Любимите компютърни игри

[отсъстващ]

A good introduction to video games. Starts September 2014.

Understanding Video Games, a course on Coursera

Course Syllabus

Lesson 1: Introduction
In this short lesson, students will learn what to expect from the course, and will be introduced to our avatar creation module.

Lesson 2: Play and Games
Here, students will gain an appreciation for the differences between play and games. Game taxonomy and a definition of rules will be covered.

Lesson 3: Emergent and Progressive Gameplay
This lesson focuses on the difference between two major gameplay types, and how they impact our experience of video games.

Lesson 4: Game Mechanics
Students are introduced to the concepts of ludology, structuralism and the mechanics-dynamics-aesthetics approach to game analysis

Lesson 5: Story and Games
We explore the concept of games as stories, as well as the importance of narrative in video game presentation. Campbell's monomyth theory is thoroughly explained and applied to game stories.

Lesson 6: Interpreting Games
How can structuralist and post-structuralist analysis lead us to a better understanding of "how games mean?" This lesson will introduce students to a number of theoretical frameworks for analyzing games.

Lesson 7: Gaming Culture
Here students will be introduced to the concept of semiotics and how language is used in inclusionary and exclusionary game community practices. Indie game producers and modding groups are also discussed during this lesson.

Lesson 8: Violence and Games
Discussions around violence and games seem to go hand-in-hand. Why is this? What purposes are served by violence and its portrayal in video games? These are some of the questions engaged by this lesson.

Lesson 9: Sex and Games
In this lesson, the subjects of sexuality, gender and the portrayal of sex are discussed. In addition, there is a module on women in the game industry.

Lesson 10: Race and Games
The subjects of race and racial stereotypes are explored in this lesson. The student will discover that race and racial conflict drive gameplay and narrative in numerous game genres, yet is a subject seldom broached in scholarly discussions.

Lesson 11: Serious Games
Games can be used for teaching and training, and this genre is called serious games. Here, students will learn about industry's co-opting of game theory and practice as they endeavour to engage their workforce. Methods of player retention are explored in this lesson.

Recommended Background
No background is required; all are welcome.

Suggested Readings
Each lesson is accompanied with a recommended reading.

[Кал]

За цял курс време няма да намеря – но ще чета How to Do Things with Videogames на Ian Bogost.

[Кал]

Йепа! Новият Dreamfall дойде!

We wanted to take a moment to congratulate Ragnar Tørnquist and Red Thread Games on the successful release Book One of the episodic adventure game Dreamfall Chapters, which was successfully Kickstarted in March 2013. It's been some time coming with the first game of the series, The Longest Journey released 15 years ago. It's always great to see a Kickstarted title receive praise from both its backers, new fans, and press. Check it out on Steam or GOG.com if adventure games interest you.

[Кал]

Отзив в Goodreads за How to Do Things with Videogames на Ian Bogost:

An enriching take on mutiple facets of what contemporary games are capable of (or can strive for).

The 'Empathy' chapter helped me define what makes defenceless protagonists in recent horror games (such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent) more appealing than chainsaw-yielding machos.

Rez sounds like a title I'd like to try. With or without the trance vibrator. ;)

The 'Disinterest' chapter makes the provocative claim that game violence should be portrayed as realistically as possible in order to make players feel the consequences of harming another being, de-trivializing death and torture. This set me thinking: doesn't continual exposure to realistic violence harden the viewers against its effects? The same way that people become inured to the sight of dead bodies in areas where death is more commonplace? (A friend of mine described evolving such a mental screen after spending several weeks in a poorer town in India where the dead are not immediately carried away but often left to lie in the streets for a few days.) I wonder if there're any serious studies on the existence of such a correlation.

As a whole, I wish the book went into more detail for all of its arguments and gave more examples. As it is now, it provides good starting points.

И най-ценният цитат от книгата:

Art has done many things in human history, but in the last century especially, it has primarily tried to bother and provoke us. To force us to see things differently. Art changes. Its very purpose, we might say, is to change, and to change us along with it.

