Yal
@yaru.itch.io
Software engineer | Game Maker user for >20 years | Maker of Burgertale, Hotline Sanzu, and like 50 other games | Computers peaked in the 8-bit days | Put "perfect is the enemy of good" on my tombstone
(do you have any idea how little that narrows it down, lol)
I'm a fake touhou fan but I'm still aware of at least three tengu: fake news birb, missing textures birb and canada
I'm a fake touhou fan but I'm still aware of at least three tengu: fake news birb, missing textures birb and canada
February 1, 2026 at 2:55 PM
(do you have any idea how little that narrows it down, lol)
I'm a fake touhou fan but I'm still aware of at least three tengu: fake news birb, missing textures birb and canada
I'm a fake touhou fan but I'm still aware of at least three tengu: fake news birb, missing textures birb and canada
Someone at my workplace had a presentation showing off the results of how efficient he'd gotten working with an LLM and happily announced "it only took me 2 hours to generate the code that draws a rectangle!" and at that point I stopped worrying about AIs taking my job.
February 1, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Someone at my workplace had a presentation showing off the results of how efficient he'd gotten working with an LLM and happily announced "it only took me 2 hours to generate the code that draws a rectangle!" and at that point I stopped worrying about AIs taking my job.
I guess if you experienced the SNES --> N64 leap first-hand, new technology seems a LOT more exciting than if your idea of a console generational leap is "using Nvidia Eyebrow RTX, eyebrows now have 30% more realistic physics"
February 1, 2026 at 2:46 PM
I guess if you experienced the SNES --> N64 leap first-hand, new technology seems a LOT more exciting than if your idea of a console generational leap is "using Nvidia Eyebrow RTX, eyebrows now have 30% more realistic physics"
Review-wise I feel like this is the best part of the series mechanically, the samurai/ninja split divides up the giant pile of inherited mechanics in a more structured way than Nioh 2's giant mess of 300 things all at once. And the ER-style exploration goes REALLY well with the Nioh loot system.
February 1, 2026 at 2:52 AM
Review-wise I feel like this is the best part of the series mechanically, the samurai/ninja split divides up the giant pile of inherited mechanics in a more structured way than Nioh 2's giant mess of 300 things all at once. And the ER-style exploration goes REALLY well with the Nioh loot system.
I'm thinking, going with the visual term, having an "establishing shot" for each chapter or section is the most digestible way to exposition dump. A couple lines setting the stage:
"This was the largest sattelite in orbit of the mining colony. To nobody's surprise, it was run by the dwarven empire."
"This was the largest sattelite in orbit of the mining colony. To nobody's surprise, it was run by the dwarven empire."
January 31, 2026 at 11:51 AM
I'm thinking, going with the visual term, having an "establishing shot" for each chapter or section is the most digestible way to exposition dump. A couple lines setting the stage:
"This was the largest sattelite in orbit of the mining colony. To nobody's surprise, it was run by the dwarven empire."
"This was the largest sattelite in orbit of the mining colony. To nobody's surprise, it was run by the dwarven empire."
I feel like a lot of the well-received exposition dumps in recent memory (e.g. Lunacid and Bloodstained intro text crawls) were carried a lot by having a good voice actor really ham up their deliveries. But of course that won't help you with a text story.
January 31, 2026 at 11:51 AM
I feel like a lot of the well-received exposition dumps in recent memory (e.g. Lunacid and Bloodstained intro text crawls) were carried a lot by having a good voice actor really ham up their deliveries. But of course that won't help you with a text story.
"Exposition dumping" is generally frowned upon, especially in visual mediums where you could show off the relevant information in a more interesting way. Dripfeeding details when they become relevant lets you do dramatic reveals, but can come off as "making stuff up as you go" if you're not careful.
January 31, 2026 at 11:51 AM
"Exposition dumping" is generally frowned upon, especially in visual mediums where you could show off the relevant information in a more interesting way. Dripfeeding details when they become relevant lets you do dramatic reveals, but can come off as "making stuff up as you go" if you're not careful.
I find it amusing how Nintendo was like "we're gonna need some placeholders to represent the audience's characters" and then everyone collectively decided to make Hugh Morris canon overnight.
January 31, 2026 at 11:37 AM
I find it amusing how Nintendo was like "we're gonna need some placeholders to represent the audience's characters" and then everyone collectively decided to make Hugh Morris canon overnight.
Diablo-style loot is already planned, every item is gonna be randomly generated with rarities and stats and active/passive skills. Essentially every piece of gear you find is supposed to feel unique.
(Tales combat feels like... I might as well just make a metroidvania at that point, lol.)
(Tales combat feels like... I might as well just make a metroidvania at that point, lol.)
January 30, 2026 at 3:44 PM
Diablo-style loot is already planned, every item is gonna be randomly generated with rarities and stats and active/passive skills. Essentially every piece of gear you find is supposed to feel unique.
(Tales combat feels like... I might as well just make a metroidvania at that point, lol.)
(Tales combat feels like... I might as well just make a metroidvania at that point, lol.)
