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[Praying Mantis]

I finished season 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The final 'movie-length episode' was honestly a little bit disappointing but it did a decent job of wrapping up the series. Final thoughts: First season is trash but unfortunately necessary to see if you want to enjoy seasons 2 and 3. Season 2 is probably my favourite as it has the best character development, the best world building and most interesting and engaging story arc. The story in season 3 fell a little flat for me but the deep cuts from season 2 were still present. Uncle Iroh and Sokka are the most interesting characters to me, however I'm saddened that by the end of the series Azula, Aang and Toph were still very weak characters.

Having completed The Last Airbender, I started watching The Legend of Korra and it's enjoyable so far. Animation quality, voice acting, world building and action sequences are all very good. The show is already looking to be a more serious take on Avatar which is something I've always wanted. I am however confused how they could manage to build a metropolis and see enormous technological developments within what I assume is just 80 years or so.

[gimymblert]

There was this GIF I found a really long time ago that I just can't seem to find. It's very funny, it's the Final Boss fight of FF4 but instead of fighting Zeromus, their fighting Conan O'brien with an amusing idol animation and lasers. If anyone knows where I can find it since I've looked everywhere, I'd be grateful.

Try know your meme

[Manuel Magalhães]

A little request for anybody who devs Steam games: Can you not make the icon for a locked achievement be the same as an unlocked one, except slightly darker? Due to colorblindness I cannot tell the difference between the unlocked and locked achievements here for example: http://i.imgur.com/OeZdACQ.jpg

im not color blind and i have trouble telling them apart

Same. I notice the unlocked ones are blueish, while the locked ones are sepia-toned, but it's subtle and it's bad design to simply change the hue in each version.

[Mittens]

A little request for anybody who devs Steam games: Can you not make the icon for a locked achievement be the same as an unlocked one, except slightly darker? Due to colorblindness I cannot tell the difference between the unlocked and locked achievements here for example: http://i.imgur.com/OeZdACQ.jpg

im not color blind and i have trouble telling them apart

Same. I notice the unlocked ones are blueish, while the locked ones are sepia-toned, but it's subtle and it's bad design to simply change the hue in each version.

I made all my locked icons a question mark symbol. Originally I was being lazy, but now I'm being considerate of the disabled

[s0]

tbh making all the locked icons look the same is actually my preferred way because achievement icons can sometimes spoil games.

[unsilentwill]

This is probably worth it's own thread, but Second Quest is out/available for purchase:
http://www.secondquestcomic.com/#intro


Since the subject matter of the book is pretty much 90% of the conversation on this forum I figure a good number of you backed the Kickstarter. I hope to get it sooner or later as the fan of Zelda and culture I am and this seems as good a place as any for a discussion.

[s0]

first time ive heard of it. looks interesting.

[Pfotegeist]

I can only guess what the Second Quest could be about. I mean, literally, it doesn't present enough summary, I'd have to rent it for a day just to see if I want it.  Someone who's never heard of Zelda isn't going to see that website.

This pretty much sums up my biggest complaint about modern marketing. I have no opinion about the comic.

[s0]

btw is the art in this inspired by the artwork in the link's awakening guidebook? because it sure looks like it, at least the color schemes.

i had that guidebook as a kid and even back then i thought the art was really striking. affected how i imagined the game's world in my mind a lot. i miss minimal/abstract graphics in games sometimes.

[unsilentwill]

Their completed Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidhellman/second-quest/description

Here, I was pretty sure this was common knowledge with Braid being pretty big with indies and the Saving Zelda essay being discussed for half a year (not to mention tropes v. video games, female Link discussion, etc.) And yes I don't think it's marketed to people outside Zelda fans but it could be pretty good if the story is universal enough.

[Pfotegeist]

the kickstarter video is a little clearer about the intention.  I feel like making a short

The annoyed reaction to Skyward Sword can probably be expressed like so:
Graphics impress older gamers, not younger ones, it's a fact I read a while ago (over 5 years out of date now). Nin. is going out of its way to catering graphics without really considering who wanted it in the first place, puzzle adventure fans who are definitely not impressed by new age graphics.
Long-term Zelda fans aren't young anymore, so seeing a canon game is dumbed down could be taken personally. Nonetheless, it still got pretty high reviews by everybody else.

