Notice

By Shamus Posted Monday Nov 18, 2013

Filed under: Notices 90 comments

Let’s just skip the boilerplate crap about being busy and making excuses and get right to the info-dump:

1) I’m still working on Good Robot.

I’ve never taken a public project this far and I’m kind of at a loss as to what to say next. I’m not solving interesting problems and I’m basically done with the experimenting and prototyping. We’re to the phase of the project where I’m just working my way through feedback, complaints, bug reports, and Very Dull Features. Blogging that would be like a cooking show where you watch the chef sit around for half an hour waiting for the cake to finish baking.

So… ask some questions?

B) Yes, editing comments is disabled.

I was using Ajax Edit Comments plugin for WordPress, and it was causing way too many SQL queries, which was leading to performance problems. The majority of you probably didn’t notice. (Unless you visited during one of those moments when the queries ate so much CPU(?) that the machine went down and the site vanished) but for those of you who leave comments you probably noticed it took the site bloody ages to do anything. (The reason for this is that most people see a cached copy of the page that only updated when someone left a new comment, but for people who themselves left comments a fresh page was generated every time, since it needed to update the “edit” buttons and pre-fill the comment fields.)

But those slowdowns were peanuts compared to what I was experiencing in the moderator pages, which sometimes took several minutes to load.

So, the edit comments plugin is gone. Sorry. Try not to make any embaressing typoes.

III. No Spoiler Warning this week. Again.

We’re about to finish up Metro 2033, and we want to have the whole crew on hand for that. So, we have to wait for a week where all four of us are available.

We don’t have our next game picked out yet. We’re hoping to find something Mumbles is into.

Forth: The Diecast this week is going to be odd.

There were only three of us, and I went into it tired and in a bad mood. I don’t know if that impacted the show, but when it was over I felt like I’d just been in an argument or read some horrible news. I didn’t know it at the time, but while we were recording I was in the run-up to a day long migraine. I don’t know if the bad mood had anything to do with the migraine or not. For a long time I’ve had this pet theory that migraines begin long before I can feel them, and so I’m always looking for altered mental states before and after the event.

 


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90 thoughts on “Notice

  1. Chuck Henebry says:

    Glad to hear from you, old friend!

  2. Zak McKracken says:

    Oh dear …
    Yeah, I wish there was such a thing as a “bad mood detector” warning people (and myself!) that I’m about to become unpleasant and giving an opportunity to take countermeasures. Could make everyone’s life easier.
    … I’ll wait for the episode to go up and see whether “bad mood” in your case just works out to “a little less enthusiastic” in the podcast (which really really should get a proper RSS pocast feed or something!)

    Regarding the demise of yet another site component:
    What is it about spam filters and stuff that makes them crash the site when for as long as I’m aware of this site they have been working just fine?
    (meaning the individual component that has been working fine, not the whole thing…) Is it “just” the increase in comment numbers? Or is this problem in response to some other changes in the editing function’s daily routine?

    1. lethal_guitar says:

      “which really really should get a proper RSS pocast feed or something!”

      Oh yes, please! That would be great!

      1. harborpirate says:

        I’m still holding out hope that we’ll get one. Currently, this podcast requires a lot of legwork to pull onto my mobile device. (I guess other not-complaining people use an actual computer to listen to these?)

        1. Mormegil says:

          Save podcast to pc. Upload podcast to Downcast via iTunes. Go into Downcast and import file to podcast.

          Not as neat as as RSS feed but still not too bad. I think it would be much worse if I wasn’t using Downcast (and if you use an iDevice for podcasts then you should look at Downcast, it’s very good, don’t know about Android versions).

          1. SKD says:

            I just use dropbox or I copypaste the file directly into the directory on the phone when I have it hooked up to USB

          2. Blake Winton says:

            I hand-edit an xml file, and subscribe to that instead… :)

            (If anyone else wants to use it, it’s at http://bwinton.latte.ca/diecast.xml I don’t promise that it gets updated as soon as the episode is released, but I usually get to it within a couple of days.)

        2. Neko says:

          I pretty much just wget the file from the post and copy it to my phone over the network. I love SSHfs.

