jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2759 Posts

https://media.nintendo.com/nintendo/bin/TbOkYKxoTI8bMOpdVokcsFUycia3Q4_Z/3U9SYJ8Gp80E9bLMkniqSWd1JQjU4KH0.jpg
Back in the 1986 Nintendo released the Nintendo Cereal System that was available for about three years before it was discontinued. It had two bags of cereal such as the separate Mario & Zelda bags. My favorite was the Zelda cereal and I only ate it a couple of time's at my cousin's house as my parents never let us get it. Looks like kids everywhere are getting another chance to eat Mario in cereal form because Nintendo is partnering with Kelloggs to bring us Super Mario Cereal. Not only will kids get to eat Mario but the box comes with a scannable Amiibo that allows you in game bonuses in Super Mario Odyssey such as gold coins and hearts.

Super Mario Cereal will be available in stores on December 11th and is this something you plan on buying? I plan on getting one making this the first Amiibo that I own.

https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/super-mario-cereal-from-nintendo-and-kelloggs


Today Capcom announced that Mega Man 11 is in development and will be launched in 2018! The good news is there is a new Mega Man game coming out and my hope for it will that it will live up to the Mega Man series legacy and be challenging. That said, visually it looks pretty much like Mighty No. 9 and that surprised me a bit. Personally i'd have continued the Mega Man numbered sequels with the old school pixel art graphics and then continued the Mega Man X series with the Mighty No 9 art style.

Capcom also noted that both Mega Man Legacy collections are coming to the Switch and that they are working on collections for the Mega Man X series.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/capkel/blog/2017/12/04/ready-mega-man-11-is-coming-in-late-2018


Into the Breach is the upcoming turn based Robots vs Monsters strategy game by the creators of FTL. Recently PC Gamer has been playing an updated build and shared the gameplay video above. I can't make out much from the game itself except the person playing it was experimenting with it in ways that weren't entirely easy to understand. One thing I did take away from the game is that it looks pretty far along in development and it seems like every choice you make impacts how the battles will turn out. Into the Breach also seems like it's designed for mobile devices in mind as well as PC so it seems we might be able to play it on whichever platform you want. Eventually.

The game also looks very much like it's the next game from the creators of FTL. I like how the interface, graphics and music(same composer as FTL Ben Prunty) all harken back to the tone of FTL.

There is no release date for Into the Breach but when it gets one i'll write more about it. That said from the gameplay footage my guess is it will launch sometime in 2018 but don't mark it on your calendar just yet.


https://i.imgur.com/K70O3Ox.jpg
This Black Friday I bought a couple gaming related items and one such thing was The Legend of Zelda: Art & Artifacts for $11 on Amazon which is an incredible steal of a deal. At 427 pages and weighing in at 6 pounds this book is a beastly tome that will take you quite some time to finish. Firstly it's a very rich sampler of the art of each Zelda game starting with the original Legend of Zelda on NES and finishing up with Skyward Sword. It drops a couple of pages to the latest Zelda Breath of the Wild but you can sort of tell that the game wasn't quite released when the book was being made because the Breath of the Wild coverage isn't more than a couple pages. That said the books covers nearly every Zelda game (The CDi games are not featured) and even the HD re-releases such as Twilight Princess HD and even notes the difference between Link to the Past and the later release on Gameboy Advance.

If you are considering picking this up I don't want to spoil some of the more fun elements in the book I didn't quite expect. And if I was thinking of potential negatives I suppose the heft of the book is something to consider. This is perfect coffee table material but this book is so large it's not super easy to hold in your lap to read. If you have a firm grip, love of Zelda history and the time to leaf through 427 pages of Zelda art this book is something you absolutely need to get.


I was recently a guest on Game Dev's Quest which is a local Podcast all about the process of making Indie Games and in the latest episode I talk about Cheerful Ghost and my involvement publishing Starship Rubicon. Rett, Taylor and I talk about all of that and also round things off talking about mindfulness and chasing the next $60 game. For quite some time i've been thinking about how to structure the games I pick next to play to better fit in my life and find something sustainable because it seems like every couple days a new incredibly engrossing $60 game comes out I have no time to play. I really enjoy Game Dev's Quest and if you like a couple of friends talking about games where the discussion often ends us at mindfulness, philosophy or random map discussions then you need to check it out!