[Кал]

И докато съм на тая вълна...

My review of The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures:

Hugely informative and often amusing, this compendium helped fill a hole in my game lore.

I was surprised to see: a) how many of the titles included I did actually know (long live Youtube longplays ;); b) how fine the writing, and especially the plots, of a number of these games are. So good game writing is possible--as long as developers put their money where their heart is.

Unfortunately, I didn't really like the unfamiliar titles the guide prompted me to try. Still, I feel tempted to give a shot to a few Visual Novels: 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and the Higurashi series.

If anyone can recommend a similar guide to Visual Novels, I'll be much obliged.

[Кал]

Размисъл в Goodreads покрай The Art of Videogames:

I was particularly interested in the sections examining narratives or the emotional impact of games, so I'll make a brief comment only about them.

From the relatively narrow selection of titles the author discusses, I assume he hasn't played/watched a great variety of games. I've been extremely keen on discovering games with strong stories and cathartic potential; my personal top picks so far are:
- Planescape: Torment
- Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
- Mardek: Chapter 3
- Silent Hill 2
- Tears to Tiara
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
- Beyond Good and Evil
- and, oddly enough, some of the Metal Gear Solid installments. I didn't find enough substance in Tavinore's objections to MGS to understand why he calls Hideo Kojima "prone to frequent lapses of judgment and artistic taste"; I personally think that Kojima has managed to raise the most important questions of contemporary realpolitik in the entire history of gaming so far: a subject that is, furthermore, tackled less convincingly in almost all films I've seen and most books I've read. (Then again, my knowledge of games is not exhaustive, so I'm ready to stand corrected. ;)

I'd be interested to see a discussion of any of these games as objects of art.

A lot of older quests also offer quite elaborate plots. I've played few of those myself, but a good introduction to them is Hardcoregaming101.net Presents: The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures.

In terms of original (non-cliched) handling of plot and genre elements, I'd suggest such quirky gems as Deadpool and No More Heroes.

Finally, we have visual novels, where narrative is usually the supreme factor determining our experience; two exemplary cases being The Devil on G-String and Ever-17: The Out of Infinity. (Ever-17 also demonstrates a feature of visual novels offered by no other kind of art I'm aware of: discovering the complete story only after experiencing several partial--but unlike, say, Rashomon, complementary--versions of it.) VN can also appeal to our emotions on a very profound level: e.g. Brass Restoration, Clannad or Katawa Shoujo. However, VN are "games" in a very tangential sense; perhaps we may see them instead as computer adaptations of gamebooks, with even less interactivity than their predecessors.

(Which has set me thinking: if visual novels are more similar to books than games, involving first and foremost reading--I spent some 30 hours reading The Devil on G-String and more than a 100 with Clannad--shouldn't we add them as a separate category here on Goodreads?)

[Кал]

Pseudolonewolf се е прехвърлил на ново място... и Mardek 4 идва!

И вижте на каква основа се преизгражда цялата поредица!!!

(Отдавна не бях писал три удивителни, без въобще да се замисля.)

[chobihells]

Аз ще да съм die hard Diablo фен - изпитвам истинска страст към прекарването на корави геройчета през нестройни терени, карайки ги да избиват без въпроси всичко, което мърда около тях. Godlike синдром? АБсолютно. Опитвала съм какви ли не диабло - клонинги в годините, но най-добрите определено са Neverwinter nights и Dungeon Siege - Особено последната бе страшно приятно преживяване, въпреки не знам защо получи само отрицателна критика, иоттам - супер ниска цена. От по-личните , така да се игри абсолютните ми фаворити -Elder Scrolls Morrowind и Oblivion - седмици и месеци мандахерцане из красив необятен свят, врене на носа в къщите на хората и мотаене докато се куести целенасочено, но нещо последната Skyrim не се оказа моето нещо. Сега съм попаднала под магията на Dark Souls 2 - до колкото знам член на новото поколение игри , където основното е да умираш много и величествено. И въпреки, че е страшно фрустриращо и нервоопъващо - има някаква магия в това да смажеш малко невинно зомби прасенце след половин час битка, да си направиш сандвич с шунка , и да го изядеш с нездрав, почти канибалски блясък в очите на войн, поглъщащ сърцето на врага си... Мда, твърде много се влиза навътре в играта

[Кал]

Pseudolonewolf се е прехвърлил на ново място... и Mardek 4 идва!

Watch this space. No, watch this video.

Forty. Five. One-hour. Episodes.

Pseudolonewolf--I mean, Tobias Cornwall--is my hero.

[Кал]

Тия дни се развличах, гледайки трите Witcher. Специално третият е най-силен откъм персонажи и емоционални моменти. (Извод: фентъзито, съсредоточено върху династични пререкания и социално-исторически процеси, ми е досадно. Фентъзито, дълбаещо в няколко ярки образа, по' има шанс да стигне до водоносен пласт.)

Обаче не за тях ми е мисълта сега. Гледайте какво чудо са сътворили (и продължават да творят) едни французи:

Life Is Strange

(Поредният синхроничен резонанс в живота ми: идеята за „пренавиване на времето“ кореспондира с постройката на CROSS†CHANNEL.)

[ruevs]

Life Is Strange - изглежда страхотно! Само не става ясно има ли я за PC или не.
Кал, ти игра ли я или само я "гледа"?
http://lifeisstrange.com/agegate.php

[Кал]

С моя Линукс всеки ден благодаря на Youtube и запалените геймъри. Че записват преживелиците си, та да могат и такива като мен да ги преживеят...

(Но вчера, на лекцията за WoW и геймърството, си дадох сметка за пореден път, че аз винаги съм бил на границата между геймър и читател – наблюдател, комуто е достатъчно да гледа как други са героите, стига историята да е интересна.)

[Кал]

Знаете ли какво е murder porn? Drakengard 3 ще ви даде представа: по-стилна и разсмиваща (особено в диалозите насред битка) от повечето други образци.

(И пак: силно разклонена история, с time loops и търсене на заобиколни пътища около неумолимата съдба. Без въобще да съм си го търсил. Нещо всички сме на вълна, май...)

[Кал]

Beyond: Two Souls

Или: от какъв зор да ходим на кино, когато имаме това.

(Особено впечатлен съм от нюансите в човешките отношения, вкл. жестомимиката; свободата да избереш финала си; и уважителното представяне на индианците и скуотърите.)

[Кал]

Iji разказва за бъдеще, в което две извънземни раси нападат Земята, вашата героиня грабва първото попаднало ѝ пушкало и... не е длъжна да убива никого. Убедете се. (Интересното започва от сектор 3.)

Интересни неща се случват в света на игрите...

[Кал]

Pseudolonewolf се е прехвърлил на ново място... и Mardek 4 идва!

Watch this space. No, watch this video.

Forty. Five. One-hour. Episodes.

Pseudolonewolf--I mean, Tobias Cornwall--is my hero.

Ако отсега искате да пращате любов (в парична форма ) към създателя на Mardek, сторете го.

Аз се захласнах по посоката, в която е поела рестартиращата серия. Тобиас преживява тежки „дупки“ през последните години – и е вмъкнал това, което е открил из-чрез тях, в новата история на Мардек. Очаква ни една много необичайна RPG...

За да тръпнете заедно с мен, докато чудото се готви, четете блога на Alora Fane.

(А за да цъкате с език „Бре, бре, бре, имало още като нас“, четете коментарите там. Особено когато тук ви дотежи от тишина. )

Добавка от 20.12.2015: Тръпненето ми вдъхнови това.

[Кал]

The Stanley Parable

You feel an urge to skip to 8:45 in the video and watch very, very carefully.

Where will you end up? It's not the destination that matters. It's the journey.

And your very, very free choices.