  3. Usually_Insane says:

    Well I for one always love waiting for the food to get ready, the delicious aromas coming from the kitchen, the anticipation for the taste of dinner, dessert or appetizer. Never were much for cooking shows though :(

    1. Klay F. says:

      That’s probably the greatest case for smell-o-vision there ever was.

      1. ET says:

        You better hope they put a ‘smell-mute’ button onto the TV remotes for when the crime show involves a rotting corpse! :P

  4. Zak McKracken says:

    Ohh, and for Good robot:
    I wouldn’t actually mind some insight into what you’re spending your time with these days. There are surely a few things from which one could learn. Interesting bugs, some weird balancing issues, unintended emergent behaviour … or just some of the stuff you could have mentioned but didn’t during the first weeks of the project when coding was going so fast you couldn’t keep up blogging about it.

    1. Tizzy says:

      I don’t want to encourage Shamus to spend too much time away from what he’s doing, but, yeah, even if it’s boring stuff, I think many readers would be interested to know what kind of things go on at this stage of development, in a little bit more details than what’s above.

  5. DoctorSatan says:

    Ultra Noob here. Why does every edit take more than two sql calls? One to get the text for the user (that isn’t necessary if you use Javascript to just display the image already loaded?) and one to enter it into the database?

    1. methermeneus says:

      I don’t know how Shamus’ system specifically works, but given the dynamic nesting and all, it probably has to do a SQL call for the comments on the page you’re looking at, then one for every comment posted to find where your comment is in order to put the “edit” button in the right place, and one for every field in each comment (name, date, comment text, nesting level, possibly number if the comments are stored in chronological order instead of in positional order). Sometimes computers make you take the long way around. On the other hand, a simple cookie that says “Did the user post a comment on this page? Y/N” reduces that time, so anyone with an “N” doesn’t require any SQL calls beyond the one that looks for the comment cache for a given page.

  6. Peter H. Coffin says:

    You are now living the joke “And this takes the other 90% of the time.” Yup, been there.

    1. Bryan says:

      …And then you get to the *third* 90% of the time, and your life gets miserable.

      :-P

  7. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Shamoose,when you started the good robot thing,you said that you are going to skip a bunch of it because youd never be able to catch up.So,now that you are at this point,how about a revisit of some of those ideas?

  8. Sleeping Dragon says:

    I’m pretty sure trying to keep up with Desert Bus will help me make it through the week without SW ;)

    1. MrGuy says:

      True. Which means Desert Bus is going to convince me to donate more of my money than usual this year.

      No Spoiler Warning this week for the childrenz!

  9. Tychoxi says:

    So, I’ll just start quietly making requests for Spoiler Warning… OMG, YOU GUYS! It would be so great if you maybe do Bioshock 2 at some point in the future!! It’s certainly the best in the series by far and it deserves some love that I’m sure you guys will see, especially after the previous Bioshock season!

    1. Jokerman says:

      You joke, but i truly did like 2 better than the first and infinite.

      Edit: spelling

      1. Jacob Albano says:

        I did as well. Moral choices that were interesting and (in one case) genuinely tough to decide between, satisfying weapon upgrades, vastly improved hacking, and some really beautiful new environments all totally blew Bioshock 1 away for me.

        Plus, dual wielding.

      2. IFS says:

        Same here, its the only one that I actually enjoyed the combat in, and as other have said the moral choices were certainly better than in Bioshock 1. It is lacking anything as impressive as the Andrew Ryan twist story-wise but at the same time it doesn’t have the mess that is everything that comes after that.

      3. Tychoxi says:

        WHAT? I’m not joking! I mean, there was a jokeful (new word?) manner in my post, but what I say is totally serious. Bioshock 2 is far superior to both sequel and prequel both in story and gameplay. I was very sad when the developer was recently shut. And I would really like to see what the Spoiler Warning crew has to say about it (especially after the way the Bioshock season turned out!).

        1. AJax says:

          Yeah, Bioshock 2 is such a better game than both of Irrational’s efforts it’s not even funny. I would actually like to see them tackle Minerva’s Den first because it’s the most concise and cohesive Bioshock experience in the franchise. As a piece of DLC, it’s not as long as the main game but the pacing is much tighter and it tells a little interesting story. It’s a really good fit for Spoiler Warning’s format.

          Although, Batman: Arkham Asylum would be awesome too.

          1. Lisa says:

            But I thought they wanted something that Mumbles would be into!?

            1. modus0 says:

              I think Arkham Origins would be a better choice, just to hear Mumbles rage.

        2. Tizzy says:

          “jocular”

  10. Mersadeon says:

    Well, editing comments was nice, since I tend to remember something I wanted to say about 20 minutes after I comment, but I did notice that it took ages.

    About the migraine thing: Yeah. I totally think that too. Retrospectively, you really see “the migraine was coming!”, but you only know that once it has hit you. A bit like a faint noise you only notice once it has become loud enough to disturb you, but then you are aware of how long it has been there. I’ve heard from a lot of others that they can’t find a pattern, either – personally, I know that the risk gets higher for me if I don’t eat anything well-balanced for some time (as in, just a shitload of chocolate) and don’t get fresh air, but that only seems to slightly increase the odds. The doctors always said you grow out of it, so I guess you just haven’t grown ENOUGH, Shamus! Go, become 2 meters tall!

  11. Ben Hilton says:

    Blogging that would be like a cooking show where you watch the chef sit around for half an hour waiting for the cake to finish baking.

    Shamus I think this site has shown time and again that many people are interested in stuff you think no one would be.

    1. Thesnowking says:

      Like say cheese for instance?

  12. Phill says:

    Re migraines – quite a large number of migraine sufferers report “migraine Aura” before the actual migraine starts. The details of how it appears vary. and not everyone reports any aura pre-migraine phase (see http://migraine.com/migraine-aura/visual-aura/ ). Given that it is an alteration to the way the brain’s image processing works, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to discover there were other alterations to the way the brain works during the aura phase either.

    Oddly enough I get a visual halo effect (where a significant part of my visual field becomes essentially a big blind spot), but very rarely get the headache part. Technically it is a migraine, but 90% of the time I don’t even have a slight headache.

    1. MichaelG says:

      I get that too. Like a pulsing oil slick spreading out over my vision. Usually it’s preceded by blue shooting stars, but not always. No headache, but I’m basically blind for half an hour or more. I’m glad it’s never happened when I’m driving.

    2. Dave B. says:

      My father describes his “visual aura” as being bright jagged colors, like a Navajo blanket.

      1. Xapi says:

        In my wife’s case, insufferable migranes are the “aura” to epileptic seizures.

        But sometimes bieng in a bad mood is the aura’s aura.

    3. Volfram says:

      I liked “The Misery Drug,” which was linked to at the bottom of this post. Had a thought.

      It’s not a drug, but there’s something else that gives you a period of absolute misery followed by a euphoric high: Depression.

      I suffered from Depression for several years before it finally broke, and to this day I’m not entirely sure exactly what did it. I do know that since I got over my depression, NOTHING CAN HURT ME! I am, emotionally, invincible.

      I’m not sure how long the high lasts. It hasn’t ended for me yet. I can say that so far, it’s worth every moment spent earning it

    4. Lisa says:

      I used to get only the ‘aura’ – in my case I described it as looking like someone was shining powerful lights in my eye(s) – but never the headache.
      Some 15 years later, I now have the headaches.
      I want just the blindness back, please.

    5. Neko says:

      I used to call the bad headaches I got “Migraines”, until recently when I got the visual phenomena and wasn’t sure what the hell was happening. It was a little worrying because I had other problems leading to visual field deficiency last year, and I didn’t want it to be a repeat of that.

      But nope, just a migraine – I’m happy that the headache afterwards was just a dull ache and nothing painful. For the record, my ‘aura’ is a region of bright/dark NaN that arranges itself in patterns like you might see in a sheet of ice.

  13. Daemian Lucifer says:

    “We don't have our next game picked out yet. We're hoping to find something Mumbles is into.”

    Hmmm…A game that Mumbles is into…That is a hard thing to guess,seeing how she is a girl and therefore doesnt like manly games like team fortress and battlefield.Cooking mania,maybe?

    But anyway,I say forget about Mumbles,gather just the four of you guys and do the new batman.Its a great game,no matter what the girl of the group thinks about it and the violence in it.

    1. Shamus says:

      Actually, Mumbles has vetoed Batman: AA a couple of times. Also, Josh is kind of meh about playing it.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        “We don't have our next game picked out yet. We're hoping to find something Mumbles is into.”

        Inconceivable!

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          D’oh!And the lack of edit punches me square in the gut!This shouldve been the quote:
          “Actually, Mumbles has vetoed Batman: AA a couple of times.”

          1. Thesnowking says:

            I’m beginning to wonder if this lack of edit thing might actually be lots of fun.

        2. Volfram says:

          Mumbles probably knows exactly how she would act in SW: AA, and wants to spare us from having to experience it.

      2. AJax says:

        I should’ve scrolled down before I made my Batman suggestion… I already miss editing my posts. >.<

      3. swenson says:

        If only Batman: AA had Damian in it. Then surely Mumbles would be okay with it.

      4. I’m not surprised. Plot analysis would necessarily be critical of the greater Batman universe outside the game, and it would only get worse as the end of season drag started. Eventually the Riddler would be insulted repeatedly, and Mumbles would probably end up committing a quadruple homicide.

      5. Skyrim would provide lots of Fallout-esque commentary.

        Maybe something from the Witcher series?

        There’s a couple of remastered D&D games in the Neverwinter and Baldur’s Gate series, I think.

        The only other game I can think of that Mumbles really digs is Animal Crossing, but I don’t know if that’s possible to do as an SW other than maybe a one-off.

        1. Aldowyn says:

          That is a lot of really long games. Just a note.

          1. The only long game I had a hard time with on Spoiler Warning was Assassin’s Creed 2 for some reason. Maybe it was too same-y and/or didn’t have enough plot to make fun of.

            The Mass Effect and Fallout seasons were great, though. And if they picked Skyrim, they could just avoid the DLC and plow through the main quest pretty quickly.

      6. X2Eliah says:

        How about Sleeping Dogs?

        It’s very plot-focused, it’s pretty to look at and runs fairly well (not a performance hog or buggy mess), has lots of nods to non-games media, is generally a good game, and is, I think, less than 20 hours to go through.

        1. Syal says:

          Didn’t Josh already do all the important stuff in a stream though?

    2. IFS says:

      I agree Batman Arkham Origins would be pretty interesting, though either of the two preceding games would also make really fun seasons imo. Not only would we get the chance to see Josh dangle untold numbers of mooks from gargoyles but opportunities for trolling mumbles would abound!

      I also think the new Xcom expansion, Enemy Within, would make an awesome season. It adds a lot to the original game, and I at least certainly had fun watching the groups streaming of EU.

      1. Sleeping Dragon says:

        I don’t think there was ever any comment about if people on the team have any opinion about it but I stand by my previous suggestion of a “Remember Me” season at some point. It’s not very long, the gameplay itself is mostly nice, it has some interesting ideas, it made great promises… and then degenerated into nonsensical plot contrivances and pretentious pseudo-ideology.

        1. Dave B. says:

          That’s probably a very good reason to not do it, considering how the Bioshock season turned out. On the other hand, if they can get through the whole thing before everyone’s amusement turns to hatred, it might work.

          1. Sleeping Dragon says:

            See. that’s why I think it would be good, it’s not very long so it wouldn’t overstay its welcome, it had a lot of potential both in terms of mechanics and story which would make for good topics for a discussion both specifically specifically about the game and in a broader “the way games treat issues” context. It even has that whole “publishers wanted the protagonist to be a dude” thing going on in the background which could be a nice lead in towards a discussion of that theme if there was nothing in particular happening in the game.

            On the other hand I enjoy the episodes where the SW team tears a game apart probably as much as I enjoy the actual serious analysis but I have to admit getting frustrated with the stupidity of a given title is probably less enjoyable for them. Which is why I’m throwing that out there as a suggestion, not sure if anyone on SW even played the game (I seem to remember it being mentioned on a podcast but not necessarily the Diecast, I’d imagine there would be a longer discussion of it so probably not) and it would probably be better if at least 2 or 3 out of 5 people played it before making an informed decision.

    3. arron says:

      A Skyrim retrospective? Perhaps a mini-series on Bioshock : Buried at Sea? The Dishonored DLC? I think Mumbles could have quite a bit to say about those..?

    4. Dave B. says:

      “We don't have our next game picked out yet. ”

      I just thought of one. How about Mark of the Ninja? It’s short, fun, has lots of opportunities for Josh to screw up stealth, and has some interesting story stuff. In particular, I thought the ending was interesting due to the choice with a non-obvious answer.

  14. IFS says:

    So I said so above in a comment that went into moderation for some reason, but I think the new Xcom expansion, Enemy Within, could make for an interesting Spoiler Warning season.

    The expansion adds a lot to the game and I enjoyed the streaming of EU that the group did a while back, so I think it could be fun. Some might say the format of the show wouldn’t support it well, but there is a great video LP of EU on the lparchive (only about 25 episodes long too, with most being about a half hour long) that shows that it can work quite well.

    1. ET says:

      I like a lot of the new content they added to the game.
      For anyone who hasn’t played XCOM: Enemy Unknown without the expansion, just jump straight into the expansion-ed version of the game.
      It’s not a wholly stand-alone game/story, so you’d be seing a lot of the same content twice if you played it once without and once with the expansion.

      I’m kinda annoyed that they didn’t fix some of the more annoying UI/game-weirdness bugs and stuff.
      Like, for example, the game still glitches out a lot when you pick a destination for a trooper, which is up a couple levels.
      The function to turn 2D screen-space coordinates into 3D world-space coordinates breaks half of the time.
      Happens a lot when you try to move your dude to a place that’s on a skinny walkway, like the ones inside of alien spaceships.
      Also, the new robo stuff and gene splicing seems pretty overpowered, compared to the vanilla stuff.

      Oh well.
      It’s still a great game.
      And somebody might make a balance mod anyways. :)

      1. MrGuy says:

        Oh gawd how I hate anything to do with changes in elevation in Enemy Unknown. Shame that Enemy Within didn’t fix it – that was the one feature I was really hoping I’d get with the expansion.

        Favorite bug – the ability to have someone using the Angel Armor set down a level below the actual terrain, and so get stuck in a rock with no possible actions other than “head down” until the encounter ends.

        1. ET says:

          On Saturday, I grappling-hooked my way onto a building about fifty squares in the opposite direction of the one I clicked on.
          Sunday had one of my guys grapple into the ground under a water-tank scenery prop.
          Luckily, on his next turn, I made him run to another spot, and he just walked out of it.
          I’d have been really annoyed if he got stuck, since that level type, was the one where you need to get all your dudes into the exit zone, since the baddies keep respawning.

      2. IFS says:

        I actually have had a relatively bug free experience both with EU and EW so far, the only bugs I’ve really had in single player being enemies falling through the map when killed. Most of the bugs I encountered in EU were in multiplayer with friends, where a sniper might have an extra shot for no reason, or line of sight would freak out. Enemy Within’s actually been pretty good about handling elevation changes so far for me at least, and I’ve heard from others that they did fix a lot of bugs.

        As for the new content I love it, it feels like they improved every aspect, if only in some small ways for some things. The new gene and mec content is pretty powerful but I wouldn’t say its overpowered. The genes are mostly small but nice benefits, and the mecs have the downside of not being able to take cover, which can make them easy targets for enemies. Plus both require you to play riskier if you want to be able to afford them, which is nice.

    2. ilikemilkshake says:

      I’d wager they wouldn’t have a whole lot to talk about after a few episodes though, the gameplay remains basically the same throughout and the narrative side of the game is basically non existent.

      It’s unlikely but I’m hoping next up will be Spec Ops: The Line

      1. Jeff R. says:

        I think that the Line fits in the same category as Skyrim and Bioshock Infinite; they’ve already said everything they could possibly have to say about them elsewhere.

        If all three Batmans and all of the other Assassin’s Creeds are out by vetos, Sleeping Dogs is the only thing I can think to suggest.

      2. ET says:

        XCOM could be a fun little mini-series with a small number of eps, say 1-3.
        I wouldn’t go past five for sure; As you pointed out, there’s not a whole lot to the game, at least for a spectator series like Spoiler Warning.

    3. Random Lurker Strategy Fan says:

      I would love to see a full season of XCOM. Alternatively it would be cool to get at least one episode of Josh playing Crusader Kings or Shogun II

      1. Aldowyn says:

        CK2 is so slow-burning it’d be awfully hard to do a decent video LP, especially if you wanted to show off some of the more unique stuff like marrying your way into new kingdoms instead of the fighting and such.

  15. Akri says:

    I think migraines definitely start before you feel them (or at least before you realize that what you’re feeling is a migraine). Which sucks, because typically if you don’t deal with it as soon as it starts there’s basically nothing you can do to make a migraine go away (at least in my experience).

    Now let’s see, questions about Good Robot…

    What’s been your favorite part of making the game so far?
    What has most surprised you about making this game?

  16. swenson says:

    Migraines are such strange things. Everybody seems to experience them differently. My dad occasionally gets the weird colors and haloes around light without any headache at all. My aunt just gets crippling pain, as in she literally cannot leave her house. And I get a very specific set of symptoms. It always happens in the evening. I’ll get a very aggravating pain just above and behind one of my eyebrows. Then I’ll get nauseous and be completely unable to fall asleep, no matter how tired I am. Finally, very early in the morning, I’ll throw up and instantly feel almost entirely back to normal.

    Considering how many people in my family get migraines, I assume it’s genetic, but it’s weird to me how all of us have such different experiences with them.

  17. Melfina the Blue says:

    Oooh, do some DLC. Like Minerva’s Den from Bioshock 2 or Dishonored! Minerva’s Den is really worth looking at, and is fairly short.

    I will occasionally get auras before extremely bad migraines. I will be sensitive to noise, smells, and lights, and will once in a while have blind spots. Never noticed any mood disturbances, but I’m pretty bad at judging my emotions. Heck, PMS sneaks up on me every month.

  18. John the Savage says:

    Shamus, I’ve gotten migraines since I was a kid; I know how you feel. It’s tough to pin them down to any sort of predictability, which is the scariest thing about them. I once spent four days in Scotland visiting my brother, and wound up getting five migraines. To this day, I’m still not sure what caused them.

    Do you get any sort of aura in your vision to let you know that they’re coming? I’ve met a lot of people who get them, and they all got some warning signs, though I know there are those who don’t. I usually start seeing bright spots that let me know I’ve got about twenty minutes before the pain starts. If, in that time, I get some drugs in my system (I take Maxalt, a fast-acting med that’s held under the tongue), I can usually keep the pain down to the dull-roar of an ordinary headache. Might be something worth looking into, if you haven’t already.

  19. Paul Spooner says:

    #Comment bulletization script
    #Run before posting comment!
    responses = [“Peter and Clint were over for dinner last night, and we got to see the latest build of GR. Looks really fun! I don’t think you’ve written about the charge shot yet… So what’s the deal with the charge shot?”,”I feel like we’ve covered this already in the previous comment thread. Fickle tech (which would be a great name for a software company btw) stinks.”,”Ahh, the joys of schedule synchronization.”,”That will be interseting to listen to. Perhaps there will be a break from your dulcet Mr.-Rodgers-esque presentation?”]
    for i in range(len(responses)): print(“{0}: “.format(str(i+1)) + responses[i]+ “\n”)
    #EDIT: You fool! What have you done”½

  20. Deleterious says:

    One thing to keep in mind, Shamus – your ability to take the seemingly boring and make it interesting for others to read about.
    Case in point – I tried WOW and got bored at record speed. Conversely, I read your Let’s Play of it and almost tore several muscles from laughing so hard.

  21. postinternetsyndrome says:

    What’s the spoiler warning policy on older games? I wouldn’t mind seeing you going over semi-classics like max payne 2, vampire bloodlines, splinter cell, FEAR, deus ex, etc. Could be fun!

    1. venatus says:

      if I remember right they tried deus ex once, but they ended up with something of a monstrosity as the visuals were very messed up, and I think the sound was screwed up to.

      but if they do solve those technical issues deus ex and vampire the masquerade: bloodlines could make for very interesting seasons.

