jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Doom, One of The Greatest Games of All Time Turns 20

After hearing about "the most evil murder simulator ever made" and noticing the shareware version on the shelf for a few bucks, I gave Doom a shot. The graphics, immersion and gameplay blew my mind. The Demons snarling and grunting was really unnerving coming through my sound blaster. Shooting something and watching it explode was extremely satisfying. I also had fun connecting the game over BBS's and LAN for deathmatch.

Doom is one of those games that stamped my brain with what games could be and as such have a huge love for it. When Doom II came out I was very happy with the double barreled shotgun and new creepy levels.

I hope Doom continues to live on and wish iD Software godspeed on Doom 4. They are doing the Lord's work and Doom 4 needs to be awesome and must happen.

Head over to Bethesda's blog and read up on some memories from iD, the Masters of Doom.

http://www.bethblog.com/2013/12/10/happy-20th-doom/

GOG Moving to a Better Refund Policy in the Digital Age

"Game doesn't work for you? Contact our support (http://www.gog.com/support) and tell us to fix it! But what if they cannot find a solution? If such a rare event should occur, we'll give you your money back. Simple as that. If you buy a game on GOG.com and find that it doesn't work properly on your system, and our support cannot fix the problem, you get a full refund. It's a worldwide guarantee, and you have whole 30 days after the purchase date, to contact us about the refund.

There's even more! If you bought a game by mistake, or simply changed your mind about a purchase, you can get a full refund within 14 days, as long as the game wasn't downloaded."

I mention this because it's an interesting move by GOG.com. Currently most digital stores don't offer refunds and I kind of wish some would. In GOG's case, it would be because they couldn't get your game to run or you bought the wrong game and didn't download it. I laud them for doing this, it goes quite a ways to put a "stamp of quality" on things.

I hope things advance beyond this though. It's 2013 and I can return nearly anything I purchase in a store(except food and whatnot) and online. Digital goods? Not so much. I get that because of copying you could still hold on to it after you return it, but why go through that hassle as pirating it is much simpler. That said, there are cases where I would have loved a refund on my money, most notably when the game I bought isn't very good at all.

When I sink $30-$60 on a game and it for lack of a better term.. sucks, I'd love a refund. Slap on a 30 day window, whatever, I'd just love to get my money back. I know developing games is hard, but in a world with few game demos should a gamer pirate a game before they purchase it?

It's awesome to see GOG.com starting to offer a sane refund policy for goods as the video game industry marches ever digitally I hope others take notice and do so likewise.

Wil Wheaton Lends His Voice to Double Fine's Broken Age

"Double Fine Adventure" AKA Broken Age is nearing its first half launch and as the release draws near, they are dropping more info nuggets along the way. One such gem features the vocal stylings of the always amazing Wil Wheaton! I grew up watching Wil Wheaton on Star Trek and it's awesome to see him continue his career past the final frontier.

Broken Age will drop on PC, Mac and Linux in 2014.

Game/Show: How Much Do PS4 & Xbox One's New Graphics Matter?

"So, there's been a ton of debate recently about the resolution disparities of certain games on PlayStation4 and Xbox One, aka RESOLUTION GATE. And this of course follows a long tradition of gamers and marketers obsessing over next-gen graphics. But after taking a look, we began to wonder do great graphics make for a great game? Sure, graphics allow game designers to do amazing things, but what most gamers truly want is IMMERSION - that feeling of being fully sucked into a game. And when we looked at the psychology of immersion, we found that graphics might not be that important :/. In fact, our obsession with graphics might be holding us back from spreading games into other more artistic avenues. So we had to ask how much do graphics really matter?"

Back when graphics were simple, we had a long way to go to make video games better. Not to say Zork didn't have it's place, but nicer graphics are generally a good thing. Does the difference between 1080p and 720p really matter? Well, sure but not by much.

I played Fallout 3 on the PS3 in glorious 720p, would it have been a better game in 1080p? Certain not, but the experience may have been. I don't mind a bit higher resolution on games, I think it can really make for a great experience. That said, Fallout 3 is still an awesome game in 720p so do super fancy graphics really matter?

I would say that largely no, they don't, but impressive visuals can make a game more effective.

My Starbound Beta First Thoughts & Let's Play

Starbound Beta dropped today and I wanted to post a bit about it. First off, the game is quite good for a beta, very well polished and lots of fun. The game isn't perfect though and I have ran into a few bugs already, but for such an early beta, the game is incredible.

Starbound take the formula we all love that was popularized by Minecraft and Terraria and spins it up such that what you are left with is a pretty unique blend of awesome. If you have been following the site for the last few days you have seen me post about the early game and how to start things out. I followed that closely and was able to get started pretty quickly. The game isn't easy to start and I died, a lot. The only penalty for death is losing 30% of your "pixels" (the in game currency) and at first, it might seem like a lot, but pixels are easy to come by.

