I wanted to update you about a recent batch of features to hit the site. One such thing I have been experimenting with are the comment visuals. The old comment style was fine in Desktop browsers but on mobile they were squished. The new style gives the comment body much more room and I think they are much easier to read. That said, they don't seem as good as they could be. I can't put my thumb on it entirely, but something needs to be done in terms of the colors we use or placement. Beyond that, I really love how much more room the comments have on my iPhone.

A few days ago I changed the "Update Profile" link in the drop down to "Account Settings." This will be an "umbrella" area for all things related to your account. I added a series of tab buttons to the top of the page allowing you to update your profile as before and I also added a new "Account Security" section. Currently what this allows you to do is sign out all other open Cheerful Ghost browser sessions. If you think your account may have been compromised or you are just a bit paranoid, this should help you be more secure.

I want to stress the point that we have not been hacked and no account has been hacked that I am aware of. Security really matters to me and I want to allow people the right tools to ensure that is a priority. We also started a new policy that requires everyone re authenticate every 2 months. I know this is somewhat of a hassle but is a fairly normal convention on modern web apps.

One of the next features I will be working on in the upcoming weeks is updating how posts are seen on the Cheerful Ghost main page. Some of you have asked for some kind of front page moderation and Travis and I are currently working out how that will work. Our goal is to painlessly allow awesome content to make it to the front page. I want to stress that the majority of what people post will still make it to the front page, that said as the site grows we need to ensure that the stuff people see is our best.

If you have any questions or comments about anything covered hit me in the comments or using site feedback:

http://cheerfulghost.com/feedback

Star Citizen developers Cloud Imperium Games recently released an interesting video about the games economy. Very interested in seeing how this works in the final product.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/about-the-game

Ittle Dew is a game heavily influenced by Zelda that focusing on puzzles and speed running. Its a fresh take on the Zelda game style available now for Windows and Mac on the Humble Store.

http://www.ittledew.com/

An interesting art piece I found online titled "Super Dead Mario."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskunk93/9243500652/

Sony recently dropped the news that the PS4 will allows instant play for digital and disc based games in the process of downloading. Playing your games faster after you buy them sounds good to me.

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/15968/article/ps4-digital-library-instantly-playable-on-any-console

Its no secret that I love FTL. I am not sure I have been as proud of completing a game as when CapnCurry and I beat it in a FTL pairing session. One aspect of FTL I really love is Ben Prunty's score. Its a really great album to put on while I am surfing the web or reading. Recently Ben posted about his thoughts on a few of tracks in the FTL score. He talks about "Space Cruise" (the song featured above) and a few other iconic tracks from the score.

On "Space Cruise"

"This is a very simple three-chord progression that was the very first thing I wrote for FTL. I was trying to prove to the guys at Subset Games that I could make something fun and breezy, but also not overly saccharine. Sometimes it has more minor chords mixed in. I think the name ‘Space Cruise’ really sums up the feeling of it. Since Space Cruise shows up at the title screen, many people will decide that this is the ‘main theme’. I see all three of the major motifs I list here as equally valid main themes, and honestly it’s up to you as to which one resonates the most."

Ben includes some staff music for reference as well. If you are interesting in reading more about Ben's thoughts on the FTL score, check them out here:

http://benprunty.com/2013/07/11/a-guided-tour-through-the-ftl-soundtrack-analysis-of-themes/

If you are interested in our FTL pairing session, read more:

http://cheerfulghost.com/CapnCurry/posts/1334
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1333

Wasted On Steam is a new web application that scrapes your Steam public profile and analyzes you game playing habits. It lets you know which games you play the most and what the ratio of played VS unplayed games you have. Its really interesting to see the numbers and most of it turned out how I expected with Terraria leading the bunch.

See how many hours I have wasted on Steam:

http://wastedonsteam.com/usd/id/jdodson

If you want to find out your own, head over to the website proper and share your page in the comments.

http://wastedonsteam.com/

The site is slow as I imagine they are experiencing quite a lot of traffic.

Andrew Spinks recently gave an interview to the Terrarian Times, a news letter made by the Terraria community. On the question of the future of the game, Andrew had this to say:

"Following 1.2 I am wanting to do more frequent smaller updates until I am ready to move forward to my next project (Yes, Terraria 2). At that time I would definitely be open to the idea of hiring a small team to keep Terraria alive and kicking until T2 is ready.

Due to the current condition of Terraria there are a lot of things I cannot do that I will be bringing to Terraria 2. You can expect bigger and more diverse worlds, deeper rpg elements such as leveling, classes, skill trees, and a world full of life that is constantly changing based on your decisions. The world will change with or without you, but you will be the deciding factor. I have learned a lot from Terraria and I feel capable of doing something bigger and more ambitious."

It makes sense that he will focus on updating Terraria with as much content as it will allow then focus on Terraria 2 for new sweeping changes. The interview talks a bit about the upcoming 1.2 update and how Demilogic is hiring more developers and artists.

Read the whole interview here:

http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/the-terrarian-times-issue-11.102349/

"Pack your bags and grab your sandals, folks. The Steam Summer Getaway Sale is here! For the next eleven days, take advantage of huge saving of up to 75% off on over 2000 PC, Mac and Linux titles. Check back often to take advantage of our eight-hour Flash Sales. You can even help select what goes on sale with our Community's Choice Voting Sales.