EDIT: Another angle (courtesy of Miglena Nikolchina):

Lex plays The Stanley Parable

[Кал]

След толкова наситен триптих, не ви ли засърбява да се потопите в

Pathologic

(Диалозите, макар и с engrish грешчици, заравят пръсти по-дълбоко от нормалното. Та чак до абнормалното...)

[Кал]

Подърсете думичката Mardek из форума.

После я заместете навсякъде с Taming Dreams. (Добре де, добре... не навсякъде. )

Taming Dreams Android Release!

Това ще бъде:

1) първата игра, която качвам на смартфона си;

2) първата игра, с която ще убеждавам Илче, че в игрите има more than meets her eye.

И... и... и...

Уф, отивам да си я сваля.

Честити ни празници!

P.S. Ето каква писах на Тобиас, създателя на поредицата:

Wow, Tobias ... that's such a glorious way to celebrate Christmas!

(By showing Taming Dreams to my dearest people, I mean. No, I'm not going to lock up in my room, all alone with it. That would be ... selfish. )

Incidentally, Taming Dreams is my first genuine hope to convince my partner that games hold more than meets her eye.

Enough talking--and off to the app store!

[Кал]

Понеже от липсата на благодарности по-горе не мога да усетя дали ми обърнахте внимание – това вече трябва да ви го привлече. Вниманието:

[Кал]

Поразширих си отзива за Taming Dreams:

The first smartphone game that looked smart enough to stir my dreams. Now it's teaching me to tame them. ;)

Highlights, in no particular order:

>>> The language is rich. And so the game comes with a built-in glossary. A great teaching tool, yes? :)

>>> The characters, at least so far, are relatable and realistic. I keep reading snippets of their dialogues to my partner--who HATES games, one and all. But she enjoys listening to the troubles and triumphs of Mardek, Deugan, M-M-Mammary and the rest of the cast. (Especially the naughtier bits ... heehee.)

>>> No violence! Yippee! I've been waiting for someone to subvert this silliest trope of tropes--that a story MUST contain violence in order to hold our attention--for AGES. Well done, Master Tobias.

>>> This story is (among other things) about personal growth. In these first three chapters, we see only two stages (with five years passing between Ch. 2 and 3), but even they add an unusual depth to the characters, while hinting at greater changes to come. I'm looking forward to everyone's evolution in the next chapters. (And Rohoph is starting to give me the creeps ... must all immortals lose the perspective we have?)

[Triumpha]

Уж не съм фен на игрите върху тъчскрийн, но ентусиазмът ти е заразителен, тъй че няма как да не я пробвам. За протокола, ще е първата игра и на моя телефон.

[Triumpha]

Някой освен мен да издивява от кеф на The Force Unleashed I и II? За протокола, изпуснала съм всички стари велики игри от вселената на Междузвездните заради калпавите ми предишни компютри и тепърва ще наваксвам с Knights of The Old Republic и Jedi Academy, но с тези двете си прекарах една дива седмица. Доста непретенциозен "геймър" съм, но си мисля, че двете TFU са внесли нещо доста свежо в историята като цяло и достатъчно достоверно (неща, които не мога да кажа за лиготиите на Дисни в The Clone Wars например, макар че това е съвсем друга тема). А Старкилър... ох, Старкилър... http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/i-m- ... o-calm.png. (Отново..)

[Кал]

CONSORTIUM
http://store.steampowered.com/app/26424 ... 4_4__100_2

В играта има оръжия и възможността да ги ползваш, но се рекламират, че може да разрешиш всички проблеми и ситуации без да произведеш нито един изстрел (или ритник).
Scope-ът е ограничен (всичко се развива на борда на един-единствен самолет), но основният акцент е, че няма "NPC"-та, т.е. всички персонажи са от значение и всеки един от тях има/си съставя уникално мнение за протагониста вледствие на неговите действия/диалог. Самата игра можеш да я приемеш като ограничен пример за "One city-block RPG".

...

Mirror's Edge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-OUNPqRzII - туй е спийдрън, т.е. ползва пича разни гличове/експлойти, обаче дава обща представа за играта. (Историята не е кой знае к'во, така че липсата на кът-сцени не е болезнена, макар самите да са направени симпатично в cell-shade стил)

От 2009-а е, представлява... паркур от първо лице, сетинг - близко дистопично бъдеще. Главната героиня може да ползва пушкала, но за разлика от други игри, тук е силно непрепоръчително, защото играта набляга над придвижването, в резултат на което пасифистични рън-ове всъщност са доста често явление.

И мжд, скоро ще излиза reboot/продължение. Но то май ще е осрано от корпоративните money-above-all интереси.

[Кал]

Ех, славна младост...

(Или: как игрите ни готвят за живота.)

Help! :)

Once I start playing the game (on an Android smartphone), how do I access the menu? I stupidly pressed the skip button >> and missed most of the initial dialogue, so I'd like to restart the game and read it properly. (Or is there an option to 'roll back' a few lines, like in visual novels?) However, when I close the game and re-open it, it brings me back to where I was (the first dungeon).

I should have also said this is the first game I'm playing on a smartphone. So ... please expect all sorts of silly questions. :/

(A working definition of a smartphone: any phone that makes me feel dumb.)

I'm loving the encyclopedia. As a great fan (or should I say 'connoisseur'? ;) of rare words, I find both the idea and the implementation charming. It could be used as a teaching tool, hey!

Try tapping the screen with two fingers.

Thank you, SilverShoelaces! Worked like a charm. :)

Oh, I replied to your other comment and only just saw this one!

Out of curiosity so I can make the experience more intuitive: did you tap the >> button because you assumed it was necessary to move the dialogue along, or was it an accidental tap? If it's the former, I'll make that clearer, otherwise many people might have the same issue.

There's currently no way to go backwards in dialogue for technical reasons, but I may eventually add a log like in the original MARDEK, which stores everything that's said in case you miss anything.

If you close the game on an Android device, it does indeed stay running in the background, but all apps do, and I think that's the expected behaviour. I'm not sure though! To close it properly, I think you hold down the menu button for a couple of seconds, which shows all background apps, then tap the X to close it.

You can also quit to the title screen using the double-tap menu, though of course you weren't able to see that when you wrote this comment!

Thank you, too, Tobias!

I tapped the >> on purpose: I thought it would make the encyclopedia show me more entries than it already did. (Sometimes, my thinking is a bit too convoluted. :/ ) Or, barring that, that it would make the game progress normally. (Even though I already knew that tapping anywhere else on the screen does that.)

Fastforwarding does make sense too (I mean, that's what >> usually does, right? :) ... but as I said, I'm still getting my bearings around Android games, so it's trial-and-error.

A log would be great. :)

Actually, I really like the idea that my game comes back at the exact point where I left it--without consuming my battery in the meantime. :) (It doesn't drain the battery; I just checked.)

~

BTW, does anyone know if there's a program like Bluestacks that runs under Linux?

Nobody, so far.

~

Yay ... I just managed to buy Ep. 3, which was my first purchase ever on Google Play. Lots of firsts with Taming Dreams ... but isn't that what taming your dreams is about? ;)

However, I'm still reading the dialogue between Mardek and Enki after their first miasmon agitation. I'm going veeeery slowly. Savouring every word and every shift in the characters' expressions ....

Sorta meditating. :)

~

I just captured one of the most interesting distributions of review ratings I've ever seen. I call it "Stairway to Heaven" ;):

http://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtopic. ... 791#p21791

Compare the shape of the curve to some of my favourite books (for each book, click on "Rating Details"):

The Neverending Story: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96290

The Broken God: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2031004

The Last Unicorn: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18159958

~

I like all the tracks in Ep. 1, but the one I love is "Sunset," for its lyricism. (A piano can easily reduce me to a puddle. ;)

And I'm only beginning to explore Ep. 2 and 3 ... so I won't "spoil" myself with the later tracks. ;)

~

Spoiler

I don't know if this is a bug or a limitation of the small screen of my smartphone (http://www.catphones.com/en-gb/phones/b15q-smartphone), but during the first miasmon agitation in Ep. 1, when Enki says, 'We're both able to use sentimancy called Ecstasy' etc., the speech bubble half-covers the second encyclopaedia entry ('ecstasy') and completely covers the third one, so I don't know what it is and can't click on it.

