Less Interesting News | The Less Interesting Times

2016/02/10 Don’t You Just Love it When a Plan Comes Together

Yesterday was interesting. I was doing my thing, as usual. I knew there were problems with the latest store version we uploaded but I was practicing not shoving my nose in to things I probably shouldn’t. It happens to me quite a lot that I try to help but I really shouldn’t, for various reasons. So, this time, I did that. I don’t know exactly how much time has passed but I noticed the rest of the team wasn’t getting any progress. So, I joined in, took a look at what they were doing, suggested some things that didn’t quite help, and then decide to investigate it on my own. I pushed some breakpoints in the flow and spent about 15 minutes looking at exactly what was happening. Then I said: “I can tell you exactly what is happening!” Then everyone crowded around my station while I explained why it happens and what I think we should do to fix it. The response was stunned silence. So, I said “No objections or suggestions? Ok, I’ll do what I said.” Then some stayed to watch. :) It doesn’t happen all the time. But it’s fun when it does.

Posted in IT, Programming, Work by Eran with comments disabled.

2016/01/29 Global Game Jam 2016

7:19 – Soon, we will start. Feeling: Excited. 11:14 – Got there. Heard the keynote. Got the theme (No, not telling). Now Brainstorming. 11:42 – Getting to work. 00:31 – Home now. Was a busy day. The venue itself isn’t that great; the air conditioning is brutal, the separate spaces are nice but it’s tough to even stay properly hydrated. Took out the pup. Going to go to sleep soon. 10:51 – Back in the saddle again. 7 Hours to demo. 12:43 – Finished the basic system. Now starting to write content. The peckishness has begun. They said pizzas are forthcoming. 13:37 – Refueled and ready to go again. 18:14 – Wrapping up. Getting ready for the presentation. 20:34 – Presentations completed. Some really nice games. Mine felt inadequate. Maayan’s looked very nice. They both, one Twine based, one completely console, definitely turned some heads in a room mostly composed of Unity developers. 00:57 – Concluded with a family dinner at Maayan’s parents and a viewing of Gav HaUma. Now, finally, going to sleep. Tomorrow, a full workday awaits.

Posted in Gaming, No Category, Programming by Eran with comments disabled.

2016/01/20 מה המצב?

מה קורה? מה שלומכם? אני סבבה. יופי. אז מה הולך עם החיים שלי… מעין התחילה עבודה חדשה. חלק מהחבר’ה שהיא מכירה מהחברה הקודמת. חלק חדשים. משרדים יפים בבית רובינשטיין ובינתיים היא מאוד אוהבת את המקום. אני מקווה לטוב. ב”7 יסודות” אנחנו ממש לפני גרסה חשובה ולכן עובדים קצת עד מאוחר. לפי מה שמוסרים לי מההנהלה, המספרים שלנו טובים. המשחק מתפקד סבבה ויש הרבה שחקנים. אנחנו כרגע מתפקדים קצת מעל מה שמצפים שזה נהדר. אבל זה קצת מפחיד אותי שהולכים לדרוש מאיתנו יותר, משהו אולי לא כל כך מציאותי שלא נוכל לספק. אבל לדאוג לזה לא יעזור לי. אז ממשיכים. ה-Global Game Jam 2016 הוא עוד שבוע וחצי. התכנון שלי הוא לבנות סוג של סיפור אינטראקטיבי ב-Twine, מין 80 Days רק עם גודל שיותר מתאים ל-Game Jam. כי Twine מאפשר לכתוב סיפורים אינטראקטיביים אבל יש לנו גם הרבה טווח לעשות דברים מתוחכמים יותר. אפשר באמת לתכנת בו, הוא תומך ב-JavaScript ו-CSS ואני חושב בעיקר על פונקציות האקראיות שלו ואיך אני יכול להשתמש בהן כדי לזרוק על השחקן אירועים שונים בכל פעם. פירסמו כבר את ה-diversifiers ואני חושב כבר שאני יכול לקלוע לכמה מהם. את העיקר של המשחק אני אבנה סביב הנושא אבל זה אני כבר יודע שאני רוצה לעשות. אני מחליט את כל זה מראש כי אני רוצה הפעם לעשות משהו משלי, משהו שאני אעבוד עליו בלבד (אולי אם קצת עזרה חזותית או קולית אם אצטרך) כדי לראות מה אני מסוגל לעשות רק בעצמי וגם כמה אני מסוגל למתוח את השימושיות של Twine. נתראה ב-Wix, מי שמגיע.

Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, IT, Maayan, No Category, Practice, Thinking Out Loud, Work by Eran with comments disabled.

2016/01/13 Sound of Your Voice Linked to Emotions

In about the same way smiling is linked to happy feelings. That is, the connection is bi-directional. This is the results of a recent study. They found out that there is also a connection between liking and enjoying the sound of your voice and being in tune with your emotions. Which might explain a thing or two as I really don’t like the sound of my own voice.

Posted in Humanity, Less Interesting News, Me, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.

