some just in case before the hurricane and it was still in there. Cleaning up the mess while keeping my good hand submerged in ice water was an interesting challenge. X) There doesn't seem to have been any lasting damage, my skin hasn't even peeled off at all.
This month kinda slipped by me in game dev, it feels like. e.ea Thanksgiving had a bit to do with that, of course, as well as the games I've been playing. Nevertheless, I did make some progress, and I managed to finally release a new version of the Legend of Zelda: Forgotten Gates demo! :D New features summary:
- Added playable hero Shemri.
- Added stealth challenges.
- Added monster Moblin.
My work this month mainly involved finishing up the details for Moblins, interspersed with fixing bugs as they arose. I actually am not wholly satisfied with the battle behavior code for Moblins yet, because they have a reaction in which they go berserk after losing half their health, and it occurred to me it should be delayed if they're in a restricted state (Sleep, Paralyze, etc.). Unfortunately, looking ahead to see whether they'll be that way after the pending battle effects is tricky, especially since the effects may interfere with each other -- for example, one effect might inflict Sleep, then another might knock it off by inflicting some damage. I didn't want to delay the release for edge cases like that, though, so I made that a TODO item. It's something that applies to other monster behaviors too, really, so it's an 'existing problem' in a sense.
We managed to get in another Ninja Burger scenario last Saturday. Our order this time was for Penguin Pete of the Starbound universe, to be delivered to one of the many random planets. Since we didn't have teleporter coordinates or a spaceship of our own, we had to ask the residents of the Outpost with whom we were familiar for assistance. Nuru (the champion hunter plant-girl) agreed to give us a ride on her ship on the condition we help her hunt a megarachnid (a boss monster that only shows up in the Frackin' Universe super-mod). So we did that, dispatching some other beasties along the way. Ricky scavenged a web shooter from the megarachnid's remains, which he graciously gave to Brutus since he already had a hookshot. Then we went to the delivery point and found that Dreadwing the Pirate Penguin was moving to muscle in on Pete's precursor tech scavenging claim, so we had to fight him and his gang off. Heiress actually managed to bribe one of Dreadwing's crew into switching sides. After that, we were finally able to make the delivery.
On Zelda RPG, the cats scene has FINALLY reached a conclusion, more or less. It was paused forever because the player of the fox character disappeared -- that, and progress in Zelda RPG is slow in general. X) After the injured woman was brought back to Gerudo Fortress, the Fear haunting the woman's son was greatly weakened -- but not eliminated entirely, because she fainted just as he ran up to her stretcher and she was hustled away for further treatment. The boy went to curl up in a storeroom, and the cats, knowing the Fear would try to carve a permanent hiding place in the boy's heart, followed after to exterminate the Fear once and for all. There was a bit of a scuffle with the Fear managing to avoid damage for a couple rounds, but in the end Sheikah got a good chomp on it and then Tipper finished it off with her claws.
The Lake Hylia scene has progressed a tiny bit too. The Malice growth on the whale which Aubrey selected to poke at retracted its eyeball in response. Aubrey decided to swim up to another growth and take a more aggressive stab at that, then go back to the surface for air. Meanwhile, Irina fortunately ended up inside the Water Temple where there's trapped air, and apparently a bunch of Zora. :o
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighters analysis (part 1):
I'm actually a little low on new games completed recently, due mainly to deciding to replay Terraria (since it's finally been declared essentially complete content-wise) and also the Starbound super-mod-collection Frackin' Universe. So instead of reviewing a full game, here's something I've been meaning to do for a while now: my analysis of the DLC fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in relation to my silly four-elements styles! :D As a quick reminder, here are the summaries of the styles:
- Fire-style: Fast and aggressive, emphasizing shutting down the opponent's ability to act with combos.
- Water-style: Predictive and reactive, reading and dodging the opponent's attacks then punishing their whiffs.
- Air-style: Wild and unpredictable, finding joy in using the breadth of their character's moveset (and of course jumping a lot).
- Earth-style: Stolid and forceful, preferring slow-but-powerful characters and strong, sweeping attacks.
Piranha plant:
This one's quite an oddball, which makes me immediately lean toward calling it air-style. It has unusual special moves with a lot of nuance to how they're used, particularly in regard to timing. Its regular moves have a certain deliberateness to them, a delay and then a snappy execution, similar to Wario or Greninja. That makes it tough to use this fighter with fire-style intent, and to a degree water-style as well. You could do earth-style decently well as it does hit fairly hard, but the hitboxes for most of its moves aren't large enough or long-lasting enough to really satisfy earth-stylists, and the fact that its side-special doesn't knock enemies back AT ALL goes against earth-style. So, yeah, pretty much air-style.
Joker:
No, not the Batman villain -- this is the main protagonist of the game Persona 5. Joker is a swift glass cannon type of character, often compared with Sheik. As you might expect, this makes him ideal for fire-style play, and a decent water-style fighter as well, especially with his lanky frame allowing far-reaching whiff punishments. However, the precision required to land his hits (especially against small opponents) and the unusual mechanic of his limited-time super-mode gives him a dash of air-style flavor as well. I find him difficult to use effectively myself.
Hero:
By "Hero", they mean "The hero of the Dragon Quest series," who apparently has no canon name. And the different skins are actually the heroes of several different games in the series, although they all have the same moveset of course. I would call Hero primarily but not too heavily earth-style; like Link, he has good-but-not-best reach and strength with his sword, a shield giving him extra defensive options, and an array of specials for engaging at mid-to-long range. He also has a definite air-style quirk with his down-special, which brings up a menu of four skills selected randomly from a large pool. You really don't have time to read them and select the best option if your enemy is anywhere near you (and some of the skills are only useful if the enemy is nearby), but a dedicated air-stylist would enjoy occasionally rolling the dice on a blind usage in the middle of a fracas whether it's a wise move or not. X)
Banjo & Kazooie:
It's hard to pin Banjo (I'll refer to the fighter that way even though they're technically two characters) down for a particular style; he's a well-rounded fighter like Mario, though perhaps a bit on the heavier end. His specials are quirky, though, putting a thumb on the air-style scale. The limited-use side-special in particular has the interesting property that it counts as invincibility, which can be used in some not-so-obvious ways -- for example, it instantly ends the Pac-Man ghosts trophy summon if you hit one of them with it. And of course, the fact that he has a third jump (albeit a small one) as opposed to most fighters' two is another little tick in the air-style column.
Terry:
A guest character from another fighting game (what I call "traditional arcade fighters", in the vein of Street Fighter II). Terry's mostly a close-range brawler, although he does have a missile option (albeit one that only moves along the ground), and his ability to step back while still facing his opponent is an extra whiff-luring option that meshes well with water-style play. I'd say he's mostly balanced between fire- and water-style, with an extra dose of fire-style if you're one of those players who is familiar enough with him from his games of origin or driven enough by winning to memorize, practice, and execute the optional command inputs that make his specials a little stronger. Of course, you could argue that there are more air-style-oriented players who do that sort of thing for the fun of it, too.
Byleth:
Preeeeetty strongly earth-style here. Byleth has huge reach with their weapons, often with a sweeping area, and they hit pretty hard too. They're about controlling space and punishing the opponent for getting too close, especially with their super-armored down-special.
That's half of the DLC fighters, I think I'll leave it at that for now. Hopefully I'll finish it next month even if I also have some actual game reviews to do.