One way to solve this would be to prevent the speech bubbles from appearing near the upper end of the screen--always keeping a distance of at least the height of an encyclopaedia entry. I don't know if it's technically feasible.

It doesn't really spoil my enjoyment anyway. :)

That phone's resolution is quite a bit smaller than the ones I tested, so now that I am testing with it, I see that the game does work okay for the most part, but there are a bunch of little things that I'll need to tweak in order to get it looking as it should. The ones I'm aware of are:

- When you have a party of four, their 'status boxes' in the menu do all fit on the screen, but they're not centred properly (a really minor aesthetic thing)

- The bars on the Integration page overlap the names of the miasmon

- The names of skills in the menu often don't fit properly... This will be by far the hardest to do something about.

- Some menu quotes might overflow beyond the speech bubble; I'll need to edit them.

- Some descriptions of skills or items might also overflow (Ecstasy and Dream Gas are two I've seen from my quick testing).

- On the Potions screen, the six potion buttons aren't centred properly.

- The Flavours for potions don't fit properly on the screen.

- During agitation, everyone is too close to the edges of the screen.

- The same goes for conversations, too.

- When building integration during agitation, the bar that appears over the character's head might sometimes extend beyond the edge of the screen.

Those are just the ones I've found from testing for a few minutes.

The issue you mentioned isn't related to screen size, though it is something I'll need to look into! The dictionary thing should appear over the top of the dialogue box, but currently it appears behind it.

So yes. There are a lot of things I'll need to fix here, though hopefully I'll be able to do so very soon!

It's great to watch you making such a quick progress. :)

And it's scary to think about the limitations different screen sizes impose on the game layout. :( I used to rant against ebooks for similar reasons ... but now I see they're much, MUCH easier to prepare.

~

Spoiler

I'm laughing so hard at the innuendo in Ep. 2. :DDD I don't think I've ever seen an RPG with a higher density of double-entendres per unit dialogue.... I personally think this is _great_: children won't notice those hidden meanings, and anyone who spots them is supposed to be grown up enough to be able to handle them. (And never mind that review lambasting your "sexual jokes"; it seems its author needs a bit more sense of humour. ;)

So far, I have only one stylistic suggestion:

At one point, Pitt says, "At least my gut is close to my heart, so filling it might at least squash the hole in the other so it's not as large." For greater clarity and less redundancy, I'd rephrase it as, "At least my gut is close to my heart, so filling one might make the hole in the other smaller." You can probably come up with something even better. :)

Would you like to write a special blog post where we can collect bug reports and any such suggestions? (In the comments.)

Everything else flows so, uh, smoothly. And, ah, ecstatically.

(Okay. I'm not so good at those. ;)

~

Wow ... besides admirable, as IAmNotSmartest said, your list is ambitious. If you manage to do even half the things, you'll have achieved a glorious victory. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. :)

I'm itching to respond to at least four of your resolutions, but I'm afraid long comments make you afraid :), so I'll just stick to one: about the number of Taming Dreams episodes you wish to release in 2016.

(I already wrote about this in my very first comment here, so if you've read it, pls ignore.)

I meant here.

I had a similar burnout after making MARDEK 3, which is why I resisted the idea of making MARDEK 4 for ages.

With Taming Dreams, though, I'm concerned about the rate at which technology develops, and my fans and followers growing into different stages in their lives. If I did just two episodes a year, I'd never finish the series before mobile phone apps - at least in their current form - become obsolete.

There's also the fact of money. I've gone too long without making a proper living, and that causes me a lot of psychological stress. Releasing more episodes would mean more money, relieving that stress significantly.

