Going through reviews, it seems highly recommended gyro controllers like the flydigi direwolf 4 and the 8bitdo ultimate 2c can only manage gyro controls over bluetooth. Something about their defaulting to xbox mode via 2.4g, but switch mode via bluetooth?
Can this not be behaviour not be altered using software?
People are bailing. But, anyone on a tight budget can still get decent second hand gaming pcs. Especially as lots of gamers will upgrade to chase ever increasing AAA specs. Just wait for opportune moments like the release of GTA 6.
Here in England, there's a store that sells second hand everything pc gaming related with a 5 year warranty. Without spending much time searching, I found:
Manufacturer: OVERCLOCKERS UK
Grade: B
CPU Model: I7-7700 3.6ghz 8 core
RAM: 16GB
Operating System: W10
Graphics Card: rtx 2070 8gb
Storage Drive Type: SSD
Total Storage: 256GB+500GB
Storage: 256GB samsung ssd 840 evo and WDC 500GB wds500g2b0a-00sm50 sata ssd
£360 (~$487).
I'm sure others will find much better deals. This sucker will handle most games at 1080p/60fps just fine. That includes AAA games from just a few years ago, recent AAA games at lower settings, pretty much every indie game ever, and the enormous back catalogue of pc games no console can ever boast.
The geekshare ones seem good. Don't know of any other cosy controllers with the same level of specs (wireless, hall effect sticks, 1000mah battery) and price.
I meant to say a single indie game.
I can't imagine you've not noticed all of these types of posts. I check out some of them and feel a little sceptical about the time spent.
Maybe if they include all the time spent learning to code and art, I could understand, but that's not what they're implying.
Does it actually help to say you spent longer than you did? Do people ignore games made inside of a single year?
A rough look at the different connections using an Xbox controller showed:
| connection type | average input delay (ms) |
|---|---|
| wired | 55 |
| wireless adaptor | 59 |
| bluetooth | 64 |
We're talking milliseconds (ms), that's thousands of a second. I find it difficult to believe these results, taken from a rough test, performed by a youtuber. But, maybe bluetooth controllers transmit so little data, it doesn't matter as much? After all, bluetooth audio is decent enough and that's, typically, at least 128 kbps.
The test was conducted on the same machine, using the same software, so you'd think most systematic errors (due to software, for example) would be eliminated.
Anyone have a more reliable source?
I should say that I'm completely new to discord, so please bear with me.
I swear there was a link to Mark Brown's game jam discord, but now I can't find any trace of it. I searched the discord app for "gmtk" "mark brown", but there's just nothing at all.
He doesn't provide an itch forum for the jam, so where are all his game jammers hanging out?
Having tried a few of them, it's clear that they can differ wildly. Some add all kinds of other effects like vignette, curved displays, bloom, etc. Some are performant, others are gpu hogs. I think some of the complex ones add a lot to PSX style horror games, especially.
Which one do you prefer?
Note: I don't mean action/FPS horror games.
At some point, designers will look at the UI and wonder what to do with the mouse cursor. Should it be left alone? Or perhaps, made special? Would it be more immersive to turn it into a more realistic looking hand that animates depending on context? Or something else that fits the narrative and game world? This was often the case in older, adventure and horror games.
For non-horror indie games, we still see a variety of situation dependent cursors. Perhaps an axe cursor for when chopping a tree down is actionable. Or a sword icon, to indicate battle. An X may indicate an action isn't allowed. It can be quite useful.
These days, for an increasing number of horror indie and AA games, we see designers opting for just a small little dot in the middle of the screen.
What do you make of this trend? A dot can't give much feedback, but does it actually have advantages in terms of immersion and not distracting the player?
At some point, we all realise that all kinds of old intellectual properties become public works and can be used by anyone. No doubt you've seen something that uses Steamboat Willie, for example. And so we find ourselves tempted by using what are very familiar figures or events in games.
I've seen quite a few horror games using real events, places, and even people. I guess we call them true crimes today, a genre that's rocketed in popularity. It certainly makes it easier to build a good story, which is something that's completely alien to most of us. Even professional writers will take incidents from their own and from other people's lives.
But are there any issues with doing this? I've been tempted myself, but I can't help feeling apprehension with using real events. What are your experiences?
In most combat oriented incrementals, eg Horripliant, the player character doesn't die. There's no game over. The player can't really lose per se.
In horror games, tension is essential. Think of the saving system in Alien Isolation, for example. Getting that right is the key to creating the right experience.
So, how can tension be added to a game the player can't lose? Perhaps a stat penalty like in Horripliant? A loss of progress? Is that really enough though?
Are there other examples? What do you think works best?