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loren schmidt

@lorenschmidt.bsky.social

9.1K followers 4.5K following 12K posts

i make art, mostly with computers. currently working on an open world RPG with roguelike roots and an experimental bent. cat mom. she / her or they / them.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · Nov 25

i am making an open world roguelike.

i have been imagining this world for years, and i want to make this game so people can go there and live many lives in it!

the game features whole-cloth, accessible design, deep mysteries, and a meticulous generated living world.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 4h

but it's better to just move and churn things out. it'll get there and it'll be better when it does if i iterated more.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 4h

i did some early work on a much larger drawing of the bug people i'm working on! i'll probably have pencils done tomorrow and will share.

i'm still not 100% sure where all the anatomical particulars will land, which is giving me hesitation...

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 4h

ah i haven't tried reshade with it yet!

yeah currently i'm just doing integer scaling, with force nearest (morally dubious, but beautiful).

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 4h

interesting! i don't know those. it would be interesting to see something like that in action.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 4h

yeah i'm considering jumping ship too. i don't really want my OS to be a hobby, which has kept me from switching thus far.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 4h

me too, but i can't actually remember when? maybe windows 9? shrouded in the mists of history, for sure.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 8h

i wish people would make more games like this with constraints + unlocks but not a fixed order, i love that.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 8h

does anyone know of any good, functional dolphin crt filters? i found a few old threads but nothing has worked so far. (it's specifically for primehack so there may be compatibility issues.)

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 8h

i really like it, especially the way the spaces are interconnected and all the secrets they dangle.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 8h

i haven't played in over 15 years, i am going to turn off hints now and see what it feels like to transition to artifacts later.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 9h

ooh that sounds compelling. how does repair work?

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 9h

i really like trying to play prime pretty free roam. it's a very highly forking space with so many interesting connections. i enjoy the thoroughness of doubling back more than necessary to scour for new unlocks or secrets i missed.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 9h

i wonder how much of my impression is perceptual. if i had never played with reminders on, would i feel that way? i do think the unlock sequence is pretty fixed but certainly exploration, sidegrades, secrets etc. provide a lot of nonlinearity.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 9h

it would be interesting to see the choice space laid out side by side! to me, 1 and super metroid play pretty nonlinearly but that might just be because i am not playing efficiently and i am not using guides.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 9h

i'm not read up on sequence breaks- interesting, so early space jump /could/ break it out of linearity, but optimal stays similar to it in many ways?

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 9h

right, i think that was the allure! you can really sculpt an experience for people.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 9h

ha i originally thought the menu was real time too! i think they could have pulled it off, that would have been neat.

you can free roam, and there is a fair amount of pleasant backtracking, but there is a fairly constrained intended sequence.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 13h

yes it's my favorite too despite that!

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 13h

oh i forgot you can turn off the hints! it's been a while. still fairly railroaded but at least i can get pleasantly lost instead of beep beep energy surge detected.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 14h

yeah, gamecube.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 14h

yeah earth and wind can be done in either order but it's linear otherwise.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 14h

but yeah wind waker is that way too. it has, iirc, only one dungeon pair that has a player determined order? that's very linear. let's see.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 14h

the trend started before that, but i find it the most severe example around highly linear, cinematic experiences and unskippable tutorials.

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 14h

prime is really interesting. for subjective reasons i have beef with this era of linearized games in previously nonlinear series (see also twilight princess) but this is really compelling in many other ways. i especially like the handmade, low prop reuse environments.

loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 1d

yay here we go

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 14h

yes that is what the fire sword example in the second post is