jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Steam Link, Steam Machines & New Valve Controller Launch Nov

Valve made an announcement today that may make quite a few gamers happy.

"Steam Machines, Windows PCs, Macs, and Linux PCs will be able to take advantage of a new product announced at GDC called Steam Link. Designed to extend your Steam experience to any room in the house, Steam Link allows you to stream all your Steam content from any PC or Steam Machine on the same home network. Supporting 1080p at 60Hz with low latency, Steam Link will be available this November for $49.99, and available with a Steam Controller for an additional $49.99 in the US (worldwide pricing to be released closer to launch).

Steam Machines from partners Alienware and Falcon Northwest are being shown, with Machines from a dozen other partners slated to release this November. Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance. Customers interested in the best possible gaming experience can choose whichever components meet their needs. Epic will give a demonstration of the newly announced Unreal Tournament running on a 4K monitor driven by the Falcon Northwest Steam Machine. "We love this platform," said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games. "Whether you're running incredibly detailed scenes at 4K or running 1080p at 120 FPS for an intense shooter experience, this brings world-class gaming and graphics to televisions with an open platform true to Valve's PC gaming roots.""

The whole Steam living room mix will launch this November. I find the announcement of a little $50 streaming box to be very interesting. Because of the price I think this will convince a few Steam users that are on the fence about playing games in the living room to give it a go. It's a nice price point too because you can get the new Steam controller and Steam Link for $100 which can stream your entire Steam library to.

So what do you think, are you going for a Steam Machine or does the Steam Link seem more interesting to you or are you going to hold off on buying either?

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/04/2015 at 05:19am

Since you asked....hehehe. My interested in a "Steam Machine" hasn't really changed since we last talked about it. However, this Steam Link seems like a neat idea. For me, it could mean that I could hook a Steam Link up to my 50" Plasma, instead of my 20+" monitor. The Steam controller would then come in handy. Sure, I could probably hook my PC up to my TV, just like I had done with my old PC, but I only used it for outputting video, which I now do with my PS3 and PS3 Media Server. If I were to do that idea now, I'd probably want a wireless keyboard and mouse, because I've been enjoying the keyboard and mouse game configurations. Although, that hasn't been the case with every Steam game that I have (Risk of Rain, I'm talking about you). I have been wishing I had a bigger monitor lately. It could be interesting to see and try out, perhaps. Anyway, I've kind of rambled a bit. All in all, I think it could be a way for my son to use his Steam account since his PC stopped functioning.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/04/2015 at 06:32pm

If the Link performs as well as they claim (and pending many tests on that "low latency"), I'd much rather have that, which would support my existing system, than a completely new computer. Eventually, I'd go full SteamOS, when I could afford to have multiple high-end computers in the house. Until then, Steam Link sounds like a nice option.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/04/2015 at 07:23pm

Yeah, this is the cost effective way to go. I still want a Steam Machine, but that $50 box may do all I need. Especially if it has support for streaming media of all kinds from my other PCs. There are still some games that don't stream well, but that may be that they're poorly optimized or my rig can't handle the encoding on top of playing it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 08:38pm

Here is the new Steam Controller.

https://steamdb.info/static/img/blog/57/IMG_20150304_100101.jpg

I'll create a new post when a better image surfaces.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:07pm

Someone playing the new UT in 4K on a Steam Machine -w the new Steam Controller.

https://twitter.com/WesPhillips/status/573193120390623233

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:09pm

Engadget has a video showing off the new Steam hardware.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/04/steam-machines-are-coming-this-fall/

Travis Admin wrote on 03/04/2015 at 10:21pm

Wow, the new UT looks amazing.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 12:20am

Yeah, it does. A modern cross platform UT game will be great. Can't wait.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 01:53am

Found some new UT screenshot http://m.imgur.com/a/Vo9J1

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 06:08pm

Valve has a list of all the Machines on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines

Travis Admin wrote on 03/05/2015 at 07:46pm

I was coming here to post that. I'm officially priced out. Hello Steam Link!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/05/2015 at 07:49pm

Wow, so many of them! The Alienware one costs much less than I expected. I expected it to cost about as much as some of the others in the $1-2k range.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/05/2015 at 08:36pm

The pricing makes sense to me, essentially the gamut of PC level pricing... because they are PC's.

I am thinking about Alienware, but I need to look closer at the other ones. I love the wide array of choices and prices.(I won't buy them all but I appreciate having options.)

JaBo wrote on 03/05/2015 at 11:25pm

Oh, I just posted my steam machine question in the other controller thread before seeing this. So this little device essentially is supposed to have a better quality stream? I've used my laptop to stream a game to my TV from my desktop and it's definitely hit or miss on the game and quality.

Man, what about the Falcon Tiki "Storage: Up to 8 TB of SSD" Amazeballs!

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:33am

It isn't quite the gamut of PC pricing. There are lower priced models that could still push out current gen quality, which is what I was hoping for. BUT it is totally reasonable pricing, just not for me personally.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:36am

I'm not sure about "better quality" stream, but it handles Streaming without having to use a separate PC/Mac. And yeah, I've had hit or miss quality as well. I think it's when rendering the game is topping out your gaming rig, so encoding the stream is choppy.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/06/2015 at 03:59am

Travis: Yeah, I agree. After spending more time looking at the Machines themselves and the specs, you are right. The high covers things well, but the low end isn't (specs wise) impressive. I want something that is on par with a PS4 and some machines have some of those specs but not in terms of CPU or RAM. I think the reason why the lower end(I just mean cheaper options not quality) suffers some is because they need to fit the goods in a lower form factor case and make some profit. Seems like for something fairly decent I may have to spend $600 which is more than I thought i'd have to spend.

That said the Alienware is cool but the first version is 4G RAM with a dual core intel chip. Not sure how well that would perform compared to a PS4 with double the memory and 6 more cores.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/06/2015 at 04:37am

That's one spot where console makers have an advantage. The PS4 might have launched with $700-$800 worth of hardware in it. Console makers always take a major loss at first, but then it starts printing money after a couple of years when their costs go down but the hardware stays the same.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/13/2015 at 03:45pm

Interesting hands on with the new Steam Link. After thinking about it, I am unsure if I am going Steam Link of Steam Machine.

http://www.pcgamer.com/steam-link-hands-on-valves-best-shot-at-the-living-room-costs-50/

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Terraria 1.3 Music Spoiler + Scott Lloyd Shelly Minterview

News recently dropped that the upcoming Terraria 1.3 update will include some new music from composer Scott Lloyd Shelly. Re-Logic created a new trailer to show off part of a new song you need to check out. One of the coolest parts about the Terraria 1.2 update was the new music and I am very excited to hear we are getting more(amongst other things). I decided to reach out to Scott and ask him a few questions about how the music for 1.3 is progressing and he was nice enough to get back to me.

Scott recommended that we checkout the Terraria GDC blog as they will drop more Re-Logic and Terraria news over the week.

http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/re-logic-game-developers-conference-blog.12848/

jdodson: I just listened to the new music spoiler from the 1.3 update and I am really happy to hear the update is including more music. How long have you been working on the new music and have you written all of it yet?

Scott Lloyd Shelly: I'm counting 9 tracks right now; I get a request every month or so for a new one. Don't know if they'll be wanting or needing more than that at this point, but I'm always into doing more music for Terraria - totally fun for me.

jdodson: What track in the 1.3 update stands out to you as some you are especially proud of?

Scott Lloyd Shelly: The track that Re-Logic released with the 1.3 music spoiler on YouTube recently is one of my faves - love the DJ!

jdodson: When the Terraria 1.2 update hit we got the Terraria Soundtrack Volume 2. Are we going to get a Terraria Soundtrack Volume 3 when the 1.3 update launches?

Scott Lloyd Shelly: The previous 2 OSTs included 13 tracks each; if we take the 9 from 1.3 and add a few from the Xbox/Playstation ports, we could have a third OST:) (If we all ask 'em really nicely.)

jdodson: Last time we talked you mentioned some of your favorite game scores and composers. Have you heard anything since you really enjoyed? I'd have to put my chips on the Reaper of Souls and Risk of Rain recent scores.

Scott Lloyd Shelly: I'm looking forward to binge-listening to a whole stack of soundtracks; Braid, Freedom Planet, Tomb Raider Anniversary, RetroCity Rampage, Portal 2, Skyrim (4 cds - go Jeremy Soule), but I'm going to take your suggestions and follow up on Reaper of Souls and Risk of Rain. My favourite just for enjoyable listening right now is probably Alessandro Coronas' work on Where Is My Heart.

