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1. Coded Artist (coded_artist@gameliberty.club)'s status on Sunday, 16-Feb-2025 06:28:30 JST Coded Artist

   26 hours later, I got the true ending for Ender: Magnolia.

   Excellent metroidvania.
   Medium difficulty is just above average, meaning I had to customize my gear for certain bosses, and not just use my exploration build all the time, but I was rarely frustrated from failing encounters.
   Controls are good, and hit boxes feel fair.

   I missed metroidvanias that aren't 2D Darksouls, not everything has to be so brutal that I have to memorize enemy patterns and animations, they're no longer enemies at that point, they're state machines.
   It takes me out of the game.

   Thankfully Ender Magnolia was not like that.

   9/10 much recommend

   • xianc78@gameliberty.club's status on Sunday, 16-Feb-2025 06:28:29 JST xianc78

     in reply to

     • beard :meru_dab:

     @beardalaxy @coded_artist I thought people were complaining about modern games being too easy. Have the tables turned?

     † top dog :pedomustdie: likes this.
   • beard :meru_dab: (beardalaxy@gameliberty.club)'s status on Sunday, 16-Feb-2025 06:28:30 JST beard :meru_dab:

     in reply to

     @coded_artist the obsession with making every game ball bustingly difficult was already bad enough when it started over a decade ago. Feels like every other game is chasing that now. Like how am I supposed to immerse myself in a world if I keep getting destroyed and then punished for it? Not my thing at all.

   • beard :meru_dab: (beardalaxy@gameliberty.club)'s status on Sunday, 16-Feb-2025 07:29:23 JST beard :meru_dab:

     in reply to

     • xianc78

     @xianc78 @coded_artist the issue with modern games being too easy, from my knowledge, usually comes from things like "yellow paint" and the characters pointing out obvious as fuck things, or just straight up spoiling puzzles. that's bad too. the "let's make this shit super hard" thing happens more often in the indie games space, whereas the "yellow paint" issue is more often in AAAs.

   • xianc78@gameliberty.club's status on Sunday, 16-Feb-2025 07:43:54 JST xianc78

     in reply to

     • beard :meru_dab:

     @beardalaxy @coded_artist I remember hearing that the whole "making games as easy as possible" mentality came from the fact that a lot of people have games in their backlog that they never finished.

     When it comes to indies, it's mostly just copying the practice of old games were you make the game longer by making it harder or it's a response to the practice of AAA devs making games piss easy.

     There clearly is a market for ridiculously hard games, but I don't think they should be the norm, even for indies. Indies want to be the exact opposite of Triple-A games, but this ends up making the vast majority of indie games the exact same, which is why you see so many Metroidvanias and Roguelikes, as they aren't common in the Triple-A sphere. There is an untapped market for indie games that emulate the double-A titles of the pre-7th gen days, which should be easier with engines like Godot, but it seems like nobody got the memo.

   • xianc78@gameliberty.club's status on Sunday, 16-Feb-2025 09:06:30 JST xianc78

     in reply to

     • beard :meru_dab:
     • Pawlicker

     @Pawlicker @beardalaxy @coded_artist I'm surprised that PS1 slop is more popular than N64 slop. I know that the PS1 outsold the N64, but the N64 is much more fondly remembered. But it seems like in terms of actual homebrew games, it seems like the N64 is the more popular choice, while I never hear about the PS1, so maybe N64 fans would rather make actual N64 games.

     Also please don't call the PS1 the PSX. I never owned a single Sony console and even I know that the actual PSX was a Japan-only PS2-DVR hybrid.

   • Pawlicker (pawlicker@lab.nyanide.com)'s status on Sunday, 16-Feb-2025 09:06:31 JST Pawlicker

     in reply to

     • xianc78
     • beard :meru_dab:
     @xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist the latest fads are psx slop and mascot horror
     Even the sonic 3 movie credits scene emulated the former which tells you a lot
   • xianc78@gameliberty.club's status on Thursday, 20-Feb-2025 13:47:39 JST xianc78

     in reply to

     • beard :meru_dab:
     • Pawlicker

     @Pawlicker @beardalaxy @coded_artist
     >the problem with the PS1 is that you need to get the "wobble" (as it's nicknamed in the community) right on the discs to make them boot.