I really want to thank Rett and Taylor for having me on the show and I'm really happy with how the episode turned out. You can listen to the show above or by hitting the link below or subscribing to the show on iTunes or any other Podcast client.

http://airpodcast.com/games-devs-quest-e37-cheerful-ghost/


I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! As you all tuck into eating more turkey than you should I was wondering what we will all be playing and watching this weekend? Linked above is my ritual MST3K Turkey Day marathon and they are starting out with the Swedish classic “The Day The Earth Froze!” I’ve been playing a lot of The Adventures of Link and that’s been really fun to play(check my review on it later)!



And if playing the first hour of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is telling, this entry into the Animal Crossing franchise won't let you down! As I was running around in-game with my newly created Animal Crossing buddy I realized that I wasn't too deserted by the games amazingly plush graphics or storytelling. I've seen some people on Twitter make themselves cry tears of joy at the launch of this game but as a pretty reasonable Nintendo fan who hasn't said goodbye to my love for Nintendo because I haven't felt like they've run around or hurt me. I've really known Nintendo for a long time and I think my hearts aching for more Nintendo franchises on mobile. But I think everyone knows on the inside what's going on and we know that Nintendo likes to make games and we we're gonna play them. And if you asked me how I was feeling about Nintendo getting into mobile I would say that I hope you're not too blind to see a Nintendo that's going to do ever more here. And seriously because if Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is an indicator Nintendo is never gonna give mobile up.


Back this on Kickstarter!
PixelJunk Monsters is one of the original tower defense games that was caught in the early Indie craze. It's been ported to a ton of systems after it's initial PS3 launch and has been in a handful of Indie Bundles as well as getting a Wii U port. Recently it's creators, Q-Games have dropped a Kickstarter for an entirely new version of PixelJunk Monsters that's free to play on mobile called PixelJunk Monsters Duo.

"Fans have been clamoring for the return of PixelJunk Monsters and we've been listening! We want to bring it to them and hopefully to a whole new group of players as well! Allowing anyone to pick up and play Monsters on their phone is one of the best ways to do that.

We've decided to make the project a free-to-play title in order to make it easier to keep new stages, islands, monsters, and other features coming as fast as we can whip them up. But it's going to be a big undertaking--and we need your help!

One of the coolest things we have planned is the introduction of card and deck based gameplay, used to place towers, bombs, special effects, and more! Collect cards to unlock more powerful items and defend the Chibis against tougher and more dangerous monsters.
"

I don't think i've heard of a Kickstarter to fund a free to play game but if you are a fan of PixelJunk Monsters and want some amazing swag there are a lot of backer rewards for you. Very excited for a new PixelJunk Monsters game and I hope the free to play aspect doesn't get in the way of it being great!


https://www.savetheinternet.com/sites/default/files/styles/1275_wide/public/topics/topic_net-neutrality.png
"Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers and governments regulating most of the Internet must treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication. For instance, under these principles, internet service providers are unable to intentionally block, slow down or charge money for specific websites and online content."

The Internet is one of the best inventions of humankind and if it didn't exist I wouldn't have a job. It's reach is vast and there is no end to how future humans will use it and have it better their lives. Cheerful Ghost was created because it was rather easy for me to cobble together some code and make something that allows us all to read these words i'm typing. I could do it rather easily because of the open source code of so many I built on and extended and the standards and protocols that govern the Internet. Alongside that foundation is also the fact that just because Cheerful Ghost is a small web community it can still exist in a larger world with huge billion dollar web businesses like Facebook, Google and Apple. The fact that Cheerful Ghost barely makes enough to keep the "server lights on" and Facebook making more money than a small country doesn't matter much because both sites are just as easy for you to access. One part of that is because Net Neutrality has made a system where even small communities like us can exist.

That said under the current FCC Chair Ajit Pai who was appointed by the United States President Donald Trump wants to repeal the rules governing Net Neutrality. Below are his own words on the subject.

"Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet, Instead, the F.C.C. would simply require internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them"

The problem with this rationale is that it gives Telecoms the ability to do things that make it harder for Cheerful Ghost and other small sites with micro budgets to exist needless to say the kind of world where you need to pick an Internet plan "thats best for you" which may as well be codewords for more expensive Internet packages.

I encourage you to delve more deeply into this subject and have cobbled together a couple links below to know more and take action. I don't typically write about US politics here much but this issue is very important to Cheerful Ghost and the current and future voices on the Internet.

https://www.savetheinternet.com/sti-home

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/technology/fcc-net-neutrality.html

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/11/today-and-every-day-we-fight-defend-open-internet

https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/dont-dismantle-net-neutrality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality