Jeffool

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] Jeffool 2 points 4 days ago

It's basically video all over again.

 

Normally I personally don't copy/paste texts, but this isn't a news site, it's a social media post made to the public. Feels different to me. Here's Gavin's post:

Why did we sell Naughty Dog?

It’s a question I’ve been asked countless times. The answer is simple: budgets were skyrocketing.

When we started Naughty Dog in the 1980s, game development expenses were manageable. We bootstrapped everything, pouring profits from one game into the next.

  • Our early 80s games cost less than $50,000 each to make.

  • Rings of Power ('88-91), saw budgets rise to about $100,000, but yielded slightly more than that in after tax profits in 1992.

  • In 1993, we rolled that $100k from Rings into a self funded Way of the Warrior.

  • But Crash Bandicoot ('94-96) cost $1.6 million to make.

  • By the time we got to Jak and Daxter ('99-01), the budget busted the $15 million mark.

By 2004, the cost of AAA games like Jak 3 had soared to $45-50 million -- and they have been rising ever since.

But back in 2000, we were still self-funding every project, and the stress of financing these ballooning budgets independently was enormous.

It wasn’t just us. This was (and still is) a systemic issue in the AAA space. Developers almost never have the resources to fund their own games, which gives publishers enormous leverage.

Selling to Sony wasn’t just about securing a financial future for Naughty Dog. It was about giving the studio the resources to keep making the best games possible, without being crushed by the weight of skyrocketing costs and the paralyzing fear that one slip would ruin it all.

Looking back, it was the right call.

AAA games have only gotten more expensive since then. Today's big budget games can easily cost $300, $400, or even $500 million to develop.

Would we have been able to keep up? Maybe. But selling -- to the right party -- gave Naughty Dog the stability it needed to thrive — and to continue making the kinds of games we’d always dreamed of!

[–] Jeffool 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I have a Pixel 4a and it heats up a little playing Balatro, but all of the below it has no issues with:

Flipflop - a fun take on solitaire

Downwell - a vertical platformer

Holedown - an inverse breakout, minus the paddle

Desert Golf - a true indie classic!

Radiant - a Galaga/Space Invaders-ish shmup that's old enough to probably be lightweight these days.

anything by Kairosoft - a developer of sim management games I've been playing games from since I had a flip phone. Just find a theme you like and go crazy.

NYT games - They have more than Wordle! Connections, a word grouping game, in particular is fun, and so is Strands a themed word search. They're all updated daily for free on one app. They just lock off previous days' puzzles and the crossword. (Though they have a small quick crossword that's also fun.) It's actually discounted right now for an actual subscription

Reigns - I found this very fun. It's not for everyone. It uses Tinder's swiping to let you make decisions and try to run your kingdom. Good luck.

Prune - a puzzle that that relies on pruning your growing plant to reach the goal

80 Days - a narrative game with a decent amount of reading, as you attempt to buy, sell, and barter your way through your adventure.

Crossy Road - Frogger-inspired game with more maps and more fun.

Plague Inc - also a classic. Control a disease as you attempt to infect and destroy humanity. (This was popular before COVID.)

Burrito Bison - time your taps to launch your lucha libre across the map.

Super Mario Run - just simple enough to make you mess up sometimes. But it's not bad. I liked it.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23327569

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23327568

Well at least it's not a buyout for now.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/49924358

Clown emojis all around

[–] Jeffool 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I can say I've heard of all of the winners, but the only one I've played is Balatro. (I'm not counting playing 20m of BG3 and saying "can't wait to get around to really trying this!" And never doing it.)

6
submitted 2 weeks ago by Jeffool to c/gamedev
 

In case anyone is curious

11
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Jeffool to c/gamedev
 

Brand Shield seems to be licensed, not something that belongs to Funko, to clear up the headline.

[–] Jeffool 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

In 2019 a friend and I got subscriptions to Regal and began going to a movie a week. Most days we'd plan something, but sometimes we'd just show up and pick something. (We blindly picked Underwater, and what a great surprise. Also decided to see the Tom Hanks Mr. Rogers film and proceed to ugly cry all over myself.)

Then COVID.

The last movie I saw in theaters as a subscriber was Bad Boys for Life. I tried to go see Dune 1. I drove 30m, bought popcorn and a slushee, and waited... But the video file was corrupted. They said they had to redownload it before the next show, so they canceled the showing and gave everyone a free ticket. I never bothered using it. I just went home and watched it for free on HBO Max.

I love theaters, both as nostalgia and just to have the experience. But man, "paying extra to go out of your way" is a difficult sell.

[–] Jeffool 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's incredibly common in the US, especially among younger people. This was just on the first page of my search but I'm sure you can find tons of similar stories over the years: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/more-americans-prefer-watching-shows-with-subtitles-study-finds/ar-AA1rj48O

Overall, half of respondents said they use subtitles regularly.

Personally I've always done it since my youth as well (around '96.) Admittedly that was mostly because I mostly used my TV to watch late at night instead of sleep... But it wasn't even unheard of then to prefer subtitles. And it was pretty common at the HD switch over, often citing bad speakers (both quality and physical design.)

[–] Jeffool 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wasn't adding engagement numbers to each tweet one of the first things he added? I remember thinking "who the fuck wants to see that?" But I guess to people like him that was important at the time? Huh.

 

Here's a direct link to Steam's new guidelines: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/seasonpass

[–] Jeffool 4 points 1 month ago

I'll probably always think that Tetris is the greatest video game ever. The inherent dramatic arc that comes with watching the blocks stack up is tension directly within you the player, not you watching tension unfold for characters on the screen. It's different every time, even if the shape of the arc is similar, because you improve as a player. It's the kind of emergent involvement the most designers could only aspire to create.

That said of course Shadow of the Colossus is also a favorite. That one probably feels a little more obvious, but I'm okay with that.

[–] Jeffool 2 points 1 month ago
[–] Jeffool 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"War. War never changes."

"Remember. No Russian."

"Itchy. Tasty."

[–] Jeffool 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You know, that feels like a pretty great use case.

[–] Jeffool 1 points 1 month ago

Sure, but with that philosophy, why use a microblogging system at all?

[–] Jeffool 3 points 1 month ago (6 children)

It gives space to do servers based on specific interests if you want. I'm part of a game development server, and my "Local" tab has people on my server often talking about, and showing, things that are related to game development. And I can still follow anyone from any other Mastodon server too.

If you're into video games, film, maybe a specific genre of music, you can have an instance dedicated to that. (It might already exist.) It's like a virtual neighborhood, or forum. Remember forums? Those were nice. They cultivated a sense of community which made people a little more responsible in their attitudes, it feels like. Maybe that's just nostalgia, but I like the server I'm on. It's got friendly people I can talk to without feeling the need to fill my follows with them.

30
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Jeffool to c/asklemmy
 

Everyone loves a good Criterion Collection or Shout Factory release. But what's a good website from which to buy digital media? Do you buy digital media? Or do you just buy physical and rip? Or do you just sail the seas?

Games seem to be itch.io or Steam, maybe a Humble Bundle or Epic/GOG exclusive here and there. But what about movies and music? What about books and audiobooks?

view more: next ›