Yeah, a big part of 'Myst-likes' is that a lot of the longevity comes from (at first) aimless exploration, trying to find and decipher clues to progress. If you know what to do you can complete the games in very little time.

I played The Spirit Engine a bit, up until a boss fight in some ruins with some kind of mechanical guardian. What I saw looked somewhat interesting, but it did not hold my attention much.

The combat, though fairly unique in its design, just didn't 'click' for me. Progression was maybe a little too linear (from the fact that it's a sidescroller with only left and right for control in non-combating segments). But the biggest thing that turned me away was the story. I could tell there was stuff happening, possibly intriguing, but it never seemed to grip me, to make me want to see more of it. After a certain point it felt like I was doing a chore when I was playing it, so I stopped.

Maybe the game's 'problem' is that it's very niche and seems like it would only please a very specific taste in games.

Pokemon didn't get worse. You just got older. On top of that, the designs for Black and White look cool- they're not the same as Red and Blue, but why should they be?

I can see that in the games. The anime show, though, was probably kinda crappy to begin with, but comparing the maybe 4-5 seasons I did watch, I feel the first season showed a lot more possibility for interesting material (even if still following a simple, silly structure for the most part) and more creativity overall. Then it very quickly became a store window for all the pokemon buyables.

also Melly, wanting to lock someone up for that is a little harsh. he deserves a big fat fine, but jail time? fuck no.

My feeling is actually more of awe at the fact he managed to try and rip off several large companies and none of them seemed to get him locked up, when they sometimes take down free fangames of their franchises made from scratch without a second thought.

I guess they didn't see any money in it.

@melly - the decompiler is also useful to recover old versions of one's games that one has the .exe for but not the source code. it's been useful to many people for that purpose, since often people have hard drive crashes and lose all their code but still have the .exe of the game that they uploaded somewhere

Yeah, I can see what you guys are going at. But, at least for that specific purpose, it could be a tool built into GM, that uses a key that only the game's developer would have to decompile the file. That would be a neat feature.

It wouldn't stop people from eventually making an universal decompiler, of course.

I also think it's fairly hypocritical to draw a line on what is 'acceptable' nerdiness. Is there a sliding scale from owning a games console right down to theorising about the Zelda timeline? I think if you're going to have a hobby that requires a fair deal of tolerance from other people, then you should be understanding of those on the fringe of said hobby.

I personally didn't mean to say that worrying about timelines wasn't 'acceptable', so much that I think that kind of discussion rarily turns out conclusive results. Of course, if you have fun doing so, by all means. That is just my opinion, nobody is required to oblige to it, and what each person does to entertain themselves is their own business.

Your style is always unique and interesting.

Do you have any playable games with your art in them?

Also, listen to what Melly said, even if there is an official timeline, it's probably retconned and not entirely logical, so, again, who cares?

Another fact is that many long-lasting franchises aren't owned by their first directors or even studios, but often by its publishers. So you get constantly cycling teams and directors working on the games of the same franchise, each with their own ideas of where it should go or what parts of the mess of continuity to acknowledge, if they decide to acknowledge any part at all.

Unless the games of a franchise have a clear and clearly stated story continuity, trying to fit them in one seems like a bit of a waste of time.

A cross is too good for him (and may insult christians).

BURN HIM TO A GIANT PICTURE OF TIM LANGDELL

The series of blog posts linked from there about this guy were both scary and hilarious at the same time: http://youfailit.net/?p=49

Is that really him? If so he's been going at it for many years, and has stolen stuff a lot more high-profile than free indie games.

Why is he not in jail again?

haha, I've beaten You Find Yourself In A Room. Brilliant little game. Sorry mr. computer, but I actually felt smart that I knew how to most effectively find your random number.

Maybe we should create a whole genre like this. "Condescending games".

Some game franchises started in a era of gaming where storylines that made sense and a clear continuity weren't concerns of the vast majority. Those that survived to this day and age most often find themselves with a complete mess for a continuity, with fans having great difficulty trying to place the games in the right order, often because the original developers didn't intend or care for them to have an order in the first place.

[arguably]

I imagine in a world with ACTA, the thief would have just hired a lawyer and gotten the original kicked off gamejolt.

If the thief was wealthier that's a very good possibility. The law system in many places isn't designed to help those that are right, but those that have more money to spend on it. Otherwise we wouldn't have all the stories of injustices done to common citizens by large corporations, with nothing they could do to defend themselves.

Yeah, and now this guy's got caught and had to take it down. And from here on out gets 0%. He actually maybe could have made more money by being less greedy.

Indeed. I was making a hopefully accurate representation of his likely thought processes regarding this matter.

How do you guys feel about the decompiler in general?

The decompiler is mostly problematic, as it opens opportunities like this one. The only arguably good use I can imagine for it would be to study a good GM game to learn how to make better games yourself. But that is made null simply if the people that make the better games are generous and share their tricks and techniques with the public, which is always a good thing. I know many aren't, but even the few that are are often enough to help things progress if the community allows it.

So yeah, personally, I don't like it at all.

I believe New Super Mario Bros Wii has similar effects.

Either that or the police will find all your family on a large pool of their own blood with several stab wounds, apparently perpetrated by everyone at the same time.

The really weird thing here is, if you actually know how to package and sell a free Indie game I totally bet you could just approach the developer, say "let me keep 20% and I'll sell and market your game for you", and most developers would probably say yes!

"But 20% isn't 100%!"

I believe the developer assumed that players would look up and see the red beam, and how it was spawning the falling debris, and then follow the beam to those towers linking it. Walking around there they'd find the control room to divert the beam.

Downloading now. I was curious about this game, but with no way to try it first I didn't take the plunge to buy it.

Somebody could use a hacked Kinect and set this up in an arcade. You'd need some kind of pointer controller of lightgun pistol as well, though. Combine Kinect and Move with some kind of voodoo software (Kinect and Wii might be easier). Also a projector to have the screen be huge.

It could also allow for blind-firing from cover. With the implementation of a timer and/or limited ammo system, it could be well-balanced.

Maybe when new ACTA-related laws are implemented we'll see no-win-no-fee lawyers popping up to deal with this kind of thing?

There needs to be a way that doesn't involve THAT.

Also I'll just imagine you said 'if' instead of 'when' and go back to my happy place.

Man there needs to be an easier way to get people arrested for such shameless thievery.

I must have suggested that one three times already. About time it was changed.