I'm not going to push myself beyond my limits, though; that's why I've yet to even start on episode 4. I'll go at my own pace, though I'm hoping I'll get to the point where it'll be fun to make the episodes, so it won't be some chore I feel I must do.

~

Great thoughts about the lasting effect of works that come in installments. Tobias, you just added another factor in my constant inner struggle "Is there any point in writing more of my shared-world stories, or should I switch to standalone novels?" Thank you. :)

Not having a pre-set numbers of episodes is also a plus to me. I like not knowing when a journey will come to its end. That's why I love visual novels, BTW; you can often burrow the real ending so deep that it takes players/readers weeks (or months) to unearth it.

And to re-iterate an earlier point of mine: fewer episodes of higher quality is better than more episodes of lower quality. (Sorry for the truism.)

And if you see that the series is accepted well (and if it keeps inspiring you), you can always write a sequel. Or something. ;)

~

"This is the only mobilegame I have payed to play": same here. :)

Either the rest have been too bland or I've become too picky.

~

Spoiler

An issue I have with my small-screen (4") smartphone:

During the very first exploration in Ep. 2, I can't always hit the miasmon that fly from the bottom to the top of the screen. The problem is not really the screen size; rather, my touchscreen doesn't react to all my taps. (I have the same issue with static menus, where I have to tap plenty of times before an option responds.)

As a result, I have to go through LOTS of agitation. (Well, at least my characters have integrated each and every fear of theirs. :D But I'd rather go on with the story, you know. ;)

Workaround:

When a miasmon comes dangerously close to the top of the screen, I enter the menu and start a chat between any of the characters. This "restarts" the movement of the miasmon. (I have to verify it again though.)

Suggestion for a more permanent fix:

Change the behaviour of the obelisk so that it keeps filling up even after an agitation (right now, it resets). This way, even if I have to go through a lot of agitation, eventually I'll be able to focus on exploring the story. (Which is why I'm playing TD in the first place. :)

... No, my workaround is not working. (So should I call it a nonworkaround? :P )

I'm checking if there's another way ...

... Yes, there is!1!

A working workaround:

When a miasmon comes dangerously close to the top of the screen, I enter the menu and then the "Menu." (If you've played TD this far, you'll know what I'm talking about. ;) This clears the miasmon from the screen.

[Кал]

Tobias Cornwall on the future of Taming Dreams

Me:

I haven't had _any_ grumbles about Episodes 1 and 2. (Except for my unresponsive smartphone screen--explained here: http://www.alorafane.com/comment/2479 ). And I'm a VERY demanding user. So when you calculate the statistics for "Do people actually enjoy TD as it is now?", add a big +1 from me. Please. ;)

(I've bought Ep.3 but haven't started it yet, because I'm enjoying Ep. 2 very slowly. For someone who has nearly 100 books on his To-read shelf, all of them _itching_ to be read, enjoying a story _slowly_ has volumes to tell. :)

[Кал]

Hearing things like this does help a lot, and it's true that I myself - and the people I know - have been having a tough time recently, since there's a lot going on at this time of year. I know it's best to wait.

What I'm wondering though is whether I should start work on another project while I wait, so I'm doing something more than sitting around twiddling my thumbs with uncertainty (or just avoiding development work due to fear it'll never work out anyway, which is what I have been doing). Maybe that wouldn't be too bad of an idea.

I'm waiting for the iOS version to be up and running before I ask people to promote the game and make efforts to do so myself. I should probably make it my top priority to do that (the only reason I didn't do it months ago is because I don't have a Mac, so difficulties arise which must be overcome). But then I worry I'll have made the promise to make more as soon as possible, and I feel like my mental state wouldn't be appropriate for that right now. Maybe when I'm settled into my second semester of university, I'll feel very differently.

I'm mostly concerned about things like the pacing... While I know that you're very much into stories for their own sake, I can't imagine that the average person will be as tolerant or patient. Most will want an immediate hook, and I feel that Taming Dreams doesn't have that at the moment. I also feel the language is probably going to go over a lot of people's heads, frustrating people who don't even like reading at all.

