people try and make "foundational work but better" and end up making something that's just forgettable at best
and then when a studio does do something different that resonates with people, other studios just try to copy that (see the many games that tried and failed to borrow from hollow knight)

i think a lot about how almost no "metroidvania" has come even close to being as compelling as the words that make up the genre name for basically exactly this reason + this weird want to smooth out the parts that are what make the thing compelling

so when you're writing?

don't be an LLM yourself.

It's deceptively easy to do

a lot of writers write like AI does. They put stuff in because that's what goes into stuff in the genre. They don't really know why it's there, care why it's there, or anything like that. They're just painting by numbers. The story has this because previous stories also did.

and it's like, okay, when dawn of the dead had its biker gang, it was doing so _with intent_. That's purposeful. That's not just An Ingredient The Dish Requires, that's a specific thing Romero is doing in a specific movie--one of his zombie movies, but not the only one--for specific reasons

some people get weird and mad and stuff when you're like "oh yeah, the story always does that. why not do something else?" like "well the story ALWAYS does that. that's what you have to do"

like that guy who got FURIOUS with me for suggesting authors try a zombie story ~without~ biker gangs

the people who copy are not in conversation, they're just copying a formula and hoping it works. It's the conversation that's interesting. Have something to add. Don't just copy what came before you, don't just replay the hits.

and I think it's the two in the middle that are the most interesting. They are intentionally trying to do stuff on a dramatic, compelling level. The thing in 3 understands what 2 is doing, and it knows you can't JUST repeat it. They're in conversation.

anyway helldivers 2 remains one of the best things of the past year and it's great that it's easier to find the space to install now

i saw one on the helldivers 2 size reduction post that assumed the graphics were downgraded. the information you seek is right there. why are you making these wild assumptions

the whole skip metroid 1 and 2 to play their remakes thing bugs the hell out of me because the originals are so different they're completely incomparable. people are missing out on entire games without the clumsy retcons trying to shoehorn the entirety of prime 1-3 between 1 and 2

most of the playdate library is really reminiscent of that early mobile gaming period where devs felt encouraged to make the sorts of arcade-y games that fell out of vogue in the industry. it's one of the best aspects of the dev scene around it imo

the nice thing about the playdate library is that almost everything is short and cheap. it's easier for me to impulse buy random new games in the store that look interesting to me with no friend recommendations to go off of when they're only $4 and probably not much of a time investment

i read somewhere on here that ppl who struggle finding content are coming from sites where you wait on algorithm to give u content (tiktok, twitter ). while ppl who find content easily remember their experience with social media where you had to search w/ no algorithm (old tumblr)

Remember, "mistakes" are only ever a mistake if they bring you further from what you're trying to draw in that moment. Otherwise, nothing is inherently wrong.

The only goal of this is to give you another tool to diagnose what you're drawing so you can decide if it's something you want or not!

And I don't know if the answer is: everyone is too traumatized to do work and we need to reinvent society. Or if it's more like: generations are losing their cognitive abilities and willpower due to destructive technologies. Or: we all have post-viral brain damage. Or: all of the above.

Admin are continually pressuring us to make the course "more accessible," by which they mean "devastatingly easy to complete," but it's not about access. Many students refuse to read or write in any capacity that isn't tech-aided, no matter how simple the assignment, no matter how process-based.