I did the DLC with my NG +2 character and the final boss is fun to say the least. I finally cut him down to size with a sunbro buddy and the tanky dragon covenant NPC. The other NPC lady dies way too fast to be of any use drawing aggro.

Whenever I try to put myself as a phantom for the boss though, the host inevitably dies in the first minute.

For anyone who is on the fence about the Season Pass, you can get it for $20 at GMG with the code P36EYA-K5JYKT-ABO7X9.

I find making games to be one of the most fulfilling things I can do in terms of seeing the end result. I'm a writer and I have always enjoyed things like movies, games, art and design, and art design. I have always had a creative urge to get the things in my brain into reality (basically: "this would be awesome!") and games are a great way to do that that is fulfilling visually and textually. And a lot of my ideas fall firmly into the realm of fantasy where games are a lot more effective at conveying the setting.

In my opinion, no you don't need passion to develop a game. However, you DO need passion to develop a high quality game. If you aren't in tune with modern games or just don't like video games, it will show through in your work. Either the details will be lacking or it will be "off" somehow. Of course, that's fine for some people, but the best games are created by passionate people.

If you are totally dispassionate about games, enough to basically stop playing them, then maybe you shouldn't be seeking game development as a potential career path anyway.

Does Shovel Knight count if it only looks like a retro game? 

But seriously, it would probably have to be Live-A-Live or Chrono Trigger.

That's understandable. Modern AAA games tend to sacrifice gameplay depth for graphics. While graphics have advanced, things such as AI have stayed relatively stagnant and game mechanics become repetitive and boring. And modern AAA graphics can tend to look cluttered or chaotic compared to the simplified graphics of previous generations.

In fact, that's one of the main reasons people are drawn to indie games and one of their main selling points. They can't compete in realistic 3D graphics, but everything else such as gameplay, story, etc. is fair game.

I heard Dark Souls 2 is getting DLCs??? Would it be worth holding off playing it until all the DLCs are out?

You could always just play the DLCs in New Game +. I guess it depends how hard the DLCs turn out to be.

You're all beautiful people.
I've been meaning to watch Tatami galaxy for quite some time, thanks!
Watched Redline tonight, everything is so over the top 

There's also Gurren Lagann if you haven't seen that yet. Though you probably have.

PC Advantages: Larger screen, Steam achievements, etc.

3DS Advantages: Crisp graphics, 3D effect (don't really use it much though, I think my glasses mess up the effect), hot swap items from bottom screen, faster buttons.

It might have something to do with the shadows looking weird when combined with the 3D effect on the 3DS.

[Rule # 1: Projects must create something to share with others.]

I'm guessing that most of the pledges are fake and that when the project ends, they will bounce or not go through.

The fact that Kickstarter didn't shut it down though, kind of shows that they don't take their own rules seriously.

Rule # 1: Projects must create something to share with others.

And yet all the project promises is for the guy to mention their name when he makes his potato salad, obviously breaking the rules and they didn't do anything.

Imagine if your bank gave out loans with no requirements, "for teh lulz". It would kind of make you lose trust when they are forcing you to show your ID.

I would understand if the game was a super complicated, epically long RPG and they would need more than 4 million bucks to pull it off. But for a straight rip of Mega Man with 3D graphics that indie games have been able to do for a couple thousand bucks (see also: A.R.E.S.) the idea of asking for more money suggests that something is very wrong. And before you say they're professionals and they can't eat ramen noodles while developing their game, note that their original goal was only NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND.

Even if they really do need the money, the prudent course of action would be to wait until the current finished version of Mighty No. 9 is complete before raising more money to add DLC. Right now it either seems like a cash grab or heinous mismanagement.

Note the "starter" in Kickstarter. It's supposed to jump start your project, not be the main mode of sales. Repeated Kickstarter campaigns before a game is released diminishes your credibility.

Usually, story driven games are better. Not because the story is better, but because games that stop everything to tell the story tend to not put as much emphasis on designing the game well.

I used to not like the idea of always putting gameplay over story, but Dark Souls changed my mind about it. It allowed a detailed story to be put into the game world without throwing it in your face via cutscenes and dialogue dumps. Now I'm a little more critical of games with long cutscenes.

(Though the types of games I'm working on now are basically mostly story, but at least the player goes into them with the intent to read, not to play and be interrupted by text).

However walls of text will work fine if as mentioned earlier, your story is actually good. A lot of game developers don't bother to find a writer and instead just ignore that part, but in my opinion a writer will help even if the game doesn't have a lot of story at all. Otherwise people will have a hard time finding a motivation to play Zombie Shooter #1253. No matter how much of a technical masterpiece it is, people always look at the story first.

And by a lot of text I mean a 30 minute Metal Gear cutscene, not 20 lines uttered by people every level or an optional encyclopedia. That kind of thing is A-OK in my book.

The thing about the no death run is that if you quit the stage and reload, you can try it again. It's not like it ends the moment you die (except on map encounters, which you may want to avoid). So it's easier than it sounds.

I give the game a dennouddaden in my review. I find it to be extremely awesome.

It's a bit ironic the best game Wayforward made wasn't done under the Wayforward label nor did it have the typical nice sprites that Wayforward is known for (though the sprite art is still great, just not as detailed).

Oh, and for everyone saying it preys on nostalgia... I have literally no nostalgia for NES games, the first console I really played in earnest was the Dreamcast, and I still think it's a fantastic game.

I'm pretty sure that roll iframes are not halved, nor is enemy damage. The only issue with 30/60 FPS is the durability glitch. The other stuff was just an optical illusion/myth that was proven wrong.

As for the hitboxes, I agree that they are huge. However it might have been a purposeful move in order to make shields more useful. Otherwise why bother having a shield, just roll through all attacks easily.

I got it on 3DS, I feel it fits the system better. Being able to hot-swap items from the bottom screen is also nice.

I am really enjoying the game, especially since it borrows a few mechanics from Dark Souls and gives me the same feeling after beating one of the bosses (after which you rest at a bonfire... so awesome.) I also instantly recognized that Virt composed the awesome soundtrack.

The most frustrating bits are the ones with tricky platforming.  But it does have a Dark Souls-like effect where you come back from the checkpoint knowing more about the area and ready to re-grab your gold back.

EVEN if the game was free, forcing people to pay you creates a chilling effect that hurts indies and professionals. If a super popular LP'er endorses your game you will sell a lot of copies, so why would they have to pay you even more money for deciding to feature you? That will just make them abandon your games and play someone else's who doesn't have that kind of policy.

It could work, but only for AAA super popular games and if the entire industry forced LP'ers to do the same thing. In which case that would be a pretty evil move.

I tried for a while to find someone remotely interested in making games, but I failed. Still, I just hire people who I need to make the game.

The one time I did collaborate with someone for a small game, I met them at Indiecade when I was waiting on line and decided to chat with them, they turned out to be an artist.

That is a pretty ridiculous concept, especially since it's basically free advertising to the person selling the game. All that forcing Youtubers to pay royalties will do is make them not want to play/review your game and you will lose more money than you gain (unless it's a terrible game and they smash it, in which case it's a bad game).

I for one really liked Fez (which is surprising, since I expected it to be boring/pretentious/etc. from the hype, but I found it fun), personally I'm still folding out hope that he just dropped off the radar to get away from the trolls/games press and will secretly release Fez II in a few years.

It's too bad he fell victim to the vocal minority despite the silent majority that probably loved his game. I think he really could have used some kind of PR person for his studio.

Or he could just make it an optional filter and please both parties.