If they go off to form their own studio, they probably have to take out a business loan to pay themselves for the time being. Interest rates are high right now, and rent and food are both expensive. It’s a huge gamble to make a game and put it out on the assumption you’ll be able to pay back 6%+ interest on whatever you took out. Games are not a reliable money maker. Especially from new studios.
Even if you get some sort of deal with a publisher to fund your first endeavor, there will still be strings attached to that, and publishers are pretty tight with the purse strings right now.
Which means really the only viable option, assuming you’re not already independently wealthy, is that you have to work another job to work on the game in the meantime, which means it will take even longer to come out.
the only viable option, assuming you’re not already independently wealthy, is that you have to work another job to work on the game in the meantime, which means it will take even longer to come out.
So many Indie developers are making the mistake of thinking they’ll be the next [insert currently successful one-man dev here] and banking their careers and life savings on it. 99.999% of them are not.
Ain’t no way a brand new game studio is getting a loan at 6%. If they can even get a business loan at all (good luck!), it would be at a much higher interest rate due to the risk, and/or require assets to be held in collateral (only an option if you’re already wealthy to begin with…)
It has its issues for sure, but the gameplay certainly isn’t one of them (barring the tank sections). I recently played all four games back to back and Knight has by far the most responsive and fluid combat in the series.
Imo the problems are the tank sections, and the story. Overall the story isn’t terrible or anything, but…
Tap for spoilerThe Jason Todd twist was so obvious and had zero build up in any of the prior games. They really should’ve just stuck with Scarecrow and hallucination Joker.
But even just the fact that we’ve never once heard of him until this entry, and suddenly we’re getting loads of backstory, makes the “reveal” comically obvious.
N64 is my favorite console of all time, but yeah, the controller is truly batshit insane. I even had a game that intended you to hold the left and right... prongs instead of center right. In a shocking twist, it was... still pretty awkward.
I do like PS5 controllers - mostly play N64 games on them, never even owned a PS. Used a PS4 controller before that.
Tough call between the Dualsense and the Dualshocks 1-3.
The Dualsense has great features, but is large enough and bulbous enough that I’m forced to use a full palm grip. That’s good some of the time, but sometimes I like a lighter finger grip that the earlier Dualshocks allowed for. I think of it similarly to claw vs palm grips on mice. A full palm grip on either can get too sweaty over time. The Dualshock 4 is a bulbous mess that fatigues my hands. On all of them, the plastic feels premium and sturdy and really fits well together. Plastic molding is an art, and they are good at it.
I have a few 8BitDo’s and they are all good too. The Pro-2, SN30 Pro, and Ultimate C (their naming conventions are flour of control). A bit cheaper feeling than the Sony offerings, but still pretty good.
The Xbox Series controller is… Fine. The plastic feels cheap, the face buttons feel cheap, it’s too big and requires a palm grip, the R1/L1 buttons feel cheap, the d-pad is one of the worst in history. The analog sticks almost feel great except they’re too tall.
Shout-out to the Steam Deck for feeling phenomenal. Also shout-out to the RetroBit Genesis controllers- they feel really good, but the lack of sticks and fewer buttons than most modern controllers makes it hard to use for modern games.
The JoyCons are awful. Most 3rd party options are better but I still haven’t found one that I really like.
The GameCube and N64 both feel kind of cheap. I think the plastic is a bit thin, and the sticks and buttons rattle around slightly.
left joystick is “up” at a natural spot (sorry PS enthusiasts, those low sticks suck)
buttons are “chicklet” style (Xbox round buttons feel awkward)
one set of trigger buttons are “throttle” style
sits on a flat surface without any buttons being pressed
Not sure if there’s one out there that meets all of those. But I have a certain fondness for the GameCube controller. Always felt comfortable, and I actually liked the asymmetric button layout.
They seem nice and not too pricey. Their website said they have Hall effect sticks. Shouldn’t those be more durable and longer lasting than regular sticks?
For how long did you use them before you started having issues with the sticks?
So my sticks still work, but I’ve worn down the rubber on two of the left joysticks so much its crumbling apart. Purchased in 2021 and was my main driver until that happened about 6 months ago, so a fair bit of use. Used that opportunity to try out the PS5 controller and the new Xbox series ones.
And I mean… they’re good?
The resistive triggers were cool and the touchpad is really customizeable. Xbox controller stays solid but boring.
Switch Pro controller feels great but weird to be playing PC games with. Nothing WRONG with it, just feels mentally disconnecting for some reason lol.
Idk. For me the Pro 2 and the wireless SNES sized 8bitdo controllers are perfectly comfy. Have an ultimate in its way to me now actually.
xbox is my top controller design (360 onwards), however the touchpad on ps4/ps5 comes in handy for RTS games (or any mouse required game). it’s a missed opportunity for microsoft, considering they’re bringing Age of Empires to the console
Never liked XBox controllers. They feel fat and clunky, especially trying to use the bumpers, I feel like I have to strain my fingers. I also hate the way the sticks feel in general, theres something about the friction curves that’s just… off. Idk how to describe it. Also, no gyroscope. I will praise the triggers on the XBox one controllers though. I like the shape and the amount of travel they have, I think they rock for racing games.
