jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

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

2746 Posts

Stardew Valley Shaping Up To Be A Beautifully Unique Game
http://stardewvalley.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Fest3.png
In the last roundtable I mentioned that Stardew Valley is one of my most anticipated Indie games of 2014. I have been following the games development since I first heard about it and have been really happy with the progress it's made. It's a long time coming, but with the recent bout of disappointments i've had with super early access games, I appreciate the long brew Stardew Valley has taken.

Stardew Valley music is shaping up well. The songs seem to fit the game well and I especially liked the theme song.

https://soundcloud.com/concernedape/stardew-valley-theme

One of the unique features of Stardew Valley is that it is a country life game that features the ability to partake in county festivals like...

"Egg Festival - Everyone gathers in town for a celebration of new life after a long winter. The festival concludes with an egg hunt.

Flower Dance - The townsfolk congregate in a secret meadow to feast and socialize. The young people pair up and participate in a time-honored tradition, the “Flower Dance”. It’s your chance to show a special someone that you care… just hope that you don’t get rejected!

Luau - The summer luau is one of Stardew Valley’s most beloved events. The beach is decked out with tropical adornments and a huge buffet is provided for everyone to enjoy. The Regional Governor makes a special trip each year to see what the valley has to offer… something that Mayor Lewis takes very seriously. The highlight of the luau has to be the potluck soup… a huge, simmering cauldron full of ingredients provided by the community. (screen shot above)

Dance of the Midnight Jellies - On a warm summer night every year, the midnight jellies pass through Stardew Valley on their long migration home.

Harvest Fair - A celebration of the harvest season. Artisans, farmers, and craftspeople alike prepare exhibits to show off their hard work from throughout the year. A panel of judges awards medals to those with the most compelling displays."

ConcernedApe recently spent some time working on another project, but is back to working on the game full time. I appreciate that he is taking the time to stop and enjoy life, yet focus on the game at the same time. I think i'd rather have Stardew Valley released a bit later and have him be happy and not-stressed than see the game ship tomorrow.

Can't wait to play the final version and hopefully, we can all play it this year!

If you want to listen to all the music for Stardew Valley composed so far:

http://stardewvalley.net/dev-update-16/

Even more updates:

http://stardewvalley.net/dev-update-17/

Happy Memorial Day: A Few Thoughts
http://i.imgur.com/hDklG.png
Today, the United States celebrates Memorial Day. It's a holiday that remembers the people that died serving in our armed forces. I just want to say thanks to anyone that serves in government that contributes to making the country I live in so much fun to be a part of. It isn't always perfect, but lots of people that work in government make this country great to be part of and for your time and dedication, I thank you.

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone that comes to Cheerful Ghost to read an article, watch a video, add a game to your list, post an awesome bit of news, watches or joins in a Roundtable and joins in the site conversation in the comments. Cheerful Ghost is one of the coolest things i've been a part of and the reason why it's so great is because of the people that are part of it. Which is to say, you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

EGVA GeForce GTX 750 Is Well Worth The Upgrade
http://i.imgur.com/5zVqJQz.jpg
I have been really happy with the Gateway PC I picked up a few years ago. My PC shipped with a good video card at the time in a Nvidia GeForce 440. Recently I picked up a new monitor that has a max resolution of 2560x1600 and I have wanted to play games at that setting. Most Indie titles fair well but most AAA games suffer on higher resolutions so I decided to start looking for a replacement.

Last week I purchased an EVGA GeForce 750. The GeForce 750 is Nvidias Maxwell architecture retooled to a lower power draw and form factor. If you are bound to a PC with a lower end power supply, this card will work systems as low as 300 watts. The form factor is nice and easily fit in my PC. I have heard that this card will be featured in many new Steam Machines and it makes sense, this card is a good value for the performance.

But you know, that is all well and good but how does well does it work with my games? Since all my Indie titles ran well before, there is no change in that department so I loaded up a few AAA games and maxed them out. First game in my list was Wolfenstein: The New Order. Maxing this game out to 2560x1600 with everything dialed to 11 is incredible. My wife noted that the game "looked like real life." I'd say we haven't hit that level of graphical detail yet but Wolfenstein turned all the way up is an amazing sight to behold. Shooting Nazi's has never been as beautiful.

Next up was Skyrim, the only game that still lagged when I dialed everything to 11. I imagine this has to do with the high res texture pack I was using or some other thing that wasn't immediately obvious. That said, the game looks fantastic, it's just a slideshow at 2560x1600. I dialed it down and it ran fine but I was a bit bummed it didn't work at full settings.

Columbia never looked so stunning at max settings. I noticed a smidge of a frame rate drop at full settings but dropping it down slightly improved things considerably. I don't mind losing a few FPS if the overall picture is great and even at max settings it was a treat.

