Fair enough. In that case I don’t think I can be of any help at the moment but I’ll keep you in mind if I stumble into something with such characters.

Items are usually at the center of each “puzzle” but it’s mostly trial and error. Blocks covering the item can’t be broken and become marked if you try - it’s pretty simplistic on that front.

There are different types of blocks surrounding the item that require different approach (some need multiple prods, others have to be tackled from a specific side) but, at least in its current form, it’s not a complicated system. I hope they’ll add some challenge later on but that depends on what kind of experience they’re aiming for.

I’d say give it a shot if you’re curious - they have a demo on their Steam page.

May I interest you in Hedon Bloodrite? It’s orcs instead of goblins but there’s plenty of thickness.

It does a good job at pointing out flaws with Steam UI and how they could be fixed (something Valve is apparently unable to do themselves).

While the design in this video isn’t perfect, it’s way better than the current shitshow and I don’t see why people (especially those who know what they’re doing) shouldn’t remind a multibillion company they should do better.

Steam page (demo available).

Gameplay abstraction, not like they aim for a realistic approach.

Forgot to add the official links:

• Kickstarter
• Steam page (demo available)

Looks like mouse controls to me, there’s also no mention of VR on Kickstarter or Steam page.

Edit: I checked out the demo. It is in fact a mouse controlled game.

Good job, should’ve link it myself… (; -_-)

There’s also demo on Steam.

I think these are new - there’s a comment on the project page asking about “playing the classic Red Alert maps” and one of the devs replied they would require some modifications to work.

Besides, original missions can be played with OpenRA so I don’t think they would port them here without at least adding support for the new factions (which in turn would require changes in story?).

That’s just my guess based on some research though, I’m not a specialist when it comes to these projects.

Just Windows, Mac and Linux. There’s no Android build (that’s what would be needed for such tablet).

Man, I have the GBC re-release from LRG but haven’t played it yet. I should get to it one of these days…

Can’t wait to play this one as well.

Besides already mentioned methods there’s also Lemmy Community-Browser.

It has a search bar and ability to toggle specific instances in case you want to avoid some of them. A bit simpler version of Lemmy Explorer mentioned by @DogMuffins.

I guess it depends on your motivation for said project.

Do you enjoy the process of working on the project? Do you use it to learn new things and improve the skills required for it? Or all you care about is the end project?

If it’s the last one I can see why you could get discouraged but if it’s the other two then not really.

If I work on something specific I do it because I want to create this thing using my skills, experience and ideas. I also try to do as much of it as I can on my own, without using other’s people assets etc. For me, the work I put in is an important of the process and each step towards completion makes me a little proud and happy that I can create something.

At the same time I’m a weirdo who tends to use less efficient methods if they aren’t as fun to use when working on personal projects. I don’t really care about using AI in the first place so that might skew my view a bit.

There’s also the fact that AI isn’t omnipotent. It makes mistakes just like us and I’d rather fix my own mistakes since this way I know what I did, how I did it and where to look when things go wrong.

Sorry for the word salad. Your post gave me a reason to spew some unfiltered thoughts about an issue I never really thought about.

I think you’re making this a little bit more complicated than necessary. Those gadgets are cool but that would probably require more support by the devs than a simple keybinds and considering how niche this stuff is… I think the latter is a more probable option.

Those two axis you mentioned would be modified together anyway since we’d want the speed modifier to be the same no matter the direction. Alternatively one could make it into a separate variable included in speed calculations - this way you can keep the direct input value provided by the controller (whether it’s a gamepad or a keyboard) and have one more piece that can sit unchanged when playing with analog controls.

Mouse scroll was an example since that’s how it worked in Splinter Cell back in the day (it’s also how Star Citizen does it today). You could just as well use any other key to increase/decrease the this muliplier (or make it mouse scroll + modifier key).

Overall, I do agree that more flexibility in input mapping would be a good thing. Can’t go wrong with giving people more choice.

That’s not what I mean though. Back in Splinter Cell you could use mouse wheel to increase or decrease your character walking speed - similar to how you can do it with an analog stick. It’s about giving player more gradual control on how fast/slow you move.

That said, customizable game time scale (not game speed) is also another thing I’d like to see in games.

I was mostly thinking about action (or generally keyboard walking) games but that’s good to know, I never got to play those titles honestly.

It’s not like customizable difficulty would be mandatory - you have your default presets and an option to customize. You could even add a disclaimer about how “modifying difficulty can break the experience” or whatever.
I’d rather have a choice and not use it than be stuck with options that never feel “right”.

I realize that games (and software in general) today are about simplifying things and removing any possibility of user messing up but it can make the end product way less engaging in my opinion.

Some things were already mentioned so here my other pet peeves:

• customizable difficulty - no default preset will be as good as one that can be modified to your liking. Sometimes the issue lies with difficulty making things more of a chore than a challenge, sometimes they tune things too much where you get stuck in a weird middle ground where one difficulty is way too easy and the other bashes your teeth in.
• character speed control on PC - we had this stuff figured out in 2002, when Splinter Cell came out! Why the hell are we still stuck with terribly slow walk and slightly too fast jogging? This isn’t hard to implement either - there are already multiple speed states when playing with a gamepad, all that’s required is an option to control it with a keybind.
• visible body in first person games - I always try to immerse myself as much as possible and having a physical body helps sell the idea that I’m a character in this world rather than just a floating camera.

I also completely forgot to mention another duo - Chip & Ironicus.

This one is a little different as they record their commentary over premade footage. They can also be a bit more… low energy (?) compared to many bigger channels but if there’s one thing they (or more specifically Chip) really shine in, is the huge amount of effort put into each and every playthrough.

Pretty much every episode is released in two versions, cut and uncut commentary, to let you choose whether you want the option to focus during cutscenes etc. They are also filled with cool trivia, secrets and just good skill level in general.
They have a pretty legendary MGSV LP where Chip prepared 3 seperate playthroughs, each with a different approach (stealth, combat and goofy).

Besides that, they also have stream recordings with live commentary, a podcast and regular charity streams.

Chip worked at recently closed Volition so he could definitely use more views.

How big of a group are you looking for?

mikeburnfire is pretty fun.

Most of the videos consists of two friends, Mike and Zack, playing modded Bethesda games. Their main gimmick is that they are playing games like Fallout NV in “multiplayer” but they also play other stuff (Mass Effect, Inscription, Stray to name a few).

Lot’s of military stories, some great gun rants from Zack and a general feeling of just two friends having adventures together.

Over six years of content and still going strong.