2016/01/06 I Watch Roleplaying Shows

Currently, I follow ‘Rollplay – Mirrorshades‘, ‘Rollplay – Swan Song‘ and ‘Critical Role‘, I watch the Acquisitions Inc. PAX games every year, I tried ‘Turn Order – Edge Runners‘ but didn’t quite like it, I, of course, watch the RPGs on TableTop when they happen and I just finished watching ‘Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana‘. Why? Well, it’s fun. That’s the first thing. Secondly, I think there is a benefit to roleplayers from watching others play. Whether it is to get a different perspective, see what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong and probably change your style accordingly, especially if you enjoy what you see. I started watching Mirrorshades because it’s Shadowrun and I love Shadowrun. Even if it’s first edition (which is weird) and I stayed because the players are very engaged, the GM is incredible, in preparation and performance, and it’s touching at times, has good action and mostly just funny and fun. I stopped watching Edge Runners because that was almost the complete opposite. The GM was new and inexperienced. While I might fault the language use of the Mirrorshades crew, they know what they want and what they mean. They don’t fumble. That was not the case here. The players seem not that engaged and not that interesting and everyone seemed like they were trying too hard. And the story itself didn’t hook me. Watching Critical Role is like watching the X-Games. The cast is all engaged with the story, they care about what happens. Continue Reading →

Posted in Gaming, No Category, Practice, Role-Playing, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.

2016/01/04 The Old Retreat of Breakneck Politics

After some time taken to rest and resupply, Throutek crashes down on the bed in their new accommodations. The Deep Dark is a very nice ship but they really need to scrub out any markings if not completely repaint her or they’ll be on the Empire’s radar in no time flat.Â He still had his commpad and access to his holonet account and encrypted files so the log was still intact. Jax went to get himself fixed and, apparently, ran an exclusive interview with the local technician. In the morning, the wake up call was the sound of drums. Went out to see the captain. Apparently, the Eyahr guys took down a sentry droid, took his weapon and escaped back to their ship. Harsol organized a party to go after them and requested we go back to our tent. Asked him about grandfather but he just got more upset. He went off. We went to the lab tent. Met a techie – Tekbah – that is responsible for all the Nexu teeth augmentations. He felt really proud until we told him the wild cats tried to eat us several times. We saw that he also monitored them and there are several of them roaming the jungle. Discussed whether we should just cut our losses and get out of here, tell Rohm what we found and that there are no valuables. Suddenly, everything went quiet and dark. We went to check it out and found two Rodians messing with the generator. Killed Continue Reading →

Posted in Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.

2015/12/26 Interesting Things on Steam

ShadwenÂ (Which I will not attempt to pronounce) is the new IP from Frozenbyte, the guys behind the Trine trilogy. Now, I know Trine 3 was a bit of a flop but the ideas behind it were great and I really enjoyed the first two. This time, they seem to be focusing on pure stealth. I love stealth games. But stealth games are not easy to do. So, I really hope they get it right. Coming in 2016.

Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News by Eran with comments disabled.

2015/12/19 Status Update

So… What’s up with me? Well, obviously, I’ve been busy. So busy that I was working 10-12 hour days and was so tired coming home that I barely had the strength to do the things I wanted, let alone the things I needed to do. But we’re officially world wide now. The game is open on all territories. Which means, sans marketing, our server load doubled and tripled. Which means, bugs came out that are only relevant under heavy load. Also, the stress is on, we are officially competing now. And we haven’t even rolled out our more competitive features. So, before any of the big ones notice us and pull out the big guns, we have to roll out our secret weapons. This means, everyone onboard, working as hard as they can, to deliver those feature ASAP. And after those days, I’m tired. Even writing this, the weekend after an iteration is finished. I can barely muster enough brain power to write more than 200 words. On top of this, the 2016 Global Game Jam is almost upon us and this time, I want to try to write something all on my own. So, I’ve been catching up on Twine knowledge as much as I can. And I’ve been roped into a Secret Santa game which I am so very bad it. I’m also still trying to work on my personal projects; I’m running two games in the Pundak forums, one of them is already using THF, and I’m Continue Reading →

Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, Me, No Category, Role-Playing, Thinking Out Loud, Work by Eran with comments disabled.

2015/11/29 Completion vs Just Progression

Here’s another interesting article I came upon called Progression is the New Victory. It talks about how games are not really completed anymore and about how a game could be never ending and boring or never ending and fun, mostly dependent on the progression system. And it got me thinking: I played some mobile games that are supposed to be never ending, or at least very long, and they couldn’t hold my attention for very long and here comes Star Wars: Uprising and I’m hooked. And, apparently, it’s not just because it’s a Star Wars game. They do progression well. Especially since the latest patch. First of all, the missions might be repetitive but they are not sufficiently difficult that I am currently stuck on two that are too difficult for me. So what do I do in the meantime? My second point, you can always do something. Even if I run one of the standard missions, I get a sizable reward out of it whether it be money or upgrade materials or equipment I can trade for money or salvage for upgrade materials. And while progression might be a bit slow, it doesn’t feel like much of a grind because I’m getting something appropriate to my position in the game. It’s not skinning 10 wolves for 100 gold pieces. Thirdly, the crew. You amass crew throughout the game which you can send on independent missions. They gather money, materials, gear, faction support or other crew members and, if you Continue Reading →

Posted in Gaming, Practice, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.

2015/11/22 Interesting Things on Steam

BoogeymanÂ looks like it’s trying to ride FNAF‘s coattails because it looks just about the same as FNAF 4. But so far, it’s getting positive reviews. 6.5$ in Early Access now. HelldiversÂ has been in development for a while, probably since Arrowhead abandoned the Magicka franchise and wrapped up Gauntlet. So, this looks like kind of the same thing except with big scifi guns. Yep. Count me in. Coming in December. CrashlandsÂ is a Don’t Starve like experience but… in SPACE! And it looks whacky and just plain cool. The video explains it best. Coming early 2016. FirewatchÂ is a mystery story driven exploration game. There’s not a lot more than that to say except it looks very interesting. Coming February 10th.