#i also imagine that being Constantly Expanding like time and space are probably translates to Wild Bone Pains for Newborns

[randomwriteronline]

“Almighty Sinnoh above, below and all around me.”

Palkia hears the human, although that is not their name; but when one can see all places all at once, it is easy to understand when their attention is called.

“I apologize for the intrusion. I come to pray to you.”

Palkia listens. They always do, when they are called: Parent allows it, and Parent has taught them to hear closely when called by what is much, much smaller, and much, much frailer.

“I pray for your guidance and your gaze upon me.”

Palkia listens. This human does not simply think his prayers like others do. This human murmurs beneath his breath, as his thoughts are far too loud.

“Please, I beg of you. I ask for a glimmer of clarity.”

Palkia is as shifting as the waters: in the same manner as liquids do, they coat all that their infinity can touch. It is a small infinity, compared to Parent’s - but it is vast and wide nonetheless.

“Please, I beg of you. I fear this is not where I want to be.”

Palkia can reach as far as the oceans expand, below and above the ground. But they are not Parent; they cannot know all.

“Please, I beg of you. Please. Lead me home. Please.”

Palkia could ask for their sibling to answer the human, as they certainly could help. But what then? Humans are much, much smaller, and much, much frailer. If Dialga answers them, will this one be shunned by their people?

“Please, I beg of you. Please, lead me home, please, please, please. I beg of you, please, lead me home. I beg of you. Please. Please. Please.”

Palkia cannot do so. They cannot help, for they must only listen, not lead. Humans make their own fortunes, Parent said, and intervening may turn quite dangerous for them, as they are much, much smaller, and much, much frailer.

“Please, I beg of you... Please... Please...”

Palkia rubs their muzzle on the human’s shoulder; that is how Parent comforted them, when they and their sibling were still expanding so soon after their births.

The small, frail thing will not know it is them: it will be a trickle of water melted out of some snow, seeping into the dark cloth they never part from, sending a shiver down their arm.

#pokémon #pokemon legends arceus #palkia #submas ingo #random writing #benevolent and compassionate (if not always fully comprehending humanity) deities my beloveds #palkia and dialga are like. sort of herding dogs when it comes to humans yknow. feeling responsible towards them #the ancient hero showed arceus humans can be a handful and also very neat and arceus taught their kids that #giratina was brooding in the distortion world so they had to learn that later #i also imagine that being Constantly Expanding like time and space are probably translates to Wild Bone Pains for Newborns #i. dont pray. but ive been told that it can be very comforting #so even if ingo was maybe at first sort of forced to by idk.. gaeric. he might have later turned to it more genuinely in moments of turmoil #theres a way we say where i come from when you get this big sadness inside of you for no apparent reason #'avere/farsi venire il magone' which. i can only translate literally as 'having/getting the Big Wizard' #but yeah i imagine ingo might get it sometimes. just an intense melancholic sadness. and praying might help a bit #as i said: compassionate deities (who dont understand humanity but still want to help) my most beloved

[eirenare]

Okay, soooo *rubs hands together* Now that I have the TLJ junior novelization, let's get to something very important:

it reveals the origin of the “Stay here. I’ll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise”

First of all, I have to say that I found out that reveal accidentally little ago before getting the novelization, thanks to this lovely Reylo art post over here , and it totally hyped me up (and made me cackle because I was writing a highly speculative fic piece that could kinda fit with this)

For those who don’t know, both in the TFA junior and non-junior novelizations, when Rey touches (or gets close to it, depending on the version) the legacy lightsaber and she sees the vision, what we see in the movie isn’t 100% what happens in the novelizations: in the books she also hears a familiar voice, described in interesting ways, telling her “Stay here. I’ll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise”, among some other changes

The TFA non-junior novelization has this, and the TFA junior novelization describes it too, but it also has minimum another moment where Rey thinks of this (I haven’t fully read the novels for now, so there might be more I’m unaware of as of now)

And this is where TLJ makes things interesting: there’s no mention of this in the movie, just like in TFA, and as far as I’ve read on the TLJ non-junior novelization there’s no mention there either—but the junior TLJ novelization has, at least, FOUR scenes where these phrases and Rey’s past appear

Sounds interesting? Well... buckle up guys, because this is going to be long (like... very long, because there are lots of paragraphs from the novelization, and then some discussion/speculation/theorizing) and it’s gonna end up in much feels for Rey (also, I’ll highlight some important or curious things):

CHAPTER 7

“The island was haunted. Rey was sure of it.

She stood outside Luke’s hut and watched the fog roll across the village. The haze was thick and held an eerie pre-dawn glow. She had the vague impression that something lurked within those mists. Specters whispering secrets from a long-lost time.

Stay here. I’ll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise.

The voice startled her. Those words were the same she had heard so many times in her drams on Jakku. Yet this was not Jakku. And looking around, she saw she stood alone.”

CHAPTER 10

“Stay here. I’ll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise.

The star freighter’s hatch closed, and its engines warmed. Rey tried to run toward it, but Unkar Plutt’s meaty hands held her back. No amount of squirming or wriggling would release her. She was only a small human child, while Plutt was an overweight, overgrown Crolute.

“Come back!” Rey shrieked at the ship. “Come back!”

Her cries caused Plutt to squeeze her arm so tightly it hurt. But that pain did not compare with the heartbreak of watching the freighter lift off. The ship roared toward Jakku’s sun, never to come back as promised.

Rey woke to the sunlight of another world. Dawn streamed through the doorway of the hut in which she’d taken shelter to escape the night’s rain. Fortunately, the rain had ended, as had the nightmare of her parents abandoning her on Jakku.

She blinked and the afterimages of the bad dream faded away.”

CHAPTER 21

“She didn’t want to listen to him. She wanted him to stop the charade and return to Leia. But she also wanted to know.

“Let it go”, he said. “You know the truth. Say it.”

She knew only what she feared. And what she feared was the truth of the voice from her dreams—the dreams that had haunted her since the day her parents abandoned her on Jakku.

Stay here. I’ll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise.

That was not the voice of her mother or her father, as she had long convinced herself.

The voice was her own.

She had imagined that voice and repeated those words over and over as a child until they became part of her reality, even her dreams. They had helped her fall asleep on a hungry stomach and pushed her to persevere when the future seemed bleak. When the years went by and her parents never returned to take her back, she never gave up the hope that someday soon they would and the nightmare of her youth would be over.

It was a false hope.

Was that what Luke had tried to prompt her to confess in the library? The truth she had locked in her heart and had never let herself admit? The truth that her parents were not hardworking space merchants trying to scrape enough together to make a better life for their family?

“They were nobody”, Rey said at last.

“They were filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money”, Kylo Ren said, spitting out the words. “They’re dead in a pauper’s grave on Jakku, like all the other junk buried there.”

Rey hadn’t known those details, but she had no doubt what Kylo Ren said was true. Her whole life had been one giant lie of her own making, a castle of dreams and echoes that had no foundation.

She shook all over. She might have survived Snoke’s mental thrashing, but this self-admission could break her for good.

Ren stepped toward her. “You have no place in the story. You come from nothing. You are nothing.” His tone became tender. “But not to me.”

He deactivated the blade. “Join me. Please.” He held out his hand to her.

She looked at him, pale and ghostly in the starlight of the window. His request was sincere. He wanted to teach her. She could learn great power from him. He could help her attain her true potential in the Force. Her past didn’t matter. All that mattered was her place in the future.

Rey reached out to Ren. He smiled.

Their hands never met.

Rey could never join with him. Not as he stood before her now. For he, too, had tried to erase his past, reinventing himself in the mold of his grandfather. The difference was that he had lost hope in his parents, while she had kept hope in hers, however false, alive.

Perhaps that was the very meaning of hope. It seemed false until it happened.

And if she wanted to save Ben, she would have to stop Kylo Ren.”

CHAPTER 23

“Rey saw stars. And lights. And more stars.

But the stars in the viewport began to fade away, as did the lights on the console. Everything was fading—even the sound of her breathing—into a quiet, dark nothingness.

Stay here. I’ll come back for you, sweetheart. I promise.

Jarred by the voice, she sat bolt upright in the cockpit of Snoke’s private shuttle. Of course there was no one else in the ship. Those words were just an echo in her mind. Something she had repeated to herself to stay alive on Jakku. A truth about herself with which she had reconciled.

Those words had just saved her, drawing her from what could have been a deadly slumber.

— — —

"Those words had just saved her, drawing her from what could have been a deadly slumber”

The absolute  s e r v e

* “Sleeping Beauty” vibes intensify*

Also, the reflection about how her past doesn’t matter, but that her future does? All the while she’s considering joining Ben? The fact that she can’t stay by Ben’s side specifically then, as the situation was in that moment?

And the fact that Rey, at that exact point between after the revelation and before the battle of Crait, clearly thought she wanted to save Ben— I’m—

*cries in Reylo*

But well, going back to the main point of all this...

Yep. That was Rey’s own voice

Not Ben from the future, not her parents, no one but herself—trying to shield herself from the pain and the truth to walk forward. I have to say this surprised me, but it’s interesting and it has me full of feels for Rey

Now the thing is, translations can be very interesting... and whereas in English you can probably just assume that Rey is saying “come back!” in plural, in Spanish (Castilian) it gets more interesting because the “come back!” is in singular

Worth to note how Rey doesn’t doubt Ben at all, she fully believes him. And honestly, I don’t think he lied either. But... could Ben had been mislead on accident by what he saw? Could have he seen something that, while true, wasn’t the whole truth, so he had an incomplete view?

I mean, that happens constantly—and we know how visions can be tricky things (something that, in fact, Snoke thinks about for a good while during a certain chapter of the TLJ non-junior novelization)

Also, another thing worth to note is that the TLJ novelization (both the junior and non-junior ones) expands on what Ben tells her in the turbolift about her turning. Here’s the TLJ non-junior version text (Ben’s words don’t differ, but the non-junior highlights in cursive some words—which is why I chose it, except I’m going to highlight them in bold for better visibility), starting from when Rey reveals her vision of Ben’s future:

“When we touched I saw your future,” she told him. “Just the shape of it, but solid and clear. You will not bow before Snoke. You will turn—I’ll help you. I saw it. It’s your destiny.

She watched the emotions chase themselves across his face, echoed by jitters and spikes in the Force. Anger. Confusion. Pain. Loneliness. Longing. Sorrow.

Then he lifted his eyes to hers.

“You’re wrong”, Kylo said. “When we touched I saw something, too. Not your future—your past. And because of what I saw, I know that when the moment comes, you’ll be the one to turn. You’ll stand with me. Rey, I saw who your parents are.”

Rey stared at him, but there was no lie in Kylo’s eyes. And a terrifying realization bloomed in her mind: Kylo’s churning emotions weren’t just about himself. They were also about her.”

So, what Ben saw wasn’t a part of her future, but her past—and we know what Ben told Rey about her past, about her origins, but as I said: what if the picture was incomplete?

With incomplete I don’t mean that we would be getting Rey being related to someone important, nor inheriting powers—I do think there are ways for Rey to keep being a no one chosen as a “vessel” of the Force, to keep her origins humble, while making something really dramatic and shocking with her past

I mean, think of that... while Ben told Rey that her parents are dead and buried in a pauper’s grave in Jakku, Rey is shouting “come back!” in singular, so either the devil’s in the detail and the parents didn’t die at the same time, with one leaving Rey behind (or dying trying to do so *looks sideways at the theory of Rey accidentally killing her parents*), or after her parents died someone who could’ve taken her out of Jakku but didn’t (or couldn’t) do so

Regardless of what we see in TROS, though—reading Rey realize the truth behind those words is so sad. This woman needs: a hug

And it makes me sad too that we’re probably not going to see anything about it in the TROS movie because it hasn’t been mentioned in TFA or TLJ outside the books *sigh*

But well, if the TLJ novels adressed this when the TFA and TLJ movies didn’t, I think there’s a high chance that the TROS novelizations will do, too

#Reylo #TROS speculation #TROS theorizing #TROS theory #TROS theories #TFA novelization #TLJ novelization #TFA junior novelization #TLJ junior novelization #TFA #TLJ #The Force Awakens #The Last Jedi #The Rise of Skywalker

[nctinfo]

[TRANS]  NCT U Interview for Vogue Korea ‘Super Youth’ March 2018 Issue!

In an era of uncertainty, NCT made its debut like an organism with a free survival method that expanded and transformed. The cells of NCT U in 2018 are Taeyong, Jaehyun, Doyoung, Mark, Lucas, Jungwoo and Winwin. On the border between boys and adolescents, they show how much they can live in the black frame. 

Lucas’ white shirt is from (Dior Homme), denim pants are form (Rag&Bone at Beaker), belt (Bottega Veneta). Doyoung’s shirt (Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello at Boon The Shop), denim pants (Levi’s). Mark’s t-shirt (Juun.J), denim pants (Bell&Nouveau). Jungwoo’s denim jacket, pants (MSGM). Winwin’s top (Juun.J). Taeyong’s knitted vest (Maison Margiela at Boon The Shop), denim pants (MSGM). Jaehyun’s shirt, denim pants (Calvin Klein Jeans). The last idol that I have given a line to public broadcast as a fan, is H.O.T. When I was dreaming of a reunion in 17 years through <Infinite Challenge>, I met NCT U, NCT's unit. It took three days to understand the organic, futuristic and neolithic group called NCT. Jung Hyungdon, who runs the idol program, asks NCT's team, "So what is NCT?” I found and watched NCT’s neat videos on Youtube. For fans, it might be a familiar term, but it's a simple matter. NCT stands for 'Neo Culture Technology', which is a concept of infinite opening and infinite expansion. Any number of members of the unit may be increased or changed. NCT U, NCT127, NCT DREAM are active in NCT. In April 2016, NCT U, who made their debut with the digital single '7th Sense', has five members, and NCT U who sang 'Without You' has three. The NCT U of 2018 I met had seven. In 2018, NCT's full members are 18 members, including new members (Lucas, Jung Woo and Kun). It's like a rap with a rhyme. “NCT is a completely new group format. It may take a while, but if you understand it completely, you'll definitely like NCT with a new system and form!” (WINWIN) "NCT is like a brand.” (MARK) "NCT is a team that is not trapped and always pursuing newness.“ (JUNGWOO)

NCT is coming to life. If each member were to be a cell and when they unite, they create a new organism. Not only the members but also the music, performance and (fashion) style will vary depending on the case. A minors-only team, NCT DREAM, are boys with an innocent image riding on hoverboards and sing 'Chewing Gum' before they become men. Named after Seoul's longitude 127, NCT 127 emphasizes the masculine image and dream to conquer the world. NCT U brings out different performances and matches the style of the song like a separate unit. These newcomers are rather pleased with this repetition of reforming and changing (the concept). "Sensible ballads, hip-hop, splendid performances, it's nice that I can show you many different sides of myself" (JAEHYUN) “I can show you a fresh image every time.”(LUCAS) “For the fans, we can often comeback with different looks ”(WINWIN)

Until now, idols always have a certain key style, character, and identity. Like these specific adaption: sexy, feminine and beastdols, and like how GIRLFRIEND, Boyfriend, Oh My Girl and Seventeen have their identity explained through the team name. NCT aims for 'de-identity' (t/n: not having one specific identity) and rather adapts to the future. We don't know how the future will look like, there's not one thing that's for sure, it can change quickly and I know many adaptions/preferences will coexist. SM, who has always been a half-foot ahead with new/fresh idol styles, has this time taken a whole-foot ahead (which is somewhat difficult to understand) and introduced a new union of idols to the front. In 2016, during a business summit, head Lee Sooman said SM would be reborn as 'New Culture Technology'. The stage was decorated by NCT (Neo Culture Technology). They are what SM describes as the future.

NCT also has SM's past. SM has made successful artists through trial and error. EXO's perfect worldview and narrative, SHINee's hitbox and Red Velvet's refreshing images. It can be fully implemented to the cell combination of NCT. "Because our team can change continuously we're trying to show you good music and performances like our sunbaenims" (DOYOUNG). "NCT has a variety of colors. We think, the more colors, the more beautiful and pretty it is" (TAEYONG).  Before the appearance of groups with 9 or 11 idols was shocking but 'there must have been one member you'd like'. Now you can say that NCT has all you want in an idol group, music, and performances. This style sums up "tal-style (different-style)" and rather creates NCT's own style. "It's our goal to create NCT's own genre. We want to reinterpret NCT's various concepts with a quality feel. "(MARK) 

Mark is active through all of NCT 127, NCT DREAM and NCT U. Though there’s probably no idol that doesn’t work hard anywhere, you can see how hard they are working in a tough world with infinite scaling just by looking at Mark. He has been writing lyrics for a long time. These days he writes his lyrics on his smartphone and keeps a diary on his notebook. “Even if it isn’t for an album, I still often write lyrics by myself. Though the feeling of being a producer is still far away, I am constantly trying to be creative because I’m greedy” (MARK)

Even when they talk about their favorite musicians, they always end it with their 'willingness to try'. "Like Frank Ocean, I want to be a musician who is continuously searched for and lingers in your mind. I have a habit of listening to many great singers like him. It's for my own development. And to become a great singer, I first have to become a good person so I can appreciate the world a little bit more and fill up my heart generously." (MARK) The same goes for the other members. "Every day I practice, study/research and try to broaden my horizons." (JAEHYUN) "I think the fundamentals are important. When I become a better person, my songs and dances will also be heard and seen better. " (TAEYONG) "I always watch other singers and different stages to analyze them." (JUNGWOO) "I practice, practice, practice." (LUCAS)

With my auntie mind, I want to tell them that they are doing well and can run less (hard), but I'm not in the position to say this. They have a dream. The dreams of racers don't easily let themselves get exhausted by the restrains of the world. For them, the tough times should be overcome before they can be sad. "I organize my thoughts through conversations and I keep a journal for myself" (MARK) "I create a box/space of my own and try to see my true self." (TAEYONG)

The burden of Taeyong, leader of NCT, would be heavier than the other members. "It's not easy to gather all the NCT members in one place. Since trainee days, I always thought it was important to get acknowledgment from the team first. I try to take initiatives and imagine myself in their shoes. At first, I thought it was not going as I wished it would, but that was a wrong thought. It shouldn't go according to my will, but according to the will of everyone. It takes everyone's effort and that's what makes a team. I'm grateful for the members who come along well and work hard." (TAEYONG)

Many things change, but what has/will never change in NCT.  "Our connections with our fans. This applies to other teams as well, but for our team, our connection with our fans is really important." (DOYOUNG) "What never changes is our view of the world. Even when we're not together, I think that empathy with one another through our dreams and music is permanent. The standard of our music that matches our worldview will also not change. It's our responsibility to prepare in good conditions." (MARK)

NCT U's keywords for the upcoming comeback are empathy, dream, and NCT. "The goal for this comeback is first of all, for all the members to have fun without getting hurt. I'm also worried about the new members who will make their debut. And I want to meet many fans again. We need more communication, sympathy, and connections with the fans." (TAEYONG) "In a society where there is superficial and fragmented communication, because of a busy life or for other reasons, we wrote a message through NCT's music with hopes of empathizing with one another. We will be the bosses that will lead you to empathy/genuine connections. Please believe and follow us (laughs)." (JAEHYUN)

Translation: Esmee, Selin, Teddy @ FY! NCT (NCTINFO) | Source: Vogue Korea

— Please take out with full credits

#NCT #NCT U #taeyong #doyoung #jaehyun #winwin #jungwoo #mark #lucas #Vogue Korea #Vogue Korea: March 2018 #t:trans #t:interview

[academiablogs]

Rethinking the Book (Online)

In this week’s Academia discussion, we asked the question, “with the death of chain bookstores, and in many towns, any bookstores, where does this leave the book? What if a generation grows up without being able to buy and handle physical books? How will that not only change the idea of books, but how we tell stories?”

