Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Fez 2 Cancelled, Sadness Ensues

"It's with a heavy heart that we announce that FEZ II has been cancelled and is no longer in development. We apologize for the disappointment"

That wasn't something I had expected to hear this morning. But yeah, Fez 2 has been cancelled. It seems this has been brewing for sometime and recently came to a head for Phil Fish, creator of Fez. I don't want to outline the series of events here, there are plenty of gaming websites dedicating themselves to cataloging each bit of information. If you are interested in reading more, i'll provide a link.

That said, it seems Phil Fish is leaving gaming entirely and I find that sad. I saw Indie Game: The Movie and he seemed like a... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 07/29/2013 at 02:38am

First of all, I'll say that I *really* hope he changes his mind. Fez is awesome, and I'd love more of it.

I'll also say that Marcus Beer seems like the last person I'd want to have a beer with.

I'll also say that criticism is far too rampant. He doesn't deserve at least half of what he gets. So I'm sad that I'm about to add some more...

Phil Fish's ego is incredibly fragile. This has been a problem for him since Fez was first shown. He can't handle any kind of criticism. There are some comments you ignore, and others you respond to, and when you respond you do so in a way that doesn't invite more trolling. With Phil it's just one shitstorm after another.

He went so far as to tell a man to kill himself, this is not how adults act, especially adults in the public eye.

That said, in general I'm sympathetic to him, and the reasons he and Blow were called out were ridiculous. Jonathan Blow, who's (correctly nor not) notorious for being arrogant, handled this very maturely. He made a dig at the absurdity of it without getting insulting, etc.

So come on Phil. We love your game, and we'd love to see more from you. Just stay off Twitter and let the other employee at Polytron handle the PR.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/29/2013 at 02:42am

I think a secondary point that may be as important is:

Game journalism sucks!

Seriously, the coverage from most outlets, and the original "journalism" that started this mess are a decent indicator of the problems in journalism.

Journalists asking "hey would you like to comment on this thing we don't know all the details about yet?" enough times for Fish and Blow to get annoyed shows this pretty well.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/29/2013 at 04:38pm

I agree with your point on game journalism lacking. Beer's entire rant was that Fish and Blow suck because they didn't respond to some XBox story in the way he wanted. It seemed for him that was a horrible situation that needed to be called out.

His priorities are messed up.

And I also agree with you about not calling for people to die in an argument. Lets all stay alive out there.

hardeyez wrote on 07/29/2013 at 11:52pm

I'd also have to add (having shipped several games myself), that you just have to toughen up. Someone always hates what you make, and you just hope someone else loves it. The worst thing possible is for people to not care at all.

And really, with every title I shipped, the external critics were *way* more tolerant than we were to our own creations. Shipping a game (shipping any product) is incredibly hard. It never meets your expectations, it's never what you had envisioned and could always be made better with a bit more tweaking. Shipping involves putting a stake in the ground and saying, "here's what we have" and releasing something good enough that a group of people will love it. It's painful. The compromises are painful to even get to that point. There's never enough time/money/resources to get it perfect, so you shoot for great and limit scope. There's always the goal you had in your head sticking around poking at you when you get the critique to start rolling in.

But, every dev I've known wants people to care about their creations and that means taking the hate along with the love...

Travis Admin wrote on 07/30/2013 at 02:42am

"Shipping involves putting a stake in the ground and saying, "here's what we have" and releasing something good enough that a group of people will love it."

I've heard it said that you never finish any creative work, you just know when it's the right time to send it out into the world.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/30/2013 at 04:07am

Good summary hardeyez. I think developing a thick skin is important.

After playing Fez quite a bit I can say that Fish really released a great game. I have found a few rotating game bugs where I end up dying, but since there is no negative for dying its not a huge deal. So, yeah they did ship with a few bugs and the game is on 1.0.7 and still have a few. Again, not a huge deal, the game is beautiful.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 08/01/2013 at 10:44pm

After watching "Indie Game: The Movie," I hope Phil got enough from sales of Fez to live the rest of his life in peace. The guy seems like he could really use it. In fact, I'm considering picking up a copy even if I can't play it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/02/2013 at 12:52am

Fez is currently being ported to Mac and Linux as we speak by one of the dudes that does the Humble Bundle porting. So, you will be able to play it on your platform of choice.