Also, buying discounted games now earns you an all-new collectible in the form of Trading Cards. Collect, trade and craft over 50 new sets of cards, including 10 Summer Getaway Trading Cards that can only be earned during the sale. Each set can be crafted into badges, backgrounds, emoticons and other rewards."

Today's daily deals are pretty interesting featuring Don't Starve, Skyrim, Hotline Miami & The Half-life Complete Pack.

I am aiming at picking up Don't Starve & Prison Architect. What are you picking up?

Sale goes from July 11th - July 22nd.

http://store.steampowered.com/
http://i.imgur.com/WXMko.gif

"From the 500 apps available at launch in 2008 to the more than 900,000 at your fingertips today, it's been a remarkably prolific five years for the App Store. To celebrate, we're giving everyone five landmark games and five groundbreaking apps for a limited time. Plus, look back at the key moments that have made the App Store the world's most innovative destination for apps."

Apple is celebrating 5 years of its iOS App Store by releasing some of its most noteworthy Apps for free. Specifically:

Barefoot World Atlas, Badland, Day One, Infinity Blade II, How to Cook Everything, Knots 3D, LiquidSketch, Map My Ride+, Over, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery, Tiny Wings (iPhone and iPad), Traktor DJ (iPhone and iPad), and Where's My Water?

If you want to nab the free, hit this link:

https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewFeature?id=660896396&mt=8

If you have an iPhone and haven't picked up Sword & Sworcery yet, you should grab it soon while its free. You can read a bunch of our thoughts on this amazing game here:

http://cheerfulghost.com/game/22265

"Bartwe worked hard last weekend to get the system in place, and I’ve been taking full advantage, testing various potential instruments with dozens of ABC files.

At present there’s almost 20 instruments already in the game, with more to come as time goes on.

All that remains really as far as the instruments are concerned is some pretty graphics to make them look the part, proper animations with the hands, a user interface so players can easily select their song of choice, and getting synchronized performances across multiple players."

This feature of the game really interests me. As a musician it interests me, but I am also curious in playing music with my friends with the game. The video showcases three people playing "Still Alive" and it got me thinking about how hard it would be to translate something like Nirvana.

When I first heard the rumblings about Bartwe working on this I was skeptical but after seeing it I am now really interested in playing with it.

I am one of those people that make "new years resolutions." I never call them new years resolutions because that will doom them to failure, but I do make a list of goals for the next year. During the months of November and December I start making a mental checklist of things that are important and the best of the bunch makes the list. One of the things that made it on to my list of things to do in 2013 was Final Fantasy IV. My list does have the ability to be awesome upon occasion.

I started my new play through of the game last week and currently am about 8 hours into the main storyline. I just opened the Volcano and entered the Underground. I really love this part of the game and remember this is where it opened up for me in terms of the story, difficulty and grandeur. When I made it to the underground for the first time I remember feeling a sense of wonder at what was under the earth and the possibilities seemed endless. All that to say, I am having a great time replaying Final Fantasy IV.

Getting a fresh take on this game is putting it in contrast in a way I hadn't considered before. One way is that the game moves through some really serious story beats very quickly. You go from the leader of the Red Wings to the accidental genocide of a village to each other major story beat in a very quick amount of time. Compared to a modern triple A game Final Fantasy IV blows you through huge set pieces at a blistering pace. The game achieves this with very little dialog and a ton of music and a lot atmosphere.

The emotions the artists are able to convey with the sprites always impressed me and still do. Its interesting to note that Final Fantasy IV did this well but later games in the series that used the same Super Nintendo technology improved this even further. Its a credit the games artists that this still comes through now even though I have been exposed to very real looking 3D.

That all said, if I had one nit to pick with the game thus far is that there is quite a lot of drama. The characters seem to only experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. There isn't a huge amount of subtlety in the emotional range here but that may be a limitation of the technology and the blistering fast pace of the story. It also may be the game designers trimming out the fat and only focusing on the core elements of the story that mattered the most to them. Either way, its noticeable and the game is more drama than I am used to. One of my friends likened it to a Soap Opera and I find the description to be entirely appropriate.

The game is much more difficult than I remember. I have had to spend time grinding before certain areas and needed to be very strategic to survive between save points in dungeons. The game also mixes things up as seen in the Dark Elf Dungeon. The Dark Elf Dungeon introduces a mechanic that doesn't allow you the use of metal items or armor. This requires the player rely on other characters to pick up the slack and Cecil, who spent the majority of the game being very powerful is now way less useful. I never really understood why the game did that before but as I look at it now its a great design mechanic that causes you to change how you approach an otherwise normal dungeon.

If you have been thinking about coming back to this or want to pick it up for the first time I urge you to do so. Because, really, don't we all want to play the Spoony Bard one more time?

Oh and I snapped the screen grab at the right time. I was happy I remembered when that scene was :D

http://i.imgur.com/pub7YSG.png

I remember watching this video when video on the Internet was a new thing. Recently I saw it linked from somewhere and I was impressed with how well it holds up now.

Thing is, I think playing a strange arty obtuse Cube game like this could be fun. Totally love to go head to head with the cone as I have wanted to kill that bastard for years...