I moved through the early tiers of the game starting with bronze armor and moving to iron. I have a full Iron Armor set and got a fancy new Iron sword and I can take mostly anything that naturally spawns on the starting planet. I found a army base and was able to take down the inhabitants with only dying a few times. One of the soldiers dropped a pretty weak laser pistol. When I shoot it it uses the green bar energy but doesn't deplete enough to matter as it does so little damage.

After getting the hang of mining I saved up enough coal to hop to a small moon and I decided to do a Let's Play of spelunking around the Moon a bit. I also head back to my starting world in the ship, so if you haven't see how that works you should watch the video above.

Overall the game is very good and I can't wait for it to go live.

**EDIT** I had a few recommendations originally, but as it turns out you can use BOTH coal and wood to fuel your ship. I have no issues with ship fuel anymore, wood and coal are both plentiful.

All that to say, Starbound is in beta and is already fantastic, I can't wait to see what they add before this thing goes live.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/05/2013 at 04:14am

Yeah there are a few bugs. I'm now getting the one where the loading sequence hangs for about a minute on the Chucklefish logo. I had one earlier where I couldn't select anything in my inventory until I quit and came back in.

Overall, though, this is amazing. There has to be a better way to find coal, perhaps it comes later in the game, or they haven't added it yet.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/05/2013 at 06:03am

Travis, I just found out you can use both wood AND coal to fuel your ship. I edited my post, I have no more issues with ship fuel :D

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/05/2013 at 06:04am

That said, replanting trees would still be awesome. :D

hardeyez wrote on 12/05/2013 at 09:16am

I think if you use an axe they regrow... could just be hallucinating though... :)

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/05/2013 at 09:23pm

My favorite part of the Lets play: When Panicked Thumb messaged you about losing all of his pixels right at the end there. :P

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/05/2013 at 09:43pm

@hardeyez: I haven't seen that using an axe allows them to regrow. As far as it seems now, trees don't come back. Not that it's a huge issue as random planets are plentiful BUT if you wanted to stick to a planet, it might be nice.

I actually wanted to see how much wood was on a normal level one planet and chopped down all the trees. Counting all the wood I used when I started, my estimation is that a typical level 1 forest planet has between 2.5-3k of unrefined wood. So yeah, that's a ton, but again, it would be nice to replant trees :D

@WhiteboySlim: Yeah, I did a take of the Let's Play where he messages me a few times and I am glad I scratched it because what he says at the end of this video is funny :D

Travis Admin wrote on 12/06/2013 at 02:00am

If I'd known you were doing an LP at the time I would have shut up, but I'm glad I didn't under the circumstances.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/07/2013 at 06:56am

Imminent character wipe! Sunday or Monday there's going to be a massive patch retooling a lot of the core mechanics of the game, so be prepared to lose all your progress!

http://playstarbound.com/coming-in-a-few-days-sorry-for-the-delay/

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/07/2013 at 07:15pm

Excellent, cleanse the universe with purifying fire!!! Err, sorry, got a little carried away there. I dunno how i feel about the whole reducing levels from 1-100 to 1-10. However, the whole damage penetration thing was pretty confusing, so I'm glad to see they're reworking that. Overall I look forward to the changes!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/08/2013 at 05:29am

And this marks my end to playing the beta heavily. Now that I know my save is toast, I am out. It was a fun game for the bit I played it though but these changes are pretty big and knowing they will make them means they will make other huge changes through the beta again. Not that it's a bad change, I bet all the changes they implement will make it a great game, I just don't want to start over too many times.

I might write a few closing thoughts about the game in a day or so though as I wind down with the beta. It's a great game with a ton of promise and character. My only nagging feeling while playing the game was it was this limitless vast universe that was very empty. Pretty, fun, lots of exploration with little meat and potatoes. It's feels very "Minecrafty" in that regard, Minecraft always feels lonely when I play it. Starbound is the same feel right now.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/08/2013 at 06:31am

I think the lack of meat and potatoes will be taken care of later on. It's still very early days and a ton of the content isn't done.

My big complaint at the moment is the pure randomness of it. My starter system, the one where I spent most of my time, barely had any activity in it beyond a couple of houses and a bandit camp. I went to a second system and found a planet with an Avian pirate ship, and that planet had a moon with an Egyptian-style temple. I created a new universe on my Mac to set up a test server and when I joined that, the starter planet had a full-on village where I found tons of interesting stuff and vendors for everything under the sun. This is the kind of thing that would have been really helpful in the early hours of the game but due to the randomness you may not get it.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/08/2013 at 07:39pm

The randomness is kind of rough. My starter world had very little in the way of anything. I only had one small avian temple with no chests :p. the next planet had a HUGE underground tomb filled with tons of stuff and I found more resources in half an hour on the new world than I did during the two hours or so I spent on my starting world. That said, this is still an early beta and I am pretty impressed with what is there already. Once they start to flesh out the quest system I think it is going to really shine. I also read something on the forums about being able to start your own village and populating it with NPCs that do different things, which sounds really cool.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/08/2013 at 07:40pm

I'm actually a bit worried at how this is going to play out.