My guess is that this is part of some future bundle, but we shall see :D

I decided do go ahead and play it on Windows and all I can say is WOW, the game is incredible.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 08/02/2013 at 04:52am

That is great news. I wonder if the ports will be in Steam or standalone as has been the case with several of the Bundle titles. Either way, I'd be pleased just to play it.

I'm willing to take the chance it'll run under Wine. If it doesn't, I wait for the port or run it in Windows, which I'm going to have to install to play Saint's Row IV. Then, when it does appear in one of the Bundles, I allocate more to Child's Play.

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Sword & Sworcery Infographic: 1.5 Million Served

http://www.capybaragames.com/images/S+S_infographic_sitesize.jpg

"With over 1.5 million copies sold, it’s pretty obvious that #Sworcery has been a resounding success. And we’d like to share a few details of that success with you. There’s not that many titles out there that began on iOS and made their way to this many other platforms over time, so we hope that this info is helpful in some way/shape/form."

Good for The Superbrothers & Capy. It's cool to see great games find an audience.

http://www.capybaragames.com/2013/07/a-sworcery-infographic/

Steam Sale Leftover Loot Giveaway!

Hey all,

I grabbed a few extra cheap things in the Summer Getaway Sale, just to share them with you. Disappointed that you missed a deal? Look no further.

I put a thread for each of these in the Backchannel-- trying to sort through entries in a single post would have been a nightmare.

Left 4 Dead Pack: If you don't have these games yet, you need them. No matter the difficulty, this game always feels tense and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/1492

Terraria: Honestly one of my favorite games. I've put over 180 hours into it according to Steam, and will be putting even more into it when the new update drops and we start up the... Read All

Neil Gaiman enters gaming with Wayward Manor

Neil Gaiman, lord and master of all he surveys, has entered the world of gaming with Wayward Manor. The acclaimed author of many books, TV episodes, movies, graphic novels, and more has a way with pulling the reader/viewer into his worlds, so hopefully his new game will be as awesome.

In Wayward Manor you control the (quite dead) previous inhabitant of the titular manor, who tries to scare away the current inhabitants Beetlejuice-style.

No gameplay footage is out yet, but you can pre-order and get more info at his site. Hopefully his awesome wife Amanda Palmer will provide some spooky works for the soundtrack.

Also, this is the first time I've ever heard him say his... Read All

Fun Gunslinging Shoot Em Up

Recently I downloaded the Call of Juarez Gunslinger demo off Steam and recommend you give it a try. Not too many demos hit Steam, so its cool to get one worth checking out. I previously picked up Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood used at Gamestop and had such a bad time with it I actually resold it.

That said, Ubisoft did a great job with Gunslinger and absolutely nailed the western feel. The shooting is top notch and I love the way the different six-shooters feel as you use them. The game features a recharge element where you can pause time and the game allows you to one shot bad-guys as they freeze. This is really useful for busting in to a room to freeze everyone and... Read All

Top 5 NES Disney Games!

I always wanted Adventures in the Magic Kingdom. The game looked amazing as I loved going to Disney Land so the game had to be just as good right? No surprise the top 2 are Rescue Rangers and Duck Tales.

Good video and covers some of the awesome Capcom games. I would have put Tale Spin somewhere in a top Capcom Disney Game list too, but it doesn't get quite as much attention.

The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Episode 1

I am happy to bring you The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Innagural Edition. Featuring awesome community members such as WhiteboySlim, CapnCurry, Travis and myself.

In the first episode we talk about the games we are playing, some site news and our roundtable topic: THE INDIE GAME REVOLUTION! Loved the way it turned out, but since its our first episode there are a few rough patches.

So check it out and let us know what you think about it and ENJOY!

The Roundtable features people from the community so if you are interested in joining us, hit me up.