This sounds like a silly question on first blush: duh, nothing will change—we’ll just read the same books online. However, think about it for a moment. While print books will probably always exist, you really have to seek them out in a world without bookstores (even if a few used bookstores and boutiques still hang on in the margins). Many kids, who are not naturally drawn to reading, might never hold a physical book in their hands. They won’t know the feel of turning page after page to get to the middle and end of a story. They won’t understand the term ‘dog eared’ or the origin of a ‘bookmark.’ These readers of the future will still read—no getting around that—but they won’t do it the way we did growing up. And every change in technology is also a change in thought.

You don’t read the same when looking at a computer as when you thumb through a book. It’s different technology. Try it sometime: reading an article on-line, you tend to skim, your mouse impulsively advancing the text. Rarely will you read every word. With a physical book, there’s a sense of static calm: you might skim, but you’re less anxious and more prone to let your eye dance gently across each sentence. I read better with books and read slower. Not that everyone does it this way, but I think it’s built into the on-line experience, where most information is skimmable and not literary in content. It’s designed like a buffet: grab this or that and move along. Page reading is a feast over multiple glasses of wine and endless bottles of conversation.

So what happens when we translate this experience—and these books—on-line? E-books are the same as real books: the same words, the same chapters, even the same footnotes (very helpful, with Shakespeare!). E-books mimic the books they’re descended from since that’s all we know. For now. Remember that early films were basically filmed staged plays since “movies” didn’t exist (not yet). Gradually, however, watching in a new way changed the experiencing of “seeing” a film. It was faster, more intimate (you could hear someone breathing), and boundless (forget the stage—you had the world!). After all, the word “audience” comes from the term “audio,” meaning to listen. We go to a play to listen above all, whereas in a film, we’re there to watch—we become viewers. A change in technology leads to a change in thinking.

Compare Black Panther to Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. Both are concerned with fantasy, but the storytelling (and language) is miles apart. The same is necessarily true for books once they decisively convert to an on-line experience. How? And why? Consider the following examples...

Time and Space: 

Once books are primarily digital, they no longer need to be linear because they don’t exist in space. They are limitless, not bound to a set number of pages or an experience of turning them. So couldn’t a book technically go on forever? Or move in different directions? Or tell more than one story at once?

Book Covers: 

A book cover is necessary as a quick visual blurb, really a poster, to capture a reader’s interest. But a digital book has no front or back. It doesn’t need a cover. Or better yet, the artwork doesn’t have to be limited to a single image prefacing a series of text. Pictures could be anywhere, at any part of the story, changing how we read the work. I see books of the future merging with comics to provide a more visual, more expansive form of storytelling.

Pages and Chapters: 

In a physical book, there’s only so much text a page can hold before you need a new one. But you really don’t need pages in the digital environment. So how do you know when to “turn the page”? There are no pages! Sure, there are now, but eventually digital books will stop mimicking the paper experience. So the text could just exist in space for the reader to decide where the breaks are—or if we even need chapters at all.  

Expanded Universe: 

Sure, you can write notes in a book and even write your own fan fiction based on one. But in the digital world, why couldn’t you change the book on the spot? Make your own version of the book as you read? Why would a book have to be a single, static entity? I imagine books becoming collaborative the second they’re released to the public, with everyone editing and expanding the content. A book is an object, a story created by a single author. Without the object, why does it have to be one book?

Authors: 

Related to the above, why do we need authors if we don’t have books? Ironically, we could go back to oral storytelling, where each person re-tells and re-writes a story that’s been passed on from one digital environment to another. Authorship didn’t exist in the ancient world since texts were communal, part of a given society and culture. Now we can all own books and all write them. A story would constantly change and adapt to new times and new worlds. Again, if it doesn’t have to exist, why does it have to be frozen in time? It would be more like a jazz riff, more a beginning than an end in itself.

These are just a few ideas why changing a form will change the ideas inside it. Hopefully we’ll always have physical books, since that’s an experience that is rich and exciting—the idea that a single story can last forever. 

However, that’s just one experience; by erasing the book, we also erase our fears and age-old conceptions of what storytelling can be. In a generation or two, we might forget what books were supposed to look like and make our own. There’s an entire universe to explore and millions and millions of readers willing to undertake the journey. The only question is, will the bestsellers of the future be written by a Steven King...or an Anonymous?

#amwriting #amreading #reading #booklr #bookish #kindle #storytelliing #writing

[gamerzcourt]

Nier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Discuss What Games They Admire MostNier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Discuss What Games They Admire Mostvideo games

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Nier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Discuss What Games They Admire MostNier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Discuss What Games They Admire Mostvideo games

These past few years have yielded an amazing roster of games that we personally love. With so many fantastic experiences out there, we began to grow curious over what games developers particularly enjoy. During our time spent at this year’s GDC, we had the opportunity to interview a wide variety of game developers and key figures in the industry, so we decided to ask what current game they find inspiring and admire the most, and why.

As you’ll see from the responses below, the games each developer adores might not come as a surprise to you, especially if you’re familiar with their work or tastes. Others had some surprising picks that you probably wouldn’t expect. What current games do you admire the most? Let us know in the comments below. And be sure to check out feature detailing the 25 best games you might’ve not heard of that we saw at GDC 2018.

Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, Directors of Cuphead

Jared Moldenhauer (left) and Chad Moldenhauer (right)

Jared Moldenhauer: I have a library of 100+ games that I’m working towards currently. But one of the earlier games that I chose and found very rewarding was Hollow Knight. It’s an interesting and challenging Metroidvania. And the visuals and the universe that they created, and the feeling within all the characters; I was happy playing every minute of it.

Chad Moldenhauer: I recently started and really enjoy The Witness. I was looking forward to that for a long time!

Yoshinori Terasawa, Danganronpa Series Producer

Yoshinori Terasawa: I love the Persona series. I adore the sense of personality that those games have. I really like how cool and stylish they are.

Rami Ismail, Producer of Nuclear Throne

Rami Ismail: So many games have really sparked me. Games that really stand out to me are Engare and Farsh, by Mahdi Bahrami, both games based on this Iranian heritage. I was very impressed by This War of Mine, which gives a unique perspective on war. Just seeing that tremendous shift in perspective translated into a game that is so powerful and poignant, that reminds me that there is so much more out there.

Tom Kaczmarczyk, Producer of Superhot

Tom Kaczmarczyk: Our game director [Piotr Iwanicki] who actually came up with the idea, he often cites an indie flash game called, Time4Cat, as one of the inspirations, because it did have the same sort of time automation mechanic. For me, I love Hotline Miami because of its action sequences. A lot of what we pick up come from action movies, and from the way people design cinematic experiences where you fall into a certain archetype of a situation, and you immediately understand what’s going on.