I'm not going to give up on Taming Dreams. I've poured too much of myself into it, and I love the ideas and am fond of the characters. If anything, I'll simply postpone it while I work on something else to refresh myself and give the game time to see how it fares.

Perhaps it could be said that Taming Dreams is my work of art, while another project might be more populist; something the lowest common denominator might not find so elusive and confusing. Something to pay the bills.

I should make the iOS version my priority now, though, so I'll try to do that first!

I don't want to drain your time for creativity, so a very brief response this time:

While you wait for enough people to hear about TD (and enough statistics to accumulate), please DO work on whatever excites your muses the most. Postponing creative work because "event X must happen first" has always ended up being non-productive for me. Especially when said creative work is _banging_ on the inside of your brain/chest/fingers: "Let me out! Now is my time!" :)

(And you've really taken a load off my chest with "I'm not going to give up on Taming Dreams." The actual thought scared me ... but now I see your point. Whew ... thank you. :)

-- End of brief response; all below is addenda ;) --

Also, I think you're worrying too much about the responses of people who are _not_ your target audience. Anyone who can't deal with the language or is too impatient--anyone who will give up after 5 or 30 minutes--is probably not someone who will appreciate the general vision of TD either.

Okay, I may be overgeneralizing here. But that's what I've learnt from the responses of people who don't like my kind of writing. There're LOTS of them; and at the same time, there're MORE THAN ENOUGH who will like our particular style--even love it fiercely. So ... well, you see my point. :)

A final thought: I can't think of anyone else who's made a smartphone game that appeals to folks my age or older. (And who haven't stooped to mindless let's-kill-some-time-on-the-train "games.") How's that for an untapped niche? And did you know that the average age of gamers around the world has been going up? Here's the stats for the States:

http://www.bigfishgames.com/blog/2015-g ... t-and-why/

Please don't neglect us. We need you. :)

Now check these out. :)

[Кал]

One of the reasons I wanted to restart the story was because while it was meant for people my own age, I feel that the bit with the characters as children at the beginning doesn't make that clear; I've got several comments about how it seems to be 'made for children' because of it, so older people are put off.

I wonder though whether a mobile game aimed at older people would even be seen at all. How many people in that age range would even be looking for games to play on their phones if none in the past had really been aimed at them?

I don't doubt that no matter what I produced, at least some people would like it (and, as is obvious, some already do like Taming Dreams)... It's just that I suppose I dream of earning a lot of money, not so much because I want to be rich but because I want to remove the stress of poverty if I can, and I know that at least some mobile games do indeed make millions. The more inaccessible the game is to the masses, the less likely that is to happen. I wouldn't want to dumb things down completely, but it would be nice to target more than a narrow elite.

"How many people in that age range would even be looking for games to play on their phones if none in the past had really been aimed at them?"

I think you'll be surprised. :) Most of my friends are around my age (or, ahem, my level of maturity ;).

But as you said: We'll see.

Just bear in mind that these older age groups also have more money to spend. MUCH more. Being a freelancer (and living in a country whose economic standard is probably ten times lower than the UK), I completely understand your fear of poverty. This is _exactly_ why I'm pointing you to the untapped riches, so to speak. ;)

[Кал]

Какво ли не прави неволята...

От Кал, към всички геймъри – явни и скрити, минали, настоящи и бъдещи (и най-вече: притежаващи Android в някакъв вид):

Свалете си
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... mingdreams

И го разцъкайте.

Че искам с някого да си говоря за това чуденце на Зимната Таласъмия. Или изобщо. Искам, искам, искам.

(Даже ще отвлека 5 минути от демото на първия бг визуален роман, за да разгласям Taming Dreams. Да, толкова съм вълнуващ се. )

[Кал]

И за да не ви проглушавам ушите само с възпитание на сърцето – ето ви... тренировка на сърцето:

elVlog 1: elPoohy — играет на PS

... Сега кой ще ми преведе как се казва играта?