      1. Melfina the Blue says:

        They did, it’s at the beginning of the Human Revolution season, I think. Hysterical, and I can recommend a couple good exorcists if Shamus hasn’t gotten Robot Satan out of his computer yet ;)

        1. ET says:

          Oh, man, that’s some good graphical glitches right there.
          Reminds me of The Predatoir. :P

    2. Aldowyn says:

      For the record, several twentysiders recently finished up a let’s play of vtm: Bloodlines here.

    3. lethal_guitar says:

      Oh I’d love to see Max Payne 2! +1!

  22. KMJX says:

    Well, that actually kinda answers my tweet:
    You were not being corrupted by the gog.com Autumn Insanity Sale (or was it Insomnia? all the same), because that would have actively prevented you from getting anything done at all xD

    1. DIN aDN says:

      You know, I feel odd admitting it, but I’ve been opening that page up periodically just to see how fast different games sell :/

      1. KMJX says:

        You should read the Forum thread.
        36’000 posts of pure awesomeness

  23. Soylent Dave says:

    One of the main triggers to a migraine (particularly in men, who don’t have the key hormonal trigger) is ‘low blood sugar’ – or, more properly: ‘blood sugar peaks and troughs’.

    This is the root cause behind certain foods triggering migraines – people are sensitive to certain foods because they spike their blood sugar in different ways (or ‘not eating regularly enough’, which is also a fairly common trigger).

    A low blood sugar is also the sort of thing that radically affects your mood.

    Which probably means that being pissed off is an indicator that you’re about to have a migraine, but more because both your mood and migraines are affected by the same thing, not necessarily the ‘pre-migraine’ affecting your mood.

    You might even be able to use your mood changes to head off a migraine (by going “hey, I’m getting irrationally annoyed – I should eat”). Maybe.

    (it works for me sometimes – but most of the time I don’t realise what was happening until after the event, because it’s hard to notice a mood change when you’re right in the middle of one :/ )

    1. Bryan says:

      …Interesting.

      As a Type 1 diabetic, when my blood sugar levels get too low, I’ll get a pretty bad headache *once they recover*, but only after they recover. (And the headache usually lasts until I can next get to sleep, which is bad when the low-blood-sugar episode is around 11 AM, or just before lunch. :-/ ) None of the visual indicators of a migraine, but it is rather hard to read anything, and close to impossible to program for long, while in this state.

      It almost sounds like this is something similar.

      (And yeah, it’s hard to notice when it’s happening. Not exactly because the mood change affects what I can notice, but because when the brain doesn’t get enough sugar, the first thing that shuts down is the high-level reasoning facility that’s able to say “hmm, something is wrong here, I should eat some sugar to fix it”. Which tends to make life “fun”…)

    2. I thought Shamus’ main source of headaches was Josh not dropping the incinerator.

  24. Humanoid says:

    Play Scribblenauts Unmasked, with Mumbles as the player. We’ll soon find out how many puzzles can’t be solved with the use of Batmans/Batmen.

    More seriously, we’ve had a couple of fairly linear games with little or no scope for player agency for the past two seasons, so I’d like to see something a bit more open. Y’know, something that’d let Josh spread his wings and embrace his inner Cuftbert. Doesn’t have to be totally open world (though I wouldn’t mind that either), but the Dishonored and DXHR seasons (and FONV) have that little extra freedom which made them extra awesome.

    1. Phill says:

      Don’t feel bad – a lot of people get this wrong – but the plural of Batman is neither Batmen nor Batmans, but Batmi. As in “The Joker was ambushed by three Batmi and beaten to death with chihuahuas”.

      Hope that helps ;)

  25. Sam says:

    A few questions about Good Robot (more from the project management side):

    How are you tracking bugs and their associated fixes? Are you using an actual bug tracker, or are the reports low enough volume that you’re able to just reference “Fixes crash reported by X” in the changelog? If you have some sort of tracking system, is it open to your testers or do you enter anything manually?

    How do you handle version numbering? Do you have a system or is it whatever number looks prettiest and trends in a slightly upwards direction?

    Do you have any sort of schedule for builds you get to testers (once every X days) or do you deliver new builds when there are enough changes? And how do you deliver builds – by email? FTP? Dark magic?

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