Tim Schafer, Founder of Double Fine (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend)

Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer: Lately, a game that really made a big effect on me–it sounds really cliché–but Breath of the Wild was a huge thing. I just loved it. Everyone loves something different about games, there’s no one game that’s perfect for everybody, but it made me realize that my number one thing is exploration. I’m constantly exploring and surprised and I just love it and I play it all the time. I also love Loot Rascals, which is a great roguelike, and I’ve recently been playing Persona 5, which is just amazing. Amazing style and tone, it’s so polished.

Jason Roberts, Director of Gorogoa

Jason Roberts: In 2017, I was a big fan of Inside and Night in the Woods; those were big games for me. I’m big on tone, mood, atmosphere. These are important to me. And I love those games. And I also, this year, I think Florence and any game from Annapurna are just very carefully, precisely created with tone and atmosphere. That’s what I value.

Dean Ayala, Hearthstone Senior Game Designer + Dave Kozack, Hearthstone Lead Narrative Designer

Dean Ayala: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It’s a roguelike released back in 1997. A lot of the Hearthstone design team plays it. It’s super old-school.

Dave Kozack: It has been in continuous development; it’s one of those community projects. That’s why the name, Stone Soup. But we played a lot of rogue-likes while we were working on Dungeon Run, and that was one of our favorites. It’s just something we keep coming back to as a team. It’s a lot of fun.

Ian Dallas, Creative Director of What Remains Of Edith Finch

Ian Dallas

Ian Dallas: For me, the last game that affected me emotionally in a strong way was Universal Paperclips. A game about clicking on buttons and manufacturing paperclips that I just found myself lost in for 8 hours. It was really like a troubling emotional experience, and it’s amazing that it comes out of just text on a webpage. It reaffirms the power of video games and the way that they can teach you things about yourself and about the world that you couldn’t really internalize in any other way.

Chelsea Hash, Technical Artist of What Remains Of Edith Finch

Chelsea Hash: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Their commitment to the multimedia format and drawing from different rendering styles to support their vision was something that I was glad to be able to experience, something that was willing to think outside the box.

Damon Baker, Nintendo Publisher and Developer Relations

Damon Baker: I can’t choose one game. It is like choosing my favorite child! There are so many different types of experiences. Most recently I am working my way through Night in the Woods. I haven’t been able to play that previously, and having a lot of flights lately has given me more flexibility to get through a lot of indie content. Of course, I totally enjoyed Celeste. I vowed not to use assist mode on that game at all and beat it; but it took me 1800 deaths or something to get through it, but it was a beautiful game.

Matt Thornson, Director of Celeste

Matt Thornson: I’ve been really enjoying my time with Into the Breach. It’s amazing!

Victor Kislyi, Wargaming CEO (World of Tanks)

Victor Kislyi: Civilization. All of them, because I started playing from Civ I. Now, believe it or not, before playing World of Tanks last night I was playing Civilization and I was playing on the plane on my way here. Civ 6 is amazing, and it was my MBA. I’m a physicist by education but, playing Civilization, all those layers, economy, exploration, politics, military, science, religion–your brain is trained to juggle those multiple layers like almost instantly, or at least very, very correctly. And, that’s a good analogy with business, people, finance, media, failures, exploration, etc., etc. I think Civilization, as a concept, as a game, actually, is more valuable to humanity than Mona Lisa.

Yoko Taro, Director of Nier: Automata

Yoko Taro: I think that Grand Theft Auto IV and Super Mario Bros. are two big games that influenced me when making Nier. But with games from the past–not modern games–I felt more freedom or challenge as a player. Let’s say we have a black background with a white dot on it and let’s call it the space. I feel like that really creates freedom, especially in terms freedom of imagination, and challenging the dev team to create a world without really being able to express that world visually. In that sense, I feel that in the past, game developers were trying to create a new frontier. They were trying to expand the world, expand the universe of gaming industry.

Yoko Taro (left) and Takahira Taura (right)

Now that the game industry has matured pretty much now, a lot of people actually go for a more safe game. They try to make all the consumers happy with that one game. I think that that actually limits to what they can do and I feel that no one is really trying to expand that arena or expand that world anymore. I am a little bit sad about that.

Takahisa Taura, Designer Of Nier: Automata + Metal Gear Rising

Takahisa Taura: When The Witcher 3 came out, we all played it and had fun with it, but we also looked at it to see what would we do if we created a game like this. We were using The Witcher 3 as a learning experience on how to create an RPG. I think that’s where it all started. Well, that’s where we came from, so it wasn’t too difficult of a task to create a JRPG.”

GameSpot News

#Admire #devs #Discuss #Games #MostNier #Mostvideo #Nier #Psychonauts #They

[waringout-blog]

The Most Important & Definitive MCU Ranking, Probably

Come one, come all, and witness my subjective attempt at objectivity! The Marvel Cinematic Universe, whether appreciated or disavowed by fan or critic, is an ever present entry into the canon of film history and the cultural zeitgeist. With multiple MCU films releasing every single year between now and the end of time, there is no denying the sway these films hold over the Western cultural conscience and the conversations about the film industry, art, and fandom that they encourage. I have found in creating my ranking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that list-making is an ephemeral practice in the subjective. Better yet, my making of this list has been a Sisyphean practice in futility, as I constantly revise these rankings based on the Marvel movie I’ve most recently viewed, or upon hearing a rousing argument from a friend, or some such constraint on my ability to establish objectivity in my arbitrary designations. Thus, I invite you to be my editors through this endless struggle. Here is my proposed draft of the MCU films, ranked from worst to best. Obviously, revision will be necessary as time moves ever onward, but if I am blatantly incorrect please let me know and we will collaborate together on some sort of truth in this cynical world. 

15) Thor: The Dark World

14) Iron Man 2

13) The Incredible Hulk

12) Iron Man 3

11) Avengers: Age of Ultron

10) Thor

9) Captain America: The First Avenger

8) Ant-Man

7) Doctor Strange

6) Captain America: Civil War

5) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is an endearingly warm film that returns to the cast of misfits that shattered the Marvel movie-making model. I’ve written about the film at length here, so I’ll keep the details brief. GotG Vol. 2 offers delightful moments of character and light-heartedness that is purely joyful. This movie is among the best that the MCU has to offer, and James Gunn, the director, continues to bring instinctive innovation to the superhero genre through wit, charm, and bad-assery. The Guardians of the Galaxy films nestle seamlessly between episodic space opera, a groovy soundtrack, and the most out-of-leftfield, off-beat superheroes that any studio has dreamed of. I left the screening of GotG Vol. 2 full of adrenaline and the largest, cheesiest grin beheld upon an apathetic college student’s face.

4) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America is the MCU’s most iconic superhero among its current roster. In 2008, Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man was the catalyst of this growing film universe and a symbol of all that is excellent of that which followed. Unfortunately, the Iron Man sequels set precedent for the lack of imagination and/or execution that has defined MCU sequels (most will argue in favor of Iron Man 3, but I was largely unimpressed and haven’t revisited it since the first time). Robert Downey Jr. remains grounded as the inimitable Tony Stark, but unfortunately his charm is unable to sustain the unsavory sequels. This is not the case for Captain America, whose films continue to supersede the original one. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is bold and exciting, giving the audience an engaging plot, magnificent characters, and some of the most stylized and provocative action sequences within the MCU. While Captain America is often one-dimensional as an individual, his inclusion in the Avengers helps anchor the entire series. Everything that the character represents is reflected upon his fellow heroes and pushes them beyond what they are ordinarily capable of. It is Cap’s lack of cynicism, apathy, or arrogance that also inspires the audience to be better versions of themselves. Robert Downey Jr. laid the foundation of success upon which the MCU was built, but it is Captain America’s shadowing presence that bolsters it.

3) Iron Man

I continually return to the word iconic because it represents how the MCU has infiltrated the American consciousness through their ability to embed themselves within the cultural zeitgeist. This relevance is created in moments of gravity and inspiration so profound they cannot be ignored. Marvel Studio’s creation of Iron Man and their decision to cast Robert Downey Jr. brought about the emergence of a new brand of filmmaking and iconicized superhero movies forever. Marvel Studios, under the guiding vision of Kevin Feige, set upon tempered waters by taking one of their lesser known characters (one of the few they still retained movie rights for) and turning him into the foundation of their franchise. Feige set out to emulate comic books by creating serialized movies for audiences to track with and enjoy, as they attempted to streamline these heroes’ stories into an overarching narrative. At the time, there was no precedent for this type of universe building. The producers, working for the nominally independent Marvel Studios, were staking their claim in the tepid milieu of superhero filmmaking. The fact that Robert Downey Jr., a recovering addict humbly working his way back into the goodwill of Hollywood, acted as the impetus propelling the property into what it is today was an outlandish gamble. This bold vision paid off though, and Iron Man was both a financial and critical success. Nowadays, Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. are synonymous with the MCU. This is most evident in Iron Man’s inclusion in both Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming, and while I argue that Cap now carries the torch for the franchise, he does so piggybacking on the success of Tony Stark and his super-suit. Iron Man loses steam towards the end, specifically as they rush the story towards its inevitable and calamitous conclusion, but the overall design, effects, and plot are well realized and the perfect entry into this mammoth franchise. Audiences would not have been introduced to this vast universe of characters nor been taught the idea that “we are Groot”, had Marvel Studios, and subsequently Tony Stark, not had the audacity to proclaim, “I am Iron Man.” 

2) The Avengers

This movie feels like a laborious day’s work coming to a close; as the hours wind down and the body’s strength weens, there is a sense of relief and accomplishment at the sight of a job well done. By the time Marvel’s The Avengers released in 2012, four movies and four years had passed since Nick Fury, and subsequently Marvel Studios, hinted at the Avengers Initiative. Marvel had delivered a bombastic entry into their cinematic universe through Iron Man, but proceeded to produce two flops (The Incredible Hulk & Iron Man 2) and two mediocre entries (Thor & Captain America: The First Avenger), leaving fans to wonder what they were buying into . Franchise fatigue began to set in for the first time and fans started to wonder if this elaborate film industry experiment was beginning to be derailed. That’s not to say that these films weren’t successful and the general population wasn’t willing to see them at the box office, but the question remained as to whether this franchise would break the glass ceiling and become something greater. Fortunately, the anticipation of seeing the Avengers team up in a single movie liberated viewers from their cultural malaise. The Avengers succeeded in bringing these separate superheroes together on screen and followed through on Kevin Feige’s original vision for the coherent, overarching narratives of many films to assemble into a single story within the confines of a single film, much like the team ups featured in Marvel’s comic books. The film is able to converge these characters without losing their individuality and allows each hero the time needed to be effective. The Avengers also offers the greatest MCU villain to date in the unruly and sinister Loki, as a continuation of his previous entry in Thor. Villainy was, and always has been, a problem in the MCU, but Tom Hiddleston's Loki is constructed so well and transcends the typical contrivances, that he is able to deliver a menacing performance that places him in the same iconic lineup as Iron Man and Captain America. Since its reception, The Avengers has served as the mold from which all MCU films are now made. Regardless of rumblings of superhero ennui settling in once again among fans, the franchise filmmaking model established by The Avengers is not an indictment on the film itself, but an accolade and example of being the type of film that so firmly supplants itself into the cultural conversation. In an era almost compromised by tedium in superhero filmmaking, The Avengers proved that it was the most evocative superhero film of its time, and that despite cultural listlessness, the MCU was still able to excite and shatter viewers’ expectations. 

1) Guardians of the Galaxy

While considering Marvel’s The Avengers and its induction as the mold through which Marvel films are fitted, it is worthy to note that there are a few exceptions. Chief among them is Guardians of the Galaxy. Sure, it’s a superhero team-up movie that is both funny and action packed, but James Gunn took the Avenger model and notched it up to eleven. The film is daringly subversive and the heroes it displays are characters with whom audiences were widely unfamiliar with and unprepared for. Guardians strikes a delightful balance between irreverent and contemplative, and does so without paying attention to the conventions of other Marvel films. Expanding the cinematic universe into the galaxy and unveiling uncharted spatial and character territories quintessentially invigorated the franchise unlike any previous film. There was an unfettered joy in the creation of this film that translates perfectly into the experience of viewing it. It may be argued that Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers are tied for first or are out of order, but Guardians is just more delightful than any superhero movie that I have ever seen.

Please comment below and tell me how I’m wrong, or share it with your friends, solidifying my attempt at creating something pure and true. 

#Marvel #MCU #iron man #thor #captain america #hulk #hawkeye #black widow #guardians of the galaxy #doctor strange #ant-man #spider-man

[gamerzcourt]

Nier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Reveal What Games They Admire MostNier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Reveal What Games They Admire Mostvideo games

New Post has been published on http://www.gamerzcourt.com/nier-psychonauts-and-other-devs-reveal-what-games-they-admire-mostnier-psychonauts-and-other-devs-reveal-what-games-they-admire-mostvideo-games/

Nier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Reveal What Games They Admire MostNier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Reveal What Games They Admire Mostvideo games

These past few years have yielded an amazing roster of games that we personally love. With so many fantastic experiences out there, we began to grow curious over what games developers particularly enjoy. During our time spent at this year’s GDC, we had the opportunity to interview a wide variety of game developers and key figures in the industry, so we decided to ask what current game they find inspiring and admire the most, and why.

As you’ll see from the responses below, the games each developer adores might not come as a surprise to you, especially if you’re familiar with their work or tastes. Others had some surprising picks that you probably wouldn’t expect. What current games do you admire the most? Let us know in the comments below. And be sure to check out feature detailing the 25 best games you might’ve not heard of that we saw at GDC 2018.

Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, Directors of Cuphead

Jared Moldenhauer (left) and Chad Moldenhauer (right)

Jared Moldenhauer: I have a library of 100+ games that I’m working towards currently. But one of the earlier games that I chose and found very rewarding was Hollow Knight. It’s an interesting and challenging Metroidvania. And the visuals and the universe that they created, and the feeling within all the characters; I was happy playing every minute of it.

Chad Moldenhauer: I recently started and really enjoy The Witness. I was looking forward to that for a long time!

Yoshinori Terasawa, Danganronpa Series Producer

Yoshinori Terasawa: I love the Persona series. I adore the sense of personality that those games have. I really like how cool and stylish they are.

Rami Ismail, Producer of Nuclear Throne

Rami Ismail: So many games have really sparked me. Games that really stand out to me are Engare and Farsh, by Mahdi Bahrami, both games based on this Iranian heritage. I was very impressed by This War of Mine, which gives a unique perspective on war. Just seeing that tremendous shift in perspective translated into a game that is so powerful and poignant, that reminds me that there is so much more out there.

Tom Kaczmarczyk, Producer of Superhot

Tom Kaczmarczyk: Our game director [Piotr Iwanicki] who actually came up with the idea, he often cites an indie flash game called, Time4Cat, as one of the inspirations, because it did have the same sort of time automation mechanic. For me, I love Hotline Miami because of its action sequences. A lot of what we pick up come from action movies, and from the way people design cinematic experiences where you fall into a certain archetype of a situation, and you immediately understand what’s going on.

Tim Schafer, Founder of Double Fine (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend)

Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer: Lately, a game that really made a big effect on me–it sounds really cliché–but Breath of the Wild was a huge thing. I just loved it. Everyone loves something different about games, there’s no one game that’s perfect for everybody, but it made me realize that my number one thing is exploration. I’m constantly exploring and surprised and I just love it and I play it all the time. I also love Loot Rascals, which is a great roguelike, and I’ve recently been playing Persona 5, which is just amazing. Amazing style and tone, it’s so polished.

Jason Roberts, Director of Gorogoa

Jason Roberts: In 2017, I was a big fan of Inside and Night in the Woods; those were big games for me. I’m big on tone, mood, atmosphere. These are important to me. And I love those games. And I also, this year, I think Florence and any game from Annapurna are just very carefully, precisely created with tone and atmosphere. That’s what I value.

Dean Ayala, Hearthstone Senior Game Designer + Dave Kozack, Hearthstone Lead Narrative Designer

Dean Ayala: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It’s a roguelike released back in 1997. A lot of the Hearthstone design team plays it. It’s super old-school.

Dave Kozack: It has been in continuous development; it’s one of those community projects. That’s why the name, Stone Soup. But we played a lot of rogue-likes while we were working on Dungeon Run, and that was one of our favorites. It’s just something we keep coming back to as a team. It’s a lot of fun.

Ian Dallas, Creative Director of What Remains Of Edith Finch

Ian Dallas

Ian Dallas: For me, the last game that affected me emotionally in a strong way was Universal Paperclips. A game about clicking on buttons and manufacturing paperclips that I just found myself lost in for 8 hours. It was really like a troubling emotional experience, and it’s amazing that it comes out of just text on a webpage. It reaffirms the power of video games and the way that they can teach you things about yourself and about the world that you couldn’t really internalize in any other way.

Chelsea Hash, Technical Artist of What Remains Of Edith Finch

Chelsea Hash: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Their commitment to the multimedia format and drawing from different rendering styles to support their vision was something that I was glad to be able to experience, something that was willing to think outside the box.

Damon Baker, Nintendo Publisher and Developer Relations

Damon Baker: I can’t choose one game. It is like choosing my favorite child! There are so many different types of experiences. Most recently I am working my way through Night in the Woods. I haven’t been able to play that previously, and having a lot of flights lately has given me more flexibility to get through a lot of indie content. Of course, I totally enjoyed Celeste. I vowed not to use assist mode on that game at all and beat it; but it took me 1800 deaths or something to get through it, but it was a beautiful game.

Matt Thornson, Director of Celeste

Matt Thornson: I’ve been really enjoying my time with Into the Breach. It’s amazing!

Victor Kislyi, Wargaming CEO (World of Tanks)

Victor Kislyi: Civilization. All of them, because I started playing from Civ I. Now, believe it or not, before playing World of Tanks last night I was playing Civilization and I was playing on the plane on my way here. Civ 6 is amazing, and it was my MBA. I’m a physicist by education but, playing Civilization, all those layers, economy, exploration, politics, military, science, religion–your brain is trained to juggle those multiple layers like almost instantly, or at least very, very correctly. And, that’s a good analogy with business, people, finance, media, failures, exploration, etc., etc. I think Civilization, as a concept, as a game, actually, is more valuable to humanity than Mona Lisa.

Yoko Taro, Director of Nier: Automata

Yoko Taro: I think that Grand Theft Auto IV and Super Mario Bros. are two big games that influenced me when making Nier. But with games from the past–not modern games–I felt more freedom or challenge as a player. Let’s say we have a black background with a white dot on it and let’s call it the space. I feel like that really creates freedom, especially in terms freedom of imagination, and challenging the dev team to create a world without really being able to express that world visually. In that sense, I feel that in the past, game developers were trying to create a new frontier. They were trying to expand the world, expand the universe of gaming industry.

Yoko Taro (left) and Takahira Taura (right)

Now that the game industry has matured pretty much now, a lot of people actually go for a more safe game. They try to make all the consumers happy with that one game. I think that that actually limits to what they can do and I feel that no one is really trying to expand that arena or expand that world anymore. I am a little bit sad about that.

Takahisa Taura, Designer Of Nier: Automata + Metal Gear Rising

Takahisa Taura: When The Witcher 3 came out, we all played it and had fun with it, but we also looked at it to see what would we do if we created a game like this. We were using The Witcher 3 as a learning experience on how to create an RPG. I think that’s where it all started. Well, that’s where we came from, so it wasn’t too difficult of a task to create a JRPG.”

GameSpot News

#Admire #devs #Games #MostNier #Mostvideo #Nier #Psychonauts #Reveal #They

[gamerzcourt]

Nier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Share What Games They Admire MostNier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Share What Games They Admire Mostvideo games

New Post has been published on http://www.gamerzcourt.com/nier-psychonauts-and-other-devs-share-what-games-they-admire-mostnier-psychonauts-and-other-devs-share-what-games-they-admire-mostvideo-games/

Nier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Share What Games They Admire MostNier, Psychonauts, And Other Devs Share What Games They Admire Mostvideo games

These past few years have yielded an amazing roster of games that we personally love. With so many fantastic experiences out there, we began to grow curious over what games developers particularly enjoy. During our time spent at this year’s GDC, we had the opportunity to interview a wide variety of game developers and key figures in the industry, so we decided to ask what current game they find inspiring and admire the most, and why.