     I know that, but I also know that the PS1 can also be booted from it's parallel port. There was an unlicensed accessory known as the Super GB Booster which allowed users to play GameBoy games on the PS1 and it used that port. So it is possible to make homebrew cartridges (with maybe using the CD drive to load audio). Granted, the final revision of the original model removed that port, but still.

     https://consolevariations.com/collectibles/innovation-super-gb-booster

   • Pawlicker (pawlicker@lab.nyanide.com)'s status on Thursday, 20-Feb-2025 13:47:40 JST Pawlicker

     in reply to

     • xianc78
     • beard :meru_dab:
     @xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist Also the thing with "PSX slop" is that it's not actually PSX/PS1 homebrew, and while there's SDKs that are open, the problem with the PS1 is that you need to get the "wobble" (as it's nicknamed in the community) right on the discs to make them boot.
     
     https://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=1266&start=20
     
     That needs to be worked around to make self-booting PS1 homebrew.
     
     On the n64 on the other hand; there's the CIC chip being cloned, which is why there's commercial homebrew and bootlegs for it. Commercial homebrew games only exist as a result of cracked DRM; as opposed to the ability to dev for it.
     https://av.tib.eu/media/32818
     https://github.com/ManCloud/UltraCIC-III
     
     As for the "PSX slop" games, they're unity/godot/similar games mimicking the PS1 look, usually of the Mega Man Legends games, and it's the trendy art style. Low-poly, early 3d console games are easy to mimic and it's become the craze lately because pixel games seem done to death for most people.
     
     Interestingly enough during the GG era I read an article mocking the overdone pixel style and it had an interesting quote that ended up being a prophecy:
     "What hap­pens in the next few years? Will we see PS1 or N64 style “retro” games with hor­ren­dous tex­tures, low draw dis­tances, and and slow fram­er­ates? All to hide the fact the a dev can’t han­dle mak­ing an en­gag­ing “mod­ern” look­ing game?"
     https://archive.fo/9JQFy
   • Pawlicker (pawlicker@lab.nyanide.com)'s status on Thursday, 20-Feb-2025 14:03:30 JST Pawlicker

     in reply to

     • xianc78
     • beard :meru_dab:
     @xianc78 @beardalaxy @coded_artist the idea is to make a disc bootable on the PS1, but also the PSOne, PS2, and even the PS3.
     
     The discs that Datel and others engineered in the past (when they had hookups to a pressing plant to let them use modified equipment and could produce shit like Action Replay self booting discs and the FreeLoader) were like this, they could boot on any Sony console.
     
     If you could press a PS1 disc, there are hundreds of millions of consoles it'll work on if you count all the PS1, PS2, and PS3 revisions made. You'd just need a different region disc for NTSC-U/C, PAL, and NTSC-J.
     xianc78 likes this.
   • xianc78@gameliberty.club's status on Thursday, 20-Feb-2025 14:13:05 JST xianc78

     in reply to

     • beard :meru_dab:
     • Pawlicker
     • Berk Berkman

     @berkberkman @beardalaxy @coded_artist @Pawlicker Like I said earlier, I don't own any Sony console let alone the PSIO or Super GB Booster.

     I only know of the latter, along with the PS1's parallel port thanks to The Gaming Historian. He didn't mention any disc for the thing, other than the option to use an audio CD to play background music, so I assume the port is bootable. The port was also used for the rarely used link cable. I assumed that some games might have required only one disc, which suggested that the port might be bootable, but on further inspection, it doesn't seem to be the case.

   • Berk Berkman (berkberkman@shitposter.world)'s status on Thursday, 20-Feb-2025 14:13:06 JST Berk Berkman

     in reply to

     • xianc78
     • beard :meru_dab:
     • Pawlicker
     @xianc78 @Pawlicker @beardalaxy @coded_artist That parallel port is partially used for that PSIO I saw a while ago. That needs some soldering work done inside the PS1 motherboard, which might explain why there isn't much notable stuff developed from or with it. Maybe it's possible, but getting one is intentionally limited due to fakes being sold.