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.

2761 Posts

"Down with Zelda from the very start, I got the heart it's smart to play the part. Down with Zelda! Creepin' through with an overhead view because a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. So I stay on track collect the fact, never cut slack and I always watch my back for Jack. Down with Zelda! Don't ask them because i'm the man with the plan because the power's in my head and the power's in my hand. Down with Zelda!"

If you didn't understand 90's colloquially and didn't watch the video you might think this person want's to take Zelda down but these kinds of videos are so uniquely 90's you can't make them up. Like any Nintendo commercial from the 90's I remember this one and after I saw it had to share it. At one point at the 19 second mark there is some gameplay not featured in Link's Awakening of a huge ghost as well as some game art that didn't ship with the final version. Funny that this commercial was shot with such an early build but yeah, I imagine this ad campaign was envisioned before the final build of the game was out internally at Nintendo.

Down with Zelda? This game and commercial, for sure.


In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we talk about our highlights of 2015 in gaming as well as talk about what we are looking forward to in 2016. We take a break to read some Chick Tracts, discuss paid mods as well as our guesses or general lack of knowledge around Nintendo's new dream console NX!

jdodson may also have first coined "Triple Indie" to discuss Indie games with large budgets. Even if he wasn't, it's still nice to dream big! Come for the discussion stay for Scrypt drinking so much he can't think of what to say next!

Notes:

Cheerful Ghost 2015 GoTY Awards - http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2753/cheerful-ghost-2015-game-of-the-year-awards

Hearthstone Dailies for Ghosts Episode I - http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2767/hearthstone-dailies-for-ghosts-episode-1-the-show-begins

Consortium: The Tower Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/idgi/consortium-the-tower


Game Informer has an incredible spread on the new Doom game that is slowly unlocking over the next couple days. In the next couple days they will do a story on Dooms new Snapmap feature which is the coolest part about the new game in my opinion. The detail and love iD is putting into the game really shows and it does seem to be a love letter to the feel of the original.

No exact date is set yet but it should be in the first couple months of this year. Doom is coming out on PC, PS4 and XBox One and I am curious how you plan on playing it and if you are going to pick this one up on launch day?

http://www.gameinformer.com/p/doom.aspx


Joni and Sean and the two part super group behind the Indie Zelda-like Anodyne are close to releasing their follow up Even The Ocean. Even the Ocean is a story based side scroller where you "follow Aliph, a technician for Whiteforge City, as she investigates a recent string of power plant failures..." It features an interesting power mechanic that you can balance to use in your favor situationally. From following the game in it's early stages it looks to have changed some but it still looks great.

When the game launches i'll post more but you can find out more by checking the games website.

http://www.eventheocean.com/

We also talked to Joni and Sean back in 2014 about the game which Scrypt and I saw at that years PAX Prime. You can read that interview below:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1557/even-the-ocean-the-upcoming-game-from-analgesic


Beloved musician and entertainer David Bowie recently passed away to the grief of many. It's hard not to see the effects of Bowie's long career in music and pop culture. Many may not know but David Bowie was featured in a game called Omikron: The Nomad Soul.

"Responding to the desperate pleas of a mysterious character from another dimension, your soul must enter the dark and futuristic city of Omikron. This heralds the beginning of an epic adventure through an increasingly strange and dazzling parallel world, trying to solve the many puzzles that prevent you escaping alive. Think, fight and interact with the immense gaming environment to defeat the menacing demons that have tried to trap you."

As a memorial to Bowie, Square Enix is giving away The Nomad Soul for free on PC and Steam and you can redeem your copy at the link below using the coupon code "omikron" at checkout.

People from the United States should use the link below:

https://store.na.square-enix.com/product/281956/omikron-the-nomad-soul-pc-download

People from everywhere else should use the link below:

https://store.eu.square-enix.com/emea_uk/games/pc-windows-download/Omikron-The-Nomad-Soul.php


One goal of 2016 is to do more Cheerful Ghost video projects. Keep the Roundtable going strong, do more local developer interviews and game streaming. I love Hearthstone and I know some of you do too and thought it might make sense to do a new Hearthstone series where I play the game and talk a bit about it. Specifically i'll be focusing on grinding my Hearthstone gold dailies, talk about the game in terms of strategy to help people understand the game a bit more and learn that they can do pretty well playing the game for free. In this first episode I grind out one of my daily quests while playing 3 ranked matches. I talk about and use two of my new decks specifically my Dragon Priest and Warlock Zoo.

Recording this using OBS on my Mac and everything went very smoothly. Eventually I may start doing this on Twitch but I figured to start out simple and see how it develops.

Drop any comments you have on this episode and thanks for watching!


YouTuber ASMR made this video where he pages through Electronic Gaming Monthly while he whispers his thoughts about them. His channel is dedicated to him doing playing games, crinkling plastic and going through magazines while whispering. If you were really excited about looking over some EGM magazines while someone softly talks to you, get ready for an amazing time!

Decided to share this because this was so different I had to share it with somebody.


We've shared some absolutely incredible speedruns and this one is no exception to that tradition. Speedrunner Yagamoth was present at the 2016 Games Done Quick charity drive which raised 1.2 million dollars for the prevent cancer foundation. His speedrun is of the 90's classic I am currently playing called the The Secret of Mana. Secret of Mana is an old Square game that is a real time hybrid that mixes Zelda and Final Fantasy elements. As Yagamoth runs through the game he talks a bit about it and how he uses glitches to achieve a faster run. Under two hours is a really impressive effort as my current game is well over 15-20 and I just unlocked the final Mana fortress.

https://gamesdonequick.com


"Miles off the coast of Westmarch lies an island that many believe to be little more than legend. Cut off from the rest of Sanctuary’s developed civilizations, Greyhollow was once the center of a grand empire. Often times, such isolated societies grow and advance at incredible rates, and Greyhollow was no different. Its citizens devoted their cause to a mysterious and, as is often the case in Sanctuary, completely evil being. For reasons still unknown to this day, this unimaginably advanced society collapsed, leaving ruin, chaos, and a lingering curse behind."

Diablo III is still getting some major attention from Blizzard and the upcoming 2.4.0 patch contains a bunch of updates that will give it's players much more to play. I am interested in checking out the new thorns balancing changes they are making to the Crusader as well as the new Grehollow zone. No word on the next Diablo III expansion but I imagine we will hear about one this year. I hope the next expansion adds a couple new characters and acts but that may be more of a dream that reality.

Read the full set of patch notes below.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/19941042/patch-240-ptr-patch-notes-12-14-2015

*UPDATE*

The 2.4.0 patch is out now! http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/19998542


http://i.imgur.com/RLjutc5.png
For the last couple years we've been going strong with the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable which is a monthly live stream video roundtable show where we talk about all manner of geekery and video games. Recently we've been advertising the livestream more and had a great time in the most recent episode about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I've also been doing more with video as seen in my recent interview with Wick as well as Let's Plays and Cheerful Ghost mini videos. I've updated our Cheerful Ghost YouTube channel, organized everything into tidy playlists and we just recently added our new YouTube channel art as seen above.

I want to thank Scrypt for working on the amazing piece seen above and I to say I love it is a bit of an understatement! As video on Cheerful Ghost expands, it's nice to have amazing art reflect that and I hope 2016 is a great year for it!

If you want to follow more of Scrypt and his art projects, check out his blog post below:

http://johningalls.tumblr.com/post/136691154742/so-i-got-nasty-sick-over-the-holidays-and-i