One of the issues with the left option is that nametags are so wide there's no way to fit them side by side. My solution was to make them alternate so every 2nd tag is offset vertically, but that adds visual noise that makes them harder to process mentally (especially when moving the cursor around)
January 30, 2026 at 3:41 PM
One of the issues with the left option is that nametags are so wide there's no way to fit them side by side. My solution was to make them alternate so every 2nd tag is offset vertically, but that adds visual noise that makes them harder to process mentally (especially when moving the cursor around)
Even with the placeholder data I'm working with in the pre-alpha stage I'm in now, I've added a bunch of special basic attacks, like the Mage Masher having an unique basic attack that can inflict Silence, a poison dagger's slash, etc.
Enemies can reuse them for THEIR annoying quirky movesets, too!
Enemies can reuse them for THEIR annoying quirky movesets, too!
January 30, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Even with the placeholder data I'm working with in the pre-alpha stage I'm in now, I've added a bunch of special basic attacks, like the Mage Masher having an unique basic attack that can inflict Silence, a poison dagger's slash, etc.
Enemies can reuse them for THEIR annoying quirky movesets, too!
Enemies can reuse them for THEIR annoying quirky movesets, too!
My idea is that the attack menu only has the "pick the skill to use" step if your weapons PROVIDES any skills, if they only have a basic attack it immediately goes to target selection. Since basic attacks are also skills, weapons can have unique movesets, they don't all use a generic "attack".
January 30, 2026 at 1:29 AM
My idea is that the attack menu only has the "pick the skill to use" step if your weapons PROVIDES any skills, if they only have a basic attack it immediately goes to target selection. Since basic attacks are also skills, weapons can have unique movesets, they don't all use a generic "attack".
Recently there's even an entire emerging artform of making promotional art, let'splays, guidebooks etc for games that don't exist, just to capture this vibe.
In case you're not familiar with Eyepatch Wolf's video duology on the subject...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Gn...
In case you're not familiar with Eyepatch Wolf's video duology on the subject...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Gn...
The Bizarre World of Fake Video Games
YouTube video by Super Eyepatch Wolf
www.youtube.com
January 28, 2026 at 1:27 PM
Recently there's even an entire emerging artform of making promotional art, let'splays, guidebooks etc for games that don't exist, just to capture this vibe.
In case you're not familiar with Eyepatch Wolf's video duology on the subject...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Gn...
In case you're not familiar with Eyepatch Wolf's video duology on the subject...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Gn...
The rumors about its death are greatly exaggerated, or however that quote goes.
January 28, 2026 at 1:21 PM
The rumors about its death are greatly exaggerated, or however that quote goes.
As a long term Souls fan I feel like fighting games have the EXACT OPPOSITE issue, animations are so fast and noncommittal you can't react to them...
January 28, 2026 at 1:18 PM
As a long term Souls fan I feel like fighting games have the EXACT OPPOSITE issue, animations are so fast and noncommittal you can't react to them...
I've lost enough installs to Windows Update that I consider it a bigger threat to PCs than whatever it's supposed to protect you from...
January 28, 2026 at 1:12 PM
I've lost enough installs to Windows Update that I consider it a bigger threat to PCs than whatever it's supposed to protect you from...
The fact that they put Copilot in NOTEPAD of all things is really throwing me. Like why did you need to add the "slow everything down 300 times" machine in the text editor so rudimentary it doesn't even have Unicode support
January 27, 2026 at 5:07 PM
The fact that they put Copilot in NOTEPAD of all things is really throwing me. Like why did you need to add the "slow everything down 300 times" machine in the text editor so rudimentary it doesn't even have Unicode support
I haven't decided the details about how encounter tables are gonna work but my original idea was that absolute recursion level would influence monster difficulty, so e.g. shrinking to bug size would have you encounter regular-sized bugs that are now a threat, then later subatomic particles, etc.
January 27, 2026 at 12:19 AM
I haven't decided the details about how encounter tables are gonna work but my original idea was that absolute recursion level would influence monster difficulty, so e.g. shrinking to bug size would have you encounter regular-sized bugs that are now a threat, then later subatomic particles, etc.
My goal is that every enemy should have something unique going for it mechanically (e.g. Placeholder can grab someone to bind their arms, necromancer minions use HP Drain), then the stat system is set up so enemies can be scaled up using the area level (to keep them relevant for longer, stat-wise)
January 27, 2026 at 12:19 AM
My goal is that every enemy should have something unique going for it mechanically (e.g. Placeholder can grab someone to bind their arms, necromancer minions use HP Drain), then the stat system is set up so enemies can be scaled up using the area level (to keep them relevant for longer, stat-wise)
The main draw is the way gun randomization works; you occasionally get something completely overpowered like an uzi that fires bowling balls instead of 9mm bullets, but you're not immune to your own projectiles so they're balanced out by being just as big of a threat to YOU as your enemies.
January 26, 2026 at 5:59 PM
The main draw is the way gun randomization works; you occasionally get something completely overpowered like an uzi that fires bowling balls instead of 9mm bullets, but you're not immune to your own projectiles so they're balanced out by being just as big of a threat to YOU as your enemies.