I'd say generally people who preordered understand what's going on. They had the email they sent out a while back detailing the different phases of the beta and that in the early days, character wipes would be common.,

And, for rapid development like this, Steam makes a ton of sense for getting updates out. Having people manually download new clients would get annoying fast.

But just putting the game up as Early Access might burn them a bit. There are a ton of people buying this that may not have any idea they'll be losing their saves soon. Early Access means what it says it means, but I'm not sure what kind of precedent there is for losing everything. It would have been nice if they could have given Steam access to people who preordered and nobody else until stage 2 or 3 of the beta.

hardeyez wrote on 12/08/2013 at 10:36pm

Yeah, I don't like character wipes as I'm having lots of fun with this... each world is so different and you find fun stuff on it. So it's really check it out and bounce if it's not fun on that world (you just need a few trees to move along, unless you've got a full tank).

But I've been playing a lot, and probably will keep doing so. It'll be much faster to recover after a wipe, but I'll miss the blueprints I've found for the weird stuff. But I basically hit the end of the tech for now (I think, could be missing something)... 3 sectors, 2 bosses down. Just need to find the more exotic ores to build stuff... Fun.

I will miss my ship also, found fun stuff in some USMC bases (i.e. I have an arcade machine and a fun sofa you can sit on in my ship).

So the discovery is fun. I wish they would just convert the chars instead of a wipe. However, when changing the whole weapon system, the old weapons might need to go... I'm more fine with obsolete weapons disappearing (or breaking down to base resources) than loosing everything. But yeah, your character is mainly what you've found/crafted.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/09/2013 at 07:46pm

Hmmmm... I checked the steam page and I didn't see anything on there warning about potential character wipes. They probably should put something on there just as a heads up for anyone who doesn't read the forums or subscribe to the newsletter.

I cut off my playing once they announced the incoming character wipe, but I will jump back in after the update. I'm intentionally limiting how much I play/progress in the game so I don't get burned out until the game gets closer to completion. :)

On a side note, we briefly talked about a group multiplayer map just to screw around in for a night or two. Is that anything you guys are still interested in? I think that'd be good to do after the update hits.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/09/2013 at 08:54pm

Travis is working with getting a server going, but yeah, I am open to trying it out after this next patch.

Traveeto?

Travis Admin wrote on 12/09/2013 at 10:13pm

Yeah, there's very little that you can configure at this point so I'm a little wary of keeping it up for long, but I'll host for a couple of days.

Also, Traveeto?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/09/2013 at 10:27pm

Nice, hit us up with the server details when you have it.

> Also, Traveeto?

Travington!

Timogorgon Member wrote on 12/09/2013 at 11:19pm

Yeah, I'm not talking about running a full on server for any length of time. I was thinking something just to screw around for a night or two and see how multiplayer works/holds up.

The Travster? Travisty? Traverino? Grand-Master Trav?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/10/2013 at 01:22am

Travisty?

/grin

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/23/2013 at 09:05pm

Recent patch:

http://pastebin.com/qJXf3LSE

"Trees can now be planted"

Yay.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/23/2013 at 09:08pm

"You can no longer breath on moons or asteroid fields without the proper equipment"

Even the Glitch? Hmmmm.

"More random encounters"

Awesome.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/24/2013 at 12:02am

I think race-specific traits are coming in a future update. Hopefully that's one of them, because seriously, the glitch shouldn't need to breathe.

Travis Admin wrote on 12/24/2013 at 12:05am

- You must now be orbiting a planet to set it as your home
- Free teleportation to home planet from ships teleporter

I now have a reason to actually build a home base.

- NPCs will now switch to melee weapons up close

Oh this is awesome. Trying to fight all those guys with guns was terrible. Now at least you can shield rush them and then have a fair fight up close.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/24/2013 at 12:46am

Teleportation to home planet for free really does give you a reason for a home planet. And a reason to have a house. Plus now you can re-plant trees so even better.

hardeyez wrote on 12/24/2013 at 02:39am

Yes!!! I hit Tier10 equipment and was kinda sad, but now new stuff to play with :)

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New Starbound Trailer Showcases Dungeons & Advanced Weaponry

The Starbound Trailer just dropped and is pretty awesome. The trailer shows off some early game, building and some other stuff we haven't seen before like mechs, random dungeons and later game tech weapons and gear.