I tried a few older games that all ran without a hitch at max settings. Half-Life 2, Portal 2 and Rage all looked and played great. Portal 2 looked especially crisp and clean. I was also finally able to max out Diablo III without any frame-rate issues, which is awesome because killing Diablo should be a "high quality experience."

If you are looking for a graphics card replacement and want to go with something that won't break the bank and deliver good performance, you might want to consider a GTX 750. I picked it up on Amazon and you can by clicking the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IDG3NDY?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=B00IDG3NDY&linkCode=shr&tag=jdodsonorg-20&linkId=GNR643LIS7RM35GL

The Witcher 2 Comes to Linux/SteamOS
The Witcher 2 was just ported to Linux and SteamOS and they are celebrating by having an awesome 80% off sale. If you were wanting to build up your catalog of native SteamOS games or simply wanted to pickup The Witcher 2, $3.99 isn't a bad price!

Been impressed with the third party SteamOS support i've been seeing lately. I hope more developers join the trend to port to SteamOS. *cough* Bethesda *cough* 2K *cough* iD!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/20920/

Cheerful Ghost At OMSI After Dark
https://www.omsi.edu/sites/default/files/OAD_MAY_SB.jpg
Do you like eating and drinking? Do you also enjoy video games? Do you live in the greater Portland area? If you are experiencing an intersection of values with facts in what I noted above, I recommend you come to OMSI after dark. Not only can you try some great local food and drink but also do things for FOR SCIENCE! Yeah, science, I mean it's in the OMSI title and everything. You know, the S in OMSI... it's for science.

To make the offer even more interesting, Cheerful Ghost will have a booth you should check out. We will be showing next to some great local Indie developers as well.

OMSI After Dark will be this Wednesday from 6p-10p. Check the events link below for pricing and more.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/events/57/come-to-the-cheerful-ghost-booth-omsi-after-dark

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable: S2 E8 Indie Games II The Revenge
In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we re-boot a topic we covered in detail in our first Roundtable episode, Indie Games. What do Indie Games mean in 2014, does it make sense to call them Indie Games at all? Featuring special guest, Will Lewis the founder of the Portland Indie Game Squad we navigate the seas of Indie, stopping along the way to make fun of people with no friends as well as pixel art. But, as with all things, we kid what we love the most.

The Mayhem Game Jam Games 2014 [ Part II ]
http://i.imgur.com/FgBo3wb.jpg
Mothership of Mayhem

http://stuff.mboffin.net/games/unity/mom/

Mothership of Mayhem is a missile command style base defense game. As objects fall from the sky you must shoot them down to protect your base. As things fall you need to time your shots properly so you can hit the falling debris. This sounds a lot easier than it is and I found myself frantically clicking to clear the ever increasing waves of spaceward refuse. You get a limited amount of ammo so you must keep that in mind as you blast away, making each bit of the game more intense.

Giant Rampaging Monster

http://stuff.mboffin.net/games/pigsquad/GiantRampagingMonster.zip (Windows)

Giant Rampaging Monster is a game that delivers on the promise of it’s title. You take control of a Giant Rampaging Monster as you walk around town demolishing everything in your path. As I played this game I realized how much I miss Rampage and how badly more of these games need to be made. Giant Rampaging Monster not only allows you to destroy buildings with ease but it also puts a faux Twitter feed at the top of the screen. As you bring carnage and destruction to the city you can see how the city responds on Twitter. Many of the tweets are funny as people wonder about the monster in “How can it’s bone structure support it’s mass” and other Tweets feature the local news that note a local “Tornado warning upgraded to Giant Monster.”

Parenthood Simulator

http://transwave.tumblr.com/post/85851218016/parenthood-simulator

Parenthood Simulator is a game that is fun and disturbing all at once that features two player head to head gameplay. One player takes the role of the grocery shopping Mother trying to stay on budget. The other player is the child who needs to throw items into the cart to make Mom go over budget. I found myself really enjoying the mechanics of playing as the child, running around tossing food into the cart. I played this game with Lucas, one of the games creators as he was the Mother frantically swinging her arms to keep food out of the cart. If there is an open question about times where children are pitted against parents, Parenthood Simulator is a game that takes the affirmative.

Pyxis

http://stuff.mboffin.net/games/pigsquad/Pyxis.zip (Windows)

“...And she opened the box containing all the evils in the world” is the opening line to Pyxis, a dark breakout style game where you allow hope to escape while containing evil. In Pyxis hope is represented by a blue orb and evil are a bunch of grey orbs. Stopping the orbs from escaping are a few flat lines you can control with your mouse. Moving side to side moves the lines and moving the mouse up or down increases or decreases how far they are from each other. The simple premise and controls really make for a great game that can last quite a long time. Pyxis has a really good tone conveyed well through it’s gameplay art, writing and music. The game runs great on the PC but I could see it working just as well on phones or tablets.