Valve Partnering with HTC To Build VR Headset

HTC has announced that it is partnering with Valve to produce a VR headset they are calling the RE Vive. It differs from the Oculus rift in that it uses sensors to detect where you head it pointed at in the room. Apparently this change makes the VR experience more seamless and as a result people tend to not get sick as much. The Valve/HTC hardware will also support a 90 hz refresh rate and two 1200 x 1080 displays.

This wasn't the news I was expecting out of GDC but it's pretty damn incredible. If any other news about this breaks, i'll update this post as it happens.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/03/2015 at 03:00am

Wow! I wonder how you physically interact with it and how it looks. I mean, is it just like attaching a small screen in front of your face? I also wonder how much it will cost, my guess is at least $1,000. It'd be cool to at least try it out. I'm only familiar with the Oculus Rift by name, but I know nothing of the OR and VR experience. It's pretty cool how some of our technology has caught up with Star Trek, but we have a long way to go still. One of my most favorite pieces of Star Trek technology is the Holodeck. If we can some how create that technology, or if these VR devices simulate it, well that would be pretty awesome!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/03/2015 at 04:29am

A price point like 1K might put it a bit too far out of the reach of most people. I think a few hundred is a good price, but I really don't know what the consumer version price will be.

I've played an Oculus VR game and the input was me moving around my head. It was a simple Game Jam game but it was such a uniquely beautiful experience, it was like playing Super Mario Brothers for the first time. The game was pretty simple, you moved your head to look at what was in your virtual persons hand and then looked at the right shape it would fit into. After doing that 15 times fireworks streaked across the sky and colors started dancing across the screen. It was a really beautiful and simple puzzle game.

That said, you could port games like Minecraft and Half-life to use VR. So you can move around your head to see things and you can control the game with the typical keyboard/mouse or controller. That said, if Valves VR expects you to walk around you'd need some kind of wireless controller or some other cord free input.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/03/2015 at 04:30am

I never considered that something like this might get us REALLY close to Star Trek Holodeck technology but it really does. Even with the developer Oculus Rift it felt like I was in a different place experiencing something totally unique.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/03/2015 at 05:14am

That's cool. I knew Minecraft had an Oculus Rift option. You're right about my price guess. I may be off and yeah that would be kind of steep. I'm just assuming the hardware would be expensive, but you make a great point that at that price tag, it wouldn't really be affordable to many consumers. Maybe, also, they would have had to wait for the technology not only to be able to create such a thing, but also so that it would be affordable. Maybe since the PS4 is about $400, this technology will be similarly priced.

Ah, this is another reason I wish I lived over there on the West Coast. If I did, I might actually be able to go to one of those events and try this cool stuff out. Maybe GameStop will have the Steam VR and have a "demo" console that gamers could try out before buying (like they do with some consoles).

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

New Cheerful Ghost Vinyl Sticker Prints & The New Ghost

I wanted to show off the new Cheerful Ghost Vinyl Sticker Prints because they are so damn pretty. Cheerful Ghost has been a great video game community for more than 3 years now and it's been obvious to me for some time that we could improve some of our art. Last year a fantastic local game artist Hagen Deloss talked to me about remaking our sticker. We talked over a few weeks, had a few video chats and started tossing around ideas about how we could re-imagine the Ghost.

Firstly the Ghost needs to be happy. One choice I made early on with Cheerful Ghost is to design the site to appeal to people of a pleasing temperament. One part of gaming I dislike is how negative and cynical it is. I want to build a community of likeminded people that were more interested in talking about the things they loved as friends than tear each other apart. I don't mind debate or disagreement it's just served better if all parties are more than civil. My thought was from the color choices of the site to it's mascot we could attract a different kind of gamer. One other requirement was that the new Ghost must be at home and familiar with the old design.

