Timothy Best

@TheOtherFrost Also it’s great having Beethoven and Dinosaur (and Massive Monster, etc), in the local Melbourne indie games social circles. They make it richer and deeper and more connected.

@TheOtherFrost I think that successful indie scenes have studios of different sizes, $$$ and connections. They can help at those soup kitchens. The difference between a funded indie and not-funded one can be one pitch at the right time, which makes this all pretty blurry.

It's important we define "indie" because while they are not "lesser" games, they are mostly made by devs who have less. Social circles and programs are made to help those devs It feels wrong to see studios with money and connections use the indie label to eat at the soup kitchen

@ArturSmiarowski @DUSKdev Who would be the upper end of indie for you? Valve? Nintendo? Feels like a “finance structure” definition rather one of game output … which feels a bit like eating soup with a fork.

The line should be drawn at industry backing. The simplest and clearest is external funding/publisher, even if a studio says the publisher just does marketing. Indie should mean independent of industry. If it continues to be self-funded by previous sales, it's still part of the indie journey and a chapter of an inspirational story to share.

Tbh I do think we should collectively continue moving toward a clear distinction between "indie" and "AA," although I have no idea where that line should be drawn. I just know that it's not quite right to have such a huge variety of dev circumstances grouped together as one

@DinkusDynamite @DUSKdev Fair enough. And Nintendo, I guess. To me, there are probably a bunch of factors that would define an “indie” game. This feels too narrow to be super useful. But it has clarity on its side.

@DinkusDynamite @DUSKdev I think Valve is a good one to really push this definition.

@Xela67TFP @SterlingTheDev Are you talking about the game devs? They did okay with their first game, The Artful Escape. I don’t know if the founder was rich growing up in Geelong in the 80s and 90s. Sometimes, as a dev, you bet it all, but it’s much more better if you don’t have to.

@TimothyCBest @SterlingTheDev It does, 100%. These are rich kids posing as the underclass cause it's hip and cool. If this game failed, the creator could fall back on daddy's money. If a struggling art student from a working class background tried to release a similar project and it failed, they're broke.

I hate to my negative about content here but this is an actual industry plant. It’s ok to like this sort of game, but how it’s presenting itself hurts actual indie games. - real licensed music - massive array of custom assets and cutscenes, fully voiced too - insanely pricey press kits sent out to small and big CCs - presents itself as “indie”. This is not “indie”. This is a refined product that was made for millions. Most likely a medium sized team of 12-30 full time for years. This kind of low hanging fruit stealing + indie labeling hurts actual small dedicated teams of real game devs. There will be actual indie devs that miss out on awards this season because of this extremely well funded AA title masquerading as an indie.

@V_rbatim @OddShacod @_idle_space_ I’ll Steelman it. Unless you can see the future you don’t KNOW if you are destined to be the best after this thread causes you to change your routines. Steelmaning your determinism leaves the weakness of your assumption … unless you have a VERY reliable prophet.

@OddShacod @_idle_space_ i'm basically saying "please steelman my position," which is a perfectly reasonable request. steelmanning is the best way to have a forward moving conversation. nothing ridiculous about it.

Wait a minute..is that the chun??

@AlphEatsCats @topoproc @wil_da_beast630 He did seek help. It worked for him and was quicker than muddling through. When you have nagging joint pain (and you can afford it) you go to a physio. And so on.🤷

@topoproc @wil_da_beast630 Counter argument: motivated people seek help and would have fixed it themselves anyway.

Men don't go to therapy because it doesn't work. That's it. That's the conversation.

@x_facts_matter @ChristianHeiens I wrote style guides to be *technically correct* on this stuff as part of my job. It bores most people senseless. Language nerds dig it, that's about it.

@TimothyCBest @ChristianHeiens Sounds boring

“Do not let them trick you into thinking we are enemies.” >Capitalizes everything but White. Why are Democrats so bad at this?

@x_facts_matter @ChristianHeiens White is considered a catch-all category, not a proper noun. It isn’t a name of a culture or nationality. French, Polish, etc do get caps. It’s like “baller” (category) vs “LeBron James”. Black when used as “African-American” is considered a cultural group, so it gets a cap.

@ChristianHeiens Can someone explain to me this battle over capitalization? It seems to be the most trivial thing. I could care less if someone wrote black or Black. But it does seem petty to capitalize everything but White in a sentence. Someone help me understand.

@voidrantsback Great news! Excited to see what you cook up! 🤩

So excited to announce that we were successful in our application for Screen Australia's Digital Games Production Grant. Once this period of development is over, we should be partway into production, and seeking funding from publishers!

@Pirat_Nation Having a character look like a *literal sex doll* changes the story you are telling. Does she lean in or out of looking that way? How does it affect her movement through the world? If you have sexy femme-fatale character how is that contrasted with the bad-ass protagonist, etc?

@ProfBZZZ I’m not an academic, but I am a narrative designer and I see a useful analysis of storytelling mechanics in there, not absurdity. String theory is absurd to most people (myself included), but we don’t expect PhDs in that to bring everyone along. Peer coms vs public coms is ok.

My fellow academics. We are not an eccesiological aristocracy unaccountable to the public, nor are our disciplines such authoritative magisteria that scholars can not raise critiques across domains. If your abstract reads as absurd to colleagues, write a better abstract/1

@Pirat_Nation People who like Han Solo and Ripley (with a dash of Vasquez and Driver)?

@23_hunna_ @SantosSuperFan @dyingnome She's a scoundrel with a heart of gold who lost her (crime) family and is doing everything to try to find them. Was the kid of the group, now it's on her. She shaves her head to take on a tougher persona to get it done. C'mon, that's at least as relatable as a Space Marine.

@SantosSuperFan @dyingnome How about you tell me what is relatable? What character arc do you see this thing going through that is relatable to ANY player?

do you also need to feel attracted to crash bandicoot in order to play the games or is this only important when the protagonist is a woman?

You don't have to agree with all the cultural analysis or framework of a work to get something out of it. But, understanding how a tool was used -- or might have been used -- can inform how you swing it around.

The English PhD hubbub is pretty on the nose. As a professional narrative designer, niche study of making meaning is super valuable. It expands my craft and adds to my toolbox. Sometimes, it's the weirdly-specific tool that you want to put the perfect finish on a job.

@tdogextreme 🪖

which of you bitches is still on this hell site 🔍🕵️‍♂️🫵

@miltimore79 @BoneJeni @yashar Tolkien was very progressive for his time. The “little folk” being the ones to change the world. The Fellowship being a diverse coalition of races and cultures. “But no living man am I! You look upon a woman.” And so on.

@BoneJeni @yashar Have you read the books on which Peter's trilogy is based? Those are the rectangular things with paper inside on which words are printed. I recommend them.

Actress Justine Bateman on what President-elect Trump’s victory means to her: “What I'm really excited about is that the political correctness, the sort of woke era is over. When Trump won the presidency again, that cut that momentum off. So this whole woke era is over. It’s a spiritual shift. It started when Elon Musk bought Twitter and turned it into X and it really changed when Donald Trump won this presidency. I can feel it. For the last four years, very acutely, and I know it preceded these four years as well, but there's been kind of a pressing down. A pressing down and kind of limiting what people can say. And what happens too is you limit what can even occur in society. And so there's been a stagnation. Things haven't been moving forward in the arts, in philosophy, in politics, in medicine, in anything. And now that's changed. And that's what I'm really excited about. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time.”