Please check out the first part of our coverage of The PIGSquad Mayhem Game Jam 2014:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2047/the-mayhem-game-jam-games-2014-part-i

The Mayhem Game Jam Games 2014 [ Part I ]
http://i.imgur.com/XDuwmjs.jpg
Cheerful Ghost was a sponsor of this years PIGSquad Mayhem Game Jam. The Mayhem Jam gave game makers of all experience levels, skills, and backgrounds a 48 hour opportunity to develop a new game amongst friends. I was able to make it for a bit of the Jam and was pretty impressed how people quickly met up and worked together to create interesting stuff. Will Lewis, founder of PIGSquad collected all the games and you are about to read a mini-review of each of the games.

http://pigsquad.com/

There were 8 games made at this years Jam and we decided to split them up into two posts. If you are interested in any of the games from the jam, feel free to click the link for each game, give it a try and drop your thoughts in the comments.

Mother of Mayhem

http://www.kongregate.com/games/IncredibleJams/mother-of-mayhem

Mother of Mayhem is a fun top down shooter where you are a frog on a quest to save your people from the slime overlords. Gameplay is in the 2D top down perspective and you can shoot in any direction you can move. Your shots are bound to your energy level such that you need to decide the right time to shoot carefully. As your progress through the game more slimes spawn as the game quickly ramps up in difficulty. Mother of Mayhem is a really challenging game but who said saving your people from the slime overlords would be be easy?

Starventure

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44618/StarVenture/StarVenture.html

Starventure is a beautifully challenging spaceship Shoot Em’ Up. You use the mouse to control the spaceship and the firing is done automagically. At first I thought the auto-fire mechanic would bother me as most shooter games let you do the shooting. As I played the game the challenge wasn’t in landing the shots, it was in navigating the level to stay alive. Since I am an avid completionist I wanted to kill each and every enemy I encountered. This seemed like a bad strategy as I died. A lot. Eventually I landed the winning formula of simply navigating around the bad guys to avoid taking direct damage. As I came to the final boss my strategy for beating it was to kite it while avoiding the shots. I eventually beat the boss but it was a bare knuckle fight to the end. I’d love to see more of Starventure and hope someday I can.

Kuzi Mayhem

http://transfixed.itch.io/kuzi-mayhem

Kuzi Mayhem is a very charming game where you play Domovoi as he helps his host make her concoction. As you take control of Domovoi, you can move side to side on a shelf loaded with bottles. You use Domovoi to catch the bottles from falling as you allow the purple ones to make your hosts concoction. I laud Kuzi Mayhem for using the music, art and gameplay to craft a very simple and fun experience. Where the introduction sequence was hard for me to understand, the experience of quickly moving to collect bottles was so great I was lost in it.

Brave Little Wrecking Ball

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brave-little-wrecking-ball/id879314402

Brave Little Wrecking Ball shows off how unique game mechanics should be explored in game jams. Brave Little Wrecking Ball uses touch mechanics to move the wrecking ball around the screen. The tail of the ball is used to hit and kill enemies on the screen which when dispatched drop power-ups. The different power-ups can increase your ball size, give you a shield, increase your chain length and get you a speed up. Brave Little Wrecking Ball was another of the Jam games I found very challenging. At one point I was whipping the ball around to kill an enemy and it bounced back to deal me a death blow. It was such a great way to die I laughed and kept playing.

Check out the thrilling conclusion in Part II:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2048/the-mayhem-game-jam-games-2014-part-ii

Valve Launches Steam in Home Streaming
http://i.imgur.com/j0lEeyc.jpg
"When you log into Steam on two computers on the same network, they automatically connect, allowing you to remotely install, launch, and play games as though you were sitting at the remote PC.

When you play a game using In-Home Streaming, video and audio are sent through your home network from your high-end gaming PC to another device in your home."

In home streaming is a great idea for solving the problem of not having all your Steam Windows games playable on SteamOS. Can't wait to try this out because i'd love to play some Wolfenstein: New Order on my TV through my Mac laptop.

Drop your thoughts and experiments with in home streaming in the comments!

http://store.steampowered.com/streaming/

League of Legends Gets The "Fantasy Football" Treatment
http://fantasy.eslgaming.com/img/landing_features_trade.png
I was talking to a friend today that mentioned something pretty interesting. League of Legends is getting the "fantasy league" treatment. If you enjoy playing fantasy football with your friends and want to spread out to League of Legends, now you can. I sort of see this as the normalization of video game culture coming full circle. I really hope that DoTA 2 & Starcraft 2 eventually get a fantasy league draft!

http://fantasy.eslgaming.com/