I really appreciate how Hagen interpreted the old Ghost and how that was brought to the final design on this sticker. When people try and convey gaming to a wider audience often times you have the art not reflective of what it's trying to portray. In the case of our new sticker design, Hagen combined a few unique elements I don't often see in video game stickers, branding or advertising. Most notably that the Ghost is having fun talking on a headset playing on a PC. I've seen game site art that may look good but doesn't reflect the site or community. Cheerful Ghost is a community of people that have a deep love for gaming and most notably on the PC. Not to say we didn't all grow up on Nintendo and other consoles, it's just that Cheerful Ghost is mostly a site of PC* lovers.

I encourage everyone local to Portland to reach out and grab one of the new sticker prints from me. Wick and I will be showing Starship Rubicon this summer at a few events and i'll be handing them out there too. At 5" this sticker is ready for your laptop and it's Vinyl construction makes it great for the bumper of your car. As the site marches forward I am going to continue to work with Hagen on integrating the new Ghost design into the site as well. No ETA on when that will happen but it will be in 2015.

If you are interested in checking out more of Hagens work check out his website or talk to him at any PIGSquad event.

http://hagendeloss.tumblr.com/

Bonus image for reading to the end(I snapped that immediately after I opened the package).

http://i.imgur.com/uhu9tRF.jpg

* When I say PC I mean Linux, Mac and Windows.

The State of Linux Gaming in the SteamOS Era

I found this Ars Technica article on the state of Linux Gaming worth recommending. It notes the sad state of Linux gaming not too long ago and how there are a ton of choices now that Valve has entered the market.

As someone that was Linux only back in the day I can say that running the few native games was fun, yet extremely limiting. I had success running some games in Wine but it was never great and I couldn't get the full power out of my hardware. Things are much better now, even if the article outlines how imperfect Linux gaming is.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/02/the-state-of-linux-gaming-in-the-steamos-era/

Prison Architect Alpha 30 Coming to Tablets + Tidy Wires

The great crew at Introversion has dropped the latest in the Alpha series for Prison Architect. They have been hard at work on a Tablet port of the game coming to newer iPads and high powered Android tablets. They've also added some really useful features like the ability to untangle your wires and feed prisoners confined to solitary. This release also contains the ability to get a one time payment for new prisoners to help you fund the construction of your prison. Currently, the early game of Prison Architect allows you to get money through grants and your monthly prisoner income. If you've played the game you know this is a pretty tight fiscal scenario as you often spend through your money quickly. The old alpha used to let you easily create spaces where your prisoners could work and make you way more money to fund the prison. That was changed as you had to jump through some really interesting new hoops to do that. Now they have brought things back a bit with the new one time prisoner grant award.

Introversion has hinted they may add more grants but this is a good addition until that happens.

Hotline Miami 2 Drops March 10th

The release date of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number will be March 10th. I've been waiting for this since I heard the news drop that we were getting a level editor out of PAX East last year. The above review video is of the first three levels of the game and they look like everything I loved about the original with some new goodness tossed in. I still head back to Hotline Miami and have a blast so the included difficultly modes seem like a welcome addition.

Mark your gaming calendars as Dennation Games will release Hotline Miami 2 on PC, Mac and Linux at launch on March 10th.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/274170/

Human Beings Make Games And That Process Is Hard

As I travel the expanse of the information superhighway I read many words and see lots of things. Some of it incredible, some meh and occasionally things too dastardly to express with casual words. I took part in a Double Fine Bundle that included funding Broken Age to get access to documentaries of it's creation and development. As part of that I get emails about the games progress from Double Fine and the most recent video(shared above) I thought was worth sharing.

Tim Schafer industry legend and proprietor of great hair mentions that Broken Age part two is in beta and nearing release. This is great news as I wanted to wait till the entire game was released before I dove in. To the end of the video he talks about something that recently happened with Peter Molyneux and Godus, a Kickstarted game. Essentially Godus is in some form of development limbo and hasn't lived up to some fans expectations. I don't want to re-litigate the drama here, but suffice it to say people didn't respond well to the situation.