Since then, A Link Between Worlds came out.  Reusing a similar formula people enjoyed 20 years ago to boost a series is infallible, that's hard to debate against.  I saw this video from The Game Theorists a while back, I wasn't even slightly biased, so it's shocking. https://youtu.be/Cxhs-GLE29Q?t=5m27s

My question that can only be proven through experimentation is: How frequently in short spans of time do you have to release an exact rehash of a fairly complicated storyline in adventure format to gain more fans!?  It'd probably help me out if I knew ahead of time, it'd help us all.  I don't expect that to be answered for real.

[s0]

Graphics impress older gamers, not younger ones, it's a fact I read a while ago (over 5 years out of date now).

tbh im not sure if graphics are a major reason for buying games for most people, even if they say so.

[SirNiko]

I've gotten the impression that graphics are mostly a hygiene issue. Unless a game boasts really exceptional graphics (eg, Crysis, Okami) players are going to play it for every reason except the graphics. You just give it a good graphical style to keep players from being turned off. Even then, a really good game with lousy graphics will do better than a gorgeous game with lousy mechanics.

I'd love to see some research on this, though.

[s0]

I've gotten the impression that graphics are mostly a hygiene issue.

agreed but even okami is kind of a cult classic more than a genuine commercial hit and the same is true for crysis to an extent (crysis sold WELL but its sales were not even close to the Halo/CoD range). the best selling and most played games are generally not the most visually appealing and/or NEXT GEN SO REAL looking ones.

[Pfotegeist]

Part of my brain says graphics don't make a game. Another part of my brain says pretty things are life.  I prefer it if both stayed happy.

[gimymblert]

To be frank skyward sword graphic are really good, especially that cistern dungeon, and overall design like zelda's character really is top notch.
BUT graphics are only good if the game is amazing, and skyward has enough visible flaws that suddenly the impression "aura" get sour by it. I have notice people will defend the graphism more if the experience match it, everytimes there is a gameplay flaws, you spend more time out the system noticing peripheral flaws. You can see this effect is "brown shooter" believers or retro worshipper. For me te graphism of the game where at their all time bad when collecting music notes, the whole setting didn't make sense and was out of place, and all time high with the timestone in the desert.

[Torchkas]

Reusing a similar formula people enjoyed 20 years ago to boost a series is infallible, that's hard to debate against.  I saw this video from The Game Theorists a while back, I wasn't even slightly biased, so it's shocking. https://youtu.be/Cxhs-GLE29Q?t=5m27s

Those statistics aren't representative. The well selling games that he was comparing to the less well selling games, aside from SMB 3, came bundled with the console they were on. Of course they're going to sell well.

What do you guys think of SMB 3?
I feel like the reason it succeeded the way it did was simply because it was one of the first games at the time that had a huge marketing ploy.

[gimymblert]

I don't think it's true, look at minecraft ...
game we consider innovative are actually complex weird version of old title, I mean I love WW and Yoshi island, but they are weirder or/and more complex version or proven formula. True innovation demand quite a leap, and success demande quite a refinement, which by definition can't happen on new product. Smash bros was a success but it build the demand for the sequel first who outdid it, same for mario party and any "first". Even minecraft owes to infiniminer, dwarf fortress, rogue like, etc ...it expend on old concept that where new at some times. I mean who remember animal forest? most people think animal crossing debuted on gamecube FFS!

It's easier to refine or to weird up than coming with true new idea for a new market. I know I need yoshi island because it's complexified weird mario as an individual but i'm safe in assuming it's a platformer therefore my skill and knowledge translate. Find a concept that is sexy on its own sake and find the execution, lock you up and do 3 iterations on the concept like nintendo do, so teh release looks like it's already a refine sequel instead of proof of concept, else people will rip you off infiniminer style

[s0]

smb3 is really good. probably the most level design variety of any of the 2d mario games (tho super mario world comes close).

[Alevice]

smb3 was really focused on gimmicks per each level, but kept always a good rythm and focused on complexity escalation rather nicely. smw, although i like it overall vbtter, has a bit less focused level design, but greater sense of world exploration.