As you’ll see from the responses below, the games each developer adores might not come as a surprise to you, especially if you’re familiar with their work or tastes. Others had some surprising picks that you probably wouldn’t expect. What current games do you admire the most? Let us know in the comments below. And be sure to check out feature detailing the 25 best games you might’ve not heard of that we saw at GDC 2018.

Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, Directors of Cuphead

Jared Moldenhauer (left) and Chad Moldenhauer (right)

Jared Moldenhauer: I have a library of 100+ games that I’m working towards currently. But one of the earlier games that I chose and found very rewarding was Hollow Knight. It’s an interesting and challenging Metroidvania. And the visuals and the universe that they created, and the feeling within all the characters; I was happy playing every minute of it.

Chad Moldenhauer: I recently started and really enjoy The Witness. I was looking forward to that for a long time!

Yoshinori Terasawa, Danganronpa Series Producer

Yoshinori Terasawa: I love the Persona series. I adore the sense of personality that those games have. I really like how cool and stylish they are.

Rami Ismail, Producer of Nuclear Throne

Rami Ismail: So many games have really sparked me. Games that really stand out to me are Engare and Farsh, by Mahdi Bahrami, both games based on this Iranian heritage. I was very impressed by This War of Mine, which gives a unique perspective on war. Just seeing that tremendous shift in perspective translated into a game that is so powerful and poignant, that reminds me that there is so much more out there.

Tom Kaczmarczyk, Producer of Superhot

Tom Kaczmarczyk: Our game director [Piotr Iwanicki] who actually came up with the idea, he often cites an indie flash game called, Time4Cat, as one of the inspirations, because it did have the same sort of time automation mechanic. For me, I love Hotline Miami because of its action sequences. A lot of what we pick up come from action movies, and from the way people design cinematic experiences where you fall into a certain archetype of a situation, and you immediately understand what’s going on.

Tim Schafer, Founder of Double Fine (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend)

Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer: Lately, a game that really made a big effect on me–it sounds really cliché–but Breath of the Wild was a huge thing. I just loved it. Everyone loves something different about games, there’s no one game that’s perfect for everybody, but it made me realize that my number one thing is exploration. I’m constantly exploring and surprised and I just love it and I play it all the time. I also love Loot Rascals, which is a great roguelike, and I’ve recently been playing Persona 5, which is just amazing. Amazing style and tone, it’s so polished.

Jason Roberts, Director of Gorogoa

Jason Roberts: In 2017, I was a big fan of Inside and Night in the Woods; those were big games for me. I’m big on tone, mood, atmosphere. These are important to me. And I love those games. And I also, this year, I think Florence and any game from Annapurna are just very carefully, precisely created with tone and atmosphere. That’s what I value.

Dean Ayala, Hearthstone Senior Game Designer + Dave Kozack, Hearthstone Lead Narrative Designer

Dean Ayala: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. It’s a roguelike released back in 1997. A lot of the Hearthstone design team plays it. It’s super old-school.

Dave Kozack: It has been in continuous development; it’s one of those community projects. That’s why the name, Stone Soup. But we played a lot of rogue-likes while we were working on Dungeon Run, and that was one of our favorites. It’s just something we keep coming back to as a team. It’s a lot of fun.

Ian Dallas, Creative Director of What Remains Of Edith Finch

Ian Dallas

Ian Dallas: For me, the last game that affected me emotionally in a strong way was Universal Paperclips. A game about clicking on buttons and manufacturing paperclips that I just found myself lost in for 8 hours. It was really like a troubling emotional experience, and it’s amazing that it comes out of just text on a webpage. It reaffirms the power of video games and the way that they can teach you things about yourself and about the world that you couldn’t really internalize in any other way.

Chelsea Hash, Technical Artist of What Remains Of Edith Finch

Chelsea Hash: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Their commitment to the multimedia format and drawing from different rendering styles to support their vision was something that I was glad to be able to experience, something that was willing to think outside the box.

Damon Baker, Nintendo Publisher and Developer Relations

Damon Baker: I can’t choose one game. It is like choosing my favorite child! There are so many different types of experiences. Most recently I am working my way through Night in the Woods. I haven’t been able to play that previously, and having a lot of flights lately has given me more flexibility to get through a lot of indie content. Of course, I totally enjoyed Celeste. I vowed not to use assist mode on that game at all and beat it; but it took me 1800 deaths or something to get through it, but it was a beautiful game.

Matt Thornson, Director of Celeste

Matt Thornson: I’ve been really enjoying my time with Into the Breach. It’s amazing!

Victor Kislyi, Wargaming CEO (World of Tanks)

Victor Kislyi: Civilization. All of them, because I started playing from Civ I. Now, believe it or not, before playing World of Tanks last night I was playing Civilization and I was playing on the plane on my way here. Civ 6 is amazing, and it was my MBA. I’m a physicist by education but, playing Civilization, all those layers, economy, exploration, politics, military, science, religion–your brain is trained to juggle those multiple layers like almost instantly, or at least very, very correctly. And, that’s a good analogy with business, people, finance, media, failures, exploration, etc., etc. I think Civilization, as a concept, as a game, actually, is more valuable to humanity than Mona Lisa.

Yoko Taro, Director of Nier: Automata

Yoko Taro: I think that Grand Theft Auto IV and Super Mario Bros. are two big games that influenced me when making Nier. But with games from the past–not modern games–I felt more freedom or challenge as a player. Let’s say we have a black background with a white dot on it and let’s call it the space. I feel like that really creates freedom, especially in terms freedom of imagination, and challenging the dev team to create a world without really being able to express that world visually. In that sense, I feel that in the past, game developers were trying to create a new frontier. They were trying to expand the world, expand the universe of gaming industry.

Yoko Taro (left) and Takahira Taura (right)

Now that the game industry has matured pretty much now, a lot of people actually go for a more safe game. They try to make all the consumers happy with that one game. I think that that actually limits to what they can do and I feel that no one is really trying to expand that arena or expand that world anymore. I am a little bit sad about that.

Takahisa Taura, Designer Of Nier: Automata + Metal Gear Rising

Takahisa Taura: When The Witcher 3 came out, we all played it and had fun with it, but we also looked at it to see what would we do if we created a game like this. We were using The Witcher 3 as a learning experience on how to create an RPG. I think that’s where it all started. Well, that’s where we came from, so it wasn’t too difficult of a task to create a JRPG.”

GameSpot News

#Admire #devs #Games #MostNier #Mostvideo #Nier #Psychonauts #Share #They