Starbound beta drops tomorrow at 10am PST. Join the Cheerful Ghost event and take part in the discussion about the game and chime in with your thoughts.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/events/45

Papers, Please Is a Depressingly Amazing Slice of Dystopia

Like many of you, I have heard about Lucas Pope's latest game "Papers, Please" and after seeing it in the recent Steam Autumn Sale, I decided to pick it up. The game is very unique and if you are looking for a twitch shooter or MOBA, this ain't it. Papers, Please is a game where you take the role of the immigration inspector on the border reviewing people for entry into the communist state of Arstotzka. You are randomly selected in the state lottery for this job and your family is uprooted and moved to the border. You get money each day by processing people. If you take too long doing your job, you process less people and get less money. If you can't afford heat or food, you family will get sick and may die. If you can't pay your rent you will be thrown in jail.

Papers, Please offers you choices and each choice has an impact that isn't always easy to forsee. In one game, I took a bribe that later got me arrested. In one game, I was moving so slowly I couldn't make rent and was thrown into prison. At one point, a man told me him and his wife were immigrating and that I "should treat her kindly." She didn't have the correct papers and when I let her through, I got a citation that led to a fine.

Papers, Please is a great game in that as I played it I considered what the "right thing to do" was and then what would be the best thing for my family. It's also a strange thing to force someone into a body scanner and analyze the results. On one hand, we have the privacy invasion of body scanners but on the other hand, terrorists are blowing things up at your checkpoint.

Papers, Please is a game I recommend if you are looking for a unique experience that strays away from typical video game tropes. I wasn't sure it was possible to create an exciting game about working at the border of a small communist country, but Papers, Please does it for the glory of Arstotzka!

Make Your Own Zelda Game With The Solarus Project

Solarus is an Open Source Zelda-like 2D game engine. The Solarus engine was built to help people create Zelda like games and the Solarus project released its first game "Zelda Mystery of Solarus" with it.

"The Legend of Zelda: Mystery of Solarus DX is set to be a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES, using the same graphics and game mechanisms. Zelda Mystery of Solarus DX is the first game made with the Solarus engine and in fact, Solarus was primarily designed for this game."

If you are interested in making your own Zelda game or if you are just interested in playing a fan Zelda game directly after the events of Link to the Past, give Solarus a shot.

The Solarus project and Zelda Mystery of Solarus is available for free on Windows, Mac and Linux.

http://www.solarus-games.org/

Festival of Magic: A New Turn Based RPG on Kickstarter

Back this on Kickstarter!

"Festival of Magic is a throwback to the classic Japanese RPGs of yore, but puts a spin on the formula by fusing harvesting with turn-based combat.

In the game you join Amon, a desert scavenger, and his reluctant companion Gnart, as they unravel the ancient mysteries of Umbra - a world that has stopped spinning and is now divided by the forces of technology and magic.

The game combines turn-based combat and farming gameplay with exploration and puzzle-packed quests. Grow spuds, tend barnacles and use your harvest as powerful ammunition and spells; load your weapons, team up your companions and get ready for a grand adventure!"

One great part of the new indie game movement is that there are many more independent developers making games that don't get a lot of attention. For years, Squaresoft and a few other companies were the only ones making turn based RPG games. Festival of Magic is a upcoming game by Snowcastle Games that puts a modern spin on the turn based RPG game by adding crafting and farming to the core game.

Festival of Magic will shop on Mac, Linux and Windows and so far no date has been set. They are looking for 250k and have raised 45k of that goal, so if you are interested in funding the game it would make a difference.

Starbound Beta Drops in 2 Days: Your Starting Survival Guide

The Starbound Beta drops in 2 days and like many of you, I am very excited. A few Let's Players have received early beta access and have posted up several videos and I want to break down a few things that will help you out through the first missions of Starbound.

First thing you will do is get your first quest and collect your starting items from your ship chest. You start with a sword, flashlight, 10 torches, matter manipulator and some seeds. After you land you will want to chop down some trees and get some cobblestone with the matter manipulator. The matter manipulator is a cool tool that basically can chop down trees & dig up stuff except it does is very slowly. So the first thing you will want to do is collect wood and cobblestone to make a crafting table then craft a pickaxe. After you have the pickaxe, head back and mine more cobble stone and then craft the axe and hoe. From there you can use the hoe to till up the ground to plant seeds and chop down trees much faster with the axe.

The quest system will guide you through many of the basics, including crafting a bow to kill animals to roasting them on your fire. I am not entirely certain how far the beta quests take you through the game, but most of the Let's Play videos that have surfaced so far end at the same quest where you craft a furnace.

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