Monthly Archives: December 2017

EBF5: Forgotton Ruins gif

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Woop, here’s a mountainous area. I wish I had done more vertical areas in the game, there’s not a lot and I think they look pretty cool. (even though it’s all just an illusion, this map is completely flat logically)

I’ve named all of the areas now, and there’s 20 of them. That number is not a very useful measure of anything though, as they’re all different sizes and may or may not have a boss involved. But it sure *sounds* impressive at least.

Finally, I’m strongly considering making the monsters level up with the players, meaning they will always be around the same level. This will:
• Make grinding to beat fights mostly useless. (Though a tiny amount of grinding to get a certain skill might help)
• Make rushing through the game easier, as you can skip most of the fights without making the bosses harder.
• Allow playing through the optional parts in any order you like.
• Possibly make balancing much easier for me.

So overall it gives a lot more options in play styles, which I think is a good thing.
Final Fantasy 8 tried this, but they did it WRONG because if you wanted to min-max you would level up as little as possible until you got the best summons (which boost your stats at level up). EBF5 will have no such exploits.

Thoughts?

forgotten

Patreon is okay again!

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(continuation of an earlier post)

Hey guys, after a lot of pushback, Patreon has decided not to change their fee system!
This is good news, as it means they will continue aggregating all of your pledges into one monthly payment, and you won’t get hit by transaction fees multiple times. So if you support 10 different people, you’ll only be hit with one fee, as before. (and the fee will continue to be invisible to you, being taken out from our end)

But basically, the smaller your monthly amount, the bigger proportion goes to fees. If you’re only giving a $1 or $2 in total on Patreon, it’s probably not worth using. Save up your money and give $10 after a year instead. No point in giving 35% of your pledge to PayPal or Credit Card companies. The main benefit of Patreon (in my opinion) is that you can make lots of micropayments together, as an efficient larger payment.

It’s also worth noting that protesting actually works, if you hit your opponent where it hurts: in PR and cashflow!

Anyhow, in EBF5 development news, the overworld map is complete now!
I’ve just got two of the premium dungeons left to do. After that I’ll finish off NPCs and sidequests, and then patrons will be able to test it all out. It would have been nice to get it done by Christmas, but that’s probably not going to happen. I’ll have many more animated gifs done before then though.

I suppose I may have to do my usual Christmas Steam key giveaway soon…

I already don’t like Patreon

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Hey guys, I’ve just set up a Patreon two months ago and I’m already feeling very sheepish about using the service. They’re planning to put up their fees soon, which works out very poorly for people pledging many small amounts. Previously the fee was taken from all of your pledges put together (the whole point of a service like this), but now it’ll cost 0.35c  for each individual pledge. Meaning if you support many Patreons for $1, you’ll essentially be charged over 35% in fees, which is absurdly high. Patreon’s been very brazen about this change, hiding it behind the fact that creators will get more money overall (assuming that many patrons don’t just outright leave). Patreon’s facade of being in it to support the little guy is becoming very hard to believe, especially with these dishonest PR statements that don’t address the actual reasons for these changes.

There’s a lot of anger over this, but if this change goes through, I’ll have to delete my $1 tier and tell people not to waste their money. At that point Steam and Kongregate take a smaller cut, and they actually earn it by giving me lots of traffic, while Patreon does fuck all besides process payments. People who were on the $1 tier will still get all of the perks, but in future those perks will be on the $4 tier instead.

It’s not that I don’t want your $1, it’s just that we’re both better off if you save it and buy my games on Steam or Kongregate instead. Charging you guys $1.35 to send me $1 is pointless.

Also I still think Patreon’s new logo is ugly as hell.

Thoughts?

Alwa’s Awakening Review

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Hey guys, today I finished Alwa’s Awakening, here’s a little review.
It’s a charming NES-style platformer that’s enjoyable if you can be patient with it’s flaws.
alwa's4The platforming is quite slow paced, with the challenge being more about planning your actions in advance, rather than muscle memory and super fast reactions. So it likely will play a bit differently than what you might expect, and if you’re expecting something fast paced you’re definitely going to be disappointed.

Also the game is a bit rough around the edges, and there’s some parts that look a bit rushed. Such as, well… the ending. A slightly more complex upgrade system could have helped make things more interesting too.

But if you can look past all that, the game offers some unique gameplay mechanics (you can create blocks and bubbles to aid in platforming and combat) and super appealing art, and should keep you busy long enough to justify the price point.

I’d definitely like to see a sequel or similar game with improved gameplay and polish.

Anyway, I’m always looking out for NES style games because the style really appeals to me. Is there any great ones you know of? Besides the obvious stuff like Shovel Knight, 1001 Spikes, etc.

I feel like there’s a lot of them out there, but few that do a really great job of bringing the best elements from the past and present together.
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