The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable uses Google Hangouts on Air so the next one will be live which means you can watch it as it happens.... Read All

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/25/2013 at 06:44am

Good stuff guys, especially for a first episode! After watching the video, I'm even more bummed that I missed out! I mean, I had bathed and everything... ;)

BR Supporter wrote on 07/25/2013 at 07:15am

You don't even want to know how many hours I've put into my top game. It's depressing even for me.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/25/2014 at 07:04am

Jon, you remind me of Layne Staley (lead singer of Alice in Chains), maybe it's your hair and facial hair style. Anyway, I'm enjoying the 2nd (for me) Roundtable discussion and look forward to seeing more!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/25/2014 at 04:09pm

Layne was a cool guy. Too bad he isn't around anymore but I did get the new AIC album, which it nice.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/25/2014 at 04:10pm

I really like that we have all the epidsodes available to watch "Netflix binge" style.

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The Next XBox One-80: Indie's can self-publish

According to a report out by Game Informer today, Microsoft has now reversed another unpopular policy: requiring Indie Developers to have a publisher, or allow Microsoft to publish it themselves.

After Sony made Indie gaming one of the highlights of their E3 show, and a number of Indie developers denouncing Microsoft's policies, some saying they'd never work with them again, Microsoft has now announced a new model for Indie devs to publish. In addition to being able to publish themselves, they can set their own release dates and prices, and use any console as a dev unit (when approved by Microsoft).

This is good news, but like other Microsoft reversals, is this too... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/24/2013 at 08:48pm

This is good news for Indie developers. That said, I wonder if the next announcement Microsoft will make is that they are renaming "XBox One" to be "Another Playstation 4."

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 07/24/2013 at 08:48pm

I think this is great news! I probably will still make the jump from 360 to PS4, but this is great for indie developers.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 07/25/2013 at 03:19am

It is wonderful for indie developers as it gives them one more avenue for marketing their game. This is definitely a plus.

However, I'll most likely buy neither of the next-gen consoles. That said, I do take a little pleasure in seeing Microsoft misunderstand their core audience yet again. The PS3 led me to get rid of my XBOX 360 and I've never looked back at the XBOX at all, even when Kinect was introduced. This time around, I've got little interest in either device. In fact, at this point, I am just waiting for my PS3 to die so I have an excuse to replace it with a Roku.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/25/2013 at 06:26am

If I was an independent developer, I don't know that I would want to develop for the XBox One, for fear that Microsoft would reverse policy yet again out of their favor, say, a month after the system launches. I mean, after they get some sales in, why wouldn't they? Plus, even if you do get your indie game on the XBone, what are the odds that people will be able to find it ;).

I miss the days of J Allard. Since then, Microsoft has lost touch. The Xbox has no champion within the company, no one with a real desire to keep the game alive.

shockwave wrote on 07/26/2013 at 08:27pm

Its too late for me, the fact that Microsoft is willing to bend over backwards to line their pockets without even considering what their fanbase would think, has made put me off enough to not buy it.

Even with this full reversal, I can see they're only doing it because of the bad press.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/27/2013 at 01:13am

If there was some act or sense of contrition that didn't seem self-serving (e.g. http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-NS598_sony_G_20110501040742.jpg), I might reconsider.

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A Long Way Down: Asteroids & Farming

Each night one of the Starbound developers writes the daily game development progress and I religiously read each one. A few recently caught my eye and I thought they were fun enough to share.

The first bit of awesome shown in the above video is of a new feature, Asteroid mining. It seems all you need to do is go high enough to find them and have a suit capable of sustaining you in the low oxygen environment.

"Yup, if you go high enough you’ll now climb out of the planet’s atmosphere and find asteroids to explore.

The terrain here is COMPLETELY temporary. So don’t worry about that. We simply spawned a random jumble of dirt to test this out. It’s going to get far more... Read All

First Look At the new Battle.net Launcher

Still no word on what they are calling the new Battle.net client but my superior judgement is that they call it... Battle.net. Your welcome Blizzard, that one's for free.

Snarkiness aside, the new Battle.net interface looks very clean and seems like a good way to access you Battle.net games. Too bad they don't seem to support the old games, but perhaps that will come with a later update.