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Isaiah Everin

@signalsandlight.bsky.social

1K followers 240 following 730 posts

Senior Combat Designer @ AAA Studio Video essays on game design, narrative, and media, opinions are my own He/Him 👾 | Gay 🏳️‍🌈 YouTube: http://youtube.com/@signalsandlight Other Socials: https://linktr.ee/SignalsAndLight https://www.isaiaheverin.com

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Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Jul 13

New pinned post...I made six YouTube videos and then got a promotion, so I got too busy to keep working on other ones, but then the game industry went and does what it does, so I don't even know what I'm doing next with my career for a bit. Maybe I'll make more YouTube videos once I stop being sad!

Defining What IS an Enemy Attack

YouTube video by Signals and Light

youtu.be

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Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 5d

Portland, what a beautiful city.

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Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 12d

Is there a process recording tool that eliminates all the zooming/panning/etc? I'm so used to speed draws on @drawfeeshow.com where they show that aspect (not a call out, it's just funny). There's no way you're doing all of this without ever zooming or moving the canvas, right? Hahaha.

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Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 15d

Alien Earth is thematically about morbid curiosity. The characters feel it about xenos and playing god, the writers feel it about what bullshit they can get away with, and the audience feels it about where any of this is fucking going. What a batshit premise for an S2 if it's somehow not cancelled.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 16d

This is for no one, but, as a name, "Perfidia Beverly Hills" from One Battle After the Other was constantly giving me "Vestavia Casket Showroom" from @starsofspace.bsky.social.

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Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 18d

It's also a skill tax. I know people who enjoyed this game and took 100 hours to beat Act 3. A lot of skill levels can engage with it because of the tools specifically, so just punishing those players with a resource like that is so unnecessary and such a weird way to approach that as a mechanic.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 18d

Outside 4 exceptions, I generally spent at least 15-30 minutes learning a boss before giving in to tools and still ran out like 5+ times (but I used a mod to just cheat for them because you will never catch me farming in a game if I can hack past such a waste of life). Overall, underbaked system.

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Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 18d

Animated Homestuck pilot. That was fucking awful, not even a rough approximation of Homestuck writing. How was Hussie involved at all? I didn't have high expectations, but that was about the worst it could realistically be while still existing. Embarrassingly missing the mark.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 21d

Half my friends were got by that explosion. Meanwhile, I run from every boss when they're exploding because it always feels like it's going to kill me even though it's almost always just cosmetically overwhelming.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 22d

This was also with me not using tools on most bosses until I felt the need (like 30 of them, I just didn't use them at all), and trying to learn that final boss for almost 90 minutes before taking them out (which was another hour).

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 22d

It's a skill tax. The lower skill you are, the more you want to use tools, but the more you're punished by failure to grind. I used a mod to bypass it, as I ran out plenty of times all the way up to needing something like 1000 for the final Act 3 boss.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 22d

I for sure quit Nioh 2 on the first level because I literally can't play a game with that level of input complexity on top of how unforgiving the enemy and level design is. If difficulty is a gradient, it's not a huge surprise something taking it that far isn't a smash hit.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 26d

Oh my GODDDDD, this is so GORGEOUS. There are so many outstanding shots and environments, it's such a joy to watch, I really hope @glitchprod.com keeps making more of this!

GLITCH @glitchprod.com · 26d

KNIGHTS OF GUINEVERE PILOT IS OUT NOW ON YOUTUBE!

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 26d

No spoilers Silksong review on @backloggd.com with more words about difficulty in games than about the game itself, because Idk that's where my brain is since no one will shut up about it.

backloggd.com/u/everin/rev...

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 28d

Just finished reading "Player of Games," wanted to see how people reflected on the various qualities of what The Culture novels are presenting in a utopia, and this @bloodknife.bsky.social essay on the subject was very good.

The Culture War: Iain M. Banks's Billionaire Fans - Blood Knife

The Culture novels are far-future communist space opera from an explicitly socialist author. So how do we explain their wealthy, hyper-capitalist fans?

bloodknife.com

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 28d

I ended up tool spamming one of the final Act 3 bosses (saws, bugs, and drills with poison), though amusingly they scripted her to attack faster the more procs of damage she's taking at once, so it was still wildly difficulty.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 29d

All this made me feel fine downloading a mod for rosaries a large way through Act 2. Given the resource that returns them to you becomes plentiful eventually, I don't even think I robbed myself of more than one or two stressful soul retrievals while saving myself from at least 1-2 hours of farming.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · 29d

Huh, I never used that crest again outside of the beginning of the game.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Sep 15

Or just looking at their map and seeing they can go other places. It's fundamental to the design of games like this that they don't force you to do anything and give you many options to pursue, that is one of the few aspects that should be universally praised at this point.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Sep 15

I'm not sure why this was an exchange that needed to escalate to that kind of response. There's no reason to be mad at people because they have different feelings about a challenging game. Anyways, enjoy. 👍

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Sep 15

I knew within 5 hours of playing it that there would be months of discourse about it, all the way up until at minimum The Game Awards, if not beyond (especially if they add even harder DLC).

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Sep 15

Sure, I would agree with you the game is very fair and can be overcome in Act 1, most of Act 2, but I think people really overestimate how hard HK was and how many people beat that game who would not enjoy a game as challenging as Silksong. It is harder. It requires more of the player in every way.

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Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Sep 15

And not everyone is equally good at games. The really fast bosses like First Sinner, I adored, but tons of people who loved HK and avoided the harder stuff there would never be able to do that boss and enjoy it. The accessibility bar is way, way higher than the base game of HK.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Sep 15

Also, most people I've seen are predominantly frustrated with bosses that include adds which lead to way more RNG and variance in how things play out (answer is use tools and spells more, but still). Every boss I've chosen to cheese either had adds or projectiles that did obnoxious things.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Sep 15

Even bosses I loved and didn't take many tries on I can admit how much faster you have to be in this than in HK. Windows are smaller, bosses move much faster, there are more variations on hazards and fewer valid places to be in the arena. I don't think I've seen anyone say it's unfair, just harder.

Isaiah Everin @signalsandlight.bsky.social · Sep 15

Have you done the Act 3 bosses? I just decided to tool cheese one where this plainly just isn't true, it is 100% twitch reflex skills and a test of speed and never making mistakes in reaction time. (The hilarious part is she punishes tool use and created a different hard version of the fight.)