In the video Tim states "The last thing i'd like to do is send our support to our friend and fellow developer Peter Molyneux. In the last few weeks we've seen some extremely rough treatment of Peter on the Internet and in the games press and I think that it's unfortunate and unfair and I don't think that it's healthy. Obviously things did not go as expected with his game and because of that people are making some nasty accusations of Peter and I can really relate to that believe it or not. I'm not saying that developers like Peter and I shouldn't be responsible and shouldn't be accountable to deadlines I'm just saying the reaction to recent events and the tone is really way out of proportion to the seriousness of the events themselves. Out of the many goals of this documentary that we are making(Broken Age) is to show actual game development and to show that the developers are human beings. I think it's clear that the problems that Peter is having are not unique to him and in fact they happen to most projects. If we stay transparent and keep involving players in our development that more and more people will start to see the process and how games are made and the effort involved and how game development goes the way it does. Knowing what goes into the games they play I think actually players will enjoy playing them even more."

I think Tim makes a very rational point which seems to fly in the face of our reactive and hostile online culture and this isn't something new to me as we talked about this in the second episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable titled "The Internet Hate Factory."

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1527/cg-roundtable-ep-2-the-internet-hate-factory

I watched the message from Tim the same day I read an article by Anthony Burch, the writer of Borderlands 2. Anthonys article is titled "Five Things I Didn’t Get About Making Video Games (Until I Did It)." It's a interesting article outlining his start as a writer of often negative articles about games. He seems to regret his often hyperbolic tone as his experience with making Borderlands 2 showed him how hard the process is. Increased knowledge of things often allow people an increased understanding and I appreciate Burchs article as it shows how someone can build some empathy by being an integral part of the creative process.

http://kotaku.com/five-things-i-didn-t-get-about-making-video-games-unti-1687510871

I am not saying I haven't been disappointed by games i've Kickstarted or purchased. It's just that at the end of the day there is a human being on the other end that often just wants to make the best thing they can. When considering a fixed budget and time many games slip in quality and promised features. Whereas this does bother me, I try not to let it eat at my soul such that I need to reflect that pain at someone else. As someone that has stepped in the game publishing and soon development process I can say it's a challenging prospect and we try our best.

That said, if developers create things you don't like, don't buy them. If a studio produces things you don't find fun, stop pre-ordering them. It seems that the video game industry is going the route of digital downloads, which is very convenient but doesn't allow us to return the game if it is terrible. This isn't optimal and as i've considered the subject of video game refunds I can't think of a system that would work to please everyone. Some people want to return a game they've sunk 300 hours in, which I don't understand at all. I can understand an immediate return if the game crashes or is immediately terrible but when some games are 8 hours should you be allowed to return a game after you completed it in a day? That said, I try to stick to purchasing games from developers I trust and when something new comes down the pike, I often wait till I hear from my friends about it. That means that you don't always have the latest and greatest game, but it also means you can buy really great stuff.

I don't think this issue will be solved overnight but I've adopted some strategies to keep myself happy with the games I buy(no early access, no pre-orders from unknown developers, etc). As gaming continues on it will offer us even more ways to buy games and it will be up to us to make the right purchases. And when things go south we should turn on the Internet Hate Factory, that's really not the kind of world we should want to live in.

Fan Game Mother 4 On Track For June Release

As a big fan of Earthbound I have been really excited for Mother 4. Since Nintendo doesn't seem interested in making a new Mother game, fans took it on themselves to work on something new. The Mother 4 team has been busily working on the game and last year mentioned a 2015 release date. Today they dropped a new trailer and a tentative release date of June with the new trailer game footage. I like how similar the feel is to Earthbound while proving a more modern take on the classic pixel art.

Oh and Mother 4 will release for free on PC, Mac and Linux.

"Mother 4 follows the journey of three kids and the leader of a biker gang. With dark rumors of "Modern Men" running wild, these unassuming heroes set out to uncover the truth, no matter how dangerous. From bustling urban streets to secret volcano bases, all kinds of oddball thugs and impossible monsters stand in their way... but everything should be okay if they don't forget to write home!"

http://mother4game.com/

Is Super Mario Brothers More Immersive Than Call of Duty?

Jack and Rich are back with a new episode of Previously Recorded that discusses quick time events, cut scenes and game immersion. They note that when you drop instructions on screen to press buttons you remind the player they are playing the game instead of being the character on the screen. This is a good point and I think that it often gets worse when you are playing a PC game that asks you to press a button on a controller that you are not using.

What do you think, is Super Mario Brothers more immersive than Call of Duty? Do quick time events ruin game immersion? Are Jack and Rich horrible frauds?

jdodson1

2731 Posts