My favourite controller is the Dualshock 4. Haven’t had a chance to try the Dualsense but even that looks a little bloated. The DS4 is lean, has all the features I want, and those thumbsticks are the best I’ve used on a stock controller. You can practically use them like a trackpoint on a laptop, they’re very precise and great for use with a linear response curve in shooters with zero deadzone.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a really good game, but it feels like an outdated work of the past that hasn’t been modernized enough to keep up with current developments in game design philosophy. The repetition of limited gameplay mechanics and weak artificial intelligence are quite evident in the game, and these factors combine to make the overall experience look mediocre.
When Google fired all of those staffers last year there was a report that there was a huge bump in startups being formed. That’s where actual innovation happens, not at large companies but the small startups. I see that happening now too. They’ll eventually get bought up, but the cycle will repeat.
I survived it for a few hours but ultimately succumbed to your issue exactly but with the added annoyance of having to get in and out of the car repeatedly. Not my game either…
Arkham Knight is decent except for the batmobile sections - as others have already mentioned.
I’d still argue it’s better than Origins though. From memory, memorising all the different toolbelt skills isn’t really necessary - you can definitely get through the game by just abusing jumps, cloak and counters - some special enemies might need a specific ability to make vulnerable, but the game normally warns you the first time you fight them, so I don’t think it ever feels too overwhelming - it just feels like a lot if you run through it very quickly.
Beyond just game studios, why aren’t there more employee owned companies?
When Starbucks was unionizing I made the comment that if I were the corporation I would just get out and let the employees run it. I got flamed for this attitude. What is so terrible about employee owned companies?
The question I was answering was “why aren’t there more employee owned companies?” And the answer is it’s a lot harder to get seed money for those, because the rent seeking parasites don’t want them to exist.
People literally buy into the idea that they wouldn’t know how to do anything if they weren’t being told what to do. They think that value comes from above.
They think that when a company sells them raspberries, that company invented the raspberry bush. They don’t realize that the raspberries were already there. They certainly don’t realize that they themselves are another kind of bush. Or that the labor bush operates without a company to own it and sell its labor berries.
Grow a bunch of labor bushes and make it incredibly clear that it’s not about them being owned, but about them being labor bushes.
To me the change from the current system doesn’t come by diving into the current system and trying to ask it nicely. It doesn’t come from asking permission at all. It comes from operating with zero concern or tolerance for capitalist bullshit.
Go help people who can’t afford to pay you. Make something beautiful and give it to the world in a way that gives them an opportunity to prop you up, but that also lets them enjoy it without having to be rich or emptying their wallet.
Internalize the idea that wealth is not a virtue, and poverty is not an ill. People who need help are an opportunity to help, and people who have value are in a position to use it to help, but holding onto that value and using it are mutually exclusive.
It’s not going to come from a politician or some big speaker or a revolution, it’s going to come from individual people in their own lives lives making different choices. Your choices matter.
I drive a cab and get paid very little to basically drive around and help people. Like, the job is to drive people from point A to point B, but I try to do more than that, and help people who need it along the way. I carry a lot of stuff around that I’m not really paid for and I try to go the extra mile for people.
If the projects I’m working on pan out and I manage to get to a place where I have more resources, I plan to use that as a way of making other small steps. Setting up a coop instead of chasing money, releasing a game license that allows independent producers to do their own thing. Things like that. Literally just leaving the door open for people instead of slamming it shut.
I don’t really have any intent to code software outside of games, but I’d like to empower others to be able to make the things they want to make and not just feed some big parasitic company with it.
Employee owned companies are more stable in economic downturns but they also require much more diversification to replace the owner/manager roles where there is actually shit to do. Big item being the book keeping it’s simple enough in theory but in practice even smaller companies can take hours just to understand where you’re starting from.
Not splitting the profits, tracking bills, making sure they’re all paid on time, making sure the company is getting paid on time depending on your business plan, tracking any special taxes you gotta pay, tracking price increases in long term contracts, list goes on
Probably because the owners want to take all of the profit and employees do not have the capital to make the investment.
It takes a certain benevolent capitalist to convert their business to employee owned (Bobs Red Mill intensifies). Such businesses only represent 12% of the private sector
Benevolent capital is out there, especially in the startup phase. I find it arrogant and ignorant, but available. It does require risk-sharing which I find doesn’t fit the vision of the borrower.
Like the literal law. In most places it’s a much more involved and expensive process to even open a coop compared to a traditional private company. It takes more paperwork, more fees, more capital funds etc. Also, getting investors in (when they can’t own the coop, as they are not workers) or even loans from private or state banks/institutions is much harder. There are several programs incentivising people to open private companies, giving them tax credits, making the application and approval process easier, giving access to funds and education etc. How many there are for coops? In most places around the world there are 0. In what ways does it appear the opposite to you…? Like this all seems very self-evident to me.
I don’t know where you are located. I am in the US and a co-op is just a corporation so all the things that apply to a private corporation apply to a co-op. When applying for grants there are no differentiators that I can think of. One advantage for a co-op here is that there are no passive investors.
For my city, just for a very specific example, it takes less than one afternoon and 80 bucks total (no fees and almost no capital fund requirements) to open a corporation. It takes weeks if not months to open a coop and it costs 2500 bucks PER member.
I don’t know the specifics of all cities and states everywhere in the world. But the system is built to benefit private corporations much more, as it’s a capitalist system where owning capital equals power, and workers are a commodity.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne